Just back from 3 days in Liverpool - Fab! I'll stick to the political thoughts, although it has been a stimulating non-political break. I went to Liverpool for party spring conference last year and struck with what a great place is seemed to be with no time to look round, so with a bad weather forecast putting us off the countryside off we went. I was so struck with how proud the...
Two weeks ago, Harriett Harman was standing in for Gordon Brown. A week later it was Peter Mandelson. This week, apparently Alistair Darling is standing in for the Prime Minister. At this rate it will be my turn to stand in for Gordon Brown in about three weeks.
There is no-one quite like Dame Shirley!
As reported in tonight's "Evening Telegraph", I am very pleased indeed at the positive response from PricewaterhouseCoopers, administrators of the developers who owned the former Homebase site - and the Royal Bank of Scotland, principal lenders, who have now agreed to my request to remove a temporary pathway around the site in Riverside Drive and restore the more open and safe original pathway around it. I had raised the matter with PricewaterhouseCoopers following many residents' concerns about the safety on the temporary pathway that is claustrophobic and where a local resident was assaulted and robbed. Bruce Cartwright, the joint administrator ...
This is the first in a series of blog posts addressing political taboos, which are not often talked about in mainstream political discussions. However, some of the barriers of discussion are breaking down around these taboos, which we will address. By Darrell Goodliffe and Jane Watkinson On August 11th, the Pirate Party registered as a UK [...]
This is the first in a series of blog posts addressing political taboos, which are not often talked about in mainstream political discussions. However, some of the barriers of discussion are breaking down around these taboos, which we will address. By Jane Watkinson and Darrell Goodliffe On August 11th, the Pirate Party registered as a UK political party; its creators reported that it was growing at an exceptional rate with "100 new members every hour" and its Facebook supporters outnumbered both the Conservatives and UKIP. No wonder Mark Pack seemingly felt threatened enough to lend weight to the Daily Telegraph's ...
Help! Why is the list of the bloggers stories I'm following on my blog not updating properly? I have the first line showing underneath the name of each blog but over the last few days they don't update properly, what am I doing wrong?
Pete and Chris have uncovered new figures showing that Lewisham's recycling record is even worse than we thought. Rather than the 22% of waste we had thought was being recycled and composted, the latest figures show recycling's fallen off a cliff - with just 14.26% of waste recycled or composted in April. Now, you wouldn't think that residents' behaviour would change quickly enough to reduce the amount they recycled by 28% in a month, and reading the small print it seems that's not what's happened. The Council has discovered a "discrepancy in the percentage of waste the contractor said they ...
Renault have won their appeal against their one race ban for allowing Fernando Alonso to leave the pits with a loose wheel nut. The team knew the wheel nut was not properly attached and failed even to tell Alonso when he thought he had a puncture. About the most dangerous thing that can happen in motor racing is when bits fly off a car. Just ask Felipe Massa. But wheels are arguably more dangerous than springs or bits of the engine. Why? Because they bounce along until they hit something, and they retain much of their impetus along the way. ...
Migraine today, so I'm putting off the rest of my guide to my blogroll til tomorrow. Gavin Robinson has a good post on women's role in warfare through the ages. Caron quite rightly asks what we're doing sending people to fight for a regime that allows women who don't have sex with their husbands to be starved [...]
{Lynne Featherstone at Muswell Hill Youth Centre} Well - what a treat! Went to visit the Summer Uni at Muswell Hill Youth Centre. This youth club was for so long neglected by Haringey Council and closed most nights - but now thanks to work of local councillor LibDem Gail Engert and others it is not only open six nights a week but thriving. As you can see from the picture I had a good go at the 'decks' but am not giving up my day job in a rush. The boxing, the gym, the hairdressing and the cooking - all ...
Brits love conspiracy theories. UFO's, ABCs (alien big cats), the Prince of Darkness is behind all-things governernmental. Well this time it would seem that this is NOT a conspiracy. Lord Mandelson, who stuck two fingers up to the country when he returned to Corfu to hobnob with rich and famous for his summer sojourn, did have his mitts all over the the move to release the convicted Libyan bomber. Last year it was dodgy Russians on yachts. This year it has been revealed that the Lord, between sunbathing and posh dinners at chez Rothschilds, did indeed meet with the son ...
A colleague circulated details of a Young Countryside Alliance event. It could provide some ideas for boosting the membership of the Lib Dem Youth & Students organisation: The Young Countryside Alliance - London is holding an informal BBQ to celebrate our official partnership with Aragon House. Next Thursday, 20th August, please join us for a (very informal) burger and glass of wine or beer at the credit crunch busting price of £10. The deal will be available from 7pm onwards, and we look forward to meeting many of our London based supporters, introducing ourselves, and finding out exactly what you ...
I have just arrived at the Bridge, one of the historic pubs of Newcastle. It is at the north end of the High Level Bridge, one of the great railway bridges of the UK. I am here to meet up with some historian friends. An ideal venue for such a meeting. We are the first to arrive. Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device
Mon 17th
19:21
Apparently I'm angry. So let's arrest Rhodri Morgan and charge him with theft! (And waiting for Angl...
Why be angry if you can't make sallacious calls? But there is a serious point here. And I know, its an old, old, old, old, old point. From 2003 in fact. Ah, those halcyon days, where the Lib Dems had one councillor in Newport. Ah, those halcyon days, where the Labour Government was struck with indecision - unable to choose between ineptitude or gimicks. Oh! And the prize remembrance of halcyon days... when a Labour Government shelled out over a million pounds to give retiring farts a lovely paycheck. (I know, I'm once again posting on something my brother's written ...
Having listened to (hopefully!) all the issues raised on internet forums and meetings, visited the museum the week before last, and then spoken to Richard Gill and James Wisdom here is a summary of my views and top concerns.... The proposals The work of the two Councils over the past year is to be broadly welcomed. After decades of inaction a comprehensive vision for the park has been brought together by nationally recognised consultants, backed up by the local appointed Development Manager. Where the greatest concern remains with the proposals is the loss of one corner of the park to ...
context (I'm so glad I quit that site...)
Commenting on pressure from the Labour/Plaid Government's TransportAdvisory Group to end free bus passes for all elderly people, Welsh LibDem Shadow Transport Minister, Jenny Randerson AM said: "Bus passes were a key achievement of the Lib Dem Partnership Government during the first Assembly, and have been an unprecedented success. Thisis more than an issue about transport. The scheme provides numerousbenefits for elder people based on the freedom that it provides. It also has numerous wellbeing and environmental benefits. It has also stimulated the use of public transport which has clear benefits for people of all ages. "Announcements like this make ...
With Oxford Airport having chosen to rebrand itself as London Oxford Airport - and the real surprise in that story is that Ryanair aren't involved in this latest attempt to redraw the map - are we nearing the point where we might as well just rebrand every airport in the country with 'London' at the start of its name? After all, a fast Intercity train from Birmingham International might get you to the heart of London even faster than venturing onto the Tube from Heathrow. But, I suspect the conflating of London and Oxford as a single location might just ...
Blimey, it's easy to get out of the habit of this blogging lark, isn't it? But I've been prompted to get back into things by today's story about a cancer charity's call for ham sandwiches to be no longer part of kids' lunchboxes due to an apparent increased risk of bowel cancer from processed meats. My first reaction on hearing this story this morning was to think it wasn't anything new - and indeed it isn't, as a quick Google search comes up with these items from March 2008, November 2007 and June 2005, amongst others. But the evidence behind ...
You know what I think? This whole 'greedy bankers yerrr lets nab em!' Is getting a tad tedious and somewhat symbolic of the speed at which the public sector solves problems. Sure the bankers f'd up and we poured tons of cash their way to sort them out, but any Dragon from the Den will tell you, you don't invest in a business if you're not going to make a good return on your investment. So now we want a High Pay Commission, I'm sorry what? One week the political elite speak about a bonfire of quango's the next they ...
It seems that Mark has learnt the trick of PagePlus and is on his way to getting his FOCUS out on the streets, and to read his blog post about writing the FOCUS follow the link to his blog. Mark writes about how it took three people to write a FOCUS but the first one needed a PagePlus trainer, now you know how to use PagePlus you can easily write it on your own with the help of a camera person and figures to take pictures with. And I agree with Mark, PagePlus can make a novice look professional (that's ...
A thought occurs to me: if you have a phone capable of sending messages by SMS, what's to stop you branding it as 'Twitter-compatible'? An addition to this is the thought that someone - possibly inspired by the Amstrad Emailer - is currently working on a Home Twitterphone system so that you too can join in the fun and send messages through your normal phone. All responses will either be read out to you by the automated SMS voice or printed out and sent to you by post for an additional charge. I'm not saying this is a workable business ...
It's perhaps beneficial to my own health that I've been distracted enough to miss out on much of the frenzied debate on the US and UK health systems (both of which are flawed). However, one point I've felt the need to contribute is as follows: Almost 7 per cent of GDP in the USA is spent on healthcare by government. Thus, the idea that the US system is a model of private provision is incorrect. For entirely different reasons I ended up just now on a website entitled USASpending.gov. On the homepage thereof is a list of the top 5 ...
More than 1,000 miles of rail routes will be replaced by buses over the August Bank Holiday weekend (28th-31st), analysis by the Liberal Democrats has found. A table showing how many miles of routes are to be replaced by buses, broken down by train operator is attached. Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Transport Secretary, Norman Baker said: "Spending...
I see US President Obama is running into trouble over his proposed national healthcare reforms. It seems many Americans are very opposed to a government-run insurance scheme, or seemingly anything that involves more public money going into healthcare. This is all very interesting from a British perspective, as our public-funded system was founded in 1948 on the principle of free, universal healthcare for all, and has stayed remarkably true to that ideal over the years. The NHS has come to be regarded as something of a national treasure, and for many people the idea of a system that relies on ...
A while back I was expressing my concern about the unregulated use of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras.You may recall that a senior police officer was trying to make our council subsidise his already significant capital budget to complete the'ring of steel' around the borough so the police could know who was coming and going and with whom etc. The safeguards -such as exist- are pathetic. Now Vince Cable has told his Daily Mail readers that he was stopped as a result of false information on the APRN data base: The officers said they had checked my car registration ...
If you do any kind of work where you come into contact with children you are required to complete a Criminal Records Bureau disclosure application form or to give it its more common name a CRB check. This form is submitted by the organisation that wants you to do the work i.e. a School, Church etc. If you were to design a system with the aim of making it the most bureaucratic and idiotic system ever created then you could do worse that create a system like the CRB check. So what are the problems with the CRB check? Firstly ...
I have today been busy sending and receiving twitter messages with Kerry McCarthy and conducting an interview with her via twitter. As I blogged earlier today, Kerry has become the Chief online campaigner for the Labour party. I have asked Kerry questions regarding her new role, how she campaigned to become an MP, why she wanted to be an MP and what she thinks of Gordon Brown. I would finally before I let you all read the interview, like to thank Kerry for giving me her valuable time to conduct this twitter interview! Q1: Why did you want to become ...
Combine two ingredients: The Guardian Media Group is getting out of providing free (bulk) copies of its newspapers in hotels, airports etc with speculation that they will be followed in this by News International, and The latest ABC figures show the Independent and Independent on Sunday increasingly dependent on bulk copies with their paid-for sales suffering. Extrapolate forward a little in to the future, and what do you have? The Independent / Independent on Sunday becoming our national free newspaper whilst the other titles pull out of the area. It may be hard to make this niche into a viable ...
Iain Dale has this piece on the Liberal Democrats prospects at the 2010 General Election. As it goes it is a fairly balanced piece which basically concludes that electorally we will stand still (though Iain thinks we will end-up with 7 less net seats). He points out that in our top-30 target seats only 11 are [...]
You might remember that I took issue, at some length, with a Policy Exchange piece that argued how we would be better off if the Government started cutting the state down NOW. In "A balancing act" we took a different view: slash government demand immediately and you'll make the recession far worse. Now it seems that they have somehow come out with the idea that the private sector has shrunk since 1998 : here it is reported in the Telegraph.Luckily the blogosphere has David Smith to correct economic errors:Fortunately it isn't true. The Policy Exchange calculations were based on a ...
When doing my weekly round-up, I came across one post that I wanted to go into a bit more detail on my response. The BMA have outlined steps that they believe would help curb the culture of binge drinking. As much as I hate to disagree with a group who probably know a hell of a lot more about it than me, I'm going to disagree with one of their points regardless. I firmly believe that a minimum unit price is not the way forward in dealing with binge drinking or alcoholism. But I should also point out, that this ...
I have recently been writing quite a lot of blogs about the unrealistic expectations placed on women, and the pressures they have in all areas of life such as in how they look, work and childcare. Therefore, I was pleased to have an e-mail today about a campaign Jo Swinson is heading, called "Real Women". I have not looked in detail yet, but from what I have seen it looks like a very good policy document indeed. It is exactly what will help the Liberal Democrats stand out to women, a party that does take women's interests seriously. Whilst Harman ...
The link is to Angela's story in the Sunday Times.
I admit to being baffled by recent correspondence from both my MP, Hazel Blears and The HM Treasury. Today I finally received replies to queries I raised back in MARCH, in relation to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme decision to deny The Christie Hospital a refund of their £6.5m of charity money lost when two Icelandic banks failed. Those of you in the know, will probably be aware that while the Financial Services Authority (FSA) denied The Christie a refund from the scheme, they subsequently received their money back via NHS sources. The irony of the timing of these two ...
Over the weekend the Welsh government's councillors' commission reported on ways to improve representation for women and people from ethnic minorities in local councils. Among the suggestions was the recommendation that political parties should be allowed to (positively) discriminate on grounds of ethnicity to try to ensure that the number of councillors elected better reflects the make-up of the population - along the same lines as already happens for women in some political parties. The last time the Welsh Government tried to shake up the old boys' club, it came up with the 'golden goodbye' scheme in an attempt to ...
David Cameron's now infamous remarks about not wanting to Twitter in case it made him look like a **** now look even more dated than they did at the time. Labour has tried to steal a march on the Conservatives by appointing a 'Twitter Tsar'; Kerry McCarthy MP who was more than a little flabbergasted [...]
The Lib Dem MP for Dunbartonshire East has submitted herself to a gruelling grilling at the hands of the readers of the Independent. Among the questions – such taxing ones "that thing you just did, isn't it a huge waste of time?" – "no"; "don't you think you were too young to be an MP?" – "no"; and "who's your bestest friend in all the Lib Dems?" – I will leave you to visit the story yourself to see the thrilling answer. Amongst the questions there are some better thought out ones and some interesting answers, so it's well worth ...
The Wardman Wire reports the good news that Father Seraphim Vänttinen-Newton, a Russian Orthodox priest has won his appeal for unfair dismissal against GEO Group, the private firm that runs Campsfield House Immigration Detention Centre (or "removal centre", as the UK Borders Agency website calls it). Father Vänttinen-Newton was chaplain at the centre and gave a short interview to BBC Radio Oxford about "faith in the workplace" - a pretty reasonable thing for a chaplain to do, it might seem, but which led to his being sacked for apparently breaching company rules- an odd decision rightly overturned.
As predicted on this blog, John Lamont has won the selection to replace Chris Walker as the Tory candidate in Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk.This selection came about after Chris Walker was apparently stabbed in the back and dropped as their candidate.So, Annabel Goldie obviously won't be calling on Alex Salmond to stand down as an MP now given John Lamont wants 2 jobs as well.I understand Annabel Goldie is not happy with John Lamont.Given a lot of people in the Borders don't have a job at all anymore it is somewhat arrogant that John Lamont who holds one full time ...
It stroke me today, that many people are using the "go to university instead" line, to try and reduce the youth unemployment rates. This comes with the news that a great number of eligible applicants will be turned down from university because there is not enough places. However, I think those arguing this need to think for a minute about what university is there for. It is not just there to help reduce the unemployed statistics. People do not necessary want to go to university, this is another flawed conception many people have. It should not be seen as the ...
David Meerman Scott has some wise advice for people in PR in his book, The New Rules for Marketing and PR: In five years, I can count on one hand the number of PR people who have commented on my blog or reached out to me as a result of a blog post or story I've written in a magazine. How difficult can it be to read the blogs of the reporters you're trying to pitch? It teaches you precisely what interests them. And then you can e-mail them with something interesting that they are likely to write about rather ...
Last week I published this post about what happened to a friend of mine when she became ill whilst on holiday in England. She is now back home and diagnosed with a viral infection. Her GP told her that if she had taken Tamiflu as recommended by the swine flu helpline then it would have had an adverse impact on her health. This episode is particularly relevant today in the light of the headline in today's Guardian which records that the government rejected advice from its expert advisers on swine flu, who said there was no need for the widespread ...
{john-terry} One hundred "progressive" public figures - including our very own Vince Cable - have signed up to the Compass campaign for a new quango to tackle the "excessive levels" of "banking and executive remuneration". Their headline grabbing stat is that an employee on minimum wage would need to work for 226 years to earn as much as a top FTSE chief exec makes in one. My reaction to this was "so what?" Can we at least be open to the possibility it might be worth paying 226 times as much to some people as to others? The new Premiership ...
{Usain Bolt} On the day Usain Bolt obliterated his world record to confirm his status as the fastest man alive, his nation signed a deal to bring their training camp to Birmingham in 2012. From the Jamaica Observer: "Birmingham is a city that has always been close to Jamaica. There are many Jamaicans living in Birmingham and they have sold Jamaica well. We'll be working closely with the leaders in Birmingham to build our base there and to improve tourist arrivals from that city. I expect to meet with them soon to explore the possibilities" – Edmund Bartlett, Jamaican Minister ...
What have all these recent stories got in common? They all include a quote or comment from a spokesperson for the Taxpayers' Alliance. I have noticed this for quite a while now. It seems like almost any story that involves tax or even the BBC license fee in any way will likely have a "response" to the story from the TPA. It was brought home to me quite acutely when I was on holiday in Ireland and I happened to read a few UK newspaper articles. Every single one of them had a quote from them. I even heard them ...
Following the news that Kerry McCarthy is the new Internet campaign guru at Labour, I would like to congratulate her. Like Iain Dale, I have never met Kerry but have got to know her via twitter and via my blog and, personally I think she is a great tweeter and MP. She really is leading the way with how MPs should use the Internet to campaign and I personally think others should follow her lead. I will be asking her to even try and nudge Mr Gordon Prentice into tweeting or blogging, but we will have to wait and see. ...
Bath MP Don Foster has vowed to continue to fight the controversial proposed-BRT route, after it passed through B&NES Council's Development Control Committee at the third attempt. The BRT is now subject to an Article 14 declaration, which means that Secretary of State John Denham will decide whether or not to call for a public inquiry into the scheme. Don said, "In many ways last...
The internet is a wonderful, terrible thing. It allows us to exchange information, communicate with people around the world, abuse people that we've never met. Yesterday, however, it had a benevolent air to it, at least as far as this Suffolk-based Liberal Democrat is concerned. I had produced the leaflet, and only needed to send it to a friendly printer. The only problem was, I rely on mobile internet, signal is weak and variable, and the file was pretty big. How to resolve this? Well, what else is Liberal Democrat Voice for if not to provide a means of tapping ...
Bath MP Don Foster has vowed to continue to fight the controversial proposed-BRT route, after it passed through B&NES Council's Development Control Committee at the third attempt. The BRT is now subject to an Article 14 declaration, which means that Secretary of State John Denham will decide whether or not to call for a public inquiry into the scheme. Don said, "In many...
Can you imagine this? You walk into a newsagent and instead of women porn magazines you see men porn magazines. You open up The Sun and it has a male page 3, not a woman. Think about walking down the road to the sound of women car horns beeping men as they walk by. You turn on the T.V and see near naked men everywhere instead of women. There are adverts about getting men's penis enlarged on terrestrial T.V whereas women breast enlargements will be confined to spam e-mails. Instead of women, having to give their marital status (Mrs./Miss/Ms), men ...
Bath MP Don Foster is backing the Live Music Bill put forward by Lib Dem Peer Lord Clement-Jones. Don has also signed a petition on the number 10 website, calling on the government to change laws which came into place as part of the 2003 Licensing Act. The Live Music Bill aims to revive live music by: Creating an exemption from licences for the performance of any...
Bath MP Don Foster is backing the Live Music Bill put forward by Lib Dem Peer Lord Clement-Jones. Don has also signed a petition on the number 10 website, calling on the government to change laws which came into place as part of the 2003 Licensing Act. The Live Music Bill aims to revive live music by: Creating an exemption from licences for the performance of...
It's from the official Hansard records, so this account must be true: The hon. Member for Bridgeton (Mr. Maxton), who interrupts, has an honest record. He wants to destroy the capitalist system entirely. Let the country know it. He is the red tail wagging the pink dog that at present occupies the Front Bench opposite Woof woof! That was back in 1931. I'm older than you thought, aren't I... Related posts:Good news for chocolate lovers Hoooooooooooooooooooooray. Woof woof woof. And an extra tail shake. This...Good news from Greenland Christmas card and bone have arrived from my cousins in...Do NOT vote ...
A photograph from yesterday's visit.
Clearly an excellent system for all concerned. The Afghan people get their empty schools, the international contractors get their healthy fees, the Taliban get their bombs, and we just get the bills. And the dead soldiers, of course. Read the rest of this article Read it all here.
If you are a discredited Member of Parliament over the expenses scandal and not one of those that is standing down, beware the man in a white suit is organising. The MP for Tatton from 1997-2001 Martin Bell and the former Archbishop of Canterbury's special envoy Terry Waite are organising a concerted effort of independent anti-sleaze candidates for those that are determined to stand again. For certain Liberal Democrat PPCs this could spark bad news. As the party that has been pushing for reform of the whole system, expenses, voting, contributions, House of Lords etc, some of our candidates were ...
I can thank Liberal Vision for alerting me to the Compass Campaign about High Pay. Vince Cable is signed up. I like Liberal Vision - it is good to have an blog pushing their line without the sometimes unthinking dogma that goes with the Adam Smith institute or the IEA blog. But unlike Liberal Vision, I don't think that the ever-escalating ratio of executive to average pay deserves a big "so what"? Yes, the idea of the government determining who is worth what is odious, and potentially dangerous. But that does not mean that executive pay is a functioning market. ...
Today we're going away for a few days on holiday, so I shan't be posting for a while, away from computers and all that. Have a great few days away from me, I leave you with a few words from Ted Hughes, whose birthday it is today, and what with him having been born a mile down the road from where I live in Hebden Bridge, I thought it appropriate. Crow Decided to try words. He imagined some words for the job, a lovely pack- Clear-eyed, resounding, well-trained, With strong teeth. You could not find a better bred lot. He ...
Much thanks to Jeremy 'the bane of Bala' Townsend for filling in for me last week. I was either drunk or busy. I forget which. And it's Freedom Central's own Jeremy that I will start by writing about. In case you missed it, and given that it is now the second most read post on this blog, you probably didn't, Jeremy wrote an extensive post on how to protect, and indeed improve, the Welsh arts sector. He argued that politicians should attempt to stay out of the arguments surrounding the arts, as they "know little about the situation." Obviously, this ...
I forgot to link to my Lib Dem Voice article about how the party might want to reconsider how it selects its candidates for London Mayor, the London Assembly and possibly the European Parliament. This follows on from the article I wrote last week: Both Conservative and Labour politicians have been talking recently about primaries and indeed the Tories ran a primary election for London Mayor in 2007. I believe it is time the Lib Dems similarly looked at opening out our procedures for selecting our Mayoral and Assembly candidates for 2012, and possibly the European Elections in the longer ...
If school league tables are based on those pupils who pass at grades A* to C then there is no doubt that schools will want to help those who are just below a C standard. This is not fair for those who are A* material. Equally this is not fair to those with special needs. Why should a small group of pupils be helped on the basis of a political whim? The Conservatives have noticed this and Michael Gove, the shadow education secretary has said that teachers feel pressured to concentrate on borderline C grade pupils. The Conservatives have seen ...
Mon 17th
00:00
Day 3150: Mysteries of Doctor Who #19: How does the Brigadier manage to retire from UNIT before he j...
Sunday: "UNIT dating"*: it's the continuity niggle SO egregious that it has even crept into the programme's own dialogue (in "The Sontaran Stratagem", if you must know) and even Dr Woo himself cannot tell you whether his adventures with UNIT took place in the 1970s or the 1980s. There just ISN'T a solution to keep EVERYONE happy; the evidence all contradicts itself. But there's no avoiding it and, with the BBC releasing the Black Guardian trilogy on DVD, this is as good a time as any to sort it out once and for all. Daddy Alex's advice: back away now! ...
