From the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7921566.stm Now I don't know about you, but as an NHS employee if I'd overclaimed £9,600 in expenses I doubt that I'd be going into work in the morning..... I could go on, but at this point I'll stop and just mutter to myself a bit! Philip
The slow death of Jade Goody is dominating the headlines. It must be the world's sickest PR briefs in history - Max Clifford has been asked to generate as much money as possible from the death of a young woman in order to provide for the financial security of her children. One can totally understand Goody's motivation and you can only respect her bravery. But I wish someone would come forward and offer her a charitable payment in order to allow her to die with some dignity out of the public spotlight.
Property company, Brixton, has sacked its Chief Executive, Tim Wheeler - the man who last year used the Blues image of four white horses and Bob Dylan's apocalyptic opening lines to 'All Along the Watchtower' to tell the story of the collapsing property market. Let's hope he got a decent payoff - unlike Fred Goodwin, he recognised the downturn sooner than others.
It's very very rare I watch a TV channel with advertising, and this week I have done it two nights running - last night it was ITVeleventy for a repeat of a Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes with Charles Gray Mycroft in, because Charles Gray is AWESOME - and tonight it was Seven Ages of Rock about prog rock on Yesterday, which is apparently the new name for UKTVHistory. I avoid advertising as much as possible, in fact, including having an ad blocker on Firefox (and yes, Lib Dem voice, I have considered adding you to my whitelist, and decided against. ...
It says something about the poverty of political journalism in Wales, and indeed the recent introspection of the meeja hor brigade, that I've had more calls from the press about the University Challenge saga that I wasn't involved in and haven't written about (namely three) than about the controversial council meeting I was involved in and have written about (namely zero). Of course, when the
Hooray. Asda have agreed to give the Stockton Fairtrade Group 200 bananas for our "GO BANANAS" event in Stockton High Street on Friday March 6th at noon. It is all going to help Stockton play its part in beat the world record for eating Fairtrade bananas. Why not come along, and you don't want to miss the sight of the Mayor not just unzipping the banana to eat it, but going up the High Street...
... is now live.
It was Budget Council this evening, the occasion when councillors agree the Council's Budget and, as a consequence, the council tax rate for the coming year. For the third year running the Conservative opposition did not propose an alternative budget. This is really very odd. It is the job of the opposition to challenge the income and spending in the proposed Budget and to...
It's a common tactic and one we're all familiar with (and, quite possibly, guilty of). You want to make a case for something. You don't want to invent figures, but you certainly want the best gloss to support your case. So when there's a choice, you present the statistics in a way that best supports your case, and perhaps you aren't too fastidious in setting out the assumptions you've made, even in the small print. So we turn to Amnesty International's "One in Ten" campaign. According to Amnesty "Each year, around 1 in 10 women in Britain experience rape or ...
Having finished with Viz, The Culture Show has turned to a piece on the cultural life of Newcastle upon Tyne. Unafraid of cliche, it is using the theme from Get Carter as background music. Here is the whole thing, with scenes of the composer, Roy Budd, playing it intercut with the opening of the film. Enjoy the shots of the East Coast Main Line, complete with Deltics and semaphore signalling.
The Culture Show is currently showing an item on Viz. As Bloggerheads points out the magazine has recently improved its website. So enjoy yourself - it's quite a big one!
From The Times website this evening: At least three other teams which have won University Challenge since 2000 have fielded ineligible players in the final, The Times has discovered. ...Siegfried Hodgson, a member of the Imperial College team that won in 2001, admitted today that two members of his team were on one-year masters courses and had therefore graduated by the time the final was filmed.He added: "We were completely upfront about this with the production team and there was never any suggestion we broke any rules."So now everyone will be saying that Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and The Human ...
Some time ago, the Council advised us that it would consider an improvement for pedestrians trying to cross the busy Arbroath Road near to Dalkeith Road and Ellengowan Drive. Chris has been back in touch with the Council's Road Safety Officer who has said there were 'physical problems' trying to accommodate this, but he has agreed to further investigate the matter. Many residents have said to Chris that they would welcome a crossing near here.
Aberavon and Neath Liberal Democrats have long campaigned for tighter controls on our personal data in the hands of our governments (see for instance the posting on the DNA database of last October). Now the Welsh Liberal Democrats have tabled a motion for Wednesday that urges the Welsh government to identify what measures it is taking to safeguard the personal data it and the services it funds hold on people in Wales.
I have just left Cowley St in the rain and gale and discovered that my shoes are leaking. My toes are paddling in their very own pool of water at the moment. I need to make a trip to the cobblers! Mind you, the last time I did that, it was almost as cheap to buy new shoes. Anyway the weather is vile. I don't want to dwell too long on Britain's favourite item of polite conversation, but it is just
Following the lack of anything being done about Jacqui Smith's shameful manipulation of the MPs expenses system to her financial advantage, it looks like Caroline Spelman is also getting away with paying someone who appeared to be doing little more than nannying duties for her out of the public purse when this is not allowed by the rules. Jon Craig on the Sky News blog reports that she has been made to repay £9,600 in "overpayments" but the judgement appears to have been very sympathetic and it looks like she is off the hook politically. I was at the the ...
Liberal Democrat Voice reports on news that the five MPs who represent Cornwall, Lib Dems all, have joined forces to campaign for St Piran's Day to be made a public holiday. According to Business Cornwall North Cornwall MP, Dan Rogerson, will today table a House of Commons motion welcoming a move by Bodmin, St Columb and Penzance Town Councils to make the day a staff holiday. MPs have signed up to signal their support for Cornwall's "unique heritage, language, culture and aspirations". There will be celebrations all over Cornwall on March 5, including marches in Bodmin and Truro and events ...
As I only have the archive from October 2008 for this blog, I personally have forgot when I set the blog up. Because of this factor I am choosing a date in May which is the month it was created to celebrate the birthday of this blog. I think it was around the 15th of May so I shall set the 15th as the date on which the blog shall celebrate its birthday. Unlike Political Betting.com I can not afford to throw a party for the celebration of the blog and I don't think many other bloggers can, so with ...
rWhen I posted this on Saturday I was expecting quite a bit of backlash to my comments regarding the suspension of Cllrs. Debra Storr, Paul Johnston and Sam Coull. Maybe the worst is being stored up for Perth in less than a fortnights time. However, as it is in my nature to listen to the other side of the argument I'd direct you to Ruaraidh Dobson's blog post as a Liberal Youth Scotland co-optee unto the exec on a insiders take of proceedings on Saturday. I do however take exception to him saying that the three have badmouthed the Liberal ...
On the same day that the government announce a bail out for the private finance initiative (PFI) (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7920522.stm), West Lindsey District Council have announced that they are seeking a contribution of £300,000 to keep afloat the redevelopment of Marshalls Sorts ground Despite the fact that Lib
There are lies, dammed lies, and the Daily Mirror. The news on Monday that the town council I serve on is to charge more for wider plots in the cemetery must have found its place in the nationals due to it being a slow news day. Houghton Regis's Environment committee met on Monday 23rd, and it took until the following Monday (March 2nd) for the Mirror to report with this story. So, let's take a look at this Mirror-reported story. 1. "Fat people are to cost more". This is factually incorrect. To use their word, "fat", this can mean many ...
Over in the latest Lib Dem Voice debate, on whether we should support FairTrade or not, the name of Dr Michael Hudson has come up in the comments, and I thought this was worth highlighting (H/T Disinter): I am quite familiar with the work of Michael Hudson and Fred Harrison as they are both prominent advocates of Land Tax and the work of Henry George. Here Hudson is putting into much better words than I have so far been able to what I have been advocating since the run on Northern Rock or before about why the current bank bail-outs ...
Mike Hancock, Lib Dem MP for Portsmouth South, together with his fellow Portsmouth Lib Dems, has taken his campaign on behalf of council tenants to the highest levels, including Downing Street and Parliament. The issue? One that is faced by 156 councils around the country: ... council tenants are angry because each household will be paying £1,000 a year over the next thirty years directly into the Government's coffers. The Government takes money from Portsmouth and 205 other councils. Some money is distributed back to councils. 50 councils benefit and 156 pay money to the Government but there is an ...
Back in 2004 I wrote a House Points column (scroll down to 9 April) that made fun of Essex MPs. "Why do Essex MPs support VAT? Because they can spell it." That kind of thing. Although I had taken pains to exclude him, and made no mention of Essex girls, that column brought a trenchant letter from Bob Russell, the Lib Dem MP for Colchester. Published in Liberal Democrat News for 23 April, it said: Had Jonathan Calder made reference to people because of their colour, religion, sexual orientation or disability in what he presumably thought were "jokes" in his ...
Alright, our scaly friend here isn't particularly cute, or spectacular but he is unusual. He's a tuatara, the last remaining descendent of a species which walked with dinosaurs, apparently. Five years ago, I travelled more than 12,000 miles to see a tuatara, ending up at the Southland Museum in Invercargill, New Zealand. Their most famous exhibit was, and remains, Henry, an elderly (although not in tuatara terms) fellow.In the past, he hadn't been of much use to the museum's tuatara breeding programme. Indeed, he'd bitten the tail off of Mildred, one of their female tuatara when introduced to her. However, ...
I watched "Who do you think you are?" last night. The subject was Kevin Whateley and it turned out one of his 18th Century relatives married a Mr Brooksbank who was governor of the Bank of England. Crikey! As far as I know Mr Brooksbank was OK at his job. There was an exhibition at Cliffe Castle Museum a few years ago about coal mining in the Keighley area. I read the list of names of children who went down the mines and one of them was a Brooksbank, David if I remember rightly. It brought it home to me ...
Well, the results are in in the Great Prestwich Litter Reduction Challenge, and rather like the Eurovision Song Contest, there is an undeserving yet oddly predictable winner. Three months ago the Council launched a "crack down" on litter louts in Prestwich, with the promise of extra enforcement and the issuing of fixed penalty notices (FPNs) to litter louts. Now, at the end of the trial period, the Council have confirmed that a grand total of zero FPNs have been issued in Prestwich in that time. Nil, nada, nothing. Not one. Not a single FPN has been issued, despite litter complaints ...
Regular readers will probably not be surprised that Jenni Russell's piece in todays Guardian caught my eye. It has to be said it has not been unnoticed that the Guardian has been openly flirting with David Cameron's Conservatives; recently it's progressive future series of discussions openly wondered if they could be part of said progressive future. Openly flirting with and certainly thinking of jumping in bed with if the tone of Russell's arguments are anything to go by; it seems very much to me that some of the Guardian editorial staff are kite-flying. I will lay a wager now that ...
Earlier today I wrote a blog post about how I thought it was stupid that MP's wanted to hide their postal addresses from constituents through election campaigns because of "security reasons" and I made the point that I was against the amendment that passed through the Commons. On the issue I set up a facebook group which currently only has 7 members, at least that has told me and others that only seven people on facebook out of about a hundred that were invited support that MP's need to make their postal addresses public. Tom Harris over at his blog ...
The Government has finally caved in to pressure from the Electoral Commission, the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives to change voting registration to being done on an individual basis. Registration on a single form for each address has long been a weak point of the entire voting system - it's very open to abuse. Unfortunately it will also cost more, and the cost is likely to fall on local councils. More details on the new registration system here.
From the Business Cornwall website comes news that the five MPs who represent Cornwall, Lib Dems all, have joined forces to campaign for St Piran's Day to be made a public holiday: North Cornwall MP, Dan Rogerson, will today table a House of Commons motion welcoming a move by Bodmin, St Columb and Penzance Town Councils to make the day a staff holiday. MPs have signed up to signal their support for Cornwall's "unique heritage, language, culture and aspirations". There will be celebrations all over Cornwall on March 5, including marches in Bodmin and Truro and events in many other ...
Just going away from politics for a bit, today someone in my ICT group who believes Science is the real religion that everyone should follow claimed that Neil Armstrong did not visit the moon and all he did was go up into space and come back down. The person who I shall keep anonymous claimed that Neil Armstrong made the whole thing up and the footage shown of the moon and the American flag flying is just a computer animation as they is no wind on the moon.Personally I just about passed Science in high school so have no clue ...
Fellow blogger (though of different political outlook!) Paul Burgin has done his latest "Twenty Questions to a Fellow Blogger" on me, as you can read on his site.
The Council met last night to set this year's council tax. As usual, a lengthy debate. There were three options open to us: Sir Steve Bullock's 2.5% rise The Green Party's 2.5% rise (with some different spending priorities to the Mayor's) The Lib Dem proposal to FREEZE Council Tax at the current rate The Lib Dem group proposed to freeze this year's council tax to try and make things slightly easier for people in the face of the recession. It's not a radical proposal - neighbouring Greenwich Council (Labour led) and Southwark Council (Lib Dem led) have done the same ...
This morning it was announced that The Local Government Association (LGA) will be trying to encourage ex social workers back into the profession. The LGA, which hopes to tempt back 5,000 of us, says 10% of posts in the profession are unfilled. This is sited because of the death of Baby P, but I'm sure is not helped by the government limiting overseas social workers coming to this country from outside the EU, who have previously been picking up the shortfall of qualified workers. Added to this Reading University has decided to cut the social work course something other universities ...
BBC.co.uk reports: An online interview with Scottish Lib Dem leader Tavish Scott will see him answer questions submitted by members of the public at the party conference. BBC Scotland's political editor Brian Taylor will quiz the Shetland MSP in the half-hour webcast at the conference, being held on March 13-15. ... You can watch the webcast live by clicking on the BBC Scotland news website at bbc.co.uk/scotlandnews. The interview will take place during the Scottish Liberal Democrat spring conference in Perth. Any member of the public may submit questions to Tavish using the form at the BBC website here. However, ...
I was at the game on Sunday when the Rhinos lost to Manly from Australia and apparently was on TV a few times in the process. I really enjoyed it despite the scoreline and look forward to watching them at Headingley in the future.
We're coming a bit belatedly to this, but in case LDV readers missed it, Lib Dem president Baroness Ros Scott blogger her February report to members over at Because Baronesses are people too. Here's an excerpt: My manifesto set out a number of areas where I wanted reform, but made it clear that there is no Presidential magic wand to make changes happen. I'm really pleased that progress is being made in many of these areas already, although it is still early days. The English Party are looking at selection rules for Westminster candidates and at the formal relationship between ...
Did the Cabinet member responsible for the Bath Transport Package seek to cloud the true cost of 'communications' relating to the project? That is the question being asked by Liberal Democrats. In January, Councillor Caroline Roberts (Liberal Democrat, Newbridge) quizzed the Conservative Cabinet member on how much had been spent on publicity for the Bath Transport Package (BTP). The...
The next Twerton Ward Surgery will be held on Saturday 7th March from 10am till 11am at The Hut Hinton Close off Newton Road Twerton. No appointment is required so if you have a problem or just want to chat then please come along and see us.
We're midway through Fairtrade Fortnight (23rd February - 8th March), and so Lib Dem Voice is running two articles asking the question, 'Should liberals back Fair Trade?', putting two opposing viewpoints to our readers. Yesterday, Lib Dem MP John Pugh made the case for fair trade. Today Lib Dem member Julian Harris takes a critical look. As liberals, we are internationalist in our outlook. I didn't join the party to moan about a neighbour's roof extension, and I doubt you did either. If you'll excuse the clichéd sanctimony—we want to make the world a better place. Hence many among us ...
Courtesy of the BBC, news reaches 'Liberal Bureaucracy' of democracy's 'Biggest Show on Earth'. Yes, it's time for India to elect a new Lok Sabha and the vast task of organising 828,804 polling stations is well under way. The BBC has some useful analysis, if you're interested. The logistics are truly staggering, and polling will take place over a period of more than a month, every Thursday, starting on 16 April. To complicate matters for observers, different states will vote in different patterns, with some states using just one date, whereas Jammu and Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh are using all ...
There has been a lot of speculation in the media about whether Harriet Harman is positioning herself to challenge for the Labour leadership when it inevitable becomes available after the next General Election. However, this is mostly being reported in a serious kremlinology kind of way. Surely the reaction should be one of outright derision? Can't people within the Westminster see how awful she is? Isn't that what the rest of the country sees (or is it just me?) It's one of way of ensuring Labour don't return to power anytime soon. Maybe the Labour swamp has been drained so ...
The half-hour meeting between Brown and Obama (which will demonstrate to the world how special is Our UK Relationship with the USA) is billed to be on world economic affairs. Given President Obama's praise of The Blair Poodle Project it is perhaps too much to hope that Obama will actually use some of the time to discuss at least one torturous special relationship - namely the shaming mess on torture of terror suspects in which the UK has some urgent questions to answer. . It is just possible to believe that Obama has so far refrained from letting in the ...
I've just got back from a week's holiday which was mainly spent sitting by the pool in the sun, so it does seem appropriate to mention free swimming in the Borough. From 1st April anyone under 16 or over 60 will be able to swim for free in the Malden Centre and Kingfisher. The Council has managed to get funds through the NHS and DC Leisure to cover both of these...
Just time for a quick blogpost today, though I may be motivated to do more later tonight. For once I am going to congratulate the government on grasping the nettle. In this case they have finally agreed to end the system whereby one person in each household names all those eligible to vote in their property. Voters will be allowed to register individually on the electoral roll from the autumn of 2010 by either signing a form or providing identification. Household registration will still be an option until the autumn of 2015, when individual registration will become compulsory if it ...
Did the Cabinet member responsible for the Bath Transport Package seek to cloud the true cost of 'communications' relating to the project? That is the question being asked by Liberal Democrats. In January, Councillor Caroline Roberts (Liberal Democrat, Newbridge) quizzed the Conservative Cabinet member on how much had been spent on publicity for the Bath Transport Package (BTP). The...
If you know, congratulations - you are well qualified to work for Kent Police.
MP's yesterday voted an amendment through Parliament to keep their postal addresses secret at election time from constituents and personally I think its pathetic. Many MP's don't live in their constituencies so them voting for their postal address to stay secure is just a way for them to cover their tracks as clearly they don't care that much about their constituency otherwise they would have lived in it. With this in mind I have set up a Facebook group campaigning to ask Lords to vote against the proposal and throw it back at them in the Commons. Please join the ...
A special penguin storytime session will keep away the winter chill for youngsters on World Book Day. Under-5s will listen to penguin stories and then bring them to life, making penguin hats, dressing up as penguins, and singing songs. The fun event takes place on Thursday, March 5, at Prestwich Library in the Longfield Centre, Prestwich, from 10.45am to 11.30am. It will be attended by regular members of the Thursday Storytime group, ranging from babies to children aged four. More information from Margaret Vince (0161 253 7218)
A new acronym for Plaid Cymru. They chould use it as their new election slogan: "Uncaring, power-hungry bastards." And yes, I use that word deliberately. I'm not a Parliamentarian, it's not my place to be polite to the supine mass of Plaid AMs who have blindly gone along with the Labour Party in Cardiff. Frankly, any Party that ignores the voice of its members (even the voice of its main committee!), just to keep their little powers going is deplorable and worthy of absolute, crippling scorn. Compare the Liberal Democrats in coalition, to Plaid. Liberal Democrats in power: 100 of ...
April 2006. A fresh-faced David Cameron, leader of the Conservative party, has talks with Prime Minister Blair about political donations. Cameron "demands" a cap of £50,000 in donations from any one source in a year. Mr Cameron says "I think it's the right way forward to get rid of the impression that somehow rich people or big organisations or trade unions can buy influence or even get a seat in the legislature."Fast forward to Monday 2nd March 2009. David Howarth MP (Lib Dem, Cambridge) proposes a cap in donations of £50,000 from any one source in a year. Sound familiar? ...
Good news today as the BBC reports individual voter registration comes a step closer. This issue is very close to home here in Redlands. Last April, I blogged about the damage done to public confidence in Redlands about voting by Post following the electoral fraud that occured in 2004. Reform is urgently needed to stop people's votes being stolen. If we didn't know it already , The Times lists the depressing history of 'ghosts with votes' . The Lib Dems have been campaigning nationally for some time for the regulations governing local and national elections in the UK to be tightened up. The move has ...
Tue 3rd
14:04
First Minister needs to come clean about government's action (or inaction) over the economy
Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader, Kirsty Williams has today urged the First Minister to come clean about the discussions he has had with the banks, the UK and the EU over the availability of credit to help Welsh businesses deal with the financial crisis in Wales. Following First Minister's Questions on the 10th of February when Rhodri Morgan failed to tell the Assembly whether he had made any
The Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Member for Cardiff Central, Jenny Randerson has today called for an urgent rethink on the way the Ministerial code operates after the First Minister refused to comment on changing the protocol whereby he judges complaints made against himself.Challenging the First Minister in plenary this afternoon, Jenny Randerson referred to her complaint against comments the
Poor old Lord Adonis. Party President and Parliamentary Gem of the Week Baroness Scott got on her feet to ask a simple question about how there might be the vaguest possible chance that, you know, rail services in Britain might not be terrible for the rest of eternity: Asked By Baroness Scott of Needham Market To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they advise Network Rail on the strategic impact of its engineering works programme. Ros Scott is a transport specialist and no stranger to trains, but I wonder if she anticipated the ten minutes of close questioning from all sides ...
Now correct me if I'm wrong but building something with the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) compared to just borrowing the money and building it ourselves means: 1) It costs obscene amounts more 2) Is likely to be a shoddier job 3) Is more prone to massive overruns 4) That we don't even own the thing we've built after we've finished paying it off in 30 years time 5) But it allows Gordon Brown to do some dubious Enron style 'off-balance sheet' creative accounting to pretend that we're not really borrowing the money, oh look aren't we prudent! Now, it seems ...
Many congratulations to Bob Russell, the Lib Dem MP that is spearheading the campaign to axe the beer tax and save the pub. Hopefully it will send a message to other Lib Dems that cutting taxes is popular with the voters. Also, it was good to see Mark Littlewood on Channel 4 News last night having a go at the SNP for wanting to price the Scots off alcohol.
I was inspired to write this post after seeing this at Stephen's Linlithgow Journal. I follow Stephen's blog, and I find it very interesting, but he's dead wrong here. On Saturday, the Executive committee of the Scottish Liberal Democrats took an incredibly difficult decision. Over the past 15 months, four Councillors from Aberdeenshire who were elected [...]
Last month I blogged about some of the extravagant costs run up by London Mayor Boris Johnson for one of his public meetings. Tory Troll's more detailed story was picked by the Daily Mail, who in turn have flushed out a rather weak defence from Boris's team. I particularly like the reference to a 15 minutes bus ride, as if such a journey taken in west London in the middle of the evening is akin to expecting people to walk barefoot for 20 miles during the middle of the night. No it isn't Boris, it's what the rest of us ...
I've been blogging for more than three years now and, apart from the occasional burst of interest, my readership figures have been steady, rather than spectacular. I've not been terribly disciplined, and at one point could easily go a whole week without posting anything. In January, however, I was invited to be one of the contributors to GlobalPost, and began to take this blog a bit more seriously. I bolstered the advertising a bit, starting to blog more frequently and waited to see what would happen. Unsurprisingly, my readership figures rose and, in the month to 2 March, my monthly ...
Last time I looked, there wasn't an iPhone app for blogspot blogs. You could, of course, use its web browser, but that's a little slow fir the purpose if you don't have a 3G or wifi connection. Now, there's iBlogger, which supports a wide range of blogging engines, including blogspot. This is my first post with iBlogger, but I'm expecting it to be mangled somewhat because I need to change a
Last time I looked, there wasn't an iPhone app for blogspot blogs. You could, of course, use its web browser, but that's a little slow fir the purpose if you don't have a 3G or wifi connection. Now, there's iBlogger, which supports a wide range of blogging engines, including blogspot. This is my first post with iBlogger, but I'm expecting it to be mangled somewhat because I need to change a
I have (finally) got a blog cooking on Cambridge University , because I have (finally) got Who's Who off to the printers, but in the mean time here's my slot last week on skynews.com where I talked to Martin Stanford on some of the up and coming sites on the web! Amazed I got there actually, as traffic was uber bad on the M4 & A4 and I had to run from car, through reception (much to the angst of the security guard), to make up (thank God, imagine going on TV without it) and then straight on to TV ...
Education, Education, Education. When Labour were elected in May 1997 I was pregnant and suffering incredible insomnia and heartburn. I vividly remember sitting up and watching the whole thing and the absolute decimation of many sitting Conservative MPs. Michael Portillo's speech was one of many that stuck out. Many people throughout the country were ready for a clean broom to sweep away their ills and sort things out - in particular the education system. Today the cause of that insomnia (and, as most parents will understand, the cause of many sleepless nights since!!) was given a place at Secondary School. ...
Following recent spates of serious lapses in personal data security, the Welsh Liberal Democrats have tabled a motion tomorrow that urges the Welsh government to identify what measures it is taking to safeguard the personal data it, and the services it funds, hold on people in Wales.From children's ward medical records found in a puddle, patients details being sent to wrong addresses to 100
At 8.40 pm on 2nd December, I took up my position just outside the Commons Chamber. It has become something of a tradition for me to be first in the queue to table Early Day Motions when the doors open at 10am the following morning. Having queued for 13 hours during the night, I was delighted to table ten EDMs that morning. Three months on, by far the most popular among fellow MPs has been the one supporting the 'Axe the Beer Tax - Save the Pub' campaign. It has tapped into a huge well of concern over the fate ...
The Aberdeen Press and Journal reports, Councillors who resigned from a local authority group have been suspended by their party and threatened with expulsion. Paul Johnston, Sam Coull and Debra Storr quit the Aberdeenshire Council Liberal Democrat group, but remained members of the party, after a row over Donald Trump's golf resort plans. A spokesman said the Scottish Liberal Democrat executive committee voted to suspend the trio at a meeting on Saturday. He added: "The party hope they will rejoin the Liberal Democrat group on the council, but the choice is now theirs."
The link is to a court of appeal judgment about Sark which has relevance to the case in Jersey.This has the helpful part from the MoJ 18. In his witness statement, Mr P.F.U. Bourke, head of the European and International Division of the Ministry of Justice, stated, at paragraph 35: "Proper consideration is given to the Crown's responsibilities, so that if a Projet de Loi violated the Crown's
From a debate in the Commons yesterday on a cap on donations: "...people will still be able to buy political influence by donating to political parties. It will be back to cash for honours and people giving £1 million to the Labour party so that they end up in the other place." Pete Wishart MP (SNP) "...the hon. Gentleman knows very well that there is not a shred of evidence in those allegations." Jack Straw MP (Lab) Sorry, Mr Straw, but as you know perfectly well, although the allegations have never been proven, there is certainly evidence to support them. ...
{DSC00004} Last night, the Council budget was finally set - after three attempts. The final text of the motion reflected almost exactly the alternative budget we had put forward, three meetings earlier. Labour politicians could have saved the people of Reading time and money if they had accepted our ideas sooner, but they were too arrogant to do that. Our proposals focused on three key areas: Reduced the Council tax as far as possible, and we were told 3.99% was as far as it could safely be reduced, by the Director of Resources - without seriously affecting services. Put ...
Welcome to Lib Dem Voice's Catchup post in the poignant week when the newest little Clegg entered this world (pics here) and one of the little Camerons left it, and politics as usual was suspended for an afternoon. It was also the week Alix Mortimer made the longlist of the new Orwell Prize for Blogging, and Lib Dem Voice itself spent a day in cryogenic suspension as technical wizard Ryan Cullen migrated us to new, private, expensive server. Our outage led to one angry customer: James Graham's provocative "Is Lord Ashdown the IT Industry's Patsy?" went live 24 hours before ...
A confidential report seen by the Independent on Sunday shows that Liberal Democrat peers are the most hard-working members of the House of Lords. I've previously blogged about how poor the Conservative attendance record is in the Lords (here and here), and this new report also finds that Conservative peers are the least likely to turn up of the main parties. According to the report, Liberal Democrats attended 71% of sitting days, whilst Labour peers managed 68% and the Conservatives a paltry 56%. The People's Peers themselves were the worst offenders though on 45%. You can read the full story ...
While we were off-air over the weekend, we learned from the unlikely source of Politics and the City that we are due an Autumn conference in Liverpool. Autumn in Liverpool was mooted when we first had Spring conference this time last year. We asked delegates at the conference there what they thought about the prospect of returning to the city for a longer conference - and you can hear what people had to say here. This makes our expected venue timetable over the coming years: 2009 Harrogate - on Friday! Bournemouth - 19th-23rd September 2010 Birmingham - Spring Liverpool - ...
There was a very entertaining moment on BBC Radio Two yesterday when they interviewed the boss of AIG, who had just announced a $61.7 billion loss.He said:"But if you look past the loss, which is, admittedly, a big ask, the business itself is operating very well".I like that: "which is, admittedly, a big ask".I like the man's style. Ever optimistic, eh?P.S: When did "ask" become a noun? (...
There was an interesting article by Melanie McDonagh in last week's Telegraph. Her piece prompts some typical Telegraph reader comments, such as "Everyone should learn the basics first, reading, writing and arithmetic, te [sic] old fashioned way." She argues that we are in the keyboard age and that therefore the art of handwriting is dying out. The [...]
{Bath University} This week is the first Neighbours Forum for the University and its near neighbours to discuss issues of concern. The University is hosting on Thursday 5th at 5:30pm. I have been working behind the scenes for almost a year to arrange this termly meeting, so I am very glad that we finally have a date set. These Fora give the university a chance to explain their future plans and upcoming events to their neighbours with a view to mitigation, and neighbours the opportunity to voice concerns (or praises) about the way the university operates. The need for better ...
Common Ground has a page telling you what's new, what's happening and what's in season for March.
Just listened to Hamish Meldrum, Chair of the British Medical Association attacking the Government's plans to allow, at a minister's say-so, any of your private data the State has got its grubby hands on to be shared with any other part of government or any private company. This is the appalling Coroners and Justice Bill, a piece of legislation so bad that I can only assume it was left to the kid doing work exeperience in the Department of Justice to draft the thing. In additional to allowing ministers to give your data away, this wonderful piece of legislaton will ...
I see the Mayor was slated yesterday for letting London grind to a halt during this year's 'Big Snow'. But I'm focusing on the snow-positive, like this pic from my ward colleague, Bob Hare, which I'm sure he wont mind me pinching. It's Highgate's Pond Square during the deep freeze. I didn't manage to get out and photograph a lot during the snow, so thanks Bob, for this one ...
Well, Mr.Brown is off to see President Obama, perhaps the most glamorous politician in the world. There will doubtless be much talk of "The Special Relationship" between the United Kingdom and the United States. There will be no end of smugness at Number 10 that Gordon Brown, rather than Angela Merkel or Nicolas Sarkozy, was the first across the threshold of the Obama Oval Office. It seems then perhaps churlish to ask what precisely is the benefit that Britain receives from this Special Relationship with the hyper-power? To do so is question the very basis of current British foreign policy. ...
Last November, I spent a long weekend in Paris and got around the city by the Velib bike hire system introduced by the Socialist Mayor, Bertrand Delance. It's a great concept - you sign up to an Oyster style card and you can then pick up a bike whenever you want from the many available bike stations. On Sunday morning, the city authorities also close to motorised traffic the main road running along the River Seine which makes the cyclist experience even better. I was therefore looking forward to the introduction of Boris Johnson's cycling revolution in May 2010 in ...
On Sunday mornings I like to cycle around North Road ward, looking out for any problems to report to Streetscene. This Sunday I took a circuitous route to the ward to try out some new cycle paths. From the Yarm Road retail park, over the Eastern Transport Corridor and Haughton Road, along the riverside path to North Park. Apart from a short stretch crossing North Road, all on cycle paths.Then
