It's 3am and I wish it wasn't, but lumps of the story I have to write by the end of the week started appearing fully-formed in my head # 5am – time to stop. Got three paragraphs down and some outline notes. Huge step forward, had to grab the moment, dog tired now! # Oof. Feel bloody rough. This is not a sustainable work pattern! # Have just finished skimreading & making notes on a 586-page collection of chick lit stories. Feel like my brain is melting. Must buy shoes. # RT @ElrikMerlin RT @Psythor: David Cameron calls Twitterers twats. ...
What a day. The John Owens Trophy match between the African football team and Norton Ancients did go well. Norton won 4:0 but it was a good match with lots of good play that even I could see!. The Africans told me that they had only been playing together as a team for a few weeks, and it was their first match as a team so well done. The key to the whole event, as I've written about before...
Hello and welcome to the first of what will be a regular feature on the Social Liberal Forum website; a round-up of the best from the blogsphere and mainstream media throughout the day. So, in no particular order here is the top of today's picks: 1. Jack Taylor on Liberal Democrat Voice argues that the Liberal Democrats can use mass media to re-connect the public and Parliament. 2. Mark Thompson reports on the feud between John Prescott and Harriet Harman. 3. Laurie Penny takes issue with Harriet Harman's 'foot-in-mouth feminism' on Liberal Conspiracy.... 4. While Yvonne Roberts says Harman is ...
The MP for Banff and Buchan has been telling us he will stepping down at the next General Election and not even seeking a seat in Westminster. In that sense enough he should not have a place on the platform of a UK-wide debate for the next Westminster election alongside Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg. Indeed since 2007 that member has had such regard for the Palace of Westminster that he is only beaten with the worst attendance and voting records by the Sinn Fein members. Yet it is that the leader of the party with the fifth ...
What kind of fucked up child-man gives a shit about someone wearing fancy dress? If someone wants to dress up as a soldier where's the harm in that? You've gotta be pretty insecure to get all bothered about it.
Sun 2nd
22:16
Harris Academy : Education Cabinet Secretary clarifies priorities on school building programme
Scottish Government Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, Fiona Hyslop MSP, has clarified how Scottish Government intends to prioritise schools to be included in the first tranche of announcement for new schools buildings, to be made, in the case of secondary schools, next month. In a letter I received yesterday, responding to my request for clarification as to the criteria Scottish Government intends using in prioritising further capital funding, the Cabinet Secretary said, "Decisions will be taken on the basis of the best data information and intelligence available about the scale, nature and distribution of needs across Scotland. This ...
Two weeks ago I went to prison and then chose Folsom Prison Blues. Today I have been to a garden party, so... Ricky Nelson was a teen heart throb in the early days of American rock and roll - you will know Hello Mary Lou at least - with an enormous number of hit singles there. The song Garden Party arose from his efforts to explore new directions in his music. In 1972, by which time he had become Rick Nelson (much as this blog's hero Stevie Winwood became Steve Winwood) and was playing a country-tinged, West Coast style of ...
I have many designs, that I want to add to my designs tag of this blog but can't because they are created to a print standard 600 dpi+. That is hard for Blogger to upload and takes a long time, and for that reason I shall not add them to the blog.
Welcome to the 128th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (26th July – 1st August 2009), together with a hand-picked quintet, mostly courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed. Don't forget, by the way, you can now sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox – just click here – ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging. As ever, let's start with the most popular post, and work our way down: 1. Norwich North was ...
As Home Secretary Jack Straw evaded his legal obligation to extradite murderer and torturer Pinochet by saying that he was unfit to face trial. Pinochet returned home to greet his supporters showing no signs of unfitness. Even tea with Margaret Thatcher hadn't made him sick.Perhaps as Minister of Justice, Straw might see the case for refusing to extradite Gary McKinnon as unfit to face trial,
Is there no limit to Alex Salmond's ego? It appears he thinks he should be included in a UK wide debate between the Party leaders if one is arranged during the next election campaign and if the big boys won't let him play, he's going to take them to court. What a ridiculous notion, for a party which is fielding candidates in less than a tenth of the seats across the UK? If you allow the SNP in, then you probably also have to include the Greens, UKIP, the Welsh and Cornish nationalists as well and potentially even the BNP. ...
As someone who comes from a Pakistani background, I am saddened to see that culture has been lost. The young people of today don't claim, that they are from a Pakistani, Asian culture and try and hide this, and I am worried about the outcome this could have. If you are from an Asian, Pakistani family, I believe you should be proud and you shouldn't hide this. You shouldn't find it offensive to wear Asian, Pakistani clothing and a lot of young people are ashamed to do that. Bashir Ahmad MSP, was the first man to walk into a UK ...
Home again after a week of rest and relaxation in Dorset. Our wonderful holiday house had no mobile phone reception, no internet connection - bliss for a week. I know I wouldn't want to live like that for ever but it did mean that work couldn't intrude on our evenings and only when we went out of the village quite a distance during the day did anyone have any chance to contact us, apart from
And then there were three.
The RSPCA have finally confirmed that the Nottinghamshire police officer who allowed two police dogs to die is to face prosecution. The two german shepherds would have basically boiled alive, what a tragic and painful way to die. A real tragedy. I have blogged about this a few times, firstly was when the story first broke, then the statement from the Nottinghamshire Police and then when the BBC reported the police officer was to face prosecution. The reason I have blogged about this is because of how angry this made me. A spokesman for the animal welfare charity said: "The ...
I think that the comments made by new Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols linking social networking sites and teenage suicides are completely wrong. Costigan has already said why, but there are a few things I'd like to add. Firstly, it's not as though Facebook invented bullying. As I well know, it was alive and kicking, and I mean kicking literally, in the 1980s for me. I will never, ever, forget the feeling of isolation and ostracisation I felt and I would never want anyone else to go through it. From the daubing of ink on my coat, to making certain ...
The Conservatives, along with a Commons committee, have been complaining about degree inflation, and degree parity, today. We're used to the idea that far more students are getting high grades in GCSEs and A-levels than in past decades. Every year we have the debate about whether the kids are really cleverer or the exams are getting easier. Before we discuss degree inflation, then, let's remind ourselves how university has changed in the last few decades. In the early 1960s, only 4% of school leavers went to university. In 1970 it was 10%. Today it's nearly 50%. It's completely unthinkable that ...
On the Andrew Marr how today, Harriet Harman made some controversial comments about the position of women in her country. She called for either the Deputy Leader or Leader of her party to always be a woman, citing as a reason that "men can't be left to run things themselves. This has caused a flurry of [...]
Harriet Harman has been successful in promoting women's equality during her tenure of deputy leadership. In recent developments, she calls for a woman to occupy either the deputy leadership or the leadership. I support her vision, as there should be a 50/50 split for men and women at the top of politics, however, in a man dominated political culture, it could easily just be included under another one of Clegg's 'aspirations'. The idea is one that should not be ignored, however. Equally, it should be applied to the leader/chancellor position, as this is arguably another axis that needs to be ...
The BBC reports that Cuban President Raul Castro told his "parliament" that: "he had not been elected to return Cuba to capitalism." And I'm inwardly shouting like Toby Ziegler: "Of course he wasn't elected to return Cuba to capitalism! That's because HE WASN'T ELECTED!" What really gets me is that if the Castro brothers were fascist dictators, we'd (rightly) never hear the end of their infamy. But because they're communists, people who would never have gone on holiday to Pinochet's Chile or apartheid-era South Africa think that there's something romantic about a Cuban regime that puts people in labour camps ...
Harriet Harman has been interviewed by the Times: You can't trust Men in Power Men cannot be left to run things on their own It's painful to read isn't it ladies? I would usually have a rant at this point but I just don't know where to start in this case. Instead I think I'll direct you to bloggers much older and wiser than I on an issue where members of all three parties agree to disagree on this one: Tory (Shane Greer), LibDem (Charlotte Gore) and Labour (John Prescott).
Having spent the last few days on a mini break near Windsor without a sat nav, I am left wondering whether the sheer volume of people owning sat nav systems has made those responsible for putting up road signs forget that there are some of us who do not use sat navs and actually rely upon signs. I'll give you a couple of examples. Upon leaving Legoland on Friday we could turn left signposted for Windsor and the M4 (the way we came and lots of traffic) or right, which was signposted M4 Alternative route. As we wanted the M4, ...
I have not quite made my mind up about 'open primaries', but I was annoyed to read Eric Pickles' comments in his article regarding the Totens 'open primary', where he said: "Predictably, an adjoining Liberal Democrat MP, protective of the old system that keeps power in the hands of the chosen few, urged people to mess up the selection; hardly positive politics from a once-progressive party." How hypocritical are those comments? How can the Liberal Democrats be said to be protective of the old system? We are the only party to truly advocate a fundamental change to the political system, ...
Earlier this afternoon I was at a BBQ (invited via Facebook) where I was chatting to someone about the different nature of offline and online communities, and by coincidence when I got home and caught up on some blog readings I found Jane Mason saying this: Internet relationships (especially the ones on the websites most employers ban) are not intimate relationships. They are social, business, casual, or some combination of the three. By this, I am not suggesting that internet relationships are bad or shallow - just that they are limited and we should remember this. The person I was ...
It's not like me to be nice about Labour MPs, but credit where it's due, Eric Joyce deserves it today for speaking out in a Scotland on Sunday article against the MOD's action to limit compensation settlements to injured soldiers which I wrote about earlier this week. I think he deserves our respect for standing up for his beliefs on this and for someone who has never, ever (despite what his They Work for You record might say), in 8 years, voted against the Government, this is a major step for him to take. In his article, Joyce argues that ...
The Observer has this story about Labour postponing it's plans to outlaw wealthy tax exiles bankrolling political parties. First, it has to be noted that anything that is postponed until 'after the election' enters the realm of political never never land because the stark reality is that Labour is unlikely to be in office to [...]
The new-look home page for Twitter.com has generally had pretty good reactions so far and at first I quite liked it too. But on reflection, it looks to me to be a move in the wrong direction. Why? Twitter search Well, most importantly it has a general Twitter search box as the most prominent item on the page. Not used Twitter before and/or not sure what it's about? Then there's the search box tempting you to try out a search. And there's the problem. Doing a general search on Twitter for something you're interested in is one of the worst ...
Conservative Peer Lord Taylor of Warwick claims £70k for home that does not exist This weekend, Lord Oakeshott, a Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman, said: "This looks like the worst abuse yet of the discredited Lords' expenses system. The Conservatives should make Lord Taylor pay the money back to the taxpayer now." The Sunday times has been following this for weeks...
It has been documented extensively via many different platforms that Parliament and the public are more disconnected in the 21st century than at any time in history - although Parliamentarians have never been hugely popular with those who elect them. Part of the problem has stemmed from the reduction of parliamentary coverage by mass media outlets. This can be traced back many years to the gradual reduction in the reporting of speeches in broadsheet newspapers. Speeches are now hardly ever published, and parliamentary sketch writers usually focus on specific moments during proceedings - sometimes only the trivial. However, in order ...
People who appear in advertisements aimed at under-16s should not be airbrushed or enhanced to make them look more attractive, the Liberal Democrats said today To read the full story in the Sunday Times follow the link HERE
Vince Cable MP, Liberal Democrats Treasury spokesman Andrew Marr Show, BBC1 Mr Cable said that despite the need for "severe" discpline in budgets, it could be possible to balance the budget through "fairer" tax policies as opposed to overall tax rises. "All parties are just going ot have to accept the realities of the situation what will be different - certainly different from...
Apologies, for not blogging for the last couple of days but that is due to the fact that I have been extremely busy without a computer to use, due to a family issue. Moving on from that I just thought, it would be interesting to report that this blog has finally gone main stream. The BBC have linked to a blog post about Mandelson and his chances of becoming Prime Minister, and personally I am honoured by the link from them! Note to the person from the BBC, keep reading my blog if you want more posts link the previous ...
Over at Labour's Go Fourth blog John Prescott has finally snapped and told Harriet Harman to stick her positive discimination agenda where the sun don't shine: Success doesn't come from saying all male leaderships are bad and trying to change the party rules to ban all male leaderships. This would change one member one vote – which John Smith and I fought very hard to introduce – to one man, one woman, one vote for leadership elections. Why take away from the party the right to choose its leaders on the basis of ability? You can't dictate equality in leadership ...
Noel Coward famously wrote that in Bangkok, only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun. Actually, all the alley mutts I have seen have been well asleep in the shade long before then. But walking back to my hotel at lunchtime today reminded me just how hot and sticky the Thai capital [...]
Those of us who had derived some hope from reports that Labour were re-thinking plans to introduce ID cards in the face of massive public opposition and had at last been convinced by the case for preventing non-domiciles donating to political parties should have known better. Ministers are pressing on remorselessly with their illiberal, uneconomic and ineffective ID card scheme whilst, according to this morning's Observer the plan to stop wealthy tax exiles bankrolling political parties has been quietly dropped until after a general election because Labour are broke. It is enough to make me want to stop believing what ...
UK Polling Report has this story which has also been reported elsewhere about the Conservatives taking a commanding lead in marginal seats. The headline figures in what is believed to be the Top 30 Conservative target seats are CON 44% LAB 20% LIB DEMS 18% which, as is pointed out brings them largely in line with [...]
Once again I find myself screaming at the odious Harriet Harman to, in short, stop trying to help. From the 'they do it to us so why can't we do it to them?' school of ad hominum attacks, she tells us that men cannot be trusted in power, and argues that the Labour Party should always have one woman and one man as Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, or something. It comes down, as always, to a collectivist interpretation of feminism and a individualist's interpretation. The collectivist likes to think in terms of collectives. So women are a collective, ...
Police are appealing for witnesses to stabbing outside the Littlebourne block of flats, which are on the corner of Hither Green Lane and Wellmeadow Road (just down the road from me, as it happens). According to the News Shopper: "The incident happened outside a block of flats known as Littlebourne in Hither Green Lane, on July 3, between 6.30pm and 7.30pm. The 28-year-old was taken to hospital suffering from two stab wounds to the neck. He has since been released and the incident is being investigated by Lewisham Police. Detective Constable Abraham Pino said: We believe the attack began on ...
Oh dear! All is not well in Labour ranks. John Prescott has taken Harriet Harman to task on his blog about her rather bizarre comments that men "cannot be left to run things on their own" coupled with a call for the Labour party rules to be changed so that a woman always occupies one of the top two leadership positions. Here are a few snippets: I know you don't choose the headlines. But you did choose the words in the interview.You said: "I don't agree with all male leaderships. Men cannot be left to run things on their own. ...
I've been shaken today by this Sunday Herald report which tells of the rise in incidents of so called "corrective" rape and often murder of lesbians in South Africa. Coming on top of the reports of the hate filled murder at a lesbian and gay advice centre in Tel Aviv, it's a sign of the dangers of inaction on homophobia. Andrew has written powerfully of his reaction to the Tel Aviv murders. He mentions that he has also been attacked simply for being gay. It makes me so angry that anyone would cause harm to one of the nicest people ...
I had the pleasure of finding a real, honest to goodness, Labour voter yesterday - let's call him Joe - first such person I've come across in a long time. "Labour all the way" he said. I physically squirmed at this. As odd as it sounds, it was like having a conversation with myself - except me from 5 years ago. It all started when someone mentioned this blog. I said, "if you're a lefty you probably won't like it very much." "Why?" Joe replied. "Are you a bit of a fascist? Do you hate immigrants? Do you hate the ...
From today's Observer: A much-publicised law designed to stop wealthy tax exiles bankrolling political parties has been quietly dropped until after a general election, the Observer has learned. The disclosure means that key Labour donors such as Lakshmi Mittal as well as Tory donor Lord Ashcroft will still be able to pump millions of pounds into the forthcoming election campaign, despite promises to curb the influence of wealthy backers. It has prompted accusations that the government has "nobbled" an act of parliament by failing to ask the electoral commission to enforce the rule. Lord Oakeshott, the Liberal Democrat treasury spokesman, ...
To use an Americanism, surely this is a "no-brainer". We know that ultra-violet radiation causes skin cancer, and sunbeds tan by emitting UVR, so sunbeds are carcinogenic. It is high time that the tanning industry was regulated, whether by local or central government.
From the Sunday Telegraph: Mike Mackay, an IT manager for the Youth Justice Board, (YJB) a quango charged with overseeing youth justice and the rehabilitation of young criminals, has been paid almost £1 million over the past three years, making him one of the highest-paid public servants in the country... Freedom of Information requests and the YJB's annual accounts reveal that in 2007 Mr Mackay was paid £330,000 for his services. Last year that rose to £351,499, according to the Daily Mail. This year, he was paid £336,000, which is more than ten times the salary of a youth worker. ...
Working Class Tory has written a post today where he tries to argue that the expenses scandal has actually strengthened the case for First Past the Post. It's not often when I see a bullet pointed blog post where I disagree with every single bullet point but with this one I do. I thought this merited a quick fisk: Something you don't hear too often is that the expenses scandal has strengthened the case for the First Past The Post system of voting (our present one), which it undoubtedly has. Why? If an individual MP has committed an offence, you ...
I have been staying with my parents this weekend following Andy and Jo's wedding in Petersfield on Friday. Yesterday we went down to Dover Castle for a day-trip.
Of course there should be a debate between the main party leaders. It would put them on their metal in front of the nation - where we pick up all kinds of signals (most of which have little to do with policy) and see how they deal with pressure under fire. One of the problems, however, is that the conditions that are put down before someone like the PM will take part will probably sterilise the process - perhaps even to the point of pointlessness - and the 'dealing with pressure under' fire is totally minimised. Secondly - the incumbent ...
Parliament may be on holiday, but the campaigning continues. Last week we were surveying in Richmond. Without leaving Islington. Like all local authorities, Islington divides its area into wards, and each ward into 3 polling districts. To plan our campaign organisation, we Lib Dems further divide them up into 'walks', one of which is 'Richmond', covering [...]
I was quite shocked this morning to see gay hate crimes on the google alerts and news bulletins. In fact absolutely bloody angry, that in 2009 this crap still goes off that people cannot just accept that there are people who are different to them. I am gay, I am proud of it and why does anyone have the right to murder or attack people just because of who they sleep with? As a victim of hate crime myself on two separate occasions, the first when I was 18 and the second which was much worse when I was 20 ...
There's a lot of discussion on Twitter and other parts of the Internet about the fact that pupils at Lewisham Bridge Primary School have been told that they will go to the school as usual in September and not be decanted as previously planned. This is being claimed as victory by the campaign against the conversion of the school into a joint primary/secondary school. Claims of total victory by the campaign are premature. What has happened is that the Council's appeal against English Heritage's listing of the school has failed. However, the Council is now likely to pursue the option ...
Hurry over to Gavin's Blog for photogaphs of the action: This evening a standoff took place between two neighbouring cats and Puds. Puds stood on our shed, while two as yet unnamed cats stood on the neighbour's shed. They traded dirty looks with Puds and, even me.
Three of my favourite films are on the face of it utterly different, so it was a surprise when i realised that all were directed by the same man. In the first, Witness, an action thriller is metamorphosed into a meditation about simplicity and modernity, innocence and corruption, harmony and violence as a detective is forced by circumstances and his own decency to protect a young boy who was the sole witness to a murder and then has to go into hiding himself among the boy's Amish community that lives surrounded by the American way of life but apart from ...
I have a sneaking fondness for moderate religions. Despite the urgings of some of my more militant atheist friends for me to think otherwise, I can't help feeling that they seem to do rather a lot of good. For every occasion of the Pope opposing condoms, or some church or other opposing gay marriage, there's a Christian Aid with people working selflessly to save lives in a way I'll never do (how many atheist charities have you seen working in the developing world?). But that doesn't stop them coming up with some seriously daft pronouncements. Archbishop Vincent Nichols, the head ...
Just to let people know that the planning application for building flats at the Kidz Korner site at 232 Hither Green Lane (at the junction with George Lane) is going to Lewisham Council's Planning Committee B at 7.30pm this Thursday 6 August. The meeting will be open to members of the public, although only one objector will be allowed to address the committee for five minutes and then to answer questions.
Hello everyone!! I made it back for the second week. Below are the links that made me think over the past week: enjoy!! Hat tip: The Newest Demotivator for the excellent pic!! 1. William Easterly over at Aidwatch reports that USAID are actually funding Iraqi insurgents: "So why was CSP suspended? According to a USAID statement, an external review begun in February discovered "inconsistencies" in the implementation of the project in one of the target cities. This deadpan response from USAID leaves aside just a few other reasons to be concerned about the project, namely a 2008 audit that found ...
The rest of The Voice's Daily View team may have decided to have a lie in each morning during August, but we're made of sterner stuff here on the Sunday slot. And as it's a Sunday, this time by popular demand (sort of) there's a special bonus social networking meets beards sing-a-long supplement. 2 Big Stories Iranian protesters go on trial Forcing critics of a government to recant in implausible public confessions is both a display of a regime's power but also of a display of absurdity. If it makes people fear that power it strengthens the regime, but if ...
The Hampstead Lido is just great - but to my mind is beginning to show it's age. It's approaching it's 71st birthday having been opened on 20th August 1938. rather bizarrely the opening was done by a slightly puzzled and bemused Stanley Rous, Secretary of the FA (Football Association) Designed by London County Council Architects Harry Rowbotham and T Smithson is was only one of 13 Lido's built by LCC and was said to have been the most expensive to build. It is of course in the art deco style and cost £34,000 to build. Today it's still a great ...
Some of these reviews can also be found on Amazon.In July 2009 I read the following books: 1. The Blind Watchmaker, by Richard Dawkins I was surprised when I realised that I hadn't actually read this. I wish I still hadn't. It is tediously repetitive - for example, at the beginning of chapter 10 he says " This book is mainly about evolution as the solution of the complex 'design' problem; evolution as the true explanation for the phenomena that [William] Paley thought proved the existence of a divine watchmaker. This is why I keep going on about eyes and ...
