Ben Goldacre questions the copyright lobby's figuresConstantly Furious shows his age with a Jilted John referenceNich Starling thinks that the Greens are spreading lies about the incipient by-election in Norwich NorthIain Dale goes into some detail about his recent on-air spat with Michael WhiteAnd Steve Webb asks if this could be the cabinet that never actually meets
Brixworth is a large village on the road from Market Harborough to Northampton. I went there this afternoon to photograph its Saxon church, but first came across the former workhouse. It is an attractive building, today housing professional offices, but its history is not so lovely. The Brixworth History Society records: The first Master of the Brixworth Union Workhouse in 1837 was a Mr Baillie with his wife appointed as the Matron, and the first meeting of the Board of Guardians took place in the Workhouse on May 4th of the same year. Within five years of the Workhouse opening ...
It's no fun when the phone and the internet (and thus Skype) give up for no apparent reason in the middle of a Friday afternoon. A call on another phone to our provider of both services produced a friendly voice with some sensible questions, quickly folloed by an appointment for an engineer to visit this morning.This morning, mysteriously, things were working again but they still did a thorough
Friday and Saturday A hectic day on Thursday as we did our best to encourage people to vote in the Euro elections. Whatever the result over the who region, at least there were a lot of good people voting for us and pleased to see us where we were. We had a mini HQ at our house and enjoyed having a lot of young people around - so much energy! the cookies soon disappeared and here are...
Keep on seeing people popping up on OUT saying they voted Lib Dem in Bury and Brighton etc. These are hardly target constituencies – perhaps we're in for a good night or is it just that we'll share the spoils with UKIP/Green/BNP?
Duncan has blogged about how F1 fans on Twitter are showing their fury at the way Max Mosley is ruining the future of the sport with the way he's carrying on at the moment. Those of us of like mind are using a variety of different coloured Avatars with the words Save F1 - Maxout on them. You will see them beautifully dispayed on Duncan's blog because he's much cleverer than I am Mine is pink, not just because I'm a girl, but in honour of the pink shirts sported by Jake, EJ and DC on the BBC's coverage. The ...
Of all the departures we've had to witness over the past few days, the one which has upset me the most is undoubtedly this one. The Apprentice won't be the same without Margaret...... LibDig This!
It's smiles all round as a deal is agreed to repay the UK government for the retail deposits lost when Icesave collapsed. The UK will unfreeze Icelandic bank assets on June 15th. Phew. We can turn round the gunboats. Councils will have to wait though - this deal only applies to retail accounts.
I'm going to try to get back to doing these once a week, on Saturdays (because Saturday is the proper day for Doctor Who as everyone knows) . Jonathan Morris' Max Warp is one of the range of 'Eighth Doctor And Lucie' hour-long audios that Big Finish have been doing, initially for Radio 7 but [...]
....Lord (sic) Peter Mandelson pops out of the woodwork with a damming indictment of Gordon Brown. Before the email came the news that the majority of Labour Party members want rid of Gordon Brown and the Prime Minister was unceremoniously booed by D-Day veterans. I'm surprised anybody is out there; especially within the Labour Party [...]
It's been a busy few days. On Thursday I was running what is quaintly known as a Committee Room. This is the operations centre for an election, and in our case we organised two wards from my home. To keep on the right side of the law I had to display a sign saying 'Committee Room' in a window. We also had to post up a Committee Room Poster, which has the following headings:...
It's been a strange couple of days at Istanbul Park as the Formula 1 circus moves there for the Turkish Grand Prix tomorrow. In first practice yesterday we had farcical scenes as a bit of astroturf was dislodged and the marshal who was sent to pick it up rather bizarrely sniffed it. Another oddity is the complete lack of people rattling around the track - Alonso got a pasting in the Turkish press for an off hand comment that he'd know everyone in the stadium by name by the end of the weekend. It is weird, though, that only around ...
This documentary was shown on BBC4 last night and will be available on BBC iPlayer for a week. It comes strongly recommended: they even interview the legendary Muff Winwood.
Keighley Krawl: Music at various pubs and a free vintage bus service between the venues from 2 pm onwards.
Sat 6th
19:09
The real story of the local elections: Labour's destruction locally and Tory domination of England
Gordon Brown may or may not be finished politically but the real conclusion to be drawn from the recent local elections is the destruction of Labour as a local political force. Labour's vote was not that bad all things considered, although one of the worst results in the party's history there is still a core vote that keeps Labour afloat even during the roughest of times. {County Council elections 2009} However, the real results show a complete collapse in Labour's local political power. The party has lost the relatively small influence it previously had in England's regions. Labour has been ...
I've been in Belfast with the day job since Thursday - got back earlier today - so catching up on the English County Council Election results. The LibDem County Council results in England - the disappointing south-west apart - showed good, solid progress. In the BBC projected vote share, we are 5% ahead of Labour - 28% to 23%, with the Conservatives on 38%. We are up 3% on last year, Labour down 1% and the Conservatives down 6%. It is our best share of the vote this Parliament and although there is no denying the Tories had a good ...
With the Euro election results not coming out until Sunday evening, those of us who gaze into the tea-leaves have had to make do with the local council elections. Imperfect to say the least: not a single local council vote was cast in Scotland or Wales, nor across large swathes of England, not least cities like London, Manchester and Liverpool. Three measures have been used by the pundits to judge the parties: seats gained or lost, estimated national percentage of the vote and total seats won. What, if anything, do they really tell us? National share of the vote What ...
The Voice is only a success because of the interest and support from our readers. For many people, just lurking and reading the site is all they want to do - and that's fine, we're grateful for people taking the time to read the site. You can though help us continue to produce interesting content for a growing audience. Here are three simple ways: 1. Let us have your tips for stories. Perhaps there's something outrageous going on in your local council? Or you're an expert in a particular area and have spotted a story other people have missed? Or ...
As a 5 foot nothing former redhead (now faded) Northerner myself I cringe when people who would not get at someone for being black think it's fun to have a go at Hazel Blears for being small, reheaded, a Northerner or for smiling a lot. It's just ...
So, 33 councils out of 34 declared, Liberal Democrats down just four seats. Not bad, not bad at all, I'd say. In places like Suffolk where the default position is to vote Conservative, we fought hard to hang on to everything we had and, where the Conservatives had to really work, they struggled, losing seats to us and to the Greens. But, to save you looking it up, the missing result is Suffolk, where the ballot boxes in Chantry, one of the Ipswich divisions were sealed, and a recount ordered for Sunday evening. Chantry is a two-member ward, previously held ...
A few lies are starting to be spread to various websites and blogs which seem to be emanating from the Green Party. So it seems it is right to out these lies in to a factual context. 1) The Greens did not win the popular vote in Norwich North. They came 4th across the whole constituency which includes far more than just the four Norwich Wards. 2) Norwich North is NOT on the same boundaries as Norwich City Council. Half of Norwich North is made up from parts of Broadland District Council, an authority that has no Greens elected. It ...
legally that is and worth a look to keep you occupied while waiting for tomorrow: itunes – radio – plenty of streaming radio for anyone's taste including the progressive talk shows from the States Spotify – like an internet jukebox where you can add playlists and share them with other people Last.fm – this is a site where [...]
And so to London for a meeting of the English Candidates Committee which, whilst frustrating in parts, had much to commend it. It was somewhat novel to be in London on a Saturday, as I'm usually either in Suffolk or taking part in some sort of politics related activity somewhere on this sceptred isle. The strangest thing is that the city seemed drab and quiet on a Saturday morning - more like a Sunday in Whitehall. However, I have done my duty and am now on my way back to Creeting St Peter, and to celebrate, the sun has appeared. ...
The weekly searchers are as followed: 1. spymaster game 2. irfan ahmed 3. kate walsh apprentice 4. ebay song 5. irfan ahmed blog 6. sack your mp 7. election 8. sara scarlett 9. baroness ros scott 10. irfanahmed
Welcome to the 119th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (24th-30th May 2009), together with a hand-picked quintet, mostly courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed. As ever, let's start with the most popular post, and work our way down. 1. How Britain's Got Talent really works on Jonathan Calder's Liberal England blog. An outrageous allegation of TV fakery - not least because it assumes Amanda Holden can act. 2. A publishing policy change for Liberal Bureaucracy - you break it, you pay for ...
There are two arguments about the Liberal Democrats' performance at the local elections. One is about votes and the other is about seats. The party's biggest achievement on Thursday, as noted by Stephen Tall, was to win 28 per cent of the (projected) national equivalent vote, which put us in second place. Professor John Curtice, writing in today's Independent, is less convinced. ". . . Nick Clegg has less progress to celebrate than he might have liked. At 28 per cent of the projected national vote the Liberal Democrats was up on the 25 per cent it secured last year. ...
At 10pm on Thursday the minister I shadow in Parliament, James Purnell, announced his resignation. For a few hours it looked as though the dam had broken, other frontline ministers would follow suit, and the Prime Minister would have to go. But, after a night's sleep, the major potential successors to Gordon Brown each decided that they didn't want to be the one to push him over the edge. By the end of that day Gordon Brown had just about managed to form a cabinet (though how you must feel as a Labour MP that he has repeatedly had to ...
I meant to blog about this ages ago but with one day to go... After a hard week's campaigning why not relax with the family by going to a farm on Sunday. Tomorrow is Open Farm Sunday, a scheme run by LEAF (Linking Environment and Farming) to encourage the local community into local farms. Each farm will be running different activities, from just looking through to pig racing. You can find local particapating farms on their website here.
Part 1...We, the Lib Dems, took Bristol. That's England's seventh largest city. It's odd, by the way, that Bristol was up for election with all the county councils. That's because, legally, it's defined as a county for the purposes of the Lieutenancies Act 1997. It's our smallest county by area.Here are the largest cities (source Wikipedia) in England, and who governs them. We have a hand in
I had been watching BBC news yesterday and heard the BBC report the projected vote share but didn't take it down but now Lib Dem Voice has reported it and the vote share for the three main political parties are: Liberal Democrats 28% Labour 23% Conservatives 38% If you put these results through UK Polling Reports seat predictor the result is: {Con} Conservative {Lab} Labour {
Something that has probably not been focused on enough following the turmoil of yesterday is that fact that Gordon Brown was unable to move Alistair Darling his Chancellor. James Forsyth has gone into a bit more detail about this on The Coffee House blog. Brown denied that he had wanted to move Darling but as Kirsty Wark pointed out rather forcefully to Peter Hain last night, Brown's aides had been spinning for days that Darling was out and Balls was in to many senior journalists including Nick Robinson the BBC's political editor. In other words Brown flat out lied yesterday ...
Breakdown in society...not like it was when I was a lad...broken Britain...no manners or respect... I'm just relieved it's not like that today, either.
On a day when the French sought to belittle the enormous contribution that Britain made both in terms of money, resources and lives lost in freeing France from the tyranny of Nazi rule by seeking to sideline Britain in events to commemorate the D Day landings 65 years ago, there was something to put a smile on my face this afternoon. At the end of the women's final in the French Tennis Open both Russian finalists made their speeches in English not French ! You could see the pained expressions on some of the French faces trying to hide their ...
Everyone's favourite Tory blogger Iain Dale interviewed Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg on Friday morning about the party's performance in the English local elections - you can listen to the 7-minute podcast version below: Powered by Podbean.com
Google is celebrating 25 years of the Tetris effect today. Of course, I hadn't got a clue what that was, so I looked it up. It's what I'll get one day from looking at LibDem blogs too much. Wikipedia summarises it thus: The Tetris effect occurs when an activity to which people devote sufficient time and attention begins to overshadow their thoughts, mental images, and dreams. It is named after the video game Tetris. In the game a player rotates and moves different falling tetrominoes, or shapes made up of four adjacent square blocks. If the player can arrange the ...
You know, even thought I know that this was the shire county elections, and even in '97 they were solid Tory, doesn't make it feel any better seeing a map of my country looking like this: {[info] - personal} shishmish) Still, let's see what Sunday brings in the form of the Euro results, before we go getting TOO depressed, eh? In more personal news, and probably inspired by {[info] - personal} strangefrontier, I have chopped my hair this morning. It's now about the same length and shape as Missundaztood-era P!nk. Mat had to tidy up the back quite a bit ...
With the Lib Dem vote increasing across the UK but we not doing that good in Pendle was just our luck I think this post should be dedicated to wishing Lib Dems across the UK in the Euro's good luck. First of all I would like to wish good luck to the Liberal Democrats in the North West (Helen Foster and Chris) I hope the pair of them get elected as both are good candidates and deserve to get elected. Chris and Helen should get elected according to my reports from across the North West and lets hope that both ...
The number of Councillors elected at Thursdays polls is as followed: Conservatives 1476 Labour 176 Lib Dems 473 Independent 95 Green 16 Residents Association 9 UKIP 6 Mebyon Kernow 3 British National Party 3 Liberal 2 Others 28 This in percentages for the three main political parties is: Liberal Democrats: 21% Labour: 8% Conservatives: 65% These are interesting results and the Lib Dem result is up to scratch in my opinion despite what many might say. All I can say is that Labour are in a lot of trouble and they need to be ready to face a hard year ...
Back in blogging mode after about ten weeks of solid electioneering, it's time to pore over the results and see what we have learned - and where we are. In true blue Bucks (the only council in the land which has been continuously Tory for 120 years), we made a net loss of one seat. Disappointing, but probably not that surprising. What that doesn't tell you is that we gave them a hard fight - and had them looking very worried at the count. We also triumphed in our target division where our two Labour defectors retook their seats handsomely ...
Over the last few days and weeks the people who have really suffered from the glut of political scandal, expenses stories and high profile resignations are ordinary party members and councillors across the country. People who strive to improve their communities and neighbourhoods. People who are still doing this despite being let down by the rest of the political system. So many of my friends from all political parties are still doing this despite not being paid and despite the difficulty of supporting a political party in this current climate. Every single one of them wants to improve their community. ...
Well they say a week is a long time in politics, and what a week it has been. My mind is doing somersaults trying to keep up with all that is going on and the possible ramifications of it, for us as a Party and of course wearing my RCT hat for us in Pontypridd. Labour are in a downward spiral and it is difficult to see how they can stop the rot. The events surrounding Gordon Brown's Government have taken on an almost surreal quality. It seems that every time you switch on the news there is another high ...
6 net gains in Lancashire – 6 net gains in Cumbria. We await to see if there's one or two MEPs this time. Good luck Chris and Helen.
I have been in contact with Windsor & Maidenhead Council Street Care Team. The council operate the Fixed Penalty Notices (FPN) by: The Council originally employed two Litter Enforcement Officers on 6-month temporary contracts. Other Council staff were being trained to issue litter Fixed Penalty Notices (FPN), including Parking Wardens and Community Wardens. The income from litter fixed penalty notices supplemented the officers, but did not cover all of the costs of employing them. Adopt-a-Street was introduced around the same time. This has about 16 volunteered for the scheme to date, and a school. When any resident volunteers they are ...
Earlier this week, I blogged about the 'expectations game', the way in which post-election analysis can be spun, and speculated that the Lib Dems were being set up for a fall. In fact, though, the reporting of the party's performance has been generally fair. For instance, here's Tony Travers in today's Guardian: The national equivalent vote share put the Conservatives on 38%, the Liberal Dems on 28%, Labour on 23% and "others" on 11%. Compared with 2008, the Tories are down five points, Labour down one point, the Lib Dems up one point and Others up by 5 points. In ...
...Or a rambling personal note on the council election results. First of all, if you lost your seat in the elections, regardless of your party label or lack of it, do remember that losing at an election is God's/Fate's (delete as applicable) way of telling you to live a little. Stephen Tall gives a very balanced view of the LibDems' performance here. Overall, the Liberal Democrats projected share of the vote is cause for opening up the champagne! Trebles all round! It's at 28%, compared to the Tories' 38% - just a ten point gap between us and the Tories. ...
Last night I was at the Be Proud Awards at St Georges Hall. These are the "staff oscars" for people who work at Liverpool City Council. It was great to see people being recognised for the work they do, and to see some of the awards going to teams that are normally not particularly visible. The event is organised by the Internal Communications team at the Council so well done to them too!
I wrote a short piece on the local elections on CiF yesterday, which is now live. At the time I was struggling to come up with a proper assessment of how the Lib Dems had done in the local elections so mostly concentrated on the departure of Lord Rennard, but I did write this: The Lib Dems' performance in the local elections last week appears to be a perfect example of the perniciousness of the British electoral system. Our overall share of the vote was up but we haemorrhaged councillors because of a swing from Labour to the Conservatives and ...
Within a day of Peter Hain being reappointed back to the Cabinet a small earthquake hits his home County. Two improbable events in Neath Port Talbot in quick succession. As it happens the epicentre was in the Llynfi Valley, which for those who don't know is actually in the Ogmore constituency. So I suppose it might have been Huw Irranca Davies' gardner doing some more clearance work.
It's like a throwback to the 50s – what's WRONG with the people of Doncaster that they put up with these crappy dinosaurs? Whether it's corrupt Labour politicians or Mr Davies. Whatever your thoughts on whether Prides should have funding from Local Councils and I have mixed thoughts on this surely phrases like `I don't think [...]
Final thoughts here
The past week has been like watching a slow-motion car-crash, involving the Labour automobile driven by Gordon Brown, skidding off the road and heading straight for a huge bollard. Bringing Glenys Kinnock on board as Europe Minister yesterday (yet another unelected person in a position of authority in government) was just the latest indication that Brown has lost [...]
Over at the Guardian's CommentIsLinked blog, Lib Dem blogger James Graham analyses the current situation for the party, asking what the future holds for us, post-Rennard. Here's an excerpt: Now the elections are out of the way, Clegg and party president Ros Scott must turn their attention to finding a new chief executive for the party. ... it is impossible to over-estimate how he has transformed the Lib Dems' prospects. Indeed, he has changed our whole political culture by developing and perfecting a method of populist pavement politics that can be applied almost anywhere in the country. His method is ...
The Saturday article by Matthew Parris in The Times today is spot on about Gordon Brown and the situation the government now finds itself in. He compares Mr Brown to one of the deathly sick Soviet leaders limping on, dragging the rest of his party to political oblivion. From the corner of my eye I see that the Prime Minister has joined his press conference. He is standing at the podium, waving his arms and saying repeatedly "look". Deathly pale and grinning waxily - that disembodied smile robbed, it almost seems, from another discarded dummy - he is moving and ...
Politics Home thinks we did; comparing results to it's scorecard it says our 48 seat losses is much worse than expected (although it neglects to mention that in vote share terms we were at the top-end of the scale vis a vie our lead over Labour). However, I think Liberal Democrat Voice is nearer the mark when [...]
Canvassing experiences can tell you interesting things about the people who have decided how they will vote. Conservatives will look you directly you in the eye and say 'Conservative' in a forceful voice, as if to add, 'what's it to you' or 'what are you going to do about it?' As the Conservatives are the nasty party, then it stands to reason they must have some nasty voters. Labour votes are very interested in shoes as they will quietly look at your feet, or their own feet, and whisper 'Labour' -as if to add 'please don't tell anybody'. I guess ...
LOCAL 2009: Well, I was a little bit disappointed by our results. Until I spent a few minutes going through the Guardian election map (more regularly updated than the BBC!). I found something in these elections which has really cheered me up. Remember Nick Clegg saying to Gordon Brown the choice is between Conservative and Liberal Democrat? After Thursday: In 2/34 we are FIRST. In 25/34 we are SECOND. AHEAD OF LABOUR. In 3/34 we are third behind Labour. In 3/34 we are third behind independents. In 1/34 we are fourth. In 2/34 LABOUR did NOT EXIST. So, how many ...
One of the things I really enjoy about being a local Councillor is the opportunity to make things happen that enhance the community. One of these things is to get people involved in caring for and having a say in their local parks and green spaces. One way of doing this is to form friends of parks groups. I have started two in High Barnet ward. The first was the Friends of Highlands Gardens which help care for a very special little park hidden away in New Barnet with an amazing water feature. The other friends group I have set ...
The rapidly shifting plates of UK politics, make it hard to grab a moment of reflection - analyses are rarely current as events move to date them. Peter has already done a quick round up of the Welsh implications. The hard facts we already have from results have been summed up over on Lib Dem Voice The vote shares of Con 38%, Lib Dem 28% and Lab 23% suggests a disastrous night for the Government tomorrow when the Euro's are counted. The only by-election in Wales, in Caerphilly resulted in a Plaid hold - which when it's Labour challenging you ...
So we have a projected national share of 28% and we have had some triumphs in the SE and Midlands and the North. So far so good. However, the other story is the way the Tories are using the electoral system to their own advantage and I find this totally depressing. Could it be that there'll be [...]
More from the Western Mail on how unworkable the Legislative Competence Order process is. Will the new Secretary of State step in to sort it out or even perhaps give us the long-promised referendum to abolish the system altogether and allow untramelled access to the full powers given to the Assembly by the Government of Wales Act 2006? The paper tells us that the Environmental Protection and Waste Management Legislative Competence Order, which will give the Assembly powers to tax plastic bags amongst many others to tackle climate change, and which was announced by Rhodri Morgan on 6th June 2007 ...
I was going to do a post looking at the Liberal Democrat performance in Thursday's County Council elections in England but Stephen Tall at Liberal Democrat Voice has done it already and far better that I could have. Pop over there and have a look. Some of the highlights and lowlights that Stephen singles out are: The Liberal Democrats came second, with a nationally projected vote according to the BBC, of 28%, compared to the Tories 38% and Labour's 23%. This is the joint highest popular vote ever recorded by the Lib Dems in a set of local electionsThe Lib ...
There is an interesting article from Hugh Muir in The Guardian today. In a piece entitled "Who opened the door to the BNP?" he says that in their pursuit of winnable seats, Labour and the Tories left a vacuum that the BNP has gladly filled with its county council seats in Lancashire, Leicestershire and a strong showing in Essex. The whole article is worth a read but this section in particular stood out for me when he addresses the question of why the vacuum is there: But why was there a vacuum? Because Labour failed and, largely speaking, the Tories ...
I was sad to see tv interviews this week with women saying they wouldn't be voting in last Thursday's local elections. Women in the UK have only been able to vote for just over 100 years and it was such a hard won privilege, a battle fought by women regardless of class and situation and with it, it paved the way for equality in so many aspects of our lives. I have trawled around the internet to find some links about the suffragettes and what they achieved for us, especially in the context of being a free and democratic society. ...
If you can't laugh at your self who the hell can you laugh at?
During the last two years I have done very little direct political campaigning. For many people who will have met me over the years, this would seem very odd considering how driven I was about fighting and winning elections. But for me, my overriding priority in the last two years has been my family and my job. So it is something of a relief to know that you can step back from something and, if you have done the right amount of preparation and laid the foundations correctly, things will not collapse as soon as you leave someone else to ...
Sat 6th
09:06
Can i offer our thanks to Cllr Merry for getting a meeting together to discuss Swinton Shoping Centr...
As Swinton South Councillors we welcome a meeting with Cllr Merry. Joint working is the only way forward to offer something tangible. We may have shifts on opinion but i look forward to a constructive discussion.
What to make of 4th June's local elections in England, how to sum it up? The clichés are easy: a mixed bag, a curate's egg, et bloody cetera. The reality is simpler, in my view: Thursday's local elections were, generally, pretty damn good for the Lib Dems. That's not to gloss over the disappointments - and, yes, there most definitely were some (of which more, later) - but nor should those setbacks allow us to discount the very clear successes which were achieved either. Let's start with the good: 1. The Liberal Democrats came second, with a nationally projected vote according ...
I've dragged myself from warm bed to snuggle up on sofa with my laptop and a cup of Earl Grey to watch the final practice session from the Turkish Grand Prix at Istanbul Park, somewhat perturbed by the Brawn boys' struggles yesterday. Any generosity of spirit towards Rubens Barrichello or the Ferraris has disappeared as I like the idea of Jenson equalling Schumacher's record of 6 wins out of the first races and hope that the car works better today than it did yesterday when both Brawn boys were complaining about grip. Anyway, am slightly annoyed with the hamster who ...
It was a curious morning, all in all. The Upper Gipping count watchers consisted of the Green candidate, his daughter and, from time to time, me. No Conservative, despite the fact that they were defending the seat. Or, as it turned out, not defending the seat. It fell to me to break the bad tidings when she actually arrived, as I was pretty convinced that she had lost. And, as in 2006, when I called the third seat in South Camberwell for the Greens long before they did, I was right. The final result in Upper Gipping: Andrew Stringer (Green) ...
Some quick points on the events of yesterday from a Welsh perspective: Peter Hain is back. Who would have thought it? And once more we are being told that he was exonorated, that the Electoral Commission was wrong to report him to the police etc etc. Let us not forget that it was Peter Hain who failed to declare over £100,000 of campaign donations, has admitted that he was not in control of his own campaign and was forced to apologise to the Commons for the oversight. Let us also acknowledge that it was legislation that Peter Hain supported that ...
Highlight of the day was getting water bombed near Middlebourne St. Hope it wasn't that Lynn Drake! Ha ha. Cooled us down though! Morning John rest assured it wasn't lynn she uses bricks.
Sat 6th
08:15Ripped OFT - bid-rigging in social housebuilding-what next the sleeze is speading faster than swine ...
Published by Hannah Wooderson for 24dash.com in Housing Monday 1st June 2009 – 10:31am Ripped OFT – bidd-rigging in social housebuilding The Office of Fair Trading's bid-rigging inquiry could unearth unprecedented claims by the public sector against guilty contractors. On the eve of the first wave of its findings next month, Ross Macmillan explains why the fall [...]
The Planning Applications Committee accepted officers' recommendations and rejected the proposed redevelopment by St Modwen of the Corus site on Whessoe Road. The officers had asked for 75 "affordable" units on the site (out of a total of 250), while St Modwen had offered none. St Modwen claim they had been unable to progress pre-Committee discussions with officers due to key people on both sides
The Ministry of Justice has warned consumers about the dangers of trying to get debts written off. A warning to all of one of the biggest scams that are going on at the moment. This story appears on the BBC Web site follow this link to read the full story. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8086282.stm
We don't do an LDV Daily View 2 x 2 round-up on Saturdays, so instead here's an open thread. What stories have caught your eye? What issues are on your mind? What did you think of the Lib Dems' local elections performance? How do you think we'll do in tomorrow's Euro elections? What suggestions do you have for the new Lib Dem Voice poll? Discuss away in the comments below... Coming later today: the LDV verdict on the 4th June local election results; plus this week's Golden Dozen.
Lib Dems usually come third in national elections. On Thursday we came second, a full 5 per cent ahead of labour.The next General Election could be a two-horse race between the Conservatives and the ...
Green Party surge helps Tories win Hitchin N by 6 from Lab and saves them in N Herts Rural by 73 against LDs. BNP scum win in S of county. # Ruddy Norah - the Dutch have beaten England on the final ball of the opening match in the Twenty20 Cricket World Cup. Astonishing stuff. # Off to London tomorrow for a British Humanist Association event - the high priest of godlessness Richard Dawkins plus AC Grayling speaking. # Tried an early night. It didn't work. Found a dead baby bird in the garden earlier and the blackbird nest abandoned. ...
While we all were distracted by council results, wins and losses in local seats, cabinet reshuffles and ludicrous Prime Minister press conferences, we all missed the big story.Dont worry .We were supposed to.... READ IT AND WEEP .... THE CPS are not going to prosecute a single MP . To quote... "Their initial work has been to gain a full understanding of the procedures for expense claims through engagement with the Resources Department of the House of Commons and the Finance Department of the House of Lords (each colloquially known as the Fees Office). The panel's view is that, unless ...
Yep. The LibDems won nearly three times as many seats as the Labour Party. Nice. Shame you didn't worry about the electoral system until you were dead anyway, hey? Bit of an ooops there.
Dear All, I am not supposed to be saying anything for fear of being regarded a journalist while here in Zimbabwe, but they say 'a picture paints a thousand words', and this is a 'good news story' from Simbarevanhu School in Bikita district, where the CARE team with the local pump minders have just rehabilitated the school borehole pump.... too good to resist sending on to you all... Best wishes Brian
Who knew the Cabinet were like buses — you wait ages for them to resign and then six all go at once. Albeit some with more style than others... Most worryingly, however, is that our dear (unelected) Prime Minister has replaced Caroline Flint with the unelected Glenys Kinnock. Then there's the Secretary of State Peter Mandelson who, aside from being the single most convincing argument for upper house reform in the history of the United Kingdom, is also unelected. We are being governed by the unelected. This is not democracy. Why are we consenting to this? Annabelle, hand me my ...
A belated entry due to a busy election week. Last Thursday we had an interesting, and at times shocking, discussion at the Hastings Centre on The Ridge. My Labour and Conservative counterparts and I joined a panel to discuss the current position for Equitable Life policy holders. The Government got an absolute pummelling. And quite rightly so. See this link [...]
We are in turbulent times, seemingly dozens of ministers have resigned, the government may be on its knees and faith in MPs is at an all time low. Nick Clegg has been laying out his plan to reform parliament. I am not convinced by recalling MPs, it is part of a number of bad aspects of government in California and I would have to be persuaded we have a workable scheme, but there are a number of policies that wouls shake up British politics for the better. Have a look and shape the debate. These next few months will have ...
