A blow by blow account of tonight's STV debate from Conservative, Ruth Davidson, Labour, Willie Bain, Liberal Democrats Eileen Baxendale and SNP David Kerr.Labours Willie Bain is first in the hot seat.David Kerr starts the debate with a stunt, he throws a £2 coin at Willie Bain saying that's all Labour have spent in Glasgow North East on education.Then he moves onto Margaret Thatcher and asks Willie Bain, repeatedly if he would have invited her into No 10.Ruth Davidson from the Tories has a pop about Labour air brushing Gordon Brown out of all the by-election literature, Willie denied it!Then ...
Ironic, that on the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot, I was attending the Annual Memorial Requiem Mass at St. Mary's Church in Halifax.
My colleagues Mike Booth and Fred Weavers went to see their local cub pack tonight-whilst I was stuck on a late dirty,late-running Virgin train out of Euston. They clearly had a good time. Mike was asked to present badges to some of the cubs. Fred also presented badges to newly invested cubs. Mike told the pack about his role as a councillor, which will be included in future badge work on communities. The picture shows Mike and Fred with the Kew cubs and their leaders.
This in from Dover & Deal Liberal Democrats: A Conservative Councillor from Dover who earlier this year was condemned for publishing racist jokes on the internet has re-published an article suggesting Apartheid in South Africa should have been extended. Councillor Roger Walkden copied onto the DoverForum website a story supposedly written by a Nigerian saying that prosperity evident in South Africa today is attributable to "the white man" and asks "why were the Nelson Mandelas of this world complaining?" Liberal Democrats have called on the Conservative Party to expel Councillor Walkden. Antony Hook, Chair of Dover & Deal Liberal Democrats, ...
Great to see my local Indian winning the prize of best Indian restaurant in Stockport Borough. The other restaurant it went up against in the final is in Cheadle. I am a regular and I'm never disatisfied with either the food or the service. In fact, it's a near hidden gem in the local area. The picture ...
Like most I get fed up with the Mirror's incessantly jaundiced view of the Lib Dems. I suppose when you get the polling figures I get in what should be Labour areas you feel you have to kick back. So imagine my surprise when at my local Indian I saw the article by Nick Clegg ...
Green Paper Care and Support Consultation This was an exercise organised by the Sutton Adult Social Services department to gather feedback on the Government's proposals for changes to the social care system. Professor Ray Jones of Kingston University set out the case for reform: we are living longer and we have higher expectations of what public services ...
Tender opening I visited the legal department at Civic Offices to witness a tender opening for applications to repair and maintain the highways under Local Authority control.
Today saw the launch of the new website for the 2010 West End Festival - see www.dundeewestfest.com - and its very impressive indeed. I put together the previous blog for the group and it is still available as a link from the new website. WestFest 2010 has much momentum and it is a credit to all the local people who have put so much effort into this exciting project.
I went to Chicksands last night. Town and parishes conference. Seems to me that CBC expect to have their income cut next year, and strongly hinting that they want the parishes to pick up the tab and push up their part of the Council tax, even asking us to think about what services they want the parishes to take on. So, will it be grass cutting, footpath mending, litter picking, .... what ? And Con, Lab, and Libs all saying they want power devolved to the lowest level. So whoever wins, more power to the lower levels. But it's a ...
So starts Nick Clegg's comments in the latest Channel 4 Political Slot film from the party, featuring himself and Sarah Teather talking about changing our political system: You may find the opening contains an electoral statistic which sounds rather familiar. I wonder if this post will make it to national TV next...
It is that time of the month again Wikio have announced the the political rankings for November. So it time for me to put on the kilt, listen to the scurl of the pipes and see how the rest of those canny Scots have faired. The answer is not bad, not bad at all. There are now 5 in the top 40 one more than last month, 9 in the top 75 two more than last month and a grand total of 13 of the top 100 again two more than last month. Non-moving yet again is Tom Harris will ...
I have just written another cricket-related post for The Corridor.
Once again there 14 Liberal Democrat blogs in the Wikio top 100 British political blogs. Liberal Bureaucracy has dropped out, but Andrew Reeves is a new entry and keeps up the Lib Dem numbers. 1 (5) Liberal Democrat Voice Falls 1 2 (12) Mark Reckons Climbs 1 3 (13) Charlotte Gore Falls 2 4 (27) Liberal England Falls 1 5 (28) Liberal Vision Falls 9 6 (34) Stephen's Linlithgow Journal Climbs 13 7 (44) Caron's Musings Falls 3 8 (46) Quaequam Blog! Falls 17 9 (52) Himmelgarten's Cafe Falls 20 10 (53) Peter Black Falls 5 11 (54) People's Republic ...
The murder of five soldiers from inside a Afghan police station has made me change my mind on the Afghanistan situation. I'm happy to join Lembit Opik and the Daily Sport in calling for a planned withdrawal of British service personnel from Afghanistan. Frankly, if the Afghans, as represented by that member of their police force who shot the five soldiers, don't want us there, then: sod them. But that doesn't mean we should just precipitously withdraw leaving a vacuum. We need to have a re-directed strategy to neuter Al-Quaeda and other terrorist cells. That's why we went to Afghanistan ...
Remember, remember that it's #bbcqt day again and as usual the Live Chat on this blog will start tonight at 10:30pm. It's in Reading tonight about 15 miles from where I live but they didn't invite me on. Still at least that means I can host the chat! The panel will include the Welsh Secretary Peter Hain MP, the shadow environment secretary Nick Herbert MP, the former Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Ian Blair, the former MEP and broadcaster Robert Kilroy-Silk and the comedian Natalie Haynes. You might notice that there are no Lib Dems on the panel. Hmmm. Liberal Democrat ...
David Howarth, the Liberal Democrat MP for Cambridge, has announced that he will be leaving the Commons at the next general election to concentrate upon his academic career. I shall be sorry to see him go. He is one of the most able and Liberal of our MPs. Still, an attractive seat has suddenly become available. As a service to ambitious young Lib Dems, here is the Visit Cambridge website.
Each week, the Guardian Money blog poses a question from a reader. Here's the latest: Is it wise to donate money to my former university? A reader wonders whether to bow to pressure to make a donation to their alma mater Am I alone in being hounded for money by my former university and unsure whether to make a donation? In a weak moment after yet another call I was thinking of sending them £300. I'm now wondering whether an international charity might make better use of the money. If I pay up, will they chase me forever more? What ...
Bath's Lib Dem MP Don Foster asked the government Minister why she wasn't prepared to sign the House of Commons up to the 10:10 campaign. Don has signed up to the campaign himself, which calls for individuals, organizations and businesses to reduce their carbon output by 10% in 2010. The government is calling on people to sign up, but isn't prepared to itself! Don said, "The government should
A way back in June, Tory Council Leader Alec Robertson promised to produce a manifesto setting out what the new coalition administration at County Hall stood for. This is needed because it is unclear to local residents whether we should believe the Tory manifesto or the 31 different Independent ones. We need to know what vision the administration has for Cornwall - what they hope to achieve and on what basis we can judge their success or failure. With a new administration, the process was always going to need some time - Alex Robertson said it would be ready by ...
TfL's abolition of the Hammersmith & City line. They've merged it with the Circle line - which easily could have been described by opponents as 'abolishing a tube line' - which was in fact why it hadn't been done for decades when it had been considered. TfL's confident framing of the debate has meant that almost all the focus has been on the positives. Posted via email from Rob's posterous
I got my copy of "The Advertiser" today. You probably got yours. On the front page our MP fulminates against the car park fine system that I advised her of two months ago, and for which I believe we have now got a reasonable compromise resolution. Of course she's right that it was badly managed, and any change to the enforcement should have been advertised properly locally. I told her that, too, two months ago. Even the picture in the Avertiser could have come from this website. Check it out on my entry of September 6th. Sometimes you wonder what ...
I was lucky enough to be able to speak to one of the GMB's Branch Secretary's in Leeds, Steve Terrington, this morning regarding the ongoing dispute with the council between it and refuse collection workers. Firstly, Steve made a point that I would think is relevant to any industrial dispute; that nobody wants to go ...
At last one of the opposition political parties has broken the cosy consensus over swine flu and dared to question the way the vaccination programme is being handled in the UK. Andrew Lansley has questioned why, in the light of evidence from the US, all those under the age of 24 are not being targetted with the vaccine, and further evidence on the BBC website would back up that view. It is clear that those with underlying medical conditions are more at risk than other groups, but in particular those under the age of five are at just as big ...
We've all experienced moments in hospitals that change the course of our lives. Liberal Democrats know how important the NHS is and that's why they will ensure the NHS provides high quality care and the best possible service long into the 21st century. A lot of money has been invested in health in recent years(No one really knows where the money has gone) but too much of that has been wasted on bureaucracy rather than investing in front line services. Doctors and nurses are forced to spend too much time trying to meet government targets rather than caring for our ...
Andrew Davies, the Finance Minister, took quite a grilling from backbench AMs from his own party this afternoon. Giving evidence on his draft budget to the Finance Committee, Andrew Davies struggled to defend his government's short-sighted plans to cut higher and further education funding by 5% despite the desperate need to re-train those who have lost their jobs and despite the fact that Wales needs to invest in education to prepare for future economic growth. On several occasions throughout the proceedings he repeated the question, 'Where is the money going to come from?' while Labour backbencher Ann Jones helpfully reminded ...
Conservative MEP's Daniel Hannan and Roger Helmer quit their frontbench posts to concentrate on campaigning for a referendum on Europe after David Cameron said it was pointless to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty now it has been signed. The comments by a French government minister who branded the Tories' new European policy "pathetic" may even help them in the short term polls given how some people feel about the French. I think the Tories are really making a mess of Europe given their new grouping in the EU parliament and the effect of this on there relations with ...
Looks like star candidate David Micheal didn't leave Lewisham Labour quietly: Michael believes he has been shabbily treated and condemns the two tier system he says, "Allow friends to sort out seats for themselves and leaves others to pick up the crumbs. A system which does not consider ability or capability and one that is devoid ...
I was watching a Tory MP on the news. He was all puffed up and self important. He was saying how outrageous it is than nobody under 50 had voted on membership of the European community. I got to thinking of all the treaties that we have -which in the perverse logic of the Euro sceptics- contain a loss of sovereignty. Nobody has asked me if I want to belong to Nato which significantly shares our sovereignty. And nobody North or South of the border has voted to endorse the Union of the parliaments of 1707. How frequently should we ...
Tonight's firework display (5/11/09) in Llandudno has been cancelled due to the bad weather, according to the radio.I hope they can hold it tomorrow, I think this display is one of the best in the area and reminds me of some great evenings we had with my late mum, funny what triggers memories!!
Well, Quantitative Easing is back, the terrifying new euphemism for 'printing money', which is itself a euphemism for stealing. "Quantitative Easing" suggests that it's 'easing' the pressure on the 'quantity' of money. This is not what is actually happening. Things wot Quantitative Easing doesn't do: 1) It doesn't pump money into the economy 2) It doesn't create wealth from thin air "But wait," you cry. "The BBC says it's pumping money into the economy! Why the hell would I trust you over the BBC?" It's a very sensible question to ask, but I contend that the BBC is dead wrong ...
Gateshead Council has just finished meeting. On the agenda was a motion calling on Scottish and Newcastle Breweries to retain the production of Brown Ale at the Dunston plant in Gateshead. (The company wants to move production to Tadcaster.) There was general unanimity and interestingly when I spoke, I was not heckled, interrupted or prevented from finishing what I had to say. One Labour
The party has just issued the following press release ... Liberal Democrat MP David Howarth today announced that he would be standing down from Parliament at the next election to concentrate on his career as an academic. David Howarth said: "After nearly 22 years of elected public office, the time has come for me to concentrate on my other life, as an academic. It has been a privilege to serve the people of Cambridge over that time, both in local government and in Parliament. "I would like to thank the very large number of people who have helped me in ...
Throughout all the campaigns for full citizenship in the southern states of the US, in South Africa and the then Rhodesia the slogan 'one man one vote!' was used. The chartists in the 19th Century were so outraged by the rotten boroughs that allowed some votes to be worth more than others that one of their six demands was that there should be 'equal electoral districts'. I raise this because talking to a Bootle councillor yesterday he,without a quiver of self doubt, asserted that votes in Bootle should be worth more. His argument was that because of the social deprivation ...
[IMG: http://www.wikio.co.uk] [IMG: cd_ripping.jpg] It would seem that Lord Mandelson wants those merely suspected of illegal file sharing to have their bandwidth restricted or to be cut off from the Internet altogether. Mandelson also claimed that young people downloading content for free was morally unsustainable. All this even despite concerns from both ISPs and the British security services have over this proposed Government scheme. Once again, Labour want to act without thinking and they ignore the fact that the majority of people who download music through file sharing, will go on to buy the album later I guess you could ...
Not content with bullying innocent motorists (see yesterday's story) we now learn that the Tory County Council has been doing a traffic survey in local car parks. So far, so what? But here's the difference. They have not only been finding out where people come from when they park their car (reasonable enough if you are going to do forward planning) but they have also been RECORDING CAR REGISTRATION PLATES. This is not necessary. BUT IT IS INTRUSIVE. But that's what your bullying county council does.
I started a phlog (the words 'phone' and 'blog' smashed together) last month, using ipadio. I posted about that HERE. I've now recorded my second phonecast (a post to a phlog), and you can listen to that using the player, above. Please do listen and let me know what you think. I received some useful feedback in response to my first attempt, and have hopefully taken that into account. What I am saying echoes what I wrote about in my last blog post, HERE, but hopefully adds a little bit to it too.
Tuesday: The Conservatories have made a GREAT DEAL of political capital out of their FALSE claim that the other parties promised a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty and then reneged. Let's be quite clear: in 2005, NOBODY promised a vote on the Lisbon Treaty, because in 2005 the Lisbon Treaty DID NOT EXIST! But in 2007, Mr Balloon gave you a "cast-iron guarantee". Mr Balloon is the ONLY one to break his promise. So it seems only fair that he should be completely made to pay that capital back, and to admit that he was a lying liar all along. ...
As readers will know Jeremy Thorpe was the Liberal leader between 1967 and 1976. His leadership ended rather abruptly but notwithstanding this two stories stand out about Jeremy, and moving vehicles, that form the last instalment of the candidate's aide series. As many will know Jeremy Thorpe conducted a tour by hovercraft along the south coast ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yDpNURELC4 It's what I've been saying, and what Conservative Party Leader David Cameron has set himself against. We reform our democracy or it dies. The...
A quick trawl through the EDP today reveals the following proposals: a fare hike from £334 to £501 for all students (post-16) from September 2010the most needy students will have to cope with a rise from £167 to £334 per year (double!)an about face by David Cameronon his "cast-iron" pledge to hold a referendum on the Lisbon treatya farce around the selection of South West Norfolk's Tory PPCon the very day my letter expressing concern about day care is published - £40m of spending cuts proposed, by the Tory County Council, in the budget for Adult Social Services, in day ...
As previously discussed here and here, West Lindsey District Council has considered a report on the potential fraud and mismanagement in the planning department. The Audit Commission are now present on site at the council to review the following: The role and responsibilities of members and officers The working relationships between members and officers The council's ethical framework The
Dodging the rain around lunchtime, I managed to get about half of the South Park Road Estate delivered with our latest newspaper. I chatted to a few people on the way round and thought an update on a few issues was in order. there's been a residents' consultation on parking restrictions in Coniston, Brentwood and Brogden. I don't know the results yet - should find out soon. Some residents are concerned that the options offered didn't go far enough to deal with the problems - something I'm looking into. Mark Hunter and I have both been in touch with the ...
Libya is justly famous for its ancient ruins, though few foreign visitors ever get to see Tolmeita or Ptolemais, which is about an hour-and-a-half's drive eastwards along the coast from Benghazi. Founded in the 4th century BC by the Greeks, the city was subsequently maintained and enlarged by the Romans. It's an interesting reflection of those two ...
It seems that the Bute Parks Alliance refuses to retract their opposition to the access bridge in Bute Park. It does seem to be quite controversial to agree with anything Cardiff Council does these days, so I will be a rebel and press on with doing so. My return to this issue has propped up for two reasons. Firstly, a Green Party activist brought up the issue at a public meeting I recently attended. Personally, I think for an environmentalist, she wastes an awful lot of her energy on ridiculous causes, feel free to check out her blogs (she has ...
Headline writers clearly love their play on words, but the latest one from the Sheffield Star in an article by the, (entirely unrelated), Rachael Clegg is another stunner: All work, rest and clay for leader Clegg The reason being that Nick Clegg apparently enjoys clay sculpting in his spare time. As well as that being a complete ...
Fred has not made a lot of noise about this: but he spent several hours recently on a unicycle raising money for the armed forces, along with Billy and David Pullin and Julie manning the buckets. If you would like to donate please visit www.justgiving.com/frederick-weavers I've been in London the last couple of days and I have been struck by how many young service men are out selling poppies. Fred is raising funds for those coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan. What ever we think of those conflicts it should not deter us from sending a donation. The service men ...
Goals Soccer Centres have re-submitted their plans for a commercial soccer centre in the St Margaret's Road area of Heaton Park this week. [IMG: heatonpark] These plans will now be subject to public consultation, and expected to go before Manchester Council's Planning Committee on 17 December 2009. The plans have been resubmitted despite significant opposition from local residents, heritage watchdogs and many users of the park. The new plans see a slightly reduced scheme of THIRTEEN soccer pitches, SIX tennis courts and a climbing wall area. There are 40 car parking spaces and Club House. Over the next week we'll ...
Yesterday I had the opportunity to meet with some of the team from Greater Manchester Probation Service's "Community Payback" scheme who have been working on the "Prestwich Big Clean". The scheme, where offenders undertake supervised community work as part of a sentence from the courts, has provided 30 days of graffiti cleaning to Prestwich over the last couple of months. The team's last day was yesterday where then ended up cleaning around the end of Holyrood Road and Bury Old Road in our area (particularly there was some terrible graffiti near to the "Holyrood Nursery" on Bury Old Road), before ...
Chorlton's Sustainable Christmas Campaign, in conjunction with Action for Sustainable Living, needs you! - Are you looking to cut the cost of Christmas this year? - Trying to get out of the annual cycle of buying over-priced, over-packaged and impersonal gifts? - Wish you could reduce your post-Christmas wastage and have a greener celebration? - Want to reduce stress levels and rekindle the magical community spirit of Christmas? Then join us on our mission to promote a low-carbon, ethical and environmentally sustainable Christmas in Chorlton! To get involved and see how you can help, come along to an informal meeting: ...
At the next general election all three parties will ask the British people to pay higher taxes in return for diminished services and benefits. They won't put it that bluntly of course, but that is what the promise of "austerity" means: pay more, get less. So the issue isn't whether a period of real pain can be avoided. With an annual deficit of £175bn pushing the national debt towards £2.2tn, it clearly can't. The real issue for the next election is how the pain should be shared out. Who exactly will pay more and who will get less? Of the ...
Goals Soccer Centres have re-submitted their plans for a commercial soccer centre in the St Margaret's Road area of Heaton Park this week. [IMG: heatonpark] These plans will now be subject to public consultation, with an expected date at Manchester Council's Planning Committee on 17 December 2009. The plans have been resubmitted despite significant opposition from local residents, heritage watchdogs and many users of the park. The new plans see a slightly reduced scheme of THIRTEEN soccer pitches, SIX tennis courts and a climbing wall area. There are 40 car parking spaces and Club House. Over the next week we'll ...
Mike Ion has written a piece on LabourList today where he takes Jon Snow to task for his comments about "poppy fascism". Snow said: I am begged to wear an Aids ribbon, a breast cancer ribbon, a Marie Curie flower...You name it, from the Red Cross to the RNIB, they send me stuff to wear to raise awareness, and I don't. And in those terms, and those terms alone, I do not and will not wear a poppy. Additionally there is a rather unpleasant breed of poppy fascism out there - 'he damned well must wear a poppy!' Well I ...
While damaging to the country's interests, it is always fun to watch the Conservatives wriggling to avoid self-destruction over Europe - and again we see their leadership furiously backpedalling. For once, however, David Cameron has got something right. We should have had referendums over the various European treaties - we should have had one on Maastricht (which the Tories denied us), on Nice and on Lisbon. Had we done so, everyone would be much more clued-up over Europe and aware of the advantages. There is much that is wrong and much improvement needed with the European Union, but sitting on ...
It's getting annoying now. That's twice in two days that I've had to do a channel search for my Freeview box. If I'd gone away for a couple of days and left it to record stuff, I'd have missed everything. This morning instead of BBC1 I had a screen telling me that I hadn't paid for "Rabbit Gay". Well, I'm not an expert on rabbits as such, but I know that I've no intention of paying for any channels and I'd probably pick to pay for movies before I'd pay to watch rabbits doing whatever rabbits do, regardless of their ...
Back in August, before I was elected, I reported a bunch of potholes on Newboult Road in Cheadle (among many others). Many of them have now been repaired, but one stretch has slipped through. I've now reported the following: 1. Pothole in centre of road by 1/3 Newboult Road, Cheadle 2. Pothole in centre of road by 5 Newboult Road, Cheadle 3. Line of 8-10 potholes down centre of Newboult Road, Cheadle from number 20 to number 26.
The Government has just admitted that a massive £3 Billion in benefits were overpaid last year as a result of fraud and error. It is absolutely staggering to consider that a combination or fraud and errors are seeing such a massive waste in tax payers hard earned money. The Government really does need to get a grip of the situation. Firstly they need to cut down on official error. It is incredible that officials appear unable to administer a system of their own creation. Secondly at a time of recession with millions worse off and many in genuine need of ...
I'll probably not post much til Monday – I've got a big thing to finish off at work, a piece of coursework due in on Sunday for my Master's course, there's a Doctor Who convention on Saturday and I'm visiting my sick brother on Sunday. However, I do have big plans for next week... ...
Mr Eugenides writes this morning: One of my all-time favourite political anecdotes concerns the 1982 Hillhead by election, for which the newly formed SDP selected their leader, Roy Jenkins, who had not hitherto been renowned for his connections with the city. Strolling around the west end of Glasgow, the urbane Jenkins entered a newsagent's and, sighting the Asian shopkeeper, went to proffer a handshake. "So, how long have you been here, then?", asked Jenkins, to which the owner replied evenly, "Longer than you".
The Czech President signed the EU's Lisbon Treaty into law earlier this week ratifying the treaty across the whole European Union. I didn't mention this earlier in the week as I assumed the Tories would descend into turmoil and have been proved correct.
The new, cleaner system for MPs' expenses has now been published. Good. The system was rotten and needed a big broom to sweep it clean. All MPs should now sign up to it without complaint. We need a lot more change though. We don't clean up politics simply by allowing MPs to claim for fewer train tickets. Liberal Democrats offer real change that will transform politics. We'd start with a fair, proportional voting system for Westminster, European and local elections. We will end safe seats; it's safe seats that can make some MPs lazy. We will empower people to sack ...
The Government has finally recognised people's concerns about a creeping surveillance state by announcing checks on council spying powers. However, these changes do not go far enough. The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act was supposed to help tackle terrorism and other serious crime, but has notoriously been used to by councils to spy on people for more minor matters such as dog-fouling, littering, and using disabled parking badges. Under the new guidelines, only council chief executives will be able to authorise covert surveillance operations, and a new code of practice should prevent the powers being used for minor matters. Liberal ...
Seriously, how bad are things for the Tories when no less an organ than the Daily Mail, the in-lav journal of all good party members, has the banner headline across its front page stating that yesterday was 'A sorry day for Britain, democracy and the Tories'. Peter Mandelson must be belting out arias in his bathtub.
It has been announced today that through a joint project between West Lindsey District Council, local social landlord ACIS Group and CG Partnership that learning is to return to the Park Springs Community centre. In 2005 we had the Middlefield Hub who were forced to close, so this is a welcome site for one of the most deprevied wards in the East Midlands. I'm sure that this will be a very
The Westminster bubble/village rumour mill is a busy one this lunchtime. Is David Miliband MP about to stand down to become the new EU Foreign Minister and create a by-election in the South Shields seat?
Thanks to Conservative Home for the website, There is nothing British about the BNP. Here is a link: Nothing British Website* about The views of our veterans
I was always very uncomfortable with Nick Clegg (and other politicians) saying that whatever Sir Christopher Kelly proposed on MPs expenses should be adopted without question. I accept it makes good politics, but if parliament signed up to anything else without reading it first they would be considered irresponsible and would rightly be trashed by ...
We should really ask the same question of Alex Johnstone MSP and Margaret Curran MSP as well as John Lamont. All three of these MSPs now aspire to the House of Commons, one of them has a better chance than the other two and it would be great to see Margaret Curran beat the SNPs John Mason. The question I suspect you are asking yourself is why should John Lamont quit as an MSP, my answer is he shouldn't. However he should quit if he is still aspiring to be an MP because as the Kelly report clearly states you ...
It's raining again and so we've once again got the flooding by the road in front of the Gatley Green Co-op. This is an issue we've been working on for a while and the good news is that work to fix it has been scheduled. There's also work in the plan to fix the flooding at the corner of Kingsway and Gatley Road, and others Pam and I are working on. Some have been fixed already. I've been closely checking two areas that used to flood all the time: Old Hall Road opposite the exit to Gatley Medical Centre and ...
[IMG: tocqueville] Tocqueville is a major figure in liberalism the United States and Britain as well as his home country of France. In France he was a parliamentarian and government minister in the period up to 1851when there was genuine parliamentary politics. His political career was greatly enhanced by the publication of Democracy in America, which established him as the man who understood the direction of politics and society in the modern world. He had various links with Britain: his wife was English, he wrote an essay on the English Poor Law, he befriended liberal minded people in his visits ...
Tonight is your opportunity to find out more about proposals for the future of the Longfield Centre in Prestwich. Cllr Vic D'Albert, the Lib Dem Parliamentary Candidate for Bury South, has organised a public meeting at the Longfield at 7pm this evening, where the Conservative leader of the Council Cllr Bob Bibby will be present to answer your questions. It is Cllr Bibby's Executive who have put forward the plans to consider "reconfiguring" the use of the Longfield Centre. You might want to ask what this means. Other questions you might want to put to him are: - Does he ...
[IMG: http://www.wikio.co.uk] Liberal Democrat Defence Spokesperson and MP for Dunfermline and West Fife, Willie Rennie, today questioned Gordon Brown over potential MoD plans to dump nuclear submarine waste at Rosyth, again! When he was in opposition, Gordon Brown described such plans as threatening to turn Rosyth into a 'nuclear graveyard'. Responding to the Prime Minister's answer, Willie Rennie said: Unfortunately the Prime Minister dodged the question as he has been doing for the last 15 years. The campaign against these submarines must be stepped up now. Rosyth lost the Trident refuelling contract. There's no way we're going to be left ...
During all the shenanigans that went on the night of election, where John McCain's team 'literally turned the lights out' on Sarah Palin, to prevent from making an off message speech in Arizona, Sarah was all geared up to make a concession speech that might have actually made her look a little more coherent in the eyes ...
Wishful thinking I know! This toxic topic has dominated our news and media for a very long time. Too long, and it has got to the point if this keeps bubbling and festering in the coming months, not only will see permanent damage to our democracy, but we will see the lowest turnout in any general election in our modern history. Yesterday saw the publication of the Kelly Report. Nick Clegg has rightly already said MPs should accept the Kelly report in full. But a handful of Labour and Tory MPs are determined that the general public should somehow feel ...
Cross-posted from the Mandate blog: Following up our coverage of which senior politicians were the best gatherers of media coverage during their party conferences, Mandate has now been tracking their successes and failures at getting print media coverage during October. The Conservative top ten is much the same as during their conference, with just Andrew Lansley replacing David Willetts in the top ten whilst the top five places are unchanged: 1. Cameron 2. Osborne 3. Hague 4. Clarke 5. Grayling 6. Gove 7. Fox 8. Pickles 9. Lansley 10. May For Labour, Jack Straw moves up in to the top ...
There have always been two main sides of the European debate in the UK, and both centre on sovereignty. Even us Liberal Democrats, the most pro European party in the UK, often fall into the whole, "we will not compromise our sovereignty in Europe". But then we need to ask the important question of what ...
It turns out my previous rant about Jenny Rathbone PPC was my fiftieth post on Blogger. Seems I was so annoyed by the woman I have now given the pseudonym "Jenny "Rant 'n' Scaremonger", I completely missed this important landmark. My post today is a much nicer affair. After the success of the Ebbw Valley Railway's reopening a few years ago, taking twice as many passengers as expected, and work to introduce services to Newport planned to start in two years time, I was pleased to see Ieuan Wyn Jones, Assembly Transport Minister announcing another possible similar scheme. Although a ...
Well - finally - on the record - the gross unfairness of the way the Government funds schooling in Haringey. Just briefly - we get about £1183 less per child than neighbouring boroughs like Camden, Hackney and Islington. That is around £35 million a year - or more importantly - if we got fair funding we could have 1021 more teachers (we have 1500) that is 15 per school. Imagine the difference that would make. You can watch the debate at http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Player.aspx?meetingId=4948 it starts about two thirds in if you scroll along. I was so pleased that local school governors, ...
A year ago, the supposedly wise futures markets were predicting a steep fall in house prices. This has not happened. Gloat gloat gloat.
Reinventing the Tories seemed so simple: New Tories are racism free, they're cool with homosexuality and they love the Public Services. Everything you need to win over those squishy swing voters, it seems. Well, sort of. There's something else they need to do, too. Something that distances themselves from the sins of the past: First they need to keep quiet about Immigration. Second they need to keep quiet about Europe. Europe is the Tory curse, it seems. Even if it's not causing them to fight amongst themselves (like Dan Hannan standing down from the front bench to pursue the Lib ...
One thing that is not well known is that the government controls the rules of the house of commons.This is a matter that hopefully the Wright committee will rectify. I have proposed a new clause to the Constitutional Renewal bill as follows (also see link)Procedure Committee amendments to standing orders NC46 To move the following Clause:— 'Standing Orders of the House of Commons shall
Earlier this week, I received concerns that parts of the hoardings around the former Homebase site in Riverside Drive had been damaged and had fallen/were missing. I contacted the administrators, PricewaterhouseCoopers, who responded late yesterday as follows : "We instructed the necessary repair works and have now been notified by our agent that these were completed earlier today."
This morning's Telegraph reports that senior MPs are lobbying for a £15,000 pay rise for MPs. They seem to think that in the wake of the Kelly report on expenses, they should be compensated for the loss/reduction of some of their perks with a salary increase. They clearly do not get it. The public are disgusted with the behaviour of some MPs regarding expenses and the mood is such that any attempt to try and push through a substantial salary increase like this will go down like the proverbial cup of cold sick. There also seems to be a suggestion ...
The BBC Trust is running an online survey asking for views on its plans for a new complaints procedure for Party Election Broadcasts. Although the BBC generally steers clear of the content of PEBs – leaving that to the parties in question – there are often issues around who gets how many and when they are shown. Therefore it is good to see the BBC Trust proposing a clearer and more rigorous process – and also asking for views on these proposals. (Controversies over the content of PEBs also sometimes rears its head, though these proposals do not cover the ...
So there we have it, Dave's big idea over Europe: 'Whoops, guys, we completely miscalculated with our last 'cast-iron' pledge so let's make another'. And what is that pledge? That the Tories will promise no more treaties without a referendum. Great, only why should we trust you on this when you didn't give people a referendum in 1972 (original accession treaty), in 1985 (Single European Act) or in 1992 (Maastricht Treaty), all of which it could be argued were far more important than the Lisbon Treaty? (NB: anyone seeking to deny this must address the notion that joining the whole ...
In the 19th century MPs were not paid at all, but Parliament was at the centre of national life. Over time as the Parliament of landowners and lawyers also began to include simple employees, a small stipend was granted- and it remained small. Even now, back bench MPs only earn £64,766 a year. Meanwhile, even with allowances, they usually have to fund two places to live and two offices- in London and in their constituencies. They have to employ staff in both places too. By contrast all of the senior civil service grades earn a lot more than this, and ...
I'm increasingly of the view that much of the debate about the future of newspapers is far too much about technology and far too little about trust. The technological changes and challenges are certainly big, striking and interesting - but when it comes to addressing the question of people increasingly turning to free sources of news only one half of the equation (the availability of free news) is usually thought about. The ignored other half of the equation is how, even without free alternatives, paid for news looks pretty unattractive to many people when jouranlism is one of the least ...
Paddy Ashdown has warned that Britain is "quite close" to failure in Afghanistan. According to the Daily Telegraph, Lord Ashdown told peers at question time that: "Failure in Afghanistan - and we are quite close to it in my view - or withdrawal would have baleful consequences including abandoning the clear majority of Afghans who want us to be there. "It would allow al-Qaeda to expand from a small area of northern Pakistan where they are under pressure to a larger area of Afghanistan where they are not. "It would mean the inevitable collapse of the Pakistan government and jihadi ...
Good morning and welcome to the Voice's early morning roundup of news and views. It's 5th November, an anniversary we can all remember, when Guy Fawkes didn't quite manage to get his suggestions for MPs' expense reform through Parliament. It's also Art Garfunkel's birthday – he's 68 today. 2 Big Stories Bloody betrayal raises fresh doubts about Britain's campaign in Afghanistan The Times carries the story most papers are leading with this morning. The killing of five British soldiers by an Afghan policeman raised fresh doubts yesterday about Britain's mission in Helmand. Senior political, diplomatic and military figures warned that ...
Yesterday's release of the Kelly Report into MPs expenses was largely overshadowed by the fact that it had been leaked horrendously in the week before. Worse, it was then pushed for airtime by the nonsense that is Cameron's new EU policy, which has made Dan Hannan even more of a muppet than before, and which ...
According to the RMT Union the Government will take control of the East Coast Main Line rail services on the 12th December. Should we be worried? Yes, probably we should, it wasn't run particularly badly from the perspective of my journeys on it since moving to Scotland in May last year, however there are some horror stories to be heard from many other passengers up and down the UK. The Government via the Department of Transport and National Express who currently run the service both claim no date for the handover has yet been set. Obviously the RMT disagree and ...
Whenever you see a person in a blue rosette approaching British gents carefully guard your family jewels. The French Europe Minister has said that the Tories plan for Europe is 'autistic' and 'castrating' Britain. Yes it is true that the party that signed up to the Treaty of Maastricht and did most of the preparatory work on the Treaty of Amsterdam is now calling to undo parts of both, but call a referendum on any future Treaty. Considering how the Masstricht treaty was treated in the commons to get passed, as a vote of confidence, in all bar name, in ...
Last night was the regular meeting of Bury Council's Executive Committee. This brings together the 11 Executive Members from the ruling Conservative Group, myself and the Leader of the Labour Group attend but with no vote. Bury But Better Town Centre Vision One of the weightier issues on the agenda, but one which attracted little debate, was some changes to the Bury Town Centre planning "masterplan". Obviously people can see the plans already taking shape with exciting developments of shops/cinema/houses etc at the "Rock Triange", offices and hotel at "Townside Fields" (opposite the Town Hall) etc. But the revised plans ...
At the Cheadle Area Committee meeting, Inspector Dave Turner reported good news on burglary. Three arrests have been made of known burglars in the Cheadle and Gatley area, with the burglary rate dropping sharply as a result. Of the three, one has been convicted and is in prison. One was convicted and given a non-custodial sentence, and is receiving nightly visits from the police. The third is awaiting trial. Inspector Turner also mentioned a cannabis factory having been found on South Park Road in Gatley. It held around 250 plants, which was estimated at a street value of £25,000. Inspector ...
The case for a statute to protect vulnerable adults At the moment, social services departments in Councils across Wales are being audited (that's a nice word for inspected) to assess the state of protection of vulnerable adults (POVA) arrangements. For anyone that's interested - and that really should be anyone with an elderly, physically or learning disabled, substance misusing or mentally ill relative or friend, which means just about everyone - the Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales (CSSIW) will be reporting in the New Year. Adult protection is the less well-known cousin of child protection. Child abuse raises a ...
A week last Wednesday, I was lucky enough to visit the Houses of Parliament in Westminster. I would like to share with you my experiences. The day started very badly, because I had to get up much earlier than I usually do, although as a student, most normal people would probably say I should be up at 7am anyway. My coursemate and I then caught the train to London at 8:30 and got into Paddington at 10:30. A short wander round Hyde Park and a cab ride later we were in the powerhouse of the country. Security is understandably tight ...
Yesterday I attended the Prestwich Local Area Tasking Team. This is the body that brings together various staff that are working to make Prestwich a safer place (Police, Council, Six Town Housing etc). I try to attend as a representative of the nice Prestwich councillors. Yesterday's meeting was, for some reason, very poorly attended - hopefully this will pick up again next time. There were a number of issues discussed, including: - We talked a lot about concerns many local residents and business owners have around the area of the shops on Heywood Road (near Heaton Park reservoir) and some ...
It clearly is a good year to turn 40. Not only yours truly but total is the turn of PBS educational staple from the Children's Television Workshop. Just hope Cookie Monster doesn't eat all our online cookies to mark the day. Anyway Happy Birthday Sesame Street and by way of celebration how about a classic 1970's opening title. My nickname in one of the civil service jobs I did was after this guy. Can't see the reason myself. I also remember this tune, animation and how to count to 12 in this way. This blog post was brought to you ...
When a couple of weeks ago I tried to leave some leaflets for the Hither Green Cinema day at the Riverdale Shopping Centre I realized that the information kiosk had been replaced and the new one didn't have a display rack for leaflets besides the space provided for the Shopping Centre own leaflets (see photo). At ...
When asked about the party's abandonment of its original pledge to hold a referendum in the Lisbon Treaty, he said: "We have to deal with the world as it is, not as we wish it to be." What was with the whole ditching of the EPP then?!
One of the best thing about being a councillor is getting invited to celebrate alongside local people. Tonight was just such an event. St Patrick's Church was packed as parishioners celebrated a mass to give thanks for their church which has stood proudly in the heart of Consett for 50 years. In a service led by Bishop Seamus Cunningham (himself a former parish priest at Brooms) parishioners celebrated the many thriving aspects of parish life as well as the church building itself. Afterwards, we enjoyed displays of 50 years of parish activity and endeavour, as well as an excellent buffet. ...
I went to my son's graduation yesterday. I drove from Morecambe to Chester (see my photography blog) and it really rained hard while I was driving. If I hadn't been driving I could have taken a photo of the sign that said "take extra care at roadworks". You would have seen that it was quite hard to see this sign because of the heavy rain. It wasn't the best time to drive and this roadsign was definitely a further distraction. It could easily have read "take extra care when reading signs". I also saw a minor crash in the centre ...
In a rather unexpected move (unexpected by anyway), Gordon Brown has actually responded to the petition that called on him to resign on the No 10 petitions site and that 72,234 of us signed. His response reads: The Prime Minister is completely focussed on restoring the economy, getting people back to work and improving standards in public services. As the Prime Minister has consistently said, he is determined to build a stronger, fairer, better Britain for all. I think this response encapsulates everything that is wrong with our Prime Minister. It doesn't even address the issue, i.e. him resigning. I ...
