To read the Tweets coming from Labour members last night, you would have thought that they'd GAINED a seat from the Conservatives, rather than held one of their safest seats in the country. If the messages were to be believed, there were a hell of a lot of champagne socialists out there The new MP ...
Imogen made me have beer. And then Colin made me have beer. And then Mat made me come home because he has workeded and he is all tired and needs snuggles, but I want MOAR BEEER! Mmmmmmm Beeeeeeer. This posst is brought to you by Abbetdale Moonshine and my lack of self control.
This is going to be one of those blog posts where you first ponder whether you should actually make such a post on your 'real name' blog, or whether you should place it on one of the pseudonymous ones given that everything is searchable on the internet and future employers or, indeed, lovers might read it and conclude they are, um, 'disquieted' by the content. But, after a long soak in a nice bubble bath just now, I've decided to go ahead with writing it here anyway! So then ... Porn. Yes, you head me, Porn. Pornography. Erotica. 'Material of ...
For Giles Clarke, the chairman of the ECB who's been whingeing all day that not being able to sell TV rights to the Ashes to Rupert Murdoch would destroy grassroots cricket, a parable. Younger readers may not be aware that back in 2003 the England rugby team won the World Cup (that's right kids, there was a time when the England team was vaguely selected on merit and not entirely on the basis of who sounds cool right now and happens to play for Wasps, Quins, Bath or Leicester...) The team came back to enormous celebrations and two weeks later ...
The Eurozone is officially out of recession having racked-up a hardly awe-inspiring 0.4% growth. Growth, nonetheless is growth; furthermore, both France and Germany are out of recession which shows the increased resilience of the eurozone economies. Reporting on the BBC website this recovery it is noted; Stronger exports and consumer spending, as well as government stimulus packages, have ...
Pillock has finally finished his look at Star Wars and his own personal 'canon'. Essential reading for anyone who liked my Hyperpost series. Dave Sim has switched to doing his comics POD – apparently Cerebus Archive was dropped by Diamond. Very sad – it'll only mean even lower sales for these titles. Jazz Hands, Serious Business has ...
It seems a very odd world that when Gordon Brown tries to do the right thing and write a person handwritten letter to a mother of a soldier killed in Afghanistan, he is castigated. And when he further goes out of his way to phone her, he receives more bile from the Murdoch Press. Yet when David Cameron takes his own personal cameraman to a war memorial in order to gain extra publicity shots, he seems to get off with none of the major media organisations taking up the story. Biased BBC ? I should say !
Fri 13th
20:55
Forget Performance Related Pay in the MOD, all Performance Related Pay Is Flawed Anyway
The was a lot of fuss yesterday about Performance Related Pay (PRP) in the Ministry of Defence yesterday, but little discussion of the reason it was introduced and the very fact that virtually all PRP is flawed. Looking in to the details of the MOD PRP system, it appears that staff were effectively robbed of the pay increase they might have expected in the past with the promise of a performance based system that was designed not improve performance but instead, like all PRP system, was designed to save money. When I worked at worked at Norwich Union in a ...
With the news that Gordon Brown has high hopes of Nato sending an additional 5,000 troops into Afghanistan, it is important to consider for a second, what a lot of people have already been questioning for a long time, which is the important question of why we are fighting there. I want to pick up on one of ...
There is an article in the Magazine section of the BBC News website today that looks at the furry scene. It explains: No standard definition exists but generally furries are people who have a fascination with anthropomorphic animals. These are animals that are given human traits, like walking and talking. They can be anything from cartoons characters like Bugs Bunny to computer game personalities like Pokemon. The scene has its own art, animation, comic books and literature, but activities are largely conducted online - where furries adopt "fursonas" for role playing. But for some it is about meeting other furries ...
Fri 13th
19:54
Lessons from Glasgow North East?! - The Labour Party isn't as dead as the Tories were before 1997 an...
The result of the by-election yesterday will have come as a surprise to many people, and a disappointment to the SNP and to the media, which is increasingly biased towards the sensational. Let's look at the evidence: SNP Failure? Well to be fair I never though they stood a chance in this by-election, and many will put ...
So, finally the Labour Government have gained a seat in a parliamentary by-election in this Parliamentary term. Labour have finally turned the corner in campaigning terms in Scotland in my opinion. Watching them in three consecutive by-elections in just over 12 months has been really interesting. In Glasgow East Labour ran not only the wrong campaign, they took so long getting their campaign into gear it was quite obvious they were going to lose, plus the SNP pushed them onto the back foot and stole their thunder. Then we moved to the Glenrothes by-election where Labour once again took a ...
One of the sub-plots to 'lettergate' was that it gave the BBC an opportunity to subtly needle the Murdoch media empire. I remember vividly listening to a commentator on its Radio 5 Live subtly supporting Brown; quite rightly saying that he meant no offence. On the same station I also remember the sports news reporter barely concealing ...
[IMG: camrem2] Well it is remarkable. He isn't overdoing all this stuff, by chance, is he?
Receiving the Liberal International Freedom award from the LI President, John Alderdice, at the Party conference in Bournemouth, with Ros Scott, President of the Party.
Nader and I attended a special ceremony at 11 in the morning on the eleventh of November, World War I Armistice Day. There were lots of people there and Jonathan led prayers.
An opinion poll asked who should chair Question Time if David Dimbleby were to be injured by a bullock again. The results were as follows: John Humphrys - 17%Jeremy Paxman - 14%Jonathan Dimbleby - 6%The bullock - 63%
Apparently, Edwina Hart is a fan of one-word answers. In response to a written question from Kirsty Williams, she replied with an answer of such mind-boggling intricacy, it really left me awed at the intelligence and skill of our Health Minister. "No." That's right. N. O. spells no. I mean, she could have spiced it up a bit and added a few bits of silliness. What about a use of "nada", or "never, fools!" or how about, "over mah dead body". Or even "Begone, you inconveniently sharp-minded political party, or I shall be forced to deal with you in a ...
Campaign Group Goodbye Andrew Mackay confronted Andrew MacKay MP and demanded the signing of a giant cheque made out to "the taxpayer". This happened as Andrew Mackay left a dinner held by the Bullbrook branch of the Bracknell Conservative Association on Saturday night. The cheque demanding the payment of £170,000 which is the estimated amount owed for claiming a second home allowance on a property his wife Julie Kirkbride MP nominated as her first home. After Sir Thomas Legg report Andrew Mackays leaving parashoot has already been reduced to £10,000 from £65,000The video taken by the Campaign Group Goodbye Andrew ...
I was quite taken by this story of how a 10 year old boy, Will Phillips, had refused to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance in his school classroom until the LGBT community has equal rights. I can see why he sees a contradiction between the wording of the Pledge: "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands: one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." and the fact that his gay friends aren't treated equally and aren't free to marry. I think it was ...
It seems I spoke too soon. From the Shropshire Star: Two giant birds, which were part of a flock of rheas that ran amok in the Shropshire countryside, are still on the loose. Their owner, farmer Tom Evans, is calling for anyone who might have seen the 6ft birds to contact him so he can capture them and return them to their rightful home. The other birds have already been returned. Mr Evans, of Wheatcommon Lane, Ashford Carbonell, near Ludlow, made the appeal after the birds escaped and attacked a member of the public.
What could be simpler: five categories, each with five links. And it's Friday. 5 most-read stories on LDV this week 1. Opinion: No to All-Men Shortlists (54) by Jo Swinson MP 2. Cambridge MP David Howarth to stand down (14) by The Voice 3. Lib Dem peer admits exploiting expenses loophole (33) by The Voice 4. The weirdest criticism of Gordon Brown, ever - FACT (5) by Mark Pack 5. John Pugh MP writes ... Twitter ye Not - why Frankie Howerd was right (14) by John Pugh MP 5 recent Lib Dem tweets >> MarkReckons RT @AndrewSparrow 'Thatcher has ...
My House Points column from today's Liberal Democrat News. Civil wall In Berlin Angela Merkel watched Mikhail Gorbachev and Lech Walesa stroll over the ruins of the Wall. Back in London our government chose a different way to mark the 20th anniversary of one of the most joyful events in European history. It overturned Lords amendments so it will be able to hold inquests in private. It confirmed plans to compile a database, open to 653 different public bodies, of every phone call, text message, email and website visit made by British citizens in the past year. And Ed Miliband ...
The November Acocks Green South Police Tasking meeting set the following three priorities for the coming month: Anti-Social Behaviour in Thornfield Road Anti-Social Behaviour in Northanger Road Anti-Social Behaviour in Tibland Road Progress has been made in tackling anti-social behaviour in the priority areas (Northanger Road, Tibland Road and Pendleton Road) identified last month, with no further ASB reported in Pendleton Road and levels of ASB in Northanger Road and Tibland Road having declined. The next meeting will be at Lakey Lane Primary School on Wednesday 2nd December at 7pm.
Thatcher dies! No not Maggie, but a moggy. Apparently someone at a black-tie dinner for 2,000 Canadian Conservatives had received a text from the transport minister to say that his 16-year-old grey cat, named in honour of the Milk Snatcher, was no more. The message spread like wildfire before someone thought to check, and they were relieved :( to find that it was not the other one.
There was an article in today's Guardian about a new documentary about the Welsh Journalist, Gareth Jones, and the 1932-1933 famine in the Ukraine. The Ukrainians call these events the Holodomor or death by starvation, estimates vary widely, 1m-10m ...
The BBC report on a kerfuffle caused by a careless text from the Canadian Transport Minister, John Baird that nearly caused a diplomatic incident. Announcing the death of his cat, who was named after his political hero, Mr. Baird sent a message reading: "Thatcher has died" but the text led to the Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper being informed that 84-year-old former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had passed away. The confusion spread around a gala event in Toronto, where some 1,700 luminaries were gathered at a black tie event. Calls to puzzled officials in both 10 Downing Street and ...
This morning's Western Mail has the story of yesterday's Assembly Finance Committee, referred to by Peter Black here, in which accusations were flung and questions asked about Plaid Cymru's attempt to re-write key passages in the report on the budget so as to cast a more favourable light on Ieuan Wyn Jones' tenure as Economy and Transport Minister. Here are just some of the views of the Committee members: Labour AM Alun Davies said: " I don't know if other people feel the same way but I am absolutely appalled at the way the committee has been treated by a ...
Broke my toe on Thursday morning rushing out door to get to engagement (but did nothing about it except hobble and moan)so hobbled to British Association of Social Workers conference where they had invited me onto a panel to talk about my experiences during Baby P. What was lovely was the amount of social workers who came up to me and thanked me for what I said. I was really pleased - for during the whole Baby Peter tragedy I was very careful to refer to the need for proper support for social workers - and to point to what ...
Donal MacIntyre and Hannah Barnes have reported on MPs' interns for BBC Radio 5 live: MPs could be breaking the law by not paying their parliamentary interns. Hundreds of young graduates are putting in thousands of hours of unpaid work at Westminster. This practice is excluding many young people without independent financial support from a route that many see as the first step on the ladder to a political career. But, this is not just a question of pushing the bounds of fairness. Minimum wage regulations require that some of these interns should be paid." You can listen to the ...
The Government is planning to remove legal protection from listed buildings in Britain. The provisions are contained in draft legislation which will encourage local authorities to demolish listed buildings on economic or social grounds. This legislation threatens numerous buildings including 19 in the Redcar district alone. Local conservationist Alex Stamp said "to remove legal protection is unacceptable and an astonishing indication of the Governments hostility where distinguished architecture is concerned., the idea that local Councils could demolish buildings such as Redcar clock, Saltburn war memorial or Middlesbrough railway station when they like will be a shock to local people. Professional ...
so grateful it's Friday. Hellish week. Am off down the boozer. # @lordbonkers But it's a start. # Read great quote in Indy y'day: shyness is just "egotism out of its depth". # weirdly it was attributed to Penelope Keith ... who'd have thunk? # working like a dog. A dog that uses a screwdriver and lifts heavy furniture, that is. You know the kind of breed. # @alexfoster What about "Nick Clegg or chips?" # is there anything, anywhere, ever more irritating than a slow internet connection? # @markpack am running late, suggest @libdemvoice collective starts world domination without ...
I just watched last night's Question Time and was appalled by Julia Goldsworthy's inability to make the positive case for immigration. Worse still, she engaged in the same mealy mouthed rubbish that Chris Huhne spouted during the Nick Griffin Question Time farce. Mumbling about points systems, exit counting, internal migration is not enough. If a woman in the audience can clearly make the case in 30 seconds why immigration is not a "bad issue" (only 2% of social homes have immigrants in them; immigration comes and goes (2008 saw net exit), why can't the Lib Dems. Stop being scared of ...
Reach your minds back into the mists of time for a second; once there was one party a Liberal Party and over time this party cleaved into the Liberal Party and the Labour Party. Centrally, at first, this was not first and foremost a question of an ideological split but a question of representation and ...
For the last few weeks I have been listening to an excellent podcast called "The Pod Delusion" which describes itself as being about "interesting things": From scepticism to lefty liberal things, it's commentary from a secular, rationalist, 'Guardianista', sort of perspective. A bit like From Our Own Correspondent but with more jokes. It's well worth a listen and subscribing to. Not least because if you listen to this week's episode you can hear me ranting about TV companies and their woeful attitude to electronic distribution of their programmes.
I'm back on The Pod Delusion podcast this week. Or rather, my nationality-non-specific alter ego Professor Wilhelm Howells is on, explaining, in a manner of speaking, what the Large Hadron Collider is and how it works. You can listen to this week's episode on the Pod Delusion website; by subscribing on iTunes; by downloading the MP3; or by using the player below. My bit is 25 minutes 49 seconds in, but you should, of course, listen to the whole half hour show. I think I also neglected to plug my previous two appearances, so: I did a piece about astrology ...
I am pleased to have been advised by the City Council that, following my raising the condition of the Wilkie's Lane car park at St Joseph's Primary School with the Education Department, it was agreed to remove potholes and smooth the surface. There were concerns that the poor car park surface was discouraging use of it and resulting in a large number of vehicles attempting to park in the nearby busy Bellfield Street, raising safety concerns, and I had recently spoken with Tayside Police about these congestion concerns at Bellfield Street. The City Council has advised me that over the ...
The scandal of 180,000. dementia sufferers being prescribed anti-psychotic drugs - leading to behaviour changes in many and even death, is bad enough, but sadly I think the problem is a much wider problem. We need (as a country - society) to decide how we want to be treated both in old age and when unable to properly look after ourselves such as in this case. We need to once and for all decide how we are going to provide the hidden health service - our carers, with the support and advice they need and deserve.We need to fundamentally address ...
Thanks to my friend and colleague Glenn Goodall for the number-crunching over on his blog: the latest figures show that once again my colleagues and I in Redlands are the hardest-working ward team on Reading Borough Council. We reported 103 pieces of 'casework' in and around our ward between July and October 2009. It's not a competition for us though - we work hard all year round tackling issues and problems constituents raise with us because we care deeply about helping local people and improving the local area we were elected to represent. We also lead the way the last time this data came to light via a Freedom of ...
The dynamic Libdem candidate for Lewisham Deptford Tam Langley (here in the picture just after miraculously turning a tree Libdem) has organised an extremely interesting event for 29th November. The Obama Regional Field Director for the Democratic Party in Northern Europe (in charge of convincing a large community of American expats to vote for Obama) will ...
Having just celebrated the fall of the Berlin Wall whilst scouring the interwebby I came across this interesting and beautifully written article (which I've sadly had to edit down for Liberal Vision). Temba A Nolutshungu lived in Aparthied South Africa, and has the benefit of hindsight to comment on walls of tyranny, be they in South Africa, Korea, Germany and their various shades through out Africa. "The history of the Wall symbolises the truth that a free society, based on private ownership of the means of production, best delivers what people want." In the early 1960s I was cutting my ...
... given the Highway Code is 152 pages long, why did news that a guide on how to cycle is 93 pages long make for front page news in The Sun and widespread coverage elsewhere?
Thanks to everyone at last night's Cheadle Village Partnership. We had an excellent discussion about Stockport's Core Strategy (12 days to go to register your opinions wih the Council). I was impressed that more than one person had made the heroic effort to read the strategy document, and people had some excellent questions and points. Other than that, I spent too much time speaking to take notes (sorry!) so I'll have to wait for the AboutMyArea report.
A planning application has been received by the Council for permission to temporarily erect 4 modular classrooms on the playground adjacent to the car park for one year. This is to allow construction of the small children's centre building that is planned for the school. More details are on the Council's website soon here. Its application number 51908.
Warning from the local police of people posing as roofers. Four men came to an address this week - one of them banged on the window and then spoke with the occupant. The male claimed that the guttering on the house needed replacing, and eventually two of them took the elderly person in a van to a bank in Manchester where it was possible to raise the alarm. The men were using a white van.
This comes in to the category of "you couldn't make it up"... more details here and here. I've struggled to find anyone who doesn't have sympathy for Gordon Brown on the way The Sun has gone for him on this issue. After all, this is the Prime Minister of the UK finding time in his schedule ...
With closures accelerating as the economic downturn bites, empty local shops have become an all too familiar sight in London. How could current planning legislation be wielded more effectively to stem the loss of the capital's small retailers? The Planning and Housing Committee is reviewing measures designed to protect London's local shops, looking at progress ...
Following the report yesterday about Fearless Francis Jones's new private police force in Darlington, the comments section in the Northern Echo is divided about his suitability for such a role and the need for such a service. Perhaps the majority view expressed there is favourable, however, as is a letter published in today's Echo from a local resident. But while some residents are clearly keen
Labour comfortably held the Glasgow North East by-election by almost 8,000 votes
Labour have launched a new campaign poster comparing Tory bosses David Cameron and George Osborne to X-Factor stars John and Edward Grimes. The tag-line is "You won't be laughing if they win". Hmm Does this mean that Labour are accepting that the Conservatives are set to win the next General Election? Are they accepting that people vote for Jedward because they fill the John Sargeant quotient - so bad that it's funny to see them win? Is there are real danger that electors might take the same point of view when it comes to the General Election? I just can't ...
East Devon DC, TrinityCon elected unopposed.Con gain from Ind.Party defending seat: Ind. Cause. Resignation.Shepway BC, New Romney CoastCon 452 (51.4; +2.2)LD Brian Wright 333 (37.9; -12.9)UKIP 94 (10.7; +10.7)Majority 119Turnout 30.65%Con gain from LDPercentage change is since May 2007.Party defending seat: LD. Cause: Resignation.South Hams DC, Totnes Bridgetown LD Mike Hannaford 522 (52.4; +
Two Lib Dem victories in South West by-elections yesterday. Voters in Newquay South were electing a new town councillor – a straight fight between Sandy Carter for the Lib Dems and Rose Knowlson for the Tories. The result was a decisive Lib Dem victory, with Sandy Carter securing 444 votes. Thirty short of the party's tally in Glasgow North East, but enough to win 56% of the vote with an 8.7% swing from the Conservatives to the Lib Dems since June of this year. St Austell and Newquay is a new parliamentary seat, notionally held by the Lib Dems based ...
This story made me laugh. Canada's transport Minister's cat, Thatcher (named after the iron lady), died so he texted friends "Thatcher had died". This soon lead to their prime minister being informed and it unraveled from there...
I am appearing as a guest on the Andy Crane Sunday Lunch show this Sunday from 12 noon on BBC Radio Manchester (95.1FM in the Manchester area, and on DAB). I am one of a panel of three guests talking about the news and the Sunday papers. There is normally a musician, a politician and a comedian on the panel. Given that I can't play anything more complicated than a kazoo, and given my disastrous recent attempts at stand-up at the Comedy Store, I presume I am there as the politician. I am very excited to be meeting Andy Crane. ...
Transform yesterday launched "After the War on Drugs: Blueprint for Regulation" at the House of Commons. Having read most of it, I am confident it can be employed to great effect in backing up a Liberal Democrat policy of strictly regulating a legal trade in drugs. This document is undoubtedly tough on drugs and I will be writing to Nick Clegg to inform him of this and to encourage him to act in the strongest possible terms. This book, to be blunt "covers our ass" on the issue with its sober, rational examination of the options for leading the world ...
A record number of people were involved in disputes with the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) last year about wrongly being branded a criminal, according to research by the Liberal Democrats. The figures, revealed in a Parliamentary answer, show: 15,320 people have disputed their criminal records check since the CRB was launched in 2002/03 A record number of people (2,509) were involved in a dispute with the CRB last year (2008/09) This is more than double the number of disputes in the CRB's first year of operation (there were 1,111 in 2002/03), though the proportion of disclosures being disputed has fallen ...
A few weeks back I asked if anyone was experiencing more noise from aircraft, especially around Gatley Road. A few people got in touch (which is more than Manchester Airport did - I never had a response to my emails). My friend Cllr Lenny Grice sits on some airport committee so he found out the details. It seems that the computer system that normally guides pilots in to land is out of action at the moment (don't know why). The result is that aircraft are being guided in to land in a different way, resultingin a wider corridor. So, although ...
I had just settled down to watch BBC Question Time last night (Dazmando was hosting the chat on my blog here as I was a bit late) when my wife drew my attention to a problem with our Cocker Spaniel Chess. My wife had been eating a piece of carrot and gave him the end (he eats virtually anything and loves carrot). My wife however was quite surprised to see that despite the fact the piece of carrot was quite large, Chess made no attempt to actually chew it and instead just tried to swallow it whole. He then very ...
One of the main problems with candidates is that they start to believe they are going to win. This might be reasonable in some cases but should never be encouraged for fear of them becoming lazy and complacent. Many candidates have come back into an HQ and told me they are going to win or that ...
I had for some time thought it was likely that Labour would win the Glasgow North East by-election. The biggest sign that they thought they were on to a dead cert was the fact that they were quite happy for Glasgow Labour MP, Tom Harris, to spend polling day evening tweeting from the Will Young concert at the SECC. I did cruelly joke that maybe they wanted him out of the way, but if you think the result is going to be close, you'll get every single pair of legs out there knocking on doors. You would think, wouldn't you, ...
Political opponents of the Liberal Democrats have been trying to portray Nick Clegg's questioning of the failing strategy in Afghanistan as a precursor to a Lib Dem call to withdraw our troops. This is a misrepresentation, of course. Clegg has clearly set out his position in a very clear article in the Times today. What he says, ...
Sefton Council's ruling Cabinet has thrown out throw a proposal to relocate Southport's town centre library to the currently vacant space at the rear of Southport Market Hall during the 3 years of work on the Arts Centre and Library buildings. The decision of the Labour and Conservative majority on the Cabinet has been condemned as "disastrous" by Liberal Democrats on the Council. Despite being the largest party on Sefton Council the Liberal Democrats were outvoted by 6 (3 Tory/3 lab)to 4 at Thursday's (12th November) held at Bootle Town Hall. Work on the £15 million Southport Cultural Centre project ...
When I arrived at Cabinet yesterday for the important debate about Southport Library I encountered a number of unfortunate incidences. Why were we meeting in Bootle? There was only one real issue on the agenda-Southport Library and this was a special meeting called to decide on that matter. It was not a scheduled meeting. Why wasn't in held in Southport where local people could have attended. I venture to suggest that the decision may have been different Why were the normal democratic safeguards waived?Decisions made by cabinet can be 'recalled' by other councillors if they think cabinet has got it ...
fter calling a few weeks ago for Obama to grow some balls over US healthcare, I'm now going to spectacularly reverse my position. However, I feel such breathtaking double standards is justified because of the extraordinary circumstances of the decision I'm going to discuss. I'm talking – what else – about Afghanistan. There's a growing level of concern ...
A superb one day "dealing with debt" conference gets a shamefully short and selective summary.
Bit of good news (taken from a Lewisham Council press release) Earlier in the year, Lewisham Council approved the adoption of a borough wide Dog Control Order, following new legislation under Section 55 of the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act (2005), which meant that the borough could take action, and enforcement, against people who did not comply with new rules. As from 16 November 2009, enforcement action - which means an on-the-spot fine of £75.00 - can now be taken against people who: Fail to remove their dogs faeces from a public place Do not keep their dog on a ...
What a sad indictment of our politics it is that nobody even bats an eyelid when less than a third of the electorate can be bothered to turnout to choose their next MP. Just 32.97 % of eligible Glaswegians thought it was important that they went and had a say in who they want to represent ...
Chris White has demanded that the planned scrutiny of highways maintenance be treated as an emergency. Chris was attending the County Council's Overview and Scrutiny Committee today and condemned the fact that this topic was not due to be looked at for at least six months while much less important issues, like postal services, are being dealt with immediately. Chris said: 'Many residents in the county regard highways maintenance as an emergency. Given that councillors in one area have already thrown out the highways maintenance programme it is surely time the county council recognised this as a serious problem.'
Some small improvements coming to Oak Road in Cheadle: A few days ago I reported the dip at the corner of Oak Road and Stockport Road, and it's now marked up for repair. For a while, residents on Oak Road by Oak Court have been asking for a higher fence to improve the privacy and security in their back gardens. Stockport Homes have confirmed that this is now going ahead, and residents will be consulted on the type of fence they want shortly. This affects people living on the west side of Oak Road, immediately south of Oak Court. I've ...
If anyone has any questions on public transport in our area which they'd like me to ask at next meeting between councillors and public transport operators, could they please send them to me by Wednesday 18 November?
Comparing the popularity of different words in the latest stories from the the Liberal Democrat, Conservative and Labour Party websites reveals striking differences in the messages being put out by each party online. Reproduced below are three word clouds, where the bigger a word is the more often it appeared on that party's latest website stories. The word clouds were generated yesterday (Thursday) based on the then state of each of the three websites. First, let's look at the Conservative Party: [IMG: Conservative wordle] (Click here or on graphic for larger version.) No doubt about what is central to the ...
The obvious big news this morning is the Glasgow North East Parliamentary by-election – and discussion is already underway here at Iain's post. 2 Big Stories My own two stories this morning have a transport/travel/systems-related bent: East Coast Mainline back under government control National Express will hand back East Coast Mainline services between London and Edinburgh and the rest of the East Coast franchise just before midnight. Falling revenue and rising costs left it unable to meet a commitment to pay £1.4bn for the franchise until 2015. A government company, Directly Operated Railways, will run the franchise for at least ...
[IMG: fcc-logo.jpg] http://tinyurl.com/ykbewsa
PETITION TO RETAIN A TEMPORARY TOWN CENTRE LIBRARY AT SOUTHPORT MARKET HALL Southport's town centre Library will have to shut for nearly 3 years from early 2010 while much-needed refurbishment work is undertaken on the Arts Centre and Library complex (the £15 million "Southport Cultural Centre" project). Sefton Council's ruling Cabinet considered this matter at a meeting held in Bootle on Thursday 12th November. By a narrow 6 - 4 margin it turned down a proposal put forward by the Liberal Democrats to relocate Southport Library to the currently vacant space at the rear of Southport Market Hall during the ...
Last night, addressed a public meeting on Lewisham Town Centre development. Unknown to me, it was captured on YouTube.
The Belsize Local Area Forum will decide what to spend it's £10,000 annual budget on at the next meeting which is at Sarum Hall School, 15 Eton Avenue, next Tuesday (17 Nov) starting at 7pm. The options which came out of the last meeting were as follows: 1) Advice, seeds and tools for people wanting to grow food (on window sills, on balconies, in gardens or on housing estates) 2) Advice, seeds and tools for food growing plus a Belsize website and a printed map of our area 3) Feasibility study for opening Belsize Library more often using volunteers and ...
When they are Geordie volunteers in the Tyneside Scottish Terriorial Army Artillery Battery! The Tyneside Scottish Association were kind enough to invite me to one of their monthly meetings today. The Tyneside Scottish is a unique battery unit with a fascinating history. At the meeting were veterans of all generations from the Second World War to the current campaign in Afghanistan. The Territorial Army is a great asset to our armed forces. It only consumes 1.3% of the defence budget but about a quarter of the army's troops. Not a bad deal. People were understandably dismayed at the cuts that ...
In the last 2 weeks this school has had 2 break ins a total of 9 laptops have been stolen, 2 laptops have been found. What type of people would steal off our children? I am a school governor here and we will now have to divert money from the education budget to beef up security, so our children will suffer twice because of the thieving scumbags. Any information please call: PC Logan 07810506373PC Jones 07896171609PCSO Colley 07970810556
Cross-posted from the Mandate blog: Mandate Communication's Mark Pack has an essay in PR Week 's Thought Leaders: Digital PR supplement: A few months ago I went to see the musical Jersey Boys. I went because a friend mentioned the show. We were passing a poster advertising the show, which reminded him of an advertising email he had been sent - and then the online reviews and ratings I checked were positive. So, to what do I credit my attendance: word of mouth, e-marketing, outdoor advertising, PR or social media? Or the quality of the show itself? It is this ...
Nigel Farage, outgoing UKIP leader, can sometimes come across as a fairly savvy media operator. But in his eagerness to back Tory-turned-UKIP peer Lord Pearson as his successor for the party leadership he has dropped a bit of a clanger. There are five candidates in the UKIP leadership election - Lord Pearson, three of Nigel Farage's UKIP colleagues in the European Parliament and a local councillor. Nigel Farage said on BBC 2 that "only one of them is a serious, credible candidate". Now I don't know any of the three MEPs standing or indeed Cllr Alan Wood - although, to ...
There will be an advice session this Saturday 11 - 12 at the Housing Office on Garratt Way. All welcome. There will also be an advice session on Thursday at Emmanuel Church, Blackwin Street, 7:30 to 8:30.
Yesterday's by-election in Glasgow North East saw a rare gain for the Labour Party. The seat was held by the former Speaker, Michael Martin, in 2005 when, by recent tradition, the main parties did not oppose him. Labour will be relieved to see their parliamentary majority increased. Although losing the seat was never a serious prospect, and the win certainly doesn't indicate any sort of revival or endorsement for Gordon Brown, new MP Willie Bain secured nearly 60% of vote – a higher percentage that Michael Martin secured in 2005. Does anyone else have cause to be pleased? Turnout was ...
This is, quite simply, extremely good: Olivier Blanchard: Basics Of Social Media ROI
[IMG: Mark Hunter MP] Dear resident, The last two months have been as busy as ever, both in Parliament and in the community tackling the issues that really count. I have decided to make my email updates more concise and so they are easier to digest, but I have made sure there are links to different news stories on my website and as always any feedback would be gratefully received. One issue that has dominated Parliament and the country as a whole in recent months is that of MP's expenses. For those who aren't already aware, I publish my expenses ...
Wehn I was about eight years old, I shut my thumb in one of the back doors of my dad's Ford Zodiac. There was some blood and skin loss, which made a bit of a mess of the car and over the next few weeks my thumbnail went black and fell off. Unfortunately for me, ...
Something's not right. All the nice polite drivers this morning have been men in white vans. # Woo! Surprise appearance for the sea # Hello France http://flic.kr/p/7dwc94 # Hello Dover http://flic.kr/p/7dAffw # Green sign = do this, right? http://flic.kr/p/7dAmaG # Dover Castle http://flic.kr/p/7dwEyc # @chris_coltrane How your brain handles stepping on a stopped escalator Contains SCIENCE http://bit.ly/1D1pCq via @malcolmcoles @bloggerheads # RT @craigelder: RT @grabcocque: The British may have the best power plugs in the world, but this is LITERALLY AMAZING: http://is.gd/4OYQF # @sshrpe Does it involve synergies? If so, count me in for another 20p in reply to sshrpe ...
Yesterday's public meeting of the Central Lewisham Action Group was much better attended that I expected, halfway down the meeting I counted 55 people, and most of them stayed until the end, and it was a very long meeting. Here's Cllr Andrew Milton's speech which was really well received: Other speakers from the platform were Helen Mercer ...
Yes, of course I've been quiet about it - our lot would have had between zero and buckley's chance of winning in this yellow-dog Labour fortress even if our candidate were the Archangel Gabriel, no matter what the bar-chart waving pollyannas may say. Hard truth, but cold fact. Doubt if it'll be as low as eighth, as the Greens reckon, but that's the Greens for you, and this is Glasgow after all. This could be as bad as our previous low water mark at Hamilton, but as I say it's a no-hope seat. The result will be here, though, just ...
My sources tell me that Paul Clark, the outgoing Chair of the East of England Regional Party, has been appointed as Returning Officer for the Cambridge selection contest...
Updates over last week are shown in italics BROKEN PROMISE 1: Lemsford Road: resurfacing was repeatedly promised and I even checked the text of a letter I sent to local residents confirming that it would be done two years ago. Last year I was given further reassurances but am now told that it is on hold awaiting the end of building works. There is now a tentative date of February next year but I was promised more detail on Monday (not yet arrived). BROKEN PROMISE 2: I was assured that there would be additional markings on Holywell Hill to warn ...
One of my many weaknesses is the radio phone-in. In some respects it's a (metaphorically) abusive relationship – I know it's cheap radio and I know the exposure to ranting Daily Mail readers is bad for me, but for some reason I just can't walk away. Thursday morning's BBC Five Live effort, entitled "Should you be ...
Last week I took a letter to the Post Office and they told me that there may be a delay. Although it was a little inconvenient I took it from Morecambe to Lancaster myself. Ironically there happened to be no delay with the postal service. However just because there was a possibility of disruption then the Post Office lost my business. I am guessing that a strike before Christmas is now less likely and the Post Office management and unions are working out their differences. Wouldn't it be nice if both sides actually looked at what was best for the ...
