Like Moses descending from the mountain with the stone tablets, Gordon Brown today graced the nation's media with his presence, promising a parliamentary shake-up the like of which we've never seen before. Magna Carta? A footnote. The English Civil War? A schoolboy conker fight. This is the real deal. So how is Gordon planning to shake our democracy to its very foundations and remake it in his own reforming image? Three earth-shattering changes. ( It helps at this point if you imagine them spoken in an action movie trailer voice). ONE. AN INDEPENDENT COMMISSION TO REGULATE MPs TWO. A CODE ...
Well - it was such an exciting day yesterday. It's hard to explain - but the potential for change was thick in the air. Just before the announcement of the result - as John Bercow was standing talking to me - I did suggest that it would be symbolic if he refused the pantomime tradition of having to be 'dragged' to the Speaker's Chair. John said that the really important stuff was management of business, fairness etc - but I said I thought symbolism was quite important too, and if the very first thing he had done would have been ...
The By-Elections blog has all the latest news from the campaign. This includes an estimate of how Norwich North voted in the recent county elections: Con 11357 41.3% Lab 5059 18.4% LD 4682 17.0% Grn 4465 16.2% UKIP 1704 6.2% BNP 228 0.8%
The casual reader of this post – Duff-Verhofstadt drive to federal Europe sees its first Liberal casualty – over at The Yorkshire Guidon blog might not understand its full implication: Former Belgian PM Guy Verhofstadt, in the running to lead the Liberals and Democrats group (ALDE) in the European Parliament, and his campaign manager UK Lib Dem MEP Andrew Duff make no secret of their desire to see a 'federal Europe'. ... Such Federalist credentials are impeccable and yet are starting to spook MEPs in the ALDE group. Today saw the first defection as the widely regarded Finnish MEP from ...
If you haven't had a sneaky look already, Vale of Clwyd MP Chris Ruane's expenses files are now open to public scrutiny online on the Parliament.uk website, with redactions. The events of the expenses scandal have been so fast-moving that heads must surely be spinning by now, but following further outrage at the blacking out of certain details on the published expenses files, the Telegraph has now lifted the lid again and today started publishing the expenses in all their uncensored glory. We are publishing this on our blog because, well, somebody has to. At the time of writing, you ...
{nigel-farage} Nigel Farage is the leader of a political party that was supposed to have been consigned to the dustbin of electoral history. After a flirtation with the TV celebrity Robert Kilroy-Silk and a one-off electoral breakthrough, it is was all going to end in tears. The remnants of the United Kingdom Independence Party were to be picked over and shared out. This bunch of "loonies, extremists and fruitcakes" (to quote David Cameron) would then disappear back under whichever rock they'd crawled out from under. Bad news then for Mr. Cameron - and any others who expected to laugh knowingly ...
I have, from time to time, noted my interest in our local Parish Council. Indeed, I went as far as to apply to fill a casual vacancy through co-option. Tonight, the Parish Council met to discuss the various applications and their status and, by unanimous vote, chose to co-opt me as the newest member of Creeting St Peter Parish Council. The Code of Conduct declaration is signed, as is my acceptance of office, and the first Valladares to hold public office is formally launched. It's really kind of humbling...
The Southend Echo reports (hat-tip to Peter Welch): SOUTHEND West Conservative MP David Amess claimed more than £1,500 on expenses for website design and hosting. However, the only website the Echo has been able to find dedicated to Mr Amess contained just one picture and no information about him, besides the statement he was the MP for Southend West. Yesterday, a spokesman at MP's London office was unable to confirm the web address to which of Mr Amess's claim related or if it had ever gone live. He said he would ask Mr Amess to call us back, but the ...
News via Lib Dem Blogs that links to the website of a local paper somewhere in Essex has reported that a Conservative MP claims £1,500 for a website which seems to be hidden. After looking for the website myself I have come across it and I have an answer for them. The Tory MP does indeed have a website but it actually is an ePolitix website that is free so we are being scammed out of £1,500 every year by this MP. Its a little like the Labour MP for Pendle claiming that much near enough for his website which ...
I have just left George Crozier's leaving do in Westminster. Contrary to popular opinion, as implied by one of my regular readers, only a small number of people are leaving Cowley St. We are moving on for different reasons and we are all being replaced! So sorry Kevin, not quite the story you were suggesting!Anyway, I am heading back to the flat now to pack for our holiday. We leave tomorrow for
Yesterday and today I have again been plagued by the mystery off-road quad biker, who seems to think it's a good idea to roar past my house at speeds of over 50mph, despite the speed limit being only 20mph. The speed bumps are simply "exciting targets" and the paths merely an incovenience he enjoys ignoring. {15/05/09} 15th May 2009 When I last saw him on 15th May, with a hood pulled up over his head - he was travelling at such speed that I was barely able to get a good look (or picture), although he certainly looked at me ...
A week ago, Nick Clegg announced his decision to become the first mainstream party leader to declare openly his opposition to the UK renewing the Trident nuclear deterrent: "the world has changed, the facts have changed, you've got to change with them. So like-for-like replacement for Trident is just not right." We asked LDV readers to tell us what you thought of the Lib Dem leader's change of heart (in the 2007 leadership campaign he clashed with Chris Huhne on the issue, arguing the UK should wait until the 2010 non-proliferation talks before deciding whether or not to renew). The ...
Nick Clegg set out his views on how Sir John Chilcot's inquiry into the war with Iraq should be conducted on the BBC1 Andrew Marr show this weekend – you can view a 2-minute excerpt from the interview with Nick HERE. Nick has now met with Sir John to discuss his concerns that Gordon Brown's insistence the inquiry should be private would undermine its effectiveness – fortunately it seems that Sir John largely agrees. Here's the open letter Nick has written to Sir John: Dear Sir John, Thank you for meeting with me earlier regarding your inquiry. I was pleased ...
Today has been an incredibly frustrating day, which began with a trip to the Civic Centre before I started work. My plan was to attend this morning's Cabinet Meeting and put a simple question to Lead Council Members. "How does the Council hope to address the £100m highways maintenance backlog?" Simple enough, right? Wrong. While as a local resident, I am allowed to observe Cabinet - I am not allowed to ask a simple question. Luckily, I was able to seek the help of Salford Lib Dem leader Councillor Norman Owen to ask the question on my behalf. While credit ...
A Tory MP has been taking part in Parliamentary business to promote a company that he owns this comes from a news report by the Daily Express but was ignored by the whole of the blogosphere and I didn't even know about it until one of my eyes and ears brought it to my attention. The Tory MP who is an Asian Mr Shailesh Vara has been taking self interest into account and has been going away from the actual role of an MP. An MP is meant to represent the views of the general public not themselves but that ...
Tue 23rd
18:45
God could we see black people in the BNP? no what self respecting black person would want to join wi...
BNP facing injunction over membership criteria Published by Hannah Wooderson for 24dash.com in Local Government , Central Government Tuesday 23rd June 2009 – 12:09pm var addthis_pub="allpaykp"; BNP facing injunction over membership criteria The BNP could face a legal injunction over a potential breach of race discrimination law relating to its membership policies, it was announced today. The Equality [...]
Tue 23rd
18:38Found this article on Salford online about homelessness at a record low! well perhaps i will not hav...
Council say homelessness 'at a record low' <!–Last Updated – 23rd June 2009 at 12:32 PM –> by Tom Rodgers Salford City Council have released new figures stating that the number of homeless people in Salford has dropped to levels not seen before in the city. In a press release the local authority state that: "The rate [...]
I've mentioned Sarah, one of the stars of the F1 Twitterverse before. She's the one who designed the Save F1 - Max Out avatar that many of us have used and adapted. It was quite fun to get messages from friends who don't follow F1 on Friday, when the breakaway series was announced, saying that now they realised what it was all about! Anyway, she was lucky enough to spend Sunday, British Grand Prix day, at a party at Brawn GP HQ and got to meet Ross Brawn and Rubens Barrichello later. She's written up her experience here which also ...
A campaign has been started to get Kitty Ussher sacked and another campaign has been started to get Barry Gardiner MP sacked and to join the campaign group follow the link to facebook. I am enjoying these campaigns to get MP's sacked because the issue is that we elect them so we should be allowed to sack them when we like and this is a great way to put pressure on them via the Internet to go. The campaign group says: This is not a smear campaign!!!, this is simply a stand against a man who does not represent the ...
June 19th, 2009 | 8:36 am Hey nice job on restricting comments – have you thought of getting jobs in Iran? Maybe you could have the comments you don't like just blacked out? I'm a lifetime labour voter from the area. I've just registered after last nights vote to say that if any of you people [...]
A second Lib Dem leaflet arrived today, putting the leaflet score at Tories 1, Labour 1 and Lib Dem 2.
Tue 23rd
17:45
Thoughts from the Train: all the change in the world won't help without cutting out the anger
A new Speaker, more enquiries, independent or otherwise than you can shake a stick at, talk of reform of our Parliament, electoral systems and political parties, it has certainly been all go for those interested in our constitutional settlement in recent weeks. I suppose that I should be included in that number, as someone who entered politics through an interest in democracy and how it works - I was the Deputy Returning Officer of my Students' Union at the University of East Anglia before I joined the local Union of Liberal Students branch. Indeed, I retain an involvement through my ...
I've been really rather impressed by the writing of young Costigan Quist for some time (I can call him young, everyone's younger than me these days). So it's high time that I added him to my blog roll...
The deadline for objections to the Jack Allen waste plan is tomorrow (24th June). If you have a letter and realise now its too late to catch the post, put it through my door today and I'll take it to the Council offices when I go in tomorrow. I live at 75 Canterbury Street, Garston (which is in the part referred to as Under the Bridge).
After the conclusion of the Council Meeting, the Liberal Democrat Shadow Cabinet met to agree spokespersonships. Our role will be to lead the scrutiny of the decisions being made by the individual cabinet members as well as to play a role in helping members of the public to have their say to the Council - especially where they oppose any particular decision being made. I was asked by Liberal Democrat Group Leader Doris Ansari to cover the brief known as Health and Wellbeing. The principle focus for this portfolio is to deal with libraries, leisure centres, adult education and public ...
This morning's Western Mail reports that Plaid Cymru's National Chair, John Dixon was paid £10,000 from public funds to provide IT consultancy to Adam Price MP. Details of the redacted expenses published by the House of Commons reveal that a company called Corwynt was paid a total of £10,129.51 to supervise work on a new computer system in the Ammanford office of Mr. Price, who is the MP for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr. Corwynt is an IT consultancy registered at the home of Mr. Dixon in Llanpumsaint and both he and his wife are listed as directors of it at ...
I don't think that today's first meeting of the new Cornwall Council would have been an edifying spectacle for observers. But then the Annual Meeting has little politics on the agenda and was mainly concerned with electing the leading members and appointing committees. Pat Harvey was elected Chairman (she insists on the term) and John Dyer Vice Chairman despite being run surprisingly close by Colin Brewer who contested both posts. As expected Alec Robertson, Leader of the Conservative Group, was elected Leader. The Liberal Democrats did not oppose that election as we accept that the combined forces of the Conservatives ...
The Echo is running this story. SOUTHEND West Conser-vative MP David Amess claimed more than £1,500 on expenses for website design and hosting. However, the only website the Echo has been able to find dedicated to Mr Amess contained just one picture and no information about him, besides the statement he was the MP for Southend West. So let's open this up. Let me know if you have found a David Amess website that might have cost the taxpayer £1500.
Iain Dale has blogged about how he was at an event in which he had a debate with newspaper columnists who were attacking the blogosphere and how he tried to put them straight. This has lead to me getting a little worked up so here comes a rant (don't worry new comer its regular). First of all newspapers need to look at the amount of money they pour into an online presence but that money is going to waste because people like myself who run blogs for a mere $10 are being read by people and you are not stealing ...
Excellent post yet one also has to question what vested interests there have been to take Parliament so long to understand this. A question should be put `What is stopping Parliament from acting swiftly and LEADING not just representing?` To my mind it all comes down to two things – our electoral system and the fact that [...]
So what are the on-the-ground effects of Mr Speaker Berkow removing Buckingham constituency from normal Parliamentary competition? By convention there will be no LibDem or Labour General Election candidates and of course no Tory ones also. What effect will this have on politics in that area and on neighbouring areas? Bercow could be Speaker for several general elections, given his youth, so this could be a generational influence in terms of local politics. Will Parliamentary level activity atrophy here and if so will it affect parties in different ways? How will the local government fights be affected? What about recruitment ...
Did you hear the return last week of the legendary I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (Radio 4 again)? Broadcast for the first time without the legendary Chairman Humph, the fabulous Mr Stephen Fry is now in the chair. He seemed surprisingly ill-at-ease in last week's edition, clearly wishing neither to adopt his benevolently rude brain-the-size-of-a-planet persona QI persona, nor impersonate the late Mr Lyttelton. By last night, however, he'd found his voice. After the topical rude joke about Mr Gladstone but before CSI Macclesfield and Victoria Wood with a Kalashnikov, Stephen made me laugh with a swipe at homeopathy: ...
He may be nearly 70 but you have to hand it to Rhodri Morgan, he can dance. No comment on the rest.
At the "Commentariat vs Bloggertariat" event last night that I have already blogged about, Martin Bright of the Spectator said that he has not yet come across what he would describe as a "classic" blog post. I disagree with him and have a few in mind that I intend to forward to him. However I thought it might be a nice idea for others to nominate what they consider to be classic blog posts. I think he is talking about posts that can compare with the best newspaper columns but feel free to nominate blog posts in the comments below ...
The announcement of the Tories' formal establishment of the new anti-federalist grouping in the European Parliament – the European Conservatives and Reformists group – was (deliberately) buried by the party yesterday on a day when they realised political attention would be focused on the election to be Commons Speaker. Ever since David Cameron's panicked and rash promise in 2005 – at a time when his leadership bid was seriously flagging – that the Tories would desert the mainstream centre-right coalition, the European People's Party (EPP), the Tory party has been grappling with how to achieve this without finding themselves isolated ...
As luck would have it my planned walkabout on Attwood Green and Park Central coincided with a gorgeous sunny day! {A sunny Park Central} The tranquil day was spoilt by a young lad riding a motorbike around the park to impress the girls. He had "L" plates but no helmet. He was soon told to clear off by the efficient park ranger who noted his plate - good job!
Parliament is struggling to make itself more powerful in an era when- post Blair and Thatcher -British politics has become more presidential. You could of course argue that the rot set in with Lloyd George and the 1916 Government, but I doubt he even dreamt of the untrammeled power now enjoyed by Brown. The British constitution has not effectively responded to this evaporation of power. A 'think piece' in the Independent this morning suggests that as long as the government is drawn from the Commons too many folk will be focused on a Ministerial career and thus act as a ...
It made a change this morning to Visit Hayesfield School and to be able to talk to the year 8 pupils about what it is like being a councillor and how local politics affect their daily life. It was quite a surprise to find how clued in some of the young ladies actually are about the environment that they live in. It was also good to hear about some of the ideas that they have for the...
Congratulations to John Bercow on his appointment as Speaker. Looking at his biography, he certainly looks like the type of person with the depth of experience to clean up British politics. The only problem is that his biography isn't as comprehensive as it should be. He makes no mention of his spell in 1996-7 as a Westminster lobbyist, and who was that Chief Secretary to the Treasury who John served as Special Adviser in the mid 1990's? That, I believe, was a certain Jonathan Aitken.
Boris Johnson's deputy Mayor has had to resign for meals that he was charging on the tax payer. After digging from the London Evening Standard they have revealed that the deputy Mayor Ian Clement was talking his mistress for lunch. First it was MP's having sex in the Houses of Parliament to which we elect them and now civil servants paying for lunch with their mistresses with our money...
Over at the Daily Mirror, Lib Dem deputy leader Vince Cable writes about the "dangerous mood building up in the City. Bankers are straining at the leash. They sniff a chance to get back to business as usual." Here's an excerpt: Last week the Governor of the Bank of England warned that banks which are "too big to fail" are simply too big. The UK taxpayer cannot stand behind global banks and the casinos, the big investment banks. These make their profits from speculative trades. Casinos are legal but are not banks. They have to be split off. ... Bankers ...
Fresh Squeezings from the veins of the internet!Mark Gatiss is awesome! I may have mentioned this before. But my reason for mentioning it today is the radio documentary he has made on Doctor Who Target Novelisations, which was on at half past 11 today, and was awesome. You can also read an article about it on the BBC website, should you so desire. Merlin Missy wonders why, when there are so many female geeks around, we still have to keep shouting Hey! We're here! Well, it's simple, isn't it? So that Russell T Davies and Joss Whedon can try to ...
CON 38 (-1) LAB 21 (-4) LD 19 (nc) From Political Betting Its bad news is the 4 point drop for the Labour party because this will cause a lot of trouble for them internally because they will have a lot of doubts within their party for the future of the party and their role in Westminster. The Tory 1 point drop is something that I am celebrating because I don't want a Tory government as much as the next person so its always great for the Tories to lose support. Sadly the Lib Dem result hasn't changed and personally ...
First Minister's Questions are being taken by Ieuan Wyn Jones today as Rhodri Morgan is off to Washington DC for the Smithsonian Folklife Festival which this year will celebrate Welsh culture. There will be a major trade mission featuring 80 Welsh companies running alongside the festival. Commenting on his trip the First Minister was keen to stress that it would not be 'too druidic and bardic'. He said: "We've tried to weave the two (culture and technology) together under this overall banner of sustainability...The Irish always had this clash between the Leprechauns on the one side and the hi-tech imagery ...
So John Bercow was elected as Speaker, my favourite Ann Widdecombe made it through to the second round but it appears whilst she maybe popular in the country she is not in the House.
Winding up usage of my old work email address in the last few weeks, after using it for nearly a decade, has given me far more experience than I've ever wanted about the idiosyncracies of trying to change your email address on different lists and for different organisations and firms. (Double black marks to the people running some of the Barack Obama email lists who (a) don't tell you how to change your address, (b) don't tell you have to join the list from your new address and (c) don't reply if you contact them. But then, as you may ...
{eco} Sworn enemies they might be, but I can't help but deem the reaction of environmentalist groups to news that BP has been planting trees to be somewhat unreasonable. A little context first: BP has funded a £10m project to plants trees in Scotland. According to the scheme, it has already planted 3.5 million trees, which apparently suck up 377,000 tonnes of carbon over a century. By Jove. Yet the response from Friends of the Earth and the WWF is hardly welcoming. They both condemn the announcement as a "greenwash," with the latter unable to resist referring to BP's "dirty ...
The British Humanist Association are getting all shirty about evolution not being in the primary schools curriculum. Primary schools are those for sprogs up to about age 11.The BHA is dead wrong. There are plenty of far more important scientific concepts for primary schools - such as, for example, teaching the scientific method, what theories and hypotheses are, some experimental design, very basic statistics, precision vs accuracy .... And indeed more important non-scientific things they should be teaching, such as Latin, geometry and geography. Evolution is way down the list. It isn't even "the most important idea underlying the life ...
Just been watching The Daily Politics where Lord Puttnam (that old Labour dinosaur) was going on about the need to reform the traditions of Parliament. My own view is keep those that are purely ceremonial and historic and ditch those that impede democracy. I have no problems with Lord McNally doffing his funny hat nor the [...]
When should policy makers start to withdraw the stimulus? Christine Romer in the Economist digs up an historical analogy that Paul Krugman is fond of: the way FDR precipitated a mini-Depression in 1937-8 by going for a balanced budget too soon, and also tightening monetary conditions. She warns against holding back on stimulus until we are returning to full employment. Paul Samuelson too argues for the stimulus to be sustained. Perhaps the green shoots we are seeing are only, um, shooting because of the expectation that the stimulus will last. Similar reasoning helps explain why Wolfgang Munchau is so furious ...
There was a hideous little piece on the Today programme this morning when Rambling Jim Naughtie introduced A.L.Kennedy (who she, thought I)to talk about Andy Murray. Andy Murray is Scottish, so is Rambling Jim and so, apparently, is this A.L. Kennedy. Cue a self-reverential piece about how if Andy Murray does well in the first week he will be Scottish (titter) but if he does well in the second week he will be English (titter, titter). If he wins he will become British. Hoorah and more knowing tittering. What a bag of tartan turds this whole theory is. Andy Murray ...
The French President has made a comment on the Burka attacking it as reported by the BBC and personally I am disgraced by this and I am also saddened by this. Muslim women do not wear the Burka because they are forced to wear it on actually they wear it because they want to. Secondly the Burka is not compulsory in Islam and women don't have to wear it but people like Sarkozy need to stop using bully boy tactics to try and end the identity of Muslims. Muslims will not just slide into western culture if they are banned ...
The Stirrer reveals plans for a new TV station for the city. The trailer sums everything up well and there seems to be some good industry folk involved. The trailer promises "local politics and business news" which could make for some interesting times ahead. One thing I would like to see is the children of the city given the opportunity to get involved. Budding media stars in Ladywood are already given the opportunity to learn about presenting and producing shows through the fantastic TNT Ladywood - how I'd love to see this transferred to the TV.
Gossip that Ian Clement was using his corporate credit cards to hide an affair has been rife, but up to now to avoid a legal action I haven't commented on it in public.People have been asking why expenses were going onto a corporate card, rather than onto one where the bill would turn up at his home. People have been asking about some unusual expenditure that just didn't seem to quite fit with
This the second in our series of podcasts of recordings made at ALDC's Local Solutions 2009 conference on Saturday in Sheffield. You can listen to Nick Clegg and Ros Scott in the first instalment. For the second hour, the leader of Sheffield city council Cllr Paul Scriven gave delegates a detailed explanation of how the Lib Dems won Sheffield – and most importantly of all, what they did with the power once they had it. It's an inspiring story of decentralisation and empowerment of the local citizenry and is well worth forwarding around any of your colleagues who want to ...
Ming Campbell is a good politician, he has a past that would bring a tear to any eye and yet he fights on for the people who elect him to Parliament every day in Westminster and back in his constituency but how did he fail as the leader of the Lib Dems. This blog post has been triggered by a blog post by LDV on a programme about Ming on the BBC. First of all I think Ming lost out as the leader of the Liberal Democrats because of grass root supporters who were out to get him. People who ...
Yesterday while canvassing I had an ineresting conversation with someone who I'd describe as a `soft BNP` voter. She was very intelligent and articulate and the conversation was very `balanced` between the universal culture and her own fears. She had usually been Conservative though found herself voting BNP on June 4th. `What had she done?` [...]
"Tony Blair... he would have probably been a Tory if he hadn't married Cherie" In this third and final part of the Sunday Mercury's interview with Clare Short, MP for Birmingham Ladywood, Clare compares Gordon Brown and Tony Blair and talks about her ambition to be mayor of Birmingham (if we are ever forced into having an elected mayor, of course) It's worth watching, particularly for her comments on Tony Blair and her opinion that he would probably have been a Tory had he not met Cherie. Tony's wife has since dismissed those claims as "rubbish". Watch Part One of ...
It was great to see Liberal Democrat MP Sandra Gidley drag (or more accurately gently push)new Speaker John Bercow to the Chair. This tradition is a relic of the time where Speakers ran interference between the Monarch and Parliament and were liable to end up either in jail or minus vital body parts. Given the lengths to which the Tories hate his guts, several hundred years ago, they would probably all have voted for Bercow in the hope that he would meet some unsavoury end. As an aside, let's hope that the Tories can be grown up and give the ...
I was going to blog about how on the BBC 10 0'clock news last night they had both Brown's and Cameron's welcoming speeches to the new speaking but not Nick Clegg's (especially considering he was the only one who was a bit different) but I see Alex Wilcock has done it much better already! Don't ya just love the establishment...
"If Tony Blair had told the truth, discussed it honestly, we probably could have prevented a disaster that's killed up to a million Iraqis, displaced millions of them, wrecked the country, nearly 200 young Brits are dead and many others mangled and injured and the Middle East is ever more dangerous. I think Tony has ruined his reputation, it's a tragedy all round." In this second part of the interview with the Sunday Mercury, Clare talks about her resignation over the Iraq war, her own expenses claims and those of her colleagues. She says the people of Ladywood have no ...
I was invited to attend an event yesterday called "Commentariat vs Bloggertariat" organised by Editorial Intelligence. It was an attempt to bring bloggers and newspaper commentators together and discuss the relationship between blogging and newspapers and to speculate on what the future may hold. It was nice to be treated as a "proper" blogger like this! I have only really been seriously blogging since last November and I think this invitation was a result of the well publicised posts I did last month about the link between the expenses scandal and safe seats which got me lots of visits and ...
Yesterday I raised a question on this blog to get some advice for what to do in the future e.g. asked readers about how I can get practical skills in IT and networking and I enjoyed the replies that I got from the people and the emails that I received. This whole thing gave me a smile today when I opened my inbox and so that people had emailed me about it. Its always good to get contacted by the readership and its even better to get contacted by them if they are going to give you something in return ...
Today is the 120th anniversary of the poet Anna Akhmatova's birth, and a quatrain from her beautiful work "Requiem" come to mind, as I think of what's going on in Iran. No foreign sky protected me, no stranger's wing shielded my face. I stand as witness to the common lot, survivor of that time, that place.
Last weekend the Sunday Mercury sat down with Clare Short for an interview with the now independent MP for Birmingham Ladywood, who is standing down at the next election. Here's part one in which Clare talks about her life before becoming an MP, her fondness of Handsworth and her favourite memories of her time in Parliament. Watch Part Two of the interview. Watch Part Three of the interview.
Oh joy! What a pleasure to see Cameron, applauding Bercow, and looking as if he (Cameron) had swallowed a wasp. All those Tories with their arms folded. And Alan Duncan on BBC Breakfast managed only to bring himself to say that Bercow is "capable" and that the position of Speaker should be "respected". But Bercow is, at least, a moderate break with the Gentlemen's Club tradition. Sir George Young, patrician Eton-educated baronet - now he would have been the "Club" choice. What sort of message would that have given the country? But Bercow? He's the son of a taxi driver! ...
Cross-posted from Liberal Conspiracy: Trying to put the pieces of the economy and our financial system back together again, it is clear that one of the underlying problems has been the vulnerability of many institutions to lop-sided incentives. We've seen it as its most obvious with dealers - who can run big risks, retire very rich very young - and not have to worry about the long-term consequences, because they've long since left the scene. Another example has been in the boardroom - huge bonuses in the good times, and if it goes wrong? A nice little pay off and ...
Radio 4's flagship is the Today Programme - the pips, the self-satisfied presenters, the ludicrous tangents, everything that makes anyone seriously interested in politics wake up shouting at the radio and want to throttle their wireless in the shower. But while today's Today is being a prime example over the Speaker, there's more to the station than that. Between 11 and 12 this morning, I'll be listening to two quite different programmes: The Age of Ming, on the discrimination against Ming Campbell; and On the Outside, It Looked Like An Old-Fashioned Police Box, celebrating Target's glorious Doctor Who book range. ...
This review of The Decline of British Radicalism 1847-1860 by Miles Taylor (1995) first appeared in 1996 in the Journal of Liberal History Issue 11. Miles Taylor's book is an examination of the failure of British radicalism in the 1850s. For many the mere appearance of a book that concentrates on the 1850s in their own right, rather than later or earlier periods, will be welcome. However, this book has an added interest for those wondering about the future of the Liberal Democrats as there are many parallels between the picture he draws of radicals and the recent history and ...
2 Big Stories Events continue to unfold afer Iran's contested election results and surrounding protest. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has expressed dismay at events yesterday, when protestors were dispersed by the police with tear gas. The Revolutionary Guard have threatened to suppress any further protests in favour of presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi. As The Independent reports, Mousavi, who was officially beaten into second place by Ahmadinejad in an election which he says was rigged, called late on Sunday for fresh protests by his supporters. "Protesting against lies and fraud (in the election) is your right," Mousavi said in a ...
A quick post to flag a really rather level-headed article in today's Guardian about antioxidants and dietary pills - one that looks at why taking such pills seemed plausible in the first place and at the mounting evidence that supplements laden with antioxidants may not only be ineffective at protecting against disease but may actually cause harm.The author describes how the initial observation
"Save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man" [Moses told his army officers]...The plunder that the soldiers took was...32,000 women. (Numbers ch 31)Rape has a long history. Everyone reading this almost certainly has many ancestors who committed rape and thought little of it. God smiled upon it, soldiers often saw it as just reward for hardships endured laying siege to a city or conducting a war. No-one can be under the illusion that rape as a crime has been beaten; but I was still shocked by the extent to which it's not just common but accepted ...
It was said on Radio 4 last night and is in Wikipedia so it must be true... Bernard Manning guarded Rudolf Hess in Spandau Prison after the end of World War II.
My Lib Dem council colleagues from Stroud Green ward (Ed Butcher, Laura Edge and Richard Wilson) have launched their parking survey on the internet to gain further views from local residents. They'd already begun a door-to-door survey in response to news that Haringey Council were delaying plans to review the Finsbury Park Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ) until at least 2010. Curses on the dreaded Haringey Council - can they do nothing right? When you go door-to-door, not everyone is in etc, so hopefully this online survey will reach out further If you'd like to take part in the survey, go ...
So after three rounds of voting we now have the 157th Speaker of the House of Commons. He's promised to be a new broom. Hmm we'll wait and see. All I knew about him was that he claimed nearly £1,000 for the cost of hiring an accountant to ...
I wish to put on record my shock to the recent episode of Eastenders which show the character of a Muslim Man (Saeed) kissing Christian, (non Muslim open gay) and displaying his affection towards him. In the episode the writers clearly know that this is an act against Islam. (They gets Saeed to clearly say it)I think knowing full well that it is frowned upon within the religion and also South-Asian culture and exploiting that is totally wrong. My daily blogger read (Irfan Ahmed Blog) asked a question over the weekend if he was the only Muslim commentator. I would ...
Interesting paper by Chatham House and the University of St Andrews analysing the voting figures in this month's Iranian Presidential Elections. Comparing this and the previous elections of 2005, the team come up with some fascinating ...
Tory MP for Buckingham John Bercow has been elected as the new speaker of the House of Commons. After a six hour long rigorous election he beat fellow Tory Sir George Young 322 to 271. He told MPs that it was the greatest honour of his political life. Lets hope he can clean up politics... Do you think he will? Why not leave comments.
Since the 60s at least, there's been a strand of liberalism that's been closely linked with collectivism - our curse, if you like, and the source of the movement's irrelevance in modern politics. Liberalism as liberty without property rights blurs the line with communitarian and collectivist thought very easily. The idea of a 'liberal left' in this context is fairly intuitive. The idea that people - say, for example, a few thousand hippies - should have the right to have a peace and love festival wherever the hell they like? That's liberty without property rights. So the concept of 'a ...
