Today's Guardian had an obituary of the actor Laurence Payne. It touches upon two subjects discussed upon this blog. It turns out that Payne played Sexton Blake in the 1960s ITV series which I mentioned when discussing Don Taylor's The Exorcism. And he also wrote a novel called The Nose on My Face, which was filmed as Girl in the Headlines. The trailer for this film was one of the extras on The Voice of Merrill DVD that I bought last Saturday. Slowly the pieces fall into place.
This afternoon we went to see The Watchmen at the Hollywood Cinema Great Yarmouth.Good movie, but not great. Could have done with 20-30 minutes more hitting the cutting room floor. Don't think you are going to watch a superhero bubblegum movie, it is a movie about the characters and is not upbeat. But Malin Akerman is sexy...
Am I the only Lib Dem Blogger not at Harrogate? It seemed that way when I glanced down Lib Dem blogs a few minutes ago. I'd have liked to have been there, especially as there's a focus on education this time, but circumstances prevented it.The decision to continue our commitment to education being free at the point of delivery pleased me - it's one of the many things which is distinguishes us
I gave the blogger interview a miss, on the probably sensible grounds that I have plenty of opportunities to ask my wife questions. On the other hand, I might not get as good a set of answers... A few events in my role as Presidential consort, before we headed for the rehearsal of Ros's Presidential inauguration and presentation of the membership awards. We arrived in the middle of what I presume was the final rehearsal of the Leader's speech. Naturally, I am not at liberty to report any details, that means any at all. However, I am sure it would ...
[originally posted on 19 Dec 2008]Lillian Ladele, homophobe, claims that the employment tribunal case she's just lost wasn't "an attempt to undermine the rights of members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender communities" - apart from, of course, their right to get married. Strange how that wasn't mentioned. Her lawyer also claims that "the evidence showed that Lillian performed all of her duties to the same high standard for the lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender communities, as she did for everyone" - apart from the small matter of refusing to carry out her work for EVIL DIRTY homosexuals.So not ...
For 16 months now the fallout from the decision on the Trump golf course has erupted around the Liberal Democrats in Aberdeenshire and in Scotland as a whole.I have followed it closely, blow by blow. What is clear to me is that good Liberal Democrats acted within their convictions, in a way that Liberal Democrats should fully support, and have been punished.The party has to resolve how to deal
It was with some hope that I read yesterday, in the Salford Advertiser, that Salford City Council (along with 22 other North West local authorities) have been awarded just over £3.3 million to help them "manage" their roads, bridges and other highway assets. My hope is that Salford could finally start to see some of our heavily used roads resurfaced, rather than the poor patch jobs we currently receive (if we are lucky!). Urban Vision recently graced my own road with their presence. After nearly a year of letter writing and endless telephone calls to Urban Vision, I turned up ...
I wanted to be able to commit to my CVS repository while I was offline - eg while using my laptop on a train. But CVS doesn't support that, and to make it pretend to support it would involve some quite monstrous hacks. Of the commonly used VCSes, only git supports offline commits, so I decided to try that instead. There are some excellent instructions here which mostly Just Work.Mostly.There are two small flaws. First, it died importing this file. I couldn't be bothered to analyse why, and just deleted it and its history from the local copy I'd made ...
Among the polls that were carried out in the report by Politics Home, probably the most interesting poll is the one about what constituents would rate MP's and their performances, this brings out some interesting colours and results about which party has MP's that actually do their jobs properly. The Liberal Democrats polled higher then all the other parties on issues like localism, and ordinary, which tells you a lot about MP's from the other political parties! To see the whole poll follow the link to the pdf file! (See page 6)
Politics Home have had a poll out for quiet a while in which they show how marginal seats in the North West among many other places across the Country will become Tory seats after the next general election, and I have to say its a large pile of rubbish. The next general election is not going to be all singing and dancing for the Tories, however easy they make it out to be. Personally I think Politics Home need to do another marginal seat poll after the County Council elections and use them results to decide which seat will be ...
Today's victory by the Quins, including a Danny Care try, over Saracens put us at 3rd in the Guinness Premiership table (the top four play off). But Bath and Sale both have a game in hand. And an average of 3 points a match would put us 5th.So with 6 teams really in it - Harlequins, Gloucester, Leicester, Bath, Sale and London Irish - the last half a dozen fixtures in the league stage look like a
From the Ludlow & Tenbury Wells Advertiser: Firefighters were called to a frying pan fire in Ludlow this lunchtime.However, on arrival at the Mortimer Place home just before 2.30pm, the fire had already been put out.Nothing was used by the Ludlow crew which attended.
No, not the Liberal Democrat one - where Nick Clegg has returned from paternity leave and the Party debated the future of faith schools (we want them to continue, I'm told), but the WALC meeting at Myton School in Warwick. {myton-school.jpg} Myton School WALC is the Warwickshire and West Midlands Association of Local Councils, the body that supports Parish and Town Councils in the area. Four of us (Cllrs Alan and Angela Noyce and Cllr Ian Cooper) went to what is, essentially, a training session for Town Councillors. We had talks on what are the latest issues that are coming ...
If the exclusive Voice audio version of Howard Dean's speech is not pressing enough of your buttons already, the party has now made a full, professional video of the speech here
Today's 'Courier' covered the news of Scottish Enterprise's £33 million funding announcement for Dundee Waterfront, including my comments welcoming the decision. You can read the article by clicking on the headline above.
* The Council has agreed to remove graffiti at the Crescent Street playpark, following Chris's request. * Chris raised the issue of broken lights in Baxter Park with the Council and it has confirmed repairs will be undertaken. * Chris had complaints about loose paving slabs in the City Centre at the Boots corner, the City Churches and near Marks and Spencer. The Council has now advised Chris that these will be sorted in the near future.
I was delighted that Lib Dem conference decided to retain its policy on abolishing tuition fees in England (they've already been abolished in Scotland, of course). Or rather, it didn't so much decide it as accept it by acclamation. Despite murmurings earlier in the year that there would be an attempt to reverse our policy, in the end no amendment was discussed on the subject and no speakers made the case that our policy should change. I find it slightly odd that the people who wanted to accept tuition fees didn't put their case forward for discussion by conference. Did ...
On a minor point, the "official" live web updating of the Lib Dem conference in Harrogate starts thusly: 17.00 It's good to be back in Harrogate, just a year after we were last here. On a conference circuit dominated by seaside resorts this lovely Yorkshire spa town is delightfully different. As well as the beautiful old buildings there is, right in the centre of town, one of the largest town centre parks you are likely to find in a town of this size, known as The Stray. Just the place for conference-goers to find some peace as they work to ...
Bath & North East Somerset Council is opening the Park & Ride services on Bath Half Marathon Day, Sunday 15 March. The Council works closely with the organisers of the half marathon to ensure the smooth running of the event, managing road closures, special parking restrictions and extra Park & Ride services for competitors and spectators. Extra journeys have been laid on...
Continuing an education theme the Liberal Democrats, this afternoon, discussed 5-19 education.
I've been working for some months with colleagues on the Selection Rules Working Group, and this morning saw us make a key presentation to English Candidates Committee on progress thus far. We clearly needed to get their approval in order to proceed and, for the most part, I think we have. We are, as I have expressed before, keen to simplify the process where we can, reducing the burden on smaller Local Parties, and those where, to be blunt, our electoral prospects are not great. We also want to allow candidates to demonstrate a wider range of skills and techniques ...
Guido gets pleasure when Nick Robinson or Andrew Marr mess up either on TV, or even when Nick Robinson comes behind him in lists of political blogs! So when he blogged about this issue he must really have been enjoying himself. The book of Andrew Marr has been called in by the book seller for some reason which hasn't been given but its a legal reason. What legal reason could this be? Could he have destroyed the image of a politician, or made allegations that are not true? What has Marr actually done to have his book called back?
We're doing our education papers in timewarped reverse this weekend, opening with the Adult, Further and Higher Education papers this morning, continuing with age 5-19 Education this afternoon and finishing with under-5s childcare tomorrow. This paper has had a record number of amendments offered - 16, of which four have gone forward, three of which concern faith schools. The first calls for one critical provision to be removed from the policy paper, the provision which prevents the establishment of new schools which select on faith. Jonathan Davies speaking in support of the motion, stresses that he does not impose his ...
{Radio frequency warning symbol} I've been inspired by my Lib Dem colleague Cllr Ricky Duveen to write this post, after his post on a planning application to put an overbearing mobile-phone mast in Tilehurst. It strikes me as a little odd for the applicants not to try and disguise the mast in some way or incorporate it into some existing structure, as has been happening all around the country for quite some time. Or construct a couple of lower masts like the one opposite the Pru building. Now people usually bang on about the 'Health risks' associated with the 'radiation' ...
At some point, I suspect that someone will realise that where Ros goes, they aren't obliged to let me follow. However, in the meantime, I get some opportunities that, how can I put this, might not be available to everyone. The Liberty Network drinks reception with Howard Dean took place at a discreet venue, a little way from the Conference Centre. There was some very good wine served - no nibbles, unexpectedly - and a gathering of individuals who have, been generous to the Party in the past. Governor Dean spoke briefly but entertainingly before fielding questions from the floor. ...
The Liberal Democrats celebrated their 'Coming of Age' (in the old time scale) last night at a rally in Harrogate's magnificent Royal Hall. The evening kicked off with a medley from a splendid brass orchestra from a local school, after which Tim Farron MP compered a sometimes tongue-in-cheek review of the party's difficult birth and troubled [...]
Do you know the minimum age for marrying in New Hampshire?
Worth a look here.Hat-tip: instapundit
The Beeb has already trailed this speech, and Vince is welcomed to the stand with an even longer opening ovation than Howard got. 14.44 He starts on, let us say, a dark note. The economic situation is dire, we are going to have nothing but bad news for some time. There has never been a more important time for politicians to be honest. But what do we have? A pantomime between Labour and the Tories. 14.47 He identfies the Tories' motivation: for them, the worse the recession is the better. That way they can strengthen their own anyone-but-Labour vote and ...
The party has excellent comprehensive coverage on a vote-by-vote basis on the main party website. You can find it here. There is a rather more irreverent live coverage coming from a small army of party twitterers using the hashtag #ldconf. They are telling us about fringes as they happen. They are giving key phrases from set piece speeches. And they are reviewing restaurants almost chew by chew. You can read these comments from individuals by following this link.
We are very pleased to bring you in haste a rather bootleg version of Howard Dean's speech to Lib Dem conference in full, recorded by sitting in the audience with a tape recorder. As these things often go, the effect of recording it in this way means sometimes the audience members are easier to pick out of the recording than the principle speaker. And I'm bringing this recording to you so quickly that I have not been able to listen all the way through yet. Twitter came alive during the speech, with many people picking out key phrases and retweeting ...
I just bought and downloaded 2dboy's awesome "World of Goo" for Linux. It looks and plays just like the Wii version, except that it's higher-resolution and since it's played with a mouse and not one of those silly nintendo wiimote things it's a great deal more enjoyable. It really is a perfect port of the game, and without the Nintendo's crappy control issues it's a much better game. {wogdlbanner1} If you've never tried this game I suggest you grab the demo (available on all platforms). The idea of the game is to build structures out of goo-balls... bizarre adhesive critters ...
I blogged before about the waste of £31M a day on the useless VAT cut. Now here's a piece on how much better the £1.3 trillion squandered by Gordon Brown on bailing out the banks could have been spent - 40 new hospitals, 500 new schools, and so it goes on. Despite the bailout, the banks [...]
Welcome to the (belated {:oops:} ) 106th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (22nd-28th February 2009), together with a hand-picked quintet, mostly courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed. As ever, let's start with the most popular post, and work our way down. 1. Paddy whups James Graham's ass on Paul Walter's Liberal Burblings blog. The debate sparked by James's original LDV article - and vigorously refuted by Paddy Ashdown - is still raging. 2. On that Liberator editorial on Andy Strange's Process Guy ...
This story is hilarious.The BNP are using a Spitfire on their poster for the European elections. This symbol of ther fight to keep the marauding hordes of (East) Europeans at bay is from 303 squadron. That means it was flown by Poles!I have commented before on how 303 Squadron was the most successful during the Battle of Britain.As Lib Dem MP John Hemming says "[The BNP] have a policy to send
An email arrives from Crisis. Has anyone benefited from low interest rates on their mortgage repayments? If so - fancy donating the difference to help homeless people at www.crisis.org.uk/donate? It's an idea...
We know that we are in a recession and that building programs are either being delayed or cancelled all over the country but the deathly silence over the Western Riverside development for our Conservative administration on Bath & North East Somerset is very worrying to say the least. Several months ago I asked our Conservative executive member to explain what is happening on this site...
The Liberal Democrats have discussed adult further and higher education this morning.
Ed Davey is currently introducing Howard Dean and doing his level best to hitch the Lib Dems to the Obama wagon. You have to feel sympathy for the man. I was lucky enough to be one of the bloggers interviewing him this morning (full write up coming soon), and we did our best to prod the same sort of indiscretion out of him. As a broadly left-wing sympathiser in terms of British politics, could he detect differences between us and Labour? No dice. And indeed Howard Dean begins with a disclaimer "to put off the international incident" by saying that ...
I've had a hectic few weeks - busy with one thing or another - so haven't been able to follow up on some of my recent posts - building on my arguments - as I had planned. But here I am in Harrogate for the Liberal Democrat spring conference with a whole weekend to concentrate on things liberal.Harrogate is one of my favourite conference venues. I love its poshness and gentility. Its yorkshire
Breaking news! The Lib Dem Voice cupboard has a WINDOW! Yes, it's a slightly unnerving black smoked glass internal window which reflects us as well as revealing the outside world, but it's a window! I missed Simon Hughes' speech this morning, which is a shame as I am extremely hopeful about his capacity to advance the environmental agenda - we'll bring you that video as soon as we've established that it exists. Listening now to the motion on the Investing in Talent, Building the Economy paper (Adult, Further and Higher Education policy paper). I've missed the movement from Stephen Williams, ...
Ooops. Should have been Sir Fred
Sat 7th
12:00
Day 2988: For the Purposes of this Interview, I shall be a Donkey - Millennium "Donkey" Meets Howard...
Saturday: You cannot have helped but notice that the Democrats of America have recently won a significant victory. The Internet plaid a big, big role in this victory, with Barry O drawing in 13 million supporters and over five-hundred million dollars through his website. So we were very privileged to ask the advice of the man who very much led the way with his own campaign grass-roots campaign in 2003 and as chair of the Democratic National Committee: Mr Governor Howard Dean. Howard Dean, pictured here with Lib Dem Bloggers and a "Donkey". Yes, I'm a Donkey. {Posted by Picasa} ...
On the 28th Feb the FT carried a letter defending Sir Ron Goodwin's pension & pointing out that Governments should be defending contact law and accusing Vince of stirring up mob hatred. I sent in a reply as follows which has not been published. " Firstly I agree that the Government must indeed defend contract law no matter how morally disreputable a specific contract might be. However it is not the Government (or Vince Cable) that is "fomenting as much social unrest as possible". Sir Fred Goodwin & his ilk, unaided by anyone else, are doing such a superb job ...
The above image comes from Guido Fawkes and it raises some interesting questions that I shall raise in this blog post as the picture above has got me thinking. The image above pokes fun at the relationship between Obama and Brown and makes out its not very lovvy dovvy like the relationship of Blair and Bush. Blair and Bush were like two love birds in a nest, Bush even gave Blair a medal on his exit out of the White House, so overall everyone will agree they were all loved up. But is it the same with Obama and Brown, ...
Continuing our exciting use of new technology, Helen Duffett brings Howard Dean to the 12seconds.tv platform Video: Governor Howard Dean talks to @libdemvoice. #ldconf on 12seconds.tv It's nice to know he's enjoying his time here. I've heard many positive reports from his private meetings with party staff, and we're waiting with bated breath for the reports of his meeting with bloggers. And of course in just over 30 minutes, he'll be speaking from the main platform. I'm planning to be sitting in the auditorium with my mic so that we can podcast his words later this afternoon.
Fifteen minutes queueing in the warm Harrogate air was followed by a brisk bag search (I could have smuggled in something down my trousers, but the lady declined to check even when I suggested it, going to show something about security, though I'm not sure what - probably that they're a bit more grown up than me). I had just launched myself at a glass of cheap but drinkable wine kindly donated by the FSB, when it became apparent I was one of several hundred Lib Dems trapped in a corridor with the sort of space that would make a ...
Dog fouling appears to be on the rise. Most dog owners are very responsible and diligent, but of course there is always a minority.Over the last couple of months, I have raised this concern twice with the Council on behalf of residents, once regarding a pathway to Cintra Park, and also regarding pathways on the Hexham Estate. Daisy and Glenn have raised similar concerns, in particular regarding Cintra Park - Daisy has been campaigning for some time on this issue.As well as being unsanitary and unhealthy, dog fouling also serves to make pathways and open areas unusable, which especially affects ...
This morning the Liberal Democrats debated reform of the financial sector at their Spring Conference in Harrogate. The debate was particularly important with the economy seemingly getting worse daily.
Conference is cranking up for a day of fun in the halls after a errr night of fun in the bar. Howard Dean will be speaking at lunchtime and then this afternoon we are heading for a heck of a debate on faith schools. I've put a card in to speak but that is no guarantee to be called. Cardiff was a runner up at the LGA awards last night in the green council group of the year section. We won a
As I am someone who reads Political Betting on a more then daily basis, I am getting very interested in political betting, not from a gamblers point of view but from an analysis point of view, so when Lord Mandelson got custard thrown at him William Hill started a market about throwing of dessert at politicians and who would get hit next. Personally I think this is an interesting market, its a funny market to place money on but never the less its interesting. I think the odds of Jelly at 2/1 are good odds as jelly is something that ...
I have just been reading Polly Toynbee's latest article in The Guardian where she is advocating electoral reform. I am a passionate supporter of electoral reform. Incidentally when I made this comment to a Tory last week she said "Yes, of course - you're a Lib Dem.". I then explained to her that it was actually the other way round. One of the reasons I joined the Lib Dems in the first place is because of their support for electoral reform. I have been a passionate advocate of this for years and long before I joined the party. Anyway, Polly's ...
When I was a councillor on Lincoln City a total of three applications for phone masts came in front of the Planning Committee. Due to a prejudicial interest I never took part in the discussion however I was pleased to see that the councillors understood the laws around the applications. Two of the applications were accepted without much fuss. The third was from O2 at the Birchwood shopping centre. It was a retrospective for a 13 metre poll with 3g aerials on top. They had already got consent (via appeal) for a 13 metre poll with 2g on top, but ...
It's spring conference time, so there I was up at silly o'clock yesterday to get the 7am train to Harrogate. The train was excellent: free power and wifi for our laptops - in standard class; drinkable tea; pretty countryside. What's not to like? Change at York: our next train is on platform 8. We have signs for [...]
That title won over from "Firing Blank?"It would seem that the position of Victor Blank, Chairman of Lloyds Banking group, is somewhat fragile, after the government has taken a 75% share (effectively) in his bank. This after the Lloyds TSB part made a £807m profit last year, overshadowed by £11bn loss for HBOS, a few months after he decided to buy it.Greed. That's what all this banking crisis
The practise of monitoring and storing details of political activists is not a new one in this country. It was certainly happening when I attended anti-apartheid demonstrations in the 1980s and I am sure it was going on both before and after that point. Most activists assume that their details are held on some large government database somewhere and so would express no surprise at the revelations on the front page of today's Guardian. The differences I suppose are firstly that disclosures through the Freedom of Information Act, court testimony, an interview with a senior Met officer and police surveillance ...
I was so engrossed in the escapades of our banana yesterday that I didn't hear any other news. This morning's paper alerted me to the fact of Morgan Tsvangirai's car crash yesterday and the devastating loss of his wife. It's one more tragic twist in the life of people in that country. I don't suppose the truth of the crash will ever be known because the political background means that views
When I first wrote about the Pennsylvania juvenile justice scandal I mentioned the Norwegian criminologist Nils Christe and his warning about the danger of involving private companies in the prison system. Writing for AlterNet, Donald Cohen shows how right he was: The Prison industry also flexes its growing political muscle to increase the number of people sent to - and kept in - prison.Lobbying dollars and campaign contributions are used to push "tougher" laws such as "three strikes", mandatory minimum sentencing, and "truth in sentencing" - all of which increase the duration of sentences.And they support conservative think tanks such ...
Having been chauffeured to Harrogate and even managed to escape from the car before getting stuck in the ever-growing queue of conference traffic, the venue itself proved pleasantly quiet when I first arrived, mid-afternoon on Friday. My first port of call was a sedate stroll around the exhibition hall, reminding me how wonderful it is to be a Lib Dem. Within minutes I'd had a free plastic cup of wine pressed into my hand in exchange for a quick chat about building new sports facilities - seemed like a fair trade. ALDES (the Association of Liberal Democrat Engineers and Scientist, ...
Speaking in Llanelli last night, Labour leadership candidate, Huw Lewis set out the platform on which he will be seeking to replace Rhodri Morgan when the First Minister steps down later this year. There is nothing new in that but I was interested in one proposal in which Huw suggests setting up a National Children's Savings Fund that will supposedly enable every child in Wales to fulfil their potential. He suggests an initial investment of £50 million into this fund followed by yearly top-ups of £20m until there was enough to generate a sizeable income from interest payments to provide ...
This morning's Western Mail expresses surprise that the Deputy First Minister and leader of Plaid Cymru has refused to condemn plans that could see the Assembly Government spending up to £42 million on refurbishing its own headquarters. And why should he? He is after all part of the Government. Could the paper's Chief Reporter be confusing the Plaid leader with the Ieuan Wyn Jones who, before the May 2007 elections, would have been the first to feature in news reports arguing that the money should be spent on hospitals and schools instead? Then again, reading carefully what is actually said, ...
Catching up on last week's Sunday Herald, as you do, I spied this story about Labour MP Adam Ingram: Senior Scottish MP in forged letters mystery A SENIOR Labour MP has refused to comment on a forgery row involving fake letters about him being sent to a local newspaper. Former defence minister Adam Ingram is not responding to questions about how a 75-year-old Labour member's name was used to defend the MP's record in a series of letters. Councillor Michael McCann, the MP's aide, also declined an invitation to discuss the subject on Ingram's behalf. Ingram, who represents East Kilbride, Strathaven & ...
We've now moved our councillor surgeries at Jacksons Lane from Wednesday evenings to Saturday mornings, at 11am, every first and third Saturday of the month. This should make it easier for more people to attend. They will now be in Room 3 at the Centre. Come and see us. Bob Hare, Rachel Allison and I rotate surgeries. This morning, it's me. Pic: Left to right - Bob Hare, Lynne Featherstone, Rachel Allison and me at the Centre last weekend, celebrating the council's change of heart over its funding levels. ...
The past couple of days have seen parents and children around England at least waiting to hear whether they have got into their chosen schools in the annual ritual of place allocations by LEAs. Many will have been disappointed. There are the usual accusations that others get in by paying their way through buying property in the right catchment area. Others, in places such as Brighton, may have thought that was a way to get into their chosen school only to find places allocated by lottery. This weekend also sees the Lib Dem spring conference in Harrogate discussing its education ...
With the ballot papers just mailed out, it may seem premature to declare the results of an election. But this hasn't been a normal internal election - it's been the scorched earth war of a Liberal Youth chair election. A little background. I'm at Harrogate at the mo, having just attended the first day of conference. [...]
