Blimey, careful what you wish for...I have always wanted to stand seriously for election and when I do the b*ggers expect me to work for it! I am now the proud owner of a pair of shoes which disintegrated while delivering, so now when I am next cornered by some anorak at conference who tells me about his exploits in the 1973 Exeter Borough by-election, I can return fire with my own equally sad 'shoes' convo. I now have to find time in the day to write one target and two squeeze letters, plus design a leaflet, although on that ...
I wrote the other day of the virtues of waiting until another blogger has expressed this ideas that you have in your own mind. In that case it was Tim Worstall, and now David Boyle has done the same. On The Real Blog, David expresses concern at the case of the mother who had her child taken away because she hit hit on the arm with a hairbrush because he wouldn't get dressed for school. As he says: the mother who snapped has finally been given a 12-month community order. They have taken her child away (he's eight) and say ...
London's alternative gliterati turned out in force at Daunt's delightfully renovated former Pan bookshop in the Fulham Road in Chelsea this evening, for the launch of Maureen Duffy's 18th novel, The Orpheus Trail (Arcadia Books, £11.99) — a thriller, of which Maurren gave us all a tantalising taste with a short but powerful reading from an [...]
{manor-house-cake} Paul, Sven and I spent this morning at the re-opening ceremony for Manor House Library. Fantastic to see the building restored and refurbished. A few things which struck me: The library seems a lot bigger. Standing in the central part of the library where the desk used to be, the whole building seems a lot wider than it used to... The library's fully stocked with brand new books - so even if you were a member before, you're bound to discover something new The non-fiction section is now downstairs, with computer terminals etc, which will be a great homework/research ...
1983 was a year of treading water with no real new ground covered - the songs, to my ear, were either very good or dire. The UK carried on with the kind of quality galloping`British Eurovision Pop`of Bucks Fizz and Bardo while Sweden presented Carola Haggkvist who still dominates Swedish Eurovision Pop to this day [...]
{mlt-box} I saw this cabinet on Manor Lane Terrace on my way home from work tonight - the door's completely missing. I'll report it to Virgin Media on their 0870 888 3116 number. This is the third cabinet I've reported in the last few weeks - the others were on Michedever Road and Trinity Close. If you have a cabinet near you in need of attention, do let Virgin Media (or me!) know.
Couldn't resist writing this one up: In post-Soviet Russia, President blogs you. The President of Russia has a Livejournal ( blog_medvedev) and updates it (or gets someone to, anyway) fairly regularly. ( LJ, its future, DW not a threat and SUp taking it in the wrong direction ) Ah well. I'm supposed to be writing up what's wrong with the OpenID implementation on both LJ and DW, but I keep getting distracted. Short version: ( Both sites are problematic, DW has the excuse of being new, LJ has no excuse at all ) That's pathetic. Hopefully the competitive pressure from ...
Writing about the Wikio top 20 political blogs for May, I promised another posting on the Lib Dem blogs. Charlotte Gore has kindly done the work for me and produced this list. These are all the Lib Dem blogs in the top 100, with last month's figures in brackets: 7. Liberal Democrat Voice (6) 31. Liberal England (23) 37. Quaequam Blog! (51) 38. People's Republic of Mortimer (43) 41. Peter Black AM (37) 46. Himmelgarten Cafe (56) 50. Charlotte Gore Blog (58) 63. The Yorksher Gob (57) 75. Liberal Bureaucracy (72) 91. Lynne Featherstone's Parliament and Haringey diary (-) If ...
Yes, I'm going to start doing these again - and I hope to get them back to something like weekly posting as well. As some of you will have noticed, I've not posted as much in recent weeks - that's because I've been doing a lot more stuff offline, and so haven't had quite the [...]
Some Lib Dem blogs are getting all excited about a potential split in the Labour Party after the next election, opening up the prospect of a new realignment of the 'progressive' left. The Labour Party certainly looks hopelessly divided. The Blairite's support for the abolition of the 50p tax rate, privatisation of the Post Office and more market reforms of our public services is a million miles from the traditional Left's calls to hang bankers and nationalise the construction industry. With splits like that, they really do look buggered. However, before you get too excited about finally breaking the mould ...
Reasons too numerous for one blog posting, but specifically today because I've watched her being interviewed on the '79 election programme. Can you just imagine what would happen to any interviewer today who said to Hazel Blears, or Harriet Harman that they were looking "very pretty" before they started the interview as Robin Day did to Shirley? It was really appalling, but she took it all in good spirit and very graciously thanked him for the compliment. She was interviewed twice - once before the votes had even been verified so she didn't really know she'd lost, and once after ...
Tue 5th
21:01
CommentIsLinked@LDV: Caroline Pidgeon - Boris Johnson's first year is no cause for celebration
Caroline Pidgeon, Liberal Democrat Transport spokesperson on the London Assembly, writes in today's Guardian on Boris Johnson's first year as Mayor of London. She says that although Johnson has promised much, he has failed to deliver on most of it: On transport alone there has been a long list of broken promises. Johnson pledged to establish a new express bus service that would orbit outer London. A year after being elected, not one orbital bus route has even been planned. The mayor promised to convene an "emergency summit" of the train operating companies to tackle overcrowding and exorbitant fares. A ...
Well it's now official, I am the Liberal Democrat Candidate for the Trehaverne Ward of Truro. A city which I have lived in all my life and a place that I will always refer to as my home. The election is on June 4th, and I am currently knocking on doors and leafleting as many houses, speaking to as many people, and getting as many people involved in the decision processes that the new Cornwall Council will be undertaking, and I have to say there is a stark choice that is before the electorate. On the one hand, we have ...
Today I led a delegation from the ENOUGH! campaign to the Treasury. ENOUGH! is a local campaign to make youth violence history. It's a coalition of local people and organisations who are deeply concerned about the level of violence that affects young people in southeast London. In the meeting with Yvette Cooper, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, we urged the Minister to ensure that new funding recently ear-marked for youth projects around the country, be targeted at existing youth organisations, which are tackling youth violence in southeast London. There are dozens of great youth organisations in Lewisham, but many struggle ...
Will the Guardian newspaper back the Liberal Democrats in the coming general election? Its a question that is being asked by Sunny Hundal at Liberal Conspiracy. Sunny writes about how the paper might become Lib Dem supportive over the coming months leading to the general election but might not show this in advance. Someone raises an issue with Sunny in the comment section, the issue is that when and who will decide this? Sunny has replied by saying that he thinks its leading columnists and writers who decide. One thing for sure is who ever is going to decide which ...
The debate in Parliament today, led by Steve Webb, raised some interesting points. First Bus says they're not allowed to subsidise less economic routes from their profitable ones - but the Government doesn't agree. Transport Minister Paul Clark said he didn't know any legal reason why this should be so. The Minister also said that Councils should get powers to force companies to run routes and to cap fares by the end of the year - if of course South Glos are willing to take up the challenge. More detail on Steve Webb's blog Also see the web page for ...
Sunny Hundal has an interesting Liberal Conspiracy; he ponders the diema of left-of-centre publications like the New Statesman and Guardian faced with the unpalatable choice of backing a unpopular government or the Conservatives, who are not exactly their target readership. Sunny thinks that, at lease in the case of the Guardian this will be solved by a backing of the Liberal Democrats. I think in the Guardian's case there has been some clear kite-flying in favour of at least the Cameroon wing of the Conservative Party. Earlier on this blog I looked at the kite-flying article talking about 'constructive engagement' ...
The current economic crisis has stemmed from a collective failure of government. Globally, we lost sight of what it was we wanted a market economy to deliver, and a system of 'casino economics' emerged, whereby vast sums of money were used to effectively gamble on movements in the market, and distort national economies. All this was done in global financial framework which has no equivalent global democratic governance. As the markets grew more and more complex and more interdependent, the ability of governments to regulate them properly declined and there was little will to do so - governments kept quiet ...
Welsh Liberal Democrats are calling for local Labour MPs to support the Gurkhas after they voted against proposals to allow those who had fought for Britain to remain in the UK. The vote on a Liberal Democrat motion was held in the House of Commons on 29th April and resulted in a shock defeat for the Government. Both Peter Hain (Neath) and Hywel Francis (Aberavon) sided with the Government, despite the overwhelming popular support for the Gurkhas. "I was greatly disappointed to hear that Mr Hain had voted for thousands of Gurkhas to be deported from the UK," said former ...
Just saw the latest Labour Party Election Broadcast for the Euro elections on the TV. It features Gordon Brown telling us how great he is and what he has done for us and how awful it would be under "the alternative", presumably the Conservatives. It is quite brave of Labour to have Brown fronting this and also releasing it on Youtube after his disastrous outing via this medium about MPs expenses a couple of weeks ago. Also, I don't understand why they are trying to turn the European elections into a referendum on Brown's performance. Do they not know how ...
We are told that there were four candidates for the leadership and seven for his deputy going in to tonight's meeting. Who will be Snow White?
I have spent some part of today speaking to contacts who are going to got their predictions of the number of seats the Lib Dems they think have won at a European Level in the North West of England before the actual count. These results will be published in due course on Saturday most likely which will be one day before the actual count! I will probably be on a local radio in the North West doing punditry (will inform you close to the time) but if I am not on their then I will most likely be joining Iain ...
The eBay scam I reported last week seems to have moved into a second, more sinister phase: I'm no longer recieving the deluge of calls from befuddled eBay members. Unfortunately I'm getting a bunch of calls from irate eBayers asking me where the item I'd just sold them was. Somebody is sending faked eBay emails pretending to be me, demanding money in return for items which may have been sold on eBay. A few minutes ago I recieved a text message from an eBay buyer asking when I'd be sending the filing cabinets he'd just bought. Since I've never owned ...
This story in the Express caught my eye - Council boss paid as much as PM: THE BOSS of a newly formed local council is to be paid nearly as much as the Prime Minister, it emerged yesterday. In a move branded "unacceptable" by critics, Central Bedfordshire Council is advertising its chief executive's post at £185,000 a year. Gordon Brown's annual pay is less than £10,000 more ¬ at £194,250. ... Peter Blaine, leader of the council's Liberal Democrats, said he was surprised the salary was so large, "particularly in view of the fact that the council has not kept ...
Twitter Updates Twitter Updates Also amazed that nobody from the Salford Advertiser bothered to turn up after the bias they had showed to the St.Georges campaign. After marches and all the press coverage at the most important meeting where they could have had an input, no show. I cannot believe that nobody from St.Georges RC Secondary School [...]
Sometimes a decision is made that no matter which way you examine it, defies belief. Today I had the opportunity to see what happens at council level, when such a decision is "called in". The call-in happened in response to a somewhat utilitarian pronouncement made last month by the Lead Member of Salford Council's Childrens Services Committee, regarding the moving of a Youth Offender Service into a residential area of one of the most deprived neighbourhoods in Salford (Blackfriars). This history of this decision is long and dates back many months to late last year at a time when Salix ...
'Labour prepares for a hammering at the ballot box,' shouts The Independent headline. As the paper notes, this will be the first time in 16 years that the English county council elections have not taken place on the same day as the general election - that could spell trouble for Labour if 'differential turnout' comes into play, with Labour supporters sitting on their hands (or protest voting) while motivated opposition party supporters hot-foot it in their droves to the polling stations. "All parties lower expectations ahead of mid-term elections, but even the other parties admit Labour is bound to struggle ...
The First Delegated Legislation Committee isn't usually the most riveting experience but today it was an opportunity to press the Treasury Minister on the Dunfermline Building Society.Today, there were three orders for consideration and the government were seeking the approval of the House of Commons for its decision to break up of the Society.I asked when the approx. 150 members of the Society's final salary pension scheme will receive assurances on their pensions as the scheme has been put into administration. The Minister, Ian Pearson, wasn't able to give me any public assurances but agreed to write to me with ...
Tue 5th
18:10
Salford to get part of £350m funding announced for regional housing regeneration programmes
WELL WE NEED IT Housing Minister Iain Wright today confirmed that almost £350m will be made available in the next financial year through the Homes and Communities Agency to help regenerate local housing markets and restore confidence in communities in twelve key areas of the country. The nine "pathfinder" schemes and three areas of [...]
A MAN was lucky to escape alive after he danced in an open window of a sixth floor flat. source men He spent about two hours hurling household goods from the flat, smashing windows with a hammer and perched precariously on the window. The drama started just before 9am on Tuesday at Pear Tree Court, in [...]
Try to tell it as it is. Man rings, cllr i have received a letter that my garden is a mess and if i don't tidy it i will be thrown out. Cllr, i will come around and look at your garden Cllr ,you garden seems OK Man, I know. Cllr to Housing , Good Morning you have sent a letter [...]
Chipping Sodbury Festival will be held between 12th June and 21st June. There are more than 50 events - indoors, outdoors, daytime, evening, free and paying. Check out the Chipping Sodbury Festival website for details of all the events. Tickets will sell quickly, so get yours from Farrago in Horse Street or from the Tourist Information Centre at the Clock Tower.
Answering Paul Rowen today Jack Straw indicated that his phase 2 of opening up the family courts would be based upon the Youth Court model.
If you cant beat them, why not join them?
Conservative councillor tells it as it is. Where would you find a Conservative voter in Irwell Riverside! Well we don't know but we hope to find Liberal Democrats. Common sense victory for Irwell Riverside Residents At Call In ?Scrutiny sent the decision over Y.O.S building back to Cllr Warmisham lets hope we get the right decision we will wait and [...]
I returned home after a short break to see a copy the latest propaganda sheet from our Tory Councillors. It was great to see them pointing at pot holes. What my fellow politicians failed to tell me was that the road surface is the responsibility of County Hall which happens to be Tory led! I loved the paradoxical nature of their leaflets which funnily enough conicided with a press release from the £4.5 million County Hall spin machine, which includes branded mints and pens, not to mention first class rail travel for an Andover Tory Councillor. In fact the press ...
... Changing over all my internet profiles from the Gob to here. I have a LOT of profiles. Lordy. Anyhoo, what I would like you guys to do is keep an eye out, and if you spot somewhere linking to the Gob instead of here, let the person linking know to change it, or leave me a comment and I will nag them. Also, the problem some of you were having with openID shouldn't be a problem any more. And I have allowed anonymous commenting for those of you who can't be bothered logging in with openID at all. I ...
With Labour spokespeople touring the Country warning about the danger of the BNP you would have thought that the Prime Minister would be more careful as to the backdrop of any photos he poses for. This photo is taken from the BBC website and shows Gordon Brown talking to pupils at Prendergast Hilly Fields College in South London. It is possible to clearly see three swastikas on the wall behind the Prime Minister, presumably from some school project. Thanks to Charlotte Gore for spotting it. I think that the PM needs to replace his media handler as soon as possible. ...
There is no surer sign of spring approaching than the sight of rain pouring rapidly from the sky towards my head. Apart, perhaps, from the yearly delight that is the Annual General Meeting of the Bury Liberal Democrat council group, which happens each May at the turn of the Municipal Year. And having been soaked by the rain, I am wiling away my evening at the AGM tonight. The year ahead promises to be an exciting one, as we face the run up to local and national elections that may well happen on the same day next May, and fight ...
Does the concept of Cultural Agoraphobia give insights into the perennial itch-question 'what is a Liberal'? Liberals being not agoraphobic... Have a look at this posting by John Naughton in the Observer where he muses on the legacy of C.P. Snow's 'Two Cultures' meme... A key quote: Snow's meme has been subjected to criticism and abuse, but the idea of mutually uncomprehending cultures still seems relevant to understanding why important segments of our society are struggling to come to terms with a networked world. In our case, the gap is not between the humanities and the sciences but those who ...
Another sign of the Labour Government falling apart is this picture from the Prime Minister's visit to a school today. Notice the red, black and white logos behind him? I know these are probably illustrating a class project about Nazi Germany, but any advance team worth their salt would have spotted them when they ran the visit a few days ago - or even when they arrived this morning - and had them removed. Because, whilst no one really thinks GB is a Nazi, they are at the very least distracting. I was part of the Lib Dem advance team ...
{nazi-brown} Couldn't quite believe this picture I saw on the BBC's News Website that, despite their accusations of Labour Bias are doing tremendous work making Brown look really really bad these days. Captured (and highlighted) here for posterity. UPDATE: How could I possibly have forgotten to fail to mention the title of the story that accompanies this picture? "Brown back on web in voter appeal" Oh my sweet lolling Jesus!
Having had a real pop at the Post Office last year for their failure to maintain their St Albans pillar boxes and the consequent degradation of the street scene, I suppose I should be grateful that someone has been round with a pot of paint. Sadly closer examination of the box in Hillside Road shows that the new scarlet coat flatters to deceive. The previously peeling paint has just been painted over, the rust patches have not been rubbed down, I doubt that they were primed. A long hot summer and a wet winter and we will be back to ...
The Liberal Democrats dream of being the main opposition but I think its more then just a dream and it could become a reality very soon. The Liberal Democrats are a party that are starting to be taken seriously, they won the vote on the Gurkhas against Her Majesty's un-honourable government and its events like this that are becoming more and more beneficial for the Lib Dems. The Lib Dems are on their way to gain from Labour over the next couple of general elections and this could lead to the Lib Dems being the main opposition in coming years ...
The full page banner headline in tonights Liverpool Echo screams 'Drug Death Baby Scandal-parents has 150 drug convictions, Born a heroin addict, found dead on sofa at 3 months' Baby A died in 2005. Last week the matter was reported to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee for the first time. A summary of the report is here under 'Agenda item, 6' There are many questions that need to be asked about the conduct of all those involved in baby A and his family. They have been picked over by a serious incident report and later by ofted and now the ...
Over the weekend we had two games of ping-pong, 1-1 and 2-0 to me, so I've edged ahead again at 106-105. This morning JW started his course at the Alliance Francaise, which he said will get him going again. I'm trying to persuade him to read Anatole France's novels, of which I now have several in both English abd French. In the House today I asked a supplementary to Caroline Cox's question on violence against the Christian minority in northern Nigeria. It was estimated that about 300 were killed and 50,000 displaced, mainly in Jos, but this wasn't a one ...
This morning's Western Mail illustrates that despite the investment made by the Welsh Government into dentistry there are still huge problems accessing dental services across Wales. They say that in Anglesey, not one of the 11 practices in the county is able to take on any new patients and in Neath Port Talbot all 17 NHS practices are full to capacity. In rural Ceredigion, only one of the 33
{_45737580_brown226getty} Not such a ringing endorsement from the BBC picture editor. Not the wisest place to pose if you're the Prime Minister of a Labour government which has introduced draconian laws against freedom of speech and the right to protest, ID cards and attempted to introduce 42-day detention without trial. Oops!!! Source: BBC News {Share/Save/Bookmark}
I had a poll running to find out what people think is the best blogging platform in their opinion, the poll is now closed and the results are: Blogger 39% Wordpress.com and .org 56% Others 6% The poll also took replies on twitter the result for that is: Wordpress.com and .org 50% Blogger 50% Overall the winner is Wordpress but a question for a Wordpress fanatic reading this is, what can Wordpress do that Blogger can't do except give you better templates? Not a lot, Blogger is best for me and this blog will continue to run on the Google ...
New Wikio Blog Rankings out today. Wikio measure the number of links within RSS feeds - the trick, it seems, is to be annoying enough to get people writing about you. Anyway, thought I'd 'add value' by filtering the chart down just to Liberal Democrats (cos let's face it, that's what Lib Dems are interested in.) Congrats to Costigan for making it into the top 50, and a new entry from Lynne (finally!). A surprising jump for James Graham. I wonder what he's been up to this last month? 1 (7) Liberal Democrat Voice Falls 1 2 (31) Liberal England ...
Will the next step be a horse's head in her bed?
Liberal Democrats councillors in Merthyr Tydfil are celebrating success in the Council chamber after a debate they initiated on the Mayor's budget has resulted in annual savings of £8,500.The party has been calling for tighter controls on spending since last May when six Welsh Liberal Democrats were elected to the Council. We believed there was too much money being spent on councillor-only
Stephen Tall has rightly won praise for his article on Liberal Democrat Voice speculating on how we can overtake Labour and be the next party of opposition. Any reasonable, cogent analysis of the political scene has to see this as being the next-step of Liberal Democrat advance. Given events of recent weeks it is quite clear that we are going to get a big swing against Labour and that the most likely outcome of this is a Conservative majority. So, the question then becomes one of how do we effectively place ourselves as the next opposition. In terms of centre-of-political ...
The latest post by the Conservative PPC for Wallasey concerns the issue of sexual violence against women and a promise by the Conservatives to fund up to 15 new Rape Crisis Centres (RCC) if they came to power. The issue of sexual assault on women is a serious one, according to Home Office statistics, there [...]
Interesting development today in our campaign for better local bus services. I led a 30 minute debate in Parliament this afternoon highlighting the way that First treat their customers, notably with the short-notice cut to the X27. I quoted from the reply that one local resident had received to their e-mail challenging First Bus to subsidise routes such as the X27 from the profits they make on their city centre routes. In reply, First had said that the law prevented them subsidising services in this way. I raised this with the Transport Minister (Paul Clark) who said he wasn't aware ...
If there were ever such a thing as a political phoney war then the current debate over the Welsh Language Legislative Competence Order must be it. In this morning's Daily Post Wales Office Minister, Wayne David is at it again. He apparently told the Welsh Affairs Select Committee yesterday that one of the unintended consequences of the LCO, which transfers powers on the Welsh Language to the National Assembly, is that it may impact on the work of the British Legion and the Mothers' Union. How does he know? To be fair the way that the Welsh Language LCO is ...
In the first in a series of looking at each of the regions (and nations) for the European Elections I today examine the East Midlands.
Not the LPUK, but the older Libertarian Party in the US. There has been much disquiet over the recent press release calling for more government power. Libertarians do not call for that, they want less - that's probably the only uniting concept of libertarians (from socialists to capitalists to populists). How much debated, why is debated, [...]
Since the collapse of the financial system there has been a veritable deluge of information about how & why it happened. One cannot hope to study it all. However one does not have to give the matter too much study, or be a financial expert, in order to gain enough understanding to see clearly that those Bankers, Politicians, & others who were in a position to know, who said that "--- it could not have been foreseen" are either liars or incompetent or both. The truth is that they didn't want to foresee it & we should remember that when ...
Now it is the unedifying spectacle of the Government abandoning those heroic Iraqis who put their lives at risk by acting as translators for us. Mind you there is an impeccable precedent for such disgraceful behaviour. Once the Spanish Armada had been safely defeated Elizabeth I declined to pay the sailors.
I have recently written to the Conservative leader of the Council, Cllr Bob Bibby and Chief Executive Mark Sanders regarding the questions posed by the Councils use of RIPA powers on 165 occasions. The powers now dubbed the snoopers charter raise important questions about accountability, transparency and monitoring and so I made the following points in my recent email: "You will I know be aware of concerns I have raised recently in public regarding the use of RIPA powers and specifically their use of in carrying out surveillance and monitoring operations involving employees, local businesses and members of the public. ...
Tue 5th
12:48Tory party launches Conservative Party's local election campaign except if you live in irwell rivers...
They will never changeGet out your History books or ask your Mum or Dad what is was like under Thatcher! David Cameron launches Conservative Party's local election campaign Tory leader David Cameron launched his party's local election campaign today - urging voters to give Gordon Brown's Government "a message it won't forget". Mr Cameron said a vote [...]
My soul sank though my primeval urge to get a gun and shoot the villagers didn't. Is there no escape for Senegalese Gay Men? Perhaps for some Senegalese it's `the final solution`.
The information below has been copied from the Heaton Park Web Site Dear Local Resident, EVENTS IN HEATON PARK - 2009 I am writing to give you some information about events taking place in Heaton Park in 2009, and to reassure you that every effort will be made to minimise any inconvenience that may arise from the increase in traffic and noise resulting from the events. Events that we have confirmed so far, including Race for Life and a large music concert over 3 days that will feature the band Oasis. As you live close to the park you will ...
<!–Last Updated - 5th May 2009 at 10:44 AM –> In an attempt to shift focus away from his first Commons defeat, Gordon Brown has announced that parents in England could get the power to force councils to improve the quality of local schools. The proposals would allow parents to demand action at a school even [...]
Yesterday the Yorkshire Post reported that the Calder Valley's newly selected Labour parliamentary candidate Steph Booth coerced employees into writing anonymous comments about her Labour opponent on local websites. With friends like these, who need enemies. Coming just a few weeks after the McBride email debacle, it looks like the Cherie Blair's wicked stepmother has been reading The Little Labour Book of Dirty Tricks. Following accusations of selection voting irregularities, this latest story will do the Labour Party no favours in the Calder Valley. Update: Just read the comments concerned on the Halifax Courier website: anjustarks, calder valley 15/01/2009 16:46:47 ...
We have just the one planning application this week and that is for a change of use of a ground floor shop at 147 High Street to 2 flats. The application was first registered on 28th April 2009 and has a decision date of 23rd June. The application reference number for this application is 09/01198/FUL you can view this application by following the link on the application...
Last week I visited the opencast coal mine at Muir Dean, Crossgates for the first time. I was shown the mine operations, the safety measures, the temporary water treatment process, the development of the permanent treatment process and the mound. I relayed the results of my quick survey of local residents who were concerned about the blasting and the water levels. ATH were surprised about the blasting and agreed to feed that into the safety process. They had experienced no difficulties with the water levels and encountered no subsidence as a result of any change. I want to hear from ...
No, not literally, but former Lib Dem mayoral candidate and newbie celeb Brian Paddick is using his fame to launch a new campaign aiming to encourage LGBT couples to hold hands in public. There is a serious point here. I've always been able to walk down the street hand in hand with the person I love with confidence so why shouldn't anybody and everybody else? I do understand what it is like to come up against irrational and unpleasant prejudice, though. When my daughter was 4 months old, I was nursing her in the tea room in the village we ...
I was delighted by last week's vote on the Gurkhas. Parliament did the decent thing. But the battle continues as we need to make sure the Government accepts the will of Parliament and brings forward a package that gives settlement rights to the Gurkhas. I've received a big response from local people who hold the Gurkhas in high regard.
The campaign continued this weekend with all the papers being signed and some canvassing in Newington. In the Swale West ward we have long-time councillor and our local leader, Elvie Lowe, up against the incumbent, Conservative Keith Ferrin, who, as Kent's transport spokesman, has been much in the news lately regarding the Council's failure to prepare for the bad weather earlier this year, the unhelpfulness regarding Rachel Rook's A249 campaign (see below) and the admission by the Council that to fix the pavement repairs in Kent would take '226 years' (please note to check in your 2235 diaries). One lady ...
A long, long time ago I had a moan about my local party's caution in joining the Internet age. At the time we had (and still have, I hasten to add) a perfectly servicable Prater-Raines website, kept up to date with relevant stories and information. We were talking about actively collecting email addresses and communicating by email and I was a little frustrated at the resistance from some. That battle was won and we now do use email to communicate with a small proportion of voters (as anyone who's tried it will know, building up email addresses takes time and ...
The fascinating page-turner that is the local Tory manifesto gets better and better. As mentioned before, they have no policies in there, simply a promise to do things better than anyone else. Where they do say something, it is the very definition of woolly and seems to be more than ably covered by the Lib Dem guarantees. However, they have also produced an attack document claiming to point out all that the incumbent Lib Dem administration has done wrong. As is ever the case with these things, it is so heavily footnoted and technical that I doubt anyone will really ...
Lord Ashcroft the Conservative party money man still hasn't declared where he pays his tax. the Conservatives aren't pushing him to declare his tax and where he pays it and personally I don't think anyone is pushing on him to pay his taxes or declare his position. I wrote a letter into a local newspaper to challenge the Conservative candidate for where he is getting money to fund his drivel that he calls leaflets but the letter didn't get published, I will send it again this week in hope that it will. The Conservatives are enjoying the donations by Lord ...
I have been so saddened by the fact that a small minority within the Church of Scotland has mounted a campaign against Queen's Cross Church, Aberdeen's decision to appoint its new minister, on the grounds that they can't accept that he is living with another man. I know Scott Rennie, the minister in question. He is one of the kindest and most compassionate people I have ever met and he is so well suited to the job he's doing. I wonder how many of the people who have signed the online petition against him have actually taken the time to ...
Seen on a North London shop. {Signs of recession?}
Brierfield and Nelson North a Lancashire County Council seat that I live in is great for politics, why you might ask? Here is your answer... The Conservative candidate is near enough unknown, the Tories have had to call canvassers in from Bolton to campaign for them according to sources and others have given me info about how they will be using people from Cheshire from the home of the Tory PPC in Pendle Andrew Stephenson. The Labour party think they have won the seat as sources have informed me as they aren't campaigning and they think they are home and ...
Sharon Hodgson, the Comedy World's very own infiltrator into the world of politics, has just performed her latest comedy turn. So what has this Labour MP for Gateshead East and Washington West been doing as her latest entry in the Political Comedy Awards? She is demanding lots and lots of chocolate be added to food served up in schools. The specific demand is for chocolate on flapjacks that are
10am: I met with the chair and officers of the Health & Well Being Scrutiny Committee to discuss future committee agendas and the workplan. 1.30pm: Meeting with Gill Bull' Executive Head of Policy and Communications; Steve Farrow who heads up the Public Realm programme; Linda Wood from The Corporate Policy and Partnerships Team and Janet Lowne [...]
When it comes to vote have you ever sat there and thought sod it! why bother there all the same. Yes ?well here is something to think about, in 2010 if the opposition groups keep all their seats and pinched between them seven more yes i know what your thinking but it's not impossible. Labour would [...]
It seems a while since Johnathon Fryer disturbed my breakfast with his Thought for the Day. I trust that he he using effectively his polished arts of persuasion on the London electorate. His place today was taken by someone from Sheffield who started his thought by recalling that it was the 50th anniversary of C P Snows famous lecture on the 'two cultures'. Back in the days of 'O' levels one of C P Snow's books, The New Men', was a set text at my school. I was much taken with it and read most of the Strangers and Brothers ...
An impossible competition to judge? Then think about just why people are backing Labour right now. The vast bulk of their heavily depressed (make up your own jokes) support are tribal voters, who'll stay Labour simply because they always have and always will. Labour wouldn't even limp into single figures in the polls without tribal voting. How many people are proud of Labour MPs lying their way into the Iraq War, cheating thousands in expenses, abandoning the Gurkhas, taxing the poor more than the rich, smearing opponents with made-up sex scandals and making Gordon Brown Prime Minister without a vote? ...
The next stage of the Labour self-destruct process has begun. Or so it would seem. When Cabinet members have to tour tv studios on a bank holiday Monday to tell everyone they think the PM is wonderful, only person for the job, he walks on water, he is the only person who can lead Labour through difficult times, etc etc, then you know the rot has well and truely set in and the decline is terminal.
The "Please go" petition on the No 10 website has just passed 50,000 this morning. The rate of increase has slowed down in the last few days which I have posted about previously wondering why that might be but it is still by far and away the most rapidly growing petition on the site. As far as I am aware there has as of yet been no response from No 10. It looks like the 50,000 are not the only ones who want to get rid of Brown. Even members of his own cabinet are now criticising him in about ...
Was out campaigning in Wood Green over the Bank Holiday as part of a London-wide Liberal Democrat campaign to get a one hour Oyster bus ticket introduced - the idea being, you pay for one hour travel and can hop on and hop off as many different buses as you need during that one hour without having to pay for a new ticket each time: (You can also watch this video on the YouTube website.) It's the sort of thing that's popular and effective in many other cities. It's also just the sort of policy that's win all round: it ...
The Times has carried a shortened version of a report from Conservative Home about the sort of parliamentary party David Cameron may find himself leading after the next General Election. A majority of one would leave Cameron with 50% of his party new to the Commons, whilst the Tories' private hopes for 140 new MPs and a majority [...]
'Unsound' was the Government Planning Inspector, Ms Jill Kingaby's decision on Test Valley Borough Council's Core Strategy at a public meeting in Andover on Friday 1st May. The Core Strategy is the planning blueprint for the future of Test Valley, Andover and Romsey up to 2026. "Being found 'unsound' means that the Core Strategy is therefore withdrawn and the Enquiry in Public (EiP) scheduled for this summer is cancelled. The Core Strategy will have to be re-drafted to meet the withering criticisms of its layout, content, faulty research and lack of vision expressed by the Planning Inspectorate. Councillors and members ...
Those nice people at Wikio have given me advance sight of their new rankings for political blogs. The full rankings, which list the top 100 blogs, will be on their website soon, but here is the new top 20 with last month's position in brackets: 1 Iain Dale's Diary (1) 2 Guy Fawkes' blog (2) 3 Liberal Conspiracy (3) 4 ConservativeHome's ToryDiary (4) 5 Labourlist (10) 6 politicalbetting.com (5) 7 Liberal Democrat Voice (6) 8 Labourhome (13) 9 Harry's Place (9) 10 Dizzy Thinks (8) 11 The Devil's Kitchen (7) 12 Old Holborn (12) 13 Bloggerheads (14) 14 John Redwood's ...
The Times reports on new Government plans to require every landlord in the country to register with a central agency for the sum of £50. This fee will go solely towards paying for the organisation that manages landlords. That's the Government, giving you handy credit-crunch tips on minimizing your outgoings, every single day.
Stephen Tall gets much love over on LDV for his post, "What must happen for the Lib Dems to overtake Labour?" At the risk of pissing off one of the Lib Dem Blog of the Year judges (I've pretty much given up all hope at this point. I'd consider murdering Costigan Quist but he'd only win it posthumously) I thought I'd have a look at Stephen's conditions in more depth. #1: Labour has to Split Could happen, but they already split once and it didn't do them much harm. A party which values loyalty as the ultimate virtue is not ...
I see Iain Dale Tory Originals has a May 1979 Meme. So I thought I'd take part. How old were you? Nine What are your personal political memories, if you have any? Not so much the General election but the Euro election the following month was moving day for us. So we were off to the new house laying carpets and packing boxes at the old one etc. I was leaving the childhood home I'd grown up in as a toddler to the one where my widowed mother still lives. Political Views Held? The only strong one I held was ...
I spent a fair amount of time yesterday watching Decision '79, the programme that brought us the news that Mrs Thatcher was going to be our first woman Prime Minister, which was repeated on BBC Parliament. At least I had the excuse of being ill for so doing - but my Twitter feed tells me that I was not alone and there were other sad political geeks of all persuasions doing the same. In some ways, it was good to re-watch her triumph with the appropriate emotion of absolute horror rather than the innocent, idealistic hope I felt at the ...
I was on Radio Tay News yesterday regarding the bins collections issue in the city ...
So - Haringey Council knew that Baby P's mother had a boyfriend - in fact they had a video of her talking about him. And there was a record in the case notes. And yet when asked during the furore of the first trial - as ever - they denied that they knew that he was living there . Just when we think this horrific tragedy will have bottomed out - and there surely can't be any more shocking revelations of Haringey's incompetence and lies - we find out there are. Panorama revealed the existence of this video interview with ...
We started writing our briefing on Inflation last July, as oil was hitting $140 a barrel and household living costs for poor pensioners rising at almost double figures. The MPC was engaged in a fierce battle between those like Tim Besley - who worried about the costs of bringing it down if it was allowed to rise further - and David Blanchflower- who had been alarmed about a possible recession for more than a year (Willem Buiter accuses Blanchflower of being lucky, not wise).Then it all kicked off, with far worse consequences for economic growth than some expected. By the ...
I appear to have become Iain Dale's go to man for memes as he has tagged me with another one. How old were you? 19 What are your personal political memories, if you have any? I was not involved in the campaign - my first election campaign was the council elections the following May where I helped a young Julian Cummins. I voted in Harborough by post (for the only time in living memory the Liberals finished third). I also remember staying up all night watching the results. I suppose they should have been depressing for a Liberal, but in ...
Big pharma doesn't have the greatest record when it comes to totally ethical behaviour. On the plus side, at least they do test drugs, which is one up on most of the alternative medicine industry (and alternative medicine is an industry - a very lucrative one too). But there's often more to the studies than meets the eye. One study rarely tells the whole story - individual medical trials frequently come out with the wrong answer (suggesting that a drug works when it doesn't, or vice versa) so running multiple trials is critical. But what if you run six trials ...
After taking a week off work, during which time I also decided to take a wee rest from blogging, I see that today's papers sound the bell twice (at least) on the death throes of Labour. As the great-nephew of the undertaker who buried my paternal grandmother I think I may be well placed to look at this impending death. First with the European Election looming* there is the bad news for Darling that just is the IMF predictions against him but also those of the European Commission. Following on from his shock prediction of the UK shrinking by only ...
Forgive me reader, for I have sinned. It's been a month since my last instalment of LDV Catchup, the post that summarises the "don't-miss" moments of Lib Dem Voice. In the news this month: the G20 protests and policing. Video footage emerged of Ian Tomlinson's last moments. The Lib Dems demanded a criminal enquiry. Stephen gave a summary of Lib Dem bloggers' reactions. Alix investigated the disappearing CCTV whilst "Dr Pack of this parish tracked the IPCC through various dimensions of reality with the assiduity of a timelord." For our other stories on this, see this link. Former Liberal MP ...
{IMG_1712} Late afternoon I received a call from a constituent about a building which appears to have been built over the bank holiday weekend (!) as far as I'm aware without planning permission. The building has been erected on a small strip of land between Montague St and Fatherson Road. I have written to the Planning Enforcement department to ask them to invesigate it's legality urgently. This type of development is not acceptable in a Conservation area and if the builders have not got the required permissions they must take it down. On my way back I took photos ...
The grey skies and drizzle of yesterday's Bank Holiday Monday afternoon did nothing to dampen the spirits of the many thousands of people who turned up in Trafalgar Square, for the 'Strangers into Citizens' rally, compered by Bengali broadcaster Ajmal Masroor. Faith groups, progressive politicians, trade unionists, pop stars and others all had their say (or else [...]
Tue 5th
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"natural alliances: muslim and jews should be making every conceivable effort to bring both faith co...
So many blogs, articles and 'specialist' pieces make the case that Jews and Muslims are increasingly becoming suspicious and fearful of each other. Polar stories make out that both communities just see each other through the prism and lens of the Middle East and when Gaza's and Jenin's take place, both communities increasingly caricature each other. To some members of British Jewry, Muslims are seen as an 'insular community,' with extremist voices and messages. 'The other,' the narrative goes, promote Anti-Semitism and have taken on the mantle of Christian Anti-Semitism, swallowing it whole and giving life to Muslim Anti-Semitism. Counter ...
This is a question to all the blog readers, to demonstrate a point within society. Who made the first ever written constitution and bill of rights to guarantee freedoms within society? What was the name of this Constitution?
In my earlier post I wrote about the quality ballads that were entered and indeed one of them won the top prize. Not to be missed are the pop tunes that were entered including the distinct dance routine of the UK entry from Bardo (of which there isn't a truncated `youtube`) so the action starts [...]
