I've been in London Monday & Tuesday with the day job - here's a few photos : Above : London was very warm - but with heavy rain at times! Above : My Institute's Annual Reception was at the London Transport Museum - a great night had by all! Above : Michael Jackson Tributes outside the Lyric Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue - the tributes were very moving. I got back to Scotland on a flight from Luton, getting me in to Edinburgh at 5.30pm tonight. I made it to the Logie Residents' Association AGM at 7pm at the Lime Street ...
David Davis has used parliamentary privilege to accuse the British intelligence service of "outsourcing torture". The former Shadow Home Secretary, reports BBC News: cited the case of Rangzieb Ahmed, from Rochdale, who was jailed for life for being an al-Qaeda planner.Mr Davies (sic) told the House of Commons that intelligence services had allowed Ahmed to go to Pakistan.Once there, they alerted Pakistani authorities who arrested him and tortured him, parliament was told.Mr Davies (sic) is calling for a judicial inquiry into at least 15 cases where torture of terrorist suspects has been alleged.
This episode of Crotchw00t will henceforth be known as the one with ( SPOILER! ). First ( SPOILER! ) was ( SPOILER! ), and then ( SPOILER! ) and then, of course, ( SPOILER! ), who spent pretty much the whole episode ( SPOILER! ), in true and glorious return-to-form stylee. ( SPOILER! )'s character development is a bit unbelievable - ( SPOILER! ), but I suppose that could be painted as a commentary on just how much trust in the machinery of government has been eroded. Still, I bet ( possible SPOILER! ) - after all, the ( SPOILER! ...
According to London's Evening Standard, Barnet and Camden's Tory member of the Great London Assembly (GLA) Brian Coleman is the one and only Assembly member who has not vountarily itemised details of his expenses. Only the 'mad, bad and the sad' would be interested in the minutiae of his taxi bills, he is reported as [...]
Lord Bonkers writes exclusively for Liberal England: I hope none of you was too frightened by today's thunderstorms. My preferred method for coping with them involves the delightful Julie Andrews and a large feather bed, but that can be difficult to arrange at short notice.
... how can you justify putting up the cost of a passport by 7.6%? Actually, you probably could, if you were to claim that you were using market forces to persuade us not to travel overseas, thus reducing carbon emission levels caused by aviation. Alternatively, you could improve the response time of the Passport Agency, providing more local offices. Unfortunately, the reason is that the recession is causing a drop in the number of passport applications, thus increasing the cost per unit. This is something of a puzzler, given that one presumes that, as with the rest of the civil ...
Under the rules introduced on 1st July (aiming to provide greater transparency about "outside" work) we have been told that payment in kind also has to be registered - including for when we make speeches etc in the constituency. Some of us thought that such events were not part of the job and not really outside interests but what it has meant is that today I declared the following.BIzarre!Also am
The fast rising up the Lib Dem Wikio ranks Mark Reckons has posed a meme of who are all the MPs that have represented you. So here goes in chronological order. Birth - 1970 George Currie (North Down) - Ulster Unionist (the only one I haven't seen in the flesh. 1970-1988 going to University James Kilfedder (North Down)- Ulster Unionist/Independent Unionist/Popular Unionist 1988-1991 Richard Tracey (Surbiton) - Conservative (Yeah I had Dick Tracey as my MP) September 1991-April 1992 Dave Nellist (Coventry South East) De-selected Labour April -August 1992 Jim Cunningham (Coventry South East) - Labour 1992-1996 Norman Lamont (Kingston)- ...
Regular readers will know that I have been campaigning about the state of the advertising billboards on the Western Road. They had got into a shocking state of disrepair and had not hosted an advert for around 18 months. I said that the company that owned them should either repair and use them properly or remove them altogether. Well tonight they are being taken down. It appears that the company was not able to paste new adverts because such pasting had to be done from the road itself and this was unsafe. So they decided to take them down. There ...
Over at The Guardian Lib Dem supporter (and former 'agony aunt') Claire Rayner argues that only electoral reform can break the cycle of cynicism over politics and politicians by encouraging people to vote again. Here's an excerpt: So, the right to vote was fought for, and everyone over the age of 18 in the UK is able to choose their representative for minor and important matters of state. Do they? Do they, hell. We have the most feeble of democracies because people do not bother exercising their right to vote. A disappointing number of eligible Britons turned up to vote ...
Back in October 2008 when I was still cutting my teeth in blogging I blogged about the book "The Jewel of Medina" and how I believed it should be banned from sale in the UK (It was reported by Himmelgarten Cafe due to my blog crashing at the time). At the time many commented on my blog saying it was illiberal. Shouldn't Liberalism have a limit to a standard? If you answer NO to that then Liberally you wouldn't mind anything happening in the UK yet you support the argument of people like Chris Davies on issues like the Burka? ...
I am a civil servant and, therefore, apparently not the best person to talk about customer service. And yet I find myself almost perpetually puzzled by the inability of banks and utility companies to do even simple things well. I need to change my address and, as my bank suggests, I use my internet banking to do so. This doesn't work, as I apparently have a complicated address, or the moon is in the wrong phase, or my tie is the wrong colour, or whatever. So I go to the nearest branch to do it, and am asked if I ...
My day was a weird one on the 7th July 2005, to be fair given the Olympics announcement it was a weird week. I was now Head of Office and Organiser to Lynne Featherstone MP and we had a good day when the Olympics result was announced - in fact we had been stood in the corridor behind the Speakers Chair when the announcement happened. Anyhow, back to 7/7. I'd come into our Norman Shaw office early to deal with casework, parliamentary questions and the like but was due to take my laptop over to Southwark (previous job) so Matt ...
With regard to my story below about the Tories signing up to a campaign pledge, can Chloe Smith assure us all in Norwich North than neither she nor any of her team were responsible for delivering possbily one of the most disgusting leaflets in recent years, shown below, which appeared to attempt to mislead people in to beleiving that the Lib Dem MP for Cheadle was a rapist ? Of course, if any of her team were in Cheadle delivering this leaflet, wouldn't it imply a massive degree of hypocrisy from the Tories ?
Tom Brake, MP for Carshalton & Wallington, invites all young Liberals to make their way to Wallington this Thursday for an evening protest. TfL is discontinuing the N213 bus from Croydon, South London. This means that thousands of young Londoners will either be cut off from getting home at night or forced to crowd into a dated and inconvenient alternative route. Upwards of 200 young Liberals and locals will be gathering at Wallington Hall from 10pm onwards to send a message to Boris. I'll be there, so should you! Sign up to the event by clicking here: {Share/Save/Bookmark}
Norfolk Blogger reports: I had two emails at the weekend from Tories trying to convince me that the Greens were doing well despite the evidence on the streets being clearly the opposite. It was clear that these Tories wanted me to believe something that as a local, living and working in the constituency, was obviously untrue.What is going on? His analysis is that: It has been clear for some time that the Tory campaign in Norwich North has been to "play it safe", and hope that their core vote turns out over as evenly split an opposition as possible. However, ...
I've just enjoyed this excellent clip of Philip Hammond from Daily Politics. Andrew Neil was a bit bullying with him, and Hammond kept his nerve. But Neil teased out a couple of key points: 1. The Tories have promised 17 new Quangoes but can only currently name 2 which they would get rid of, despite having been in opposition for twelve years and the concept of Quangoes having been around for 30+ years. So, in terms of named bodies, they are currently proposing to actually increase the number of Quangoes by a net total of 15. 2. The Tories quote ...
I've learned about a very sad and upsetting incident today - the Babes Brothel situation has taken a very nasty turn. People may be aware that there's Brothel Watch campaign being run by Richard Carvath (see posts on this and his blog). Regular visitors will also see comments on posts by a variety of people [...]
It has been clear for some time that the Tory campaign in Norwich North has been to "play it safe", and hope that their core vote turns out over as evenly split an opposition as possible. However, it seems that their plans are becoming unravelled. From what I have been told the Lib Dems have got clear traction in this campaign, clearly evident from the number of leaflets being delivered and the number of Lib Dem posters going up, and this has clearly got the Tories worried. One party breaking clear from the pack behind them is their greatest threat. ...
A while ago I pledged to stop reading LabourList. I felt that they were just an arm of the Labour Party central machine as was evidenced by the extremely partisan and uncritical stance taken in almost all of the early posts. This seemed to be its raison d'etre under the stewardship of the partisan attack dog Derek Draper. However I have noticed that since Draper was deposed (and I went back on my pledge and included them in my RSS feeds again - I thought I'd give them a second chance), some of the posts on LL have started to ...
Social estate, young men driving expensive motor bikes, flash cars, and large sums of money. Young children doing a garden project and dig up a bag full of shotgun shells. Kids failing, mothers pregnant at sixteen can't be bothered to get out of bed to take the kids to school. People living in fear of [...]
Neal Keeling and Chris Osuh July 07, 2009 A MANHUNT for a machine gun assassin was underway today after the botched 'hit' in which an innocent shop worker was murdered. Nasar Hussain, 30, was shot at least six times by a masked gunman with a Mac-10 submachine pistol in a Salford store. The weapon, favoured by Manchester's gangsters, [...]
London Assembly Member Brian Coleman is refusing to publish details of his expenses, despite the Mayor, his advisors and the other 24 members of the Assembly agreeing to do so voluntarily. Apparently a graduate of the Anthony Steen Charm School for Politicians, Coleman has blamed bloggers for being interested in how taxpayers' money is spent: "I won't do it voluntarily. It's none of the public's business. They have coped well without knowing this kind of detail for more than 75 years. They are not entitled to drool over our personal lives. I'm not going to help the mad, bad and ...
Two by elections that were held on 2nd July saw the conserviatives hold a seat that they were defending on East Dorset District Council and loose a seat to the Liberal Democrats on Sutton LBC result below. Sutton LBC, Nonsuch LD Gerry Jerome 1665 (50.6; +4.0) Con 1329 (40.4; -7.2) BNP 211 (6.4; +6.4) Lab 88 (2.7; -3.3) Majority 336 Turnout...
Iain Dale has blogged about his memories of 7/7 but I am going to steer a little away from my memories and look at the effect of the dirty terrorist scumbags who killed and injured people on that day back in 2005. I am someone who has said it time and time again that terrorism has NO place in Islam and this comes from the teachings of Sunni Scholars who have made this absolutely clear. Weeks after 7/7 things changed for Muslims in Britain, people used to look at Muslims oddly and used to do a lot of weird and ...
Am having problems accessing voicemail on the new phone. At some point I'll get around to phoning the service provider and doing something about it, but probably not for a bit. This blog is proudly sponsored by
Fresh Squeezings from the veins of the internet!Today is the anniversary of the 7/7 attacks. What, you'd forgotten? That's the best tribute of all, according to nosemonkey. Babes of the BNP Spoof or not spoof? Only time will tell. One for your reading lists: Judge a book by it's cover ( judge_a_book_feed) is an hilarious blog by a librarian taking the piss out of unintentionally funny book covers. Features include Mammary Monday and Phallic Phriday. Via the awesome Geeka Chicas ( geeka_chicas_feed). Who's excited about the new HP film? I'm not, and neither is Penny Red. Here she outlines some ...
Secret pay deals give top police thousands extraSenior police officers are receiving 'off-book payments' and secret perks totalling hundreds of thousands of pounds, including private school fees and cars for their spouses. The Times has discovered that one chief constable heading a force was paid a £74,000 top-up on his salary last year. Stephen Bett, [...]
A report on local council websites has concluded that many are let down by poor transactional facilities. - Salford City Council is highlighted as one of the authorities that failed to score at least 50 per cent for usability.
Lisa Greenwood, from Cheshire, who worked as an administrator at the Dept of Children, Schools and Families, has been sacked after criticising Hazel Blears for not paying tax on her second home -Cant face the truth, sad load of buggers, Well she may be out of a job but at least she can go for [...]
Council housebuilding in England is to restart in earnest for the first time in almost 20 years, with local authorities set to construct 139,000 homes over 10 years-Good news at last.
Closure fear over Tesco plan Neal Keeling July 07, 2009 A TESCO superstore planned for Salford could force a hundred businesses to close, it is claimed. The owners of Salford Shopping City in Pendleton say it is facing 'decimation' if a vast stand-alone Tesco is built next to it. Previous plans had ensured that both the shopping centre and [...]
Wow. Both Google and Bing tell me at the time or writing that there is nothing, zilch, nada on the internet which contains the exact phrase "famous lost messages". I guess all the references must have been, er..., lost. Related posts:Twice as many people believe they are being sent secret messages via their computer's font than would vote Green Oh yes, th
As local councillors, we have formally submitted an objection to the plans from Transport for London regarding cycle bays on Windmill Row. There is very little space for parking as it is, and there are plenty of other alternative sites in the area which could be used for the cycle hire scheme. We strongly support the idea of the cycle hire bays and very much hope that both Kennington Cross, Vauxhall and the Oval area benefit from these, but this particular site should have never made it onto the list.
It is not often that an official government report endorses Liberal Democrat policy but today has been the exception. The Welsh Government's Holtham Commission report on the way that the Assembly is funded was published earlier and concluded that Wales is losing out by £300m a year. The commission chair, economist Gerald Holtham, warned the underfunding could reach £8.5bn over the next decade, or £2,900 for everyone living in Wales. The report concludes that a new funding formula is needed to reflect the actual cost of providing services for Wales. A further report on taxation and borrowing powers will follow ...
Inspired by Journalism Grads: 30 Things You Should Do This Summer post (pointed out to me by Lib Dem Voice's Stephen Tall), here's my list of 30 things anyone wanting to become an elected public official should do over the summer. Thanks to everyone who responded to my Twitter, Facebook and email messages asking for suggestions for inclusion in the list. Whether your idea(s) made it in or didn't quite make the cut, the final 30 are the better for all that feedback. You can read Part I here. Submit a Freedom of Information (FOI) request. It's a key tool ...
Most of them work for the BBC (8), Channel 4 (3), the Financial Services Authority and British Nuclear Fuels, none of which have been included in the scope of the recent Tory quango exercise (indeed Philip Hammond, Tory frontbencher, said on air on the Daily Politics show that he didn't think the BBC is a quango). Andrew Neil explains. You would have thought a full bells and whistles David Cameron event like this would have been a little better prepared.
The UK's third most influential Lib Dem blogger, Mark Reckons has challenged us to name all the MPs who had ever represented us. That'll be a breeze, I thought, being the political geek that I am, they will all just trip out of my brain, just like that. Not so - most were easy, but a couple took some checking on the internet. I've been lucky enough to have been represented by a cabinet minister, and a good one who resigned on a matter of principle, a couple of ministers, a Scottish Party leader, a UK Party leader and a ...
I personally like the idea of Liberal Drinks and I have been following the facebook groups of local branches pop up and down the country and personally I think a huge thank you needs to be said to James Graham for coming up with the idea. Due to the known fact that I am Muslim, Liberal Drinks isn't for me but if it was changed a little and became "Liberal Meetup" it would become more appealing to the none drinkers in the Lib Dems who want to socialise with Liberals and like the idea of meeting up and socialising. Ideas ...
No sooner had LDV reported this morning on the continuing questiuons over police tactics at last year's Kingsnorth climate camp than Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary's (HMIC) report on the G20 protests was published showing that police crowd control tactics are 'inadequate' and should be reviewed. Commenting, Chris Huhne, Lib Dem shadow home secretary, said: Aspects of the policing of the G20 protests clearly fell far short of what this country expects. This report documents not just failures of individual discipline, but inadequate police strategies and training for dealing with peaceful protest. "HMIC is right to say that the police ...
The BBC report on the condition of the Welsh Ambulance Service and it is not good. The former head of the Service has reviewed progress since he left his post and has told the BBC that what he found shocked him. Recent figures showed the service was the worst performing paramedic service in England and Wales again. There has been no progress on key indicators in the last three years. Since 2006 ambulance response times across Wales have failed to improve and four out of every 10 people who call 999 are still waiting too long for emergency help. Some ...
Well, what a weekend I've had! Liberal Youth finally resurrected Activate, its long lost training weekend. Activate 2009 was held in the beautiful village of Great Hucklow It started at 6:20am on Friday, when I had to drag my sorry self out of bed to get a bus to Glasgow, the first leg of the journey. [...]
Dear Editor, With a heavy heart, I read your article last week about the plight of our local fishermen. You will know that Liberal Democrats locally have been assisting their cause by petitioning the Minister, as well as through Sharon Bowles MEP's request for an investigation by the EU Competition Commissioner. You may get a flurry of letters [...]
Last weekend we saw the return of a fantastic Liberal Youth event, Activate. The event took place in the picturesque village of Great Hucklow. Activate is a training weekend designed to help new members and some of us older ones get involved and hone our skills. I attended flying the flag for Wales, and when I told people I was from Lampeter I had the strange experience of almost everyone knowing where that was! The weekend started on the Friday night with trainers Sarah Green PPC, Cllr Ben Rawlings, Naomi Smith PPC and Candy Piercy with ice breakers and team ...
Taken from the Salford Advertiser website: Closure fear over Tesco plan by Neal Keeling A TESCO superstore planned for Salford could force a hundred businesses to close, it is claimed. The owners of Salford Shopping City in Pendleton say it is facing 'decimation' if a vast stand-alone Tesco is built next to it. Previous plans had ensured that both the shopping centre and the proposed Tesco store would be developed in partnership to guarantee the two sites were fully linked. But the supermarket giant has announced plans to build a store on the site of St James RC Primary opposite ...
... was 25% rye, and I thought it was delicious. Eating it with butter and raspberry jam was a proper spiritual experience. Unfortunately R didn't like the difference in texture compared to the white and wholemeal, so I probably won't make it more than every couple of weeks, but that just means I'll have something to look forward to! The other adults in the house liked it well enough, but again, we decided that more than 25% would be too much for some of us. Interestingly, it kept better than either the white or the wholemeal - which probably shouldn't ...
Last month I signed up for the Sky News Panel. I was attracted by their pitch that this was my opportunity to share my views on a variety of topics and issues which interest me. So great excitement when my first survey invitation arrived on Friday. What would it be? Iran perhaps, or Parliamentary reform? [...]
Tue 7th
13:30
Clegg on families: Tories want to "turn back the clock", Labour "minimise importance of couples in f...
Later this afternoon Nick Clegg will deliver the third annual Relate Institute lecture, warning about the impact the recession is having on families and relationships, and stressing the important role relationships and commitment play in our society. He will also criticise Tory leader David Cameron for focussing obsessively on the legal institution of marriage. Here's a section which crystallises Nick's views: ... [the liberal and Liberal Democrats'] approach attaches real value to relationships, to commitment and to love, but does not seek to limit or prescribe what makes for a strong relationship. I would not hesitate to say that relationships ...
Whilst reading this piece today by Norm Stamper from the Huffington Post about how progressives in the US are now seriously questioning the "War on Drugs" I noticed a link to this fascinating article: "The Trouble with Marijuana and Legislators" from Alternet in 2004 which questions why legislators in the US are so scared of discussing legalising the use of cannabis for medical use. The fascinating finding is encapsulated in these snippets: State and national polls consistently show support levels ranging from 60 percent up to 80 percent or higher. This support comes from virtually all segments of the electorate: ...
Some good bus news from Transport for London. The 393 bus route, which has been extended to North Road on a temporary basis for nearly 2 years, has finally been made permanent. The route links North Road to Holloway Road and Highbury Corner, and runs on to Hackney via Highbury New Park. The Camden end [...]
I spent some time yesterday evening trying to work out every MP who had represented me throughout my entire life. Because I have lived in quite a lot of places this was not straightforward. I did not know all my postcodes but with a bit of interwebbing I was able to track them all down and I then used a combination of "They Work For You" with its postcode finder facility and Wikipedia to track the former MPs for the constituencies to see who was MP whilst I lived there. It is also complicated by the fact that one of ...
The Tories' shadow chief secretary to the treasury Philip Hammond has been talent-spotted in the recent past both by ConservativeHome.com and by PoliticalBetting.com's Mike Smithson. So I rather suspect he will try and forget as quickly as possible his disastrous performance on BBC2's The Daily Politics yesterday, when he was quizzed by Andrew Neil on his party's plans to light a 'Bonfire of the Quangos'. The four-minute interview begins about two minutes into the clip and you can watch it by CLICKING HERE. (I'd advise switching off promptly at the 6:30 mins mark if you want to avoid Kelvin McKenzie). ...
I give the readers of this blog a goodish read, they get coverage of polls with my opinion, you get latest political news with commentary and overall you must enjoy it that's why so many of you come back every day but what do I get in return. I asked you the readers if I should change the name of this blog to "Liberal Monkey" and you have said No. Below you can see the results of the poll: Yes 33% No 67% Clearly the readers don't like my idea of changing the name but be warned I have a ...
This is an impressive sounding initiative from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg: Bloomberg, making good on a promise of increased civic transparency for New Yorkers, initiated an annual contest this morning awarding cash prizes to Web developers that create innovative Internet and mobile applications using city data... The amount of data coming out of New York City agencies is fairly tremendous, so there's a lot of creative room for developers to play with possibilities. Developers have already created apps that provide transit maps and service updates for NYC trains and buses. But what about interactive maps that keep drivers up ...
Your Wallington South Ward Councillors are hosting a Wallington Community Fair on Thursday 9th and Friday 10th July as our contribution to this year's Take Part Take Pride celebrations. The fair will be held on the lawn in front of the Old Town Hall in Woodcote Road (Wallington High Street) between 10am and 4pm. Our fair [...]
MarkReckons wonders if people can remember all their MPs. Mostly from memory, with a little nudge from Wikipedia, mine are: Hal Miller (Bromsgrove and Redditch, 1972-1983) Eric Forth (Mid-Worcestershire, 1983-1990) Marcy Kaptur (Ohio 9th Congressional district, US House of Representatives, 1990-91) Alan Williams (Swansea West, 1991-1996) Bernard Jenkin (Colchester North, 1996-1997) Bob Russell (Colchester, 1997-)
Having received what I regard as a wholly inadequate response to my complaint regarding the factual inaccuaracies on `The Westminster Hour` and their use of the term `hold the balance of power` for Newcastle and Sheffield Councils. The response noted my concerns about this factual inaccuracy but alludes to my past history regarding complaints to the [...]
With a hat-tip to the tweeting Asquith. What beats me is that this state Senator lives near the geological phenomenon which is the Grand Canyon, for goodness sake!
3 Big Stories US and Russia agree nuclear cuts The BBC reports: US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev have reached an outline agreement to cut back their nations' stockpiles of nuclear weapons. The "joint understanding" signed in Moscow would see reductions of deployed nuclear warheads to below 1,700 each within seven years of a new treaty. The accord would replace the 1991 Start I treaty, which expires in December. Nick Clegg welcomed the announcement: This decision is a great moment and a promising step ahead of next year's NPT talks. Britain must now play our own part ...
Monday: Ooh, episode-a-day excitement from those nice Doctor Who people! Yes, our copy of "The War Games" has arrived! Meanwhile, for those of you allowed to stay up after the watershed (shhh, don't tell Daddy!) there was also the surprisingly successful risqué fantasy-drama of... Krod Mandoon... Oh, all right; Torchwood is back. And this time it's GOOD! Once upon a time, Russell Davies, aka Russilon, founder of modern Time Lord society, wrote the pilot episode for Torchwood, "Everything Changes". The next episode is "Day One". Now, so long as you remember to stick with Rusty's "Day One" and not Chibbers'... ...
Yesterday's LDV highlighted an article by Lib Dem peer Lord (Alex) Carlile, urging that alleged computer hacker Gary McKinnon not be extradited to the USA to face charges – it is feared Mr McKinnon's health could significantly deteriorate as a result of his Asperger's condition. Lib Dem MP Simon Hughes used the opportunity of topical questions to the Home Secretary yesterday to ask Alan Johnson direct if he would intervene to prevent Mr McKinnon's extradition. Simon Hughes (North Southwark and Bermondsey) (LD): Will the Home Secretary act now to deal with growing anger in my constituency and around the country ...
The final report for the G20 protests has just been released. I have not had a proper chance to read it yet but I have embedded it below. G20 Final Report Hattip to The Daily Politics
I was a guest speaker on the Islam Channel last night along with Paul Rowan MP for Rochdale, debating the shocking findings of this new research. The Fawcett Society's new report: Poverty pathways: ethnic minority women's livelihoods, starkly concludes that ethnic minority women are amongst the poorest and most socially excluded people in the UK. This refers mainly to women who are from Pakistani and Bangladeshi backgrounds. Two of the main findings of the report are that: • Ethnic minority women living in poverty will be locked into their destitution for the foreseeable future. • Even more ethnic minority women ...
Under a Conservative government, the good people of Britain would have the option of storing their medical records with companies like Microsoft and Google. This is an alternative to Labour's National Broken Spine plan, which was a brilliant scheme throw billions of pounds at a huge NHS database on which everyone would be forced to put their health records whether they wanted to or not. Irfan Ahmed argues that the Conservatives are right and the Lib Dems (who criticised it) wrong, and he has a few arguments why. First, Irfan argues Google is a cool company and it runs the ...
Faith communities are increasingly playing a role in civil renewal and regeneration activities throughout the UK. From the provision of social services, through to policy development, faith communities are shaping their interaction with a number of key bodies and individuals and this conference looks at creating a space for dialogue around the future challenges and opportunities that there are for faith communities. Creating Spaces for Dialogue Programme: What are Future Challenges and Opportunities for Faith Communities? A half-day conference for practitioners, organisational leaders and social change activists aimed at creating dialogue with policy shapers and makers on faith and faith ...
{Ming Campbell MP} Commenting on the Secretary of State for Defence's apology for his Department's failure to provide sufficient information to the High Court hearing into the deaths of six Iraqis following 'the battle of Danny Boy' in Iraq in 2004, former Liberal Democrat Leader Sir Menzies Campbell said: "The Ministry of Defence should hang its head in shame at the trenchant criticisms of the High Court. "For a Government Department to be accused of 'wasting time' in legal proceedings of this kind is monstrous. The Secretary of State says that he is going to set up an inquiry into ...
Lib Dem Voice has covered before the allegations of that the policing at the climate camp at Kingsnorth in August 2008 was unacceptable – click here for the archive. Lib Dem MPs are continuing to press the Home Office to present an honest account of what happened, and to state what lessons have been learned for future policing of peaceful protests. Yesterday in the Commons, both Greg Mulholland and Chris Huhne asked the questions of the Government's minister for policing. Here are the exchanges from Hansard: Greg Mulholland (Leeds, North-West) (LD): What recent representations he has received on the policing ...
Steph Gray's blog has a great presentation that he gave yesterday on the future of public consultations, and how the internet can help engage a wider range of people, improve the quality of ideas generated and significantly change the policy process. I particularly like the Simply Understand blog which translates official policy speak into readable English. Posted via email from Rob's posterous
So Thatchers burned the QUANGO's and her puppet of 2009 Mr Cameron wants to set up another 17 clearly Cameron is trying to distant himself from Thatcher's image? I have blogged in the past and even put the question at Alan Johnson asking him if Cameron will be the male Thatcher but he didn't give me a proper answer? Clearly Cameron knows that people see him as a Thatchers puppet and for that reason he is trying to distant himself from her ways or is it that he is not strong enough to burn all the QUANGO's? Is it that ...
So Labour loves these sorts of initiatives - making the lives of immigrants just that little bit harder. It scores them Brownie Points with the Daily Mail, after all. It's the "Life In Britain" Citizenship test for non-EU immigrants wanting to live in the UK. The link to the official practice version of the test is currently doing the rounds on Twitter, and you can take it yourself. Note that every single link on the page other than the one to begin the test takes you through to the TSO bookshop where 3 books are available to help you prepare ...
My latest quiz closes at 23:59 this evening (Tuesday 7 July). To win a copy of A Useful Fiction by Patrick Hannan just e-mail me the answers to the five questions below:After whom is the Barnett formula named? Who wrote: "We are bought and sold for English gold -/What a parcel of rogues in a nation"? In which year did the people of North East England vote against the establishment of a regional assembly in a referendum? Who said of Enoch Powell: "Poor Enoch! Driven mad by the remorselessness of his own logic." Which MP is currently 326th in the ...
On Friday morning I'd left home on my way to meet a friend for coffee, when I ran into Cllr Barbara Smith. Her portfolio includes community safety, and she was out observing the local Safer Neighbourhood Team, who were busy stopping and spot-fining cyclists going through red lights on New North Road. Cyclists breaking the [...]
It's just over 20 days from the deadliest day of China's attempts to put down public protest in Tiannemen Square but on Sunday in Urumqi the capital of China's only Muslim majority region there is a death toll of 156 and rising. I've commented before on the unrest that is ongoing in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (AKA East Turkestan, Uyghuristan, and Uyghurstan ) it is one of the remotest regions of China where the standard Beijing time of the whole country is a nonsence as it should really be two hours behind. The protest sparked this time after unrest ...
George Osborne, heir to the baronetcy of Ballentaylor in Ireland, has avoided £55,000 in capital gains tax by 'flipping' his second home allowance. The Lib Dem treasury team have revealed, that he claimed his second home allowance on a London property for two years which he later sold for £1.48m, a £748,000 profit. The capital gains liabilities for those two years would amount to £54,948. You can't tell the taxman one tale and the fees office another. Osborne is a member of the Irish Ascendancy, the old Anglo-Irish aristocracy. So you know that "he feels our pain", in the current ...
Apologies dear readers, I have been away from home for work related training and staying in a travel lodge for the last week or so. That is why I have been unable to blog, and my laptop was many miles away at home. I hope people were still feeding my fish whilst I was away.
David Miliband, stated that the Labour party need to change the way its organised, in a speech to commemorate former leader John Smith. Mr Miliband argued there was a "real and pressing" need for organisational renewal. I feel that the Labour party may see a return to Left wing politics, and perhaps they may start to reinstate their policies of electoral reform etc. Full story here. Your comments on this and other issues are appreciated and valued (well the sensible ones are anyway)
Prime Minister Gordon Brown, must be the most unluckiest person in Britain. The poor man ever since he taken the job as PM has been faced with various crises. Every now and then there is a small tremor and I feel that although he does a good job to overcome it an Earthquake is waiting to happen. Now the PM faces a revolt from his own backbenches, over the 10p tax rate. Led by Frank Field and Greg Pope, the backbenchers threaten to block this years entire budget. Both the opposition parties (Tories and Lib Dems) have stated that they ...
Just been sent the following link to Spread Persepolis*, based on Marjane Satrapi's delightful book. It explains all you need to know about ...
