By far and away the most commonly associated symbol with the Labour Party is the good ol' Red Flag which literally was used to represent the 'blood of angry workers'. Although its use was popularised by events in France and its use there by insurrectionary movements especially in the rebellions of 1848 but also by [...]
By far and away the most commonly associated symbol with the Labour Party is the good ol' Red Flag which literally was used to represent the 'blood of angry workers'. Although its use was popularised by events in France and its use there by insurrectionary movements especially in the rebellions of 1848 but also by the Jacobins it has documented usage several times before that on these shores. British sailors mutinied near the mouth of the River Thames in 1797 and hoisted a red flag on several ships. Two red flags were flown by marchers during the Merthyr riots of ...
It was my birthday over the weekend. For some macabre reason, and from being a very small child, it has stuck with me that Jesus was said to have died aged 33. It's not an age that I can say that I have been looking forward to particularly, but it's here now, so best make the most [...]
And a quality remix at that!
So in just over 48 hours I will be on a plane, jetting off for a week of sun bathing, reading and listening to music on a Greek island. Mama Mia it might not be, but I plan to spend the week relaxing with a big R. Today I was shopping and one of the first things I bought were books. So I thought I would follow in the footsteps of Lib Dem Voice and list the books that will make and break my
There has been much discussion whether Ronnie Biggs should have been released from prison. For what it is worth, I do not think he should have. Nich Starling expresses reasons far more eloquently than I do.First of all I don't feel that Ronnie Biggs has shown any remorse for his crime. He only returned to England when he was too ill. He didn't think much of the Brazilian health service and only
A fortnight of almost intolerable excitment at the thought of seeing Michael Schumacher race for Ferrari again has given way to disappointment and tears in the Earl Grey as he announced today that he's had to pull out because the effects of a neck injury he sustained in a bike race in February mean that he can't take the stresses that an F1 race would inflict on him. His statement had a very interesting turn of phrase, though: "That is why my neck cannot stand the extreme stresses caused by Formula 1 YET." The emphasis is all mine, and I ...
Today's 'Courier' covered residents' concerns about vandalism in Tullideph Road and my actions in seeking to get the mess left behind removed. Click on the headline to view the story. I am pleased to advise that the mess was cleared this morning and that I have been promised fencing repairs. I am most grateful to the Courier for highlighting concerns of residents. The issue of vandalism will be discussed at the next meeting of "Community Spirit", the community group for the area.
There's an excellent article in the latest Sunday Times by Steven Pinker, which I have struggled to find online. It's basic theme is: by any historical standards, our lives our almost entirely violence-free. 10,000 years ago, the odds that you would end up dying at the hands of another human being were 60% - in the 20th century, with all its wars, the odds are more like 1%. His "History of Violence" has more details to shock the miserabilists who are determined, always, to see the current world as uniquely dangerous and unsafe for our children:now that social scientists have ...
Here's my latest column from the Ham & High, which appeared earlier this month: {Chinook helicpoter, Afghanistan. Photo credit: Foreign & Commonwealth Office} I remember when we first went into Afghanistan. There were dire warnings that no 'invading' force ever succeeded - beaten back by landscape, tribal warriors, drug barons or harsh, unbearable winters. But of course we had to go there - there to the heart of the world's crucible of evil where Osama Bin Laden was meant to be hiding. The West was angry and hurt, scarred by 9/11 and its author cloaked in mystery - a millionaire, ...
Ryan Cullen - the man behind the invaluable LibDemBlogs aggregator - has set up an email group for Liberal Democrat bloggers. There was a bit of a false start today as Ryan subscribed lots of people himself and there were some ructions - not unconnected with this gentleman. Having gone off in a huff, I shall wait a couple of days and quietly resubscribe from my Gmail address. That will automatically sort the individual threads and may it more like a newsgroup where you can easily avoid topics that do not interest you. This discussion group, where people will be ...
From the Daily Telegraph: The Perseids happen every year in August when the Earth passes through rock and dust fragments left behind by the Comet Swift-Tuttle.As these small particles collide with the Earth's atmosphere, they burn up, creating up (sic.) 80 streaks of light an hour across the night sky.The meteor shower will peak in the early hours of Wednesday morning, according to the International Meteor Organisation, which predicted a better than average display.
I've just completed re-reading the Government's green paper on the reform of long-term social care for the elderly, as a friend told me that there were features of it that were ill-explained and ill-covered by the media. In particular, he argued, there was a policy proposal that struck him as radically redistributive and, in his view, extremely just. One rationale for government intervention is in the provision of public goods. Public goods are those which are non-rivalled and non-excludable. Lighthouses are the classic example of a good that if person A uses the lighthouse their use does not prevent person ...
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall standBetween their loved home and the war's desolation! Like all National Anthems the Star Spangled Banner has more verses than the one commonly known, in this case song before any sporting or public event no matter what the level. But the lines above coming from the opening of the fourth verse are particularly poignant. Of course the recurring theme through the verses is, the land of the free. America revels in its freedom, free speech, state free from religion, freedom to bear arms. It's history is full of periods and places were ...
The Israeli Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, has reportedly reprimanded his country's Consul General in Boston, Nadav Tamir, for sending an internal memo highlighting how Israel's refusal to halt settlement growth in the Occupied West Bank is harming US-Israel relations and causing strategic damage to Israel. This is yet one more indication of how totally unsuited [...]
When parliament returns I intend doing a speech about Jeremy Knight Adams and how he has acted in a way which has caused delays in the development at The Swan in Yardley. I would be interested in having any other information about his involvement in other developments as it will assist in looking at the law on Compulsory Purchase and what changes may be needed.If anyone has any useful information
...But at least ASDA aren't selling frozen cod pieces. Sausage?! {Posted by Picasa} Sometimes you have to take your fun where you can. Eagle-eyed viewers will have noticed I've not blogged much in recent weeks; I've been rather more ill than usual and, just as I seemed to be getting over it, was re-flattened yesterday by something nasty, this time with extra helpings of guilt for giving it to my firmer-constitutioned beloved too. So when we struggled over to ASDA to dance through enough different aisles to pick up sufficient paracetamol so as not to have to go out again ...
The Lib Dem womens' policy paper has now been published so the 'airbrushing' debate can now move away from what is being said in the media and onto what the policy paper actually says. The paper has a total of 40 policy proposals, many of which are already policy. The two that have garnered media attention are: 21. Protect children from body image pressure by preventing the use of altered and enhanced images in advertising aimed at under 16s, through changes to Advertising Standards Authority rules. We would work with industry regulators and professionals to find ways to ensure that ...
Help! Call the grammar police! The BBC's stand-in political commentator, Laura Kuenssburg, has taken it upon herself to destroy the English language single-handedly on the BBC news website. Reading her comments on George Osborne's woeful attempt to sound progressive (basic principle: if you say it often enough people might believe it) was like being slapped around the face by a nine year old. You can't start a sentence with 'and'. Or 'but'. And (irony intended) her use of the possessive apostrophe hurt. Now I'm no old fuddy duddy - okay, maybe I am - but the BBC is meant to ...
'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 second instalment we run through 61-80: 61. Neil Trafford: a sad loss (Steve Cooke) 62. Ex-Tory Staffer: 'David Cameron's liberal lie' (Paul Walter) 63. Make Some Of It Happen (This Year, Next Year, Sometime, Never...?) (Alex Wilcock) 64. Baby P: David Lammy finally speaks...and insults Lynne Featherstone! (Andrew Porrer) ...
A brief piece of trumpet blowing, if you'll excuse me. The BBC and others are running stories today about how Facebook's take over of FriendFeed is making it into a serious challenger to Google. And a quick rustle through the archives on this site gives this from earlier in the year: A bigger risk, though, [to Google's dominance] is that people move to using search services built into other services which are beyond Google. This is what was happening with YouTube - until Google purchased it. YouTube has become the second most popular search site on the internet, after Google ...
Ok heres a few Highway to no where. Day dream believer Tax loss by mansun Live and die in this town. Away from here by the enemy. Come in on a wing and a prayer. Any other ideas drop us a line....
Black Harry 2 gets a clean up on Tuesday and the paths get sorted,along with quotes going in for fencing, not such a bad Day..
Apparently, someone's created a mailing list for Lib Dem bloggers. Now, why hasn't anyone thought of that before? This post wasn't just motivated by the fact I'm so far out of the Lib Dem blogging loop that I wasn't invited to join, though I was amused to note Mark Valladares referring to 2006 as the 'early days' of blogging recently.
Salford City Council head of community safety Don Brown was interviewed for a piece looking at anti-social behavior in Salford, following an incident involving Hazel Blears' car. I wonder if Don would like to discuss issues around lets say Steve Middleton s Mrs car? How about when i had a bottle of Magners through the window? empty [...]
There is some interesting stuff on the the blog "Another Green World" about some really rather dodgy internal party politics and the Stalinist nature of the Green Party. A membership list, it appears, were being used without permission, in order for one side to campaign on the internal referendum on the issue of a single leader for the Green Party. Then it is alleged that people are being thrown out of the Green Party for raising issues of concern about party procedures being broken, with a kangaroo court using a catch 22 situation in order to force people out. From ...
Ian Clement, former leader of Bexley Council, has been ordered to repay more than £2000 which he claimed in expenses for trips which had already been paid for. From the Local Government Chronicle: Bexley LBC had paid for Ian Clement's accommodation at a BT conference in the United States, which brought together politicians, academics and businessmen. More than half of the £2,087.85 the council has asked to be paid back was spent on this trip. Mr Clement, who was council leader between May 2006 and May 2008, claimed £1,270.50 in overnight subsistence allowances for the trip. Mr Clement has previously ...
I don't think that I have previously Fisked anyone on this blog. Fisking (named after Robert Fisk of the Independent) is where you take apart an article and correct its wrong assertions and faulty analysis. I have recently read a number of incorrect articles in newspapers from the Guardian to the Daily Mail about extradition and [...]
People tell me I should allow comments on this blog and maybe I will one day, but I tend to think those who have things to say will usually get in touch. Here's someone who took issue with my stance on biogas from food waste. One thing I forgot to say in my reply (below) is that he's absolutely right that we need reduce the amount of waste we create so we shouldn't be building energy-from-waste facilities that require large amounts of the stuff. All the more reason to build them small I'd say. From: Tom Sent: 11 August 2009 ...
Awww, bless! Dave has taken pity on little Georgie Osborne and has given him something to say finally. The trouble is, what Dave has given George to say is utter tosh. The only way an Eton Tory could be described as progressive would be if he was fired from a gun. Then at least he would be moving forward in some way. Still, it's a nice try and it is nice to see that Osborne - the man who wants to be Chancellor of the Exchequer - hasn't completely disappeared and is capable of reading out, sorry, giving a speech ...
Over in Germany, there be an election going on and Angela Merkel's CDU has unveiled an interesting new poster. Vera Lengsfeld who is one of Merkel's colleagues has the image below on err show. {merkel pic} For the non German speakers the caption is 'We have more to offer'. Hat tip. Catherine Mayer No related posts.
Iain Dale writes today in support of the rantings of Roger Helmer, the most unpleasant of Tory MEPs in my opinion, with the title "What Unites Roger Helmer and me". Come on Iain, we know what unites you. It's pictured below. It's a shame you can't see past it sometimes.
Iain Dale is a UK political blogger and a member of the Conservative party, despite many claiming he is a top political commentator and blogger in the UK in reality he is just a Tory blogger. Iain is also the publisher of Total Politics a magazine that is started after the failure of his previous project, which was an online TV channel. Iain is online over at his blog which is known as Iain Dale's Diary.
Members' highlights include: ALDC Members' Reception (SUNDAY LUNCHTIME) with Nick Clegg and Vince Cable. Once again we are working with our friends at the Co-operative on our members reception which this year focuses on the theme of sustainable communities. ALDC members only. ALDC Annual General Meeting and Campaigner Awards 2009 (SATURDAY EVENING) Members of ALDC are invited to our Annual General Meeting which is also the announcement of the Campaigner Awards 2009. Policy focused events include: Will the bus get you back to work? Transport Strategies post Credit Crunch with GMITA (SUNDAY EVENING) with Norman Baker MP and Caroline Pidgeon. ...
Cross-posted from The Wardman Wire: Hands up everyone who thought the problem with current rules for controlling constituency expenditure was that they work if a Parliament last for four years but not if it lasts for five? Nobody? Oh well, that's the basis on which Parliament has just changed the law anyway. This provision of the Political Parties and Elections Act 2009 has its roots in a sensible concern, but along the way disagreements between parties and lack of understanding of how campaigns actually operate has landed us with this rather odd change in the law. The issue which should ...
Bloody HBOS. Damn them. Every bleeding 30 minutes today we are getting autodialer calls from HBOS for my wife. She's not in, so I can't answer the security question, so the computer (for that is what is phoning me) calls again, 30 minutes later asking for my wife. I phone up HBOS and they inform me that they cannot do anything about it because my wife has to phone them up. For what reason ? The woman on the phone from HBOS didn't know. I bet I bloody know why they are phoning, it will be to try and sell ...
Mark Wadsworth maintains that VAT is not a consumption tax but a tax on gross margins. I personally disagree. By his admission, (see response to this comment) if VAT was removed, prices would not stay where they were - they would fall, as competitive pressures would erode the (very short-lived) high margins that would pertain in the VAT-free world. Hence the effect of there being VAT on objects is higher consumer prices. Hence the consumer is paying it. I wonder what I am missing? I think margins are set as much by industrial structure, availability of capital, and so on: ...
Liberal Democrats from across the UK will be heading to Bournemouth on the 19th September for the party's autumn conference. It's a great place to debate, head to fringes (hint to the students, go for the big corporate fringes, they have better free food. Normally you learn a lot there too), get training and make friends. It's worth pointing out that unlike in previous years, the close of conference will take place at approximately 16.00 on the afternoon of Wednesday 23rd September. The Conference Agenda is now available to download, together with all policy papers and Reports to Conference. Click ...
The BBC report an interview with Tory Shadow Chancellor, George Osborne in which he makes the extraordinary claim that the Conservatives are now the progressive force in British politics: He said they planned to reform public services such as schools in a way which could achieve necessary spending cuts without harming frontline services. He also cited the open primary held in Totnes to select the Tory candidate. Mr Osborne told BBC Radio 4's Today that while he had never ruled out tax rises he had "no plans" and had had "no discussions" about VAT rising to 20%. He added that ...
Not so long ago the Green Road out of Recession promised that our policy would be geared towards promoting a route out of Britain's current economic malaise that was focused around promoting investment in industries and causes that were ecologically and economically sustainable. Fast-forward a little and through yet more policy initiatives to well right [...]
Superficially the story is straightforward. Spotify has a popular music service. It wants to grow further. It produces an iPhone application. It hopes Apple approves it for inclusion in the App Store, rather than blocking it. If Apple doesn't approve it, that's bad news for Spotify. Right? Wrong. Wrong, because Spotify has already banked one major benefit from the App, and gets a second if Apple rejects it. The first major gain is that - despite the iPhone's very small market share - people and the media love talking about it. Produce an iPhone App, and even if no-one ever ...
That nice Mr Tall gave us more homework at the weekend, and again, I'm bringing up the rear. My health is still somewhat erratic, to say the least, and I don't know from one day to the next whether I'll be running a fever with glands so swollen it looks like I've got a spare tyre round my neck, or able to function for a few hours before collapsing in a heap or somewhere betweeen the two. I had meant to do this yesterday, but the excitment generated by unveiling Ms Gore's true vocation, discovering that she did indeed have ...
Poor Ryan Cullen. He slaves, literally, for the good of Lib Dem Bloggers everywhere. He runs the thankless money pit that is Lib Dem Blogs and yesterday created a mailing list for all the bloggers on it with the hope of creating a nice, light space where we could swap tips and help each other out. He forgot one small teeny problem: it's a mailing list. What is a mailing list? It's something you join if you want spamming with lots of emails saying 'help! Unsubscribe me!' and other emails telling other people off for all manner of mailing list ...
It's difficult not to feel cynical at the news that Ronnie Biggs' health has improved since he was officially released from custody on Friday. Many commentators were comparing his request to be released on the grounds that he was incurably and terminally ill with Ernest Saunders, the only man in the world to have made [...]
Darrell Goodliffe and Jane Watkinson have cross-posted a piece on political symbols and colours, starting with the Liberal Democrats. They remind those of us who are political anorak-enough to notice these things that that the Conservatives once used red and that the old Liberal Party favoured blue. Indeed as late as the 1970s the Liberals in Ceredigion were I believe campaigning using the colour blue. They say that 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). However, what ...
With a PoliticsHome poll showing that 48% of those polled believe that the return of profits for banks is a bad thing whilst 86% of those polled feel that the return of big bankers bonuses is a negative development, it is hardly promising to see the FSA chief say that it is not in the FSA's remit to control individual bankers bonuses. This is said, despite the fact they are the regulators. Hector Sants says that instead it is up to "politicians and society as a whole" to control individual bonuses. Remarks such as this just further demonstrates the lack ...
According to a blog post by Labour Home, a Tory Councillor thinks the people who elected him are as*holes. The Conservative party Councillor has a sticker at the back of his car that says: "For a small town, this one sure has a lot of a***holes"Its interesting what powers does to people isn't it, I know of a case in which a Councillor thought he was to powerful like this one and started pulling stunts that were to the level of the sticker with the above writing. Councillors are meant to represent the people who elected them, so calling them ...
We have good news from Liverpool (via Liberal Vision), where all the important issues facing the city have clearly been solved. After all, they can't have anything more important to deal with if they've got the time to carry out this consultation about giving films that feature smoking an 18 certificate in the city. Sadly, people from outside Liverpool can't take part in the consultation exercise, though this may be a good thing as I imagine the owners of any cinemas just outside the borders of Liverpool would be arguing strongly for it to be brought in. But if you ...
Alex Hilton is a Labour party blogger and Prospective Parliamentary candidate of many years. Alex is the founder and editor of Labour Home and writes the Recess Monkey blog which is currently offline. Alex also runs a campaign strategy firm called Game Changer. Alex is online at Labour Home and his Prospective MP website.
Saturday saw riots in Birmingham between the so called English and Welsh Defence League/The Casuals protesting against Islamic extremism and Unite against Fascism protesting against fascism in general and the English and Welsh Defence League/The Casuals in particular.
{Goverment behavioural correction dept} I have been away in sunny USA for a few weeks so apologies for being slow off the mark on this one.But did anyone else notice that COI spend has jumped by almost 50% in 2008/2009 to £540million ? (The COI is the somewhat Orwellian sounding "Central Office of Information" by the way) Inspection of the COI annual report and accounts reveals some further interesting titbits. Spend on "news and PR" grew by 52% year on year from £26.9m to £40.9m - that's surely "spin on spin" to you and me. And whilst we are used ...
As a blogger who has been added to the Lib Dem bloggers list I am surprised to the amount of chit chat that is taking place. I use GMail so all my emails linked to one thread all come connected as a thread where as people who say use hotmail are having trouble, people who don't have an email service that groups conversations need to get one now as clearly they are missing out on a whole lot of facilities that are becoming essential. I can follow an email thread quiet easily, something which not all users of email can ...
The Daily Post reports that a new online service that allows patients to rate and compare hospitals on issues such as cleanliness, car parking and waiting times has been launched. Unfortunately, it only applies in England. The service, which can be found here enables patients and their relatives to add comments and give simple ratings on a range of different performance factors. It is very similar to those sites that are used to rate holiday resorts. I have linked to the page assessing the nearest hospital to my family in the Wirral here so that people can see what it ...
Andy Sawford, Chief Executive of the Local Government Information Unit (LGiU) has penned a brief account of his conversion from Twitter-sceptic to Twitter-fan: When I first started tweeting I wasn't sure quite what to expect. At best it seemed a rather pointless exercise, at worst terribly self indulgent: who could possibly be interested in knowing what I was doing and thinking moment by moment? In fact it's turned out to be one of the most useful tools in my working life. Having reached a critical mass of followers within the local government community, I'm now able to use Twitter for ...
So it seems that a large chunk of people on the newly formed mailing list for lib dem bloggers don't understand such complex things as what a "thread" is, how to filter emails so they don't all just pile up in your inbox, or how to follow simple i... Read and post comments | Send to a friend
Blears said she was not a target i wonder? what would have happened if it was the Liberal Dem candidate, Richard Carvath the Independent, or the other one the name escapes me! Nothing
Had to post this facebook fail that I saw on Flickr. Its the fifth sacking-by-facebook I've heard of now. Three were Tories that I wrote about a while back, and one was the guy who organised the party on the tube to see out the end of drinking on the underground.
One of the most revolting and distracting aspects of this government is the way they conceal their intentions behind manipulative language. As Stephen Glenn (fellow LD Blogger) notices, a 'Food Security Report' has been published by the Government. The report "predicts" climate change, diseases and other yaa boo scaries will make meat so expensive that even the UK will find itself back in the days when meat was a luxury, not something to be taken for granted. Vegetarian Britain? Something tells me this report isn't meant to be notification of a blessed, utopian cow, pig, sheep and chicken free future ...
{connelly-barker} The two people pictured on the left may look like highly respectable, upstanding members of the community, but don't be fooled! They are in fact Tracey Connelly and Steven Barker, who are serving minimum sentences of five and twelve years for the death of Baby P. The delightful Mr. Barker is also serving a life sentence for the rape of a two year-old. Lynne Featherstone pretty much caught the public mood today when she told the BBC, "There's certainly a section of the public that think that they should be in jail for life and if they come out ...
Funny old place, this "blogosphere". Looking around this corner of it, it would appear that the Lib Dems would be in with a chance of forming a government, that the most popular television programme by a mile is Doctor Who, Amanda Palmer would sell far more CDs than Lady CaCa, and grown men and women reading comics on the bus would not be an unusual sight. Also, there isn't a great deal of use for mass-market newspapers partly due to their political bias but also because the news therein is as stale as week-old Wonderloaf. It must be a quiet ...
An extra £44.50p is going to Redcar Lifeboat from the sale of white roses in Finlay's newsagents at Eston, bringing the total raised this Yorkshire Day to £414.50.
As a character in the sci-fi novel Perelandra said, "corner" is not the name of a size. So a small event can be a corner for the world. A corner was turned in a Burma courtroom when a small frail lady crossed the room and told reporters that she looked forward to working with them for the sake of her country, freedom and world peace. The small lady brushed off the generals, the sham trial and the sham conviction as if fluff on her collar. She, the convicted defendant, became the judge. It is as if she said the generals ...
Idly glancing out of the window this morning as my train put in a stop at Shenfield, I noticed a square sign with an orange border with a big question mark on it, beneath which was the word 'Romford'. Is it just me, or is that one of the most intriguing philopsophical statements I've seen in a long time?
Service of Thanksgiving for members of the Women's Land Army and Timber Corps. I was very pleased to have the opportunity to attend this service honouring those women who left their homes and families to work the land or fell trees in place of the men who had left to fight in the second World War. The [...]
{humphrey-bogart} Liberal (sic) Democrat-run Liverpool City Council has opened a consultation on whether to impose an 18 certificate on films that feature the smoking of tobacco. The proposal is supported by the Liverpool Primary Care Trust. Where to start? Well, the good news is that historical figures who actually smoked would be allowed to be portrayed accurately. Any new movies featuring Winston Churchill will not need to show the great man eating tofu and practising yoga to secure a prized PG certificate. Also, portraying the "clear and umabiguous" dangers of smoking (and second hand smoke) would be acceptable. I think ...
Whilst reading a blog post over at Political Betting, I think its time to agree with Nick Cohen. Political Betting's Mike Smithson has written about how Nick Cohen promoted PB in his columns, and made a prediction before the 2007 election which is still true today. His latest commentary is on the election campaign of the next general election and it's as followed: "The campaign will be a massacre. Four weeks of Cameron - whom you can't help liking even if you disagree with him - vs Brown - whom you can't help disliking even if you agree with him. ...
Whilst reading a blog post about how Luton voters want Margaret Moran to resign and call a by election so they can vote a new MP, it brought back the thought of the campaign launched by the Burnley Liberal Democrats to sack Kitty Ussher. I am a supporter of the right for constituents to sack MPs because at the end of the day the MP is elected to represent us and if they don't do it properly they should be sacked. The Lib Dems in Burnley tried to sack Ussher but haven't succeeded yet but will do at the next ...
An email arrives from web guru and Lib Dem county councillor Tim Prater, who is the public-facing half of Prater Raines, the hugely successful company that now supply local websites to a large proportion of the nation's Liberal Democrat local parties, council groups and MPs. (The full, awesome list, from Aberconwy to Yorkshire and the Humber is here). It's no small boast that they probably run more political websites than anyone else in the country. They have a good track record of innovating and keeping content going online. But things have changed in the seven years since they first started ...
With the Lib Dem Blog of the Year Awards upon us again, it is time to see how the former winners are getting on. In 2006 the main award was won by Stephen Tall's A Liberal Goes a Long Way. Looking at it today we find a posting from February telling 25 random things about the author, but otherwise nothing since June last year. In 2007 it was won by James Graham's Quaequam Blog! Although I suggested last September that James was suffering an existential crisis, his blog is still going strong. You could say it is in rude health. ...
Helen, my caseworker, proving that it is not just sorting out tax credits and benefits that she is good at. Apparently, this is a live version of the band's single.
Now, I'm not a financial expert, but I'd like to give you a little bit of financial advice. If you're investing any money following the recommendations of Investor's Business Daily, I'd strongly advise you to reassess those investments. Why? Because they've printed what may be one of the all-time great moronic statements in the history of the Internets, one so caked in ultimate wrongness that you can't help but question just how they manage to turn computers on, let alone publish a website and financial advice. The context is in a discussion of the latest proposals for health care reform ...
President Obama's travails over his attempt to introduce a measure of public healthcare to the United States remind me of a House Points column I wrote in 2002. That was in the days before I started blogging when dinosaurs still roamed the streets of Market Harborough. In it I described the problems that Charles Masterman had putting Lloyd George's National Health Insurance Bill through the Commons. It is written in the present tense because of some conceit involving a time machine. The doctors are not keen. Sir James Barr, chairman of the BMA, believes it will "destroy individual effort and ...
There is bad news ahead it seems for all the carnivores in the UK, i.e. those that cannot survive without meat with every meal. Both the Scotsman and the Times are running with the warning from the Food Security plan that rationing and vegetarianism may become a way of life for the UK in the decades ahead. The reasons for this shift and warning despite the UK being 70% self sufficient in food at the moment are growing world population, climate change brining extreme weather conditions, higher fuel costs and crops being grown for bio-fuels and not food. The food ...
A recent report shows the absolutely mind-bogglingly frightening statistic that Britain has "half as many more CCTV cameras again as the whole of China". We have a population of 60 million and theirs is twenty times that. We have more than 4.2 million cameras. That works out as 1 camera for every 14 people, or two for each infant school class. Whereas China has the equivalent of one camera for the whole of Bradford. This shows New Labour's worrying obsession with surveillance, and we have created the model "Big Brother" state that the Chinese government, or any 21st century non-democratic ...
Yesterday I signed up for Sky Sports. When satellite broadcasting began I had a satellite box that received all the movies and all the sports but there was no slot for a card. At that time you didn't pay a subscription. Then you had to pay so I upgraded and continued to get the sport. I moved six years ago and hadn't signed up to Sky again till yesterday. I will watch football. I really like rugby but my favourite sport is American Football. So you now know that I will not be following any of my other interests when ...
