I like the new logged-in homepage. It's one of the things I am clinging to about today which hasn't been really awful and depressing. The other thing was being out in the garden with {[info - personal] } amazing_holly planting sweetpea seeds earlier. Yeah, I know, I'm a bit early for late planting and a bit late for regular planting. But she wanted to do it, and it was fun grubbing about in the compost with her. I'm trying not to think about anything else that happened today. Work was particularly awful; this is made worse by the fact that ...
At our select committee meeting today we looked at results of surveys and focus groups on how the council communicates. Also what Coucnillors thought of communications with them. I thought I must have met every single person consulted as all of the comments, good and bad, rang true. Also I was relieved that other councillors did agree with most of my concerns. We get far too much information,...
Labour MP's need to realise they've got the party in this mess and need to be disciplined. Keep their mouths shut and get on with it. Is it to late?
Those words in today's Independent sent a chill down my spine. Education is not supposed to provide foot-soldiers for business. I believe that the job of schools and education in general, is best expounded by Jean-Jacques Rousseau in "Emile", namely that all children are perfectly designed organisms, ready to learn from their surroundings so as to grow into virtuous adults. I really can't take the words of Andrew Hall, the new head of the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency that seriously, given that he apparently rejected a teaching career for accountancy. What you need is MORE people in education who ...
Open your windows and move you furniture further in. It's not damp it's body heat causing condensation. Well why the hell is the wallpaper hanging off the walls and big black marks every where. It's the third time today i have heard the same quote. What a laugh.
Been to a Pact meeting tonight with our local bobbies, and again it's lets have a go. Come on, these guys risk getting more Crap than anyone and the money not mind blowing. And every time i listen they are getting a pasting. Wake up everyone what the hell would we do if they where [...]
Mon 27th
22:39
We now have a question if Salford are lucky to get any of this funding will the money taken from the...
£440m funding boost for street lighting <!–Last Updated – 27th July 2009 at 08:33 PM –> An extra £440 million will be made available to help local authorities modernise their street lighting, Transport Minister, Sadiq Khan announced today. Local authorities across England will be able to apply for the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) credits to improve street lighting [...]
Lib Dem peer Anthony Lester has an article in tomorrow's Guardian about his unhappy period as an adviser to Jack Straw: Apart from being unpaid and independent, none of my conditions of appointment was met. I and my gifted team worked with a junior minister, Michael Wills, and a team of able and loyal civil servants. I saw Straw rarely to discuss policy. I was not given some key papers in sufficient time to have an input.I was never invited to attend a meeting across government departments, still less to attend a cabinet committee. My advice was received politely, but ...
{bat-walk} Next Tuesday night, Glendale have organised a guided bat walk around Manor House Gardens in conjunction with the London Wildlife Trust. The walk will take place from 8.30pm until 9.30pm and will be led by a bat expert from the Wildlife Trust. You can learn more about these fascinating nocturnal mammals and listen to bats using electronic bat detectors. Places are free, but you need to book in advance. You can book by calling Glendale on 8318 3986 or emailing lara.al-jabi {at} glendale-services.co(.)uk var mailNode = var linkNode = document.createElement('a'); linkNode.setAttribute('href', tNode = document.createTextNode("lara.al-jabi {at} glendale-services.co(.)uk"); linkNode.appendChild(tNode); ...
Those, I learnt, were the top casework issues for Liberal Democrat councillors in Serbia. You can't walk on many pavements because of the cars parked on them, elevators keep breaking down (it happened to me twice in 5 days), and feral dogs are a real nuisance in some towns. Now it may surprise you to learn that there are Liberal Democrat councillors in Serbia. The country...
I'd always wondered how some of my colleagues were able to post blog entries with bits crossed out. Very clever, I thought, I wish that I could do that. And now I can, which allows me to do all kinds of fun stuff. For example, I could say that I firmly believe that a particular group of people should be given a jolly good talking to over a nice cup of tea, and you would know exactly what I mean. Isn't technology marvellous, possums?
Now that a decent interval has passed since John Barrett announced that he was standing down as MP for Edinburgh West, there will be no doubt be speculation as to who might succeed him as the Liberal Democrat candidate. Ian Swanson had a couple of guesses in the Evening News, but they were both men. Why would he put two two senior male Lib Dem councillors (who, by the way I think are fabulous) in the frame and not suggest that Jenny Dawe or Marilyne McLaren might put herself forward? Another strong contender would be Siobhan Mathers, who stood for ...
I first visited Leicester at the age of 11 in 1971. We were on a family canal holiday (which was quite intrepid in those days) and had moored in the city one evening in what I now know to be the Frog Island area. My mother and I set off for a walk. I seem to recall that she was distracted by the Saxon St Nicholas Church, but for whatever reason we became lost. It was a landscape of river and canal - the Grand Union and the Soar both run through Leicester, sometimes parallel, sometimes flowing into one another ...
Following complaints from constituents regarding the condition of the road surface of Ancrum Road at its east end, the City Council has advised me that the area inspector did : " .... report a sunken utility track on the south side of Ancrum Road between Logie Street and Tullideph Road. This has been reported to Network Management to follow up with the developer who applied for the road opening permit there." I hope that repairs to the road will be undertaken soon.
Mon 27th
20:55
CommentIsLinked@LDV... Terry Stacy: Councils must be transparent and accountable about surveillance
Well, it's not quite an op-ed article, but there's a detailed letter from Lib Dem leader of Islington Council, Cllr Terry Stacy, urges all councils to follow Islington's example, and reject the local use of surveillance powers. Here's an excerpt: ... local government really is on the frontline of Britain's expanding surveillance state - [...] councillors and council leaders need to be held accountable for their decisions. Councillors must decide whether they embrace the surveillance society, or reject it and introduce checks and balances and public democratic oversight of the local use of surveillance powers, as the Liberal Democrats have ...
It is possible to forgive Gordon Brown a lot. It is possible to argue (and, however incredibly, there remain people within the Labour Party who do) that Brown really does believe in things like justice, liberty and democracy. The problem is, the argument goes, that the perfidious media and electorate won't let him promote an unashamedly progressive agenda and so he is forced to do the best under the circumstances. If you squint a little bit, you can just about see where this argument is coming from. Sure, inequality and attacks on civil liberties have increased over the past 12 ...
Liberal Democrats and freedom campaigners celebrate as government finally comes round to their way of thinking. The Liberal Democrats welcomed last week's government announcement that the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) is to be considered for inclusion under the Freedom of Information Act. The government's stated aim is to bring the body within the regime early in the next...
The Liberal Democrat leader told the Independent the other day that at the next election "Our shopping list of commitments will be far, far, far, far, far shorter". One commitment that will survive: His party's "unique selling point" will be education. So his plans to bring in a "pupil premium" to steer state support to children from disadvantaged backgrounds and to cut class sizes are sacrosanct.How unique a selling point education will prove at the election remains to be seen. Education spending has been central to the justification of the New Labour project and - come to think of it ...
Before today, I had never seen a cherry plum. Indeed, I was blissfully unaware of their existence on this planet. But, within the space of an hour today, our house has been inundated with several bucket loads of cherry plums coming from two different hauls from two different counties. Here are just a few of them - from East Berkshire on the left, and from South Hampshire on the right: So I think I can safely conclude that it is a very good year for cherry plums. Indeed, there appears to be a glut of them, as confirmed by this ...
The Birmingham Mail has the story: ... a city councillor [has] failed to overturn a judge's ruling that he "scurrilously" tried to smear a Labour opponent when giving evidence in an election court. Coun Ayoub Khan, who is his party's prospective candidate for Ladywood at the next general election, hoped to clear his name after Elections Commissioner Timothy Straker QC found he had made up a "sordid" story in an attempt to falsely accuse Aston Labour councillor Muhammed Afzal of witness nobbling. Mr Straker, in an election trial in Birmingham last year, also found that Coun Khan, who is a ...
Apart from one or two (or three) minor points, like abolishing the end of Key Stage 2 tests and not needing to slim the national curriculum but allow schools to use it more flexibly, I agree with many points of Liberal Democrat education policy. In fact in 2005 we were proud to stand up and say 'a good local school for every child' and that is what I believe to this day.The choice agenda being
Nick Perry, Liberal Democrat parliamentary campaigner for Hastings & Rye, has launched a new web page as part of an effort to use new campaign techniques and to reach younger, and first-time voters. Nick has set up a Facebook page to help his campaign for the General Election. Speaking at the weekend Nick said, "It is imperative that parties [...]
It's great that there's been some encourging news on the condition of F1 driver Felipe Massa. It's great to know that he's now awake and communicating and that the doctors think that he could make a complete recovery from the injuries he sustained in that awful crash on Saturday. This is better news than we'd heard earlier in the day when it had been suggested that his eye had been damaged to the extent that it might end his career. In fact, the truth is that they simply don't know yet. I'm really fed up with some of the exaggerated ...
A poll that I didn't bother to cover, Political Betting didn't cover and neither did anyone else has suddenly become blogging worthy and Political Betting has kicked off the reporting of the poll. The results from the poll are as followed: CON 40 (-2) LAB 25 (nc) LD 20 (+2) Clearly a good result for the Lib Dems, maybe Nick Clegg can get the 22-23% needed by the party to survive the rush for Cameron to become Prime Minister, which we could then build upon. I believe that the Lib Dems can become the government in the not so distant ...
So three years to go. I remember the day we won the bid. I was standing outside the back of the Chamber at the House of Commons - behind the Speaker's Chair. There was that long hesitation in the announcement - as we strained to hear whether it would be a P for Paris or L for London. And when it was London - I heard a cheer go up from within the Chamber. It wasn't dignified or Parliamentary - but totally appropriate. I remember too - when the first inklings of our bid were swirling around the London Assembly. ...
Went up to the Pilot Field on Sunday to watch Hastings Legends against the Arsenal Pro-Celebs for their pre-season charity match. There was a lovely atmosphere, and we even got to see Michael Foster's knobbly knees, as he kicked the game off. It was reminiscent for me of the years we spent watching the Saints at [...]
Blackburn Labour have been taking the pi** over at their blog, they have quoted me from a blog post and to read their blog post follow the link. Now when Blackburn Labour started following me, I was surprised because I wouldn't have expected them to but it's great to see they are following this blog and are blogging. The criticism that Blackburn Labour have for this blog is the creation of new words for the urban dictionary, which I create from time to time. "Hyperlitious" is one of the words they have poked fun at, either they don't understand the ...
Ever wondered which TV programme helps our leader to unwind chez Clegg? Well wonder no more, for The Guardian has asked Nick and an eclectic range of others in the public eye: Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats Jerry Seinfeld. His stories often don't have a point or a punchline, but they're effortlessly witty, quirky and original. I feel compelled to report that Margaret Beckett nominated Last of the Summer Wine. This choice alone should have been sufficient to preclude her from being elected Speaker. Meanwhile Lib Dem deputy leader Vince Cable answers a range of readers' questions in ...
That J. K. Rowling has a weird imagination. Anyway, congratulations to the Press Association for winning Headline of the Day.
{Kingsmeadowpic} I had family over to visit at the weekend and because the weather was nice and one of my younger visitors was keen to run around we decided to visit Kings Meadow. We had a lovely picnic by the river admiring the boats and afterwards wandered over the children's play area - the first time I had ever been there, I'm ashamed to say, and it was a pleasant surprise. I have to say I've visitied a few play areas in Reading over the last few years and this was easily one of the nicest I've seen with a great ...
Following up on the latest LDV weekend meme, here are my thoughts on the state of the Lib Dem blogosphere: What are the greatest successes of the Lib Dem blogosphere? I think that the Lib Dem Blogs aggregator is one of the best things about the Lib Dem blogosphere. It enabled me to get an instant audience for my posts when I first started (and it still does) and I know it has helped many others similarly. Lib Dem Voice is also an excellent hub for all of us and its existence has been a great anchor for me as ...
While Peter Mandelson follows the rigidly of defending Gordon Brown in the wake of the Norwich North by-election, the problem is that Labour just don't get what is is that Norwich North tells us. Labour's line is that due to the circumstances in which Ian Gibson stood down, this election was all about expenses, and was a special circumstance unrelated to normal politics. What Labour fail to recognise this that this is a self inflicted wound, and these self inflicted wounds are the sign of a government that is not only unable to control events outside of its control, but ...
It's Yorkshire Day on Saturday and there is just enough time to order your new Yorkshire flag and other Yorkshire products. Please download and print off the form above and send it to YRS Products 39 Essex Close, Redcar, Yorkshire, TS10 4BY.
The MP for Haltemprice and Howden and former Conservative Shadow Home Secretary, David Davis MP has hit out in The Times at his own party at their failure to consider data protection concerns and privacy issues in plans to hive off the management of health data to Google: When I read in the pages of this newspaper this month that the Conservative Party was planning to transfer people's health data to Google, my heart sank. The policy described was so naive I could only hope that it was an unapproved kite-flying exercise by a young researcher in Conservative HQ. If ...
A while ago, we spotted there was a dangerous lamp post stub on Kennington Oval, opposite the Oval House Theatre and near the entrance to the cricket ground. It still had a live current running through it, and the only protection was some yellow tape. This is a "red route", so it is a responsibility for Transport for London. We took this up with Caroline Pidgeon, Lib Dem London Assembly member and local parliamentary campaigner. She has now got an assurance from Transport for London that the post has been "attended to" by EDF energy. We think this means the ...
Labour woes in the London borough of Waltham Forest continue unabated. Not long ago, Harry Cohen, MP for Leyton and Wanstead (against whom I stood in the 1992 general election) bowed to pressure and declared he was standing down at the forthcoming general election, having been the centre of unfavourable media attention about his claims for [...]
Peter Mandelson has hinted in a speech to University leaders that he expects the cap on tuition fees to be raised following the publication of the government's review this autumn. However, he also criticised colleges for failing to give more places to working class students, a sure indication that the government's support mechanisms for poorer students are not working and that many of these are being put off going into higher education at all by the prospect of paying fees: The University and College Union said it was very concerned about the impact higher university tuition fees would have on ...
*OK I can't really get 0.2 of a minute sorted out.As you can see I'm carrying on with my unconventional countdown to the Deadline of the Total Politics Best Blogs of 2009 Poll closing.0.2 of a day is 4 hours 48 minutes, 0.2 of an hour is 12 minutes. Therefore 4.2 days + 4.2 hours + 4.2 minutes = 4 days 9 hours 4 minutes and 12 seconds.Yeah time really is ticking by so if you haven't already get a move on, think of your ten Top Blogs of this year and get voting. The rules are largely the same ...
{Click here to vote in the Total Politics Best Blogs Poll 2009} It's that time of year again, when Total Politics asks you to vote for your Top 10 favourite blogs. The votes will be compiled and included in the forthcoming book, the Total Politics Guide to Blogging 2009-10, which will be published in September. This year the poll is being promoted/sponsored by LabourList and LibDemVoice as well as Iain Dale's blog. The rules are simple. 1. You must vote for your ten favourite blogs and ranks them from 1 (your favourite) to 10 (your tenth favourite). 2. Your votes ...
We have had some commentary on "A balancing act: fair solutions to a modern debt crisis". Most of it is positive. Martin Wolf agrees with our endorsement of the Labour government's response to the recession, as well as the call for a greater burden to be borne by property taxes. Martin emphasises spending cuts to a greater extent than we have. Given how difficult they will be, it is quite natural and right that commentators keep up the pressure on this subject: without such pressure, the broad-based support for necessary pain will not be achieved. But the fact that we ...
That nice Mr Tall set we Lib Dem bloggers some homework over the weekend. I hope Sir won't mind me handing mine in a bit late. I could plead illness - which would be true, but if he will hand out assignments at short notice on a Formula 1 weekend, then he's just going to have to bloody well wait. So there! Here are the questions that he wants us to answer: What are the greatest successes of the Lib Dem blogosphere? Firstly, I think its accessibility - any party member can get listed on Lib Dem Blogs without having ...
In this brave new world where politicians tell the voters the truth about what is and is not possible in the face of record government debt and a deep recession, the number of such admissions is starting to grow. Next up are the Conservatives who, according to The Times are going to impose tolls on drivers who wish to use newly built roads so as to pay for that investment. Is this the case of a deeply Euro sceptic Tory leader compensating for the free market offered to members of the European Union by imposing trade barriers within his own ...
Jeremy Hargreaves recently launched Engage, the Liberal Democrats' "new policy network". Its goal is to give party members "the chance to talk about ideas, about policy and politics." A welcome objective - but is this the right way to go about it? The trouble with this initiative is that it emphasises process rather than politics. The 'instant policy discussion kit', in particular, reminds me of the sketch in Monty Python's Meaning of Life in which a couple of middle-aged American tourists enters a restaurant and is offered conversational topics instead of food. Whenever did we lose our spontaneity? Jeremy rightly ...
Can all readers of this blog not forget to vote me in the Total Politics blog awards, I hope you make me your number one choice. I have served you for the past year and I hope you will give me something in return. Last year I got Number 39 in the Lib Dems list, I am hoping to do better this year so get voting! {Click here to vote in the Total Politics Best Blogs Poll 2009}
Every political party has a youth wing with the Lib Dems and Liberal Youth, the Tories and Conservative Future and Labour and Young Labour but I believe they are failing to achieve what the youth wings of USA politics achieved and especially the Democrat toddlers. Many people, especially young people went to the USA to campaign for Barack Obama and this was a success of youth politics in the States. The Democrat Youth are a force in the USA and they are leading the way with campaigning door to door, blogging, telephone canvassing etc... but we don't have that in ...
So Dan Hannan has asked over at his blog a question that I would like to answer, how to behave when introduced to BNP MEP's? And my answer to that is as followed, approach him and tell them they are the most dirtiest people in politics and walk away. Its that simple. I don't like BNP's as much as the nice guy and since having a run in with a BNP I hate the bunch even more. I once offered a BNP a seat next to me at a count and he refused my offer, now I know I am ...
{Ming Campbell} Commenting on the Foreign Secretary's speech on Afghanistan this morning, former Liberal Democrat Leader and member of the Foreign Affairs Committee Sir Menzies Campbell MP said: "Behind the Foreign Secretary's diplomatic language there lies a problem which is so far unresolved. President Karzai, who is almost certain to be re-elected next month, shows no inclination for the kind of engagement with the Taliban that David Miliband envisages. "American confidence in Karzai is also clearly diminishing. If Britain and America want to promote dialogue they will have to do it by working round Karzai and presenting him with a ...
Whilst all Formula One fan are wishing Felipe Massa a speeding and full recovery, practicalities do have to be looked as the season moves on. It is unlikely that Massa will return to drive at the European Grand Prix at Valencia, if at all this season. So will fill the second seat alongside Kimi Raikkonen? The third driver for the Scuderia is Mark Gene. But less that 48 hours after the spring bounced off the car of Reubens Barrichello and bounced down the track to hit Felipe on the head it is rumoured he will not be risked. Luca Badoer ...
The BBC used to have a really good weather website. It may not have been all singing, al dancing, but it told you the forecast, told you the temperatures and as clear to understand. Then the BBC decided it needed a revamp. Now it is useless as a means of predicting the weather. Take a look at the temperature forecast for Friday this week. What does it tell us ? It appears that in Norfolk the temperature is coing to be light orange, in parts of Cambridgeshire the temperature will be darker orange whilst in Londonderry it will be light ...
A quick follow up to yesterday's post about Sheffield Music City, as last night I went up to Devonshire Green to watch Reverend and the Makers. By the time they came on, it was chucking down with rain but it didn't spoilt it at all and it was the busiest I had seen it all [...]
In Henry Porter's Blog in the Guardian today he reveals that bouncers have been issuing fines in Norfolk without the knowledge of the local magistrates (and without any legal process) because the local police had accredited them to do so without consulting the magistrates or anyone else it seems. (There are also 8 staff at Addenbrooke's hospital who have been similarly accredited) Apparently this orwellian "Community Safety Accreditation Scheme" was introduced in the Police Reform Act way back in 2002. I know the price of freedom is eternal vigilance, but did anyone notice this awful piece of legislation at the ...
With news today that the UK have the fourth highest level of poverty for the over 65's, above countries such as Romania, it really does show how unequal society has become under successive Labour and Tory governments. The government's response: "The Department for Work and Pensions said even the poorest pensioners in the UK were better off than those living in other countries." This is true. However, relatively speaking (as the report used the relative poverty definition), they are still worse off; as if you compare it to the average living standards in the UK the over 65's are in ...
{northernrock} When the Thatcher Government began privatising the nationalised industries, the former prime minister Harold MacMillan is erroneously alleged to have likened the policy to selling the family silver. Whether or not one believes that the commanding heights of the economy should be in public or private ownership, however, one would hope that a decision by a government to dispose of something would at least see them receiving a return on their investment. So a recent story in The Mirror leaves me at a bit of a loss. Apparently, Gordon Brown could turn Britain's nationalised banks back into building societies. ...
Costigan Quist makes a useful point today about how there is no substitute for hard work in winning campaigns. I agree but I also see this as one aspect of our overall plan of action. In particular I am sure we all agree that a good national profile is essential to support local work. And this is where I would like to take issue. I worry that we are too quick to comment on everything and thus our message is spread too thinly. The national party puts out a comment on most stories which hit the press and there are ...
So there are only 3 years to go. 3 years until team GB walk into the stadium to a rapacious crowd, waiting and willing them on. Already the hairs on the back of my neck are standing up in anticipation.You only have to look around Stratford and see the amount of building work that is being done. The entire area is being transformed and looking on the London 2012 website they are defiantly
We are the only party to have seen an increase in the polls, with us appearing to steal 2% from the Tories. Here is the link. Long may it continue...
I hope that anyone who calls themselves a liberal of any flavour would regard conscription as anathema. It is, after all, a form of slavery; greater even than the slavery we all participate in to a state whose policies we do not agree with but are obliged to conform. So, whilst I realize that it's a sentiment that does exist within the party, I am a bit disturbed that some amongst us agree with conscription when it comes to education. See, I don't reckon that Tim Lott makes a case at all. Yes, he makes a series of assertions about ...
This from a readers' questions column in today's Independent: FATIMA AHMED, LONDON, asked: 'Is your basic view of George Osborne that he's a nice guy who doesn't know very much about economics? Do you think someone with his limited experience and a degree in History has the knowledge to lead us out of recession?' Vince replied: 'Not sure about the "nice guy" bit.' Crash! Zowie! Kapow!
2 Big Stories MPs urge rail franchise reforms A report by MPs has pronounced the rail franchise system a "muddle" and has called for its reform, including the nationalisation of East Coast trains. From the BBC: The Commons transport committee said operators were making profits in good times but forcing the government to step in when revenues fall. And they charged "unacceptable" fare rises of up to 11% above inflation. The Association of Train Operating Companies said four-fifths of passengers bought discounted tickets. The MPs urged the government to run East Coast trains itself. They said nationalisation could be a ...
It is a sad fact widely known that much of what fills our daily newspapers is not journalism as we once knew it. Gone are the days of reporters putting in the leg work to uncover a story, check facts and harvest opinion. Now so much of what passes for journalism is re-hashed (un-verified?) copy from news agencies and, worse still, press and PR departments of other organisations. Whether this is due to dwindling resources or dwindling talent in the industry is up to you to decide, but this particular corker from the Daily Post caught my eye this morning. ...
It is not very often that I can find myself agreeing with David Cameron. Too many people I know who have met him or know him speak so poorly about him as a person that I find it hard to ignore my instant allergic reaction to him. However, I do find some of what he has said to the press about possible spending cuts make sense. On the BBC website it says of Cameron "He highlighted what he said was the half a billion pounds spent on government advertising and the fact that people earning over £50,000 a year could ...
So, regarding the recent comments on how the government's road taxes have lead to motorists not trusting why they are being taxed as the money is said to be used for everything from green taxes to helping congestion, Theresa Villiers for the Conservatives said: "This report is further evidence of the mess Labour have made of motoring taxes. Their attempts at disguising retrospective car tax hikes as green taxes has backfired. Dressing up revenue raisers designed to plug the enormous black hole in Gordon Brown's public finances as green taxes fools no one and leaves road users aggrieved." The Telegraph ...
The Assembly term has drawn to a close in Cardiff Bay and it seems like most of Wales has decamped to the Royal Welsh Show in Builth Wells. Our last week of Assembly activity saw the Welsh Liberal Democrats leading the Welsh news agenda and ensuring that the Labour-Plaid government go into the summer knowing that we'll be scrutinising their performance every step of the way. We exposed credit card expenditure of over £700,000 by civil servants working for International Business Wales. After months of research we were in a position to raise serious concerns about the use of public ...
Keighley Town Council is aiming to get a Tourist Information Centre for the town. It is amzing that Bradford Council has not seen fit to have one in Keighley. People come from all over the country, and indeed from many parts of the world, to visit the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway. We need to let them know all about the special things here: The Keighley and Worth Valley Railway running from Keighley to Oxenhope - the set for many a TV programme and advertisements, one running currently on TV (sorry, can't remember what it's for, shampoo possibly, but it ...
[The Conservatives have proposed abolition of the Tripartite system, one leg of which is the FSA.] This is a secondary issue. But it has dominated the recent news and it needs to be dealt with sensibly. So far it is being dealt with very foolishly in the form of an old fashioned bureaucratic turf-dispute between the Bank of England and the FSA with Mr Darling and Mr Osborne egging on the two sides, like two schoolboys cheering on their heroes in a playground punch-up. The Chancellor, who has evidently fallen out with the Governor and backs the FSA, appears to ...
Ok, we are coming out of a precedented global recession, however, this week there have been signs that things are starting to improve. However, in a desperate way to help the economy to continue to recover, The Independent run with a headline that suggests that there is a 'new recession', just because their poll shows how we have seen business leaders support for the idea of 'Green Shoots' drop from 37% to 33%. A little exaggerated if I do say so myself... Ok, I am not an expert on the economy, there may well be a 'W' shaped recession instead ...
{Help Me Investigate} The Birmingham Post's recent headline proclaiming that Birmingham's social media reputation continues to grow has been backed up the success of citizen journalism project Help Me Investigate. The new tool, aimed at helping citizens get answers, was set up by, amongst others, Birmingham social media celebrities (!) Nick Booth and Stef Lewandowski. It's supported by Screen West Midlands and 4iP. One resident wanted to know where the most ticketed streets were in the city. Using the knowledge pooled on the website, she was able to obtain the figures which were then collated and processed by another user. ...
A Fresh Start for Britain is the most vacuous suicide note in history with its testosterone laden rallying cries of: cuts will be necessary to deliver any priorities" "any new spending will be paid for by a specific cut made elsewhere" "This means we will not increase public spending overall" and We will only include policies in our programme for government once we are certain the necessary resources are available." Our leadership is drunk on a cocktail of self flagellation (the hair shirted economics of the balanced budget) and political marketing. Both intoxicating ingredients are as much a product of ...
If, like me, you spend a significant amount of your life pushing leaflets through letterboxes (and, yes, a lot of them do get read), you may - as you tramp up some long driveway or blag your way into another block of flats - briefly fantasize about some way to get leaflets delivered without spending lots of money and without all that tramping around. Sadly, email, Facebook and Twitter really aren't up to the job so back the streets it is. Damn the lack of a constituency-wide email directory. Except that's a load of crap. People talk about switching to ...
A major report by the think tank Theos has found that the poorest spend more as a proportion of income on the lottery than wealthier counterparts but are least likely to benefit from its funding. Their poll of 1,019 adults in Britain, conducted at the end of last year, showed skilled manual workers were the most likely to play draw-based games - such as Lotto - with more than 67% in this category taking part once a month or more compared to 47% of managerial and professional workers. However, when it comes to distributing the cash the poorest areas are ...
For many years a jovial ex miner called JT would enjoy his early morning constitutional from Lochore, where he lived, along the coal road to Kelty road end. Most mornings my son, Alexander, and I would join him on the short trip to the school bus at the end of the road. JT always had a new tale to tell, a colourful anecdote or a bit of political commentary. He would speak to everyone - whether he knew them or not. A friendly face. He never failed to cheer up my morning. Last week JT Murphy passed away, at the ...
Michael Roberts, of the Association of Train Operating Companies, was on Radio 4's 'Today', being interviewed in response to the Transport Select Committee's report on rail franchises. It was a curiously unsatisfying effort on his part, matched only by the inability of the interviewer, Sarah Montague, to actually pin him down on anything. I'm fairly reliant on National Express. In Suffolk, they run all of the trains - the only station served by anyone else is Brandon, on the Norwich to Ely/Cambridge line. They also run the long distance coach network (Stowmarket is on the Southend to Liverpool route). My ...
My latest quiz closes at 23:59 tonight. To be in with a chance of winning James Hogg's biography of James Robertson Justice (henceforth JRJ), identify these five films in which JRJ appeared and e-mail me the answers: 1. A story of British heroism with a celebrated score by Ralph Vaughan Williams. 2. In this Ealing Comedy JRJ, spoke the great line: "It's a well-known medical fact that some men are born two drinks below par."3. This lesser-known Ealing Comedy starred a small boy called William Fox who grew up to be James Fox - and Billie Piper's father in law. ...
I can't remeber when I took these - a day or two before this year's Jester Festival - but the light was just enchanting... And such a great piece of open space - increasingly tended and enhanced by the Friends of Fortune Green.
I was very happy to be invited to be one of the speakers at Nottingham Gay Pride's Speaker's Corner. Here's what I had to say (minus the inappropriate jokes I ad-libbed on the day). Hello, my name is Alex Foster and I am one of Nottingham City's Lib Dem councillors. If you live near the Beechdale Baths, it could well be that I represent you. I'm also gay. In fact, I'm in politics BECAUSE I'm gay, not in spite of it. Let me explain. HISTORY The first political thing I ever did was write to my MP about the age ...
My old landlord has launched a new project which I have to admit I am very impressed with. The 411 Show is a new online magazine show, mainly about independent and unsigned music acts, but with an interest in other things such as independent filmmaking and modern art. There's even a bit of politics. The second episode came out last week and features, as well as some great music, Sunny Hundal from Liberal Conspiracy talking about Form 696 and artist Sarah Maple. You can watch the first part here: Go here for the second part and all the accompanying videos ...
Lib Dem Voice is sponsoring this year's Total Bollocks Blog Awards. Stephen Tall has to write the article which Daddy Richard and me will giggle drunkenly over at the Lib Dem Blog Awards like we did over Nich Starling's article last year, while we loudly heckle from the Serial Runners-Up table as Costigan Quist and Mark Reckons collect all the awards. Except, rather than write it himself, he's asked other Lib Dem bloggers to write it for him. Stephen, you're sponsoring the Total Bollocks Blog Awards. You've GIVEN MONEY TO IAIN DALE. And you're asking where the Lib Dem Blogosphere ...
The Tories' open primary experiment in Totnes intrigues me. Douglas Carswell describes it as "credible attempt to create a new system of open source politics." I am a bit dismissive about their experiments with "primaries" thus far (most of the Tory candidate selections which have been labeled as "primaries" have in fact been caucuses). The reason for this is that I've seen very little evidence that they have done anything significant to increase participation. Certainly, non-members have been able to participate, but it has generally been in the hundreds. Swapping one self-selecting group for another doesn't amount to much. Doubling, ...
