Ah, it's a joke, right? Mandelson becoming Minister for Information? Yes, it's a joke. He's not actually becoming Minister for Information, that's just the Telegraph being cheeky scamps. But the other bit though, that's true. The bit where, once a week, the civil servant that acts as the Prime Minister's official spokesperson will be swapped out for a Minister, television cameras will be invited in and the results will be put on the Number 10 website for our viewing pleasure. Hmm.... the pleasure! So, let's break this down - the PM's official spokesperson, being a civil servant, isn't allowed to ...
North West Lib Dem MEP, Chris Davies, has called for a withdrawal of British troops from frontline combat in Afghanistan. He has blogged his reasons for this here, and sent an email to his supporters going into his views in a bit more detail. Here's an excerpt from the email: I believe that our troops should ...
First, here's an excellent piece on the questionable financial viability of her new book. Second, there's a priceless snippet from her recent behind-closed-doors speech in Wisconsin. All recording devices were banned, but still a few journos got in. She kicked off about coinage. Yes, coinage. In fact, one might call what she said 'Palin's Coin Conspiracy' theory. In Wisconsin, Palin also expressed fear over the moving of "In God We Trust" to the edge of American coins. "Who calls a shot like that?" she demanded. "Who makes a decision like that?" She added: "It's a disturbing trend." In an utterly ...
Remembrance Sunday and the eleventh of November are days that evoke conflicting emotions in me. I'm pretty much an absolute pacifist, so you'd expect me to disapprove of them, but at the same time the *reason* I'm a pacifist is because I don't like seeing people go and get killed (or kill others), and I ...
This article finally answers the question: "What is Polly Toynbee for?" She brilliantly summarises Cameron's Hug Young speech on poverty: As he flits breezily from one social failure to another, he references all the right research, praising those things everyone loves - social entrepreneurs and community action, promising a state that will be "galvanising,catalysing, prompting, encouraging and agitating for community engagement and social renewal". With that fashionable phrase, "nudge", people will be urged towards taking on social responsibilities. No, this is not a return to the old rightwing laissez-faire of yesteryear, yet all the state needs do is to "help ...
One of the many depressing things about the Conservative opposition is it's lack of a original big idea; and the fact that when they articulate one it all sounds so horribly disjointed. It's the one thing that tells you when push comes to shove that all the big ideas will in fact, be supplied by ...
It was good to see Brian Protheroe playing an American big wig in tonight's Spooks. As well as being an excellent actor, Protheroe is also a highly accomplished musician. He had a number 22 hit in 1974 with this track (click below) called "Pinball", which he also wrote. It's an excellent recording which still stands up today – it doesn't sound dated. Somewhere in my attic I have it on 45 rpm vinyl with that lovely old yellowy/greeny Chrysalis label with the red butterfly (if memory serves).
Ahead of tomorrow's by-election in Glasgow North East it appears that the SNP is already conceding defeat, if The Guardian is anything to go by. Alex Salmond's comment that; 'The ground is shifting substantially towards us.' But, importantly, according to The Guardian, fell a long way short of his usual pre-poll enthusiasm and hyperbole, no doubt ...
The Guardian has just posted this story - 'Labour's plan for John Lewis public services' - which is a further challenge to the Lib Dems.
In a recent speech, David Cameron set out how the Conservatives would tackle poverty. The 'liberal conservative' counter to 'big government' or interventionist government is the 'big society'. In Cameron's view the state will enable communities and people to get on with what the state was attempting and failing. Some of these ideas have been around for a long while. I believe it was David Owen, when he was in the SDP, who coined the phrase, the 'enabling state' or at least used it. Part of the speech echoes liberal language. This liberal love bombing will not stop until after ...
Sorry folks. The prize quiz I promised you a few days ago isn't going to take place. The PR company were originally keen on the idea but later discovered that they were not able to send me any DVDs after all.
Liberal Conspiracy has the story: Dan Hannan slams NHS in new video for Ron Paul... The video starts off with talking about the establishment of the NHS with images from the Second World War and that of Hitler. Anthony says: Did you enjoy the frames of Hitler when he was talking about the establishment of the NHS? Very stylish and clever. Remember, healthcare reform in the US is Nazi- lots of people say so like these people and these. Nicely done, Campaign for Liberty. Hannan calls the NHS a remnant of a system from "war time planning". You can watch ...
Control Your Info (CYI), a campaign group wanting to raise awareness of online privacy issues, has taken a controversial course of direct action to make a point: Thanks to the nature of the Facebook group system itself, if there is no administrator present, anyone can join and make themselves an administrator. This is what CYI did. They used the Google search, and with the results, managed to make themselves administrators on 289 open groups. (The Tech Herald) Although this isn't the same as hacking, the sudden takeover of so many groups understandably caused all sorts of stories about hacking to ...
The FT's Edward Luce sheds light on the US-Chinese relationship in his piece 'Washington adapts to eastward power shift'. Luce explains why the relationship is as it is: because China has lent America a lot of money. This has made the Chinese government very nervous about President Obama's health care proposals. The Chinese want to see their debt repaid and that means they are urging the US to follow fiscal conservative policy. It would be supremely ironic if the American Republicans got want they wanted on health care because of pressure from Chinese fiscal conservative communists.
I've already blogged on today's youth unemployment figures, but I see David Cameron raised the issue with the prime minister in the Commons today. But the Tories have no room whatsoever to criticise. Why? Well: 1) The Tories wouldn't have done anything different with the economy before the crisis- it was their brand of free-market and ...
When Lord Bonkers heard that Liberal Youth was holding a bootcamp for its members he was enthusiastic. "We won't build a society in which none shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity without a bit of discipline," he told this blog. More by Elaine Bagshaw on Lib Dem Voice.
The Evening Standard reports: Haringey council was facing fresh criticism today over a secret six-figure payoff it made to one of its senior officials. The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was allegedly given the payment to stop an embarrassing "revelation" about Labour councillor Charles Adje becoming public at an employment tribunal. The council is facing calls to explain the deal. Liberal Democrat MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, Lynne Featherstone, called on chief executive Ita O'Donovan to "clarify" the reasons for it. She said: "There is a big question mark over how Haringey uses gagging orders and ...
The other night, Quentin Letts, the Daily Fail's sketchwriter and all round eejit, was doing This Week's "Take of the Week" segment. In it, he covered Alan Johnson's Nutt Sack, and stated in it that "the other parties were broadly supportive" of Johnson's position. This, as I'm sure my good Lib Dem readers will be ...
Those who support giving the victims of crime influence over sentencing think the practice will bring airy-fairy judges into contact with the real world and result in harsher penalties. But it does not always work like that. Today a youth of 16 was convicted of raping a five-year-old boy. The offence took place eight days after he had been given a three-year community order for an earlier rape of a seven-year-old. The Guardian says: When sentencing the teenager for the first rape, the other judge is believed to have taken into consideration the views of the victim's family, who forgave ...
Further to my article earlier today about Thomson Street, with regard to the smell issue, a resident has advised me that, later today, a City Council representative came round and checked the gullys and discovered that the bungs (that block or minimise the pipe connection with the sewer pipe) had not been put in. He has now put bungs in and says this should hopefully sort things out. Fingers crossed ...
At the Scottish Parliament today, Scotland's hapless Education Cabinet Secretary Fiona Hyslop got a bit of a roasting from MSPs, including LibDem Margaret Smith MSP, about her abject failure to cut primary school class sizes in P1 to P3 to 18. Hyslop's response? She blames the councils, the recession, budget cuts ... actually everybody but the SNP and herself. The reality is that the SNP promised something it could not deliver. The policy has failed to be funded by the SNP government and the only person Fiona Hyslop should blame is Fiona Hyslop - the least effective Education Minister since ...
I just saw something on ITV news that made my ears prick up. They had a clip of Gordon Brown from the House of Commons today stating categorically in response to a question from Andrew MacKay (coincidentally my MP) that nobody who currently receives tax relief on childcare costs will have this benefit taken away. Seems quite clear to me. In fact for the avoidance of doubt, here is the exchange from the Hansard website today: Q4. [299025] Mr. Andrew Mackay (Bracknell) (Con): Is the Prime Minister comfortable with the fact that nine of his ex-ministerial colleagues have written to ...
Blaydon Labour MP David Anderson should have a motto of "Better late than never!" He called on MPs to visit pubs in the summer recess. The only problem was he made the call in October, a month after summer officially ended and with the long nights of autumn drawing in!Mr Anderson also announced he was looking forward to the publication of a report on the blacklisting of trade unions, a day after
Oh dear, it's happened again. Jenny Rathbone and her team have made me annoyed for the, oh, I've lost count of how many times it's happened now. Basically, Labour's General Election Campaign leaflet comes in the shape of the Cardiff Mail, a quarterly report on what Labour have been up to in the area. Previous editions of the leaflet contained a mistruth about the Save The Vulcan campaign, suggesting it was a Labour campaign, when in fact it was a non-political campaign. You can find the WalesOnline story here. So, when I was shown this edition, I knew it was ...
Some of the measures designed to improve the flow of traffic around the city area are: Variable Message Signing will be used on all the major routes giving travel advice to drivers, like availability of car parking; No right-hand turns in or out of Charlotte Street car park for drivers from 25 November to relieve congestion and help stop traffic jams; Sunday Park and Ride for a further six
There are two major problems with the current system of Prime Ministerial patronage for the appointment of Government Ministers. Firstly, as research from demos shows (pdf) the average time spent in a position by a minister is a pathetic 1.3 years. How can somebody fully get to grips with their department, or role within it, in such a short space of time? It pushes ministers not only towards short termism, but dealing solely with departmental and self PR. When the ministers are so transitory, no wonder the Sir Humphrey stereotype exists. Secondly, we, the electorate, get to vote for a ...
Here are the photos from the Remembrance Day Parade on Sunday in Whickham. My ward colleague Cllr John McClurey laid the wreath on behalf of residents of Whickham South and Sunniside, Cllr Yvonne McNicol for Dunston Hill and Whickham East and Cllr Peter Craig for Whickham North.The link to all the photos of the parade are on my Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonathanwallace/sets/
It appears I am invited to take part in a Day Of Action on climate change, including a march in London on Saturday December 5th. And there is an online registration form for party members so we LibDems can all congregate together and make the maximum impact. Sounds good stuff. But those of us who live outside London really need to know what time all this kicks off, so we can decide whether we can make the travel arrangements. None of the party publicity I have seen mentions this rather crucial point. Anyone know? And anyone have influence on the ...
DECISION DAY ON POTENTIAL LIBRARY RELOCATION TO SOUTHPORT MARKET The largest group of councillors in Southport - the Liberal Democrats, with two thirds of the council seats - have voiced their unanimous support for the idea of temporarily relocating the town's library into the currently empty space at the rear of Southport Market Hall during the 3 years of work on the Arts Centre and Library buildings. Sefton Council's ruling Cabinet is due to make key decisions about the £15 million Southport Cultural Centre project at this Thursday's Cabinet meeting (12th November), and one of the most controversial is whether ...
Full Council Four motions were presented for debate at this full meeting of the Council: Value for Money; 10:10 Climate Change; Council Housing and Concessionary Fares Scheme. The First motion to be debated was Value for Money which had been proposed by the Conservative Opposition Group. I was surprised that the opposition persist with their accusations that ...
Agents will tell you that elections can be won at the count, and never was it truer than at my election for the European Parliament in 1994. Lancashire South was not the most winnable seat, and throughout the campaign my agent, Tim Farron, was very concerned that we might not hold on to the deposit, which ...
The new unemployment figures show that 1 in 5 young people, my peers, are unemployed. Nearly 1 million people aged between 16 and 24 are looking for work. Roughly one quarter are in full-time education and are therefore only looking for part-time work, but that still leaves almost three quarters of a million young people ...
To be honest, when the mailing hits my doormat inviting me to hand over some vast sum of money so that I can attend Federal Conference, I usually put it aside and promptly forget about it. This usually causes me to miss the early booking rate and makes it even more expensive. However, this year is different. A strangely turquoise, rather glossy magazine-like thing emerged from the envelope. I was, I admit, rather impressed, so much so that I have registered for both conferences at a cost of £87 - a pretty good deal for those that can afford it. ...
Cornwall Council's Cabinet has decided to create a new committee to help oversee the running of the airport. The Airport Development Group will sit between the Cabinet and the two business organisations that run the airport and the land around it. All of this was recommended by the report by Sir John Mills into the running of the airport and is to be welcomed. The trouble is that the proposal appears to be that the same bunch of people will be on the committees at all levels: At the top will be the Cabinet (cabinet members and chief officers) In ...
The Cabinet was really proud of its first Green Paper - on Cornwall's economy - which they debated today. Proud of it until every backbencher slammed it as being total gibberish. The language used is totally beyond the reach of anyone but a management consultant and is self-contradictory in many places. There's an absolute work of genius on page 23 with a diagram that deserves an award for bad communication. And yet this document was meant to be going out to the Council's business partners and to local communities for consultation. Apparently it had already been delayed for a month ...
Cornwall Council's Cabinet today discussed the report from the Scrutiny call in of their decision over a new severance policy. Essentially, Scrutiny told them that: - their consultation with the unions wasn't good enough - their consultation with council members wasn't good enough - their consultation with the public wasn't good enough - they didn't consider other valid schemes. Yet today's meeting said that the original decision was fine and could be confirmed. The Leader refused to allow anyone other than the Chair of the Scrutiny Committee to speak and even the cabinet members themselves said nothing. The Cabinet has ...
Nigel Farage must be hoping the latest crop of UKIP MEPs prove more honest than the 2004 intake, after former MEP Tom Wise was sentenced to two years in prison. Wise, who until earlier this year was an MEP for the East of England, channelled £39,000 of taxpayers' money into a secret bank account and spent it on cars and wine. His trick was to pay his assistant £500 a month, say he was paying her £3,000 a month and pocket the difference. The scam was reported by the Daily Telegraph in October 2005. A couple of years later, Tom ...
Last night we had the second informal meeting for the Launceston Community Network Panel. As it was still informal (in other words, the Cabinet had not yet signed off on the formal functions and powers of the Networks), we decided to invite two organisations who are not controlled by the Council to come and make presentations about their work. And so we heard from Sgt Aaron Ward and his colleagues from the Police about their work and priorities. Although the levels of crime in Launceston and the surrounding area are low (averaging 12-18 recorded crimes per week) there are still ...
Wed 11th
15:31
Kirsty Williams after FMQs on lack of Labour-Plaid action on child protection in Wales.
Wed 11th
15:24
Remember 'Talks about Talks?' Now there is a Conservative Council with a 'Scrutiny Panel that Scruti...
Having been a councillor for four years in Cornwall, I know that councils, and their officers have some very strange ideas about using time. But, today, it has been revealed, in The Telepgraph, that Conservative controlled Wealden District Council, has 'set up a scrutiny panel to scrutinise its scrutiny panels.' There is a point in all local ...
Next month, members of the United Nations meet in Copenhagen for vital talks on securing a new worldwide response to climate change. On the Saturday beforehand, December 5, thousands of people will march in London to demand the Government goes further in cutting carbon emissions. Nick Clegg, Simon Hughes will be leading Liberal Democrats on the march. Here's Simon Hughes telling us why: [IMG: Simon Hughes talks about Copenhagen] We are the party that has the courage to tackle climate change in Britain. We will go furthest on cutting carbon emissions. Go furthest in generating renewable energy. And go furthest ...
There is a Prestwich Local Area Partnership Meeting this week, at 6.30pm, Thursday 12th November, Heaton Park Primary School. You can come and ask your Councillors anything you like, as well as listening to the various reports, presentations and other items that we'll be rattling through. Other reports at this month's meeting will include The Local Development Framework, The Big Clean and a Police Report. To download the papers click this link [IMG: 200px-080804_24a_katherine_kelly] Of even more commercial potential than a night asking questions to Councillors though, is the Prestwich Winter Wonderland, which will be showcased on Thursday. The Winter ...
Tuesday: Time in the Village is meaningless; time in Daddy's reviews doubly so, so I shall time-warp you back a week. And speaking of doubles... information No more psychology, no more "don't damage him", now the Village really starts messing with heads, in this classic "double agent" ploy with a cunning double-bluff twist. Is salvation all in the mind? The Prisoner wakes up to find that he is now left-handed, moustachioed and Number 2's new best friend, Number 12, brought in on a special assignment to break a particularly recalcitrant prisoner to whom he bears an uncanny resemblance: Number 6. ...
There was an interesting exchange in the Assembly chamber a few minutes ago when I asked the Finance Minister about the various policy pledges being made by the three canddidates for First Minister. In particular, I referred to the fact that all of the candidates had stressed the importance of education and training and that at least one candidate, Carwyn Jones has specifically pledged that, under his leadership, spending on education will be increased by at least one per cent above the block grant allocation. In response to the question as to whether he will be adjusting his draft budget ...
[IMG: Lasan] The Jewellery Quarter's Lasan was the deserved winner of "Best Local Indian Restaurant" on Gordon Ramsay's F-Word last night. The show came just days after Lasan walked off with yet another gong from the British Curry Awards. Despite it being just around the corner from me I've only managed to visit twice, but they were two fantastic meals. I dare say getting a table now will be somewhat more tricky! Next stop - Michelin star?
Unemployment in Wales has risen sharply in the three months between July and September, the latest figures indicate. The jobless figure rose by 14,000, taking the total to 125,000, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. Wales lost more jobs than any other UK nation or region for the second consecutive three-month period. Commenting on the figures, Welsh Liberal Democrat Shadow Economy Minister, Jenny Randerson AM said: "Another month, another set of figures show that Welsh families are more likely to be facing unemployment and hardship than most other places in the UK. "We are continuing to see high unemployment, ...
Nick Clegg and Simon Hughes will be taking to the streets of London on Saturday 5th December to demand the Government got further in tackling climate change. As an email from Simon Hughes stiringly says: We are the party that has the courage to tackle climate change in Britain. We will go furthest on cutting carbon emissions. Go furthest in generating renewable energy. And go furthest in insulating homes. But climate change can only be tackled by global action – and that is why the Copenhagen conference is so important. It could prove to be the most important in our ...
I'm not one of the vegan fanatical animal rights campaigners, I'm just a normal bloke campaigning for better animal rights. I'm also a member of various animal charities - Edinburgh Zoo, St. Tiggywinkles, Hillside Animal Sanctuary, National Dogs Trust, Cats Protection League and the RSPB. So, last night I got home and did all my chores, I'm a fairly well trained husband, and sat and read the latest newsletter from the Hillside Animal Sanctuary. There's a very well written two page article on a joint undercover investigation with Channel Five on puppy farming. If you're eating, come back to this ...
Just a quick link to this blog post from Mark Pack - picking out what I would probably agree is the weirdest criticism of Gordon Brown ever.
There are many stories about counts, and how people have won at the count, when all seemed lost at the close of poll. Many people will tell you that they can predict the result and often you can these days with high quality sampling and a lap top computer. But, one of the things that people cannot ...
The latest "House of Comments" podcast with myself and Stuart Sharpe of the Sharpe's Opinion political blog is now live. The website for the podcasts is here and the fourth episode which we recorded on Monday is 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 as usual 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. This week, we were joined by Jennie Rigg of the Lib ...
Yesterday I met the girl who is going to shadow me for the next few weeks. This is part of the Shadow a Local Councillor project, run by the British Youth Council. Seven councillors in Kingston are taking part. So if I turn up at a meeting with a young person in tow, please welcome her!
Our troops should be pulled off the front line in Afghanistan. I am not convinced by any of the explanations given to explain their continuing presence, and I don't know how we would recognise a "victory." We are an occupying force, fighting for one side in a civil war and too easily portrayed, even if we "win", as crusading imperialists seeking to impose our cultural and religious beliefs on others. Radical Muslim men rally to the cause of our opponents in consequence. This does not help make Britain safer. I bow to no-one in my detestation of the Taliban and ...
On Monday, Helen brought you news from the Guardian of the dispute between Liberal Democrat MP Dr Evan Harris and Home Secretary Alan Johnson. Over the last two days, Dr Harris's blog has been unmissable as he has been posting details of the correspondence on his blog, along with the consequences. A fisking of Alan Johnson's speech in Parliament I was amazed to hear what the Home Secretary said, under privilege, in parliament about a distinguished scientist and sent Alan Johnson the letter below demanding a retraction and apology. A fisking of Alan Johnson's reply The Home Secretary has now ...
A survey conducted for the GMB shows that 96% of the 547 Conservative candidates selected so far are from professional occupations or management. The leader of one of the country's largest trade unions today accused the Conservatives of selecting a disproportionate number of individuals from "well-heeled" backgrounds to represent the party at the next general election. He ...
I wasn't going to write about the Brown letter as it's been covered extensively elsewhere. Most liberal thinking bloggers have been disgusted (by the Sun). The normally spot-on Charlotte Gore initially jumped the wrong way (IMHO) but then corrected herself. Anyway, I have really bad hand writing (I expect this is something that may unite many bloggers, ah the lure of the simple keyboard...) and this morning Mrs. L commented that Brown hadn't misspelt the mother's name as his handwriting looks just like mine! I think it's a credit to Brown that he takes the time to personally writes these ...
Who'd have thanked it? A dangerously incompetent Prime Minister outfoxing the Sun on.... POLITICS! Lord Mandersdorf deftly brought up the rear (ooh,err, missus). If you read the comments on any website the sympathy is with Brown and not the person the Sun is using representing. That's a lost war for the Sun. Now that the SUN has ...
Gosh, our local Tories do know how to have a good time! Whilst in South West Norfolk, the local Conservative Association has imploded over the question of Liz Truss's affair with Mark Field, somewhat closer to home, the final shortlist for the 27 November open primary for my neighbouring constituency of Central Suffolk and North Ipswich has sparked off a more basic but no less intriguing dispute. If it was indeed the case that Sir Michael Lord's retirement was a case of jumping before he was pushed, it hasn't gone quite to plan, as the shortlist excludes all of the ...
There was a poll released by Politics Home yesterday in the wake of the "Nutt Sack" debacle which as well as showing that a majority think it was wrong for Professor Nutt to have been sacked also asked them how harmful they think various drugs are. The specific question asked was: In terms of the overall harm that you perceive the following drugs as causing to individuals and society, please say how harmful you perceive the following drugs to be: And the results were: Now this sort of finding is fascinating. As can clearly be seen, the public understand that ...
Last night, a man was killed. He was killed by the state. Well, a particular state. He was killed, deliberately, intentionally, and in cold blood. Because that's what was required. That's what the killers were told to do. More than one person was involved in this killing. State-sponsored murder, some might call it. Of course, that happens all over the ...
As we're at the point of the political cycle where people appear to be demanding what should appear in the party's manifesto for the next election (current working title: No, You Can't Have A Pony Because You Didn't Follow Uncle Vince's Advice) I thought I'd put forward an idea of my own. It's liberal, it's ...
The continued determination of the British state to hold on to the DNA of innocent people in the face of huge opposition reflects the tenacity of a certain mindset. This same mindset insists that the intrusive and expensive positive vetting of anyone who comes into the slightest contact with children is the only way to protect kids from potential abusers. The fact that it patently does no such thing and effectively brands everyone as a criminal unless they can prove they are not, thus breaking the fundamental rule of justice: innocent until proven guilty, is answered with a shrug. Even ...
One of the most embarrassing moments in my recent past was when it was explained to me that the term "metrosexual" did not, in fact, mean someone sexually attracted to trams. To be honest it was quite a relief to discover that there's not a term for people with these odd desires. But if there were, they would doubtless be excited to hear that there are free Metrolink rides available on two days this month. Greater Manchester Integrated Transport Authority (GMITA) is providing free travel on Metrolink all day, from the first tram until the last tram, this Saturday, 14 ...
We have four local government by-elections pending in the West Midlands at the moment.
A few days ago it was Darryl's turn, yesterday it was my turn, only that this one is actually a bit worse. The unadorned truth is that besides those that do it for the good reasons local politics is also the playground of a lot of big morons. The last two commenters on this blog may have ...
Cross-posted from the Mandate blog: The Newspaper Marketing Agency's latest (September) figures (PowerPoint slides) for the sources of web traffic to newspaper websites paintsa useful picture of which social media sites really matter - and which don't. The top ten domains that referred UK traffic to newspapers during the month were: Google Yahoo MSN News.bbc.co.uk Facebook AOL Wikipedia Ask Twitter NewsNow There are several lessons to be learnt from the list. First, notice the absence of social bookmarking sites such as Delicious, Digg or StumbleUpon. Although the traffic benefits of getting your content shared on such sites are widely touted, ...
I have to admit that this is not a question that I had ever given much thought to, but I now have an answer. Perhaps I ought to explain. My remaining cats, Katherine (aged 17) and Cincinnati (aged 16) are increasingly vet bills waiting to happen. Cincinnati is a fairly placid soul who, whilst he would prefer not to be in a cat carrier, behaves well with vets - the world is his friend. Katherine, on the other hand, hates the whole experience and gets into such a state that she has rather traumatising fits when being transported. Ros, finding ...
2 Big Stories Woman loses appeal against noisy sex You might have thought Gordon and that letter would be the big story, but the BBC website says differently, with this rated higher on the Most Shared and Most Read charts by yesterday evening. And why not? It's got sex, crime and something odd – just the sort of story we, the Great British public, relish. As a neighbour said: "The noise sounds like they are both in considerable pain. I cannot describe the noise. I have never ever heard anything like it." But, in case you want your big stories ...
Earlier this month, I mentioned on http://www.dundeewestend.com/ concerns raised by parents about buses their children take to and from Harris Academy from the far west part of Perth Road being full (see http://tinyurl.com/schoolbusperthrd or click on headline to view the earlier article). The Courier highlights the issue in this morning's edition, along with my comments to the newspaper about parents' concerns. I have urged parents that, should their children have any difficulty getting on a bus to or from school in the coming weeks, that I will again raise the issue with the bus companies and the Head of Transportataion ...
There are further works planned in Thomson Street next year, following on from the road closure last month for gully replacement work (see http://tinyurl.com/thomsonstreet or click on the headline above to view the earlier story). The Acting Team Leader, Network Management, in the City Council has now advised me that both Scotland Gas Networks (SGN) and Scottish Water (SW) have works planned for 2010 : "Scottish Water are planning to go into Thomson Street shortly after April 2010. SW have two mains in the street. They plan to slipline the larger 6" main and abandon the smaller 4" main. SGN ...
Bank refinancing costs, continued soaring London prices. Important news is often buried in tiny headlines
knock on my door at 2. No thanks.
This morning I shall be at the War Memorial in Keighley to pay my respects to all those killed in the two World Wars, and indeed all conflicts past and present. I shall of course observe the two-minutes silence to commemorate Germany signing an armistice agreement with the Allies in a railway wagon outside Compiègne. When I was a young lad, one of my friends had his granddad living with him, and this old feller had fought on the Western Front, but of course as a child that meant little to me. I was reading Biggles, and The Victor and ...
Everyone's writing about the new series of The Thick of It. Well, I say everyone, Darrell Goodliffe's not impressed and Alix Mortimer's wondering where it's all going. I suppose now's my chance to write about it too. Writing my review of In The Loop was strangely enjoyable - at the time I wrote that it was the scariest horror film I'd ever seen, and Malcolm Tucker, as far as evil villains go, has a body count the envy of monsters the world over. Comedy? Are you sure? So, hey, why don't I write about the Political Anorak's favourite TV programme ...
A sad start to the day with a phone call to tell me that one of my constituents has died. He was very ill in hospital and I'm glad I was able to visit last night. People like Bill are rare, that are prepared to do so much in their community, and be prepared to do battle and not just sit back and complain if services are not up to scratch. Always a friend with words of encouragement and support -...
When does drinking become excessive? The problem is that people have a drink and enjoy it and then don't realise it is a problem if they drink excessively. We have medical recommendations to limit our alcohol intake but there can be no hard and fast rules because we are all different. Some people act as if they are drunk after one drink. The difficult part is to know when a very social activity becomes a problem. It may be a problem because it is medically harmful and it may also be a problem because it hurts the wallet. There are ...
