This afternoon I spoke at a large gathering of London-based Tamils in Alperton (Brent), who were there to hear what Liberal Democrats had to say about the appalling humanitarian situation in the Vanni area of Sri Lanka. Though there has been comparatively little coverage in the British media (partly because the Sri Lankan government has kept journalists [...]
It seems no sooner do we get a notorious fly-tipping black spot in North Road ward cleaned up than it gets dumped on again. This spot is along the back of Cricket Field Row, a large field at the end of the road into Morrisons supermarket. It's only half a mile from the tip, but that doesn't stop people driving to this field to dump their rubbish. There is a warning sign, but it's been cunningly
Patricia Hewitt is campaigning for the right to die. She believes that terminally ill people who are mentally competent should have access to assisted suicide, and is calling for a Private Members' Bill in parliament to change the law. Part of me wants to be cynical; she never said anything about this as Health Secretary, after all, when she might have done something about it directly. But then again, this is a genuinely cross-party issue, and if she can achieve something with her campaign, then all power to her. I'm strongly in favour of the right of a terminally ill, ...
I am no Liverpool fan (I support Everton), but I have to take my hat off to them today for re-opening the title race after everyone seemed prepared to had the title on a plate to Manchester United. Whilst the Premiership might be a closed shop in respect of the top four nearly always being the same, there is no doubting that the Premier League really is the envy of the world.
I'll be the first to admit I'm not normally a Daily Mail reader (I think everyone knows my politics by now), but sometimes they do make a lot of sense! I was browsing their site today and came across this: MailOnline article It describes the Labour Government's new 'e-borders' scheme, designed to predict terrorist suspects from their travel habits. Among the things they take into account? Ordering a vegetarian meal on a plane, traveling with a foreign born wife and making a last minute reservation. One of my closest friends is a vegetarian, who is married to an Austrian and ...
ipod is pwned - yay # Bed #
This week's selection of the best in British blogging is at Suz Blog.
{Stroud Green Road empty bakery} This week I was alerted to the state of the empty bakers on Stroud Green Road. Its looking a complete eyesore and is covered with flyposters (see picture right). I've reported it to the Council so I hope its cleared up quickly. I've also asked the Council to see what action can be taken with the shop owners to prevent this problem recurring. Obviously, there is a risk that the recession will lead to more empty shops in our area. We need the Council to be more vigilant to make sure empty shops don't become ...
This morning I joined Bury South's MP Ivan Lewis, my fellow St Mary's Councillor Donal O'Hanlon, and about ten local residents in a graffiti clean up around Prestwich Clough. And let me say this - if we want to stop the problem of graffiti in one instant hit, all we have to do is make the culprits try and clean up the stuff they've daubed onto brickwork, because it's incredibly hard work! We were using the graffiti kits which are available free to local residents and businesses. The kits contain gloves, cloths, scourers, and three different levels of cleaning solution. ...
I'm on a mission - to engage more local people to get active in the local political scene - yes - even to become a councillor. Yes you! You may never have thought about it - or you may have thought about it and not known much about what it entailed. So - I want to invite you to come and find out what it is like and what is involved. It's really important because on 6th May 2010 the people of Haringey will elect 57 people to represent them. Would you like to be one of them? With the ...
I have been to a function with Chris Davies MEP and Helen Foster Grime to mention the high profile people at the function, not to mention the Liberal Democrats candidate for Brierfield and Nelson North Sahzad Ahmed and many others. The event was widely publicised even in the local newspaper Nelson Leader as many will have read. Overall it was a good event and Chris once again showed that he is the North West's best MEP as he reported back to the people of Pendle first hand about his experience in Gaza and the difficult trip he went through to ...
16 April this year is the twelfth anniversary of Paddy Ashdown's first trip in a Hastings fishing boat. Speaking with Nick Perry, Lib Dem parliamentary campaigner, at a recent party meeting in Lewes, former Lib Dem Leader Lord Ashdown said, "Nick, I want you to send my very best wishes to the fishermen of Hastings. I have [...]
If you are a vegetarian then asking for a Vegetarian meal on a plan could lead to you being arrested under Terrorism allegations according to a news report that you can read by following the link! The news has lead Mark Pack the Lib Dem blogger to set up a facebook group about lentils and how they could get you into a lot of trouble. If you were to ask for lentils on a flight then you might raise questions to the flight attendants as someone who is linked with terrorism, Sorry to be sarcastic but how is that possible? ...
So finally the Tories have a Shadow Chancellor who knows his onions and has stated that the Blues would not introduce their Inheritance Tax changes to benefit a small number of the richest families. The new Shadow Chancellor was decried for his comments by no less than Boris Johnson and Lord Tebbit. Well, I know whose opinion I would trust out of Boris, Tebbit and Ken 'I've been speaking my mind for 40 years and I see no reason to change now' Clarke. Boris is professionally posh and little else, Tebbit was an arsehole who brought some grit to Thatcher's ...
Labour Party MP Nigel Griffin had sex with a brunette in his Parliamentary office according to a report from the News of the World. I am not going to go into detail about the MP and what he got up to with the women but you can follow the link and read more about it. Personally I am disturbed by the fact that the MP had it in him to allow something like this to happened in the Palace of Westminster. This Labour MP has destroyed the respect of the Palace with his sex in the Palace technique. Could the ...
According to the Mail on Sunday my choice of diet makes me a terrorist suspect. Now I wouldn't mind but for the first 30+ years of my life anytime I got on a plane or ferry I was more or less considered one because of my place of birth and accent. The Belfast Departure gate at Heathrow is still down a long corridor all by itself. At least now we do not have to take our luggage the whole way with us down there; we can now check it in at departures like everyone else. But I enjoy a largely ...
My husband is one of the most peace loving, reasonable, moderate, kind and generally good peopl you could ever wish to meet. Yet the Government might well have him under suspicion for terrorist activities. Why? For some reason they have decided that ordering vegetarian food on an aeroplane indicates malevolence of purpose. Other suspcious indicators include travelling with a foreign born husband or wife - the Queen better watch out then, given that her husband was born in Greece - or making a last minute booking for a flight. Better watch out on the impulsive romantic gestures front, then. You ...
Conservative MP Francis Maude today criticised Gordon Brown for not having an email address on the 10 Downing Stret website: "Gordon Brown is spending taxpayers' money on the latest digital gimmicks, from Twitter to Flickr, but can't be bothered to give out a simple email address". Fair enough. But you'd have thought he would give out an email address on the contact page for his own website. Otherwise someone unkind person might mutter things about double standards etc, especially as his website is paid for by taxpayers' money too. But you'd have thought wrong. (Though you can find his email ...
Dear Govt. We haven't exactly been on good terms for some time now, but even so, please understand that if it gets to the point where I read a Mail on Sunday scare story entitled "Stasi HQ UK" and find myself agreeing with them against your actions? You're Doing It Wrong. Seriously, know any vegetarians? Or someone involved with a "foreigner"? How about a fear of flying so you prefer sitting above the wing, or a tendency to make last minute decisions on travel plans? An internal Home Office document obtained by The Mail on Sunday reveals that during testing ...
Sun 22nd
18:28
"Union Jack" "LibDem Councillor/Postmaster" "sacked" and "ousted" from party for "refusing to serve ...
That must break some sort of record for the number of inverted commas in a title...Earlier this week, Richard Huzzey on LibDem Voice covered this story and there were some interesting comments posted against it:The Daily Mail rarely devotes its columns to the praise of Liberal Democrat councillors. Deva Kumarasiri is an exception. The newspaper approvingly reports on a policy he has introduced in
I am currently delivering Focus leaflets in the Derwent Valley. The sun has gone down but there is still some daylight. And swooping above me are two red kites. These birds of prey have been reintroduced into the area after an absence of 200 years. It's great to see them back. I've also seen them hovering over the allotment in Sunniside recently but I haven't seen then this close to houses before
As regular readers of www.dundeewestend.com will know, I have long highlighted the campaign for local television made possible by the digital switchover, and I have helped by chairing the Fife and Tayside Local Television working group. (See more at http://www.fifetaysidetv.com). Peter Preston has an interesting item about local TV/Channel 6 in today's 'Observer' - click on headline to read it.
It's taken 2.5 years, but I've managed to chock up half a millennium's worth of posts. In the style of many US TV series, I thought I'd make this a bit of a flashback episode and remind you of some of my personal favourite postings. So, as they say on Strictly, in no particular order: The One with Amy and Friends - I want to keep the flag flying for Amy and Friends so if you've missed my previous postings, please, if you can help them, do so. The One with Granny - It seems appropriate on Mother's Day to ...
I admit it - I do get Total Politics magazine but, for reasons I won't go into (though the phrase "gnat's chuff" may feature) my copies wend their relaxed way to my door a month or two late. So why did nobody tell me that I was in the February issue, with a nice quote from the Cafe (the same one Stephen was kind enough to put in Lib Dem News, I think)? Why did the fan mail not flood in? Not a single pair of virtual knickers were thrown my way. Come on, folks - I spend quite enough ...
Homes for Haringey (Haringey Council's arms length management organisation for council houses) have just admitted to my Lib Dem colleague, Cllr Monica Whyte, that residents of Stokely Court (sheltered accommodation for the elderly and disabled) will have to wait yet another year before their homes will be redecorated - four years after the Council promised that they would be renovated and ten years since they were last redecorated. Monica Whyte has written urgently to the Chief Executive of Homes for Haringey to explain why Stokely court has been neglected and how many other sheltered accommodation homes have been missed due ...
Costigan Quist has some on this over at his cafe. He rightly concludes that there are 'deeper, darker splits' splits within the Conservatives however it has been pretty clear that these have been in evidence for some time. The first time they spilled out into the public view was the quite vicious campaign conducted against George Osborne last year. Of course, the sides are not exactly the same (for example, Iain Dale supported Osborne but is against the leadership on the 45p band) however the fact remains that these rebellions are motivated by a core of the Conservative Party whose ...
So the furtive looks between my daughter and her father and conspiratorial stage whispering of the last few days are at an end. At just before 10 this morning, Anna jumped on the bed bearing gifts and a huge pile of cards, many of which she had made herself. She has put so much effort into them - the drawing of the snow leopard family, complete with the little cub stretching out to catch a snowflake, the rainbows, the little chicks, the hearts and kisses, all things she knew would make me smile. Good to see, too, that all these ...
The news that has come out today that Tony McNulty has been claiming a second home allowance of around £14,000 per year for occasional use of his parents house 8 miles or so from his own house is another shocking example of how politicians are fleecing the tax payer. There can be no excuse for this sort of behaviour. McNulty has been at pains to insist that he has not broken any rules. I am sure he is correct but in that case the rules are absolutely rotten. He has already launched a pre-emptive strike on the criticism he obviously ...
Monday 23 March 14:30 European and External Affairs CommitteeScrutiny Inquiry: Future of Cohesion PolicyScrutiny Inquiry: Patients' Rights in Cross-Border Healthcare - Evidence gatheringTuesday 24 March08:15 Subordinate Legislation CommitteeEnhancing the Scrutiny of Subordinate Legislation: Inquiry into the scrutiny of subordinate legislation and delegated powers - consideration of Draft Report -
The Sunday Times reports on research by the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust to be published tomorrow that has concluded that at least 10 of the giant government databases built or planned by ministers unlawfully breach privacy. The Trust believes that the computer registers, including the DNA database, the national identity register, the Contactpoint child protection database and the health service patients' register, all breach human rights and data protection laws: The report, whose joint author, an academic expert on privacy at Cambridge University who is one of the most respected in Britain, warns that ministers are planning to spend a ...
I'm on the Editorial Committee of "the Libertine" (the new PDF Liberal Youth Magazine due to come out). I was given the task to cover the Liberal Youth Elections. It was inevitable that in doing so I would be made aware of the issues behind closed doors; that are not revealed by any manifestos. To cover these elections well, I couldn't just simply ignore some of the major hidden issues. Manifestos reveal the policies of those running for posts and so doing a report simply commenting on their ideas isn't necessary when LY members can constructively look at the manifestos ...
The NUS apparently held a protest outside the Welsh Assembly, a few days ago. I think all of CSLD would have been there had we known about it in time. But whatever happened there, I guarantee there will be more protests about this. I admit to being caught on a back foot. I never actually believed Plaid would completely and so openly go against its manifesto promise, like it has. I never actually believed that Plaid would LIE to the electorate. I never actually believed that the Plaid AMs were in politics for the ministerial limousines. How wrong was I. ...
Turnout at British general elections dropped by 45 percentage points between 1964 and 2005 amongst the under 25s. It dropped by only 2 percentage points amongst the over 64s.
Apologies for the lack of blogging yesterday, and I am afraid it will be the case today. Putting that aside I am writing this blog post in amusement about a blog post that I read and you can also do that by following the link. Alex Singleton the Telegraph's writer writes about how he thinks Lib Dem blogs have lost their touch and personally I disagree with him to some degree and also agree. Lib Dem Voice and Lib Dem Blogs are run by the same people who are all closely linked and its basically a little cronies club. The ...
Some months ago, I asked the City Council for a handrail at the steepest part of Seafield Road, just south of Perth Road. This was following requests from residents, mainly elderly people. The Muirlands Sheltered Housing is close by. Here's me (above) pictured in Seafield Road in the past couple of days. As you can see, the handrail has now been provided and I am pleased at the City Council's positive response.
The Tory internal row on taxing the rich has spilled over into the blogosphere and the mainstream media. In the red corner, we have Cameron and Osborne, who say they'll go along with Labour plans for a new 45p tax rate for top earners (£150k or more). In the true blue corner, BoJo is leading the charge on behalf of the super-wealthy. Actually, not the super-wealthy at all. They're all taking advantage of the stupidly complex tax system Brown created, along with Government's long-standing relaxed approach to tax havens and avoiding paying much tax at any rate. But it will ...
The Pendennis column in today's Observer reveals that Downing Street has closed down the facility which enables members of the public to e-mail Gordon Brown. Instead you can write a letter or send a fax! Things have moved on a lot since Tony Blair took his first tentative steps into the twentieth century by learning how to switch on a computer. Not!
I'm not obsessed with Jury Team, really I'm not. It's just that they keep doing these ... things ... to provoke me. At the time of writing, the party which claims to be more representative than the other parties on the basis that 100% of the electorate selects their candidates doesn't have a single candidate with more than 40 votes. The party that claims to be seeking to do in the UK what Obama did in the US doesn't seem to even have the basics right. And for a party which claims to represent "real transparency," they seem to be ...
So Mayor BoJo, according to the Daily Hate Mail, is planning "a week-long festival in the capital to celebrate St George's Day". How much of this will be tax-funded?
The Regional Executive of the West Midlands Region Liberal Democrats invites applications for selection as Prospective Candidate for the constituencies of:
Mother's Day - the hardest part has been pretending to be asleep whilst my younger son has been desperate to wake me up with cards since 06:30 - but was warned by his grandmother that he had to wait for his elder brother to wake up - I gave in at 09:00 - my mother has obviously forgotten how long the average teenager can sleep - and that fact that he would need to go back to bed for a nap after the trauma of an "early morning" breakfast! I started to jot down some thoughts for my blog this ...
One of the questions I sometimes get asked on the doorstep or over a drink is 'What has Europe ever done for us?', the very framing of which reflects the Euroscepticism of a substantial proportion of the British population, fuelled by the myths and lies of the Daily Mail, the Sun and other less respectable [...]
A mental institution in London that holds serious violent and sexual offenders has had yet another escape. This report makes it clear that this is not the first recent escape. Would you feel safe living nearby ? Who is in charge of the security at this place ? Put simply, why on earth is this allowed to happen over and over again ?
Anyone got any interesting food blogs they'd like to recommend to me? I'm particularly interested in blogs with a focus on vegetarianism, organic food/gardening, and/or environmental aspects of food. They don't have to be just recipe collections - reflections on the cultural and religious significance of food and on the politics of food are also welcome. Nothing with a focus on weight loss, please. I already read/am aware of bento_bitches, bentolunch, beyond_sushi, casualbento, cookin_it_up, failed_recipe, hearth_cuisine, jfood, londonforage, my_bento, snake_soup, vegetarisch, veggie_diaries, vegrecipes, vegetarian, yummyfood, aussieveg, hanne_blank, jfsciencefeed, and lunchinabox. (I don't actually tend to read the bento blogs these ...
Some time ago now, George Monbiot wrote a piece in the Guardian refuting the cosy back-slapping sense of Aga owners that their cooker was an efficient, even ethical, choice of appliance. Yesterday, an interview with Aga's chief executive, William McGrath appeared in the paper, exploring this argument. They've put the transcript up on the website here. The comments thread quickly descended into (
I'd not realised quite what a heroic figure my cousin Simon is. When we were all children, as the oldest and cleverest cousin, he was the one who made us all laugh with his commentary on slide shows of holiday photos (we're talking family gatherings 70s style) and patiently let smaller relatives chase him about. [...]
It's not quite the Harborough Mail, but there is an interview with the Lib Dem shadow chancellor in the Sunday Times today: Cable, in fact, seems a man hardly able to believe his luck, after long periods of professional struggle and personal pain: "Yes, a lot of good things have happened. It isn't just the politics. I lost my wife and now found a lovely lady and I am very, very happy. Life's worked out well. Some people are lucky. I've been very lucky."
I finally succumbed last night and signed up to Twitter. It is not something I planned to do nor am I really convinced as to its value but I had my laptop with me and was browsing the web rather than watch 'Notting Hill' for about the fifth time. In fact, I blame Bethan Jenkins. I was sitting next to her at the e-government conference on Friday and noted that she was twittering away. So I was on the Twitter site in the first place out of curiosity to see what she had been saying. When I started blogging I ...
What the Beeb could not do for Gaza, John Redwood does today as he boldly launches an appeal on behalf of struggling "public sector fat cats": Today I would like you to spare a thought and a few billion for the public sector fat cats. They have been going through a miserable time lately. Fred Goodwin has been pilloried for his noble action in creating the largest loss making bank in UK financial history and for delivering it safely into the public sector. Chief Executives the length and breadth of local government and quango land have been subject to abusive ...
Daily collection of links and thoughts that weren't worth a whole post. 12:41 listening to the #nowshow and making sure he's actually following @mitchbenn #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.
The Regional Executive of the West Midlands Region Liberal Democrats invites applications for selection as Prospective Candidate for the constituencies of:
I couldn't get out on the doorstep myself (I will make up for it during the week). But a good team got out and found eight volunteers to deliver leaflets. Well done and welcome! We have Norman Lamb coming to visit us this week - something I am very much looking forward to - and a couple of mid-week action mornings. Indeed there is a Lib Dem blitz on Essex this coming Thursday: Lamb in Southend, Baker in Stansted, and Brake in Chelmsford.
Good coverage in the Islington Tribune for our crossings campaign. Some roads already have the green man on for barely 5 seconds, which is bad enough, without Boris threatening to reduce it further.
In the month when unemployment has hit two million for the first time since 1997, you might have hoped the Employment Minister would be hard at work figuring out how to get more people back into employment. It turns out that Tony McNulty has been hard at work but, as the Mail on Sunday has revealed in a scoop today, it may have been extracting more money from taxpayers and moving it into his own bank account that's Tony's been keener on. According to the MoS, Tom McNulty and his wife have a combined income of a third of a ...
News of the World: Top Labour MP in Commons Remembrance Day Romp Shock (Makes this seem even funnier now.) Mail on Sunday: Minister Claims £60,000 Expenses on Parents' Home Shock Observer: RBS Directors Bullied [Liberal England says: Poor babies] to Stop Them Curbing "Sir" Fred Goodwin Sunday Times: Minister in Charge of Stamping Out Corporate Tax Avoidance Used to Chair Business in Tax Haven Independent: Naked Children Shown on Google Street View Iain Dale tweets: Paper Review [for BBC News Channel] put back to 11.30. Yasmin [Alibhai-Brown] and I are not pleased. They're also trying to gag us on the ...
Iain Dale asks where Vince Cable was in 1997. One would have hoped Iain would know this but Vince was only newly elected that year. Secondly, for the second time this week he is trying to claim that the Tories were first to predict the economic crisis. Oddly his justification for this last time was a quote from Robert Peston (the BBC economic guru) that stated the Tories were asking questions about the economy before Labour. What the Peston quote didn't say was that the Tories were first to say it. But this didn't stop Iain from taking the quote ...
