And so we've reached the end of our holiday, and here we are at Larnaca Airport awaiting a flight to Frankfurt (it's a long, and fairly dull story) before connecting for London City. It's been a good trip, and both of us are better for what has been a fairly restful break. I've got four Returning Officer gigs and some council candidate selections to do, whilst Ros returns to the full-time job of President - at least, she's putting in the hours of a full-timer whilst continuing to perform her responsibilities in the Lords. Our last day was spent pottering ...
The Amazon story Jennie has written about raises all kinds of issues and thoughts about sexuality and how it can be completely separate from 'being gay'. It's an enormous subject and one that I feel very passionate about. I read my first novel by a gay author at the age of 20 at university. I honestly don't think I had ever encountered a literary exploration of anything other than heterosexuality before then. That's very sad. I spent the many years before that at school looking for myself in literature and encountering a wall of silence, not only due to my ...
Longtime Phillies broadcaster Harry Kalas died at 1:20 p.m. ET on Monday, shortly after collapsing in the team's broadcast booth before the series opener against the Washington Nationals. Harry was also the voice of NFL films since 1975. More: Phils broadcaster Kalas passes away NFL remembers legendary broadcaster Harry Kalas. Another shining light in the world [...]
I've been in the sunshine in Mexico attending my nephew's wedding. Congratulations and much love to Martin and Teesha.
With all the other things going on for me at the moment, the row about split level diffusers has passed me by. I saw the following on the BBC Sport website: "Jenson Button will find out if his car is legal when world motorsport's governing body, the FIA, makes a final ruling on the diffuser [...]
The Liberal Democrats made a big mistake when they decided a while back not to take advantage of the new world order and adopt a policy of decomissioning our nuclear weapons. It was Ming Campbell, still fighting the internal battles of the 1980s (when the disarmers in the Liberal party had the upper hand) who insisted on the policy that we now have. The SNP took full advantage in Scotland and showed beyond doubt that nuclear disarmanent is actually a vote winner, especially since we don't need the weapons. But we can hope that although the opportunity was missed, maybe ...
There's been a lot said in the mainstream media over the last few days about political blogging (most notably about Derek Draper and LabourList). It's quite obvious from readings some of these articles that the media just don't really 'get' web 2.0. For the last 15 years the internet has been used merely to broadcast information to the world. Over the last 3 years this has dramatically changed. It's now a tool for two way communication on a scale that has never been seen before. The speed that we now expect a response (and often get one) is mindblowing and ...
Another year, another ludicrously self-serving and unrealistic demand from the teachers' militant wing, the NUT. This year, as the world enters the worst recession for decades, thousands lose their jobs and nearly everyone tightens their belts, the boys and girls at the National Union of Teachers are demanding a ten percent pay rise, and at least £3,000. According to the BBC, one teacher complained that "after four years in the profession she was earning just £26,000". I can feel my tears welling up. Like many people, I come from a family with no shortage of teachers. I have relatives who ...
I've received a general email and looked at Lynne Featherstone's blog regarding this lap dancing club. I fear it begs more questions than answers. The problem is that I think Lynne is doing something that she's a bit bad at - being populist without having thought the whole issue through. We've all been there - locals [...]
The story involving senior government advisors attempting to smear the Tory Party seems to have developed a life of its own because of the word "Sorry", and it seems to me that this has as much to do with the Tory attempts to get Gordon Brown to apologise for the economic mess we find ourselves in as it does to do with the smear story. In itself, getting Gordon Brown to apologise for something beyond his control seems utterly ludicrous. Why should he apologise for somethig he did not sanction and why should he be responsible for the actions of ...
Same-sex marriage seems to have been a bit of a sleeper issue for a while, but with the equal marriage campaign kicking off so forcefully and noticeably it looks like it's back on the agenda. Well done to the LGBT Network for getting this in the news, and the best of luck to them. But [...]
What do Bob Quick, Damian McBride and Den Dover MEP all have in common? They have all been caught up in a public scandal (security lapse, smears, expense claims). They all have or are being booted out (Quick has resigned, as has McBride; Dover was expelled from the Conservatives and is stepping down as an MEP in June). But they all also may well do rather well financially after their departure. Bob Quick is getting a generous pension (£110,000 a year according to Paul Waugh). Damian McBride, as - technically, if not in his day-to-day behaviour - a civil servant ...
This short film was broadcast as past of Charlie Brooker's Newswipe last week. As Sarah Ditum writes: It reprises several themes from Curtis' previous documentaries about the problems inherent in using television journalism as a way of interpreting the world. Audiences and journalists have deserted the dissection of complex political and social issues because that's, well, a bit dull - and embraced instead an emotive interpretation, championing innocent and heroic individuals in the face of monolithic and impersonal 'systems'.By Curtis's reckoning, this trope was born in the 1960s counterculture, came of age in the 80s with Live Aid, flourished in ...
The BBC brings us news of Gordon Brown's intention to force every teenager to do 50 hours of "compulsory" volunteering by the time they're 19. Now, I have no massive problem with this. Practical, and useful, community work could be incorporated into the curriculum with reasonable effect. I think young people would probably benefit from doing some different type of work, it will expand the kind of things young people do at school, and it will no doubt help to bump up CVs. It's also outside of school, which will endear it to quite a few pupils, I would imagine. ...
It looks like Quins may be without Nick Evans and Chris Malone for at least some of the final crucial matches of the Guinness Premiership. If this happens then hard times mean hard choices. Maybe Andy Gomarsall has to come on as main scrum half and Danny Care moves out to fly half...Just a thought.
Here's my latest column from the Ham & High: Watch out! A lap-dancing club could be coming to your local high street soon. Would you like one to open up in Highgate Village, Muswell Hill Broadway or Lordship Lane? Whilst I don't believe government should be in the business of banning lap-dancing clubs from existing - people should be free to choose - there's a time and a place, most particularly a place, for such establishments. I don't believe that they should be sited right next to schools, near to vulnerable young people or in a busy shopping street in ...
Well, I am bemused by Nigel Griffiths MP. Not his extra marital business, I will leave that well alone - eugh. I am talking about his latest leaflet where he blames Lib Dem led Edinburgh City Council for the closure of Post Offices - Nigel, what a load of crap. Your Labour Government has withdrawn business away from the Post Office so that things like DVLA and paying bills are a thing of the past. Your Government has taken bonds away from the Post Office as well. That's nothing to do with the Council (this one or any other) so ...
BNP 1 MEP's Conservatives 2 MEP's Labour 2 MEP's Liberal Democrats 2 MEP's UKIP 1 MEP's
Eric Pickles meltdown on Question Time a week or two ago - it's too good not to watch it over and over again.
Ordinarily, Scotland beating anyone would put me in a good mood, but the win over Iceland left a bad taste in the mouth. I'm disappointed. I'm disappointed at Ferguson's and McGregor's decision to stay out drinking till ridiculous hours when they should have been preparing themselves physically and mentally for a crucial game. I'm disappointed at their puerile reaction to the punishment inflicted upon them by George Burley, who dropped them to the bench. I'm disappointed with the reaction of the SFA, who have now declared they will never play for Scotland again. I'm disappointed with Rangers Manager Walter Smith, ...
Generally speaking political diaries are not best read cover to cover, and certainly not if they weigh in at 590 pages. They are for dipping into, browsing the index, and allowing your eyes to wonder to names, places and events that leap from the text. But (owing to a very long journey) I did consume Chris Mullin's A View from the Foothills - touted as Labour's answer to Alan Clark - in pretty much one sitting. Like all political diaries, it both benefits and loses from its fixation with the moment; if you're scribbling as and when you get the ...
Yesterday afternoon — between a Liberal Democrat Friends of Turkey social in Hackney and meeting up with the Tamil demonstrators in Parliament Square — I took part in a Chinese community event in Gerard Street, Chinatown, Westminster, to urge ethnic Chinese in Britain to play a fuller part in public life in this country. The [...]
Even better, despite what the title says on YouTube about "Radio 4", this has pictures! That move! In colour! Related posts:Playground action movie This online YouTube movie stuff is the future you know....Do not watch this movie This is not funny. It's nearly offensive. Especially that snigger...
The new Liberal Democrat Cabinet in Bristol have moved quickly to acquire Stoke Park (the land around the Dower House) from developers. This is an 18th century landscape right on the M32 gateway into Bristol. This will secure the land for future generations, and in time I believe this will be seen as a land acquisition as important to Bristol as the decision to buy Ashton Court in the post war decade.Detailed plans are still at an early stage, and Muriel Cole and I would welcome any feedback on what could be done. It looks like there may be some ...
For the last week I've been critical of the rightwing blogosphere for its silence - up to the point when the Guardian revealed its video footage - about Ian Tomlinson's death. But there remains one other blog, which is broadly on the right but get desperately upset if you point that fact out, which has remained silent throughout. Indeed, with the Guardian story now nearly a week old it has continued to stay silent. That blog is LabourList. What is most intriguing about this is that LabourList staffer Tom Miller has plenty to say about Tomlinson's death - he just ...
I've been using this Easter Weekend to try to tweak a few things on this new blog - mostly the side bar. I've written a bit of code that pulls in my twitter updates (Haiku fail at the moment though), and I've got old blog posts listed with a little bit of blurb about them as [...]
Mon 13th
14:55
Chris Huhne Q&A on Ian Tomlinson, MPs' expenses, his small majority, Robert Maxwell and Nick Cle...
Lib Dem shadow home secretary Chris Huhne answers these questions - and many more besides - in today's Independent: On police violence: The officer who lashed out at Ian Tomlinson is not typical. But any constable who betrays the public's trust to use force responsibly should be disciplined and, if appropriate, charged. It is lamentably unfair to the vast majority of self-controlled officers if a thug tars the whole force. On his property portfolio: My wife and I have no more homes for our own use than any other MP's family - one in my Eastleigh constituency and another in ...
Apparently poor Dezza was singled out because he didn't fit in to the Notting Hill set of Tories.No Derek, you were singled out because you ripped off the taxpayer like no other. And you have the cheek to come out all hard done by now even with your £200k expenses. Meanwhile he pays back the pathetically small fine that the totally ineffective Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards recommended
So, amazon are enabling LGBT and disability discrimination. It are all over the internet. Is there any reason why The Party is still supporting and promoting them via the affiliate scheme? All the ethical people are disabling theirs. Oh yes, perhaps it's because all the Westminster-based Lib Dems are still banging on about the complete non-event of a bottom-feeding, muck-raking Tory blogger being holier-than-thou about a bottom-feeding, muck-raking Labour blogger bandying about some silly ideas in an email, and hasn't noticed that something important regarding actual oppression of actual people by a huge commercial giant is happening.. For fuck's sake. ...
Since summer appears to have started, alas, this week's spotify playlist is a little more upbeat and summery than previous ones, though I've still included a couple of blues tracks, just because. You can play this one from here . It's fifteen tracks. Oh My Love The Wackers is a cover of the Lennon [...]
There is much ado in the media about the use of the blogosphere for 'political' purposes, which seems to mean almost entirely for attacking other parties and their members. We read that the three principal Tory bloggers get about 100,000 hit a month, while a leading Labour blogger, Tom Harris MP, notches up only 22,000. My own sitemeter recorded a paltry 1,497 hits in April, but sorry, readers will have to look elsewhere for scandal. Ping-pong today 1-1, cumulative score Dad 101 JW 96
My friend David Pearson of Radio Verulam sent me this recording of the first music to be played on the refurbished St Albans Abbey organ - Saint Saens organ symphony at Saturday's Easter Vigil. We were married to this organ - Vierne's First Symphony played by the then Master of Music Colin Walsh.
A blog doesn't cost a lot to create and run as many will tell you, even Guido Fawkes came out of bankruptcy and started a blog so you don't have to have a huge salary to set up a blog so why is the Union Unite donating money to LabourList? First of all a Union is for the members, LabourList is not going to help Unite or the Labour party by the slightest. If LabourList doesn't destroy the image of Labour online then it will definitely not do them any favours as its written by a man who doesn't understand ...
A few days ago a tweet asked if those emails had been Wikileaked. Which made me think, why doesn't Dolly just do it? Firstly there is the "no smoke without fire", some people will believe that there is something slightly truthful about these allegations. Secondly, who would really believe that Dolly would be that stupid/clever to put them up there? The finger of blame would surely be pointed towards Paul or the NotW. Thirdly, if something "did" turn out to be true, just think what kind of response the left could have towards the right?
The blogosphere has decended upon itself talking about very little other than the blogosphere itself - and I'm talking about me talking about the blogosphere talking about the blogosphere! Whole new level, baby! I'm beginning to think poor Sunny's feeling rather left out of the whole "Smeargate" scandal, so has decided to troll the whole blogosphere [...]
Anyone interested in the piracy situation off Somalia might like to take a look at the work of Combines Task Force 150. Apart from anything else it illustrates the vast scope of the ocean covered. It is not just off Somalia that we have pirate problems. I referenced before a book by William Langewiesche "The Outlaw Sea: Chaos and Crime on the World's Oceans" which gives the wider context.
Launching our spoof Statebook website and campaign this bank holiday, we knew we'd be tapping into a strong and growing public unease about digital privacy. Data leaks, massive government IT projects and 'data retention' are creating a sense that things in this area are going in the wrong direction. Perhaps people aren't aware of all the details - but they know there's a problem. Statebook tries to bridge that gap by illustrating the wealth of information the government already holds on you, and how the government wants to get its hands on even more if it can - popularising the ...
Newport Liberal Democrat Councillor, Hugh Clark is fairly unequivocal in this morning's Western Mail on the proposal to revive plans for a Severn Estuary International Airport near Llanwern.Newport City Council have received newly submitted plans to site the airport on land reclaimed from the Severn Estuary, to the south-east of Redwick. Its terminals would be to the north of the operational
Recess Monkey has a blog post in which he writes about a comment that Draper made at a Labour party Conference, the comment being: "If you want to be a superstar blogger, get in the papers but lose Labour an election - you can just fuck off". Maybe Derek needs to take his own advice and fu** off, because he has become a superstar blogger and he has been in the papers. He will probably lose Labour an election so he might as well fuck off!
Over at the Daily Mail, Lib Dem deputy leader Vince Cable delivers his Easter message, examining the vexed issue of MPs' expenses. Here's an excerpt: This may be a time of national economic peril, but the Home Secretary's patio heater and the Transport Secretary's three homes dominate the news. It is now essential that this running sore is dealt with. MPs have to move quickly and decisively to introduce a system that is clear and clean and gives taxpayers value for money. I was pulled up short when I saw a newspaper headline 'MPs: They're all at it'. My first ...
Tim Montgomerie has a blog post on ToryHome in which he writes about who are the losers and winners of the whole email smearing scandal and the actions of the Labour spin doctor Derek Draper and Number 10 advisor McBride. Tim points out that the losers are Gordon Brown, Politics and the Daily Telegraph politics team. Personally I think he needs to erase Politics from the list of losers because politics has not lost out. Politics will be damaged but like Afzal Anwar PPC has tweeted "they have just left a bad odour of dirty politics which will get in ...
Central Bedfordshire Council isn't working too well yet. Started up on 1st April, their web site merely offers rudimentary suggestions to email customer services, basically for ANYTHING, or dial a central number. So I am still waiting for a reference number to acknowlege that faulty lights I reported over a week ago on Parkside are getting through to the right people who need to sort them out. Meanwhile, in Firefox browser, their advertorial messages on their website don't look too brilliant:
Read him on Ian Tomlinson, Jacqui Smith's expenses and Robert Maxwell.
In a quick diversion from my task of preparing a business plan to rescue Oxfordshire's distressed home-owners and businesses from the worst effects of the state-created credit crunch I noticed the other day, in a rare foray into blogging himself, a Lib Dem Federal Policy Committee member, Geoffrey Payne, has been reading Vince Cable's new book about the credit crisis, The Storm. Geoffrey is one of those Lib Dems with a visceral hatred of anything "economically liberal", which he will always equate to something akin to "what Maggie and Ronnie did". He notes that Vince quotes Herbert Spencer, saying that ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gfbjQinNbQ Thirty years ago i lived in a fantastic Place in Salford called Langworthy with some great people, great shops and a great community. Well what went wrong. If you don't know salford take a look at how a Labour run council deals with regeneration. Follow the link.
As if to prove that nothing much has changed today's Times newspaper has an interesting article on subversion and protest in the 1970s and the Government's rather authoritarian and over-the-top reaction to what turned out to be nothing more than a harmless protest by school children: With their long hair, loose ties and flared trousers, the Pupil Power radicals wanted to overthrow the oppression of the cane and the conformity of school uniforms. Special Branch and the Government saw them as pawns in a communist plot to undermine the nation between double maths and PE. Confidential police and Whitehall papers ...
According to today's Daily Express a laptop containing the names of SAS soldiers and their top-secret training exercises has gone missing. The computer, which was not encrypted, disappeared while being used during a recent exercise in Britain by the Signals Regiment, who were attached to the elite force based in Hereford. It is said to hold sensitive information about the regiment's military and counter-terrorism manoeuvres. Does the government not learn anything from its past mistakes?
The Echo fills a whole page with a story, and colour photos (thanks very much), about next week's Miss Durham beauty pageant. I thought these things had died out with Eric Morely, but no, here we have the 18 finalists ("whittled down from 80") in all their glory. So: a bit of fun, or a demeaning spectacle which objectifies women?If the contestants enjoy taking part who am I to criticise?
The exiled, ousted Thai politician Thaksin Shinawatra has declared that now the Thai army has tanks on the streets of Bangkok, 'it is time for people to come out in revolution.' Thousands of his red-shirted supporters brought chaos to the Thai capital over the weekend and forced the cancellation of a planned summit of leaders [...]
Michael White writes: The murky underworld of sleaze and gossip which permeates the backdoor politics - and most walks of life where power, money, or the lack of it, matter - existed before the internet was invented or McBride got involved. It will continue to thrive in his absence, only much faster than generations ago. Then a prime minister of the day (Harold Macmillan) could be cuckolded by a Tory colleague for decades or another prime minister's (Harold Wilson) political secretary could have two children (by a political journalist) without most of us knowing anything about it. The net has ...
I read in the Sunday Times yesterday that David Cameron is planning changes to the way MPs are elected if he becomes Prime Minister. He says that the current system "under which constituencies such as the Isle of Wight have tens of thousands more voters than others such as Orkney and Shetland - 'neither fair nor efficient'." He goes on to say: "We should start by looking at the way MPs are elected. At the moment, some seats have many more electors than others . . . it means there are more MPs than there need to be," he said. ...
I've now been involved in active politics for over quarter of a century. I've worked with and observed many politicians from all parties whether they be local councillors, backbench parliamentarians or ministers. I've also met activists from all parties who actually get these people elected and try to keep them out of trouble once they're there. And do you know what? I've found that most of the above are decent human beings who want to make people's lives better. There are huge disagreements of philosophy and policy, but most people in my experience are in this game for the right ...
An 80 minute film about a font may not at first sound like everyone's up of tea, but Gary Hustwit's documentary Helvetica was a great watch on DVD over Easter. {Gary Hustwit's Helvetica: DVD cover} As well as being a history of the font, it is also a gentle amble through the history of design in the twentieth-century, largely free of jargon but still giving a good flavour of the conflicting thoughts and schools. In particular, the question of whether a font should be neutral, allowing the words and other design features to impart meaning, or whether the design of ...
I am pleased to report that Dundee City Council has set up a working group to progress the improvement and opening to the public of the area at Riverside around the civic amenity site. The new working group has City Council cross-departmental membership and also includes representatives from SEPA and Scottish Natural Heritage. The group has already met twice, with a further meeting taking later this month. In the eight years I have been a member of the City Council, I have been exasperated at the slow progress that has happened in terms of getting the proposed Riverside Nature Park ...
Without a doubt the best thing about the Kilburn High Road is the way it moves and shifts almost daily. It reminds me of the phrase a old friend taught me "Everything has changed, yet nothing is different." It's that whatever the shops, the vibrancy, the verve and the pulse of Kilburn remains lives and pumping. Now it's often said that much has changed in Kilburn - that it really isn't the same anymore. I understand these claims but in fact the country has changed - produce and clothes and goods have rarely been cheaper and more accessible for all. ...
Wednesday 1 April 2009New YorkIn the world hierarchy of daily newspapers the New York Times considers itself the equal of any. It is the largest metropolitan newspaper in the US and is part of a stab...
Parts of the following chronology have been used in various Liberal Democrat History Group publications over the years, but here it is all together in one place. Spot any errors or omissions? Just let me know. 1979 3 May General election won by Tories. Defeated Labour MPs include Shirley Williams. June Social Democrat Alliance (SDA) reorganises itself into a network of local groups, not all of whose members need be in the Labour party. July "Inquest on a movement" by David Marquand appears in Encounter. 22 November Roy Jenkins delivers the Dimbleby lecture, "Home thoughts from abroad." 30 November Bill Rodgers ...
Government has a culture of using its charges and fines as a way to build revenue. The more yellow lines there are within a borough, the higher its revenue stream. Whether or not the lines need to be there isn't considered. You park outside a school or too close to a zebra crossing – yeah, [...]
With Peter Brookes on Holiday Morten Moreland provides the above in this morning's Times. Says it all really. However, looking at some of the things that Damian McBride thought he could use against the Tories shows how stupid and grasping at straws Labour have become. Or at least some people in Labour as Alistair Campbell is startlingly the voice of reason. A visit to a sexual health clinic by a single man in the late 1980's should be looked at in the context of the time. We were being feed the advertising 'Don't Die of Ignorance' at the start of ...
I suggest the last person leaving the building turn out the light.how much longer can we sustain this. The shambolic excuses from the party in power carry on while we suffer. It's time for a radical change and new ideas. NEW LABOUR HAVE RAN OUT OF BOTH.
As the sun sets on Easter, the Christmas lights are still up in Highgate village. I asked Haringey Council when they would be removed from the High Street a couple of weeks ago. The Council's position is the lights were left up on request for some other events, which is a bit puzzling.Despite this, they have agreed to take them down. We were told they would be gone within two weeks - so that means this week.
Mon 13th
06:58
24dash.com produced this insight into how most of the grey community suffer in this country i think ...
Poverty campaigners warn state pension increase 'not enough' <!–Last Updated - 12th April 2009 at 03:41 PM –> The recent increase in the state pension fails to tackle the growing problem of pensioner poverty, it was warned today. The National Pensioners Convention said 822 older people were falling into poverty every day. It warned that the [...]
Mon 13th
06:42Found These stats about roads in Salford on a fellow lib dems blog hope you don't mind steve,Questio...
The ministry of Transport has published it's annual survey into the Road Conditions of England (2007), and we are bringing you here the top 10 in the best and worst roads. The results show the percentage of the road network for each local authority responsible, that require further investigation. The Best;Reading 2%West berkshire 3%Blackburn 4%Waltham Forest 5%Hampshire [...]
I suppose it's only to be expected that, as an offshoot of the Roman church, the Anglican church should be just as hypocritical as its parent is. Today the Anglican church is feebly bleating about oh how terrible it is that some people play football during the Easter weekend.According to the BBC, "church leaders have called on the government to use Sunday trading laws to prevent Premier League matches being held on Easter Sunday in the future." The archbishop of York, Dr. John Sentamu, said "the amazing thing about England is that we are not trying to force religion down ...
I went to the world's oldest steam railway, the Tanfield Railway, which also happens to be on the edge of my village of Sunniside in Gateshead yesterday. It was like a giant trainset for boys who haven't grown up! Great fun. Enjoy the video.
Happy Easter #
I will be debating with Euro candidates from other parties in Tonbridge on Friday 8 May. This will be a public hustings at the Judd School, Brook Street, from 7.30pm. The line-up is: Tony Devenish (Conservative) Silke Thomson (Labour) Antony Hook (Liberal Democrat) Hazel Dawe (Green Party) Steve Harris (UKIP) The debate is organised by the European Movement and the debate Chair is Ben Patterson. I [...]
I was totting it up this afternoon. It has been about thirteen years since Damian McBride, recently resigned aide to Gordon Brown, sent me an abusive letter after beating the candidate whose campaign he managed in our college elections. This piece in the Daily Mail tells you just about all you need to know about the man [...]
We've reached the end of the series with two more ideas for fighting global warming.First up, solar panels on satellites. The idea being that there is twice as much light up there as down here, and, if concentrated by fresnel lenses, many times more. Then the energy would be transmitted back to earth by microwaves, SimCity style.This episode left many obvious questions unasked and unanswered:1.
