It's hard to know where to begin with the agreement signed by the G20, so I thought it might be interesting to point out all the various words and phrases that trigger libertarian alarm bells - and why. I work on the theory that the majority are desensitised to economic violence, that so ubiquitous and commonplace is political grabs for power that we don't notice it when it happens. It's an exercise in understanding different political tribes, rather than a typical rant. There'll be plenty of those elsewhere, I'm sure. We start from the belief that prosperity is indivisible; The ...
A beautiful day off from all duties, and what a contrast to or usual lives. Bouquets and arranged flowers moved on to Harrogate Valley Garden flowers, then daffodils on roadsides, then snowdrops on the tops of hills. Big lambs became tiny lambs, then there were just pregnant sheep. The River Tees became pebbled rivers and then mountain streams, then...
Another example of uploading a track I heard on the radio today - a rather long day including lots of day job activity, visits to constituents and a surgery! Shakatak scored a number of chart entries, including two Top Ten hits in the UK Singles Chart, "Night Birds" (1982) and "Down on the Street" (1984). Good stuff!
So here we are in the brave new world of the Cornwall unitary council, out canvassing tonight I called on a house with the woman answering the door was wearing a Caradon Council t-shirt " oh" she said ,"I work in government all the time I'm not interested in politics" others seemed surprised that the council had changed. On their minds was more mundane things like dog pooh (61000 visits on kit hill each year apparently- how they know that I'm not sure but the person who talked at length about this seemed certain of her figures) and parents parking ...
www.liberator.org.uk/ LIBERATOR is a liberal political magazine published in Britain was founded in 1970 and is produced by a voluntary editorial collective acts as a forum for debate among radical liberals in all parties and none welcomes written contributions on relevant topics, up to 1800 words Here on the Liberator website, you'll ator.org.uk/ Had a read tonight it's good like the [...]
Fancy Getting Together on a Regular Basis? i am Looking for activist to campaign over the next year in key labour Seats. Any one From Salford Who fancies a Go To Win not paper candidates, drop me a line on the Blog. If you have the BOTTLE USE IT....
My group that I set up today in support of Nick Clegg calling upon President Obama to meet him on his next visit to the UK can be joint by following the link to it. The group has already had some coverage from the blogosphere by Shane Greer and to read Shane's blog post about it follow the link! Shane Greer says the following about the campaign "I think I'll file that idea under 'A' for 'Absurd'...", I would file the idea of Obama wanting to meet David Cameron under 'S' for 'Stupid'. How could the President make such a ...
'This is about more than poverty and unemployment. It is about being cut off from what the rest of us regard as normal life.' The words of Tony Blair, spoken in 1997. Last month I wrote about our campaign to improve the quality of life for residents living on Hexham Road estate. This is a key priority for us locally, alongside all other other campaigns. Residents I speak to on the estate have been turning to us after being let down for years by Labour and we take our duty to speak up for residents and to demand a better deal for them very seriously. ...
Well my son gets married next year. He as just gone today to get a Mortgage. 6.5% on £90.000.How come interest rates on borrowing is through the roof and savings rock bottom. Banks still refuse to lend. rep OS are running higher than ever. Next time you talk to a New Labour voter check [...]
Braking news (sorry, sorry) reaches my sofa that Tom Brake, attending the protest as a legal observer, was among those not permitted to leave the City cordon zone operated for several hours by police yesterday. See the tardily-uploaded CNN report here. (Watch out also for the economically literate and articulate protester on just before Tom - quick, send that man a copy of The Storm and a membership form!) h/t Will Rhodes
Yesterday the City Council's South & East planning committee voted to confirm the Tree Preservation Order (TPO) on Grove Wood in Stapleton. The TPO was initiated following a campaign by residents concerned about the destruction of trees in this historic woodland. Under planning law, once a TPO is requested there is a sex month peiod where objections can be made before the TPO is finally confirmed. The landowner objected to the TPO but all members of the committee voted to confirm it. We hope this will protect this amenity for future generations.
It was back in January - well ahead of its April publication date - I pre-ordered my copy of Vince Cable's impending opus, The Storm: The World Economic Crisis and What It Means, from Amazon. Alas, today I received a plaintive email from Amazon, apologising for its non-delivery: "We're still trying to obtain the following item[s] you ordered on 26 January 2009" - I checked the website only to discover that Vince's book is 'Temporarily out of stock', just days after publication. {Vince Cable's book has sold out} A simple cock-up by Amazon, or have Vince's publishers massively under-estimated the ...
I find myself arguing rather often these days that you can't have localism with over-large institutions, whether they are monopolistic supermarket chains or giant factory hospitals. And there I was talking to a neighbour who has just given birth this week, and find some personal anecdote about merging hospitals means. She went along to Mayday Hospital, as she is supposed to, for the baby's hearing checks (Mayday is near West Croydon station). She was told that because of staff shortages, they couldn't see her - and had made her an appointment in teddington. For thos not familiar with London, the ...
There was a cheap and nasty moment from David Cameron at prime minister's questions yesterday. While calling on Gordon Brown to organise a meeting of party leaders to sort out the mess over MPs' expenses, he pretended not to have noticed whether Nick Clegg was in the House. ("Is he here?") Of course Nick Clegg was in place: it would have been extraordinary if he had not been there. I suppose the meaning Cameron was seeking to convey was that Clegg is so insignificant as to be beneath his notice. This sort of thing may go down well in the ...
I watched Britz, the two-part drama of a Muslim family where the brother starts working for MI5 and the sister becomes a terrorist. You can tell from this outline where the problem lies: it's barmy! The first episode, the one about the brother, is quite good; the second one is ridiculous. All the suspense is gone because it's all in the first one, which is enough to send you to sleep. However,
"Education, Education, Education", as Tony Blair said. Of course, Labour simply thought that meant increasing the budget and punching the teachers. But when he said that, a much smaller version of myself - a 6 year old, to be precise - was pottering about, sometimes being very difficult to all and country. I, and that of my entire generation, have lived through Blair's education system. It has given us more people passing GCSEs, A Levels and getting Degrees than ever before. Disregarding the fact that much of that improvement has been down to shoddy qualifications and my own dislike of ...
Charlotte Gore - who has recently moved blog addresses - gently chides some of the more prominent Lib Dem blogs for not making more of an effort to link to other blogs in the party. I think she right to do so. Those of us who trade as a Liberal Democrat blog receive a high proportion of our readers (at least initially) because of our party label, so it is only fair to give something back by linking to other Lib Dem blogs. Ultimately, however, the only law of blogging is "My gaff, my rules". So I thought I would ...
Hope you don't mind fellow blogger-s but along with some gossip,news,and views with a few tit bits thrown in i am going to bore you with my past and how i ended up as a Liberal Democrat.A senior Labour member accused me of being a Disalousioned Socialist taking up the leftist flank rejected by Labour. [...]
I wonder by who? it's not the libs, and i don't think it was labour or the Tories. So it leaves only the B.N.P. Any one like to comment? not one of the areas i would like to call Labour controlled, one year we nearly took it and the year later bugger all! Only picture of [...]
Yesterday was the second and final day of Report Stage of the Bill, and we got some of what we wanted - an amendment on the right to registration as a citizen of a minor born to a British citizen by descent, and another on the right of a British National (Overseas) who has no other citizenship to register s a British citizen. These amendments were tabled by the Government in response to our requests made earlier in the Bill, and over some years before that. We and the Tories voting together won two major amendment, on the 'common travel ...
This comes after the pile of Police Uniforms were found in Salford! April 02, 2009 BOGUS police officers handcuffed a man while robbing the Royal British Legion in Walkden this week. At around 2.15am on March 30, three men wearing high visibility police jackets and police-style hats approached the club, in Wilfred Road, as the steward was closing. they [...]
Walking out in the middle of an answer to a question. Hmm... you don't think Boris the experience of having his record and decisions closely cross-questioned has got him a bit rattled do you? The BBC story has the details. PS Courtesy of what I presume is an automated system, at the end of the BBC video clip of Boris Johnson it says "MORE LIKE THIS ... Snow-crazed stoat 'goes berserk'"
The March issue of the NewsLetter of the Ven Chao Khun Bhavanaviteht (Luangpor Khemadhammo) OBE is at www.foresthermitage.org.uk/nlmar09.pdf. One of the matters referred to in the News and Musings is the extraordinary saga of the Buddhist Adviser to the Armed Forces, and the Endorsing Authority (EA) which was established to monitor this operation. The Ministry of Defence appointed Mr Ron Maddox as Adviser some years ago, and when he didn't like the agenda for an EA meeting, he wrote letters to the majority of the members purporting to dismiss them. The Minister, Kevan Jones MP, upheld this arbitrary action, saying ...
21) Azadeh Moaveni, Lipstick Jihad: A Memoir of Growing up Iranian in America and American in Iran (New York: Public Affairs, 2005, ISBN 9781586483784). Despite the title, for most of the book the author is an adult working in Tehran as a journalist. Covers much the same ground as Pardis Mahdavi's Passionate Uprisings, but from a more personal perspective. Generally quite pessimistic about the situation in Iran, although one observation I found interesting is that for some women from conservative backgrounds, the Islamic Revolution was liberating because their families were willing to allow them more freedom in an Islamic state ...
Wednesday The Liberal Democrat Friends of Poland is launched this afternoon at the Polish Centre in Hammersmith, chaired by Islington's LibDem Mayor, Stefan Kasprzyk. A good turnout from the Polish-language media. In my speech about why Poles in London should vote Liberal Democrat, I joke (truthfully) about how during the Communist period, I'd been unable to find accommodation in a snow-bound Krakow, so spent the night in a Carmelite convent. Straight after the speeches, I have to do an interview in Spanish for a London-based Latin American channel. The capital's ethnic diversity certainly keeps one on one's toes. Later this ...
The link is to what Angela Eagle said exactly one year ago today viz:The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury (Angela Eagle): The Liberal Democrat motion has been much commented on, possibly because it reads like the storyboard for "Apocalypse Now", or perhaps even "Bleak House". According to the motion, we are facing an"extreme bubble in the housing market"and the "risk of recession", and we must
On top of the release of figures by Welsh Liberal Democrats which show that the prison population of Wales is rising, even though increasing numbers of convicts are being released early, comes news that inspectors have criticised Parc in Bridgend for not having enough resources to carry out its role as the only training prison for Wales.
Personally after reading up about the event which is taking place next to the actual G20 in which 50 of the World's most read bloggers are to blog about the G20 as it happens and reach out to an audience which is ranging in the millions I was a little amused but slightly query. First of all why do bloggers need to cover the whole event in the first place, the media are covering it let them is what I think should have happened. I personally am someone who has no economic interest and my whole opinion on the economy ...
...to see ourselves as others see us. No comment really needed, saving just how shocking most foreigners find this drunkeness. http://ajanlo.kapu.hu/pics.php?d=cardiff
I have argued in the past that expenses should be scrapped and MP's should get paid an average amount given to them which should act as a salary and expenses, but a comment from a Richard T has got me thinking. You can read the comment below: Irfan, I suggest you might refer yourself to my MP, Alastair Carmichael for Orkney and Shetland, and just look at a map of the UK. He represents 2 island groups 70 miles apart with 30 inhabited islands. Simply getting around the islands to do his job costs as much as most MPs spend ...
I have unashamedly pinched this idea from others. I was looking at the statistics supplied by StarCounter about who visits the Birkdale blog and what are the popular pages etc over the last quarter No 5 in the list is Vince Cable has a book coming out from back in January. Numbers viewing this post have been added to recently as the book is now out and reviewed including on Newsnight Review No 4 in the list is Birkdale Benches from early in March. No surprises there as the tale of Tory infighting continues No 3 in the list is ...
"Colourful and lurid fiction" and "hysterical over-reaction": that's how Treasury Minister Angela Eagle described Liberal Democrat warnings about the economy exactly a year ago today. A Lib Dem Opposition Day Motion had warned of an extreme bubble in the housing market and mass repossessions, but was dismissed by the Government as "scaremongering." Eagle even compared it to a storyboard for "Apocalypse Now." Then, as now, Jeremy Browne, Liberal Democrat Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, spoke of the Liberal Democrats' economic foresight. You can watch yesterday's question time with Jeremy Browne on moneysupermarket.com in which he talks about the G20, ...
I'll be posting a review of Seaguy (and possibly Glamourpuss) tonight, assuming the problems we've had with BT are finally sorted (and it'll be my 200th post, so I'll try to make it a good 'un), but in the meantime I thought I'd mention that my netcasts at Liberal Conspiracy (where I link to mostly [...]
I note that Irfan has sounded off about MP expenses again, challenging our MPs to reduce their expense claims to the average levels of Tory and Labour MPs. Whilst a number of you have commented on his blog, the fact that I would have to register to do so rather put me off. So I am obliged to enter into the fray via this august medium... My challenge to Irfan is this. Alastair Carmichael claims the highest level of expenses for travel of any Liberal Democrat MP. Can Irfan find the cheapest way of getting from Evie to Westminster that ...
Daniel Finkelstein has another of his regular pops at Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems today. (Danny's an ex-SDPer, and, like a reformed smoker, is obsessively evangelical in his disdain for its successor party). Today, as he did yesterday, Danny seeks to demonise four senior Lib Dem politicians - Baroness Williams, Simon Hughes, Chris Huhne and David Howarth - for acting as legal observers monitoring the policing of yesterday's climate camp protest in London, timed to coincide with the G20 summit. Today, as he did yesterday, Danny fails to mention the legitimate concerns which were raised - and of which ...
Charlotte Gore has made a good point today about Lib Dems not linking to each others blogs as much as other parties because of the existence of the Lib Dem Blogs aggregator. I must admit I had not done much on this precisely because of the aggregator. I have rectified this now however and put a Lib Dem Blogroll on this blog in a decent position. If Lib Dem bloggers want to be added to it, let me know in the comments below and please feel free to add me to yours as well.
Here's what you've been reading the most on my blog over the last three months: 10. Lap dancing in Crouch End - one of the big local issues coming up for decision 9. Heading up the party's Technology Board - see number 1. 8. Sharon Shoesmith - see number 2. 7. Reading the Baby P Serious Case Review - see number 2. 6. Why the number of female MPs matters - see why I think so. 5. What should you do with your emails? - a fun way to demonstrate to Jacqui Smith what's wrong with the government's latest plans ...
Birmingham City Council's press office have uploaded their first video.
Well it is not often you can have a headline claiming Southport is half a century in advance of most of the nation. Last night at Southport Area Committee we were reviewing the success of our pilot Homewarmers scheme in Birkdale. There is a full report here. This is an initiative by my colleague Councillor Shaw. He has always been a campaigner for energy efficiency and against fuel poverty. As an example he always keeps his house several degrees cooler than everyone else even in the most severe winter and was an early adopter of low energy efficient light bulbs. ...
Is this discreet little building on Finchley Road the answer? For months, indeed years now, a group of local users of the North London Line (Overground) have been trying to get a Users Group together. We've made the offer to TfL, to Silverlink historically, now to LOROL and a range of associated officers. The response is a warm enthusiasm and then silence. Put simply there is no sustained commitment or support for such a venture from those who appears to be responsible for the line. The result is a culture that is distant and hand-to-mouth. The whole operation works on ...
{Ming Campbell in the House of Commons} Sir Menzies Campbell has today tabled a parliamentary motion and written to the Foreign Secretary to urge the British Government to protect equal rights for women in Afghanistan. The President of Afghanistan is reported to have introduced laws which would effectively legalise rape within marriage and prevent women entering employment or accessing education and health services without their husbands agreement. Commenting on the need for urgent action, Sir Menzies said: "Many people in Britain supported British troops being sent to Afghanistan to remove the Taliban under whose brutal regime millions of people - ...
It's a rare day I link to a proper lefty blog but this comparison between Brown and Lord Charles over on Chicky Yog's site made me chuckle.
Janet Torley's Small Business Club is a thriving group full of vitality. I addressed around thirty small businesspeople at East End Park and was quizzed on issues such as the banks, Europe, confidence and a range of local concerns. There certainly is a fighting spirit amongst the Fife business community.
Congratulations to Mike Priestley who has been chosen, with 100% approval, as the Aberconwy Liberal Democrat candidate to fight the next General Election. I was lucky enough to be present at his adoption meeting last Friday and was hugely impressed by his first speech as PPC for Aberconwy - I am sure it will be the first of many!I am delighted that Mike has been chosen as our PPC for Aberconwy -
First let me put this in context, I was not involved with any group demonstrating in the city for the G20 protests. I am not an anticapitalist (I'm a Lib Dem) I work in marketing, for a charity and have never taken part in direct action. However, I am concerned about climate change, one of the issues on the G20 agenda. I wanted to see exactly what the climate camp contingent were about, and what kind of message they wanted world leaders to hear. Considering the vast majority of scientific opinion believes we are in severe danger from climate change ...
Tom Service writes in the Guardian today:I am a 33-year-old classical music critic. In my 25 years of going to concerts (and since my 20s, writing about them), I am almost always the youngest person in the audience. Everywhere I go, from Bournemouth to Inverness, concert halls and opera houses resemble conventions for the blue-rinse brigade.Another thing: I've noticed that bus and train stations now pipe canned classical music, day-in, day-out, through their speakers as a way of stopping young people hanging around. So toxic have the associations become, that this experiment actually worksIt is easy to overdo the emphasis ...
Thu 2nd
13:13
Second story in the Express and Star this week about Wolverhampton Conservative Councillor Jonathan ...
Yesterday's Wolverhampton Express and Star had another story regarding Wolverhampton Conservative Councillor Jonathan Yardley. The first was about the homophobia accusation I have already covered, this new one is about his non-attendance and his allowances.
Although a terrifying advert to watch, it is amazing to see the public becoming more and more aware of domestic violence. There are always things we can do to improve awareness however, and to stop these terrible situations. They ruin lives, not just of the women who are being abused, but of children trapped in the cycle of terror and even the wider community. It was good of Keira Knightley to do the advert, and for free as well.
In a debate that I led on the Dunfermline Building Society in the House of Commons yesterday I concluded with the following: "People want answers, but I have absolutely no desire to have a crude witch hunt. That is not our style in Dunfermline; it is not how we do things. However, members, staff and the community want to understand what happened. They want to know how such a fine institution for 140 years could be wrecked in a few months. They want to understand why reckless decision making caused that to happen. I urge those who were responsible—those who ...
I've tidied away the ballot papers for safe keeping, I've calculated the results, and I'm content that, as far as possible, all is well in terms of process. The result, on the other hand, is for Liberal Youth to deal with in due course. I do have to submit a report on the elections, and would be grateful for any comments with regard to process that reflect possible constitutional change, or that could be reflected in a protocol for future elections. You know where to find me, or just leave a comment. The rest of my life is likely to ...
Looks like there's a Mutual that didn't receive a bailout nor received guarantees for up to £50,000. Why's Northern Ireland different from England? Perhaps there's no Labour MPs nearby?
So the next general elections date is set to May 2010 according to a blog post by Iain Dale but according to the date given by Dale its going to be on a Friday. I don't know much about government decisions but elections take place on Thursday's not Fridays! So the general election can only take place on the 7th May 2009 and that will be a Thursday, also in the Bill it states that all general elections will take place every four years which means that the government has taken fixed term to consideration or have they? Is this ...
News of the number of folk tripping on the flags on Liverpool Rd outside the Video shop and Robert Tears butcher was brought to me by several people. I have no complaint about the speed of the council's response. I emailed and got a confirmation the same morning. Sadly something was lost in translation and the inspector was dispatched to the junction of St John's Rd Waterloo! Anyway despite that the proper site was inspected the same afternoon and this morning the workmen were on site. Last week similar swift service was provided for the 'sinking' bit of Dover Rd ...
...And since I have spent much of the last twenty-four hours clicking refresh on the #G20 twitterstream, I may as well turn it into some semblance of reportage for those with better things to do. It goes without saying that the Twitterers - including some good work by the Guardian team - were quicker with the news than any other channel. I first learned about the smashed windows at RBS, the police baton charges, and the police dogs from Twitter. "Dogs, horses and water cannon" is the procedure in public order situations, according to a friendly policeman talking to one ...
Libdemblogs.co.uk is an aggregator site, taking feeds from most Lib Dem blogs (currently 213 of them) and displaying extracts of posts in reverse chronological order. It is very capably maintained by Ryan Cullen, who responds to emails quickly and deserves 'props' (whatever they are) for his efforts. It's what makes the Lib Dem Blogosphere different. Other bloggers are dependent on reciprocal links, and so established bloggers become the gatekeepers of what does and does not 'make it'. New bloggers can get themselves added to libdemblogs and suddenly have access to a large readership, and so because of this it seems ...
This is an updated version of a post I wrote in February. Thanks to everyone who made suggestions via comments, email, Twitter and carrier pigeon. It's fairly cheap and easy to produce videos and make them available to the world via YouTube these days. But how do you get people to then watch them? Here are six tips to get you started on building your YouTube audiences. 1. Go local with YouTube Most YouTube videos done for a political purpose get relatively few views. If you take a look at national videos from the main political parties, viewing figures are ...
Over 45s are ignoring the risks of catching a Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI), according to a story on the BBC. "Nearly a fifth of those polled aged 45 to 54 said they had had unprotected sex with someone other than a long-term partner in the past five years."Apparently, these naughty middle-aged people, freed from the risk of unwanted pregnancy are playing hide the sausage with gay abandon (so to speak) and not using a condom. The experts chide this irreponsible group, many of who think the risk of catching an STI is "next to nothing". The fools. The idiots. So ...
Mark Thomas was great last night on Newsnight (watch it here from about 26 minutes in). He managed to summarise what he perceives as the main problem that the G20 should tackle (tax havens) in a very short space of time. He even seemed to know more about the situation than Paxman. He made a comment that the government actually rents some of its buildings from companies that operate from tax havens and Paxman asked "Is that true?". Unfortunately Wee Douggie Alexander did not respond to this but instead emphasised that global action is needed. He has a fair point ...
Former Tory Minister, Lord Garel-Jones has told the All-Wales Convention that Welsh people who live outside the country, but who have a family connection with Wales, should be able to vote in any referendum on dismantling the LCO process and enabling the Assembly to access its full law-making powers as set out in the Government of Wales Act 2006. It is the case of course that overseas voters do not have a vote in Assembly elections. Does the good Lord know this? As Glyn Mathias says, the normal franchises should apply. It is not as if those living outside the ...
House Calls with the Wallington South Safer Neighbourhood Team The local Safer Neighbourhoods Team has identified Russell Court in Ross Road as an area presenting a particular set of difficulties. There had been numerous complaints about dog fouling in the area; some anti social behaviour incidents as well as some ongoing neighbour disputes. The police sergeant [...]
MP's receipts have been obtained by someone who wants to make a financial gain from them and personally I think someone should pay him and actually buy the receipts and make them public. I have no money to pay someone for one million receipts but if some one has then I think they should purchase the receipts! Personally I think the public should know what MP's are claiming and if what they are claiming is actually needed by them as MP's, I personally would not be happy to know that my MP was claiming towels and stuff like that for ...
In early March 2009 renowned Lambeth bakers De Lieto applied for planning permission for a new bakery. Lambeth Council astoundingly decided that the local residents would be distressed by the smell. In stepped local Lib Dem councillors Rob Banks and Andrew Sawdon. There followed a rapid online and offline campaign to get residents to sign a petition in favour of the bakery, with over 100 petitions through De Lieto's front door in less than 24 hours. A combination of leaflets, emails, Rob and Andrew's superb blog and the council rapidly u-turned. More on this story can be found here. This ...
I must apologise, must I not. I spent any spare moment yesterday glued to the #g20 Twitter stream, which says much in itself, not only about my indolence but about the relevance of PMQs to the concerns of the outside world. It's the nature of the beast with the G20, I think. It's hard enough for journalists and commentators with thousands of words at their disposal to say anything meaningful about such a complex, open-ended and uncertain set of negotiations. A half-hour clutch of stage-managed questions and answers frequently interrupted by partisan honking stands no chance. But before the G20 ...
The Parliament's environment committee has met for the last time before the European elections, with goodbyes to all the members who already know that they will not be returning, and warm words about how much work we have done together. The committee will not meet again (except for a formal session to confirm the appointment of a new chair) for 5 months. Even though this happens only once every 5 years it seems an extraordinary gap. I only wish we could afford such a relaxed approach to the environental problems facing humanity.
The number of international students in the UK has ballooned in recent years. According to the Higher Education Statistics Agency one fifth of last year's graduates were overseas students, nearly double the 1997 figure. Why so many overseas students? A lack of cash. Fees from non-EU students, who pay two or three times more than home students, accounted for 8 per cent of total university income in 2007 and 30 per cent of income from tuition fees, education grants and contracts. Tuition fees from UK and EU students only accounted for only 15 per cent of total income. Recent government ...
If you want to find out more you can click through to the Women's Aid website here.
News from the Council of more roadworks on Essex Road. "We are proposing to resurface Essex Road between Popham Street and Canonbury Road. The works will be carried out at night to minimise disruption to traffic. During the work, traffic on Essex Road will be reduced to one lane with temporary signals to allow vehicles [...]
Daily collection of links and thoughts that weren't worth a whole post. 22:45 Ye gods Oborne's talking utter shite. #newswipe # 23:04 oh blimey, switch to #BBC2 and Mark Thomas is on. Much better #newsnight #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.
Ludwig Minelli, founder of the Swiss organisation Dignitas — which helps people to commit suicide — has argued that voluntary euthanasia is, or should be, considered as a human right. I tend to agree. We may not choose to be born, but surely — with the exception of dying in an accident, which nobody would actually prefer — the date of our passing should be something under our control. Whether the reasons for an individual concluding they have lived as long as they wish to are for health reasons (physical or mental) or because they consider that they have 'had ...
The Wolverhampton AdNews is closing down, owner Trinity Mirror has confirmed that last week's edition was the last.
I thought this photo might be an Alison Jackson-style April Fool. Apparently it's genuine. It seems even the Queen has been smitten with the Obama charm.
Photo by Peter Ashley http://unmitigatedengland.blogspot.com One of these days I shall trip over Peter Ashley while he takes one of his photographs. For the second time his Unmitigated England blog has featured buildings I walk past every day on my journey to the station. Last time it was the site of the old Dainite Mills (now blocks of buy-to-let flats that are being hastily remarketed as a "retirement village"). This time it is a pair of houses in Rectory Lane, Little Bowden. Back in the 1980s the right-hand house was occupied by Liberal supporters. At election time they would show ...
Courtesy of the Citizens Advice Bureau in Turnpike Lane.
Welcome to the 110th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (22nd-28th March 2009), together with a hand-picked quintet, mostly courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed. As ever, let's start with the most popular post, and work our way down. 1. Liberal Youth Elections- fought between factions on Alasdair Wood's A Radical View blog. The saga rumbles on... 2. "Union Jack" "LibDem Councillor/Postmaster" "sacked" and "ousted" from party for "refusing to serve people who don't speak English" on Paul Walter's Liberal Burblings blog. Deva ...
I admit it, I fell for the Firebox one. Their latest email arrived in my inbox, advertising their newest gadgets, including satnav trainers. I thought they sounded ridiculous - but genuine - until I spotted the powdered beer alongside. The Guardian's announcement it was going to convert entirely to Twitter was brilliant. Andrew Reeves spotted an [...]
Polling day has now started. Will post more later...
Had a little chuckle yesterday when i read about Nick not meeting Obama. Well let me say Nick thats just what the Salford party workers feel when you get lost past Manchester Piccadilly station. The Conservatives in Salford get everyone except Maggie but us, well we have to thanks Vince, Maybe you should hand down [...]
The right wing Turkish ruling AK Party has not done very well in the local elections on Sunday. Not sure how Anavatan has done yet. I'll try to find out.
Have just been in Turkey during their Municipal Elections. Just can't seem to get away from campaigns. I met a candidate for the Anavatan Party, which is about the most middle of the road of the Turkish parties, though I think they are more ...
A walk and trip to the new library on the agenda today # Sitting in the yard enjoying the sun with my son. # Town council this evening #
Thank you to everyone who entered my quiz to win a copy of The Rotten State of Britain. Entries have now closed. The three winners will be announced at a glittering ceremony, to be held at Bonkers Hall, Rutland, tomorrow evening (Friday). The exciting news is that Liberal England will be liveblogging the event.
Does a partnership trump a relationship? How many of each is a kinship worth? Michael Scherer, of Time magazine's Swampland blog, has been bemused at British press obsession with Obama's omission of the phrase 'special relationship' last month. Now he is bemused by the proliferation of metaphors used in the President's joint press conference with Gordon Brown today.
