As Newsnight reported correctly tonight, it will soon be crunch time for David Cameron on Europe, as the deadline approaches for him deciding on whether to deliver on his promise to pull British Conservative MEPs out of the European People's Party (EPP) in the European Parliament. Several prominent Tory MEPs, such as Christopher Beazley, are [...]
Last November a new, charismatic President was elected, after a long and innovative campaign that reached right down to the grass roots. She ... hmm ... I'm afraid it's still a corny literary device however I dress it up ... she was greeted with genuine delight when elected as President of the Liberal Democrats. I'm pleased I played a tiny part in Baroness Ros Scott's victory,...
Funerals in my family are odd occasions. I had never been to one until a few years back, but now as the generation two above me slowly fades away I seem to be going to more and more. And today I had another, as we said goodbye to a dear old uncle who I really should've seen more often in life. They're odd because the family never seems to see each other outside of them, and certainly never dabbles in anything God related on a mass scale like it does when someone dies. All of a sudden these people who ...
I wasn't going to go to Lynne Featherstone's Super Sekrit Web!Ninja Team of Doom meeting with Howard Dean, given that it overlapped with the Blogger interview with El Presidente, but there were a couple of other people who would be in on the latter who were going to the former, so I figured I would go in and loiter at the back so I could get out without offending anybody... Of course, when I actually got in the room, Mat was sitting right at the front, so I went to explain to him what was going on, and then made ...
The speed camera near the top of Northumberland Avenue, which famously had no film in appears to have suffered a knock and is pointing away from the road towards Cintra Park. I have written to officers asking them to investigate this and to request an update about what the Council is doing to improve road safety which has long been a concern of residents on both sides of the road, as well being something I raised a number of times last year.
Chris Dillow - who writes Stumbling and Mumbling and is the only man who could challenge Lord Bonkers for the title "Sage of Rutland" - said recently: As I walked to the gym the other day, I happened to pass kids coming out of schools. And one thing leapt out at me - public school students look different from state school ones. So much so that, if you put a random group of teenagers from both in front of me dressed similarly, I'd be confident of telling them apart ...There's such a thing as public school hair; Nick Clegg, David ...
Saturday Morning was spent in dull grey rooms being trained on a couple of aspects of Lib Demmery which I felt I ought to brush up on. The first session was fun, but not massively useful, since it told me a lot of stuff I already knew. However, it was interesting to experience at first hand Doctor Mark "Bitter World of Bile" Pack's training session technique... He's quite good, disappointingly. The second session was much more useful, even though Count Packula, Prince of Markness also put in an appearance despite it being women only. This led to me tweeting that ...
Vince Cable agreed to be interviewed by a group of Lib Dem bloggers last night at Parliament. My camcorder and I were there for Lib Dem Voice - and joined by Alix Mortimer, Andy Hinton, Jennie Rigg, Jo Christie-Smith, Mark Valladares, Mary Reid and Millennium Dome, Elephant. Look out for their write-ups too. I asked Vince for his thoughts on blogging, and why he doesn't have a blog of his own. Vince cited "time" as the main obstacle, and later in the conversation underlined his commitment to keeping in touch with his constituents. The assembled bloggers pointed out that all ...
Tue 10th
22:03
What I did on my Holidays by miss_s_b aged 31 and 1/4. Part 3: Christians Vs Humanists
This was something I was never going to miss: Lib Dem Christian Forum Vs Lib Dem Humanists and Secularists discussing faith schools, with Vince Cable on the side of the Christians and some guy called Paul for the Humanists... Fight! Fight! Fight! I'm not going to say a vast amount about this, because matgb has already posted about this, and I agree fully with his position. One thing I will say is that even though I thought Vince was on the wrong side, and had reached erroneous conclusions, I can understand and appreciate how he got there. He was coming ...
When I visited Canterbury in January, one of our councillors there, Jo Calvert-Mindell, raised an issue that I had not previously been aware of. She has a disability and needed an ergonomic chair to help her perform her duties. Canterbury City Council were being less than entirely helpful, so she made an application under the Access to Work scheme, only to be told that local councillors didn't qualify due to the lack of a contract of employment. Let's be honest here, if a public vote isn't a contract of employment, what is? So I was happy to ask a question ...
Why has it taken fifteen months for the MOD to decide that the Nimrod aircraft are not safe to fly after all? The Defence Secretary in December 07 announced the findings of the RAF board of inquiry but allowed the Nimrod to continue to fly. In fact why has it taken two and a half years since the crash which cost the lives of fourteen servicemen for that to be determined? These aircraft were unsafe to fly with aviation fuel washing over a hot pipe but because of the pressure to support the troops on the ground with air surveillance ...
There's an irony in me writing this post. It's about a fortnight now since I sat down and forced myself to work out how Twitter works, and what it was good for. I'd set up an account in 2007 (my first and last update recorded that I was "working frantically"; for whose benefit I uttered such an aphorism I now forget), but that's as far as it went. I'm now gradually becoming a convert to the cause, in spite of rather than because of the Twitter-phile joy in which my LDV colleagues regularly indulge on this site - of which ...
This evening was the North Road Ward Community Partnership AGM. It was good to be able to get to this meeting because I've had to miss a few recently: Tuesday seems to be my busiest day of the week for meetings. The usual faces, with one sad exception, vice-chair Sandy Moore died a couple of weeks ago, and his cheerful ruddy face was missed.Jenny Chapman, the cabinet member with responsibilty for
With apologies for missing this yesterday - that'll teach me not to pay my daily homage to that fount of reactionary, fact-free unpleasantness, the Daily Mail website - but the Lib Dems' deputy leader Vince Cable was performing the remarkable feat of inserting some common sense perspective into the paper, writing about the growing importance of China to the world's financial affairs. Here's an excerpt: China now has the second biggest economy in the world, based on purchasing power, and India the fourth (Britain is battling it out for sixth place with France). This new industrial revolution is not a ...
Picture facility is now back again on this blog so here are 2 pictures of the mast said to "blend in with the scenery" from the story last week. see what you think and let me know.
Just a few photos from the rally held on Saturday evening at the Harrogate Lib Dem conference.
Just heard the terrible news that local papers all around Greater Manchester are having their staff, particularly editors, slashed and are being centralised by their parent company - th Guardian Media Group/Scott Trust. Frankly, I think this is a terrible development - the Salford Advertiser is an important part of Salford life and a vital [...]
I've just seen two google alerts about our Federal Leader, Nick Clegg. One from the Press Association and one from the Herald claiming Nick Clegg is snubbing the Scottish Lib Dem conference in Perth. What a load of rubbish! When it was announced that Nick Clegg and his wife were having a baby, Nick said he would take paternity leave and that's exactly what he's done. Vince Cable (whose 2001 campaign I ran) is attending in his role as Deputy Leader. Tavish Scott, our Scottish Leader will be doing a speech on Sunday and the thing that struck me at ...
Nick Clegg Speech to Conference 2009 - Part 1 Video sent by libdem Nick Clegg, Leader of the Liberal Democrats addresses the Liberal Democrats Spring Conference 2009 in Harrogate.
Nick Clegg Speech to Conference 2009 - Part 2 Video sent by libdem Nick Clegg, Leader of the Liberal Democrats addresses the Liberal Democrats Spring Conference 2009 in Harrogate.
The Yorkshire Evening Press - York's daily paper - has an interview with one of the city's most famous sons: It was his performances in the Commons, while interim Lib Dem leader, that shot Cable to national prominence, but the seeds were sown back in York, on the stage of the old Nunthorpe Grammar School."One thing at Nunthorpe made the big difference," he says."I was actually a very shy student, but I was given the lead role in Macbeth, and that is where I learned to stand on stage in front of an audience."
I paraphrase, of course, but only very slightly... Here's what the Pink 'Un's editorial has to say about the Tories' response to the current financial crisis: It is a cliché to say that Britain's Conservative party has no policies. It is also untrue; the Tories have views on issues as diverse as why a bottlenose whale starved to death in the Thames and the rate at which British museums buy new pieces for their collections. They have a complex foreign policy of alternately hissing at the work of the European Union and forlornly reaching for the hem of Barack Obama's ...
Tue 10th
20:04
The Vince Cable Tapes -part 2: in which our hero assists in my quest to be extremely rich
So far, so good. I had managed to maintain my anonymity, at least as far as Vince was concerned, and even managed to resist the temptation to eat another chocolate coated doughnut. There were signs of trouble ahead though... Jo was keen to contrast the value of Vince's brand vs that of the Liberal Democrats. Vince's diplomatic response was to emphasise that our position, in comparative terms, is stronger than it has been at equivalent points in previous electoral cycles. He has attempted not to be tribal whilst ensuring that there is a Lib Dem 'strapline'. Me, I just wanted ...
The Evening Post reports how a Yate man and a local policeman saved a drowning woman from a car in a river near Devizes on Saturday morning. The car had skidded off a bridge and was upside down in the river. Well done to Paul Wiltshire and PC Tom Kinderman.
A great piece of humour can be seen above, thanks to Political Betting for pointing it out to us. After watching the video, we need to look at this whole scenario more seriously and need to look at it from a relationship view between Barack Obama and Gordon Brown.Will Brown and Obama have the same relationship that was shared between Blair and Bush, I don't think they will. If the Tories win the next general election would Cameron and Obama have a relationship that is a cosy as Blair's and Bush's, I don't think so. I don't think they is ...
The first big bit of interesting stuff was the Consultation on Women's Policy. I had already made my feelings clear on the titling of the thing and thus went in with the hope of constructive discussion. In this regard, it helped that I was sat next to Jo Crispy-Strips, with whom I have had many disagreements about feministy things, but am in broad agreement with about MOST feministy things, and whom I know to be rational and sensible with regard to things like basing her arguments on evidence, rather than just emotion. The session was hosted by Jo and Lynne, ...
There's a distinctly odd posting by The Times's Daniel Finkelstein over at his Comment Central blog today, Our poll and Nick Clegg's strategy, focusing on the result of the latest Times/Populus opinion poll which breaks down party support according to the public and private sectors as follows: Lib Dems: 23% (public sector), 17% (private sector) Labour: 26% (public), 29% (private) Tory: 38% (public), 45% (private) Here's Danny confusing (and confused) analysis: Nick Clegg's party does much better among public sector workers than among private sector ones (23 to 17 per cent). This must put a further question mark over his ...
I like Hammersmith & Fulham Council. The Tory administration has started to turn around what were badly run services without fleecing the taxpayer - indeed, they've cut Council Tax year on year. It has a strong political leadership that is not scared to trumpet their successes. There is no doubt that they are a big P political Council. While this is undoubtedly its strength, it may also be a potential weakness. The other day I was handed a leaflet on the Council's library service - it could have been designed and printed by Tory Central Office. Its colour and design ...
Rowenna Davis writes about her experience as guest editor on Labour List on Comment is Free. What interests me about this experience is that while I think the so-called "blokeosphere" is out there, it isn't universal across political blogs and, as a "bloke" bores me to tears as well. A few observations: It is hard to see how you can infer a wider principle from LabourList. With Derek Draper at its head, LabourList is one of the most testosterone-fuelled blogs out there. It has reached its existing readership primarily by picking fights with people. I have to admit that even ...
This is the first of (probably) ten entries on what happened at conference, because I am going to divide them up by topic. The last entry will be a handy index... We arrived mildly later than expected, but this wasn't a huge problem, as our arrival coincided with lizw's delicious lunch being served up. The non-arrival of my conference pass (must do better, pinkshifter! :P) did mean I had to go and queue up at registration before going to the Wimmin's Thing, though. While initially frustrating, this turned out to be not so much a problem, but a chance to ...
Just a quick note to say there's a 'Celebrating Retirement' event at the Civic Suite in Catford on Thursday 26th March from 11am to 4pm. Admission's free and there are talks, workshops and taster sessions on how you can stay healthy, happy and independent after you retire. Specifically there's be a pit stop room on staying healthy, a money shop with advice and info on pensions and benefits, an opportunity to find out about ways to use your spare time, and taster sessions throughout the day. More details from Sarah chan on 07918 028 859 or from the Lewisham website. ...
Conservative Member of Parliament Stephen Dorrell has said that the comments made by his collegue and Tory Councillor Robert Fraser are not racist. The comments made by the Tory Councillor Fraser are: Romanians would "stick a knife in you as soon as look at you", and that some Europeans "make the Irish look like complete amateurs". Now if the comments above are not racist then what are they, secondly to find them on Youtube is even more embarrassing for the Tories because they are comments that are now in the public domain because the Tory Councillor didn't think before making ...
Meeting with Epsom & St Helier NHS Trust Chief Executives Cllr Gordon-Bullock & I met with Sam Jones the Chief Executive of the NHS Trust and Peter Coles who will be taking over Ms Jones' position whilst she is on maternity leave. Stuart & I as chair & vice-chair of the Health & Well Being Scrutiny [...]
Last month I decided to take my business elsewhere. I managed to get a better deal from a different phone provider. Today I received not one but 2 letters from BT telling me that I owed £8.43.The first informed me that I owed £8.43 and that I would be receiving a counterfoil to cover this amount. The second was the counterfoil. Why on earth did BT send me two separate letters? Surely the cost of
If you are asking yourself the question then look at it from this point of view, the blog is read by many Newspapers and Media companies including the BBC, Sky, The Bolton News, Lancashire Telegraph and Pendle Today just to list some of them. With all these media companies watching and reading this blog you have the chance to write to a large audience and get yourself known to the Journalists, which is helpful if you are a hopeful for an election. If you are someone who wants to become media liked then the best thing to do is express ...
Ok, I admit it, I've taken my eye of the ball. The earlier days at least of Nick Clegg's leadership were characterised by attention seeking media pronouncements. One of these was much loose talk about 'free schools'. Last September at Conference I went to a NUT fringe to find David Laws in a slim minority in his defence of Academy Schools and seemingly selection. Now I see David Laws as being just about the last Lib Dem I'd like to be trapped in a room with, so having him as Education (or is that 'just' Schools) spokesperson made / makes ...
After having a chat with the Recess Monkey yesterday I decided that I will set up an online dossier of worries that people have of having a Tory government after the next general election and the Monkey agreed to promote the dossier when it was up and running. Now the dossier is up and running and to go to it follow the link, please send in your worries as without the worries the dossier is worthless!
Despite a trial for perjury haning over his head Tommy "The Trot" Sheridan has come up with what he thinks as another clever wheeze to garner himself some free publicity. It seems that he's teaming up with an assorted rag bag of lefties and the RMT union to run in Scotland for the European Parliament at the elections which take place on the 4th of June. Is there nothing this man will do to get some media coverage? In the traditional saying: "If he were made of chocolate he'd eat hinself".
Much has already been said on this subject so my posting will be short. How can many in a supposedly decentralist party wish to impose from the centre a list of diktats on faith schools ? Those of a secularlist bent have plenty of schools that reflect that ethos, so why seek to deny choice to those of us who support the Christian values (but not scriptural indoctrination) of the best faith schools ? If one is so concerned about equality of opportunity for all our children, might one focus attention on the absurd advantages the independent schools enjoy, not ...
Back from Harrogate and straight into the Cheltenham Festival - highlight of the jump racing calendar. My mate Steve is Deputy Features Editor at the Racing Post (he even has a blog) and we compared notes before the start of racing today. My tips were: Go Native in the first, Tartak in the Arkle, Millennium Royale in the Wm Hill Trophy, Katchit in the Champion Hurdle and Quevega in the last. I refuse to think about the cross country as it is a stupid race in which horses always seem to take the wrong course and, in any case, JP ...
Years ago the SWP paper 'Socialist Worker' on it's masthead used to say something to the effect that they supported neither Washington nor Moscow but were for international socialism. To paraphrase them, we should promote the politics of liberalism and not be fixated by potential deal-making at Westminster with either Tory or Labour. We shouldn't (as things currently stand) do a deal with either larger party following an inconclusive GE result. Labour may offer the politics of the inept, but in terms of ethos and any shared ideals they are closer to me (and us I hope) than the politics ...
There's been a nasty crime - a murder or rape. The police decide to ask people to volunteer a DNA sample to eliminate suspects. Not a bad idea when there are no other leads: the criminal might give him (or her) self away by refusing to participate; or the police might take a sample from a relative of the attacker, pointing them in the right direction. Would I help? Would I willingly offer a DNA sample from myself or other members of my family? Sure, why not. I'm a good citizen; it's a nasty crime; I want to help. But ...
The Evening Standard reports: 'Marmite mayor' with four different jobs earns £104,000 plus expenses A leading London Tory at the centre of an expenses row is on a six-figure pay package funded by the taxpayer. Brian Coleman will become Mayor of Barnet in May after he was nominated by fellow councillors - taking his annual pay for a variety of public roles to £104,503.50. He is also a London Assembly member and chairman of the capital's fire authority. As a council mayor, he will be able to claim thousands of pounds extra in expenses. It comes after Mr Coleman was ...
Friday afternoon at the Lib Dem's Spring Conference and it's the Women's Policy Consultation session. We went through a whole pile of topics, neatly titled in the consultation paper under such terms as 'Can we have it all?, Money, Sex, Love & Relationships and MEN! One thing we got on to talking about in our group, towards the end of the session is the increasing sexualisation and objectification of young women, particularly in our public spaces. It seems to me that the norms of pornography are seeping into our public spaces, and I don't just mean billboards in the centre ...
Following my post yesterday on the Labour government's U-turn over council rents, I'm grateful to officers from RBC getting back to me on this issue so promptly. It's good to see them taking a proactive approach to ensure Reading council tenants don't lose out. As things stand: It is likely that full details from the government will not be made available to councils until early next week. If RBC did respond to the 'offer of support' likely that the rent could not be altered until potentially late May/early June as the earliest a decision could be made formally would be Council ...
This guardian article is about our decision not to support the governments part-privatisation of the Post Office in it's proposed form (phew!). It then goes on to detail our policy which I remember helping pass (i.e. by voting for it) in Harrogate in 2007. However the article goes on to say: "Clegg's new Royal Mail policy looks likely to be put to a vote at his party's conference. The last time his party faithful considered such a measure was in 2005 when they rejected it." Er...I'm not going mad am I? We did debate this in 2007 didn't we and ...
So - Rachel Sylvester in The Times has taken a dislike to politicians who use Twitter. What particularly gets my goat is the comment from "psychologist Oliver James" who claims: "Nobody would Twitter if they had a strong sense of identity." Well - I don't think you've ever met me Mr James - and I'm sure they are millions of other Twitter users who you've not yet either. And no-one would have time to read the tweets from everyone who uses Twitter. So you're diagnosing millions of people who you've never met - and whose words you've never read. Not ...
Figures secured by Welsh Liberal Housing Spokesperson, Peter Black show that Welsh councils will pay a total of £94 million to the Treasury this financial year as part of a housing subsidy system that penalises tenants in 17 of the 18 local authorities that still retain Council housing.The Housing Revenue subsidy system has developed over a period of time and was originally designed to prevent
Kirsty Williams AM speaks to spring federal conference 2009 Video sent by libdem Kirsty Williams, Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, gives her first speech to the Liberal Democrats' UK party conference as Welsh party leader.
His comments will not be published on this blog nor will I respond to his nonsense on any other blog, forum, dicussion board, chat room etc.
Following my post in Febuary about the campaign by Lib Dems and active members of the public to get the Council to take action to reduce the problem of wheelie bins left on pavements, I am pleased to report that a concerted effort by officers is having some success. My constituent and local campaigner Graham Bennett emailed me today to tell me that he has witnessed a 'vast improvement' in Addington Road in the number of bins blocking the pavement since officers started implementing a more rigorous enforcement approach. This is great news: Graham has been pressing the Council on this issue for months. ...
Perhaps it's a good thing the Daily Mail thinks I'm a foreigner, because if I was British I'd have to be rather ashamed of my country today: Baby's DNA was held on database ... Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said it was "ludicrous" to have stored the DNA profile. He said: "It is illegal, immoral and ineffective to keep the DNA of a baby on a national police database as if they had committed some felony." (BBC) and Britain has been accused of taking part in US "renditions" of terror suspects in a United Nations report. UN Special ...
Irfan Ahmed talks about coalition with Labour. Can I go on the record in stating categorically that I don't want us to go into coalition with either the Tories or Labour. Labour is finished and doesn't believe in anything other than getting Labour elected. The Tories don't have any policies. If we go into coalition with either of them we are finished for a generation, probably more.
You can see Vince Cable's speech to the Liberal Democrat Conference at the text is below:
Steve Richards in the Independent wrote a useful article, which I read after the blatherings of Simon Carr, rendering Richards' words even more erudite thn they might first have appeared. He discussed the point Peter Hain has made that Labour lacks a 'big picture' approach to politics and he said that there hasn't really been one of these since Margaret Thatcher who, whatever her faults, knew what she wanted based on her own rather skewed view of the world. Putting aside my sneaking regard for Peter Hain, who I have alway thought would make an excellent and more interesting Labour ...
Those who want to vote against the European Union are set to have an unprecedented choice of three parties who believe they're in with a chance of winning a few seats. Despite their vicious internal warfare and the general incompetence of their MEPs, UKIP will still be hoping to pick up the lion's share of the euro-sceptic vote. You'll remember that they beat the Lib Dems into fourth place, securing over 16% of the vote, last time round. The BNP are poised to take over the country, at least if you believe the shrill noises of panic emanating from the ...
It was really good to see lots of people come to hear Howard Dean on Saturday at the special event for coding volunteers at our Harrogate conference this weekend. Lots of words of wisdom from him - and lots of enthusiasm to do even more and better things from everyone! For those who volunteered to help fill the gap in some of our coding and technical resources by filling in my survey a few weeks ago - the next event is a meetup in London later this month. If you filled in the survey, you (should!) have got an invite ...
Following my piece on Sunday, I've written another article on faith schools over on Comment is Free: It is a shame that the supporters of faith schools lack the faith that their ethos could survive a few children of atheists running around the playground. Ultimately, society as a whole is the weaker for indulging their insecurity.
I was reading the politicalbetting blog, last night. I was putting off going to bed. It reached the ridiculous point where I was reading through the comments on the blog. Sometimes these are enlightening. Not last night. I'll paraphrase the questions below for convenience, because trawling through the North Sea of quotes is a waste of my time, unfortunately! "Why won't the Liberal Democrats do something brave like calling for the nationalisation of the banks?" - was one question. "Why won't the Liberal Democrats criticise Labour?" - was another. "Why are we hinting that we'll cuddle up to Labour after ...
So, what were we to do? Were we fated to be squeezed into a tiny office with not enough room to swing a small, adorable kitten, or even a fluffy elephant, in? Super Vince to the rescue, and he found us a room to occupy whilst we roasted him over an open flame, sorry, lauded him to the skies. Everyone seated, and doughnuts distributed, we started our hostile interrogation/gentle probing. Alix wanted to clarify that our tax plans were still viable, and Vince confirmed that our principal premise - cutting taxes for most lower and middle income taxpayers by the ...
Over at the Guardian's Comment Is Free blog, Quaequam Blog!'s James Graham argues that the Lib Dems' spring conference 'revealed Nick Clegg's sense of purpose as he delivered a message of hope amid the economic gloom'. Here's an extract: Nick Clegg's early weakness for attention-grabbing gimmicks has been superceded by a new seriousness of purpose by a leader finally finding his voice. He has been rewarded by a small but perceptible shift in the polls. The talk a few months ago was of a Tory landslide and a Lib Dem wipeout, yet it has become increasingly apparent that Clegg may ...
The Leicester Mercury reports: Police are investigating remarks made by a councillor at a meeting to discuss plans for a travellers' site. Robert Fraser, county councillor for Groby and Ratby, said Romanians would "stick a knife in you as soon as look at you", and that some Europeans "make the Irish look like complete amateurs". Travellers' spokesman, Alfred Kefford, said he was outraged by the Conservative councillor's "racist" comments. He heard them after footage of the meeting was posted on video website YouTube. He complained to the police. Today, Coun Fraser, a former county council member for equality, apologised and ...
First up is the wonderfully exuberant and integrated Folk Pop of Nelly Ciobanu. If these people who are as poor as church mice can create stuff like this then there's hope for everyone! So come on everyone tap those feet and swig that vodka. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGIg-2JKUhQ You can find the smoother studio version here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9hk86ZGfv0 [...]
Nick Robinson has a great blog post that I agree with 100% and he talks about some interesting issues which I shall discuss below. Nick Robinson writes about how many think Nick Clegg is a little Cameron lite and how the Lib Dems might go into coalition with the Tories after the next general election but I disagree. Nick Clegg will need to take into account what the membership want and what Vince Cable wants, which is a coalition with Labour over the Tories. Secondly I think Vince's office might be full with material that is looking at a potential ...
{Ming Campbell} Further to the news that the National Trust for Scotland are to close the sites at Hill of Tarvit and Kellie Castle in North East Fife, Local MP Sir Menzies Campbell said: "It has been well known for some time that the National Trust needed restructuring. But properties like Hill of Tarvit and Kellie Castle make a vital contribution to the local economy quite apart from their cultural and historical significance. "I shall be writing to the National Trust asking for an explanation in relation to these two properties and making the case for their retention."
Cross-posted from The Wardman Wire: After a long period of stalling, the Government recently finally announced a timetable for switching Britain's electoral registration system from one based on households to one based on individuals. The Electoral Commission, Conservative Party and Liberal Democrats have been calling for such a switch for a long time, but what's the reason for making the switch? The current electoral registration system is based on one registration form being delivered to each household, with the head of the household completing the form on behalf of everyone there and sending it back ("household registration"). One reason therefore ...
Jonathan Calder draws our attention to an article in the Liverpool Daily Post in which Liberal Democrat Councillor, Richard Kemp is calling on Liverpool City Council to use its financial muscle to set up new credit unions, region-wide building societies and other financial institutions. Richard is quoted by the paper as saying: "Frankly, my cat could run a better bankers than the London-based banks. So I want to bring some fresh thinking." This is the second time that such a talented cat has been drawn to my attention. Only a few weeks ago, in seeking to justify his non-attendance at ...
I had always said that the series of blogger interviews organised by the delightful Millennium and his daddy were not really for me. I'm not really a policy wonk, and generally assume that there are people more likely to ask searching questions. At least, that was the case until the opportunity to interview Lembit came along last year. Even then, I applied as much to seek an answer to the question, "Whither Lembit?", as anything else. And, alright, I did ask two of the most aggressive questions put to any interviewee since the series began, but as much because I ...
In committee today it was self flagellation in the morning and self regulation in the afternoon. A fascinating day questioning and listening to two victims of media tyranny - intrusion and untrue stor...
I am delayed at Stansted for six hours thanks to Ryanair's latest scam. I have a ticket for today's 8.30 flight to Shannon. I checked in online yesterday. When I got to the gate I was denied boarding- because, although my name was on the boarding pass, I had not entered my ID number into their system. So, even though Ryanair issued a boarding pass without information they consider to be vital, I have therefore had to spend £210 to buy another ticket so that I can fly at 14.40. Given Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary's hard ball business policies, it ...
At our autumn conference last year, this blog introduced a reluctant world to the concept of hashtags. We coined a cumbersome phrase, "hashtag taxonomy" which has dogged us around the political and technical worlds ever since. By the end of the conference week, I was regretting the phrase utterly. We'd made a simple technology sound complicated, and in doing so had hidden its value from many people who could benefit. That bad taste in the mouth was extant up until the start of our Spring conference - and brought home to me once more in the words of our founding ...
Political Betting has a poll that puts out an interesting view to the Do Nothing slogan that is being used by Labour to describe the Tories at Parliamentary level but most political parties are against the slogan as you can see below. The Conservatives were not interested in the poll with 70% not giving an opinion, out of the thirty that did 5% thought the slogan should continue to be used whilst the other 26% think Labour needed another slogan. Labour supporters had more of an interest then the Tories with 64% expressing their opinions. Out of that 21% said ...
I was finally dragged from sleep, in disgust this morning, by a report from Refuge and Migrant Justice charity highlighting how UK Border staff had not been following guidelines when dealing with children and that they were often locking them up and not providing them with legal advice.In fact, when I looked this up on the BBC I saw that: "an eight-year-boy who had fled his country after his home had been destroyed in fighting was given no legal help with his asylum interview and application. His claim was refused because of his lack of "credibility", the report says. He's ...
Yesterday I said I'd blog what I've been up to for the three months since I've been elected and here is a quick overview. Parish Council Meetings. Every Month I try to get to the Parish Council meetings in Caldecote, Toft, Barton, Coton, Comberton, Grantchester and Hardwick, and once every two months the bi-monthly meetings in Madingley and Kingston. I give a report at those meetings about any issues affecting the villages and follow up on any issues the Councils have raised. Raising issues for me with your Parish Council does get a reaction and results, although some issues can ...
There will be much blogging coming up later, but at the moment I am on the train back home from London and the wifi is a bit flaky, and I am tired and my brain is still going ZOMGSQUEEYAY!!!! so eloquence is in short supply. I think yesterday might possibly have been the best day ever... They say you shouldn't meet your heroes because you can only ever be disappointed. They, whoever they are, are talking bollocks. Vince Cable is intellectual, erudite, witty, principled, genuine, and basically utterly utterly wonderful, and I am very grateful to Helen and Millennium's Daddy ...
Quoting from a letter from Margaret Beckett:We are therefore halving the national average guideline increase [of council house rents] from 6.2% to 3.1%.This is a typical example of the government looking both ways. They are trying to absolve themselves of all responsibility for rent increases, but benefit from the popularity from reducing rents.They are, however, offering some extra cash and it
Daily collection of links and thoughts that weren't worth a whole post. 14:35 is recovering from #ldconf very slowly, and pondering more coffee. # 00:52 is tweaking with Twitterfeed and LoudTwitter settings, hopefully this time it'll work. Crowing comment from Debi in 5... #Microblogging using LoudTwitter and Twitter. matgb_twitter is there if you're mad enough. Hopefully I've fixed the recursion problem, and if you'd rather this was cut, then editing your LJ code to do so is easy.
For those who missed part one and can't be bothered to click on this link to read it, I had found myself in a small room with our president Ros Scott and fellow bloggers Mary Reid, Jennie Rigg, Helen Duffett and Millenium Elephant. The sticky buns were on the table and Ros was explaining how she's going to work consensually to solve some of the thornier issues the party faces on our road to eventual victory. COG: good or evil? We turned next to the Chief Officers Group. Depending on who you believe, this is an undemocratic kitchen cabinet or ...
Stoke-on-Trent Mayor Mark Meredith has been arrested and questioned as part of the police investigation into plans to close the splash pool in Burslem. The closure plans were defeated in June 2008 after vigorous public protests. The Sentinel reports: The 43-year-old has stepped down from all his major political roles as he fights to clear his name over what he calls "unfounded and politically motivated" allegations against him. But he is still working on key housing, sport and leisure policies for Stoke-on-Trent. Mr Meredith had been questioned by police on Friday after being arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public ...
As Ros was on her way to introduce Kirsty, a monkey was thrust into her hands, a raffle prize from an event we had been forced to leave before the draw could be made. Whilst it was cute, we weren't certain what we could do with it. However, we were headed for North London, so I put it somewhere safe for the journey. The train to York was the usual bus on rails, and crowded to boot. At York, we transferred to an absolutely packed National Express service, where our reserved seats were even more highly prized. Our table was ...
TwitPic is a sort of add-on for Twitter. You can upload an image via their website, a 3rd party twitter client from your mobile or send them an email/MMS with the picture. They then tweet on your behalf with a link to the picture. The problem is that sometimes the picture they link to isn't your picture. Below is an example of what happened to Philip Schofield during the Brits last month. {Schofe} Schofe 19:38 http://twitpic.com/1k1ya - Nearly showtime! {Schofe} Schofe 20:08 http://twitpic.com/1k2l3 - Oh my God! {Schofe} Schofe 20:23 http://twitpic.com/1k2vr - Nearly took a pic of Girls Aloud! Name ...
Howard Dean was busy at conference. Not only did he make his set piece speech from the conference podium, but he was also busy on the reception circuit, meeting donors, candidates and campaigners.
One the things this poxy Glandular Fever made me miss was a performance by my friend Rich's band, Bad Monkey, in Edinburgh last Saturday night. Happily, some nice person has put a clip onto You Tube. Rich is the one in the white shirt doing the singing. LibDig This!
Saturday's highlight was, of course, Howard Dean who I'll cover in a later post. But the biggest debate was over faith schools as part of the wider education paper. I missed the start of the debate but was in time to hear Tim Farron speak up in favour of retaining faith schools and David Laws attempt to steer a delicate path between the competing arguments. Later on we had Vince the Invincible. He laid off the usual jokes - probably for the best, he'll come a cropper some time - but scored serious hits on both Tories and Labour. Then ...
I'm afraid I didn't make it out of bed too early on Sunday, but ventured into the hall in time to see the presidential handover from Simon Hughes - denied the chance to speak! - to Ros Scott. Ros went on to hand out the membership awards to my mate Gareth Epps and the Reading party (largest increase) and to Leeds East (largest percentage increase). Then it was on to the appeal and Phil Willis giving his last speech at a conference in his home town. Unfortunately I failed to get Tim Farron's paper aeroplane on film... Bob Somper got ...
You can find the text of Nick's speech here. Nick Clegg laid the blame for Britain's economic crisis and political malaise squarely at the door of both Labour and the Conservatives, in his keynote speech to the party spring conference in Harrogate: "A never-ending cycle of red-blue, blue-red government has got us into this mess - it is never going to get us out." He said now was the time to try something new: "Now is the time to think big. "If you want better, choose different. "Choose the Liberal Democrats." Nick made a stinging attack on the Labour Government ...
Rachel Sylvester's column in today's Times really wound me up as I walked from the bus stop to work. First her headline drew me in then wound me up as she quoted Oliver James, but more on that later. What really got me exacerbated was her daring to comment on politics when she clearly has no idea of opposition "parties" (yes plural) or at least of the English language. She says: "At the very moment when leadership is required to deal with the economic downturn, politicians of all parties are frozen in the headlights of the recession. The Government is ...
I am currently at Selby Fork, and yesterday evening got a Lib Dem press release from our UK HQ on my Blackberry that just silenced me! This was the title - Baby DNA on database illegal, immoral and ineffective - Huhne I leaned over to show my colleague who was also momentarily stunned into silence and then asked me to forward it. The fact that the DNA of a baby under one year old has been stored on the police national database, is utterly scandalous and Jacqui Smith MP should be ashamed of herself and the Police. You can read ...
I've just come back from the Liberal Democrat's Spring Conference, which was in Harrogate. As my day job involves working for a part of the Party, I don't get to see as much of the debate and policy making as I might like, but here are some highlights of what happened. Nick Clegg's speech - "Think big, choose a better future" (Watch the videos - here's part 1, here's part 2) Liberal Democrats back plans for 20 hours of free childcare Lib Dems call for real action to help the people of Gaza Liberal Democrats back plans to cut primary ...
I don't like what I'm seeing from back home. The fact that what appears to be dissident republicans have now killed the first police officer on duty in over 10 years in Northern Ireland. The Real IRA are claiming responsibility. However, it was good to see Sinn Féin MLA John O'Dowd as one of the first to condemn this attack. "This is an attack on the peace process. Whoever carried out this shooting was not doing so to advance Irish republican or democratic goals. "They have no strategy to deliver a United Ireland. This is a time for strong political ...
If you haven't seen it yet, my latest article on Comment is Free is now up: There is still more work to be done. I still think we need to do more about social justice and child poverty; improving education and tax cuts on people with low incomes is certainly necessary but not sufficient. But if Nick Clegg can maintain this new sense of purpose, then the party has every reason to be optimistic about the future.
Spent the last weekend at the spring Liberal Democrat conference just up the road in Harrogate. It's one of those events that holds a soft spot for me—my first one was 2 years ago, just 2 weeks after I'd met Jennie, so I spent both evenings with her in Leeds—we both think we'd have ended up together regardless, but the ability to meet up in Yorkshire really did speed things up. Anyway, it was a damn good weekend. Met Howard DeanAttended main fringe and training events. Got invited to a private discussion with a bunch of Lib Dem geeks, chaired ...
Last week, I wrote an article about how useless George Osborne is and how he is Cameron's weak link. This was not a piece of party propaganda - I was generally complimentary about many of Cameron's front bench team. Well it seems a good number of Tory activists agree with me after the brilliant Liam Halligan made similar comments in the Sunday Telegraph at the weekend.
Oh dear, the Lib Dems are talking about hung parliaments again. According to The Guardian, Clegg will select a 'team of senior members to begin "game theory" sessions to decide which rival party to back.' Why bother? Everytime the press speculate that the Lib Dems will prop up Labour, Tory/Liberal waver-ers flock straight back to the blue corner. Talk of a Tory/Liberal coalition sends social liberals back to the Labour camp. Either way - the Lib Dems get squeezed. Even worse, the chances of a hung parliament are about zilch. How many hung parliaments have there been since the second ...
1. I now have access to the electric internet again; my usual inconsistent pace of posting will return shortly.2. I interviewed Vince Cable today, along with several other bloggers (see below).3. I met several lovely fellow bloggers who I've not met before, including the regal Lady Mark, the owner of an excellent bag Jennie, the I'm-trying-desperately-to-resist-the-temptation-to-call-her Jo
