I couldn't let this go by without a comment. The Newcastle Journal recently carried an article informing readers that complaints about National Express "have soared", making it the 2nd most complained about train company in the country. (They were beaten by Virgin West Coast.) A spokesman for National Excess blamed "operational issues" - in other words they couldn't "operate" a Hornby trainset,
I might have been writing about the opportunities for helping people, business and communities in these difficult times from today's Labour budget. I will leave a few spaces for my feelings on how well that has worked Then think about the lack of help forthcoming for our local Stockton Sixth Form College. The College is a vital part of our local community, as well as providing excellent...
Do you remember the Labour attack on the Lib Dems before the general election, claiming we had "uncosted" spending plans, and our "figures didn't add up"? Vince Cable was slammed for wanting to spend a few hundred thousand pounds on bee research, one of the "100 uncosted spending commitments" Labour dribbled and drooled about. The end of the world was predicted if such sums were spent. Now the
Lembit Opik MP hosted the annual All Party Group for the Baha'i's reception on the terrace of the House of Commons this evening, timed to coincide with the Baha'i festival of Ridvan. If the celebrations were somewhat subdued for many people present, it was because seven leading Baha'i figures who were arrested in Iran last [...]
Not my words but those of Kate Adie, guest speaker at the Ladies' Lunch in aid of the George Hardwick Foundation. This is a wonderful charity which cares for carers, supporting them in their caring role, enabling them to have a little time to themselves, offering counselling and advice. Although some of their work is funded by Stockton Borough Council they have to raise lots of money each year
Alan Butt Philip is the Welsh Liberal Democrats' lead European election candidate for 2009.
Bangladesh: the new government's programme Committee Room 3, House of Lords, 11.00 April 21, 2009 Introductory remarks by Eric Avebury This is our first seminar since the elections at the end of last year brought the Awami League Grand Alliance to power with an overwhelming majority. Its also the first we have held jointly with the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Bangladesh, and I am delighted to share the platform with the chair of the Group, Baroness Uddin, and a galaxy of. eminent speakers who will be looking at the new government's programme and the current situation from a number of ...
The picture wasn't an encouraging one. As soon as Alistair Darling sat down and the Treasury released the full details of its borrowing plans, the screens started to bleed red. The price of government debt dropped ever lower as the truth suddenly dawned on everyone from traders in London and New York to central bankers [...]
Daily Star, Dhaka Tuesday, April 21, 2009 UK MPs for int'l standard war crime trial Star Online Report The war crimes trial in Bangladesh should meet international standard, said some members of The House of Lords, the upper house of Britain's parliament, yesterday. The British parliamentarians at a seminar also suggested appointing an international judge for the trial process, reports ATN Bangla. The speakers at the seminar also termed the first hundred days of the Bangladesh government satisfactory. The seminar also discussed several issues including recent BDR mutiny, cancellation of the lease of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia's Dhaka cantonment house, ...
What a day. Sat through today's rhetoric laden PMQs at work thinking what a waste of space and lets just cut to the chase. The Budget. Far more important than the theatre of PMQs. I have top say that this year's budget turn out to be disappointing and a huge let down. It showed a complete [...]
You mark my words, whoever wins the next election we will be in for years of tax rises and spending cuts. No one believes the government forecast of 3.5 per cent growth next year; least of all government ministers themselves. Look too for a sterling crisis and rising interest rates.
If you are a Liberal Democrats donor and you are reading this then I would like to suggest that you donate money to blogs because without your help the Lib Dem blogosphere will not be capable of challenging the Tories or Labour. Currently the Lib Dem blogosphere is a great and vibrant place but bloggers are not getting donations, something which the Conservative and Labour bloggers are getting left, right and centre. Conservative Home gets money from Tory HQ and other sources, maybe that's what has made it so successful? The Liberal Democrats have some great blogs and bloggers all ...
Well first time tonight out in force, and the gang are brimming with confidence, our candidate Steve Middleton was chatting to residents it's obvious there are a lot of unhappy people out there. If you do it steve i think your going to be busy. Picked up quite a lot of work, one of the [...]
This morning I got up at the ungodly hour of 3.30am to join Durham Constabulary on a dawn swoop on addresses throughout Darlington, known as Operation Nimrod. Cycling across a deserted town centre, I arrived at Darlington Police Station at 4.15, discovering no bike racks when I arrived. Then into the station to join up with half a dozen local residents and three other councillors (Fred Lawton,
I've been trying to find historical data that would back up Alistair Darling and Yvette Cooper's claim that we can bounce back to a sustained level of 3.5% growth. What I did find was the OECD figures back to 1970. Firstly though lets look at the figures since Labour came to power. Even with the dot com boom coinciding with the start of that period of growth 3,5% was never sustainable. Something that Darling seemed to indicate in his budget speech earlier. Indeed 2.5% seems to have been closer to the mean over this period of sustained growth. Taking out ...
With the pointless Budget today and Gordon Brown's surprise and cack-handed attempt to take control of the MP expenses issue yesterday it is really starting to feel now like this government is in its death throes. I am old enough to remember the last couple of years of the Major government. It wasn't pretty and it was like watching a slow motion car crash. That lasted years. One big difference between then and now though was that John Major was initially elected by his own party, then he won a general election and when the whispering and back-biting got too ...
According to numerous tweets, the prize has gone to a blog called NightJack. How shocking is it that I have never heard of it? Commiserations to Alix Mortimer and Iain Dale. Personally, I have considerable sympathy with the views of Stumbling and Mumbling on the way the prize was decided.
Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has pledged to put his own radical proposals on reforming MPs' expenses to the House of Commons after a meeting between the three main party leaders on the issue ended in deadlock. Gordon Brown published his own plan yesterday which included replacing the second home allowance with a daily attendance allowance. It got short shrift from Nick, but it seems the Prime Minister is unshiftable. Speaking to BBC News tonight after the talks, Nick said: Gordon Brown wont budge. He wants to move to this system where MPs would basically given a cheque for turning ...
Tesco has today withdrawn its highly controversial planning application for the site near Tolworth Roundabout! This is really excellent news. If you've been following the story you will know that they had applied to build a superstore plus 562 flats on the Toby Jug and ex-MOD site between Tolworth Station and the roundabout. It was wrong for dozens of reasons. The huge...
I prefer not to think about the universe as the whole thing is too much to contemplate. A new pair of fell shoes is a much better choice for brain energy. The numbers that the Chancellor was spitting out today were much too big to contemplate - 175 billion pounds of debt and more - so he opted to talk about the minutia instead. The trouble is that I can get away with not thinking about the universe whereas the Chancellor doesn't have that luxury with the economy.Now, don't get me wrong, some of the minutia was important but that ...
Michael Meadowcroft wrote an obituary of Maggie Clay in today's Guardian. In the 1970s and early 1980s, when I met her several times, Maggie was a city councillor in Leeds and worked for the Association of Liberal Councillors in Hebden Bridge. That was in the days when the ALC was certainly not approved of by the party hierarchy. There was one thing about Maggie that I thought I remembered, but I did not blog about it in case I had got it wrong. However, Michael confirms that when she wanted a break from politics she open an organic food shop ...
Dear Fraser Today the Labour Party confirmed that they have run out of ideas and have condemned us to years of unemployment and a decade of debt. Their pick-and-mix budget of recycled announcements will do nothing to get us out of this recession and nothing that will help the poorest who are being hit hardest by it. A Liberal Democrat budget would deliver practical help. It would take 4 million people out of paying tax all together and would cut the majority of people's income tax by £700. Paid for by cutting loophole and exemptions that benefit the richest individuals ...
You can read the full text over at the party's website HERE.
The group that organises our Conference want to know what members made of it - what you liked, what you didn't like, what was better or worse than before. Feedback has generally been extremely positive but getting it written down will really help.They've set up a short online survey so people can do just that. It really does only take a couple of minutes to do find and fill it out here We asked
A West Midlands businesswoman, who had been placed on the Conservative party's list of preferred parliamentary candidates, has decided that her future is with the Liberal Democrats. More at Liberal Democrat Voice.
Is not here but can be viewed on the Social Liberal Forum site....
By the time Alistar Darling rose to deliver his speech Prime Ministers Questions had already set the tone with David Cameron undermining the government's projections at every opportunity and Nick Clegg questioning the record of delivery on pledges of 'one million new jobs'. Darling had an impossible task because the media narrative of a government 'ready for the knackers-yard', as Cameron puts it, is already pretty well-established but even by a reasonable measure the Budget was truly dismal and totally failed to rise to the challenge of the times. Looking at the 'headline grabbers' the surprise was unquestionably the announcement ...
Amidst all the budget talk, you might miss the fact that no evidence has been found that the 12 students arrested in Lancashire the other week were up to terrorist plotting. You'd think they'd be released and allowed to go back to their lives instead of turned over to the Borders Agency and potentially thrown out of the country. Costigan Quist has written an excellent analysis of this and if you do nothing else today, read it. Mind you, this is the same Home Office who have separated breastfeeding mothers from their babies, locked families up in horrendous conditions in ...
Golden hops galloping away... Very early strawberries on the way if this sunshine continues... The tulips that have decided to grow up through the lavender...
Wed 22nd
17:53
The countries on it's knees all the political BLOGS talk over Darlings budget except for Salford Lab...
buzzin' With Labour Councillor ??? & Councillor ??, were going to formulate a motion on the decline of bee's. We are pleased that we have been headed off at the pass by the announcement today that our government is to invest £10 million in research. This is money well invested as the consequence of none/poor pollination [...]
In today's budget announcement, Darling announced "a guaranteed job, training or work placement for all 18-24 year olds who reach 12 months unemployed to ensure no young people are left behind due to long-term unemployment;"Sounds good. I thought I'd find out some details so, after some hunting around, I came to section 5.26 of the main budget report. Here's what it says "guaranteeing everyone aged between 18 and 24 who has been claiming JSA for 12 months a job, work placement or work-related skills training for at least six months."Jobseekers' Allowance is not normally available to 16 and 17-year olds. ...
From Conservative Home: Beverley Nielsen: A former Midlands Businesswoman of the Year, ConservativeHome has learnt that she resigned from her local Conservative association in West Worcestershire in December and that she has now defected to the Liberal Democrats, for whom she is due to stand for election to Worcestershire County Council in June. Of the original priority list of 100 Conservative candidates, 27 are no longer seeking a Parliamentary seat at the next election.
Nick Parsons, head of strategy at NAB Capital said: "These numbers are astonishing for growth. They are totally unrealistic, both because lower levels of consumption by both businesses and individuals will reduce the trend rate of growth and because it is highly unlikely that the economy could grow above trend for so long. It is [...]
I was hopefuly today that Alistair Darling's budget would bring some cheer but it has ended up a damp squib. He could and should have made some changes to put more money in the pockets of ordinary people. An increase in the starting rate for tax would have been a good move, or a reduction in the 20p rate. He could also have reduced corporation tax for small businesses which would help in the current climate. Instead we seem to have had a few gimmicks. A scheme to encourage people to buy new cars but only if theirs is at ...
I have not looked into the budget for one reason and one reason only, economics isn't something that rocks my boat but I do know something which is the Lib Dems could make who are low earners that's a lot of people throughout the UK £700 richer with new party policy that the Lib Dems will fight the next general election on. The economy is in shatters but the Lib Dem plans to tax people fairly are probably the best plans I have heard of so far. The economic guru that is Vince Cable hasn't forgot the ordinary low earning ...
{Ming in the House of Commons} Commenting on today's Budget statement by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir Menzies Campbell MP said: "This is a cross-your-fingers Budget from a Government which knows that economic events are largely out of its control. "The Chancellor had the opportunity to do something for low and middle income families who have benefited least under this Government and suffered most under this recession. He could have given them all a tax cut of £700 and taken four million of the poorest tax payers out of taxation altogether if only he'd accepted Liberal Democrat proposals. "By ...
Mark Pack is someone who I regard as being one of the two saviours of Lib Dem Voice and making it into what it is today, the other being Stephen Tall. Personally I like the work of Mark and what he writes because it tickles my fancy. Mark writes about Technology and that tickles my fancy he also writes about politics which tickles my fancy so I always enjoy a blog post that has been written by him. So to discover that he now has his own blog that links to all the blog posts that he writes and collects ...
As I type there is a huge BBC outside broadcast van parked in the street and a small group of engineers running wires around the Gauge Opinion headquarters here in Money Road. At 6:30 I am due to be live on BBC London News commenting on today's budget with some other local businesses. I'm just pulling together my thoughts about the budget so I can condense it down into the 30 second sound bite I suspect we will be allowed. I don't want to be too negative. The first few months of running my own business from here in Money ...
Managed to catch most of the Alistair Darling's 2009 budget speech on the radio, whilst driving to my appointments across Salford. A few announcements caught my eye (or ear!): Economy to shrink by 3.5% this year Borrowing to be £175 billion this year Duty on alcohol to go up 2% from midnight Duty on tobacco to go up 2% from 6pm tonight Fuel up by 2p a litre in September New 50% tax rate for those earning over £150,000/year Tax allowances removed for those earning over £100,000/year You can get a full list of the "key points" here at Sky ...
Nick Clegg has issued the following response to Alistair Darling's budget: Today we got a pick and mix Budget of recycled announcements from a government skilled in raising people's hopes but incompetent at actually delivering help. "This Budget is a political supermarket sweep of random promises, without even a hint of a plan or any likelihood the promises will be put into practice. The biggest disappointment in this Budget is its failure to sort out Britain's unfair tax system. To put money into people's pockets to help them make it through this recession. "Britain's taxes are too heavy on those ...
Well, in the round at least, not to many surprises from Mr Darling. A bit of encouragement for savers by increasing the contributions limits for ISAs, the usual hit on 'sin taxes', so far so dull. I'll pick on three aspects that indicate what this budget says in political terms. 1. Increasing the proposed 45% rate to 50% and introducing it a year earlier. Alistair has clearly taken on board the criticism that a 45% rate would raise precious little. I'm not convinced that he'll raise much more, as those likely to be affected are also likely to be better ...
A confession, then; I wasn't actually in the hall for the leader's speech at conference. In my defence, as a man of Gloucester I was next door in Dempsey's being ritually humiliated by the Cardiff Council section of the Blues fan club. Still, when the other Kirsty (as opposed to my Kirsty) beat that confession out of me in the traditional politician's manner of being nice to me, I could at least
Well today i was on a walkabout. talking to residents,and one elderly gent gave me an ear bashing. The place is full of bloody flats that no body wants, no info structure, and where does my bloody grandson go for a job. He has no intention of being with those flaming media types. And do you [...]
Whilst over at Political Betting.com I noticed an advert on the blog that I thought I would share with you. You can see the advert below: I think that says it all 69% of Conservative MEP's (yes Cameron's Cronies) voted to give themselves a 27% pay increase and personally I think that is disgusting. When people are losing their jobs because their companies are going bankrupt the only thing these slim balls can do is give them self more money so they can become even more richer and increase their chances of becoming political millionaires. I am sicked to find ...
I've finished reading The Girl from the Ukraine by Vera Smereka. It chronicles her life and shows how Ukrainians suffered in quick succession first the terrors of Holodomor (deliberate starvation of millions of people) under the regime of Stalin and then slavery under the Nazis during the Second World War. Vera herself was one of the teenagers forcibly taken from the Ukraine and made to work in German factories as slave labour. When the war ended the captive Ukrainians had the choice of going back to live in the Soviet bloc, where they had suffered so much during Holodomor, or ...
I'm not going to waste your time echoing the same sentiments expressed elsewhere except in exhaustive depth - I'll keep this brief: Scorched Earth Election Budget. Plans depending on growth of 3.5% in 2011? A joke - and an insult. It's a figure plucked out of the air to make the sums 'add up'. Who seriously believes [...]
We have been told that the result of the public enquiry into the proposed hotel at the Oval Cricket Ground will be available around the first week in June. Also, Surrey County Cricket Club are testing the new floodlights at the Oval Cricket Ground on the evenings of April 29th and 30th. The plan is to test both the level of lighting on the pitch and to check that no lights are shining into people's homes. Local councillors continue to raise the concerns of residents on match days to do with noise and anti-social behaviour. If you do have any ...
We have been supporting Viva Vauxhall residents in their campaign to get EDF, who are responsible for connecting up Lambeth's street lights to the grid, to get the new lighting in Bonnington Square working. Some lights were installed in January but are still not linked up to the mains! We have had the following reply from EDF: Further to my email last Friday evening, I have now had a reply back from our Head of Customer Operations who tells me that there has been a long outstanding Open-Circuit Fault at this location. Customers in the surrounding area will be notified ...
I've got a guest post today over on Daily Blog Tips: Commenting on other people's blogs is a great way to have interesting discussions, learn from others - and publicize yourself and your own site. The content of your comments is crucial to achieving all of these, but there's one aspect that is often over-looked: having a good profile on blog commenting systems. Suppose, for example, that you comment on a site that requires you to login with a Blogger (Google) account. That means your comment will appear with your name - and a link through to your Blogger profile. ...
Well, actually he's part of a collection G E Pallant-Sidaway, my dad, made to illustrate the history of armour. ...
Andrew Stephenson PPC for the Conservatives has put out a leaflet arguing that Nick Clegg is under fire for the membership in Lancashire of the party and I would just like to point out that it is a lie. Andrew Stephenson's leaflet also mentions how Lib Dems have defected to the Tories from Lancashire and personally I didn't want to mention the reason here but now I will have to. First of all the defectors who have changed parties from the Lib Dems either had power hungry agenda's that the Lib Dems didn't support, played a massive part in corruption ...
I was in the sandwich shop near Smith Square in Westminster when I got the call from the Journal a couple of hours ago. They wanted my views on Gateshead applying for city status. A great idea, I replied. Go for it. As a Gateshead lad, born and bred, wouldn't it be great to be on Gateshead City Council?By the way, do you realise how difficult it is to do a media interview at the same time as
Part of Shire Way in Yate has recently been resurfaced, but we've still been asking for attention to the dinner-plate size potholes on the rest of it, especially a whole colony of them between Kingscote and Badgeworth. We're glad to hear from South Glos that they should be repaired today and tomorrow.
This is a quickie just an initial reaction on Alistair Darling's budget, I'll go into more depth later when I have time. During his speech earlier he said boldly this is a budget to 'offer hope for the future'. Whoops. Sorry Alistair if you are going to nick phrases from Barack Obama I'd expect you to at least give us realistic hope of what can be achieved. You're not promised to but a man on Mars before the next decade is out but lets get real. The Times this morning said that you may say that recovery in 2010 might ...
In amazing news released today, HBO television and renowned author George R. R. Martin have announced they have made a deal with convicted terrorist(s?[1]) in order to film a series based on Martin's Game of Thrones in territory controlled by the terrorist. OK, the convictions may be over 30 years old, and McGuinnes might now be a senior Northern Ireland politician and deputy first minister, but even so, how cool is this? During our recent trip to Los Angeles, the First Minister and I met with senior executives from HBO to help finalise the deal to bring the TV production ...
Today's Budget contained the usual barrage of figures, but one number really stood out. The Chancellor admitted that this year the Government will spend £175 billion more than it raises in taxes. It's hard to grasp what numbers like this actually mean. But this is a colossally large sum of money. What it means in practice is two things: - taxes will be higher for years to come; we've had some early indications - a top rate of 50% on the highest earners, a first slice at pension tax relief and a general increase in National Insurance Contributions; it's hard ...
The day the Google StreetCar came to Chez LibCync... Well, I caught it on camera (and film by mistake natch, luckily it reversed so I could get some actual pictures!) thus setting up some weird surveillance feedback loop. The fabric of space-time remains intact but there's no telling what will happen when they put the images up...
Chancellor Alastair Darling has just finishing delivering this year's Budget (about 50 minutes in case you had a sweepstake). If you missed it, the BBC site has an at-a-glance round-up here, chief of which include: > Economy forecast to shrink 3.5% in 2009 > Growth expected to pick up in 2010, expanding by 1.25%. > Economy to grow by 3.5% annually from 2011 > Public borrowing to increase to £175bn this year > Public spending to be cut from 1.1% next year to 0.7% in 2011-2012 > Income tax for those earning more than £150,000 to rise to 50% from ...
Here below is my photo of British Srilankan Tamils protesting in Parliament Square on Monday afternoon:I arrived at Westminster tube station on Monday afternoon and went to spend a penny (well, 50 of them actually). Then I noticed that the people in the subway etc seemed to contain an unusually high proportion of (what I later learned were) British Tamils. Emerging from the station, I realised
Early this morning I was at Vauxhall bus station in the London borough of Lambeth, alongside Caroline Pidgeon (Member of the Greater London Assembly), Tom Brake MP (Carshalton and Wallington) and the target parliamentary seat LibDem PPCs, Chris Nicholson (Streatham) and Bridget Fox (Islington South). We were launching a campaign to introduce cheap one-hour bus [...]
All 12 men who were arrested two weeks ago in terror raids in the north west of England are to be released without charge. However, nine of the men are to be deported for breaching the terms of their entry into the UK. Greater Manchester Police have released them into the custody (oxymoron, surely?) of the UK Border Agency. The police raids, which were hastily brought forward and led to the resignation of Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick are now under renewed scrutiny. Chris Huhne, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary said, "This is yet another embarrassment for Jacqui Smith coming hot ...
It is rare that PMQ's is the warm-up act but with Alistair Darling's high-wire balancing act budget to come that was very much the case today. David Cameron rightly chose to lead-off on the economy and unemployment rather than 'Smeargate' Both sides traded figures and bantered on similar themes; Brown stuck to the familiar 'do nothing tack'. Cameron subtly shifted his line to what Brown is doing isn't working. He alluded to 'Smeargate' saying "another time we can talk about what your chief advisers have been doing" and the 'moral bankruptcy' of the Labour Party in response to Brown criticising ...
What a good idea: a one-hour bus ticket that you can use on London's buses rather than having to buy separate tickets for multiple hops. Liberal Democrats including Caroline Pidgeon, Transport Spokesperson on the London Assembly and Tom Brake MP have launched a London-wide campaign to persuade the Mayor to introduce one-hour bus tickets. Caroline Pidgeon said: "You can already switch from tube to tube on the same ticket, so it makes real sense to allow people to do the same with buses. It really is unfair that people who use Oyster pay as you go have to pay a ...
Wed 22nd
12:03
Laws on the Sats' fiasco: "The issue now is whether ministerial heads should be rolling"
Ken Boston, former exam chief for England, has not minced his words when giving evidence to a committee of MPs on last summer's Sats' marking fiasco. The BBC reports: Dr Boston, former head of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, described ministers' version of what happened as "fiction". The marking of more than a million test papers taken by 11-year-olds was delayed for months when the company contracted to run the marking - ETS Europe - ran into problems. It later lost the contract. Results of the controversial tests are used to draw up the primary school league tables. Last year's ...
Today is Earth Day. There are thousands of events happening around the world to raise environmental awareness. Whilst I don't want to knock the efforts of NGOs, community groups and schools to get people thinking and acting "green", Earth Day has sometimes looked to me like a free pass for some corporates and celebrities. The US energy secretary, Dr Stephen Chu, had a point when he said: "I would say that from here on in, every day has to be Earth Day."The first Earth Day was held in the US, way back in 1970. It led to the enactment of ...
It's Budget day, and I've got a meeting on Global Financial Regulation to chair, so this is a shorter one. (although I am tempted to pen a post entitled 'Why the budget does not matter much for the economy' - the moves taken so far seem to be far more about politics (the 50p rate) than the economy - the gilt and FX markets seem practically soporific)Axel Weber, of the Bundesbank, is pointing out something important, worrying and inevitable: policymakers' response to the crunch is seriously underminind crossborder banking, and with it the European vision of economic integration:"Some of the ...
To Cowley Street yesterday evening for the inaugural meeting of the Candidate Training and Development working party, set up by the English Candidates Committee. I have to admit to having some doubts about where we will be going with this, especially given the expectations that both the new Capability Board and the proposed Leadership Academy will have some interest in the subject matter. However, my doubts were replaced by a grim depression when I saw the agenda, in particular; 4. Terms of reference/project charter for the working group - discussion Words designed to chill the marrow, methinks. As a civil ...
Remember the students arrested in the North West a couple of weeks ago, after Bob Quick flashed his secret information to the media? As I predicted at the time*, no evidence has been found. But because the operation was so high profile, with the most senior politicians in the land speaking out on how terrible these people are and how we need to clamp down on foreign students, something must be done. In this case, that something is to kick most of students out of the country on the grounds of national security. Joe Otten has suggested that there's nothing ...
{A policeman} Yet more controversy over the police's handling of protests: Government officials passed secret police intelligence to energy firm E.ON before last summer's environmental demonstration at Kingsnorth in Kent. Environmental action group Climate Camp had planned a peaceful demonstration at the proposed site of a new coal-fired power station. Emails obtained by Liberal Democrat MP David Howarth under the Freedom of Information Act show that civil servants from the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform gave details of meetings and activists' movements to E.ON. From the Guardian: At first officials at BERR refused to release the emails, despite ...
Moved to see Tamil community of all ages pouring into Parliament Square and pleased to see that legal attempts to ban demos mean little ...
The BBC leads with pessimism today, with the heading "Budget to Reveal Depths of Gloom". Wouldn't it be lovely to hear some good news for once? Well, we're not going to. A drop in the economy of 3.5% will be the biggest peacetime collapse in a hundred years. I can't sum this up any better.
Lib Dem Voice has a blog post about how the Lib Dems have the potential to come second at Euro's polls and personally I think we can come second. The Lib Dems are a party that didn't get as much as they wanted back in 2004 because the UKIP benefited from Labour and didn't allow the Lib Dems but that might not be the case this time around. The outcome of the election is to put the Lib Dems third according to predictions but I think we can do better then that. The Liberal Democrats need to campaign hard over ...
The budget starts at half twelve today. I'm sure there will be plenty of comment on it afterwards but here are a few Welsh specific pieces that make good prior reading.Starting with the worst case scenario - Wales set to lose £1bn from Wales onlinePeter responds explaining that working out the cuts isn't quite that easy. Thanks to our old friend the Barnett formula. The BBC has an update on
Jim Knight (Minister for Schools) was very jovial at the meeting I arranged with him for the Head, Deputy and Assistant Heads of Coldfall Primary School. They had been so upset by what the unforgiving, child-hostile testing regime of SATs was doing to children that I had met with them recently on this issue - and this meeting was the result. Well - was enormously proud of Coldfall's case to the Minister. Evelyn Davies (Head) made an outstanding case against the over-testing and flawed league tables. She was clear, passionate and extremely knowledgeable and experienced - and measured. Moreover, when ...
Guido Fawkes has a blog post about how he asked Vince Cable his prediction on the economy and the economic guru replied by giving Guido the advice: He said he didn't do predictions and then predicted 3 million unemployed, he thought inflation and interest rates would go higher but stay in single digits. Guido replied to this advice by Vince Cable and said So fix your mortgage rate now. Now that is advice and I think people with mortgages need to take. People who's mortgages are not fixed are to find it even more harder over the next year and ...
I have posted before on my thoughts about reforming the allowance system for MPs. While this involves a daily allowance, this is a very different system from the 'attendance allowance' system being proposed now by the Prime Minister which I think is a mistake. Any new system should still be regarded as a payment to cover the cover the costs of having to work away from home so there is some sense that it is related to actual expenditure rather than being for turning up. Crucially, it would require the determination of each MPs main home and be paid when ...
My office at Edge Hill looks out over the campus lake. We have some (very) tame ducks here who seem to have no fear of vehicles or people. Anyway, yesterday we had the first sightings of a brood (is that the right word) of duckings with their proud mum. Ahhhhhh!
Former union leader and pensioners' activist Jack Jones has died, aged 96. He was actually from Garston under the bridge and was featured in the local history book - "Over the top from Under the Bridge". Annoyingly I lent my copy to someone and now can't remember who. I am not sure if this is still in print. The publisher is Countyvise and here is a link to a page on Amazon.
Wed 22nd
08:55New figures show over a third of councils are failing in the fight against electoral fraud
New figures published today by the Electoral Commission show that over a third of local councils are failing to meet the standards laid down to ensure the integrity of the electoral register and postal voting process. Today's figures are the first time the Electoral Commission has published detailed records of how Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) across Great Britain are performing against recently introduced performance standards. The ten standards cover a wide range of their work, including the completeness and accuracy of the electoral register, publicising the registration process to the public and overall planning and organisation. Although in many areas ...
Click on the headline above to read the article from last night's "Evening Telegraph" about this!
And Millennium replied: "I won him in a raffle."
Wed 22nd
07:59Funny thing Politics three years ago a brought up why do Councillors go to Blackpool all expenses pa...
Well three years ago i raised the issues of trips to blackpool, and know it's gone no more. We actually use facilities at the council. In this years budget i identified more waste. But failed to put the message across so for the next twelve months it's open season. It really winds me up when these [...]
Gordon Brown's announcement yesterday that he is to bring forward proposals to reform MPs' accomodation allowances may have taken many people by surprise but the two key questions that need to be asked are: "is this a serious proposal?" and "will it make any difference?". The fact that the proposal came from the Prime Minister of course makes it a serious one. However, this is not a simple matter as The Times points out. There is the possibility that some MPs will actually benefit from the changes whilst the public perception will be that, like the European Parliament, MPs will ...
Writing in Monday's Guardian, Leo Hickman delivers an eco-friendly finger-wagging to overweight people "But for me the most interesting aspect of the study is that it shows how the obesity debate is now starting to be analogous to how the smoking debate ended up playing out. At first, being overweight - like smoking - was labelled as being something that was damaging to just you. The attitude was: if you want to eat or smoke yourself to an early grave then be my guest. But now being overweight is increasingly being seen as a selfish act in which - as ...
Tom Wise, independent MEP for East Anglia has been charged with false accounting and money laundering. Mr Wise was originally elected to the European Parliament for UKIP in 2004. His researcher, Lindsay Jenkins has also been charged. From Cambridge News Online: Derek Frame, reviewing lawyer, CPS Special Crime Division, said: "Following the publication of a news article in October 2005 relating to Mr Wise and Ms Jenkins, the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) began an investigation into Mr Wises' use of allowances. OLAF subsequently passed the investigation to Bedfordshire Police Economic Crime Unit for investigation." He said the charges related to ...
Could it be that Labour have exercised one of the biggest confidence tricks in history and propelled someone as Chancellor and Prime Minister who's well below the pay grade? I'm thinking about all the howlers of the past 12 years and particularly the last couple. I mean the attendance allowance scheme is just one more example. What's [...]
Well this economics graduate and political blogger will not be watching the budget later and live blogging it. Sadly some of us will have to keep the economy turning (even if I work for a American multinational, supporting an American multinational client, our salaries do support the UK economy). However, as I have just turned off James Naughtie and the Today programme at my desk I may well be tuning my pocket FM tuner in to Radio 4 later. I will however hope to leave work as soon as work allows and write up some analysis later on.
A quick post in response to two specific points made by Bethan Jenkins on her blog yesterday. Bethan says that it is ironic that the Welsh Liberal Democrats are attacking Plaid Cymru for being gutless in government, though that has not stopped her criticising One Wales for the same failings. She says that 'Plaid is fighting for more powers', and 'are spearheading the debate on the future of
Wed 22nd
01:55
Day 3033: Millennium Elephant discovers the Dark Secret inside the Office of Mr Chris Huhne MP
Tuesday: It is the tub of chocolates that we left for his research staff. He is on a diet - do not tell him, anyone! Slimming Team {Posted by Picasa} Along with Mr Lord Bonkers and Auntie Helen and Special Agent George, I have been along to interview nearly-but-not-quite Liberal Leader Mr Chris Huhney-Monster in his office in Parliament. Mr Chris was very generous with his time and we had a terrific and wide ranging interview, covering: the budget and being maybe only half-way into the recession; how the Conservatories are now neither Keynesians not Monetarists nor any other known ...
So, a lot of the recipes I've been looking at going Hmm, yes please last few days have required ramekins to cook them in. We don't have any ramekins. So while in Sainsbury's today, we had a look. Because Jennie thinks the idea of home cooked creme caramel is a good one, and I wants to make me some mouse. Options:Individual ramekins in the cookery/homeware isle= £1.50 each. Gu chocolate puds, complete with nommy chocolate pud and perfectly acceptable ramekins= £1.50 for two, on offer. Hmm, that was a tough choice. So now I need to cook up and eat ...
