Earlier I tweeted something about looking fat on the video with Cleggy. This prompted a deluge of people telling me I wasn't fat, that the world was a scary place if I was having self esteem problems, that everything was OK... So here are my vital statistics, as of about 30 seconds ago:Height: 5 foot 2 - 62 inches, 157.5 cm Weight: exactly 13 stone - 182 pounds or 82.5 kilograms Chest: 42.5 inches - 108 cm Waist: 34 inches - 86.4 cm Arse: 46.5 inches - 118 cm Inside leg: 28.5 inches - 72.39 Clothes size: 18 (UK) 16 ...
Just back from a Deputy Mayoral do at All Saints' Church in Elland. A local artist, from Holmfirth, is having an exhibition of Angels in Art through the Ages. It was absolutely fantastic to absorb the history, splendour, and atmosphere of this ...
James won the BOTY for the best posting. For those of you of a sensitive disposition, I should warn that this clip contains 'adult' language...
[IMG: 3948127399_7db3c916fb] Sorry for the slight hiatus on the Blog - I'm feeling tired but inspired after an excellent few days spent by the sea in sunny Bournemouth. Personal highlights for me at this year's Conference included: Speaking in a debate on the Conference floor in support of a motion calling for urgent action to tackle youth unemployment - something I have been campaigning on throughout the Summer in Reading. Being nominated for an award by an expert panel of senior Lib Dem campaigners for my private rented housing e-campaign (I lost out to Jo Swinson MP - the first MP to tweet from ...
[IMG: jane-ellison] Jane Ellison is my Conservative PPC in the uber-marginal seat of Battersea (Labour majority 164) If the Tories don't win here, Gordon Brown will have been re-elected - probably with an increased Parliamentary majority. So, I read Ms. Ellison's "Reporting Back" leaflet with interest. In some ways, it's a great mimick of LibDemmery. There's all sorts of pictures of Jane at all sorts of civic functions. She helpfully tells us that the leaflet was paid for and distributed by Tory volunteers (is Michael Ashcroft a volunteer?) Painfully, there's a list of helplines on the inside front panel of ...
We were in Bournemouth Tuesday night and Wednesday for the LibDem Party Conference. I spoke at a fringe meeting on Afghanistan, where a vociferour minority were in favour of immediate withdrawal. I tried to outline the consequences: an extremist government in Kabul, and probably in Islamabad as well. Taliban with nuclear arsenal? No thanks. In the afternoon, John Alderdyce, President of the Liberal International, presented me with the LI Freedom Prize again, in the conference hall. Yesterday evening, attended the launch of Shirley Williams' autobiography Climbing the Bookshelves, at the National Liberal Club. She is a wonderful friend, and I ...
Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council is welcoming the Northern Dales Farmers' Market to Redcar High Street, for the final time in 2009 on Thursday 1st October. The market will be open between 9am and 4pm, there will be a range of high quality, locally produced products including pork, beef, lamb, pies, vegetables, herbs and plants.
This is hilarious. In a few seconds you can see 130 photographs of Obama meeting world leaders at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. He looks precisely the same in each one. Spooky! Barack Obama's amazingly consistent smile from Eric Spiegelman on Vimeo.
The leader of the Conservative opposition here in Sutton, Paul Scully, has published a report on his blog presenting his analysis of the state of the council in Sutton and presenting the Tories' proposals to fix the ills he has identified. I found it interesting reading and I offer up my initial observations on the ...
A pleasantly empty diary this morning allowed me to catch up on some of the things which haven't been done recently. Cancelled meetings do give these opportunities, though they also bring problems of course.This afternoon I had the pre-meeting briefing session with transport engineers to discuss the issues for next week's Area Transport Strategy meeting. I'd hoped that we'd have some local
Watching 'The One Show' on BBC tonight it was interesting to see the article about beggars and the evidence that they do not earn a good living from begging on the streets of our towns and cities. One of the myths put around in the late 80s and early 90s by the tabloids was that beggars earn £200-£300 a day, but that clearly is not the case. However, the programme did make me think about my own attitude to beggars, particularly in the light of the advice from homeless charities on the show who all advised people never to give ...
I recently uploaded Helen Reddy - I Can't Say Goodbye To You - to the blog and what a superb reaction! So, here's another Helen Reddy classic!
Obviously, the main thing of interest to cycling fans like me in this story is the rather large hint that Bradley Wiggins appears to be dropping about moving to Team Sky next year. (For those of you who have missed the details, it goes like this: British Cycling/Team Sky have announced about 2/3rds of their riders for next year, and it's already a pretty strong line-up but without a team leader/yellow jersey contender. As Britain's most successful Tour rider, Bradley Wiggins is the obvious choice for that role, but he's under contract to Garmin-Slipstream for 2010. However, rumours suggest that ...
In recent days we may have inadvertently given the impression that we do not have the highest regard for John Harris as a journalist. Headlines such as John Harris was a teenage Labour hack may have contributed to this unfortunate and unintended state of affairs. We are happy to make it clear that we regard Mr Harris as quite simply the finest writer of his generation. Take, for instance, this passage from his contribution to the Guardian's Good conference, bad conference feature on the Lib Dems at Bournemouth: Hats off to ... the brilliantly idiosyncratic folks gathered around the ginger ...
I got news not from the Daily Prophet but Muggle.Net that a certain someone was starting to Tweet. Less than 10 minutes ago I became JK Rowling's 4458th follower on Twitter, however we noticed that her followers were growing fast. I guessed she would pass through the 5000 mark within 10 minutes by 19:48. I was wrong she made it at 19:43 and I managed to capture the moment for posterity*. With the time now 19:52 she has 5,547, she's getting approximately 100 followers a minute at the moment. * I'm quite good at guessing these things, but at the ...
It takes more than a failure to attend the Conference to stop me writing for Liberal Democrat News. This column appears to today's issue. Calder not at Conference Party leaders used to warn their members against passing outlandish policies at Conference because "the world is watching us". In the case of the Liberal Party and then the Liberal Democrats, it generally turned out that the world had better things to do. Which was odd. Because my first political memories come from the days when the BBC cleared its daytime schedules to bring the nation uninterrupted coverage of the party conferences. ...
[IMG: Hornsey Hospital opening ceremony] Second happy occasion of the day - the official opening of Hornsey Central Community Health Centre! Given it must be about ten years since the local LibDems joined local residents campaigning against the closure of the old hospital - and campaigned continually for a new health facility on this site - today was a very special and happy day. The new centre is fantastic - and whilst there are still issues about transport to and from - this is the state of the art sort of community health facility that we so badly need in ...
[IMG: Lynne Featherstone waxing Steve Kalli's legs at Barclays Muswell Hill] Hilarious! And for a good cause. Pitched up to Barclays in Muswell Hill to wax the well-tanned and pretty hairy legs of Steve Kalli, Area Director for Barclays North London. This is all in aid of the World's Biggest Coffee Morning in support of Macmillan Nurses. And that is a cause that is so worthwhile. Macmillan nurses came to my sister's house for the last two days of our mother's life - and like everyone who has the benefit of their presence - I am indebted and a complete ...
The 2010 Friends of Magdalen Green Calendars are back from the printer and look beautiful - the winning photos this year are exceptionally good. I was lucky enough to get an "advance buy" of two of them yesterday to go in my home office and my office at Tayside House. If you go to http://tinyurl.com/maggrncalendar you can see the names of the winners whose photographs are used in Calendar 2010! (Or click on headline to view) The calendars will go on sale in the next few days, both from us via our website at www.magdalengreen.btik.com and in some of the ...
Having been on holiday recently, I missed my usual daily fix of LibDem Voice, at www.libdemvoice.org, so until today hadn't actually realised that I was within the 5 blogs shortlisted for the Blog of the Year award in the "Best Blog from a LibDem holding public office" category (the Tim Garden Award). OK, I didn't win! But it has been a rather good year, having been included in Total Politics' Top 50 Scottish Blogs, Top 75 LibDem Blogs and being top LibDem Blog in their Top 30 Councillor Blogs! The competition for the Best Blog from a Liberal Democrat holding ...
5 most-read stories on LDV this week 1. Cabinet Office: correspondence chaos (14) by Mark Pack 2. Conference fringe: Defending free speech - keep libel laws out of science (28) by Prateek Buch 3. Nick Clegg's conference speech, the live-blog #ldconf (10) by Stephen Tall 4. The Independent View: Time to be honest about English matters (31) by David Rickard 5. Blog of the Year Awards 2009: The Winners (6) by Helen Duffett 5 top #ldconf Lib Dem Tweeters (Hat-tip: Stephen Glenn) 1. Caron Lindsay 86 2. Cllr Daisy Benson 72 3. LibDemConf 70 4. Anna Pascoe 65 5. Stephen ...
The Office of Fair Trading have charged million pound fines to a number of construction firms for secretly fixing bids for contracts building contracts. As report here on Bracknell Blog we have been very concerned with the high cost of works and service charges to residents in flats. This involved cover pricing where the companies secretly work together to raise prices. One of the companies will table an artificially high bid for work so the other company can then offer a lower bid price. This lower bid will look more favourable but it will be much more than the actual ...
When Sky News asked me the question... you know the one? The only question journalists ever ask Lib Dems. No? Okay, here's a reminder: Will the Lib Dems support Labour or the Conservatives in the event of a hung parliament? Yes, that question. I admit I fluffed it: Well.. that's the question isn't it? It's hard to get anyone to ask us any other question. I'm on record as saying I couldn't support a Liberal Democrat Party that propped up this Labour Government, and Nick's on record as ruling that out. Funnily enough, when preparing for the programme, it never ...
[IMG: greg-dyke] Back from Bournemouth, and having caught up on my much-needed sleep and given myself time to reflect on the events of the week, my first offering (hopefully not my last, but we'll see) is this. Get Greg Dyke involved in Lib Dem policy on constitutional and democratic reform NOW ! If not spokesman then roving ambassador/tzar /advisor ...something... Please. Having listened to him speak at the Liberal Vision Fringe meeting "Moats, Mortgages and Mayhem" he is clearly not only one of the most eloquent speakers on the subject - but one of the most passionate. HE JUST GETS ...
A few passers-by have commented on the colour scheme I use for my blog. Feedback has ranged from "beautiful colours" to "it has given me epilepsy".So what do you think? A poll has popped up in the right-hand column of this page. Let me know what you think.If the consensus is it needs changing, then I'll have another look at it at some point.So what are you waiting for? Get voting!...and feel free
Conservative future in Leeds have been giving out plastic bags at both Leeds Met and Leeds University freshers fairs. It seems from reports from other fairs that they may be doing the same all over the country. Doesn't seem particularly green to me! Was having a chat with them about it at Leeds Met today and apparently they are 'bags for life' so thats ok. Doesn't strike me that a party who take their green credentials particularly seriously!
This report from NHS West Midlands shows that the rate of new cases of swine flu has begun to increase across the region. Information provided indicates current impact on the local services.Key MessagesAcross the West Midlands there has been an increase in patients presenting at primary care centres with influenza-like symptoms. This is not impacting on normal service delivery and there has not
No. It was British. New revelations have emerged today that the 'mole' responsible for leaking the Parliamentary expenses documents did it because he was motivated by an anger over treatment of the Armed Forces. Some people may now argue that in trying to force the Government's hand to better equipment provisions for the forces, the 'mole' has actually weakened their position in theatre as a result of our political leadership being degraded at home. However, I do not associate myself with this opinion. The individual did an incredible public service by leaking the documents. If I was in such a ...
Donning the hat of his day-job, LDV's Dr Mark Pack has been busy number-crunching to discover which of the Lib Dem shadow cabinet attracted most media coverage, in print and online. (Of course, column inches is no guarantee that the coverage will have been altogether positive). Here's the top 10: 1. Nick Clegg 2. Vince Cable 3. Chris Huhne 4. Steve Webb 5. Danny Alexander 6. Edward Davey 7. Sarah Teather 8. Tim Farron 9. Julia Goldsworthy 10. Alistair Carmichael 11. Norman Baker 12. David Laws 13. Lynne Featherstone 14. David Howarth 15. Norman Lamb Here's Dr Pack's commentary: There ...
The 'Vote For A Change' campaign is writing to David Cameron asking him to support a referendum on electoral reform. Cameron supports the existing first-past-the-post system, however reformers (like me) argue that this system doesn't properly represent the will of the electorate. The graphic shows the result of the 2005 general election was distorted by first-past-the-post. Labour gained far more
A month ago, Lib Dem Voice set up a new poll for readers asking the simple question, MPs are currently paid £65k per annum. Do you think they should be paid more than this, the same, or less in the future? Here's what you told us: 44% (234 votes) – More than £65k 35% (187) – The same as now 21% (115) – Less than £65k Total Votes: 536. Poll ran 24 Aug – 13 Sept 2009. A plurality of LDV readers – who, of course, may or may not be representative of Lib Dem voters – believe our MPs ...
That was Matthew Oakeshott's response to the Conservative leader's assertion that you couldn't get a cigarette paper between our policies. Tony Greaves picked up a Guardian leader on the same subject: "You are right to suggest that David Cameron is a 'false friend' (Editorial, 21 September). His suggestion that the Liberal Democrats should join with the Tories to create a 'national movement' is as ridiculous as it is sinister-sounding. But it's a significant moment, because it suggests the Tories have given up hope of winning lots of Liberal Democrat seats at the general election, and are now frightened they won't ...
There was great amusement on Tuesday evening at Conference when it was discovered that I had appeared in a BBC video about Conference called "Village People". No, I hadn't been caught dressed as a new York cop or a builder. Instead, unbeknown to me, the BBC had filmed the photo op I held for campaigners with Simon Hughes and the carbon footprint props.Despite all the handheld devices we were
Adrian Sanders MP supports a Bill of Rights
It was becoming apparent that the 'Mansion Tax' was causing something of a stir. Naturally, as an employee of HM Revenue & Customs, I wasn't going to be drawn on the subject, except to note that implementation would need to be handled sensitively - always advisable when you're trying something new. That said, things still seemed to be going alright, even if the newspapers appeared to be at a rather different event. It was a fairly quiet day for me, with not much formal business until the evening, when I attended the Lib Dem Friends of India event with Ros. ...
North Tyneside MBC, PrestonCon 1141 (55.8; -14.2)Lab 503 (24.6; -5.3)Public Services not Private Profit 174 (8.5; +8.5)LD John Christopher Appleby 152 (7.4; +7.4)Green 73 (3.6; +3.6)Majority 638Turnout not knownCon holdPercentage change is since May 2008Party defending seat: Con. Cause: Resignation.Tendring DC, Burrsville Con 455 (55.2; -10.5)LD Joyce Edith O'Brien 227 (27.5; +15.7)Lab 90 (10.9;
The campaign to end a council tax anomaly which means that Welsh army families are not offered a tax discount available in England and Wales is absolutely right and has the full backing of the Welsh Liberal Democrats. Service families are routinely charged twice for council tax, once on their family home and once for their service accommodation. In England and Scotland an automatic 50% discount applies to the charge on the family home, but the scheme does not apply in Wales, leaving dozens of families - many with loved ones serving in Afghanistan - with significantly higher bills. The ...
Wales Home carries a typically robust and myopic article from Wrexham's New Labour Assembly Member, Lesley Griffiths in which she reveals that she is one of the handful of people who still believe that Labour can win a fourth term at the next General Election. In it she hits out at both the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives for pointing out how the Gordon Brown's mismanagement of the economy means that there will have to be severe cuts in public spending over the next few years. This is despite the fact that the Prime Minister himself has acknowledged that Labour ...
Another senior Army General has quit after apparently criticising some aspects of the war in Afghanistan including a lack of equipment for the troops. Major General Andrew Mackay, was the General Officer Commanding Scotland, Northern Ireland and Northern England and however the Ministry of Defence tries to play it down by saying the resignation was for "personal reasons". Major Nick Haston, who was Major General Mackay's deputy chief of staff, resigned from the army earlier this year in protest at policy and equipment shortages. Officers such as Lieutenant-Colonel Stuart Tootal and Major Sebastian Morley had expressed concern about equipment shortages. ...
One of the better initiatives from the Government has been their Cycle To Work Scheme, which I have just signed my company up to. Basically, through a combination of VAT, Tax and National Insurance savings, any employee of a company or organisation which takes part in this scheme can get around 40% off the cost of a new bike and accessories. How cool is that? The employer buys the bike and
[IMG: fromfringe] Speaking at an event hosted by Liberty at Liberal Democrat party conference, Nick Clegg outlined why only the Liberal Democrats will stand up to protect the civil liberties of British citizens. Speaking in conversation with Shami Chakrabarti, the director of civil rights group Liberty, Mr Clegg criticised Labour's authoritarian measures and said that the Conservatives were flip-floppers. He said that his family background – his mother was imprisoned in a Japanese Prisoner of War camp while his grandmother fled Russian pogroms to seek asylum in Britain – and his natural instinct to always question authority influenced his passion ...
The English Democrats (surely English Nationalists is what they mean?) have said how they will pay for an English Parliament. They will scrap regional assemblies. The only problem is that regional assemblies are already being scrapped and will be fully disbanded by April 2010. Posted in Uncategorized
The BBC reports: An experimental HIV vaccine has for the first time cut the risk of infection, researchers say. The vaccine – a combination of two earlier experimental vaccines – was given to 16,000 people in Thailand, in the largest ever such vaccine trial. Researchers found that it reduced by nearly a third the risk of contracting HIV, the virus that leads to Aids. Speaking at a news conference in Thailand, US ambassador to Thailand, Eric G. John, said the trial has "brought us one step closer to an HIV vaccine". Lib Dem shadow science minister Evan Harris has issued ...
I have been informed that today's Sun headline, completely out of context with the story, and incidentally half-inched wholesale by the Daily Mail, is 'JACKO : HITLER WAS "A GENIUS"'. Further comment is unnecessary, though I await the comments from the usual suspects in my RSS feed later today, and how well it fits in with the smearing of the dead just as they did with Piers Merchant yesterday; I had very little time for Merchant's politics but I have considerably less for the sort of people making moral judgments on his private life. Interesting to see the Heil falling ...
I have done a few posts about the various things I got up to during the Lib Dem conference this year but I just wanted to do a post about my personal view of the whole thing. I was surprised at how at home I felt. The hotel I stayed in was very welcoming and right from the start there was just a nice feel. I had to queue up to get my pass because it hadn't arrived in the post and the chap who dealt with me was Chris Ward a Guildford Councillor who I already knew and who ...
The first week of the new Assembly term is barely over, Rhodri Morgan is still firmly ensconced in post and an e-mail plops into my in-box containing a 42 page letter from the Health Minister and candidate for the top job, Edwina Hart detailing all her accomplishments over the summer recess. Tucked away on page 22 is a small section on NHS debt which boasts that 'NHS Trust debt has reduced considerably over the last two years from £42.8m in 2006-07 to £8.1m in 2008-09. All debt held by NHS Trusts (except the Welsh Ambulance NHS Trust) has either been ...
The other day I mentioned The Pod Delusion, a new podcast to which I'm contributing. Episode 2 is out today and subjects include homeopathy, NHS cuts and the BNP on Question Time. My piece – "if it's not sung, if it's spoken, it's a piece" – is a quick guide to party conference, and in particular Lib Dem conference, for those who've never been to one. Linky linky: Pod Delusion website – podcast RSS feed – iTunes directory
"The Government's control orders scheme has lost all credibility," says Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary Chris Huhne. Commenting on the release of a terrorist suspect, an Iraqi Kurd known only as AE, from his control order, Huhne said: "the Government's illiberal and ill-conceived control orders scheme has lost all credibility, but Alan Johnson refuses to scrap them for fear it would look like another humiliating U-turn from a tired and discredited Government." Control orders were introduced four years ago, but in June the House of Lords ruled that suspects must be told what they are accused of. Anyone placed under ...
Andrzej Szustak is a Polish student, who interned with the Welsh Liberal Democrats during the summer before going on to study in Strasbourg. This is the first in a series of 'letters from Strasbourg' expressing personal views of the UK and the EU from the European mainland. Last week, President Obama announced that the US is to scrap its plans for a missile defence system based in Poland and the Czech Republic. Some commentators have claimed that this demonstrates the recklessness of the young and inexperienced President; others welcome enthusiastically the decision not to provoke Russia or to protect the ...
There has been talk of a European President, as set out by the Lisbon treaty, and the front runners include Tony Blair, Bertie Ahern, and Jean-Claude Juncker (hands up if you know who he is) as well as various foreign politicians that most of us have never heard of. The post is for a two and a half year term elected by the various heads of states and governments. But we are missing an opportunity. The European Union in the UK has a poor image - as indicated by the large vote for UKIP in the European elections and the ...
This is my first video from conference: Nick Clegg's speech to the rally on Saturday 19th September
It is 1946, and Labour have just won a landslide under Clement Attlee. Harold Laski, head of Labour's National Executive Committee, tells Attlee that he must not sign a peace treaty at Potsdam, because it is the NEC, not Attlee or the parliamentary party, which is the sovereign body of the Labour Party. Attlee replied that You have no right whatever to speak on behalf of the Government. Foreign affairs are in the capable hands of Ernest Bevin . ... a period of silence on your part would be welcome." Now imagine the Liberal Democrats win the 2010 election. For ...
I have nearly 4000 photos and 3 hours of video from conference which I spent yesterday processing. The job is not yet finished but some of the member photos with MPs are now on my Flickr site and the rest will go up today. I have had a string of emails from members eager to get their pics asap. If you are one of those people, they should be on Flickr by this afternoon. Check www.flickr.com/photos
Loyal readers, I'd like to start this morning with a quick reminder to complete this online survey – it's designed to explore the views and activities of the users of four UK Party-related websites – LabourHome, Labour List, ConservativeHome and Lib Dem Voice. The overall goal of the project is "to better understand how and why party members, supporters and voters in general are using the web and blogs to engage with politics and political organisations." It's being conducted by the Hansard Society in association with researchers at the University of Manchester and University of Salford. To do your good ...
If there is one thing that I would warn any aspiring MP or Assembly Member to watch out for it is the hoards of academics and opinion surveyors who continually beat a path to the door of all elected representatives seeking information and views to fill up their latest academic treatise or commissioned project. Sympathetic as I often am, there are only so many hours in a standard working day and I need to use all of those for meetings and helping my constituents. For some reason these researchers rarely work the sort of hours I do so holding interviews ...
Revelations in today's Times that 28 Conservative prospective candidates, who have a good chance of becoming Tory MPs, are working as lobbyists or public relations consultants on behalf of businesses and other interests, and that more than a quarter got their jobs after being selected to fight seats, indicate that Cameron's promises of a brave new world after the next election look like a distant fantasy. The paper says that several acknowledged that they had set up meetings for clients with Shadow ministers, MPs and officials and that more said that they had been asked to provide advice on the ...
It would be so easy to find myself hoisted by my own petard, accused of hypocrisy and with my words turned against me. There will be europhobe journalists out there just itching to put me down with a big headline. In my angry speech at Liberal Democrat conference my venom was directed against those MEPs who took advantage of the slack procedures of the last Parliament to milk the system, finding ways to divert their office and staff salary budgets into their own pockets to the tune of hundreds of thousands each year. The arrangements have been changed now. Opportunities ...
Peter Mandelson's proposals to introduce harsh penalties for people suspected of making illegal file downloads have come in for much criticism, particularly for the low standard of proof that would be required and for deploying too much stick and not enough carrot in an attempt to change people's behaviour. So it was the main topic I picked for the bloggers interview with Nick Clegg during party conference. Here is Nick's answer: (Also available on the YouTube site here.)
Although the I don't quite follow in Paul Waugh's footsteps in regularly cursing Shriti Vadera whilst trying to navigate the London Underground system, he's quite right to highlight that the botched part-privatisation of London Underground is very much her personal legacy. No matter how rigorous the objections from no matter how authoritative and experienced the sources, she ignored them and insisted on a scheme that, in the end, only she and Gordon Brown seemed to fully believe in - and which neither were willing to defend in public. It was pretty much all behind-the-scenes arm twisting, running bills running into ...
As a freelance scientist – er, ex-physicist – I can't help taking an interest in the particle physics research planned for the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. And as one of teh internets' numerous ukuleleists, I can't help writing a short song about it and putting it on my blog. Happy Friday.
The very best thing in the FT today is Martin Wolf's take on mansion taxes: I loved it so much that it required an entire post on Freethinking Economist, linking to previous ongoing arguments about this innovation. Can you remember the fuss about the Asset Guarantee Scheme back in January? When I wrote one of my first Freethink posts about it, I was a fan: My own view is that the government's measures are broadly the right thing to do. It is not prepared for the process of directly taking over lending activities to the private sector. Yes, insuring the ...
I am pleased that the local newspapers have given front pages to the problems we encountered last Sunday regarding alcohol and possible substance misuse. Today at 10am, I am meeting Council officials and Police at this site to discuss safety improvements for the area, this meeting has been booked for a couple of months. I will use this site meeting as an opportunity to discuss this recent problem. The district police inspector stated that solvent abuse is not something that has been flagged up in community action plans, so today I will flag it up. I am also attending a ...
A new collaborative blog has been started in the last few weeks under the editorship of Will Straw (yes, that Will Straw). It is called Left Foot Forward and its aim is to advance the cause of progressive politics through the use of evidence and to counter reactionary and conservative (with a small c) claims in the media. A little while ago Will asked if I would be involved. I have had a few debates online with him via Twitter and blog comments so I had an idea of where he was coming from. After some deliberation I decided that ...
@charlottegore My follow-up ISA letter: http://bit.ly/2YECel # RT @AdamBienkov: Brian Coleman ordered to pay £10,000 legal fees http://bit.ly/tLeZC # RT @libdemvoice: New post: Cabinet Office: correspondence chaos http://ldv.org.uk/16175 # @MarkReckons Tom Watson MP managed to beat Tom Watson famous US golfer - so hope for you yet! in reply to MarkReckons # Die potholes, die (Crouch Hill) http://flic.kr/p/6ZpHXs # Incident at dry cleaners. Contemplating a, er..., scantily clad trip to Lib Dem conference # @libdems Thanks for including local party website address in my membership renewal letter - nice touch! # @ByrneTofferings Will take a look when finished travelling. in ...
To all my Facebook and Myspace friends:Dear FriendI am just back from the conference in Bournemouth and am really excited about the prospects for the Liberal Democrats going into the next election. Th...
It's from Jenni Russell and - amazingly - it's in the Guardian: This removal of general authority from adults, and its gradual replacement by state-sanctioned interventions, is utterly corrosive. It infantilises grown-ups, who lose one of the roles that societies have always expected them to fulfil. It makes them timid, and demeans them in the eyes of their children, who see that they are powerless in the face of injustice. And by suggesting that adults may not approach, discuss or reprimand a child, it completely undermines the notion of a community, and the importance of social pressure and shame. Exchanging ...
At last! Having enjoyed a nice summer, thank-yew-very-much, Speaker Bercow has decided that it probably should be the last. I can just imagine him in Speaker's House, sitting there all summer, "smart but unfussy" black gown hanging neatly in the wardrobe, twiddling his thumbs waiting to get back into action, laying the smackdown on errant MPs ...
We now finally find out why the mole who revealed all of the MPs expenses did it, according to the Daily Telegraph. In a book released today "No expenses spared", we find out that the lack of kit for our armed forces was the motivation behind the leaks. We also find out that the mole was working in a secret office in South London for the Stationery Office photocopying all MP receipts ready for the initial publication, and obviously something snapped after discussing with servicemen who were guarding them the lack of kit according to the Telegraph. I do get ...
Here's the answer I received yesterday to a question I submitted to Lewisham Council about kitchen waste: Question Please provide a breakdown of the energy produced by the SELCHP divided into energy produced by incineration of kitchen waste and that of other kinds of waste. What share of this energy production belongs to Lewisham Council and what ...
There was a great programme on Radio 4 yesterday about Newton and Leibnitz. I'm not sure why, but it inspired me to consider the curve that is constructed from y = x2 when x <= 0, and y = x when x > 0 . I want to reduce that to a single function.It can obviously be done.Consider that to fit a curve to any* three points, you can do it with a curve y = a + bx + cx2. Figuring out the three constants a, b and c is trivial, you just solve three simultaneous equations. Similarly, for ...
A bit late to the Baroness Scotland party, I'm afraid, but because it's a perfect opportunity to be able to say, "bang to rights" I thought I'd get involved. Better late than never. If you don't already know, the woman who passed a law forcing everyone to check that prospective employees have been authorised by the state to work was found to be employing an unauthorised worker. She's been fined £5k, and everyone except Gordon Brown and his cabinet seem to think that breaking your own law is something that should cost you your job. Political nerds watch incredulously as ...
Today is Richard Hoggart's 91st birthday. Richard is one of the great polymaths that this country, and indeed this county (Yorkshire, he was born in Leeds) has produced. His book "The Uses of Literacy" is one of the seminal works of post-War ...
I'm going to put this in small and easily understandable words for the hard of thinking (of which there appear to be many in the media and on t'intarwebz). I might, therefore, oversimplify things a bit. If I do, I'm sure my fellow Lib Dems will pile in and correct me. At Lib Dem Party Conference, the membership decides party policy. Now, I realise that's a difficult concept for most of you to grasp because you still haven't fucking grasped it, so I'm going to unpack that a little for you. It goes like this.Someone has an idea for a ...
Was Gordon Brown snubbed by President Obama? The UN security council is meeting in New York and five requests by the UK government for a private meeting between the two leaders were turned down. I read that it was President Obama himself who made these decisions. So not only has he personally turned Gordon down once, he has done it five times. It sounds like a snub to me. The White House say there is no snub. Barack did see Gordon in the kitchen of the UN so it was not quite the private meeting that Gordon was hoping for ...
[IMG: LibDem parliamentary spokesman for Plymouth Moor View Stuart Bonar with the Royal British Legion manifesto] I was really pleased to meet up with the Royal British Legion at the LibDem conference earlier in the week. They gave me a copy of their election manifesto, and I am happy to pledge to do my bit for the armed forces. I am proud that LibDems at the conference voted overwhelmingly for a package of new policies that will deliver a better deal for our armed forces - including a big pay rise for the lowest paid service personnel, better medical facilities and better housing ...
Following on from yesterdays debate at conference about the Government Decent Homes programme, I attended a meeting of the DSD residents association in Crawcrook. The residents association covers a small estate of council and privately run houses. They formed a resident group, partly as they were disgusted with the estate being at the back of the queue for improvements. The group are really well run by their chair Nora, who is a great community advocate. Residents explained to me how the sub contractors employed to do the work had been very sloppy in the work they were doing and had ...
