{Letter from Hazel Blears} I recently had cause to write to my local MP, Hazel Blears, with reference to the shocking decision by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme to deny Christies Hospital a refund of £6.5m of donated money that was lost when two Icelandic banks collapsed. Whilst I did expect a standard reply, penned by one of Ms. Blears' minions - I did not expect to open the reply and see her picture greeting me whilst I tried to down my ready brek this morning. Is Hazel Blears really so vain she needs to include a photograph of herself ...
A few months ago I signed the Ada Lovelace pledge. Then, I realised I couldn't think of anyone to write about. 10 weeks later, and with an hour before the end of the day, and I'm still struggling. As a Lib Dem of course, I might observe that many of the party's e-innovators - Mary Reid, Lynne Featherstone, Jo Swinson (who despite an antipathy towards blogging has been an early adopter of everything from podcasts through to twitter - not to mention www.scraptuitionfees.com Back In The Day), have been women. But I'm not really interested in writing a piece of ...
Last night I popped in to the Political Betting 5 year birthday party at the NLC. I dragged along a pal from Northern Ireland, haven't had chance to catch up with her yet to see what she made of it! But - much as I shout the odds about poor representation within our party - last night was truly shocking. Apart from us and Mike Smithson's wife Jackie there were only two other women there. The room was packed - but they were virtually all men, virtually all white and virtually all Tory men at that! One of them helpfully ...
Hastings & Rye Liberal Democrats are asking where local MP Michael Foster was on Friday when MPs voted on a new parliamentary bill aimed at ending fuel poverty. The Bill was just 11 votes short of the number it needed to make progress. Just one in ten Conservative MPs and one in fourteen Labour MPs were in [...]
I committed to writing a thing for Ada Lovelace Day, a day in which people are meant to blog about a woman they admire in the technology field, before realising I would be spending the day in Edinburgh, so this may be a little more brief than I would otherwise intend. The woman I'm going to [...]
Ah, the irony... Labour-run Lewisham Council might perhaps have picked a better day to champion employment and welfare reform minister Tony McNulty's crackdown on fraudulent benefit claimants. Here's their press release issued today: A joint investigation by Lewisham Council and the Department of Works and Pensions (DWP) has led to the successful prosecution of a woman who defrauded nearly £43,000 in benefits from them. ... Councillor Susan Wise, Cabinet Member for Customer Services, said: "From the Council's perspective, this is money that could have been spent on people who need it. Through working together with the DWP we have successfully ...
Just been watching The Culture Show, which this week featured Mark Kermode inviting Alistair Campbell to watch Armando Ianucci's film In The Loop - the big screen version of The Thick Of It. The character of foul-mouthed spin doctor Malcolm Tucker was, of course, famously inspired by Campbell. It's fair to say that Campbell was rather less impressed with the film than Kermode was. Kermode found it very funny, largely because he accepts its depiction of politics as a venal, corrupt business. By contrast, Campbell felt that the film was largely a cartoon which bore little real relation to the ...
Pain killers needed - owwww!!! # Getting grumpy now about earache. More drugs needed. # Going to get ferdi to bed and get the olive oil warmed #
Heather Kidd, Lib Dem PPC for Ludlow and the leader of the party group on South Shropshire District Council, has won the Countryside Alliance's Grassroots Award for local political campaigning. The Countryside Alliance website quotes its chief executive Simon Hart: "Cllr Kidd has been honoured for her extensive work locally and nationally for rural housing. She has worked for the Rural Housing Commission and on all recent national housing reviews. She has campaigned for bus services, local schools and has also led the local fight for Post Offices. Her energy and commitment to her community make her a worthy winner ...
It's perplexing that one of Scotland's most trusted financial institutions is the subject of extensive reports about it's future. It's clear that the Dunfermline Building Society is having difficulties but the Society is refusing to or can't say what the extent of it is. My objective is to keep the Society as an independent Scottish mutual. I met with the Scotland Office Minister today and Ming Campbell and I are planning more meetings next week.
Not long ago there was controversy over government plans to make offenders on community service orders wear high-visibility vests. But, as Curly's Corner Shop points out, this requirement is rapidly being imposed upon anyone who works out of doors: We had passed three "lollipop ladies", two street cleaners, four delivery men, three window cleaners, one telephone repair man, and two satellite dish installers, all dressed in the uniform of HM Prison Great Britain and glumly wearing their yellow jackets.Bloody hell, I thought, this must be what it's like in an open prison, and woe betide anyone who dares to go ...
Readers with a long memory might remember I gave a plug to a baby-signing course about a year ago. Local mum Helen is starting another course in a few weeks time, and there's a £2 babysigning taster session at 10.30am next Friday - 3rd April - at the Church of the Good Shepherd, on Handen Road. The courses themselves start on Friday 1st May. Helen writes: I will be running two groups Chatter Fingers 8 from 10-10.45 and Chatter Fingers 9 from 11-11.45. If you're interested, please state on the booking form which group you would like to join. Both ...
Jennie Rigg and Alison Wheeler tell us that today is Ada Lovelace Day. Apparently, you are meant to mark it by drawing attention to a woman who has excelled in technology. I am afraid that, unlike Jennie and Alison, I do not know enough about technology to do that. But I can tell you about Ada Lovelace. Ada was the daughter of the poet Lord Byron, but she never met her father, who died in Greece when she was seven. Perhaps wishing her daughter to be unlike her poetical father, her mother Lady Byron saw to it that Ada received ...
Obviously being a local political operative here in the Linlithgow and Bathgate area one person I run across quite often is the SNP education minister Fiona Hyslop. However, working with numbers all day I have a thing or two I'll be sure to raise with her next time our paths cross. It does appear that today we have found the way that the Scottish Parliament were hoping to reduce class sizes. Ronnie Smith, general secretary of Scotland's largest teaching union, the EIS deduced: "Pupil to teacher ratios remain unchanged, which highlights that the Scottish Government's strategy of simply relying on ...
Will Martin Bright's vision of inspiring, encouraging, skilling and putting to useful purpose the generation of young people who will emerge from education to unemployment be realised? I was immediately inspired myself by Martin's big idea when I originally read his piece in the New Statesman. Called 'The New Deal of the Mind' this brave and visionary project would scoop up this potentially lost generation and create a version of Franklyn Roosevelt's New Deal of the 30's. It would see an army of young people employed in projects to record, write, film, photograph, design and record aspects of our lives, ...
There is a fair amount of discussion on the blogosphere today about research carried out by the All-Wales Convention which indicates that 48% of those asked want the Assembly to be able to access the full range of powers available to it under the Government of Wales Act 2006 without having to suffer the wasteful, time-consuming and expensive legislative competence order procedure it is currently subject to. Most bloggers ask the perfectly reasonable question, why such a big lead for a 'yes' vote is considered by the media to be insufficient to win a referendum? Maybe the question they should ...
Not many economic figures have enhanced their reputation in this economic downturn. Not Brown. Not Darling. Not Osborne. Not many economic journalists either. And today, most City economists were caught off guard by the surprise rise in inflation. The obvious exception is Vince Cable, who has gained a mythical status as someone who just calls it right every time. Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England, has not had a bad war either. Despite the pressure on him, he continues to provide authoritative commentary on the extraordinary period we are living through. He wobbled a bit today. My ...
Our freedoms are in danger not from bearded chaps with dark skin, but from our own government who are slowly but surely stripping away our liberties under the guise of protecting us from evil-doers. Please buy a copy of this poster and display it prominently.
New unemployment figures for Bury released today point to a jobs crisis for the borough. The figures from the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA) reveal that there are 60% more local people claiming Job Seeker's Allowance than a year ago. These figures are a shocking display of how Labour's mishandling of the economy is having a real impact on local people. There are now thousands more people out of work and claiming benefits in Bury than there were just twelve months ago. This is terrible news for them, for our borough, and for the local economy. And the figures ...
All those of us who have been campaigning on fuel poverty and energy conservation will be aware that Davis Heath's important Bill went down in the House of Commons last Friday for lack of MP's in attendance-full story here At the last Sefton cabinet meeting I attended John Fairclough (Lab Bootle) exalted us all to ensure that our MP's turned up-the Tories appeared to agree(which is slightly strange given the attitude of many Tory MPs) Interesting I noted that of those who voted: 20 Conservatives (out of 193) 28 Labour (out of 350) 45 Liberal Democrats (out of 63) 1 ...
As a phrase used in academic circles, it is associated with neo-liberals such as Hayak and Friedman, the pillars of 1980s Thatcherism. Within the Liberal Democrats the term has become popular, but understood in a different way. People like David Laws have tried to combine economic liberalism with social liberalism in order to acheive things in society that Thatcher was either not interested in, or failed to deliver. Economic Liberalism is meant to generate the wealth to make social justice affordable. Given the success of Thatcherism in delivering victories for the Conservative party and transforming the Labour party, it would ...
Paul Walter highlights that the Daily Scum (or its equally scummy Sunday version) has deliberately told lies about the Liberal Democrats again. Should anyone be surprised ?
Good thing us dogs don't have to pay taxes, otherwise I'd have been unhappy with how Dawn Butler has been spending taxpayer money.
The Independent reports that Iain Duncan Smith has concluded that the Conservative policy of 'Right to Buy' which saw so much of the public housing stock sold of to tenants at sub-market prices is one of the primary causes of the ghetto estates that have emerged since. There is something of an irony here, given that I criticised Caroline Flint for not actually understanding this last year. Mr Duncan Smith makes the point that, by creating a situation where council housing only gets allocated to the most broken families (I'll excuse the reference back to our 'broken society' - this ...
Question: When is a candidate for the Liberal Democrat Party not a candidate for the Liberal Democrats? Answer: When he's attempting to win a vacant parish council seat for the Bruche ward of Poulton-with-Fearnhead Parish Council in Warrington. The local paper has the story, a nightmare familiar to election agents in all parties: A CONTROVERSIAL by-election for a parish council seat will not go ahead after the Lib Dem party fluffed its paperwork. Statements of intent to stand for the Bruche ward of Poulton-with-Fearnhead Parish Council had to be with the parish council clerk by noon on Friday. But Lib ...
Over at the New Statesman, Michael Moore, the Lib Dems' shadow international development secretary, argues that the G20 summit offers a key opportunity to revitalise the international community's commitment to development at this difficult economic time. Here's an excerpt: The Liberal Democrats believe that the G20 summit offers a key opportunity to revitalise the international community's commitment to development at this difficult economic time. In an interconnected world tackling the impacts of the crisis on the developing world is not just a moral imperative, but in our own self-interest. If we do nothing it will not be long before humanitarian ...
It's a funny old life being a Councillor - a bit of a rollercoaster ride at times. Some days you get to the end of and think of what you've accomplished and other days you look at how long it is going to take for money to be available for a particular project or for someone to reply to you and frustration takes over. I can't believe we're only at Tuesday, so far this week, because my phone and email have not stopped since Sunday with distraught relatives phoning to ask what I know/knew about the closure of the day ...
Egyptian Blogger Kareem who I have wrote about in the past is still in prison but a campaign has been put out to support the blogger who is currently serving a sentence for doing what I am currently doing which is blogging. The Press Release by the group Article 19 can be viewed on their website by following the link and personally I think it needs to be shared with the whole world. Imagine if Brown's or the next government if its Cameron's starts locking UK bloggers up? We need to protest against the sentence of a fellow blogger with ...
Federal Executive only meets every two months, but it seemed to come round again very quickly! Last nights meeting was a bit of a marathon, as we had a pretty packed agenda and almost a full tally of members to make contributions to the debate. Nick Clegg updated FE on some of his most recent activities, and his assessment of the current political situation before we went on to receive a strategy presentation from our new communications guru, Chris Fox. Chris and Nick took questions and responded to comments from FE in what proved to be a lively session. We ...
Today in a spare moment, I have been dealing with post that arrived some time ago and has mounted up. Papers that arrive in clear plastic envelopes and are clearly non-urgent are carefully filed until I have enough spare time to deal with them properly. Amongst those are Total Politics, What's Brewing? and Lib Dem News (although that at least arrives in an environmentally and post office-friendly C5 brown paper envelope). When I came to deal with the pile, I also found a mailing from last year from the Cats Protection League including raffle tickets that had to be returned ...
Some month's ago, Suw (Charman-Anderson) suggested that there should be a celebration today of admirable women in technology, and invited everyone to pledge to write a blog about someone they'd chosen, alongside celebrating the life of the world's first computer programmer Ada Lovelace (1815-1852). Back, in the distant past of 1972, I was a schoolgirl in Hemel Hempstead, one of the over-spill 'new towns' around London built after the war. After I completed my GCE 'O'-levels I had to select the courses I would study during the final two years there in the sixth form. Initially I was only planning ...
MPs from the Labour and Conservative parties failed to turn up on Friday, as the Fuel Poverty Bill was talked out of the House by the Government. Bath MP Don Foster was one of 89 MPs that backed the Bill, but the required number of parliamentarians did not take part in the vote. The government were set on blocking the bill despite calls to progress the Bill from members of...
Nearly 50,000 people have been taken to hospital after being stabbed since 1997, according to figures highlighted by the Liberal Democrats. The figures, contained in an answer to a Parliamentary Question, show that: Since Labour came to power, 49,837 people have been treated in hospitals in England and Wales for stabbings, including 4,510 childrenIn the...
Nick Clegg criticises the Prime Minister's wasteful VAT cut and urges him to learn from his European counterparts by investing in jobs In response to the Prime Minister's statement on the spring European Council, Nick Clegg welcomed news of a common European framework of regulation in financial services but was critical of his arrogant and wasteful policies to combat...
Commenting on the inflation figures released today, Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor, Vince Cable said: "These figures paint a very contradictory picture." "There is a real danger of entering a world of falling prices, wages and production. But at the same time, food, public transport and council tax costs are still going up and living standards are being squeezed...
If anybody who reads this blog lives in or near Guildford then you might be interested in this. I am in a play at the Electric Theatre in the town centre which starts its run tomorrow night Wednesday 25th and goes through to Saturday 28th starting at 7:45pm. I have 5 parts and so am trying to do 5 different accents! It is called "After Mrs Rochester" and is an interesting and multi-layered play. It is a biographical piece about the life of the author Jean Rhys who wrote Wide Sargasso Sea the accepted prequel to Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. ...
And no this title does not allude to the fact that spellcheckers keep suggesting that ProAct be changed to Prozac, though at the speed the Welsh Government are acting it might as well do so.In her press conference today Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader, Kirsty Williams renewed her calls for the Welsh Government to speed up its financial aid for struggling businesses through the ProAct scheme.It was
Poor old Nigel Griffiths, the MP for Edinburgh South with the majority of 405, is taking a fair bit of flak for having the audacity to have sex with 'person unknown' in his Parliamentary office. Let's put aside the adultery, a matter between Mr Griffiths and his wife in the first instance and then maybe, just maybe something for voters in his constituency to consider if they are that way inclined. Let's even overlook the sex - it is his office, after all, and both parties were consenting adults. There is, is there not, a long and noble tradition of ...
Here's the plot of one of those wonderful old Pink Panther cartoons (watching today on the Boomerang channel with young Jezebel Quist, who's poorly today - everyone say "aahhhh"). In this one, from 1968, a gent wins the favour of the Pink Panther by pulling a nail from his paw (all very biblical so far). After an evening at his club, the chap goes home to face the music from his rolling-pin wielding wife, but up steps the panther and scares the wife so much that she scurries around doing all the housework and cleaning up hubby's cigar ash. Sadly ...
In advance of the G20 London summit, the Liberal Democrats have challenged the Government to deliver a 'G20 Compact' to protect the developing world from the effects of the global financial crisis. Read about it here
Dawn Butler, Labour MP for Brent South, is in the news today for her second home expense claims. The logic of the second homes allowances is that if you are an MP who has a constituency a long way from London then you need to have two homes, one for Parliament and one for the constituency. That raises some questions about how far away from London your constituency should be before you can claim this money. But Dawn Butler has opened up a different front to the rolling expenses scandal. Because she has a home in her Brent South constituency ...
The Audit Sub-Committee of WLDC is set to become a fully fledged committee. Members of the committee requested this change, scheduled to take place at May's Annual General Meeting, to show that the council takes audit seriously. In the new civic year, we are to co-opt an independent member to help the impartiality for this committee and make more structured frequent meetings. The audit
I have taken today off to sort my garden in London. Basically, the garden has been a poor relative of our allotment and garden in Gateshead but we have set ourselves the task of bringing it into use for food production. We have made some half hearted attempts in the past to get it into use so there is already a variety of herbs and fruit plants. But a large area is derelict and that's where the
Mark Pack has cleverly highlighted the perceived threat that vegetarians pose to society. The Government has discovered that there are certain patterns of behaviour that may lead to someone being a terrorist - and one of those is ordering an in-flight vegetarian meal. That puts my 12 year old daughter up there with the worst of them. [...]
In 2007 there were a total of 1,252 executions around the world. In 2008 one country had 40% more that the entire number for the world in the previous 12 months with 1,718. Not only was China responsible for that increase by by itself the People's Republic of China accounts for 72% of the world's executions in 2008. Four other countries Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United States join them to make up 93% all all in the last 12 months. It could me worse as Amnesty International say that the figures for China are only the minimum estimate, ...
This morning, BBC Breakfast were leading on the inflation figures that were to be published today and which were expected to show that prices in Britain were falling for the first time in nearly fifty years and that we had formally entered a period of deflation. Sure enough, the Retail Price Index (RPI) fell to 0% - over the last 12 months prices have stayed still and there has been no inflation in the economy. However, another index - the Consumer Price Index (CPI) - which used to be the Government's preferred measure showed an increase to 3.2%, high enough ...
What is going on in politics is nothing short of remarkable. People are rethinking the whole basis on who and why to cast votes not just looking at policies but how those parties perform as regards their first instincts and flexibility. The real problem for the Tories is that people don't regard them as being [...]
I have had my attention drawn to this story on the GetReading website which relates to an incident that apparently happened earlier this month in Woodley. Three men claim that anti-terror laws were used to arrest them because they were using laser pens to scare off ducks whilst they were fishing. They were arrested for "endangering aircraft". The police claim that the men were arrested under the Air Navigation Order 2005 although the men dispute this. Either way, I think that a few things should be borne in mind here: It is not illegal to use laser pens to scare ...
News is that inflation has now reached zero per cent, which means of course that it is no longer inflation. It is the lowest rate for the Retail Price Index since 1960 and could soon become deflation. None of this is good. Some inflation is necessary to stimulate growth. The only indicator that appears to be growing to any considerable degree is unemployment. Clearly, the sharp drop in mortgage payments has had an impact on the RPI as Consumer Prices Index and the underlying rate of the Retail Price Index are slightly up. We are on the edge of a ...
Well, nothing, that's what Last Friday, a staggering majority of those present (89 to 2) voted to proceed with the bill but parliamentary procedure requires 100 MPs to be present for the bill to proceed to a full vote. As the Times put it with admirable clarity: The Fuel Poverty Bill has been thrown out of parliament because not enough MPs could be bothered to vote. I am one of those still picking their jaws off the floor about this. Surely to goodness if there was ever a bill it was worth catching a slightly later train on Friday for ...
Moving away from Wales and Cardiff just for today... ...to the faraway realm of Brent Central. I must admit, I've been a bit jittery for the past few weeks. I've been looking at ukpollingreport.co.uk (incidentally, an amazing website for anyone if you want to avoid doing work. I like going through marginals and seeing what chance we have there... but then I'm a boring sod). Anyway, on the entry for Brent Central, that is comment after comment, asking why Sarah Teather was standing there. "But all the Lib Dem wards are in H&K!" seems to be the typical response there. ...
Pendle Liberal Democrats Press Release: Liberal Democrat Euro-MP Chris Davies told a meeting of over 300 people in Nelson on Sunday that it was "time to stop treating Israel with kid gloves" over its attitude to the Palestinian people. He called for the European Union's economic agreement with Israel to be suspended and for the international community to put real pressure on Israel to change its policies. Chris Davies described the Israeli attacks on Gaza as "not the response of a civilised government" and forecast things could get worse following the recent elections in Israel which were likely to result ...
Imagine you're a six year old child. You haven't seen your daddy in a couple of years (something to do with mid-life crisis and that floozy from work, according to mummy, but you don't understand all that of course). One morning, you get out of bed ready for a fun day at school and mummy tells you that daddy is highly likely to be visiting today. Your little face lights up (seeing daddy will be nice, and more importantly he's bound to bring you a whopping great present). Home-time comes and no daddy. Teatime - still no daddy. Bedtime - ...
Technology being used to have a Cabinet meeting by the Conservatives! Maybe Cameron will be the first Prime Minister like Obama is the first President to allow bloggers to come to press release events and ask questions!
Public Sector Forums (found via DavePress) has a great selection of genuine but, shall we say, curious website terms and conditions from the public sector demanding that people don't link to their website or jump through various odd hoops in order to do so. Want to link to the Identity & Passport Service's website? You must get written permission first. The Millennium Commission don't like you linking without permission either. But at least they invite emails asking for permission. The Office of Government Commerce says you can link ... as long as you follow some rules which include the provision ...
Yesterday because I had nothing better to do after watching Eastenders at 10:30 I tuned into Sky News and watched Adam Boulton report back from the USA and with him he had a blogger from the USA politics blog Politics in Color. Personally I was happy to see that Sky had used a blogger, I know they have used them in the past for events like election night coverage, the paper review and SkyNews.com but to see Bloggers been used in reports is another step for bloggers which will lead to them take over the newspapers and run the typed ...
If your spelling and grammar isn't going to improve whats the point! Who the heck is Alan Clarke? Now it has been changed to Ken Clarke! If Journalists make such silly mistakes I rather stick to blogging and do something else as a day job!
This morning I watched the final match of the World Baseball Classic between Korea and Japan. The second time this tournament has been played — the first being in 2006 — I'd argue that the quality of the matches throughout the three weeks between the 16 teams which started out really deserved the title of World Series more that the October match-up between the winners of the (US) American League and (US) National League. The final — which went to ten innings with some extraordinary pitching and hitting by both sides in what was a very close game — was ...
Iain Dale has an interesting post about How Bloggers should be used in the Main Stream Media to cover elections and it has got me thinking. To read Iain's blog post follow the link. Personally I think the Main Stream Media need to start inviting bloggers onto the covering of election programmes and give them a slot every half an hour in which bloggers present would be allowed to notify the audience of rumours and possible outcomes depending on the tip offs they have received. This would mean competition between bloggers to give something away in return for tip offs ...
This entry is prompted by a discussion with a particular person, but I have been meaning to write it for ages, and the discussion this morning was merely a reminder. If there's one excuse that's guaranteed to piss me off when you have upset someone it is It was just a joke! This phrase is generally trotted out by people in a position of power when they have upset someone who is in a less privileged position. I am bang alongside the right to free speech, but the right to free speech cuts in all directions. Yes, you absolutely have ...
{Weston Park pothole} I was delighted when after years of nagging the Council, they eventually got round to resurfacing Weston Park last year. The surface was breaking up, with cracks and potholes everywhere. So it is very depressing to discover new potholes are appearing in the road surface again so soon. It makes you question whether the re-surfacing job was done properly. Cllr David Winskill (Crouch End Ward) alerted me to this new hole in Weston Park - on the section between Nelson Road and Ferme Park Road. As you may be able to see underneath is metal - and ...
QUESTION TO LEADER OF THE COUNCIL FROM CLLR SIMON SHAW Within the last week, I (as well as Southport's MP) have been contacted by a small business within Birkdale whose 2009/10 rates bill has increased by 48% over the previous year - a rise of over £1000 in the amount payable. It appears that this enormous increase is solely due to the decision of the government to abolish "transitional relief" from April 2009. This was the relief designed to ensure that businesses whose rateable values increased at revaluation (most recently the 2005 revaluation) did not suffer excessive increases in rates ...
By common consent Vince Cable's performance on last weeks Question Time was very impressive. Ken Clarke was also on trying desperately hard to add a gloss of common sense to the Tory profile. His further attempt to do so has caused quite a storm well reported elsewhere. Locally we have had our own manifestation of the wider problem. My colleague Cllr Peter Hough (Victoria ward) and a psychologist by training casts his eye over the goings on: A letter has appeared in the local press that has caused a few eye-brows to rise amongst my colleagues. It reads: 'After watching ...
Sunday was free admission day at the Museum of East Anglian Life, Stowmarket's premier tourist attraction. Ros and I only actually knew this because the Committee Administrator for Stowmarket Town Council told us (admittedly, that's Sally Scott, as in Ros's daughter), but it seemed like a fun thing to do, especially as I'd never been. The museum itself is right in the heart of the town, opposite Asda, and comprises of a deceptively large patch of land containing a number of preserved buildings, some farm animals, and exhibits of agricultural stuff. To mark the occasion, there was a small funfair ...
Since Google Street View was launched last week it has proved addictive. So at least if the Information Commissioner is successful at shutting it down, then it will at improve my productivity and mean I can get on and do other things. However it would also be a huge shame that a really interesting and [...]
On the basis that X-ray crystallography DEFINITELY falls into the acceptable definition of the word technology, especially when you design and build your own equipment, I am going to use Ada Lovelace Day to do a short blog post about a woman I admire immensely, and who is absolutely CRIMINALLY sidelined by the mainstream media when they talk about the DNA revolution. Even Uncle David failed to mention her in his Tree of Life (Darwin was awesome!) programme. But for Rosalind Franklin, Crick and Watson would never have made their startling model. They are credited with discovering the structure of ...
Cross-posted from The Wardman Wire: The varying quality of electoral administration The quality of Returning Officers and their staff has always been very variable. Ask anyone who has been involved in elections across different areas, and the chances are they have a store of horror stories about just how bad things get in some areas at times. My own favourite? The Returning Officer in a Parliamentary by-election in the 1990s who said to myself and the Liberal Democrat agent, "I suppose, as it's a Parliamentary by-election, you'll be expecting us to count all the votes this time?". Err, yes. Why ...
The link is to the evidence session from the Procedure Select Committee. Questions are being asked of Chris Bryant MP (Rhonnda) who is Harriet Harman's deputy (ie the Deputy leader of The House).The enquiry is into written questions. In essence what he says is that if a minister refuses to give a proper written answer to a question then the solution is to beat the government at the next general
Further to my recent piece about local television, there's an on-line survey on the subject. It takes only 2 minutes to complete and is available by clicking on the headline above.
I attended the Convention on Modern Liberty a few weeks ago. I haven't really blogged much about it but it was an excellent event, very well attended and with some fascinating panel discussions on various topics relating to liberty. I was disappointed that it did not garner more media coverage (there was some coverage on the BBC news website and short pieces in some of the papers but given the calibre of the event it deserved better). One of the keynote speeches was delivered by David Davis. He is an excellent public speaker and gave an impassioned oration on liberty ...
Although I was not a fan of Jade Goody, something she said deserved attention. In the last few months, she has used her profile in order to raise as much money as possible in order to send her sons to private school so they get a good education and don't become 'ignorant like me'. Like all Mums, Jade was clearly concerned about the quality of the state schools in this country (and this is after 18 years of one lot and 12 years of the other) and felt that the best hope for her sons to have a good future ...
Some of you may remember Fordhall Farm, if not there are links below to previous stories. They have been shortlisted for an Enterprising Young Brits award, sponsored by the Daily Mail through the Make Your Mark campaign.
Tue 24th
08:55
Why does one Labour MP claim £80k more in expenses than another MP living on the same street?
The two Labour MPs for Luton, Kelvin Hopkins and Margaret Moran live on the same street in Luton. You could argue over whether or not they should be able to claim a second homes allowance. But what's really rum is that whilst Kelvin Hopkins has claimed £8,894 from the second homes allowance in the last five years, which could be for reasonable occasional costs such as the odd night in a hotel after a very late night at work, his near-neighbour Margaret Moran has claimed nearly ten times as much: £87,206. Is that really right? Hat tip - Duncan Borrowman. ...
Sunday: Don't you just get TIRED of hearing Hard Labour hacks and their APOLOGISTS trotting out the same old SPIN? "Minister McNumpty has done nothing wrong. He followed the rules. He's done nothing wrong." It must be a VERY strange state of affairs if things are only WRONG if they are ILLEGAL. After all, why have the Hard Labour Government been working like navvies to make more and more and more things illegal if they were not wrong BEFORE the Government MADE them illegal? The reverse is ALSO true: just because it IS illegal, does not make it necessarily WRONG. ...
"There is increasing concern about the number of children with type 2 diabetes. This has risen tenfold in the past five years, according to Bristol University research published in 2006." (National Heart Forum). "Over the last 20 years, Type 2 diabetes has increased approximately tenfold among children and adolescents." (Defeat Diabetes Foundation, 2002) "...with the rise of childhood obesity, the rate of type 2 diabetes among children has increased more than tenfold in the last two decades, from 3% to nearly half of all new pediatric diabetes" cases. (WebMD, 2008)Dangerous stuff indeed. Our obese children are falling to the scourge ...
There's a Green propaganda film called "Age of Stupid" and it has, amongst other things, a Facebook group of the same name. They're starting a "Not Stupid" campaign, where the ultimate goal is to get Governments to impose laws to, quote, "force governments to introduce legislation that cuts global carbon emissions by 80% and allows life to continue on this planet. Gotta aim high, right?" This would be, "Not Stupid" in the same way that Richard Nixon was "Not A Crook" or that idiotic Labour would-be Councillor was "Not a Horse". I haven't seen the film, and I don't know ...
I have been the subject of some criticism for my recent ruling, preventing the publication in 'The Libertine', Liberal Youth's e-newsletter, of an article by a member of its Editorial Committee, Alasdair Wood. Perhaps I should, therefore, explain my reasoning, now that Alasdair has published the intended piece on his own blog. Censorship is a dirty word, especially in liberal circles, and there seems to be a view out there that, by preventing publication as intended, I am somehow engaged in a programme of 'censorship and attempts to silence', as that well known liberal, Tory Bear, describes it. Others, Alasdair ...
A number of people have contacted my office with questions about what is happening with the Community Libraries in Yardley.There are proposals on the agenda to have additional hours in Acocks Green, Sheldon and South Yardley. There are also proposals for some outreach work in Sheldon and to move Kents Moat Library from inside the Poolway Shopping Centre to just outside (in the Neighbourhood
The Lido on Hampstead Heath is one of the most popular and busy places in the good weather. I'm not a Lido user (I'm a very weak swimmer) - I've been to several, but it's not the most obvious place at which I'll be found - but what I do understand is the incredibly laid back leisurely sense of fun that they excude - and this one at Hampstead is no exception. The City of London is rightly proud of this Lido. It's a Grade II listedbuilding, is an Art Deco pool and was officially opened to the public on ...
My colleague Councillor Simon Shaw came away from his fact-finding visit to Shrewsbury Market Hall last September with quite a few photographs. Following his visit he forwarded these on to the senior Sefton Council officers who, since last July, have been preparing the key report which was finally considered by Cabinet last week. As well as the photograph posted on Saturday which clearly shows the mezzanine floor at Shrewsbury, Simon has sent through some more photographs from his 2008 visit to that town, also famous for its Flower Show. The first photograph shows Simon outside one of the organic produce ...
For my Ada Lovelace pledge - to highlight a woman in technology whom I admire - I'm going for Evelyn Boyd Granville. To get your doctorate at Yale becoming one of the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D in mathematics; to do so at such an Ivy League college; to work on both the Mercury Project and the Apollo Project is pushing out the envelope and then some - for anyone. To do all this as both a woman and a black women - amazing. As she put it when asked to summarise her achievements: "First of all, ...
One of my new favourite blogs is Crying All the Way to the Chip Shop. Its writer londonlee, noting how much thinner people were in the 1970s despite the awful food we ate, suggests: maybe the next slimming fad should be "The 1970s Diet": wake up in a freezing cold flat, walk five miles to work, stand on your feet in a factory all day, carry your shopping home from the supermarket, eat a pile of spam fritters, instant mash and processed peas for tea, have a big bowl of Angel Delight, smoke twenty Rothman's, and the weight will just ...
The illness and death of Jade Goody has been culturally significant and the huge media interest has enabled people to journey with her and engage what our own priorities would be had we been diagnosed with a terminal condition. Though having never been her greayest fan, I have been really impressed and challenged, both individually and in community,about how nearing end she put things right in her life-in terms of spirituality, marriage, baptism and the welfare and future of her sons. Jade proved that it is possible to have a "good death" but that does not diminish the pain and ...
Letter published in Church Times 21/03/09 Dear Editor I was surprised to see the report in last week's edition in which Jan Ainsworth accused the Liberal Democrats of adopting a "confusing" policy on faith schools. The party's spring conference in Harrogate saw a detailed and informed debate over education policy, which included discussion of faith schools and their place in the development of cohesive communities. Conference overwhelmingly rejected calls to close faith schools, instead affirming the quality of teaching and the positive ethos which make them so popular and effective and calling for improvements in terms of inclusivity and openness ...
Via karohemd: A visual pun for both Maths geeks and literature geeks. That is all.
Sorry for not saying anything significant, but my family also needs me sometimes. Anyway, the next picture is up, see March 15th
Friday: Even before the weekend's slightly public SPAT between Mr Ken "Fat Duck" Clarke and Mr Gideon "Tuck Shop" Oboe (over whether spending three billion quid on a bung for DEAD MILLIONAIRES was their most completely useful and important spending priority) it was dawning on people that Conservatory tax policy didn't make any sense. If the GOOD times mean we get to "share the proceeds of growth", Mr Balloon and Mr Oboe seemed unusually RETICENT about admitting that the BAD times mean "sharing the PAIN of recession". The Conservatories are caught in a CLEFT STICK. On the one fluffy foot, ...
