It's obvious, isn't it? "I think it is an inevitable fact, it is just stating the obvious, the Conservative party which has got the strongest mandate from the British people and will have the first right to seek to govern. "I start from a very simple first principle - it is not Gordon Brown or David Cameron or Nick Clegg who are is the kingmakers in British politics - it's the British people. "So the votes of the British people are what should determine what happens afterwards. "Whichever The Conservative party will have the strongest mandate from the British people, ...
At tonight's City Council meetings, I proposed that - rather than the City Council "consult" on just one proposed Council House rents increase - the staggering 4% SNP increase (staggering because RPI inflation is currently minus 0.8%) - the Council consults on two levels of increase - 3% and 4%, giving tenants a choice of increase, rather than an SNP fait accompli, which isn't really consultation at all. Labour's amendment fell flat on its face being ruled incompetent and in a vote between the SNP 4% increase and the LibDem choice of increase, the SNP administration won by a single ...
Oh, I do love titles!
Just a few quick links today... Justin Zyduck has posted a Doctor Who revamp idea in response to mine. Jennie asks Do You Know A Rapist? while Roz Kaveney wants feminists to speak out against the murder of transpeople. I wish neither post was necessary... Over at the Mindless Ones Tymbus talks about the Uncle books And Eddie ...
This evening, Electoral Reform International Services (ERIS) hosted what they hope will be the first of many annual receptions, in the Brunei Gallery at London University's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). As I was lecturing at SOAS immediately before, the event could not have been more convenient. But far more important that that serendipity ...
The railway bridge on St Cross Road, next to the Badger Farm Road roundabout, will be closed to traffic from 4 January until 31 March 2010. Signs will divert cars and lorries up Badger Farm Road and then into Winchester via Romsey Road. Be prepared for a lot of additional traffic on Badger Farm Road for these three months.The closure has been caused by Network Rail needing to replace the bridge.
So, the bin strike in Leeds is over and as is usual when industrial disputes end both sides claim a measure of victory. The workers have by and large successfully protected their wages (good news) and the council have an acceptance of their productivity targets. Everybody must be happy then? Well, kind-of because serious questions have to be ...
Today's Shropshire Star reports the unveiling of a memorial to five airmen who died when their Whitley bomber crashed in Mytton Dingle during Word War II.
Whilst legislation is vital to achieve meaningful change in society, it is important to not get carried away with legalisation for legislation sake. This is illustrated by the inclusion in the Queen's speech, of the bill that sets out to eradicate child poverty by 2020. Whilst it would be amazing if the government achieved this, ...
[IMG: DSCF0044] Plymouth will see cuts in the size of its police force. That's what I take away from an interview with Devon & Cornwall's chief constable, Stephen Otter, in today's Herald; you can read the article online HERE. This is because of the impact on the nation's finances of the recession (now the longest since records began) and all those colossal bank bailouts. It doesn't have to be this way however. We could decide not to spend vast sums of money on plans and preparations for ID cards, for example, and instead spend that money on more police officers. ...
I have never been wholly convinced that heavier-than-air flight is possible, so it is good to be home again.
Why the confusion? Why the conspiracy theories? I think it is an inevitable fact, it is just stating the obvious, the party which has got the strongest mandate from the British people will have the first right to seek to govern. I start from a very simple first principle - it is not Gordon Brown or David ...
Have the Conservatives changed heart over fiscal policy? Or are they chasing the latest poll?
At the weekend, the Scottish Liberal Democrats leader Tavish Scott gave an interview to a group of Lib Dem bloggers meeting at the party HQ in Clifton Terrace for an 'unconference'. Devolution and independence referendum I kicked off with one of the main issues in the news at the moment: should there be a referendum on Scottish independence, and hence should the Liberal Democrats be supporting one? Tavish was scathing about the idea of a referendum, calling it an SNP trick which the party shouldn't go along with. His argument was that there is one pro-independence party and there is ...
Brilliant!
The Evening Standard on it's front page tonight has a story "Boris Deputy peddles story of his credit fraud shame". Apparently Ian Clement is trying to sell the story of his downfall to the highest bidder. I shall reserve comment, but have put a poll on the sidebar so you, dear readers, can decide. Has he paid the price, or should he not profit? You decide!
Today at King's Hedges Primary School the County Council launched their new Recycling Buses. This is part of a programme of waste education and campaigning undertaken by the County in schools and local communities across Cambridgeshire and also coincides with the European Week for Waste Reduction. The purpose of these new buses is to tour the County visiting schools and introducing children to the ideas of Recycling and Reuse. The buses were officially launched by Barbara Follett MP (Minister for the East of England). Joining her at the launch were myself, Belinda Brooks-Gordon (County Councillor for Castle), Tony Orgee (Cabinet ...
I previously blogged about how some of the key statistics for Wikipedia suggest the site is stagnating or declining. This picture is reinforced by new evidence: A sharp drop in Wikipedians, the volunteers who write and edit the online encyclopaedia, is a disturbing and inevitable trend, the Toronto man who was once their top contributor said Monday. "Losing volunteers is a sign that things could be better at Wikipedia," Simon Pulsifer said during a break in his full-time job at a software company... The core of devoted wikigeeks who spawned the phenomenon in 250 languages is dropping off more quickly ...
The excellent website Political Betting has started commissioning its own polls. They are carried out by Angus Reid Strategies who use the same sort of methodologies as most of the other UK pollsters (only MORI - the company behind yesterday's poll which had the Tories just six points ahead - differs in major ways). The new poll - completed earlier today - has the Tories still well ahead on 39% (still shy of the magic 40% barrier) but Labour slumping still further to 22% and the Lib Dems on 21%, a single point behind. 'Others' are still very high at ...
From The Guardian on Saturday: All Fired Up. From Environment Canada: Residential Wood Heating. Summary: What's not to like about wood-burning stoves asks Dominic Murphy? Answer: winter smog and airborne pollutants that are a danger to human health.
That's the question asked in today's Media Guardian, following the controversies associated with the Press Complaints Commission in the last month. First, there was the PCC's ruling that the Daily Mail didn't owe Iain Dale an apology for branding him 'overtly gay'. Then there were the record-breaking 22,000 complaints submitted to the PCC following the Daily Mail's publication of a snide piece by Jan Moir attacking Boyzone singer Stephen Gately's lifestyle and implying it contributed to his death. And then the PCC's new Chair, Baroness Buscombe, delivered a lacklustre and confused address to the Society of Editors, before setting any ...
That's the question asked in today's Media Guardian, following the controversies associated with the Press Complaints Commission in the last month. First, there was the PCC's ruling that the Daily Mail didn't owe Iain Dale an apology for branding him 'overtly gay'. Then there were the record-breaking 22,000 complaints submitted to the PCC following the Daily Mail's publication of a snide piece by Jan Moir attacking Boyzone singer Stephen Gately's lifestyle and implying it contributed to his death. And then the PCC's new Chair, Baroness Buscombe, delivered a lacklustre and confused address to the Society of Editors, before setting any ...
The people of Consett will soon have the chance to see the plans which will be submitted for "outline planning permission" for the proposed Academy at Belle Vue. The county council has organised an event to allow parents/carers/residents/public to view the outline plans for the Consett Academy prior to the plans being submitted for planning permission. The Open Evening is to take place on Monday 7th December, 4pm - 8.00pm at Consett Community Sports College. The plans will also be on display at Consett Library from Monday 7th - Friday 11th December where there will also be a facility to ...
Last Friday was Children in Need day and Cornwall Council held a 'Cornwall's Got Talent' event with staffand members performing in front of a packed Council chamber. I was invited to be one of the judges alongside Council Leader Alec Robertson and Chairman Pat Harvey. Entering into the spirit of things, we were asked to play the role of three of the Britain's Got Talent judges. So Alec became Simon Cowell, Pat was Sharon Osbourne and I, for my sins, was Louis Walsh. To play the role properly took moments of serious research (I googled 'Louis Walsh catchphrases'). And so ...
[IMG: david-cameron-bullingdon boys] The Tories are revolting. And before Bunny drops me a line ticking me off - I should say that I don't mean that pejoratively. I mean it literally. Inspired by the success - or perhaps undeterred by the failure - of the "Turnip Taliban" in Norfolk, the grassroots Conservatives of Beckenham (a Tory seat if ever there was one) are now up in arms. Why? Pretty much for the same reason as the Turnip boys - they clearly don't like being pushed around by Tory high command. This particular row is - well, it's about women again. ...
Parts of South Yate and Dodington have been declared a "Priority Neighbourhood". This means that some of the local statistics show that the area needs some extra help to improve the quality of life for local people and to make the area safer and stronger. It's a way of pointing out to council departments and other agencies that the area needs a more "joined-up" approach. Community Drop-In sessions will be held next month. They will provide A chance to help shape local prioritiesInformation about local groups, agencies and the areaA chance to hear the latest progress on the Yate Community ...
The Government's promise, that it would close a loophole in our law so that in future our citizens will get compensation if blown up in terrorist attacks abroad, has been dropped. This wrong was to have been righted in the Queen's Speech and would have been included in the Crime and Security Bill. However, the Ministry of Defence got its knickers in a twist in case Murdoch tried to bring injured soldiers into the same legislation for more compensation for their injuries - albeit the soldiers compensation scheme is certainly a just, but ultimately completely different matter. I got involved ...
Mon 23rd
17:12
Campaign launched against threat of 1000 homes on green fields around Chipping Sodbury
A campaign has been launched (link to Gazette report) against proposals for a huge new housing site that would increase the size of Chipping Sodbury by 50%. The development, on green fields to the East of Chipping Sodbury, would include over 1000 new houses, new community buildings (including a doctor's surgery, new shops and possibly a primary school), a business park and new road access. Steve Webb MP and local Lib Dem councillors have pledged to join local residents to fight the proposals, highlighting the impact on roads, flooding and the local landscape. Commenting, Steve Webb said: "House building on ...
Is a high proportion of the electorate within the UK anti EU? David Cameron was very clear this a.m. in The AM Show - he wants to stay in Europe. He was adamant that the UK must not leave the EU. He specifically said he does not want an in/out referendum, he did not even indicate that he would work to get back some powers (his previous stance), only that he would bring in a bill to bind any UK government to hold a referendum before ratifying any future treaty. That is in line with France, Ireland, Denmark, etc. The ...
I wonder how this report came to be created: Human rights groups played various games to see if any broke humanitarian laws that govern what is a war crime. The study condemned the games for violating laws by letting players kill civilians, torture captives and wantonly destroy homes and buildings. It said game makers should work harder to ...
Congratulations to the BBC . I dont say that often, so I will say it again. Congratulations to the BBC. Today on The Daily Politics show I finally got to see a proper discussion on climate change - and between two scientists no less! Prof Fred Singer ( Founder and President of the Science and Environmental Policy Project and Professor Emeritus of Environmental Science at the University of Virginia) and Prof Bob Watson (the chief scientific advisor at the department of the environment) met with Andrew Neil for a rattlingly good discussion. I will put up the highlights of the ...
So many things wrong with Nick Clegg's recent comments regarding coalitions that it is hard to know where to actually start. Clegg said that he would offer to his support to whichever party 'had the strongest mandate' from the British people. Most obviously, the current electoral system does not make that immediately clear and it ...
Residents have been complaining for some time that their close was becoming an informal car park, restricting their access. After a number of false starts Herts Highways tell me that the traffic orders for to restrict parking will be advertised soon. There will then be 21 days for objections.
The link is to an article in today's Guardian about adoptions that fail. I found an interesting element at the bottom.The British Association of Adoption and Fostering (BAAF) estimates that one in five adoptions break down, although children who are "handed back" are usually older. The younger the child, the lower the chance of the placement breaking down. A study by the Maudsley Hospital in
Yousuf yesterday blogged about the latest opinion poll saying how it could lead to a hung Parliament. He also pointed to his post from Friday about how only, in his eyes, a vote for Labour would deliver Home Rule as laid out by the Calman Commission. Now I'm not someone you whose eyes you can easily pull the wool over so lets look at the facts. Yes Labour brought us devolution, but the main goal wasn't so much to give Home Rule to Scotland and Wales, it was a way they saw to deal with the Northern Ireland situation and ...
Quote of the day comes from Alex Massie of the Speccie in his post entitled, "Gordon Brown is a Rescue Donkey". Bottom line: There are a lot of people in this country who give money to donkey sanctuaries and pet rescue homes and while this may not be the demographic Labour would choose to target, it's one the Tories might be alienating. Oh dear.
I've spent a lot of time and effort over the last four years battling against recycling tonnage targets. They give councils an incentive to collect the maximum number of tonnes at the cheapest price. Our obligation stops there. We have no incentive to take the planet into account. I've just been to a new Materials Reprocessing Facility (MRF), Bywaters at Bromley-in-Bow in East London. MRFs are supposed to separate recycling after councils have mixed it up in commingled (or commangled) collections. A huge amount of energy goes into trying to separate commingled recycling and a lot of manual effort as ...
This morning I attended the long-awaited re-opening of Allnutts Post Office in Epping. Even before the ribbon was cut, the first customers had arrived with Christmas cards to send abroad and parcels to post. Local residents no longer need to to trek up the steep hill and will also benefit from the excellent service provided by Shanhaz Javid and her team. Post Office opening hours are Monday to Saturday from 9am until 1pm. (Of course the rest of the store will continue to be open in the afternoons as well.) [IMG: Shanhaz Javid, Janet Whitehouse and Jon Whitehouse celebrate the ...
Jennie reminds us that it's the good Doctor's 46th birthday today. Strictly speaking, though, that's not quite true as we all know that he's over 900 years old. Come to mention it, I'm sure I remember Tom Baker's incarnation saying he was 749 in around 1974 so I've no idea how he's managed to gain over 150 years in less than 30. My husband, who was 12 at the time, remembers watching the first episode live on that Saturday evening in 1963. Consequently, his favourite Doctor is William Hartnell. He loved his grandfatherly magic. For me, I just fell in ...
Mon 23rd
15:24
'And finally, the Liberal Democrat education press release with 17 spelling mistakes...' - The Press...
One of the key things to achieve as a back room press officer is to not become the story, merely to put the story in front of the media and sell it to them. As I was happily watching the then regional news programme in the North West, my jaw dropped as the unmistakeable outline of ...
Figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats reveal that 1.5 million people have been claiming Incapacity Benefit, Income Support or Jobseekers Allowance for more than 5 years. Of these, more than half a million people have been claiming for between 5 and 9 years, while 700,000 have been claiming for over 12 years. Commenting, Vic D'Albert, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for Bury South, said: "Under Labour people have become trapped in a system where they have to be out of work for a year before getting extra help to find a job. Under Labour you fend for yourself or fall by ...
There were four principal council by-elections held on the 19th November. The Tories lost one seat to an Independent and hled one seat. Labour gained one seat from an Independent and the SNP held a seat. In the only Parish and Town council election result reported to ALDC the Tories held the seat. [IMG: The back of the leaflet] In the very rural Cholmondeley Ward of East Cheshire Unitary Council our candidate was Bryan Halson. We ran a one-leaflet campaign in a very challenging area for us. Not only had the there been little political activity from us in the ...
From the frying pan into the fire doesn't quite describe it. Flood is a better description. I have just got back after nearly two weeks in Morocco. I spent two weeks taking photos and video in the sun. Not a cloud in sight. Shorts worn at all time even when I was in the cooler Atlas Mountains. Temperatures were well over 30C. And yesterday I stepped off the plane at Gatwick into pouring rain, 8C
Well, blogging's dead. Didn't you know? The real action is taking place on Twitter. So you've signed up to Twitter and you want to make the biggest impression possible. What do you do? That's right, it's time for another slightly evil guide to Tweeting. #10: Get involved with every trending topic. Some subjects 'trend' - that means lots of people are talking about one particular subject. It's important that you get involved with them all as enthusiastically as possible, because there's nothing people love more than seeing 100 tweets about something they don't understand. It makes their day interesting! "Fingle ...
I just read a very interesting post on the fabulous Yes Means Yes blog (DW syndicated at [IMG: [info - syndicated] ] yes_means_yes_feed). Rather than making assertions based on anecdote, as most people who talk about acquaintance rape are forced to do, they have actually delved into some studies. The conclusions they have come up with in their post "meet the predators", though, pretty much agree with what feminists have been saying for a long time:I'm directing this to men who inhabit het-identified social spaces ... We're the ones who are not doing our jobs. Here's what we need to ...
Nick Clegg addressed the CBI conference in London this moring, "set out how to foster a rapid recovery and shape a new competitive, sustainable economy." Here's the full text of what he said: We are in the teeth of one of the most difficult and unpredictable recessions we have ever faced. The origins of the recession, at the heart of the financial services sector on which we have relied too heavily for far too long, begs profound questions about how we can rebuild the British economy on a different, more sustainable footing in the future. As the CBI said this ...
While watching the Queens' speech, I found myself saying 'boo' and 'nonsense' etc, when suddenly I felt very guilty. Here was a lady, 83 years old, 57 years as our Queen, a lifetime of service to the country, one of the greatest Britons that ever lived, and I am sitting here heckling her. Of course the Queen is merely reading out text written by the Prime Minister - of whom we have every right to boo and heckle - but this made me wonder whether having the government's programme read by the Queen gives it some sort of false respectability ...
I'm writing this, partly because of a point raised in the Guardian today about the Human Rights Act and European Convention, but mainly as a response to a debate that took place this morning between @ByrneTofferings and @thedancingflea on the same subject. The Tories, it would appear, are seeking to repeal the Human Rights Act 1998 and replace it with a British Bill of Rights. Their reason? The Human Rights Act 'has undermined the Government's ability to deal with crime and terrorism'. Yet, as Thomas Byrne rightly pointed out this morning, "It [The European Convention] was only ever meant to ...
Last week, LDV published a preview by Lib Dem blogger Mark Valladares of this year's ELDR (European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party) Congress in Barcelona. Here he reports back on its outcomes ... And so the 30th ELDR Congress in Barcelona is over, and most of the delegates have returned to the four corners of Europe from whence they came. They will have done so in good spirits after what was a pretty successful gathering. In policy terms, the theme resolution, Liberal Answers For A New Prosperity, reasserts a conviction that a competitive business environment, married to an efficient, affordable ...
In 2001 the English version of The Skeptical Environmentalist by the Danish statistician, Bjorn Lomborg, was published. It marked the beginning of an increasingly vehement debate about the impact of Human activity upon the levels of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere and the potential that this has for changing the climate of the Planet. Lomborg himself was skeptical about some of the findings of others, and he was able to highlight some weaknesses in some of the work that had been conducted up until then. In turn, however, the response to The Skeptical Environmentalist, was extremely hostile. Lomborg's scientific skills, ...
I'm a believer. My husband isn't. Our 13 year old daughter doesn't know, but she's thinking about it. A lot. Excellent! She recently read Dawkins' 'The God Delusion' and now she's working through a couple of the ripostes. So I was interested to see the British Humanist Association's latest 'campaign' (if you can call four posters a campaign) ...
Cumbria has been having a very rough time with the floods, particularly in the North of the county around Cockermouth. The death of a police officer who was having to divert motorists was especially sad. Even though the old Westmorland area, where I used to live, has not been affected in such a devastating way it too is suffering from flooding with several roads closed and Ambleside having been cut off. I hope the people of Cumbria get some help from the government. Many people in the county are not at all well off.
Tory Bear pointed his twitter followers in the direction of this propaganda piece in the New Statesman that claims, without verification or corroboration that private polling inside Number 10 shows Labour will overtake the Conservatives in the polls by the end of the year. Cue much hilarity and mocking. "Neil Kinnock wrote the first version of Windows and sold it to Microsoft to raise the money for their 1992 General Election campaign!" But, let's put the 'outrageous whoppers' meme aside. The New Statesman piece is more appropriate material for Valentines day than a hung-over Monday. It features a photograph of ...
Often our party operates only a rudimentary campaign (if at all) in `black hole seats` – painfully reflected on the web. Labour now face the same problem. It's really simple. Activists have their own lives to lead and one half-hearted attempt isn't going to change anything. More profitable for these people to do the gardening or ...
Colin Ross, the Chair of the Wolverhampton South West Liberal Democrats will have his beard cut throat razored off for charity at the end of November.
Liberal Youth Wales (aka IR Cymru) have just announced the election results for their new executive. Congrats to everyone CHAIR: Matt Smith VICE-CHAIR: Craig Matthews TREASURER: Ed Wilson COMMUNICATIONS: Sian Anne Cliff POLICY: Edward Mason CAMPAIGNS: Oliver Townsend YOUTH OFFICER: Hannah Griffiths
I've seen this video now on a few people's blogs, but even though I heard it on Radio 4 last week it's still amusing. It's fair to say that Ed Balls isn't exactly the most popular government minister, although to be honest I don't have stronger feelings about him than anyone else, but I do ...
Mon 23rd
12:54Because of where Sir Cyril Smith was sitting it totally changed the name of the party in the publici...
Sir Cyril Smith, Liberal MP for Rochdale between 1972 and 1992, has a personality so large that only his stature can compare to it. He was an astounding advocate for Rochdale and in many ways still is. But, I remember him chairing a session of the newly merged Social and Liberal Democrats in 1988, at a ...
The Gorton Christmas lights are now being put up along Hyde Road. All being well, they should be shining brightly next week. It will be lovely to see Hyde Road joining the other main roads into Manchester in having festive lights.
What would the Lib Dems do in the event of a hung parliament? The Tories are slipping down the polls (I'm blaming their constant "When we're in government" tone, talking about Lisbon and the recent wave of pity for Gordon). It's possible that no clear winner will emerge from the general election, forcing the parties to do deals with each other in order to form a government. I thought this matter was settled. I thought Nick had ruled out a coalition with Labour. Apparently not! The ground has shifted again and Nick Clegg has elaborated on the party's position: I ...
The rail service just does not get any better. I think we are rapidly moving to the stage of asking whether First Capital Connect should be stripped of its franchise if it cannot run its advertised service. Equally the drivers should be ashamed of wreaking disruption on a scale which far outweighs any strength of grievance they csan have – they run the risk of a tightening in union legislation particularly where it is a monopoly public service being delivered – see the wise words of Lord Tom McNally lower down this blog entry. I have been e-mailed again this ...
I remember watching one of those mildly entertaining, but cheap, clip shows about errors on TV. One featured Dexy's Midnight Runners on Top of the Pops, singing "Jackie Wilson says". Behind them on huge video screen was a picture of... larger than life darts player Jocky Wilson. The implication being it was a mistake made by the production team. Only it wasn't, it was all a joke. Kevin Rowland, Dexy's front man, had asked for that slide deliberately. Funny thing is he said that in an interview in 2002, and the clip show wasn't that long ago I'm sure. How ...
"Nearly three-quarters (74%) of people aged 65 or over said that they had voted in the European Parliamentary elections, compared with only 13% of those aged 18 to 24." (From the Electoral Commission's report in to the June 2009 elections, p.26.)
Holyrood has released the figures for last year's MSP expenses and there is one name that stands out from the crowd. That's Conservative MSPJohn Lamont, who has spent nearly £30,000 in the last twelve months on postage and office costs. These figures were released on the same day that David Cameron was touring the TV studios telling everyone how the Conservative Party were fully behind implementing all recommendations of the Kelly Report on MPs' expenses. One of the specific things he mentioned was that MPs shouldn't be members of two Parliaments, which smacks of breathtaking hypocrisy given that John Lamont, ...
[IMG: Lynne Featherstone, Cllr Martin Newton and London Assembly Member, Caroline Pidgeon] Here's my latest column for the Muswell Hill Flyer and Highgate Handbook: Finally I managed to get Transport for London (TfL), Haringey Primary Care Trust (part of the NHS) and me together in the same place to bang heads together about the need for better bus links to the new Community Health Centre on the old Hornsey Central Hospital site. We have this wonderful new facility but, despite the transport issues being raised as a key issue at every public and private meeting (literally for years) by many ...
Earlier this month I blogged about a housing repair howler experienced by a constituent on Hexham Road. Yesterday I was faced by an even worse tale from three constituents living a couple of streets away. Some background. One flat in a block I visited yesterday had recently had central heating installed. Admittedly this was two years after it was orginally promised by RBC, but the tenant was pleased it had arrived. What happened next was near enough disastrous. Contractors working for the council installed the central heating hastily. Too hastily it now transpires. A few days later the tenant in the flat downstairs was horrified ...
Following yesterday's poll which suggested the Conservatives might only have a 6% lead over Labour, there is a lot of talk about hung parliaments. John Redwood has blogged about this today. He starts his post with some very sensible comments about this showing that the Conservatives cannot take victory for granted and emphasising the size of the task that faces them. However towards the end of his piece he demonstrates the sort of arrogance that I sometimes see from members of the parties (Conservatives and Labour) that benefit hugely from our rotten First Past the Post system. He had already ...
An email pings into LDV's email inbox from the Lib Dems' director of election communications, Jonny Oates, stating categorically that Nick Clegg did not express a preference for dealing with the Tories over Labour. Now it has been known, just occasionally, for Nick to speak a little faster than he thinks. But, as I posted here, yesterday Nick really was crystal clear about how he would approach the vexed question of a 'hung Parliament' – and still the media managed to distort his remarks! In rebutting today's inaccurate press reports, all Jonny had had to do is reproduce the transcript ...
Blogging has been light for the past fortnight for a couple of reasons. While I was off work for that time firstly in week one my broadband gave up on me, then in week two once that had been sorted my laptop decided it was only going to survive for a max of about 15 minutes a time before freezing, but more often between 5 and 10 minutes. Therefore to have made last week's Lib Dem Voice Golden Dozen despite all the difficulties in getting anything published makes it somewhat more warming that my previous mentions amongst the most popular ...
Whether or not you agree with the decision to put Nick Griffin on the BBC's Question Time it has been revealed today that the bill for ensuring the integrity of BBC TV Centre was £143,000. The cost, according to the Evening Standard today, is for the drafting in of 'thousands of extra officers at a cost ...
EDUCATE - Early Dementia User's Co-operative Aiming To Educate - looks to give people with dementia a voice through involvement in training, or speaking to others about their experiences of having dementia. EDUCATE is part of a two year multi agency project funded by the Department of Health to set up peer support for people with dementia. Organisations involved in the project include NHS Stockport, Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust, Stockport Council's Adult Social Care, Age Concern and the Alzheimer's Society. People wanting to get involved in EDUCATE are invited to an introductory session to be held at the Cheshire ...
Mon 23rd
10:10
Clegg asserts Lib Dems' 'hung parliament' equidistance. (The headline you won't read in today's pape...
It's a long time since LDV has carried a 'Media Moron Watch' feature ... but if we were still running it, the spoils today would be shared by pretty much every newspaper. Here are the headlines from the so-called quality press today: Clegg rules out election deal with Labour (FT) Liberal Democrats offer Cameron hung parliament deal (Telegraph) Nick Clegg dents Labour hopes of Lib-Lab alliance (Guardian) Clegg reveals Lib Dems are prepared to back Cameron (Indy) From which headlines a disinterested reader would conclude the following: Nick Clegg has categorically ruled out doing a deal with Labour and opened ...
Doctor Who is forty-six today. That's even older than my big brother, [IMG: [info - personal] ] angeliiiii. To celebrate, lets have some memes! What will happen when you meet the Doctor? Name DOB Favourite Color You live In a bit of London that looks like Cardiff Your companions are Your best mate The Doctor arrived because He was trying to pull You first met the Doctor when Jack Harkness was making a pass at you The end result was You fell in love with a Dalek This quiz by clanwilliam - Taken 279 Times. </a> Which Doctor Are You> ...
Our friends over in Italy have the pleasure/misfortune (delete to taste) of being governed by the formidable Silvio Berlusconi. An ageing lothario, botox-filled, with hair and teeth that can't possibly be his own any more. Some of us forget that he's now 73, but still a slip of a lad when compared to the "thrusting" ...
Yesterday, at a specialist children's bookshop on Edinburgh's Royal Mile, I picked up a book of pieces by Alison Uttley. They dealt with her childhood home of Cromford in Derbyshire. It put me in mind of an item I read in the Guardian in the summer, having performed the not inconsiderable feat of finding a twee, hippyish coffee shop in Desborough. That item dealt with Alison Uttley's behaviour at a children's bookfair. Gwyn Headley, then a literary publicist, wrote: I'd arranged for everyone attending the fair to be invited to come and meet Alison Uttley. At half-hourly intervals the PA ...
News has reached me of a few changes to the Conservative line up at the next local election. Its well known that Geoff Courtenay has been deselected because of his audacity to complete a Facebook quiz "How sexy am I". Geoff Courtenays reselection facebook site is now reporting that Graham Horn and Ann Banks have been moved out of West Drayton ward(where they both currently represent)to Hayes (very difficult if not unwinnable!) and David Routledge has also been deselected. I would be shocked if this were true. All three are well known to take an independant non political line on ...
I have been involved in politics now for thirty five years and am always amazed at the capacity of the media to get it wrong in their constant predictions of hung Parliaments. Commentators have been suggesting such an outcome is likely in the run-up to every election since October 1974 and on each occasion they have got it wrong. I have no doubt that they will get it wrong this time too, but do not ask me what the outcome will be next year, I have no idea. And nor does anybody else. The latest fuss about Nick Clegg's assertion ...
There is a truly bizarre item in today's Western Mail in which Plaid Cymru's Chief Whip highlights the failure of his own government to get to grips with the ambulance service. He then suggests that rather than sort out the Trust's financial problems and the structural problems elsewhere that are the cause of many of the failures to hit targets, the Minister should dismantle it and hand responsibility for emergency transport to individual trusts instead. Chris Franks has discovered that nearly 100 patients were taken to hospital in police vehicles over the past year because ambulances were not available. He ...
It's the 23rd November – which means great celebrations in (parts of) the Lib Dem blogosphere at the 46th anniversary since the first broadcast of Doctor Who. And it's happy birthday, too, to Zoë Ball and Kirsty Young. 2 Must-Read Blog-Posts Why we should not be afraid of a hung parliament (Mark Thompson) A hung parliament is the sort of scenario that the Lib Dems been waiting for for years. It would finally give us a chance to wield some real power and exert our influence on policy and politics in a way that had been denied to us previously. ...
The Telegraph has yet another expenses expose today, this time about Labour MP for Hendon, Andrew Dismore. I was rather taken aback by his comment to the Telegraph: "It was my intention when I bought the Hendon flat for it to be my main home. After about 18 months it became clear to me that with ...
When I saw this doing the rounds last night I just groaned, and not with delight. Is this really the Conservatives listening to the public mood? If it is they just scored an own goal. Politicos, journalists and activists will think it funny, but then we read things differently to the real voters. We are immersed in politics 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I think this is an own goal by the Conservatives, and what about Jedward? What did they really do so wrong that they deserve this? Is this the kind of politics we are to ...
At last week's Mayor and Cabinet the Mayor agreed to a public consultation on the very important Core Strategy of the Local Development Framework: The Lewisham Core Strategy sets out the vision, objectives, strategy and policies that will guide development and regeneration in the borough over the next 15 years. Major change is anticipated and we ...
Should empty houses be given to the homeless? This was one of the questions on BBC1's The Big Question on Sunday. The point was that if a home is empty and people are homeless then there is a moral obligation to use it for the homeless. However there is also ownership. We all own things that we don't want others to have, not just houses. If we are lucky enough to have another house then what right does someone else have to live in it? Houses are not just homes. They are a business if you are a landlord. They ...
