Stories have abounded this week that Arsenal goalkeeper Manuel Almunia should play for England when he qualifies as a home player in the summer. The Spaniard has said he would consider playing for England saying, "They [Spain] have never, never called me. If other people want me, I have to study my situation and take a [...]
The London Borough of Ealing is to become one of the first authorities in the country to switch off 7 sets of traffic lights. It is believed that, by covering up these sets of lights, drivers will have to slow down, becoming more cautious in the process. They would navigate their way through the junction by establishing eye contact with those other drivers wanting to cross. It is believed that this will greatly improve traffic flow through these junctions. There has already been an example of such a scheme already in Ealing. One of the main supporting arguments for the ...
I don't really know why, but I find I've been haunted all weekend by the story of the mother who hit her child on the arm with a hairbrush because he wouldn't get dressed for school. Maybe it was a bank holiday awareness of the difficulties of bringing up children; maybe it was just wondering whether I had the nerve to write this. Who knows. But I do have the nerve, so I'll say it: this seems to me to be a story that accelerates the fear that all parents share, it seems to me, of the emerging atmosphere of ...
{beech-rd-park.jpg} The next meeting of the Friend of Beech Rd Park is this Wednesday at 7.30pm. The group are meeting at the office in Chorlton Park. It is roughly opposite Chorlton High. The group recently agreed a five year plan, so there is lots to involve yourself with and new people are always welcome.
I backed the government's previous strategy on Afghanistan and the new one seems OK too. But the real problem has been, and will continue to be, successful delivery of that strategy.Many people I speak to don't believe we should have troops there and equate Afghanistan with Iraq. I opposed the invasion in Iraq but support our effort in Afghanistan. We need to prevent Al Qaeda from using Afghanistan for training cam. If we don't we'll find that we will have more terrorist attacks in the UK. Part of the solution in the country is in the hands of the other ...
There's another open day at Boones Chapel this weekend from 12-5 both days - last chance to see the Drawing Tools exhibition. See my previous entry for full details.
LibDem blogger Mark Pack has a few ideas for how the LibDems can overtake Labour. His analysis of the state of the Labour party is more incisive than mine usually is (I tend not to consider it) and he offers a few stark opinions for the party. I joined the LibDems because I saw Labour as bankrupt in 1998. It is somewhat unnerving that there is a growing feeling their time is up. Not for 4 or 5 years, but for good.
1979 is a year to remember, not only was I born, but it was the first year of 18 stint of a Conservative government.I am watching the BBC coverage of 1979 general election and in their regional slot they were talking about issues that were likely to affect London. Some of these included where a 3rd London airport would go, the development of Docklands and a possible bid for 1988 Olympics.With
This press release on the Bromley Liberal Democrat website has just caught my eye. Well done David, spot on!Bromley's Liberal Democrat Leader Cllr David McBride has refused to take this year's increase in the allowance paid to councillors, saying that it is the "wrong time" for politicians to increase their pay. The increase in allowances for councillors takes place in May, and they are expected
The "Evening Telegraph" featured this issue tonight, including my concerns about this, concerning collections in the West End. Click on headline to view.
Those of you wishing to find out what Lib Dem party president Baroness Ros Scott has been up to in the past month (or so) can sate your curiosity over at her Because Baronesses are people too blog. Here's an excerpt to entice you: I've been working with Jeremy Hargreaves (Vice Chair Federal Policy Committee) and a group of his colleagues to look at how members might be more involved in policy making. We have a number of new initiatives which you should see being rolled out during the summer. This should be a major step forward in providing more ...
There have been four fires on the Mersey Valley over the last few weeks. All are suspected arson. Chief Warden Steve Marshall told me that they are often in spates. Last year was quite, but in the previous year he had a serious number to deal with. I doubt Chorlton would have to deal with anything on an Australian or Californian scale, but damage & mischief aren't to be encouraged. If you see any suspicious call the Police on 872 5050.
All citizens in the UK are needed for the coming June elections, Iain Dale writes a blog post about how he will be doing a chat show on the coverage of the elections, the county election show will be on Friday and the European on Sunday. But I want to beat him and get some info out into the blogosphere before hand. Many people have been contacted and will be contacted over the coming weeks to help me with the idea that I have. I would like to collect info and break rumour and news on this blog before people ...
I have done lots of editing of profiles and buggering about with settings on LJ and DW today. I think everything is suitably set for the Gob to be closed down completely. My friends-only LJ account will basically become a mirror of the DW blog - this means that if you were only on my LJ f-list but not reading the Gob you'll probably see MORE substantive posts from me, but you won't get the twitter updates any more, because they are going to DW. Sorry 'bout tha', but hopefully this means that none of you will miss out on ...
The Government nearly managed to slip it past us when delivering the Budget: National Insurance contributions are to go up by half a penny in the pound. Although I'm more than willing to defend the near higher rate of income tax, this one exasperates me because it continues to undermine an already weak institution of social justice in the UK: National Insurance. {The National Insurance numbercard} There are many problems with the current system of National Insurance: (1) it looks like a tax; (2) contributions are earnings related but benefits are flat-rate; (3) benefits provided are insufficient; and (4) overall ...
Council staff are costing the taxpayer thousands of pounds through high levels of sick leave. Salford Council had the highest overall sickness rate of 13.1 days in the year, when compared with the rest of the Greater Manchester local authorities. Critics say local authorities need to do more to challenge workers who are not genuinely ill. British public sector workers take an average of nine days sick leave, compared to a private sector average of six, according to the Confederation of British Industry. Prof Mick Marchington, an expert at Manchester Business School who has examined staff absences, said: "It's often ...
April has been a relatively quiet month for me, largely because I took a much needed holiday during the Parliamentary recess! I made two sets of visits during the month though, firstly to Cardiff where I attend the Welsh Liberal Democrat Spring Conference, chairing a Q&A session with Nick Clegg and Kirsty Williams, before going on to a fund raising dinner. Welsh Liberal Democrats are in great campaigning form, working hard to ensure the election of our first MEP in Wales, Alan Butt-Philip. The following weekend I was up in the North East, to make a speech at the Regional ...
One of the things I like about journalling platforms based on the LJ codebase is the easy shortcut for usernames that'll link to both the blog itself and the profile, with that nice little logo for the profile link. LJ DW Mine User {LJ User Icon} {DW User Icon} {Little Colin Baker} Community {LJ Comm Icon} {DW Comm Icon} {Little Tardis!} Feed {LJ Feed Icon} {DW Feed Icon} {Little Darlek!} Others {Little Peter!} {Little Mr Flibble!} Thing is, the nice little logo doesn't always suit the style of the place it's appearing in, or the colour scheme of the layout. ...
It's over at the house of Mr Eugenides.
My speech on Israel-Palestine was made under the one-minute rule, a procedure that allows members at the opening of parliament to speak briefly on any subject they choose. It's amazing how one minute can be used to good effect if words are chosen well, which sadly is all too rarely the case. My contribution was far from my best. In mitigation I was put off my stride by having previously heard Ashley Mote make his last ever speech. Elected for UKIP he now sits as an independent, but the denouncement of all aspects of EU finances and the value of ...
I've made my last speech in the European Parliament, of this session at least - my 78th since 2004 I think. I returned to the Israel-Palestine issue, pointing out that the near total blockade of Gaza continues and amounts to collective punishment of innocent people. "Enough is enough," I said. Israel's behaviour is shocking. Far from upgrading the EU-Israel agreement we should be suspending it entirely.
My colleague Jonthan Bloch (councillor in Muswell Hill) has co-written another book on the secret services - 'Spies Lies, and War on Terror.' Jonathan has written several books on espionage over the years, including 'British Intelligence and Covert Action', which was not a popular work with Maggie Thatcher, PM at the time. This latest work focuses on how the war on terror is eroding civil liberties and dangerously increasing the power of intelligence agencies. The book is being launched on 14th May, 6.30pm. at Garden Court Chambers, 57-60 Lincoln's Inn Fields.
But seriously, news reaches your correspondent that a farm-worker in Alberta, Canada, has managed to infect a herd of pigs. The good news, for the pigs at least, is that they are recovering from the sneezing and runny snouts that affected them last week. The bad news is that they're now in quarantine. Sadly, there is worse news still. China banned all imports of Albertan pork yesterday, and it is feared that the US may follow shortly. Given that Canada is the third largest exporter of pork - after the US and the European Union - and that Canadian bacon ...
I am glad to discover that I am not the only person increasingly disturbed by the gauntlet of magazines that little girls (& boys, for that matter) have to walk past just on a trip to the Newsagent. A family friend over from Auckland took his two nieces to the local newsagents in Kent yesterday and swore never to use that particular newsagent again because he was appalled by the covers of the men's magazines, at child height that could not be avoided on the way to the counter. 'Well, Bro' said his brother, "Looks like you won't be going ...
This is a test post to make sure I have set up email posting properly. Nothing to see here, please move along.
As I mentioned in a previous post, there are provincial government elections here in British Columbia on May 12th. It's a close race between the incumbent Liberal administration and the New Democrats - Conservatives here are nowhere to be seen - and campaigning is really ramping up. On the same day, voters will also be able to decide on a proposition to move to a STV election system in the future. A commission was set up to look at the voting systems in BC and their preferred option was STV. What makes this so remarkable is that the year long ...
Further to my last post, it appears I was wrong. The Conservatives (or at least a senior figure in the party) have made a definite commitment. Unfortunately, it is a commitment that will hurt many thousands of poorer people. David Davis, until recently a shadow cabinet member and a leading figure in the Party, has said that winter heating payments to older people are 'a gimmick' and should be abolished to save money. He also wants to abolish free TV licences for over 75s. Writing for the Financial Times, Mr Davis said that the Government should cut excessive spending in ...
This useful swine flu web page from NHS Choices gives lots of useful information about swine flu, plus a symptoms checker and links to other information sources.
The Conservatives launched their manifesto for the Cornish elections on Saturday and admitted that they have nothing to offer the county. Amid a lot of bluster about wanting to run the Council on a 'businesslike basis', their leader, Cllr Currie said it is impossible to make specific strategic plans until they are able to fully appreciate the state of the county finances. Cllr Currie said: "Conservatives believe the change to a unitary authority must be managed professionally, with a businesslike approach and with consideration for the local communities across the county."I couldn't agree more that we need to involve local ...
Flying visit from Vince on Saturday. What a wonderful asset for us Liberal Democrats. I read on the cover of his recent book that Rory Bremner has said that he is 'the man that gives politics a good name'. I couldn't agree more.
{funny pictures of cats with captions} see more Lolcats and funny pictures
First, the linkage:The Yorksher Gob has been awarded what I assume will be it's final {Featured on Liberal Democrat Voice} . Farewell, the good ship Gob. You did me proud and got me noticed, but today is the day you will be packed away for good.Charlotte Gore posts something I am in complete agreement with shocker!The Hathor Legacy has a marvellous post on Margaret Meldrew. Yes, THAT Margaret Meldrew.Next time someone asks you where all the female bloggers are in that patronising way the male bloggers who ignore us do? Point them here. LJ, the blog platform I grew up ...
I went with the family to take part in the Jack in the Green celebrations today. What a great day out it is for all ages. I am really pleased that we have such a passion for our traditions in this area, and that so many people from so far afield come to share them with us. It [...]
Nick Perry, the Lib Dem parliamentary campaigner for Hastings & Rye, has uncovered the total cost of the Hastings and St Leonards communal bins consultation to the taxpayer: £30, 529. Nick obtained the figure under the Freedom of Information Act and it includes costs for staff time as well as the practical elements of the consultation. Whilst [...]
Mon 4th
15:49
Decision to Remove Almost 1 Million People From the DNA Database is Welcome and Long Overdue
The news that Jacqui Smith and the Home Office are to remove almost 1 million Innocent people from the DNA database broke in a variety of sources over the weekend. The Guardian describes the government's climbdown in the light of the landmark ruling from the European Court of Human Rights. This is a long overdue decision. There are currently over 5.1 million people on the DNA database. In the North West Region alone, the number of profiles added to the database has been growing by over 200 people per week. This has all got to stop. The practice of taking ...
{nick-clegg-carbon-neutral.jpg} We are the first party to aim for a carbon neutral Britain where we absorb as much carbon as we emit by 2050. We will provide incentives for renewable technologies to speed up the move away from dirty energy to renewables and make Britain a greener, healthier place to live.We will prioritise achieving a global agreement in Copenhagen. We will help developing countries to mitigate and adapt to climate change, including working for the establishment of an International Leapfrog Fund to invest in low-carbon technologies, energy efficiency in developing countries. In Manchester our Airport has to be part of ...
The Times brings us the story that Margaret Beckett still has a £250,000 a year police guard, and two cars to protect her, a legacy from when she was Foreign Secretary. The question that needs answering is does she still need it? I wouldn't ordinarily question the protection procedures for Cabinet Members. It's a dangerous world, and many of them can be targets. However, the Times points out that both Charles Clarke, the former Home Secretary, and Des Browne, the former Defence Secretary both gave up their protection details fairly rapidly once they had left the Cabinet. Beckett kept hers ...
Thursday evening I spoke at a very successful and well-attended pizza and politics event organised by Lewisham West and Penge LibDems, chaired by Councillor Alex Feakes, the energetic and popular LibDem parliamentary spokesman for the constituency. The theme of the evening's discussion was the interaction between foreign policy issues and the impact of diasporas living in the UK and particularly in south London. There are sizeable minorities including West Africans, Tamils and Vietnamese in the constituency, and we need to think hard about how to communicate with them better than we have in the past.
I am on my way to Wolverhampton after a weekend of campaigning in Bedfordshire, cut slightly short due a need to be back in Wolverhampton earlier than I thought.
Sunday we were at the fantastic celebration of Susan and Brian Taylor's 63rd wedding anniversary, and Susan's 90th birthday. Their wonderful family were there including great-grandaughter Sophie. Susan and Brian have been tremendous pillars of the Liberal Party, and now the Liberal Democrats, and Brian was the first Liberal Councillor in Greater London at the beginning of the revival, in 1957, and he and Susan have produced a great dynasty of Liberal activists.
Coming soon to Liberal England: Wikio's new rankings for political blogs. Meanwhile, you can find the April rankings on the Wikio site.
Amid the rumours about a coup to topple Gordon Brown, the outbreak of swine flu and the premiership title race, here's some links to a few stories that have caught my eye over the weekend that you might have missed: The FT reports that the Conservative Party is under-fire from, and having to quickly mend bridges with the Defence industry after indicating it might make large cuts to the Defence Budget. Old "Two-Brains" David Willets is also under-fire in Sussex for incorrectly telling voters in his latest leaflet that the A&E at St Richard's Hospital in Chichester was going to ...
This week the media has been telling us that Gordon Brown is in disarray. Not necessarily Brown himself, I am not sure if a person can be in disarray, but his Cabinet/administration/party/government - delete all that don't apply. Paddy Ashdown let it be known that some senior Labour politicians might defect to the Liberal Democrats if Labour loses the next election. This news rather upset Charlotte Gore. At this point, we don't know if Labour will lose the general election, although everyone seems to think they will. Nor do we know what will happen to the Labour party. They could ...
It's a serious question: what do we think needs to happen for the Lib Dems to become the official opposition within the next 10 years? What are the circumstances, and which are the ones we have the control to influence? In posing these questions, I'm making three assumptions. First, and most importantly - so the question doesn't get brushed aside as hopelessly unrealistic - it won't happen overnight. However wounded the Labour party currently is, it still has six times as many MPs, and three times more members, than the Lib Dems. It also has a core vote, diminished and ...
That's US Republicans, by the way. After the Republicans lost the White House and control of the Senate Republicans have been asking: what do we do now? The defection of Senator Specter has meant they ask the question more often. Some Republicans want to go back to their base. They believe they lost because they weren't Republican enough. There are two problems with this: their base is shrinking and they are unsure what it means to be a Republican. The party, like all parties, is a broad coalition. But coalitions evolve, those in charge make mistakes and voters decide they ...
Thank you to everyone who ran today. My son gave up soon after Jackson's boat so I didn't suffer too much. The church will really benefit from the money to invest in church funds.
One of the things I have learned over the years, not only as a Councillor but also from experience, is that it is far better to work with other people than not. One of the experiences on the Council is from procurement. When I first started leading on procurement issues for the Council one of the first issues to be addressed was the way in which contractors considered their working...
The new convention centre here in Vancouver is state of the art eco-friendliness. It's built partly over the water in such a way as to provide marine habitat for particular creatures, the roof is turfed for insulation and to help water run-off, its flowers and grasses are pollinated by bees from the hives on the roofs, the internal construction is from Canadian wood, they use grey-water recycling, and even use wooden cutlery rather than plastic in all their catering outlets. All that aside, the choice of a room clearly designed for exhibitions as the venue for their rally on Saturday ...
John Prescott and his campaign transit has been travelling the North of England in the last few days the Go Fourth campaign blog has been getting updated as Prezza travelled the North and this is what Prezza has achieved over the last four days: Travelled more than 1,000 milesVisited 8 counties Made 14 speechesMet over 2,500 peopleKnocked on 250 doorsHanded out 1,000 Labour pledge cardsHad photos taken with 250 candidates and party membersConducted more than 30 media interviewsRaised more than £5,000 for local partiesNow is it me or has Prezza got a great idea when he goes around campaigning in ...
I spent a few hours on Saturday in Bracknell town centre campaigning with members of my local party. We were selling jumble on the Bandstand and myself and two other members (including Ray, the PPC) walked all around the centre handling out leaflets and talking to people. I was very encouraged by how many people were willing to take leaflets and only one person ostentatiously screwed it up and dropped it on the floor! I was also pleasantly surprised to see how willing many people were to listen to what we had to say. Bracknell and Bracknell Forest Council are ...
Thirty years ago the people of the UK made the biggest mistake ever and elected Thatcher and her party to run the country, they came in with a mind set to change every damn thing in this country, Thatcher thought she was boss and started kicking off it eventually lead to unemployment in the UK rising as people were out of jobs. Thatcher banned raves, protests, increased unemployment and brought nothing positive to the UK except making it a more business state, maybe that was the start of this recession? Overall I don't like Thatcher but many do but I ...
I have been contacted by a high profile Conservative from the North West who wants to get a message out that he is so pis*** off with the Tory party for becoming the house of defectors from all political parties that he is going to canvas for the BNP in the coming June elections. I will keep the identity of this Conservative secret as he has asked me to and this Tory also believes that the Conservatives are to lose big because they have housed defectors and the Tory members in the North West are upset with them for doing ...
Yesterday was... Interesting.I completely unintentionally pissed off several peopleI had blazing rows with several other peopleThe landlord of my house came round to fix the boiler in the morning before I was properly awake and saw the shameful state of the houseI had a long and busy shift at work being festive with beer, and having to be pleasant to people I did not want to be pleasant toI spent most of the day keyed up and hoping for Mat to get this job which we have been foolishly pinning all our hopes on for ages... and he didn't get ...
I will write a blog post once in a while on how I think a general election can be won by campaigning, I will then hope that people will use the comment section to debate the topic of the blog post in order to make the whole process more interesting and you never know what you can learn via the comment section. So here goes... Canvassing voters is important, votes can only be won on the doorstep and this needs to be remembered by campaigners but what about on the phone canvassing? Clearly phoning up people and canvassing them via ...
The Guardian's Readers' Editor has highlighted how a fake quote in a Wikipedia entry got used by journalists: An obituary of French composer Maurice Jarre, which appeared in the Guardian on 31 March, began and ended with quotes. It opened with: "My life has been one long soundtrack. Music was my life, music brought me to life" - and closed with: "Music is how I will be remembered. When I die there will be a final waltz playing in my head, that only I can hear." The words, however, were not Jarre's, they were Shane Fitzgerald's ... He added the ...
Long before Little Britain made it fashionable for men to dress up in women's clothes and shout 'I'm a lady!', Scouts up and down the country entertained us with Gang Shows.I spent a lot of misguided youth in the Walthamstow Gang Show who opened their hearts and minds to welcome me, someone who can not sing in tune and lacks rhythm, into their show.Last Saturday I attended the Showshoppers Gang
Interesting remarks by Chris Davies MEP reported on Politics Home; "I don't underestimate UKIP. The European elections are just made for them. I want to put some pro-European arguments, i'm happy to take on UKIP anytime." He also, rightly in my eyes, called the Conservative position on Europe 'hopelessly confused'. In reality the Conservatives want to 'democratise Europe' by destroying it; reducing it back to it's component parts. Davies is right that we need to be the most passionate Europeans out there and we need to clearly fight Euro-scepticism even in the full knowledge that this is against the public ...
I rather like the 1982 contest - it seemed to be a fork in the road where trends came together one towards pop and the other, which I'll focus on here, the Euro-ballad. First came Luxembourg with Svetlana and her gorgeous song `cours apres le temps`, then Cyprus with Anna Vissi (who became the `Greek Madonna`selling [...]
I've blogged a few times about the fantastic campaigning done by Dan Hardie and others to highlight the dangers faced by Iraqis who had worked with our armed forces in Iraq. I sponsored a meeting in Parliament in 2007 and wrote about it:Mark and Andrew both gave eye witness accounts of what is going on in Iraq and how those who helped us by translating or other service now are being hunted down and killed. It was graphic, appalling and compelling. These horrors made the mealy-mouthed, half-arsed announcement by G Brown yesterday to allow those who worked for us for ...
I only ask because once more this morning we find a prominent Labour politician talking up the chances of the BNP. It is only Neil Kinnock you may say, but he is being pushed out there along with John Prescott as the campaigning voice of New Labour.It now seems to be the default position of Labour politicians to argue that the party must unite behind Gordon or else the BNP bogeyman will profit at
One of the arts of blogging is not to lose your nerve. If you wait long enough, someone else will write the posting you have been pondering. Then all you need do is link to it. Such a case is Tim Worstall's recent posting on the blog of the Adam Smith Institute. He says: Now remember that we have drunk the Keynesian Kool Aid in its entirely. Just as we believe in fiscal stimulus when growth is below trend, we also believe in fiscal contraction when growth is above it. And can anyone see that happening in recent years?Such a ...
Mon 4th
09:43
CommentIsLinked@LDV: Vince Cable - After a week that showed the Commons at its best and worse, I am ...
Over at the Daily Mail, Lib Dem deputy leader Vince Cable reflects on what the House of Commons achieved last week, as well as on what it fails to do. Here's an excerpt: Parliament was at its best last week - in the vote defeating the Government over the Gurkhas - and at its worst in another messy wrangle over MPs' expenses. But much bigger questions have to be asked: what does Parliament actually do? And why has Parliament no role approving or overseeing the vast amount of taxpayers' money spent by the Government, well over £1billion a day? Unlike ...
My campaign website is now live here
Lord Sutherland has chaired an inquiry into the collapse last summer of the SATS system (school tests). One conclusion he reached was that the supplier had not been properly investigated before being appointed: Giving evidence yesterday, Sutherland said: "I don't know companies that don't do that kind of probing, whether it's by telephone or Googling. "If you Google, first you get the press cuttings and then you say, ah no, that's so and so but here's a serious report that maybe we need to inquire into further - and that's what wasn't done." Sutherland agreed that such online probing could ...
A report from Salford where a lady resident living on incapacity benefitreceived no assistance from either the local authority or her housingassociation landlords while two of her neighbours had their gardensregularly maintained. She is a member of the indigenous white community inSalford, her neighbours, recent asylum seekers accommodated at tax payers' expense. This was linked to [...]
Not such good news: You can also watch the film on the YouTube website here.
Stephen Hepburn, the Labour MP for Jarrow, asked Stephen Timms this question in the Commons last week): I read with interest at the weekend that certain celebrity millionaires, such as Sir Michael Caine, are considering leaving the country because of the Government's tax moves. Could they be reminded that it is ordinary, hard-working people, who pay money to watch their films, who put them where they are?We should give those celebrities the message that if they cannot support services for those hard-working people, such as the national health service, when the country is going through a bit of a problem, ...
Following the successful photo competition to create the 2009 Friends of Magdalen Green Calendar, there's another competition this year for the 2010 Calendar. You can download the details and application form by clicking on the headline above. The theme for this year's calendar is life on the Green (and surrounding area). Entries should be submitted to Blackness Library by Saturday 11th July. The Friends' public meeting and AGM takes place tomorrow at 7.30pm in Dundee West Church - see my earlier article about this at
Today is the 30th Anniversary of Margaret Thatcher being elected Prime Minister. It was the first General Election I was able to vote in and I stayed up for 48 hours to watch the results and take in the full impact of the outcome. I was devastated. I have only just realised that yesterday marked 25 years since I was first elected to public office. I took the Cwmbwrla ward on Swansea City Council off Labour with a majority of 1,108 and 67% of the vote. It was the first time that a Liberal had been elected in the Swansea ...
Mon 4th
08:25
What is the database state? i think it as worked well in the past a little chap in the 30's did it b...
The 'database state' is what we call the tendency to try to use computers to manage society by watching people. There are many interlocking government plans that do this. Together they mean officials poking into YOUR private life more than ever before. All the databases could be linked to, or indexed by, the National Identity Register [...]
Welcome to the record-breakingly-belated 114th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (19th-25th April 2009), together with a hand-picked quintet, mostly courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed. As ever, let's start with the most popular post, and work our way down. 1. "The Lib Dems: A Party for Lib Dems" on Charlotte Gore's blog. "Internally the party does feel dominated by lefties," reckons Charlotte. Not enough of them yet, reckons Paddy. 2. Leaflet error from Conservatives a real gem on Steve Middleton's blog. Steve's ...
Senior Labour MP Alan Johnson has been busy denying that he, or anyone else, would make a better Prime Minister than Gordon Brown. In an excellent post, Charlotte Gore mentions ten people (including, modestly, herself) who she's confident would do a better job. Go Charlotte. But I wonder if Mr Johnson's comment was really an attempt to get his name on the list. Two days ago, few would have rated Johnson as even in the game to replace Brown as Labour leader. Now, after his denials that he'd be better than Gordon, his name's in our minds. Sort of the ...
Labour 'lets Northern heartlands dodge their council tax bills' More than a tenth of homes in Labour heartlands are being allowed to dodge council tax, Government figures have revealed. A string of authorities running cities in the North and Midlands have seen a huge increase in those trying to avoid paying their bills. Figures released by the GMB [...]
Mon 4th
07:35That Orange unaccountable franchise are the herpes of local politics - you can never get rid of them...
Well this is how we are described by local labour supporters in a blog i found. Well i have been called all sorts but herpes? well i think it shows what a sad lot of people you have to deal with. Its the sort of comment you would expect from some neo Nazi group. I [...]
If you're answer is yes, the the following notice will be of interest to you: British Institute of Human Rights Lunchtime Lecture Tuesday 5 May, 1 -2 pm Threats to Civil Liberties Chris Huhne MP, Shadow Secretary of State for the Home Department Chris Huhne MP will present the Liberal Democrats' perspective on a Bill of Rights and Responsibilities and discuss their own Freedom Bill. Lecture to be followed by a Q&A. Venue: Mander Hall, Hamilton House, Mabledon Place, London WC1H 9DB Booking information: There is no charge to attend our lectures, but it is necessary to book in advance. ...
Went to Excel in Docklands yesterday, and endured the Grand Designs Live exhibition. These are views from the Victoria Dock, the lovely Thames barrier Park, and also some shots of the Canary Wharf centre.
Today marks the start of Deaf Awareness Week, concluding on 10 May. As part of this RNID Cymru have developed a special five-minute hearing check, which helps identify whether you have a hearing loss. This can be accessed by calling 0844 800 3838 for English or 0844 800 8880 for Welsh. People can also take the check online by visiting www.rnid.org.uk/hearingmatters or www.rnid.org.uk/profi. The check assesses your ability to hear someone speaking with background noise - similar to being in a crowded room. Many people don't realise how important their hearing is in their everyday lives, until they start to ...
I rather like the 1982 contest - it seemed to be a fork in the road where trends came together one towards pop and the other, which I'll focus on here, the Euro-ballad. First came Luxembourg with Svetlana and her gorgeous song `cours apres le temps`, then Cyprus with Anna Vissi (who became the `Greek Madonna`selling [...]
I'm reliably informed that in Ireland, even if you don't believe in God, you're still regarded as Catholic and a Christian - you can become a 'lapsed' Catholic, but that's as far as it goes. I think British people find it difficult to appreciate just how ingrained Christianity is in Irish culture, where nationality and [...]
What is the last resort of the Labour party? Trying to scare the voters by talking up the chances of a British National Party victory. Neil Kinnock offers a novel twist on this tactic in today's Guardian by using the BNP threat against Labour MPs: The former leader of the Labour party Neil Kinnock has warned Labour MPs that further undermining of Gordon Brown's leadership would boost the British National party (BNP) in the European elections.After a weekend in which senior Labour figures struggled to end speculation about whether Brown should continue to lead the party, Kinnock called on MPs ...
