More digging today - after I managed to get out of the house with countless phone calls and urgent e-mails arriving. Why do I have to deal with problems and queries that officialdom takes an age to deal with and then they want to talk to me straight away about it nearly a month after raising it. I won't mention the large company and the hedge, but they know who they are, and what they haven't...
The Spaces @ The Royal College of Surgeons 20:35 This is a fast, frenetic drama carried out as two monologues by the young stars John Travers as Johnny Meister and Brain Markey as David 'Stitch' Brown. That someone can bring together the humour, pathos and poetry of a Belfast brogue in a mark of the genius of Rosemary Jenkinson the writer, and the two young stars are able to hold the audience draw them in (even those for which the slang is not native) and excite and lead them on a emotive journey. To do that in isolation for most ...
Yate bus station, which will be revamped as part of the Tesco rebuild Agreement has now been reached on the highway works involved with the rebuilding of Tesco. The works directly involved with the rebuilding will start shortly, and Tesco have agreed to make a major contribution to other highway improvements around the town centre. Yate Town Councillor Chris Willmore said ""We have waiting a long time for the green light. I am sure shoppers in Yate will be delighted to get rid of the current cramped outdated store and get a new one. It will be massive, not just ...
So, the new football season kicks off tomorrow, for those of my readers who don't know me too well, I am a devout Chelsea fan. I also follow Notts County as it was my home town and I followed them as a school kid and have continued to do so. An interesting but useless fact about Nottingham and it's football teams - Notts County play at the County ground and Nottingham Forest play at the City ground - with me so far? Right, but the County ground is in the City and the City ground is in fact in the ...
Nobody ever has a rational debate about healthcare in the UK. British politicians are instead reduced to imbecilic chants of four words or less. 'We Love the NHS' was a Unison slogan, which, strangely enough didn't seem to court so much publicity when chanted a year ago. This is probably the only time a section of the welfare state is defended so heartily by those in power. As Jobcentres shut and benefits are becoming almost impossible to claim are they defending the wrong parts? The NHS is unequal and bureaucratic. Does it deserve our love? Well, more middle-class voters use ...
I've decided to do a few themed weeks on favourite artists. And the Dame Shirley Bassey to start, so let's get this party started. Superb.
As Angela has already pointed out slagging off the NHS is a national pastime... except when a British politician does it on American TV!! Charlotte Gore has made an excellent point. Do we really want all our politicians to be mindless hacks desperate only pander to populist lines? Is it any wonder that politics in Great Britain is in such a state when those individuals thrive? Whereas the truly courageous among them have to hold their tongues or stifle their opinions? In terms of delivery Hannan has been at all times eloquent, well mannered and assertive. We are lucky to ...
I wrote a blog post a few weeks back about how I felt the comments around the possibility of a 'New Recession' was too pessimistic and did little to help recovery. However, with recent developments with the FSA's poor guidelines of regulation, it makes you wonder whether actually a 'New Recession' may happen. Furthermore, there are concerns around how countries such as France and Germany are actually leading us out of the recession, instead of Brown and Labour 'saving the world'... Even with signs of improvement in the economy today with repossessions down, there are still warnings about the high ...
I had a meeting this morning as chair of the Western Area Partnership board to check on progress on our project to lessen the impact of the credit crunch in our area. We know that we're fortunate in this area compared to some, but nevertheless there are people facing redundancy or short time working and in some ways, especially emotionally, it can be harder to be in that position in an affluent
If you are looking for a printing company, to print you election leaflets then please visit the website of Mortons. Mortons recently did a job for Afzal Anwar PPC and personally I loved the work that they have done, its professional and of really good quality for a reasonable price. £1,000-£1,300 for an A3 8 sided colour newspaper of very good quality, please mention Afzal Anwar when you are getting a quote as that will help Afzal, as he will be able to get a discount on his next job. Mortons are great; they are fast at printing and can ...
Is it just me or has it been well, a pretty wretched week for David Cameron's Conservatives? Two things stick out; firstly Daniel Hannan's freelance jaunt on American TV slating the NHS which was truly painful to watch as Hannan obligingly slated the idea of universal health care for his FOX TV hosts. It was [...]
I think its time that I justified all past controversial posts on this blog, if I can or accept that I made a mistake, make the apologies and move on. First of all, I am not sexist despite what people might claim, my blog post about how women voting the way men vote is a post that was posted with culture in mind and personally after reflection I believe it shouldn't have been wrote. I support women and their place in politics; I believe that Parliament can only represent the general public if half of all MPs are women. The ...
Efforts to disguise co-ordinated campaigns by interested groups as apparently spontaneous public reactions are called astroturfing, after the artificial turf used on sports pitches, not to be confused with genuine grassroots. The anti-Obama, anti-National Health Service rhetoric is a case in point. It is diverting attention from what healthcare insurers do not want people to know: medical bills cause more bankruptcies in the USA than any other cause. Hard on the heels of the healthcare astroturfing we can apparently expect for the rest of this month a series of so-called "Energy Citizen" rallies across 20 States of the USA, to ...
Having just got back into the habit of regular blogging, I've been rediscovering the habits that go along with it such as the occasional perusing of my Sitemeter pages (and I'm still Old Skool enough to be using them, not your newfangled Google Analytics or whatever) and noticed this afternoon that I was getting some incoming visits from Harry's Place, which was doing a 'Where Are They Now?' look at some of the former denizens of their blogroll. It was interesting to look back on those days when the small number of British political bloggers all seemed to know each ...
I read this morning that the car belonging to Hazel Blears has been attacked whilst she was out campaigning in Salford. All four tyres were slashed and the windshield smashed in the attack. Hazel has been in touch with local news agencies apparently stating that it hasn't got anything to do with the expenses scandal and [...]
Fri 14th
19:34
How can a divided and embittered Conservative party be trusted to stand up for St Albans?
Not for nothing is August called the silly season. But events in the St Albans Conservative Association have been nothing less than astonishing. Mrs Main has fought off her fellow Conservatives for now, but at the cost of losing her constituency chairman and with the Deputy Chairman reported as "considering his position". And we are still waiting to hear the results of the inquiry by the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner into her expense claims. There is much much more to come out about the expenses story. And then there is the influence of Anne Main's Beaconsfield Conservative Association and its apparent ...
Minister, Jim Fitzpatrick MP reports that he stormed out of a Muslim wedding in East London after he found out that he and his wife would not be able to sit together. He has gone on to defend his decison saying that it was 'unusual' - This doesn't ring true. I find it hard to understand how an MP representing a constituency with a large Muslim population is so ignorant of the many practices that take place in the UK. I have been to many Muslim weddings (and funerals), and as religious ceremonies, they have almost always been segregated. It ...
Overgrown hedges in the West End have been an on-going issue in the past few years and, being aware of my interest in this issue - on behalf of constituents - the Scottish Liberal Democrats' Head of Policy and Research in the Scottish Parliament kindly advised me today of the following news release from Scottish Government. It has taken a long time for Scottish Government to get to this consultation stage and I am hoping there will now be prompt action to tackle the issue : Combating 'hedge rage' : 14/08/2009 Views are being sought on how neighbourly disputes over ...
Capitalism really is over, with the entire value of shares on the London Stock Exchange wiped out in Friday trading. {bbcweb}
It's really is getting me confused i read on Cllr warmishams blog about the e petition over a Thatcher state funeral i thought she had popped her clogs and no one had told me. Just ran to Swinton Precinct to get the evening news. Oh well thats more money wasted. Any way put my signature [...]
A helpful email arrives from Islington police: "Islington Police are cracking down on burglars this summer, this has resulted in the arrest of eleven suspected burglars. Of these, one has already pleaded guilty at court, while the others are awaiting trial. This will make a significant difference to the number of burglaries in Islington. "Most burglaries [...]
To be perfectly honest it is painful watching Daniel Hannan's performance as he traipses around the right wing media in the USA spouting his half truths and misinformation about the NHS. It is true that there are many problems with the NHS, but Hannan's misrepresentations and distortions do nothing to address the issues affecting [...]
News reaches me for the second time that Bedford's first directly elected mayor, Frank Branston has died. I say the second time, since I first heard he had died 11 days ago. The news had ironically also made the newspaper he founded, the Beds on Sunday, but was swiftly taken down - something, had he known about it I am sure Frank would have found very amusing! But he didn't recover from a heart operation and now his death will force a byelection in Bedford, probably on 1st October. Last week it was a real shock, when someone is such ...
That last post of mine threw me off my posting stride a bit, because of the sheer weight of response, by email, on Twitter, in the comments here and in the comments to Debi's repost of it (where our one troll went to hang out – I apologise, Debi, for getting a bit too angry [...]
News that Mr Jim Fitzpatrick MP has walked out of a Muslim wedding. Now this is one of those stories which seems to conflict with two liberal views. One, the freedom for religious groups to practice in peace. Two, the freedom for a man and woman to sit together without segregation. Reading this story, perhaps the point that swings it for me, is the point that, "the segregation was at the request of the couple getting married." To me, it is about choice. It was the choice of Fitzpatrick to attend the wedding. It was the choice of the couple ...
Tories think you should die six months earlier Based on the fact that the average life expectancy at birth in the US is six months less than that in the UK (using the NHS). Tory MEP wants a higher infant mortality rate Based on figures that show the infant mortality rate is higher (50% higher) in the US than it is in the UK (using the NHS). Oxbridge educated wealthy man opposes free health care for poor people Why is it always those born in to privilige that oppose anything that help poor people ? Now it I were running ...
It is doubtless the case that the recent law passed by the Afghani parliament will cause more cries of, "Why the devil are our boys being killed on behalf of a bunch of barbarians?" Make no mistake, this law is truly barbaric – anyone who really entertains the suggestion that putting one sex in such [...]
'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 2007 to July 2008, 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 penultimate instalment we run through 11-20: 11. EXCLUSIVE: Should Irfan Ahmed have to pay for what he did? (James Graham) 12. Tons More Fun In the Awards – An Appeal To Every Lib Dem Blogger! (Alex Wilcock) 13. Somewhat unlikely! (Peter Black) 14. Top ten signs of a Lib ...
Trying to get my head on certain issues lately. No i am no moral crusader or religious zealot, but i find it sordid and sad that women have to bring their selves to do it and even sadder that in a world where i have allways felt there is a partner for us all if [...]
Ian we know your answer. My view not a bloody chance. Any one have a view?
Fri 14th
17:07
Letwin: 'NHS will not exist under Tories' Sunday, 6 June 2004 what's changed in 5 years.
By Andy McSmith, Political Editor Oliver Letwin has reportedly told a private meeting that the "NHS will not exist" within five years of a Conservative election victory. Oliver Letwin has reportedly told a private meeting that the "NHS will not exist" within five years of a Conservative election victory. The Shadow Chancellor said that the health service would [...]
Health campaigners have attacked penny-pinching Tory plans to squeeze the amount of cash available for NHS operations and treatments. Under the plans, the "tariff" that hospitals receive from the Department of Health to carry out their procedures would be reduced. The sum is currently based on the average cost of such a procedure across Britain. [...]
The link is to a story in The Spectator where he said.Consider Iceland, a volcanic lump at the uttermost edge of Europe, straddling the tectonic line that separates our continental plate from America's. Iceland has few natural advantages: it is cold, treeless and, for much of the year, sunless. It has a population of 285,000 — roughly that of Croydon. Yet this sparse, chilly speck of tundra has
Norfolk Blogger has been covering the recent spate of murky goings in the Green Party and in this post he talks about the curious case of the misuse of a membership list to aid one side of an internal campaign. Well, it turns out that the executive member who was thrown out of the party for five years for leaking personal data, Jim Killock is now the chief executive of the Open Rights Group (ORG) which campaigns for digital rights and against the...er...misuse of personal data! When this unfortunate coincidence was put to the ORG, their response appeared to be: ...
If you have ever wondered what is taught at these so called 'Muslim Camps', look no further then the link to a news report from Reuters. Dr Tahir-Ul-Qadri, a well known Muslim scholar has recently given a speech at a Muslim camp about how to combat extremism. Qadri, who is a Sunni Muslim and is against terrorism, taught at a training camp what is meant to be taught. Islam is a peaceful religion and terrorism has no place in it, that's why I think the message by Qadri should be spread across the MSM but for some reason it hasn't ...
Apparently talking about women and a wedding, is a secret coded language about a planned terror attack? That's what the Police are saying about the arrests they made in the North West of England earlier this year. It is being argued that the conversation about the 'so called' wedding were between one of the suspected terrorists and Al Qaeeda. If this is proven to be true, I think these men need locking up and the keys need to be thrown away but if it isn't true then the men should be apologised to.
Apparently post Mr Hannan's comments about the NHS, US TV have started arguing that the NHS is a breading ground for terrorism. This comes from the Journalist and blogger Paul Waugh. I am amused by these comments by US TV, and I think we should blame Dan Hannan for painting the first negative image in the USA about the NHS, leading to this! For the record can I assure anyone who is from the USA, and is reading this, that the NHS does not bread terrorism? Doctors are coming to the UK from Arab and Muslim countries, but they are ...
I'm rather late with this week's Doctor Who DVD release, but there's plenty of it: The Black Guardian Trilogy Box Set from 1983 (and how very 1983) stars Peter Davison as the Doctor across three stories and a new 'Special Edition' of the finale. It's an intriguing set, though not an upbeat one - all three stories evoke the Flying Dutchman and hint at vampirism, though they do so in very different styles. Mawdryn Undead opens the set as rock opera, elegiac, flawed but compelling; the closing Enlightenment is captivating, inspired and beautiful; but Terminus in the middle is... Drab. ...
As if he did not have enough problems with his own party, David Cameron was forced to break off from his summer holiday to stress Tory support for the NHS after Dan Hannan, a Conservative MEP, told American television viewers that "he wouldn't wish it on anyone". Hannan's comments have unleashed a Twitter phenomenon in which over 11,000 people have tweeted in defence of the British health service using the hashtag #welovetheNHS. But it is not so easy for Cameron to disown Hannan. After all the MEP's controversial remarks were made before he was re-elected as a Conservative member of ...
I have just been reading an article in which someone writes the following about me and this blog Pakistan's well-known journalist Irfan Ahmed writes: "Despite the problems Pakistan is going through, in my opinion the country is still strong and will most likely continue to stay strong because of the hard working people. "With the number of hard working people decreasing the country is having problems but I don't think these problems will become a part of Pakistan. "The future of Pakistan is only going to be bright if they find a political party that actually wants to do good ...
As it happens, my car is a V6. but I'm wanting here to mention the 'upgrading' of Internet Protocol to permit wider access. Back when Vint Cerf and Robert E. Kahn developed the 'new' "Internet Protocol" to enable machines to connect to each other (replacing the old point-to-point method) they came up with the idea of assigning an "Internet Address" to each one. It was a 32-bit number and is nowadays usually written as something like "123.45.67.89". It works pretty well and domain names — such as alisonw.com — get converted into one of these numbers, as does the machine ...
More articles like this can be found at www.the-vibe.co.uk I seem to be falling into the habit of writing whole articles purely in response to an article someone else wrote that I happened to find interesting. This time, it was the recent article "should we decriminalise drugs" that got me interested. The first point that is important to make is the de-criminalisation of drugs is often confused with legalisation. Under de-criminalisation, the law would not change, it would simply no longer be enforced, with the aim of reducing the burden on the criminal justice system by not forcing the police ...
Who would have thought that a blog post on minor alterations to culture funding would have made me this week's cause célèbre? I'm going to stay away from controversial topics this week and instead write about my desire to fully privatise the NHS. I jest, of course. But on the subject of private/public healthcare systems, I saw a clip on the Daily Show yesterday of Barack Obama defending his healthcare reform plans. Arguing against the claim that a public healthcare system would be damaging to private businesses, Obama said: "People say 'How can a private company compete against the government?'...They ...
The BNP is a party of local elections - of pavement politics. Prior to this year's Euros, they'd never had any success beyond winning local council seats in a few areas where they've built up strength. The combination of recession and the expenses scandal just pushed the BNP over the finishing line for a couple of MEPs, but don't expect them to be even vaguely close to winning a parliamentary seat. They are, though, quite good at fighting local elections in their core areas. They're especially good in the local by-election. With so few seats to defend, they can pull ...
OK it's a bit cheap but "eccentric" conservative MEP Danniel Hannan has form. Here he is on Iceland back in 2004 before, er, you know. Hat tip to Mark C.
Apologies for light blogging - I'm in the midst of a particularly poor spate of health at the moment. It's really frustrating because there is so much I want to write about and I just don't have the energy. I lie in bed with ideas in my head that I'm going to have to hope hang around long enough for me to be able to write them down. I couldn't let the day go by, though, without writing a little bit about the NHS and what it means to me. I'll jump into the political fray at some point - ...
Torridge DC, Holsworthy date: 13/08/2009Ind 537 (53.3; +18.7)LD Vicky Shearman 471 (46.7; +2.8)[Con (0.0; -21.5)]Majority 66Turnout 31.8%Ind gain from LDPercentage change is since May 2007Kings Lynn and West Norfolk BC, Gaywood Chase date: 13/08/2009Con 202 (28.7; -17.4)Lab 194 (27.5; -10.2)LD Ian Swinton 167 (23.7; +23.7)BNP 90 (12.8; +12.8)Green 52 (7.4; +7.4)Majority 8Turnout 18%Con
A little later than planned, here is the news that you have been waiting for - your chance to satisfy twenty women at a single stroke. It's all to do with Launceston Rugby Club's Ladies team who are auctioning themselves on ebay in a bid to find a sponsor for the coming season. It's a chance of pleasing more than 20 women at the same time without risking divorce or arrest? The women - who range in age from 15 upwards - are seeking a sponsor for the coming season to enable them to buy new kit and equipment and ...
It is interesting that today's coverage of the selection of the Conservatives candidate for Glasgow North East is highlighted as a battle of the BBC journalists, rather than what the people of Glasgow North East need in the shape of their new MP. It's bad enough they are still without an MP some two months on and the prospect of another three months wait before they can choose their next one. Eileen Baxendale, the Scottish Liberal Democrats candidate is keen to fight for the people in Glasgow North East, she has wanted to represent Glasgow North East for years but ...
Torridge DC, Holsworthy Kings Lynn and West Norfolk BC, Gaywood Chase Scarborough BC, Hertford Scarborough BC, Streonshalh Bridgend TC, Morfa
After reading a piece about how Dan Hannan is to face the whip, I think its time that I reminded Conservative MEP's about how bad Mr Hannan actually is. First Mr Hannan claimed the NHS was a 60 year mistake; he was most likely born in a NHS run hospital so in theory he was part of the NHS mistake? Moving on from that, Mr Hannan has had his latest comments talked about all over the Internet, especially on Labour and Lib Dem blogs. Its time Conservative MEP's told the chief whip MEP, to take the whip away from Mr ...
It seems that someone wants to become a follower of this blog, using the tool Google Friends Connect. Personally I don't understand why someone would want to do that but with the request in mind I have added the follow widget to the sidebar. I have also added the Google Friends Connect social bar to the blog, as you can see it has a comment section in which you can leave comments. Anything left on the social bar will not be moderated, and I trust that you will not abuse it?
{mad aunt NHS} No really, the NHS is just like my dear mad old aunt. Within the family we bitched about her amongst ourselves all the time. But let anyone from outside the family "have a go" at her and we would close ranks to defend her quicker than you could say "mad old bat". Likewise here we are, knowing that there are 100 things wrong with an old creaking system that we cant afford and have wasted way too much money on . Yet, our cousins across the pond have a dig about the NHS and suddenly we up ...
This 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 patients
Now I know that some members of my own party who consider the issue of same sex marriage a matter on conscience and not one we should form a firm policy on. However, with the aid of Calum Cashley the SNP PPC for Edinburgh North and Leith I'd like to prick that conscience just a little. We as Liberal Democrats are the party of equality. The preamble to our constitution opens: "The Liberal Democrats exist to build and safeguard a fair, free and open society, in which we seek to balance the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community, and ...
I spent an interesting afternoon yesterday with the Royal College of Nursing having a tour of the Accident and Emergency Department in the Heath Hospital in Cardiff. It is not a facility I am familiar with, being based in Swansea, so it was interesting to get a different perspective. When I arrived the A and E was reasonably quiet but it can get much busier at weekends and in the winter. There is a booking system for patients brought in by ambulances but at busy times it is not always possible to receive all the patients and ambulances can be ...
Matthew out on the swings yesterday.
East Lindsey District Council have today announced they have been given £57,000 to help debt crisis families. They are hoping to give this money in short terms loans and cycle the money when it's repaid to them.I think this is a good scheme and would like to see it extended across to WLDC. The small interest free short term loans from the council will stop residents going to loan sharks and les
Last night theSt Albans Conservative Association voted to keep Anne Main MP as its candidate.
At last - some worthwhile "community art" in Bradford; A shame he's sculpted out of sand; I'd rather like to see this in bronze, permanently sited outside the town hall if only as a two-fingered salute to creationists. Much work to be done yet though, as at least three people I overheard in Centenary Square had absolutely no idea who it was supposed to be, and a fourth reckoned it was Karl Marx. Hard to get too worked up regarding the NHS twitter viral, partly because I don't understand the twitter thang and partly because while I'm more than thankful ...
I suppose that I should have realised that something was afoot when Mark stormed into the Great Hall, pulled one of Great Uncle Otto's (silver medallist, Antwerp 1920) duelling sabres out of its display, and stormed back out again. Ah, the impetuosity of youth. It brought back memories enough to make an Empress blush... Of course, being a civilised country, Amaranth banned dueling some years ago, although there is still the odd incidence of individuals being rushed to hospital having sustained rather severe shaving cuts. Curiously, the history of Amaranth was shaped by two duels in particular, the first in ...
Development Control Committee This was my first time sitting on the decision making side of this committee. This committee makes decisions on larger or more controversial planning applications. The extent of the committee's powers is quite narrow and largely confined to issues where judgement is called for. The committee has to operate within planning regulations set [...]
{St Basils} Today's Birmingham Post carries a feature on Blair Kesseler, the former chair of the Birmingham Liberal Party, now chief executive of the city's youth homelessness charity St Basils. Definitely worth a read. "Meanwhile, his interest in politics started while he was still at school and led him to a life-long association with liberalism." "Asked if he misses the buzz of the political arena, Blair said: "I miss hearing all the gossip first and knowing what was going on before anyone else." "One of the best elements of St Basils is being given the opportunity to witness the young ...
Tucked away on the business pages of today's Western Mail is a very important warning to the Welsh Assembly Government that their lack of commitment to the training and education of the 19 to 25 cohort is damaging the Welsh economy. It is the stated policy of the Labour/Plaid Government that their spending priority for post 16 education is those aged between 16 and 19 with the result that many FE colleges have had to axe courses aimed at retraining and educating those over the age of 19. This is despite the fact that 40% of the those currently registered ...
Today as many of you will know is the date in 1947 when Pakistan gained independence from the British Indian Empire and joined the Commonwealth. I know many Pakistani-born and Pakistani-heritage friends in Keighley and beyond will be celebrating later today. My best to you all on this Yom-e-Istiqlal. A line of Allama Sir Muhammad Iqbal's poetry comes to mind however, "mazhab nahin sikhata apas men bair rakhna" "religion does not teach us to bear ill-will among ourselves". Pakistan zinda-baad.
I found Larry Elliott distinctly unhelpful here. When asked to explain a single quarter's difference in the growth rates, he trotted out a list of deep structural factors - or rather prejudices of his own - rather than providing a closer analysis of which sectors - exports, household consumption, business investment, government - or industrial areas (services) caused the UK to be weaker in Q2 than Germany or France. He also trots out the untruth that France has a bigger manufacturing sector than we do. Elliott's reason for our weak growth is a tired list UK economy failings: that we ...
Just received an e-mail from a former student at Comenius University in Bratislava about a horrible tragedy in the town of Handlova near Trencin. Apparently there has been an explosion in the local mine which has killed twenty people and injured a ...
When someone claimed Liberal Vision was an organisation created by right wing 'loonies', I was a little amused by this and did a bit of digging into Liberal Vision and realised that they indeed were a group of ring wing 'loonies'. Now it seems that one of the loonies from the organisation Sara Scarlett (who I backed to be the chair of Liberal Youth) has launched a campaign called #no2NHS. The problem is that Dan Hannan had no background knowledge of how reliant people are on the NHS before making his comments. Hannan made the comments, but Hannan can afford ...
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Some other hashtags that might have been used instead of #welovethenhs:
Who said that men can't use sexuality to get votes? Step forward, As Niles quiet rightly points out a US Senator is taking pictures semi naked, and Niles says he would vote for that. Personally I wouldn't but then that's just a matter of choice, mind you, if I so a women who was semi naked then I would vote for her. So sex can be used by men and women to get votes and personally I think it's what makes democracy interesting. If an MP gets elected because of a personal vote, on policy or by flashing naked it ...
Following my reminder about the Independence Day I said that I would do a write up of thoughts on Pakistan and here it is. Despite the problems Pakistan is going through, in my opinion the country is still strong and will most likely continue to stay strong because of the hard working people. With the number of hard working people decreasing the country is having problems but I don't think these problems will become a part of Pakistan. The future of Pakistan is only going to be bright if they find a political party that actually wants to do good ...
In recent years Liberal Democrat annual conferences have been enlivened by Ben Ramm's poetry magazine The Liberal calling for the party's leader to be sacked. Last year the media stunt torch passed to Liberal Vision, who predicted that the party would lose lots of seats unless it followed just the policies that the group advocates. What will Liberal Vision's stunt be this year? Perhaps there are some clues. In response to the #welovethenhs Twitter campaign, Sara Scarlett, writing on Liberal Vision, invited people to write tweets with the "anti-NHS" hashtag #privatisetheNHS. Of course, what we should be talking about is ...
Fri 14th
08:50
Whether you are left or right handed shapes our judgments of good and bad, smart and stupid
This from Newsweek: Memo to restaurant owners: if there are particular dishes you want more customers to order, list them on the right side of the menu... Simply put, we associate the side of space where we're clumsier with bad, stupid, dishonest, unhappy and other negative qualities, finds Daniel Casasanto of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in the Netherlands. In a series of five clever studies, reported Aug. 1 in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, he had university students take tests probing their unconscious attitudes toward the left and right side of the world. In one, 219 students ...
{Doctor Who: The War Games DVD} Developments in computer-based special effects frequently get the most attention, but having just finished watching The War Games, a ten part Doctor Who story from 1969, what really strikes me is how much more convincing physical fight scenes are in current shows and films. This isn't a matter of blood and gore, but rather the way that punches really do look like they land, people fall as you'd expect them to do so and at the right moment, and so on. Although The War Games is in many ways an excellent production, the fight ...
Fri 14th
08:36Responding to the row over the remarks, the Conservative leader said he had spoken to his frontbench...
Duncan rebuked for expenses comment source epolitix David Cameron has reprimanded Alan Duncan after he complained about efforts to reform the parliamentary expenses regime. The shadow leader of the Commons had been accused of hypocrisy after he was secretly filmed making the comments about MPs' reduced living standards since Parliament tightened control of the expenses system. Duncan [...]
I have written about the village of Gumley and its cricket ground recently. The Leicestershire County Council site has a picture of the Fernie hounds meeting at the long demolished Hall in 1903. The first edition of Pevsner's Leicestershire and Rutland described it thus: Begun in 1764. The house is of brick, seven bays wide and two and a half stories high. Three-bay hediment. No quoins. The Tuscan colonnade in front is Victorian.Quoins? Quoins.
No cars were harmed in the making of tonight's canvassing session, although I did get a bit wet. 2009/08/11 Shame really he beat me to it..
@caronmlindsay That wasn't a question I expected in reply to caronmlindsay # @rfenwick That's a striking stat, though not quite comparable as you don't "go to" Radio 3. in reply to rfenwick # Ah, found why Ubertwitter not working on my Blackberry: updates from @ubertwiter have the story (traffic from RIM still blocked) # A bridge that won the Concrete Society's Mature Structures Award < Twitpic http://bit.ly/VRTS7 # @benhammersley Consider me a guaranteed customer. At least for one visit to take photo and stick on internet. in reply to benhammersley # @caronmlindsay Ahem. in reply to caronmlindsay # Yikes, for ...
The statue to Sigmund Freud is a real delight - interesting, poise, character and similarity - all captured in this bronze just at the bottom of Fitzjohn's Avenue and the start of Belsize Lane. It's on the land associated with the Tavistock NHS clinic http://www.tavi-port.org/ Freud was ground breaking in his theories and publicity for his theories and is one of the few people who's name has slipped into such widespread use in the laguague http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigmund_Freud Of course the crucial link with this location is that Freud - along with his wife Martha (this post listed Anna his daughter by ...
Callum Leslie did warn the LYS readers that visiting my blog they would have to endure Livingston news well the news from my club recently it's been busy, its whinger gone and phenominal. Yesterday there were three pieces of news in order: Almondvale was granted its Safety Certificate to host matches.The Livingston 5 consortium took control of the club from the Administrator (before the last piece of news was finalised.The SFL voted 16-10 in favour of upholding their earlier decision to relgate Livingston to Division 3 in Scottish Football.Basically although the club did appeal immediately the SFL decision to the ...
St Albans Conservative Association voted last night to keep Anne Main MP as its candidate – despite criticism of her Commons expense claims. From the BBC: St Albans MP Anne Main allowed her daughter to live rent-free in a taxpayer-funded flat, which she said was cleared by Commons authorities. Her constituency party has voted to keep her as its candidate for the marginal seat and she was "delighted". Claims against Ms Main, an MP since 2005, are still being investigated by the parliamentary sleaze watchdog. The Telegraph reported back in May that Anne Main claimed mortgage interest of £1095.68 a ...
Since I have returned to UK three totally separate people have said to me "Angela have you seen what the BBC have been up to whilst you've been away". The answer has been "no" . Though frankly nothing they do surprises me anymore. So I go and look. What do I find ? Yes ignore the expenses, the ludicrous overspend on relocating to Salford, ....the hiring of huge yachts...and villas etc etc ..... the shocking stuff is that the BBC is spending my/your/our license fee to secretly fund a protest against proposals to share the licence fee. To be specific. ...
Following the story about Rupert Read and the abuses that appear to have happened in internal elections in the Green Party, lots of people have commented about whether the local press will follow up on the story. My guess is that they won't. The local press love the Greens and with a former high profile journalist running the Green PR in Norwich, the press seem scared to print anything that would paint the Green Party in a bad light. So will the press report on what is happening ? I know you read this blog.
After searching thoroughly, we were unable to find any evidence that there was a logo before the 'Freedom Torch', which Thatcher introduced in 1987. However, searching through past election posters, we found that there was a consistent use of 'The Conservatives', in yellow and blue - with the national flag embedded in the poster too. [...]
After searching thoroughly, we were unable to find any evidence that there was a logo before the 'Freedom Torch', which Thatcher introduced in 1987. However, searching through past election posters, we found that there was a consistent use of 'The Conservatives', in yellow and blue - with the national flag embedded in the poster too. The designer of the 1987 Torch based their ideas on the USA Statue of Liberty, as it was intended to represent British liberty, pride and unity. Interestingly, a quote from Disreali helps explain the meaning behind the Torch: "...in a progressive country change is constant...[but] ...
The news on Wednesday and Thursday was that Alan Duncan had been caught on camera talking about the MPs' expenses scandal. He has apologised without reservation for saying that MPs have to "live on rations". Why has he apologised? Is it because he lied or is it because he was caught on camera? Well he says it was a joke but I don't think it sounds like he is happy with his terms and conditions of employment. Let's give him the benefit of the doubt and think that he is funny. It is harder to give the benefit of the ...
Friday: This week Master Gideon dabbled with a new philosophy: he said that the Conservatories are the "progressive party" now. "Progressive" means "wanting things to CHANGE", but I'm sorry, Mr Oboe, just wanting "a change from the current lot" doesn't really count. "Progressive" is the OPPOSITE of "conservative", wanting things to stay as they ARE or HOW THEY USED TO BE. So "Progressive Conservatives" OUGHT to be the very definition of an OXYMORON. An OXYMORON is, of course, an IDIOT from one of THOSE universities. Which, come to think of it, ought to be the very definition of Master Gideon... ...
