It sounds idyllic but it was work. The photographer from the local paper came to take photos of people who want to keep the Park as a park. They don't have a united view on where the school could go, but they certainly are united in where it shouldn't go. I had to spend a lot of time explaining that this wasn't a planning application, that a decision hasn't yet been taken and that the study of
Revelations today show that multi-millionaire, David Cameron claimed: * £1,200 for oil for the stove at his Witney home in leafy Oxfordshire on TOP of monthly utility bills averaging £180 a month. * £1,000 a month in mortgage interest payments. * Secured a 10% reduction in council tax on the property from his local council, though the value of the property meant he was still claiming back £196 a month. All this at a time when he was calling for a radical reform of MPs' expenses and allowances.
The Orwell Prize, Britain's most prestigious prize for political writing, is inviting entries for a Blog Prize for a second year. If you'd like to enter, you need to submit 10 URLs you've written in 2009. They do not have to be from the same blog, but they should all be written by you - the prize is self-nominating. The entry form can be found here at this site, with full rules and regulations here. The entry deadline is 20th January 2010. The winner of the prize receives £3000 and an Orwell Prize plaque. Richard Horton (Jack Night) and Oona ...
For some time there has been a widespread assumption that the British general election will be held on the same day as the local elections in 2010, i.e. on 6 May. But recently I have been hearing rumours that officials are being asked to prepare for a March general election instead, and now Ladbrokes are said to ...
To hear Labour big guns being rolled out to speak to the press over and over again over the last two days since the pre budget report has been a lesson in how to sound if you have run out of ideas. In the last 24 hours I have heard Alistair Darling, Jack Straw and the quite awful Ed Balls all defending the PBR on the simple basis that "the Tories would be worse". This quite pathetic defence just highlight how vaccuous Labour are now and how utterly bankrupt they are in the ideas department. So what will the polls ...
You'd be forgiven for not knowing that a record was broken in Parliament this week. No, it didn't involve expenses claims for bell towers (HERE, if you're interested). In fact, this week saw the most petitions ever presented to the House of Commons in a single day. You can read the Press Association report on the Guardian website HERE. You can see some of them listed on the parliamentary record HERE. The petitions were a cry for help from England's home educators: those men & women who take onto themselves the huge burden of educating their own children. There are ...
Commenting on today's National Audit Office report on the Government's venture capital support schemes for small businesses, Liberal Democrat Shadow Business Secretary, John Thurso said: "The report's findings make shocking reading. "The Government has created 28 different funds using taxpayers' money for nine years without any idea of what it wants to achieve. No private investor would demonstrate such a cavalier attitude to investment. "Funds created by Government are performing significantly worse than their private sector equivalents. The £74m invested in Regional Venture Capital Funds has lost 92% of its value. "We need to connect private investors with promising businesses ...
A useful picture lining up the pro and anti views - and to me making some pretty clear conclusions. Plus a really really good way to get the innumerate to buy more pizza
[IMG: Stuart using parking meter at Derriford Hospital] This first appeared on the PRSD website HERE. To visit the front page of the PRSD website, click HERE. The money Derriford Hospital collects each year from those using its car parks has topped £1.2m. That was for the latest financial year, 2008/09. The amount paid by members of the public, attending for treatment or to visit friends or relatives, edged above £1 million for the first time. To be precise, it was up from £978,000 to £1,065,983. Staff who parked at the hospital site paid a total of £213,017, up from ...
Today is International Human Rights Day and so I thought I would finally blog about the situation for LGBT people in Uganda. The Ugandan Parliament is discussing the anti-homosexuality Bill, which violates the equality and non-discrimination provisions of the African Charter on Human and People's Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Uganda is a signatory. These breaches of international humanitarian commitments undermine the right to privacy and individual liberty and thereby set a dangerous legal precedent which threatens the human rights of all Ugandans. They are part of a wider drift towards an ...
After the dissapointing N97 it was all to easy to dismiss Nokia as a fading star of mobile phone design. The flagship which failed to float was the perfect excuse for a whole horde of doomsayers to predict the end of the once-greatest mobile company. A common quip was that unless Nokia were to pull off something entirely miraculous it would be "the end". Fortunately the N900 is the miracle we had all hoped for, a truly remarkable combination of new software and hardware. It's hard to disentangle all the novelty in this new phone: Not only is it the ...
The new "Onesite" website pulls together statistics from a range of sources to give an overall picture of major councils. South Glos's page is here. It's pretty up to date - for example, it talks about the proposed Priority Neighbourhood status for West Yate and Dodington - though the text sounds rather complacent at times. Worryingly certain important information seems to be "not applicable", for example: "Congestion - average journey time per mile during the morning peak""Local bus and light rail passenger journeys originating in the local authority area""Supply of ready to develop housing estates"It's all information that is available ...
Im covering for Mark Reckons BBC Question Time chat Today at 10.30pm. Link here Please do come and join us. It's from Wootton Bassett today and includes 6 on the panel today. One more than usual 5 as the BBC was planning too drop former Liberal Democrat leader Lord Ashdown as they did with Jo Swinson MP a few weeks ago. There was also no Lib Dem's on the Reading Panel.
The extensions to the Hither Green East and Old Road/Bankwell Road CPZs will begin operation on 18th January 2010. Residents who live in the affected areas will have received an application form for permits a couple of months ago – if you haven't filled in and returned your permit application, you need to do so now. If you need another copy of the booklet and form, please call Eva Ashley at the Council on 8314 2080. Residents will be aware that these zones were consulted on over a year ago. I was told back in June that they would begin ...
Following my email of last night in which I posted about a Labour council cabinet member in Gateshead not following the advice to councillors not to get the members' secretary to send out Xmas greetings by email on their behalf, another Labour cabinet member has committed this heinous crime! As I said last night, I think council staff have better things to do than send seasonal greeting emails
The headteacher at the centre of the "kids wearing goggles to play conkers" myth (recently repeated by David Cameron as the centrepiece target of his plans for government) writes in the Guardian's Comment is Free. This bit is interesting, coming from a very experienced headteacher: It was largely during the Thatcher and Major Conservative administrations that the health and safety culture was brought to bear in schools. Like all headteachers I spent tedious hours drawing up policies and writing risk assessments for all activities. ...One in the eye for stupid-arse Cameron.
Andrew Mackay's MP 2008/2009 allowances/expenses have now been published, they make interesting reading. Bracknell's MP Andrew MacKay resigned as parliamentary adviser to David Cameron and is due to step down at the next general election. This is after the revelations that Andrew Mackay and wife, fellow Tory MP for Bromsgrove, Julie Kirkbride (who may now stand again in an open primary). Andrew Mackay claimed a second home allowance of £12,000 a year in mortgage interest for their joint flat near Westminster. This was while his wife used her expenses to pay off a similar loan for their family home in ...
If you could choose up to three items for your Christmas stocking, what would they be? That was the question LDV posed to a group of Lib Dem bloggers. All this week we're revealing what they told us, with all their choices added to the Amazon carousel widget featured on our home-page, referral fees from which will help support Lib Dem Voice: so get clicking and ordering. You can read Part I here. In part two, four more bloggers – Jonathan Calder, James Graham, Alix Mortimer and Paul Walter – give us the low-down on their Xmas faves. Jonathan Calder ...
It's #bbcqt day again and as usual the Live Chat on this blog will start tonight at 10:30pm. The show is coming from Wootton Bassett today, the Wiltshire town which has become the national focus for honouring our fallen soldiers. The panel will include the former head of the British Army General Sir Richard Dannatt, the Minister of State for the Armed Forces Bill Rammall MP, the shadow foreign secretary William Hague MP, the former Liberal Democrat leader Lord Ashdown, the former newspaper editor Piers Morgan and the Respect Party's Salma Yaqoob. I cannot make the start of the chat ...
[IMG: glasgow advent calendar2]
As at 5.30pm still no signs of Team Tuvalu giving up....
Thu 10th
19:02
Hilda Ogden-well actress Jean Alexander-supports petition as public voice anger over Southport Libra...
Birkdale's Councillor Richard Hands led an effort on Wednesday night at Southport Town Hall to get the issue of a temporary library referred back to Sefton's ruling Cabinet. However Conservative and Labour members combined to defeat the Liberal Democrat move. Richard, together with fellow Lib Dem Councillors David Sumner and Mike Booth, called for the unoccupied part of Southport Market Hall to be used as a temporary library while the £15 million Southport Cultural Centre project is carried out over the next 3 years. A petition with 5443 signatures on it was presented to the meeting, but was not enough ...
And it's from Rutland! The Leicester Mercury wins it for: Policeman's rabbit impersonation rescues pet dog The Taxpayers' Alliance comments: While no one likes to see a dog suffering, impersonating rabbits is not the central job of the police service.
The BBC is reporting that Jack Straw has blocked the release of minutes of a 1997 cabinet committee meeting on devolution. Jack Straw said he believed disclosure would put the convention of collective cabinet responsibility for decisions "at serious risk of harm" and that the release would be "detrimental to the effective operation of cabinet government" "Detrimental to the effective operation of cabinet government." What he means is detrimental to the control freak world of Westminster. Local government has had the leader and Cabinet system for around 10 years now and we seem to manage quite well with open Cabinet ...
It seem that the Populus poll for the Times caused something of a mild rumpus and a few disgruntling noises from the Tory camp a few days which i somehow missed in my Bronchitis addled brain. The responses from some of the usual suspects on twitter (@torybear – a Conservative blogger who hides behind a ...
For some months I have been involved in a blogging project, that is being run by the CivicSurf team. (You can just see a blue version of me there in the banner). I've run a number of blogging workshops in the past, mainly for councillors, but this one is a bit different. It is aimed at people who want to provide a counter-balance to some of the more aggressive extremist and terrorist-supporting views that can be found online. So, somewhat to my surprise, I found myself, with a colleague, promoting Empowering Voices Online at the annual conference on Preventing Violent ...
Cornwall Council's Conservative led administration are proposing a 2.9% rise in Council tax for next year. The final decision won't be taken until the Full Council has its say in February and Cornwall Council is only responsible for part of the final Council tax bill. The Police, town and parish councils and other agencies such as the Environment Agency can also add 'precepts'. In June, the Lib Dems stood on a manifesto pledging to limit Cornwall Council's tax rises to the level of inflation over the course of the four year term. Inflation is measured in two different ways. RPI ...
In my Bronchitis filled mind somewhere between pondering whether to have Sainsbury's butter chicken for supper and whether to continue watching the Star Trek box set day on the Sky Christmas movie channel, I happened to catch on the twitterverse that there has been some controversy surrounding whether or not the BBC was right was ...
A change to local government executives throughout England is currently underway. Councils are required to have one of two models: the first is the leader model in which the Leader is elected by councillors and remains in place until such time as his/her constituents vote him/her out. The second is the elected mayor model.There is an additional way to get rid of the Leader. The loss of a no
From Failblog.
Thank you to the thirty-odd people who came to our consultation meeting about traffic in the schools hill area on Tuesday evening. I felt it was a useful meeting: I think everyone had their say and a lot of issues were raised. The issues mentioned include Long queues on Schools Hill for traffic turning onto Cheadle Road at the start and end of school. Heavy traffic and parking problems with children being taken to Ladybarn School. Speeding on Cheadle Road, Wilmslow Road, Schools Hill and Daylesford Road Poor visibility turning from Daylesford Road onto Schools Hill Water pooling at the ...
Next Wednesday, Cornwall Council's Cabinet will be holding their monthly meeting. Today, the Shadow Cabinet met to be briefed on the matters that were coming forward for decision. Our meeting was at 2pm and at noon we received the agenda. All 462 pages of it. And it is still incomplete. There are four reports still to be finalised and distributed. The most controversial discussion will be on the new Isles of Scilly link project. The proposal is to build a new combined freight and passenger facility on Penzance harbour including some reclaimed land from the sea. Many Pz residents want ...
Would you be prepared to help your local political party with activities locally. Would you be willing to give up your spare time to help. I am particularly interested in hearing from Liberal Democrats in the Woking area to see if we can get some momentum going here to help chivvy the party along a ...
As I sit here going through my blog and updating my posts from the last few days events, it struck me that even though I am fairly active in my writing about current events from a Liberal Democrat point of view, I see no real online presence from my own Lib Dem party members here ...
Twas thus: In Norman Smith's article on the PBR (broadcast 10/12 about 6:30am) on Today programme he said `If you strip out the increases in NI contributions there is no difference in thinking in all 3 parties`. He then described the proposals from just two parties. This is inherently unfair and biased because at once you are damning ...
The Islington Gazette has picked up the figures I reported about the delays Islington women face in getting referrals after breast cancer screening. As the Gazette says: LESS than 40 per cent of Islington women suspected of having breast cancer are seen by a specialist within two weeks, it is claimed. Bridget Fox, Liberal Democrat Prospective ...
Have been really busy with general election preparation this week with the students, Leeds North West local party and Greg Mulholland. We've all mainly been concentrating on an election in the first week of May (the same time as local council elections in Leeds and many other cities) but what if Brown were to call it earlier? The date that's doing the rounds at the moment is March 25th. Apparently the Conservatives have banned their top staff from taking holidays and as mentioned before Labour have gone into recruitment overdrive. Will be interesting to see if Labour do this. It ...
I have to apologise for neglecting you this week. I've been doing a lot more than what has become my usual which ended up being way too much yesterday, leaving me collapsed in a heap about 24 hours ago, able to do little more than lie on the sofa and snore. Blogging may therefore be more erratic again for the next little while. The good news is that this morning, although I still felt tired, I wasn't lying in bed unable to move as I would have been a few weeks ago. I have been a lot more careful today, ...
Matt Wardman sees the tectonic plates of the political blogsphere shifting pre the General Election. I think you will have to wait until after and the changed political landscape to see significant changes though what will certainly be of interest (and no doubt will in subsequent years prompt numerous studies) is how the political blogsphere both reports ...
The announcement has been made. Here is Carwyn Jones' statement in full: I am writing to inform you that Her Majesty The Queen has approved the nominations for Welsh Ministers and Deputy Ministers in my Cabinet. The details are as follows: Two new Ministers join the Cabinet - former Chief Whip Carl Sargeant becomes Minister for Social Justice and Local Government while former Deputy Regeneration Minister Leighton Andrews becomes Minister for Children, Education and Lifelong Learning. Jane Hutt moves to a new portfolio as Minister for Business and Budget. Two new Deputy Ministers have been appointed following portfolio changes creating ...
Last night I was extremely disappointed to find out that Manchester City Council's Planning Department has recommended the Planing Committee be 'minded to approve' the development on the Hardy Farm site. This is a huge mistake by the Planning Department and another example of the City Council failing the people of Chorlton. Andy from the Save Chorlton Meadows campaign summed it up perfectly in his email: "I really cannot understand the planning process - there seems little point in public consultations if this is the outcome." We must continue to show our opposition to the development and keep up the ...
Last night I was extremely disappointed to find out that Manchester City Council's Planning Department has recommended the Planing Committee be 'minded to approve' the development on the Hardy Farm site. This is a huge mistake by the Planning Department and another example of the City Council failing the people of Chorlton. Andy from the Save Chorlton Meadows campaign summed it up perfectly in his email: "I really cannot understand the planning process - there seems little point in public consultations if this is the outcome." We must continue to show our opposition to the development and keep up the ...
Thu 10th
15:54
Is the return of the monocle a sign that the Old Etonian Tories are taking control or the preparatio...
Vision Express has announced that it is to start stocking monocles for the first time following a spate of young male customers requesting to buy them. This apparently came as quite a shock to the major high street retailer who has never sold them before. I couldn't help but think that the boys from the Bullingdon Club ...
Party strategists have bet heavily on their assessment that voters think it is time for a change. Perhaps simplistically, they hold to the notion that British political fortunes are governed by a pendulum. You often hear them criticise what they term the blue/red red/blue swings, but privately they accept it as a fundamental 'law' of political physics and have allowed themselves to be governed by this supposed law these last two years. 2010 will be one of those 'Time for a Change' elections, they have deduced. From that deduction they moved on to suggest that the Conservatives (to whom in ...
A neat new website is available for people to find out all about their local area. The "One Place" website allows people to discover all sorts of things about how local public services are performing. Take a look and find out about Bury. You may be surprised to discover certain things. I was certainly pleased to find out that Bury is in the top third in the country for youth re-offending, and has amongst the lowest under 18 conception rates in the country. But, I was disappointed to learn that there are a number of measures in which we're doing ...
Every Thursday night my twitter feed (via the awesome Tweetdeck when not on my iPhone) descends into something akin to a comedy Good Show farce with a constant stream of live tweets whilst the show airs on BBC2. A few weeks ago, another notable tweeter @markinreading who tweets regularly on the show suggested a 'Question ...
[IMG: 20mph_schools.jpg] The last 4 years have seen a pilot scheme of 20mph zones in operation outside 4 schools in the borough which have been enforceable under a temporary TRO (Traffic Regulation Order) A recommendation was brought before the Local Committee this week to make these zones permanent which would require an application for a new TRO which would cost about £2000. Although the restrictions have had limited effect, the recommendation was that reverting these zones to 30mph would send the wrong message to drivers, would be unpopular with parents, and there would be a higher cost associated with removing ...
I guess what struck me most about the Chancellors pre budget report yesterday was just how little it actually does for the people of the UK who are working every day just to keep their heads above water. A report today on the BBC news website pretty much sums it all up, with both the ...
With the permisison of Go Dundee, here's a short slideshow, narrated by Lorraine Kelly, put together for the recent 'Go Dundee' event. See also http://tinyurl.com/go-dundee The speakers at the event included David Dorward, Chief Executive of Dundee City Council and Professor Pete Downes, Principal of the University of Dundee. The video celebrates the many great things that are happening in Dundee at the moment - including the news regarding funding for Harris Academy.
Want to know if your road will be resurfaced in the near future? Highways have provided me with lists of roads prioritised for "Major Maintenance" and "Surface Treatment" in 2010. I have been told that if the budget remains unchanged next year, roads ranked up to number 52 on the "Major Maintenance" list and 129 on the "Surface Treatment" list should be addressed. In Reigate Central Division, the placings are as follows. You can see that there may be major work on 2 roads, and surface treatment on none! Major Maintenance [IMG: a-largish-pothole.jpg] 12 - Linkfield Street 34 - St ...
Last Monday (7th Dec 09) the Wendover Parish Council discussed the disappointing news that AVDC is considering changing the rules of the game with regards to the Wendover Library car park charges and toilets. I cannot help imagining how it came about: Jim Hacker: I am in a catch 22 situation. We must cut drastically the budget but there are elections to AVDC in June. I am dammed if I cut services and I am dammed if I don't. Sir Humphrey: That is easy. Lets divert the public's attention from the real issues. Let's start a war. Jim Hacker: OK, ...
I'm on my way to Needham Market, or to be more precise, the Lecture Theatre at the offices of soon to be abolished Mid Suffolk District Council, to attend a training session on planning. As one of the most potentially contentious aspects of the work of a Parish Councillor, I tend to think that it might be useful if I have a rather better grasp of planning law, so when the opportunity came to get some training, I naturally jumped at the chance. And now all I have to do is get there. I've made it to Ipswich, I'm even ...
She nearly got away with it. The gavel came down with the words "it is so decided." Then her aide whispered into her ear, and her heart must have sunk. Like every meeting chairman, and especially one presiding over representatives of 192 countries at a conference with a lot of controversial business to consider and limited time in which to do it, Connie Hedegaard's priority is to get through the agenda as efficiently as she can. She had just announced her recommendation that private consultations should take place about the shape of any changes to the Kyoto Protocol intended to ...
Each morning the various groups of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that have observer status at the conference organise briefing sessions for their members. The BINGO meeting is for business and industry; YOUNGO for youth organisations; ENGO for environmental ones; RINGO for research and assorted independent groups; TUNGO for trade unions. Sadly the well of creativity then dried up. The women and gender non-governmental organisations come together as WOMEN AND GENDER, and the farming ones as FARMERS.
A group of Martians have just walked past me. At least I think they were Martians; they had green faces and were wearing silver suits. I suspect they were Japanese Martians. I'm not sure what they were demonstrating about in particular. So many 'demonstrations' of a photocall type take place around the climate change conference centre that you stop noticing. Just so long as someone takes a picture they serve a purpose I suppose, and it's nice that the demonstrators are on the inside. They are mostly young environmental activists affiliated to one of the many NGOs with the right ...
A Brazilian lady has just come up to me, introduced herself as a first-time delegate, and asked me if I know what is going on. I'm sitting in the vast plenary hall, with maybe 200 other people scattered around, half of them observers and half government negotiators. There is no sitting scheduled for this afternoon, but the last thing we heard before lunch was the conference president suspending the meeting, and that wasn't scheduled either. I don't think any of us know what's going on, but it's 3.30pm and we're here just in case. Maybe the negotiators know something, or ...
Former Lib Dem London Mayoral selection candidate Chamali Fernando, who defected to the Conservatives in July, will take part in an Open Primary selection in Cambridge this Saturday, 12 December. At the General Election the winning candidate will face whoever succeeds the Liberal Democrat MP David Howarth, who is standing down to concentrate on his career as an academic. The Liberal Democrats' selection is also currently underway. Billed as "more than just a Cameron cutie!" you can read Chamali's pitch on Cambridge Conservatives' website, as well as the biographies of the other five shortlistees.
I spent the last term at uni using Machiavelli's 'The Prince' as one of my core texts in the political morality module. Now it looks like there's a copy available on eBay. This isn't just any copy though. It's personally signed by Mandelson and is being auctioned for charity. What an amzing Christmas present!
Nobel Prize winners conjure up an air of dignity and gravitas. Yet as I was watching the news today I wondered what quite was happening?! I saw that Barack Obama was receiving his award. This made me a bit confused given that he is only 11 months into his leadership and was increasing troop support in Afgahnistan. True he is a breath of fresh air. Yet a Nobel Prize so soon. I read on the news voxpops that the Dalai Lama was questioning why so soon? I have a lot of respect for someone like the Dalai Lama. Only time ...
So how was the Pre-Budget report for you? According to those little tables the papers produce I will be paying the same Income Tax so I guess not much change for me, this year there will be in 2011 with National Insurance changes. Most of it was tinkering but increased borrowing rather than big changes in tax. Two things that struck me - Bingo and National Insurance.
Last night I sat down to watch a couple of my favourite TV programmes. Spooks, A fictional MI5 drama was all about the fact that if the Government couldn't sieze assets of around £2 bn from an unscrupulous bank, then the country would be bankrupt and unable to pay public sector workers. This scenario then seemed to morph into the news where I was confronted with Alastair Darling the Chancellor informing the country that we were in a worse mess than he had thought but he had a plan that involved bingo and boilers! I have to tell you "Spooks" ...
You couldn't make this up! Just over one week after Labour declared class war (unless you're a member of the Labour party, Harriet knows who we mean) the latest round of MP expenses get released. Guido is reporting that Labour MP Quentin Davies tried to claim over £20,000 for repairs to the bell tower on his £5 million country seat Frampton Hall. Someone really needs to tell Gordon that people in glass castles should not be throwing stones. ********update*********** According to Paul Waugh in the standard Mr. Davies wrote a letter - after the exes scandal broke - saying he ...
Having been woken up today by a nice policeman who wanted to ask me if I had heard anything from the neighbours behind me (He had had a report that they had not been heard from in over 2 weeks) I was struck once again by how much better spent our public money would be ...
On March 23rd, 2009, Alan Milburn, who, among his six jobs, has been the Labour MP for Darlington since 1992, charged the taxpayer £760 for a miscellany of household goods from John Lewis, including four Siberian Goose Feather and Down Pillows, a Jamie Oliver saute pan and a set of Nigella Lawson measuring spoons (the mind boggles!).On June 26th, 2009, Alan Milburn MP announced to his local
I was impressed to see David Miliband's continental embrace with French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner the other day and couldn't help be impressed by this more continental attitude towards foreign affairs. I just don't think it would have worked for Jack Straw or Robin Cook, and I make no comment about Margaret Beckett! This might be ...
Earlier this week I posted my preview of next year's Tour de France. Today comes the news that the British based Team-Sky have netted one of the two golds they were most keen to when the outfit was announced. Sprint King Mark Cavendish may be remaining loyal to his team, indeed lead out train, at Columbia-HTC, but the other British star of last years tour Bradley Wiggins seems set to be the team leader as the team prepares for France in July, he's announced he is leaving Garmin-Slipstream to join the British outfit next year. The three time Olympic Gold ...
[IMG: belle-vue-500.jpg] On Saturday morning the footballers of Belle Vue will delay their kick-off by half an hour to enable Macmillan Cancer Support to run a Carolcade around the Belle Vue field. I say run, but it's just a case of walking a mile for a good cause. The walk starts from the Leisure Centre at 9.00 a.m. and will be a swan-song for Derwentside's Macmillan committee because, unless they can attract some new members, it will cease to exist at the end of the year. It will also be a chance for the people of Consett to gather in ...
The news that fake Rolex Watches and Dolce & Gabbana dresses worth upto £1m have been found in a house in Bathgate takes me back to my days working in H. Samuel the jeweller. I was once handed a watch and told could I fix the battery in it. Within 5 seconds I said no. the customer looked at be bizarrely and asked why. My response. The second hand stutters and does not sweep.The bezels are the wrong type.Switzerland is not spelt Swizterland.It is too light.The back case has a simple lift off mechanism, rather than Rolex's screw fitting.The 12 ...
[IMG: darling] It was somewhat disappointing to receive yesterday's post-pre-budget report response from Vince Cable. As impressively prompt as it was, I couldn't help suspect that the title and opening line were written before the increasingly-destructive Mr Darling had even uttered a word. "Good for bankers but bad for taxpayers" So shouted Vince's headline, seemingly implying that the former is not included in the latter. An odd response, really. Those of us who live and work relatively near the City aren't hearing much cheering. Rather, word on the street is how this disastrous PBR will harm everyone, but particularly bankers. ...
Just a quickie before I go to work. I've just been playing with Google Analytics. This post got linked to by Lib Dem Voice and Iain Dale's Daley Dozen and I found it interesting to compare the results. The Daley Dozen link brought me 90 readers, of which 87 were new. This is good, right? Well, yes, but mostly they only looked at that particular post, and spent an average of 30 seconds on the blog. Ouch. Harsh judgement from the readers of the egregious tory tosser. Lib Dem Voice brought me only 8 readers, that's five less than twitter ...
[IMG: vonmises] Mises was an Austrian in the sense that he was born into a high bourgeois German speaking family in the Habsburg Austro-Hungarian Empire. Mises was from a high bourgeois Jewish family which had roots in Vienna. However, he was born in Lemberg, now the Ukrainian town of Lviv, which has been also been part of Lithuania and Poland. The range of languages and ethnicities in the town reflected that history and in Liberalism he refers with great emphasis to the conflicts and suffering of that situation, arguing that the situation can only be experienced in that way in ...
Plaid Cymru staffers have hit back today at their former Assembly Member, Mohammed Ashgar, who defected to the Tories on Tuesday. The Western Mail reports that yesterday Plaid sources told them that as recently as September, Mr Asghar - known to friends as Oscar - was seeking to employ his daughter Natasha as a press officer. The Roger Jones Review of AMs' expenses proposed restrictions on employing family members after May 2011: Plaid Cymru, however, took a decision after the panel report was published to impose the recommendations on its own AMs immediately. A senior Plaid source said: "In September, ...
Vince Cable's statement on the Pre-Budget Report is here, and he imitates The Man in Black on video here.
The latest report is here.
Former Bridgend Council Leader, Jeff Jones asks a perfectly valid question in this morning's Western Mail, when he queries the difference between the £60m aid package announced to combat the recently announced 1,700 job cuts in Teesside and the lack of any such package when 2,000 workers in Maesteg lost their jobs after the closure of two factories: The former Labour councillor, who is now a local government consultant, said: "Cosi and Cooper Standard used to employ more than 2,000 workers between them on adjacent sites. "What did Maesteg get in terms of Government aid when they both closed last ...
One of the campaigns I have been leading in Reading is for the Council, working with developers and housing associations to build more affordable family-sized homes. In October I published Reading Borough Council figures on average wait times for families waiting to move into 3 or four bed houses in Reading. These showed that people in Reading are waiting around 22-24 months and nearly one thousand families are in the queue. Buried in the Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA) report on Reading, published on the Oneplace yesterday: 'Good progress has been made building new homes over the past seven years when house building has ...
Fascinating letter in this morning's Western Mail from a supporter of Plaid Cymru's goal of independence. Mr. H. John of Penyfai writes that we need not worry that an independent Wales will see a major loss of public sector jobs. He suggests that: 'while all job losses are regrettable, as critics of independence point out, Wales is overdependent on public sector jobs. This over-dependence has been deliberately encouraged by successive British governments in order to buy votes. Gordon Brown has recently authorised the transfer of nuclear submarines from the south coast of England to Scotland for the precise reason of ...
Am noticing a pattern here. Lovely trip to Luton earlier in the week was lovely, and I had a great time, but am now having a big mood crash and total lack of motivation which happy pills seem unable to touch. I have a big long list of Stuff to Do, including writing three articles before the weekend. I can't work up the enthusiasm to do any of it.
Here's the video response Lib Dem shadow chancellor Vince Cable recorded yesterday in response to Alistair Darling's Pre-Budget Report yesterday. (It is him, promise: you can make out the outline of his hat in the evening gloom – it might be worth filming Vince nearer a street-lamp next time.) (Hat-tip: the Lib Dems' ACT website). Vince also appeared in yesterday's Times, which the Voice failed to cover yesterday, arguing that Alistair Darling would have done better to model his PBR on one of his predecessors, Roy Jenkins. Here's an excerpt: Few chancellors are loved. They can, however, earn respect. ... ...
Anyone who's read this blog before will be aware of the issues that I have with DPPOs (designated public place orders - which effectively amount to an alcohol ban in certain areas when the police wish to enforce the powers). There has just been a new DPPO introduced in the Gipton area of Leeds. Despite my misgivings about this policing tactic I hope it works for the people of Gipton and I certainly hope that it's a bit less controversial than the DPPO on Woodhouse Moor.
You know, I've read the reports on the pre-budget report. I tuned into Newsnight last night - mercifully Paxman was elsewhere so it was a reasonable presentation. I have also read our party's responses. I am still struggling to build up any interest in the whole process as it is now so clearly political rather than economic and the election elephant has pushed out the walls and the ceiling so it just can't be ignored. Some credit must be given to Alastair Darling for playing a terrible hand reasonably well, whatever you might think of the details. He has created ...
A few days ago, when talking about the then forthcoming Pre-Budget Report, I confidently predicted... I fully expect Alistair Darling to be fairly specific. After all, it makes no sense to be about to legislate for a halving of the deficit if you have no real plans to save money. If they don't, it's tantamout to ...
Well Alastair Darling gave his pre-budget report, I mean his pre-election budget, yesterday and said it was fair. Was it fair, my foot? And my foot's not very well at present, with a broken bone. Vince Cable said it was good for bankers but not good for real workers. Here's a link: Vince video:
A few things to report. I'd heard of problems at the Red Lion pub in Gatley and contacted our new police Inspector Steve Gilbertson. He was already on the case and I was very impressed to see a mobile police station in front of the pub on Tuesday morning. Great to see strong action. I was told the Tatton site was open at the front a couple of days ago, so I reported that both to the Council and direct to the site's owners And finally for this morning, I reported a small patch of graffiti that appeared on the ...
I was very pleased to see that Will Hancock, the Chief Executive of the South Central Ambulance service, has admitted that there's a problem with the number of ambulances we have in Hampshire. Back in September, the Chairman of the Trust said something very similar when I challenged him at their Annual General Meeting (as reported in the Echo): To achieve all our targets we need more ambulances, more crews and more money. Having the problem recognised from the top is a good first step. Now we need to see some action to fix it.
At the last Full Council meeting, I asked the Labour Cabinet Member for Housing when he had last reviewed the payment terms offered to leaseholders and how they compared to neighbouring boroughs.What I was interested in seeing was if Cllr Bevan had started to look at the Haringey Leaseholders Association (HLA) proposals for making the payment terms fairer. The HLA passed a motion at their AGM last month calling for two things - the interest free payment period to be extended to five years and for the interest free period to be available in part to those who cannot pay ...
My post about Episode 10 of the TV series Flash Forward has been doing rather well at getting traffic from search engines. In total 81 different search phrases have generated traffic to the page and the most popular of those has only produced 10% of the total search engine traffic. That's a pretty striking example of just how diverse people's search times frequently are these days. Part of that is people using increasingly long search phrases, which triggered Google to widen their search box in September. It's a reminder too of the dangers of thinking of search engine optimisation as ...
Good morning and welcome to Daily View. 10th December is the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death and the first awards of the Nobel Prize in 1901. Today we also sing happy birthday to Emily Dickinson and Ada Lovelace. The numerical elements of this post break down a little, as you'll see. Must-Read Blog Posts What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here are some posts that have caught the eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator: OnePlace to rule them all As we reported yesterday, the Audit Commission launched One Place, a website listing government inspection results of all local ...
Matthew Smith has advice at Freedom Central.
In today's "Courier" I make clear my view that the City Council should ensure that both the West End and Broughty Ferry should henceforth get a share of the Fairer Scotland Funding that goes to local community planning partnerships. At the moment, the West End and Ferry Wards are the only areas in Dundee failing to attract these funds, but the mainstreaming of the Fairer Scotland Fund from next April means that it is possible for the City Council to ensure all areas of Dundee benefit. You can read my comments in the Courier by clicking on the headline above ...
The TV presenter Esther Rantzen is trying to get elected as MP for Luton South during the next general election. I well remember her TV programme "That's Life!" from when I was growing up as a kid and after she started following me on Twitter I thought I would try and find out a bit more about her campaign and what is motivating her and she very kindly granted me an interview. My questions are in bold and Esther's answers are in italics: You expressed an interest in running as an independent anti-sleaze candidate in Luton South earlier this year ...
Writing in the Finacial Times this morning, Francesco Guerrera reports a remarkable speech made at West Point military academy by Jeffrey Immelt, the chief executive of General Electric: "We are at the end of a difficult generation of business leadership ... tough-mindedness, a good trait, was replaced by meanness and greed, both terrible traits," said Mr Immelt, who succeeded Jack Welch, one of the toughest leaders of his generation, at the helm of the US conglomerate. "Rewards became perverted. The richest people made the most mistakes with the least accountability."Immelt also said: "The bottom 25 per cent of the American ...
Yesterday, we had the pleasure of presenting Steven Glen of P7a at Ancrum Road Primary School with his prize for creating the best "fireworks safety sticker" in a competition involving the pupils from all Primary 7 classes across the 4 West End primary schools. Steven wins a studio tour of the Wave 102 studios as well as a book token and all class winners have also received book tokens. You can see Steven's winning entry and all the other entries at Pictured above are (back from left) - Robin Carstairs (West End Christmas Week pyrotechnician, webmaster and competition mastermind!) ...
Sarah Palin is writing in the Guardian today about why the man who kept out of the VP's office should not attend Copenhagen. As you would expect from a climate change denier such as the former Governor of Alaska it is full of holes. She talks about the 'serious cuts' that America is making, countering it with the increase being allowed by China and India. There is one issue here the cuts that Obama is making is only going to take the US down 3% on 1990 levels, which is actually behind where most of the rest of the developed ...
I am not sure whether Ed Balls got out of bed the wrong side yesterday morning, was just a bit "interviewed out", or whether he was...as it sounded...revealing his true colours - a bully who knows the cause is lost and hopes that by throwing his weight about on BBC radio, he can somehow influence media reporting. I caught the most bizarre interview about the PBR late yesterday afternoon. And as interesting as any analysis of the PBR might be...I think this one interview says more about the Labour party and its ministers than any learned tome on the substance ...
It's the most common response I get when I tell people that I am a Politics student and a political activist. "My vote doesn't really mean count". And to be fair, its a reasonable one. We have had a constant switch from Labour to Tories, red to blue, blue to red, for the last 87 years. And now, on the surface, they both appear to be exactly the same. However, one issue for students rises far above the rest, and that is student tuition fees. Currently standing at about £3,000 (although the Welsh Assembly will give most of us a ...
The Pre-Budget Review in the UK is a fiasco. The policy measures announced are either pointless- the change in the Bingo levy, for goodness sakes- or dangerous- the increase in National Insurance. There is much rhetoric about cuts, no actual delivery. Even the "Banker's Bonus Tax" will raise nothing, and, by the way, similar measures were abandoned in both France and Germany (neither exactly "the Bankers Friend"), because they were thought to be unconstitutional. Taxes are supposed to be levied on the general population, if you start levying specific taxes, how long can it be before they become arbitrary, populist ...
Today is Human Rights Day, chosen to honour the UN's adoption, 51 years back, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the first global proclamation of human rights. I can say no better than to quote the opening paragraph of the ...
The Comprehensive Area Assessment of Reading published yesterday by inspectors highlighted several areas of concern which my Lib Dem colleagues and I have been actively campaigning on. One of these is the high levels crime and high levels of public concern about crime (compared to other areas. We are pleased to see these issues highlighted in the report as local people have been telling us on the doorstep for ages that these problems are causing them concern. But it's not good enough just to note the findings of this latest report. Local Labour politicians and Thames Valley Police must work together even more closely to address these ...
I have just discovered that one of my YouTube videos has been featured on three foreign websites with the result that its viewing figures have gone up by over 5000 in the past 3 days. The video was shot on the Skybridge of the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur.I suspect the cause of the interest in very tall buildings has been sparked by the completion of the Burj Dubai Tower which has somewhere in
meet your intellectual superior
Message from the District Council Whilst the District Council is responsible for street name plates, the other signs we see on the public highway are mostly the responsibility of Hertfordshire Highways. The majority of the signs are there for a legitimate purpose but there are some which were erected to give advance warning of new changes in speed limit, road layout etc. The necessity to have these signs diminishes with time, and whilst a sign saying new road layout would be appropriate for several months after a change is made, it is not appropriate several years later. The District Council ...
A few days ago, we had an email from the members' secretary in Gateshead suggesting that anyone wishing to send seasonal greetings via email whilst making a donation to the mayor's charity instead of sending Xmas cards should send the email themselves. It was pointed out that the emails sent from the members' secretary actually appear as if they came from her, not the person wishing to send Xmas
Yesterday's blog was about communication and how important it is in management. It is also important for any walk of life. However there is one thing that is much more important than communication and that is what you wish to communicate. If you say something that is good but don't communicate it then you will get nowhere. If you say something bad but put a good spin on it then you might get somewhere but it wouldn't be good. So the message is all important. I was walking my dog Molly in a park yesterday where there is a sign ...
Egypt's Head of Antiquities, Dr Zahi Hawass, is a man on a mission: to try to persuade some of the world's leading museums to repatriate several of the greatest treasures of ancient Egypt — starting with the bust of Nefertiti, from Berlin. A man who courts publicity by his style — he is not known as ...
The Pre Budget Report is increasingly like a mini budget. No more so than this year, when its a good excuse for a pre election rally. A shame for people that instead of a genuine attack on undeserved privilege, we have a bonus tax that is so easy to evade I can already think of a few ways to do it. From a work perspective, I was disappointed that the CAB funding stream was halved from £10m to £5m. This funding stream is producing excellent results, providing extra opening hours for clients affected by the recession. This will now suffer. ...
I am calling on the SNP government to go further in improving safety at the Lochlands Junction of the A90 at Forfar. Transport Scotland have proposed closure of the central reservation of the A90/A932 due to the accidents which have occurred at that junction. It was good to see Angus Council's success in persuading the government of the need for improvements at Lochlands. Whilst closing the central reservation will ease the situation at Lochlands, it may simply move the problem elsewhere. There will be an impact from diverted traffic on local roads, such as the Westport junction, Westfield Loan, West ...
