I am told that there was an Observer online poll as to whether the recent allegations against Old Hastings Lib Dem Councillor Sue Palmer were a storm in a teacup. I didn't see the result of the poll, and I have not been privy to the details of the case itself, but I noted the many [...]
Many thanks to Arthur Burgess the CVRA's esteemed Chair (pictured), and the other Clive Vale residents who gave me such a warm welcome last night at their March meeting. Charged not to speak about the Euro or County elections (because the other parliamentary candidates are not to address CVRA before June) I spoke a bit about my own [...]
Today I was involved in a Twitter argument with two Prominent Liberal Democrat Bloggers. I'll leave their names and the precise details of the argument out, because it's not germane (and also because I may inadvertantly misrepresent one of them in the very abbreviated precis that follows), although anyone who really wishes can look it [...]
On Sunday night, as promised, I was part of the record-breaking premiere of the Age of Stupid at Islington Vue, one of over 60 cinemas showing the film simultaneously. I went with fellow candidate Jo Shaw, along with other friends of Angel resident Betty Harris, one of the film's 200+ funders. To quote Jo, "it's a [...]
Congratulations to the Sausage Man on his victory in the 'Who Do You Love' competition! You've probably seen his distinctive blue and white van at Lewisham market, but the sausage man himself - David Rundel - is a Lee Green resident. It's great to see someone local winning this award, which is voted for by people right across Lewisham. I've bought the odd hotdog from David in the past, but hadn't had his fresh sausages until last week when my colleague Sven (who's a man who knows his German sausage) cooked me some. I have to say, they're first class ...
Action, music and Tavish - a fantastic Leader!
From the BBC News site: A Conservative MP has been criticised for his behaviour as shadow minister for Cornwall given that there is no equivalent government post.Mark Prisk, MP for Hertford and Stortford, was accused of breaking parliamentary convention by undertaking case work outside his own constituency.Lib Dem MP Matthew Taylor queried the practice of shadowing a "fictional" minister but Mr Prisk did not respond.The Speaker said it was wrong for MPs to "interfere" in other constituencies.Liberal England says: You stupid Prisk.
From the Scotsman: Janet Perrie is alleged to have stolen cheques from the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party while working as an accounts assistant for the party in Princes Street, Edinburgh between July 2005 and October 2007.It is alleged Perrie, 53, wrote the cheques to herself and presented them at banks around Edinburgh and Lothians with false signatures, pretending they were genuine.Perrie denies the charges and remains on bail.
From the BBC Daily Politics blog: They have had a go at each other online and now two rival bloggers will face each other for the first time in the Daily Politics studio.The Battle of the Blogs will see Guido Fawkes and Derek Draper go up against each other on our Thursday 26 March programme.It may be fun, but I wonder if this sort of presentation of blogging will do much for its reputation with the wider public. Guido Fawkes (aka Paul Staines) and Draper do have one thing in common: both have been taken apart on Newsnight by a ...
Sharon Hodgson is the Labour MP for Gateshead East and Washington West (though Labour have enforced a speedy goodbye to her by selecting a much older man as the candidate for the new Gateshead constituency). She is not widely known for anything special in Parliament, other than a rather interesting early day motion that praised her a couple of years ago. It was interesting as she was the one who
There's an interesting article by The Independent's Steve Richards today, focusing - as the media does every three months or so - on the prospect of a 'Hung Parliament', and what the Lib Dems would do in such an eventuality. Actually the article's a bit broader than that, and I can't let the opportunity pass without briefly digressing to agree wholeheartedly with his snipe at the Tories' two key initiatives of the past week: David Cameron's 'apology' for failing to anticipate the economic crisis until way too late (Steve accuses the Tories of "still playing student-like games"); and yesterday's gimmicky ...
Pope Benedict en route to Cameroon, on his first visit to Africa as Pope, said that HIV/Aids was "a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which can even increase the problem" So there we have it, condoms can increase the problem. Despite overwhelming medical evidence to the contrary, the head of the Catholic church is condemning thousands if not millions, by signaling to men that condoms can only make it worse! He decrees that the solution lies in: "The solution lies in a "spiritual and human awakening" and "friendship ...
Two weeks ago - at the height of the political storm surrounding RBS's Sir Fred Goodwin's £703,000 a year pension pay-out - LDV asked our readers: How do you think the issue of Sir Fred Goodwin's RBS pension should be resolved? Here's what you said: >> 15% (45 votes): The government should legislate to claw back a large part of Sir Fred's pension >> 29% (89): The government should instruct that Sir Fred be paid a minimum amount, and he should sue if he wants his full entitlement. >> 52% (160): The government should abide by the agreement entered into ...
Last year, Tayside Police introduced a non-emergency telephone number across the Tayside Force's area, to replace localised phone numbers across Tayside for non-999 calls. However, the "0845" number was not memorable and there are also issues about charges made by some telecommunications companies make in relation to "08" prefixed numbers. Tayside Police has therefore changed the number to : 0300 111 2222 I think that is a very sensible move and will be welcomed.
Listening to Radio 4 today on my way home from work, I heard the announcement that the Youth Parliament will be allowed to debate in the chamber of the House of Commons. Of course, MP's voted on granting this privilege last night - in an overwhelming majority I might add. Personally, I think it is great that the Youth Parliament have been granted this honour and privilege. This is a small but significant step in the right direction to begin the long awaited engagement process with the youth in society. I hope for the day when our younger generation, who ...
There is a new ICM poll out showing the Liberal Democrats back up at 20%. But this morning MORI showed us at just 14%. No wonder people don't take much notice of polls. My rule of thumb is that MORI is a very excitable poll, and shouldn't be taken too seriously. The reason for this - as Mike Smithson repeatedly explains - is that it only records people who are 100% certain to vote. This makes it very volatile. Also, Liberal Democrat support tends to be hacked back in MORI polls by the way they weight their samples between public ...
Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor Vince Cable today criticised Barclays for obtaining a court order banning The Guardian newspaper from publishing documents showing how the bank set up companies to avoid paying hundreds of millions of pounds in tax. He has also offered to provide a witness statement to support the press in court, saying: "These documents are clearly of immense public interest, suggesting as they do a systematic attempt to avoid paying tax. "At a time when banks are receiving massive support from the Government, the public has a right to know if those same banks are also trying to ...
I think it's safe to say that there is a new narrative on President Obama: that he is trying to do too much when he should be focussing his efforts on stabilising the financial system. Of course, this is not what the president is telling us. But one of the main rules of narratives is that politicians don't get to decide what they are. Mr Obama is being criticised for trying to act quickly on the wider agenda of healthcare reform, new investment in education and tackling carbon emissions -- and for trying to suggest that are all part of ...
The government has DROPPED controversial plans to allow people's personal details to be shared between different organisations. The move follows a campaign by the Liberal Democrats to drop the clause in the Coroners and Justice Bill, which is currently being considered by MPs. In a humiliating climbdown, Justice Minister Michael Wills today conceded that the powers were "drawn too widely". The plans prompted heated debate in the Commons when the bill was first discussed in January, with even former home secretary David Blunkett raising concerns about whether they were justified. The Liberal Democrats argued that, under the bill, data sharing ...
The Formula 1 regulation body, the FIA has agreed changes to the way the driver's championship is awarded at the end of each season. The new system will be as follows... Formula One racing's governing body, the FIA, has approved a change to the points systems for this year's drivers' championship, which will see the title awarded to the driver with the most race wins. The rest of the standings, from second to last place, will be decided by the current points system. If two or more drivers finish the season with the same number of wins, the title will ...
It strikes me as odd to change Formula One from something that means the most consistently good driver ends up as champion to a lottery whereby luck now becomes more important than consistency. Changing from the F1 champion being the one with the most points to the one with the most wins opens up the possibility of the F1 champion next year only finishing three races, winning them all, and then beating in to second place another driver who finishes all the races, wins two and comes second in all the other races. Fair ? Hardly. It all seems a ...
I have been playing around with some Tory Logo's via the new website which you can go to by following the link. See the Logo's below:
David Boyle brings us news that one of the sample questions in the 'Britishness test', which immigrants must pass if they wish to become British citizens, is to define a quango. As David comments: It really is extraordinary, though perhaps not very surprising, that Whitehall Man believes knowing the meaning of government acronyms is one of those pieces information which defines Britishness - alongside knowledge of Shakespeare and all the panoply of English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish culture. For those unsure of the answer (go on, admit it, it's not like Jacqui Smith will have you forcibly repatriated or anything), ...
Some stat porn, this time from my Flickr site. I've only had a Flickr account for a few months but I am pleased to announce I have now hit 10,000 viewings. If you've nothing better to do, here's the link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonathanwallace/
The "Save Our Bus Services" petition is attracting some interesting comments - here is a selection. Click here to sign the petition - and please ask your friends to do the same. "This story is a perfect illustration of the folly of bus de-regulation carried out so naively by the Conservatives: at the time, Labour promised to re-regulate the buses when they returned to power - just like they promised to re-nationalise British Rail after the Tories botched the privatisation. First are just a money-making organisation: public service is quite irrelevant to their leadership and their management" "Why are we ...
K and W Butchers in Yate Shopping Centre has closed due to lack of trade. The south side of Yate Shopping Centre is starting to look like a desert - other empty premises include Adams, Helibeds, the fruit shop and Motorworld. One shop in the same area is the library, but that's only temporary. The Gazette has more on the closure of the butchers.
Today in one of my ICT lessons we spoke about how Social uses of the Internet were growing and soon every social network site would become just one big thing, that's when I mentioned blogs. Blogs are great, they allow people to do everything you can do on facebook and twitter but just not send private messages unless you use email addresses. Of Course blogs will not do everything ever possible but if you use a mixture of tools e.g. Youtube, Picasa, Blogs and File Sharing then maybe one day Blogs will be the only social network that people use! ...
A planning inspector has refused a bid by Ecotricty to erect 5 wind turbines a few miles from the White Cliffs of Dover. It went to an inspector and public inquiry after Conservative controlled Dover District Council failed to decide the planning application in the legal time limit. The inspector's report notes concerns by local villagers about [...]
Tue 17th
17:22
The worst possible thing to find on your doorstep ... a racist leaflet full of lies from the BNP
The people in my village are probably arriving home this evening to find their doorsteps littered with something even more unpleasant than a cat turd. Yes, the BNP have been out delivering hate filled leaflets full of contradictory myths that they claim to be fact. I cannot be bothered list all the errors and lies they claim as "facts" in their leaflets, but needless to say if you are blaming the EU and immigration from Europe for the vast majority of immigration in to the UK, you can hardly claim that the UK will have white people as a minority ...
The DNA of a baby under the age of one has been stored on the national DNA database, Liberal Democrat research has revealed. Jacqui Smith was forced into the shocking admission in response to a Parliamentary Question from Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary Chris Huhne. The Home Secretary told Mr Huhne that "as at November 26 2008, the youngest person with a profile on the NDNAD was aged under one year and the oldest was over 90 years old." An outraged Mr Huhne responded saying it was "ludicrous" that a baby should be put on the database. "It is illegal, ...
Liberal Democrat MPs have expressed their concern about Google's new phone tracking system, Latitude. The service makes available a user's location data on a time-to-time or continuous basis. Tom Brake MP and Chris Huhne MP have tabled an Early Day Motion (EDM) warning that the device has potential security risks and could substantially endanger user privacy. The Liberal Democrats believe that without adequate safeguards, the programme could present an unnecessary danger. Over one million people in 27 countries have signed up to Google Latitude since its launch last month. While it is undoubtedly a commercial success, there is a real ...
I take a keen interest in issues around care for the elderly in Reading, both in my role as spokesperson and as Chair of the Housing, Health and Community Care Panel. I blogged last month about the important place intermediate care has in the care system. However, for many elderly people, particularly those with dementia, residential care is the only viable option to continue their lives. With the elderly population in Reading set to grow substantially over the next few years, it's vital that the Council plans ahead to ensure that there is the right level of provision to meet the expected demand for care, ...
Excellent film
Below is a copy of the letter we are sending to local residents following the successful campaign to get planning permission for a new local bakery on Brixton Road. Congratulations also to the South London Press for their coverage of the story! Dear Resident, We expect you may have heard the outcome of the campaign for the Di Lieto family, whose plan to get baking again at on the corner of South Island Place and Brixton had been blocked by Lambeth Council. Its taken us a bit of time to send out this "round robin" to thank and update residents ...
Totteridge by election is taking on a whole new life of it's own. The sad death of the incumbent Labour councillor wouldn't normally have caused a political earthquake (Labour only held three seats anyway), but Wycombe's ruling Conservatives have been making a pretty bad fist of things lately. They recently decided to reverse an earlier decision and squash moves to make High Wycombe a Fairtrade Town citing 'cost'. As far as I'm aware, they are the only council to have done this. But it get's better. At the recent budget setting, they decided to hike our Council Tax by an ...
Do the voting systems of the world's democracies elect the candidates the electorate really wants? Voting theorists Michel Balinski and Rida Laraki say that often they don't, and that this raises serious questions about legitimacy to rule. Voting Power and Procedures is presenting a series of lectures this week at the London School of Economics by Professors Balinski and Laraki, who will introduce their new voting system, Majority Judgement. From the Voting Power and Procedures press release: "From political and corporate elections to wine and figure skating competitions (and Strictly Come Dancing), the speakers claim their system succeeds where others ...
Heard "The Presence", a play based on Danny Abse's journal after Joan, his wife, was killed in a car crash. It was on Radio 4 this afternoon. It brought back some memories for me. I met Danny Abse at a seminar at the Ilkley Literature Festival, a talented poet and a modest, quiet spoken man. Moreover it reminded me of my father's struggle after my mother was killed in a car crash. Father lived for another twenty years after she was killed, which was when he was driving. That was very hard for him. Danny Abse's play was very evocative ...
Labour List have made a little website where you can make your own Tory logo HERE Here's my effort: (Its a take on the used and reused vote blue go green campaign)
Following up the issue in my earlier post, I met with the Chief Exec and the Chair of Haringey Mental Health Trust this morning to discuss some of the issues raised from my advice surgeries, from my meetings with service users and organisations, from colleagues and from local people's responses to my request for personal experiences of mental health services in Haringey. The Trust closes its consultation next Monday on keeping permanently closed an acute ward that was flooded - permanently reducing inpatient bed capacity. The plan is to move people appropriately out of inpatient care into the community, supported ...
It is a common problem faced by all parties that political campaigning costs money and we all take every opportunity to maximise our income for that purpose. It is only natural therefore that when one party launches a particular campaign on an issue with limited but nevertheless enthusiastic support then they will use it to raise cash as well. All of that is of course legitimate but the minimum expectation in this process is one of transparency. Indeed the relevant Act of Parliament demands such transparency. It is of some concern that this does not appear to have been achieved ...
Welsh Liberal Democrats will this afternoon seek to amend the Government's Learning and Skills Measure on key points of principle.They believe that the proposed Measure, which seeks to totally reconfigure the way 14-19 learning will be left "unworkable and dangerous" if opposition amendments are not accepted this afternoon.Among amendments tabled by Jenny Randerson are attempts to ensure that
To hear someone talk down a youth organisation purely because it is being run by young people and therefore 'set to fail' is offensive to my ears. I have long witnessed and experienced the importance of young people being able to make decisions for themselves and to be involved in the production and implementation of the services they access. It is along these lines that I must defend Liberal Youth and the young people that it represents. I have fallen in and out of love with LDYS, now Liberal Youth, various times but I would never proclaim that it should ...
Have you got three seconds to click in a poll? Click here and vote Holly Burns and then strangefrontier will get to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe. If you need a reminder of how awesome she is, here is a snippet of her performance: Go! Vote! Go on! (yes, yes, I am composing posts and things. Stuff is Getting Done. Honest)
According to the BBC, we will now have two parallel points systems in F1 - one for determining who is world champion, and another for determining all other places and breaking ties between championship contenders. Surely that can't be right? They're supposed to be trying to make the sport more accessible to fans, not less.
Tue 17th
14:09
One Wales government keeping two parties together but failing to stop Wales falling apart
Speaking today in the Senedd, Welsh Liberal Democrat leader, KirstyWilliams hit out against Plaid Cymru and the One Wales government for failing to stand up for Welsh devolution and for selling-out their values and principles just to stay in government.From their controversial u-turn on top-up fees, their fatal climb-down on Housing veto powers, their failure to provide the promised daily Welsh
A friend of mine does her 'Britishness' test today, to qualify to be a British citizen. One of the sample questions she has been provided with - apparently knowledge that no citizen should be without - is to define a quango. It really is extraordinary, though perhaps not very surprising, that Whitehall Man believes knowing the meaning of government acronyms is one of those pieces information which defines Britishness - alongside knowledge of Shakespeare and all the panoply of English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish culture. I notice that this same narrowness of spirit is exactly the same in the privatised ...
The Independent has surprisingly attacked Jose Manuel Barroso, the President of the EC, for his comments expressing 'regret' that Dave is planning to take the Tories out of the European People's Party to align them with more xenophobic parties from further east. The paper has a point as it seems to think Barroso should be above national politics. However, I think Barroso was spot on and his comments were quite mild. Dave is making a mistake and it seems he knows he is as he has delayed this action for years. He pledged to leave the EPP in 2005 during ...
The Government have closed its grant programme for solar energy.Part of the Low Carbon Buildings Programme provides grants for solar photovoltaic projects on public buildings. This has been so successful that the allocated share of the £50m for these projects has been used up. So what does the government do? Invest more money into the programme so that they can build on its success? No. It closes
A proportion of the morning has been spent chasing up the Council's ever-hassled (by me) Environmental Services department, once again over the St Ann's Road garden situation, which rumbles on and on and on and on like one of those American freight trains I have seen in films. To recap briefly, residents have enjoyed gardens backing on to Prestwich Clough for years. The gardens are actually owned by the Council but were given over during the War to grow vegetables. After long-running sagas like this one, I can't help but feel that several have found jobs at the Town Hall ...
On Sunday I had the opportunity to see both Che Part One and Che Part Two at the Lighthouse Cinema in Wolverhampton. Both were good films, but i thought Part Two was much better.
I was chatting to a middle-aged lady who complained about the state of education being much worse than it used to be. She cited how easy exams are these days. We hear a lot about how students entering university and the world of work simply don't have the basic skills they used to. The right wing press in particular often moan about how young people today simply aren't up to scratch and yearn for the olden days when teachers could beat knowledge into their young charges with impunity. And yet we're also told that standards are improving, schools are better ...
I know I am a bit late to all this but for what they are worth (not an awful lot really) below are my couple of contributions to the Conservative logo fold courtesy of the generator here;
See my earlier post So it looks like there'll be (at last!) tough regulations - Brown has thrown his own body under the bus. I look forward to hearing them tomorrow. This will presage further falls in house prices and lots of people will be absolutely raging about Brown. It's not that the new house prices might not [...]
The recent announcement that two-thirds of vice-chancellors across the country are lobbying for an increase in the cap on tuition fees is shocking and regressive. What's worse is that the vice-chancellors are doing it anonymously. It isn't just a small increase - it's at least £4000 a year, with many arguing for £20,000 a year and one in ten demanding the ability to set any level. I don't understand how more debt for students is going to be good for this country, especially in times of recession - students could be graduating with over £30,000 of debt. It's ridiculous that ...
Yesterday LibDem MP Paul Homes broke the story of the cost of keeping prisoners in police cells. Now there are several reasons why we should not be using police stations for this purpose, of which the cost is only one. There are many good reasons why we should not be locking so many people up. But [...]
And so it has come to pass that Vodaphone are once again sniffing around the Rugby Road site, and apparently have started unauthorised test trenches. This site was rejected several years ago, and all the reasosn for the rejection remain completely valid today. I have written to the consultants operating on behalf of Vodaphone stating my oppositon to this site. I'm not against mobile phones, or masts in principle - but there are several siites available right away from peoples houses and bothering nobody. This is virtually in peoples front gardens.
Several people took the time to post comments on the link I posted about Colin Pitchfork - essentially Neighbourhood Watch were running an online survey around the fact that Mr Pitchfork is coming up to the time he can appeal for release. The results of the survey were an overwhelming 'No' he should not be released - over 90% I believe.
The party has released a video asking the question "Why are you a Liberal Democrat?" of a whole load of our MPs and Lords. (Hat-tip to Politics Home for drawing my attention to it)It's interesting, and characteristically liberal, I suppose, that for every person asked, a different answer is forthcoming, and yet at the same time, a good picture of what the party is about is built up. I
Over a thousand serving police officers in Great Britain have criminal convictions, according to new figures revealed by the Liberal Democrats. The information, gathered from Freedom of Information requests to Britain's police forces, shows how: - There were 1,063 serving police officers in 41 police forces across Britain who had criminal convictions - This includes five officers who were sacked by the force but reinstated by the Home Office - There are 77 serving police officers with convictions for violent offences who have kept their jobs: 59 with convictions for assault; 14 for violence against the person; two for battery; ...
Here it is! University Vice-Chancellors, urging a sharp increase in student fees! Hmm... how about NO. Students cannot allow this to go on. We are the future. We are those who will be working in the coming years to support the Government. Our taxes will be higher than the present workers' taxes. We are the ones who will be working to support the pensions of those older than us. We are the ones who will be trying to find a place in a new world marred by the current economic climate. Since we will be the tax-payers of the future, ...
John Prescott has set up a Tory Logo maker following on from the actual Conservative tool and its an interesting site by John and you can really have some fun with it but Prescott has made a mistake or two with his site. Firstly he doesn't have a large amount of bandwidth because the site has already been down because of the high number of visitors. And yet I was trying to take Guido out which probably isn't going to happened as Paul Staines has got his bandwidth set very high! John Prescott might be the Labour blogging guru with ...
Yesterday I blogged about how I would wipe my ass with Tory leaflets that I have a large number of because Tory activists put them through my door but I have reconsidered my decision. I thought the matter through and didn't want to get a rash on my ass from using the leaflets so I chose not to use them, but I have recycled them!
Guido and Draper will go head to head on The Daily Politics on March 26th programme and I think its going to be worth a watch. Both bloggers have been battling it out on the blogosphere with Guido accusing Draper of having stated wrong information about his education. Derek Draper has his own blog which is hosted on blogger and that's what he is using to defend himself with. Personally I think the future of the blogosphere is in the hands of these two clowns and if they show that the blogosphere is a great place then this could be ...
The long-running debate as to what extent religious leaders should comment on secular and political matters has spilled over into this morning's Western Mail. Last weekend the former Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey urged Gordon Brown to apologise for weakening the UK economy. He told the paper yesterday that religious leaders have a "vital role to play in holding politicians to account" and that there is a "critical as well as creative relationship" between faith and politics. However, Labour Assembly Member Lorraine Barrett has a different view. She told the Western Mail that "I think a church leader calling on ...
the Lib Dems moved a motion back in October 08 exploring ways which the council could respond to the credit crunch. Our motion was mostly about the issues thrown up by crash in house prices;repossessions, homelessness, shortage of social rented housing, loan sharks etc. This Thursday the cabinet will look at a far wider report which is well summarised in the Visiter by John Siddle. "The strong, multi-faceted response to the recession comes as figures reveal that 27% of Sefton's businesses are on a knife-edge,unemployment is soaring above the national average at 4.4% - with a 36% jump in those ...
Britain has one of the most complicated tax codes in the world. Though not as truly terrifying as the Mobius curve of the American regulations, the complicated exemptions and overlapping liabilities make even filling out a personal tax return a daunting process. For corporate tax liabilities, it usually requires a PLC an entire department to establish what liabilities might be. It is not just the complication of the system, it is also the high price. According to the OECD in 2006 Britain ranked ninth in the industrial world in terms of the size of overall tax burden, taking 37.4% of ...
News reaches the voice that a talented local campaigner died last week when his car hit a tree. A man who died in a car crash in Bristol has been named locally as community figure and Liberal Democrat candidate for Horfield - Tony Lewis. Mr Lewis, aged 48, of Rodbourne Road, Manor Farm, was involved in an accident in Pen Park Road, Southmead, just after 6.10pm on Tuesday. As reported by the Bristol Post, his Renault Clio hit a tree and a parked car. Mr Lewis, who was also chairman of Manor Farm Action Group, has been described by his ...
{Help - I need some body...} A United Nations report to the general assembly, by Martin Scheinen, declared that the UK had breached the human rights directive. The report was particularly critical of 'extraordinary rendition' and how the British Labour Gov't fully co-operated in the program. In my opinion, trying to gain useful information via torture is totally pointless. Programs like '24′ may glorify the practice, but the facts are that after any amount of torture people are likely to say anything to make it stop. This fact alone renders interrogation as ineffective means of extracting accurate and useful intelligence. ...
The UK Youth Parliament will be allowed to hold a meeting in the House of Commons following overwhelming approval from MPs - after a two-hour long debate. The BBC reports: The move, which was resisted by a handful of Conservative MPs, will see the chamber being used by non-elected parliamentarians for the first time. Opponents said the Commons would abandon its traditions by agreeing, and set a precedent for other groups. The Youth Parliament, whose 500 members are aged between 11 and 18, is expected to convene over the summer recess. This summer's meeting will be a one-off event after ...
The Pope, continuing God's holy work of worrying over where everyone's willy is at any given time, has again reminded us that putting a plastic sheath around the penis is immoral, but Holocaust Denial is fine.
First the police cars were chasing up and down the road. Then the helicopter hovered overhead, shining its high intensity beam into our back gardens and, at one point, straight on to my face. Any idea what was going on? By the way, if I now say that I was abducted by aliens you wouldn't believe me, would you? But it had all the elements ... flashing coloured lights in the...
The year was 1941 and, despite a herculean mobilisation, Britain was losing the war. German bombers made nightly raids. You might have thought that anyone paying attention to other issues would have been ignored or derided - that politicians couldn't have afforded to spend time on anything but the war. You'd be wrong. In January 1941, Picture Post had a special issue. They looked back to 1918: few preparations had been made for the end of the First World War and Lloyd-George's "land fit for heroes" had been little more than rhetoric. Writers in the Post didn't want another opportunity ...
In other news, I'm hoping to launch the new blog (in some form or another) early April. Further updates to follow as and when...
So reports The Independent today: A failed asylum-seeker who returned to Darfur under a government repatriation scheme has been murdered by Sudanese security officers after they followed him home from the airport in Khartoum, The Independent has learnt. Adam Osman Mohammed, 32, was gunned down in his home in front of his wife and four-year-old son just days after arriving in his village in south Darfur. The case is to be used by asylum campaigners to counter Home Office attempts to lift the ban on the removal and deportation to Sudan of failed asylum-seekers. Next month, government lawyers are expected ...
Five of London's LibDem MPs and most of us on the party's list of Euro-candidates for the capital were out in the spring sunshine in Hounslow on Sunday morning, standing right under the flight path of incoming aircraft, opposite the Green Man pub — a charming old hostelry with a nice garden, were it not for the [...]
The quiz all the cool katz are doing is the How progressive Are You? quiz run by the Centre for American Progress. I scored as "Very Progressive" with 279/400. I now have progressiveness envy seeing as other LibDem bloggers seem to have got much higher but if you look at the comments on Iain Dale's post on this, they mostly seem to have scored below 200 and some below 100! That's reassuring at least!
Shocking news of a serious accident on Essex Road. A woman was knocked down by a van on Saturday night, and is now seriously ill in hospital. We don't yet know all the facts of this sad incident. But it underlines why Boris' plan to reduce crossing times for pedestrians is so wrong. Just yesterday [...]
Happy St. Patrick's Day!!! We'll let you all join in just don't turn too much of the "Black Stuff" green we don't like it like that. It's too American. As for you lot down in Cardiff, enjoy it while you can we'll be moving the party there for the weekend. At least those who aren't still recovering from Cheltenham. So get the stocks of Guinness in we'll be celebrating come what may, but hopefully the end of 61 years of waiting. But you can join in I'm sure.
Thank you to the anonymous person who replied to my blog re cigarettes. I haven't published your comment as that would act as a tip off but I have taken action on the issue. Apologies to other readers as this will mean nothing to them, but I want the person who commented to know that the information has been passed on.
Norfolk Blogger takes the BBC to task and to pieces for its ridiculous treatment of a council by-election in EastEnders. It's top blogging. I rarely watch the programme myself, but I imagine a more realistic coverage would go like this: Lib Dem Canvasser: Hello, I'm calling from the Liberal Democrat Focus Team. We are going round to get people's views on what needs doing around here. EastEnder: What's that s'posed to mean? Lib Dem Canvasser: I see there are some potholes in the square. I'll make a note of that and ask the council to repair them. EastEnder: I can't ...
For some reason no matter what I do WordPress will not actually allow the posting of spotify links using a href= tags. So the link itself is spotify:user:stealthmunchkin:playlist:6s4DKxeEadvf5vCKZyCqNC . In other 'news', having been fairly critical of Liberal Conspiracy the other day again, I have now sold out decided to change the system from the inside. [...]
Parliamentarians get a lot of invitations to dinners, receptions and the like, and to be honest, I accept very few of them - probably around one in thirty. But David Puttnam's invitation to a dinner to celebrate Channel 4s successful film season was too tempting, especially since Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle was the guest of honour. It was, as you'd expect, a rather glamorous affair, held in the Cholmondley Room on the terrace of the Lords, attended by Parliamentarians, C4 executives, writers, producers and actors. At a time when the long term future of C4 is under debate, the ...
The last five words are not perhaps the best in this written answer from last year: Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many letters his Department has received (a) in favour of and (b) opposed to post office closures in the last 12 months. [229353] Mr. McFadden: The Department does not hold this information in the form requested. I understand that, nationally, Post Office Ltd. has received over 180,000 pieces of correspondence in response to the local area plan consultations on its Network Change proposals, half by e-mail (or whatever ...
Manchester City Council are considering plans to cut two holes in the Heaton Park Wall opposite St Monica's RC High School on Bury Old Road. {Picture 3} {Picture 2} We're assuming that the two new double gates that are proposed would be in place in time for the Oasis Concert, but the application seems to imply that the gates would be permanent. I know that my colleagues who are Councillors for the Sedgley Ward of Prestwich (Ann Garner, Andrew Garner and Steve Wright) have already been asking Bury Council about its views on the issue and suggesting that the Council ...
Well, another week and another SNP u-turn. However, I'm happy with this one.This time wee eck's party has given up on their plans to privatise 25% of Scotland's forests.This is one thing I have felt very passionately about. I've holidayed in the Highlands & Islands since I was a wee lad.I remember many beautiful places such as Sheigra, Ullapool, Kinlochbervie and then Ardgay where my Mum went on to live for many years.I remember driving through miles of forests and the thought that the SNP planned to sell off a quarter of the forests to developers was just madness!The SNP ...
C.J. Craig: I think you should talk to some reporters. You are entitled to the status you've earned. Bruno Gianelli: The only thing I need status for... I'm doing right now. C.J.: I'm going to be watching this guy. Bruno: No, you don't have to watch him... C.J.: We owe you, Bruno. Bruno: No. I got paid. But thanks. I'm going to talk to Ashley now. Ron Silver who played Bruno Gianelli that hard nosed political strategist in the West Wing died on Sunday. Like John Spencer his fellow West Wing actor there was a similarity in his life to ...
This Friday there are number of Private Members' Bills up for discussion for second reading in the House of Commons.Fuel Poverty Bill - Mr David Heath (2R)Protection of Children (Encrypted Material) Bill - Sir Paul Beresford (2R)British Museum Act 1963 (Amendment) Bill - Mr Andrew Dismore (2R)Protection of Garden Land (Development Control) Bill - Mr Paul Burstow (2R)Airport Expansion (
Darrell Goodliffe, who usually blogs on Moments of Clarity has written this article in response to "How liberal are the Liberal Democrats?" by Stuart White, which can be found on the Fabian Society blog, Next Left. Darrell writes in a personal capacity. Stuart White opens up a debate on how liberal the Liberal Democrats really are; just as the Society is about to host a debate asking the same question of Labour. Firstly, it is worth saying that there is plenty to welcome in the article; recognition that the Labour government is pursuing deeply illiberal policies. It is good to ...
{rtscover100} The new printing of Reinventing the State is now available for sale on the Methuen Bookshop at the special discount price of £10 including postage (RRP £14.99). Get your copy today!
MIPIM, the massive international property conference that meets in Cannes, was a far more sombre occasion last week than it has been in previous years. With property prices down between 20-50%, there was little for the sector to be upbeat about. Registrations were down 10,000 and there was a marked reduction in the number of yachts and Eastern European hookers. The one sector providing good news for the conference organisers was UK local government but you have to question what were they doing there? As the Leader in this week's Property Week commented: "While it is right for Boris, Manchester, ...
Newsnight has been talking about relations between the French and US military in Afghanistan. In the past these have been frosty, particularly when De Gaulle withdrew France from the NATO integrated military command and threw the Americans out of the country. The other day the Daily Mail reported a well-known tale from this episode: In 1966, upon being told that Charles de Gaulle had taken France out of NATO and that all U.S. troops must be evacuated from French soil, President Lyndon Johnson told Secretary of State Dean Rusk: 'Ask him about the cemeteries, Dean!'So, at end of the meeting, ...
JD Weatherspoon, the pub chain, published its financial results at the end of last week. Like for like sales up 2%. Overall turnover up 6%. Not bad in these times. The trouble is that profits plummeted. Weatherspoon's Chairman, Tim Martin, was pretty blunt about the reasons for this performance - excessive tax and regulation. Each Weatherspoon pub generates on average over £500,000 a year in taxes for the Government yet only £50,000 in after-tax profits for the company. That is an extraordinary level of taxation. This year alone, the company estimate that new rules governing holiday entitlement for staff is ...
