Peter White, an aspirant Labour councillor for Havering, has been dubbed 'Britain's most famous Republican' by Paul Waugh at the Evening Standard after calling the Queen 'vermin'. Certainly, you can argue such a comparison shows bad political judgement given that republicanism in the UK is a minority strain of thought and no doubt there is ...
Mon 16th
23:22
Truss shows how the Tories have a contradiction between the individual and the 'Broken Society'
The news that Elizabeth Truss has kept her selection is a positive result for women's rights and common sense. Why the South West Norfolk Conservative Party felt that Truss should have disclosed such a personal matter as an affair in a selection process is quite outstanding. Why is it that Mark Field, the MP she had the ...
So Liz Truss has been reconfirmed as the Conservative PPC for South West Norfolk. Good. It was a ridiculous position for them to have placed themselves in and for CCHQ to have allowed to happen. The querying of Liz's selection, just 48 hours after she had won the members' vote, raised two questions. Firstly, how were ...
What on earth was the ending about? What are the rings, who was the guy they where delivered to and where is the missing ring (person zero perhaps??)
So at the selection meeting tonight, Norfolk South West Tories overwhelmingly chose to retain Liz Truss as their candidate by 132 - 37. It's good to see a bit of sense prevailing. There was never a case for deselecting her as I have blogged about previously. Now, in the nicest possible way, I hope she loses at the General Election (to the Lib Dem candidate)!
Boo! Hiss! The Flash Forward kangaroo from episode 6 has still not returned. Meanwhile, back in the land of the plot there was some small movement - one mystery was resolved in a rather simplistic manner (no, person wasn't back from the dead, they'd just never died - even though someone had looked at them closely and been sure they were dead) - but, shock horror, the final twist involved introducing yet another mysterious man. The one real plot movement was over the question of whether the futures seen in everyone's flash forwards were bound to happen. With more doubt ...
The Yardley Constituency Strategic Partnership has its next meeting on Wednesday 18th Novemeber. It starts at 6.30pm at South Yardley Library. The main items on the agenda are: A presentation on the Youth Festival A discussion on the Constituency Strategic Partnership structure The Children and Young People Delivery Plan A presentation on local Employment Programmes A discussion about Yardley's Priority Neighbourhood Plus an update on local events and the usual 'Any Other Business' item.
Had an email this morning asking my view on copyright? I am going to review my posts as I obviously do not want to breach this. I will also seek some advice as to what I can publish and hopefully offer advice to fellow bloggers.
At the City Council's Development Quality Committee tonight, I expressed concern at the apparent effect of changes made to the scheme of delegation some months ago that has resulted in fewer applications being decided by the committee - with a greater number being delegated to officers to determine. The rationale for this was sound - changes in planning legislation has resulted in the creation of 'local review bodies' that made it sensible that the council revised its scheme of delegation. However, it is now the case that it takes some six separate objections to ensure an application is decided through ...
Liz Truss has won her selection confirmation in South West Norfolk. As for the Tories, their attacks on Norfolk people as "Turnip Taliban", and worse, I predict will come back to haunt them in Norfolk in future years. Whilst the wind is with Cameron, he might get away with it, but in the long term, we Norfolk people will not let the Tories forget that using stereotypical attacks against people from Norfolk like some poor comic will not win us round at the ballot box.
My wife came home from work today having been told by a number of her work colleagues that someone had written something nice about me in the Eastern Daily Press last Saturday. Not buying a daily newspaper and usually reading the EDP at work, I don't often see the Saturday edition, so I phoned my parents and was surprised to read that Iain Dale was talking about the ongoing problems the Lib Dems and Tories are having in the Broadland constituency. With the Lib Dems having to reselect in the wake of April Pond switching to Norwich North during the ...
Oooh, here's a nasty 'forced choice' question to thrust upon LDV's readers ... let's assume for a moment that, by some quirk of electoral fate, the Lib Dems do not storm to victory at the next general election, and Nick Clegg is not asked by Her Maj to form the next government. A far-fetched scenario, I know, but go with me on this. If those were the circumstances, who would you rather have as Prime Minister: Gordon Brown or David Cameron? And, yes, those are your only two choices in this poll. We're not giving you an easy 'neither of ...
Here we are at the start of "Interfaith Week', a government-funded project that aims to strengthen good inter-faith relations, to increase awareness of the different and distinct faith communities in the UK, and to celebrate the contribution they make to their neighbourhoods and to wider society. While on the surface these are all very laudable aims, I am nevertheless deeply concerned that the government is taking the wrong route to community cohesion by focussing almost exclusively on the 'faith' element of people's identities. My concern is that by supporting 'faith groups' over and above other groups in the voluntary and ...
With Clairwil.
Or is that 62%? Figures get bandied around, often without a lot of evidence, but when I say that 8 out of 10 parents said they didn't want a split site academy, I am using the county's own consultation paper. And when I say that governors confirmed they didn't want a split site (even when favouring an academy) I am using the same figures. To avoid any doubt, here they are: [IMG: academy-responses-jpeg.jpg] The DEEP partnership (led by Durham University) who are to run the new Academy have recently confirmed as follows: "DEEP has no preference for opening the Academy ...
News has just come through that Liz Truss's selection has been confirmed this evening by a substantial majority. But I find myself with a sneaking sympathy for the Turnip Taliban in South-West Norfolk, if only because the very name is redolent of metropolitan contempt for the provinces. What appears to have happened is that Liz Truss was presented to the local party as a model Cameroon candidate. Only after she had been selected did the locals learn that she had a) conducted a widely publicised affair with a married Conservative b) is a former Liberal Democrat activist who used to ...
Here's the email I've just sent to The Times. Let's hope it doesn't turn out I'm hallucinating and saw 175 mentions of Christmas where in fact there were none. I'm really confused. In your story "Christmas lights switch-on ceremony renamed 'Winter White Night" you report that, "Christmas will not be Christmas in Dundee this year. All references to the religious holiday have been dropped from the switching-on ceremony for the city's festive lights." Yet when I go to look up information about the ceremony online, I find the program at http://www.dundee.com/winter-light-night.html where "Christmas" is mentioned no less than six ...
Paul Clarke's solicitor, Lionel Blackman, was interviewed on Radio Four's PM today. You can listen to the piece here from 45.50 to 49.44. Some snippets from Mr Blackman's answers: The minimum sentence the charge for which Paul Clarke has been found guilty is indeed five years unless the court finds there are "exceptional circumstances". There is no proscribed list of "exceptional circumtances". There was no defence in law to the charge because of the "strict liability" clause. The case has not concluded because sentence has not been passed. The prosecution did not contest the statement that Clarke found the gun ...
Welcome to the 143rd of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (8th – 14th November 2009), together with a hand-picked quintet, partly courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed. Don't forget, by the way, you can now sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox – just click here – ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging. As ever, let's start with the most popular post, and work our way down: 1. Did Lib Dem MP ...
I remember looking at the smoking and charred remains of the pier in 2005 and wondering whether it would ever re-open. (In fact it wasn't closed for all that long - just a couple of months.) The latest installment in the pier story is rejection of the Council's bid to redevelop the pier - as reported in the Echo. I'm not really surprised by this. Opinions varied on the design that was being put forward - and I was in the "not very impressed" camp (but also the "better than nothing" camp). I quite liked the open-air theatre idea: but ...
It's a Lib Dem-tastic edition of today's Independent – in addition to Nick Clegg's article calling for the Queen's Speech to be cancelled so that Parliament can focus on the big issue of reforming itself, former Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy is the focus of the paper's 'You Ask The Questions' feature, in which readers pose their own often sharp and pointy questions. There's some straight-talking from Charles, along with some discreet evasion on issues such as: the circumstances of his forced resignation as leader ("I've long since moved on and would continue to advise everyone else to do exactly ...
Last month, Nick Clegg admitted something that had been glaringly obvious for ages: the Lib Dem parliamentary party is "woefully unrepresentative of modern Britain". Today Lib Dem interim chief executive Chris Fox signalled his determination to help Nick to get to grips with the problem by appointing a personal Diversity Adviser ahead of the General Election. Here's what the party press release has to say: Rabi Martins, the parliamentary spokesperson for Luton North and past member of the party's Federal Policy Committee will be the adviser to Liberal Democrat executive on equality issue. He will begin the role on Monday ...
Labour candidate Peter White has clashed with Tory MP Andrew Rosindell on Facebook about having a public holiday in 2012 to celebrate the Queens Diamond Jubilee. Peter White wrote; "What is the point of celebrating the Diamond Jubilee of someone who is born into a position of privilege, she is a parasite and milks this country for everything she can, she has more front than margate asking for extra money from the civil list. Maybe she should sell a couple of her properties. Maybe if she want Buckingham Palace to maintained from public funds she should open it to the ...
There has been an outpouring of anger over Paul Clarke's guilty verdict (background). There has also been an equal and opposite outpouring of calls to calm down. The Calm camp argue that the Angry camp don't yet know all the facts; their anger is over a single news report; there are lots of unanswered questions, and we don't know what the sentence will be yet. (I hope that is a fair summary.) The Calm don't seem to dispute that, on the face of it, Clarke's reported actions should not be a crime. But I don't get why this isn't enough ...
A friend of mine is doing a short research project looking at how things like OFSTED reports and school league tables affect parents, teachers and governors in state education; whether they're any use, or only accessible and valuable to certain groups of people. She is interviewing people about this in person or by e-mail, chat or Skype. She is currently particularly looking for people in Wales and in the north and south-west of England. It doesn't matter if you're not currently working in, or have kids in state schools - she's interested in folks who have experienced any or all ...
I blogged this morning about a good use of Twitter by Derbyshire County Council and this afternoon I've come across a great use of Twitter in the media. This time it's Holly Thompson, the local newspaper reporter who has been covering the Paul Clarke controversy. At first glance the story appears a travesty of justice, though at second glance - as I've commented elsewhere - there are good grounds for wondering if there's more to the story than meets the eye. Full credit then to local journalist Holly Thompson for using Twitter to answer people's queries about the case and ...
This week is, mercifully, free of meetings. Council meetings, like buses, tend to come in groups, and the last few weeks have resembled a pile-up in a bus station. Not this week though, during which I can do normal things that will get the blood pumping again - like the ironing. One thing that I really must turn my attentions to over the next few days is the commencement of the annual fret-fest that is the Christmas shopping. I have never handled this well. The Pet Shop Boys, ever my philosophers of choice, had it dead right when they said ...
Commenting on Gordon Brown's announcement that he has offered London as a venue for a conference on Afghanistan next year, Liberal Democrat Shadow Foreign Secretary, Edward Davey said: "Another conference on Afghanistan only makes sense if President Karzai has already begun to root out the endemic corruption from his previous government. "If President Karzai hasn't understood the need for radical political reform by now, a conference in January won't make any difference. "There can be no room at a conference table for President Karzai unless and until he's proved he can deliver."
Reigate and Banstead bus routes will be among the first to be reduced or axed completely under a phased review of bus services currently being conducted by Surrey County Council. Our bus services are operated privately, but most are subsidised by the Council. Although the official line is that "residents have asked SCC to review the service as they are concerned about the level of empty buses travelling around Surrey", it is clear from examining the proposals that "review" means "cuts" and this is simply a cost cutting exercise. [IMG: Where’s the bus?] Key changes of concern for Reigate residents ...
Holly Thompson, the Surrey Mirror journalist who reported on the Paul Clarke case has been twittering with some vital details: The story was covered by The Sun on Page 25 last Thursday (though I can't find a link for it). It was an "EXCLUSIVE". Ms Thompson was in court for the full two days of the trial Mr Clarke previously had a successful appeal against conviction in a "broomhandle case" The Surrey Mirror is launching a campaign to get Mr Clarke out of jail When he phoned the police (before his visit) "He didn't tell police he had a gun. ...
I've been sent home sick from work today, and am too incoherent to do anything other than listen to old episodes of Old Harry's Game. I'm not ignoring your emails, and you'll get a reply soonish...
Condemn as idiots those who think QE automatically leads to massive inflation. In fact, chance would be a fine thing, according to Adam Posen
There were three principal council by-elections held on the 12th November. The Tories gained two seats, one from an Independent and one from the Lib Dems. In the only Parish and Town council election result reported to ALDC the Lib Dems held the seat. In the Totnes Bridgetown Ward by-election for the South Hams District Council in Devon there was no Independent candidate and we and the Greens benefited equally. In the Shepway council seat of New Romney Coast in 2007 we narrowly won both seats by 20 votes over the Tories. But by September one of our councillors had ...
Starting today it is the first ever National Pancreatic Cancer Awareness week. This awful disease claims many lives each and every year. Did you know; Pancreatic cancer only has a 3% survival rate, that hasn't improved in forty years. It's the 5th most common cause of caner death in the UKDespite both of these facts pancreatic cancer research is under resourced compared to other common cancers in the UK. There are two charities dedicated to pancreatic cancer, Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund and Pancreatic Cancer UK. Survival rates for pancreatic cancer are extremely low - 4-6 months on average after diagnosis, ...
Speaking to the Independent, the Liberal Democrat leader called for an end to the charade of a Queen's Speech at the beginning of a "rump" parliament, which can last no more than 70 days before a general election is called, and has no chance of passing any worthwhile legislation.
Nick Clegg wants to cancel the Queens Speech and instead use the last Parliamentary term before the next General Election; to give it's successor a 'fresh start'. Yet another headline grabbing soundbite but what lays beyond the showmanship? The answer is alot of worthy reforms that we can all sign-up too; however, the final imponderables are ...
You know that a political party has lost the will to fight when it starts to place its faith in the past, rather than working for the future. Doing the rounds on Twitter and Facebook at the moment is a campaign from a few Labour members to have a 2 minute video entitled 'Against the Odds', first ...
Back in May, as the MPs expenses furore kicked off in earnest, politicians of all colours were quick to come forward with their prescriptions for an ailing political system. Solutions ranged from simple reform of the expenses system to full-blown constitutional revolution, involving a menu of changes to the voting system, selection of candidates from ...
[IMG: health-and-safety at home] The latest mad Government initiative I have come across is from the beloved Department of Health. Draft guidance from NICE (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence..(hah!) ) is now urging councils and other public sector groups to start collecting data on properties where children are thought to be at risk of unintentional injury. This data should then be used by Councils, it would seem, to oversee the installation of "safety devices" (smoke alarms, safety gates, oven guards, window locks etc). Of course NICE's suggestions include the creation of a "new government database" - naturally - ...
A couple of weeks back, I wrote about 'Asking without asking' – how an institution can build such a close relationship with a prospective donor that, in the end, asking them for money is either unnecessary or a formality. I stand by what I wrote then – but there is a big caveat. Sometimes you really do need to ask for money. And you need to ask upfront, explicitly and specifically. At first sight, that might seem a bit of (okay, a hell of) a contradiction. It's not. And here's why. I was reading Top 10 Ways to Screw up ...
Lovely though it would be, the prospect of a Tobin Tax raising £30bn from those wicked City insitutions is very delusory. The money comes from someone, and that someone is probably you.
Some politicians get so fixated on one particular project that they fail to see a bigger picture. For some it is a particular plan for retail development for others it is the tram. Tony Robertson speaks for most people when he calls the most recent rouse to revive the tram project as madness
Edward Woodward, actor, star and gentleman has died aged 79. Most people, of my generation, know him from 'The Equalizer', but I remember the day he nominated me to stand for the Calstock Division of Cornwall County Council in 1997. Arriving at his beautiful house, near Calstock in Cornwall, he had one of those beautiful drives ...
I was sorry to hear of the death of Edward Woodward. There is an obituary on the BBC website, but it does not mention his series 1990.
As this story is in the news again because of the Australian government's apology, it is time for a quick plug for the column by Professor Strange that I posted here in June.
It was extremely sad to read in the local paper of the tragic death of Angela Davies as a result of an air rifle accident. And to read the heartfelt plea from grieving parents Angela and Ricky Davies at the inquest into their daughters death urging people to stop buying these weapons. Too often we read in national and local news of either tragic accidents or abuse of these weapons by owners. I firmly believe the time has now come for the Government to take a firmer line with these weapons. Whilst there are regulations already it is worrying that ...
It has just been reported that the veteran actor Edward Woodward has died at the age of 79. He starred in many films and TV programmes over the years. The Wicker Man is undoubtedly his most famous film and the TV programme people of my generation will probably most associate him with is the 1980's US show The Equalizer. It is worth also mentioning the 1977 dystopian BBC drama 1990 that he starred in where he played a journalist who decides to fight a totalitarian government. This was only brought to my attention a few years ago but is very ...
Doctor Who: Waters of Mars was ( SPOILER! ). For instance, yet again ( SPOILER! ), but at least there was ( SPOILER! ). I can't tell you how much I loved the whole of ( SPOILER! )'s performance. She was just awesome throughout, and her character was actually ( SPOILER! ), which I NEVER thought I would see from a female character in a Rusty script. I also loved ( SPOILER! ), and Tennant's performance in this bit was ( SPOILER! ). But, inevitably, ( SPOILER! ) showed his face, and that was ( SPOILER! ) although props to ...
The Paul Clarke affair — the guy who handed in a shotgun he'd found to the police and ended up being found guilty of possessing a firearm - continues to provoke strong feelings. People are unclear about whether or not he will have to serve the minimum of 5 years or whether, in fact, it's possible that this case will count as an 'exceptional circumstance' enough for some other outcome. In other words, until he's actually been given 5 years, it may be wise to wait and see. But, really, there's another aspect of this story that's been bothering me ...
As promised last week I have a series of stories from when I worked in Wales, for the Liberal Democrats. Election Planning Workshops are a key aspect of making sure that local parties are prepared for an election. In 2003, Mid and West Wales list seat was a target seat, amongst other seats, for the party ...
More than 8.8 million children each year – more than the population of Greater London - die before their fifth birthday. That's 24,000 every single day. Our government, in common with governments around the world, has committed to cut the rate of deaths by two thirds by 2015. But a lack of political will and focus means that we're well off track for hitting this target. Immediate action is needed to turn this situation around. A report we have released today shows that ninety nine in every hundred child deaths happen in the world's poorest developing countries. The changes that ...
£1,893,000 ... ... that sounds like a lot of money, doesn't it? That's because it is. Over 100,000 students having to wait for their loans, due to incompetence... ... that sounds like a bloody massive failure, doesn't it? That's because it is. £1,893,000, given as BONUSES to the same company that FAILED so ABJECTLY... ... that sounds like a terrible, inconceivable endorsement of stupidity and incompetence, doesn't it? That's because it is. This really, really makes my blood boil. Not only do we students have to pay for the education that will provide the impetus to drive this country out ...
David Bartlett on his Dale Street Blues blog is hypothesising that Gordon Brown could use his health as a reason to resign. He further argues that in news management terms, the best time would be between Christmas and New Year - 29th December to be exact. Now that's my birthday! I am not sure if a GB resignation would be a birthday treat or not!!!!
I am pasting below a letter one of my colleagues has received from a man whose daughter was helped by one of the Burns Units. It was sent a few days ago but I delayed posting it until now because I wanted to check that it could be published. The context (although I suspect most people have at least seen some coverage by now) is that there was a threat to intensive care beds at two Burns Units - Whiston Hospital and Alder Hey. The suggestion was that these be moved to Manchester. A huge campaign started up including a ...
The Independent reports that Nick Clegg has called for this week's Queen's Speech to be scrapped and replaced by an emergency programme of reform designed to "clean up politics once and for all". He says that the ceremony will be a "waste of everyone's time" as Parliament will only sit for another 70 days before it is dissolved for the general election expected in the spring. He says: "The Queen's Speech will be dressed up as the way to 'build Britain's future' when it will be little more than a rehearsal of the next Labour Party manifesto, an attempt to ...
You are probably fed up with all the fuss about the Lisbon Treaty. That is why I will try to cut this letter to the bone and discuss only the most interesting points of the debate on the subject that took place two weeks ago between Francisco Sexias da Costa, current Portuguese Ambassador in France, and Jean-Jacques Fritz, Director of the Strasbourg Office of the European Parliament. One of the main problems with the EU appears to be the ratification process of treaties. Since the Maastricht Treaty (or, the Treaty on the European Union), it has been more and more ...
Edward Woodward has died :( He was the star of a lot of things, including Callan and the fabulous (and surely due for a rerun?) 1990, but I will, of course, remember him most fondly for this: Sergeant Neil Howie has finally lost his fight against the inevitable, I guess. Condolences to his family and friends, and I think we'll be having a little screening of The Wicker Man tonight.
Since Gordon Brown made the apparently disastrous decision not to call a General Election in the Autumn of 2007, the opinion polls all seem to have been pointing in only one direction – a Labour defeat. Month after month YouGov, ICM, Ipsos MORI and the rest all deliver the same tale of woe for the ...
Ian Swales and Redcar Liberal Democrats have started a petition to try and get a new pier out to sea at Redcar. The Council have announced major expenditure for Redcar sea front but no pier is included. Ian Swales said "it's clear from talking to people around the town that the majority would like to have a proper pier again. Historically there were two piers. One at Coatham and one at Redcar. A new pier would be a fantastic asset that would bring anglers and many other visitors to the town. The report on the Council's "Love it, Hate it" ...
Or at least that is likely to be the reaction of the rabid tabloid press. The doubtless overheated response aside, you have to admire Nickers. His latest statement that the Queen's Speech should be scrapped this year to make way for fundamental reform of politics is right on the nail and it has quite reasonably got a decent amount of coverage. What I would like to see would be spokespeople from the two old parties asked to respond to this, as quite frankly they can't. Labour will harp on about keeping their work going to 'transform' Britain. The Tories will ...
I recieved the following message from the police on Friday which, I hope answers the queries that have been raised with me: Dear Councillor I write to keep you informed of an incident, which occurred on the evening of Friday 13th November 2009. At 1826hrs a call was received reporting an explosion having occurred in Selworthy Rd, Birkdale. Upon arrival the home address of John Ball has been subject of damage. It is unknown how the damage has been caused but early indications would suggest that this damage has been caused by an explosive device. This incident is a targeted ...
Amid all Nick Clegg's bluster about cancelling the Queen's Speech he points to a vote on an issue that could make sweeping changes to the culture of Parliament. Select committee chairmanships could be removed from the grace and favour of the party leaderships and MP's are likely to be given control over the timetabling of non-governmental business. Measures ...
Nick Clegg today suggested the Queen's Speech should be cancelled so that the rest of this term can be spent on emergency democratic reforms. It's a nice idea, and attracting public attention. However it is inevitable that the establishment parties will ignore Clegg and carry on regardless. Therefore these words need to be followed up with action. So on Wednesday, I want to see every Lib Dem MP sitting in the House of Commons while the Queen's Speech is taking place. It would look great: while the Conlabourtives were engaged in pointless pomp, the Lib Dems were there, ready and ...
Mon 16th
11:24
Australian apology was sincere and moving, but they, and Britain, need to remember to act on their o...
The Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, has made a moving and heartfelt apology to all those children who had been effectively deported, against their will, to Australia, and then brutalised whilst in the protection of the state. His speech was gracious, caring and intelligent, as he spoke to the victims of this practice that only ended ...
I've posted a couple of times about the dog control orders. At the last local assembly, Sam Kirk from the Council came to talk to the assembly about the orders. They take effect today. From today an on-the-spot fine of £75.00 can be given to people who: Fail to remove their dog's faeces from a public place Do not keep their dog on a lead in a designated area such as a park or open space – these will be sign-posted in public areas Do not put, or keep their dog on a lead when directed to do so by ...
Carnage UK is "an organisation that organises drinking events for an estimated 350,000 undergraduates in 45 towns and cities every year." In a letter to The Guardian, Reverend Geoff Reid is unimpressed at the lack of self-reliance among the current generation of students: I was shocked to discover that undergraduates have been patronising drinking events put on by Carnage UK (News). If students have insufficient original thought and imagination to organise a piss-up in an academic institution (or, for that matter, to resist it), they are being badly let down by our education system. This is outsourcing gone mad. Rev ...
I'm writing this in the wake of Nick Clegg's 54th Town Hall meeting since he became leader – held in fact in the Wesley Memorial Church in Oxford East. It's always good to be reminded just how good Nick is when performing in front of an audience of any size: he was articulate, passionate and persuasive. It was striking, chatting to people afterwards, that Nick was felt to be at his best when speaking with a little bit of passion – when he gets slightly riled, he articulates a liberal approach very effectively indeed. I'm pleased that we can justifiably ...
Today's Daily Mail carries the story of the problems surrounding the free concert due to have taken place at the switching on of Birmingham's Christmas lights with the typically hysterical headline 'Concert stampede 'could have been a new Hillsborough' as scores are injured in Birmingham. Hillsborough, eh? A total of 96 fatalities and over 700 needing ...
In today's Independent, Nick Clegg makes a bold pitch – that Parliament should use the few months it has left before the election to try and actually achieve something to solve the big political issue of the year: restoring the public's trust in Parliament. Here's an excerpt: On Wednesday, all the pomp and ceremony that Parliament can muster will be rolled out for the Queen's Speech, setting out the Government's list of new laws for the coming year. But the glitz and glamour will be based on a complete fiction. Parliament will find it difficult to pass any of the ...
So, the government has decided that it should keep DNA data for six years on people who have not been convicted of any crime, despite most consultation respondents disagreeing with retention. Why is this a problem? Is it just that we have some strange out-moded belief that people should be treated as innocent until proven guilty? It's certainly true that the government's argument is precisely that people who have been arrested are more likely to offend in the future ('re-offend' was the revealing term used on radio). We are therefore saying to people that although they have not been convicted, ...
early two weeks after our last look at the polls, in which nothing happened, it may surprise you to learn that... Conservatives: 40% (N/C) Labour: 23% (N/C) Lib Dems: 23% (N/C) Nothing has happened. Nothing ever happens. Nothing happens at all. I would continue now to assert that the needle does return to the start of the song, but I ...
When Parliament gets involved, of course. Step forward Arthur Champion in May 1956: I remember that in commenting on the matter with which this new Clause is concerned [the MP for Leeds West] once used the phrase that the dog was the sacred cow of the British way of life. Liked this story? Find other gems from Hansard on my archive page for this series of posts.
2 Big Stories It's the last Queen's Speech before the general election Which can only mean, as The Times reports: Gordon Brown will begin a six-month election campaign this week with one of the shortest but most deliberately political programmes of recent years. ... In a podcast on the Downing Street website, Mr Brown said that Britons wanted world-class public services underpinned by "guarantees not gambles". He was referring to legislation this week that will enshrine in law the right of NHS patients to get treatment within 18 weeks or to see a cancer specialist within two weeks — or ...
This morning I spotted @Derbyshirecc tweeting: Be careful on the roads this morning, heavy rain means lots of standing water. Help us by reporting road flooding: http://bit.ly/2qda2d It's a nice example that wraps up several points about councils making good use of Twitter all in one: it's got a relaxed, human tone; it provides useful information; it encourages the public to gather data to help make public services better; and by pushing the information out to people it gets it in front of their eyes in a way that passive publishing on a website doesn't.
Darlington seems to be on the BBC every day at the moment. This morning it was the news that Chambers night club are to slash the price of all drinks to 69p every Thursday. Both Bill Dixon, the Cabinet member for neighbourhood services and community safety, and Colin Shevills, director of Balance, have condemned this promotion: and quite right too! The night club's advertising says, "Are you
Alright, for those of you who serve on rather more high-powered local authorities than Creeting St Peter Parish Council (and in truth, if any of you are elected to a local authority, your budget is bound to be bigger than mine - in some cases by multiples of 100,000), my dilemma is a familiar one. However, that doesn't make it any easier. This evening, the Parish Council meets to consider a draft budget for next year, and I have my concerns. Our precept is currently £4000, which amounts to £38.45 per household (yes, we really are that small), and we ...
Although the attribution is contested, the aphorism "Academic politics is the most bitter and vicious form of politics, because the stakes are so low" is nowadays usually credited to Wallace Sayre, a political scientist at Columbia in the mid sixties. British politics is increasingly shrill, and as we enter the long run into the general election in 2010, it is already clear that we can expect the battle between Mr. Brown and Mr. Cameron to be one of the dirtiest campaigns on record. Yet in fact, although the struggle may be noisy, in the end it may ultimately change very ...
The news this morning that police had arrested a 52 year old, married man as a suspect in the case that has defeated them for years was of particular interest to me. The crime he has been arrested for is the rape and violence perpetrated on over a hundred older women aged between 65 and 93 over about a seventeen year period in South and South East London. For several years I got involved in the search for the so-called Night Stalker in regard to the way the Met Police were collecting DNA samples from black men in South London. ...
OK, he didn't quite say that but the recent comments from Sir Jeremy Bagge frontman for the Tory traditionalists in Norfolk South West (who are trying to get Liz Truss deselected later today) about women reported by Benedict Brogan here are pretty close to the classic Harry Enfield "Women, Know Your Limits" sketch. Here's what he said in an attempt to show he is pro-women: Sorry, no, I have never said I'm anti-women. I have got absolutely nothing against women. Who cooks my lunch? Who cooks my dinner? How did my wonderful three children appear? Women, you can't do without ...
Ever since I started using Twitter to update my Facebook status, friends have joked about how all I ever do is complain about late trains. I suppose it's the way with everyone who commutes to work by train. You know that most trains run on time, but on the days they don't you just get ...
This morning I heard a Daily Mail sports journalist on Talk Sport assert that the reason England lost to Brazil in the football friendly the other day is because 'there are too many foreigners over here'! Say again? The inference seems to be that because we have foreign players in the Premier League the English ...
Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has released figures which show that Stockport Council has one of the highest recycling rates of any metropolitan council in the country and is top in Greater Manchester. In 2008-2009, Stockport Council recycled 39.2% of all its household waste. The figure has increased from 35.4% in 2007-2008. The full DEFRA tables can be found by clicking here.
I have received this note from the county council. There are various reasons cited for the promised work not being done - the last and least acceptable is the state of play in relation to the development on the former Oaklands College site. If the developers decide not to proceed further because of economic conditions then Lemsford Road will remain unsurfaced indefinitely in direct breach of the commitment given to residents. This shows that the County Council continues to be TOTALLY UNTRUSTWORTHY. Note from Herts County Council There are two phases of works required: Phase 1 - Pre-patching works to ...
If you click on the headline above or go to http://tinyurl.com/westendxmasfactor, you can download the West End Christmas Week main brochure! It is also available on the West End Community Council website at www.wecc.org.uk. The ninth West End Christmas Week will be launched at 10am next Saturday (21st November) in Dundee West Church's Community Facilities (enter at top of Roseangle) where a West End Community Fayre is taking place. Many local organisations are participating and all residents are invited to attend. Entrance is entirely free of charge and it will be a great way to learn about all the organisations ...
The search for a Welsh Obama may well continue for some considerable time but at least we now know that the American President has something in common with one of the candidate for First Minister. Barack Obama spoke to a group of Chinese students on Sunday night at a town hall in Shanghai where he was asked about Twitter. He replied: "I have never used Twitter but I'm an advocate of technology and not restricting internet access." This is despite the fact that he has an active Twitter account. In the Spin Doctor column of yesterday's Wales on Sunday, Matt ...
Both Alexa and Google Trends have a beguiling attraction for many. You can put any website address and, unless it's a very small site, you will get graphs of traffic to the site, options to refine the graphs, numbers with lots of decimal places (in the case of Alexa - and how can numbers with decimal points in them be wrong?) and geographic breakdowns (in the case of Google - and how can lists of places be wrong?). It all looks very impressive and many people take their results as gospel. But should they? Alexa has had a checkered history, ...
The Queen's speech is being attacked in today's Independent by Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg as a "waste of everyone's time" over the next 70 days of Government sitting before a General Election is called. Merely acting as window dressing for a lot of what Labour want to do beyond the date of the poll. Here then is what Nick and the people want want to hear when she takes her speech out of the pouch on the throne in the Lords on Wednesday. My Government would like to apologise to the my subjects for the way it has flagrantly ...
Today's Daily Telegraph reveals that the daily cost to the taxpayer for the roll-out of ID cards is now six times the size it was just three years ago: Last month it emerged some 28 million people would have to sign up for an ID card in order to cover the cost of the scheme. The Identity and Passport Service spent a £42 million on developing both the ID cards and biometric passport programmes in the six months since March this year. That was equivalent of £229,508 every day - the highest amount of spending on the joint scheme so ...
The Government launches its "voluntary" ID card scheme in Manchester today - meaning that people are "able" to apply for an ID card at the cost of £30 (hmmm... bet the queues will nearly be as big as those outside H&M for Jimmy Choo shoes). Interestingly earlier this morning - on the very same day as the launch of the voluntary ID card scheme, four men have arrested under the Terrorism Act in Manchester (and Bolton). What a result ! The scheme has only just started - and voluntary at that - and already they have arrested four terrorists. Marvelous! ...
Last week, Fearless Francis Jones told the Northern Echo that he already had 300 people from Skerne Park signed up and paying £3.50 each a week for the services of his private police force. Yet today we learn that, despite the huge national and local media coverage given to Sparta Security, the true figure is just 30! Indeed, Fearless has raised the possibility that he might withdraw the service
Just to let those of you in Colchester know, the next meeting of the Castle Neighbourhood Action Panel will be on Monday 23rd November, starting at 1pm in the North Committee Room of the Town Hall. Any residents can come along and raise issues that they want the NAP to deal with, or if you can't ...
When a few days ago I received a copy of the Councillors' questions for next Council (thanks to Cllr Mike Keogh for sending them to me) I saw that one of them (Q 64) had already the answer provided, presumably because the answer could be given by the officer that attends at questions, it's in ...
Bash, our local PCSO emailed me a few days ago with a reminder about our next Police and Communities Together meeting, which is taking place at the Royal British Legion on Langworthy Road this Thursday 19th November. This is a chance for the residents of Langworthy to meet their local Police and PCSO's. Please attend if you have any issues you wish to raise or even if you'd just like to meet your neighbourhood policing team. This is a chance for residents of Langworthy to meet your local Police and PCSO's. The meeting starts at 7pm. Please attend if you ...
Tam Smith has posted a question for me on an older blog entry. He asks: "Stephen,What do you think of the almost 3 million pounds worth of Town Centre regeneration funding provided by an SNP administration for the constituency we represent. "We have all been working hard with local groups and our partners in Holyrood to secure such funding thus providing much needed jobs in construction as well as adding a facelift to local shops etc.Where were the Lib Dems when all of this was going on.Come on Stephen let's be positive and work together for the benefit of our ...
I was talking to someone yesterday who will be glad when Christmas is over. I said think of the children but her children have grown up. Her opinion, of course is what happens if you put the emphasis on commercialising Christmas. In this case it isn't about Christ. It's not about exchanging presents. It's not about bank holidays. It's about spending money. If you are not a Christian it is easy to see Christmas as a commercial venture and even as a Christian there is no getting away from the importance of the business side of Christmas. I have started ...
The Tory-run County Council this week has bought the freehold to two properties it currently rents for £45 million. As this was not in the County's budget the County Council has had to borrow the money over a 20 year term at a 4% interest rate. The County Council is limited on how much it can borrow and because of this purchase has had to increase its borrowing cap. This purchase comes at a time that the County is consulting on what services and budget it can cut for next year's council tax increase. In the County's own documentation they ...
