From the BBC: Men working in the UK's financial sector receive five times more in bonus payments than women, according to a survey of 44 leading companies. On average, women earn £2,875 compared with £14,554 for men, the Equality and Human Rights Commission found... One of the main reasons for the vast difference in bonuses is that relatively few women reach the top ranks of financial firms where the biggest rewards are paid. It comes on top of an average difference of 39% between men and women's basic salaries... John Cridland, deputy director general of business group the CBI, said ...
There is much debate regarding whether or not this group should be given a platform on the BBC's Question Time, the fact of the matter is that this party have won seats in Councils across Britain and even have two Members in the European Parliament. I feel this would be an excellent opportunity to expose them for what they really are and place them under national scrutiny, one question for example could be, " Would you really deter asylum seekers heading for Europe by sinking their Boats". Should we ignore them or expose them?
The People's Pint is a campaign launched by CAMRA to promote low alcohol beer. At the big Earls Court beer festival this year CAMRA was show casing a 2.8% beer. The campaign is backed by Alcohol Concern. Today the BMA also launched a campaign to stop alcohol advertising. There is a real problem surrounding the denial that a lot of Brits have about the impact of alcohol. When I was a young lad many folk simply did not accept that it was a drug-and what's more a powerful drug. I like the idea of the People's Pint and I would ...
Well, the 'one a day' plan hasn't gone very well with the hyperposts, has it? In my defence, I'm so ill that I've been to the doctor today, for only the third time in my adult life. I've got 680 words written on Jack Kirby so far, but it's all prelude to the main point ...
I rang Halfords today to ask about hiring one, but was told that it was not thier policy to do so for what sounded like good reasons. So what now. Any ideas? there must be some way of safely transporting visiting children.
I went with John and Alan to meet the owners of Witham House this morning in an effort to find out what their plans are and how long the people of Eaglescliffe will have to wait for a replacement housing scheme. The answer seems to be How long is a piece of string? The housing market isn't strong enough, building costs are high, we need to make some money in order to replenish the coffers
I have been a T-Mobile customer for years and was a One 2 One customer before that. But is has to be admitted: those networks have always been a bit naff. Orange, by contrast, has always been cool. I used to think their The future's bright, the future's Orange commercials would have made wonderful party political broadcasts for the Liberal Democrats. So away with all this concern about the new service's market share. I welcome the merger.
David Cameron has a problem. In a keynote speech today he spelt out today a simple message - that public spending needs to be cut and it needs to be cut now. And he set out some really specific savings, totalling £120 million. His problem is that this year alone the Government estimates that it will need to borrow £175 billion (billion, not million). The £120m he's identified would help pay back 0.07 per cent of what the Government will borrow this year alone. So, £120,000,000 saved, £174,880,000,000 to go. Now, to be fair to Mr Cameron, he did describe the ...
Following the vandalism on Magdalen Green overnight Sunday/Monday, in which heritage-style lamp posts were vandalised, I was in touch yesterday with Tayside Police regarding increased patrolling and with the City Council's Leisure & Communities regarding repairs. An article appeared in today's "Courier" - see http://tinyurl.com/courier080909 - but it was infuriating to see further vandalism last night (see above right, with thanks to Liz Broumley of Friends of Magdalen Green). There's a clear need for further police attention overnight on the Green, something I have raised with our local Inspector. This morning, I attended an informative briefing for councillors by Tayside ...
The British Medical Association is a threat to to our freedom. That's the only conclusion I can come to with the news today that they're seeking a total ban on alcohol advertising. This is an outrageously over the top response to the problems we have in the UK with regard to booze abuse. Let's be clear about this: the doctors want to ban the promotion of a perfectly legal product, enjoyed by millions every day, on the grounds that doing so will somehow reduce the problems of binge drinking and the health problems which result. This is nonsense. If such ...
Yes, the Bob Monkhouse who died in 2003. Fortunately his tweets in answer to the standard Twitter question "What are you doing?" are a little more exciting than "I'm still dead". It's all for charidee - Prostate Research.
I had previously seen gags on internet motivational posters, and I think Have I Got News For You did a gag about the distinctively height lacking French President Nicolas Sarkozy, but today's BBC article about the French government going to extreme lengths to "cover up" the President's shortcomings. Apparently, at a recent factory visit, the people in the official photoshoot were deliberately chosen because they were of either a shorter or similar stature to Mr Sarkozy, which the attached video seems to back up. Apparently Mr Sarkozy is incredibly touchy about his height as well, to the point where the ...
Posted by Chris: There has been much comment on the blogsophere in response to the Daily Telegraph article about the possibility of a quarter of Councils abandoning the traditional election night count in favour of counting votes on the Friday morning. Mark Pack was one of the first to come up with a list of good reasons why we should stick to counting votes as soon as the polls close, whilst Guido Fawkes has been inundated with comments opposing his suggestion that electronic voting would have the whole thing over in a minute or two. The huge increase in postal ...
An image i made relating to the news that Cameron's main focus is cutting the food and drink bill of MP's. Some funny and relevant quotes around this are below: "dodging the tough questions... the Liberal Democrats have proposed not renewing Trident. David Cameron wants to increase the price of salads" - Danny Alexander"Putting up the price of beer in the House of Commons doesn't add up to an economic policy, nor to a sensible fiscal policy" - Alistair Darling
Welcome to Bonkers Hall for the draw for Liberal England's latest prize quiz. This is the fifth quiz this blog has run. In the past we have given you the chance to win the Taking Liberties DVD, Eamonn Butler's The Rotten State of Britain, Patrick Hannan's A Useful Fiction and James Hogg's biography of James Robertson Justice. You don't get that from many other blogs. I had hoped to hold tonight's ceremony in the famous Ballroom at Bonkers Hall, but it turned out that the Oddfellows had already booked it. Instead, we are in Meadowcroft's potting shed, and as he ...
Dr Mark has done a great post on The Wardman Wire today which highlights some fascinating and very telling statistics about how often parliamentary seats have changed hands. For all 4 home countries, here are the stats for how many seats have never changed hands since the end of the Second World War in 1945: England 30%Scotland 19%Wales 33%Overall 29% So almost a third of seats have not changed hands in the 17 general elections we have had since then. Even more shocking though as far as I am concerned are the figures for how many seats have never changed ...
Iain Dale has the results of a ComRes survey of 151 MPs (undertaken back in April-May this year) to find out which journalists and which bloggers they most respect. Here are the findings: [IMG: libblog] Flattered as we are to come in third – and delighted as we are that the blogs which come in first and second are both run by Lib Dems – if there are any Lib Dem MPs reading this post, may we urge you to visit the Lib Dem Blogs aggregator regularly to get an even better idea of the party's blogging talent? I'm sure ...
Having just returned from holiday in sunny Spain, I have a lot of catching up to do – so apologies for the lack of activity here, things should be back to normal in the next few days. As I sat vegetating on my couch this afternoon (recovering from the hell that is a Thomson scheduled flight), I happened across the TV advert for Sky News' petition for a Leaders debate. For years, I have followed the US Presidential Debates and found them a fascinating insight into strengths and weaknesses of potential leaders. It's my belief that this is one of ...
"Once you've seen one financial market crisis...you've seen one financial market crisis." From a guest blog on Econbrowser. No, financial crises are not all the same I enjoyed this Skapinker column because it has such a robust attitude against manufacture-fetishism: "The overwhelming majority of American families already had refrigerators, [cooking] ranges and washers," he wrote. How to persuade them to buy more? By creating "psychological obsolescence", by changing the colours and styling of products to persuade consumers that the ones they had were out of date" That was in 1955. Chris Dillow mentions the same article to suggest that Skapinker's ...
The lanes leading to Bonkers Hall are chocker. The draw will take place later this evening.
It's a bit weird. When I worked for the Liberal Democrats, I got more hostility thrown in my direction online from Conservative than from Labour activists - though plenty from both parties were also a little more grown up [IMG: :-)] - but now I no longer work for the party, I get far more Facebook friend requests etc. from Conservative activists than from Labour ones. Not sure whether or not to welcome that change... Related posts:Which party leads online? Social Media Affairs has just released a report looking at...More Euro troubles for Conservatives as donor backs UKIP Fresh on ...
The BBC has the story here. I can't decide if this is good or bad for consumers. On the plus side existing customers (37% of the mobile market) of T-Mobile and Orange will have much better network coverage. But what does this mean for the future of the market? It can't be good to have one company holding this much power in the market. Anyways, I'm probably just bitter because I switched from T-Mobile to Vodafone and now I get rubbish coverage!
The Independent has the story: The public wants Britain to scrap the Trident nuclear missile system but believes spending on health and education should rise each year, according to a ComRes poll for The Independent. By a margin of 58 to 35 per cent, people believe that the £25bn renewal of the Trident programme should be abandoned because of the state of the public finances. Nick Clegg announced back in June his intention to ask the party conference to rule out like-for-like Trident replacement, arguing that the recession made it unaffordable and the political situation made it unnecessary. The Indy ...
The news that Orange and T-Mobile have agreed merger terms is likely to spark a round of cuts in call charges over the coming year, a good thing, I think. It may also have an impact for local councillors across the country, in that, if they are one company, they won't need to duplicate phone masts. I'm an Orange customer, as their reception in Creeting St Peter is so much better than that of my previous provider, O2. Ironically, though, Ros just switched from T-Mobile to Orange for that reason. One last thought. What colour will the new logo be?... ...
On Saturday afternoon I was exploring Aylestone Meadows - I recommend the teashop at King's Lock. Today comes news from the Leicester Mercury that the incurably Philistine Leicester City Council:wants to build an AstroTurf sports pitch complete with a clubhouse and parking on Aylestone Meadows, in Braunstone Lane East. The area is a haven for wildlife, including otters, badgers, herons, kingfishers, bats and grass snakes, which conservationists say will be killed off if the proposals are given the green light. The structure running across the middle distance in the photograph above is a Medieval packhorse bridge - not something you ...
There's very little that gets my back up more than the cry of "It's traditional". Usually when you look into the subject of such supposedly unanswerable war cries the tradition in question has actually lasted five minutes in historical terms. A case in point is the absolutely ridiculous "Save General Election Night" campaign. One of the arguments put forward by the Tories for this is, as written by Jonathan Isaby: It's a tradition, dammit. The traditional British way of doing elections is to have people come out to vote and then count the ballot papers immediately afterwards. It's how we ...
Given the findings by the EHRC yesterday, which I blogged, I find it deeply unhelpful and pessmistic for Tracy Corrigan to be writing that women "should give the City a miss". She paints the depressing picture of the City businesses, of how women are endangered species, but then says, you know what, because of that, women - just don't bother. How defeatist is that? What we need to do when we find further evidence of inequality as the report did, is promote collective action of women backed by Feminist values of equality to achieve better conditions and pay for women ...
I was going to write about my reasons to keep counting of the General Election votes on a Thursday night last night. However, due to my own local difficulties with Internet I'm now somewhat late to the boat and a little anti-climatic. Therefore, I reckon I've got to make it good. Though I do make a couple of points I don't see made anywhere else down at the bottom if you want to scroll past the impassioned prose of the rest of this. Readers who want to know what Marvin the paranoid android is up to have clearly opened the ...
PoliticsHome has the low-down: Charles Kennedy and Sir Menzies Campbell are the former political 'big beasts' that the public would most like to see more of, according to a new PoliticsHome poll. 1,228 UK adults were shown a list of former political big hitters and asked to tick all of those they would like to see return to prominence. The two former Lib Dem leaders were the most popular choices, with just over a third of people (thirty four per cent) wishing for Kennedy's return, and twenty two per cent backing Campbell. Kennedy was the most popular choice among supporters ...
Hands up all of you who love '60s British films then? Hmm, that's a few of you. YouTube, along with Wikipedia, is the most killer of killer apps ever made for the web, and a random root through at the weekend did not let me down. What a pleasant surprise it was to find a complete copy of über-sixties flick Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush for starters, in which a very young Barry "Upton" Evans tries to lose his cherry to an assortment of typical 60s dolly birds (Judy Geeson, Adrienne Posta, ono) in the then-new Stevenage New ...
Yesterday the refuse workers in Leeds, led by the GMB and UNISON trade unions, went on an indefinite strike and have stopped negotiating with the Council over possible pay and conditions deals. This is the letter that I am sending to the Yorkshire Evening Post about the strike: Dear Sir It is interesting to read how the GMB and UNISON trade unions are dealing with this strike and how the council is responding to them. How can these trade unions expect anyone to have sympathy with their aims when they have pulled out of negotiations with the council 18 months ...
Interesting report on the BBC which shows that economic migration is declining as it adopts a 'circular' pattern. The report by the Migration Policy Institute found that although 1.4 million East Europeans moved to the UK between 1995 and 2008 as many as half have now returned. The so-called A8 countries; Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, ...
Well, almost. But those were the two words which leaped out from the screen when I saw this headline on the Mail's website: To speak to a human being when you phone customer services... vote LibDem Here's the story: Calls to all customer service numbers should be free with the option of speaking to a real person rather than a computer under a new universal service code. The plan has been devised by the Lib-Dems who are calling for a change to the balance of power between the public and the government, councils and big corporations. The Universal Service code ...
Okay so, people seem curious about Conference so I thought I'd fill people in - I won't be attending the full conference, but I will be blogging while I'm there. I'll be traveling down on the Sunday, hopefully arriving in time for the Lib Dem Voice party, where I'll drown my 'And The Winner Is.. Mark Reckons' related sorrows in copious amounts of 'hey i'm not driving! yay!' alcohol. Next day I'll be staggering round the Conference centre in a hungover state and will attempt to write about what I find, so lots of meta conferencing going on there. In ...
I spent this afternoon at the Technium OpTIC in St. Asaph looking at the innovative ways that North Wales Universities are working with educational institutions in London, Cambridge, and the United States and with the Welsh Assembly Government to turn intellectual and academic advances into commercial applications. The first thing that strikes you as you approach the Technium is the huge curved solar panel that dominates most of the front of the building. It is the largest in Europe and can be seen at the right of the photo. I then had a fascinating two and a half hours exploring ...
"Won't anyone think of the adults?" First they came for the cigarette advertising and sponsorship. "Because it is unhealthy" they said. "Because it attracts children" they said. but I didn't mind as I don't smoke or watch F1 racing, even though I am an adult. Then they came for the alcohol advertising and sponsorship "Because it is unhealthy" they said. "Because it attracts children" they said. and I did mind because I like a drink occasionally because I am an adult. Then they came for the chocolate advertising and sponsorship "Because it is unhealthy" they said. "Because it attracts children" ...
After the blood, the sweat and the tears, Liberal Youth have a new web-site out today. The reactions across the Internet have so far have been very positive positive. Martin Tod describes it as a 'big improvement'. Chris Lovell calls it 'actually quite good'. One facebook fan even described it as "miles better than not only the old Liberal Youth site, but the main party site as well" Many thanks to Chris Keating for his blog post, which was the third highest referring site after facebook and Twitter. What are thoughts?
Tue 8th
16:43
The Liberal Democrats have proposed not renewing Trident. David Cameron wants to increase the price ...
I know several people have already blogged about Dave's exciting proposals (!) but I just wanted to applaud the utterly genius set of quotes from Danny Alexander. I also liked: "While it's nice to finally have some concrete proposals from the Conservatives, at this rate it would take them several centuries to balance the books" More like this please!
Rumours are abound in France that President Nicolas Sarkozy's aides are choosing people shorter than his 5′5" stature to stand behind him on photoshoots and make him look taller. As Putin tried in vain to look young and virile in photoshoots, Sarkozy has tried in vain to look taller. Both have ended up jusy looking silly. Both need to play the cards they were genetically dealt with and "get over it!" Coincidentally I am also 5′5" but have no need for recruiting short people to stand around me. Saying that, my wife is 5′1". Source: BBC News [IMG: Share/Save/Bookmark]
The petition to pardon Alan Turing on the Number 10 website now has over 30,000 signatures. Turing was a computing genius who helped the war effort in Bletchley Park. However after the war Turing was imprisoned for homosexuality, was ostracised by society and eventually committed suicide. Turing was a national hero and the government should pardon him straignt away. It is the least they can do to recognise his work.
Cross-posted from The Wardman Wire: A major part of the point of a democratic electoral system is that those elected to public office can be held to account by the public for their actions. The anger we often see over the behaviour of MPs – whether on matters of policy (such as the Iraq war) or on matters of probity (such as MPs' expenses) – is often aggravated by an underlying lack of belief that MPs will in the normal course of events get held accountable for their actions. Hence the paucity of comments along the lines of "I can't ...
The collective orgasm from the right-wing blogosphere that has greeted David Cameron's announcments today to reduce the cost of politics has been a sight to behold. There seems to be much glee regarding the proposals, especially those regarding reducing the number of MPs from the soon to be total of 650 to around 585. Now I have a problem with this anyway because it is part of Cameron's attempt he has discussed previously to "rebalance" the bias of the system back towards the Tories and away from Labour. They portray this as fair, completely ignoring the fact that the First ...
The SNP unveiled their legislative programme for the new Parliament last week and, to be honest, it seems rather bland. I know I'm coming late to this, but I wanted to throw my tuppenceworth in on the referendum on independence question. Firstly, I suppose we should be grateful that they are actually having a referendum - the alternative, where they just declare us independent 1776 style is not in any way attractive. Seriously, though, while nobody has ever, ever said to me on any doorstep that they're desperate to be asked for their views on independence, I expect that if ...
Tuesday: What IS it about the new Mr Speaker, Mr John Cashcow, that makes swivel-eyed right-wingers pop their upper head-gaskets? First there's the news that Mr Nigel Farrago (supported by Mr Tim Montgomery of the Conservatory Continuity IDS) will be quitting as leader of the UKPnuts Party in order to spend more time campaigning to get Mr Speaker Cashcow's job as MP for Buckingham. Now we hear that Mr Balloon has replaced Shadow Loss-Leader of the House Mr Alan Duncan-Donuts with a duffer who very much campaigned to get Mr Speaker Cashcow's job as Speaker, Mr Sir George Old. Now, ...
A lot of answers to the questions that surround David Cameron can be found in the fact that he apparently likes a pint of Australian lager.
Today, David Cameron has sent a message to supporters saying he believes we need to cut the cost of politics David Cameron has given a major speech today, setting out how a Conservative Government will cut the cost of politics. "If we're going to take our country through these difficult times", he said, "those who lead must lead by powerful example. That means getting our own house in order and cutting the cost of politics". He outlined several ways of doing this, including cutting the number of MPs, cutting their perks and subsidies, and cutting ministerial salaries and their cars. ...
Sara Bedford asks a good question today: "Is the Daily Mail guilty of a contempt of court?". She noticed on their website a story about the "Torture Brothers" case that a court illustration had a caption which included the surname of the boys. She has a screen capture of it with the surname blanked out to illustrate what she saw (see right). The offending page has been taken down and as far as I can tell any google cache references to it have also been cleared - I guess The Mail asked them to wipe their caches when they realised ...
Rhodri Morgan may not be saying anything about when he's stepping down, but he hasn't been totally silent of late. In particular, his interview in the Welsh learner's magazine Lingo Newydd was quite interesting for those (myself included) for whom Rhodri is also our Assembly Member; Interviewer: Ble 'dych chi'n byw? Rhodri: Dwi'n byw yn yr ardal Gorllewin Caerdydd. Fi ydy'r Aelod Cynulliad yr ardal. I'm reliably informed that this translates as; Interviewer: Where do you live? Rhodri : I live in the Cardiff West area. I am the Assembly Member for the area. Which is odd, because as any ...
David Cameron's speech today contains two pledges on public expenditure which are likely to meet with widespread approval across the political spectrum. Abolishing the Standards Board for England and cutting back on the Electoral Commission are policies by no means unique to Cameron - indeed the Liberal Democrats have made much of the running on the Standards Board for England question - but his clear statements are significant for the future of both: We have also said we will scrap the Standards Board for England. This is the body that judges the performance of Councils and Councillors. That's what the ...
• Keep it really short. Aim for less than 150 words. • Focus on the subject and first lines- which are the only things people will see if they are using Outlook. This is often where emails get pruned. • Incorporate email collection into everything you do - petitions, events, anything you can think of. Building a good email database is difficult - but the payoffs are great. • Ask people to do you a favour. People read their emails because they are interested in what you're doing. They will actually do you a favour without incentives. • Don't create ...
The obvious lack of substance in Cameron's speach this morning will have done nothing to persuade the doubters in his own party and in the country at large. I was quite taken with Danny Alexander's rejoinder quoted on Libdem Voice: There is a good argument to be made for cutting the cost of politics, the Liberal Democrats have proposed reducing the number of MPs by 150, but if the Conservatives seriously hope to convince people they are fit to govern it is time they stopped dodging the tough questions. The Liberal Democrats have proposed not renewing Trident, David Cameron wants ...
Time for a break from writing about politics today as reading Andrew Hickey's series of posts on hypertime, canon and all other sorts of marvels reminded me of a long post I'd written on a Doctor Who forum a few months ago. So, if you're not interested in some extremely fanwanky thoughts about the deeper metaphysical structure of the Doctor Who universe, look away now... Of course, when I say 'explain the Time War', I mean explaining the version of it that exists in my head – your version will no doubt vary wildly, which is Right and Proper and ...
David Cameron is talking this lunchtime, the news tells us, of his plans to reform Parliament by removing subsidised meals and shaving 5% off the pay of ministers. Danny Alexander MP, Chief of Staff to the Leader of the Liberal Democrats is a) unimpressed and b) unfamiliar with the concept of run-on sentences: There is a good argument to be made for cutting the cost of politics, the Liberal Democrats have proposed reducing the number of MPs by 150, but if the Conservatives seriously hope to convince people they are fit to govern it is time they stopped dodging the ...
If this story is true it's quite serious. The phrase that really sends shivers down my spine is "for the benefit of the party". Just sounds a bit '1984'! All parties have been invloved in postal vote fraud in the past. This system must be changed. It's far too open to fraud.
From James Bulger to Baby P and on to the Edlington brothers, nothing excites the Daily Mail as much as the 'evil scum' who harm our children. The hysteria spread by the paper has the effect of spreading unwarranted fear, demonising young people and lessening the freedoms both parents and the state allow to our ...
In a completely transparent attempt to seize the 'moral highground' David Cameron has declared that Tory ministers will cut their own wages by 5% if they form the next government. This will save the taxpayer between £4,000 and £6,000 a year per minister. Sounds all very laudable unless like Mr. Hague you are taking home the following: HAGUE, Rt. Hon. William (Richmond (Yorks) 1. Remunerated directorships AES SEAL Plc, Global Technology Centre, Mill Close, Bradmarsh Business Park, Rotherham S60 1BZ; specialists in the design and manufacture of mechanical seals and support systems. £2,083 for serving on the board. Hours: 3hrs. ...
Any political activist will wax lyrical about the various joys of Election Night. Nothing beats being with the friends and colleagues you've been slogging your guts out with as the results come in overnight. The excitement of victory, the disappointemnt of defeat, all enhanced by the surreality of total exhaustion. Most activists at an election count, which starts at 10pm when the polls closed, will have been up delivering leaflets at the crack of dawn. They will have been on the go all day, stopping only briefly for refreshment. Despite every part of their body aching, the adrenaline keeps them ...
Today I drove towards Oxford after 9am and found myself stuck in a minor traffic jam on the A40. This is not unheard of as the A40 is extremely busy between Witney and Oxford and there are regular hold ups for a variety of reasons, normally simple weight of traffic. How fortunate I was this morning to see the newly installed County Council road sign giving me up to the minute traffic information about this problem. I was helpfully informed that the St Giles' Fair was going on in Oxford and that this could lead to congestion in the city. ...
As fellow Lib Dems will know by now, the publication of Mark Oaten's book has been brought forward so that it will now be in print just before the start of Lib Dem conference in a couple of weeks. I can exclusively reveal the contents of the book. Ok - one small anecdote. And that concerns my part in the Winchester by-election in 1997. As many will know, Mark won the General Election contest in 1997 by just two votes. The Conservatives wouldn't accept the result and challenged it in the High Court. The judge decided (in my opinion utterly ...
Anyone who is disabled, may become disabled, has a disabled relative or just believes that disabled people have rights too should read this. Hat tip: Matt Wardman
A new survey reported on the BBC claims that teachers can identify which children are likely to be the naughtiest purely by their name. The claim is that children called Chardonnay, Callum, Connor, Charlie, Chelsea, Casey and Crystal are among the naughtiest. Just to redress the 'C' balance, Christopher and Charlotte are among the brightest children according to another question in the same survey. Is it just me, or does this look it might be a bit of a class thing? (Alexander also came out in the brainiest category)
Posted below is a note about a clean up of the shoreline organised by the Liverpool Sailing Club. I don't have any further details but there is an e mail contact below. Riverside clean up Liverpool Sailing Club is organising a big shoreline clean up from the sailing clubin Speke up to Hale. It is to celebrate the cleaning up of the river Mersey and the imminent end of the Mersey Basin Campaign which has facilitated that clean up, to celebrate Liverpool's Year of the Environment and also taking part in Mersey Basin Week. The date is Friday 2nd October. ...
[IMG: big-brother] On Sunday, Matthew Elliott of the TaxPayers' Alliance announced the upcoming launch of 'Big Brother Watch' - a new campaigning group for civil liberties and personal freedom. Big Brother Watch will be built along the same lines as the TPA. There has been some great work done in this field already by groups such as Liberty and No2ID, but we believe there is a niche to be filled. In the same manner in which the TPA has pioneered the use of the Freedom of Information Act to bring transparency to government spending and expose the full horrors of ...
This week, I'm full of construction waste. Maybe they were taking apart the translation office at the Commission. I'm just a skip though, so how would I know? I wonder what I'll be full of next week. [IMG: The Assembly Skip] The Assembly Skip No related posts.
Here's a handy hint if you live near the conference centre in Bournemouth: you do not need to be a registered delegate to attend many of the fringe and training events. The "Access" rules as set out in the Conference Directory (available for download here) say: Access to all areas of the Bournemouth International Centre (BIC) is possible only with a valid, visible conference photo pass worn with the official lanyard. You will be asked to show your pass when you enter the BIC and you are required to wear the pass with the lanyard visible at all times within ...
According to WRAP, the government's environmental pressure group, we throw away 20 million tonnes of waste food every year, including a huge 3 million tonnes from restaurants alone. Many of us will have encountered the lovely meal that's just too big to finish, yet how many have asked the waiter to 'wrap it' as our Transatlantic ...
As the world's focus is on Afghanistan, another election has taken place and this too seems to be mired in fraud accusations. In Gabon, Ali Ben Bongo has won an election - allegedly with the support for the French to help rig the poll. Mr Bongo's father, Omar, ruled the former French colony for more than four decades. Now President Sarkozy has come down behind the new President Bongo sending a letter of congratulations - a letter which President Bongo is now using to authenticate his victory.
When I heard that there was to be a new Liberal Youth website launched, I have to say that I wasn't that excited. Liberal Youth has been let down so many times on its website over the last few years that I just wasn't really expecting very much. However the new website actually seems quite good. The big challenge for the exec is to make sure it is regularly updated, especially before the general election. But so far, so good.
As Kirsty mentioned in her piece yesterday, she's begun a series of Town Hall meetings across Wales. The first was held in Carmarthen and you can watch excerpts from it below or catch up on the Welsh Lib Dems Youtube Channel, WelshLibDemTV The next meeting will be on the 17th September at Pontypridd Rugby club at 7pm. More details on the flyer below. [IMG: pontytownhall] Hope to see you there. No related posts.
Politics Home has this poll on politicians that people would most like to see more of; the good news is that the poll is topped by two Liberal Democrats; 34% wanted to see more of Charles Kennedy and 22% of Sir Menzies Campbell. Both were overwhelmingly popular amongst Lib Dems with 64% wanting to see ...
If you'd like to get out and about this autumn, there is a range of fun and often free events being run by South Gloucestershire Council with local organisations and community groups. Whether you fancy bat detecting, making apply juice or foraging for fungi, you can find out more in this online leaflet.
The last couple of weeks has seen the worst health I've had for a while, hence the very light blogging. I'm glad to see, however, that Stephen has been keeping us all challenged and entertained with some excellent stuff - getting into the Daley Dozen two days in a row is quite an achievement. Being recognised by one of the UK's top bloggers as having produced one of the best blog postings that day is quite something. Also, I hope that Jennie's recent spate of postings means she's back to blogging regularly. I've missed her and her posts really cheered ...
Good news for the Lib Dem's with a PoliticsHome poll showing that Charles Kennedy and Sir Menzies Campbell are the two political heavyweights most missed by the public. This does lead to the question of why don't more of the public vote for us when our politcal figures have a great deal of respect. But then it also leads back to the route cause of the problem - the unequal voting system. This is encouraging news for us, and shows that if only we had a more equal electoral system, we would do a lot better. Anyway, short but sweet ...
In Mexico: The Mexican government has enacted a law decriminalising the possession of small amounts of drugs, including cocaine and heroin. Mexican prosecutors say the move does not amount to legalisation. They say it is designed to prevent corrupt police from seeking bribes from small-time drug users, and to encourage addicts to seek treatment. (BBC) In Argentina: Argentina's Supreme Court on Tuesday decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use, tossing out tough provincial drug laws whose penalties it deemed unconstitutional. The high court ruling protects "the privacy of adults who are responsible for their own conduct," ...
Here it is - the long-awaited Liberal Youth website. Looks damn good to me. It's attractive and it's clearly focused on the messages the organization wants to communicate. I'm going to avoid the temptation to compare it to all the other websites, past and present, that it's better than. mumble mumble vile 60s horror mumble mumble most local websites by any party mumble mumble. It's not very often I say this, but well done Liberal Youth!
A lot of fluster in the political blogosphere about an apparent plan by some councils to move their general election count from the Thursday night to Friday morning. Jonathan Isaby, Mark Pack, Iain Dale and others are campaigning under the banner of 'Save General Election Night'. On balance, I agree. But I can't let some of the proponents of this campaign get away with some of the statements they are making: - 'It's tradition dammit'. Well, only up to a point. There are many councils which have only very recently come over to the idea of counting on the Thursday ...
John Hemming MP, Chairman of Justice for Families, has struck out at MartinNarey for his suggestion that more babies should be taken into care and that more adoptions is the solution to prevent situations like that in Edlington."Martin Narey demonstrates a lack of knowledge of the stastical realitiesas to what has happening in England. The number of babies taken into careunder 1 month has
We've just had an opinion piece published in the Wall Street Journal based on our recent paper on a common eurozone bond. We propose the eurozone should issue joint bonds - which investors would demand a lower interest rate or 'yield' for - to help countries struggling with high debts after the crisis get access to cheaper financing. But to prevent the obvious moral hazard problem, where governments would be tempted to issue a lot more debt to take advantage of cheaper borrowing, we propose that governments should only be able to issue joint debt if their total debt stocks ...
From today's Metro, on the conviction of three men on terrorism charges: "It is standard procedure now for large-scale investigations to follow the evidence," the [police] source added. So, previously procedure was...? Related posts:What powers do the police have to stop you taking photographs? The Voice has covered various stories about people being questioned...Police investigate Tory councillor after comments broadcast on YouTube The Leicester Mercury reports: Police are investigating remarks made by...Police change their tune on G20 CCTV coverage Regarding the death of Ian Tomlinson during the G20 protests,...
It has to be taken into account the question of whether Sir George Young's appointment to take over Alan Duncan, where he will have an immediate effect on the expenses rules and the like, is a bid to unseat Bercow in the long run. We all know the stories around the Tories dislike of Bercow and how more than half of their core supporters would rather support UKIP's Nigel Farage than vote for Bercow. Sir George Young was the Tories preferred candidate to replace the previous Speaker, Michael Martin. Maybe the Tories want to off seat some of Bercow's role ...
[IMG: chris-evans-and-wogan] The BBC (which seems to have even less of a finger on the pulse of the nation than our Prime Minister ....if that is actually possible) seems to have gone and done it again. Let me give you a bit of background..... Radio 2's remit is to cater for those aged 35 and older. Now, Radio 2 has been under considerable fire recently for chasing younger audiences. RadioCentre, (a group representing the BBC's commercial rivals) has already made a formal complaint to the corporation's internal watchdog that listeners aged 15 to 34, represent the fastest-growing group of Radio ...
Inspirational Gareth Malone and his latest choral venture feature on TV tonight at 9:00 on BBC 2. If you want to know what's terrific about choral singing follow this series.
Katie Price is something of a cultural phenomenon. She has distorted her body to turn herself into a brand: "Jordan". Her past as "glamour model" - there is a piece of newspeak for sordid pornographic model- has given her an entry into the basement of celebrity. Since then, she has parlayed her fifteen minutes of fame into a certain ubiquity, and now even the so-called serious press in the UK feels obliged to report her affairs. The latest is the breakdown of her marriage to one-hit wonder himbo, Peter Andre. As the squabbling couple fight their battles on the pages ...
An interesting post yesterday from promising young Leeds-based blogger Chris Lovell. Citing Mark Pack's pop-fact that there are now more Facebook users than voters needed to win a General Election, Chris discusses some of the issues. "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." Chris is right...up to a point. Certainly technology will have a greater ...
This week at Suz Blog.
I'm currently having Internet connectivity issues which appear to be network related rather than at my end. I'm hoping normal service will be resumed shortly.
From the Evening Standard: Police are investigating allegations of postal vote fraud by a London activist linked to one of Labour's highest-profile parliamentary candidates. The Met is examining an email in which Anisur Rahman, a Labour branch secretary in Tower Hamlets, admits "helping" a dozen voters fill in postal vote forms for the European elections. Mr Rahman then told Rushanara Ali, who will become Britain's first Bangladeshi MP if she is elected in Bethnal Green and Bow, that he was encouraging other activists to do likewise "for the benefit of the party". Electoral Commission guidelines ban activists from helping voters ...
"At last!", I hear you all cheer. Good news, my friends, the Monster's Poll is back. Just a shame that barely anything has happened since the last time we examined the polling... On July 21, the last time I crunched the numbers, the position of the parties in accordance with our methodology was: Conservatives: 39% Lib Dems: 25% Labour: 18% And ...
The New Statesman blog has an interesting piece on an announcement by Trevor Phillips, the Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission that 'there will be new work on .... hate crime against learning-disabled people, religion and belief, and age discrimination.' The author wonders what is afoot: 'The problem is that the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006 already goes considerably further than that in its references to "threatening" words, behaviour, written material and public performance of a play. As Liberty warned at the time: "Criminalising even the most unpalatable, illiberal and offensive speech should be approached with grave ...
The BBC report on figures unearthed by the Welsh Tories that show that the number of miles covered in official cars by Welsh Assembly Government ministers almost doubled in a year. The total of 214,376 is almost equal to the distance from the earth to the Moon. This mileage is the equivalent of 4,100 miles a week. The figures show that ministers have covered more than 741,000 miles in official cars since 2005. In the light of the One Wales' Government's commitment to reduce car journeys and promote a greener lifestyle these figures will prove quite embarrasing for them. The ...
Last month, I wondered how long Alan Duncan had in his job as Shadow Leader of the House, after complaining that MPs were "living on rations", well it seems that he has been "demoted". Ah but he still has a job, unlike many of his constituents in the ...
[IMG: comres-logo] ComRes have us at 21%, with Labour at 24%. After a mildly disappointing set of polls with us back in the c.17% zone, this poll again opens the prospect of the LibDems coming second in vote share in 2010. As I've argued before, this is a long shot. But were we to achieve such a result, it would be far, far more significant than whether we win an extra few target seats. This means the "air war" is becoming increasingly significant, and the "ground war" less so.
I have argued the case for dropping Trident all together for quite some time now. I don't know why the Lib Dem's want to have a cheaper alternative when it goes against our vision of a fairer and safer society. Anyway, I hope that the ComRes poll today, which showed how 58% of the public want to scrap the Trident scheme will provide them with a bit more confidence so they can be the first to say, you know what, we don't need an alternative, it is economically and morally corrupt - just forget it all together and start thinking ...
This blog's latest prize quiz has now closed. Thank you to everyone who entered. The two winners will be drawn at Bonkers Hall this evening.
You may recall that just a few days ago there were concerns about the low turnout in some areas of Afghanistan, for their presidential elections. Of particular concern was the Babaji district of Helmand province. "Operation Panther's claw" was launched in Helmand in June, with a primary aim to make the area safe for voters. Twenty-two British servicemen have lost their lives in that operation, ten of them in the Babaji district, where it appears that 150 people cast votes, out of an eligible population of 55 thousand. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8223722.stm However, it may be that concern was misplaced, since other ...
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaant... That is all. * Sotto voce muttering about Lovefilm tempting her with offers * This blog is proudly sponsored by
