A few weeks ago I blogged about our empty homes campaign gaining momentum in Reading. An update on empty homes is on the Cabinet agenda on 14 April. This issue came to the Housing, Health and Community Care Scrutiny Panel first a few weeks ago. I have received a lot of positive feedback from residents in the ward to the news that the long-term empty property on Christchurch Road is being refurbished with a view to bringing it back into use soon. This is a good first step but across the Borough there are still a lot of properties sitting empty in ...
It was the final meeting for our scrutiny committee on Older People. I was pleased that my report back on the outdoor activity equipment for older people ( blog entries on 13th and 17th February) were accepted into the recommendations in the report, as were a number of good ideas that I and others on the committee had put forward for improving services. There are some outstanding issues that...
A new poll by ComRes finds the following response to this statment: I am ready to make significant changes to the way I live to help prevent global warming or climate change: Agree 83% (81% in June 2007) Disagree 16% (16% in June 2007) It is very encouraging that people still feel this way in spite of the recession. Posted in [...]
I've always had a quiet fondness for lizards. Indeed, the idea of having an iguana for a pet retains some appeal - I'd walk him on a lead and harness and call him Iggy - although I'm not sure that Ros would be as keen. However, one of the pleasures of Cyprus is the number of lizards I have spotted, basking on rocks or scuttling across paths. They're pretty handsome creatures, especially the striped skinks that I occasionally run into. With the balmy days of spring turning into summer, life is pretty good for reptiles, and so they are more ...
I have just been watching the Newsnight report on the drugging of girls at Kendall house, a children's home in Gravesend, between the 1960s and 1980s. The story was also covered on the Today programme this morning. The home was run by the Church of England. And what is the response of the Diocese of Rochester? A statement quoted by the BBC says: It would be inappropriate for the diocese to initiate any internal inquiries since we are not qualified to do this. In any event, it would be essential for any investigation to be conducted both professionally and impartially.So ...
It seems that the BNP have chosen the wrong week in which to unveil their "What would Jesus do?" poster campaign - for two reasons. Firstly a poster campaign which implies that Jesus would vote for an organisation that openly incites hatred, persecutes minorities and preaches violence is deeply offensive to Christians in Holy Week. Secondly April [...]
The Guardian now has video evidence of a police assault on Ian Tomlinson. It's difficult to know what to conclude from the evidence that we have so far, but I suspect that the police had probably been prepared for battles that did not materialise and were having a hard time keeping their own adrenalin under control. Whatever the reason this kind of attack is inexcusable.
Did you know that Salford Council has to bulldoze a set amount of houses every year? I didn't, until I came across a little legal agreement between the Council and Hazel Blears' Department of Communities and Local Government which actually sets out demolition targets that the Council has to meet in order to get its [...]
Well tonight i went to a meeting in worsley the Conservative heartland in Salford. Cllr Lindley and the main players within the Tory group where all in attendance. I could not believe how many people turned up to be short changed by the highways agency,a presentation by a bunch of second stringers... Cllr Lindley of [...]
Due to the unforeseen withdrawal of Simon Green from the Liberal Democrat list for South East England, there has been a further change to the list order as follows; 1. Sharon Bowles 2. Catherine Bearder 3. Ben Abbotts 4. Jim Barnard 5. Antony Hook 6. Zoe Patrick 7. Gary Lawson 8. David Grace 9. John Vincent 10. James Walsh Zoe, Gary, David and John all rise one place, and James has been added by the Selection Committee in the absence of any further short-listed applicant who wished to be considered. I've had the pleasure of working with James in the ...
On Sunday I was looking through Simon Jenkins' England's Thousand Best Churches and came across a photograph of a stained glass window at All Saints, Tudeley in Kent. It is one of 12 at the church by the Russian emigré artist Marc Chagall. The photograph showed one of those windows, which is a memorial to Sarah d'Avigdor-Goldsmid, who died in 1963 in a sailing accident off Rye, aged 21. She was the daughter of the Tory MP Sir Henry d'Avigdor-Goldsmid. In my lunch hour today I was reading Cold Cream by Ferdinand Mount. By one of those odd coincidences, it ...
The Guardian newspaper has an article on its website today from Paul Lewis showing video of the unprovoked hitting from behind of Paul Tomlinson — who died some moments later of a heart attack — by a member of the Police Service. From the video it is clear that he was walking away from the police and had his hands in his pockets; not a threat or problem for anyone, one would consider. However one of the men in yellow riot gear chose to use his side-handled baton to strike this man on the back and behind the knees, knocking ...
It seems that, instead of properly answering the question I put to you last week, you've decided to have a bit of a whinge about the fact that I've attacked you. No, I don't make a habit of attacking you. Heavens, if I had a go every time I thought that you'd written something stupid, I wouldn't have nearly 900 postings, it would be rather higher. On the contrary, because you place barriers in the way of commenters - is registration really necessary? - I prefer to use my blog to point out that I disagree. Indeed, on the two ...
It seems that, instead of properly answering the question I put to you last week, you've decided to have a bit of a whinge about the fact that I've attacked you. No, I don't make a habit of attacking you. Heavens, if I had a go every time I thought that you'd written something stupid, I wouldn't have nearly 900 postings, it would be rather higher. On the contrary, because you place barriers in the way of commenters - is registration really necessary? - I prefer to use my blog to point out that I disagree. Indeed, on the two ...
Coincidentally (given yesterday's post) , I was reviewing some fishing information today (as you do). There is already an alternative name for pollock (or pollack). It's "lythe". So why the heck are Sainsbury's calling it "colin", which is the French name for a different fish, hake, when they could use an existing alternative? The answer, no doubt, exists in the
I've written before about safety concerns on the pedestrian crossing (or lack thereof) at the junction of Church Road and North Hill N6. The story was in several local papers last week. As well as door-to-door, we've set up an on line petition where you can share your concern here. Here's Lynne Featherstone, and my colleagues Rachel Allison, Bob Hare and friends, crossing the road.
I've had one of those Damascene moments that reminds you there is always something new to learn about liberalism and tolerance. It involves chocolate* and chicken. Bear with me while I watch the TV a minute. On Channel 4 just now was Willie's Chocolate Revolution. Willie, his wife Tania and their children Bunty, Tristram and Ezekiel [...]
The news is slowly starting to pick up the fact that there is a near-revolution going on in Moldova, where there have been massive protests by students over the past two days. I gather that firefighters are tackling the Parliament building and the Presidency building in the Moldovan capital Chisinau both of which have suffered much internal damage from fire. The trigger for the demonstrations was the apparent victory of the Communists in the parliamentary elections on Sunday. The OSCE said that the Modovan elections "met many international standards but further improvements are necessary", suggesting they weren't intolerably corrupt, the ...
So now there is a video, showing Mr Tomlinson being batoned and shoved by a police officer in riot gear. Even if you agree with this kind of treatment for protesters, even if you think they are asking for it, surely you can't think that a man walking home from work deserves it? Like John Q Publican says, it's time to set aside partisan bickering and stand together, with one voice, to call the Establishment to account for the death of an innocent man.
Watch the video Link to the story here.Carshalton & Wallington Lib Dem MP Tom Brake was an official observer at the G20 demos, here is his video report of the events
I have been on twitter for a month or so. Sadly I now have to confess that I am seriously addicted. I think that as good as Facebook is Twitter is much better! Through twitter I have been following some very interesting people. I will let you how my addiction continues.
One of the twitter tweets I got earlier this evening was a link to a video published by The Guardian. The video is of Ian Tomlinson, who was not part of the demonstration, being assaulted from behind and pushed to the ground by a police officer. Mr Tomlinson died shortly after the the video was [...]
Writing solely in my capacity as a councillor: Another dreadful report on Ally Pally has been published. It's known as 'Walklate 2' and is a follow up to a report commissioned into what went wrong at the Ally Pally in 2007, with the granting of a licence to Firoka (the firm that was trying to develop Ally Pally) that has cost Haringey taxpayers a staggering £1.5 million - at least. You can read the report on the Council's website here. The councillor in charge was none other than Charles Adje, of previous post fame. In terms of deciding what went ...
There is a big public backlash brewing over the issue of MPs' expenses. All the MPs are susceptible, as Mike Smithson points out, just witness the grueling evisceration of Tory Chairman Eric Pickles. My worry is that calls for reform are based on beliefs that do not underpin democracy but other ideas of how we should be governed. {Plato's The Republic, Latin edition cover, 1713} Image via Wikipedia The first thing to note about all this is to be sceptical of any claims that "cynicism about the political class" is historically at high levels. Perhaps in the short term this ...
The video uncovered by the Guardian and apparently shot by a New York banker, shows Tomlinson walking along slowly, hands in pockets, away from a line of police who are handling dogs. They are moving forward behind him, when one apparently gets impatient, lunges forward and sends Tomlinson sprawling to the ground. There is an audible crack at this point, though it's impossible to tell where it's coming from. Tomlinson is then helped by two protestors, and seems to be asking the police what the hell they did that for. One of them appears to answer very aggressively. Though in ...
The newspaper's website says: Dramatic footage obtained by the Guardian shows that the man who died at last week's G20 protests in London was attacked from behind and thrown to the ground by a baton-wielding police officer in riot gear.Moments after the assault on Ian Tomlinson was captured on video, he suffered a heart attack and died.The Guardian is preparing to hand a dossier of evidence to the police complaints watchdog.It sheds new light on the events surrounding the death of the 47-year-old newspaper seller, who had been on his way home from work when he was confronted by lines ...
Guido Fawkes wrote a blog post today about how he was receiving information about MP's who were renting out their properties to employees so they could earn money from Parliamentary expenses because the accommodation of employees is paid for by Parliament because of the story that is told to Parliamentary Authorities. He then updated his blog post to say that he had information of MP's who were renting out properties to other MP's so one MP was putting Parliamentary money into the pocket of his friend who was also an MP and probably bought the property with Parliamentary money! But ...
Burson Marseller have set up Predict09.eu. It is: a prediction of the outcome of the June 2009 European Parliament elections and the resulting make-up of the next European Parliament.The prediction is based on a statistical model of the performance of national parties in European Parliament elections, developed by three leading political scientists: Simon Hix (London School of Economics), Michael Marsh (Trinity College Dublin), and Nick Vivyan (London School of Economics).The prediction will be updated each week until the elections on 4-7 June.Thanks to Curious Snippets.
A funny thing has happened almost by stealth sometime in the last two weeks or so. Progressives, who might be excused for thinking that Obama's election would indeed lead to "change we can believe in", have had to admit that he's getting it wrong, badly wrong as far as the financial crisis is concerned. Now an excellent interview with [...]
Firstly, I presume that the title of this has attracted the attention of Dr Pack, so hello Mark. There are even some semi-colons in here to keep you happy, although you will probably have issues with how they have been used. There's so much angst going on at the moment, and I'm still poorly sick and miserable, so I thought that I might try to cheer myself up with the one subject that will guarantee to bring a smile to most faces. Jennie, I know it won't for you, so feel free to add any kind of food that makes ...
The Daily Mail has a glowing editorial about Vince Cable today, and the highlight the huge gulf between Vince and both Labour and the Tories on the economy. They open with the line:This paper has never counted itself among the Liberal Democrats' most ardent fansbut go on to say:Once again yesterday, LibDem Treasury spokesman Vince Cable proved more convincing than Labour or the Tories in
Tue 7th
17:55
George Osborne: he was for cracking down on public sector pay before he was against it reviewing it
Poor old George Osborne. It's a tough job being the Tories' shadow chancellor, desperately walking the tightrope between keeping happy your right-wing, Hannan-worshipping party activists (and that's the majority of them), while trying not to scare away the voters for whom a right-wing, Hannan-worshipping party is a nightmare spectre (and that's the majority of them). That, at least, is the only explanation I can come up with for George's current confusion about whether or not he's in favour of a crack down on public sector pay and pensions. Here, for instance, is the Financial Times which leads with the right-wing, ...
I have just attended my first ever court case, a civil hearing before a judge at which someone I had a car accident with was claiming costs against me. This has been rumbling on for a year so in many ways I have been looking forward to resolving this. I have completed statement after statement, drawn pictures until I could have given Tony Hart a run for his money and generally argued the toss about everything in detail. Naturally, I did my best to tell the truth as the other person hit me, so it was in my interests to ...
Thursday 26th March saw the final meeting of Blyth Valley District Council. The decision to consign the authority to the history books had been controversial, but nevertheless, as the ruling Labour group gathered to rule for one last time, the tones of "Red Flag" started to pour from the lips of the "socialist" brethren.Alas, this last act of defiance against the new Lib Dem run Northumberland
{Binary code on a screen} A groundbreaking report has revealed that an astonishing one in four of the major databases maintained by the Government are illegal. The Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust report Database State argued that the DNA Database, the proposed National Identity Register and ContactPoint database of children were so fundamentally flawed that they should be scrapped immediately. Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary Chris Huhne commended the landmark report for exposing "how the Government's obsession with hoarding our personal information has turned Britain into a database state." Database State examined 46 public sector databases and found that 11 of ...
Local councils around Heathrow have launched an application for judicial review of Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon's decision to approve a third runway at Heathrow. The Transport Secretary announced his support for expansion on January 15. The decision was subject to a number of environmental conditions relating to noise, air quality, public transport and climate change. The local authorities will argue that the Government failed to conduct a lawful consultation process and arrived at a decision on a potentially half-capacity third runway, which was different to the fully operational runway in the consultation. They will claim that the decision was irrational ...
Pendle Lib Dems Press Release: Liberal Democrats in Nelson are celebrating their candidate Debbie Cragg's win in the Clover Hill ward by-election for Nelson Town Council, held last Thursday. Debbie won by just 16 votes from the Tories following a Conservative campaign "more like a parliamentary by-election than one for a parish council". Debbie Cragg turned a 17 vote losing margin last May into a 16vote victory this time. She said: "I am thrilled to have won this time. What I promised to do was to concentrate on all the very local problems like litter and dog fouling, and work ...
I had two other blogs, Tory Worries and Blogging 4 Lembit but today I have put them both to rest. Tory Worries was put to rest because no one took the whole project seriously, maybe they will when they are faced with a Tory government that destroys this Country. Blogging 4 Lembit has come to an end because Nick Clegg's office have not taken anything that we have done since the campaign started into consideration. I shall keep blogging about Lembit and how he should be in the Cabinet on this blog so the cause is not lost!
The Ship-wrecked Dog. The Koala stuck in a car grill. And the three Badger cubs found in a sussex field. Ahhhh.....
Ah, another DIY Poster Meme, this one allowing you to mock the Government's latest propaganda. Jennie Rigg's rounded up some links so I'll link to her. My own contribution.. On the subject of photoshop, I unearthed this mind-melting little morsel of pixelly joy (sadly uncredited): Finally, I am experimenting with having some kind of 'media grid.' My [...]
Over the last week or so, 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've been publishing the results on LDV over the last few days. You can catch up on the results of our exclusive LDV members' surveys by clicking here. Today, in the final part, we turn our attention to the ...
Two days ago the Communists were declared victors in Moldova's elections, triggering widespread unrest as people claimed the elections were rigged. Twitter has played a key role in organising the protests, as The Telegraph has reported: Organisers used the social networking site Twitter to rally opposition to a Communist victory in legislative elections At least 10,000 protesters gathered and police fired water cannon but were unable to stop the crowd from breaking into the buildings... "The election was controlled by the Communists, they bought everyone off," said Alexei, a student. "We will have no future under the Communists because they ...
We all enjoy a good bit of knock-about party political attacks. What conference speech from Brown, Cameron or Clegg would be complete without a dig at the other parties? But it helps when the attack has some sort of basis in reality - when it touches a nerve. Just talking bollocks makes you look a bit daft. It's a bit late to bang on about how our Labour Government are a bunch of dodgy socialists; and attacks on the Tories as as a bunch of racists fall flat. Gordon's habit of calling the Lib Dems the "Liberal Party" once seemed ...
As predicted they have finally got a tourist. Guy living in South Africa, back in Newcastle for his brothers funeral takes pictures of Tyneside to show the folks back home. Forced into an alleyway by plainclothes policeman who refuses to identify himself and he ends up being the one having to take a caution for a public order offense!! You can bet that again no-one is held to account for this. The policeman in question should be sacked and so should anyone higher up who covered for him!
Following her triumph at the Welsh Conservative Conference in which she promised to pop into Wales once or twice a year to answer AM's questions if she becomes Secretary of State for Wales, Cheryl Gillan has hit the headlines again with a job advert to work in her office. Cheryl is advertising for a research assistant jointly with the Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, David Mundell. It sounds like a big job, encompassing as it does two countries and an asymetric devolution settlement. The ideal candidate needs to have excellent communication and interpersonal skills, a keen interest in politics ...
Back in January, I wrote about a bar in Oldham that had introduced a new promotion, All you can drink, £5.99 I condemned this promotion at the time and am glad to see that the Liberal Democrat controlled Oldham Council has decided to review the licences of all the pubs and bars in and around Yorkshire Street, which is where the majority of the town's bars are located. This strong action has been taken by Oldham Council's Trading Standards under the Licensing Act 2003, which will see all 22 bars have their licences reviewed following a spate of incidents involving ...
It's hard to find anyone who doesn't like the idea of clean, sustainable, renewable energy. We need a lot more of it, to help turn Britain into a low carbon economy and to make the country less dependent on imported supplies of gas. But here's the rub. Having a clean energy future depends on stable targets and credible policies. It also needs money, and lots of it. A lot of energy companies, big and small, will need to invest in wind farms, tidal power, photovoltaics and other clean energy sources. Now the banking crisis and the recession are hitting the ...
(inspired by a discussion with James and The Munchkin on Twitter) View Poll: Kippers
Lib Dem Voice is running a poll on who is the greatest living Lib Dem orator. They've given their suggestions but I think they've missed out my particular favourite. I think you would have to go a long way to beat Malcolm Bruce who can be guaranteed to both inspire and make you think. He can do the tub thumping, barnstorming political gags but he also excels at the reflective, compelling advancement of an argument. One of my favourite speeches of his was given at the Scottish Conference in 2008 when he spoke passionately and authoratively almost exclusively about his ...
{Click to Embiggen} Click to Embiggen Make your own here, or look at Millennium's and Mr Quist's efforts. Thanks to the Award-Winning Alix Mortimer for breaking this to the LibDemosphere... Speaking of terror posters, witness Helen Duffett's horror that she is a textbook terrorist, given that she fulfills every last one of the criteria on this particular poster... Of course, she's not brown, so she ought to be OK. As an inveterate scratcher (apparently I do it in my sleep as well), I found this article on why scratching helps to relieve itches really interesting. Claude doesn't think it should ...
As I suspected, Obama is increasingly showing that all he offers is a change in rhetoric. He's continued Bush's bail out policy and now we find he's rather keen on those warrantless wiretaps Bush loved so much. I foresee a similar future in Britain if the Tories are elected. I think they will find a sudden love [...]
This morning's Times reports on a rather predictable poll that reveals that over two thirds of voters think that all or a majority of MPs abuse their expenses and allowances. Some 27 per cent say that all or nearly all MPs abuse the system, and 42 per cent think that a majority of MPs do so. By contrast, 20 per cent say that "a majority of MPs do not abuse the system, but many do", while just 8 per cent say that very few MPs do. In many ways MPs have brought this on themselves. They have relied on a ...
Wolverhampton Conservative Councillor Jonathan Yardley (Tettenhall Regis ward) recently got a talking to by the Police after an allegation of homophobia (which in fact he should have been accused of transphobia but there you go) has given his side of the story in the Daily Mail.
Today's Mirror reports on the Government's latest initiative to cut down on pastic bag use - an advertising campaign: The average shopper uses 13,000 plastic bags in their lifetime, according to a study. Research by the Department of Environment said a person gets through 160 new carrier bags each year. Last year 9.9 billion of them were handed out in the UK. ... The numbers were released to mark a new advertising campaign to urge people to re-use bags. But Lib Dem Tim Farron branded it "gimmickry" and said the Government should just tax the bags.. I'm with Tim here. ...
An article in the Mail highlights a Government underfunding of £30 million for bus passess, leaving councils to pick up the difference. Some of the biggest shortfalls affect councils in popular tourist areas. The Government is also restricting the services on which passes can be used, so that you can't now use them on routes where more than half the seats can be booked, such as long-distance services, and buses 'intended primarily for tourism'. Not something that is likely to affect this area too much, but you may not get a free ride on a seaside open-top bus any more. ...
We're still here in Belsize - in Chalcot Gardens just off of England's Lane. It's a truly lovely house and I'm increasingly coming to the conclusion that interesting and famous people by definition live in interesting and lovely houses. Arthur Rackham is pretty unknown by name and yet widely and extensively recognised by his art and art-genre. He is most famous for his work of book illustrating and his works of Alice in Wonderland and various Grimm borthers works are now considered to be style-setting in their significance. He is a classic illustrator of the post Victorian, late gothic style ...
The more I hear about the state of the public finances, the more it is becoming obvious that spending will have to be cut in the coming years. This is surely going to be true whoever is in government. Nick Clegg has had a go at trying to change the terms of political debate recently by identifying some areas where savings could be made and reorienting spending priorities. I think that the Tories are so scarred by the last 3 election defeats where each time Labour went for their jugular about cuts, demanding to know how many schools and hospitals ...
As The Scotsman reports: MORE than 200 MPs yesterday called on the UK government to back a five-point plan to save "great British pubs". In his early day motion, Lib Dem MP Bob Russell said five pubs were closing down in the UK every day, with beer sales in pubs at their lowest for nearly 40 years. Here's the text of Bob's EDM in full: EDM 10 - CAMPAIGN TO SAVE THE GREAT BRITISH PUB 03.12.2008 Russell, Bob That this House is alarmed that five public houses are closing down every day, with beer sales in pubs at their lowest ...
As the Labour and Plaid Cymru coalition government get ready to celebrate two years of being in power in Wales, there won't be much of a celebratory mood across the country. With unemployment levels getting higher, business going to the wall, support for education and training dwindling and the economic downturn taking an even bigger bite of the Welsh economy, this 'One Wales' government seems to
A big Hat Tip to Helen Duffett for bringing this poster to my attention that you can see above about how the Police are really going far by coming up with the silliest of suspicions of terrorism and you can see the poster above. First of all many people take computers with them when they go on holiday, what is suspicious about that may I ask? Nothing it just brings into every ones mind that someone might be a terrorist especially if its an Asian man with a computer. Secondly what has Pay as You Go Mobiles got to do ...
Yousuf Hamid the Labour blogger has had an interview with Sunrise Radio according to his Facebook update: Yousuf Hamid has just done an interview with Sunrise Radio about the Mosque Bombing campaign. Now thats great at least the Main Stream Media in the form of Sunrise Radio are taking notice of his great facebook group! If you would like to join the group why not follow the link and join!
The BBC have done some useful research on how other countries deal with parliamentary expenses. It is interesting that it was in Sweden where a cabinet minster lost her job temporarily for buying nappies using the parliamentary credit card.Sweden, which is a country with a high level of transparency, seems to give a good solution for how to deal with the "second home" issue.My view as to the
Cross-posted from The Wardman Wire: With both Jury Team and Libertas planning to contest June's European elections, there has been plenty of talk in the media about the launch of these two new parties. What there has been rather less of are reminders about the enormously high failure rate amongst new political parties. Only very rarely does a new party make much of an impact after its launch. Already the prospects for Jury Team are looking pretty ropey, with their failure to find sufficient volunteers to be candidates and very few members of the public taking part in their public ...
With thanks to James Holden's billboard generator. (How do I get blogger to put pictures where I want them?!)
We believe the annual cost of carrying out Carriagway and foot way repiars are in the region of! Wait for it. Foot way £1.100,000 Carriagway £800,000 NO WONDER THE ROADS ARE SO BAD.
I see our dear leader Gordon Brown with his grace and favour apartment (which I don't begrudge him) and his second home allowance in Dunfermline is saying `let's wait until the CPSL has made its report`. Funny that, it hasn't stopped the 6 Lib Dem London MPs from acting honourably without someone telling them what to [...]
Mark Valladares is known for attacks at me and if he subtracted the Golden Dozens he had won from attacks at me he wouldn't have many left in his trophy cabinet. Well Mark has been at it again and now has challenged me to find a cheaper way for Lib Dem MP Alastair Carmichael to travel to and from London. First of all this proves that Mark does not read my blog often because I have already written a blog post in which I have shown that travelling for Alastair Carmichael is expensive but because I have been set the ...
News that the town of Wincanton in Somerset has named streets after locations in Discworld, got me thinking. The parish of Abbots Langley is home to Leavesden Studios, made famous as the location of the Harry Potter films. In Wincanton, twinned with the city of Ankh-Morpork from Terry Pratchett's fantasy novels, two roads on a new housing estate [...]
Yesterday I blogged over at Lib Dem Voice about the variety of ways you can get yourself arrested or lumbered with an ID card. It was a serious message, delivered in a light-hearted tone, with a poster from the Metropolitan Police thrown in at the end. It has some hints for spotting suspicious behaviour based on people's use of gadgets and communications. Oh yes, job done. Pleased with myself, I could then turn my attentions to getting ready for my trip abroad in a few days' time. It wasn't long before it dawned on me... I might as well use ...
If only The Voice more regularly perused the pages of the Daily Mail, we would not have missed Lib Dem deputy leader Vince Cable's most recent two articles for the paper. (Then again, if The Voice more regularly perused the pages of the Daily Mail we would most likely end up supporting flogging for immigrants, worrying about Facebook giving us cancer, and cheering on the Blackshirts). Anyway, Vince has penned two articles for the paper examining the impact of the economic crisis. Excerpts below - clcik on the headline to read in full: We're not going bust, but Gordon has ...
John Redwood writes: To all those who say cutting public spending means tough choices and services "decimated" I say just two words: "MPs expenses" - and four more words "public sector fat cats" - and two more words "RBS losses".Although I rarely agree with John Redwood, I've never thought he was a fool. Now I'm wondering. Redwood talks about MPs taking a ten percent cut in expenses. Sure, no problem, and very nice gesture too, but not exactly an effective way of cutting public spending of around half a trillion pounds a year. He talks about cutting RBS bonuses and ...
Glad to see this in the news: The leading reformist candidate in upcoming Iranian presidential elections on Monday condemned the killing of Jews in the Holocaust, a much different stance than current President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who in 2005 called the Holocaust a myth. Prime minister during Iran's 1980-88 war with Iraq, Mirhossein Mousavi, 67, is seriously considered by many moderates and even some conservatives as their main presidential candidate and a strong rival to Ahmadinejad in the contest.There plenty more of his views I wouldn't agree with - such as on nuclear weapons! - but it's good to see nonetheless ...
It appears as if the vast array of responsibilities which fellow Darlington blogger Nick Wallis has to juggle with have finally caught up with him. It is exactly one month since his last serious post. Hopefully we haven't seen the last of him and he'll be back after the Euro elections. This is my first post for over a week: I do also get a blogging block (or a real life) from time to time.But no
I was interviewed on the STV News at 6pm last night (and today's Courier also covers the matter) about the way Dundee City Council has handled yesterday's lack of refuse collections in Dundee. This is because of a dispute with the trade union Unite about changes to public holiday arrangements. I was told by the City Council that there has been extensive negotiations both at a local level and also the Chief Executive has met with Unite's Regional Organiser. However despite this, the Trade Union has refused to allow its members to work on the public holidays. Consequently there are ...
G20 has come & gone. Liberal Democrats made strenuous efforts to get some involvement. We understand that the time pressures, especially on President Obama, were considerable. If it couldn't be done it couldn't be done. What is not right is the huge & successful effort the Government made to stop us when they should have made a big effort to support us, (and the Conservatives - Cameron eventually got half an hour), and show off, however briefly, the breadth of British Democracy
{Lynne Featherstone crossing North Hill with Highgate councillors Bob Hare and Rachel Allison plus local pensioners} Highgate's three councilors (Rachel Allison, Bob Hare and Neil Williams) are campaigning to improve safety for pedestrians wanting to cross North Hill near Church Road. Pensioners from the Mary Fielding Guild joined them and myself for a photo op to highlight the problems and launch the campaign a few days back and we've now got an online petition too - I hope you'll sign it to help the campaign. As Rachel put it, "At present there is little time for pedestrians to cross safely. ...
The Government has forced through Parliamentary Select Committees for the English Regions & has so manipulated the rules for the make up of these Committees that they will always have a Labour majority - even for those regions where Labour is NOT the major party. Liberal Democrats & Conservatives have therefore decided to refuse to nominate MPs for these Committees. So the Government has decreed that they will meet just with their own MPs!
I just wanted to confirm, despite rumours, I am not a fish but a human.
I live in a country where the dominant ideology of the age - Social Democracy - now has a monopoly over the 3 biggest political parties. New Labour, Blue Labour and the Liberal Democrats. "Hey," you're thinking. "I'm a social democrat. It's a good thing, right?" Is it? Sun Tzu - because, yes, I really am the sort [...]
Our week at Bonkers Hall continues. Tuesday One hears a great deal nowadays about people who are "offended" by television programmes. Well, here at the Hall I have an ingenious device attached to my set. It is called a "twelve-bore shotgun". If something comes on that I do not like, I simply take aim at the screen and fire one of the barrels (or, in the case of Jonathan Ross, both barrels) and off it goes. If modern viewers are such tender plants, I suggest that it be fitted to every set by the manufacturers. Lord Bonkers was Liberal MP ...
Writing on his blog, Stuart Syvret describes his experiences yesterday: Today, at 9.00am, I stepped out of my home to go across to my car to get my iPod.I had taken perhaps three steps when four unmarked police cars descended upon me, with a total of around eight police officers.In a scene like something out of a New York cops & robbers TV programme, I was surrounded, a cop grabbed my arm, and told me I was under arrest.His home was searched, but he was never shown the warrant for that search.
A few nights ago, I was watching the BBC's "This Week" and getting more and more annoyed about the comparison that was being made between state and private education and their respective A-level results. In the end, it doesn't do justice to any school to reduce their results to a single measure, and A/AS-level results can never be the only measure of a good secondary education. But if that's the game we're playing, here is another 'single measure' from Hampshire. Our local state 6th form college, Peter Symonds, helps more young people get through A/AS-levels with a higher average A/AS ...
With thanks to James Holden for the neat build-a-poster page along with Millenium and Helen for pointing me towards it.
If Esther Rantzen were still hosting That's Life no doubt her sidekicks and her would be kicking around the stories of MPs expenses with glee. The fact that a cabinet minister, married to a Sainsbury heiress, with access to the most expensive Government grace and favour property* is one of five cabinet ministers claiming the full £22,083 would raise a rye smile. The fact that Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward, for it is he, was once a researcher and producer on the consumer and current affairs show makes the latest revelation all the more startling. It's hardly surprising that will ...
One of the things I loved about the success of Innocent the smoothies and natural drink manufacturers was that they weren't some big corporation trying to hitch unto the socially conscious bandwagon. However, now that Coca Cola have invested £30million for a 10-20% stake in the company I hope that the principles and morals of the company will not be swamped to appease their new partner. The fact that PepsiCo had already bought up rivals PJ Smoothies four years ago does make one look at the purchase of Innocent in a different light. Is this the latest step in the ...
I guess this means I'm on another database! Thanks to Auntie Helen via Facespace, and you can have your own go here. {Posted by Picasa}
Over the last few days I have been out conducting a resident's survey in one of the nearby villages. Of course all of Cornwall is fab (err that's why we live here!) but this village is quite idyllic. It has a village green, a pond with ducks, a village shop with post office (and it's not even closing!) a small community centre, primary school and of course a pub. But things aren't a rosy as you would expect, for this village is in fact two villages separated by a field, and each holds tight to its identity. One householder refused ...
