[IMG: nicks-letter-to-fdp1] Following Liberal Vision's celebration of the rise to power of the German liberals, Nick Clegg has now written to congratulate their leader Guido Westerwelle following the superb performance of the Free Democrats in last weekend's election. It's not on Nick's or the party's website yet, as far as I can see. And the "latest news" from Nick's constituency website is that - about six weeks ago - he wrote to congratulate someone called Jessica Ennis, who apparently won the heptahlon at an athletics event in Berlin in the Summer. It appears that she went to school in Sheffield ...
What an astonishingly arrogant and pompous front page by the "Currant Bun" today. "After 12 long years in power, this government has lost its way. Now it's lost the Sun's support too", it thundered. Who the hell does the Sun think it is? A tawdry rag purveying second rate filth, and third rate political analysis. Trevor Kavanagh (its politics editor) let the cat out of the bag when he owned up to the fact that both Murdoch pere and fils were fully aware and behind the decision to change (political horses. Murdoch has form on that front, forget Britain in ...
The Republicans in the US media had a massive collective strop, got furious and demanded he apologize. Even though they've failed to apologize for the outrageous claims and fear-mongering their own members have directed at President Obama's plans. This was the Grayson's badass response..
Monday, meeting with Aida Quilcue, leader of the Cauca Regional Indigenous Council in south west Colombia until April, now an influential leader of the Social and Communitarian Minga, a social process which brings together organisations from all social sectors, based around social mobilisation. She was assigned special protective measures by the Interamerican Commission of Human Rights last December when her father, Edwin Legarda, was murdered by the Colombian army in an attack seemingly intended for Aida. Seven soldiers were arrested in April for Mr Legarda's murder. Richard Solly and Patrick Kane of the Colombia Solidarity Campaign accompanied Aida. Incidentally, she ...
Liberal Conspiracy has the story: Despite the persistent criticism that it has allied itself with extremists, David Cameron's Conservative Party now sits in the European Parliament with the European Reformists and Conservatives group (ECR), led by Poland's Michal Kaminski - a man allegedly with a racist and homophobic past. But so far it has gone unreported that another ally of the Conservatives in Europe has a much more serious and recent record of homophobia. Valdemar Tomaševski, MEP from Lithuania, and member of the Tories' Euro coalition, is on record as having branded homosexuality a "perversion". Not only that, I can ...
I've said it before and I'll say it again - I am very proud of my daughters. This week it's Kirsty's turn to make me say it. I shall let her husband explain the reason, and hope someone might join me in sponsoring her.Lots of cool stuff is going to happen in October, I am sure, but the one you need to know about right now is that my ever-delightful wife Kirsty is going to be walking 10,000
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Liberal Democrats have called for fundamental review of the plan to build a new giant incinerator for waste near Coventry. Not only is the cost prohibitive, but the environmental impact will be enormous and harmful. Amazingly, those behind the scheme (a joint project with Warwickshire County Council, Coventry and Solihull Councils) seem to be ignoring the fact that increases in recycling rates would make the scheme pointless. The economic argument for the scheme says that the recycling rate in 2020 (11 years time!) will be 51% so we will need a scheme of this size to dispose of much of ...
What struck me about Gordon Brown's speech to the Labour conference yesterday was how many big spending pledges there were in it - lots and lots and lots of them. The BBC's James Lansdale in his report on the News at Ten this evening puts the price tag at £2.5bn. Don't misunderstand my point. Many of the things promised are attractive and worthy ideas. A few years ago this would have been just fine. There was plenty of money sloshing about the system. Time's have changed however. Labour is adding more and more to spending without any real explanation of how ...
I was e-mailed regarding a competition relating to the National Colleges week of 9-15th of November. It is as James Mulrennan, who sent me the e-mail, puts it -"designed to celebrate the opportunities colleges create for individuals, businesses and Britain." To celebrate the week there is a competition students (check requirements below) can enter from up to ...
I blogged at the weekend about the resignations of three Lib Dem MPs – Nick Clegg, Vince Cable and Lynne Featherstone – from the PoliticsHome 'insiders' panel', the PH100, in protest at the acquisition by Tory deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft of a majority stake in the site. Today I've hear from an impecable source that another Lib Dem MP – not previously publicly listed as a member of the PH100 – has also quit: Chris Huhne. The only other Lib Dem MP publicly listed as a PH100 member is David Laws, and I've not yet heard if he's resigned. The ...
Some wonderful language from the legislative world of the US. I have bolded the relevant passage below, but it's worth reading the whole piece on the labyrnthine machinations of the US Congress on First Read: During the 20 hours of debate when the bill is on the floor, the senator stands and says, "I'd like to raise a budget point of order" against a section of the bill. If the parliamentarian sustains or agrees with the objection, that section is removed from the bill or amendment. (More on the parliamentarian's critical role below.) There is no limit to how many ...
I can't download The Sun website! I can get football, Jordan etc etc but not the home page – I'm being warned it would be dangerous to open it! Just as well really. I only wanted to get a bit of background into the paper that pretends to represent Britain at large, and yet is backing ...
Time for the third instalment of my desultory progress through Nick Clegg's Demos pamphlet The Liberal Moment. Chapter 3 turns out to be the slightest of the three so far, with Nick concerned only to show that significant shifts in the political landscape can take place. He cites 1906 and 1997 as examples, presumably because they fit well with his thesis that there is such a thing as progressivism and Labour and Liberals have jointly or separately represented it at various times. But what about 1945 and 1979? How progressive was Jim Callaghan's Labour Party in 1979? And what about ...
There's been an interesting debate about Gordon Brown and the flimsily supported allegation that he may take anti-depressants. This is worrying, say protagonists of the "Is Brown bonkers?" school of thought. Actually, it would be more worrying if, assuming that he may have a problem, he were not taking anti-depressants, if prescribed by his doctor. "Could his judgment be impaired?" ask some. Well, I would say that virtually every PM may have had her or his judgment impaired by something going on his private life. Just go back to John Major. In 1997 he had to decide when to have ...
I note today that The Sun has highlighted a dossier of issues where Labour has "got it wrong". What The Sun fails to say though is that whilst all these policies were being introduced, The Sun was in total support and failed to raise an objection. Sickening hypocrisy from The Sun.
...So says a survey by Lloyds Pharmacy. 2.8 million people. That's quite a lot. You can find out how many indirect partners you've had here on Lloyds' web site.. It's all based on a 'six degrees of separation' type theory. I've been missing out. I've only had 52,601 indirect and direct sexual partners in my lifetime. People in my age group have had an average of 3,036,185 partners. So I have clearly led a very sheltered life with my 52,601 partners - but, then again, that incidentally works out at four partners a day since I was 14 years old. ...
Whilst Harriet Harman was denouncing actor-turned-politician Arnold Swartzenegger for allowing the operation of a site which allows men to rate prostitutes, her colleague, elected mayor of Newham Robin Wales, is looking forward to welcoming Arnie to the site of the Olympics in 2012. The Terminators links with the east London Borough go back to the 1960s, when ...
I'll start with the ugly. Yesterday I had a phone call from a lady from out of the area who had had a penalty notice for parking in the "shoppers car park" beside the Victoria Centre in Consett between 7.00 p.m. and 9.40 p.m. on Sunday night. She had been to watch her son at the Empire. There was no possible loss to the owners of the car park from her parking - because the shops whose interests they say they are protecting were all closed. I have referred her case to Durham County Trading Standards. The good. Hilary Armstrong ...
My cousin Rachel on Facebook has tagged me in a note call My Political Journey (actually she has tagged me in a two parter). In the first part she listed reasons why she is not as involved in politics today as she is now, in the second she traces the foundations of her political roots. In it she says: "I've been reflecting on Peter Mandelson's words on Monday when he said he didn't choose the Labour Party: he was born into it. I have often thought the same thing about myself - that the Labour Party is so much part ...
We tend not to be too poll-obsessed here at LDV - of course we look at them, as do all other politico-geeks, but viewed in isolation no one poll will tell you very much beyond what you want to read into it. Looked at over a reasonable time-span and, if there are enough polls, you can see some trends. Here, in chronological order, are the results of the 18 polls published in September – the number is extra high this month because of the recently instituted daily YouGov tracker poll. (Note to self: we need to find a way of ...
Last weekend was a four team mini ice hockey tournament, the Gardiner Cup at Murrayfield ice rink including the Edinburgh Capitals, the Belfast Giants, the Hamilton Bulldogs and the Toronto Marlies. There was an average 3,000 people there for each game according to the stewards whereas a normal home game for the Capitals brings in around 600 people. I missed the Thursday night but was there for both games on Saturday and again on Sunday. The Edinburgh Capitals had a much smaller squad than the other three but their fighting spirit was fantastic. Currently they have 3 netminders, 5 defenders ...
[IMG: Cllr John Whitehouse on Community Speed Watch duty] The Community Speed Watch (CSW) scheme which we piloted in Kenilworth has been a great success, and is now being rolled out progressively across Warwickshire. Feedback from the general public has been almost universally positive, despite the occasional offensive gestures from motorists who feels they have a divine right to speed in residential roads. This week I went out with the Police to identify a number of new locations for CSW volunteers to operate from safely. This should give us a much better coverage of the area, and satisfy some of ...
Yesterday I attended my first meeting of the Warwickshire Waste Partnership, which brings together elected members and officers from both the county council (the waste disposal authority) and the five districts and boroughs (the waste collection authorities). From first impressions the rate of progress towards real partnership working has been painfully slow! Liberal Democrat policy is for a single waste collection and disposal authority for Warwickshire, which would be a far more efficient structure in my view. However, the rates of improvement in the waste management statistics (recycling rates etc) in 2008/09 were good, and improved targets for 2009/10 and ...
About three weeks ago we asked for your opinions on an idea to have a convenience store and car park on the old Tatton cinema site (instead of the convenience store and care home idea, rejected by the Council a few months ago). In total, we received 81 replies. 40 were in favour of the proposal, 38 against and three expressed no opinion. If we can find a proposal which the site's owners are willing to look at and there's clear support among Gatley residents, I will pursue it. In this case, fewer than half of those who responded were ...
I'm pretty sure that at Cameron Towers right about now there is a party going on, celebrating the fact that Murdoch has finally decided to throw his hat in the ring with the Tories. There's doubtlessly more optimism in the Conservative ranks, too. But the real question is whether to most voters the opinions of the press - and especially The Sun - actually matter on voting day. Let's go back a little. "It was The Sun what won it" was one of the more popular theories why Labour won a landslide in '97. The theory went that due to ...
Huw Pudner, a prime mover of the campaign to get Neath Port Talbot tenants to vote "No" to transfer of the council's housing stock, asked for a list of tenants. His claim was that the council provided its officers with a list so that they could put the council's case. The council rebuts the suggestion. Officers are neutral. Officers call only to check that tenants have received the official documenation. They say that officers never overstate the benefits of transfer. Nevertheless, Pudner demanded equal treatment. He was given a list. It had no personal names on it. This was perhaps ...
I won't lie to you. The thought of spending an evening in a primary school hall listening to a stream of dull presentations thrills me about as much as shopping for tile grout. This fact, therefore, has me hoping against hope that the presentations given at tomorrow evening's Prestwich Local Area Partnership meeting aren't dull, because the meeting is taking place in a primary school hall. Anyone interested in the creation-of-sausages-esque process of getting things done in Prestwich should come on down to Butterstile Primary School from 18.30 and see the meeting, because the agenda is varied. One of the ...
How unfair it is to have a newspaper lend so much support behind a political party. The Sun as we all know can get very nasty turning people into turnips etc. Now I know the Sun is popular, with over 3million papers sold daily, I like the paper much more than say the Daily Mail, the Mirror or the Daily Express. But I have never liked the total all out go and get them attitude they have to politics when it takes sides. Sky which is owned by one of Rupert Murdoch's companies seems much fairer in its reporting, so ...
I took an hour out yesterday afternoon to cycle around west Gatley. Starting out across the Carrs (where the top meadow has now been mown and work is being planned for the ponds), I headed along Lorna Grove and Dingle Grove, Altrincham Road, Park Road, Mount Grove, Cranston Grove, Malvern Avenue, Brookdale Road, Stonepail Close, Greenbank Avenue, Styal Road, around Baxter Park, then onto Windsor Avenue, Willcott Road, Clifton Drive, Barngate Road and Newby Drive. OK, I'll confess it was partly because I enjoy cycling around the local villages, but there was a point to it all. In addition to ...
Stockport Air Raid Shelters has a special event - Standing Together Remembering the Home Front - from 11am to 4pm on Saturday 24th October. Visit their website for all the information.
Another pantomimic skit in the bathetic spectacle that is the Labour conference. Harriet Harman today urged movie star and California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to "terminate" a website which allows people to rate prostitutes. The Labour deputy leader told delegates at the Labour conference: "There is now a website... where pimps put women on sale for sex and ...
Wed 30th
16:39
Which is worse, abusing Parlimentary Communications Allowance or reinventinging fixmystreet, badly?
So Paul Clark MP has decided to do his own heavily politicised campaign site, thinly disguised as a poor imitation of fixmystreet... I wonder if he is, and hope he isn't, using his Communications Allowance to pay for it. Read and post comments | Send to a friend
Julie is a student at Bowling Green State University in Ohio and is working with the Welsh Liberal Democrats at the National Assembly for Wales until Christmas. As an American student who has lived in Cardiff for one week now, I have been shocked by the degree of transparency I have noticed within the National Assembly. I received a tour of the Seneed and learned that the building was created for the public. The entire structure has been built to be accessible to everyone – people with hearing disabilities, sight impairments, and mobility problems. There are even changing rooms with ...
[IMG: face2facelogo2.jpg] I have used £1000 of my local funding allocation to provide premises for a series of drop in coffee mornings for the excellent local charity face2face. face2face is an organisation which provides support for parents and carers of children with disabilities. They have a network of trained volunteer befrienders who can help parents make positive adjustments to the news that their child has a disability. The coffee mornings will be held at the new staff facility at Brooklands School in Wray Park Road. You can contact face2face at face2facenetwork@scope.org.uk
Last night was the first meeting of the new Launceston Community Network Panel. Although it also wasn't. You see, the community network panels have been put on hold by the Council Cabinet while they review the localism settlement. The agreement to localism was a central plank in the move to unitary status and so any hiatus is bad news. Like most local areas, we decided to go ahead with a meeting anyway. The three Lib Dem Launceston councillors were joined by representatives of some of the parish councils, Launceston Town Council, the Chamber of Commerce, Launceston Forum, the health service ...
So after 12 years of Labour support, that cornerstone of tabloid journalism The Sun newspaper has determined that Gordon Brown's Labour has failed Britain. What took them so long? While they may have decided that as a paper they will no longer endorse Labour, their story is hardly resounding support for a Tory government either. After a complete list of Labour failings, the front page piece states "We hope, and pray, that the next Government will have the guts and the determination to do these things. And we believe David Cameron should lead it. Between now and the election Cameron's ...
The UKBA are now piloting genetic tests to determine nationality of people seeking Asylum, because of course your genes will of course change when your grandparents cross an arbitary straight line drawn on a map of africa. Scientists describe ... Read and post comments | Send to a friend
I guess I'm on a song lyric re-writing burst myself. One wonders what Gordon Brown would come out with if faced with the threat of a Jeremy Paxman interview on Newsnight. After all the blogopshere has already taken Brown to town. Would a nervy Prime Minister see the menace in Paxo's eyes and fess up? Maybe: though probably not as musically as the Sherman brothers' lyrics to Mary Poppins which I've rehashed below though. PAXMAN So Prime Minister your speech went down well in the hall but the Sun are saying you've lost it. Have you really lost all ambition ...
Much discussion and more than a few media ripples caused the defection of The Sun back to the Conservatives. It is hardly surprising though; the Murdoch press has been rapidly falling out of love with Labour for some time, expect it's other staple, The Times to follow suit and frankly I would expect all Murdoch ...
Last week at the Lib Dem Conference I met up with Malcolm Clark the director of Make Votes Count, a campaign group which seeks to bring together members of all parties and none who wish to see a fair electoral system for Westminster. He very kindly agreed to be interviewed by me and I have included the footage of this below. I thought he answered my questions very well and we did cover a fair bit of ground. Despite the fact that I am also an advocate of electoral reform myself I did try to challenge him on certain points ...
Tuesday: Imagine being trapped in a World of total surveillance, where anyone you meet could be another enemy, the internal democracy is a fix and the newspaper turns out to be only gossip and propaganda. They all want you to admit to what you did in the past and everyone is obsessed about your resignation. Are you dizzyingly alone in an oppressive world where everyone is against you, or are you having a nervous breakdown and broadcasting it in weekly instalments on the telly box? Still, it's your own fault, Mr Frown. You WANTED to be the new Number Two! ...
Last night I attended the first Street Lighting Working Group meeting at the Town Hall. The working group arose out of the Tories "turn them off - no turn them back on again" U-turn on a budgeted 1 in 3 street light turn off. I was one of those that opposed the original proposal because I believe the issue needs addressing properly both from a financial perspective but also to address environment issues. Our Street lights emit about 13% of the Council's Co2 emissions. Last nights first meeting was a briefing on the issues, the state of our street lights, ...
I was rather concerned today to find a full page ad in the Metro about the debate over Smoking and Films. I realise there is a consultation going on but on the face of it quite a bit of public money is being spent on advertisements, billboard ads, lobbying documents and so on. By the looks of it this is being spent by the PCT (the Council is merely the body running the consultation). The problem is not just that the money is being spent, but that it is being spent to promote one particular point of view. Are those ...
No related posts.
Labour are complaining loudly about the timing of the Sun's decision to switch to the Tories. Whilst I have some degree of sympathy for their case - it was a clear example of creating an alternative political news story to detract from and undermine the Labour conference - Labour can hardly complain. Back in 2007 Brown headed off to Iraq during the Tory conference in what was a deliberate attempt
So, The Sun is no longer backing the Labour Party and once again is switching to back the Conservative Party. Is this The Sun flip flopping or nothing more than jumping off the ship before it sinks, or a more well thought out sales plan? I go with the third option personally. The timing was too stage managed to believe it was either of the other two in my mind. But, yes there is a but - the Scottish Sun has not come out for the Conservatives as they remain unconvinced, you can read more on Brian Taylor's blog - ...
OK I see that Gordon is putting a brave face on the Sun setting on the brave New Labour world of the past 12 years. He is saying that 'it is people that decide elections' not newspaper editorials. As Mr Dale, who is seeking to join the Commons for Bracknell, points out though we heard that before the last time the Murdoch empire lurched towards where the power maight lie. However, as I pointed out just the other day ably backed up by Mark Thompson that isn't so much the case as the Electoral Calculus on the Ipsos Mori opinion ...
No, actually. But seeing his determined face and his "I do not roll over" statement on the Beeb, one wonders if he might just do a John Major "soapbox" trick and get people's admiration for staying power. You never know, he could just snatch twenty seats for Labour at the next election. At least, from his Beeb photo, he seems to have finally realised that it is a mistake for him to try to "smile". For that we can all be grateful, whatever our political persuasion.
Wonders never cease. I hesitate to say Baroness Scotland should resign. What do they think in Scotland? - I wonder. I have enormous admiration for the lady. However. The Mail says that she allegedly did not ask her Tongan employee to show her passport during a ten minute employment interview. As Attorney-General, you would have thought Baroness Scotland would have more sense. However, reading the Mail story (someone has to, I suppose) one wonders whether the housekeeper is the villain of the piece. She'd been allegedly working illegally here for four years and there is an alleged forged second passport ...
Yesterday I was walking along the street and a rather dodgy looking man walked up to some teenagers and, holding out his mobile phone, said, in tones of some desperation, "Lasses and lad, could you phone this number please?" One of the teenagers duly rang the number he gave them. My first thought was that it would be insane for anyone to respond to the man's request because he would then have your number on his phone and could phone you whenever he likes. But quite frankly, I was baffled by the incident. What bona fide reason would the man ...
As a Republican and an avowed hater of men who go anywhere near a bottle of hair dye, I suppose I could have been nasty and written a title like "McCartney the Royal Toady". But that would have been uncalled for. Paul McCartney, when all's said and dyed, has, it seems, retained a wide-eyed innocence from his childhood. A laudatory essay on the Queen which he wrote when he was 10 years old has been unearthed. It has interesting echoes with a tiny track on Abbey Road. Abbey Road has got a few interesting, very short tracks on it. One ...
Well if you track back to the original story about Brown's health it seems to be based on a "long list of foods" which he is supposedly not meant to be served. Strangely, this "long list of foods" is so far, in the public domain, a short list of foods. In fact it is just two foods. "Cheese and chianti". (The story also demands to know where Brown "runs daily" as if to suggest that such an assertion by his spokesperson is made up. Would suggesting that he runs in a private gym be terribly earth-shattering? A treadmill in the ...
The decision of The Sun to switch from endorsing Labour to the Conservatives doesn't really come as a huge surprise – although I had expected them to wait until closer to the election. But far from damaging Labour's chances at the next General Election, it is even worse for them. It means that The Sun ...
The Liberal Democrat History Group meeting at Bournemouth Conference, supported by The Guardian, looked at hung Parliaments. In his introduction, the meeting chair Duncan Brack explained that one reason for picking the topic is that work such as that by John Curtice has shown that the odds of the next general election producing a hung Parliament are much better than they have been for many years. It is a point that was also made earlier this year by Michael Crick. Professor Martin Pugh then kicked off the trio of talks, looking at the two Labour Governments of the 1920s. The ...
Nick Clegg has picked his time to talk about power. In his party conference speech he described why he wanted to be Prime Minister. This is a major step forward in his development as leader of the Liberal Democrats. Now he has to say what he wants to achieve and what he will do in power. He must develop a narrative that we all as Liberal Democrats can use. The party has excellent policies on a range of issues and these have to be brought together into a collection of coherent sound-bites. After the excitement of a couple of opinion ...
So despite being completely spoilt for choice for 'who said the stupidest thing yesterday?' nominations, Steve Ladyman MP is probably the winner. Paraphrasing, he suggested that without additional media coverage of televised Leader debates, Gordon would win hands down. It's only because the TV and the Papers will say Gordon was rubbish that people will think Gordon was rubbish. In reality, he would be awesome. In fairness, Ladyman had a lot of competition for his award from other contributors to the same programme. This spectacular piece of critical thinking from some Labour activist comes a close second: "I think, you ...
From the front page of the Guardian site at the moment: Quite.
In his speech to the Labour Party Conference in Brighton yesterday, Prime Minister Gordon Brown made a half-hearted attempt to seize the high ground on reforming Parliament by promising that if Labour is returned to power next year, it will organise a referendum to ask the public whether they want to stick with the present discredited first-past-the-post ...
Congo (Brazzaville) is one of the poorest countries on earth and fares badly on most measures of human well-being. It also has enormous natural resources, particularly oil wealth which could, if used for the benefit of Congo's citizens, provide the government with revenue to build schools, hospitals and roads. Yet Congo's political leadership has captured that oil wealth for their personal enrichment and use it to stifle any opposition. As this documentary on Al Jazeera explains (see below) Denis Sassou Nguesso has robbed Congo and spends lavishly on himself and his family while ordinary Congolese starve. This might sound like ...
Contrary to the rather unfortunate tone of the comments made by the SNP MSP for Dundee West in today's 'Courier' about the Harris Academy rebuilding project, there is in fact absolutely no certainty as yet regarding the actual level of funding (nor the timescales) for the project - as the response this morning from Dundee City Council's Director of Education to my enquiry about this reveals : Dear Fraser I have discussed your e-mail with David, and am pleased to give you our collective response. The short answer is that there can be no clarity to the questions of cost ...
If there's one thing that's a reality it is the pain Labour will have to go through in the new political age. In reality we are transforming ourselves into a three-party + political system in which Labour will secure its equal place. 2005 was a staging post to this reality. It'll be most painful for ...
Today's Guardian has a story about the growing mystery surrounding the ownership of Leeds United. Once again Liberal Democrat MP, Phil Willis, has risked the wrath of Ken Bates matchday programme notes by calling for a Football League investigation into the ownership of the club: "Leeds United is a fantastic football club whose loyal and dedicated supporters have stuck by it through thick and thin," Willis said yesterday. "They have a right to know who owns their club and that those people are fit and proper. The Football League must revisit this case to ensure that its rules, that owners ...
When Lambeth Council put up new street signs, they think having all of them at knee height is the best place to put them. Problem with this is that in some locations it encourages graffiti and vandalism, meaning they need to get replaced more often. But if you secure them higher up - on nearby buildings - it can save the council money in the long run - and it "designs out" crime as they are too high to be easily vandalised. We have persuaded the council to put up 2 signs at the Kibworth Street/Dorset Road junction on the ...
I was feeling a little under the weather yesterday so took a few hours off in the afternoon. Having nothing much to occupy myself, little on TV, and a mug of tea to hand I curled up and tuned in to Gordon Brown's closing speech for a few minutes. Five minutes in to listening he had my full attention! Having failed, last week, to be persuaded by Eric Pickles that my true home was in the Conservative Party, I was dumbstruck to realise that Gordon Brown wanted to join the Lib Dems. I'm sure that unless my hearing was out ...
There are two planning applications by neighbours on Maidstone Ave this week, plus one minor application on Manchester Rd. Chorlton Ward 4 Manchester Road Chorlton-cum-HardyManchester M21 9JG Works to one Robinia tree 091272/FH/2009/S1 Lynn Winstanley 25 HewlettRoad Chorlton Manchester M21 9WB 25 Hewlett Road Chorlton Manchester M219WB Erection of single storey rear extension to form additional living accommodation. 091279/FH/2009/S1 Mr Manoj Guhathakurta 23Hewlett Road ChorltonManchester M21 9WB 23 Hewlett Road Chorlton Manchester M219WB Erection of a conservatory at rear ofproperty and a 0.5 metre high timber deck
As previously reported, proposals to improve safety at this busy junction have been brought forward by Council Officers and have now been consulted on. Only one resident raised any concerns and as such the proposed safety scheme is now set to be implemented before the end of the financial year in March 2010. I attach correspondence and details of the proposal here: heywood-rd-bor-safety-scheme.pdf
I only ask because I've tried to use this service. It's a complete farce that pretends to offer choice yet is simply a bureaucratic hurdle to try and make an appointment. Instead of the GP contacting the hospital and them sending you a letter he contacts the NHS and they send you a letter giving you a ...
The Sun has decided to back the Tories and abandon Labour. That's hardly surprising and the question has to be asked, when was the last time the Sun actually backed Labour rather than sniped at them. The Sun is a classic example of a political weathervane. It always backs the party that looks likely to win an election so that it can claim it was the Sun "wot won" the general election for the
It is entirely clear that Brown wants to frame the argument into `it's a choice between two parties: Labour and the Conservatives` and justify having as little leeway for the Lib Dems in broadcast debates as possible. The BBC must now show some balls and tell him that there will be a minimum of three people ...
Who says Glee Club is a waste of time? It certainly seems to inspire the songwriters amongst us Lib Dems. You may have read my posting from last night, this one is buried by anonymous commenter on Jennie Rigg's blog, I feel it needs a wider audience. Whoever wrote this is a genius, though as Jennie says 'has WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too much typing time'. Lib Demmin' across the universe, On the Starship Libbyduck under Captain Clegg. Lib Demmin' across the universe, No longer coming third because Labour's polling worse. Lt. Swinson, report. There's defectors on the starboard bow, starboard bow, starboard ...
We thought all the arrangements were in place for the stone model of a Sopwith Camel, the memorial to my uncle Eric, to be transported from the stonemason's yard in Wiltshire to the visitor centre at High Elms Country Park yesterday, but there was a misunderstanding about the timing. The lorry arrived, to find nobody there to offload it, and Penmar Transport rang me to say they were returning to Wiltshire with the memorial. After a series of frantic calls they agreed to take it to a Council yard where it was being stored temporarily. Lyulph thought they weren't arriving ...
Your snap-shot of what the political blogosphere is talking about (or, what the most people are linking to.) 2 - Dave Osler Dave's piece yesterday got opinion pieces from me, Stuart Sharpe, Dick Puddlecote and Obnoxio the Clown... some being more charitable than others, considering how honest and straight the post was. 1 - TV Leader's Debate/"We're Not Done Yet" This fluff piece about Gordon on the BBC attracts commentary from Jennie Rigg, Mark Easton, Stuart Sharpe, Stephen P Glenn and UK Polling report. Just outside these two stories, my own piece about Labour's Poorhouses seems to be doing well, ...
I am part of a project called "Bloggers' Circle" which encourages bloggers to link to interesting content from other bloggers. I have spotted a couple of thought provoking posts on the circle in the last couple of days which I thought deserved a wider airing: LDV's very own Mark Pack has a piece on comment moderation policies and potential new developments in this area. Charles Crawford thinks that the iPhone could be used as a model for social transformation!
This is the video I put together about conference. It is mainly about Northern members but there are other bits of national interest as well.
[IMG: suncover.jpg] The Sun is shining on the Tories this morning, with the announcement by Rupert Murdoch's tabloid that it will back the party at the next general election for the first time since 1992. Indeed, so proud was the paper of its announcement that they took the trouble to email Lib Dem Voice (twice) to let us know all about it – you see how much we matter to them! The Sun's endorsement of the Tories in not full-throated. Most of its leader article is devoted to setting out the ways in which Labour has failed, rather than promoting ...
Chris Rennard has retired as chief executive of the Liberal Democrats. This was his first speech to conference since his announcement he is stepping down. Chris spoke at the rally at the start of conference on 19th September. He was introduced by Party President Ros Scott.
Of course we don't want Iran to have nuclear weapons but let's try and look at it from their point of view then we might get somewhere. Israel has a nuclear arsenal (which it denies - so we shouldn't get upset about others lying should we?) and the means to deliver the weapons on Iran. It has threatened air strikes on Iran and I don't recall the USA in particular giving them a good slapping & telling them in no uncertain terms 'no way'. Israeli aggression over the last 40yrs has been jaw dropping. Terrorist attacks on Israel are not ...
Earlier this month I gave the Heather Larkin Annual Lecture in Yate: I am really pleased to be here tonight - yes it is a long trek here and back but worth it to pay tribute to Steve Webb. Steve is a great MP, a great campaigner, a great innovator on the internet - and a great intellectual force. The fact that we often agree on policy may have something to do with that! But one of the highlights of Parliament is listening to thoughtful and powerful speeches from which you learn and which help shape your own views. Steve's ...
Brown may come to regret his cowardice on this. He boldly announced yesterday he will do nothing on voting reform whilst spinning the message he will do everything. Bringing in alternative vote in place of first past the post for Parliamentary and council elections is a good first start that can be done rapidly. Brown chose to announce merely a referendum on this mild reform will be included in
Two big stories Gordon's speech to conference It almost passed unnoticed in the blogosphere, but it seems Gordon Brown made some sort of speech yesterday. As the Daily Express put it: Brushing off reports he is a "dead man walking," a deluded Brown gushed: "It's our Britain that works best." Though Labour activists might prefer The Guardian's take: In a determined 59-minute speech to the party's autumn conference in Brighton, the prime minister said the Conservatives had faced the "economic call of the century" and had called it wrong. Polanski arrested Roman Polanski had sex with a 13 year old ...
[IMG: Flash Forward: Robert J Sawyer] By coincidence, shortly after the launch of the Large Hadron Collider, I read a novel written a decade earlier - about what happens when the Large Hadron Collider is switched on for the first time. In that novel, Flash Forward by Robert J Sawyer, the world's population blacks out and gets a view of what they're doing 21 years hence, before returning to the present. The conceit sets up a myriad of plot ideas. The initial tragedies caused by people blacking out. The fear of those who see nothing, believing they therefore will be ...
My friend Nick Lajsczuk (my spell checker doesn't do that one) told me yesterday that he'd been singing my praises to Simon Hughes recently. Nick was in London to talk about the tragic time of the Ukrainian Holodomor, the famine deliberately inflicted by Stalin. He was telling Simon about the support Keighley Liberal Democrats have given concerning recognising Holodomor via our website.
The Prime Minister, on this morning's Today Programme: "We're the insurgents, not the incumbents." No, Mr Brown. Just because you've been in power for so long, been so incompetent and ground so many people down that no-one in the country can stand the sight of you any more does not suddenly make you the heroic Rebel Alliance. You are the incumbents, and that's why people hate you. What are you rebelling against? That two other parties are ahead of you in the opinion polls? So that's you, the Government, 'rebelling' against us, the people. Yeah. See how that works out. ...
I was under the impression that UKIP was against overseas & foreign interference with our sovereign Government & democratic process. I therefore look forward to hearing their howls of protest at the blatant intervention of the Unelected President of the World via his so-called newspaper in the forthcoming General Election.
Both the media and, it seems a lot of Labour Party apparatchiks are running around like headless chickens today at the news that The Sun has abandoned Labour and is supporting the Tories. Or to be more precise it is supporting the Tories in England in Wales. In Scotland the paper is backing anybody but Labour in the hope that they do not alienate too many of their readers. It is a principled stance then? Given the deeply illiberal and kneejerk agenda set out by Gordon Brown in his speech yesterday, including bringing back the poorhouse for single mothers, this ...
As reported in today's "Courier" and the "Press and Journal" (you can read the latter article by clicking on the headline above or going to http://tinyurl.com/pandjfiling), I have expressed concern about the council's decision to purchase an corporate electronic management system at a cost of £738 000, to be used in the council's intended new headquarters - Dundee House - in North Lindsay Street. My complaint covers two aspects of the way in which the filing system has been agreed by the Council. Firstly, the tender was approved in a delegated fashion due to "urgent timescales". Council Standing Orders allow ...
After yesterday's excruciating First Minister's Question Time in which a succession of Assembly Members sang (yes, sang) happy birthday to Rhodri Morgan and in which Nick Bourne compared Labour AM, Ann Jones to Marilyn Monroe, I do not want to encourage any more singing. However, I am struck by the parallel's between Rhodri Morgan's reluctance to retire as First Minister and Jim Callaghan at the 1978 Trades Union Congress taunting his opponents with an impersonation of old-time music hall star Marie Lloyd singing "Waiting at the Church". Rhodri told the Assembly yesterday that he intends to
Top blogging: Neither at the time, nor during the subsequent decades, has Polanski expressed the slightest contrition for his offence - nor, indeed, has he even accepted that he did anything wrong. He has, however, expressed a great deal of self-pity. He has repeatedly painted himself as the injured party. And many of the leading lights of the film industry supported and continue to support him. Not only has he been allowed to continue his career in exile, he has been lauded, garlanded with honours in Europe and America, won an Oscar, been defended by the great and the good ...
The Welsh Health Minister followed up her 42 page missive lastw week, in which she claimed the virtual eradication of debt within Wales' National Health Service, with a further announcement yesterday writing off £47 million of historic debt at two of Wales' largest NHS organisations. She wiped out the £40 million debt that would have been inherited by the Hywel Dda Local Health Board from its predecessor organisations comprising the Hywel Dda NHS Trust and the Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire LHBs. She has also told the North Wales NHS Trust that it will no longer have to pay off the ...
The switch in the Sun's support to the Tories has got to be one of the most underwhelming and entirely predictable stories of the year. They have spent years now bashing the Labour Party, and all we're seeing is a cynical, and successful, operation to divert attention from Brown. Why would they do that? Well... there ...
Splashed across the copy of the Metro I've just picked up for free on my bus is the headline: 'Workhouses' for teenage mothers [IMG: Share photos on twitter with Twitpic] I'd hoped that this headline was going to be seen on every bus and train across the country but the Metro site indicates that the story is carrying the more conciliatory headline 'Gordon Brown Accuses Tories of having no hearts'. After the headline sentence in my copy of the Metro it goes straight on to lash even further in to the 50,000 family ASBOs that Brown promised yesterday. 'What is ...
For the background, see this post and this post.I have had An Branewave! When I said that 100! = 250 * 333 * 520 * 714 * 119 * ...was wrong (which it is) I stupidly didn't realise that there is a pattern to the missing terms. The 250 comes from observing that there a 50 multiples of 2 less than or equal to 100. There are also 25 multiples of 4 (also known as 22), 12 multiples of 8 (aka 23), 6 multiples of 24, 3 multiples of 25, and 1 of 26. the 25 multiples of 4 contribute ...
Good to see that the mayor of Kiev Leonid Chernovetsky has reversed a decision to build a hotel on a killing field used by Nazis during the infamous 1941 Babi Yar massacre. It was hateful that a hotel was even suggested for an area where more than ...
Why is there even a debate about the arrest of Roman Polanski? The man is wanted for "unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor", a lesser charge to which he pleaded guilty in 1977. The thirteen-year-old girl at the time Samantha Gailey testified that ...
What a fab description of Lord Mandelson by Simon Hoggart in today's Guardian. I've always thought Mandelson to be one of the most gifted political operators of his generation. That is not to say that I admire his politics, nor yet his rather ...
A public exhibition is planned on Tuesday 13th October 2009 between 1.30pm and 7.30pm at Shire Way Community Centre, Yate showing details of the proposed new cycle route between Station Road, Yate and the end of the existing Bristol and Bath Railway Path at Coxgrove Hill. South Glos officers will be there to answer questions and to listen to your views. The proposals will also be of considerable interest to motorists who use the notorious Nibley Lane junction and to local people who live near the Shire Way and Rodford Way roundabouts. The proposed route enters our area under the ...
The Government has announced that it will be looking again at plans to build more than 32,000 new homes in South Gloucestershire, many of them in the Green Belt. The most recent draft of the 'Regional Spatial Strategy' (RSS) for the South West proposed that over 32,000 houses should be built in South Gloucestershire by 2026, more than 10,000 more than local people believe is needed to meet local need. Following a legal challenge to a similar document for the East of England, the Government has now announced that it will be setting up a new 'sustainability appraisal' for the ...
Last week huge increases in car parking charges were introduced by First Great Western. The daily charge for parking at Bristol Parkway has gone up by more than a third from £5 per day to £6.90, whilst the charge at Yate has more than doubled from £1 to £2.10. Train companies are looking for new sources of revenue because the current low level of inflation means that they are not allowed to increase many of their principal rail fares this year. However, there is a risk that these very high car parking charges will simply put people off using the ...
[IMG: sun-cover] Well, the Sun has withdrawn their support for Labour. Not a huge surprise, considering the epic turd of a speech Brown pooed onto the country's head yesterday. Brown wants a fight - the Sun's going to give him one. Still, at least the Daily Mail still loves our puritanical fuhrer (for now). UPDATE: They've officially switched to the Conservatives. Scottish editions will be advocating "Anyone But Labour." It's worth noting that the Sun tends to follow the prevailing mood of its readers. Did the Sun want grovelling apologies and promises of a completely different direction (like everyone else)? ...
One of the great differences between the Labour Party, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats is the way that they make policy. The Liberal Democrats debate and vote at conference. Today (29th Sept) Gordon Brown announced new policy in his speech to conference. I was expecting an announcement about care of the elderly because of the difference between the support given to the elderly in Scotland and those who live in England. It just doesn't seem fair that if you live in England and need to live in a care home then you have to sell your house. In Scotland ...
