It's been a busy day for Nick... speaking out on the Prime Minister's contortions over the release of Mr Al Megrahi, confirming his intention to accept Sky News's invitation to a televised leaders' debate, as well as launching a new Lib Dem campaign, this one aimed at increasing the pay of the lowest-paid troops by £6,000 a year. Here's the summary of the new proposals: The proposals, which would mean that no service personnel in the Army, Navy or RAF would receive less basic annual pay than a new-entrant police constable or development-level firefighter, would be funded within the MoD's ...
As LDV noted this morning Sky News has decided to lay down the gauntlet, and formally invite the major party leaders to particpate in a televised debate during the general election campaign. Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has formally accepted his invitation, issuing the following statement on his website: Many thanks for your letter of yesterday. It is great to hear that Sky News are taking this important initiative and I would be delighted to accept your invitation. At a time when trust in politics is at an all-time low in the aftermath of the expenses scandal, we must find ...
It would appear that a little while ago the Government commissioned a report into how it could meet the £20bn planned efficiency savings within the NHS. The answer from McKinsey (management consultants) was cut 137,000 jobs within the NHS - many of them frontline. It seems that the McKinsey presentation was made to the Department of Health back in the Spring - and circulated amongst senior NHS Managers under the DoH logo. Now its all come out (oops) and hey-ho government is doing as much as it can to distance itself from the the report suggesting "the review had been ...
Nick Clegg, who has publicly opposed the Scottish executive's decision to release convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Al Megrahi, today responded to the news that Gordon Brown – who has remained silent about the case until today – let it be known to the Libyan authorities via his foreign office ministers that the Prime Minister did not want Mr Al Megrahi to die in prison: The Foreign Secretary has now admitted that the British Government made its position on Megrahi's release clear to the Libyans. "It is now clear that Gordon Brown felt able to share his feelings with a ...
Most of the time, I refer to [IMG: [info - personal] ] matgb as my wife, and he calls me his husband. There is lots of role reversal in our relationship, when it comes to what most people think of as traditional gender roles. He does much of the cooking and cleaning, I go out to work and spend all my time in the pub. I do the DIY and gardening, and he compiles the shopping list. He does a lot of the day-to-day childcare, and I go out climbing trees with Holly. Mostly, we are both very happy with ...
Stockton Council is in the process of deciding whether to ballot tenants of Council owned houses run by Tristar homes on the option of Tristar owning the homes. A simple summary of a hugely complicated issue. What is annoying is the fact that going down the route of transferring all our Council stock is the only way to get investment into housing. For around 15 years a growing proportion of...
[IMG: Telephone exchange cupboard with missing doors] I've recently been reporting a number of telephone exchange cupboards with missing doors (see picture). Not only are they pretty ugly without the doors but it leaves all the wires exposed and presumably vulnerable to damage. This prompts the question as to why do the doors go missing in the first place? One suggestion is that people could be stealing the doors to sell as scrap metal. This seems ridiculous – but you do read about high metal prices causing these kinds of thefts. This box on Ossian Road near Ferme Park Road ...
I was only going to linkblog today, but I'm going to have to push on with these... I've said for a while that were this series of posts ever to be complete, it would actually take the form of two full books – one non-fiction series of essays, and one gigantic fanfic epic crossover novel. ...
On BBC East tonight regarding swine flu "Locally 70,000 people are believed to have Swine Flu" What ? So nationally last week there were 5,000 new cases but according to the local BBC (the same BBC who thought the Greens would do well in Norwich North and excluded UKIP from the televised debate) there are 70,000 in the East alone. That means that fourteen times as many people have swine flu in East Anglia than there are cases in the whole country at the moment ! Then again, it could be worse. On Radio Norwich, a local radio station which ...
The Teesside Development Corporation (TDC) set up by the last Tory Government should be hanging its head in shame if not abolished. I went round the Teesdale estate today with John for a job been waiting to be done for ages, plotting on a map where dropped kerbs were needed. I found out how bad it was at the end of the mayor's walk last year when in a mobility scooter and not able to get round...
A big story is breaking right now. Paul Waugh has the initial details. Apparently the government has commissioned "blue skies" reports on how to cut costs and one on the NHS from McKinsey and Co has leaked. Already there are accusations flying around and the government seems to be trying to spin that the report's author worked as an adviser for the Tories. Conservative HQ is denying it. Guido has done one of his +++++++++++++++++ blog posts on the story and has indicated there will be more later. Now I don't know what is going to come out about this ...
I can't help noticing a common theme in many of the big planning issues in Westminster right now. The Chelsea Barracks site, St John's Wood Barracks, 'Noho' and now Luxborough Street – all precious pieces of real estate where essentially there's a battle between the interests of developers (often with the support of Westminster City ...
The canal tunnel at Husbands Bosworth lies on the long summit level of the Leicester Section of the Grand Union. It is unusual in that the path that the horses took over the hill while men legged boats through can still be followed. I walked it on Saturday and took this shot of a cabin cruiser entering the tunnel's western portal.
Here's a video on Youtube showing John Cleese doing a Party Political for the old SDP/Liberal Alliance. It's very entertaining, but the explicit appeal to 'the best solution' being a compromise between two extremes is pure fallacy. It's not true. Sure it feels true, but it's not. Sorry. On a policy by policy basis, a compromise could be the best solution, depending on the policy - but not because it's a compromise between two extremes. It just happens to be good. The extremism of the Labour Party of the day was wrong not because it was extremism, but because it ...
Just before Gmail took an hours nap last night I managed to send this off to Lib Dem Voice and it was posted during the debate at Holyrood earlier. "The Megrahi case has ripped apart the peace of the Scottish Parliamentary recess, with even some former Lib Dem leaders taking a differing view to our leader in Holyrood. Today the UK Government and Scottish Parliament have released papers relating to the discussions that have gone one over the last two years. It ranges from correspondence between Westminster and Holyrood, to memos of meetings with Libyan officials, to the compassionate release ...
Thanks to those nice people at Wikio for giving Liberal England an exclusive preview of the Wikio rankings for September. These are the all categories for all blogs, not just political ones. Having emphasised that, however, I find that political blogs still dominate this list. In fact two prominent technology blogs Boing Boing and Engadget (nos. 3 and 4 last month) have dropped out altogether. I hate to suggest this list is flawed, but... (Later. A commenter suggests they are US blogs and should not have been there in the first place.) Notable rises among the political blogs come from ...
The Stroud Green Road potholes (northern division) may now be a blessed memory, but what of those near the southern end of the road, near Morris Place? They were patched and reappeared several times before it was decided that the real problem was a water leak under the road, which (sensibly) should be fixed first. But that water leak has proved very difficult to track down. The latest news is that there is a much wider problem than just the one leak near the junction with Morris Place. As Islington Council told me in an email: The details are that ...
An interesting insight into the US Health reform debate from Political Wire: American voters are not the only ones confused about health care reform. On MSNBC, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) tried to explain to CNBC anchor Maria Bartiromo that there already is government-managed health care in the United States -- the Medicare system created for Americans 65 years and older. He claimed patients using it are very satisfied. Said Bartiromo: "How come you don't use it? You don't have it. How come you don't have it?" Weiner: "Because I'm not 65." Bartiromo: "Yeah... c'mon!" Here's the must-see clip:
I wrote last week that there were a number of blogs by Conservative Councillors for Wallasey which were quite good, unfortunately I feel the same cannot be said for Bill Duffy's Blog, the latest blog by the Conservative Councillor for New Brighton is a prime example of historical bias and confused thinking. Councillor Duffy is of course ...
It's Liberal Drinks tomorrow - how quickly it comes around! LOL - and you can invite yourself on Facebook or Flock Together. Do feel free to come and worship at the feet of the all-conquering [IMG: [info - personal] ] awesomegore, who has already confirmed she will be coming... This blog is proudly sponsored by
Students are currently preparing to head to University for the first time or heading back, I've recently been living through some of their travails, some more closely than others. It is good to see that Katy Gordon, PPC for Glasgow North has been meeting with and listening to students in Glasgow about the issue of housing. In fact I've been doing the same thing on the same issue because it is a big one. She is also campaigning to introduce a National Tenancy Deposit Scheme, an issue that has been raised by Mike Pringle in Holyrood. This is scheme whereby ...
So today I have planted out my scented geraniums (the attar of roses one is amazingly lovely), been to B&Q for supplies (hurrah for Dulux Tailormade paint!), and I have sorted Holly's stuff out for her return to school tomorrow, and I have borrowed a ladder off Ian so I can do the outdoors stuff that needs doing, and just as we got back with the ladder from Ian's it started raining. No cleaning the gutters and painting the windows for me then. So, instead I have done some tweaking and tidying in my sidebar, and played with the layouts ...
While I have been at work the Liberal Democrat blogosphere has gone collectively bananas over the prospect of a televised debate between the party leaders during the next general election campaign. I disagree. I think such a debate or debates could well be bad news for the Liberal Democrats. Here's why. The arrangements under which the party gets close to equal treatment with the two main parties during election campaigns were hard won. If Sky TV is allowed to tear them up (if there is more than one debate, will Nick Clegg be invited to all of them?) we are ...
Politics Home reports that according to it's data Parliament's standing has returned to the level it stood at prior to the expenses scandal; "For the first time since the revelations on MPs' expenses claims, parliament's approval rating has returned to the level that it was prior to the scandal, while the importance attached to corruption as ...
Was the writing on the wall when Irfan Ahmed withdrew himself from the Lib Dem Voice Blog of the year awards. He was happy to take plaudits only the month before from all and sundry in the Total Politics Blog Poll, which people are more prone to withdraw from but not from the party whose allegiance he wore on his blog. Well today he withdrew from the Lib Dem Blogs Aggregator and posted the following. As one of the veterans from the early day of Lib Dem blogs the only people to have gone off the aggregator since it started ...
Much to my joy, I've just been chosen to be one of the first people to test out the new Stagecoach Smart card for Cambridgeshire. I get all my travel this week for free and for the next four weeks at half price. As County Officer and a non-driver, this is a real boon, but I will also take advantage of it as an opportunity to try out some of the routes I don't normally use, but about which I've had a number of complaints. Tomorrow, I shall take the Citi 4, recently extended to St Neots, over to see ...
The reduction in VAT from 17.5% to 15% quickly condemned and rightly so, by Vince Cable, as expensive and ineffective is one of this government's more costly errors. The one year only cut will cost us the incredible sum of £12.5 billion pounds and has done little to stimulate consumer spending, simply because despite the enormous cost it still seems so meaningless at the till. Indeed, it may will come with a sting in the tail, as when it comes to an end and VAT goes back to 17.5% it will come with a sharp inflationary jolt which may well ...
"Assumption number one was that if a trial were managed correctly, a medication would perform as well or badly in a Phoenix hospital as in a Bangalore clinic. Potter discovered, however, that geographic location alone could determine whether a drug bested placebo or crossed the futility boundary. By the late '90s, for example, the classic antianxiety drug diazepam (also known as Valium) was still beating placebo in France and Belgium. But when the drug was tested in the US, it was likely to fail. Conversely, Prozac performed better in America than it did in western Europe and South Africa." Although ...
[IMG: soldier] Hot on the heels of his call to cut waste in the public sector, Nick Clegg reckons he can find the cash for a £6,000 pay hike for junior military personnel by getting rid of 10,000 MoD desk jobs (I don't know if the calculations assume these paper-pushers would claim welfare benefit or whether they would immediately find alternative gainful employment). The argument goes that privates in the line of duty should expect a salary on a par with junior cops and firemen. And (putting aside the argument that these guys shouldn't be out there anyway) £17 grand ...
So, our Parliament gathers to scrutinise one of the biggest decisions ever taken by a Scottish Minister. Yes, the mood is going to be tense, but you would expect an air of industry, of gravity. You expect the contributions to be full of detailed analysis and careful consideration. You would think that everyone would absolutely be on their best behaviour, knowing that the rest of the UK and potentially America is watching. This is a Parliament that usually produces some quality when the chips are down. In its ten years it's done some great work to pass some great legislation, ...
Three cheers for Sky TV! At last - a broadcaster has the cojones to try and force a leadership debate. The nation demands. Sky will deliver. Nick Clegg and David Cameron have accepted the gauntlet laid down by Sky - but guess who's late to the party? Now he's damned if he does - but probably more damned if he doesn't. Gordon's nightmare just got worse - and no - he can't send Mandy in his place. I remember threatening, when I was Chair of Transport at the London Assembly and South West Trains would not turn up to an ...
It's impossible not to feel a little schadenfreude at the news that the BNP will have to pay the costs of today's adjourned hearing into their discriminatory membership rules. Coming on the back of their prosecution for non-reporting of donations (having previously been fined for the late submission of accounts), that's a little less money to spew their ...
I have been known to gamble from time to time, with betting sites often appearing in my internet history. Some betting sites also offer markets on politics. I've been waiting for the First Minister to appear for some time now, but with there 'not being a contest' it has been late in doing so. But Ladbrokes have now set their odds for the coming race, and they make for some interesting reading. And which horse comes up as the front runner? The journalists and the bookies seem to agree, it's Carwyn Jones. But what is also noteworthy is the odds ...
Wednesday: A pay rise, obviously. Well, no, let's not be frivolous when there are good people genuinely putting their lives on the line for what we can at least HOPE is a good cause in Afghanistan. But what this SHOULD show is an insight on New Liberal Democrat thinking: the idea being we can spend FAIRER and SMARTER without spending MORE. So here we make a new spending commitment that will be more FAIR than what Hard Labour are paying our troops, but we ALSO say where we will cut spending so that we don't increase the burden of debt. ...
If you hadn't noticed (and I'd be surprised if you hadn't), I've been out of the country for the last week and my blogging had been done in advance using scheduled posts (which accounts for their lack of topical issues). I take the view regarding holidays that you have top have something for people to read as lots of people do like to check in to their regular blogs on a daily basis. But I also don't tell people (except family and neighbours) that I am going away. When I was a councillor I was always surprised that in the ...
Mike Ion posted a rather extraordinary piece on LabourList yesterday entitled: "For many middle class bloggers and journalists, voting against Labour is a luxury they can indulge". It seems that he feels voting for Labour is some sort of duty to the poor and we are being selfish if we are not poor and yet refuse to fall in line. Oh, the sophistry! I should probably declare an interest before I start. I am a middle class blogger and I intend to indulge the luxury of voting against Labour. Right, fisk time: Reading various blogs, websites and newspapers over the ...
The news that we may now well see a televised leaders debate in the run up to the general election is excellent. Too often on the campaign trail and when generally meeting people I think we all hear complaints from people that they don't know what the parties stand for. To me there is great ...
Let's be clear about one thing; no matter which party voices it's pique at the Al-Megrahi release you can bet a dime to a dollar that any political party would have taken exactly the same decision. David Cameron is making a great deal of noise but at this time we should never forget that the ...
At the weekend, I saw a presentation of the June polling findings from the British Election Study. The BES is a collaborative academic exercise run before and at each general election. It is designed to gather some of the key raw material about the public's opinions which will then be available to anyone who subsequently pours over the election, trying to explain why it turned out as it did. The June results including some striking figures on the public's reaction to the MPs' expenses scandal: Have you heard reports and MPs' expenses? Yes: 95% Do you think the scandal proves ...
[IMG: Edgbaston Reservoir lodge] Last month I said I would start posting up some interesting walks around Ladywood. This weekend I went for a morning stroll around the nearby Edgbaston Reservoir. Built in 1827, the 70 acre site is a popular spot for birds, animals, sailing, rowing, jogging and dog-walking. It's a 1.75 mile walk around the water and some of the sights include: - Perrott's Folly (perfect for Tolkien fans!) - The Tower Ballroom - Midland Sailing Club - Birmingham Rowing Club - Sea Cadets - Birmingham Buddhist Vihara You can start the walk from the Tower Ballroom car ...
The SNP Government brought in its new licensing laws yesterday, the net result is that several licensed premises have been forced to either shut, or open illegally across the country. One of the worst hits areas was North Lanarkshire where 25 premises were forced to shut. Some of those affected have said that their renewal claims were in before the 28 February cut off under which the licensing board, within 182 days, is legally obliged to consider an application. The fact that some of these have merely been told to remain shut until further notice after 6 months of consideration ...
This week it has been reported that British teenagers, especially girls, have the highest rates of drunkenness and pregnancy in any of the OECD countries and people are asking each other why. This is not "Liberal Party Policy" but it is what I think about the problem and small steps taken in Keighley to put things right: Pregnancy rates are higher because of drunkenness rates being higher. Drunkenness rates are higher because of lack of self respect. Self respect is lower because of lack of discipline. Discipline is worse than it used to be because parents do not spend enough ...
Oh dear, having a clue about "Technical Stuff" in Political, and especially parliamentary, circles is marginally rarer than hen's teeth. Vince Cable has said that Patents should be enforced by the police (link to el reg) and infringement made a c... Read and post comments | Send to a friend
The New Zealand Herald has the story: An Auckland accountant was sacked for sending "confrontational" emails with words in red, in bold and in capital letters. Vicki Walker, who was a financial controller with ProCare Health, has been awarded $17,000 for unfair dismissal, and plans to lodge an appeal for further compensation... ProCare [said] Walker - who was fired in December 2007 after two years of employment - had caused disharmony in the workplace by using block capitals, bold typeface and red text in her emails... The email, which advises her team how to fill out staff claim forms, specifies ...
If you want to impress your friends with a nifty, easy to conduct experiment, you're going to need a normal incandescent bulb ('a bulb' as old people would say), a compact florescent bulb and a CD. Hold the CD near the normal bulb and look at the colour spectrum - you can see the full rainbow, dancing across the surface. Then repeat over the CFL. What you see is a three distinct bands of colour - red, green and blue. It's a nice party trick and spreads lots of FUD about the blasted things. The next experiment is a bit ...
Nick Clegg today launched a new Liberal Democrat pledge to put service personnel and their welfare at the heart of our defence policy. Many soldiers fighting on the front line are on salaries lower than those of trainee police and fire fighters, 13'000 members of the armed forces take home less than £17'000 each year. Under labour our lions are being paid peanuts. Our servicemen are being sent to fight in treacherous conditions in Afghanistan while living close to the poverty line. IT IS TIME TO STOP SHORT CHANGING OUR TROOPS. That is why, if elected, the Liberal Democrats would ...
Sky News has started a campaign for a leadership debate come the General Election. Something never before done on UK TV. Cameron jumped right in and said yes. Why wouldn't he? He comes over quite well on TV and certainly belies (I think) what most of the Tory parliamentary party are like. I think, because even though he tries to act like he's not, he really is awfully posh and he needs to take care that he doesn't come across as too pompous. Nick, agreed on Sky News Sunrise programme this morning that he would. Again, why not - Nick ...
This morning I woke up to Radio 1's Newsbeat informing me that Blue Square Premier football club Luton Town had been forced to abandon their game against York City on September 19th as police announced they would be needed to keep the peace at a anti-Islamic extremist demonstration in the town on the same day, as the local force cannot provide a large enough police presence at both events. The demonstration has been organised by the English Defence League, the same group that had a demonstration in Birmingham earlier this year which ended in violence and arrests. The event will ...
Here's something I haven't done for a while - taken a look at the Petition the PM website. I went there to sign the Apologise to Alan Turing petition, and while I was there, as is my wont, I took a look at the "ending soon" page to see what there was I could point and laugh at. For example:Stop Other People using MY swimming pool!!!We want to go 'back' to a fictitious Pleasantville way of lifeBan the publication of asking prices for houses because this will solve ALL our economic woes.Of course, I also noticed a couple that were ...
In a very well thought out article, Melissa Benn talks about a key issue I have discussed several times before, that being divisive education institutions that foster selectivity. There are still certain grammar schools in certain counties that still use the 11 plus, such as Lincolnshire. Furthermore, independent schools model their entry requirement exams on the 11 plus. Therefore, the 11 plus still fosters the selective attitudes that the public schooling sector has, which breaded like a rabbit when the tripartite system was introduced. What Benn rightly argues for is for the parties to stop just talking about how selective ...
The Megrahi case has ripped apart the peace of the Scottish Parliamentary recess, with even some former Lib Dem leaders taking a differing view to our leader in Holyrood. Today the UK Government and Scottish Parliament have released papers relating to the discussions that have gone one over the last two years. It ranges from correspondence between Westminster and Holyrood, to memos of meetings with Libyan officials, to the compassionate release request listing medical conditions. These start chronologically with the first letter from then-Lord Chnacellor Lord (Charles) Falconer to Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond outlining the Memorandum of Understanding that ...
Excellent comment from Nickers on the al Megrahi case where Nickers focuses on the process rather than the 'did he, didn't he?' question. This is wise and must obviously be reassuring to the families involved. I remain deeply cynical about the whole thing and convinced that al Megrahi is just a stooge masking the real cuplrits but it is good to see our Beloved Leader playing with a straight bat, as he is required to do. Nice one, Nickers.
At last a report that tells us why we need to act over the 'Cultural Centre' There has been much controvesy in the press about the council's actions. Few have realised what a dire state the building is in or the impact of doing nothing. So to keep people up to date please read this report. The detail is a little buried sometimes but it is there. It is time to act and save our Library, art gallery and Arts Centre.
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 ...
Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg today launched plans to increase the pay of the lowest-paid troops by £6,000 a year. The proposals, which would mean that no service personnel in the Army, Navy or RAF would receive less basic annual pay than a new-entrant police constable or development-level firefighter, would be funded within the MoD's existing budget. Key points include: The lowest paid personnel would receive an increase of £6000 - placing them on £22,680 and an equal footing with a development-level firefighter or new-entrant police constable Privates and lance corporals would receive an average annual pay increase of over ...
...because I want to keep it to myself. I have just spent a glorious week in the county of Nelson - according to the signs - with trips to Southwold in Suffolk included. We left Oxfordshire having packed jumpers, coats and wellies and arrived in Norfolk peeling off the layers as the temperature had increased by about 10 degrees in between. We then spent a fantastic week doing everything you are supposed to do: we ate chips, we played on the beaches - Dad tried to stop the tide but, Canute-like, let it wash over his defences, we swam in ...
So the Oxford University Conservative Association has been asked by the university to remove its name from their club. There really is little else to say but ha ha ha ha ha ha ad nauseam. Why don't voters look at news like this and then at Dave and see what should be obvious - that the Tories haven't changed and that we could be heading for a car crash in eight months' time due to Gordon Brown's incompetent government, which could allow them back in with all their hideous prejudices and lack of principle?!
Courtesy of the LibDems4Parliament website, here is the list of PPC selections closing this month: Surrey Heath (03 Sep 2009) Derbyshire Dales, Kettering, Loughborough, Gedling, Mansfield, South Leicestershire (04 Sep 2009) Hertsmere (05 Sep 2009) Rushcliffe (21 Sep 2009) For further details on how you could become the Liberal Democrat prospective candidate in any of these constituencies see http://libdems4parliament.org.uk/events
So, a question for my fellow bloggers – Lib Dem and otherwise – that arises from my time as a Councillor: how common are Have Your Say policies in councils? If you don't know what I'm talking about, let me explain. Here in Colchester, one of the first items on the agenda of all public Council meetings is Have Your Say, where any member of the public can come along and speak for up to three minutes on whatever they want, though it's usually a statement and/or question on a current issue. As well as the general Have Your Say ...
Health & Well Being Scrutiny Committee The main items on this agenda were a presentation by Sutton LINK about the work this organisation does and how they work with the Health & Well Being Scrutiny Committee; scrutiny of particular mental health services; and scrutiny of the management of long term conditions. The Mental Health scrutiny item was ...
The media yesterday seemed rather surprised that the UK's level of personal debt fell last month and for the first time since records began in 1993, more mortgage cash was returned by borrowers to lenders than the lenders lent out.Think back to the early 1990s. Reducing personal debt was then, if not an obsession with people, then at least an aim. Over indebtedness was a millstone around the neck
Political comment is all-a-twitter this morning with the news that David Cameron has accepted the Sky News request to appear in a pre-general election TV debate with Gordon Brown and Nick Clegg. The Times says that David Frost will chair the debates and that discussions around the issue are ongoing over the summer with Clegg ...
Now that Sky have thrown down the gauntlet on GE debates the BBC need to keep up. Perhaps they can announce they'll be staging the four-party Scottish/Welsh debates? Or perhaps the Treasury debate?
I've always wondered why the media don't call the bluff of party leaders when it comes to holding leaders debate at general election time. Many in the media regularly and sincerely go on the record about believing such debates would be good for democracy, but in the past they've always held back from the idea that a debate could go ahead without all the relevant party leaders first agreeing. That's a view that has puzzled me because – particularly since the law was changed a few years ago – there are pretty strong legal grounds for being able to hold ...
The Welsh Liberal Democrat spokesman on the environment and sustainability, Mick Bates has called on the government to harness the power of the Severn estuary to prevent millions of families being plunged into darkness through a lack of electricity. He was alluding to the UK Government's own figures, which predict that energy demand will exceed supply from the national grid within eight years, leaving the country facing the prospect of widespread power cuts for the first time since the 1970s. The Montgomeryshire AM said: "For too long the Government has been complacent and dithered and delayed over action into research ...
Last night Lisa was the latest evicted on the tenth series of Big Brother, I had thought she would get to the final.
Double the normal number of babies have been born with spina bifida in Scotland since January, triggering some alarm. Spina bifida is an exceptionally nasty condition where the brain and spine fail to develop properly in the first weeks after conception. The expert advice is that all women of childbearing age should take folic acid supplements as a matter of course. My aim here is not to tell anyone what to do. I'm not a doctor and you really shouldn't be making medical decisions based on some blog you've found on the Internet. But if you'd like to take a ...
I think Sky News have made an excellent move with their decision to broadcast a leaders' debate ahead of the next general election. John Ryler, head of Sky News in The Times today explains the way they will approach this which seems very fair including involving an outside body such as the Hansard Society or The Electoral Commission to oversse it and also to make the unedited feed available to other broadcasters. He ends by saying: The decision for the politicians is simple: fill them (the chairs) or leave them empty. I give this guarantee: the cameras will be rolling ...
The Institute for Fiscal Studies has argued that abolishing Child Trust funds would save the UK Government about £500 million a year and could be "one of the less unattractive options" when decisions about spending cuts are made. Carl Emmerson, deputy director of the IFS, said that, with around 800,000 children born each year, abolishing the funds would make a "small but not insignificant" contribution to the £26 billion public spending cuts estimated to be needed by 2013/2014. The Liberal Democrats have always opposed this scheme as an effective bribe that will have little impact on outcomes for children and ...
Having noted the statistic, what did happen to the missing seventeen? Starting at the top... 10. Liberal Burblings - actually, Paul Walter goes from strength to strength, as he has already pointed out. Having actually opted out of all awards and lists, it should be noted that he's actually pretty good. 12. Because Baronesses are People Too... - sadly, my other half's blog fell foul of the tendancy of others to fail to realise that blogging, and responding to bloggers, is not the be all and end all of everyone's life. 17. Schneider Home - James last blogged on 28 ...
So in the end the al-Megrahi affair boils down to the UK Government exercising power without responsibility. The Prime Minister did not want the Lockerbie bomber to die in prison but he did not have to make that decision. Instead, Labour have let a naive SNP government take the fall for UK diplomatic manoeuvrings. Yes, the decision was devolved but there were clear foreign policy implications that could not be ignored and were clearly beyond the competence of Scottish ministers. By remaining silent publicly and giving the nod and a wink privately, the Prime Minister and his government were effective ...
A while ago I linked to the website of Phipps NBC, who are reviving what used to be a prominent Northamptonshire brewer. I got rather excited when I found the above sign in Husbands Bosworth on Saturday, thinking I had found a survival they might not know about. But when I checked their Survivors page I found they already have a picture of it. According to the Husbands Bosworth village trail leaflet, this building used to be the Graziers Arms.
Well, that's it. August is over, nights are drawing in, it's downhill to Christmas, and LDV's daily 2×2 slot that's more-or-less been on hold over the summer returns to its more-or-less 8am schedule to bring you two top news stories and two must-read blog posts from the world of Lib Demmery. With just 120 days till the end of the year, 2nd September is the day the Great Fire of London broke out in 1666, the day Thomas Telford died in 1834, and Salma Hayek's birthday. Happy birthday, Miss Hayek! Two top stories PM's role in release of Megrahi Gordon ...
The FT reports on the OECD's recent report that the right time to spend money on children is EARLY. Depressingly for the UK: The UK spends £10,000 more than the OECD average of £80,000 on each child from birth to 18. But in a table that constructs an overall measure of child well-being for 21 countries, the UK comes bottom alongside the US. The Netherlands and Sweden are at the top The good news is that the UK "stands out as increasing early investment in recent years". This was a major justification for Tony Blair's excellent policy of imposing (deferred, ...
Yes news is emerging that talks about a Prime Ministerial televised debate with the man who interviewed Richard Nixon, Sir David Frost emerging as a favourite to host such an event. Sir David of course is a respected political commentator on both sides of the Atlantic, having come a long way from the political satire that made his name in the sixties with That Was the Week That Was. He is being touted by advisers of the three main party leaders as a respected and neutral host that would be needed to host and chair such a debate. TW3 ironically ...
As promised/threatened, today I'm going to briefly return to the environment because of a subject I've had a little personal experience with. Businesses are not very good at recycling. Why should this be, I wonder? Business are, after all, made up of individuals, most of whom probably recycle at home. There isn't anything magical about business ...
Graham Watson MEP has hit out at both Westminster and Whitehall pretending MEPs do not exist. MEPs are not being included in the so-called "Grand Committees" for each of the English Regions, despite being the only representatives elected on a region-wide basis. Also, government departments appear to be refusing to co-operate with MEPs assisting constituents. The first issue strike ...
Turn your brain off, because there's no art here, precious little story, some really bad effects (and some really good ones, which make the bad ones even worse), so-so acting. That sounds exactly like a review of Starship Troopers doesn't it. I loved starship Troopers. And I loved Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus too. In amongst all the cinematic gourmet meals on my DVD shelves, this is a gigantic burger with loads of gherkins, and both ketchup and mustard. And I don't care that it's bad for me.Update: 2 Sep 2009: it has been brought to my attention that I ...
The media, including the BBC, has clearly decided that Megrahi should not have been released. For the record, I disagree, and while my opinion has motivated this headblurt, the rights and wrongs of the decision are not what this is about. I want the media to hold all politicians to account and give all opinions a fair fight. I have found the media to be severely lacking in the debate over the
OK. I'll admit it. I am completely torn on this one, and I'm sure I'll not be the only one who is. That a child should ideally have loving parent's — of any sex, gender, number and combination thereof — is a given, to my mind, but by the same token I'd always believed that a "Birth Certificate" had some relationship to genes and the source of the DNA that goes to make that child. Unless the eggs of both parents are put into a petri dish (or turkey baster!) and mixed around so that it isn't known who did ...
When the Conservatives won the Lancashire County Council elections in June, I have to admit that I was sceptical about their claims to freeze council tax. My reservations were based on the need to increase taxation in line with inflation just to stand still. If you want to freeze tax you have to make cuts at least by the rate of inflation and there were no details about where the cuts were coming from. Well now we hear that some vacant posts are not being filled. That is a start to balancing the books but I am not sure if ...
I found this web page on http://www.premierleague.com/ which lists which games will be shown live on ESPN and Sky Sports.
