Wed 20th
23:50
We Asked key political activist what they thought Of Hazels chance to retain Salford the Prime Minis...
Not a cat in hells chance
I was lucky enough to have the chance to speak at this event at local Liberal Democrat candidate for the European Parliament. I am pictures here with Julie Williams, parliamentary candidate for Brighton Pavillion, and Councillors Paul Elgood and David Watkins. In the bottom photo look for me at the front holding the mega-phone. Posted in [...]
Ryan Cullen has put this message up on the Lib Dem Blogs aggregator website today: You may have noticed that today the site was down for a large period of time. Unfortunately I can no longer maintain LibDemBlogs on my current hosting package and due to financial constraints I can no longer personally afford to carry on upgrading the hosting. A new VPS hosting solution would cost nearly £300 a year to run. In the past it has been suggested that I charge a fee to each blog which is aggregated for pushing traffic to their sites. With 218 active ...
<!–Last Updated – 20th May 2009 at 06:08 PM –> Source Salford online A man who posed as a good samaritan, offering to give directions to a woman on the A580 East Lancs Road, then viciously raping her, has been arrested . At 12.30am on Sunday 17 May 2009, a 50-year-old woman was attacked and raped [...]
Transform summarises a new Centre for Policy Studies report on drugs as "Prohibition doesn't work, so let's have more prohibition!"Malcolm Clark from MVC lists the great and the good who have called for electoral reform in the last few days.Tony Sharp worries about the consequences of letting the Speaker dictate terms for parliamentary reform. Surely this is a job for his successor?Cicero's Songs thinks that a constitutional convention is the only way now to sort the mess out.And Skipper senses a "Quiet Revolution" underway.
Ryan Cullen writes: Unfortunately I can no longer maintain LibDemBlogs on my current hosting package and due to financial constraints I can no longer personally afford to carry on upgrading the hosting.A new VPS hosting solution would cost nearly £300 a year to run. In the past it has been suggested that I charge a fee to each blog which is aggregated for pushing traffic to their sites. With 218 active sites each paying around two pounds these costs could be covered. I know that times are tough for most people so I won't introduce a "pay-and-display" scheme. However what ...
Below is a letter referring to the £87,000 expenses claim by Totnes (Tory) MP Anthony Steen. This is the unedited (and as yet unpublished) version ! John Kiddey tries to suggest in these pages that Marcus Wood ( Conservative PPC) has been a fearless campaigner on the issue of MP's expenses. However this 'fearlessness' only extends to situations where Mr Wood feels he can portray, rightly or wrongly, the Lib Dems as the bad guys. In the interests of political even-handedness I asked Marcus for his comments on the £87,000 expenditure, at our expense, on Anthony Steen MP's £1million plus ...
Politics is being turned on its head. There is now a new breed of so called Conservative politicians that are anything but small 'c' conservative. Douglas Carswell is the best example. Listen to him and he seems to have no conservative bone in his body. He is a radical. He is a reformer. He has no respect for tradition or institutions. He believes in change and reform. It is Labour politicians and the Liberal Left that are the new conservatives - desperately trying to hold on to the remnants of the institutions of a by-gone social democratic age: the NHS, ...
As he is being set up as the star of this evening's programme, let me repeat my theory that James McQuillan was not a child chess champion as the programme claims.
After posting twice about this, I'm very relieved to, at last, find some backing for publicly owned MPs' accommodation. A clear majority of the PoliticsHome panel have backed the proposal:The solution to MPs' need for two homes if their constituency is outside London lies in adopting a model similar to the Swedish system, where a publicly owned and maintained house or flat is provided if
Here's a side of Kirkby Stephen that many visitors never see. It's tucked away near the church and the picture is taken from by the gates of the Bowling Club. This is near to the route of the Coast to Coast walk but this time, walkers have a fine set of "facilities" nearby. The Bowling Club is a little gem. My uncle sadly passed away recently and left me a decent set of woods. After the election, I'll have to see if the club will teach me how to use them.
Today saw the cringeworthy experience of people sucking up to the Speaker after slaughtering him yesterday, as they say, that's politics! The best and funniest part of today's Prime Ministers Questions though was following Nick Clegg's first question. The Speaker forgot to call Nick for his second question. So, Nick Clegg stood up nonetheless and the Speaker came out with this excellent retort: "I thought there were two questions in his first one." Nick Clegg, to his credit, laughing said: "Touche, Mr Speaker". One of the funnier and real moments in the House of Commons.
In a couple of months time this blog will be 4 years old. A few weeks (if indeed it took that long) after I started it it was added the Lib Dem Blogs Aggregator for an infant Lib Dem blogger like myself it was a way to get noticed. And even though I get a far smaller proportion of my hits* direct from there I still get a good flow from there. Ryan Cullen the brains behind the tool ,which other parties have tried to emulate, has done his best to maintain a service. But in order to provide a ...
No politicians have had their reputations enhanced in the last two weeks, but the three C's - Clegg, Cameron and Carswell - have fared better than most. I have been particularly impressed by Clegg over the Speaker's downfall. There is no doubt that Clegg's intervention was a decisive factor and it was good to see a Lib Dem Leader taking the political initiative on the national stage. But I was also perturbed when Clegg appeared on Newsnight and was unable to give a straight answer to Paxman's question on whether the Lib Dems would support David Cameron's call for the ...
A few links for you. Firstly, I've decided to create a permanent page where I try to answer people's search queries, rather than subject everyone to posts about them. I'll keep that regularly updated. I think my response to the person searching for 'supergirl rape fantasies' is pretty accurate... The DCU blog has some stuff on [...]
Alan Beith has put his hat in the ring to be the new speaker. Alan is superbly qualified for the post, not the least because he is respected across the parties. So I wish him well and if he is successful, I know he will do a good job.The small drawback is that the speaker goes from being a party politician to being above politics. The effect of that will be that we lose our only Lib Dem MP is the
Wed 20th
20:47
And the oscar nomination for the best video shot on an island few have heard of is.....
I got a message tonight as I was sitting in Cowley St working on a Focus. It was from a major publiching company. They want to buy one of my videos! The price on offer is not going to make me rich but it's not to be sniffed at! It was shot on a tiny island in the Indian Ocean 18 months ago. All about how the islanders make salt from sea water! The only drawback is that I need to edit a high
Michael Crick of BBC2's Newsnight has a piece on the expenses allegations surrounding Chris Rennard on tonight's programme - BBC2 10:30pm. Mark Littlewood of Liberal Vision has been interviewed for the package.
Users of the excellent Lib Dem Blogs aggregator will have noticed it stopped working earlier today and no longer displays new posts from registered Lib Dem bloggers. This is because it has outgrown its current server arrangements and the site's owner, Ryan Cullen, needs help from the Lib Dem blogosphere to cover the costs of moving. If you value your visits to www.libdemblogs.co.uk, then please consider throwing in a donation to cover Ryan's costs. His labour on the site has been a great resource for readers and authors of Lib Dem blogs. It would be a tragedy to lose it ...
The Financial Services Authority, Bank of England and the Treasury appeared before the Scottish Affairs Select Committee today in the first evidence session for the Dunfermline Building Society inquiry. Despite effective probing from MPs Ian Davidson and Alistair Carmichael about why they failed to spot and stop the "reckless decision making" at the Society, they said they had done nothing wrong. If Society was so reckless surely they should have stepped in to put an end to end. But they didn't. This another example of the failure of regulation.
Lib Dem Chris Huhne has just launched a new set of post cards and leaflets for the European Election Campaign. They show that the Tories put dogma before our safety with their ideological opposition to Europe. They are so opposed to working with our European neighbours that they would rather let criminals go free. They would scrap the European Arrest Warrant that has led to the speedy extradition of thousands of criminals across Europe.
Here is my latest letter - published in the Kent on Sunday (17 May). 'With the upcoming County Council elections on 4 June I hope everyone will consider the state of the roads and pavements. People have fallen over, cars have been damaged, and cycling is much more dangerous. Kent County Council's answer is that, after 12 years of Conservative rule, the backlog of pavement repairs will take 226 years to clear. I'm not sure we'll be around to find out. Instead KCC has spent millions on publicising itself and paying managers large salaries. And that's not to mention a ...
In a week which has seen the Commons Speaker lose his job over his part in the mis-handling of MPs' expenses - which is merely the culmination of a less than satisfactory tenure in the prestigious position - surely it is time for other sweeping changes to be undertaken for the good of politics in the UK? In particular, now must be the time for the Lib Dems to be pushing even harder for proportional representation. Voter apathy has been all too apparent in recent years and the disconnection between the public and the political process has been getting wider ...
As a candidate in the forth coming county elections, I have received a letter from the local branch of the PCS union. I found the letter very thought provoking and reasonable. Below are the questions it asked and my responses. 1) Pay & Conditions"PCS is campaigning for fair pay for its members, meaning that pay should increase at least in line with inflation and be negotiated nationally
I went to see the new Star Trek movie last night and really enjoyed it. However, if there was one area I could fault it would have to be the dire accents. The guy playing Checkov (is that how you spell it) seemed like an extra from "Allo Allo", speaking some sort of weird accent that sounded neither Russian not French, but somewhere in between. However, the worst criticism has to be for the usually very good and admittedly still very funny for Simon Pegg. He plays Scotty in a good comedy way, but his accent never really reached Scotland ...
I have just seen via Iain Smith MSP, on Facebook (up to date politician) that the National Trust for Scotland has closed down Hill of Tarvit Mansion House.I feel like cancelling my Membership, but that doesn't affect the change needed.I know Ming Campbell MP and Iain Smith MSP have fought the closure hard but it appears that the bloody minded management team at NTS has won - although I suspect only temporarily!I will be writing into the NTS and hope there is soon to be a Members meeting? ------------------
Up until now, I'd thought that there was no way the FIA, under Max Mosley's or anybody else's leadership, would be so stupid as to allow the iconic Ferrari F1 team to walk away from the sport after almost 60 years. Ferrari has given us so many thrills over those decades - although they are having their problems this year, with a car that just won't go fast enough along with some very bizarre decisions taken in the garages, it's only 2 years since they won the world championships and only 5 years since the magical partnership of Michael Schumacher's ...
I have searched in vain for any mention of Nigel Farage's expenses on `order order` – the only post that Guido has put up is one saying `vote UKIP`. Surely Guido isn't becoming biased is he?
I've let this blog wither away over the last year, but now seems a good time to revive it. I've been selected to fight Boscawen Ward, here in Truro, for elections to the new unitary authority, One Cornwall. That's pretty much the Ward I represented as a Carrick District Councillor, so I'm very familiar with the issues, and am able to carry on with the campaigns I've been involved in. First up, a plan to build 1000 houses on Newham farm, on the edge of Truro. This application was so premature and poorly thought out, it's hard to see how ...
If you haven't seen it, here's the moment the outgoing Speaker Michael Martin forgot to call Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg - the man who last Sunday called for him to quit - for his traditional supplementary question at today's Prime Minister's Questions: You can watch the full PMQs' exhange at the BBC site HERE - and catch up with LDV's Alix Mortimer's live(ish)-blog HERE.
At entirely my own initiative, I have revised an earlier post I made about Lord Rennard, as I do not feel, on reflection, that I sufficiently gave him the benefit of the doubt. I apologise to Lord Rennard for my initial over-reaction.
On BBC1's South Today, political correspondent Peter Henley tonight revealed evidence (in the form of leaked emails which he verified by talking to the authors) that some Romsey Conservatives snubbed a visit by front bencher Andrew Lansley today, because of the expense allegations against him. One activist wrote that he hoped the visit would be "incognito" and another said that there should be no
Apparently the white-suited anti-sleaze ex MP for Tatton and former journalist, Martin Bell, is to stand against Hazel Blears in Salford. I have to say that the news leaves me very uneasy. Nobody wants to see the back of Blears more than me, but I really don't like the idea of nomadic do-gooders travelling the [...]
Lib Dem MP David Heath is currently promoting the Fuel Poverty Bill, which is making its way slowly through Parliament. If David's bill is made law, it would enact measures to end the scandal of cold homes, cut costs to the health service and generate tens of thousands of jobs. The Bill has strong cross party support including from former Labour Ministers. But not yet from local Lewisham Deptford MP, Joan Ruddock. ▪ In Lewisham alone nearly 3,000 older people have to choose between eating and heating. ▪ In Lewisham there will probably be 800 'excess winter deaths' in the ...
Well according to this article in the Yorkshire Post. It says: "The MP rose to fame playing a computer-generated character in television commercials for internet service provider AOL. He starred in more than a dozen television adverts for the company." Top quality subbing from the Yorkshire Post there! (For those who were wondering, it was his daughter who played AOL's Connie)
Queen: Have you come far? Griffin: No, but this goose step doesn't half take it out of you.
I must admit to being somewhat flummoxed by The UK Independence Party's interesting interpretation of history. Peppered in their leaflets and on the front page of their website are pictures of Churchill. This is the Winston that advocated the idea of a sort of United States of Europe. Back of the class UKIP. Hat tip: My mate Matt's status :-)
I have just been called by Radio 4's "More or Less" presented by Tim Harford and they have asked me to be a guest on this week's programme! They want to talk to me about the story I broke recently about the apparent correlation between how safe an MP's seat is and the likelihood of them being implicated in the expenses scandal that I posted about here and here. As the programme is about numbers, they want to focus mainly on the numbers and maths behind what I discovered. It is being recorded tomorrow and will be broadcast on Radio ...
It is always a delight to have a cup of coffee with Pam Brown. An extraordinary lady, and an extraordinary servant of Hastings, she invariably has a sage word and a twinkle in her eye. It was Pam who reminded me on Monday morning of one of the historic connections between our area and the House of [...]
Well that's what someone with the Twitter account "nickbrownmp" tweeted to an alleged Twitter account for "AMitchell MP" earlier today, as Tory Bear/Iain Dale have got quite excited about. The latter reports that Nick Brown's Twitter page has now been completely deleted. Then again, anyone could open a Twitter account called "nickbrownmp" add a photo of the man in question, tweet a bit and then
Councillor Keith Davies was elected as leader of the Liberal Democrat group on Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council for the year 2009-10. His deputy will be Frank Little.
{fe-20093} Pictured above are the members of the Liberal Democrat Federal Executive Committee. Few of them are household names, but they are - by and large - committed and hard-working LibDem activists and they have been successfully elected (in most cases) to the party's most important committee. The committee met on Monday night at 5.30pm in the midst of the most enormous political and constitutional crisis our country has faced in a generation at least. Newly-elected President Ros Scott predicted a full and frank exchange of views. Exchanging views is all well and good, but what have the FE actually ...
When I left council today there were four or five TV crews waiting to collar Blears. Personally, I coulndn't bare a post-council lunch in the company of that parasite on the public purse, so I made my exit immediately. As I left, forced-out MP Iain Steward arrived - he had a pretty big smile on [...]
Only a week ago, Leah Fraser, the Propective Parliamentary Candidate for the Conservatives in Wallasey was shouting from the rooftops that she did not care which political party was abusing the sytem, it should be dealt with Strongly, and that David Cameron was the man cometh the hour. How exasperating it must be for her that the [...]
Having had a number of complaints from residents in parts of Perth Road and at Vernonholme about the quality of mail deliveries recently, I have had discussions with the Royal Mail's Dundee West Sorting Office about the matter. The complaint was about mail not arriving on time and in discussion with Royal Mail it was accepted that the recently altered postal delivery walks were causing difficulties (too long, resulting in late delivery). I am pleased to say that, with effect from this Monday, the old walk arrangements for the area were reintroduced.
I was chatting to a Labour Councillor of my acquaintance recently. He is a well informed and asserted that he got more case work than a particular MP he knows. I was intrigued by this suggestion. It has struck me over the last 20 years that with all the quangos, arms length organisations and privatisations that have been created the balance of power has shifted away from local councillors. As a result folk are more likely to go to their MP with a complaint about, say, the water company, than they are to come to a councillor. Now granted that ...
One of the highlights of last nights coverage of the fall of Speaker Martin was the sight of George Foulkes looming into a view to assert it was 'anti' catholic'. This I genuinely doubt, despite the Archbishop fighting his corner, frankly it is about as plausible as suggesting that there was a 'popish' plot not to criticise him.
Gordon Brown today said something that I agree with. Gordon Brown called what the Tories would do (cut public spending) chaos and I can't agree with him any more. The Conservatives are going to be bad news for the working class in this country despite them coming out with campaign puns like Liberal Conservative Dave! I agree a general election at this time will be chaos but its needed Mr Brown, call a general election and allow the general public to decide who they want running the country. I agree Cameron's party will be a chaos but if they are ...
Or have I misunderstood?
Today's Times argues that Vince's time has come. The latest odds are here. Surely, John Bercow is only supported by Labour loyalists who want an anti-Cameron Tory?
You can expect to read a series of pieces here over the next few years about inflation. This may seem bizarre: after all, we have just had the biggest drop in RPI inflation since 1948. However, a more detailed look by some thoughtful economists reveals that UK inflation is really the highest in the developed world. A one-off cut in mortgage costs affects RPI (not CPI). The VAT cut is another one-off. Once these have cleared out, there is a real risk we will have a tightening cycle sooner than most expect. If you are interested in macroeconomics, the question ...
Welsh Liberal Democrat AMs will not be able to profit from selling their subsidised second homes under rules currently being devised. All Welsh Lib Dem candidates, including MPs defending seats at the next general election, will have to sign the pledge and money made from AMs' second homes would be handed back to the Assembly's fees office. At her weekly press briefing, Kirsty — who rents her accommodation in Cardiff — said a code of conduct was being drawn up in response to the furore over MPs' expenses and would be ready in the summer. She said: "Anybody that doesn't ...
Wed 20th
14:44Salford council today becomes a media frenzy why because Hazels in town and comes for a free Lunch.
Comment today i supported a Labour statement over the abuse of MP's Expenses and asked that we come together to offer our condemnation. This time of year is the high point of the Council calender it is where all councillors sit to welcome the New Mayor, all of the Swinton South Councillors wished him every [...]
As Westminster takes its first, tentative steps towards a reform of MPs' expenses, could full blown constitutional reform now be leveraged onto the agenda? That's the big challenge for Nick Clegg and the LibDems. Although modernising and democratising Britain has been a high priority for the party for decades - particularly securing electoral reform for the House of Commons - it has not been a major communications priority in recent years. The orthodox thinking has been that banging on about STV just does not resonate with the voters. Has the zeitgeist just changed? Radio 5 this morning had an hour ...
PoliticsHome recently carried some rather shocking numbers from a poll that it conducted between the 14-15 of May saying that over a quarter of British voters have changed their voting intentions as a result of the MPs' expenses scandal. The main beneficiary it seems is UKIP, with 28% of those changing loyalty to the anti-European Union party. The second biggest beneficiary is the BNP with 16%. Leaving aside for a moment the thoroughly disagreeable politics of these parties, any gain by UKIP or the BNP in the European elections on the basis of anger over expenses would be a tragic ...
Chris Lewis, the former Leicestershire and England cricketer, has been convicted of smuggling cocaine into Britain. Thirteen years sounds steep to me. And, though it does not excuse him, my favourite memory of Lewis is seeing him in the nets at Grace Road (Leicestershire's county ground) with a queue of boys waiting to bowl to him. Not many test players would bother to do that.
A quick reminder that there's an initial meeting to talk about starting a Friends of Garston Park group this coming Tuesday (26th) at 7pm at the Garston Leisure Centre. If you want to know more please drop me an e mail at my council e mail address - paula.keaveney@liverpool.gov.uk
You would think that Luton Labour would learn their lesson. But Luton's Labour led Council has reappointed currently suspended Councillor Harris as deputy leader of the Council. At the Annual meeting of the Council on Tuesday the absent suspended Councillor was voted to the number two job on the Council by the Labour majority.Found guilty in March this year of abusive behaviour towards a Council
Cllr Mike Storey was sworn in (if that's the word) as the new Lord Mayor of Liverpool last night. He decided to have the installation (maybe that's the word) dinner on Saturday so we will be able to celebrate properly then. Cllr Hazel Williams is the new Deputy Lord Mayor. Great to see another woman in the role!
The Victoria Line, which provides a particularly invaluable service for people living at either end — Wathamstow and Brixton — has been subject to repeated weekend closures over the past couple of years, because of engineering work. But from late this evening (unless long-suffering passengers are given a last-minute reprieve), the line will shut down again — this time [...]
Costigan Quist has an excellent and well argued post against the call for an early election. However, his blog persuaded me that the direct opposite call is the right one. The bare, naked truth is that he is right that there needs to be sweeping reform but it ignores the obvious lack of trust that people [...]
We have a rather belated entrant into the pantheon of Lib Dem MPs accused by the Telegraph of having abused the expenses system: Harrogate and Knaresborough's Phil Willis. The full Telegraph story is here. Tracing the sequence from the newspaper's (actually rather confusing) report, it appears Phil's main residence is near Harrogate, and he bought a basement flat as his London base a decade ago (presumably when first elected). So far no story. However, in April 2007, Phil bought the neighbouring basement flat for £215,000, and designated it as his second home, claiming some expenses for stamp duty, legal fees ...
The only declared contender for Speaker so far is Lib Dem MP Alan Beith. Whilst I have never met Alan Beith, everything I know of him is that he is an honest, respected, hard-working MP who genuinely wants to reform parliament. However despite this, I am not convinced that the Liberal Democrats currently have enough [...]
Chris Kennedy, one of the sons of the late Robert Kennedy, is about to announce that he will run for the US Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama and currently held by the ill-fated Roland Burris. I am not going to make the mistake I made with Caroline Kennedy and pre-emptively gush. Chris Kennedy is a Chicago businessman (he is the President of a huge shopping mall/business centre) and has not
From today's Western Mail: A brief statement from Mr Martin at 2.30pm confirmed what had been clear for several hours; he would be standing down, ostensibly to maintain the unity of the Commons. It was over in 45 seconds. "I wonder how long," one Welsh MP mused afterwards, "it took Charles I to kneel down and have his head chopped off?" It is always useful to have a sense of perspective in these things.
Those people furious about Britain 'filling up' with unwelcome immigrants have had the rug pulled from under them. As CentreForum has long believed, immigration is predominantly an economic phenomenon, and as the relative advantages of working in the UK have lessened, so has the number of Eastern Europeans taking up that opportunity. Fortunately for the anti-immigrationists, there are always new stories to misinterpret and become furious about. They will be pleased to read that overseas workers are more able to keep their jobs. For those of you who have benefited from their services and hard work, this is no surprise. ...
The Green Party start their European election broadcast by showing what looks like the archetypal green "geek", sitting behind a computer, in a dark and somewhat messy room. Then the (male) voice over reminds us why we may have doubts about the party. What gives? The broadcast tries to tell an "I know what you are thinking" story. In her book, The Story Factor, Annette Simmons explains that if you name peoples' objections first, you are that much closer to disarming them. She says: "Telling an "I know what you are thinking" story can neutralise concerns . . . and ...
From Labour's Lancashire propaganda leaflet: "It's hard to believe the Lib Dems are still sticking to their pledge to end jail sentences for drug possession, want to legalise the sale of cannabis, and would never lock up a young people who are convicted of an ASBO. But it's true." I'm not sure if that actually IS true, actually, although to go through my own personal opinions... 1) Possession with intent to sell is a incarceration-worth crime - simple possession should lead to hefty fines. 2) I'm actually for legalising it and then placing heavy taxes on it. We make money ...
Nick Robinson says that the extraordinary barracking of Nick Clegg at Prime Minister's Questions today shows that he (Clegg) is having an impact (Gurkhas, call for Speaker to resign etc.) and that the other parties know itIt was noticeable (from the Tweets) that the Speaker took longer than usual to bother to stop the barracking of Clegg. A bit of childish revenge perhaps?Perhaps the reason Nick
Gordon Brown opened by praising the Speaker which sounded like one lame duck who is desperately clinging-on to power empathising with one who had let go. Paul Rowen opened-up for the Liberal Democrats; asking the government to abandon it's plans for the part-privatisation of Royal Mail; this is the next crisis for a government that is [...]
Oh dear. Watching the first few minutes of Prime Minister's Question Time, today's out of touch Labour dinosaur and figure of fun that the whole House could see was finished was... Gordon Brown. And, just a day after he was forced to resign presumably because Mr Brown told him he couldn't protect him any more, the Speaker had to step in and tell the House to stop laughing at a poor pitiable Prime Minister too weak to defend himself. And that was just his hopeless fumbling of a backbench MP's question - before he jumped into a Tory bear trap. ...
Wolfram Alpha is the shiny new knowledge search thing from the makers of the excellent (if mis-spelled) Mathworld. It claims to be a "computational knowledge engine".It fails.The first three things I tried searching for it got hopelessly wrong.First, my name. Apparently "David" is a surname. So it displayed some basic stats for the David and Cantrell surnames, although uselessly limited to some far-off foreign land. What it should have done is say "that's not something I can use in computation".Second, my date of birth. It correctly parsed 1973-11-28 as the 28th of November 1973 (I was expecting it to calculate ...
Awful news from today's Independent: More than 800 people with haemophilia have received contaminated blood products putting them at heightened risk of developing vCJD, the Government has disclosed for the first time. The figures were revealed in a parliamentary answer from Lord Darzi, a Health minister, following the death of a haemophiliac who had received infected blood products... Lord Morris, who established the privately funded two-year inquiry into the haemophilia "tainted blood" scandal after the Government declined to hold one, said yesterday: "There were only 6,000 haemophiliacs and almost 2,000 died of infection with hepatitis C and HIV. Now another ...
We open with tributes to the Speaker from Brown and Cameron, and a planted question on the government's forthcoming Gurkhas statement. The House listens in faintly disgusted silence to Gordon Brown making a virtue of the fact that he had to be made to do something. We follow with tussling between Brown and Cameron over whether or not a General Election would cause chaos. Cameron trying to persuade us that an election would mean "addressing the issues" and "a fresh start" - see Costigan Quist's post on this subject this morning, if you haven't already. Brown's answers are useless. The ...
General election to take place in July as tweeted by Nick Brown MP who is the Labour Party Whip and knows everything about Brown and the plans including what Brown had for breakfast and what underwear Brown is wearing! Hat Tip to Tory Bear. Update: Nick Brown's twitter account is now unactive! Another Update: A commenter has stated that it was a fake account.
I got a text message from the guy at the pub who took my laptop away for possible mending. The graphics chip on the motherboard is gone, but everything else is fine, and it'll be a new chip and a bit of delicate soldering, and how does £60 and a couple of pints sound? How does it sound? I'm going to get my baby back? for a mere £60? WOO-HOO!!! * happy dance * Of course, I don't actually HAVE £60, but I'm sure I can sell one of the dogs, or something.
Here. Phil Willis has issued a typically robust and bluff rebuttal:If offering temporary accommodation to one's children is wrongdoing, then there is something seriously wrong with our society.Allowing my daughter to use the sofa-bed in my one-bedroom flat hardly appears to be abuse of the system.As for refurbishment, painting the flat once in 10 years and carrying out electrical repairs, I
In the ninth in a series of looking at each of the regions (and nations) for the European Elections I today examine the South West
Another day, another (important) video. As featured on the very good There's nothing British about the BNP website
So the Great Leader is angry and appalled at the behaviour of MP's and their expenses, I apologise to the country he said. The Great Leader went on to say that anybody who had defied the rules would not stand for Labour at the next election, ahh, but there's the rub, asked about whether he [...]
The Telegraph continues its series of saintly MPs and three more Lib Dems are included. Tom Brake, Susan Kramer and Ed Davey are all Greater London MPs with columns of zeroes next to their ACA claims, even though they are strictly speaking entitled to them. They join Sarah Teather, Lynne Featherstone and David Howarth who have already featured in the series. Here's an interesting thing: will Vince Cable be included in this holy parade? He too is a Greater London MP who doesn't claim the ACA he is entitled to. I seem to recall he featured in the Telegraph's Lib ...
Commenting on the news that UK annual inflation slowed in April, Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor, Vince Cable said: "With deep interest rate cuts now hitting mortgage payments, it is inevitable that we will see further falls in the RPI." "It is telling, however, that while the RPI plummets, the CPI - which does not include mortgage repayments - is still above the...
Commenting ahead of today's Conservative vote on cutting the Television Licence Fee, Liberal Democrat Shadow Culture, Media and Sport Secretary, Don Foster said: "This is a cynical attempt by the Conservative party to undermine funding for the BBC. David Cameron clearly cannot be trusted with public service broadcasting." "The Tories are completely out of touch with...
I've long been a challenger of Michael Connarty over his lack of movement on opening up key elements of Parliament, such as expenses to public scrutiny. I have yet to hear back* from an email I sent to him 24 hours later, which for me is actually quite a lengthy delay in my communication with him during the working week when Parliament is sitting. His claims which despite him rating to reveal them are leaking out are creating a stir across the constituency and with many of my fellow passengers this morning. However, it isn't just me or those on ...
Speaking after meetings between all party leaders to discuss reform of MPs' expenses, Nick Clegg said: "Today's talks saw more progress in a single day than we have seen over many decades." Liberal Democrat Leader went on to say, "Finally MPs will no longer decide their own pay or write their own rules." "There are still many issues that need to be...
More than 300 dangerous criminals would have walked free under the Conservatives' policy on Europe, according to research by the Liberal Democrats. Conservative MEPs voted against the European Arrest Warrant (EAW), which has slashed extradition times across the EU from an average of eighteen months to just 43 days. David Cameron's Conservative party would...
I recently took the Vote Match test run by Unlock Democracy. Luckily it said I should vote LibDem (although I only gave it the choice of that and Libertas!). My results are here. As I was looking through the list of things it thought I disagreed with the LibDems on, I notice all the things on which there was a mismatch were things that either I or the party were open-minded about (phew!). Except: "Extending the period of copyright protection on sound recordings from 50 years will predominantly benefit music companies and work against the interests of consumers." I said ...
The call has gone out - we must have a General Election now, so the people can cast their verdict on each and every MP: the minority who have abused expenses and the majority who have not. David Cameron, rightly for a member of the opposition, mentions it daily. Gordon Brown, sensibly for an embattled PM, resists. Nick Clegg has tried to take a more subtle line - one he hasn't got across as clearly as he might have liked, but he's right. We the people need a reformed parliament. We need to get rid of the mostly spineless Lords, ...
Yesterday was the last full Council session before the election. We sadly said goodbye to people from all three parties who are not standing again in the elections on June 4th. There was a definite hint of "last day of school" about the place but we got through all the business and managed to finish by 4:00pm - a first since I was elected. But the big news of the day had to be what's happening in Westminster. Although I firmly believe the speaker did the right thing - proceedings last week and this can best be described as unedifying ...
The 2009 Garden Competition is a joint competition between Yate, Sodbury, Dodington and Westerleigh and is open to all residents and schools within the Parishes. The closing date for schools has gone by, but you can enter your own garden up until 15 June. Application forms for the 2009 Joint Parishes Garden Competition are now available to download from this page on the Yate Town Council website.
Constantly Furious who always seems to be angry about something or other has tagged me with the "Eight things I hate meme" which is apt given his perpetual state of rage. He seems to think that Lib Dems never get annoyed about things. Well here is my attempt to prove him wrong: 1) The fact that to try and work out what the quickest and cheapest train journey to somewhere is has become all but impossible. I am sure it never used to be perfect under BR but there are now about 50 different companies you can book journeys through ...
This morning's Western Mail reports that Neath MP, Peter Hain billed the taxpayer £1,000 for an oven. Receipts obtained by the Telegraph suggest Mr Hain claimed £1,054.90 for an oven in 2005, and claimed more than £6,000 in heating oil between December 2005 and April 2008. All of this immediately reminds me of the time Mr. Hain appeared on the Aga website proudly displaying his new oven for all to see. Alas, it soon disappeared from their website and even the cached version is no longer available, although I have preserved the photograph for posterity. This raises an interesting question. ...
The B&NES planning committee will meet this afternoon to decide on the Council's planning applications for the Bath Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) route. Local residents campaigning against the plans have been supported by Bath opposition Councillors representing the wards through which the BRT would run. The committee will meet at the Guildhall at 2 p.m. and...
The B&NES planning committee will meet this afternoon to decide on the Council's planning applications for the Bath Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) route. Local residents campaigning against the plans have been supported by Bath opposition Councillors representing the wards through which the BRT would run. The committee will meet at the Guildhall at 2 p.m. and...
Mark "Reckons" Thompson's statistical analysis appears to show a correlation between seat safety and the likelihood that expenses will have been abused. Everyone's quite rightly impressed by this, including Polly Toynbee and now Guido. First comment post-Guido link? "Ow my head hurts now."Priceless. I wish to sound a note of caution, however. We're not quite at the point where we can say that this is now a fact to be deployed by people like Guido and Polly to support their arguments. The sample size is taken from the hundred or so MPs that the Telegraph have covered so far. Expenses ...
With Martin finally making an exit and will be out as the Speaker by June 22 so we need a new Speaker but who will it be. Recently I have been doing a lot of work behind the scenes of this blog I have written to many Lib Dems asking them to nominate Ming Campbell for Speaker and to ask him to put his name forward but the question is will he? I have even written to Ming! If Ming was to put his name forward for Speaker many from all benches would back him and personally just writing blog ...
2 big stories There's only one game in town this morning, and it's a mish-mash of the Speaker's resignation plus the interim measures on expenses he announced yesterday. The Guardian has it: MPs will no longer be allowed to "flip" second homes or claim for household goods, the outgoing Commons Speaker Michael Martin announced tonight as part of a "robust" set of interim measures aimed at resolving the MPs' expenses crisis. Just hours after telling the Commons he was standing down as Speaker next month following pressure over his handling of the expenses debacle, Martin reappeared to tell MPs that ...
I am informed that the output from Monday's LibDem Federal Executive will be communicated via the LibDem News and an email to all members on Friday.I can hardly wait!
May 20th is JS Mill's birthday. he was born in 1806, only seven month after Trafalgar and died in 1873. A brilliant child, he is said to have spoken ancient Greek at the age of three. Certainly he received an extremely intense education, piloted by his philosopher father James Mill, assisted by his friends, including the utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham- whose embalmed body you may see if you visit University College, London. Perhaps not surprisingly after such a hothouse education, JS Mill had a nervous breakdown in his early twenties, but he later went on to become one of the ...
As those of you who are friends of mine (I wrote this in two chunks when my head was up to it, and coming back to this I can't believe I wrote that and didn't see the pun...) on last.fm will know, I've been listening to rather a lot of the Zombies' music since I [...]
I spent a great deal of time today in discussions about the best way to move forward on planned changes in our cemeteries across the Borough. When I chaired the scrutiny review into managing memorials in the cemeteries it became obvious that for many reasons over the years the council policy of having only a headstone and vase on a grave had not been kept to. As a result the graves which only
My 12 year old daughter isn't interested in boys yet, thank goodness. But i know that one day she will have her heart broken. A smooth operator will promise her undying love and attention and she'll fall for it. She'll believe the best of him at first, then slowly come to realise that he is not [...]
On Sunday I shall be hosting this week's Britblog Roundup again. If this week you have seen any British blog posts you think particularly fine - and, yes, that can include ones on your own blog - send the links to britblog [at] gmail [dot] com by Sunday lunchtime and I shall do the rest.
Last night was the annual meeting where the new mayor is installed. The concept always reminds me of Dr Who. It's still the mayor but the face and manner is quite different. Last night we swapped the Hartnellesque Cllr Marshall for the Troughton esque Brian Coleman. Coleman is a great lover of the procedure and pageantry (bling) of the mayoralty which in Barnet stretches all the way back to err 1965, not even as old as Dr who which pre-dates it by two years. The costumes worn for the night could well come from the old days of Dr Who ...
May 19, 2009 STATEMENT ISSUED BY SALFORD LABOUR GROUP. At a meeting held last evening (19th May 2009) The Labour Group of Salford City Council gave consideration to the issues of MPs expenses/allowances. Labour Councillors expressed dismay and in some cases disgust at the abuse of the system by a minority of MPs. The Labour Group [...]
March 1997: John Major is Prime Minister and there's a Parliamentary by-election in the Conservative-held seat of Wirral South. With a general election expected within weeks, the by-election is a major political event, with widespread media coverage. New Labour use the campaign to showcase their mix of new and old, in the form of their candidate. He is Ben Chapman, the son of a farm labourer (tick the traditional Labour box) who became a successful senior civil servant, went into business and was a very recent recruit to the party (tick the New Labour box). Carefully marshaled by minders through ...
Wed 20th
07:41AN ex-Guardsman branded the BNP "scumbags" last night for using his photo and faked words on an elec...
Source The Sun Former Scots Guards NCO Stuart Walker, 37, was shocked to see a picture of himself in uniform outside Buckingham Palace on a poll leaflet. Beside it, implying he would back the racist party in the Euro elections, were words criticising kit shortages and soldiers being "abused" by Muslims. Stuart, who left the Army [...]
I think Frank Field should be the next Speaker of the House of Commons. Reasons why he should be: 1) He is extremely independent.2) He is fiercely intelligent.3) He has the courage to stand up against the government and has proved it time and again.4) I can't remember a time when I have seen him state a position that was not eminently sensible. Reasons why he won't: 1) Gordon Brown hates him
http://www.Votewise.co.uk Good site to have a glance at
The Times wants Vince Cable to be the next Speaker of the House of Commons. Clearly the news of St. Vince's canonisation has spread far beyond Lib Dem circles "Dr Cable has managed, through the quiet authority that comes from his background as a professional economist and a courteous and reasonable manner in argument, to carve out a place for himself both as an economic prophet, which is slightly exaggerated, and as a man of great repute, which is not." All well and good, except that the Times leader writer then lays down about the biggest insult to Vince it ...
I have to admit that at the time in the morning I usually am heading to the bus I'm not that awake. So for weeks now I may well have walked down Hopetoun Street in Bathgate and turned right unto South Street to pick up my paper from the newsagents then had my head in it looking for a headline to blog about as I returned up South Street to catch the bus. It may well me that the sign for the offices of Mary Mulligan MSP (pictured right) have stared me in the face for all those weeks since ...
Hair cut and eye test today. Preferable to eye cut and hair test, I suppose. # http://twitpic.com/5he1q - Early morning head-clearing Tai Chi. # Mmmm - pancakes! # Haircut: emphatic. Eye test: passed. Good stuff all round. # And AGAIN I am moved to state, clearly and unambiguously, that Internet Explorer 6 is a syphillitic whoreson canker on the arse of the web. # LINE-HEIGHT! The bastard sodding LINE-HEIGHT was borking it in IE6. Inherited, and screwing with an image replacement r/over of all things. # RT @Astrofiammante http://twitpic.com/5ilud - Unashamedly romantic location... # Rolling the dice on the practicality ...
I have been challenged to complete a meme using the old "Chicken?" technique by Constantly Furious. Lib Dems, you see, aren't capable of hate so it might be funny, you see, to tag us with a 'Eight Things I Hate' meme. We're all very middle of the road, you see. Okay then. You asked for it. #8: Micras Nothing pushes my irrationality buttons more than these awful little cars. It feels like whenever I'm driving along and I get stuck behind another car going below the speed limit, it's always a Micra. I am bedevilled by the things. Everywhere I ...
The world of politics may not be newly made this morning but the chance that it may be is real-and that cannot be said to have been the case for too long. I've heard all the sage old uncles tell us about strengthening the parliament against the executive, elected Select Committee Chairs and even electoral reform. One dimension of the reform I have not heard is the need to strengthen the local and provincial against the centre. It is often said that England is the most centralised of unitary states. One of the key measures of how reformed our new ...
Right up until I listened this morning in my bed to Yesterday In Parliament, I didn't think the Speaker of the House of Commons should go - it would set a bad constitutional precedent. But his use of pettifogging procedural rules to prevent members from debating whether Mr. Speaker should go is the proof needed that Mr. Speaker should go.My learned friend Mr. Geeklawyer says that while it would set a precedent, it would not be a bad one. I disagree. The constitution that we have, muddled and confusing though it is, has served us well, and should be fiddled ...
