We are entering the period when the events surrounding the outbreak of WW2 are back in the public domain. The Imperial War Museum have just opened a new exhibition on the topic and last week Radio 4 Today programme carried an item on appeasement. I was working in London last week so I took the opportunity of going to the Imperial War Museum (I.W.M). (I should say at this point that the temptation to continue the posting on Kropotkin and food policy is strong. The I.W.M. has some excellent posters and books on the Dig for Victory Campaign-or as the ...
EVER heard the phrase "silly season"? Journalists use it, but never really explain what it means. Well, in yet another world exclusive for the Daily Sport, here's the silly season laid bare. Basically, for most of the year, reporters depend on politicians to make enough news to fill the pages of their newspapers. They may slag MPs off much of the time, but the poor dears are lost when Parliament isn't sitting. That's why, over the summer, you'll find so many prominent stories which wouldn't even make the news the rest of the year. Some of them are simply trivial, ...
In a recent post Agent Orange stated that "All it takes is for good people to do nothing..." where he challenged FedEx member and PPC, Duncan Borrowman, to apply his rigorous condemnation of sleaze to his own party: How about you Duncan Borrowman, you're a member of the Federal Executive and an active anti-sleaze campaigner. What have you done to ensure our Party is protected from association with alleged criminals and that they are properly investigated? Agent Orange then sent a follow up email where Duncan swiftly replied that he didn't respond to individuals "who hide behind aliases..." Agent Orange ...
No politics today, it was my daughter in laws "0"th birthday and we were celebrating with family and friends at a house near to Boulby. A lovely day. If you go to the footpath along the top of the cliffs - beautiful views from the highest cliffs in England, but watch the drop!
Things have been quiet here of late - not because I haven't been campaigning - but quite the opposite. (I did have a wifi free week in the Lake District though). There have been a few interesting articles around recently. The FT ran a piece by Hans-Werner Sinn on the energy policy we really need. You probably won't agree with all of it - I don't think I am convinced that western goverments have had the impact on the expectation of oil producers that he claims - but definitely worth the read. His conclusion is To be effective, environmental policy ...
If you doubt that Western civilisation is in decline - and may well collapse altogether by next Tuesday - just look at what we give our children to watch. I am just too old to be nostalgic about Tiswas. It seemed to me to be imbued with the idea that not much professionalism or imagination was required because "it was only for children". Just throw another custard pie or bucket of water and that will do. Later we gave our children dross like Dick and Dom. I belong to a luckier generation because they made Do Not Adjust Your Set ...
Before I get going, just wanted to say thanks to Madrozie for your encouraging words about the blog – makes me feel I must write it more regularly! September's still going to be tricky, but from October through to the General Election I'm hoping to gradually crank it up... But back to the subject, Heroes and Zeroes. ...
One of the most annoying things about being British is the fact that our government, indeed virtually every government, never lives up to the high reputation that the people themselves deserve. The persecution of people who serve this country, the continued slap in the face our servicemen receive, the lack of gratitude to people who put their lives on the line is never ending. When you read stories of VC holders having to sell their medals to make ends meet, war heroes having the payments challenged by the government or the story of Alan Turing, you have to wonder what ...
If you enjoy, or don't enjoy this blog via your computer why not read it on your mobile phone? If you want to read it using a mobile phone device, point your mobile phone browsers to: http://irfanahmed.mofuse.mobi/
I now use google analytics and site meter to see who visits my blog, firstly thank you to all of you who visit my blog, whether it be for one off visits or whether you are now one of my regular readers. I want to mention some of the countries where some of my visitors are from - all over the UK, India, Ireland, France, Germany, Spain, Vietnam, Canada, Iceland, Australia, Belgium, Kuwait and the USA. Wow, my little blog that started with me, Will Howells and Steve Jolly. It then picked up some of my friends and former colleagues ...
Paul Evans's blog piece on the pros and cons of local councils in effect challenging the role of local newspapers with their own publications highlights many of the issues. There's one that I'd add to the list, and it is about holding councils to account. [IMG: A pile of newspapers] It's understandable that many councils are sufficiently frustrated by the paucity of coverage of their activities in the local media and/or the low penetration rate of that media that they are looking to put out more and more information via official publications which includes, in some cases, in effect becoming ...
Tonight's big TV event is ITV1's new version of Wuthering Heights, for which I have an especially nerdy anecdote and a couple of fabulous YouTubes. It's the great romantic story where the 'hero' is a brooding psychopath... Gordon Brown brilliantly took the man as his role model without looking at the context - what today's called a "Daniel Hannan" (on which note, I Reckon Mark Thompson's not covered himself in glory). In other news, Richard and I have been away visiting our parents, though I swapped groovy Manchester Pride for the dentist and re-read Professor Bernice Summerfield's The Joy Device... ...
A bit of whimsical statistical trivia for the bank holiday weekend: Number of votes won by the winning party at the 2005 general election: 9.6 million (BBC) Number of Facebook users in the UK: 11.2 million (TechCrunch) (Before anyone starts threatening me with a slide-rule: yes, this does compare apples and oranges a bit since Facebook's minimum age requirement is less than 18 and also allows people who aren't qualified to vote to become users . However, unless there's a very unusual skew in their user base, the broad picture still stands.)
What then is time? If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I wish to explain it to him who asks, I do not know. – Saint Augustine This post comes with a health warning – I am talking here about quantum physics. There is nothing more likely to produce wrongheaded drivel than ...
We had an excellent meeting last Thursday evening of the Friends of Magdalen Green (FoMG) committee, with a good discussion of how the Friends can assist with further repairs to the bandstand - particularly a re-paint (a complex and expensive task on this listed structure) - and improved lighting on the Green. I became chair of FoMG earlier this year - its a great group to be part of, with really committed committee members. Our webmaster (Liz Broumley) has recently updated the group's website (click on the headline above to view more) with updates on the winners of the photography ...
Honestly, I am not gloating (way too early in the season for that), just relishing in the fact as I know that this season will be a big one for a few clubs, such as the mighty blues Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United, then there are the ones to watch such as Tottenham, Liverpool and Manchester City. Obviously for Chelsea and Tottenham it has been the perfect start to the new season. Sir Alex Ferguson definitely won't be happy although on another level he is currently 3 points ahead of Arsenal but they have a game in hand so the ...
Labour candidate Alex Hilton explains how he spoofed claims by Tory Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Grayling that Britain is turning into 'The Wire': On Wednesday 26th August 2009 I was chuckling over the silly things Conservative MP Chris Grayling had said about Britain becoming like the TV show, The Wire. It occurred to me to wonder whether the opposite proposition might be amusing. So I imagined a US politician complaining that the US is becoming more like a fictional UK TV show. This train of thought led me to many minutes of tittering to myself. Clinton complains that Wyoming is ...
I have to agree with what Iain Dale has said about Alex Hilton, but the main part that I totally agree with is as followed: I can't help liking him. His cheeky chappy disposition allows him to get away with things others never wouldThat I think sums up the Monkey quiet nicely; I am awaiting the re-launch of Recess Monkey so we can have gems from Alex more regularly!
Charles Murray is classified as a Sociologist, but is despised by many who do Sociology because of his racist, untrue, and unsupported claims about the 'underclass' and welfare. It did not surprise me to read Michael Portillo citing Murray as a heroic theorist who helps point to the problems around our welfare system. Murray's views are very contraversial, as for example, in his book the Bell Curve, he links IQ to genetics, arguing that IQ is the best predictor for a person's social conditions, such as their social class and education and claims that black people are genetically 'thicker' so ...
Gordon Brown must really wish he had never returned from holiday or at least must be seriously contemplating life maybe more peaceful if he just stayed where he went today; Afghanistan. While the big news headlines continue to be made by Afghanistan and Al Megrahi there is another potentially more explosive crisis brewing in the ...
Meeting on Friday with Muhibur Rahman, convenor of the national forum of Upazila chairmen and vice-chairmen. (The upazilas are the main tier of local government in Bangladesh). The Forum claims that the Upazila Parishad Act 2009, passed in April, transfers most of the powers of the upazilas to MPs, contrary to the principle that government should be as close to the people as possible. They want a dialogue with the government, to see if there is any scope for amendments to the Act, and they say that otherwise the elected members of the upazilas will have nothing to do. They ...
Welcome to the 132nd of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (23rd August – 29th August 2009), together with a hand-picked quintet, partly courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed. Don't forget, by the way, you can now sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox – just click here – ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging. As ever, let's start with the most popular post, and work our way down: 1. Can a LibDem ...
The stone one third scale model of a Sopwith Camel, pictured below, was commissioned by my grandmother Alice Avebury, and was in the family graveyard at High Elms until after my mother died in 1981. The London Borough of Bromley then resumed possession of the site. They transferred some of the monuments into the graveyard of St Giles Church, Farnborough, 100 m up the hill of Churchfields Plantations, but the memorials to Uncle Eric and his brother Uncle Harold, killed in action in the Grenadier Guards April 4, 1918, were not accepted by the then rector. Uncle Eric's aeroplane somehow ...
I have to agree with James Graham and his criticism of Nick Clegg and the delay to speak out on the Hannangate and the Megrahigate. I think Nick Clegg was too slow, he did put out his opinion on both occasions, but they seemed to have gone unnoticed or have been ignored. The problem is Nick Clegg should have spoke straight away, as James points out, with it being silly season Nick Clegg should have used the time to put out the Lib Dem policy on something or another. If he put out some policy on health care after the ...
Steve Bullock decided the next steps on Lewisham Bridge Primary School at the Mayor and Cabinet meeting on 28 August (I couldn't be there because of daytime work commitment, but my colleague Cllr Edgerton was. The conclusion was: - that the pupils should return to Lewisham Bridge School as soon as possible - as it is cheaper then transporting them back and forth everyday. - necessary works to bring the school back in use should start immediately - costs agreed at about £170,000. - the possible extent of the abortive cost is enormous and the final figure is subject to ...
You can find it as Muslim News – here's an excerpt: We in the Liberal Democrats have always championed religious tolerance, and we are proud of the diverse traditions in our country. We recognise the importance of the principle of Zakat to Muslims, especially at this time, and I deeply regret that Islam can be unfairly portrayed in many parts of the media especially when Muslim communities in this country do so much excellent charitable work. The full article is here.
Birkdale Councillor Simon Shaw is a newly appointed member of the Merseyside Police Authority (MPA) and has been working hard with Southport's Lib Dem MP John Pugh to get a fair deal over Police Community Support Officers (PCSO) numbers locally. A month ago the unwelcome news emerged that the number of PCSOs in Sefton is due to be cut from 76 to 58 - a reduction of 18 staff. The reason for this was that Sefton Council has recently stopped paying towards 18 so-called "partner-funded" PCSOs. Sefton Council had received time-limited grant from the Government which paid for them, but ...
I imagine that anyone reading this who grew up in Scotland in the last twenty years or so knows all too well what HEBS is. The Health Education Board for Scotland made some bizzare adverts in my youth, all aimed at getting us to be wonderful and healthy. These adverts always seemed to get new ...
Over at The Guardian's Comment Is Free blog, Lib Dem blogger James Graham has a pop at the Lib Dem leader for squandering the political opportunity presented by a quiet August. Here's an excerpt: Where was Nick Clegg when #welovetheNHS kicked off? He did, in fairness, manage to fire off a single tweet - 24 hours late - but the party made no attempt to use this as an opportunity to carve out its own distinctive agenda on health. Four days after his return to Libya, Clegg did manage to squeeze out a press release about Abdelbaset al-Megrahi but while ...
CONSERVATIVES 43 LABOUR 26 LIB DEMS 17 Poll results from Political Betting. Interesting poll result but the problem is its not bringing any good news for the Lib Dems, I think the 17% is poor for the Lib Dems and they should be aiming for higher and achieving much higher then 17%. The Conservative lead over Labour is one that is going to take a lot of work at Labour HQ to bring to an end; will Labour be able to close the poll gap? Only time will tell...
Hat tip: Liberal Vision No related posts.
I was at Madison Square Gardens when Edward Kennedy delivered his great concession speech at the 1980 Democratic Convention. It was a moment of great theatre which I will always remember - culminating in that great phrase "The dream will never die". His actual campaign for the democratic nomination against a wounded and struggling Jimmy Carter had been rather lacklustre. So the speech conceding defeat was in retrospect almost a catharsis, an outpouring of relief that he no longer had to carry that terrible burden of expectation. I was there on a bit of a "boondoggle" - attending the conventions ...
Not sure if anyone's mentioned this before, but a thought occurred to me that there might be a flaw in the way the Lib Dem Voice Golden Dozen, specifically the seven most popular links, is compiled. Those top seven are based on the seven posts that receive the most click-throughs from the Lib Dem Blogs aggregator, which purportedly reveals the seven most popular Lib Dem blog posts of the week. However, having noticed the sort of posts that get included in those seven, I'm not sure it's an accurate reflection of what's popular. Consider this – as bloggers become more ...
Shelter Cymru has estimated that there are 26,000 empty private homes in Wales, which by anybody's estimation is a huge number. I have several in my community, including one next door to me, that have been lying empty for years. I have never understood why anybody would allow a valuable asset such as a house to lie empty and neglected for so long, irrespective of the moral issues of its potential as a home for a family who can not otherwise afford to get onto the property market. The powers available to local councils are limited. Essentially, they can cajole ...
The council has now received an application for use of the old warehouse on Old Road as a 'martial arts centre and training facility'. As readers might be aware, issues around this building have been rumbling on for some time.At present, the building only has planning permission for use as a storage facility (what's known in planning terms as class B8). The applicants are seeking to change this so that it can officially operate as a facility for their companies Unified Training Consultants and Firefight Combat Simulations. You can view the application and supporting documents on the Council's website. I've ...
Regulars in Wallington town centre will have noticed that a homeless man has taken up residence in Wallington Square. Local police are aware of him and have contacted homeless agencies to offer him assistance. However this man is voluntarily homeless and has refused offers of temporary accommodation and other assistance from those agencies. Unless the ...
[IMG: Kings Norton station] Over recent years much has been made of the potential to reopen the Camp Hill railway line from Birmingham city centre to Kings Norton, via new stations at Moseley, Kings Heath and Hazelwell. I know many Liberal Democrat members in Birmingham and readers of this blog are fans of this project. Well folks, it's now or never. A wide-ranging consultation on rail travel in the West Midlands comes to an end on 11th September. If you've not had your say by then, the opportunity to reopen the Camp Hill line may be lost. To reopen this ...
Wow, just as you think the row over Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi's release on compassionate grounds to go back home to Libya to see out the rest of his live is about to fizzle out - BANG - the Sunday Times releases details of leaked letters between Jack Straw and Kenny MacAskill. The Sunday Times says "The correspondence makes it plain that the key decision to include Megrahi in a deal with Libya to allow prisoners to return home was, in fact, taken in London for British national interests." Jack Straw is trying to brush this away by saying this is ...
2 Big Stories Sunday Times: Lockerbie bomber 'set free for oil' Today's Times has the big story: The British government decided it was "in the overwhelming interests of the United Kingdom" to make Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber, eligible for return to Libya, leaked ministerial letters reveal. Gordon Brown's government made the decision after discussions between Libya and BP over a multi-million-pound oil exploration deal had hit difficulties. These were resolved soon afterwards. The letters were sent two years ago by Jack Straw, the justice secretary, to Kenny MacAskill, his counterpart in Scotland, who has been widely criticised ...
Saturday 22nd August Mark Pack explained why the Taxpayers' Alliance is wrong to oppose public sector experiments. Sunday 23rd August Stephen Glenn asked if LDV readers are headline whores. Monday 24th August Liberal Eye asked what the clear target for those not planning to go to university should be. Tuesday 25th August My Two Penneth explained how she fell in and then out of love with the Labour Party. Wednesday 26th August Jane Watkinson asked how there can possibly be another 12 year delay for Lords reform when Labour have already had 12 years. Thursday 27th August Another excellent post ...
There's a lot of talk at the moment about the need to save money in order to pull the country out of the recession. Much of it centres on how we can save in the public sector (councils, schools, hospitals etc) but there's rarely much detail. Sometimes there's a general "cut the top heavy management" proposal, but no-one suggests which managers.So - Liberal Democrats came up with a rather
Suggestions by Wales on Sunday columnist Matt Withers that Scottish Justice Secretary, Kenny MacAskill, may have been a bit out-of-his-depth in making the decision to release Lockerbie bomber, al-Megrahi can be seen in a new light by the revelation in this morning's Sunday Times, that perhaps the British Government had a bigger involvement in the matter than they or the Scottish Government are prepared to admit. The paper tells us that leaked ministerial letters have revealed that the British government decided it was "in the overwhelming interests of the United Kingdom" to make Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi eligible for return ...
Miss Laura* finally got to the end of her match, started on Friday, yesterday. As I blogged earlier she had taken a lead in the first set before losing it on the tie break and then suffering the rain delay. Yesterday she came out against Miss Eva Hrdinova to a slow start going 3-0 down. But then she showed the promise that has made her being talked about as the next big thing in British Tennis taking ten of the next twelve games, to take the second 6-4 and lead 4-1 in the final set. But the Czech ranked 257 ...
[IMG: Birmingham riots of August 2009] The City Centre Neighbourhood Forum has received a response from West Midlands Police regarding the planned protests from EDL and UAF (English Defence League and Unite Against Fascism) in Birmingham on 5th September. In the response, the Chief Superintendent says, "The ability to protest is a fundamental democratic right and one we are in no position to make any political or moral judgement about." As a Liberal and believer in free speech, I appreciate this statement. But hold on, are we asking the Police to take a political or moral judgement? No! We are ...
Spaces @ Royal College of Surgeons 20:05 (Last show was last night) Vicki Ferentinos is the Lady Bug Warrior, so big is her personality that our paths kept crossing even from a distance for much of this fringe, and I did feel somewhat guilty for not turning up to see her show. However, when Graeme Sharpe put out a call on Twitter for anyone to turn up for her last night I joined him, Adam Sawers and Andrew Gourley of the cast of Slice of Saturday Night. They turned up dressed as a Lady Bug tribute act, much to Vicki's ...
Had an interesting meeting with North London Hospice. I have always been shocked - that end of life care (dying basically) is often left to charities rather than being part of the NHS and properly funded by them. The NHS funds about 30% of North London Hospice - but that clearly leaves a mega-gap to be funded by donations and bequests etc. In this recession their receipts are 30% down - so problems ahead. And when it is our relative dying - we want the best. If they can't die at home - then hospital is not really the right ...
Pleasance Beyond 18:30 Yes Blue Peter's Peter Duncan is on the fringe with his Daft and Dangerous show. He's is doing a self deprecating look back over his whole career from his first nude appearance on the cover of a baby's knitting pattern. It is a real cabaret performance with audience participation. He mixes, humour, song, a Blue Peter make, pantomime, video playbacks and his tightrope skills learnt for playing Barnum. Even seeing as it is a one man show, ok with interaction from his tech guy and pianist, he also uses the screen to interact with Brain Cant and ...
The population of Britain has topped 61 million for the first time and, though it isn't down to immigration, it is apparently still the fault of immigrants. Oh, and single mothers. And, of course, the Government. That's the full and accurate truth from Amanda Platell, writing in the Daily Mail. Even by Daily Mail standards, the article is exceptionally nasty, not helped by Ms Platell's apparent inability to marshall even the simplest of facts to support her case. Ms Platell's charge is that the population boom is being driven by teenage mothers and immigrants having lots of children whilst "the ...
Hello lovelies, welcome to Miss Scarlett's Sunday blog emporium. What we're going to do today is this morning I'll be posting four articles from across the week - and this afternoon we'll have a look at the to-and-fro between Agent Orange and Duncan Borrowman. Ollie Cromwell over at the Red Rag is not impressed with Sarah Teather this week: "Housing benefit should be just that and nothing more. However, under changes implemented by this government in 2008 new housing benefit claimants have been entitled to get up to £15 a week back if they find accommodation at a lower rent ...
It seems that since I stopped reading Conservative Home things have got a little interesting on the site, and a suggestion has come about that Jeremy Clarkson is to fight Sheffield Hallam for the Tories. Looking at the result from the last election, Nick Clegg beat the Conservative candidate by about 8,000 votes. But could that turn with Clarkson as the candidate? Everyone says that you should think positive, but if Clarkson was the Tory candidate then the Lib Dems would really have a massive fight on their hands. The problem is if Clarkson is the candidate, many people who ...
When I wrote about how Brown might have been finished by the release of Megrahi, many people criticised me for not understanding devolution and other bollocks along those lines. But today it seems to have come out in the open, that the decision to release Megrahi was made in London and the Scottish release was a rubber stamping exercise. The release of Megrahi was part of an oil deal according to the report, if true I am amazed by what this government is resorting to in return for a bit of business. What are they going to do next, sell ...
I may have my differences with the Beeb – there is one thing I will defend to the limit and that's the licence fee and the opportunity that it affords this country in maintaining a decent impartial broadcasting service. Mr Murdoch Jr seems to have gone off on one. Woe betide the day we allow them ...
Long time no speak as i have been massively busy with work and other stuff. Some of my more regular readers may have noticed the fake blog that has been set up in my name and links back to this real blog. I would lke to clarify that the other blog is in no way ...
Warrington Wolves were playing Huddersfield Giants in the final of the Challenge Cup and while they were playing I was asked about the differences between rugby union and rugby league. I started by explaining that there were 13 players in a rugby league team and 15 in rugby union. There are two players less in the forwards which means that the scrum in rugby union has 16 players, 8 from each side and in rugby league it is 12. I was then asked if one was professional and one was amateur. Well the answer is both are both. A few ...
