{Brazil DVD cover} It's not often that you sit down to watch a film first released a quarter of a century ago and feels like you are watching one that could have been released yesterday, but such was my experience with Terry Gilliam's Brazil. The nightmare future it paints seems as apposite now as it did in the mid-1990s - being one based on suffocating bureaucracy, widespread and intrusive government surveillance and a paranoid response to terrorist attacks. The future world is not only beautifully designed, down to numerous small details, but by picking a visual style that is '1930s ...
The next Lee Green Assembly will take place on Thursday 7th May from 7.30pm until 9.30pm at Lee Manor School, Leahurst Road. My flyer was on the doormat when I got home tonight, and I'd encourage you to have a read of yours when it comes through - it gives a good summary of what we've been up to since the assembly began last June. Up for discussion this time are: Proposal to spend £20,000 on developing a youth club in Lee Green An update on the Leegate priority An update on the environment prority and a suggestion that we ...
Okay, I know this was standard practise under the Tories too, but it does proof Labour do have the ability to organise a piss up somewhere.
I made it up to Sainsbury's at lunchtime on Sunday to see this year's Supermarket Shakespeare, which once again was superb. If you didn't manage to make it to the Lee Green performances, you're not too late - you can still catch it at Forest Hill Sainsbury's this week. Details here. Well worth the trip!
{1091080_british_passport} From the BBC: "Former Home Secretary David Blunkett says the government should scrap plans to introduce ID cards for all in favour of mandatory biometric passports. Speaking at InfoSec 2009, a security conference held in London, the MP for Sheffield Brightside said biometric passports could do the job. He said he had put the idea to the current Home Secretary Jacqui Smith. He mooted the idea of ID cards when Home Secretary in 2001, but has changed his position in the last few months. Asked whether ID cards could be dropped, Mr Blunkett told the BBC: "I think it ...
Thatcher took us on the path to state we're in now, When She came to power we had a population that was inclined to save, and avoid debt Many people had bank accounts credit cards were unheard of. By the time she left power we had become wedded to debt. We Had bank accounts where Banks encouraged overdrafts. We had gained [...]
As part of the Lee Green locality fund, we've funded a Dr.Bike session that's taking place this Saturday in Manor House Gardens. Free bike checks and advice, and a chance to discuss anything cycling-related with someone from Lewisham Cyclists. 10am until 2pm this Saturday in Manor House Gardens.
Last night's "Evening Telegraph" (see gave readers an update on the recent TV reception issues (and my meeting this week with Digital UK). It also highlighted a long-standing concern of mine that - even when all transmitters finally transmit digital signals (the relay transmitters currently don't) - the intention is to provide a reduced "Freeview Lite" service from transmitters like the Tay Bridge relay transmitter after 2010 - giving residents only 22 of the 58 TV and radio channels that others served by main transmitters (like the Angus transmitter which serves most of the north of the city) will ...
Hospitals are missing treatment time targets, is New Labours flag ship starting to list? these guys are being overwhelmed. Some of the people in these hospitals need medals.i went the other day,the place is like an ants nest. Heaving bodies cuts,and broken bones. pregnant moms etc. One serious politicly incorrect question . Did New Labour have [...]
Tories admit Housing Policy Failures In a little reported speech to the think tank magazine Fabian Review, Ian Duncan Smith, former Tory Party Leader admitted that the "Right to buy" policy had condemned thousands to be excluded from economic prosperity. Moreover, in the same speech, he drew attention to the fact that "sink" estates had [...]
The other day I brought you news of an impromptu redrawing of the boundaries of constituencies in Gateshead when Labour MP for Blaydon Dave Anderson MP announced that the Queen Elizabeth Hospital was somehow in his constituency (it's actually some distance from it!)Now I can bring you another story of Labour not knowing where the boundary is. Chopwell and Rowlands Gill ward in Gateshead is in the
Craig Murray sends us to the Parliament website and the video of his appearance today before the Joint Committee on Human Rights. Later. Blairwatch points out that Craig's evidence is now on Youtube. The first part is below...
Carmel Preston-a Cambridge Ward Councillor- organised a Liberal Democrat presence at the Country Fair held at Stanley High School over the Easter weekend. This was a very successful and well attended fair. Many people visited the Liberal Democrat tent and details of resident's various problems were noted and dealt with by the councillors present. A volunteer from the RSPB tent asked a question of Mike Booth, who is also the Press Officer for the Southport RSPB Group. She was worried that the dismantling of the gasometer in Norwood ward would disturb a nesting pair of rare peregrine falcons. The pair ...
we could be in for a long 4 years The Daily Show With Jon Stewart M - Th 11p / 10c Mistakes on a Plane thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis First 100 Days This is possibly the most monumental screw up and recent history. Who exactly in the US Department of Defense thought it would be a good idea to fly a passanger airliner over downtown New York for 30mins? Presumably it would be the same person who didnt think to tell either the President or the Mayor of New York And it must be the same person ...
And it was an uncontested election, too! Who needs other candidates? Waste of time, say I. In any respect, I am now the duly elected President of Liberal Youth Scotland. Which is cool. We've got a great set of people on the Exec for the coming year (the VP elections are still to be decided, but [...]
Here's Jon Stewart's hilarious and very cutting take on the Air Force One photo-shoot over Ground Zero in New York.With a Homberg-doffment to Media Monkey.The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10cMistakes on a Planethedailyshow.comDaily ShowFull EpisodesEconomic CrisisFirst 100 Days
My twitter feed has grown in followers with the number of followers as I write this at 98, its a figure that I wouldn't have expected but now that I am at 98 I would like to challenge the readership and the blogosphere into following me. I will give my 200th follower a prize that will be worth winning depending on the time when the follower becomes the 200th follower. After that every 100th follower will get a prize as I think my followers should get something in return for taking the time out to follow me. So do you ...
Tue 28th
19:59
Government's own Pandemic Plan is being ignored - Tamiflu is NOT going to people with Swine flu
The government's own pandemic flu plan was published less than two years ago, but already the government are ignore their own plans and advice, most notably in the areas of containment and treatment. The government's plan stated that introduction of flu might be delayed by 3-4 weeks if aircraft were screened and new visitors to this country were monitored. This is not being done. But more shocking than that is the way early UK victims of flu are being treated, or not, as the case turns out. According to BBC News a couple who have just returned from Mexico with ...
Teachers want to get the best from our children but they are held back because of government interference and initiatives which stop them from spending time with their pupils. The Liberal Democrats believe that all schools should be free from meddling politicians to work in creative and interesting ways to drive up standards and focus their attention on all their pupils., not the latest Government target. We will slim down the Curriculum and pass an Education Freedom Act banning politicians from getting involved in the day to day running of schools - leaving teachers to get on and focus on ...
Well done, Fidel. According to the BBC, he: Fidel, an eight-year-old black cat, turns up at Deal library almost every day while his owners are at work.He spends the day on his favourite blue chair, only leaving the building when he sees his owners arriving home.As ever, Leicestershire led the way in library-loving cats. Remember Chloe from Markfield?
Tue 28th
19:32
Nick Clegg calls on MPs of all parties to join Liberal Democrats in vote against shameful Gurkha rul...
Nick Clegg will tomorrow call on Gordon Brown to reverse the shameful Government decision that will see thousands of retired Gurkhas forcibly deported. In the Liberal Democrat Opposition Day Debate in the House of Commons, MPs will have the opportunity to vote on last week's decision to limit the number of retired Gurkhas who can stay in Britain. Joanna Lumley and a large...
Nick Clegg has written to Gordon Brown and David Cameron to continue to seek a cross-party solution to the issues of MPs pay and expenses. In his letter, Nick Clegg proposes to ban MPs from making any profit from the selling of properties whose mortgages have been paid for by the tax payer. Nick Clegg also reiterates his opposition to a system of daily allowances. Dear...
Reacting to the news that mortgage lending by the UK's major banks fell for the first time in four months in March, Vince Cable said: "This is further evidence that contradicts the Chancellor's rosy picture of the economy." "As people know from bitter experience under the last Conservative Government, the economy doesn't simply bounce out of recession. "Millions of people...
On behalf of the Parochial Church Council, Alice Mathewson thanked the Parish Meeting for inviting them. She noted that regular services take place in the various churches in the 'rotation', including St Peter's, and it was agreed that details of services should be added to the website. There was carol singing in the run-up to Christmas, and a dozen singers hit the streets of Creeting St Peter to raise funds for the church, with mince pies and mulled wine partaken of afterwards, which sounded pretty jolly (and other things ending with 'olly'). Most of the PCC's non-service activity revolves around ...
When it is not tragic it is farcical, today's Times reports that Downing Street is closing down comments on official videos it puts on You Tube. Apparently, this is due to the moderating of 'offensive comments' being too 'arduous'. A No10 spokeswomen is quoted as saying; "In terms of allowing people to comment online, we need to adhere to the Civil Service code: no content on the website can be party-political. We would need to monitor and moderate all comments online." Meanwhile, the petition on the official Downing Street site asking for Brown to resign has reached over 24,000 signatures. ...
Take a factorial. Any factorial. Factor it*. Notice a Pattern.That pattern is that if you list all of the prime factors in order and the number of times they appear, at no point does any larger factor appear more often than any smaller factor. This would appear to be obvious, and it "obviously" applies to all factorials** (I've verified it by hand up to 28!, at which point I got bored). But I'm finding it hard to put a proof into words - or more concisely but equivalently - into symbols.* this is easy. While factoring 1124000727777607680000 might be quite ...
This has been a bit of a "will they? - won't they?" saga. That is, will the Democrats achieve a veto-proof (technically a "filibuster-proof") majority in the US Senate and thus have a sweeping hand to implement their laws?Last time I blogged about this, there was a possibility of a Senate seat vacancy in New Hampshire that might have gone to a Democrat. That possibility was ruled out when the
Unlike with Tony Blair, nobody outside of the constituency of Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath actually voted for Gordon Brown. Blair got 9.5 million votes as putative Prime Minister pledging to serve a full term in the 2005 General Election. Brown has no real mandate for anything because not only has he never faced the electorate in a General Election but uniquely among modern Prime Ministers he hasn't even faced an election within his own party giving him even less legitimacy. The number of people who voted for Gordon Brown in his constituency in 2005 was 24,278. The number of people who ...
Why on earth would you need some "file photos" of Air Force One anyway?And if you wanted to show the plane flying over New York - why not photo-shop it?Should US government money be used to involve a military jet and Air Force One on a major operation just to take a photo of it?And if you are going to fly over New York, why the Sam Hill do it around the site of the former World Trade Center?And
"younger politicians seem to be career animals"Lord Paddy Ashdown Personally I can't agree more Paddy has summed up the career animal youth nicely. Its a shame that then they are always people like me who are more old school and think about morals and value in the eyes of others. A lot of people sprung to mind upon reading this. Hat Tip to Mark's Campaign Notepad.
There's a great old episode of "The Simpsons," during which the family watch an episode of "Springfield Action News," a ludicrous attempt by the town's rolling news channel to broadcast something interesting to fill the void. They resort to outrageous scaremongering, making immense news out of meaningless events, and treating every day happenings like the end of the world. "President Reagan Dies!!" the newsreader screams, before pausing and adding "his hair." And then there's a segueway to a rolling telethon-style counting device which reveals that the death count from the approaching hurricane is... zero. "But it's all set to shoot ...
Thanks to Jeff for tagging me with this meme, brainchild of Iain Dale in which we take a trip down memory lane and recount some important milestones. So, here goes: First Job: Assistant Warden at Braemar Youth Hostel. This was a Summer job that kept me busy during the Summers of 1985, 1986 and 1987. I loved it, meeting people from all over the world, including a divorced man twice my age I would later run away with, much to the consternation of my parents. Good move, though, given that we have now been married for over 20 years. First ...
For me there is nothing more tawdry than seeing an MP with a small majority trying to be a rebel on issues in order to make him seem more electable. But if there is one person that fits this billing in my eyes at the moment it has to be Charles Clarke. Time and time again on issues upon which he seemed to be silent when holding important positions within the Labour Party he speaks out to me like he wants to be seen as the anti establishment, the anti New Labour candidate. Personally, I'd prefer to judge him by ...
Today's Guardian reports that... The plans to make personal, social and health education (PSHE) compulsory from the age of five, published yesterday, include a clause allowing schools to apply their "values" to the lessons and another allowing parents to opt their children out on religious grounds. It means that all state secondaries in England - including faith schools - will for the first time have to teach a core curriculum about sex and contraception in the context of teenagers' relationships, but teachers in religious schools will also be free to tell them that sex outside marriage, homosexuality or using contraception ...
Just heard the terrible news that Channel M is to shed 41 of it's 74 full-time staff are to be made redundant. This announcment, courtesy of my favourite media site Digital Spy, comes hot on the heals of Guardian Media Group's recent decision to slash local Salford reporters and centralise the Salford Advertiser at the MEN's city centre offices. According to The Guardian, staff were told that Channel M's schedule will be reduced from June, with sports programming and a local evening news bulletin becoming the main aspects of its output. GMG Regional Media chief executive Mark Dodson said the ...
Cornwall Liberal Democrats have launched our manifesto for the new Council elections on June 4th. The headlines are: - a promise to introduce 10p first hour parking to all local towns; - to oversee the building of 1200 new affordable homes for local people every year; - to freeze councillors' allowances; - the cut council tax in real terms over the four year term. The manifesto was launched at an afforable housing scheme in Blisland by myself, Ann Kerridge and Robin Teverson. The scheme represents the best of housing projects with ground source heating, larger than average interiors and affordable ...
Nick Clegg was in Cornwall last week to visit the local NHS Trust's food unit near Barncoose Hospital. The Trust has decided to seek to source all their food locally if possible and to produce it themselves. Not only does it mean better food and fewer food miles, but they also seem to manage to produce it for the same cost as the multi-nationals do. Cornish produce is fantastically good and it's great to see the NHS making the best of it. Nick and local MP Julia Goldsworthy had a go at making their own pies. Not bad efforts, but ...
Hat tip to Justin McKeating of Chicken Yoghurt fame - he points out that the petition on the Downing Street website for the Prime Minister to resign is now in the top five most popular, so it's now reached the front page of the site. The top five list is prefaced with the words: "We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to..." "Resign" says it all in just one word, but gosh, how awkward for Gordon if that word made it to the top slot and neatly completed the sentence? (Currently 4619 votes off the top slot...) UPDATE: Now trailing ...
I know the election campaign doesn't start for a couple of weeks, but things have certainly started moving fast. In Launceston Central we have delivered a survey and a newspaper to every house and the replies are coming back thick and fast. Combined with the discussions I'm having with people on the doorstep it is giving me a valuable insight into local people's thoughts about the area. I'm proud to say that I've been on every doorstep of the ward already (and will no doubt do so at least once more before the end of the campaign). Two issues that ...
Just to conclude our series on leaders dogs Cllr Roy Connell was asking if I had found a picture of the new Obama Dog -which turned out to be a Portuguese Water Spaniel. Well I finally tracked one down. I took our dog to have his coat trimmed this morning and there was a Water Spaniel in the queue. A long chat then took place as it was explained to me that the Americans trim their Water Spaniels differently to Europeans. The owners of the dog I met this morning were none to impressed with Obama's choice, as they now ...
Good news today as the Police report the arrest of two people for criminal damage offences (tagging) in the Erleigh Road area. This follows the launch of our local campaign for action on tagging a couple of weeks ago. It's good also to hear Inspector Kevin Sinfield reiterate the Police's commitment to dealing with this problem. From discussions I've had with him the problem comes when these cases get to court and the way magistrates deal with these type of offences and offenders. I am aware that officers from RBC and TVP are meeting today to discuss the issues we have ...
Also this weekend South Africa voted, the ANC won again with 65.9%. The Democratic Alliance won 16.66% (mainly in the Eastern Cape) and the ANC-splinter group Congress of the People (COPE) won 7.42%.
Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats will tomorrow ask MP's to debate the governments decision to not allow Gurkha's who retired before 1997 have citizenship of this country and then MP's will vote to overturn the decision as Nick Clegg's website has pointed out. Gordon Prentice's office will be getting a call tomorrow morning asking them to make sure Gordon attends the debate and speaks out for the people of Pendle and votes in favour of the Liberal Democrats. Like I have written in past blog posts I think its disgraceful that the government has not given people who have ...
{Ming Campbell} The number of unemployed people in North East Fife has gone up by 68% in the last year according to figures from the House of Commons library. Commenting, Sir Menzies said: "A jump of 68% in one year is a huge rise in the number of people claiming jobseekers allowance in North East Fife. "These figures represent personal heartbreak for hundreds of people across North East Fife, from the young person leaving school who cannot find employment to the family who risk losing their home because the main breadwinner has lost their job. "Unemployment is increasingly well above ...
All the main political parties, at least at senior levels, would genuinely like to have more women strutting their stuff on the political stage, more ethnic minorities too. I've no doubt that Cameron would love to have more women in his frontbench team. As the Times mentions today, Cameron would love to have any women in his frontbench team, but it appears can't find any who he feels would be the best person for the job. The Conservative front bench is a female-free zone. The Conservative approach to increasing the number of female and ethnic minority MPs has been one ...
I only surmise this from what's going on with the Tory lot on OUTeverywhere (LGBT social networking site). They no longer do the bullying technique of patronisation etc and have come to what I describe as the `box` technique. `Boxing` is where you portray the Lib Dems as either `wimps, ineffectual, wasted votes, say one thing [...]
I've lost a Facebook friend. It was my decision. How could you do it, Norsheen? Leaving's one thing, but to do it that way was really putting the boot in. Not quite as bad as Sol Campbell going to Arsenal, I suppose. It's like Paddy Ashdown was saying at the weekend - younger politicians seem to [...]
Wallington South Safer Neighbourhoods Ward Panel Meeting Under the Councillors' Update part of this meeting I was pleased to finally confirm that the Your High drug paraphanalia shop on Stafford Road was closed and the lease to the shop owners revoked. I also fed back on the final plans for the Wallington Station Access Scheme and [...]
Having been to Mexico twice I feel a sense of anguish at the calamities which this proud nation faces. If it's not swine flu it's earthquakes; if not them it's drug wars. I've been to Cuidad Mexico (Mexico City) and it's a fascinating exciting place. So too in their different ways are Oaxaca, San Christobal de [...]
A successful wind farm close to the Lake District national park is one of the sites recently approved by the Government for a new generation of nuclear power plants. The site at Kirksanton in Cumbria - home to the Haverigg turbines - was one of Britain's first wind farms and is also one of the most efficient. The site's owners, local environmental groups and the British Wind Energy Association have spoken out at the lack of early consultation and the speed at which nuclear plants are moving through the planning process. You can read the full story in the Guardian: ...
The Bear that is Tory Bear has tagged me to take part in a meme so here goes: First Job Sajjad Karim's office (two weeks of work experience) First Real Job Still a student... First Role in Politics Blogger if that's a role ;) First Car Not passed yet but like all teenagers a Ferrari is the dream car. First Record Never bought a record! Download is cheaper and easier! First Football Match Never been to one... First Concert Pass First Country Visited Pakistan also my second home, the first isn't the Internet even though it does seem that. First ...
A successful wind farm close to the Lake District national park is one of the sites recently approved by the Government for a new generation of nuclear power plants. From the Guardian: One of the oldest and most efficient wind farms in Britain is to be dismantled and replaced by a nuclear power station under plans drawn up by the German-owned power group RWE. The site at Kirksanton in Cumbria - home to the Haverigg turbines - has just been approved by the government for potential atomic newbuild in a move that has infuriated the wind power industry. Colin Palmer, ...
Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokeswoman Baroness Sue Miller, has raised some very serious questions about the relationship between the controversial internet advertising firm Phorm and the Home Office. The BBC report that Phorm serves up adverts related to a user's web browsing history that it monitors by taking a copy of the places they go and search terms they look for. Adverts related to that history are put on any websites that have signed up to use Phorm. So far BT has signed up to use the system, and carried out a series of trials, some of which were conducted ...
A blog post by Political Betting indicates that a lot of Labour voters in 2005 will not be voting Labour at the next general election. The results of the poll that was of 240 Labour voters is: 120 (half) voting Labour again 41 (one sixth) voting Conservative 15 (one in sixteen) voting Lib Dem 7 (more than one in forty) voting SNP/PC 6 (one in forty) voting Green 4 (one in sixty) voting BNP 5 said they were voting for another party Remainder saying "not voting"/"don't know"/"won't say" Personally I think these results are going to be a shocker for ...
And so I attended my first Annual Parish Meeting, attended by a crowd far larger than that which attended last year's event. The Church Hall which, curiously, is quite some distance from the church, echoed to the voices of eleven attendees. The minutes of the previous meeting were approved before moving onto reports. First up was the report from Suffolk Police, who advised that we had suffered from four crimes in the past year, two of which affected the same business premises. Next up was our Conservative County Councillor, Gary Green, who talked about the review of unitary status and ...
At the weekend Icelanders went to the polls and elected a new Government. The new Government will be made up for Social Democrats, Socialists and Greens.
Polly Toynbee writes in today's Guardian:Conservative Brighton was a pioneer in holding a lottery in places for over-subscribed schools - which worked well. This bill should encourage all local authorities to do likewise.To people like Toynbee, children are not individuals with unique talents, interests and abilities. They are an undifferentiated mass that can be assigned anywhere as long as it furthers the socialist ambition for geometric equality.
The whole debacle over the budget will unravel over a long period. For those who missed it Vince Cable has a bit in the Independent.
While I was walking about Duchy Road and Bank Lane in Irwell Riverside ward the other day I was not surprised by comments made by Councillor Norman Owen (Claremont Ward) and Councillor Joe O'Neill (Swinton), regarding the ridiculous amounts of rubbish and flytipping we found in just a couple of hours. Contrast with the swift action taken in the Lib Dem controlled wards of Claremont and Swinton, where rubbish is cleared within a few days of it being reported and regular skip placements allow residents to get rid of their larger rubbish items (which would not fit in their bins). ...
I would like to encourage everyone to join Rachel Rook's Facebook group and sign her petition regarding the A249 in Kent. The A249 runs from Maidstone up to Sheerness, crossing the M2 and M20, and contains sections whereby lorry drivers can do illegal U-turns which are highly dangerous to other road users. Sadly Rachel's father was killed as a result of such an action and she has set up a campaign to get Kent County Council to close these sections to avoid other accidents. There have been at least a dozen other accidents caused by U-turns on the road, not ...
The question of pay audits has been one of the big areas of contention within the Government ahead of the publication this week of the Equality Bill. Should firms be required to carry out an audit to see if they are paying men and women the same rate for equivalent jobs? Should small firms be exempted? How small is small? Should there be an initial voluntary phase? And so on. At various times, different camps seem to have had the upper hand in this debate, with Peter Mandelson pushing for very little on this front and Harriet Harman pushing for ...
I am often asked what sort of issue get brought to our attention by electors. Well there are all the personal ones where an individual receives a service from the council-or more often in today's world purchased by the council from a third party-and something has gone wrong. Then there are the public ones eg the state of Carr Lane Rec or the failure of the street sweeping rota and all the other issues around the maintenance of 'public space'. This mornings post brought responses about such issues. As a result of a residents concerns new road markings are being ...
Last night saw a well attended Annual meeting of our group held in Maghull Town Hall. We elect our group spokemanship/reps on outside bodies/cabinet members so there is always a slightly tense air-but we all get on well and democracy is the best option. There were no great surprises this year and I will publish the list in full when our -re-elected- chief whip(Andrew Blackburn) send round the list.
One of the highlights of my weekend spent training members of the Serbian Liberal Democratic Party was when we sent our participants out into the streets of Belgrade armed only with clipboards and a resident's survey. Within five minutes, Selena, an LDP member of Belgrade's City Council, had found a group of three young women to interview. As they reached the end of the questionnaire, Selena asked which political party they usually supported. One of them turned out to be a committed LDP supporter who enthusiastically handed over her contact details so that she could join the party and get ...
Well, I've got through to the second stage of the Playbuilder application for funding for The Delph at Thwaites Brow. This is where the real work begins of consulting local people about it. Er, apart from the original building of the playground. It was a community project by the then Village Society and I and my sons helped. I wheeled barrows of cement and stuff about whilst the boys helped with building the natural stone walling. The older one was fourteen at the time and when the cement mixer broke down he mended it, in spite of never having seen ...
Business Secretary Lord Mandelson commented: "I welcome the level of interest from car manufacturers that have already said they are keen to sign up to the voluntary scheme and look forward to seeing them benefit from more new buyers very soon." (Image from Failblog.org, quote and title from original press release) Who needs comment when official quotes are more revealing?
This story is absolutely dreadful. Margaret Haywood, a nurse tried to do her best to highlight failings in elderly patient care within a hospital and when the internal procedures she followed did not improve things she filmed undercover for BBC's Panorama. Her case was referred to Nursing and Midwifery Council which ruled that she should be struck off the nursing register in perpetuity. They also ruled that it was only the broadcast that had forced radical reform. In other words by her very actions she had massively improved things and as a direct result elderly patients are now less likely ...
Encouraging news in this morning's Independent that senior cabinet ministers are privately discussing a plan to scrap the Government's £5bn identity cards programme as part of cuts to public spending: The ministers believe that some "sacred cows" will have to be sacrificed in the effort to reduce Britain's debt mountain. They are raising fresh questions over the future of the ID card programme as the Cabinet faces renewed pressure to find economies beyond a promised £9bn in "efficiency savings". "My sense is that ID cards will not go ahead," a senior Cabinet Minister said. "We have to find savings somewhere, ...
The Government has launched a consultation on their plans to keep a record of all our "communications data" - that is, the time and recipient of each email, text message or phone call we make, the websites we visit and the place from which we do this. Although the Government has climbed down from its plans to establish a central database of all communications data, it proposes to make communications service providers hold it instead, for a whole year. Then "public authorities" and "investigators" would be given access to it for their purposes. The title of the consultation document itself ...
Tue 28th
10:37
I get stuck for hours by train fire and why East Midlands Trains shouldn't run anything
Last night I arrived after a fairly short meeting at Luton Station at 20.44. I had just missed a train, but waited for the 21.08 to St Pancras. It became clear that all was not well as a train to Nottingham sat on the platform for ages, and nothing seemed to move. As can be read here the cause was a fire in the rear engine unit of the train. But the newspaper article tells only half the story.
I spent yesterday morning in the Royal Courts of Justice. The Council's High Court challenge on the Somerset Avenue appeal was being heard. The Council lost. I didn't write about it straightaway because I was confused and upset, and needed time to get my thoughts in order. Just to recap: there were two planning applications for the site, which covered a pair of semis in...
In Athens, for the European Commission's biodiversity conference, with the EU clearly destined to miss its target of halting the decline in biodiversity by 2010, and a minimum 30pc decline in world biodiversity recorded since 1970. In my speech I pointed out that one species was not in decline, and that having trebled its population in 50 years humans were making rabbits look sexually inadequate. "The ecological footprint of the EU is that of someone in steel capped boots." Politicians are frightened to mention the reality of explosive population growth for fear of being accused of wanting to introduce coercive ...
Go on, ask me what I think of the new "Equalities" bill. The Bill also aims to tackle discrimination against the elderly and people from working class backgrounds. Hey, Harriet. Here's some ideas for you. Why don't you devise a National Accent, a new version of received pronounciation based on the Yorkshire accent. Come up with a [...]
Phorm is a controversial online advertising service. It monitors your web browsing history - all the different sites you visit - saves the information and uses it to generate advertising that hopefully chime with your interests. Given the time I spent browsing the Times, Daily Mail, Express and Sun websites, I could be in for some interesting targetting. Understandably, people were a little concerned on this being forced on users, especially when it was discovered that BT had been running secret trials, collecting the web browsing habits of customers without their knowledge or permission. The UK Information Commissioners Office has ...
Woke up this morning with a line from a WB Yeats poem in my head: Things fall apart; the center cannot hold With news of Swine Flu, War, Recession, etc. doing the rounds at the moment, I thought it nice to share the thought. The Second Coming Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things [...]
Martin Shipton in the Western Mail has confirmed that John Hopkins, who was defeated by Trish Law, the widow of Peter Law, in the Blaenau Gwent by-election, has resigned from the Labour Party after 44 years as a member.
Interested to read the report in this morning's Western Mail about the selection of a Labour Candidate for Llanelli in the Assembly Elections who will be 70 at the time of the election.In particular, Helen Mary Jones' comment troubles me:"I look forward to an interesting campaign with Keith Davies as the Labour candidate, but I am somewhat surprised that he should want to take this challenge on
I'm getting increasingly worried that my MP Claire Ward is losing track of her life. Under pressure for claiming the maximum in second home allowances since at least 2002, Ms Ward has come up with a number of justifications as to why she needs the allowance, despite being just a 16 minute train journey from [...]
I kid you not.
I've been meaning to say this for a while - since attending the Social Liberal Forum meeting at the last Lib Dem conference. But it ties in nicely with Charlotte's revelation about the nature of the "progressive" and conservative debate, and how each side thinks they are doing what is right.Speaker after speaker at the social liberal forum said how deeply they cared about the plight of
Quite a few people become a bit dismissive when I tell them I now live in Tallinn. For some reason the British in particular are particularly contemptuous. Some actually say that it is as though I am living in Trumpton or some other charming but ultimately pointless and irrelevant place, Ruritania perhaps. They seem to say that whatever pretensions Estonia may have, "its not a real place". Then I point out a few home truths: Estonia spends less than a fifth on health care per capita compared to the United Kingdom, but on virtually every measure it has better health ...
Quite unexpectedly, I find myself with a new project - the creation of a blog for the parish of Creeting St Peter, part of a communications and information strategy for the village. Hopefully, it will be unleashed on an unsuspecting world soon but I'll still be covering Creeting St Peter for 'Liberal Bureaucracy', so for news of mid-Suffolk's most perfect parish, you know where to come...
Many people use email by using a server host that they then use to download all emails to a computers content and I can see that a lot of my readers are part of that clan and I am a more web mail kind of guy. When I was buying a URL for this blog I needed a provider that gave web mail over server based systems, because of this reason I found the giant that is Google. Google Applications give you web mail that looks like the G Mail accounts and it ticked all my boxes so I took ...
One of the sweet things about the Daily Mail is that it still clings onto some vestiges of journalistic integrity - sometimes it seems the paper can mislead but can't quite bring itself to lie outright. A nice example yesterday. "Pupils as young as four to be given sex education"the headline starts, immediately conjuring visions of tiny tots being schooled in the mysteries of the Karma Sutra. Reading further down the article, though, it explains that four and five years olds are only going to be taught about different parts of the body. Not exactly radical stuff, though even that ...
Sky's got a report on the Bill, including my views, here.
Joanna Lumley has sent out an e-mail to all supporters of the Gurkha Justice Campaign asking for help in 2 ways: Firstly, asking people to ask their MP's to vote against the Government's proposals tomorrow. I wrote to my Labour MP, Jim Devine, on Saturday and his response will be posted here if and when I get one. Secondly, if you are in London, join the Gurkha Justice Campaign at their rally at noon tommorrow, Wednesday 29th April, in Old Palace Yard, Westminster. It's a good way of spending your lunch hour, if ever there was one. Joanna's e-mail is ...
Tue 28th
06:16
Don't put up with Rubbish Phone us, we can get skips lets all be proud of where we live.
This week we have been arranging community skips in Swinton South, and thank you to the environment department of the council. In three years on this Salford Council i can honestly say one call and they respond. Talk about Ghost Busters not in the same League. Thanks To Dave and his men, so don't put up [...]
PLANS to return horseracing to Greater Manchester are under starters orders. The £100m scheme, called Salford Forest Park, was first unveiled five years ago, by developers It was withdrawn and scaled down slightly after fierce local opposition and finally submitted for planning permission in July 2004. And it stalled after Salford City Council insisted on more [...]
Source Swinton Online <!–Last Updated - 27th April 2009 at 03:34 PM –> Police are asking residents to remain vigilant after arsonists torched three houses in Swinton. In the first attack, at about 7.20pm on Tuesday 21 April 2009, offenders set fire to a wheelie-bin at the side of a house on Tennyson Road. The resulting [...]
{DSC00026} Local residents packed into St.Margarets Church House in Prestwich last night (Monday 26 April 2009) to let local councillors know their views on the proposed development by Manchester City Council of a commercially operated sports zone at the St.Margarets corner of the park. Over 80 residents attended the meeting which I chaired and assisted by Cllr Vic D'Albert. Sedgley Lib Dem councillors Andrew Garner and Ann Garner were also present as was the Vicar of St.Margarets, The Reverend Debbie Plummer. We outlined the proposals that have led to the meeting and that as councillors we needed to know the ...
George Lakoff is a Professor of Cognitative Linguistics and was, for a short time, the darling of the Daily Kos scene, coincidently at the same time I was very much interested in this new "Progressive" movement in the states - you know, the one that ended up with Obama going into the White House. That movement. I [...]
IRAN ATTACK IS ON THE HORIZON The issue of Iran's nuclear programme has been raging as a political debate for the last 3 years. There have been moments when it looked like Israel might launch a strike though the United States has been the alternative vehicle through which diplomacy has been used as a carrot for engagement with Iran. Yet, even with President Obama's recent address to the Iranian people and to the Government of Iran it looks like there is no thawing in US and Iran relations. The case of Roxana Saberi, a citizen of both the US and ...
I don't know what to make of stories about Pig Flu. There is no way to know. It is suggested that this is the genesis of a global plague. More Revelations than Genesis really- although someone called me "an elitist" when I used a Biblical quote in a recent speech on civil liberties. On the other hand, Pig [...]
Nick Clegg came to give the London LibDem Euro-campaign its in-house launch at the Cartoon Museum in Bloomsbury this evening, over champagne and canapés and (one trusts) motivating speeches from Sarah Ludford MEP and myself. Nominations close next week and we have a particularly strong LibDem team in place in the capital, with a determination [...]
Last night I went to the National Liberal Club for an ALDE reception. It was a great evening and entertaining given I was seated between two of our esteemed peers, Navnit Dholakia and John Lee. I confess I spent some of the evening making the case for revisiting our Trident policy - but about 10.45 began my journey home. I knew I was pushing it to get the 11.15 East Midlands train back to Luton, but my delight at making it was soon dented by seeing the "DELAYED" signs. The story was that a train engine was on fire near ...
