A month or two ago, I was quite unkind to Paul Walter - as much out of anger and frustration as anything else. Since then, we have exchanged e-mails and have settled our differences. All very courteous and civilised. These days, duelling is banned - which is fortunate in so many ways. It was, of course, the way in which gentlemen settled matters of honour. After all, it was rather more satisfying than a libel suit, and much more immediate. Of course, if you lost, it probably wasn't as satisfying, but there was a sense of tragic romanticism about it. ...
From Computer Weekly: The government last year gave permission to intercept the phone calls, letters and e-mails of more than 500,000 citizens, its interception watchdog reports.The annual report of interception of communications commissioner, Sir Paul Kennedy, showed the government's interception programme targets people in the UK and overseas.Liberal Democrat spokesman Chris Huhne said: "It cannot be a justified response to the problems we face in this country that the state is spying on half a million people a year (one in 78 citizens). We have sleepwalked into a surveillance state but without adequate safeguards."Kennedy justifies this extraordinary level of surveillance ...
Gumley is a village dominated by Gumley Hall 1764 which was demolished over 50 years ago. So says a document (Word file) from Harborough District Council. It sounds odd, but then Gumley is a place of contradictions.It has to be admitted that it has a very ugly name, yet the Arthur Mee volume on Leicestershire was happy to call it "perhaps the prettiest village in the county".And despite its rural setting the village is largely of 19th century red brick, which gives it a slightly urban feel. It consists of one long street leading you up the hill to the ...
The decision of three Labour Councillors in Swansea to leave the official group and form their own non-aligned group is a serious blow to a party that is still struggling to come to terms with losing control of the Council five years ago. There are now less than half the Labour Councillors on Swansea Council than there were in 1999 amid rumours that other Councillors might follow the trio out of the official group in weeks and months to come. I am told that Labour's reaction was to summon the remaining Councillors to appear one by one in front of ...
I'm going to link to a few things here, but the only one I really care about is this – Andrew Rilstone's new pdf 'zine, with which he's broken his five-month blog silence. I've only read the first quarter, but I can already say it's one of the best things (if not *the* best) I've [...]
Saturday afternoon saw me at Haig Ave to watch Southport take on Blue Sq new comers Gloucester City. It was an entertaining match with 3 good goals from Southport giving them a deserved victory. Fuller details are on the clubs website It was good to see Earl Davis score-his first goal after 6 years with the club. I understand that a supporter, Steve Wignall, has pledged £200 to Trust in Yellow-the supporters group-for every goal Earl scores. He must of thought his money was safe... Some of the new signings looked promising and certainly the new striker has lots of ...
If you live in Pendle you will receive a leaflet with the cover of it being below, it's a design by yours truly. I am personally amazed at what you can do with Page Plus, even though I have been using the software since I was 11.
Had a Policy Review and Development Panel meeting tonight, which is a Council committee I quite like being on as it tends to achieve things - even if they are small - and the meetings don't drag on for hours. More information on everything we discussed here, if you're interested, including our rather lengthy Tree Policy. Yes, you are allowed to question how many trees were sacrificed to print copies of the policy. But, the most important thing coming out of there is that it looks as though November will be a busy month, especially for me, as not only ...
Many people have brought ideas forward that suggest local news blogs are a good idea, with that in mind I think its time to write a blog post about it and see if readers agree with my view or object to it. First of all local news blogs are great because local people can write news articles and people don't need to rely on newspapers weekly or when ever a local paper is released for news from their local area. Local news blogs can be funded via sponsorship and advertisement and I think it could lead to someone really making ...
Apparently last year when, then-Presidential candidate, Barack Obama met Blair, Brown, and Cameron, he is reported to have described the Tory leader as a "lightweight", and all "sizzle" and no substance. Now while I generally don't like personal attacks on politicians, when it is warranted as in the case of the Tories, who are merely hoping that the great British public will sleepwalk them into power at the next election, I'm all for it. To quote a US advertising slogan of the 1980s, "Where's the beef" Dave?
You can tell it is a slow news day when the BBC decide that a bit of vandalism counts as major national news. I also have to admit to a bit of sympathy for Hazel Blears. Whichever way you add it up, she is a victim here and doesn't deserve being paraded on public display in the way that the BBC and the Manchester Evening News have done here. It is neither big nor clever to broadcast that mobile phone footage. However, my sympathy ran out as soon as I read her statement: This was an act of anti-social behaviour ...
I've posted too often about flu and must be boring people, but I feel there is a public duty to go on about the level of incompetence the government have shown in dealing with pandemic flu both before and during this outbreak. I've listed the various cock ups the government have made since April HERE, but we need to look very carefully at the government's whole flu strategy to see where they have gone so badly wrong, and in particular their reliance on the "silver bullet" that they think Tamiflu is. The government announced back in 2005 that they were ...
An email pops in to my inbox from the Electoral Reform Society: Today we mark 100 days until the Queen's Speech - and the government's last chance to change politics for good. If you're a blogger or a web editor you can help the campaign today by adding our countdown widget to your posts or site: http://voteforachange.co.uk/widget Feeling creative? Well grab your camcorder and enter the campaign's viral video competition. You've got less than a minute to tell us just what you think's wrong with politics. Not long we know! But there's a Macbook up for grabs for the best ...
Must of my adult life I've been fighting the onslaught of student debt, from the dying years of Thatcher who had taken our milk as kids, to our student days when she wanted to also take away our grants and loan us money to pay for our living whilst were studying. Since then of course it is not just the living expenses that students have paid for but tuition as well since. We're suppose to be living under a Government that is going to end student debt but today's report from the National Union of Students Scotland shows that there ...
Mon 10th
19:39
Tories ready to tackle the unions and freeze pay for town hall staff. well who said a leopard never ...
The Conservatives are preparing to take on the unions and freeze the pay of up to 16 million local government workers next year. Some Tory-run councils are even warning that they might tear up pay agreements before the general election. It follows the Conservatives' failed attempt to block a one per cent rise proposal pushed [...]
Manchester town hall could become a hive of activity if plans are approved for a rooftop bee garden.
Scandal of cut-price booze Special investigation: Amanda Crook and Jayne Deacon August 10, 2009 THE scandal of cut-price booze that fuels the binge drink culture blighting the lives of thousands across Greater Manchester is exposed by the M.E.N. A two-litre bottle of cider can be bought from Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury's for just £1.21 – 14p per unit [...]
There are many variations on how to spell dreegh, (dreigh, driegh, dreich) but however you want to spell it up here in Edinburgh and West Lothian is has been a very dreary day. However it was lightened by a couple of favourite Lib Dem bloggers saying nice words about me and the blog what I write*. As many political bloggers know the recess is also awards session. We have voted in the Total Politics Poll and now those of us of a liberal democratic persuasion are largely at it again the BOTYs are upon us. As I've already blogged about ...
Okay, it isn't particularly exclusive, but it does happen to be true. Sort of. Anyway, now that I have your attention, I just wanted to respond to a couple of points that came out of Charlotte's post earlier today in response to my post about 'airbrushing.' More precisely, I would draw your attention to the comments which for me perfectly outline the key difference between liberalism and libertarianism. As Joe Otten points out, it seems to boil down to whether or not you are a foundationalist (in my more perjorative terminology, I describe libertarianism as 'religion-like' but it amounts to ...
We've been working with the local assembly to establish a youth club in Lee Green Ward. Back in May, we secured £20,000 to help make it happen. The youth club will launch in September (details here as soon as they're finalised) but in the meantime, the youth service have arranged for some summer youth activity in the ward. On Monday next week (17th August), there'll be youth activities on the Newstead Road (Stoneycroft/Wildwood Close) estate (12.30 onwards) Next Tuesday (18th August), the Rolling Sound Bus will be on the Leybridge Court estate again - three sessions of game design and ...
{network-arts-site1} Network Arts is an arts-based project for people with mental health support needs. It's based in the Lee Centre, on Aislibie Road, just off Lee High Road. Unfortunately, due to a review of South London and Maudsley NHS Trust's Community Opportunities Service, the project is threatened with closure. However, the centre's users aren't taking this proposal lying down, and have enlisted the support of local people and politicians in their campaign to save the project. Back in May, my colleague Cllr Dave Edgerton proposed a motion at full council, supporting the project. Colleagues on the Healthier Communities Select Committee ...
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 ...
A quick reminder, I am running a poll over at Political Betting's Channel 2 to find out, how long people hope to have a Tory government for. I have predicted one term but let's see what others think.
Mon 10th
18:14Four years of canavasing in Salford and the the worst thing that happened to me was i stood in dog P...
Progress have launched a campaign for Labour to adopt primaries, following on from David Miliband's Tribune article last week. To mark it, they have quickly whizzed out a short paper by Will Straw (pdf), who I am shocked to discover is now 29 (I have to admit that I still think of him as a horny cannabis-frazzled 17 year old who got stung by a Mirror journo and I'm convinced this happened yesterday). A few brief thoughts on the paper: Will has a positively Jack Straw-esque command for spin. Feeling that he can't get away with the standard definition of ...
'Tis the season for lists... All this week we are publishing the top 100 posts by Lib Dem bloggers, in descending order of popularity, for the last year - August 2008 to July 2009, inclusive, according to click-throughs from the Aggregator. (Profuse thanks to techno-wizard and stat-monkey Ryan Cullen for compiling this table.) In today's first instalment we run through 81-100: 81. A tribute to Colin Rosenstiel (Jonathan Calder) 82. Liberals should be supporting Carol Thatcher ('Costigan Quist') 83. Three thoughts on Nick Clegg's flight to Inverness (Jonathan Calder) 84. What is there, apart from Vince Cable, that's good about the Lib Dems? (Jennie ...
Mon 10th
17:47Found this on Cllr W's Blog- The Libs are cringe making! if i had a bird like Kate Green and a Name ...
No sex,please,we're Liberal Democrats You'd think that Liberal Democrats would be grateful for anything to brighten up their their conference next month ("And now colleagues, Chris Huhne on border-control policy"). But senior members of the party fear that proceedings might be dominated by the sex lives of two MPs. Mark Oaten is to publish a book [...]
Tonight's Panorama – at 8.30pm on BBC1 – features reports on a huge increase in violent attacks in bars in Oldham – and what the Lib Dem council there is doing about it. Yorkshire Street is the main drinking area in Oldham which had a 200% increase in serious violent incidents in the first four months of this year. That's a stabbing or an assault with intention to kill on average every Friday and Saturday night. But the Greater Manchester town has come up with a unique way of fighting back the recent spike in alcohol-related disorder. The council believes ...
Monday: After the Secretaries of State for Home and Away, Mr Johnson and Johnson and Mr Millipede, assumed what can only be described as the "Ms Mandy Rice-Davies position", it fell to the Head of MI6 and former Chair of the Joint Intelligence Committee, Sir John "Captain" Scarlet, to DENY EVERYTHING. Agent Scarlet: We always stick to our principles. Sinister BBC Questioner: Meaning we don't torture? Agent Scarlet: We do not torture! Sinister BBC Questioner: and we're not complicit in torture? Agent Scarlet: Um, er, um, well, er, no, no we're not, as it we're, um complicit, um no. Sorry. ...
I have linked to another NHS Blog Doc report on Tamiflu and whether it is advisable to take it for Swine Flu.Snopes confirms that Tamiflu is a major financial interest of Donald Rumsfled.
Our Vince penned a piece for the Daily Mail yesterday with the delicious title "The economy is now sitting up and showing signs of recovery" In it, Vince made the startling admission that he is not, in fact, an all-seeing mage with black powers over the future of the economy: I am often asked to play the part of Nostradamus. Since I had been a reasonably successful prophet of doom, I am now assumed to know when the economy will turn round. I don't. No one knows. It does seem likely, however, that a major disaster has been averted. We ...
Right, so I've been trying to write this piece for a couple of days now, and like all things that I want to do, I either haven't had the time or the will to do it. Until now. Now before I start, I always said that I wouldn't blog, but then there are certain things that you read, that really rile you up. One of those things for me is Peter Mandelson. Now I don't have anything against the man personally (I've never met him, seen him, particularly been impressed by him), but when he comes out with things like ...
It is summer, it is the silly season, so nobody was really surprised at headlines over the weekend that the Tories planned to put VAT up to 20%. Equally it is natural that the Tories have denied it is true or have they? Knocking down reports that an "emergency budget" was being drawn up as a Conservative government's opening salvo, Andrew Lansley, the shadow health secretary, said there had been no discussions about the tax rise at a senior level. But the shadow foreign secretary William Hague - described by Cameron as his "deputy in all but name" - was ...
Interesting article in the Guardian by David McKie about the naming of train stations -often after the nearest pub - and how those stations then went on to provide a name to the areas around them. Of course, were that to be attempted now, confusion would reigh supreme as people tried to work out which of the many Station Stations they were trying to navigate between while Colchester's North Station would find itself renamed Norfolk, just to confuse even more commuters. Though the story about the attempt to rename Bond Street tube station as Selfridge's does create interesting visions of ...
It's Ros's birthday today (she's 24, in case anyone asks...), so I've taken her to Bury St Edmunds for lunch. Fine wines and good food have been partaken of, gifts presented, and a generally fun time has been had. Call me old fashioned, but I do think that birthdays should be marked - except mine that is. There may be some shooting this afternoon, if we're up to it - thank heavens for the Nintendo Wii...
When The Sun gets it wrong then it really gets it wrong: IN an article published on The Sun website on January 27 under the headline 'Gollum joker killed in live rail horror' we incorrectly stated that Julian Brooker, 23, of Brighton, was blown 15ft into the air after accidentally touching a live railway line. His parents have asked us to make clear he was not turned into a fireball, was not obsessed with the number 23 and didn't go drinking on that date every month. Julian's mother did not say, during or after the inquest, her son often got ...
Mon 10th
14:26Former cabinet minister Hazel Blears' car has been attacked while she was out canvassing voters. Pol...
Vandals slashed the tyres of the Labour MP for Salford's Citroen Xsara Picasso and smashed its windscreen. The ex-communities secretary said she did not think her car had been targeted because of who she was and called the attack "pathetic and cowardly". The MP recently survived an attempt to deselect her over revelations involving her [...]
This consultation by Wycombe District Council is set against a background of significant housing targets imposed on the District from above. The growth in the town that will result, with all the adverse implications, will be resented and resisted by many, and risk setting people from one part of the District against another as people seek to protect precious landscapes from development. In parallel with these impositions from above has been the relentless stripping away of real power of self-determination from local authorities. This process began with the Conservative Governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major, and has been consistently ...
Last week I spent a very interesting day with Mental Health Social Workers in the City and County of Swansea learning more about the work that they do and the excellent service they provide in conjunction with the local Health Trust. The team is a fully integrated one with mental health nurses and other professionals working alongside social workers on a common caseload. There are officers based in the Police Station and the courts to provide assessments and to take referrals, whilst duty officers take regular self-referrals or calls from friends and relatives asking them to consider the well-being of ...
I don't know how the question became the latest hot topic. We suggested that a VAT rise may be necessary in "A balancing act"; but it is unlikely that putting VAT up to 20% has ever been absent from Conservative policy documents discussing the fiscal gap. Now discussions of whether the Conservatives might be planning this are all over the newspapers. Paul Sagar on Liberal Conspiracy has brought Adam Smith out to argue against a VAT rise. The discussion below is enlightening for a while before deteriorating into arguments about a flat-tax; that is what you get when you poke ...
Kudos to Chris Huhne, the Lib Dem Shadow Home Secretary, for garnering excellent coverage for the awful statistics about state sponsored snooping. The Daily Mail's ire is justified: The number of Big Brother snooping missions by police, town halls and other public bodies has soared by 44 per cent in two years. Last year there were 504,073 new cases – an average of 1,381 a day. It is the equivalent of one adult in 78 coming under state-sanctioned surveillance. One adult in 78? I wonder who it is on my street. Which member of the Lib Dem Group in the ...
Matt, our resident weekly blog collator, must surely have reached the dizzying heights of success, for he has left a message instructing me to write his blog summary for him. Knowing my place, and not being one to argue, I have duly obliged. Over at Wales Home, the independent blog featuring guest contributors from all aspects of the Cardiff Bay clique, the FSB post discussing the inherent unfairness in business rates. This is something with which I wholeheartedly agree. Like council tax, business rates are based on the false assumption that ability to pay is connected to the value of ...
James Wood is a Town Councillor from Nelson in Lancashire and was elected in 2008 as a Liberal Democrat. An ex-banker, James now works as a teacher. James doesn't have an online presence on any social networking sites, neither does he have a website.
So, following on from the Leinster Bloodgate affair, Dean Richards has quit.What an almighty Harlequins balls up. A club that has always prided itself on sportsmanship has dug itself a large hole, junped in, and filled in the top with soil from the Stoop.So what should have happened? Well Quins should have come clean, quickly. The ERC would then have been angry, but not totally livid. The club
In a groundbreaking initiative being watched nationally, Yate Town Council has won its long struggle to get a youth cafe for the town. There is no model anywhere in the UK that will offer quite the blend of facilities from the commercial (not for profit) café / disco to the upstairs training and development opportunities. A £1.3 million complex will now be build between the leisure centre and the roundabout. No trees will be removed (except the very small straggly one by the path to Morrisons). It will provide a 7 day a week informal cafe venue for young people ...
It has been a busy time in Scotland over recent weeks and what with Holyrood in recess for a month before Westminster broke up, there have been holidays to work around, babies being born, MPs standing down and candidates being selected all over as well as an away day for all parliamentarians and campaign staff. Archie Scott was born earlier this week, weighing 8.5lbs to the delight of Kirsten and Tavish, our sincere congratulations to them both. Alison and Mike Moore also have recently had a baby, Ella Louise. Now, Ella Louise was born prematurely so Mike Moore is taking ...
Afzal Anwar is a barrister from Nelson in Lancashire and is currently the Liberal Democrats Parliamentary candidate for the 2010 general election. Afzal was born in Pendle and has lived in the town of Nelson ever since, he now works in the town at a local legal firm. Afzal is online on twitter @afzalanwarppc
We started our investigation by looking at the different colours political parties use and have used in the past. Frankly, the differing colour schemes are quite baffling as illustrated by this exchange about party colours and rosettes. It seems totally weird now to think that the Conservatives once used red and that the old Liberal [...]
We started our investigation by looking at the different colours political parties use and have used in the past. Frankly, the differing colour schemes are quite baffling as illustrated by this exchange about party colours and rosettes. It seems totally weird now to think that the Conservatives once used red and that the old Liberal Party favoured blue. The main determinant of early political colours appears to be closeness to local landed interests or a desire to affiliate with local communities (hence Labour's early dalliance with Catholic green). The actions of other political parties seems to weigh heavy too; with ...
I am creating a database of profiles of people who I think, deserve a profile or don't have an online presence be it a politician, politico or individual. As many know this blog doesn't generate any cash for me, so if you want an Irfanpedia profile then do get in touch. I don't mind donations if you are willing to throw in a few quid for the maintenance of this site.
My latest blog post over at Political Betting's Channel 2 is about how long Cameron's government will last in power. If you would like to read the post, or take part in the poll follow the link to the blog post.
I've heard many things said about our president, but haven't before heard the accusation that she's a crook. That's the claim Irfan Ahmed makes in a blog post titled "It's time to remove the dirt from the Lib Dems". Irfan says: "The Lib Dems as a party is currently being run by a corrupt bunch that really is pushing the word Liberalism to its limits and are more covering lies with the term then showing it in its true meaning. The crooks in the party include members of the Federal Executive, the President of our dear party Baroness Ros Scott"He ...
... voting for the LibDems, what makes them different and on cuts
Thanks to Chris Black for linking to me yesterday and reminding me to write about this story (also covered in the press here). It's stories like this that make me realise that, for all David Cameron's cosmetic changes on the surface, the Tories haven't changed underneath. Maybe they're good at presenting their caring, sharing face elsewhere in the country but give them raw power like they have in Essex (where Colchester is the only Council they don't control) and the velvet gloves are swiftly removed. When I went to a County Council meeting last year, one of the Tory Councillors ...
There, that got your attention, didn't it? I don't, of course mean that she's a green faced, pointy hatted, broomstick riding turning people into toads sort of a person. And she's unlikely to have any self respecting kitten go within miles of her after this, #3 is the point you need to read. I betrayed my small furry friends everywhere by laughing till I cried when I read it. When I say she's a witch, I mean it in the sense that she's a wise woman who is quite comfortable with challenging the conventional thinking of both her time and ...
Like most people when I am ill and I need to visit the doctor I expect the highest level of care. I believe a contribution towards this is the knowledge of my previous health. Of course, I can provide some of this in consultation with the doctor but making my records available for the doctor to view is a major step in ensuring I get the correct care and diagnoses I deserve. That is why I think
Courtesy of the Salford Advertiser: HAZEL BLEARS' car was smashed up while she canvassed for local support. But the Salford MP insisted the attack, which left her Citroen Xsara Picasso with a damaged front window and two slashed tyres, was not the work of disgruntled constituents furious over her role in the expenses scandal. Exclusive footage obtained by our sister title the M.E.N. shows the former cabinet minister in the rear of her dark-coloured vehicle on her mobile phone after the attack near the junction of Cemetery Road and Eccles New Road in Weaste. One resident claimed that it was ...
{chris_huhne_cctv} Documentary photographer Sheridan Flynn has recently put the final touches to his 'CCTV UK' project. The collection of ten photos highlights the pervasive presence of CCTV in this country, where people can be caught on over 300 cameras each day. But they also raise the question of just who is watching whom, as well as providing a glimpse into the billion-dollar global CCTV industry. As part of his application for a Masters course at Elephant and Castle, Sheridan had to put together a project on a topic of his choice. So what prompted him to opt for CCTV? It ...
Good bye Harry Patch. We would all like to be remembered for making the world a better place. I think he did that. May he rest in peace.
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." Dickens may well have been writing about 18th century France, but it's likely that historians looking back at 2009 would conclude something similar about our current economic predicament. In the midst of a recession triggered by a financial crisis, the economy at large has been in decline in the UK for five quarters. The knock-on effects of the credit crunch, brought on largely by unsustainable and deregulated banking speculation, have been dire; bail-outs in the billions which, according to Vince Cable's sage analysis, "privatise profits and nationalise losses"; ...
The Conservative press officer is on twitter, wow is what everyone thought when they heard but now I am starting to think differently. Henry Macrory and his friends at the press team at Tory HQ have refused press releases to Tory bloggers and Henry is now using twitter to crack bad jokes. The latest tweet by Henry just is childish as you can read below: Treasury minister Timms today calls on 'Osbourne' to get his facts straight. Timms needs to get his spelling straight. It's Osborne... Maybe David Cameron, some people on twitter are acting like twats and one comes ...
James Graham's typically pugnacious post about postcode lotteries has prompted me to write down a question that's been knocking around at the back of my mind: When you read about a public service varying from area to area (aka postcode lotteries), do you think: a. "This is a problem. We must introduce more measures to ensure that the service is driven by national standards", or b. "This is inevitable. We must introduce more measures to ensure that the service is driven by local decision making"? The classic political response is (a): the service is worse in one place than in ...
An update on my recent item about the poor road condition in Hillside Road and adjacent roads (click on headline to view this) - today's "Courier" has an item about this - see http://tinyurl.com/hillsiderd.
It was such a beautiful morning yesterday that I decided upon an impromptu walkabout the estates of Ladywood with a friend. We spent over two hours wandering from the Jewellery Quarter to Summer Hill Road, King Edwards Road, St Marks Crescent, Ledsam Street, Rodney Close, Guild Close, St Vincent St West and along Ladywood Middleway to Five Ways. We then stopped for breakfast on Broad Street before cutting through Brindley Place and back to the Jewellery Quarter. It was a gorgeous day and we weren't the only ones strolling around – there was a real friendly atmosphere wherever we went. ...
One of the great ironies of 'Expensegate' is that, whilst framed in the context of cleaning up our politics, what we seem likely to end up with is a triumph of New Labour philosophy and strategy. As liberals, we talk about reducing regulation, or using the legislation and powers that are already well-established, of giving people control over their own lives. But what do we apparently demand? Layer upon layer of regulation and monitoring, on the basis that politicians - all of them - can't be trusted. So we punish all of them for the sins of a few, and ...
Achilles had a heel, but Tory leader David Cameron has a hole: a continent-sized hole called Europe in which he and his mate William Hague keep digging deeper. In flagrant disregard for Britain's best interests, the man who aspires to be Britain's next Prime Minister ordered his MEPs out of the largest political grouping in the [...]
Birkdale Focus has a superb post by Iain Brodie Brown that starts by noting that this is National Allotment Week, goes on to quote Peter Kropotkin and ends by reminiscing about the glory days of the Young Liberals:For our generation it was not only Kropotkin's ideas around "Mutual Aid" that we found attractive but his 'green' ideas especially in his book "Factory Fields and Workshops". This publication did impact on Liberals at the times especially those like Howard developing the idea of 'garden suburbs'.The book was republished in 1974 with a commentary by Colin Ward. In the book-and this is ...
It was Georges Clemenceau who famously said of the United States that it was the only country that had gone from "barbarism to decadence, without the usual interval of civilisation". A comment that, while humorous, was not accurate even in 1918. However as I consider home thoughts from abroad about the UK, it is hard not to become deeply concerned about the overall state of things in Britain at the moment. The rather unpleasant attack with burning alcohol against a young Brit in Greece has been seen in that country as something that the victim in some way "deserved" and ...
Q: Who said this week, "Homophobia is merely a propaganda device designed to denigrate and stigmatise those holding conventional opinions"? A: a) Ayatollah Khamenei b) Pope Benedict XVI c) Rev. Ian Paisley d) Roger Helmer, Tory MEP You knew ...
This weekend football fans were remembering Bobby Robson. He seemed like a nice person and came across well on the television. Certainly many people have described him as a gentleman and he has received very many tributes. Among these tributes he was given a minute's applause before each of the premiership football games this weekend. I like watching football on TV. Occasionally I go to a live game, usually Blackburn Rovers but I have been to most football grounds in the North West. However I am not a great football fan (some would say uncharitably that is why I go ...
Given that the Premier League season for 2009/10 starts on Saturday 15th August, I spent sometime recently on the Fantasy Premier League website http://fantasy.premierleague.com/ selecting my team for the 2009/10 season.
