My House Points column from today's Liberal Democrat News. On the box Tuesday lunchtime found me on the train to St Pancras to join a panel of bloggers interviewing Chris Huhne. My mobile rang. "I'm on the train," I said. It was Helen Duffett from Cowley Street. The line was bad, but she was saying something about Sky News, MPs' expenses and the budget. Would I do it? Yes I said, without being sure what I had agreed to. We assembled in Chris Huhne's office in Portcullis House. He is the Lib Dem shadow home secretary, but the questions covered ...
Birmingham City Council and Birmingham St George's Day Association have organised free events in the city centre on Saturday 25 April to celebrate St George's Day:St George's Day CelebrationsSaturday 25 April, 11am - 5pmVictoria and Chamberlain SquaresYou can join in the fun as Birmingham celebrates England's patron saint: Live music and entertainment, including The Fab Beatles, City of
Comment: Well in the last 10 years my mortgage has dropped by 200 a month, my house is worth 275% more than I paid for it (this is after the housing market crash), I earn 214% more than I did, for my family we receive child tax credit of 40 per month (this did not exist [...]
And so to London for the Orwell Prize dinner, and an evening of anthropological study among the chattering classes . I feel a positive tourist there these days. Fortunately, the Humph was three tables away and my victim for the evening was Iain Dale's Blackberry featuring Iain Dale as Himself. Double good fortune, by the time [...]
27) Mel Bartholomew, All New Square Foot Gardening: Grow More in Less Space! (Nashville: Cool Springs Press, 2005, ISBN 1591862027). I caved and read another gardening book (borrowed from dr_d) because the information on planting and harvesting dates in The Window-Box Allotment wasn't clear enough. This book gets that right, with planting charts based not on fixed months, but on a timeline of weeks before and after the first and last frost of the year, allowing easy adaptation for any location. (Google can find you typical frost dates for your area, if you've recently moved or haven't had a need ...
Fri 24th
21:36
The Campaign for a LABOUR fourth term as started any one interested pick up your rose tinted glasses...
The Campaign for a Labour fourth term is up and running, I think they will need more than spin to get out of this one, even the tory spin doctors could not get them out . The country is spent Gordan the labour run cities are crumbling under foot. But we still fight wars for the [...]
The link is to a story about someone committing suicide as a result of a 3K bill from Treasury Solicitors.I agree with the European COurt of Human Rights that Judicial Review with its costs is not an adequate remedy for the misbehaviour of the state.
Today the new Cycle shelter was installed. I watched the work with mixed feelings. On the positive note the new parking is sheltered and it is positioned in direct line of site of the guard. My joy is shadowed by the downsizing of the available parking space. The new shelter accommodates only 10 bicycles where the one it is replacing was almost double. This morning I counted 12 pairs parked haphazardly. My hope is that in the future we will manage to get another cycle shelter; maybe on the platform. For the time being, I suppose we might also use ...
The pre-budget announcement that the party will pledge to raise the income tax personal allowance to £10,000 by closing tax loopholes exploited by big businesses and the wealthy has been well received by members and by the mainstream press. The headline cut in income tax of £700 is based on the increase in the personal allowance from the current level of £6,435 to £10,000 at the basic rate of 20%. No mention however, has been made of increasing the national insurance threshold by a similar amount, to effectively take out minimum wage earners from the tax net altogether. A single ...
Gordon Brown, sitting in the Downing St bunker, contemplating the reception to his budget and attempting to generate a new image for his party as New, Old, Retro Labour, needs to look around to find the winning ticket for the next general election. As things stand at the moment, the prognostications are not looking good.He needs something that will unite the country, drive the bad economic news
The Giant's Causeway in Antrim, Northern Ireland is quite rightly a Mecca for tourists. In fact, the Causeway itself is quite microcosmic. When I recently visited there, I was more awestruck by the Giant's Organ. Here's a great picture of it from teatme67 on Webshots:
The Prime Minister's video of him taking a thrashing from Dan Hannan was an Internet phenomenal, can the petition to get the Prime Minister Gordon Brown to resign be just as big as a phenomenal? If you think the Prime Minister should resign then follow the link to sign the petition. Personally I think if the petition can get about a million signatures then the Prime Minister should get the message that 1/60 of the country want him to resign, we all know its not going to happened Brown will never resign until he loses a general election but they ...
It was a surprise to myself, but I have, for a long time, had an ambition to visit Strangford Lough (Northern Ireland) and witness the extraordinary exchange of waters which happen at the "narrows" twice a day. It is apparently the largest exchange of tidal waters in Europe. It surprises me that I am interested in such things, but I put it down to some sort of inheritance from my grandfather,
Although Cllr Jim O'Shea was arrested last year, the news has only just come to light as the Wanstead and Woodford Guardian reports: A SENIOR Tory councillor has been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud. Monkhams ward Cllr Jim O'Shea, Of Repton Park in Woodford Green, is currently on bail while police investigate the allegations. The former deputy mayor and cabinet member for planning and regeneration declined to comment on the revelation, which only emerged after an anonymous letter arrived at the Guardian. A well-placed source attributed the tip-off to infighting between high ranking members of the Conservative administration, ...
According to the EU Profiler I am firmly in Lib Dem turf. My next nearest matches were the Greens, followed by Labour. While we are here please do sign this petition calling on Gordon Brown to resign...over 2,500 signatures at current count...
Chris will be featuring in a BBC TV piece about the work of MEPs, filmed in Strasbourg and Brussels recently and being screened this weekend. It will form part of The Politics Show on BBC One this Sunday at 3pm; just after the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Manchester Evening News April 24, 2009 A PEOPLE'S champion killed himself after emailing a suicide note to a government department which had sent him a £3,000 bill. Neil Hill, 57, fought a long campaign for hundreds of council tenants who face rent rises after their homes were passed to a housing trust. He took the case to court [...]
Every so often someone comes up with an idea that makes such good sense, you wonder why it hasn't already been implemented. This week, it was my Lib Dem colleague Caroline Pidgeon, who's one of our London Assembly members. She's campaigning to try and get Boris Johnson to introduce a 'one hour' ticket for buses, so you pay once and can ride for an hour, even if you change buses in the meantime. It's daft that you can switch from tube to tube on a single ticket but people using Pay as You Go end up paying extra fares whenever ...
10p tax - Round 2 By Frank Field MP The 10p injustice returns to practical politics this week with Wednesday's Budget. This long drawn out and wretched saga, acts like a cautionary tale of the Government's loss of direction. The story is well known. In his last Budget Gordon Brown announced a 2p reduction in the standard rate [...]
Monday Very well-attended and successful Bahrain seminar alread mentioned, see below. Lunch with Dr Alexandra Argenti to discuss her proposal for a Kurdish language course at SOAS Meeting in the afternoon with Dr Ahmed Türk who talked about the crackdown on the Democratic Society Party in Turkey, of which he is President. The authorities had arrested 51 members of the DSP Assembly, 3 Depiuties and some 100 District officials, with more being taken in as we spoke. The majority are being charged with membership of the PKK, an illegal organisation. Dr Türk said the DSP had always tried to engage ...
A nice e-mail from the folk at DCA (where I am on the Board) as follows : "We were ... having a wee look on your blog, it's really cool and up to date and wondered if you would like a link to the trailer from our website so it can be seen by your constituents?" The trailer is above but you can read more about the film (the comedy spin off to the critically acclaimed BBC series 'The Thick of It') on the DCA website at : http://www.dca.org.uk/whats-on/films/in-the-loop.html.
Angry doesn't even come close. "A sickening ruling". "Contempt for this gutless, sickening Government decision". "The week Labour lost its last principles". These are just some reactions to a Government announcement today on settlement rights for Gurkhas who retired before 1997. So what's the story and background? Gurkhas have served all across the world in the defence of our country for nearly 200 years. Over 45,000 died in the two World Wars as part of the British Army, and they are still fighting in the British Army today. But until quite recently, the Gurkhas had no right to citizenship in ...
The Christmas lights in Highgate village are no longer with us. They were removed last week, according to the latest email from the Council.A bit of a mystery still surrounds why they were left up so long, and what were the other two events at which it was hoped they might be usefully deployed.The first was identified clearly enough - as "Easter." The other was "an event in the Autumn." My birthday, possibly.
For whiskey fans, here are some photos of Bush Mills distillery, taken on my recent pilgrimage there.
Aberdeenshire UA, Aboyne, Upper Deeside and DonsideCon 1144 (31.5; -18.3)LD Rosemary Bruce 969 (26.7; +0.6) Ind 842 (23.2; +23.2)SNP 617 (17.0; -3.1)BNP 44 (1.2; +1.2)Ind 19 (0.5; +0.5)Turnout 43.7%LD Rosemary Bruce won on the 5th countLD gain from ConPercentage change is since May 2007Highland UA, Inverness WestLD Alasdair Christie 1503 (59.6; +34.5)SNP 556 (22.0; -6.8)Lab 210 (8.3; -7.7)
I spoke to the Year 13's at Townsend School on budget day. I asked them how it felt to be innocent victims of a train wreck, when they will be picking up the pieces from the current shambles of our economy for the rest of their working lives (which could last up to fifty years if they want to ensure they earn enough for a decent retirement). Inflation according to the RPI formula has gone negative - but that's not the case for old people who don't have mortgages and spend disproportionately on food and energy. Later on the same ...
It's great when a campaign really does make a difference - and to this week's success over the Tesco site can now been added the launch of Springboard Mark 2. You may remember the widespread concern in 2007 when the local Primary Care Trust (now rebranded NHS Kingston) announced that it would be withdrawing funding for Springboard. As I said then: Springboard is a Kingston...
So - Charles Adje is finally going. As the Ham & High reports: CONTROVERSIAL finance chief Cllr Charles Adje has sensationally quit his cabinet position after months of fending off attacks from the public and opposition parties. Cllr Adje, who was leader of the council in 2004 and 2005, has faced months of mud-slinging including: o a Standards Board hearing which found him guilty of disclosing confidential information o criticism in two official reports about his actions as chairman of the board at Alexandra Palace o questions on how he dealt with council finances after £37million was lost in failed ...
I have just taken the EU Integration test. There are 30 questions and it attempts to gauge where you are on a graph where the axes are anti-pro EU integration on one and left-right socioeconomic on the other. Some of the questions do not allow enough nuance for my liking. For example one of them asks if the EU should have more powers and another asks if they should be able to raise taxes. I am not keen on either of those things but if there was proper democratic reform of the European institutions, I might be. Doubtless my responses ...
Our Internet is a place that we, as individuals, have built for ourselves. It is a place where anybody can, with a little bit of money, build their own house and hang whatever curtains they like. It is a place where knowledge, art and music (rightly or wrongly) can be freely shared across the globe, and where we can connect with people of all shapes and sizes and of all walks of life. I am only a youth, but I know Australians, Americans, Canadians, French, Dutch, Swedes, Finns, and many more nationalities besides. Think back to when you were young ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BV_S9C5zeg
With many thanks to the BBC for this clip, which used to be on their site On This Day. Perhaps they would put in back there by popular demand, before the 50th anniversary in less than three years' time? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BV_S9C5zeg
Rather cheekily, there is now a petition on the Number 10 website urging the Prime Minister to resign. There are already 706 signatures. I wonder how many they will get before it closes on 22nd October this year, or Number 10 shuts it down. UPDATE: Guido and Dale have now posted on this. I think this could get very big, very quickly. It's already up to 1,789 in the space of a couple of hours. It only needs 28,000 to become the top petition.
Himmelgarten Café exposes in detail the huge scale of sleaze in the case of Tory MEP, Den Dover, outlined in less detail in my previous post. I think it is very important in these days when the focus is turned on Labour sleaze, not to forget what the country might end up replacing them with. It would be very definitely a case of out of the frying pan into the fire.
I have been in Scotland 11 months now and today I am shouting from the rooftops. Today we have won two by-elections, not that we shouldn't shout more often when we do win these but these two are particularly important for us in Scotland. One was Inverness West ward, in Danny Alexander's seat and although the SNP came second, we won this by-election on the first round with 60% of the vote and there was a 22% swing to us from the SNP and the Conservatives came a dismal 5th. So a fantastic result for Councillor Alasdair Christie, Danny Alexander ...
Time to catch up with life in Creeting St Peter, methinks. Whilst away in Cyprus, I missed out on the excitement. We've got a new Parish Clerk, Rosemary Cochrane, and she's hit the ground running. No sooner has she taken up her post than there is a flurry of activity on the village noticeboard. Of most interest to me is the Parish Meeting, something I haven't experienced before - London doesn't have parishes. Ros tells me that a Parish Meeting is an opportunity for the electors and any local media to hear a report from the Chairman of the Parish ...
Excellent to see that an Irish version of www.TheyWorkForYou.com, the website which makes it easy for people to find out what their elected representatives get up to, is now up and running and being tested: www.KildareStreet.com Best of luck to all those involved.
As seen over at Iain Dale's, the EU profiler asks you 30 questions and then tries to divine your position of political landscape. I took it and got this:
There is now a simple petition on the Number 10 petition site calling on the Prime Minister to just resign. Pleasingly the last bit of the URL is "please-go". If you so desire, you can sign it here.
When did you last leave home without your mobile phone? The Register describes cases in Germany and France where people were accused of being terrorists because they didn't use mobile phones: By design, phones pass their location on to local base stations. You can gauge how effectively the networks can track you by requesting your personal information from your network provider using a data subject access under the Data Protection Act, or by just running Google Mobile Maps on your phone. The smaller 3G cells in central London give an even better location than on GSM. Mobile phone penetration in ...
What a great day in Scotland. Mrs. Rosemary Bruce has won the by-election in Aboyne, Upper Deeside and Donside with a majority of 98 in round five. Gordon Brown's Labour party - well, they didn't even stand a candidate! A great day in Scotland for the Liberal Democrats, while Labour, the SNP and the Conservatives are all a little bruised this afternoon and hurting. This morning the SNP were gloating over a poll, as we in the Liberal Democrats keep saying, it's not about polls it is about real votes in real ballot boxes and the votes between the two ...
Just saw this post on Tory Bear. It makes me wonder why we didn't do anything like this. In many of the cities mentioned, it is the Lib Dems who are the challengers to Labour, not the Tories. We should have capitalised on this failure of a budget.
"Most children do not exercise enough to keep themselves healthy and prevent obesity, a government survey shows."So says a report published by Change4Life today. The Government has said that children should do an hour of moderate or high intensity physical activity outside school each day. You get the feeling they're just a step away from adding "...and that hour shall run from 7.30am to 8.30am, when children shall report to their neighbourhood fitness trainer for daily instruction." One teensy weensy problem. The Government's own research tells us it's rubbish: forcing children to exercise more would have very little effect on ...
In many regards the Budget was fortunately timed for the government because although the early polls indicate it has not been well received it has cut-across 'Smeargate' and expenses. Both of which are more damaging in the sense that this never was going to be a popular Budget but at least it won't result in coming under heavy-fire from it's own side. In many regards it is yet another issue where the government and wider politics can't really win - such is the level of general mistrust of the system and the people within it but Brown's proposals really did ...
Finally! The Ballad of Blue Bell Hill, (along with footnotes) is up on the Ripplestone Review...just in time for the Sweeps Festival 2009 in Rochester over the May Bank Holiday.
Story of the day has to be the Gurkha farce. Listening to BBC Radio 5 live this morning, the Horrendous Victoria Derbyshire proudly announced that this was now fixed, that the Gurkhas had been granted access to live in the UK. Cut to Joanna Lumley in a blind rage, pointing out that the criteria only applies [...]
Two council by-election results in Scotland today show the growing support of the Liberal Democrats in Scotland - and a clear sign that the SNP bandwagon is now missing a wheel or two! Inverness West Alasdair Christie (LibDem) 1503 - 60% SNP 556 - 22% Labour 210 - 8% Christian Party 115 - 5% Conservative 111 - 4% Solidarity 27 - 1% Turnout 2540 (38.35%) In a ward which the SNP won by 125 votes 2 years ago, this represents a remarkable change of direction. The swing from the SNP to the Liberal Democrats is over 20%. Aboyne, Upper Deeside ...
Earlier this week I had a film double-header seeing both State of Play and In The Loop, both were very good a worth a viewing.
Witness the gaping chasm between the two! First the BBC article Fury over Gurkha settlement plan details how the government claims the new guidelines will allow another 4,300 Gurkhas to settles whereas the Gurkha Justice Campaign said it would be just 100. It includes quotes from Joanna Lumley , "To treat them like this is despicable." "ashamed of our administration", our very own Peter Carroll, "truly appalling", an ex-Gurkha local councillor, Dhan Gurung, "insulting to loyal Gurkhas"and the Gurkhas' solicitor, David Enwright, "This government, Mr Woolas, should hang their head in shame so low that their forehead should touch their ...
Although there has as yet been no government confirmation, BBC News has heard whispers that the super-prison programme has been abandoned. We are glad that sense has been seen. Prisons to be effective in reforming criminals must be local and well-staffed.
Only a few (if any) of you will be interested in this, but Inform 7, the programming language for text adventure games (Interactive Fiction) has released a new version, along with a new, much-improved website. Those of you who enjoy writing really should check out this absolutely marvellous cross-platform program (Windows, Mac, GNU/Linux and Solaris binaries [...]
I've just heard the news that Liberal Democrat Alasdair Christie is the new Councillor for Inverness West, gaining the seat from the SNP who were about 125 ahead in 2007 in the ward. However you look at it, it's a huge swing to the Liberal Democrats from the SNP - certainly over 20%. Perhaps the reason the swing is so big is that the SNP have let local people down by failing to provide the funding for the much needed Inverness by-pass. The result in full: Alasdair Christie (Lib Dem) 1503 - 60% Brian o'hEadhra (SNP) 556 - 22% Andrew ...
Fri 24th
13:18
More smears from the Reds! Labour MP Nick Palmer says "Sorry for Taliban stuff" to LD candidate
Also known as "I wish I could be like David Watts". But on with the story... Labour MP and politicalbetting.com frequenter Nick Palmer has been forced to apologise after accusing Lib Dem rival David Watts of wishing to support the Taliban. Good grief! The story, reported here, details how the Lib Dem PPC threatened legal action after Palmer repeated the smear in an e-mail bulletin, having originally made the claims in a debate. Nick Palmer's seat, as we're constantly reminded by Tory posters on pb.com, is under serious threat from Dave's Nu-Cons-Lite at the next general election. Update: David Watts ...
Nick Palmer MP has apologised, both personally and publicly, for smearing me in a recent e-mail. he now accepts that the claim that i advocated aid for the Taleban was wholly untrue and, faced with the threat of a legal action that he could not possibly win, he has offered an unreserved apology. The text of Dr Palmers apology reads: "In my last e-mail I said that David Watts had said that we should have sent aid to the Taleban. I accept that he did not say this and what he actually said was that we should have sent aid ...
Gurkha representatives condemned today's government announcement. It is significant that the announcement was made by Phil Woolas, Immigration Minister. It seems that Labour has done the bare minimum which they estimate would satisfy the recent High Court judgement in order to appease the BNP and its sympathisers. Update: the BBC story is here. See also "Clegg will lead attack ... in Parliament".
The Liberal Democrat leader described Wednesday's Budget as "a pick and mix Budget of recycled announcements from a government skilled in raising people's hopes but incompetent at actually delivering help." His full text, and links to comments by Steve Webb, David Laws, Simon Hughes and Norman Baker are here.
I have just heard news from the Inverness West count. The first preference votes cast in Inverness West yesterday were as follows: Alasdair Christie (Lib Dem) 1503 - 60% Brian o'hEadhra (SNP) 556 - 22% Andrew Mackintosh (Lab) 210 - 8% Sheila MacLaughlin (Christian Party) 115 - 5% Donald Gunn Macdonald (Con) 111 - 4% George Macdonald (Solidarity) 27 - 1% Turnout 2540 (38.35%) The quota in the first round (50% of the vote plus 1) was 1262, and since Alasdair had exceeded the quota, he was elected without any transfers taking place. In a ward which the SNP won ...
Have been to see this film twice now and really loved it! I've also bought the 'In the Thick of It' TV series with the same characters and it really lives up to the standard set by the film. It shows everything that's wrong with government in a couple of hours. Under New Labour elected politicians are no longer in charge and it's the spin-doctors that really run the country.
Many Journalists have left the world of old media and have set up websites that they now run or have joint web site projects and have become bloggers some of these Journalists being Jonathan Isaby who now writes at Conservative Home and the guy behind The Stirrer who worked for the BBC and now runs his own website, but why have they left old media to join new media? New Media is the future as many people are starting to realise and Journalists are realising this as well and are finding blogging interesting and it is leading to them to ...
Fri 24th
12:59The Budget - A view from the benches a message to all Labour supporters if your own members have con...
The Budget - A view from the benchesApril 23, 2009 by Frank Field MP The Budget - A view from the benches At a few minutes to one o'clock today the country's fate passed from the Chancellor and was cast on the waters of the money markets. Public borrowing will be £175bn this year and £173bn [...]
It always takes a few days to take stock of a budget and get a feel for how it is going to play out in the country and for the economy itself. Many of the papers are spouting nonsense about the new 50% tax rate today, largely because it is their proprietors who will have to pay extra. However, the big controversy has to be over the accuracy of the Chancellor's forecasts. Are we in a bigger mess than he has said? Today's Guardian certainly thinks so. They quote a report by The Institute for Fiscal Studies which warns that ...
Prisons alas are likely to be in the political news over the next decade. So good news that the Government is apparently NOT going ahead with plans for three 2500-place Titan prisons. The experience of the French (who built a 3600-place prison) suggest this is the right decision - according to HM Inspector of Prisons Ann Owers the verdict of French Ministry of Justice on such super-prisons is very clear - 'Never Again'. However the Government still seems committed to spending something like £2.3 thousand million on 10,000 extra prison places with five new Prisons on the stocks - and ...
... but its not political its psychological. A article from Bloomberg suggests that Gordon Brown loses his temper a lot with aides at Downing Street and you can see an extract from the article below: "The strain shows, say current and former Brown aides: Among other things, it has inflamed a temper that has always been the subject of gallows humor among those who work with him, they say. "The prime minister, 58, has hurled pens and even a stapler at aides, according to one; he says he once saw the leader of Britain's 61 million people shove a laser ...
Liberal Democrats in Redbridge are celebrating huge gains from the Conservatives in yesterday's Wanstead by-election. With a swing of 11.1% from the Conservatives to the Liberal Democrats, Kate Garrett came a close second to the Conservative candidate - she's in an excellent position to win the seat in next year's Council elections and has already said she intends to keep campaigning on behalf of her local area. From This is Local London: "Conservative Alex Wilson has won the Wanstead by-election - but the Lib Dems are also celebrating a huge gain in the ward. Mr Wilson, who now will become ...
Who's the sickest one? The twelve year old girl, branded the "sickest girl in Britain" by the Sun after being filmed kicking, hitting and stamping on a dog (thankfully, the dog doesn't appear to have needed to see the vet, though a neighbour did say he thought the dog "must be bruised all over"). Or perhaps the Sun newspaper, inviting us to "Click on the slideshow to see more pics of the horrific attack". Pictures of a girl hitting a dog - now that's what I call entertainment.
Well, we have the awaited budget. Will it really help the British economy? I am copying here an excellent blog posted yesterday on Cicero's Songs*: "In a way it is tempting to discount the significance of the British Budget. The fantasy economic forecasts and unconvincing explanations that were offered yesterday are just not going to be relevant. Deep in our bones we know that the situation is not a shallow recession followed by an early recovery. The collapse of the financial system has taken away entirely a significant percentage of UK wealth creating capacity. Everything afterwards is set to be ...
In short: ITV and Susan Boyle. The massive popularity of her clips on YouTube and elsewhere shows just how powerful social media can be at amplifying a story - and also how the ability to catch up on an event after it happens helps recreate those 'water cooler' moments which used to rely on lots of people seeing at event at the same time. The makers of the TV show knew exactly what they were doing when it came to editing together the broadcast. Remember the two cut-aways to people in the audience looking horrified just before she started to ...
Wednesday was Budget day. In the run-up, it was billed as one of the most important Budgets since the Second World War. Whilst the three main parties are now in agreement that, due to the scale of the debt that bailing out the banks has created, there will need to be cuts in public spending, there are clear [...]
Vince Cable has written an excellent article for The Independent today. It quickly gets to the heart of the current economic malaise with brevity and honesty and then proposes a number of measures that could be taken now to begin to cut spending. If you read further down the article you will see that almost every comment is strongly in favour of what he is saying and several of them lament the fact that he is not, and likely will not ever be in government. One comment in particular is almost heartbreaking from someone who is terminally ill and despite ...
I was reading the local advertiser today and one letter caught my eye from a BNP supporter. He made comments over the leader of my group Cllr Owen, he said Cllr Owen suggest people who voted BNP are racists. Can i ask the gentleman who wrote the letter a question. Why when i was first elected did [...]
From the Evening Standard:A Tory frontbencher has defended MPs' pay and expenses - stressing he did "not intend to become personally poorer" at this stage of his career.In a leaked email, Laurence Robertson also played down the controversy over Derek Conway - who was sacked as a Tory MP after paying his son Freddie to "work" for him as a researcher while he was studying at Newcastle
Yesterday I found myself at a Keighley Street Drinkers Meeting! The group is endeavouring to cut down street drinking rather than join in, you understand. One of the ideas had been to supply beer mats to town centre pubs with a reminder that ...
Iain Dale, the Tory we all love to hate, has transcribed a long interview he did with Paddy Ashdown on behalf of Total Politics magazine. A brief extract follows after the break, and the full interview is available over at Total Politics. (Aargh! Columns?! On a website?!) Paddy is currently also promoting his book, "A fortunate life" - and if you buy it from Amazon using the link on the side, the party gets a little percentage of your spend, at no extra cost to you. ID: Have you found the role of ex Leader rather trying? You have generally ...
Well, due to the assistance of Miranda Grell, the Labour vote fell 600 votes (who are these people that vote for such incompetents?) and the Lib Dem vote doubled to 1000. The new figures are: Con 1300 LD 1030 Lab 694 BNP 171 UKIP 33 Cons -15%, LD + 14, Lab - 13 thus a swing of 14% from Lab to LD [...]
The Liberal Democrats came a very strong second to the Conservatives in yesterday's council by-election in the Wanstead ward of Redbridge borough in greater London, even though the party has not traditionally been very active in the area. The LibDem candidate, Kate Garrett, lives in the ward, worked extremely hard and would have made a fine [...]
I blogged before about my colleague Greg Foxsmith and the policing of the G20 demos. Now Greg has written up his views for Lib Dem Voice.
According to Google's Blogger I am not a free man, I am a number. 17596137350950820090 to be precise. Given the world's population is only a few billion, this number seems a little extreme. Or perhaps Google is cunningly scaling to allow for the future inclusion of aliens from across the solar system in Blogger? But anyway, it seems a rather hard number to remember. So any suggestions as to how I can make this into something memorable for me? (Cynics may query whether I need to remember it. They would be right. But no matter.) P.S. Once you've cracked that ...
For those that have never met me, I'm 41 with a 32inch waistline and I'm obviously a toned gym bunny - for those that know me - damn! I'm appalled by Ryanair and will never, ever fly with them. They are proposing to introduce what can only be described as a "fat tax" - its discriminatory and bloody stupid. How do they measure it, if you're a woman and over 15stone and if you're a man and over 20stone (I'm not, by the way), but they won't install scales nor get you on the suitcase scale, so how will the ...
Residents are being invited to help take part in the annual spring clean-up of Ridge Wood on Sunday 26 April from 10am. Organised by the Friends of Ridge Wood Community Group and South Gloucestershire Council, volunteers with a few hours to spare are invited to help clear litter and rubbish throughout the wood as part of continuing efforts to help managing the woodland. Local schools use the wood as an outdoor classroom, which makes keeping it litter-free even more important. You can also take part in other woodland management work, including digging out invasive Spanish bluebells and helping tidy around ...
In the last month or so numerous documents have been "leaked" from the racist British National Party. There is a recurring pattern that a document is leaked, news outles report it, and Nick Griffin is given an chance to advocate racism through the mass media. The latest example being the BNP manual that says Black and Asian Britons "do not [...]
A poll out by Yougov puts Labour back a huge step and personally I don't trust the data. As many will know Yougov is a Tory supporting pollster, yes you heard that right the guy who funds Yougov funds Conservative Home and I think he also funds UK Polling Report (needs to be clarified) so the results I think are a little biased this time but on the whole Yougov is probably the most accurate pollster. The results are: CONSERVATIVES: 45(+4) LABOUR: 27(-7) LIBERAL DEMOCRATS: 18(+2) I don't think the Labour has dropped that back in the polls and personally ...
In 2005, then-Tory North West MEP Den Dover* sued the Sun over allegations he was abusing his expenses. He won. The Sun apologised and handed over some money. Perhaps The Sun's defence team should have dug a little deeper. Last summer, Dover was removed from his position as Tory Chief Whip in the European parliament following allegations that he had ripped taxpayers off to the tune of hundreds of thousands of pounds. At first, the suggestion was that he'd not technically broken the rules. Sure, he'd chanelled over £760,000 to his wife and daughter. OK, so it was done through ...
Two thoughts strike me as the budget news continues to sink in. First, most of what passes for debate over tax and spending policies between Labour and the Conservatives has been a matter of a few billion here or there. Compared with the hundreds of billions of debt, this really does seem to me a matter of Titanic and deckchairs. It also says something about how unhealthy the state of our politics is with so much heat and focus having gone into sums that are dwarfed by the scale of the problem. At least Nick Clegg, Vince Cable et al ...
The link is to my interview on Channel Island TV (recorded in Central TV studios, Broad St, Birmingham), about Stuart Syvret's arrest.
From the consultation on expanding Rhodes Avenue School, Haringey Council says: "The first stage of consultation on a possible expansion of Rhodes Avenue Primary School in Alexandra ward to three forms of entry (90 reception places) ended on the 28 November 2008 ... "The Council has considered the views of the respondents, and balanced those views with the need to increase the supply of school places in the area. "The Council has decided to go ahead with the publication of the statutory notices. "The Statutory Notices will be published on Friday 24th April 2009. Statutory Notices will be published outside ...
Darling's budget on Wednesday contained some pretty grim reading for Wales. Andrew Davies had done his best to moderate expectations by suggesting we could be worse off to the tune of £500m, with the Western Mail running on £1bn.In the end, it looks like the cuts will be in the region of £416m, split between capital and revenue accounts. Betsan and the three Dewi's have more detail on how they
Gordon Brown is trying to rush through his plans for MP expenses reform so quickly that he intends to put it to a vote next Thursday. However, he has already lost the backing of the Conservatives and Lib Dems, not because they are wanting to protect the status quo but because they want the House of Commons and its Members to be accountable to the people who put them there. The chair of the committee on standards in public life Sir Christopher Kelly has added his thoughts: "There must be reform and it must be done properly. This is not ...
Steve Guy won the Totteridge by-election tonight with a huge increase in support. The result saw the Liberal Democrats move from third place in 2007 to victory with over 50% of the vote. {Liberal Democrat Success} The result indicates the anger and disappointment with the Conservatives' decision to cut services in Wycombe. The main issue of the campaign was their decision to close the open air swimming pool without any consultation. The full result was Steve Guy (Liberal Democrat) 733 Tim Hewish (Conservative) 408 Ian Bates (Labour) 214 Spoilt Papers 3 Turnout 31% In his acceptance speech Steve Guy paid ...
QT was remarkable in that I mostly agreed with David Starkey, even though he was somewhat hyperbolic. The Everyone Loves Vince thing continued (even on This Week where the party got a celebrity endorsement -YAY! ... from Janet Street-Porter -Oh dear) and the Tory was a complete non-entity, so I was fairly happy with it. This Week went Star Trek MAD (Huzzah!) even to the extent of putting Quentin Twat (and his beer belly) in a Spock outfit (he SO should have been a nameless Redshirt) but Lord, David Gest, Janet Street-Porter AND Quentin Twat in the same show? That's ...
It's St George's Day and also Shakespeare's birthday today. William was English but George wasn't. The facts of St George's life are not certain but he was probably born in Cappadocia, which is in present day Turkey, to a Roman father and a ...
For those that do not know that I stood for the UK Parliament in High Wycombe in 2005, please excuse my absolute delight at this local election result: Totteridge Ward Steve Guy (Liberal Democrat) 733 Tim Hewish (Conservative) 408 Ian Bates (Labour) 214 Spoilt Papers 3 Turnout 31% Liberal Democrat gain from Labour. Hearty congratulations to Ian Morton, Chairman Wendy, the team and Councillor Steve Guy! Update: My "Aunty Rosemary" took the Aboyne and Upper Deeside from the Conservatives on Aberdeenshire Council. In Inverness we gained just short of 60% of the vote and there were big wins in Redbridge ...
I may come from a feeble nation and live in another according to David Starkey on BBC Question Time. But surely as an historian he should know that us Celts won't take such abush lying down. Even if he thinks that the police action at the G20 protest was "shocking, disgraceful and totally un-English" it is no excuse for his own shocking, disgraceful and totally little Englander attitude. He came unto QT and tried to dominate. Maybe as he is so fund of Tudor governance he thought that he was holding court. But the king (played by David Dimbleby) from ...
