Since I haven't done this for a while (and have been shamefully bad at blogging - see how far I have dropped in the Wikio willy-waving contest! Woe!) I'm not going to compare my figures until next week. This week's headline figures, then:470 absolute unique visitors916 visitsBusiest day: TuesdayMost-clicked-through-to entry: The Blood is the Life for Sept 1st, 159 pageviews( more Google Analytics statporn under here ) That eBay total is not looking good. Will have to list some more stuff. So far I can pay for a room for 1.5 nights at conference, if we don't eat. Looks like ...
You'll now find my blog here.
Seems that the search is on for a new colour for the Liberal Youth logo. To be honest, I can't even believe that we would consider red or blue! In my opinion we should be much more closely aligned with the party and for this reason I firmly believe we should chose the yellow branding.
Yes, I'm back from my holiday and didn't evolve any gills to deal with the regular deluges that covered Cumbria during my time there. It seems that, in my absence, I was somehow voted the 73rd best Lib Dem blog, which isn't bad considering that for most of the year it covered, one post per month felt like a ridiculously high level of output. Anyway, automatic posts are now over, we're back to fresh drivel delivered to you with no delay. Some interesting comments while I was away, which I will respond to tomorrow.
Reading: "Google Crunch Time | Nick Harkaway" ( http://bit.ly/v3qoF )
Sun 6th
22:31
Can You Rewrite History, Even One Line? Doctor Who, The Web Of Time, And A Response To Millennium (H...
ratifyingly , the response to my Hyperpost series has not been people saying "Shut up, you incredibly tedious little man", but instead some people who I admire greatly as writers have been using it as a springboard for their own ideas – and have done so so well I've extended the series by two posts ...
Yet another video for you. Here's a short song I wrote today about travelling on the London Underground. Not Safe For Work if your workplace doesn't like a bit of swearing.
I can recall being asked which bands I liked by someone much older when I was 14 and being congratulated for mentioning 10cc. Back in 1974 the singles charts, which were all I had access to, were pretty uninspiring. So 10cc stood out for their tunes and literate lyrics. Looking back this is not such a surprise because the band's members had all been around in the great days of the 1960s. (1974 sounds very close to the sixties now: to me then it felt a world away). Eric Stewart had been one of Wayne Fontana's Mindbenders and Graham Gouldman ...
Odd... I posted this yesterday, but it disappeared. Here it is again. Working on the first of the posts mentioned below now... I've had to take a few days off the hyperblogging, as some of you have probably noticed, because it's been a tough week at work and my brain's not been up to it. But ...
After a 48 hour whistlestop tour which included the 10:10 Launch at the Tate Modern and Climate Camp on Blackheath, I ended up at a demonstration outside Ealing Town Hall where a planning application was being heard for a power station to be run on rape seed oil. That's nuts. In Camden we've been running municipal vehicles on biogas made from food waste. That makes sense. But it's crazy to use fossil fuel-based fertilisers and herbicides to grow rape seed to burn in power stations. It means more CO2 and worse air quality than using natural gas. And it's land ...
St Mary's Field Picnic Jane St John, who heads up the Friends of St Mary's Field, invited me to a picnic celebrating the installation of the new play equipment and picnic tables at the park. The Friends were set up to campaign to reinstall the playground equipment which had been removed in previous years due to ...
Janet suggested this for the blog - not heard it in a long time, but really good. Pity Helen Reddy has pretty much retired from performing - she's superb.
According to The Observer, Dagenham MP Jon Cruddas will give a blistering speech to the Labour pressure group Compass on Tuesday, castigating the Labour leadership for failing to capitalise on the Conservatives' difficulties over the summer. Remember Daniel Hannan MEP's rubbishing of the NHS? And the Tories' leaving the biggest grouping in the European Parliament, the ...
Sefton council is again part of a news story about social care and children. This story raises important issues of principle. Here is the story as it impacts on Sefton. The full article can be found here. Question a doctor and lose your child By Daniel Foggo, Sunday Times, 6 September 2009 PARENTS are being threatened with having their children taken into care after questioning doctors' diagnoses or objecting to their medical care. John Hemming, a Liberal Democrat MP, who campaigns to stop injustices in the family court, said: "Very often care proceedings are used as retaliation by local authorities ...
I have not blogged on the whole prisoner release and Libya before, but there are few things I want to get off my chest. My view is that Al Megrahi was not guilty of the bombing, planning it or anything else to do with the bombing. The truth is that he was convicted on the basis of evidence from dodgy sources who were incentivised by the US to give evidence that would frame Libya in order to justify the US stance towards that country since the early 1980s. I don't doubt Libya was guilty of a lot of nasty things ...
The whole tone of Iain Duncan Smith's article around the supposed 'dysfunctional' underclass is wrong and shows him up for what he is: a classical hard nosed Tory. As I have said before, the underclass as a concept is flawed and unsupported. Once again the Tories take an extreme example of horrific, immoral criminal behaviour, by two Doncaster brothers, aged 10 and 11, and say that this is a typical practice that occurs around the country, in our 'broken society'. This is simply not true, and to make out that there are millions of children out there doing the things ...
Much as England's ladies cricket team is a considerably better team than the male equivalent, England Ladies football team appear to be doing the same. This evening England Ladies beat The Netherlands 2-1 after extra time to get through to the final of the Euro Championships. Just one match now from being the top team in Europe ! It is a shame these games are hidden away Eurosport and are not being shown on any terrestrial broadcast channels. It seems very odd given that Eurosport is in part owned by Eurovision of which the BBC is a shareholder and funding ...
With Conference now on the horizon, I am putting together the pre-Conference edition of Parliamentary Campaigner. Lib Dem candidates should receive it within a few days. I have included some ideas on the innovations page about how to communicate with people back in the constituency whilst in Bournemouth.One of the ideas I am suggesting is a daily email newsletter to local members. But that brings
Labour replied by way of Go Fourth and now the Lib Dems have.
As we move into the party conference season, and a major conference hosted by my new employer, blogging will be lighter than normal. And it isn't that heavy normally I know. I will try and seek in some posts on the conferences if I can but if not normal service will resume in October!
Tomorrow, a new Doctor Who DVD goes on sale. The Twin Dilemma is Colin Baker's first story as the Doctor, and he's terrific in it. As for everything else - well, its reputation is less terrific. When, in a week and a half, DWM reveals the results of their vote on "all 200" Doctor Who television stories, I confidently expect this to be near the bottom of the poll. Can neither Maurice Denham, Kevin R McNally nor a villain that's a cheap Jabba the Hut knock-off save this 1984 B-Movie adventure? In a word, no. But it isn't all bad... ...
Earlier today I doubted whether the copy of the Nigerian constitution I was reading really meant to talk about a 'Cod of Conduct'. Well, after extensive research (aka flicking my tail at the Google search box and reading the first few results) it turns out that, in Microsoft land at least, there is a Cod of Conduct. A very handsome looking fish too. Quite tasty too I suspect. Especially with breadcrumbs... Related posts:Amusingly convoluted extract from the Nigerian constitution Number 1 in a series of 1: The headquarters of...Are Microsoft photoshopping out black faces in Poland? The evidence looks pretty ...
According to the BBC it is seriously being considered that the BNP will be allowed a representative on Question Time; "The BBC's chief political adviser, Ric Bailey, said the BNP had now "demonstrated evidence of electoral support at a national level." He said this would be "reflected" in the amount of coverage the party received on BBC ...
A developer has applied for planning permission to build 26 flats to the rear of Pitfold Close. This would be acheived by demolishing two existing houses on the Close to create an access road through to some land to the rear of the close that's actually in London Borough of Greenwich. I've set up a short-link to the plans at www.tinyurl.com/pitfoldclose I've been talking to residents since we first became aware that an application was likely back in July. The application's now gone in and I met again with residents on the Close last weekend. There's a lot of concern ...
The Scotland on Sunday has the screaming headline "Scots facing tax hike and £1.5billion cuts" with a sub headline of "Leak reveals top civil servants' plans". The story comes from a leaked set of minutes. So, we now find out that civil servants and the SNP are looking at cuts, in fact even showing that blanket cuts across the board, which would save £1.5billion, would be only part of the solution. It is showing that the SNP government are likely to consider increasing Business Rates and even Council Tax - that would be a pledge broken if they do. I ...
For the third time in three months violence erupted in Birmingham City Centre as a result of the English Defence League protests. The demonstrations, supposedly against "islamic fundamentalism" have instigated counter-demonstrations from Unite Against Fascism. On each occasion the "protests" have attracted both Islamophobes and young Asian lads, with both groups seemingly intent on causing trouble under the banner of free speech. Yesterday members of the EDL were bussed in from around the country. As I blogged about here and here, leading Liberal Democrats and other leading city figures had called for the protest to be banned. It's now time ...
Having a decluttering session in our house this weekend, came across a box of old photos, we haven't stopped laughing all weekend!! Would you send a child to school with a collar like that?
Two engagements in one day. For the second time in one day I accompanied Dad (Deputy Mayor of Waltham Forest) to an event, this time it was a Girl Guide Party at the Michael Mallison Centre in Highams Park to help celebrate the start of the centenary celebrations of the Girl Guiding Movement.Kay Bibbey and her team in the Waltham Forest South District did a fantastic job in organising an
Just a reminder that the Youth Cafe designs are on show at Yate Lesiure Centre until Friday (11 September). There will be a drop in session with Yate Town Councillors and South Gloucestershire officers this Monday, 7 September, from 2.00 - 8.30pm. See our previous post for more details.
[IMG: Moseley Folk Festival] On Friday I had the pleasure of working on the Oxfam stall at the fourth Moseley Folk Festival at the beautiful Moseley Park. After a long day promoting the work of Oxfam and the Oxjam Music Festival, obtaining petition signatures and selling raffle tickets for a signed t-shirt, I got to enjoy some of the festival. The highlight for me was the headliners Saint Etienne, who performed the whole of Fox Base Alpha before encoring with He's On The Phone. I also popped into the Real Ale tent for a couple of pints of Mad Goose. ...
Northavon MP Steve Webb has been shortlisted by charity Child Poverty Action Group for their MP of the Year award. Speaking in the debate on the Child Poverty Bill he said Parliament should try to do better than reducing the proportion of children in poverty to 10 per cent, because that would still leave a million children in poverty. He said: "The goal of being about as good as the best European countries is a start but it should not be the end." More detail from the Evening Post here.
Monday 7th September8.45 Meet Police at Ysgol Maelgwn, Llandudno Junction9.15 Meet North Wales Housing, Llandudno Junction10.30 Principal Scrutiny, Conwy1.30 WREN Panel, Colwyn Bay6.00 Assist my wife with presentation for Llanrwst Rotary Club on the Work of CLICSargent Charity Tuesday 8th SeptemberWard Work, prepare for planning meeting (I do not sit on planning committee, however I will be speaking on a planning application on my ward) Wednesday 9th September 11.00 Llandudno Junction Master Plan, Llandudno Junction Leisure Centre 2.00 Planning Committee, Conwy Thursday 10th September All day, Cabinet Meeting, Conwy Friday 11th September 12.00 Open tenders, Conwy 2.00 Llandulas Landfill Meeting, ...
Yesterday I attended my first official engagement as Consort to the Deputy Mayor of Waltham Forest (aka my Dad). The event was a breakfast with fellow London Mayors and Deputy Mayors to watch the start of The Great River Race which started this year at the London Docklands.The race has been going for 11 years and is dubbed the 'London's River Marathon' due to the extraordinary 22 miles from the
We can't reward lions with peanuts - Liberal Democrats believe that we must take action now to restore the military covenant between the Armed Forces and the people.
I've got one unhappy 12 year old at home today. After my morning ramble up the hills this morning I dropped into Kinnesswood store to collect the Sunday Times and Sunday Mail. My 12 year old son was delighted to see the special offer in the Mail for a FREE Star Wars toy emblazoned on the front page. Yet when he tried to redeem the voucher and collect his FREE toy he was told he was three hours too late.In fact there we only sufficient toys to last 30 minutes - one box. Apparently the shop assistant has faced lots ...
August is always a quiet time in politics. Oh yes, leaflets are being delivered, residents are being surveyed, and the day to day stuff happens. However, Party business is put on hold, politicians go on holiday and there aren't many events to go to. Given that my role is mostly to accompany Ros to things, that puts me out of a job so to speak. Summer is now over though, so I am 'back in harness', so to speak, and Friday evening saw me at Marylebone Station for the fairly pretty journey to Stratford-upon-Avon, where I linked up with Ros. ...
The New York Times has an excellent article on how Obama has learnt the main lessons of Bill Clinton's ill-fated early 1994 health care reform attempts, taking on board advice from key Clinton aides. In some cases, it notes, Obama has "over-learnt" the lessons. The main learnings are: -Failure Is Not an Option. -Know your audience -- insured taxpayers. -Move before the honeymoon ends. -Leave the details to Congress. -Co-opt the opposition. -Take what you can get.
Just a quick reminder that all the main documents relating to Lib Dem conference in Bournemouth – now less than fortnight away – are now available directly from the party's website. These include the main hall agenda, the policy papers to be debated and fringe and training guides. Find them all at this handy link. It's also worth noting and commending that the information is available in a variety of formats, from the printed books, the PDFs of those, and also simply as plain text – which is good and accessible for those with disabilities and also very handy for ...
Then My Digital Newspaper is for you. Simply go to the website and look up your local paper and if there is a digital version (and it uses the PageSuite platform which they mostly seem to) then you'll be able to find it and read it here. Even if your local paper doesn't claim to have a digital version it may still be here (our local paper has been claiming that its digital version no longer works for the last month or so yet it's always been accessible though this page!).
The Sunday Times reports today that many councils are thinking of moving their counts at the next general election to a Friday. Although the basics of their story are right, it leaves out a few relevant aspects. The Sunday Times omits to mention that a number of constituencies already count on a Friday - so in a close election, we're already in the situation where the Friday news will be a key part of the big picture rather than just a detailed footnote to the Thursday night news. The story has a quick jibe at council staff "who want to ...
If the population density of the USA was as great as that of Southern England the population of the USA would be 6.7 billion (i.e. equal to the whole of the current global population!) Our infrastructure is clearly being severely stressed! The ongoing population growth in the UK is not sustainable, any more than the current rate of global population growth is sustainable! see: http://www.optimumpopulation.org/opt.earth.html Do you think that to be a responsible electable UK government that political parties need a bold, tough, new population policy for the UK? Could such a policy help them get elected? I think so, ...
Martin Kettle's article in The Guardian – suggesting that the week beginning 12th October is make-or-break week for those Labour MPs who'd like to oust Gordon Brown – has sparked a fresh bout of Labour leadership speculation. The Economist's Bagehot is having none of it: Labour MPs have had their chance. And it wasn't in June 2009 or in October 2008. It was in 2007, when almost all of them lined up, baa-ing, to endorse Mr Brown. They were too numbed by more than a decade of unthinking obedience and by cowardice to do anything else. That is a fact ...
Praise for Lembit Opik's role in Britain's rural communities comes with Country Life's list of 100 most influential people. As the Evening Standard reported: The Lib Dem MP, more famed for his love life than political achievements, has been included in Country Life's list of the 100 people who wield the most power over the countryside. "[He] often unintentionally adds gaiety to the nation for his romantic adventures, but is actually the Liberal Democrat MP with the most genuine, considered understanding for the countryside." At number 44 he beats the likes of, Peter Florence, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Sir David Attenborough and ...
Quick multiple choice question. What is the best way to deal with an opponent whose views you very, very strongly disagree with? a) Engage them in debate and win the argument against them.b) Refuse to have anything to do with them and hope they will go away. There are still people (apparently including Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary) who think that option b) is the way to go when it comes to the BNP. I find it odd that anybody could still think that. I have always in principle been against the "No Platform" policy whereby some opponents of the ...
A great niece has recently got her GCSE results and she's done well. She took one subject last year and eleven this year, along with an AS level a year early and an additional subject named "Finance". Altogether she has now passed 9 subjects at grade A*, 3 at A, the AS level at grade B, together with the Finance exam. She has worked very hard and I'm very pleased she has been so successful. The only reason I wasn't told sooner was that she didn't want to show off.
[IMG: Ed at the Oxford Road entrance to the Parkland Walk] When Ed, Laura and I got elected in 2006 one of our big campaign pledges was to improve the safety at the Oxford Road entrance to the Parkland Walk with CCTV cameras. The area, which is next to the footbridge over the railway to Finsbury Park, was a well known problem area and was being used as a safe escape route by burglars and muggers. The CCTV was quickly installed thanks to the support of the local neighbourhood police team. However, we still get complaints from residents and walkers ...
What better way to start the day than with Liberal Democrat Voice appearing in your inbox? (Well, discovering you have won a free lifetime's supply of chocolate possibly, but that aside...) You can sign up to our daily email news service, which contains the headlines from the latest stories on the site, along with links you can click on to read those which catch your fancy. You can also see which posts have attracted the most comments, and also get handy links to find us on Facebook and Twitter. We also have a special once-a-week email you can sign up ...
First off, let me say that I think the BNP are sickening. They are not like a normal political party. I or my friends would not fear for my life if the Tories (or the Greens or the Lib Dems) took charge tomorrow but would if the BNP took power. However I agree with Iain Dale. The BNP are now a natioanl elected force on a level similar to the Green Party. They should be afforded the same representation as this. Personally I think Nick Griffin is a terrible speaker and a very unremarkable and boring politician. I would relish ...
An issue that constituents have brought to my attention recently is an anomoly in Dundee City Council's criteria for the allocation of disabled parking bays that, in my view and the view of the constituents who contacted me, is discriminating against some residents in the city who have mobility difficulties. The City Council's criteria for allocating disabled parking bays requires the applicant to have both a Blue Badge and to live in a household where there is at least one vehicle registered to someone in the household. The requirement for at least one vehicle to be registered at the home ...
I was a bit slow picking up on this story from a few days ago about Sky's invitation to the three main party leaders to enter a televised debate on the channel in the run up to the general election next year. Nick Clegg and David Cameron have accepted the offer, Clegg saying that it is important to do something different in the wake of the expenses scandal. But not the Prime Minister. Gordon Brown said he'll have to check his diary, and will let the TV station know closer to the time. I know he's a busy and important ...
Harry Truman's last Secretary of State was the extremely talented Dean Acheson, and it was Acheson who has had the last word on the role of Britain in the later part of the twentieth century. "Great Britain" he declared "has lost an Empire, and has yet to find a role". Yet Britain eventually did find a role: the most loyal lieutenant of the Pax Americana. Despite a progressively declining economy, Britain maintained relatively large armed forces and typically integrated their operations with those of the United States. A good example is the fact that the UK does not have full ...
All of my eBay listings end today. If you are size 6 (EU39) or child size 9 in shoes, do take a look. Or if you fancy a car... Random linkage to other stuff, for those of you who are skint: Via [IMG: [info - personal] ] strangefrontier, a very cool tattoo artist. Those of you who are into dodgy old horror movies might like to click on "modern" and look bottom left for a familiar face. Michael Buerk on blogging. The Torygraph, in typically cheerful mood, has a list of 50 things that are being killed by the internet. ...
Today's "Scotland on Sunday" (see http://tinyurl.com/scotlandtax) : "Scots facing tax hike and £1.5bn cuts Senior civil servants are making plans for the SNP to introduce a 5 per cent cut in public sector spending - as well as tax increases" Today's Sunday Times (see http://tinyurl.com/votecost) : "SNP independence drive bill tops £700,000 Cost of build-up to referendum mounts even though vote is in doubt Scottish government spending on an independence referendum that is unlikely to be put to voters is expected to top £700,000. While the referendum bill, announced last week by Alex Salmond, the first minister, is almost certain ...
The CEO of West Lothian Chamber of Commerce has slated local and national politicians in light of the recent announcement that Bausch & Lomb's plant shutting down in Livingston. He said: "It is disappointing that during recent years Alistair Darling, Iain Gray, Jim Devine, Margaret Hodge and Michael Connarty all had opportunities to influence changes that might have helped businesses like Bausch & Lomb to stay in West Lothian. "The consequence of their inaction is that Ireland is now perceived internationally as a more attractive business location." He is furious that the politicians haven't done enough to protect the regions ...
Elspeth Huxley's biography of Peter Scott has some information about his lighthouse near Sutton Bridge: For some time he had had his eye on twin lighthouses standing on each bank of the River Nene where it enters the Wash. They had been designed by John Pennie [sic. it was Rennie], architect of Waterloo Bridge, and built between 1829 and 1834 to commemorate the draining of the Great Fens, but the lamps had never been lit to warn ships at sea. A customs officer from Sutton Bridge, three miles upstream, arrived twice daily half an hour before high tide to hail ...
There is a report in the E-Government Bulletin about the campaign organisation WebThrift's claim that councils are wasting money on web services. Peter Barton at Lincolnshire County Council turns WebThrift's claim on its head. He estimates the cost impact of turning the web OFF at the council: click here for details. What is WebThrift's real agenda? Who could possibly benefit by the isolation of people from local government? * Simon Titley is a Liberal Democrat activist who helps to write and produce Liberator magazine.
Marcus Warner has an excellent post on his blog as to why the no platform policies pursued by some of the mainstream parties towards the BNP have failed. This passage in particular is worth highlighting: No platform has failed and it is not acceptable to suspend democratic principles because we abhor the BNP, how can we oppose the fascists anti-democratically? How can maintain a higher moral and human ground while not offering them a fair crack of a debate? How are we supposed to get in front of BNP voters and convince them of the mistake of voting for the ...
There is an interesting vignette of what is wrong with our political system in one of The Times leader articles today on public spending: Labour will not grasp this nettle, having failed to tackle the pension apartheid between the public and private sectors for fear of upsetting the unions. There is a hint, though, that the Conservatives may be preparing to do so. Although the party has not yet published any detailed proposals, and may not do so this side of the election, it is letting it be known that this is an area where it is ready to take ...
The Spin Doctor column in today's Wales on Sunday starts off with the lament that there really is nothing going on this week so, taking their clue I will shamelessly rip off one of his 'non-stories'. It seems that a petition has been lodged on the Downing Street website which seeks to have Wales become a county of England. The petition which has eight signatures says: We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to prosecute any person or organisation that promotes the breakup of the United Kingdom, including promoting independence for Wales or Scotland or reunification of Ireland, under the ...
The Mail on Sunday has an intriguing list (above - click on it to enlarge) of what MPs earn per hour on jobs outside parliament compared with the average hourly rate for their constituents. Patrick Cormack eat your heart out. The list shows the Top 40 who are all Labour and Tory MPs with one exception (Plaid Cymru). Take dear old Michael Gove. He earns £1437 an hour for four hours work writing articles - that 127 times the average hourly pay rate of his constituents. William Hague earns 114 times his constituents for advising a board meeting. John Gummer ...
Just watched Trevor Phillips on Andrew Marr saying that tomorrow theEquality Commission are going to publish (finally) their report into unequal pay in the financial services sector - and 'it's shocking'! No kidding? We know that - so presumably it's even worse than we thought and women are not only getting unequal pay and unequal bonuses (setting aside the issue of size of bonus momentarily) but the differential will be staggering. So much so - that the Equality Commission says that if the City doesn't come to heel - they will have to use their statutory powers. Oooooooh! Warm wards ...
When Alexander Litvinenko was murdered (in Muswell Hill), poisoned - I challenged the Government and then Home Secretary John Reid to pursue his killer without fear nor favour, however close the trail got to the Russian establishment. That is the promise I got from him - but in the end - and despite taking Mrs Litvinenko for a private meeting with David Miliband in which he also promised to bring this to the European table to put pressure on from that angle - justice has never been done. And it will never be done - because not only is there ...
Number 1 in a series of 1: The headquarters of the Governor of each State shall be known as the Capital City of that State as shown in the third column of the said Part I of the First Schedule opposite the State named in the first column thereof. (Chapter 1, Part 1, Clause 3, Paragraph 3 since you ask.) PS The version of the constitution I was reading included a reference to the "Cod of Conduct". I fear this should have read "Code". Related posts:Great Liberal Speeches: George Tierney on sacrificing the constitution on the altar of public security ...
Bedford Liberal Democrats - www.bedfordlibdems.org have selected Councillor Dave Hodgson to be their candidate for the the Bedford Mayoral by-election. The by-election will take place in October, the by-election will take place due to the death of Frank Branston who was in his second term as Mayor.
BBC News, 4th September 2009: "Eating late at night adds weight" Late-night snackers are more likely to gain weight, research suggests. A team from Northwestern University, Illinois, found that when you eat, not just how you eat, could make a big difference. Scientists found that when mice ate at unusual hours, they put on twice as much weight, despite exercising and eating as much as others. The study, in the journal Obesity, is said to be the first to show directly that there is a "wrong" time to eat. Yeah, if you're a fucking mouse. BBC News, 13th November 2003: ...
There are 2,500 families of the victims of the IRA's Libyan supplied Semtex.But the latest news over Westminster's 'special relationship' with Libya is that Gordon Brown vetoed attempts to force Libya to pay compensation as it would affect Trade Talks. Lawyers for the victims are wanting the government to get a US-style scheme of compensation which has paid out $2.7 billion (£1.6 billion) to their 270 victims on Pan-Am flight 103. The latest revelation coming hot on the heels of Jack Straw's admission that oil deals with Libya were partially a factor in the talks about Megrahi. However, Gordon Brown ...
In 1988, one week after Pan-Am flight 103 crashed into Lockerbie I drove through the town. I was en route to Oban and had no other route. Like everyone else I had been horrified at the television pictures of the pitiful wreck of Sherwood Crescent, with bewildered residents and shocked pets climbing past the mangled remains of houses and the wreckage of the plane. Lockerbie had been long familiar as a way mark on my regular journeys between Scotland and England. From that day onwards though, I could never think of it without a shudder. As I approached the town ...
So the BBC has confirmed it may invite British National Party leader Nick Griffin to appear on a future edition of Question Time. This appearance is apparently being lined up for a show to be filmed in London in October, once the party conference season is over. Already several Labour MPs have vowed not to ...
Welcome to the Sunday edition of The Voice's Daily View. And as it's a Sunday, it's also time for a multimedia chocolate extra. But first... Big Stories Straw admits Lockerbie trade link Trade and oil played a part in the decision to include the Lockerbie bomber in a prisoner transfer deal, Jack Straw has admitted. Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, the UK justice secretary said trade was "a very big part" of the 2007 talks that led to the prisoner deal with Libya. However, Mr Straw's spokesman accused the press of "outrageous" innuendo. (BBC) G20 papers over cracks on bank ...
According to Cherie Blair, speaking on RTÉ's The Late Late Show, Euan, Nicky, Kathryn and Leo Blair all hold Irish passports and at least one of them regularly uses that passport when travelling. The four can claim dual nationality due to their paternal grandmother, the daughter of a prominent Orangeman from Donegal. So why would the children of a ...
Oh dear, oh dear! Is this a dreadful sense deja vu creeping over me? Yep we've been here before. During the 1980s the last Tory government started a massive programme of "privatisation" or selling off the family silver as we like to call it. Ostensibly to make those industries more efficient, and while it is undeniable that some sectors benefited in the short-term by gaining a cash injection and some new managerial expertise. However, the reality was that it was a purely ideological move designed in fact to reduce to democratic accountability of those businesses, viz the railways. Furthermore, whenever ...
This should be a rallying cry go up across the length and breadth of the UK, in a campaign to keep GP services local and stop the current government's drive for centralised 'polyclinics' in whatever guise they may come. Wrington is facing a battle with the PCT to keep its surgery, and all who care about the need to keep services local should come out and applaud the people of Wrington in their effort to keep their surgery open. Last week I attended a meeting of the Wrington Save Our Surgery (SOS) group, and I was appalled to hear of ...
I know that smoking is becoming less and less popular. I have worked in many hospitals and over the years restrictions on smokers have gradually increased. At one stage the only people who could smoke in hospital were psychiatric patients and the terminally ill. How did they break the news that you could smoke and was it good or bad news? I don't have a good word for smoking. I don't like the idea of putting smoke in my lungs. So many conditions are related to smoking and I think everyone knows this, hence the NHS restrictions along with warnings ...
