What's so special about Durham County Council that it's entitled to be a law unto itself? The Freedom of Information Act requires public bodies to respond to Freedom of Information requests within twenty days. It accepts that in extremely complex cases a public body might need to take longer. There are limits, however, according to the Information Commissioner. In cases where the public interest considerations are exceptionally complex it may be reasonable to take longer but, in our view, in no case should the total time exceed 40 working days. You can imagine my anger, therefore, that I still have ...
I find myself in the somewhat uncomfortable position of hoping that Dave Cameron can hold the line with his own party. If he is forced to say anything new on a Lisbon referendum before the Election then it will only be to the bad. Both Tory troop rallying, media pleasing and - to be fair - rousing the core Tory vote will cry out for him to take a tougher line on "Europe". However, he is smart enough, and presumably well advised enough, to realise that this will create a complete mess at a time when there will be plenty ...
After winning their rugby match against Oldham on Sunday Keighley Cougars are being promoted. Well done, Cougars!
[IMG: Flash Forward: Robert J Sawyer] Tonight saw episode two of Flash Forward, the TV adaption of Robert J Sawyer's novel, air on Channel 5. Despite the promise of episode one, the start of episode two was full of the clichés of mediocre conspiracy drama. Cute kid. Threatening soldiers. Ominous helicopters. Loud piano music to tell us the words coming out of the actors' mouths are meaningful, profound and moving. Add to that the other cliché of implausible computing. Back in the '80s it would have been sensible to talk about spending millions of dollars on putting together a computer ...
Today I went down to Lamesley to have a look at the rail goods yard. Its a real shame that Birtley and Lamesley have big populations that communte to Newcastle and have to travel by bus or car though one of the most congested areas - south Gateshead and the Team Valley - when they have a mainline rail line running through their community. There was a station in Birtley for many years. So could we reopen it and provide a cost effective solution to reducing congestion? Yes but the East Coast main line is very busy and can't have ...
When YouGov first got going I was one of the first people to join their panel of people who were regularly polled. As time went by I was polled less on politics and more on other subjects – probably my fault for admitting that I was a party member but then I bet many of ...
I've just got back from a consultation on the proposed closure of Warwick Fire Station at Myton School this evening. The meeting was very well supported by my estimate over 100 people all against the proposed closure. The key argument against the closure made by residents is that we do not believe response times can be maintained if Warwick Fire Station is closed. The information provided with the consultation does not appear to stack up. There are only two roads between Leamington and Warwick and these get clogged up during peak times, especially from the end of school in the ...
Today I joined the South Fife puppy walkers for a Coffee Morning in Crossford Scout Hall. There were lots of puppies and working guide dogs...waiting to meet me! To find out more log on to www.guidedogs.org.uk
The Tories' conference so far, has been full of disagreements and proposals that will make things worse. Hauge says the public are in 'full agreement' with Tories over Europe, but wouldn't it help if the Tories were in agreement with each other first? Cameron has only just now changed his stance on the Lisbon Treaty, ...
Last month at conference, in two of our conference fringes, speakers highlighted useful online services set to revolutionise politics. At our first fringe, "Campaigning after Rennard," James Graham thought that TheStraightChoice (reviewed by LDV here), a website that allows members of the public to upload the leaflets they have received through their letterbox, had the potential to revolutionise politics. No more would politicos be able to put out close-to-the-knuckle material in relative obscurity. From now on, James argued, we'd all have to assume that at least one blogger would read our leaflet, and at least one journalist would read the ...
I'm not a fan of Strictly Come Dancing. Nor have I ever seen Hole in the Wall, which from the trailers seems like a prime argument for abolishing the licence fee. Anton Du Beke has therefore rarely entered my consciousness. Even if you came up to me with his photo and told me: "This is Anton Du Beke, who has achieved minor celebrity through appearing on a TV dance show," I'd just have to take your word for it. But I'm talking about him today because of the story about him apologising after calling his dance partner a 'Paki'. The ...
Last week, TV viewers throughout Scotland were asked to retune their Freeview TVs and boxes to continue receiving all of the channels available in their area. The retune was required due to an "upgrade" to the service that was supposed to ensure that "Five" became more widely available and to prepare the way for the launch of HD services. I have had a number of constituents (and a gentleman from Gowrie Park, across the ward boundary into Lochee Ward) contact me to say that the net effect of the retune was the loss of Channel Five! However, if you retune ...
Tonight's "Evening Telegraph" follows up on the article on http://www.dundeewestend.com/ from 27th September (click on headline to view or go to http://tinyurl.com/salaryissueblog) about the decision by my colleague Cllr Helen Dick (pictured right) and myself to volunatrily reduce our councillor salaries to last year's level, the reduction being used to help community groups across the city. You can read the item in tonight's "Evening Telegraph" by going to http://tinyurl.com/cllrsalreduction.
I suspect it was just sloppy wording, but I was intrigued by the way David Cameron phrased his rather vacuous pledge of respecting Scotland should he become Prime Minister. Now leave aside the fact that respect has to be a two-way process. I doubt that Alex Salmond is going to do anything other than continually provoke fights between the Scottish Government and Westminster, in the way he's done over the past few years. And ignore also the fact that respect can't hide the fact that there will be difficult decisions that have to be made about budgets and priorities, even ...
.....for Something Completely Different. Yes a whole 2 weeks and 2 days after the world first saw me it saw a young upstart called Monty Python. Here are some of my memorable Python Moments a little off the from the usual ones. First a match of International Philosphy Germany v Greece. This one is incredibly cheesey. And in conclusion the World's funniest joke which first aired 40 years ago today.
The demolition of Leicester's Bowstring Bridge was due to begin today. My sources tell me that it has been festooned with razor wire in an attempt to thwart protesters. Andrew Walton has some pictures of what demonstrations there were today.
If ever there was s stunt designed to get people talking about a TV show it appears to be the X Factor's willingness to accept that two talentless, rude and obnoxious people with no discernible qualities other than their passports can foul up three auditions yet still get to the final twelve. Louis Walsh's controversial decision to put through John and Edward Grimes seems based on Louis's belief that he thinks "people will like them". Usually such decisions split the public, but no this one. It seems from message boards that absolutely nobody likes them ! The biggest winner, of ...
Jennie Rigg and The Bureau of Sabotage have already wished Monty Python a happy 40th birthday. I am happy to join them. This is the first Python sketch I ever saw. It was broadcast on 16 November 1969 at an hour long after nicely brought up nine-year-olds went to bed in those days. But a week or two later someone wrote to Robert Robinson at Junior Points of View saying they had heard about this really funny new comedy show and please, please, please could he show a clip from it? This is the sketch he showed.
Moving off the Conservatives woes for a moment, I was shocked driving home this evening, to [IMG: fat] hear on radio 5 Live Drive a feature on how the NHS has trialled a scheme that rewards slimmers with cash according to how much weight they lose - paid for by - yes folks - the NHS. Slimmers on the ludicrous "Pounds for Pounds" plan are being paid up to £425 for losing 50lb (23kg) across a 13 month period (losing 30lb gets you £160 over a six month period). Their claim is that the trial has been a success (though ...
The decision of The Sun to switch its political allegiance from Labour to the Tories generated a fair few headlines last week, and a vigorous discussion here on LDV. It prompted me to undertake a quick calculation to find out approximately how many Sun readers are Lib Dem voters. And thanks to today's Media Guardian, which publishes the voting intentions of newspapers' readers at each of the last four general elections, I'm returning to the fray to give you two tables. The first, below, shows the voting intentions of readers of the main national dailies, sorted in descending order of ...
Mon 5th
20:18
Three minutes and forty three seconds towards some future obvious career-jeopardising incident
For some time now I have been making the types of ridiculous verbal gaffes more suited to a comedy club than a Council Chamber. I have a rare and debilitating condition which renders me unable to resist saying things I shouldn't. I think its official medical name is "stupidity." Occasionally these things make people laugh, although I am certain that in the end they will result in the end of my political career, or my professional career, or both. Sometimes my tongue is on such a hair trigger that I make Boris Johnson seem like Harpo Marx. It's not a ...
The same 14 Liberal Democrat blogs as in August and September feature in the Wikio top 100 British political blogs. It is time we saw some new faces here. So if you have not already done so, why not submit your site to Wikio? The good news is that, perhaps helped by the Lib Dem Conference and the Blog of the Year awards, almost everyone has gone up since last month. Six Lib Dems in the top 30 and 10 in the top 50 is an impressive performance. 1 (4) Liberal Democrat Voice Climbs 1 2 (11) Charlotte Gore Climbs ...
Just watching highlights of the days proceedings of the Conservative Party Conference. William Hague is making a Stirling speech, eagerly watched and enjoyed by the Tory Party faithful, busy attacking the Labour Party. More of a leaders speech rather than one in his 'Shadow Foreign Secretary' hat on. He accuses Peter Mandelson as bouncing back. This from the guy who stepped down after failing
On the way into work I caught the end of a discussion about the Conservative position on the Lisbon treaty on Victoria Derbyshire's 5 Live show. It seemed that Mark Francois was doing his best to communicate the party line on the issue but the audience of 200 invited members of the public seemed to be getting more and more exasperated with him. I heard several comments from audience members along the lines of politicians not being able to give a straight answers and there was a fair bit of heckling and booing when again and again Mark tried to ...
At the end of last week the EU were distributing £160m of funding to a number of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) facilities around Europe. One of the potential bidders for the funding was Longannet power station in Fife. This is one of the first coal power power stations to install the technology to reduce the amount of CO2 it uses while providing power. One UK plant was amongst the successful bidders Hatfield in Yorkshire, which was one of the few pre-combustion projects in the running. But supporters of Longannet are not that disheartened as a pioneer in the field ...
This week at Amused Cynicism.
And so the Conservative party have today claimed that they are in fact the progressives of UK (and Welsh) politics. As a refresher for the Tories here's some dictionary definitions of conservative and progressive. Conservative -adjective 1. disposed to preserve existing conditions, institutions, etc., or to restore traditional ones, and to limit change. 2. cautiously moderate or purposefully low: a conservative estimate. 3. traditional in style or manner; avoiding novelty or showiness:conservative suit. 4. (often initial capital letter ) of or pertaining to the Conservative party. 5. (initial capital letter ) of, pertaining to, or characteristic of Conservative Jews or ...
Most politics geeks will be celebrating with this video: And most Yorkshiremen will, of course, be watching this: But my preference is for this bit of the Life of Brian: ... among many many others. I know it's a cliché, but Python are a huge part of my growing up. I am very glad they are still considered to be worth watching. Happy birthday boys (and the occasional girl).
Another day, another email, actually though this one has made me somewhat angrier. There is an implication that they have only stopped purchasing milk from Grace Mugabe's Gushungo Dairy Estate because a lot of people like me and you got in touch to complain, not that they should have a conscience and shouldn't fund the evil dictator through a back door IE via his wife's dairy business. Although as Caron and others will testify, Nestle don't have a conscience! "Dear Mr Reeves, Thank you for getting in touch. The Dairy Board of Zimbabwe have now informed the Gushungo Dairy Estate, ...
Maybe Mary Honeyball MEP wants a nice cosy soundbite, like wot Gordon gave her in Brighton last week, when she wrote for LabourList 'Nick, are you committed to reform or aren't you?'. Too busy to read all 92 pages of Nick's pamphlet the Liberal Moment. Maybe she was too busy trying to get elected to hear Nick Clegg calling for deep and serious reform before the summer recess. A far deeper reform than her dear leader was willing to offer in the speech that apparently was changing key themes up to 1:30 on the morning it was made. Maybe, most ...
David Cameron's paper, the Witney Gazette, has the story: THE Liberal Democrat candidate to take on Witney MP David Cameron in the next General Election has been announced. Dawn Barnes will stand for Witney against the Conservative leader in May or June next year. ... Miss Barnes, 32, said: "I was really happy, and a little surprised, to be confirmed as the Liberal Democrat candidate to stand against a man who is widely-tipped to be the next Prime Minister. "However, it's a real honour, and I'll be working hard with the local party and friends and family in West Oxfordshire ...
Today the special scrutiny into childrens services in Birmingham was released. In essence it recognised that my assertions that the system was not working were true.What needs to happen is a systemic review of how the child protection system fails to work. This has not really happened with all of the reports so far.There are simple proposals that would help. For example allowing councils to
Mon 5th
17:40
CommentIsLinked@LDV ... An Evan Harris double-bill: embryon research and BNP teacher ban
It's not only Vince Cable who's been all over the papers – the Lib Dems' science spokesman Evan Harris also has his say today on two very different issues. First up, in today's Independent, animal-human hybrid embryo research which, says Evan equires three things to prosper: legal permission, good scientists and more funding. Here's an excerpt from his article: Those of us involved in campaigning for human-animal embryo research to be legal during the passage of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill always knew that this was a controversial area of research. But we also knew it was a field ...
Alex Salmond was just on Radio FiveLive justifying why the SNP deserves equal treatment in TV debates with the three main parties. The problem is, he tells lies in order to justify himself not realising seemingly that these lies undermine his whole argument. Firstly he made the comment that he deserved to be speaking as the SNP's representative in the debate even though he would not be standing because "We do not have a presidential government in this country". Indeed not Mr Salmond. But we also don't have a system where people who are not members of the Houses of ...
Most of you will have seen this video- it was first published on You Tube over A YEAR AGO!. But I thought it worth posting again as the Tory conference opens if only because, well, nothing has changed. You would have thought that the collective brains of the Cameron hierachy would have found a way to solve it by now. But as the out-of-date video shows - they are no further forward. One has to ask . When will the Conservatives actually tell us what they are going to do?
If you have a London Freedom Pass you may know that it is partly paid for through a £55 million grant from the Government to local authorities like Kingston. Up until now the Government has funded two thirds of the cost and the London councils have found the other one third. And now, it seems, Labour is planning to reduce the grant so it only covers a half of the cost. The only way the scheme could continue would be if London Councils could find £50 million. The unfair thing about this is that outside London the Government covers the ...
As my PA/Caseworker is due to go on maternity leave just before Christmas, I am advertising for somebody to stand in over a six month period, for three days a week, Tuesday to Thursday inclusive. Details can be found here. Shortlisted candidates are likely to be interviewed on Friday 20 November and would be working with me from 14th December 2009 to 16th July 2010.
I am shocked and saddened that Roberts Ziles and Michal Kaminski are honoured guests at the Conservative Party Conference. I am astonished that David Cameron has moved his Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) into a new grouping with such people. By contrast, I am proud that the Lib Dem MEPs sit in the Parliament's liberal group.
Forty years ago today on BBC1, a television comedy show which changed the whole history of television comedy shows was aired for the first time. Along with Spike Milligan's Q series, Monty Python's Flying Circus helped to make me the person I am by first honing my sense of the absurd, and I dare say many more people in roughly my age group watched it religiously before acting out the sketches in the school playground. Let us, too, not forget the formative influence of the delightful Carol Cleveland. Imagine how much poorer the world would be without Hell's Grannies, the ...
This morning, on my way to work I bumped into a couple of my constituents on the bus. I asked how they were doing - they looked downcast and said they were on their way to the Job Centre Plus in town. I have known this family for a couple of years having supported them on a couple of local issues in their street. They are both young professionals who live in central Reading with a young daughter. Mr x had just been made redundant from his job in the IT sector, Mrs x had recently graduated from Reading University. Both are highly-skilled, highly-educated ...
[IMG: French referendum ballot papers] Tory splits over Europe aren't what they used to be. Nevertheless, David Cameron got off to a shaky start to his party's conference over the vexed issue of a referendum on Lisbon. On the face of it, his position isn't total nonsense. Basically, if Lisbon has not been ratified by all 27 member states, he will hold a snap referendum in an attempt to rescind the UK's ratification, thereby preventing it coming into force. But, if Lisbon is already in place, he'll have to find a different way to prosecute his plans to repatriate powers ...
The first engagement on the second day was a visit to meet with the Deputy National Security Advisor and her team. You'll have noted the use of the phrase 'her team' here, and I was impressed that former Ambassador to Thailand, Leela Ponappa, had been willing to met with us. Naturally, issues related to infiltration across the line of control in Jammu and Kashmir were high on the agenda and, whilst we were repeatedly told that Pakistan was not the be all and end all of security policy, the question of Indo-Pak relations kept coming back again and again. Indian ...
Last week I attended the launch of the Cardinal Newman Project at the Norman Power Centre in Ladywood. The project seeks to investigate the impact of Cardinal Newman and his work on the Ladywood area of Birmingham. It also aims to promote intergenerational learning. As well as obtaining information from elderly residents of Ladywood using techniques such as reminiscence, the children from the Oratory Primary School will be filming the various events and visits to produce a DVD of the project. I was honoured to meet Father Sebastian and Father Anton from the Birmingham Oratory. Despite being openly secular in ...
God bless Nigel Farage. The UKIP leader's intervention in the Irish referendum campaign is being credited by 'Yes' campaigners as having helped them secure such a very large majority. "It was manna from heaven," writes one columnist in the Irish Times. Arrogant, English, twits as they are, UKIP's use of a turkey in an attempt to make a point about possible future EU enlargement allowed them to be portrayed as rude and racist. The EU has its faults, but it's not hard to see why those in Ireland who took a good look at UKIP went firmly the other way. ...
Hooray! We can now put all those annoying bits of plastic packaging in our Islington recycling boxes. Plastic drinks bottles joined the mix a while ago, but now we can add yoghurt and margarine tubs, sandwich containers, even plastic bags. Also juice cartons and other tetrapaks. So we can now recycle plastics, glass, paper, cardboard ...
Some people like regularly visiting a site to see if there's new stories of interest. Some people like subscribing to its news feed (RSS) and checking that way. But if you prefer email, you can instead sign up to get a daily early morning email with a summary of the previous day's posts from Lib Dem Voice, complete with convenient links to click on if any take your fancy and you want to take a read. Just go to our email sign up page to start getting these emails. You can also sign up for a special once-a-week email, bringing ...
One thing that never ceases to amaze me when unemployment rises is that mainstream politicians; especially Conservatives, harp on about getting people back to work. This is a very noble aim and in general the vast majority of those unemployed actually want to get back to work and are not happy about being 'dependent' on ...
If you've never been to the Electric Cinema before you are missing a real gem, right in the heart of Birmingham city centre. The Electric is the UK's oldest working cinema (opened in 1909) and now boasts two screens, one of which has sofa seating and waiter service! I enjoyed the latest Harry Potter film there a few months ago from one of the comfy sofas - accompanied by a gorgeous tub of Just Rachel's Butterscotch and Orange Liqueur ice cream - and I can heartily recommend it! The October/November programme contains the usual mix of hits such as District ...
David Cameron's announcement on the eve of the Tory Conference, that Tory Government would review all those on Incapacity benefit with a view to getting many of them in to work or on £25 per week less in benefits (switching to Job Seekers), is a cheap shot at best in an attempt to woo the right wing of his own party and of course the right wing press. At a time of deep recession when unemployment isn't expected to start dropping any time soon, targeting those on incapacity benefit, forcing them onto the end of a growing jobs queue really ...
A little while ago, the request for planning permission to turn the former Threshers at 5 Stonepail Road into an Indian take-away was rejected by Stockport Council. The reason given was: The proposed change of use to a hot food takeaway would lead to an increase in activity at and from the site until late in the evening and would increase the overall level of late night activity in the area above that generated by the existing adjacent hot food takeaway uses at 7 and 9 Stonepail Road. This would lead to noise, disturbance and nuisance which would be detrimental ...
090716/FO/2009/S1 Mr Harvey Sutton C/o Suttons Independent Financial Advisers 135 Northenden Road Sale Moor Manchester M33 3HF 7 Manchester Road Chorlton Manchester M21 9JG Change of use of basement from office to self contained flat, remodelling of 4 flats on upper floors to 3 self contained flats, 4 flats in total, alterations to elevations including the provision of balconies and the creation of light wells. Provision of car parking in rear garden. 091094/FO/2009/S1 Michael Gilbert Partnership Cobac House 14/16 Charlotte Street Manchester M1 4FL 444 Wilbraham Road Chorlton Manchester M21 0AG Creation of additional flat to form two flats. 091097/FO/2009/S1 ...
This is the conference video diary I made for Carol Woods, our candidate for the very winnable Labour held seat of Durham City. The aim was to have just a few minutes to cover the whole of her time at Conference.
Lib Dem deputy leader Vince Cable's path has gone beyond mere sainthood – to his financial omniscience we can now add his media omnipresence. In today's Independent, he delivers a withering attack on what he terms 'Osbornomics' in, erm, honour of the Tories' shadow chancellor. First, Vince tries to pin down Boy George's guiding economic philosophy: The last Conservative government was led by people who had a clear sense of ideological direction and conviction. Mrs Thatcher was clearly influenced, directly or indirectly, by the ideas of Hayek – rolling back "the serfdom of the state". Sir Geoffrey Howe and rising ...
As a YouTube partner, I find this very interesting. The forthcoming football game between England and the Ukraine will be shown live only on the internet. No terrestrial or satellite channel bid for it. Last week we had the announcement that in the UK, more is now spent on advertising on the internet than on tv. Meanwhile, channels such as ITV are struggling. Is view on demand overtaking
Apparently October's standing by Wikio is out and my blog has moved up a few spots, more than 500 in fact. Thanks everyone for reading. [IMG: Wikio - Top Blogs]
Mon 5th
13:09
The people's party, honest and with a shade of green - how voters see the Liberal Democrats (Part 1)
How's the Liberal Democrat narrative going, Neil? I get asked that from time to time, for some reason. On the basis that the Lib Dems have a narrative, but it belongs to the voters, not to the party, here's a round up of what the pre-conference research by Populus, Ipsos-MORI and Orb Research (quantitative and focus groups for Newsnight) said about the Lib Dems. Let's start with the party's strengths. According to Populus, the Lib Dems scored highest, once again, for being the party "for ordinary people, not the best off". There was 40% net agreement that this statement applied ...
Really pleased when I read the Strictly Come Dancing headline "Strictly, she's back – Arlene returns to judging panel". She was their best judge, and as lovely a person Alesha Dixon is, she doesn't have the knowledge to be a judge, as evident by her lack of technical feedback during the show. But pleasure turned to ...
When a member of the Tory inner circle publishes a book slagging off the most respected and successful Conservative Councillors in the town we need to take note. For starters the book asserts: "the egocentric actions of this pious and overly slothful duo have worked against the best interests of not only of the main Conservative party.......' For me it all began late last week when I was e-mailed by someone who managed to locate a copy of a most interesting book written by a leading light in Southport Conservative Party circles, as well as husband to Tory Council candidate ...
September is the transition month from the quiet of the summer recess to the hustle and bustle of Regional and State Party Conferences, although the past month was still pretty busy. The month started with a weekend series of visits in the West Midlands, first up being an early evening members' meeting in Stratford-upon-Avon on the Friday, hosted by local PPC and Chair of the Parliamentary Candidates Association, Martin Turner. The next morning, stopping only for coffee with Martin to discuss some issues related to candidate recruitment, selection and retention, I was off to West Worcestershire to meet the victor ...
Mon 5th
12:30
More posing and posturing from the Tories on the economy, rather than tackling unemployment
The Tories' central assumption, that unemployment is simply about the workshy not applying for jobs, would be laughably ridiculous were it not so dangerous and a foretaste of things to come should they be elected. There are many parts of the country ...
Professor Sheila Bird, a vice-president of the Royal Statistical Society and member of the Medical Research Council's Biostatistics Unit, criticised the way in which the Home Office used DNA and detection statistics in its consultation paper Keeping the right people on the DNA database: science and public protection. Professor Bird said that there were "myriad problems" with the government's analysis, all of which undermined their justification for keeping innocent people's DNA on the database. "[The paper's] use of statistical science does not enhance public trust. And in fact misleading statistical arguments in public consultations should I think be regarded as ...
For a long time, the contest to be the least trusted profession in the UK has been a tussle between journalists and politicians - with the occasional strong showing from estate agents. The latest MORI annual reputation survey shows that, in the wake of the expenses scandal, politicians have pipped journalists to the least trusted prize (net -69 compared to net -50, fieldwork 4-10 September). There are some parallels between the two professions: little trusted by the public and facing falling public interest (declining turnout, falling newspaper sales and TV viewing figures) as people turn to other places (pressure groups, ...
Does anyone else think the SNP are being idiots over the televised leaders debate? Well I do! They are not a UK wide party, they are a glorified Scottish independence pressure group.
From birkdalefocus What happens to all that green waste that is collected from Birkdale all year for recycling? Well it is turned into excellent compost. There is a special offer on NOW where you can take a bag or two and fill up with free compost. Full details here. Richard Hands and I took up the free compost offer last year. Thanks to Roy Connell for the tip off.
Want to stop Tony Blair becoming President of the Council of the European Union? Well, if you're not one of the 27 leaders in the Council who'll make the decision (and if you are, please leave a comment) you don't get a say in the process, so tough. However, you can sign a petition here that ...
... are Harriet Harman and David Amess, according to Jack Bremer of the First Post. To quite him in full: "Two contestants for political prat of the week. Labour's Harriet Harman is alleged to have driven into a parked car while on her mobile, and then taken off, saying: "I'm Harriet Harman – You know where ...
One of my personal highlights of ArtsFest this year was stumbling across a samba group as I wandered through St. Paul's Square. The sounds may have been Brazilian, but these folk come from the heart of Ladywood! Bloco Louco is a community samba percussion group who hold weekly workshops at the Ladywood Arts & Leisure Centre. They were formed in 2007 and attract members from a wide cross-section of the community. They practice every Tuesday from 7.15 to 9.45pm. No prior experience is necessary so please do pop along if you're interested in learning more about samba.
Things are really heating up in the October Wikio Political Blog Rankings with the Scottish Blogs especially in the midfield SNP Tactical Voting has climbed 6 places to enter the top 40 for the first time at 40, hot on his heels is Caron's Musings climbing 20 to 41, Subrosa has climbed but just one spot to 42, and fighting to keep up is me at 47 up 5. Is it possible that the other three of us could join Jeff in the top 40 next month? With Tom Harris at 6 and the Cute Greek Baby at 16 that ...
A report from the UN Development Programme has warned Britain and other countries not to clamp down on immigration during this recession. The report warns that such a clampdown would not produce the economic benefits that many people imagine - quite the contrary. It tells the truth about managed migration and reminds readers of its benefits. The Liberal Democrats' Policy Briefing on immigration sets out what we think about this issue.
Mon 5th
11:01
Return to your seats and extinguish your cigarettes, folks, they've got another 'policy'!
Good old Dave. He wants to cut benefits and help people back to work. Well, amen to that. Dave says his plans include cutting Incapacity Benefit for people who are able to work. Bold, radical, forward thinking. But wait! A dim memory stirs in my addled brain. Wasn't it the Tories under Margaret Thatcher who pushed unemployed people onto Incapacity Benefit in an attempt to massage the dreadful unemployment figures resulting from their caring policies early in the 1980s? Wheest and fie for my being a curmudgeonly old so-and-so. Dave is a young, 'new' Tory so he won't remember this. ...
[IMG: tory-blue-skies] Sorry if I am the last person to notice - but can anyone shed any light on why these somewhat freaky photos have appeared on the Tory website? I dont visit there often so not sure how long they have been up there - but its bit like being greeted by some weird American Religious Order when you drop in on the official party website . HAS SOMEBODY HACKED INTO THE PARTY WEB SITE AND PUT THEM UP FOR A LAUGH ? [IMG: m_gove2] The reason I ask is because I cant actually believe Michael Gove would actually ...
Regular readers of this blog will be familiar with my views regarding drug policy in this country. At the Lib Dem conference a couple of weeks ago I attended a fringe meeting on this subject sponsored by Transform Drug Policy Foundation who campaign to reform drug law. Their speaker was founder and head of policy Danny Kushlick, a passionate and extremely knowledgeable campaigner on the issue. I took the opportunity after the meeting to grab a quick interview with him to talk about TDPF and its objectives. The interview lasts about nine minutes: PS: For some unknown reason I have ...
67pc in favour of the Lisbon Treaty. A convincing result, and I feel absolutely great about it. It's not that I'm convinced that the treaty is going to make that much difference. If the 27 EU governments want to take action together then good progress can always be made. If they don't want to then, treaty or no treaty, it will always be a shambles and we will only muddle along. But all those who have lied about what the treaty means, or who distort everything about the EU, have been confounded. There's a way to go yet but the ...
Have put a few pounds on the election today. A hot tip for the Lib Dems in 2010 is Ashfield. Chance to make a bit of money as the odds are quite good still. Although we're fighting Geoff Hoon, just take a look at some of the recent local election results in that part of the world. Also, rumour has it that the local Labour Party isn't in the best shape. Geoff Hoons reselection wasn't exactly unanimous!
For those just coming to this news: Tom Steinberg (of MySociety) fame is going to advise the Conservatives, as explained by him here and criticised by Labour MP Tom Watson here. My one thought to add is that, thank goodness for once the answer to "we need to do internet stuff" has been for a party to look for UK expertise rather than the usual naive "oooh! let's get an American in! we're just like America! Obama! West Wing!" type response. That's in no small part a tribute to Tom and the rest of MySociety for the thoroughly deserved reputation ...
Boris Johnson is experiencing the same problem as David Cameron. He is all over the place on a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. Watching Johnson on BBC News 24, I saw him first demand a referendum on Lisbon now (perhaps he overlooked the fact the Tories can't deliver that from opposition). Then it was put to him that the treaty will be ratified by the general election so an incoming Tory
2 Big Stories Tory conference opens, and it's time to party like it's 1994 A few thousand Tories are converging on Manchester today, with two issues dominating discussion: Europe and welfare cuts. Ah, and there we were thinking The Major Years were but a distant memory. On a more positive note, the Tories will be singing today from the localism song-book, with Caroline Spelman championing the party's conversion to local control of local services – an interesting about-turn for an MP who opposed Scottish and Welsh devolution, and believes central government should impose council tax freezes from Whitehall. Ministerial pension ...
Saw this item in The Times Online this morning, absolutely amazing Baby mammoth yields secrets after 40,000 years in Siberian tundra - Times Online Shared via AddThis
Rosyth to become 'nuclear graveyard' - UK, News - The Independent: "Mr Brown said: 'We will not allow the Rosyth area to be frozen by nuclear dumping or becoming a nuclear graveyard. The Government proposals cannot be allowed to go ahead.'" This is not a report from today, but fifteen years ago - twelve of which Labour have been in charge! It's about time the Prime Minister used his power to remove these seven nuclear submarines from Rosyth Dockyard.
One for the lawyers and paperclip fans today, this time from Hansard in January 1998. It's Conrad Russell at work: As far as I understand it, it would be intra vires to confine those regulations to authorising them to restrict the allocation of their paperclips. I do not suggest that that is the policy intention. But I should like to know whether it would be intra vires, under those words, to restrict the powers that much. I also want to know how far the powers they could be given could be extended. When I know what could be done under ...
Of course, as an official delegation to a foreign country, a briefing from your diplomats is always welcome, and so we paid a visit to our High Commission in New Delhi, not that far from our base. Our host was the Deputy High Commissioner, who graciously laid on tea in the company of some of his fiercely bright team. Naturally, we talked about two key elements of their role, aid and trade. Of course, India is not the basket case it once was thought to be, a land of famine and starvation, as the Green Revolution helped it move into ...
It has been argued elsewhere that we do not have a Presidential system and that therefore the series of Leaders debates that now look like taking place are at odds with our Parliamentary system. The Prime Minister after all is not directly elected but is appointed by the Queen once she is satisfied that he or she can command a majority in the House of Commons, or has the best chance of forming a government if there is no overall control. However, things change and although the unwritten British constitution remains the deciding factor, the nature of 24/7 media coverage ...
As if to add fuel to the fire the Daily Telegraph reports this morning that David Cameron's decision to pull Conservative MEPs out of the centre-right European People's Party grouping, in June in order to fulfil a pledge made during his leadership campaign in 2005, caused consternation amongst Conservative leaders across Europe. French President Nicolas Sarkozy is said to have told Mr Cameron: "C'est fou, il se fait mal à la tête," meaning "It's stupid, you're giving yourself a headache", whilst the decision also went down badly with other mainstream European leaders including Angela Merkel of Germany, who threatened to ...
Everyone likes to talk in terms of what will Cameron's "Clause IV" moment be. (For the uninitiated, "Clause IV" is a reference to Tony Blair's removal of clause 4 of the Labour constitution, which committed the party to nationalised industry) Of course, there is no reason why Cameron has to have such a moment at all. ...
Shelter Cymru have called this morning for the Welsh Government's housing targets to be revised upwards. They say that the latest estimates suggest that demand is outstripping supply in Wales by a much greater degree than previously thought and more investment is urgently needed. The Assembly Government has pledged to deliver an extra 6,500 affordable homes by April 2011 and a spokesman said it is not shying away from that target, despite the recession. But in a paper for Shelter Cymru, Alan Holmans, research fellow at the Cambridge Centre for Housing and Planning Research, revised his original estimates of the ...
One pleasing backwater in Market Harborough is Christine's Book Cabin, to be found in an old courtyard off the Coventry Road. I was there yesterday afternoon and picked up a couple of mint Malcolm Saville paperbacks: Come to Cornwall and Come to Devon.
I'm working on my response to the government's consultation on electively home educated children. This follows a review report earlier in the year. I didn't know an awful lot about this subject before have been finding out more after a very interesting meeting with a constituent. The deadline for consultation responses is later this month. Here is the link to the DCSF page. There are quite a few things to be worried about here. One is the typical new duty for local authorities without a clear sense of new resources. But the other is the harm these proposals may do ...
Three more gains There were eleven principal council by-elections held on 1st October. Labour held four seats, the Tories two and the Lib Dems one. The Lib Dems took one seat off the Tories and two off independents. Labour gained one seat off an Independent in Scotland. There were no Parish and Town council elections reported to ALDC. The Independent last Friday quoted the Press Association: The post-conference "Brown bounce" failed to show in the latest council by-elections, although the Tories were hit by a huge surge to the Liberal Democrats. This may be true looking at their narrow analysis ...
As regular as clockwork at the start of each month (see August and September) Alex Salmond seems to raise his head in the great West Lothian Question of Prime Ministerial televised debates. The latest take is that Alex Salmond is threatening to sue if he is not included in the debates in the run up to the election. They are also threatening to block any debate that does not include the First Minister. John Swinney has said: "It deprives the voters in Scotland of hearing the breadth of political choice that quite clearly exists here in Scotland about the input ...
Over many years a visitor to the United States has had to run the unwelcoming gauntlet of US immigration. Long lines at each desk were followed by intrusive and rude questioning and in recent years by fingerprinting and even more questions. Though in recent years the process has become more organised and slightly more welcoming, it remains the case that if passengers are not US citizens or green card holders then it can still take a long time to clear US border controls. At the end of the day, though, the controls are targeted against foreigners and the United States ...
[IMG: election-debate2] So I understand from a joint press release on Friday that BBC, ITV and SKY have jointly agreed to offer the leaders of the three main parties in England (Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Nick Clegg) the prospect of a three way TV debate - one each hosted by ITV, Sky and BBC. I have two questions.... 1. HOW THE HELL DID SKY GET A SEAT AT THE TABLE ? Am I the only one to question why SKY gets a seat at the table when its owner has already declared for one of the party's involved? Rupert Murdoch's ...
I am a libertarian. I am a "land taxer". Some people seem to believe one cannot be both. On the one hand, we find people like Lib Dem Matthew Huntbach, who in the comments to this Lib Dem Voice piece on my opposition to the suggested "Mansion Tax" claims that as a self-described libertarian I am likely to drop the idea of land taxes, however much I may talk about them (much more than him I'd wager but there we are) as soon as the opportunity to enrich what he thinks of as my fellow wealthy libertarians allows. For the ...
A quick plug for the third episode of The Pod Delusion, the podcast what I've been doing stuff for. This episode asks whether atheism is just for the middle classes, what's available on Freeview and whether quack iPhone apps are worth the money (clue: no). My contribution is about Gordon Brown's keynote speech to the Labour conference – mostly on the content but with a bit about the rapidity of online reaction. You can listen on The Pod Delusion website or use the player in the sidebar on the left (people from the future: if I've redesigned and it's no ...
Having worked on supporting better Jewish and Muslim relations for the last 7 years, I can honestly say that I have felt despair over the last week. Once again the Al Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock mosque compounds in Jerusalem have been drawn into the politics of those who want to make it a Muslim and Jewish conflict, something that is so readily accepted within Europe and the US and which is so far from the truth of what I hear on the ground in the region. The conflict should not be seen through the prism of a ...
Yesterday's blog pointed out that insurance for care homes is really significant for the poor and really not significant for the rich. Well done to the Conservatives for supporting the rich. Today the headline is to cut benefits. Well you don't get rich on benefits and if you want to get a second opinion then ask any Tory MP. They can't live on the pittance they call an MP's wage. It is really hard to take any lectures on poverty from people who can't live on the "rations" that are given to MPs. In previous blogs I have written that ...
