{burst_water_main} As I was completing a cavity wall insulation survey on nearby Littleton Road, I was astonished to see Salford's new water feature located in the heart of Irwell Riverside, on Lissadel Street. Looks like a water main had either burst (or more likely been damaged/vandalised) and the water was shooting up about 10-15 feet in the air. As I stopped to phone United Utilities, I couldn't help but laugh as various cars and vans took the opportunity for a free car wash as they waited for the lights to change. Lissadel street joins with Broughton Road and the traffic ...
Do they have no shame? One of those AMs who spoke against cuts and job losses at this rally, despite voting in favour of them on 11 March, actually e-mailed us to ask for video footage of his speech so he could put it on his own website. You can fool some of the people some of the time but....
Then again, I may be imagining it. Such is life as a delusional fantasist clinging hopelessly to outdated paradigms! A quote from Tom Murphy, Cllr Merry,s election agent.Sourced from Cllr Cookes Blog. Well Tom the truths finally out.I bet you feel better for it.
I'm going to start with the assumption that you know what Twitter is. I've written here about it enough and it's got all famous since then - any minute now, it'll be passé. Having established that, I can safely lazily define 12seconds as "like Twitter but with video". Where Twitter requires the poster to encapsulate their thoughts within 140 characters, 12seconds is built from videos that are - wait for it - no more than 12 seconds long. This makes it very hard for them to be boring (though it happens) and encourages the same cutdown, efficient, pithy communication with ...
While I was in Bulgaria on Monday addressing conferences of our two member parties there (both in government), news came out of Prague of agreement among our foreign ministers to invite Belarus to the EU's eastern neighbours partnership summit on 7 May, but not to receive President Lukashenko himself. Belarus is the only European country still to execute its citizens in peacetime; there is no media freedom to speak of and little political freedom. And none of our Leaders wishes to be photographed alongside its dictatorial President. In Brussels the following day the EP hosted a cross-party conference on Belarus ...
I am now on the train heading back to the North East. The weekend will be the usual mix of allotment, Focuses, campaigning and video making plus a hush hush meeting about which I ain't going to tell you anything. We also have to make a visit to B&Q. I don't know what for, I simply got the message from David that we need to go to buy something for the allotment.Anyway, I need to shoot some video
The G20 circus has now left town and Gordon has enjoyed himself. I hadn't seen him smile like that since he announced the abolition of the 10p rate and thought he'd got away with it. Pity for him that he has to stop hanging around with his fereign buddies and return to work with all those Labour ministers and MPs who have grown to despair of him. Trade credits and the decision of the creditor
You know those 1940s style police adverts? The ones that sound really threatening with slogans along the lines of "We're going to come to your house and beat the shit out of you."Despite the sinister, threatening sounding messages on the poster, you can look carefully and see some tiny small print at the bottom that's all nice and fluffy - about how you can send a text message to get information about how the police are fighting crime in your area. You text PLEDGE and your postcode to 66101. I thought I'd give it a try. I'm not sure quite ...
No not at the G20. Although regulation got talked about before the G20 met, during it and after it, there was relatively little regulation agreed. Instead a story about illegal file sharing caught my eye today in the FT. The music industry has been very concerned about this activity for a some time. They have tried over and over to stop it with limited success. In the article, Andrew Loyd Webber claims the Beatles would not have emerged had there been such behaviour in the sixties. And he calls for regulation as the only answer to the problem. One would ...
No, they haven't seen me leading the Charge of the Light Brigade. It's much worse than that! Work is taking place at Kings Cross which looks as though it is to set up ticket barriers. So not only do we have the privilege of having our trains cancelled by National Express, we can add to that the privilege of being delayed at the station as hundreds of people, complete with bags galore, attempt to
Charlotte Gore has recently set up a new blog. She is a libertarian Liberal Democrat who always has something interesting to say about politics, campaigning and life. She has designed her new blog and it is looking good. In one of her early posts, on the new blog, she makes the case for bloggers to link to people they actually read. That way Google and others will see who is popular, as linking to another site is one way to drive the rankings of a site up a search engine. This course of action is suggested as an alternative to ...
Not the most conventional of posts, i agree, but I don't think enough is made of this "Ethos" let alone publicised. After all, it encompasses the overarching principles which guide our policy making and which seeks to define what the Liberal Democrats stand for - it is also what convinced me to join the Liberal Democrats. Time and again, I hear from people on the doorsteps "Well, what are the Lib Dems for?" "What do you represent?" So, here it is...... The Liberal Democrats exist to build and safeguard a fair, free and open society, in which we seek to ...
I was concerned to see alleged proposals to weaken tenant's security of tenure and put pressure on those not on low wages to move out. This risks turning council housing into the short of "welfare" housing we've always as a party rejected and also goes against that valuable New Labour tenet – don't cut peoples [...]
In general I think ID cards are a waste of resources which could be better used in tackling crime in different ways i.e. employ more police, more money for community schemes etc. I worry particularly about any requirements to show ID cards and costs of replacement. Most people lose things like this occasionally and then [...]
Even though there is a funding crisis at West Lindsey District Council, the Conservative administration have seen fit to spend £2,500 in Lincoln! Breaking all the terms and conditions of the West Lindsey Community Sports Grants scheme, they have given 25% of the budget this year to the Velo Club Lincoln:Velo Club Lincoln/Lincoln Grand Prix Cycle RaceAssist in Costs of Lincoln Grand Prix.
LEADERS OF THE LIBERAL PARTY (IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS) 10th December 1834 Lord John Russell b. 18th August 1792, d. 28th May 18786th February 1855 Viscount Palmerston (Henry John Temple) b. 20th October 1784, d. 18th October 186529th October 1865 William Ewart Gladstone b. 29th December 1809, d. 19th May 18985th February 1875 Marquess [...]
We are coming, any chance of directions? No Joking apart, i await to see how our Leadership deal with this one. Hope you have not been fibbing New Labour when you said you have been getting good vibes, and negative feedback over Cllr Owen, i don't think that's true you naughty devils. [...]
I attended my first planning meeting for Hastings UAF last night. It was a refreshing change to be working alongside (instead of against) Labour Councillors Jay Kramer and Trevor Webb. It is so important that there are cross-party initiatives like this one - which is aiming to raise people's awareness of the dangers of the BNP, and [...]
I was pleasantly surprised that the Hastings & St Leonards Town Conference, held at Azur yesterday. was so interesting and potentially useful for the Borough. There were some excellent presentations - helping to locate Hastings and St Leonards in the wider picture of the current recession, and giving guidance as to what should be done to [...]
Found this Prize on the BNP web site,imagine this on your mantle piece?
Remember not so long ago it was a stigma to live in a council House? we had one for over twenty years can't say it did me any harm. Sad thing is now in Salford we have 18,000 on waiting lists and not enough housing to go round. We need to look into housing not [...]
God if this happens in Salford it could mean whole scale starvation for many families.Only joking the part i live in is full of them every morning we get up the roads are full of Pizza cartons, Chip wrappers, Burger boxes it's a nightmare. Cant say i am against fast food in moderation but the [...]
A teenager who was doing all he could to make sure someone who had lost their phone got it back got arrested when he turned it in at the local police station in Southport. Of course the fact that 18 year old birthday boy Paul Leicester ended up spending four hours in the cells means that his DNA was taken and will be held on the National DNA database. He had already called the owner and told the owner he would be dropping it off at the local police station so they could collected. He charge was "theft by finding". ...
Labour per first hour £31-50 Addotional Hours £25.00 Half day-£94-00 Fullday £150-00 To Register £10-00 Pick something up say from B,Q before job starts £15.00. Just been passed this from a resident in the ward. It comes from a service set up to help the elderly. At these prices i think i will buy a van a start up myself. [...]
21:48 The party is beginning to break up. Thank you to everyone who took part and congratulations to the three winners. I shall be emailing you to ask for your full addresses. I shall stay at the Hall for a while and held Lord Bonkers and Meadowcroft finish the Rutland champagne. Good night. 21:42 Hazel probes the deepest recesses of the top hat and emerges with the third winner: Charles Steward Lord Bonkers remarks: Isn't he the chap who his up an oak tree? 21:40 The lovely Hazel has drawn the second winner: Sue Richardson And she's from Shropshire! 21:36 ...
This article about Russell Crowe's poetry acceptance speech caught my eye. Fab! The Queen's looking for a new poet laureate - look! He's hunky, has a band (does he still have a band?)and can rhyme! Look no further. Problem solved. (I do actually really like the poem... it's not just his big puppy-dog eyes...) Talking of poetry, I have finished my long poem, as mentioned on this blog before about the long history of Blue Bell Hill, Kent and will try and find some space to publish it, probably on Ripplestone Review in the next few weeks. (blatant advertising done..) ...
My House Point's column from today's Liberal Democrat News. It is one of those slightly preachy ones where I try to point a moral. Youtube has the video of Eric Pickles on Question Time. The rough, tough, gruff trope is stolen from In the Red by the late Mark Tavener, an early stalwart of the Liberal Revue. Pickled logic The worrying feature of the scandal over MPs' allowances is not that voters no longer trust MPs. It's that MPs no longer trust the voters. It was easy to laugh at Eric Pickles' performance on Question Time last week. The wonder ...
It's wonderful to see a business expanding during the recession. I was pleased to be asked to officially open Water Coolers Scotland's newly expanded premises at Kelty - in the PM's patch - today. (I did seek permission from the boss!) It's a great business that supplies water coolers to businesses and the public sector across Scotland. With twenty seven employees its a business that I am sure will continue to grow.
The other day I took this video of them changing the sign outside the Bathgate offices of the Labour Party. Multimedia message on 12seconds.tv Sadly it's not that clear but the white part of the sign that's visible announced the offices of the MSP for Linlithgow Mary Mulligan. This evening I decided to go back past to see the completed work. After all it is only a handful of seconds longer on my trip home. I was greeted by this: The sign is totally dedicated to Michael Connarty who I contested the seat of Linlithgow and East Falkirk against in ...
I have been advised by the City Council that : Due to Virgin Media repairs works, the northbound side of South Marketgait (between the Riverside roundabout and Greenmarket) will be closed to traffic for one day only this Sunday (5th April)andDue to crane removal works, Brown Street (from Hawkhill to Guthrie Street) will be closed tomorrow for 2 days (4th and 5th April)
Went back to City Hall for a meeting of ex-GLA members of the London Assembly. Very nice to meet up with old faces. Boris wandered over to say hello. He gave a funny speech - which is his talent. Can't have been that long after his now much publicised hissy fit where he stomped out of a Commons Select Committee 'cos he didn't like the questions about why London transport stopped the night we had snow. What a woos! Off to OxPoly - as was - now Oxford Brookes University - as an alumni to take part in a panel ...
Over the last week, Lib Dem Voice has invited the members of our private forum (open to all Lib Dem members) inviting them to take part in a survey, conducted via Liberty Research, asking a number of questions about the party and the current state of British politics. Many thanks to the almost 200 of you who completed it; we'll be publishing the results on LDV over the next few days. First up, we asked about the Lib Dems' policy on tax: Nick Clegg this week announced that the Lib Dems would no longer find it possible to cut the ...
Writing in the Guardian today, Alexander Chancellor notes the irony of the press hounding MPs for overclaiming their expenses when journalists are themselves famous for their ingenuity in this field. He recalls a tale from the heroic age of Fleet Street:When I was a young journalist, there was a popular story (almost certainly apocryphal) about a Daily Express correspondent in Cairo who regularly submitted lavish claims for entertaining a "Colonel Smithers of British Intelligence".Head office in London, seeking cost-savings, conducted an investigation, which revealed that there was no such officer in Egypt, and it jubilantly cabled the correspondent to say ...
As promised after the fatal accident in November, South Glos Council will be carrying out two lots of surveys on Rodford Way near Abbotswood. There will be speed surveys (in both directions for 7 to 10 days starting in the week commencing 20th April, and a count of pedestrians crossing the road (including approximate age and where they cross) is programmed for 27th April.
At least Canada has spoken out against President Karzai regressive, human rights busting new laws and putting a question mark under the number of troops they are going to send there. Now, I understand the strategic importance of Afghanistan and the impact that peace and security there can have on our own security. But really? Are there to be no principles in our international relations? Also thanks to Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the head of NATO for speaking out as well; indeed, how is he supposed to get the Europeans to send more troops. He says: "I have a problem ...
Nick Perry, the Liberal Democrat parliamentary campaigner for Hastings & Rye, has slammed Rye Town Council and said that its Annual Town Meeting (held last Wednesday) failed Rye residents. Speaking after the meeting Nick said, "I was really pleased to see so many local residents and business people wanting to hold their Town Council to account. "I am [...]
Two more impressive features of ubuntu this week. First, I plugged in the family printer to see if it would work. At this point Windows would squeal that it needed new software, that the port was wrong, that the printer was not compatible and all sorts of tosh. When I previously tried to use the same printer with Windows Vista that was my evening gone. Ubuntu recognised the printer immediately and started printing within a minute without me needing to do anything daft or laboured. I just pressed print. Second, my laptop battery has for some time been almost completely ...
On Wednesday I was interviewed by Ryan Hubbard and his documentary-making team from the University Centre Hastings. It was really good to be involved in the project and to be able to give the Lib Dem perspective on helping to support the great British pub, but also about how to tackle the social problems that we have [...]
The Times's Daniel Finkelstein suddenly seems uncharacteristically shy. On successive days this week, he has denounced senior Lib Dems - Baroness Williams, Simon Hughes, Chris Huhne and David Howarth - for acting as legal observers to ensure the freedom to protest peacefully was respected at this week's climate camp in London, organised to coincide with the G20 summit. As I've previously mentioned - here and here - also on successive days Danny has neglected to mention last August's Kingsnorth climate camp, after which serious concerns were raised about policing methods. Nor has Danny acknowledged the concerns noted just 10 days ...
Bath & North East Somerset Council's Museums and Galleries have arranged a two week-long programme of workshops and trails to entertain the whole family over the Easter break. At the Council-run Victoria Art Gallery in Bridge Street the following creative workshops take place - on Thursday 9 April, Weave a wonder for 3 to 7 year olds, and on Thursday 16 April Metal magic for 6 to 11...
Bath and North East Somerset Council is warning off-road drivers to stay within the law or face the consequences. The Council and Avon and Somerset Police are stepping up action against illegal off-road driving in response to a growing numbers of complaints from the public regarding several sites across the district. Last month, the police fined two men from Paulton for driving...
Bath & North East Somerset Council's Museums and Galleries have arranged a two week-long programme of workshops and trails to entertain the whole family over the Easter break. At the Council-run Victoria Art Gallery in Bridge Street the following creative workshops take place - on Thursday 9 April, Weave a wonder for 3 to 7 year olds, and on Thursday 16 April Metal magic for 6 to 11...
Bath & North East Somerset Council and Bath BMX have worked together to organise a two-day BMX event during the Easter holidays. Young people aged 11 - 19 yrs old will have the opportunity to ride the The Tumps (Baths BMX Track). They will also have the opportunity to try out the tracks race start gate and find out about Bath BMX - the local BMX club. The event will take...
Bath & North East Somerset Council and Bath BMX have worked together to organise a two-day BMX event during the Easter holidays. Young people aged 11 - 19 yrs old will have the opportunity to ride the The Tumps (Baths BMX Track). They will also have the opportunity to try out the tracks race start gate and find out about Bath BMX - the local BMX club. The event will take...
One of the Bath's parks - Alexandra Park in Bath - is in the running to be named as the country's favourite picnic spot. A shortlist of 10 the best picnic venues in the south west has been drawn up by bread company Warburtons. The national winner will receive £1,000 for the site and a plaque. Vote online at www.welovebread.co.uk So called in honour of...
Caroline Flint, Labour's minister of state for Europe, sparked some minor controversy earlier this week, after she admitted she had not read parts of the Lisbon treaty: "I have read some of it but not all of it," she confessed. The Tories professed their outrage, seemingly forgetting Ken Clarke's famous declaration, back when he was a senior member of John Major's cabinet, that he had not read the Maastricht treaty. LDV felt duty-bound to put the question to Ed Davey, the Lib Dems' shadow foreign secretary - here's what he told us: I've read all the key parts, but there ...
Sefton's top-performing recycling rate has saved council taxpayers £1 million. The soaring cost of getting rid of rubbish is shared between the five Merseyside councils according to the amount of garbage they produce. Because Southort people are recycling more, instead of putting out so much rubbish, Sefton's percentage share of the cost of waste disposal has dropped to the lowest in the region at just 4.3 per cent compared to as much as 18 per cent paid by others. This was reported to councillors at Southport's Area Committee on Wednesday 1 April. Afterwards Councillor David Tattersall, Environmental cabinet member, said: ...
Then why not read my Twenty Questions to a fellow Blogger?
As many of you know that I am working hard to try and get the media to cover the whole situation with the National Front member who wanted to blow up Scotland's biggest Mosque and behead one Muslim a week until they wasn't any left and because of that I am supporting the group that has been set up by my friend Yousuf Hamid and you can join the group by following the link. I have emailed a few MSM companies and have had a reply only from STV and the reply can be seen below: Dear Mr Ahmed Thank ...
Picture - Winning Team left to right: Cllr John Hannon, Cllr Margaret Wilson, Amanda Proud, Cllr Glynis Abbott, Pat Swales, new Cllr Ken Lucas, Ian Swales (PPC for Redcar), Chris Abbott Group Leader, Steven Abbott, Cllr Mary Ovens, Cllr Madge Moses, Wilf Phillips. Posted by Chris: The Liberal Democrats' victory in Dormanstown is the first time in living memory that Labour has lost a seat in the Ward. The nearest coming 10 years ago when the Lib Dems lost by 8 votes. In more than 30 years fighting local government elections Labour's desperate campaign of smears, lies and outrageous distortions ...
Huntingdonshire DC, RamseyCon 626 (38.1; -8.1)UKIP 520 (31.6; +9.8)LD Robert Mumford 432 (26.3; -0.9)Lab 67 (4.1; -0.8)Majority 106Turnout 25.8%Con holdPercentage change is since May 2008 Redcar and Cleveland BC, DormanstownLD 809 (42.4; +17.3)Lab 667 (35.0; -17.1)BNP 305 (16.6; +16.6)Con 125 (6.6; -16.2)Majority 142Turnout 36.8%LD gain from LabPercentage change is since May 2007 Leeds City,
Well, someone who looks a bit like him anyway!
What really happened during the protests in the City on Wednesday? Tom Brake, Liberal Democrat MP for neighbouring Carshalton and Wallington, was at the Climate Change protest and was detained within the police cordon. Here's his video report.
I'm a law abiding kind of guy, with no criminal record and an inherent respect for the police. They have a difficult job to do and, for the most part, they do it well, even under severe provocation. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that their tactics and strategy should go unchallenged, especially by those amongst us who are keen to see a policing and criminal justice strategy whereby the key elements of each support and underpin the other. There are now serious concerns about the strategy employed in policing the mixture of peaceful and provocative protests that we saw in ...
The BBC have been fined £150,000 by Ofcom over the Brand/Ross/Sachs affair.Just think about that for a moment.The BBC is funded by licence payers. So licence payers will stump up £150K to pay the fine.So far, so good (although bad for the licence payers).That money will not go to Ofcom. They can't accept money, apparently.So that £150,000 will go to the Treasury, apparently.So effectively, the
News has reached me of a gain from Labour in the Dormanstown byelection in Redcar and Cleveland yesterday. And yet again, the Conservatives trail in 4th place behind the BNP.The result is:Ken Lucas (Lib Dem) - 809Marion Fairley (Lab)- 667Lynn Payne (BNP) - 305Barry Hughes-Mundy (Con) - 125Labour have had quite a bad time of late in Redcar and Cleveland. looks as though things there for them are
The sixtieth anniversary of the signing of the NATO treaty in Washington in 1949 is now upon us. The organisation designed, in the words of Lord Ismay, its first Secretary General, to "keep the Americans in, the Russians out and the Germans down" has been a considerable success.To mark the occasion, the two states that fought three wars within sixty years, France and Germany, are co-hosting the anniversary summit and inevitably the contrast between the last sixty years of general peace and the previous sixty years of horrific bloodshed will be a great part of the symbolism of the meeting. ...
Health inequality in Reading, as it impacts on children and communities more generally is a subject I've written about on this blog before as it is an issue that makes my blood boil. Where you live in Reading undoubtedly effects how long you can expect to live, and your overall quality of life. One of the key factors influencing people's health is how readily and easily they can access high quality healthcare and health advice. For people living and working in the centre of Reading, things could well have got better today as a new walk-in clinic has been unveiled. The town centre population is ...
Sorry for the hiatus in posts. My friend Steve, he of the Racing Post, has challenged me to beat him in picking winners at the Aintree festival. Yesterday I had three winers and Steve... well, he didn't (despite the wonders of his special soap) So today's winners are: American Trilogy Here Comes the Truth Voy Por Ustedes Consigliere Karabak Kayf Aramis Chilli Rose Apart from Voy Por, Steve has picked a completely different bunch, so we'll no doubt have no winners between us
An interesting use of YouTube by the Welsh Liberal Democrats. As they put it, "On March 11th, Plaid Cymru and Labour AMs voted for cuts in FE funding. Three weeks later they protest with lecturers and students on the steps of the Senedd about FE cuts." Watch the story below (or via the YouTube website):
I've been stood outside the EICC watching the Police in action as the students were protesting about the bad environmental record of the Royal Bank of Scotland.Mainly the students have been well behaved bar on odd one or two trying their luck, but the Police have always been sharper.What's amused me is the Police photographer who has taken everyones picture unless they're a journalist (of which there are loads) or a shareholder.I waved and smiled when he took mine, I did ask why he was taking my picture when the new legislation prevented me taking his - he wasn't amused! ...
And my whole office are staring at me trying to compose myself and work out what to tell them...(probably best not for work) Police in London have launched a massive search for BBC Political Correspondent Nick Robinson, who has been missing since the end of the London G20 Summit. Robinson, bald, was last seen submitting yet another sycophantic Blog post on the BBC website, in which he described Gordon Brown as 'The Chancellor of the World Exchequer'.[From BBC Correspondent Nick Robinson Missing]
Later: Liveblogging has begun! The three winners of our Rotten State of Britain quiz will be announced tonight. By kind permission of Lord Bonkers, the draw will take place at Bonkers Hall, Rutland. And the whole event will be covered live here on Liberal England. We shall be using state of the art equipment developed by the University of Rutland's famous Department of Hard Sums to select the winning emails. And, to add glamour to proceedings, the button will be pressed by that lovely lady Lib Dem MP Hazel Grove. The Reverend Hughes will be on hand to ensure fair ...
This is further on the klimate kamp kettle.
Iain Dale doesn't think that Gordon Brown will call a snap election after the deals that were created by the G20 yesterday but I have to argue differently. I am someone who thinks a general election will take place in 2009 and I am pretty positive about that and I am so positive that I would even bet money on the odds of a general election taking place in 2009. The next poll result will be awaited by many with excitement because it will show if Brown has worked his magic with the G20 or if it was just a ...
Voicers may recall that back in February I raised a sardonic eyebrow at the outrage surrounding Chris Grayling's immolation at the hands of the Mirror. The issue at stake was his second home allowance, when his constituency (my home town of Epsom and Ewell) is only 17 miles from Westminster. Not so fast, said I!: "Only" 17 miles, eh? Ever tried negotiating it on the train? Oh, but of course not. You all live in Islington, don't you. One of my favourite pet facts to come out of the Policy Exchange report Cities Unlimited was that commuting times in London's ...
Very sad news about the death of Maggie Clay: It is with deep regret I feel I must inform you that Councillor Maggie Clay passed away yesterday (Thursday 2nd April). Maggie was much admired by all of us for her strong principles and her determination to make life better for people in Stockport. She played a leading role in many of our Council campaigns and most recently was at the forefront of our work to help people access benefits and be able to pay their winter fuel bills. She was a caring champion who looked after our communities in need, ...
Very busy at the moment and haven't had time to sit down and really work out what I think about the police handling of the protests on Wednesday. So instead, here are a few random links. First, an eye witness account by Tom Brake: Danny Finkelstein thoroughly disapproved of Brake and company doing this, as Stephen Tall relates. Justin McKeating has a number of useful links on the subject. John O'Connor meanwhile makes the case for the police. As for my own view? John O'Connor's article made my blood boil. What it amounts to is a refutation of the right ...
Giving phone masts the bird You only have a few days left to object to Vodafone's appeal to put yet another phone mast on Rodford Way, just yards from the existing O2 mast.Bad news - the closing date is next Wed, 8 April. Good news - you can now do it online. Here's how.First write out your objection. Write a letter with this reference on it: Case APP/P0119/A/09/2098204They know the site as "Highway Land Junction of Rodford Way and Shire Way, Yate" Possible grounds for objection include (a) Overdevelopment - the cumulative impact of FOUR masts in such a short ...
I walked around the City of London this morning. Sunlight filtered through the banks and sandwich bars of the narrow streets, occasionally reaching the road, more often than not reflected from the acres of glass left gleaming and untroubled the the events of the previous days. Around the Bank of England I searched for evidence of the violence and anarchy from the hard-core of the idiots who visited the G20 summit only to cause trouble. A rather lonely scrawl of "Fuck Capitalism" could be seen under the Bank's museum entrance sign, and on the other side, more wittily someone had ...
As many of you will know I am someone who is reliant upon Google for the service they provide me via Blogger.com and personally I think Blogger and Google are great and the Street View project is an excellent idea but many do not see it as one. Villagers have challenged the Google car and the driver from driving down their street and personally I think its ridiculous. First of all criminals would not use the images on Google maps to try and target properties, actually from that. Criminals are not going to look at pictures on Google maps before ...
Our campaign "Save Our Buses in South Gloucestershire" now has its own Facebook group. If you're on Facebook or know anyone who is, please look at / join the group. A quick link to get you there is www.tinyurl.com/sgbus - you'll need to sign in with your Facebook ID. Also - or if you're not on Facebook - please visit the campaign website and petition at ourcampaign.org.uk/southglosbuses where you can sign the petition online, join our email group and print off petition forms. There are also regular updates here, and on our sister Focus blog for Charfield, Frampton Cotterell, Ladden ...
Who said this: 'Although recent events in the Channel have not necessarily been to our advantage, the country can be assured that, under this administration, any form of hostile force will be met with resistance at the earliest opportunity'. Answer at the end. I've been thinking about political heavyweights - people with stature and respect across the political spectrum. In the 60s and 70s there were Rab Butler, Enoch Powell, Willie Whitelaw, Denis Healey and Roy Jenkins - and you can add the party leaders Edward Heath, Harold Wilson, Jim Callaghan and, yes, Mrs Thatcher. But who are the big ...
Liberal Democrats have won the Dormanstown Ward By Election on Redcar and Cleveland which could put an end to Labour control. The result was as follows: Ken Lucas (Lib Dem) - 809 (42.4%; +17.3%) Marion Fairley (Lad)- 667 (35.0%; -17.1%) Lynn Payne (BNP) - 305 (16.6%; +16.6%) Barry Hughes-Mundy (Con) - 125 (6.6%; -16.2%) Majority 142 Turnout 36.83% LD gain from Lab Percentage change is since May 2007 Composition of the Council now is: Labour - 26 Liberal Democrats - 15 Conservative - 11 East Cleveland Independents - 2 Independents - 2 Independents supporting Labour - 3
There's a nifty little Google Map at http://ouseful.open.ac.uk/maps/mpTravelExpensesMap.html which is a great example of how you can use maps to make statistics clearer. In this case, the big issue is that MPs do have genuinely different legitimate travel needs depending on where they live. It's only reasonable for an MP from Scotland to have much higher travel expenses than one who lives in London, for example. Putting the sums on a map helps show the patterns which are reasonable. And it also highlights those which are a bit more surprising, such as the previously mentioned Margaret Moran, Labour MP for ...
After a frantic couple of weeks I am slowly catching up on my emails. There have been a few recently on the adverts that are appearing in local newspapers across the county from Essex County Council.The Tories are using tax payers money to advertise things that the council have 'achieved'. Although it appears that not all their statements are accurate.If anything, the County Council should use
"Police have found a new way to plug those gaps in the DNA database by arresting people for being honest." - Home Office Watch has spotted the story of a Southport teenager who was arrested after handing in a mobile phone he had found, to a police station. Paul Leicester was held for four hours, questioned and had his DNA, fingerprints and photo taken. His alleged offence was "theft by finding" - even though he had not attempted to deprive the phone's owner of their property, and handed it in as soon as possible. Merseyside Police have now withdrawn the ...
Further to my previous post about the G20 summit and positive coverage Brown is getting, I am starting to wonder if my former confidence that Brown will go the distance is perhaps misplaced. I still think it most likely that the next General Election will be in May or June 2009, but if Brown has the balls he could surprise us all. As Peter Hoskin says here on the Spectator blog today: Much as with one of Brown's Budgets, it takes at least a few days - if not weeks, months - for the charade to be picked up on ...
Tom Brake MP was one of those caught in the Climate Camp by police yesterday. Here's a video he has uploaded to YouTube: The Graun seems to be the only paper not regurgitating the official police line. The blogs and twitter are telling a very different story to the official police line. My thought last night was that the truth was probably somewhere between the two camps, both of them having a vested interest in presenting things in a particular way. The more that comes out, the more I lean towards the police brutality line advanced by the protestors. Seriously, ...
What they said and what they did.
I saw Watchdog on the sign zone last night and there was a piece about Tiscali's customer service (or lack of it) that reminded me of something that happened last year. Since 2003 I had been with Pipex as my broadband provider. They had come highly recommended and I was very pleased with the service I had received having stayed with them through a house move and having gone from 512kb/s to 1Mb/s and finally to 2Mb/s. I never quite got the headline speed but it was usually not far off. However, early in 2008 I started to notice that ...
While the G20 leaders were meeting at the Excel Centre in Newham yesterday afternoon, I was speaking at a packed meeting in the House of Commons, organised by the Universal Peace Federation on 'New Vision amid the Economic Crisis'. I argued that the New World Order implicit in moving from G8 to G20 must mean [...]
Like something you've read or watched on the internet? Sharing it with others is a good idea because: 1. It helps get the content to a wider audience. Whether it is to share the interest and enjoyment that you got from the piece, or whether it is for publicity purposes because you think it should be seen by more people, sharing the content via sources such as Digg or Facebook is a good way to achieve that. 2. Using one or more of these routes builds up a history for your own future use of what you've found and liked. ...
I yesterday wanted to tweet the results of the Cloverhill by election as they broke so I could tell my followers which included one of Lancashire's top newspapers the Lancashire Telegraph the results in real time as they broke but my phone failed me in doing the task. My flaming phone stopped allowing me to access twitter when I most needed it and its one of the reasons why I always say you can't beat the desktop computer. Personally I think twittering live events is the best way to cover them as long as you set up a thread before ...
The results for the Nelson Town Council by election have not been published anywhere on the Internet and because I was not at the count I can not give you figures except let you know that the Liberal Democrats won Cloverhill and Bradley was probably won by the Labour candidate. So one seat that the Lib Dems previously had (Bradley) has switched hands but Cloverhill has stayed in safe hands!
I missed PMQs this week and have only just caught up with watching it this morning. I have to say that what Cameron led on is exactly what I have been saying regarding MPs expenses. I have reproduced the relevant portion from Hansard below (although you really need to watch it to hear the barracking from 33 minutes in for about 4 minutes here): Mr. David Cameron (Witney) (Con): On behalf of all Conservative Members, I join the Prime Minister in welcoming President Obama and the First Lady, and all the other Presidents and Prime Ministers, to our country this ...
The minutes of the North London Fawcett Group's March meeting are now up on the group's website.
From their press release: STATEMENT RE: COUNCIL USE OF SURVEILLANCE LAWS Councillor Howard Sykes, leader of Oldham Council said: "Following a recent review of the council's use of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, elected members are now consulted before the act is used in Oldham. This gives the council an additional level of oversight, something that most other council's in the country do not do ... "During an inspection on 1 January 2009, by the Office of the Surveillance Commissioners, the government body appointed to oversee those allowed to commission surveillance, all of the council's authorizations for surveillance ...
Last night I attended the West Fife Beekeepers Association to discuss the plight of the honey bee which has seen a dramatic decline. Since the winter of 2007 there has been a 30% reduction in the population of domestic honey bees due to the varroa destructor mite. Scottish bee farmers run up to a quarter of the UK's commercial bee hives and also make up a significant portion of the UK's amateur beekeeping population. Yet despite their importance, Scotland only has four bee inspectors to investigate cases of disease outbreak. The Western honey bee plays a vital role within the ...
So, Brown has managed to get some fantastic coverage in today's press regarding the G20. Probably about as good as he could have hoped for and the markets also rose 4% yesterday. However, I think we all need to remember that this is Gordon Brown we are talking about here. Every budget that he announced as Chancellor was always spun to the max and usually also garnered positive headlines, until a few days later when the detail had been pored over and the double counting, reannouncements and shabbily concealed bad news became clear to everyone. Indeed Fraser Nelson has already ...
When I did a bloggers interview with Nick Clegg, the question that really made him squirm was one about populism. Today he reacts to the G20 agreement with what looks like The Invisible Hand of Vince: ... use the money to create the thousands of new jobs and thousands of new homes this country so desperately needs An economic liberal who thinks that it's ever okay for Governments to 'create jobs'? I don't understand it. Scratch that. I do understand. It's called populism, and it's the reality that all democratic parties that plan to exist need to face up to. ...
If any interview or event symbolised the complete moral vaccuum of the financial aristocracy it was the one today by Sir Philip Hampton on the Today prog stating `stop floggin RBS`. When questioned about Goodwin's (sorry I don't respect him enough to call him Sir) huge pension he suggested it was just a kind of [...]
Daily collection of links and thoughts that weren't worth a whole post. 12:56 Just took over from @johnbm from telling in the #skircoat by-election # 13:48 My Tory teller colleague has been replaced by a certain Cllr Keith Watson. He who defected from us just after reelection. #skircoat # 16:12 Telling at a different station, just took a number from a girl who looked about 12. i'm getting old. #skircoat # 20:14 Been out knocking up in the most confused set of back terraces ever. Now back telling for the last shift, then home. #skircoat #We lost by 118 votes ...
{phone being handed in} Police have found a new way to plug those gaps in the DNA database by arresting people for being honest. Paul Leicester, a teenager from Southport who found a mobile phone and handed it in to the police, was arrested and held at the police station for four hours. He also had his fingerprints, photograph and DNA sample taken. He had been out celebrating his 18th birthday. From the Crosby Herald : Paul said, "It's stupid. Being arrested isn't a way to celebrate your 18th birthday. What are you supposed to do when you find a ...
My local free newspaper from Lambeth council has an audited ABC of 115,000 copies per issue (one copy every two weeks). The Independent, across the whole of the UK, has an audited ABC of 200,000 copies per issue (daily). Add together free newspaper circulations across the UK and they must be in the millions.
Five years ago, Grant Morrison co-created (with three of the best artists working in comics) three three-issue miniseries for Vertigo, DC's 'mature readers' imprint. One of these, We3, co-created by Frank Quitely, was a huge success (in Vertigo's terms) and will soon be a film. Another, Vimanarama, with Philip Bond, was a magnificent attempt to [...]
Parliamentary business finished yesterday until April 20th, giving us a longer than usual Easter break. For campaigners, Easter breaks are a rarity, as Easter always falls in the main election season, but the fact that this years elections are in June has given me the unusual opportunity of a break during the Spring recess. So we're off to Cyprus later this afternoon; to a small village on the north west coast, just outside Polis. We're adjacent to the Akamas Peninsula, the largely unspoiled tip of the island which has been protected from development over the last thirty years and is ...
If you'd asked me what I planned to do yesterday, lunch with Michelle Obama wouldn't have been on the menu... I was working from home, and my only plans for lunch hour were to do a bit of tidying up. Then about noon I got a phone call from a friend, followed by a couple of [...]
Asked By Baroness Hollis of Heigham To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they welcome and will consider promoting equity release schemes that are fully regulated, avoid negative equity and are underpinned by independent legal advice. The Financial Services Secretary to the Treasury (Lord Myners): My Lords, since 2004 the Financial Services Authority has regulated mortgages, including lifetime mortgages, which are one type of equity release product. In 2007, the Government extended the scope of FSA regulation to cover home reversion plans, which are the other main type of equity release product, to help to ensure a level regulatory playing field ...
This CNN report is interesting it is another symptom of a reverting to the politics of the early 1600s (prior to Habeas Corpus and the Bill of Rights).An interesting theme is the throwing of a shoe. It is sad that people take it out on the police. However, the strategy of the police including imprisoning an MP (Tom Brake) - who was not guilty of any offence - is something that needs
I don't read the Daily Mail. Honest. Never. However, the Today programme has drawn my attention to an article by Guy Walters about how you address people and the growth of informality. I share Mr Walters' resentment when strangers, sales people in particular, call me David. I have tried responding, "Do I know you ?". In writing I often resort to the old Quaker habit of using both names, which
Take out the shameless waste of British and American service personal in a war in which i feel we have no part. The loss of civilian life ,men ,women and children. I took an approach to bean counting. It was a statement i read about the 50calibre machine gun and the rounds it uses,it seems [...]
The winner is my own MP, Edward Garnier, for his release congratulating Foxton locks and inclined plane on winning a Waterway Renaissance Award. He writes: Not so long ago the state of the Inclined Plane, the Foxton Steps and the Bottom Lock Basin was pretty poor and I even described some of it as looking worse than the bomb sites I had seen in Bosnia.My own views on the restoration of Foxton Locks - the last time I saw them was when I walked there and back in November - are more ambivalent.
Coleen Nolan in search of the secret of eternal youth on ITV1 last night...I spent the first 30 minutes selecting a blunt, heavy object to throw at the telly as Ms Nolan toyed with the concepts of cosmetic surgery, laser butchery, botox etc.Fortunately she came round at the end & plumped for (a) stop smoking and (b) be happy. The flat screen therefore survived until the next appearance by Piers
Following the G20 trillion dollar package attention moves to Edinburgh where the Royal Bank of Scotland is holding its AGM today. The peaceful group People & Planet had been handing out invitations in London asking people to join them in protest as the Bank's shareholders meet in the Edinburgh International Conference Centre. However, that are fears that after the high profile attack on the RBS London Headquarters during the week and on Sir Fred Goodwin's home last month that not all the protests in Edinburgh will be peaceful. The Scottish Government and People & Planet have both issued calls for ...
Well, here we go... The Liberal Democrats have pulled off a stunning by-election win in the Belsize Ward. The Tories were just 35 votes short of winning and have been so thoroughly trashed in all of the other Camden elections that this was the election for them. In fact they lost dramatically and the Liberal Democrats won convincingly. Tom Simon (Lib Dem) 1136 Conservative 952 Labour 270 Green 109 Majority 184 So where now for the Tories, seems like they are totally in the doldrums and in trouble... Well done Tom - best of luck as councillor for the Belsize ...
On Tuesday I said on the blog that Donald Trump should put his ego back in the box with his toupee. I aplogise for this slur (on his hair, not his ego). This comes courtesy of the Daily Mail, 11 June 2008:A step-by-step guide to the gravity-defying Donald Trump combover By Nick Mcdermott And Stuart NicolsonLast updated at 1:00 AM on 11th June 2008 Enlarge The Donald: What's the
The Liberal Democrats have continued their winning streak in the London borough of Camden, comfortably holding onto Belsize ward in a by-election caused by the sad resignation of one of their councillors due to ill-health. The Conservatives threw everything they had into this contest, still smarting about losing all three seats in Belsize in 2006 [...]
Time for bed and sleep # By election fun in calderdale today. Slightly sunkissed from telling in the sun. #
Watching Boris Johnson's appalling behaviour in front of a Parliamentary Select Committee today, I was reminded of someone else: Ken Livingstone circa 2006. The idea of Boris Johnson complaining about partisan attacks is simply too ironic to countenance. This was 2 April, not the day before. Is there something about the role that makes you a bumptious, vainglorious ass with molecule-thick skin, or is it an entry level requirement in the first place? The jury is out on that one I suspect. Certainly, while the jolly "LOOK AT HIS FUNNEEE HAIR!" HIGNIFY-crafted demeanour of "Bozza" always was manufactured to a ...
