Updates. we may share a different flag so to speak but after our meeting i have received calls from two departments in relation to topics we had raised with him. One is ongoing and the second i believe will be dealt with Monday. Again this to me is evidence of joint working which shows the aims all [...]
Despite a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights last December, the Association of Chief Police Officers has written to chief constables in England and Wales advising them to continue adding the DNA profiles of innocent people to the national DNA database. They have been told that new Home Office guidelines will not take effect until 2010. From the Guardian: Senior police officers have also been "strongly advised" that it is "vitally important" that they resist individual requests based on the Strasbourg ruling to remove DNA profiles from the national database in cases such as wrongful arrest, mistaken identity, ...
When drug dealer Shahid Saleem, who owned a fleet of taxis, was due in crown court he got three Keighley councillors and a magistrate to give him character references. Red faces all round! Wise up guys, it's not enough to have met the man in the street and think he comes from a decent family, and so agree to put in a word for him. The fact that he "did voluntary work with young people" was the smokescreen that deceived you, but of course this made him even more dangerous. This was about whether the accused was a fit person ...
Bahraini agents assault opponents in London street The house of a prominent Bahraini opposition activist was subjected to an arson attack and two opponents of the Bahraini regime were assaulted in King's Cross, a London meeting heard today. At a seminar: Bahrain: state terrorism against opponents at home and in exile hosted by Lord Eric Avebury, the Vice-Chair of the Parliamentary Human Rights Group , Dr Saeed Shehabi described how a fire destroyed the front of his house and his daughter's car. Abbas Al-Omran a board member of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights and Ali Mushaima an adminsitrative member ...
Buddhism is fastest-growing religion in English jails over past decade Buddhism is the fastest-growing religion in England's jails, with the number of followers rising eightfold over the past decade. By Martin Beckford, Religious Affairs Correspondent Published: 6:38PM BST 05 Aug 2009 Mural depicting the Buddha s arrival: Buddhism is fastest-growing religion in English jails over past decade Although adherents to the Eastern faith believe in peace and the sanctity of life, almost all of the Buddhists behind bars in this country are serving lengthy sentences for serious crimes such as violence and sex offences. Some jails and secure hospitals including ...
I love beetroot. Last weekend, my neighbourhood popped over with some fresh beetroot that he's been growing in his garden. I thought what could I do with this beetroot? So, I consulted the web-pages and found you could do quite a lot. It can find its way into a load of recipes - it's not just for pickling! Since then, I haven't stopped reading about beetroot. It's everywhere; in my morning paper and online. Everyday, I seem to come across a beetroot story. Even Jeremy Clarkson is writing about them. The latest story is on BBC online and tells you ...
Rather bizarrely, that looks to be the view of the Conservative Party's Press Office. At the tail end of July, their attitude towards bloggers caught some attention following the refusal of a Conservative press officer to even email an already published letter to a Conservative blogger. PR Week this week reports that the Conservatives have now changed tack somewhat: The party has adapted its blogger relations policy after a staffer caused a storm in the Tory blogosphere by admitting the party's press office does not consider blogs 'important'... However, the move stops short of a full overhaul of policy, because ...
Well, we had a very well-attended meeting last night, and a lively debate, concerning the role of the military in the 21st century, the role of nuclear weapons within its arsenal, and finally agreed that the only sensible way morally, militarily, and ...
JW and Maite have gone off with Alastair to a festival, where no doubt they have been drenched in the several downpours. As they were going to be away on his real birthday, we had a little party on Thursday evening, with a special cake decorated with a single candle. We have only managed to fit in one game of ping pong since July 15, and it was 1-1 making the cumulative score 123-118 in favour of JW.
This afternoon, as England were throwing away the Ashes, the butterflies were enjoying my buddleia in the sun.
Unashamedly I am continuing a series of posts looking at the Politics Home polls on various issues. The latest one is drugs and this is yet another area where our party policy suffers from the tyranny of 'realpoltik'. While our policy is defiantly an improvement on other parties in moving the emphasis away from criminalising users [...]
If the Cap fits? and what ever way you look at it, these are what the press will have you believe are your choice. Voting Liberal Democrat is a vote for change.Don't be fooled by spin and bluster, if you wish to talk over any policy statement or our vision of the future drop us [...]
Yesterday I wrote about Dan Kavanagh, the Tory who has been enjoying this leave of absence from Crawley Borough Council a little too well. Something about Kavanagh's photograph in the West Sussex County Times was strangely familiar. Then I realised where I had seen him before...
I think 95% of the population hangs its head in shamed ambarrassment at the way a small hardcore of British tourists behave abroad. So whilst it is, of course, terrible what happened to a British tourist in Crete, you do have to ask whether it will take THIS kind of treatment to get some British men to keep their shorts on and British women to keep their tops on in bars abroad.
A little bird tells me today there could be one more candidate, things are going to be fun. Cant wait.
What with Hazel on the Precinct and Richard outside god knows, i cant recognise this site? we must be getting close to that general election, and i am looking forward to it with great interest. what ever you say about politics i still get a buzz. Good Luck to all the candidates. I hope you will all [...]
Lembit Opik has wrote another one of his famous articles in the Daily Sport that is extremely derogatory towards woman, and not a newspaper that a politician should be writing in. Anyway, on the specifics of the article, which consists of patronising words to describe women to fit the theme of the newspaper, such as 'missus' 'lasses' and 'babe', he attempts to slight Harman's proposals for fairer representation of women in Parliament by saying that with her proposals, Jordon would be the ideal candidate for Home Secretary. His article has a fundamental contradiction at the beginning too, when he actually ...
I had to ring my bank last night because they had put a stop on my card. What's more, I had been receiving funny automated phone calls asking me to reveal all my personal details (which, needless to say, I red buttoned immediately). It turns out that my bank's system detected a change in my habits. For years they have seen expenditure on my account from places like Waitrose in swanky Berkshire. Then all of sudden they saw spending in places like Cost Cutters in darkest Manchester (not normally a holiday location in their eyes, I suppose). So they put ...
Parliament's entertainer in the form of Lembit Opik has a cracking column in the Daily Sport, like every week but here is my favourite bit from it: Every party knows a week is a long time in politics and the General Election probably won't be until May 2010, almost a year away. You never know what could happen between now and then. Gordon Brown could enter the Big Brother house to reconnect with the public, the Tories might make George Galloway their leader in retaliation and my local pub landlord, Richard Bell, could become Prime Minister. If all those things ...
Have the entire staff of the Home Office cleared off on holiday and left a bunch of primary school kids in charge, on some sort of work experience deal? That's the only way I can think of to explain the line the Home Office is taking, following the revalation that an expert took just 12 minutes to clone an ID card chip and even changed the information on it. Whilst opponents of ID cards might have dreamt of the Home Office throwing in the towel and admitting the whole thing was a terrible and costly mistake, that was hardly very ...
A video by Shane Greer grabbed my attention it's a video in which pundits are asked to speak and people at home rate the pundits' performance. It's a must watch video and I think anyone who watches it will enjoy it. I wouldn't become a pundit if there was an audience rating system after watching the video because, I don't want to have to go through what the people on the video went through! Defiantly worth a watch!
From an unexpected source I found the following: Only in England do people write books with titles like The Middle Way, elevating the argumentum ad temperantiam into a guide for public policy. The Liberal Party used to make a career of the fallacy, regularly taking up a position midway between those of the two main parties, and ritually denouncing them for extremism. The main parties, in their turn, contained this threat by bidding for 'the middle ground' themselves. (Madsen Pirie, How to Win Every Argument, P.129) The author contends that the appeal to moderation is a fallacy, but one that ...
A couple of weeks ago, Lib Dem Voice asked our readers the question, Do you think Radio 4's Thought for the Day should be opened up to secularists and humanists? The result was pretty clear-cut: * 60% (384 votes): Yes, open it up * 19% (122): No, keep it for religion * 21% (134): Just scrap Thought for the Day Total Votes: 640 Poll ran: 14th July – 6th August 2009 But we can't guarantee the BBC will listen...
Following on from the "social contract debate" started on Charlotte Gore's blog Oranjepan has further developed some of Barry Stocker's critique in the comments on my last piece and on Charlotte's summary with an historical context. I hope I don't misrepresent them - Barry is far better versed in philosophy and philosophers than I and Oranjepan much better versed in historical detail. But both wanted to point out that the "Social Contract" also contains within it not just the "Labour" style definition of being bound to obey whatever the demos decides via the government or state but a set of ...
I can't say I'm a big fan of databases. The fundamental problem with them, is they never bloody work properly. No data will ever be entered in the right place, 100% of the time. Things get confused, mistakes get made. No-one can get it right every time. Whether its tax credits or Orange's customer service computers, they all have mistakes, glitches and problems. Which is why I have a fundamental problem with big government database projects. I don't blame the government for all the problems such databases have. There will always be a potential wildcard simply as 'human error', which ...
With Brown away on holiday, with the dab of politically motivated voluntary work, the battle for the next Labour leader has heated up. The two political mice that have been talked about the most and are seen as using their time as replacement PM cat, are Harriet Harman and Peter Mandelson. However, interestingly, Steve Richards in The Independent states quite forcefully that neither of the two leading cabinet figures will actually even stand to be the next leader. He argues that the fact Harman has actually said that it is not in her ambitions to be the next leader, and ...
There has been much interest in the future of the Southport Arts Center complex including the Library and Art Gallery. The buildings are in need of renovation. At a recent presentation to councillors in Southport it became clear that action needs to be taken. When the building was last 'renovated' it was a bit of a botched job by all accounts. Work clearly needs to be done on the electrics, the roof and structure. It seems at least probable that it would have to close in the short term whether we go ahead with this project or not. Ronnie Fearn ...
God for years no one as seen her, and now she is sitting on the Precinct, She must be panicking.What next community clean ups i think i will invite het to the valley.
IntroductionThis week's report from NHS West Midlands shows that cases of swine flu continue to spread across the region. It provides information on the spread of swine flu and its impact on the local services.Key MessagesPatients presenting at primary care centres with influenza-like symptoms has decreased within the health economy over the last week.Activity /Rates - GPsThis shows the number of
Commenting on the High Court decision not to overrule the extradition of Gary McKinnon, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Huhne said: "this judgement is a hammer blow to a vulnerable man and his long suffering supporters." McKinnon's case has raised the public profile of the Extradition Treaty, signed in 2003 and only ratified by the USA in 2006. The Liberal Democrats have opposed it from the start, criticising the way in which the Government introduced it as well as the substance of the Treaty itself. We have consistently opposed it because we believe the Extradition Act is unfair to ...
Very interesting results from a PoliticsHome poll on legalising drugs which show a majority of voters (52-43) in favour of legalising some or all drugs. The breakdown by party ID is interesting too, with a strong majority of Liberal Democrat supporters in favour (59-36), a majority amongst Labour voters (52-42) and a narrow majority against amongst Tory voters (45-52). The figure amongst those not listed as supporting one of the big three parties is 59-35 in favour, though it would be interesting (though it would require a poll with a bigger sample size, I guess) to see how that breaks ...
Here's the best argument for him being right: 1. He's run hugely successful and profitable businesses for many years in many countries. 2. You haven't. 3. Ergo, he knows more than you about how to make money. Of course, this isn't a foolproof argument by any means, but it's a useful antidote to the lack of humility of some commenters who, despite zero track record at successfully running a business, are 100% sure that they know better than Rupert Murdoch. Related posts:Rupert Read and the false allegations A bit of background for any Voice readers who either...Hornsey Hospital redevelopment brings ...
Politics Home is running quite a useful set of polls at the moment; they are good because they split the results by-party. The latest one is on economic confidence which shows something of a gap between good economic news around retail sales, house prices, car sales and how people actually feel about the economy. This is [...]
It's been a quiet week, results-wise, but there are two bits of by-election good news: Didcot has its first ever Lib Dem Councillor following yesterday's gain from Labour. From the Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors: David Rouane (Lib Dem) 152 (42.1%) Labour 124 (34.3%) Conservative 85 (23.5%) Lib Dem majority 28 Turnout 12% Lib Dem gain from Labour (Labour councillor resigned) And another Lib Dem for Little Gaddesden Parish Council. Also from ALDC: Little Gaddesden PC LD Rob Irving 102 Philip Melville 97 Turnout 23% (postal votes turnout was in the 40%s) Congratulations to the new councillors and to everyone ...
{gordo} From cricinfo.com after England collapse for 102 all out: Gordon Brown writes: "I think hard-working families up and down the country will be proud and will recognise how the England cricketers have fought through the difficult morning session and emerged into the far brighter afternoon session their hard work so richly deserves. After all, England lost seven wickets this morning, and predictions suggest they cannot possibly lose more than three this afternoon, so recovery is obviously just around the corner." Ho ho ho.
You may have heard of Bjorn Lomborg. An undoubtedly intelligent man, his presence on the "other side" of the Global Warming debate has long dismayed greens. He has never been an out and out denier - you know, one of those fools that seem to think a cold winter disproves global warming - but rather someone who questions the need to impose such vast costs on the world economy to solve this problem. Or, still worse, like the Famous Scientist James Delingpole who seems to take the views of his "real focus group" that "solar variation is mainly to blame" ...
The busy life of a Parish councillor leaves little time for a social life, so it was nice to take in some culture on Wednesday evening, as Ros and I went to see 'Oliver' at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. I'm not wholly convinced about musicals, and the tickets weren't exactly cheap, but I have to admit to having rather enjoyed myself. Omid Djalili makes for a pretty good Fagin, and can sing well enough, the kids are enthusiastic and the set is almost worth a ticket in its own right. There is an irony, in that Londoners have all ...
Adding the 'waste and recycling' category last night reminded me of something - a couple of photos I took at the Council's waste depot on a recent visit: {Plastic mountain} {Plastic mountain} That's a couple of shots of plastic waiting at the depot to be baled and then sent on to a processor. What I'm wondering is if any of you can guess how much of Colchester's plastic recycling that represents? Details: We currently collect plastics every fortnight at the same time as garden waste (the other week is a paper, card, glass and metals collection)and that picture was taken ...
Conservative Assembly Member, Jonathan Morgan is not afraid to push his own constituency to the forefront of the Tory policy agenda. According to his Twitter account at least he is putting his money where his mouth is: JonMorganAM believes Whitchurch High School has what it takes to become a successful foundation school No related posts.
You would think from the news that the BANKS were the most important things in the British Economy. And I'm afraid you would be RIGHT. The financial sector is far and away the largest contributor to Great Britain's Gross Domestic Product; our exports of financial services in 2007 amounted to TWENTY-ONE billion pounds, almost a tenth of ALL exports and more than from adding together our other two big sellers (that's food and drink: £10bn and, embarrassingly, arms sales: £7bn). Well now we've seen the results for the first half of the year for some of the BIGGEST BANKERS on ...
I recently ran a quiz with a couple of copies of Patrick Hannan's A Useful Fiction: Adventures in British Democracy as prizes. Today I review the book in Liberal Democrat News. A Useful Fiction: Adventures in British Democracy Patrick Hannan Seren, 2009, £9.99 Some books lead you on a brisk climb to a summit from which you can admire the facts and arguments marshalled below. This is not one of those books. Instead, Patrick Hannan takes you for an enjoyable stroll in the country. In his company you do not so much ascend peaks of knowledge as wander amongst them, ...
RBS edges back into profit after 'momentous' six months Published by Jon Land for 24dash.com in Communities , Bill Payments Friday 7th August 2009 – 8:50am RBS edges back into profit after 'momentous' six months Part-nationalised Royal Bank of Scotland edged back into the black today with a £15 million profit for the first half of 2009. The profit [...]
Here's the problem: The advertising model for online content isn't very good - at least, it's not sustainable. Most people are perfectly capable of mentally filtering out the spam so that they hardly notice it at all. To make money you need a lot of traffic and next to no costs. That's why Guido can make a profit whilst the mainstream media loses money on their their online outlets: the costs of running an online edition of a newspaper are unlikely to be recovered from advertising alone. From Murdoch's point of view, the cost of generating the content along with ...
Fri 7th
13:09
How many more men are to be added to the list, i cannot except that this loss of life is an exceptab...
Three British paratroopers killed in Afghanistan explosion Published by Jon Land for 24dash.com in Communities , Central GoverFriday 7th August 2009 – 12:24p Three British paratroopers killed in Afghanistan explosion Three British soldiers were killed and a fourth was critically injured when their patrol came under attack in southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence said today. The servicemen, from [...]
Didcot TC, Northbourne date: 06/08/2009David Rouane (Lib Dem) 152 (42.1%)Labour 124 (34.3%)Conservative 85 (23.5%)Lib Dem majority 28Turnout 12%Lib Dem gain from LabourLabour councillor resigned.Top candidate for each party in this ward in 2007 got:Con 451 (39.8%)Lab 444 (39.2%)Ind 237 (20.9%)Giving changes of:Lib Dem +42.1%Con -16.3%Lab -4.9%(Ind -20.9%)Little Gaddesden PC date: 06/08/2009LD
Harriet Harman is getting her husband ready for Parliament with rumour that he is to get a safe seat at the next general election. Harriet's husband is a union boss, which will be helpful for her as it will connect her with other union bosses. I personally think these types of political stunts are bad news for British politics, what if all political party leaders started pulling stunts like this? We would have a Parliament full of MPs who have been parachuted in because of connections. A Tory once claimed that after meeting David Cameron at a public meeting that ...
According to the Independent Gordon Brown has been accused of hushing up an internal report claiming his government is wasting as much as £2.5bn a year in defence spending: The report by Bernard Gray, a former Ministry of Defence aide, is thought to accuse the Government of squandering the money by making a number of incompetent procurement decisions. Ministers refused to release the 300-page report last night, which they said was only a draft version. It had been due to be published last month. However, at the last Prime Minister's Questions, Gordon Brown announced that it would now not appear ...
{gordodarling} The following article was published on the Institute of Economic Affairs blog yesterday, and is reproduced here with their permission. The Bank of England's decision to pump an additional £50 billion into the economy, over and above the £125 billion earlier this year, has been accompanied by the sound of Keynesians cheering that quantitative easing (QE) has worked. Robert Peston argues that QE should lead to "lending increases, spending increases, price rises and investors' appetite for risk returning". And the BBC duly notes that "there are very tentative signs of a recovery. House prices are increasing... factories are producing ...
The Lake Wobegon effect was proposed some months ago as an explanation for Chief Executives' ever-increasing pay in the US. In Lake Wobegon (Garrison Keillor's fictitious town), all the children are above average. The way it works is that all corporate boards want their executives to be above average. That cannot possibly be the case for everyone, but not to worry. Markets run on investor confidence and perception, so if a company gives its executives above average pay and bonuses, they will look above average, and this will make the company look strong. Hence an upward pay spiral. Warren Buffett ...
Norther Ireland's Finance Minister, Democratic Unionist MP, Sammy Wilson, is in hot water again. He was previously criticised when, as environment minister, he denied that humans were responsible for global warming. Mr. Wilson has accused anti-racism groups of exaggerating the scale of the racism to gain public funding. He claimed there was an "anti-racism industry". In return he has been accused by the Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities of playing into the hands of racists. Irrespective of the merits of each side of the case I do detect a bit of a circular argument in these exchanges.
Didcot TC, Northbourne Little Gaddesden PC
So, when Harriet Harman suggested that the Labour leadership should be gender-balanced was that because she envisaged her husband, Jack Dromey joining her in Parliament? Do we have the beginnings of the dream ticket to succeed Gordon Brown and Harriet herself as Leader and Deputy Leader?
Life for people in offices, businesses and across the world was brought to a stand still when twitter and Facebook went down yesterday (surely it didn't bring life to a stand still for me!). And now reports are suggesting this was down to the profile of one man. A blogger is responsible for the taking down of twitter, apparently the blogger had his profiles on twitter and Facebook attacked via a DOS attack. The people behind the attack are meant to be 16 years old and if that is true I am amazed. When I was sixteen or even now ...
The Dundee WestFest 2010 website has recently been updated with details of the Festival committee members and updating residents about the themes the Festival will cover. You can read more by going to clicking on the headline above. If you would like to get involved, please email the committee at westendfestival@rocketmail.com.
Yesterday I attended Langworthy's first Police and Communities Together (PACT) meeting. It was great to meet our communities beat officer, PC Jo Lucock and PCSO 'Bash ' for the first time. I had already met our other PCSO Richard a couple of times, who was away on holiday. Also in attendance was Richard Carvath, a Salford & Eccles independent candidate standing at the next general election. However, I was disappointed that no ward councillors were able to attend - having only received apologies from Lib Dem Councillor Drake, who is ill at the moment. Where were our Labour councillors? It ...
Selly Oak and Edgbaston Liberal Democrats have selected Birmingham Councillor Roger Harmer to fight the Birmingham Edgbaston at the next General Election.
Gordon Brown has been accused of covering up a review of defence policy which shows that billions of pounds have been wasted. The report found that the Ministry of Defence had only two-thirds of the required funds for buying its equipment, which caused project delays resulting in £2.5bn going to waste. The review had been [...]
I love dead technology. Love it. Precision-chamfered and highly polished brass and glass tchotchkes with alarming voltages coming out of their rear ends give me the nerd horn as much as shiny minimalist objects with Apple or Bang and Olufsen logos discreetly displayed upon them, and no, vivian_shaw, I'm not going to even start talking about 90v synchronous vibrators or glowing red 6K6s. Granted, it doesn't mean that I'm going to start wearing brocade waistcoats and brass pince-nez and begin cultivating outlandish facial topiary, but I've always had something of a fondness for the Edwardians' idea of what their future, ...
I just thought I would remind people that an important day for many, including me is about to come upon us in seven days time. On the 14th August sees the Independence Day of Pakistan, if you want to read more about it head over to Wikipedia. I shall write more about Pakistan closer to the 14th August!
FACT: In the next nine months all of us face a General Election; most of England face important local elections - most likely on the same day FACT: In just 21 months - May 2011 - more than half of our local councillors face election. FACT: To win in these challenging circumstances your team needs the skills and information to campaign effectively. You need a campaign plan in place that can build success through 2010 and 2011. SOLUTION: ALDC's Weekend Kickstart event takes place on 27-29 November 2009 and is the most important training opportunity each year for Lib Dem ...
This year, for the first time, I'm not involved in organising the Lib Dem Blog of the Years awards. I'll admit to being happy that something which started whilst I was working for the party is being kept going, including some of the features which I was most pleased with (e.g. forcing a new Blog of the Year winner each year by making previous winners into judges, having at least one category that looks to the wider blogosphere and highlighting blogs by those elected to public office). Decisions about how to run the awards are always going to generate some ...
A contributor to the Labour Home blog has written about how he/she thinks Labour can win the next general election and I have to say I am amazed by the amount of hope the person still has in Labour. My favourite extract from the blog post is below: For Labourites, the message is clear - we stick behind Brown, we remember that the enemy is the other party not ourselves, and we continue to talk things up not down. Interesting what hope can do to a person, as a Lib Dem the only thing we can hope for is government ...
A couple of weeks ago John Barrett announced that he will be standing down as MP for Edinburgh West at the next election. SNP Tactical Voting alleges that this is causing ructions amongst Edinburgh Lib Dems: Kevin Lang, the Lib Dem candidate for Edinburgh North & Leith, is alleged to be very annoyed at the news that John Barratt is retiring as the MP for the neighbouring Edinburgh West constituency.Apparently Kevin has lived in Edinburgh West all of his life and the pair recently had a big conversation about Kevin's future and Barratt basically said that he had no plans ...
I wasn't going to blog about the childish games of Lord Sugar but with nothing else to write about, I might as well crack on with the blog post. So Lord Sugar thinks the only way to get some respect in Parliament is to sue anyone who criticises him. Now I am not a Lord Sugar fan, when he was given his peerage I blogged against the silly idea but to then have to see him coming into Parliament and pulling this stunt just crosses the line. Alan Sugar is a man with more money then sense and its a ...
MISSING OUT: Pensioners may have to pay Thursday August 6,2009 By Gareth Bebb MILLIONS of well-off pensioners could lose their free bus passes as part of a cost-cutting initiative. A report commissioned by the Local Government Association claimed that free transport is being used by too many people who own cars or who could [...]
{jokerii} These posters of Barack Obama, right, have been the "talk of the blogosphere" across the pond this week–at least according to the Washington Post. Via Reason mag my attention was drawn to the WashPo article which criticises the posters somewhat strangely: "...the poster is ultimately a racially charged image. By using the "urban" makeup of the Heath Ledger Joker, instead of the urbane makeup of the Jack Nicholson character, the poster connects Obama to something many of his detractors fear but can't openly discuss. He is black and he is identified with the inner city" Umm ... you what? ...
Surrounded by high rise buildings, busy roads and elevated railway lines, the Suan Pakkad ('Cabbage Garden') Palace complex is a small green oasis in hectic Bangkok. The former residence of the late Prince Chumbhot Paribatra of Nagor Svarga — one of the numerous grandsons of King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) — features eight linked traditional wooden [...]
I suffer badly from the "something wrong on the internet" affliction": So pity me. A guest writer on Liberal Conspiracy has posted a long article on the Conservatives' approach to international development. I have not read the Tories' paper - and given a sudden obsession with monetary policy and Britain's long term economic structure, am not really minded to (64 pages of blue headlines). So, thank you, "Left Outside". But I can't let this rest:China and the Chinese are often treated as a political football. Those wishing to vacillate on Climate Change can use China's pollution as an excuse to ...
RT @simonw: It sucks that us techies don't get to work in places that look like this any more: http://bit.ly/2cmTUx # @davepeck Also when starting a new one - because many of your new colleagues will Google your name to see who this newbie is. in reply to davepeck # RT @adamcoomes: 20 Predictions of the Future (We're Still Waiting For) http://bit.ly/3I5eLS # Oops. Rather shocked street sweeper by saying 'good morning' # New blog post: Will interactive options replace the 30 second TV ad? http://bit.ly/TrAy1 # More US twitter users are over 55 than under 25: http://bit.ly/1dwUyt # @pickledpolitics ...
The news is out that Hampstead police Station is to stay open for now - the recession as well as the political and residential pressure finally won the day. There is, as the Ham and High wisely observes, a queue of people wanting to take the personal credit. I'm highlighting one elderly resident here who was a resident in the days when Police Officers lived in the station from 1915-1922: Marguerite Greenland. The station was built in 1913. The story here is that the canmpaign has been going on for a long time - over 8 years at least, and ...
David Miliband has jumped on the bandwagon and declared that Labour should adopt the US style of primary. In doing so he is subtly altering the ground set by the Conservatives with their Totnes selection. In Totnes, the selectorate was the entire electoral register. All well and good (if you can afford it). Future selections that follow this pattern won't get quite the same media attention, but if the parties (any of them) want to do the same thing then bully for them. It is, as others have noted, a great campaigning tool. What Mr Miliband wants is something different. ...
First Witch: All hail, Salmond! Hail to thee, Thane of Banff and Buchan! Second Witch: All hail, Salmond! Hail to thee, Thane of Gordon! Third Witch: All hail, Salmond! That shalt be King thereafter?!? Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II recently moved the timing of an event in Norwich so as not to make it appear political in nature. Not so much by her turning up, but no doubt to stop many of the candidates looking for a photo opportunity with her. However, there are no such qualms with the man who would want to be the next King of Scotland. ...
The BBC report that the Assembly Commission has taken the decision to stop publishing the record of proceedings of Plenary sessions in a fully bilingual form. The words of AMs speaking English will not be printed in Welsh, to save some £250,000 a year, although English will continue to be translated into Welsh. The Assembly Commission said the arrangements were being brought into line with those for committees. It said it would consider making un-translated earlier versions of the record available. A spokesman for the Assembly Commission, in charge of the day-to-day running of the assembly, said it was "looking ...
Yeah it's that other time of year. No sooner have some of us stopped hawking for votes for the Total Politics, and some of us (well me and Stephen Tall) have sent our copy off to Iain Dale for our respective chapters than Lib Dems indulge in some further navel gazing. Yeah it is time for the Lib Dem Blog of the year awards. The full details are on Liberal Democrat Voice, but this year there are six awards: Best new Liberal Democrat blog (started since 1 September 2008) Best blog from a Liberal Democrat holding public office (The Tim ...
So we've had the voting for the Total Politics Top Blogs thing which officially opened Blogosphere Navel Gazing season. Next up, it's the Bottys - Lib Dem's official Blog of the Year awards. If you're not a Lib Dem you're going to want to skip this post. Trust me on this. One of the quirks of the Bottys is that bloggers can't win twice. This should be fantastic for long established bloggers that haven't yet won. These include Millennium Elephant, a much loved blog and Liberal England by Jonathan Calder - one of our most well read and highly regarded ...
August may be a quiet month in domestic politics, but it's merely the precursor to the new Parliamentary year to come – by the end of which there will have to be a general election, and (it seems almost certain) a change of government. What better time, then, to ponder what we think awaits the Lib Dems at that election? Our poll ratings seem steady enough, consistently in the 18-20% range – down on the equivalent stage in the 2001-05 Parliament, when the party was boosted by its lone opposition to the Iraq war – but pretty strong compared to ...
A bit of light relief. Take this scene from Dogma. I think Harriet Harman would be delighted that the only good person in the boardroom was the woman. I wonder what secrets Matt Damon and Ben Afflek in their angel roles might find if they went into the bankers' board room? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWshPH_jsjQ
We hope we are not seeing the end of a little bit of history with the recent closure of the cable cafe at the top of Brixton Road. It took its name from the cable cars that ran from Brixton to St Marks, Kennington. These cars were a similar type to San Francisco, that are pulled along by gripping a continuously moving cable loop in the ground. Let's hope it gets a new owner who keeps the name!
This is a great game it asks you to match the name of the US states to the map.
