Lord Bonkers' participation in the G20 protest march is rapidly bearing fruit. First it is announced that Honeysuckle Weeks is to return to the electric television. Now Tom Croft has been called up by the British Lions. Step by step, the war on barbarism is being won.
There are 27 billion people googling "Susan Boyle" and I want my share of them. You may not have heard her recording of Cry Me a River. It is rather good, even if its existence makes you wonder if she is quite the unknown that Britain's Got Talent has made her out to be.
This week's video comes from 1990 and is dedicated to Sir Peter Viggers and his ducks.
I have many posts that need writing over the next few days (review of LOEG: Century 1, a post about why Lib Dems should support unions, a review of Ecological Debt, my next BFAW), as well as putting together the Newniverse site, and providing some more comment to a Special Secret Project coming up soon, [...]
There is no doubt over the topic of the week, but as I am beginning to suffer from indignation fatigue I am leaving MPs' expenses until last. Good things First a sad, beautifully written posting from fretmarks: The bird loves the boy because he is entirely full of joyous, manifest amazement at the bird. The boy just loves the bird because he is a bird. And the birdoole does that chops-fluffed-little-flirting twitch of the head, and the boy does it back. And soon the bird and the boy are both swaying sideways backwards and forwards dancing at each other, although ...
Its a delicate topic so nothing from me on this topic, a little self censorship! Hat Tip London Muslim.
After reading this blog post by Shane Greer it got me into that line of thought and I thought it would be fun to list the top 10 searchers that lead people to this blog. You never know what might pop up! irfan ahmednadine dorries blognadine dorriesirfan ahmed blognurul choudhury apprentice"nadine dorries"irfanahmedeuro pollsirfanlembit opik
In my last post, I suggested that David Cameron and The Telegraph were in cahoots over the entire expenses debacle. I didn't realise until today how deep it possibly runs. Has Cameron used the whole expenses issue to complete one of his long running aims for when he becomes Prime Minister, the modernisation or some might argue, neutering of the Conservative Party. Consider this, what is a party if it has no candidates who have a history of following that party's ideology? New Labour, a semi-vacuous grouping of people who serve at the pleasure of the person who got them ...
{Parkland Walk Bins} One of things that happens when you become a councillor is people start emailing you pictures of rubbish. A fortnight ago I was contacted by a resident of Florence Road who was very pleased that the Council have installed new bins on the Parkland Walk, but was annoyed that they weren't getting emptied. He sent me pictures of the resulting mess: a lovely nature reserve blighted by an overflowing rubbish bin and a revolting dog mess bin. However, a week later there was still no response from the Council to my request to clean the bins up, ...
Yesterday morning I headed down to Whickham village centre to help run a street stall with colleagues. We were collecting signatures on petitions opposing new parking charges plans for the village and proposals to take away some of our flower beds. In essence, it is the sort of thing that local politics is all about. But given the general climate about politicians at the moment, we gathered with
I had not previously heard of the Corrigan Brothers. They performed at President Obama's inauguration with their song "There's no-one as Irish as Barack O'Bama." Now they have turned their gentle satire onto the MP expense issue. Listen to their song here and smile ruefully - it's our money they are singing of.
{cycling.jpg} As part of Bike Week 2009, Love Your Bike.org are encouraging Manchester City council and businesses, schools and people to take the CycleGM Commuter Challenge.Many people think that doing regular exercise is time consuming and expensive, but it does not have to be. Staff can incorporate exercise into their routines by cycling for 15-30 minutes (2 - 5 miles) to and from work every day instead of taking the car. Over 50% of the car journeys in Greater Manchester are less than 5 miles. The commuter challenge is simple, all people have to do is cycle to and from ...
Many arguments have been put forward concerning a new constitutional settlement in the wake of the various scandals. I believe, in time, consensus will gravitate towards (1) electoral reform, (2) state funding for parties and (3) a codified constitution. One constitutional reform that I think will be most intractable will be the reform of the Second Chamber. I've pointed out previously that the reason why reforming the Second Chamber is such an intractable issue is because the UK is a unitary state. A Second Chamber tries to represent a nation in a distinctly different way to the lower chamber. Normally ...
Pot/Kettle department. The Feral Beast column in the Independent on Sunday has run a couple of pieces highlighting Westminster lobby journalists who have failed to fully declare their interests, as they are required to do. Apparently, passes may be withdrawn.... Last week: Much talk of MPs failing to declare their interests - but do parliamentary journalists? In the latest Register of Journalists' Interests, Fraser Nelson declares himself as a commentator for The Spectator, forgetting his lucrative News of the World column; Andrew Neil, calls himself publisher of The Business, even though it no longer exists, and omits to mention his ...
This directorate knocks it's self out to help the people of this City and Residents of Swinton South as ward councillors we thank you on behalf of the residentss.
For once I like an article by Peter Hitchens. In the Mail on Sunday today he tells the story of David Cameron's public meeting in Witney. It was held at noon on Friday - hardly at time when most people can manage to get along. It was very scantily advertised and most of the questions seemed to be asked by loyal Tory activists. Hitchens concludes: If Mr Cameron really wants to find out what the people of West Oxfordshire think about him, his mortgage and his chimney, I suggest he hires a bigger hall, advertises the event both to local ...
Sun 24th
18:26
Mail on Sunday statement: "substantial damages" paid to Tom Watson over Iain Dale article
Reading a free copy (I would never buy it) of today's Mail on Sunday at Newbury's excellent Victoria Park cafe, I noticed this prominent statement on Page 3: Tom Watson MP The Mail on Sunday has apologised in the High Court to Civil Service Minister Tom Watson over an article by Iain Dale on April 12 which incorrectly said he received copies of emails from Downing Street adviser Damian McBride and encouraged him in talk of smearing Opposition politicians. We accepted he had no knowledge of the proposed 'Red Rag' website nor of the emails he regarded as completely inappropriate. ...
I received the following e-mail today from Malcolm Clark of "Make Votes Count": Dear Mark, We have already been active on this for the past week (and thanks for all the letters and emails already despatched to MPs and to the press), but today the public campaign is officially launched. A broad range of civil society organisations and individuals have come together to call for a referendum on the day of the next general election to change the way we elect our MPs. http://www.makemyvotecount.org.uk/referendum2010 - launch letter in The Observer: signed by a range of leading figures from across the ...
Interesting post on Next Left (the Fabian Society blog) about this; Sundar Katwala quite rightly says; "Electoral reform has been seen as one of the missed opportunities of Labour's time in government, despite some valiant efforts to keep the issue alive." If one was being cynical one would argue that the reason it was proposed in 1997 was [...]
I'm all for MPs spending money on websites* and, just because you can set something up for free in five minutes, that doesn't mean an MP can't sensibly spend a reasonable chunk of money on a website. Good MP websites contain a wealth of content, design and functionality for which it is reasonable to pay something. But the news that Conservative MP Angela Browning's spent £9,635 for a pretty basic website plus 30 months hosting/support does look very odd. From what I've seen, I can't see how that price is justified: it is substantially more than a range of website ...
As seen near Gloucester Bus Station;The prosecution rests, m'lud...
Here's a picture of an idyllic scene in Newbury's Victoria Park today. Ramsbury Silver Band entertain lots of people spread out on the grass. It's a far cry from last Sunday (below) when poor old Basinsgtoke Silver Band braved the elements to entertain a few souls huddled under umbrellas. The English weather eh?!
From the Sunday Mirror: A Tory activist has been expelled from the party for posting a picture of himself with a Hitler moustache on Facebook ... And beside it, in the "My Favourite Quotes" section, he allegedly made racist and sexist comments, including one saying: "I don't hate everyone, I just hate women ... A spokesman said: "These comments are disgusting. He has no place in the party. He is being expelled immediately." Daniel O'Docherty had been chair of the Birmingham University Conservatives until a few weeks ago.
I spent a nice afternoon at the Monastery Open Day. The Trust are currently opening the Monastery on Sundays from 12 - 4. In addition to the chance to take a good look around and admire what the Trust have done to restore the building, they are serving up lovely scones and cakes. I'm afraid that the sultana scones with whipped cream and strawberry jam are every bit as nice as they look. It's impressive that looking at today's visitors' book, they have people from across the World coming to take a look. A fine example of how a great ...
I'm always reluctant to comment on individuals, but local residents are bound task me my attitude to this weeks revelations about our MP, Jonathan Djanogly. And it's a question of judgement. Firstly, for those unfamiliar with him, he's fairly harmless; you would have a pint with him, but probably wouldn't want to repeat the experience too often, if you follow me. I'm not sure how he got the nomination to replace John Major as MP for what was (when he took it over) the safest Tory seat in the country, but get it he did. He is, as a local ...
Lots of folk out enjoying the sunshine in Islington today, Lib Dem campaigners included. And Labour. Both parties had canvassers out in Barnsbury. I was with a Lib Dem trio calling along Liverpool Road when we saw our Labour MP (whose office is just off Liverpool Road) heading towards us. Let's just say that the weather [...]
Mark Pack recently wrote a blog post about how the Liberal Democrats are comparing to the other political parties when it comes to being active on the Internet and to read Mark's post follow the link. The report to which Mark contributed all this information can be read by following the link. The report shows the following results: 55% of Lib Dem Councillors blog as apposed to 19% Tories and 18% Labour Councillors. Personally like Mark I agree this is down to the ALDC MyCouncillor system but its also down to the fact that many Councillors write their own leaflets ...
Carers Poverty Protest The Sutton Carers Centre had laid on a coach to take a group of Carers and supporters into London to join the Carers Poverty Protest March on Budget Day. Cllr. Ruth Dombey & I both attended to give our support for the campaign and to represent those carers unable to attend because of [...]
Perhaps to my surprise the Church of Scotland has indeed upheld the appointment of Rev Scott Rennie as the Minister of Queen's Cross Aberdeen. It is a vindication of Scott and the dignified way he has conducted himself. The next steps, I suppose, are to allow the decision of the Kirk to sink in and to prove to those who think that the decision is wrong, that Rev. Rennie can work to heal the damage that this unfortunate affair has created. I know that Scott will try hard to work to bridge the gap, in as far as he is ...
It's another milestone for this blog - 600 posts - and how good to mark it by commenting on yet another fantastic result for Brawn in the Monaco Grand Prix. Jenson Button confirmed his stamp on the championship leaderboard by not putting a foot wrong and led virtually all the way apart from a couple of laps after his second stop when he was in a bit of a Ferrari sandwich. To my mind, the man of the day was Rubens Barrichello, who shot past Raikonnen at the start without coming a cropper himself and held on even when his ...
Discussing when the next general election is going to be is one of the favourite hobbies of political anoraks. Last year, and early this year, I was speculating that it could be called in 2009. By late March, I had rejoined the consensus and accepted that, all things being equal, it is more likely to be in 2010. But something has always troubled me about Gordon Brown waiting until the last moment to go to the country. It would be supremely ironic, if he calls an election in October 2009. If he does, it will be dubbed the election that ...
I recently received my postal vote and on the ballot paper for the European election in the Eastern Region there are 15 parties listed. The parties are listed in alphabetical order, so the BNP is at number 2, the Conservatives at number 4, the Liberal Democrats at number 7 but "The Labour Party" due to their preceding "The" are way down at number 12 (UKIP are at 14). Without the "The" they would have been above us. I know in these fevered times on the political blogosphere, this isn't very exciting by comparison, but surely the addition of the "The" ...
One of the most fascinating developments to have come out of the MPs' expenses soap opera is that Parliament is challenging itself. It began with the usual suspects, Lib Dem MPs and maverick parliamentarians talking in almost hushed tones about reform. At some point there was a tipping point: David Miliband and Peter Hain have both raised it, there was a discussion during a Cabinet meeting and so on. Before constitutional obsessive's get too excited, it is unlikely that we will see huge change. What we might happen is that the legislature's ability to check the executive is strengthened. This ...
Demands for a fair voting system - proportional representation - for Parliament have been getting louder in the last few days. More and more commentators and politicians are calling for radical reform, and not simply for new rules on MPs' expenses. They are exploring electoral reform (fair voting), fixed term parliaments, a fully elected House of Lords and a written constitution....
I have always been totally transparent in my commitment not to claim any second home allowance if I am elected MP. Today's Sunday Telegraph story on the anger of St Albans voters reflects the wave of revulsion I have personally experienced on the doorstep from people outraged at what the Daily Telegraph has revealed on Mrs Main's use of the Additional Cost Allowance. I have issued the following statement to the local newspapers: LIB DEM PARLIAMENTARY CANDIDATE PLEDGES NO SECOND HOME AT TAXPAYER EXPENSE Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for St Albans Sandy Walkington has given a categorical assurance that if ...
Well my ballot paper has arrived, yesterday, now the tough decision of who to vote for.
Now you see it (Labour taking bigger allowances on Haringey Council) - now you don't - because they've tried to hide it in extra Special Responsibility Allowances rather than an overall rise for all their councillors! The reality though is that Labour have actually awarded themselves £44,751 in extra allowances - through the back door. What Labour have done is vote unanimously for the total of their Special Responsibility Allowances (SRA) to be increased from £676,533 last year to £721,284 this year. In contrast, the Liberal Democrat councillors on Haringey are committed to cutting the number of SRA positions altogether. ...
The Prestwich Festival rolls on, with another major event today - the Prestwich Farmers' Market, which took place at the Longfield Shopping Area this morning and early afternoon. The photo above is of me there with my colleagues Cllr Ann Garner from Sedgley ward and Cllr Tim Pickstone from Holyrood ward. The weather was much kinder this weekend than the Clough Day last weekend, and I have to say that the whole event was a great success. There were hundreds of local people out taking advantage of the dozens of shops selling local and organic produce. I picked up some ...
One of the first thing you notice about a political party that is decaying in government is that internal discipline collapses; signs of this existed before the expenses scandal (now named 'ChamberGate on Twitter) but it now appears that the process of dissent and open rebellion is spreading. It is easy to see why; this government is political poison so what better time to turn against it and push your own agenda? What better time to distance yourself from it, if only to save your neck and reputation with your constituents? Several Labour MP's have openly pushed for sweeping constitutional ...
Just to let you know that I am off to see the folks for a couple of days so blogging will be light to non-existant until Tuesday. I will still be tweeting though via the magic of iPhone.
Richard Grayson, Chair of the Social Liberal Forum joined people from across the political spectrum today calling for: "On the day of the next general election, there should be a binding referendum on whether to change to a more proportional electoral system. This should be drawn up by a large jury of randomly selected citizens, given the time and information to deliberate on what voting system and other changes would make Parliament more accountable to citizens." See the full text of the letter and the other signatories on The Observer site.
I've been very gratified by the entirely positive feedback my articles about the Daily Telegraph and Jo Swinson yesterday have received. This is entirely in keeping with the broadly sympathetic reaction Jo has received on both the blogosphere and on Twitter. That the story has had such a positive backlash is of course a good thing. The trouble with such stories however is that they often grow in the retelling. I've already cited how the BBC and Guardian have contributed to this. What if a candidate opposing Jo in the general election campaign were to base a dirty tricks campaign ...
Ok, I've been listening to a lot of music this weekend. But I found myself on a bit of a nostalgia trip, mostly revisiting all by Beta band CD's. They are a long since deceased (1996-2004) Scottish folktronica band which I managed to see live a couple of times - and even had tickets to what was to be their last tour... but it was cancelled {:(} Steve Mason, the Lead singer, went on to produce a solo project "King Biscuit Time" - him leaving was the fundamental reason for the split. The rest of the band forms "The Aliens" ...
All, Just a quick reminder - the Wool Fair is on tomorrow between 10am and 4:30pm. Many of the shops have got their displays sorted, and I've just seen that the Town Square has been shut to traffic (so aim for the Telegraph Street car park if you're out tonight!). I'm looking forward to the Town Crier competition...... Regards, Philip
We've heard a lot about "waterboarding". Well, Conservative radio host Eric "Mancow" Muller allowed himself to be waterboarded to see what it is like, to silence critics of the practice. He lasted a few seconds before asking for it to stop. He said it was like drowning and is "torture". So, no silencing of critics, then. See the exercise and his reaction here on You Tube:
Nick Perry, the Lib Dem parliamentary campaigner for Hastings & Rye, has written to celebrity chefs Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall to ask them to back Hastings and Rye fishermen in their fight to survive, and to get a fairer outcome from the Government in terms of quota allowance. Both Oliver and Fearnley-Whittingstall are famous for [...]
Nick Perry, the Lib Dem parliamentary campaigner for Hastings & Rye, has responded to the publication of Labour MP Michael Foster's expenses, and hit out at his Conservative opponent, following the revelations in the national press about Tory MPs' claims. Nick says, "I am pleased that our MP does not have expenses skeletons in his cupboard. [...]
After Friday's Old Street air quality protest, I headed off to Westminster for an appearance on the BBC Daily Politics show. (It was only after I'd passed reception at Millbank that I realised I still had my facemask in my handbag – not sure what security would have made of that!) I'd allowed extra time to [...]
I was very kindly offered the chance to write a guest post for Woodhouse Moor Online which can be found here.
More swine flu cases have been reported, including a second case in our borough. Earlier this month, a man in Exmouth Market was diagnosed. Now a woman from Islington has been affected. There's no evidence that either of them caught the disease in the UK. The first swine flu cases emerged just at the start [...]
{Morning after the Big Sleep Out in Winchester} Thank you to everyone who gave so generously to members of the Lib Dem Sleep Out team (or anyone else!) as part of the Big Sleep Out. Thanks to your generosity the Lib Dem team has so far raised more than £3,800 towards the Nightshelter and the Trinity Centre! {Big Sleep Out, Winchester, 2009} We almost all got rather heavily rained on and didn't sleep too well from around 3 a.m. onwards, but it was great to be part of such a well-organised and successful fundraising event for such a good cause. ...
This morning's Observer reports that the leader of the UK Independence party, which wants to lead Britain out of the EU, has taken £2m of taxpayers' money in expenses and allowances as a member of the European Parliament, on top of his £64,000 a year salary. Nigel Farage claims that he has not "pocketed" the money. Instead he says he has used this "very large sum of European taxpayers' money" to help promote Ukip's message that the UK should get out of the EU. The paper says that the admission threatens to flatten a bounce in the polls for UKIP ...
Out we scurried from under the rocks and between the cracks, peeping our heads out from burrows, blinking in the Spring sunshine like small furry animals awakening from hibernation. Except our hibernation has lasted over a decade. Not since the Jenkins Commission was so skillfully and completely ignored by Tony Blair in the early days of his premiership has electoral reform been prominent, and have its supporters dared to speak its name. Most of the time, electoral reform is a huge turn-off for most of the people. Have no doubt that it will be again, before too long. There's only ...
Social Media Affairs has just released a report looking at the political social media landscape in the UK (with, ahem, myself being one of the four people contributing introductory remarks about politics and social media). Any report like this has to deal with all sorts of issues of definition and categorisation but there are some striking broad trends they've found. Liberal Democrat councillors are the keenest bloggers 7% of Liberal Democrat councillors are bloggers (a number boosted significantly by the ALDC MyCouncillor system), compared to 2% of Labour councillors and 1% of Conservative councillors. This keenness to blog also has ...
And goodness, what a fortnight it's been for politics and the party. Since we at Weekly (hem hem) Catchup left your screens a fortnight (hem hem) ago we've seen a lot of movement on the political front led by the Telegraph's sensational coverage of the "Cash for Cushions" constitutional crisis that John Stewart's chromakey team dubbed "Scamalot". We kicked off our coverage with a triple bill of Norman Baker's contributions on the matter, but it was to be a gift that keeps on giving. Stephen ranted, then questioned; you answered in spades. Clegg weighed in. Alix assumed the position. And ...
The only papers we get delivered here are the Independent on Saturday and Sunday (I read the rest online). Having gone through the IOS this morning I was very pleasantly surprised to see two references to the correlation I seemed to have uncovered between the safety of an MP's seat and the likelihood of having been involved in the expenses scandal which I detailed here. The first is in a piece entitled "Politics: The only way is up" where thay have asked various of the great and the good to give their views on what needs to change. One of ...
Yet another "celebrity" has jumped on the "let's kick out the MPs" bandwaggon. David Van Day, late of I'm a Celebrity get me out of here (which may be what he would be saying if elected!) is apparently to challenge Mid Beds MP Nadine Dorries - I would put a link to her website but it has been shut down by the Telegraph. Interestingly Mr Van Day has been a Tory candidate before. So it looks like the good people of Bedfordshire are to have the option of sending both Esther Rantzen and David Van Day to Westminster to represent ...
Iain Dale has written a blog post about how David Cameron is to open the Conservative party candidate selection so that seats that don't have candidates can be filled up and personally I have a little query. Despite me not liking David Cameron or his politics I just have one question for him which is will the seats be open to defectors? I am someone who is not fond of defection, I don't think it should happened and I don't believe that people should do it for excuses that are next to nothing as defection shows a lot about a ...
On Tuesday evening, LDV emailed those Lib Dem party members signed-up to our private discussion forum inviting them to take part in a survey focusing on MPs' expenses. Many thanks to the 240+ of you who have so far completed it; we've been publishing the results on LDV over the last few days. You can catch up on the results of all our past exclusive LDV members' surveys by clicking here. Today we're publishing the result that always prompts a bout of nerves in the leader's office - how LDV's party member readers view Nick Clegg's performance. LDV asked: In ...
Whilst canvassing for the coming elections I have met people who are considering voting UKIP because they aren't tainted by the current MP expenses scandals. Unfortunately this is not true and they are as bad if not worse than the rest. UKIP led the way in fiddles when ex UKIP MEP Ashley Mote was jailed for six months for benefit fraud. Now comes the news that UKIP leader Nigel Farage has been boasting to European newspapers about claiming £2 million pounds from the taxpayer (that's you and me) and using the money to fund his party. Full details are reported ...
So the blogosphere is alive this weekend with outrage at the mistreatment of Jo Swinson by the Torygraph. EVERYONE is linking to James Graham's masterful post on the matter - as I did myself, yesterday. Which just goes to show that even though female bloggers like myself and Caron have been talking about something for a day or two, it's only REALLY important when one of the blokosphere picks it up. Even when the substance of the story is misogyny. Irony much? Standard disclaimers for a post about feminism: this is in no way meant as an attack on James ...
I read this morning that the SNP are to use school closures in Glasgow as their 'trump' card to attempt to win the Glasgow North East seat of the outgoing speaker Michael Martin. As pointed out by Labour the Lib Dem/SNP coalition councils in Aberdeen and Edinburgh are also being forced to closed schools. Not because they want to but because of the shackles that have been imposed by the concordat laid down from the SNP government. Therefore in bridge playing terms if that is the SNPs trump I think it has just been doubled. Of course the SNP other ...
{dance} Illegal drugs have fleetingly hit the news of late, albeit squeezed by the ongoing stories about MPs expensing their own indulgences. First we had a morning of sudden crowing from the government about increases in the price of cocaine - "this is a good thing," so the reports went. On form as usual, Blogger Costigan pointed out that "no, actually, it's not." The illegal status of drugs mean that consumers are unable to distinguish between legal brands, and are often at the mercy of dealers - hence the tampering of the products which sees old Charlie mixed with anything ...
I wrote three times to the Metropolitan Police asking them to investigate Derek Conway, right up to the Commissioner. They ignored every letter. Will they now take action when it is clear he was also defrauding the public purse by claiming for an office in Northumbria!?Meanwhile the Bexley Tory blog is full of indignation about Conway. I didn't see you lot saying anything when he was your MP!
The Cabinet Office and Intellect organised a conference in London on Thursday May 14th 2009 on the theme of 'Putting Citizens and Businesses in Control'. This brought together a large group of public sector officials and industry representatives. I gave a talk on the work of the Power of Information Taskforce between our sponsoring Minister, Tom Watson MP, and a great public sector innovator, Steph Gray. The Intellect site only offers copies of slides to registered delegates, so if you weren't a delegate and want to see what I said, I have posted a PDF copy of my Tower 09 ...
Day 4 in Lord Bonkers' house. Thursday I was shocked at the police behaviour in London. Whilst I did not suffer the worst of it myself - I should strongly advise the Metropolitan force not to try to kettle me - what I saw made a sorry contrast with what I am used to in Rutland. Here we insist that each village is provided with a red-faced, jolly policeman, who is supplied with his own police house and spends his time alternately clipping unruly youngsters around the ear and helping old ladies across the road (often, it has to be ...
This September I will be joining the Great North Swim and swimming across Lake Windermere to raise money for Guide Dogs for the Blind. Please chuck some cash my way if you can spare it. I will not just deserve your sponsorship for being foolish enough to swim a mile across lake Windermere in September, [...]
The House of Commons Justice Committee has produced its report on Devolution: a decade on and has come to some interesting conclusions. The three-party Committee analysed the "English Question" and the possible answers to it, pointing out that hardly anyone among its witnesses was content with no change, but that there is no consensus on what the changes should be. Here are a few from the press release: On Wales the Committee agree that that "there is a legitimate role for Westminster in scrutinizing draft Legislative Consent Orders to check whether they are in order, what their scope is, whether ...
Last week's BBC interview with Tory MP Steen, blew the Tory strategy of pretending to be like ordinary people, right out of the water. The subject was the same subject matter of the past two weeks, that of MPs expenses. His interview was littered with things that Tories should only ever say to other Tories, and never within earshot of a reporter. His quotes included these gems: "...do you know what it's about? Jealousy. I've got a very very large house. Some say it even looks like Balmoral. ... It just does me nicely." "...as of this day I don't ...
At a time when most people are thinking about money, either the lack of it in their own wallets or the amount in MPs wallets, it is easy to forget other issues such as Animal Welfare and the environment. Indeed the lack of money people have has led to a reduction in the sale of organic and cruelty free products.BUAV, CIWF, IFAW, LACS and Respect for Animals have launched Vote Cruelty Free, a new
From The Sunday Times May 24, 2009 Could we be looking at the same in local elections for council?
I see that among the the latest revelations on MP expenses, Derek Conway tried to claim for a £160 pig skin wallet bought from the luxury Bond Street stationers Smythson.He really should be careful. The pig may have been stood alongside him only days earlier with it's snout in the trough.
In my opinion this is the real answer to the current problems we have with our MP's http://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/article.php?id=153 If MP's didn't feel they had a god given right to rule us (because they sit on massive majorities)their behaviour might improve.
Welcome to the Sunday outing for The Voice's new daily post series highlighting two big stories from the media and two "must read" blog posts from Liberal Democrats. As it's a Sunday, there's also a bonus extra supplement. If you spot anything for future posts, do let us know on voice - voice.hat.libdemvoice.org.spam.com (this is spam bot hidden email address, replace .hat. with @ and remove .spam.com for the real one) 2 Big Stories MPs' expenses Heading into its third week, the MPs' expense story shows no sign of abating. The latest scalp is that of Andrew MacKay, again. The ...
I always look forward to elections I lose weight - the endless round of drives to be trood, doors to knocked on and voters to be engaged. I am lucky living in the parish and the ward means that the people you chat to are the ones you talk to everyday. This is a great experience becasue canvassing can take hours as you engage on hot village topics as how are your Jersey Royals doing and would you like to join the allotment society we do not ahve one but that is my latest plan! Last week whilst out canvassing ...
, Funny thing becoming a councillor. I did some case work outside of my area two months after being elected. I was reported by Labour councillors. A backed off for a while stuck to my own patch and then i was told that i represent Salford since then if any one ask for help i give [...]
Having already let down students, voters and their own party members by performing a u-turn on their pledge not to introduce top-up fees for Welsh students, Plaid Cymru could face more embarrassment if proposals by the director of the Office for Fair Access to hike fees further are accepted. Sir Martin Harris is to tell a government review of student finance that Universities should be allowed to raise fees to £5,000 a year because he believes that they have not deterred poorer students from going to college. This is contrary to the evidence presented by the recent Welsh Government Student ...
This week has been unbelievable with the amount of media calls, disallusioned members of the public & party members Honest statement John it's a bloody shame it as to get like this and we all get tarred with the same brush.
Well lets look at the facts. Question one. Who runs the council? Question two. Who sets the budgets? Question Three who sets the priorities? Guess the answer Yes. Thought you might...
I have Asked Jim for a politics show that includes the BNP. Lets give the public something to listen to Jim. We await your comments, I think your format could offer a chance for the public to question it's political leaders and members. Any Comments Readers...
Published by Jon Land for 24dash.com in Communities , Bill Payments Friday 22nd May 2009 – 2:59pm Birmingham's Bullring shopping centre remains closed after chemical incident Man remanded in custody after Rolls-Royce crashes through supermarket window Picnic in the park for more than 350 residents London Living Wage to increase by 15p an hour Couple who [...]
Salford Star love it or hate it raised many serious issues,The Local Advertiser a paper with it's finger on the pulse of local life both starved of finance. Can you blame the council? many do one senior evening news reporter told me he had spoken to a top Labour member who said just that. True or [...]
Sun 24th
04:37
Has political correctness gone mad? How much care should be taken by police over language?
Has political correctness gone mad? Comment i think it's gone bloody crackers but who is to blame? ask your old mate Tony and New Labour. Home Office minister John Denham has been criticised by the police for using the phrase "nitty gritty" because of race relations rules. Mr Denham used the phrase during a debate [...]
{Fiona Hall & Owen} Fiona Hall (local Lib Dem Euro MP), the Derwentside team and I had an interesting day yesterday as we carried out a small business survey in Consett. Interesting, but often sobering. Read the rest of this entry.
These three words will flash up at about 2am on election night across our screens. Despite claiming just yesterday that he believed he had 75% support at the public meeting in West Berkshire, the deeply dodgy Andrew MacKay will not seek re-election. He is not the first to step down - and dozens more may follow. He must be made to repay the vast sums of money he and his wife (Julie Kirkbride) wrongly claimed from the taxpayer. Hopefully, he and she will do this swiftly. Kirkbride presumably also gets plugged. She can surely never again participate in public life. ...
