[IMG: Mobilty Scooter] On Sunday morning a local resident was kind enough to accompany me round some of Consett, them on their scooter and me walking. It gave me quite a shock. When you're (reasonably) able bodied you tend to take things in your stride and not notice things which are a real problem to other people - like kerbs that aren't dropped or gutters so deep that a scooter can get into them but not out. It's unbelievably helpful, therefore, when people offer their insights. Please share yours. But please recognise that even yours are partial!
Nick Griffin MEP will appear on BBC Question Time next week - the first time a BNP member has been invited to appear on the show's panel. It still baffles me how so many people are passionately opposed to this decision. That is not to say I don't understand where the dissenters are coming from. I dislike hearing the putrid, xenophobic and poorly-disguised-racist bile that falls out of Nick Griffin's mouth as much as the next guy. I could even see some merit in the argument that to give them a platform is to help promote them, that to put ...
Russ Bryant who runs the facebook campaign group to stop the closure of Heatherwood Hospital has setup a petition on the number 10 website. Please do register your support at the link below, http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/ascothospital/ The petition states (Taken from the number 10 petition site); 'Heatherwood and Wexham Park NHS Trust are slowly closing Heatherwood Hospital by moving services to its Wexham Park Site the trust currently has large debts and It is the belief of many local people that the Trust intends to run down the Ascot site so that it can be sold off. Wexham isn't even in Berkshire ...
From the Telegraph: "Last night, the Lib Dems, who are confident that they avoided the worst excesses, stepped up pressure on the Conservatives by calling on George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, to pay an estimated £55,000 in capital gains tax which they claim he avoided. "Lord Oakeshott said: "George Osborne's catchphrase at the Tory conference was 'We're all in this together'. Perhaps he should make that 'except Conservative shadow chancellors and founder members of the Cameron club who flip their million-pound properties to dodge a £55,000 capital gains tax bill.'"
This story appeared on the Guardian website earlier this evening: The Guardian has been prevented from reporting parliamentary proceedings on legal grounds which appear to call into question privileges guaranteeing free speech established under the 1688 Bill of Rights. Today's published Commons order papers contain a question to be answered by a minister later this week. The Guardian is prevented from identifying the MP who has asked the question, what the question is, which minister might answer it, or where the question is to be found. The Guardian is also forbidden from telling its readers why the paper is prevented ...
More fantasy politics from our beloved Gnats, this time talking about defence. Angus Robertson, the MP for RAF Kinloss and RAF Lossiemouth, has been outlining how he thinks Scotland could go it alone on defence when freed of the clutches of the Evil English. To an extent that's fair enough: you wouldn't expect a Gnat MP to do anything else but bang on about how Scotland will be a land of milk and honey come the happy day when independence is achieved and all of Scotland's problems are solved instantly. The fact that Scotland would have to face the significant ...
If you want didactic, 100% certain comments about the third episode of Flash Forward, look away now. You see, I can think of all sorts of reasons why I should be disliking it. But, I can't quite stop myself liking it. Reasons I should dislike it? The dumbing down of the plot from the book. The plot clichés. Episode three - enter Nazi, stage left. The reliance on spooky coincidences to make for drama. The plinky plink music to signify, "PAY ATTENTION! This bit is important!" And then, in case you missed it, the increase in volume of the plinky ...
Welcome to the first in what will be a regular selection of some of the best blogging of late.Mark Reckons - Surely the Lib Dems should be doing better than this? - Mark feels that a golden opportunity is being missed. Excellent comments thread.Richard Wilson - The Parliamentary Question Carter Ruck and Trafigura don't want you to see - The Guardian are being silenced. Find out what they aren't
People have rightly been angered over the behaviour of many MPs with regard to their expenses. It has been a tale of greed and, in some cases, of downright corruption. But that doesn't mean that MPs have forfeited any right to natural justice. MPs have the same right as anyone else to know the nature of any charges against them and to know that they will be subject to a fair process in dealing with these. It's not a principle that MPs have always applied when dealing with other people, particularly in some of the assaults on civil liberties which ...
If you would like to see the plans for the new cycle route linking Mangotsfield to Yate, drop in to the Shire Way Community Centre in Yate between 1.30pm and 7.30pm tomorrow (Tuesday). For more information, see the consultation online.
Just a few quick links today: An app for (ptui!) iPhone that splits the universe for you. Terence Eden suggests we should mutualise the post office. Rick Veitch draws Harvey Pekar as Darkseid. Peter Watts wonders what the drug companies are going to do about the apparent increased effectiveness of placebos. Pillock saw Yoko Ono in a Corolla. And Marc looks ...
Those of you who have been following my adventures in parenthood will know that one of the things [IMG: [info - personal] ] amazing_holly likes best is stars. She loved George's Secret Key to the Universe, and she has a bunch of books about stars from Zoo in the Sky to Cosmos, and she likes to sleep with her blind open so that she can look out at them at night. Her lullaby, therefore, for many years now, has been Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Tonight, however, she decided she wanted something different, and she asked for something funny. I thought ...
A bizarre article appears on the Guardian website: The Guardian has been prevented from reporting parliamentary proceedings on legal grounds which appear to call into question privileges guaranteeing free speech established under the 1688 Bill of Rights. Today's published Commons order papers contain a question to be answered by a minister later this week. The Guardian is prevented from identifying the MP who has asked the question, what the question is, which minister might answer it, or where the question is to be found. The Guardian is also forbidden from telling its readers why the paper is prevented - for ...
One is constantly reminded of the fragility of life. At least 25 people were killed in car bombings in Anbur province, Iraq on Sunday. The same day we heard news of poor Stephen Gateley. From reports, he seems a remarkably blameless chap. A very talented musician and 'a beautiful person both inside and out'. It is being suggested that he somehow choked on his own vomit. For the last year for which figures are available, 2007, 119 people in the UK died from "inhalation of gastric contents". That's at least two people a week, if that is any guide. And ...
The Liberal Democrats and Trade Union has expressed concern over draft proposals to outsource many services provided by Conservative run Bath and North East Somerset Council. Althgough the plans are yat to be finalised, the concept is to reduce the Council down to a Core of just 700, with many direct facing services, such as home care and street cleansing to be privatised or delivered in partnership with other orgainsations. The draft policy document, The Future Council, says: "The future council should be strategic rather than operational - focused on convening and working with its partners to prioritise and commission ...
Lib Dem deputy leader Vince Cable's hotly-anticipated autobiography Free Radical is published next month – you can pre-order a copy from Amazon here – and is currently being serialised in the Mail. Excerpts published so far deal principally with Vince's childhood growing up in York, ranging from the personal (his mother's breakdown) to his occasional delinquency (terrorising neighbourhood cats and dogs with an air rifle) to his mixed emotions when his parents died ("I felt a vague sense of sadness and guilt that there was nothing more: no tears."). There's also an intriguing diversion into Vince's initiation into early mating ...
The secretary of state has just made the wrong call on the Bath Transport Package. It should be going to a full public enquiry to look at the flawed process that has led to this scheme that will cost a fortune and not deliver any real savings to congestion. The Conservatives refused to consider alternatives put forward by the Liberal Democrats and are continuing to push ahead withan absurd 2 lane highway. The question increasingly on the doorstep is Why do Richter's Conservatives hate bath so much? So the Conservative-Labour coalition has won this phase but the dispute will certainly ...
The Economy Minister, Ieuan Wyn Jones, has signalled a major shift in assembly government business priorities. In future he said there will be a radical shift from offering large grants to multi-national companies to move here to building up research bases instead. The Welsh Liberal Democrat Shadow Economy Minister, Jenny Randerson AM welcomed the new direction but said it involved a lot of work: "After 27 months in the job, it's great that Ieuan Wyn Jones has finally got round to recognizing the fundamental flaws in the Welsh Economy: low skills, low wages and a workforce that is all too ...
Gorton 100 rolls out its next big event on Saturday 17th October with a Fun Day at Aspinal School. There's lots on offer from a demonstration of Raptors, period events, old games and lots of us dressed in period dress from 100 years ago. That includes myself and my Gorton Councillor colleagues, Councillors Wendy Helsby, Simon Ashley, John Bridges and Charles Glover, with other members of the Focus Team, like Rob Copeland also promising to cut a dash in period dress. However, I didn't manage to get to my fitting until after certain residents (you know who you are) had ...
A Very British Dude has this week's selection.
I don't think I have ever officially come out as bi. There ought to be some sort of ceremony or something, with respect to David's eloquent opinions. Instead it's just been casually dropped into enough conversations that word got around and now everyone knows. To be honest, I feel like kind of a fraud even typing this. I'm cisgendered, I'm in a very happy and committed (albeit open) heterosexual relationship, both of which facts allow me to pass for normal to anyone who doesn't want to scratch below the surface (and most people don't). Therefore I have never faced the ...
There's a rather odd line in today's BBC story about MPs and expenses. Talking about Gordon Brown's repayment of expenses he had previously claimed, the BBC reports: In Mr Brown's case the £12,415 ($19,614) is made up of £10,716 for cleaning claims above Sir Thomas's £2,000 annual limit, £302 spent on gardening above the annual £1,000 limit recommended and a £1,396 decorating bill that was "inadvertently assigned by error to two quarters". Why give the sum in dollars? The US is certainly a big media market and I'm all for the BBC having an international audience, both for the positive ...
This morning while having major panic stations about Zennor (our cat) I hadn't noticed Roger had turned BBC Breakfast over to the dreaded GMTV. Gordon Brown was doing his interview and then they went to a piece on identity theft. They had a reporter and an outside broadcast unit going through peoples rubbish on a street. Some people had heeded the constant advice and shredded documents but they were very much in the minority. Some had torn statements up in to 4 or 6 pieces, hardly challenging to piece those back together for a thief. There was one carrier bag ...
It seems only fair to ask. I've been struck today by the cross-party consensus – noted here on Left Foot Forward – that the Blogosphere is united in disgust at MPs: Bloggers of left, right and centre were united today in disgust over reports in today's papers that some MPs will refuse to pay back expenses that they claimed erroneously. The argument put forward is logical enough, and best summed up by Lib Dem blogger Mark Thompson's exasperated question, "Do they honestly think that the public are going to stand for them rejecting the report, whatever the grounds?" True enough. ...
The decision of the UK Government to try and raise some quick cash by selling off assets such as the Dartford crossing, the cross-Channel rail link and the Tote over the next two years is an act of desperation. Worse than that it is an irresponsible act that will result in key Government assets being sold for less than their real value. Vince Cable is absolutely right to describe this policy as fundamentally flawed. He has pointed out that the Government's timing is all wrong. They are proposing to "sell off in very depressed markets, under very depressed markets for ...
The problem of what to buy your Tory friends for Christmas has been solved by Bronte Porcelain. Mulberry Hall, the china shop on Stonegate in York, describes it thus: Mrs Thatcher is depicted here at the start of her parliamentary career on the evening in 1959 that she successfully contested the Finchley seat. A Limited Edition of 300. Mrs Thatcher has agreed to personally sign each limited edition certificate that will accompany the model and each process of design has been approved by her personal assistant.
Over at the Democratic Audit website you can download the new pamphlet The Unspoken Constitution. In best Yes, Minister style, it reveals how government really works: 7.9. There shall be freedom of information, except that in the interests of executive power the legislation governing access to official information shall systematically protect from disclosure information pertaining to all matters of national security, internal policymaking, international relations and other sensitive or potentially embarrassing information.One of the pamphlet's authors, Stuart Wilks-Heeg, has an article about it on Comment is Free today.
£53.10 per week is what a carer gets paid by the state for the full-time work they do for the member (or members) of their family they are looking after. This, based on a full-time equivalent, means they get £1.52 per hour. If they are in receipt of the state pension, £95.25 (for a single person), ...
Commenting on reports that the BBC had subjected members of the BNP to 'soft' questioning, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Huhne said: "The BBC must make sure that it is as quizzical and demanding of the BNP as its presenters are with everyone in politics. "Now the BNP have got a foothold in elected office, the standard of questions into their position has to increase. "There must be no soft rides." Neath Labour MP Peter Hain would prefer BBC not to give BNP any exposure at all. The Independent reports that his complaint to the corporation about Nick Griffin's ...
Likening the Government's plan to sell off £16bn worth of assets in an attempt to shore up public finances to a "car boot sale", Vince Cable added: "It may well be that the sale of some assets is a sensible thing to do, but this is not the time to do it, because markets are very depressed. All our previous experience of government is that they sell off at the wrong time." Local Authorities are also angered that they will be expected to supply the bulk of asset sales (£11bn of the total), the government clawing back the money by ...
[IMG: http://www.wikio.co.uk] [IMG: 1010.jpg] The cost of Landfill is likely to cost councils £1.8 bn between 2009/11 - and quite rightly so. This money could be so easily spent on front-line services instead of being, literally, thrown away. Some councils have opted to diverted some of their waste to incinerate, including Reading. This saves on landfill tax, generates heat and electricity but, unfortunately, also generates carbon dioxide. Some 35 % of all polymers consumed in the UK end up as package in. So one obvious solution would be to simply reduce the amount used. This has been criticised because of ...
Please find below information from Digital UK regarding the Digital Switchover: [IMG: ole0] There is less than a month to go until switchover takes place in the Granada TV region and we're now entering the final wave of our communications to ensure viewers know when switchover is happening and what to do. Read the rest of this entry.
To Wales, then, where it's goodbye from him, and it's au revoir from him ... And So, With Tears In Either Eye In fairness to him, Rhodri Morgan pretty much kept to his end of the bargain in announcing that he would stand down as First Minister after the Assembly budget was agreed on December 8th (but since the promise was that he'd announce his intentions on or around September 29th, his end of the bargain wasn't that hard to keep up). The inevitable political and journalistic encomium followed and you can't begrudge it him; whatever his political failings, his ...
I am heterosexual, and have never really needed to come out as that. It's the assumed, default position; that confers heaps of privilege on me, and means that I don't have to spend large chunks of my life explaining my sexuality in tedious detail to pruriently interested parties. I'm also cisgender; not only have I never needed to come out as that, but I'm sure that the majority of my similarly cisgender work colleagues (and probably many of my friends) have never even heard of the term and would question the need for it if I tried to explain it. ...
'Last night, the Lib Dems, who are confident that they avoided the worst excesses, stepped up pressure on the Conservatives by calling on George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, to pay an estimated £55,000 in capital gains tax which they claim he avoided. Lord Oakeshott said: "George Osborne's catchphrase at the Tory conference was 'We're all in this together'. Perhaps he should make that 'except Conservative shadow chancellors and founder members of the Cameron club who flip their million-pound properties to dodge a £55,000 capital gains tax bill.'
I see that Chippenham was getting the full Vince and Nick treatment this week. It is a seat that the Liberals have always done well in -good times and bad. In that respect it is a bit like Southport. It is clear that the visit had a positive impact on the town and did a lot to enthuse the local activists.
The party has just released the text of the letter from Nick Clegg to Sir Thomas Legg confirming that the Lib Dem leader will – as recommended by Sir Thomas – re-pay £910 of taxpayers' money claimed as expenses for gardening costs associated with Nick's second home. Here's the text of the letter: Dear Sir Thomas, Thank you for your letter dated 12 October which I received this afternoon. I note that you recommend that I make a repayment of £910 for gardening costs. On your advice I have made this repayment to the Department of Finance and Administration today. ...
The Highways Agency and Manchester Urban Traffic Control are completing their latest round of modelling and investigations into the Kingsway junction. As you may know, the Highways Agency have for some time been looking at reworking the junction, but their primary concern is the north-south traffic on Kingsway, and backing onto the M60, rather than the east-west queues from Cheadle and Gatley. The Highways Agency proposals have not yet been finalised but look likely to include new traffic lights where the motorway slip road meets the A34, to control traffic merging onto Kingsway better. enable traffic on the motorway slip ...
[IMG: gardening] Nick Clegg faces the mild embarrassment of having shelled out £3,900 for his gardening expenses, when Sir Thomas Legg reckons three grand should have covered it. Nick's paying back the excess. Hearteningly, he seems to have got out the traps pretty damned fast on this one. And is calling on MPs to accept Legg's demands without" quibbling, questioning or trying to drag their heels." One hopes that the LibDems ensure that all the party's MPs swiftly attend to any repayment demands (i.e. preferably by close of play today). The whip should be withdrawn from those who don't or ...
Following our successful campaign earlier this year to get action taken in regards to Reading's large private rented housing sector, I have more good news to report - this time for students in particular. An officer begins work today at Reading Borough Council to review landlord accreditation in Reading. This is very positive news. I will be meeting her and other officers shortly to discuss how we can revive this important scheme. A landlord accreditation operated by RBC existed until 2006 when it was suspended by the Labour administration due to lack of resources. I am sympathetic to officers who work in ...
I see Cleggy has been asked to pay something back, and Cameron has only been asked for further information. So much for trying to differentiate ourselves from the others in the eyes of the public... And yes, before everyone leaps down my throat, I know the details, and I know that we weren't as bad. But Our Glorious Leader being asked to pay back expenses for gardening? If that doesn't feed into the they're all the same, all in it for themselves, all claiming for stuff normal people have to pay for out of their own pockets narrative, then I ...
I am delighted to see that Garden Suburb Theatre are putting on a play at the Bull Arts Centre on Barnet High Street later this month. I was a leader of the non-party campaign to save the Bull when it looked as if Barnet Council might sell its building. We campaigned for it to remain a place that could be hired by local arts groups. It is now occupied by Susi Earnshaw Theatre School and can be hired out of hours by groups like Garden Suburb Theatre, including groups from Hendon. This is exactly what we had in mind throughout ...
A lot of nonsense from E.ON about "reduced demand" being the reason why they have deferred building a new coal power station at Kingsnorth in Kent, matched only by the nonsense from some green activists about this being "the end of coal." Sorry, but despite it being the largest single source of CO2 emissions, worldwide use of coal is fast expanding. We have to live with coal, and tackle its emissions, if we are to beat global warming. No commentator that I noticed made the connection between E.ON and the EU's strategy to develop carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. ...
Last month, I was delighted to report that the Friends of Magdalen Green had won the environment category of the Dundee Partnership Awards 2009. Click on the headline above or go to http://tinyurl.com/FOMGsuccess to read the earlier article. Yesterday, along with colleagues from Friends of Magdalen Green, I took part in filming of the Friends' activities and plans for the future - the video will be played at the Dundee Partnership Awards Dinner next month. When we started at 1pm yesterday, it was a lovely, sunny autumn afternoon - by 2.30pm I was absolutely freezing! But great to see the ...
I see Eleanor Laing's expenses problems have hit the headlines again. Our Conservative MP came under fire earlier this year when the Daily Telegraph highlighted the £180,000 capital gains tax bill she managed to avoid by telling Parliament that her second home was in London and the tax authorities that her second home was in Theydon Bois. [IMG: ConservativeHome on Eleanor Laing deselction attempt] I knew there was unhappiness among some local Conservative members and councillors but had not realised until today's reports that Mrs Laing faces an organised attempt to deselect her. Conservative website ConservativeHome suggests that the Leader ...
To Wales, then, where it's goodbye from him, and it's au revoir from him ... And So, With Tears In Either Eye In fairness to him, Rhodri Morgan pretty much kept to his end of the bargain in announcing that he would stand down as First Minister after the Assembly budget was agreed on December 8th (but since the promise was that he'd announce his intentions on or around September 29th, his end of the bargain wasn't that hard to keep up). The inevitable political and journalistic encomium followed and you can't begrudge it him; whatever his political failings, his ...
Myself and Stuart Sharpe of the Sharpe's Opinion political blog have started a new series of political podcasts called "House of Comments". The website for the podcasts is here and the first episode which we recorded yesterday is now live and available to download via this page here (raw mp3 file here if you prefer). You can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes here. The format is to invite one or two other political bloggers each week and discuss a few of the stories that are making waves in the blogosphere. For the first one, Iain Dale of Iain Dale's ...
I really cannot believe that some MPs are stupid enough to want to inflame this whole expense mess again. Thank goodness that Sir Thomas Legg has come in as an independent person and made a call - quite briskly for the size of the task involved. If MPs now start carping on about moving goalposts, they will just reignite the near-revolutionary public anger wave which consumed us all for about two months before the summer. The fact is that the implementation of Commons rules were corrupt, as I said at the time. - A systemic conspiracy of nods, winks and ...
Chorlton Ward 091350/VO/2009/S1 Mr Brendan McBride PSH Manchester City Council Central Operations Division Manchester City Council 3 - 5 West Street Clayton Manchester M11 4EF Alleyway To Rear Of 1-45 Grange Road And 1-17 Polruan Road Chorlton Manchester M21 9NZ CITY COUNCIL DEVELOPMENT Erection of 2.4 metre high gates to the rear alley 091358/TPO/2009/S1 Mr Mark Redmond 32 Hampton Road Chorlton-cum- Hardy Manchester M21 9LA 32 Hampton Road Chorlton-cum-Hardy Manchester M21 9LA Works to 1 mature poplar tree 091361/LP/2009/S1 Mr James Boles 23 Cheltenham Road Manchester M21 9GL 23 Cheltenham Road Chorlton Manchester M21 9GL CERTIFICATE OF LAWFUL DEVELOPMENT for ...
Last Thursday's district council by-election was a boost for the local Liberal Democrats. Gavin Chambers ran the Conservatives much closer than anyone expected and was just 43 votes from victory. The result was: Conservative 453 (52%, -31%) LD (Gavin Chambers) 411 (48%,+31%) Majority 42. Turnout 17.2%. The Conservative vote at the last set of district elections in May 2008 was 1262 so this is a big loss of support for them, even taking into account the lower turnout. One factor seems to be have been local frustration at the decision of the Conservatives on the district council to block talks ...
On Saturday morning, hundreds of people signed a petition in support of our local fishermen, during the 'Taste of Rye' Festival. The signatures garnered over the weekend bring the tally closer to 4,000. The petition calls on the Minister for Fisheries to re-instate the percentage of the Channel quota given to fishermen in February 2009 which was ...
Do they never learn? All the media this morning are reporting that MPs are openly challenging the authority of the independent auditor charged with investigating expenses abuses at Westminster. A number are claiming that the civil servant charged with the inquiry has strayed beyond his remit. The Guardian records that John Mann, the MP who has led calls for a thorough overhaul of the allowances system, raised concern that Sir Thomas Legg's audit of expenses had become too broad, and warned that this might trigger lawsuits that could drag on through the "entirety of the next parliament". The MP for ...
Lancashire County Council will spend an extra £54,000 on Clitheroe highways thanks to support from Cllrs. Allan Knox and Stephen Sutcliffe. The decision was made at recent meeting of Lancashire Locals Ribble Valley. Here's how the money will be spent: £8,000 for carriageway resurfacing along Turner Street, Clitheroe, outside Ribblesdale School. £10,000 for carriageway resurfacing along Littlemoor Road, Clitheroe, from Whalley Road to Holly Lodge. £24,000 for carriageway resurfacing along Chester Avenue in Clitheroe from Waddington Road to Cookies Way. £1000 for a series of bollards to prevent overrunning of the footway on Whitewell Drive, Clitheroe. £11,000 for footway resurfacing ...
[IMG: Co-op movement] If you haven't seen it yet, Liberal Vision's Sara Scarlett has an article on LibDem Voice, calling for the Liberal Democrats to reach out to the (often totally ignored) Co-operative Party and its twenty-nine MPs. Judging from the extensive stream of comments posted, her strategy and analysis have met with approval from all corners of the LibDems. The odd (very odd) one or two party activists, however, seem sceptical of voluntary or market mechanisms in virtually all their aspects.
Great example from my former neighbour Alex here of Castrol automatically recommending the right engine oil for your car: Castrol is combining speed camera technology with digital roadside billboards to tell around 200,000 drivers what the best oil for their vehicle is in a new ad campaign. Ogilvy Advertising conceived the idea, which is an innovative recasting of Castrol's pre-existing 'Right Oil Right Car' service. This allows anyone to find out what is the best Castrol oil product for their car by telling Castrol what their registration plate number is via mobile or online.
Fast Company reports: It's releasing the Facebook Connect Wizard--to make it easier to use Facebook to add "social context to any site." Using the Wizard means it's now a quick, simple, and relatively painless three-step process to integrate Connect in your site. You enter some site ID details into the Wizard, download the special code Facebook's development engine presents to you, and plop it into your site's web code. Amazingly simple. Excellent news as Facebook Connect offers some real benefits to commenters (no need to mess around with separate gravatars and logins) and to those running sites (spreading news of ...
It was a great night at Cedar Mount for the finals of Gorton's Got Talent. 9 excellent acts entertained us all. well done to everybody who took part, winners or not. My great relief is that I wasn't one of the judges, as it can't have been easy deciding who should be first, second or third! Good singing and great dancing. There is highly likely to be another Gorton's Got Talent next year, so start practicing.
It is always interesting reading the Blogs of the Conservative Councillors from Wallasey, this weekend they have been out and about in Seacombe delivering their latest works of fiction, sorry I mean Newsline, and a 'crime guide'. Chris Blakeley informs us that there were eight members delivering their leaflets, while Denis Knowles informs us that ...
Predictions that the next general election will be the one in which the internet will make a huge impact have regularly come and gone. Post-Obama ready yourself for another such clutch of predictions, but underneath this punditry froth the internet has got on with quietly shifting the way politics works. It's been more at the unglamorous organisational end (imagine trying to organise a campaign without email) than at the eye-catching systems-shattering dramatic end beloved of pundits, but it's been a major change nonetheless. Following in the footsteps of email, blogging has also established a firm place in the logistics of ...
Sitting on the train returning from Cornwall this Friday I overheard a very annoying and salutary conversation on British politics and the present economic situation. A woman, on her second miniature bottle of red wine, 20 miles into her journey from Exeter to Reading, at 3pm on Friday, after a 'terrible day at work,' was discussing ...
Jacqui Smith has been told to apologise in the House of Commons because of her participation in the MPs' expenses scandal. So if she has to apologise she must have done something wrong, but she has not been told to repay any money. We are not dealing with tens or hundreds of pounds but thousands of pounds. It was Jacqui Smith who decided that her second home was the one with her family and thereby gained a lot of money. The system was not fair and for all I know it still is. By taking part in this unfairness many ...
A plan has been bouncing around for a while to re-label the lanes on the northbound side of Kingsway, as it comes up to the Gatley Road junction. At the moment, the left hand lane is for Gatley Road, South Park Road Estate, M60 Westbound and M60 Eastbound, with the other two lanes both for Manchester. The result is the inside (left hand) lane normally having much longer queues with the other two being emptier. That means less efficient use of the road space and fewer cars getting through the junction in each lights change. The proposal is to change ...
Beddington & Wallington Local Committee The main items discussed at this meeting were road safety schemes for Steps zones 20 & 21 & Stanley Park Road; pedestrian crossing trial at Wallington Sainsbury's junction; locking of St Mary's Field gates; Wallington Integrated Transport package & changes to Neighbourhood Recycling facilities. First up for discussion was the road safety ...
As Gordon Brown announces a £16 Billion Sale of public assets I can almost here the character from Dads Army shouting "Don't panic". Any remnants of "prudence" has finally been expunged from his character with this one. The timing of this sell-off off public assets, in the midst of a recession has to be questionable proposal and one could almost lead to panic as to the true state of public finances. If indeed it was a simple case of being able to pick the timing in order to maximise interest and income, then this wouldn't be happening now. However, It ...
2 Big Stories MPs' expenses row re-ignites as MPs question findings of independent inquiry In case you thought the row had blown itself out, here comes the sequel: Gordon Brown has urged MPs to repay expenses claimed up to five years ago if asked to do so following an audit ordered after the furore. There are reports that some MPs plan to defy calls to repay money and may challenge the request in the courts. The PM is among hundreds of MPs expected to be asked to repay sums following a review of all claims by former civil servant Sir ...
Is he still not in prison? Why not?????
I'm one of some 30 signatories to a letter submitted to the Guardian, and published today, calling on the Prime Minister to take immediate action to reform democracy in the wake of the public collapse in confidence sparked by the MPs' expenses row. Gordon Brown signalled some half-hearted recognition of the need for change in his conference speech by advocating a referendum to introduce the alternative vote electoral system some time in the next Parliament – it's a typical Brown demi-measure, falling far, far short of even the minimum required. [IMG: no expenses spared] There's something rather bizarre at seeing ...
We're mourning little Ash our chinchilla. Chinchillas are unusual pets, I'd never seen one let alone held and played with one before I met Richard. He has had chinchillas for years, including rescue chinchillas like Ash. They are delightful animals, literally bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, with mischevious sweet natures, and amazingly soft fur. Ash came to Richard ...
Hopes MPs are not so unwise as to challenge Sir Thomas Legg's report but fears he may be misunderestimating them.
What then? Are we better than they? No, in no way. For we previously charged both Jews and Greeks, that they are all under sin Romans 3:9 The Legg report on British MPs expenses looks to be a fiasco: by saying that so many MPs are guilty it means that individual culpability is diminished. It lets the most guilty off the hook while also tarring the essentially innocent with the brush of corruption. A truly terrible result that will undermine faith in British democracy to the point of crisis.
In (partial) fairness to the government department concerned, this is from May 1994: Mr Newton The Privy Council has no plans to use the internet. The same answer was also given in December 1994. Liked this story? Find other gems from Hansard on my archive page for this series of posts.
Today's blog comes live from my local bus service! It makes a change to blogging from the train to London or from my bed before I get up in the morning. I am off to Kielder Reservoir, owned by Northumbrian Water, to look at the facilities of the biggest man made object in Europe and one of the few man made structures that can be seen from outer space. Okay, that's the interesting but otherwise
When to start cutting the deficit? or "the sequencing of fiscal strategies", as Adam Posen might have put it. Last week the Tories took what they happily described as a gamble in laying out in (misleading) depth how they would cut the deficit. Some of it sounded nasty, and for that reason might deserve applause (which I gave, grudgingly). The Economist has been more fulsome. The temptation was to continue to spout generalities rather than specify cuts, for fear of scaring the voters. Instead [Osborne] spelt out some of the harsh medicine needed to deal with the huge budget deficit ...
Well - it's back to Westminster today. We have company in the form of lots of protesters still on the roof of Westminster Hall. When I see protesters on the roof of Parliament - as was on the news today - I watch with amazement at the ropes and ladders and volume of people scaling the walls - wondering how they can possibly do all that with so many police around. Each time there is a breach of security like this - you kind of think it can't happen again - and then it does. Perhaps its because the government ...
Looking south to St Dionysius and the town centre from my old ward.
The first years of David Cameron's leadership of the Conservatives have been a largely policy free zone. In that sense the Tories took a leaf out of the Tony Blair playbook: establish some kind of trust in the minds of the electorate and their votes will follow, even if they disagree with some aspect of your policies (which most voters will do). In that sense, the Conservative conference was a significant change of tack- George Osborne has been prepared to set out a clear policy of a pay freeze and deep cuts in public expenditure. For this he was lauded ...
Farokh Khorooshi, the chair of the Fitzjohns Residents Association, deserves a medal for the work he does to improve quality of life for Hampstead residents. Two years ago I chaired a group of residents, councillors, parents and cyclists whose aim was to make Fitzjohns Avenue and the surrounding area greener, safer and less congested. Some of the things we proposed are now coming to pass - for example, a 20mph limit policed by average speed cameras and a school bus system. Mr Khorooshi (seen above picking with his first grape crop!) was part of the Fitzjohns "blue skies" group and ...
Great news that E.ON have cancelled plans to build a new coal-fired power station in Kent. Now let's hear the Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband say that no new coal-fired capacity will be allowed unless power stations are fitted with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, and that if CCS cannot be made to work, then they will be closed. So far there have been a few small-scale CCS experiments around the world, but nothing to say that it is a viable industrial solution. The really sensible thing to do would be to test the technology on our ...
Chapter 5 finds Nick on familiar Liberal Democrat territory. There are too many quangos. Britain is too centralised. We need a written constitution. Donations to political parties must be capped. And we need electoral reform. None of this is new, but it is all true and cannot be said too often. See also: Chapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 4And you can download the whole pamphlet from Nick Clegg's website.
In the old language of the bill that determines who can stand for Westminster along with undischarged bankrupts and peers of the realm the other grouping is lunatics. Well with the letters from Sir Thomas Legg's independent audit about to picked up in MPs inboxes it looks like the later may indeed have sneaked in. You'd have thought over a summer where they could meet their constituents and actually get a fell for the anger on the street about MP's expenses that some lessons may have been learned. One of those is that they would look at an independent review ...
On October 9th, The Telegraph speculated on "David Cameron's Cabinet: Who's in? Who's out?" . They were confident that George Osborne, William Hague and Michael Gove will all keep their current portfolios should the Conservatives win the general election. But they raised serious questions about Liam Fox... They pointed that "Mr Cameron's namecheck for Dr Fox was clearly meant to reassure the shadow defence secretary, but Sir Richard's most recent comments are unlikely to pour oil on troubled waters. The Guardian reports today that the general says he was tapped up by DC because his "defence team lacked expert understanding," ...
So here I am at half past three in the morning, working out how to do polls on my blog from my mobile phone. Severe back pain meant I wasn't going to get much sleep anyway tonight, but Mat's nasal orchestra certainly isn't helping. Well, apart from that it inspired the following poll: View Poll: Insomnia
Hither Green Lane, 1913. Hither Green Lane, circa 1930. Hither Green Lane, October 2009. When a cinema building is transformed into a 99p store you can legitimately say that the area is going to the dogs and something must be done about it. It surely doesn't bring the area up and it's a gross misuse of what once was ...
I've noticed a couple of bloggers (not just you, Mark, lest you think I am picking on you, but you are the only one worthy of linkage ;)) tonight moaning about how some woman was refused service in a supermarket because there was a suspicion she might be supplying some alcohol to a person under 18. A lot of the commentary on this seemed to be aimed at the supermarkets, and there were threats of violence against the checkout operator from a number of quarters. What the blue buggery fuck do people think shoving the bottle of wine up the ...
A not so subtle response to this and this. A group of children, broken up into two gangs: They have one bucket of toys, with only enough toys for one of the gangs. To prevent fighting (and broken spectacles) they take turns every week to elect a new leader. Invariably leadership alternates between each of the gang, although sometimes one gang can hold the bucket for many weeks at a time. Gang A's leader, if he wins leadership of the whole tribe, always grants the bucket of toys to his gang, and Gang B's leader always decides to give the ...
Mon 12th
01:19
Is it just me or do you want to keep saying Terence and Philip instead of John and Edward Grimes ?
For those who don't know, Terence and Philip are two obnoxious characters in the TV series Southpark whereas John and Edward and two tone deaf teenagers from Ireland who appear in the TV series X Factor.
I'm a step closer to getting hold of the Insight report into the Berry Edge Sports Centre proposal. After another meeting of the legal beagles, apparently I'm to be allowed to have sight of the report (minus, of course, the bits that have been blacked out). Not yet, of course - but hopefully by next Friday after dotting I's and crossing T's. No previous deadline has been met - or nearly met - in this saga to date so I'm not holding my breath. I am looking forward to reading the report when I get it, though. It's hard to ...
There is a report in this morning's Times which suggests that members of the Estimate Committee are considering throwing out Sir Thomas Legg's independent report on MPs expenses as they think it has exceeded its remit. My response to this is, are they insane? Part of the reason the furore of a few months subsided in the way it did is because an independent report had been commissioned. Do they honestly think that the public are going to stand for them rejecting the report, whatever the grounds? My experience is that many non-politically involved people are absolutely disgusted by the ...
The UK government are sourcing Swine Flu vaccine from two companies. One is UK company GSK (Glaxo Smithkline), whilst the other is a US firm called Baxter. Would it give you confidence to know that Baxter sent out a batch of seasonal flu vaccines last year to Europe that were actually contaminated with the live version of the H5N1 Bird flu and this was only detected by authorities in the Czech Republic, not by Baxter themselves ! And to think the UK government are trusting this company to produce a vaccine to save lives.
Coverage and reviews of the Conservative Party conference are still achieving over 60 column inches per day. Today according to PoliticsHome, papers featured 71 reviews. Tomorrow, Labour is planning on busting out an announcement that will surely score some cheap headline points. In a speech tomorrow, Brown will announce the sale of Tote Bookies, a 33% stake in Uranium enrichment tech company Urenco, the Channel Tunnel rail-link, the Dartford Crossing and the Student Loan Book. Collectively, these sales will apparently bring in £16bn on top of sales of surplus Government real estate. What a bluddy stupid idea. Considering the state ...
