I have to apologise for my blogging absence of late. I have for some weeks been suffering from agonising back pain which seemed to send my neck and shoulders in to spasm. It didn't stop me going to work every day, although I did have to lie down for 30 minutes at lunchtime on my reading carpet in my classroom (which got funny stares from colleagues) in order to reduce the severe pain, but as soon as I got home from work I needed to lie down and frankly working on a computer was not on my agenda. Luckily the ...
The Liverpool Echo reports: A LIVERPOOL councillor failed to have his conviction for breaching election law upheld [sic - should say overturned]. Lib Dem Steve Hurst was found guilty in December of delivering a leaflet entitled "Walton Scab". It attacked sitting Labour councillor Pauline Walton and her firefighter husband in the May 2007 council elections. But his appeal was dismissed after a three-day hearing at Liverpool Crown Court. Judge Mark Brown said: "This sort of conduct brings considerable discredit on his party and local politicians in general, at a time when politicians are under the spotlight as never before. This ...
Regarding the death of Ian Tomlinson during the G20 protests, reading this: Nick Hardwick, chairman of the Independent Police Complaints Commission, gives the first interview about the death of Ian Tomlinson to Krishnan Guru-Murthy. Hardwick said of the assault: "We don't have CCTV footage of the incident... there is no CCTV footage, there were no cameras in the location where he was assaulted." Speaking to More 4 News, the IPCC confirmed Hardwick's comment, saying that the CCTV cameras overlooking the incident were not working. reminds me of how, before the story of the police's connect to Ian Tomlinson's death came ...
Just think that a visit to THIS website would have enabled the Metropolitan Police to buy document wallets at a cost of just 21 pence. It strikes me as odd that even as school teachers we ensure that our school reports are stored on encrypted memory sticks and that we do not leave them where they can be read by other children or adults, but seemingly the Metropolitan Police are less security conscious. At least Bob Quick did the right thing in the end.
An update on Monday's blog entry on the TV reception problems : Last night's "Evening Telegraph" (click on headline above to view) carried an article about the matter, and Digital UK's response. There was a further update in today's "Courier" - I have been in correspondence with Paul Hughes, National Manager for Scotland for Digital UK. Digital UK had no obvious solution at hand for the poor TV reception but Paul has offered to raise the matter with his broadcast team, although he felt that it may be a matter best resolved via Ofcom, the broadcasting regulator. I have already ...
I guess the answer to my own question is the availability of tickets. Normally I try to avoid getting the 10pm train out of Kings Cross to Newcastle. I have been quite successful at avoiding it for the past year or so. But not tonight. I guess there has been a rush of people to get tickets on the earlier trains due to the bank holiday tomorrow. The additional drawback with this service is that we
Many residents will know West End resident Professor Ronald Forbes, one of Scotland's leading figurative painters. Ronnie is happy that I give his latest exhibition "De Rerum Natura: The Nature of Things" a mention on the blog (it is on in Dundee until 8th May, with the Edinburgh version until 18th April). Details are on Ronnie's website - click on headline above to view. Ronnie advises : "I am happy to let you know that the new paintings, digital-collages and film are now on my website. Go to the web gallery to view the paintings and digital-collages. "The film, "By ...
The BBC reports: The man who introduced the world to Bob Marley and U2 has been named the most influential figure in the last 50 years of the British music industry.Island Records founder Chris Blackwell received a special honour at the Music Week magazine awards in London.He was picked from a shortlist of 20 leading UK-based executives.Other contenders ranged from Sir George Martin, who signed and produced The Beatles, to X Factor and American Idol judge Simon Cowell.I know Sir George Martin produced the Beatles. But that is nothing. Because Chris Blackwell discovered the Spencer Davis Group. An old article ...
The picture below, displayed on flickr , was taken during the G20-related 'activities' on April 1st in Threadneedle Street, outside the Bank of England. At first sight one wonders why a policeman has raised his baton — and clearly about to use it — when the people in front of him also appear to be wearing police yellow. Then one notes the label on his back ... {Photo by amjamjazz}
The Filth currently have an incredibly stupid poster campaign going on, encouraging people to waste police time and money by phoning their "anti-terrorist hotline" about nothing at all. Of course, the real objective is to keep the sheople scared so that the state can use the excuse of TERRRRRRRRRRRR to trample even more on our civil liberties.Here's my remix ...And if you want the much bigger Photoshop version (which contains all the font info) so you can play this fun game, it's here (5MB). Do please post links to your versions in the comments, and I'll grab 'em and put ...
Tonight i was talking to a resident after my surgery. It's based in a local church. And some new flats were finished early last week. The not so funny part,thet were broken into, the funny part the thief was caught on cctv spent two hours gaining excess to steal a plasma tv. Thats not funny [...]
Last week I mentioned that we had noticed a sharp rise in graffiti tags around the ward. I received an email today from a constituent about this problem: '...just to report an increase in the last week or so of graffiti on the walls and a garage door as well as the green "junction boxes" between Allcroft Road and the top of Redlands. I also note that the bus stop at the green has been attacked again as have the fronts of the shops. I have reported the walls and garage door to the police following a recent article in the ...
Tom Watson recently posted an excellent youtube rendition of a walk in the black forest. That is a tune I need to get the form for some time. I normally do chords substantially in the left hand, however.My preferred source of youtube unusual music is mainly barbershop tags. I suppose it fits into an age in which things don't require a lot of concentration. Some of the more interesting tags
"Should a lap dancing club be coming to Crouch End?" asks Lynne Featherstone. I've no idea, but it does make "Crouch End" sound rather rude.
That's the headline on today's BBC report: Police mistakes meant a chance to charge Baby P's mother for assaulting him was missed several weeks before his death, an unpublished report says. Delays securing an independent medical opinion meant the six-month legal deadline passed within which to charge the mother with common assault. The report into what happened to Baby P before his death in August 2007 found several police errors. The Metropolitan Police said it could not comment for legal reasons. Lynne Featherstone, Liberal Democrat MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, said there had been a "monumental failing" by the ...
If I remember correctly, the Scot Nats once had a particularly uproarious solution to the problem of long-distance London living. After the October 1974 Westminster election, where they won 11 seats, the party took over (whether purchased or leased I know not) a small hotel in London and made it the SNP watering hole in Sassenach territory, and the English home for most if not all their MPs. Since the premises included a licensed bar the SNP political world rapidly gained a reputation for conviviality and - if you believe the likes of Private Eye - vivid interpersonal relationships. The ...
.It was all going so well until you demeaned yourself in my opinion regarding that lapdancing club. I watched the video and saw the blogs about it yet I'm still none the wiser why the area is `unsuitable`. For the record I've absolutely no intentions of going to a lap dancing club as I'm not heterosexual and [...]
Political Betting is by far the UK's post read Political Blog so when it goes down from time to time it gets me wondering about how Mike Smithson could make the site more outage proof and I shall write about some of those ways below. First of all Mike Smithson should switch to Blogger.com, yes I know its like falling on your own sword for someone who is a Wordpress user but if you get a template custom made then Blogger can serve you better then Wordpress but you might not think that is the case at first. Blogger.com would ...
There's more on Charles Adje from his fellow Labour councillor Alan Stanton, who is continuing to write about the controversies surrounding the Labour cabinet member for finance on his Flikr Site. Read more here. It refers to answers Cllr Adje gave me in the Council in January in relation to the Welbourne Centre, which appear to have been 'economical with the truth'. Alan, who has repeatedly called on Charles to resign, promises a whole series of new posts on the issue.
Earlier today LDV reported on The Times's splash that Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg would be proposing that MPs should be forced to sell their second homes and return most of the profits to the taxpayer. In fact, his plans for reform of MPs' expenses is far more far-reaching than that, and are published in full over at nickclegg.com, and covered here on the BBC. Here's Nick's reasoning behind his Plan for Reform: MPs' Expenses, My Plan for Reform - Nick Clegg, Leader of the Liberal Democrats The ongoing controversy over the expenses system is having a hugely damaging effect ...
North West MEP Den Dover was thrown out of the Tory party last November after it was found that over 7 years he had paid £758,000 from parliamentary allowances to a company owned by is wife and daughter. He has been ordered to pay back £500,000, though why only this amount is a mystery. So has he paid back the money? No-one is telling, so I've sent him an e-mail to ask. I've also written to the Parliament's secretary-general. Rumours are flying that not only has the money not been paid but that the Parliament may not be able to ...
Nick's excellent call to scrap the second home allowance and other expense reform has been covered in The Times, The Daily Mail, The Evening Standard and even the East Anglian Daily Times (enough with the Cleggover already, it's not big and it's not clever...). But still not a peep on the BBC news site or even on that news ghetto that is their politics section. When will the establishment BBC cover this (or will they at all?) or would it not please their establishment political masters? (oh God, I'm sounding like a Tory! Although I include them in the establishment ...
In student politics they are always competitions like Sexiest something or another, I think that's what makes it less mature then serious politics. If someone wants serious politics and wants to read up on policy then they need to head to somewhere like Conservative Home as that place has nothing except for policy talk! Tory Bear has launched a weekly thing called Researcher of the week and this weeks candidates who are polling to be the Sexiest Researchers can be seen at his blog! I have to say the Bear's candidates in the Women section are what the doctor ordered... ...
Congratulations to the Aneurin Glyndwr blog for posting the news that a Welsh-based BNP politician, Simon Darby attended a meeting with Italian anti-Semitic, islamaphobic neo-fascists.The Searchlight website takes up the story:Darby, who flew out to Italy this morning, heads the BNP's European election candidates' list for the West Midlands, a region in which the party could win a seat. He has a
Decided to have a go at doing blogging by video - as easier than typing with a cast! - so am recording a batch of short clips. Here's the first - about the application for a lap dancing club in Crouch End: This film is hosted on YouTube. For more about how you can help the campaign, see my earlier blog post.
Put better than I ever could over on the ASI blog, Poverty, Equality and Hope. Blogging isn't exactly as prolific as I'd like (10 posts a day of around 2,000 words). Sadly am being chased by a rather angry deadline (one that breathes fire and snarls, a sort of deadliney Balrog) and am afflicted with a [...]
Cast your minds back to 1st April, and the G20 protests in London. You may recall two trenchant articles by The Times's Daniel Finkelstein savaging four senior Lib Dems - Baroness Williams, Simon Hughes, Chris Huhne and David Howarth - for acting as legal observers monitoring the policing of the climate camp protest timed to coincide with the G20 summit. Let me refresh your memories. Danny accused this "extraordinary delegation" of Lib Dems of an "extraordinary insult" to the police, and demanded Nick Clegg use Danny's blog to denounce or renounce the activities of his colleagues. Lib Dem Voice took ...
You may have seen on ITV's West Country Tonight last night that the first stage of our bus cuts petition has been handed to South Glos Council. The petition is ongoing - if you haven't signed up yet, do it now! The 400 name petition, calling for immediate action to restore adequate bus services for the areas affected by the First Bus cuts to the services from Yate and Chipping Sodbury through Iron Acton and Winterbourne, was presented to the Council's transport select committee by Liberal Democrat councillor Paul Hulbert. He said, "The effects of this are profound. People have ...
The Conservatives are living in hope and in fear. They hope that the tide of incompetence and sleaze that previously engulfed the Major government will similarly engulf Gordon Brown. They hope that the more personable image of David Cameron will allow him to do what his three predecessors, William Hague, Iain Duncan Smith and Michael Howard, could not and lead the Tories to victory. Yet still, the Conservatives fear that their hoped for victory could still be taken away from them. The opinion polls are quite volatile, and given the vagaries of our electoral system, it could still be that ...
Last night I attended a meeting of the Safer Reading Campaign which was by turns interesting and frustrating. It was interesting to hear Superintendent Steve Kirk dismiss Tory calls for more CCTV in Caversham. He said, rightly I think that "CCTV is not a panacea...it's not the solution". Back in February I blogged about that fact that increasing CCTV alone will not cut crime. This follows a request by Conservative councillors at the last forum meeting in January for consideration to be given to funding CCTV if requested by partners. The report we received last night confirmed that: "At a recent meeting of ...
Barack Obama's inauguration was an event greeted by scenes of jubilation all over the world. Villagers in Kenya wore hats proclaiming 'We Have Hope', 'Obama Girls' danced the hula in Hawaii, and an artist in India built a sand sculpture of him with the words 'Change Has Happened' emblazoned across the bottom. And in Iran hundreds of conservative students took to the streets burning effigies of the President and the American flag, all the while shouting "Death to America" - as they have done since the revolution of 1979. On March 19, Obama addressed a televised speech to the Iranian ...
Guido Fawkes has blogged about Nick Clegg's proposals for reforming expenses and personally I think they are great and you can read up about them below but first I have some concern about Nick Clegg and his expenses. Guido reports on how Nick Clegg renovated his Constituency home with the tax payers money and spent 100% of the allowed allowance money which has got me thinking about Nick Clegg's spending. First of all I think that is a little out of order it is in the rules but that doesn't mean that MP's have to use it to their advantage, ...
Imagine you were on a protest march, and the only thing the media seemed to be interested in was what kind of phone you had and what colour your placards were, and didn't care what you were protesting about... Would be a bit irritating, wouldn't it? That's how many Moldovans must be feeling at the moment. They're trying to overturn some corrupt election results, and sack the Communist President of their country. But all the world's media can talk about is Twitter! Here are a selection of reactions to the CNN and New York Times coverage of the Moldovan protests ...
I've been using my favourite piece of technology again today. It's simple. It's reliable. It's cheap. It does a useful job. And it reduces the number of hassles in life. Here it is: {USB memory card reader} It's a USB memory card reader. It means that when I take a photo with my digital camera, I can just pop the camera's card in this reader, stick the reader into any computer with a USB port and - bingo! - there are the photos or film clips, ready to use. No messing around having to have the right cable for the ...
There has been plenty of comment in Lib Dem circles and elsewhere about the 'Tomlinson affair', and I'm not going to spend any time adding to the words of my esteemed colleagues. However, I feel that I should touch upon the threat of civil society caused by the increasing breakdown of trust between the police and the communities they serve. Many years ago, there was an acknowledgement that, if you came from a minority community, the police were perceived as people to be avoided and not to be trusted, especially if you were young. White, male and reactionery, and that ...
Hazel Blears and the Muslim Council of Britain are going through a little spat because of a childish and foolish action by the MCB. The MCB's General Secretary is asking Hazel Blears MP for £75,000 of the tax payers money because he claims that she has libelled him. After reading the letter that Hazel Blears wrote to the Guardian in which Dr Abdullah says he was libelled I see nothing that is wrong and personally I think Hazel has done nothing wrong with what she has said in the letter. Dr Abdullah signed a declaration for Global Jihad and when ...
Bath Christmas Market has been given a licence to again operate in Bath between 26th November - 6th December 2009. This Liberal Democrats intuitive has proved to be highly successful over the last few years bringing many visitors and much needed trade to the city which is even more important in these troubled economic times. The Market that is now operated by Bath Tourism...
Thu 9th
12:00
CommentIsLinked@LDV: Tom Brake - Five hours inside a police 'kettle' was time to reflect on our lost...
Over at The Times, Lib Dem MP Tom Brake reflects on his experiences as an independent observer on behalf of Parliament at last week's G20 protests. Here's an excerpt: There is a minority in some protests that does not mind causing trouble, and a smaller number that will actively seek violence, vandalism and aggression, thus stealing the headlines away from issues such as climate change, Third World debt, employment or the world economy. Anyone who has been to a protest, music festival or a football match accepts and understands that crowd control cannot be the easiest of jobs. It is ...
Thursday: Today I am practicing with the word: HYPOTHETICAL. Here is a HYPOTHETICAL situation: the Prime Monster is VERY VERY cross that his massive important world summit to rescue the planet's economy from the mess that he didn't cause, has been suddenly overshadowed by another DEATH linked to POLICE SPIN and COVER-UP. Hypothetically... HYPOTHETICALLY... his spin doctors summon the crème de Scotland Yard in a hurry to brief them on "operation: LOOK! TERRORISTS!" And, all in a lather, PC Plod comes rushing round with the "who can we bang up" list without thinking to stick it in his briefcase... No, ...
Bath Christmas Market has been given a licence to again operate in Bath between 26th November - 6th December 2009. This Liberal Democrats intuitive has proved to be highly successful over the last few years bringing many visitors and much needed trade to the city which is even more important in these troubled economic times. The Market that is now operated by Bath Tourism...
A letter in the Cameronian Gazette, sorry, of course I meant the Wirral Globe, by the independent councillor for Hoylake and Meols, David Kirwan, see here, is critical of what he sees as the Westminster Gravy train. Kirwan's solution is simple, is it not time he asks to select TRULY local and national INDEPENDENT politicians who are [...]
Nick Clegg calls for an inquiry that examines every detail the Government would like ignored This article was originally published in The Independent on 27th March 2009 Earlier this week I met three parents who lost their sons in Iraq. They have campaigned tirelessly for a full, public inquiry into the Iraq war. They are profoundly patriotic men and women, who were proud...
My Stroud Green colleague Ed Butcher is celebrating news that a proposal to demolish a well-loved local restaurant building has been withdrawn. Ed had sent in a formal objection in response to planning application to demolish the Triangle Restaurant on the corner of Ferme Park Road and Stapleton Hall Road. He objected as the building is in a very prominent location in a conservation area - and he was concerned about the site being left derelict if there was any delay to redevelopment (quite likely during a recession). However, the Council's Planning Department have now revealed that the plan to ...
Business Assistance: Dec 2008 update What was the situation in October? Back in October 2008, Nick Clegg, Vince Cable and John Thurso launched our "Business Assistance Package". We knew then that the impact of the credit crunch and ensuing recession will be devastating to British businesses. We called for urgent action to keep the wheels of the economy turning: maintaining [...]
I was fooled for a minute by that BBC "most shared" panel and a story "Oral sex linked to throat cancer" at number two. The story itself is nearly two years old, but very quick note to put at mind the rest of anyone who might be worried. Whether or not oral sex is linked to throat cancer (and we don't know), the cancer is rare and there's no reason at all for anyone to avoid oral sex on the basis of this story*. Throat cancer, or cancer of the pharynx, is very rare. It affects about one in forty ...
Quarter of a bloody hour on male pattern baldness? On WOMAN'S HOUR? FFS! Here is the text of my email:Why on earth is Woman's Hour devoting a large part of its broadcast time to male baldness? It is, by definition, not going to be of direct interest to women. Even those women who find it of INDIRECT interest are going to need to persuade their men to listen to a bit of Woman's Hour. I hate to come over all feministy here, but the vast majority of the broadcast media caters to the male point of view and things that ...
The AVDC planning website application now presents the revised application for the MS centre at the Princess Mary Gate development (09/00532/APP). The revision requests doubling the size of the original planed centre to accommodate for a Hydrotherapy pool and provide more space. If I read the planes correctly the location has been moved around so now the parking will not be in contention with neighbours. All in all it seems to be a much better solution than the original one. I wonder what other changes to the original plan are being considered?
Bob Quick, "Britain's most senior anti-terrorism officer" as he's known to every paper, has resigned after he was photographed yesterday outside Number 10 holding an outline briefing on an on-going counter-terrorism operation inadvertently exposing the names of several senior officers, locations and details about the nature of the overseas threat. It prompts two questions in my mind. First, are we holding public figures in senior office to the right standard? No-one is suggesting Bob Quick deliberately leaked the briefing. Clearly he'd just been reading it in the car in preparation for a meeting, and didn't think to put it back ...
Caron's Musings has a post about her trauma trying to get an appointment with a GP. I echo her experiences but another aspect of GP surgeries is the delivery of test results. Our local surgery has a dedicated test results phone line - well menu option of the main line (which sounds like a sensible user-friendly thing) but it is only open between 2pm and 4pm Monday-Friday and this is the only way to get your results short of booking a GP appointment (see above!). Recently I had cause to ask them whether someone who couldn't ring between between 2pm-4pm ...
As a Liverpool fan, I found last night a bit difficult. I missed the Liverpool goal due to being outside the Pub and then had to endure all 3 of Chelsea's. Lets hope the Premiership title is heading Liverpool's way - especially as if Liverpool do win it - I win a few quid too!!!!
Thu 9th
09:50"What we have is lessons about sex, but nothing about the consequences of sex" - Shirley Williams
The latest Journal of Liberal History (published by the Liberal Democrat History Group) is a special issue on liberalism and women, including an interview with Shirley Williams. One question looked at what changes in society she thought were still needed when it comes to issues of gender, and this part of her answer caught my eye: Societal change has to be in two ways. One which has already happened is the move towards flexible working ... The second big societal change is to teach children at school about parenthood, certainly in secondary schools. What we have is lessons about sex, ...
Only a few months to wait until;
I was going to post something about changes to the rubbish collections over the Easter holidays. But there aren't any! The Islington Council website reports "Recycling and refuse collections continue as normal over the Easter weekend."
When I use a kettle, it's to heat water to boiling point. The Police technique of kettling as a method of crowd control must surely come under scrutiny now. I was quite shocked to read Tom Brake, Lib Dem MP for Carshalton's, account of being kept in a Police "kettle" for five hours without access to food or water. It is important that notice is taken of his views as an independent parliamentary observer. It scares me that innocent people could be caught up in something like this and it strikes me as inevitable that if this technique continues to ...
mostonmorning pictures from news photos on webshots
Just read on LDV quoting a Sam Coates story in The Times that Nick Clegg is going to propose that the capital gains from second home sales revert to the public purse when the properties are sold. He also wants to make sure that they cannot claim at all for mortgage interest payments, only rent. Whilst there will doubtless be practical complications, I think these are great ideas in principle and they chime with what I have said in the past about needing to make sure that MPs do not benefit from the capital gains as they do at the ...
I admire the Daily Express. It takes real talent to pack so much hatred, venom and misinformation into just a few words. "THOUSANDS of rapists, killers and paedophiles will get the right to vote after ministers caved in to pressure from Europe, it emerged last night."...the paper screeches, alongside a picture of the European Union flag. Were you to glance over that lead paragraph, you'd walk away from the newstand with the firm belief that barmy Brussels bureaucrats are telling us to give the likes of prostitute killer Steve Wright the vote and NuLiarBore Brown is cravenly caving in. Except, ...
As a new convert to Twitter I am only just coming to terms with it and its value. I have yet to be convinced. However, any application that can send the Russian and Moldovan authorities into such a tizzy, whilst at the same time spontaneously empowering thousands of people must be worth a second look. Today's Independent tells us that Russia is furious with the European Union over the Twitter Revolution as the current crisis in Moldova is being dubbed. It turns out that Russia is actually annoyed at the role of Romania in these protests and has accused them ...
Today's Times reports on Nick Clegg's proposed solution to the way some MPs have abused the expenses system to acquire property at the taxpayers' expense. Nick says that MPs should be forced to sell their second homes and return most of the profits to the taxpayer: Under Mr Clegg's proposals, to be put forward at a meeting with the Labour and Conservative leaders, MPs would no longer be able to claim mortgage interest payments on expenses and would be compensated only for rental payments. MPs who already have properties would be given 36 months before Parliament refused to fund their ...
I'm not feeling great this morning and need to make an appointment to see my GP. Unfortunately, it's not just a simple question of ringing up and being allocated a time. All appointments are now allocated on the day so you have to be on the phone at 8 am if you want to have a cat in hell's chance of getting to see the GP you want. The first challenge is actually getting through. If you make the mistake of ringing at one second to eight, you get the out of hours message. If you ring at eight exactly, ...
Another episode from Bonkers Hall. Thursday I have always believed that it behoves one to keep abreast of the latest technological developments. I was, for instance, the first person in Rutland to have the telephone. It did not ring for several years because no one else owned one, but you take my point. So I have signed up for this electric Twitter service - if you want to know what a number of prominent Liberal Democrat activists are having for breakfast it is quite the thing, and no doubt there is more to it than that. Funnily enough, in the ...
Sir Robert Helpmann was born on 9 April 1909.
Mr Eugenides jumped to the defence of the Right Wing Blogpsphere's silence over the Guardian's Ian Tomlinson video. In response to James Graham he said that they all needed an early night, or were out drinking, or as I did read from the Blogfather Iain Dale was at the movies. Now the 8 o'clock publication time hardly holds much water on most weekday evenings. I've seen the right wing blogosphere light up at that sort of time when something that Labour or indeed the Lib Dems have said has be highlighted by someone at around that time. Their blogrolls will ...
This was last week, so I visited our lovely local education charity - Treehouse, who have just launched a new information and social networking website 'talk about autism'. More about my visit in the story here and also on their website. If only more children could get the sort of attention and care that Treehouse manages to supply...
Last week saw the publication of Lib Dem deputy leader Vince Cable's opus, The Storm: The World Economic Crisis and What It Means. (Amazon did eventually deliver my copy, you'll be pleased to know). On this page we'll be collating the reviews published to date, and are inviting you to submit your own reviews - whether as articles for Lib Dem Voice, or briefly in the comments field below. One plea: if you're inspired to write something here, please do also leave it as a comment on Amazon - it's more likely to reach non-Lib Dems there than here! Here ...
We discussed the grim state of the Council's planters on the Archway Road at a meeting with council officers last night. I was reminded I had taken these pics in March. It's not a varied flora. All are planted up with easy-to-maintain New Zealand flax, with many either derelict of blocking parts of the pavement. The Council has agreed to get the Parks department to come up with an alternative to sort out these eyesores.
Peter Brookes from the Times 9 April 2009 In the Times today this is further reporting on the policing of the G20 protests last week, in light of the new footage that is emerging of just what happened to Ian Tomlinson. Tom Brake the Lib Dem MP for Carshalton and Wallington was there as an independent parliamentary observer. Having already read his note on Facebook and seen his pictures to see his thoughts being brought into the mainstream media was a welcome addition. Tom himself was detained within the 'kettle' and saw for himself that the detention of the peaceful ...
From BBC News: 'The IPCC said it would examine the footage from 1 April and discuss it with the Crown Prosecution Service. Following Mr Tomlinson's death the IPCC had initially said it would oversee an investigation into the incident to be carried out by the City of London police. Deborah Glass, of the IPCC, explained the decision to take over the investigation: "People are rightly concerned about this tragic death and this footage is clearly disturbing. "In light of new information which we became aware of yesterday (Tuesday) evening, we have now taken the decision to independently investigate. "People have ...
Lib Dem Voice had the scoop Go for it Nick - and tackle any of our lot that with subsidised capital gains. MPs should be told: Either rent or stay in a hotel (if you live outside Greater London)
Today, I are bin mostly puking. With occasional bouts of the dire rear. And then more puking. Oh, and did I mention the puking? There has been a lot of puking. Mat, also, has been puking. In fact, earlier, there was comedy synchronised puking. Meanwhile Small Person has a cough LOL. I have had some interesting temperature fluctuations - feeling as though I am freezing while Mat tells me I am burning up is odd. I appear to be getting back to what passes for normal, though - I am not shivering AND sweating right now, at least - and ...
The Times's Sam Coates has the story: MPs should be forced to sell their second homes and return most of the profits to the taxpayer, under plans to be put forward by the Liberal Democrat leader. Nick Clegg moves to outflank both Gordon Brown and David Cameron today with the toughest suggestions to date in the effort to end the damaging row over MPs' perks and allowances. Under Mr Clegg's proposals, to be put forward at a meeting with the Labour and Conservative leaders, MPs would no longer be able to claim mortgage interest payments on expenses and would be ...
