Blogging here at Liberal Bureaucracy will be a bit light for the next few days, as I'm off to Barcelona to attend the ELDR Congress (oh, the glamour!). I hope to cover the event for Liberal Democrat Voice, but there may be some reportage here too. Curiously, this will be my first ELDR Congress since Copenhagen in, if memory serves, 1990. Strangely, it was one of things that I didn't reconnect with when I returned to frontline Party service in 2004, but it should be interesting.
As part of West End Christmas Week, Dundee Contemporary Arts is running "Shorts for Wee Ones" at 12 noon on Saturday 28th November. However, after Christmas Week, there are additional Christmas workshops at DCA, including : Wrap It Up! : Saturday 5th December Come along and try out lots of fabulous and interesting techniques on how to make your own unique cards, gift tags, decorations and wrapping paper. Pop in for a while or stay all afternoon. Adults and children welcome. Syrah Jay - Christmas Felting : Sunday 6th December Join Dundee based textile designer Syrah Jay for our Christmas ...
Reports in the local press today and yesterday (click on headline above or go to http://tinyurl.com/tvreceptiondundee to read last night's Evening Telegraph) about TV reception and in particular BBC1 analogue reception in those parts of the city served by the Tay Bridge transmitter (including most of the southern part of the West End) has resulted in a number of complaints from constituents. Given the quote by the BBC in last night's Tele : "A spokeswoman for the BBC in Scotland said there was not a transmitter problem, but she was unable to shed any more light on the cause of ...
'Scepticism about Europe — or even disengagement — is yesterday's game,' the Lord Mayor of London declared last night at his banquet speech at the Guildhall in the heart of the City of London, the financial district. 'We need to be at the table shaping the future or others will,' he added. His remarks, which were ...
The Halifax Courier reports: A FORMER Calderdale councillor is set to stand trial for alleged vote rigging. Mohammed Saghir, 63, of Gibbet Street, Halifax, has denied five charges of rigging proxy votes. He is alleged to have applied for proxy votes under different names during the local elections in April 2008. Saghir was elected as a Conservative councillor for St John's, now Park ward, in 2000. This is rather a hotspot for election fraud, proved or alleged, for this is what Mohammed Saghir's opponents were up to in the same election: TWO cousins of ex-councillor Mohammed Najib voted for him ...
Cross-posted from Liberal Conspiracy: "Let me make sure you know exactly who I am and what I am going to do at the PCC" - so said Baroness Buscombe, the new chair of the Press Complaints Commission (PCC), at the annual conference of the Society of Editors. Having read her speech in full, I fear I do know what she is going to do at the PCC - and that I'm not going to like it. It's a curious speech in several ways. She started off by recounting in some detail her Conservative Party roots. Leading off with the fact ...
Don't forget the get together for Lib Dem bloggers in Edinburgh on Saturday. The details are on Lib Dem Voice and a number of Leading Scottish Liberal Democrats have promised to look in. I hope to see you there.
From the BBC: "Most people" are in favour of ending the confidentiality surrounding donations to political parties in NI, focus group research has suggested. It was conducted by the Electoral Commission, which recorded the views of eight groups around NI, each consisting of between six and eight people. Unlike the rest of the UK, details of political donors are still kept secret in NI, because of security concerns... This confidentiality clause is due to expire on 31 October 2010. The Northern Ireland Office is expected to consult the public on whether the clause should end or be extended further before ...
The lead story today on the news is that employees of T-Mobile have been selling on customer information to a third party who are then using the information to try and get the customers to upgrade. Now whilst I don't have the full information, my first point will be DON'T PANIC. The information these third parties want are your name, number, contract expiry date and possibly your address (although not essentially needed). Bank account and account security information shouldn't have been passed on. It's the same scam that has been running for years. You get a call from your Network ...
It may be politics that prevents us doing the right things to get us out of this mess - hand in hand with Wrong Diagnosis and Vengeance
Congratualtions to Norman Lamb MP, who responded to my blog posting about flu in less than an hour and a half. Although I have known Norman for many years, I did not contact him personally about this and instead I sent an identical e-mail to both him and Andrew Lansley. I hope too that Andrew Lansley will respond and take the issue up as I have been impressed with the work he has done on highlighting shortcomings in the government's flu vaccination programme.
For some reason the Conservatives are not very happy that we Lib Dems have a) put a motion in for the council meeting on 18th November criticising their lack of progress on bringing council housing up to the Decent Homes standard and b) dared to put a written question in criticising the fact that council tenants had to read about the Tories' plans for a housing stock transfer in the local paper, rather than than having been communicated with first. Now there is no doubt at all that councils up and down the land are struggling with the finances of ...
Tue 17th
20:09
The true cost of the Conservatives problems in South West Norfolk may not be known for some time yet
The local news today has been full of the smiling face of Liz Truss in the wake of the confirmation of her selection as Tory candidate for South West Norfolk. Congratulations to her. However, depite the seemingly "resounding" victory she achieved, it seems there was a price in terms of how many people in South West Norfolk Conservatives feel further alienated from David Cameron and Mrs Truss, and also in financial terms. It appears, from reading e-mails sent to me and from comments to my blog, that Mrs Truss appears to have won her victory very much on the back ...
When I got a phone call on my City Council Blackberry a few months ago, telling me that my contract was nearly up, I reported it to the Council as I knew that I was not the contract-holder (the Council is) and of course I hardly ever use it as a phone (I prefer use my own T-Mobile phone for my calls). Certainly I would not be expected to renegotiate a contract on a Council phone and smelled a rat. I have been similarly unimpressed by people trying to switch my personal phone too. And now it seems that some ...
*I know it says Dulcimer, but it is Ostara really. Our Ref: LPV125138 Licensing Act 2003 (Premises licences and club premises certificates) Regulations 2005 Application Type: Premises Licence variation Premises: Dulcimer, 456-458 Barlow Moor Road, Manchester, M21 0BQ I write to inform you about the above application for premises within the Chorlton ward. A summary of the application follows. Current trading hours for the supply of alcohol for consumption both on and off the premises: Mon to Thurs 1100 to 2300 Fri 1100 to 0000 Sat 1000 to 0000 Sun 1000 to 2300 Current trading hours for the provision of ...
The government, and that idiot Liam Donaldson perpetually peddle the lie that "People with health conditions such as asthma are considered a priority and will get their swine flu vaccinations as a matter of priority". The fact is, they are not. The department the Department of Health uses to define an asthmatic is that they are someone with "a chronic respiratory disease that requires repeated or continuous use of inhaled or systemic steroids". the fact is that many tens of thousands of people in this country (possibly more) use non steroid based inhalers. This is being used by GPs as ...
Control orders were introduced by Labour in 2005, and give the Home Secretary powers to impose a limitless range of restrictions on any person they suspect of involvement in terrorism. As the Lib Dems noted in our proposed Freedom Bill, 'The restrictions imposed by some control orders amount to house arrest and they can include controls on who a person can meet or speak to; when they can leave their house and where they can go. This undermines the freedom not only of those on control orders but of their families as well.' Lib Dems are, unsurprisingly, opposed to Labour's ...
The following press release has been released by the councilFollowing a mediation and extensive three way discussions between Bath & North East Somerset Council (B&NES); Carillion plc (which acquired Mowlem plc, the main contractor on the Bath Spa project, in February 2006); and Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners (("NGP") the project architect), the three parties have agreed to a settlement of the
[IMG: rab-c-nesbit4] Ok, we recently saw a rather good overhaul of the Lib Dem website. Take a look a bad one- Scottish Pairlament wabsite . A friend of mine sent me a link to it and I had to visit the site three times before I was convinced it wasnt a hoax (not it's not April 1st). There is more joy to be had if you click on the link there.... Garrin the Scottish Pairlament Wark for You (1.59MB pdf) . Lets not worry about the cost (probably a lot) - or whether Scotts is a proper language or a ...
I have called for urgent action by Dundee City Council to address changes to street lighting policy that has resulted in street lights in the city not being replaced after they have been damaged by vehicles. This is a city wide problem, where it has very clear that the policy of non-replacement of street lighting where a vehicle damages a lamp standard and the cost of repair cannot be recovered from the driver, is simply not working. Residents at the south end of Seafield Road are very concerned at the non-replacement of a street light, which has plunged the street ...
Get Bracknell here (The Standard, Bracknell) have reported on the staffing problems at the Bracknell branch of the South Central Ambulance Service, which added to the Bracknell Blog report here where the independent Care Quality Commission had reported South Central Ambulance Service as "weak". I think these two issues are related as Staff shortages could be effecting cover. In that mix you can also add the Heatherwood funding issues and the current lack of a Bracknell Hospital/Healthspace. The Ambulance Service is extremely key in Bracknell because the major hospitals (Frimley, Slough and Reading) are that much further away, therefore the ...
Tue 17th
18:15
Three reasons Nick Clegg was right to call for the 'cancellation' of the Queen's Speech
When I woke up yesterday morning to news reports that Nick Clegg had called for the Queen's Speech to be cancelled – because with limited time before the general election it would be far better to use the time focusing on reforming Parliament ready for the new batch of MPs – I was impressed. First, because it was one of the leading news items, and for a Lib Dem leader to be that high up the running order in peace-time is no mean achievement. Secondly, because he was focusing public and media attention once again on a key liberal issue: ...
Not a great deal to report, with continued but slow recovery of strength and mobility. Had a visit yesterday from Liz and Donna, occupational therapists from King's, to discuss aids to getting in and out of the bath, and for the time being I have to be content with showers. Except in hot countries, I hate showers, because they entrain cold air, so that one is never warm all over. Victoria has been here all day, and we have made some good dents in the paperwork and filing. I have sat up all day, and made two trips downstairs and ...
[IMG: Cheadle Tesco opens 18th November] Two weeks ahead of schedule, Cheadle's new Tesco Express store is opening tomorrow, Wednesday 18th November. This is good news - Cheadle has been without a good all-round supermarket for too long. Thank you to everyone who's put in a lot of work to make this happen.
James Mulrennan wanted me to inform people about a groundbreaking education film, We Are The People We've Been Waiting For, (watch the trailer here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUODHGy60no). I have copied in the e-mail he sent me to provide you with more information. "The film, titled 'We Are The People We've Been Waiting For', was inspired and ...
Staff at one of Britain's main mobile phone companies have been caught selling customers personal data onto brokers, who then sold it onto other mobile phone companies. While I am delighted that the Information Commissioner is taking action on this important matter I really do think he should name the companies concerned. If I am one of those millions of customers affected I want to know so I can take action to ensure my personal data is secure with that company and also have the choice to change company. The companies that then went on to buy the data were ...
If you haven't yet read of PPC chairman Baroness Buscombe's crackpot idea to bind blogs to the same set of "standards" as the British Press, head over to this (short! :) ) post by Unity over at LibCon, which will be posted to the Baroness and to MPs Ben Bradshaw and John Whittingdale, and sign the comments. The idea is unworkable in any practical terms - what's to stop British bloggers posting from platforms based in a different country and not subject to British legislation and codes of practice, after all - but it's the principle that matters most. The ...
Commenting on the Government's announcement that people from Manchester can now apply for an ID card as part of the pilot scheme, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Huhne said: "Where once we were told ID cards would fight terrorism, crime and illegal immigration, they are now being touted as a billion pound way of helping students get into bars. "The discredited ID cards scheme should be scrapped immediately and ministers spared from having to come up with ever more preposterous ways to promote them."
The UK banks owe their very existence to the British taxpayer with the Governor of the Bank of England estimating that they have received the equivalent of £1 trillion in taxpayer support. But it does not stop there. The banking industry is unique in having the taxpayer acting as a safety net. Until the banks can be successfully broken up, the Liberal Democrats believe that they should pay for the explicit guarantee that they receive. Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor, Vince Cable has today proposed creating a new levy on bank profits at a rate of 10%, with all the revenue ...
WLDC have announced that they are now part of the Twitter community. Follow @westlindseydc to remain up to date with the latest news and services from West Lindsey District Council. It's nice to see that the council has become part of the Twitter community and wanting to share information, now we just need to wait for the councillors to catch up!
The budget settlement is being debated in the Assembly this afternoon. Freeview Channel 81 is showing the proceedings live until 18:30, with presumably a repeat at the weekend. Welsh Liberal Democrats have published their outline budget, aimed at helping, not hindering, Wales during the recession.
I blame Ben Goldacre, quite frankly. He was telling people on Twitter about a bizarre flyer that had come through his door – though seemingly not targeted at him personally – and my love of reading about conspiracy theories came to the fore and forced me to go look at David Icke's Swine Flu website. (By ...
So far the response of the Welsh blogosphere to Adam Price''s lecture to the Institute of Welsh Politics in Aberystwyth has been a resounding silence. Even the Plaid bloggers seem a bit too embarrassed to do any cheerleading. The Western Mail of course has gone a bundle on their favourite son. What will they do when he goes off to America? But the comments on their website are not so generous with one contributer suggesting that the Plaid Cymru MP is a 'one-eyed separatist' whilst another suggests that the 'guff' delivered in the lecture is the 'equivalent of taking crack ...
If like me you both listen the radio and watch TV you will probably have noticed that radio is often a day or two ahead of TV with some news items. The Today programme in particular is often the leader in the field, for example on Today this morning there was an article on a study by Barnardo's about child trafficking within the UK. Nothing on TV so far. Here is a summary from the Today website: The charity Barnardo's is warning that thousands of children across the UK are being sexually exploited by adults. The charity says there is ...
Tue 17th
14:54
Andrew Adonis: 'Yes Minister, we'll do up the railway stations, but only in the Labour marginal cons...
Andrew Adonis, another former Liberal Democrat, is ploughing money into our rail infrastructure in order to upgrade stations that have been 'left behind.' Now personally I think this is a good idea, and knowing the North West well some of the stations could do with some work to do them up, except that I think Warrington ...
Cross-posted from The Wardman Wire: Over the last few years a wide range of attempts have been made to raise turnout at elections in the UK. The broad conclusion is very simple: all-postal ballots raise turnout significantly (albeit at the cost of various drawbacks) and nothing else that has been tried does so. E-voting, early voting, voting by text, and many others: all been tried, all flopped. However, there are signs that moving to voting at the weekend may be coming back on the electoral administration agenda. It is easy to see why weekend voting may appeal. Fewer people work ...
This tweet from Richard Wilson brings me the news that in 2007 (yeah OK, old news), 40 out of 63 Lib Dem MPs backed an Early Day Motion to continue the NHS funding of homeopathic hospitals. That is a higher proportion of MPs than both Labour (72 out of 355) and Conservative (88 out of 198), and the Others (6 out of 29). The list includes Norman Lamb, the Lib Dem Health Spokesperson, and basically all the party's most prominent names, e.g. Lembit Opik, Chris Huhne, Vince Cable and, sigh, Nick Clegg. How embarrassing. They need to be sat down ...
Bury Council is facing a funding crisis for Disabled Facilities Grants according to local Lib Dems. Figures obtained by Vic D'Albert, Lib Dem Parliamentary Candidate for Bury South reveal that over £1,500,000 of grants are either waiting for approval or approved and not yet paid. "This is a serious issue with serious consequences for those waiting for these important grants" Said Vic D'Albert, adding, "These grants are essential to enable people with severe disabilities to adapt their properties to enable them to live as independent and full a life as possible. Often these involve proving basic ground floor facilities. These ...
A few months ago, I was in Vancouver, attending the congress of the Liberal Party of Canada, and met a few of their bloggers briefly. And so, in honour of that occasion, I bring you Liblogs...
Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg has called for more to be to done to stamp out homophobic bullying in schools. At the start of National Anti-Bullying Week, Nick Clegg spoke out in a video statement produced by the Liberal Democrats to highlight the particular problems of homophobic bullying. Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary Chris Huhne and members ...
Welsh Liberal Democrats have today outlined their alternative budget to ensure that Wales can handle the recession, provide stronger educational foundations, offer better transport and emerge stronger and greener from the recession. The Assembly will debate the draft budget this afternoon. Kirsty Williams said: "This Labour-Plaid draft budget is not a budget designed for a country in a recession. The budget needs to reflect the needs of Wales today and for the future but it looks like business as usual for the government. It's as if Labour and Plaid have had their heads in the sand for the past year. ...
Two Norwich day care centres and under threat of closure, Conservative controlled Norfolk County Council has announced. The Essex Rooms on Essex Street and the Silver Road Day Centre are both threatened.
These days, trying to recycle paper and cardboard at the Longfield Centre involves wading through a sea of waste which is not entirely unlike the set of a low-budget post-apocalyptic Hollywood film. Since the Tesco facility closed, everyone who used that site has begun to use this one, leading to overflowing bins. When I went to do my recycling there on Sunday I wished I'd brought my wellies with me. But now, after campaigning by local Lib Dem councillors, the Council have agreed to double the frequency of collections from once to twice a week. In addition, there will be ...
James Graham suggests that given the new chair of the Press Complaints Commission Baroness Buscombe's recent comments about the PCC potentially regulating blogs that it throws up a very interesting question. If blogs are to be regulated by the PCC, surely we should have representation on the PCC board?Also, as James points out, as the total number of readers of blogs in aggregate exceeds the number of people who read newspapers, we should have a majority on the board. I won't hold my breath for this to be implemented. There are a myriad other practical problems with her suggestion which ...
Bury Council is facing a funding crisis for Disabled Facilities Grants according to local Lib Dems. Figures obtained by Vic D'Albert, Lib Dem Parliamentary Candidate for Bury South reveal that over £1,500,000 of grants are either waiting for approval or approved and not yet paid. "This is a serious issue with serious consequences for those waiting for these important grants" Said Vic D'Albert, adding, "These grants are essential to enable people with severe disabilities to adapt their properties to enable them to live as independent and full a life as possible. Often these involve proving basic toiletry or ground floor ...
According to figures released by the government on Thursday 145 Luton families have lost their homes through mortgage repossession in the last three months, 520 in the last 12 months. The published statistics also show the numbers of home repossessions per 1,000 households in local Council areas putting Luton at number 5 with 7.1 repossessions per 1,000 households. This is almost double the 3.6 figure for the whole of England and just behind Barking at 8.1, Newham 7.7, Thurrock 7.6 and Knowsley 7.5. Fortunately, the numbers do seem to be going down, but we need to remember that each and ...
A story that is exciting the interest of the Westminster-centric surrounds the right of Elizabeth Truss to stand as the Tory candidate for South West Norfolk. She was selected but then immediately the process began to de-select her after a number of local members claimed that they were deceived by her about a previous affair with a married Tory MP. Last night she (very) successfully fought off the de-selection challenge Iain Dale has led the charge in favour of her staying on in the position and I think he is right. Here's why: I knew Liz Truss (as she styled ...
Tue 17th
13:24Tales from Wales - 'Follow that car! The driving is so bad it just has to be a Liberal Democrat...' ...
Now as you all know I am follower of the Liberal Democrat cause but, to be frank, they all need to join the real world sometimes. Narberth, in West Wales, is not what I would call the real world, but following our 'catch of the day' at a local hotel, we set off the next morning ...
Here are a selection of today's stories from the Politics section of the BBC News website, and a quick reaction to them. Elizabeth Truss has won the battle to remain as the Conservative PPC in South West Norfolk. But it doesn't matter. Nick Clegg and now David Cameron have come out against the Queen's Speech, saying it will be an irrelevant Government puff-piece, with Clegg going as far as calling for the whole thing to be scrapped. I blurted about this yesterday. But it doesn't matter. Vince Cable has suggested that until they are broken up, the banks should be ...
I refer to Lynne's article on female representation in Parliament. Of course there needs to be more female representation as well as everything else – yet it shouldn't be at the expense of quality. My mind flicks back at the amazing Patsy Calton and how she achieved her parliamentary ambitions. With the best will in the world, ...
Nick Clegg has said many times that the Liberal Democrats are taking over the mantle of the 'party of progress' from the Labour Party. This has always seemed like one of those political promises that it would always be hard for us to fulfil; sometimes due to specific policy commitments/positions but more often than that ...
Redcar and Cleveland Council is offering a pre-Christmas gift to motorists across the Borough - free parking in its car parks after 1pm from Saturday, 21st November 2009. The offer, which will run until Sunday, 27th December, covers all pay and display car parks in Redcar, Guisborough and Saltburn. The only exceptions are the supermarket car parks for Morrisons. On-street charges will also be suspended from Saturday, 21st November.
One of my proud achievements in Chorlton is getting Christmas lights in the centre of Chorlton. This is our second year of Christmas lights. The switch on is next Thursday. Last years event was unbelievable. It took us by surprise how popular it was. Beech Rd has slightly enhanced lighting this year and will have a separate Switch on in December.
Tue 17th
11:20The majority of voters are female, so does it matter that the majority of MPs are men?
Women now have the vote on the same terms as men. With the majority of the electorate female – and indeed the majority of actual voters at the last general election female too – what's there left to worry about, one might ask? Well – with only around one in five MPs female, there's a big difference between what goes in to the electoral system (majority: female) and what comes out (overwhelming majority: male). So what I want to address in this piece head on why I believe this matters. It is in everyone's interests to have a Parliament that ...
The attached speaks for itself. members-nov09_cc-white-1.pdf
During the Full Council Meeting on the 28th September 2009, the Tories pushed through: "The Council establishes an Investigations and Disciplinary Committee of the Council comprising of five member of the Council, 3 Conservatives and 2 Liberal Democrats" We announced our intentions at that meeting that we would not serve on such a committee, as we believed that the original officer
The man widely tipped as the next Prime Minister has yet again shown his lack of 'leadership' by following Nick Clegg's attack on the Labour publicising Queen's speech that I gave an alternative for yesterday. Mind you Cameron's posturing is also just that, he says "What we need is radicalism and the Conservatives have proved that we are the only party to possess it."His radicalism is aimed at conquering the recession, social problems and the political system. However, look at some of that radicalism, on the national debt, they are revisiting the child credit on the highest paid, good so ...
Tue 17th
10:54Cameron's Chums accused of 'filling their boots' with the proceeds of second jobs before they are fo...
There has been a lot of chest beating over the subject of MPs expenses, and much recrimination, but one of the areas that some MPs seem to have just been allowed to carry on, as before, is in the area of having second jobs, often bringing in very large second incomes. Now I have always been ...
There were big parties in Germany on Monday to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was so long ago now, that my youthful staff members Basil, Bill and Barker (sounds like a 1960s folk band) have no memory of it at all! But for many the memories are fresh. Thousands of people were split up from their friends, families and lovers when the Communist leadership in East Germany built the wall literally to stop people escaping to the Free West. That's why its destruction - and reunification of Germany into one big country again ...
This is a very smart idea - and nicely shows how freeing up government data and mashing it together isn't just for advanced internet users. It can bring benefits to people who never go near a computer and have no idea what you'd do with an RSS feed.
One of the "most radical" reforms that the Tories are planning for government is the idea that any "suitably qualified organisation" will be able to set up a school. Any kind of school. Infant, junior, primary, a middle school, a secondary, or one of those rare beasts, all of the above. Not my words, those of ...
[IMG: Stockport Station] According to a story on the BBC this morning, £50 million will be spent on upgrading facilities across ten stations. Seven of the ten are in the North West: Stockport, Manchester Victoria, Crewe, Warrington Bank Quay, Preston, Wigan North Western and Liverpool Central.As the BBC Reports: Last week, rail operator Network Rail announced plans to spend £3.25bn to improve more than 2,000 stations across England and Wales by 2014. But the government's railway "champions" - former Virgin Trains chief executive Chris Green and Town and Country Planning Association president Sir Peter Hall - have identified 10 that ...
Props to Simon Singh, who brings us news of an "Interesting skeptical approach to the upcoming General Election" via a Tweet (a twitter, a twit, a titter - I dunno, still getting used to this new-fangled micro-blogging malarkey...!).He's referring to Skeptical Voter, a new website dedicated to discovering and publicising the stance that MPs and prospective Parliamentary candidates take on issues
Good news - Transport for London is going to resurface a section of the Leatherhead Road just south of the Bridge Road roundabout. The downside of this is that the road will be closed between the roundabout and Garrison Lane on a number of nights over the next week. On Thursday 19th and Friday 20th the road will be closed southbound during the night, and on Monday 23rd and Tuesday 24th it will be closed northbound. You have been warned!!
The online edition of the Cambridge News has a story about the sponsored sleepout. If you'd like to sponsor me go to my just giving page or drop me a line. Another councillor: The Deputy Mayor Sheila Stuart will be joining us as well.
Now here's a thing. Could Gordon Brown be planning the most radical move of his political life. The words 'Gordon', 'Brown' and 'radical' don't sit well together but it would indeed be a brave step for this most indecisive of Prime Ministers to recognise the failure of the war in Afghanistan and the impossibility of ever 'winning' there and pulling British troops out to stop them being killed needlessly. Imagine if you will a scenario some time around next May where the first of our troops start to disembark from planes to be greeted with adulation by their friends and ...
Back to the demesne for another Parish Council meeting last night, with a packed agenda and a Chair keen to finish early so that he could catch "I'm a Celebrity, get me away from Jordan!", or whatever it's called. An issue of interest to villagers is the introduction of taxi metering by Mid Suffolk District Council, and given that I've noticed the effective fare increase, I thought that it was right to question our District Councillor, Caroline Byles, on the subject, only to get an answer that I hadn't expected. She claims that an amendment moved by the Green Party ...
In a widely predicted move, South West Norfolk Conservative Association has failed in its bid to deselect Liz Truss as their candidate. I remain convinced that if it was a male candidate in this position then this would never have been such an issue. Whilst the world may have moved on a lot, I think with ...
I tuned in for the 3D programmes on Channel 4 last night and I was hoping that the technology behind this might have moved on to make it something approaching user-friendly but alas it remains the TV equivalent of MS-DOS. There were loads of people on the programmes to tell us how fascinating this all was and how 3D TV is a must see thing but sadly this is entirely in keeping with the hype of the 1980s which I remember from my childhood, not to mention the hype of decades before that. The simple fact is that 3D TV ...
[IMG: book_stack] Prestwich Library in partnership with UNISON are holding a "Living Library" event where, instead of checking out a normal book, people will be able to "borrow" a person who has their own unique story to tell. The Living Library event takes place at Prestwich Library on Thursday 19 November 2009 from 2pm to 6pm, and all are welcome to attend. You can choose from a catalogue of twelve books, sit and listen to their stories in small groups or on a one on one basis and then ask questions for up to twenty minutes. Amongst the 'Living Books' ...
A couple of years ago, the MP for Hull West and Hessle was very concerned about the possibility that an asylum seeker who had found refuge in his constituency might be sent back to his country which has a dangerous human rights record and where in the MP's own words it: would be devastating for him, his family, indeed it could prove fatal... There are few cases where we need our system to work more than this one. However last month, the Home Secretary returned the 35-year-old asylum seeker to that country. The one with the dangerous human rights record. ...
Jet lag still seems to leave me one step behind the rest of the world right now (but heh that's still four steps ahead of NO10) - but in case you have not seen it, there is a wonderful post by Sara Bedford you can read here about the latest Labour Party viral PPB doing the rounds. Great stuff.
The latest poll apparently show that voters believe that David Cameron is thought to be a better leader than Gordon Brown, and much is being made of the idea that Mr. Cameron has "sealed the deal" with the British people. The reality is of course rather different. As someone said to me the other day: "If Cameron or Brown are the answer, then Goodness knows what the question was!". The fact is that the voters have not forgotten the chaotic and sleazy end to the last Conservative administration, and the fact that Labour has got itself into something like the ...
[IMG: Supporting people in Stockport]
It's that time of the year again when the newspapers call foul at the increase in train fares in January. This year's 'increases' in regulated fares are for the first time not that at all, as the formula that works them out means that they have to go down by 0.4% instead. Good news for ...
According to a survey from a food company, the average mother relies on just nine different meals to feed her family. Now as readers to this blog may know, I'm quite a keen cook and my 'staples' must number around 50, but I couldn't believe that other mums (why not dads?) were so unadventurous. Then I ...
Lord Jamie Sempill thinks we the Scottish taxpayers should pick up the cost of the £600,000 loss The Gathering made earlier this year, although he forgets we already are paying for most of it as it is. He claims that the two and a half million taxpayers in Scotland only had to contribute 43p per head for The Gathering to take place which is what the £500,000 public funding came to. I didn't go, so who wants to pay my 43p for me? because unfortunately Lord Jamie Sempill that is what most people across Scotland will say, or worse, they ...
The UK banks owe their very existence to the British taxpayer. They have received the equivalent of £1,000,000,000,000 in taxpayer support. But it does not stop there. The banking industry is unique in having the taxpayer acting as a safety net. Until the banks can be successfully broken up, we Lib Dems believe that they should pay for the explicit guarantee that they receive. Vince Cable has today proposed creating a new levy on bank profits at a rate of 10%, with all the revenue raised (estimated next year to be around £2bn) going towards tackling the structural deficit. He ...
Another one of my pet theories about Brown is that whatever he's most determined to have us believe and think is usually the exact opposite of what he most fears us believing and thinking. For example, when he first became leader he was obsessed with proving how strong and substantial he was - which, in hindsight, was because he was the exact opposite. He has proven to be weak, lacking real support in his party or friends outside it and shockingly light on any real vision or ideas for his leadership. He's like the small child standing in front of ...
... but I had a really good day today. It started with me getting my new bra, took in a nice time with [IMG: [info - personal] ] amazing_holly and a fun karate lesson and a rather enjoyable and wideranging conversation with the Duracell Bunny, and ended with a viewing of The Wicker Man in tribute to Ed Wood Wood Wood. Also managed to get some stuff sorted out with a few people, and set up my dad's new laptop on t'intarwebs. Most satisfactory :D The thing is, I don't want to go to sleep now, because I am enjoying ...
It's hard to measure how elated I feel. A rabble rousing propaganda piece - deployed to great effect in mentally numbing the drones at the Labour Conference - has been chosen as Labour's new Party Political Broadcast. This news has been met with cheers of delight by all sections of the political bubblesphere. The video is called, "Against the Odds" and recounts the heroic struggle against reality by Labour over the last 100 years - a battle, it seems, they've won. Epic won. See, Labour's spent the first ten years of their current period in office waiting for Gordon Brown ...
Labour is in deep trouble in Plymouth. Over three out of every five Labour voters in the Plymouth Moor View constituency are "unlikely to vote for the party again", according to independent research published in yesterday's edition of The Times. This is the third highest level of any of Labour's 350 seats in the House of Commons. Everyone has known for months that Labour is finished nationally. Now we know that Labour is finished locally too. The choice now is between the Liberal Democrats and the Tories. The Lib Dems will defend the NHS. After all, it was a Liberal ...
The deluded voters of North West England who sent BNP leader Nick Griffin to Brussels as one of their MEPs in June must be disappointed that he has chosen to express his deep commitment to the area by putting forward his candidacy for the Westminister parliamentary seat of Barking in East London just five months later. ...
I tried to post a comment on Sunday 16th November to a blog by Charlotte in Blackburn whose blog name is CharlotteinBlackburn. She was telling us that it cost £13 billion per year to support immigration and the main parties don't want to tell us this. So I checked the internet because the figure didn't make much sense to me and I wanted a better explanation of the costs. I couldn't find a simple answer. I tried to comment on her blog but it wouldn't let me so here is my comment. I have been looking for the costs of ...
Sunday: Scary stuff! The sun had gone down and Daddy Alex closed the curtains and we all huddled up on my sofa while Daddy Richard poured out the Evian that his mummy had provided. Yes, it was time for Water of Mama's! ... ...oh, please yourselves. So the 'scariest Doctor Who ever' turned out to be the Time Lord himself, as the payoff for all of those 'aren't I awesome' moments finally arrived with David Tennant's tenth Doctor finally going completely berserk. "The Laws of Time are mine," he said, going Mister Master on us, "and they will obey me!" ...
