A notable milestone has just been passed by the "Please go" petition on the No 10 website. It has just gone into the top 10 for all petitions (both open and closed) on the site. I am sure Gordon Brown's staff will be aware of this. Interest in the petition has waned since its heady first few weeks when the number of people signing it rocketed up. I wonder if a further wobble by the Labour party around its conference in early October could see renewed interest. If wavering Labour MPs who deep down know it is all over for ...
Heavens, it only seems like an instant ago that one of the bloodiest youth elections since 1873 was concluded, and here I am, called into action again. Curiously, the Federal Constitution of Liberal Youth is silent on the definition of a candidate for office, leaving me obliged to refer to Article 15: Interpretations & Dispute Resolution and, in particular, 15.1, which covers Rules of Interpretation. And so, without further ado, here is my first ever Rule of Interpretation... The definition of a 'candidate' for the purposes of Article 9.12(h) shall be any individual member of Liberal Youth who so declares ...
Diamond Geezer had a splendid rant yesterday about the size of receipts from some shops. It struck a chord with me, especially after today's venture to a shop to buy a pair of batteries. I was given two mammoth receipts in return for the one purchase: [IMG: Big receipts] (The teabag is for scale. It didn't come free with the batteries. For shame.) Related posts:Using community politics to build a liberal society That was the title of my chapter in "Reinventing the...Natural History Museum: some merchandising advice If you are going to sell some Charles Darwin cuddly...
But I promised chocolate, and so Alan (who recommended the portable I bought) shall get chocolate: [IMG: White chocolate] Good thing chocolate is bad for dogs really. Related posts:The first time chocolate was eaten on screen The 1933 MGM classic, Dinner at Eight was the first...Dogs + chocolate = bad news Sometimes, I just wish I were human as this story...Keeping your social network presences under control with NutshellMail One of the most common reasons I hear people give...
Following on from yesterday's blog, when I pass hospitals I see a lot of people who wear identity badges. They are not just near hospitals - they are everywhere. Now these badges only have a photo on one side. Another recent blog concerned the disabled driving badges that have information on one side only and it is an offence to place this badge upside down. I started writing this blog because I was thinking why do we have so many people wearing these badges. These are people, many of whom have gone into the same office for years. Many of ...
[IMG: Haringey Labour's empty seat approach to cross-borough working on Finsbury Park] I am very annoyed to discover that nobody from Haringey is attending the board meetings of cross-brough regeneration agency FinFuture. Along with Islington and Hackney, Haringey gets one place for a councillor on the FinFuture board, but have refused to offer this to any of the Lib Dems who represent the Finsbury Park area. Instead they subbonly insist on giving the position to Labour councillor Gina Adamou who has long track record of not attending. Ed Butcher and I first raised this issue in 2007, when it was ...
Crikey, there's been quite a response on this and other sites to the launch this morning of a campaign to save election night. Amongst the posts such as Andrew's and Jonathan's agreeing with the campaign there have been a range of queries and criticisms, such as Costigan, Darrell, Mark, Nick and Paul. The issues people have raised over the campaign generally fall into four categories: Cost: isn't it more expensive to count on Thursday night? Yes – and no. Yes, in that often councils pay staff for counting on Thursday night (and whether or not that is covered by the ...
Not my words I hasten to say, but those of Peter Davies, recently-elected mayor of Doncaster. I've heard of some bonkers stuff coming out of the mouths of English Democrats but this one surely takes the biscuit. He went on to say that, "the Taliban ...
I am advised by the City Council that Thomson Street will be closed to traffic from Monday 12th October for a maximum of 5 working days because of gully replacement works. Hopefully the works will fully tackle the road smell complaints I have raised with the Council. Here's an update I had earlier received from the City Engineer on the subject : "The update to the gully replacement in Thomson Street is that this work will now require to be carried out independently of the planned gas and water utility works due to a delay in the programming of these ...
Back on the 12th August I blogged about Alan Duncan MP and his moaning about living on rations, you can read it again here. Well now this evening as reported on the BBC website, Alan Duncan MP has been sacked demoted from the Shadow Cabinet, he is now prisons minister. Apparently Alan isn't commenting on his demotion, I don't understand why, he usually comments on everything else, just one question for David Cameron, why has it taken you so long to deal with this and why announce the news today?
At last, after a couple of mails to Dan the Wikio Man, my blog finally makes it into the lower reaches of the UK politics chart, despite receiving about the same amount of A-list promotion that Godspeed You! Black Emperor would get on daytime Radio 1. 294th ain't much, but at least it's a toehold. Excelsior! Fascinating story from Buckingham over the weekend, where it seems Nigel Farage of UKIP will definitely be challenging Speaker Bercow at the election - and using the strapline "the real Tory". Buckingham is, of course, a true-blue constituency; it hasn't returned a Labour MP ...
The final piece is in the conference photo op jigsaw. Vince Cable will be doing one of 6 that I am putting on at Lib Dem conference in Bournemouth. I will post up the list soon. I can't at this precise moment do so as I am sitting in the Moti Jheel in Whickham waiting to collect my takeaway (it's David's birthday so we are taking a break from homegrown food.) As I don't have the list of photo ops
We've had a column published at Forbes.com: you won't be surprised that CentreForum is not impressed with the obsession of some European leaders with financial bonuses. So it is a bit of a relief that the meeting of finance ministers found the time to produce something meaningful on banking leverage - an issue of far greater importance than how the spoils of high gearing are shared out. Deal with the leverage, and far more profits go to shareholders - and therefore less for traders and their ilk to pocket. And you get a stable financial system thrown in too. Robert ...
One thing that has baffled me about American politics over the last nine months is the growth of the visceral and seething hatred for Barack Obama amongst foaming-at-the-mouth right wingnuts. It really has got quite astonishing and tends to coalesce around the word "socialist". But George Bush in his last seven months of office was twenty times more socialist than Obama has been in his first seven. Remember all that massive, sweeping, epic scale nationalisation old Dubya casually did as he polished up his cowboy boots to return to Texas? After that, it is almost inconceivable that Obama could exceed ...
One of the last comedy shows Bob Monkhouse took part in was I Think I've Got a Problem. In it he played the psychiatrist of a man who had a whole jazz band in his head. His patient was played by Suggs, who also wrote the songs. The programme lasted three series, though Suggs seemed to have run out of musical ideas by the end. I fear that many of my fellow Lib Dem bloggers have an entire Royal Commission in their heads. This morning Mark Pack wrote a post on Liberal Democrat Voice about moves among local authority returning ...
As the Liberal England blog points out today, there really are questions to be answered by Mr Paul Staines (who likes to refer to himself as Guido Fawkes) about his independence. The Guido Fawkes blog for some time like to have a veneer of not being tied to one political party or doctrine but has increasingly become more Tory than Iain Dale. Now at least Iain Dale is open about his politics, but isn't it about time we knew the truth about where Guido Fawkes blog now stands politically ?
Welcome to the 133rd of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (30th August – 5th September 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. EXCLUSIVE: EXTENDED VERSION ...
A few days ago I shamelessly exploited a report by a think tank for some easy blogging material. It was about "International Development" money being given to trade unionists (amongst other things) right here at home. Knowing trade unionists one finds it hard to believe they'll be using the money to enthusiastically promote Free Trade (the one thing that does lift people out of poverty). So it was a bit of throw-away blogging - mostly I was curious about whether the Tories really understood what it was they'd agreed to fund, but I didn't think any more about it. So ...
The 2005 BBC coverage of the general election got 6 million viewers at its height. More people watched Waking the Dead last night. (It was a corker by the way - well worth watching the second episode tonight - Trevor Eve at his finest). So let's get this all in perspective shall we? It's very easy to get all school boy/pollynerdy about this, but actually not many people were actually up for Portillo in 1997. (And, as a side point, let's face it, on the basis of their lamentably dire coverage of the American election last November, the BBC need ...
Are the Police too powerful? Are the Police racist? Do they abuse their powers? These are the questions that immediately surface whenever the words "stop and search" are uttered, recalling memories of the infamous SUS laws and their application in Brixton prior to the explosion of the 1981 race riots. However, the issue has been re-ignited of late by the rise of Section 44 anti-terror powers which allow police officers to search anyone without the need for reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. Yet stop and search held no real significance for me until I too was searched by police under ...
With a harsh economic recession continuing to bite, with Westminster politics remaining in the doldrums and with a global climate change summit fast approaching, legal action taken against a science writer may be far down your priority list as party conference season approaches. And yet, the British Chiropractic Association's attempts to silence Simon Singh's critical comments reveal fundamental flaws in Britain's libel law, and threaten to undermine the freedom of expression that insulates us from the very worst consequences of public and private sector failures. It is in this context that I invite all Lib Dem Voice readers to attend ...
Because he is just another Tory, is probably the short answer. Shouldn't a dangerous libertarian, when faced with a clash between Damian McNasty and Mad Nad, just hug himself with glee and enjoy the fun? That is not the approach of Paul Staines - aka Guido Fawkes. This morning, as he tells us on his blog, Staines served papers on Damian McBride on behalf of Nadine Dorries. Not so much watching the contest as climbing into the ring on join in on the side of one of the boxers. But then, during the last London Mayoral election, Staines used his ...
The first election that I got deeply involved in the campaign management for was Vince Cable's 2001 General Election campaign when I was his Agent. I remember it like it was yesterday for very many reasons, the main one was that this was very likely to be Vince's wife Olympia's last election. It turned out to be right, she lost her fight against breast cancer just days after Vince's victory. Anyway Councillor Stephen Knight, who was the literature guru and I didn't finish the printing of the Good Morning leaflets until 2.30am on what was now polling day (Stephen and ...
Thanks to a reader for alerting me to the news that the BBC is about to broadcast a new documentary series by Jonathan Meades. Simon Heffer wrote in the Sunday Telegraph yesterday: Should you want to watch the three best new factual programmes that will be broadcast on BBC television this year - and I feel I am performing a rare public service by alerting you all to them - then be sure to watch Off Kilter, the three-part series written and presented by Jonathan Meades, which starts on BBC 4 at 9pm on Wednesday. Meades is probably Britain's foremost ...
[IMG: Birmingham Floral Trail] Over the last year you may have seen floral versions of a Mini on Victoria Square, Wallace and Gromit on Great Charles Street Queensway or a watch on New Street. They are just three of 19 features on the Birmingham City Centre Floral Trail, which has just won Gold in the Urban Community category at the Heart of England In Bloom Regional Awards Ceremony. The trail is linked to the bicentennial celebrations of the life of Matthew Boulton. (via JewelleryQuarter.net)
This general election will be the first that is held since the era of Facebook and Twitter. As Mark Pack pointed out more people are now Facebook users than it takes to elect a government in the UK. Technology will have a huge effect on the outcome of this election amongst certain groups in the electorate. Mainly the young. Although technology should never replace face-to-face campaigning (something, in my opinion, vital to holding politicians to account) it will no doubt play a large part in the 2010 general election campaign. This throws up a huge number of problems for campaigners, ...
I have to post this picture that I found on the Tory Fail blog. I found it really funny, so here goes:
[IMG: EDF Energy Birmingham Half Marathon] After last year's success, the EDF Energy Birmingham Half Marathon returns for a second time on Sunday 11th October. Following feedback from last year, the route has changed so it now starts and ends in Birmingham city centre, at Centenary Square. The 13.1 mile run takes in well-known sights such as Edgbaston Cricket Ground, Cannon Hill Park and the Cadbury factory in Bournville village before returning to the city. Volunteers are required in areas such as baggage supervision, event control, information assistants, media assistants, route marshals and even translators. For more information check out ...
The Voice is only a success because of the interest and support from our readers. For many people, just lurking and reading the site is all they want to do – and that's fine, we're grateful for people taking the time to read the site. You can though help us continue to produce interesting content for a growing audience. Here are three simple ways: 1. Let us have your tips for stories. Perhaps there's something outrageous going on in your local council? Or you're an expert in a particular area and have spotted a story other people have missed? Or ...
I've been decluttering. Mostly this has meant putting Books, CDs and VHS tapes up for sale on Amazon. Given I'm not a completeist and rarely read any fiction twice, keeping the lot seemed an extravagance. On top of this I cleared out boxes of old letters and paperwork. 10 year old credit card and bank statements from accounts I no longer have are now shredded and added to the compost bin. My uni notes are on their way to be next week's newspapers. I figured these were papers I would only re-visit for nostalgia purposes, and nostalgia as they say ...
The Daily Telegraph reports that Alan Johnson will; "instruct British companies to advertise all jobs through UK jobcentres for one month before being allowed to look overseas. Previously, firms were only required to advertise locally for two weeks before casting their net wider to countries outside the European Union. The Home Secretary will also announce that the ...
Found this spider with freshly-caught fly in the garden, feel free to add captions in comments, no prize, just the fun of taking part...
Mark Lawson has a rather bland piece in today's Guardian which amounts to little more than 'developments in technology affect methods of storytelling' stretched out to 500 words, but there's one line in it that strikes me: Although mobiles have sealed off some traditional narrative avenues - "I'm afraid my husband's on a walking holiday in the fells, officer, and we don't expect to hear from him until Sunday!" - they also offer new openings. I guess this shows that he hasn't been to Cumbria recently, where most of the fells – and especially those on the western side of ...
Last weekend, I took a trip over to Islington to meet Bridget Fox, the Lib Dem candidate for Islington South & Finsbury. I had got to know Bridget a little bit via Twitter and blogging but I thought it would be interesting to meet her. She seemed like a strong campaigner from what I could tell and with the Labour incumbent Emily Thornberry only having won against Bridget by 484 votes in 2005, the seat is one of the party's main targets at the next general election. I helped out during the day with some leafletting and canvassing. In between ...
Last weekend, I took a trip over to Islington to meet Bridget Fox, the Lib Dem candidate for Islington South & Finsbury. I had got to know Bridget a little bit via Twitter and blogging but I thought it would be interesting to meet her. She seemed like a strong campaigner from what I could tell and with the Labour incumbent Emily Thornberry only having won against Bridget by 484 votes in 2005, the seat is one of the party's main targets at the next general election. I helped out during the day with some leafletting and canvassing. In between ...
I just wanted to write a quick blog about Darrell Goodliffe being selected to represent the Liberal Democrats in Middleton in Leeds. It wont be easy, as there will be a big fight against the BNP, but as I have said, the only way we can beat the BNP is through hard thought out politics, and Darrell is more than capable of doing that. Anyways, hope you can have a look at his new blog about the campaign. Good luck:)
I recently updated the blog about the proposed Riverside Nature Park (click on headline to view). Tonight's "Evening Telegraph" has a useful article about the matter - see http://tinyurl.com/rsidenature. It is good to see some progress taking place with regard to the proposed Riverside Nature Park - at last!
I know it might be a bit late, but I want to state my view about the news that BNP will be asked to take part with other parties on Question Time. I think that it is right that this step has been made, as if the political system recognises them as a political party, despite their obvious immoral and racist policies, then we have to treat them in the same way we treat other political parties. Therefore, they should be allowed onto programmes such as Question Time as other minority parties are, such as the Greens and UKIP. It ...
Just along the river, the Guardian recently had an update regarding Battersea Power Station and its future - more details here. We will post if we hear of any further developments.
I joined the party directly because of its opposition to the Iraq war. But recently I was moved to buy Nick Cohen's "what's left?" and I found myself unable to counter his argument. George Bush and Tony Blair are better defenders of Human Rights than me?! Even with all the justification in the world in terms of relative levels of evil, war is still a horrific and terrible thing to contemplate. And now the people in my focus team want to put out a "pull our troops out of Afghanistan" edition, before Cowley Street have announced any such policy - ...
The outspoken former Head of the British Army, General Sir Richard Dannatt — who doubtless caused Gordon Brown many sleepless nights with his caustic comments about aspects of the adequacy of provision for British soldiers in Afghanistan — has been sent to the Tower of London. All my O-level history came flooding back to me when ...
Lib Dem MP Lembit Opik is the subject of The Independent's 'You ask the questions' feature today. In it he tells readers: about his leadership aspirations (he has none); how he thinks Nick Clegg is doing better as leader than Lembit thought he would be doing; describes the Liberal brand as "public-service orientated, slightly left-leaning and suspicious of authority. We're sort of courteously anti-establishment." his views on the Megrahi realease; he favours research on the legalisation of the prescription of hard drugs; he's pleased to have the chance to write a politicla column for the Daily Sport. You can read ...
Item 1) A UFO was spotted in Tooting recently. Apparently it hovered over St Georges Hospital, then sped off in the direction of Streatham. Lembit Opik was unavailable for comment.javascript:void(0) Item 2) Apparently, Crystal Palace has a wild puma living in some woodland. I have to say I've not spotted any UFOs, just a lot of Police helicopters, and no big cats, just the occasional medium-sized fox. But it all just goes to show that South London is more interesting than North London.
I've been thinking about this quite a lot over the last few days and would be interested to hear other peoples opinions. By virtue of the friends I have and the positions that I hold in the Lib Dems on various committees I get to hear a lot of things that aren't public knowledge. Things from Lib Dem campaign plans in Leeds to information on internal Liberal Youth stuff through to future council policy. Many of these things would be of interest to readers of this blog and I am constantly having to assess the information that I pick up ...
Watch this seven second clip from BBC News (link here). I defy you not to laugh. And then remember the importance of punctuation. Selected reading list for the punctuation-impaired (not all of which are by Lynne Truss ;)):Eats, Shoots and Leaves - I love this book, but apparently some people find the pedantic tone off-putting.Getting the Point - gentler and less abrasive than ES<wenty-Odd Ducks - a guide in kid-friendly language.The Girl's Like Spaghetti - a guide to the use of that most abused punctuation mark, the apostrophe((edited for the inevitable spelling mistake in an entry like this LOL)) This ...
I only ask because he's got a profile on LinkedInk and is keeping it up to date... Related posts:Would a Barack Obama style campaign really work in the UK? Barack Obama's campaign is often portrayed as being an excellent...How are British parties responding to the social media successes of Obama? I've recently answered a few questions about political parties and...Does thinking of cycling make you want to buy swimming trunks? A lesson in how not to do online advertising, courtesy...
Jonathon Isaby has an interesting post on Conservative Home dissecting the latest YouGov poll which makes far from happy reading for David Cameron on one level. It, in the words of Isaby, is a 'reality check' for Conservatives who are confident that all they have to do is show-up on election night to sweep to ...
I have a bit of a reputation for cooking amongst my friends and colleagues, so I thought I'd use my blog to spread some of my favourite recipes. I'm starting with a really easy cake that is particularly popular at election time, as it's full of energy, but relatively low in fat. It's also a ...
I am contacting David Miliband to ask him to make urgent representations to Sudan about the arrest of 51 women activists in front of the court in Khartoum this morning. This is completely unacceptable. According to an email forwarded to me three of those women have been injured and had to be taken to hospital. And what were these activists protesting about? The trial of Lubna Hussein. Lubna Hussein is a Sudanese woman faces a flogging and lashes for wearing trousers. She resigned her UN job which would have afforded her immunity so that she could fight for Sudanese women's ...
Today is shaping up to be quite a nice day. Holly is safely at school, the dogs are walked, and Mat and I went back to bed for the morning. We are currently snuggled up in lazy mode. At some point I have to get up and do some gardening and DIY and cleaning and things, and I also have to parcel up stuff that got sold on eBay and take it to the post office. But not just yet. Right now, laid here with the dogs at my feet and Mat by my side (reading his recipe book that ...
ComRes has recently published the results of a survey it carried out earlier this year, asking over 500 councillors in England and Wales (but not Scotland) a wide range of questions. One in particular which caught my eye was about how much time being a councillor took up, and where that time went: Councillors spend the most hours per month attending council meetings and following this on committee work. On average, councillors spend about 19 hours a month attending council meetings. This is greatest among councillors serving in county councils who spend, on average, 24 hours a month attending council ...
I asked a Freedom of Information Question about children and young people on Merseyside and the DNA database a while ago. I had meant to post about it then. This is a link to the news story as a result of my question.
Mon 7th
12:10
The EHRC paint a depressing picture of the true nature of gender inequality in the City...
Well I think you might have guessed that I would comment on the Equality and Human Rights Commission's report into the 'shocking' state of the gender pay gap in the City. The findings highlight the inequality that women face even when they are doing the same jobs as men, with the same level of pressure - in fact, most likely more pressure seen, as they are the ones who are most likely to be stigmatised if they leave their children in childcare, for example. Findings include: 39% difference between men and women's average salaries (47% including bonuses, overtime and performance ...
Psephologists will tell you that it all depends on the question. Phrasing can deliver widely varying responses to pollsters. Who would reject a land of milk and honey? But if that land of milk and honey were to come at a high price the respondent may choose an alternative. That's why I wasn't surprised that, in response to a question from Brian Taylor on Reporting Scotland, most voters said they would like to have their say on Scotland's future. However, this was rather amateur journalism (unusual for Brian) as he should have tested opinion by giving respondents a range of ...
I am in my Stockport office getting an update from my casework officer, Danny, on issues recently taken up when press officer, Richard, shouts across: "tell him about the lizard e-mails." Danny explains that we get a number of e-mails from people who believe that lizard beings are trying to take over the world. Hilary Clinton is an example of one person now firmly under their control it seems. Jen, who works for the party, quietly mentions that cows have turned into killers. Four people have been trampled to death in recent months. A farmer died when his cows were, ...
For any Liberal Democrat to win a parliamentary seat usually involves years of hard work. So imagine my surprise this morning on being greeted to a comment that I am a Member of Parliament. The elevation comes on the Liberal Conspiracy blog, as shown in the comments to my previous post on the BNP. Now all ...
I've had an invitation to join a Facebook group intended to rally support for those who want counts to take place overnight following a general election. I've been something of an election junkie for thirty years, thinking nothing of staying up into the early hours of the morning, eagerly awaiting the results from Skipton and Ripon, or Clwyd West, or wherever. I've been a Returning Officer for twenty-five, first for my student union and then for the Party. Hell, I even watch when BBC Parliament broadcast historic election nights even though I know how the story ended. But I think ...
I came to the UK sixteen years ago, almost to the day. I remember how many people in the Liberal Democrats and a few beyond, were very interested to know about how and why New Zealanders had changed our voting system. People asked (and still ask) if there were any lessons from NZ that could be applied here. The answer is yes. But Kiwis may be about to make another change- to a voting system that is much less "proportional" and looks more like first past the post. In a referendum held on the same day as the 1993 general ...
Today's Guardian editorial calls for "an open debate about getting the public balance sheets in order could dispel some of the ignorant shrillness that marks the current discussion." Hear hear: the Labour party does itself nothing but harm in keeping this vital issue muffled. The Guardian piece quotes A Balancing Act in how it dissects the future debt. I still stand by the figures, but realise I should have entered a qualification - the 9% figure for how much is accounted for by banking rescues fails to reflect how much might be recouped from the financial assets being bought or ...
Quite a few people have had their say on this Sunday Telegraph story saying that council workers intend to 'disrupt' the traditional all-night TV election results fest. I think it is worth pointing out that this story smacks of those evil, bad council workers wanting to spoil our fun but there is more than a ...
One benefit of having worked with the media for over a decade is that I see some stories reappearing that I started some years ago. Here are two stories from years ago that are still regularly appearing. Tax manuals getting longer After a conversation with a tax specialist back in 2000 who said that 'tax manuals just get thicker each year' I came up with the idea of simply measuring how many pages the main Tolleys tax manuals had. It started as a small diary piece in the FT, but is now an annual media staple, reported on the front ...
As the conference season draws near, focus falls upon party leaders. Political careers are made and ruined at party conferences, as the party membership and watching media scrutinise the performance of each leader. It won't surprise you to know that I'll be found asking many of the same questions as those watching: Did I engage the audience? Did I effectively communicate the key points within the speech? Were my arguments plausible, evidenced, exciting? Whilst you're speaking, when you finish and for the following days, the feedback flows. As a speaker you know immediately if your peers approve, you hear quickly ...
Judging by the prominence given by the Western Mail to former Plaid Cymru Leader, Dafydd Wigley's decision to withdraw his candidacy for a seat in the House of Lords anybody would think that a major political earthquake had taken place. Dafydd Wigley is an honourable man and a talented politician. If anybody should be in the House of Lords then he should. However, nobody has a right to be there, least of all a minor Nationalist Party with ideas above its station or at least that is how it may be viewed in Westminster. Indeed the comments of the Cabinet ...
2 Big Stories Government's Libya policy: confusion reigns The mounting government confusion over its policy towards Libya continues today. First we had the Prime Minister's refusal to make a comment on the release of convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi; then it emerged that Gordon Brown had let it be known he agreed with the Scottish executive's decision; over the weekend Justice Secretary Jack Straw acknowledged the obvious – that government policy was strongly influenced by trade and oil. And now it emerges that Mr Brown is stepping up British attempts to win compensation for the victims of the bombing: ...
Mark Pack (here and here) and Costigan Quist have both been talking about this Sunday Times story about a 'threat' to 'General Election night'. In short, it seems that more Councils are planning to delay counting general election votes from the night of the election until the day after in order to save money. Yes, the Sunday Times (and assorted members of all parties, it seems) have decided that this instance of Councils saving money is apparently a bad thing. (As a disclaimer, I don't know what Colchester is planning, but we did count the most recent County elections on ...
The fifth year of South Gloucestershire's "Taste" local food and drink festival runs from Saturday 12 September to Sunday 11 October. Events include the chance to visit Shipton Flour Mill, a tour of Thornbury Castle and vineyard and a butter making demonstration. For more information visit the South Gloucestershire Local Food website. While we're on the subject of food, today sees the launch of the Love Food Hate Waste campaign, which aims to get all of us to waste less food. A food waste diary competition is being run, more details on the South Glos website.
According to The Sunday Times, election night may be no more. Some councils are thinking of moving their counts to the next day for practical reasons. Lib Dem Voice and Con Home are amongst a number of blogs who are trying to start a "Save general election night" campaign. I have been a devotee of election nights (general, local, European etc.) since I first stayed up all night to watch the results of the 1992 general election roll in. I love the drama, the fact that the politicians sometimes don't know what is going to happen and to be able ...
I posted earlier with the good news that the City Council is recommending the planning committee refuse the application from Jack Allen for the waste site right next to the houses on Cressington Heath. I promised to add a link to the actual committee report. Here is is. You will find you need to click on the title of the agenda item (Stallbridge Dock)
The Liberal Democrats have recently been introducing a new set of primary colours into their public image. Nick Clegg's web-site, for example, is daubed in the new 'Aqua' colour with specs of the Lib Dem orange.In keeping with the brand refresh I thought I'd give the Liberal Youth Facebook fan page logo a bit of an update too, casting our logo over a new explosive background based upon the party's new approved colours (see the results here). And what better way to make a decision in the Web 2.0 era than to harness the wisdom of the crowd by putting ...
It's December 1993 and Labour is looking for ways to attack the Government over crime. Perhaps there's an issue of the length of sentences for murder? Let's turn to Hansard and find out: Mrs. Roche To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was the shortest sentence served for murder in the last 30 years; and what were the circumstances. Mr. Peter Lloyd Responsibility for this matter has been delegated to the director general of the prison service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given. Letter from A. J. Butler to Ms ...
Yesterday's Sunday Times reported how our traditional general election night is under threat from more and more councils wanting to move their count to a Friday. Although there are some understandable reasons for this (principally the extra logistical burden of new checks against postal vote fraud), overall losing the drama of Thursday night through to the early hours of Friday morning would be a backwards step because: The drama of election night is one of the rare occasions when a mass public audience gets interested in the details of politics and hears news and information at more than nano-soundbite length. ...
The murky tangle surrounding the release of Abdelbaset Ali Al Magrahi begins, if that is possible, to get even more murky. The Prime Minister changes his views on whether victims of the IRA should sue Libya- an acknowledged paymaster of the murderous terrorist organisation. Once he opposed this, now he supports it. Meanwhile the Home Office has been forced to drop a control order against a Libyan terrorist suspect, since the House of Lords has instructed the Home Office to tell the suspect what he is actually suspected of doing. The Orwellian nature of that last statement is obvious: at ...
When it comes to counting the votes in General Elections, some parts of the country have always seen it as a Friday job. More rural areas can take hours just to get the ballot boxes back to the count. As it happens, because nearly every election since 1974 has been pretty decisive (the exception being 1992) and we can normally have a good guess at the results in those rural seats, it hasn't stopped the outcome of the election being pretty much certain by the early hours of Friday morning. Now, we hear, more councils are saying that they'll delay ...
So writes The Independent: David Cameron's charm offensive has failed to attract new members to the Tories - or keep hold of tens of thousands of people who were already in the party when he arrived. Local Conservative parties have lost almost a quarter of their rank-and-file members since Mr Cameron took over in late 2005... The total membership in more than 200 constituency associations - barely a third of the overall number - who provided relevant figures to the elections watchdog fell from 185,000 to 145,000 between December 2005 and December 2008. The constituencies experiencing falls include "safe" seats, ...
The fact that young people now cannot remember the Tories in power must be a blessing for them, but for people my age who remember the Tories and were brought up in the Thatcher years have a long held and almost allergic reaction to the Conservative Party which probably acount for the fact that the Tories, although doing well in the polls, are not at the New Labour levels of 1995-97. I know people who loathe this government but cannot bring themselves to vote Tory because they remember many of the things in this Youtube video.
My latest quiz closes at midnight tonight. To win one of two copies of Graham Rinaldi's biography of Will Hay just email me the answers to these three questions:What is the name of the 1942 film in which Will Hay satirised Nazi Germany?Which two actors regularly appeared in films as Will Hay's sidekicks?Who played "Will Silly" (an affectionate parody of Will Hay) in Harry Enfield's television special Norbert Smith - A Life? Good luck.
It seems Home Secretary Alan Johnson either has a new strategy to replace the containment of suspected terrorists in this country, or he is prepared to go steaming into a populist challenge to the judiciary... This morning the news has broken that Alan Johnson has released a man from a control order that he's been under ...
Yesterday morning it was revealed that Gordon Brown had vetoed attempts to force Libya to make compensation to IRA victims of Libyan supplied Semtex. Yesterday evening in Berlin he said: "I desperately care about the impact of all IRA atrocities on the victims, their families and communities. "The Libyans have refused to accept a treaty or normal intergovernmental agreement on this issue. "As a result, our judgement has been that the course more likely to bring results is to support the families and their lawyers in their legal representations to the Libyan authorities. "We will appoint dedicated officers in the ...
[IMG: nick-griffin] It's a rare thing indeed for me to praise the BBC, but they are quite right to offer BNP leader Nick Griffin a slot on the Question Time programme. If I were still advising the LibDems, I'd suggest asking the QT team to put Nick Clegg on the same panel. Irrational, populist, dangerous nonsense needs to be taken on and dispelled by the best man we've got - our party leader. The BNP secured about a million votes on June 4th and have two British representatives in the European Parliament. Their case, their arguments and their voters deserve ...
This weekend has been a bit weird. Aside from the major Up of the Cheeky Girls Birthday Bash last night (which was an absolute riot, and I haven't enjoyed myself at work so much for ages) there have been various struggles and crises and injuries and general downery things which have all conspired to make me want to curl up in a ball and cry. However, I am not giving in. There follows, therefore, a list of lovely things which have made me smile today:Miss Holly, who does the bestest hugsCharlie Brooker, who really ought not to read Andrew Hickey's ...
Dear Khalid Mahmood,
