On the Times Online website this evening..... The Labour party is gearing up for an early general election as a new Sunday Times poll reveals a narrowing of the Conservative lead. Party chiefs have ordered staff to be ready to fight an election any time from the new year amid growing Labour optimism that a Conservative victory ...
Director: Roland Emmerich Cast: John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, Thandie Newton, Danny Glover, Woody Harrelson, Tom McCarthy, Liam James, Morgan Lily, Zlatko Buric, Beatrice Rosen, Alexandre Haussmann, Philippe Haussmann, Johann Urb, John Billingsley, George Segal, Stephen McHattie, Patrick Bauchau, Jimi Mistry 2hr 38min – Rated 12A – Action/Drama/Science fiction – English 2012 is to my mind the latest in ...
There is an interesting article by Sociology Lens that refers to how porn is increasing entering the public domain due to portable technology. Thus, people are able to watch porn whilst walking to work, on the bus, and so forth. Whilst this may represent a blurring of the dichotomy between public and private, as porn ...
I'm delighted that the Penrith and Border Liberal Democrats have chosen me to be the next prospective MP for our area. It's a huge responsibility and we now have a maximum of just under six months (probably five) to polling day. That's lots of work, but I love the intensity of an election campaign. I love meeting people in our constituency. Now let's work it out, there are just under 70,000 voters to meet in (say) 150 days - so - if I can meet about 460 people a day then that's the job done! And there's the problem - ...
I finally relented this evening and put the X Factor final on. Boy do I wish I had not bothered. What a travesty. None of the final three acts were in any way outstanding and worthy of the attention that is being thrown at them from all quarters of the media, music and otherwise. Now call ...
Pleased Joe is in the final; Stacey was very gracious in defeat.
The coast was clear for a few hours today, so I had time to watch a film which I like; in my strange way – which is often not shared by the rest of my family ("In the loop" being a classic example of that genre). After a great deal of research on Rotten Tomatoes into the films showing at the new Newbury Vue, the Corn Exchange Screen One and Sky Box Office, I plumped for "Looking for Eric" on Sky. It had a "88% fresh" score on Rotten Tomatoes, which is very good. I was not disappointed. It is ...
For several years I've enjoyed William Shatner and Joe Jackson's rendition of Common People. It's a classic. Now "The Shat" brings all his thespian skills to reading from Sarah Palin's autobiography "Going Rogue" on the US Tonight Show. Then we are treated to Sarah Palin reading (yes, she can) from Shatner's autobiography. Quite staged. But quite a hoot too.
One of my favourite shows this autumn / fall season has been the second outing of Being Erica from CBC. Starring Erin Karpluk it has been a voyage of discovery as we watched Erica come to terms with events in her past when she was offered the chance to revisit them and — just possibly — make some changes. An interesting premise I'm sure you'll agree; what would you change about events in your past? Do you have lots of regrets, just a few or, indeed, none whatsoever? In watching the show one can't help pondering after each episode what ...
On show at BuzzFeed. Thanks to St Aiden to Abbey Manor.
People who want the luxury of flying to become limited to the privileged few often use the excuse of climate change to support their argument. No, I didn't mean that, since I'm not going to descend to Monbiot's level and use the cheap rhetorical trick of questioning other people's motives, as he does in today's Guardian. While I broadly agree with Monbiot's conclusion that it should be cheaper to take the train than to fly, or drive to your destination, I don't think that insulting people who don't agree with you, ignoring the benefits of air transport and ignoring the ...
Richard Taylor reports that Nick Hillman was chosen as the Conservative candidate for Cambridge this morning. Former Lib Dem Chamali Fernando was one of the others on the short list.
Yesterday, along with an officer from the City Council's City Development Department, I met with residents in Taylor's Lane regarding their concerns about access in the street, where difficulties causing by some parked cars resulted in the road being physically blocked recently. There's a balance to be struck in a street like Taylor's Lane between ensuring clear access and not losing valuable parking spaces in an area of high parking demand. I am pleased to say that we had a very constructive meeting and a minor revision to the waiting restrictions on the west side, south of the junction with ...
Further to my article yesterday about the Scottish Government's to allow the City Council deregulation from the Schools Premises (General Requirements and Standards) (Scotland) Regulations 1967 (as amended), that will allow the St Joseph's Primary, and Park Place Primary and Nursery Schools Project to go ahead on the former Logie Secondary site in Dundee, I received a very prompt response to my request for an early Board meeting from Director of Education Jim Collins today, that indicated : "I agree that we should try to organise a project board meeting as soon as possible. I shall be discussing that with ...
Janet & I had a nice meal at lunchtime at the Riverside Inn - although it has been a very cold day, it was lovely and the views across the Tay were particularly stunning (unlike my photographic skills!)
[IMG: http://www.wikio.co.uk] It's great to know that years of Tory and Labour Gov't have led a nice and liberal society. Check this out....
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the Spirit of London Awards Dad and I attended. This was the first year of the awards and they were set up to celebrate youth achievement across the capital. Stars such as Michael Caine, Lemar, Alexandra Burke and Diversity attended the event.The ceremony if now going to be shown on the Community Channel this Monday (14 December) at 9pm. The Community
Our near neighbours over King's Hedges Road are holding an open meeting to consider the impact of the proposals for widening the A14 and help form Orchard Park Community Council's response. I've checked and they are happy for King's Hedges residents to attend if they have views on the proposals. It is at 4pm on Friday 18th December at the Orchard Park Community Centre. The widening of the road will have major impact on the air quality, noise levels and congestion levels in the vicinity of the A14 itself, but also on the arterial roads and city centre. You can ...
Earlier today I promised that I would give my take on the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year shortlist. So here we go. First off here is the actual shortlist of 10 Jenson ButtonMark CavendishTom DaleyJessica EnnisRyan GiggsDavid HayePhillips IdowuAndy MurrayAndrew StraussBeth TweddleLet's start of the Football and Cricket, these two sports seem to have a right to have someone on the list. If you look at the full list of nominees from the press you may see why. Cricket had Stuart Broad, Andrew Flintoff and Charlotte Edwards nominated along with Strauss. Football had Kelly Smith, John Terry, Cristiano Ronaldo ...
Tony Blair claims he would have invaded Iraq even if he knew Saddam did not have weapons of mass destruction. He claims he would have deployed alternative arguments but the world was "better off" without him. Well, he would say that anyway, and I can't help but feel he is attempting to smooth the route to the Iraq inquiry which he will face in the new year. What we already have in response
I have just finished a "catch-up" session with the European Youth Forum, and we have a very good recap of the current status of the negotiations from Florent Baarsch. First, some jargon definitions. Nations are split at the moment (officially) into annexe I and non-annexe I; the annexe contains developed nations with the highest emissions, and ...
I am not a great one for certainties. I always tend to weigh up carefully when a difficult decision needs to be made. I prefer to think before I leap into an answer. However I tend to know when I am right when the two old parties of the Conservatives and Labour gang up together. Over the issue of Hillingdon maintaining the staus quo of a cabinet and leader rather than asking people properly what they want, the two old parties ganged up and said "NO WAY" "No" to letting people have a say in how they are governed and ...
Alistair Darling made a vain attempt today to deflect attention away from his failed Pre Budget Report by attempting to curry favour with teh electorate by annoucing that Biometric passports are probably as far as the government needs to go and there is no need for ID cards. Alistair Darling has signalled an end to the ...
Ok, some slight humour from Spider Plant in these troubled times of war. I came across this picture of President Barack Obama on the Times Online website this afternoon. Looks to me like a pose purely designed to sell mens clothing to blue collar workers. What do you think readers? Posted in General Rantings ...
A few days ago The Voice covered Yoosk's competition to find Britain's Best MP. The shortlisted MPs are all going to be asked to answer a set of questions taken from suggestions made by the public. As our post from Yoosk's Keith Halstead explained: If you would like to post your own question, please visit our site here, and click the 'ask' button in the panel at the bottom of the page (you will be asked to register with Yoosk which is easy, but will require an email address, username and password). Alternatively, you can add your question as a ...
The Chair of Aberavon & Liberal Democrats for the coming year is Helen Ceri Clarke. Frank Little assumes the Secretaryship. Other posts remain unchanged.
You would think, wouldn't you, after all the F1 posts I'd put you through detailing my obsession with Brawn GP during the course of the season, that their World Champion Driver Jenson Button would be my first choice for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award, due to take place at Sheffield Arena tomorrow night. Well he's not. I'm quite cross with myself for being so grumpy about it, but I just can't forgive the way he left Brawn. If Ross Brawn and Nick Fry had just laughed it off, then I might feel better, but it's clear that ...
I've no doubt that it was well intentioned people who supported the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and its provisions (in England and Wales) for people to be able to lay down instructions on what should happen if they are no longer able to make decisions for themselves. Having a clear legal framework in which people can specify who can make decisions about their health, welfare and financial affairs is a good idea. It needs to balance letting people decide what they want to happen and protecting vulnerable people against others misusing powers over their lives. Some bureaucracy and paperwork is ...
Hat-tip and sincere apologies to Master Shakespeare. In a thunderstorm, three witches [Hazel Blears MP, Jacqui Smith MP & Caroline Flint MP] decide to meet again on the heath "after the deed is done." Next, a captain reports to King Dunblair that Macbrown beat MacMajorwald in battle. Darling adds that the Thane of Cawdor was traitorous to them during the battle. The three witches confront Macbrown and Banqleson (the Dark Lord) on their way home from the battle. They predict that Macbrown will be King of Scotland, and Banqleson, though never King himself, will beget rulers. The witches leave and ...
HERTFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL TEMPORARY CLOSING OF CARLISLE AVENUE AND B651 STONECROSS, ST ALBANS NOTICE is given that the Hertfordshire County Council intend to make an Order under Section 14[1] of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, to prohibit all traffic from using the following lengths of roads, except for access:- 1. that length of Carlisle Avenue, St Albans from its junction with A1081 St Peters Street north westwards to its junction with Waverley Road, a distance of approximately 391 metres. The alternative route for traffic will be via:- Waverley Road, Townsend Drive, A1081 (Harpenden Road and St Peters Street) 2. that length ...
Conservative Home asks this very question and it is an interesting one given events in Australia where the leader Australian Liberals was ousted following their deal with Kevin Rudd over climate change. I am not convinced by some of the arguments; especially, the ones that pigeon-hole the 'Left'; "The British Left is united in its Euroenthusiasm ...
[IMG: http://www.wikio.co.uk] A dedicated British space agency, and budget, could be on the way. It will facilitate dealings with our international partners. We already contribute £270 million to ESA, so this is an obvious step to take. To those who say we should be concentrating on getting out of the recession and not "playing" in space, I would point out that we possess a highly successful space industry. This industry is second only to the USA and contributes £6.5 billion to the UK economy! Liberal Democrat chair of the Science and Technology Committee, Phil Willis MP, said the consultation was ...
The Germany Axel Springer group has this week launched an iPhone application for two national German newspapers, Bilt and Die Welt. For both there is a monthly subscription charge for access. The group is also intending to introduce charging more widely, with details due next week of how it will charge for local content on two of its regional titles. Aside from the interest in a very large but non-Murdoch media enterprise taking moves towards online charging, it's also notable that Axel Springer sees Google News as an ally rather than the enemy: [It's head of public affairs] Keese said ...
It's the Global Day of Climate Action, and demonstrators are marching from the city centre out to the conference centre. I know there will be students from Liverpool and Manchester with them, though whether we will get the chance to meet up I am not sure.
The programme announces: "A group of elves will sing a Christmas song to remind negotiators that plantations are not forests and that intact natural forests must be protected." I hope it works. But maybe the threat of torture would be more effective.
The agenda says that the plenary meeting of the Conference of Parties will resume at 10.00. Conference president Connie Hedegaard takes her seat at 10.10 and shuffles papers. Five minutes later she is called into a huddle of advisors to the side of the platform. She resumes her seat. A new huddle starts around her. By 10.35 she seems to be ready to start, but nothing happens. Is it time to scream "get on with it?" In the European Parliament members would have started a slow handclap half an hour ago. At 10.39 she gets business under way. She reminds ...
Turkey's Constitutional Court has banned the country's leading Kurdish political party, the Democratic Society Party (DTP), in a move that is a serious setback for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's policy of opening up to Turkey's Kurdish minority. The DTP elected 21 MPs at the last election, but its co-leader, Ahmed Turk, and 36 other ...
I am an extremely modest and infrequent "pocket money" better – just on the Grand National, Hennessey Gold Cup – that sort of thing. My tenner on three horses in the Hennessey this year, placed using what I thought was my offspring's flawless "Nice name" system, went straight into Stan James' retirement fund without touching the sides. Then, looking back at my past history wih Mr James, I realised I have never won anything off the man based on winning horseflesh. So I am now foraying into other areas. -Things with two legs rather than four. I might be safer ...
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Welcome to part ten of our "Introduction to blogging" guide for Liberal Democrat bloggers or would-be bloggers. It's appearing each Saturday between now and Christmas, with all the posts available via this page. The series will then be revised and collated into an e-book, so please do post up your comments as the series progresses. Today it's the turn of Jennie Rigg. So you've read all the foregoing articles, and you're still doubtful as to whether this blogging thing is for you? This is where I come in. I am by no means a typical Lib Dem Blogger, as you ...
... adding the final polish to my maiden post for Lib Dem Voice. * wibble * I'm ridiculously nervous about it. Hopefully it will go down all right. I've hit send on it now, and any misgivings I might have will have to just remain. I'm also, in light of this rather passive-aggressively worded comment, and because the subject keeps coming up, becoming resigned to the fact that people who aren't on DW or LJ (and maybe even some who are) don't know how many useful features are available to readers, and/or can't be bothered to click the links that ...
I must admit to becoming more and more confused by Esther Rantzen's 'Independent' candidacy for Luton South. For my sins I've recently started following her on Twitter and reading her website and, while I have to say she does her best to engage with her followers (up to a point, anyway), I couldn't honestly tell ...
Alright, the concept of a Valladares tartan is stretching the notion beyond breaking point. However, I am a Gordon on my mother's side, and we do have a tartan or, to be more accurate, a number of variations. For me, the most appropriate one is the weathered version. Very civil service, wouldn't you say?
I haven't had a chance to report back on my trip to the Gateway to the Highlands but, as I'm in the midst of a four hour train journey, this seems like a good time. Two weeks ago, as I wrote, we set off for Perth, en route to the inaugural St Andrew's Day dinner held by Ochil Liberal Democrats. My first question had been, "Where exactly is Ochil?", and the answer is Kinross-shire, Clackmannanshire and South Perthshire, centred on the Ochil Hills. Alright, that still isn't entirely helpful so, it's south of Perth, east of Dunfermline, west of Stirling ...
[IMG: mc] Commenting on the publication of a survey conducted on behalf of Leuchars Community Council which shows that the vast majority of residents in the area are opposed to the proposed pharmacy in Leuchars, North East Fife's MP Sir Menzies Campbell said: "This survey is yet another excellent example of just how strong the opposition in the area is to the proposed pharmacy in Leuchars. "There has been a strong local campaign in opposition and they must be commended for their efforts. We must all hope that the hard work from so many pays off and secures the future ...
[IMG: Ming Campbell] Commenting on the purchase of Hamilton Hall by the Kohler Company, local Member of Parliament Sir Menzies Campbell said: "This is an iconic building in a world famous location and it deserves a thorough restoration to bring it back to its former glory. "There are few locations in the world more prized by golf fans and I am sure that there will be no shortage of interest from those looking to live there. "It is important that the treatment of the building reflects the significance of its location and the dignity of the home of golf." ENDS ...
[IMG: ming-at-pittenweem] Local Member of Parliament Sir Menzies Campbell has highlighted the importance of the East Neuk's fishing industry in the House of Commons and called for greater local control of fishing resources to help "underpin the village-based industry". Sir Menzies, who takes every available opportunity to fight the corner of the village-based fishing industry such as that in Pittenweem, made the call during the annual Fisheries debate in the House of Commons. During the debate Sir Menzies said: "The [Conservative Fisheries Spokesman] has spent a commendable amount of time talking about the 10 metre and under sector. As I ...
[IMG: campbell] Commenting on the publication of the Scottish Government's white paper on Scotland's constitutional future, Sir Menzies Campbell MP said: "Alex Salmond wants full financial responsibility for Scotland. It is a great pity his party is not exercising responsibility on this St Andrew's Day. To waste money on an unwanted referendum is an act of unpardonable folly when so many Scots are anxious about their jobs and their mortgages. "In Mr Salmond have we found Scotland's own Nero, fiddling while Scotland burns?" ENDS
The headlines that greeted me this morning regarding Tony Blair's admission that he would have invaded Iraq anyway regardless of whether Saddam had weapons of mass destruction just made me feel sick. He was the former Prime Minister of Great Britain pretty much admitting once and for all that he was always going to invade ...
[IMG: mc01] Sir Menzies Campbell MP has called on Ofcom and BT to explain why North East Fife, along with other rural areas in Scotland, lags so far behind the rest of the UK in its broadband provision. Sir Menzies has written to the Chief Executive of Ofcom to get an assurance that commercial reasons will not stand in the way of Fife being given priority as the next generation of broadband internet services are rolled out. He has also written to the Chief Executive of BT to express his concern that, on average, only one third of homes in ...
I'm pretty sceptical of the chatter about Gordon Brown calling an early general election*. Here's one the reasons which hasn't been much talked about. Imagine we have an early election. Imagine too that Labour manages what is probably the limit of its hopes – largest party in a hung Parliament. (Witness Labour MPs going round telling Liberal Democrats how much they now love voting reform.) Labour then hangs on to power. But in May along comes a round of local elections, in which Labour will – almost certainly – suffer massive losses. If you've got experience of a no overall ...
[IMG: menzies-campbell-mp] The charitable foundation at the centre of a funding row with Lloyds TSB gave almost £1million to charities in Fife over the course of the last three years according to figures released to North East Fife MP Sir Menzies Campbell. Lloyds Banking Group has announced plans to cut the funding it gives to The Lloyds TSB Foundation for Scotland because of the financial crisis. Hundreds of charities across Scotland, including many in Fife, now face significant cuts in their funding. The Foundation has announced it is suspending its grant-making activities for the foreseeable future while it looks for ...
[IMG: ming-25] Sir Menzies Campbell MP has described the news from Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy of the proposed new powers for the Scottish Parliament as "the right way forward". Sir Menzies said: "In spite of SNP carping, there is no doubt that the Secretary of State for Scotland's statement is sensible and should be welcomed. "Donald Dewar wisely observed that devolution was not an event but a process and the Scottish people have made it consistently clear that they don't want independence but they do want enhanced powers and hence greater responsibility for the Scottish Parliament. This is the right ...
[IMG: Ming Campbell] Sir Menzies Campbell is calling for the 2012 Olympic torch to pass through St Andrews when it travels around the UK. In a letter to the Chair of the Olympic Organising Committee Lord Sebastian Coe and Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell, Sir Menzies stated the case for St Andrews to play a part in the Olympic torch's tour and asked for sympathetic consideration. In his letter Sir Menzies, who is not only the MP for North East Fife but a former Olympic athlete himself, said: "St Andrews's sporting tradition is known throughout the world and with golf coming ...
Any hope that the revamped Health Boards would see a new slimline administration pushing savings in management and bureaucracy towards front-line services have been dashed with the revelation in today's Western Mail that not a single administrator's job was lost when NHS Wales underwent a major reorganisation in October. Despite the number of Local Health Boards (LHBs) being reduced from 22 to seven, none of the highly paid chief executives and finance directors whose jobs have disappeared have been made redundant. Incredibly, the Government say that although they expect to see a reduction in management costs over time this was ...
Here's an interesting collection of photos of empty American shops and shopping malls, including the abandoned mall near Chicago where one of the chases in The Blues Brothers was filmed. Interestingly, it had been recently abandoned when the filming took place, and remains unused and undemolished today. (original link via Anton Vowl on Twitter) For more ...
The BBC have a good example this morning of what happens when a government tries too hard to spin what seems to be a good news story plucked from adversity to its own advantage and overreaches itself in the process. They reveal that the pre-Budget report pledge to raise the state pension will not apply to some parts of the pension - potentially saving the Treasury £350m in 2010/11 despite the fact that on Wednesday, Chancellor Alistair Darling said the "basic state pension" would rise by 2.5% in April. The pensions minister has admitted that the rise will not apply ...
Let's start with a health warning. My first-hand knowledge of Derby amounts to changing trains there once a decade ago. But the press are keen to help us find out more. Derby North qualifies as a three-way marginal (Lab 39.5%, Lib Dem 30.6% and Tories 25.9% according to Antony Wells). And not one but two national papers descended on the seat to find out how the public saw the PBR. Slightly bizarrely, they both report on the seat as a Conservative prospect. (It is number 130 on the Tory hit list, number 30 on the Liberal Democrat list of targets.) ...
More fuel was recently added to the ClimateGate scandal by the emails, from scientists at the University of East Anglia which is a top centre for climate research (one of many). These were seized upon by deniers and sceptics as evidence that the scientists have after all this time twisted data in order to convince the public that global warming exists. The leaked emails expressed frustration that scientists have had an inability to explain a temporary slowdown in warming and they did discussed ways to counter the campaigns of climate change deniers. You see they did this because it is ...
Following on from yesterday's examination of the polls, I said that the Tory vote is going to be about 40% come hell or high water. In those circumstances, there is no way Labour can win. But there still remains three possibilities. A Labour disaster, scoring around 20% in the polls A slightly smaller disaster, getting around 25% in ...
A very entertaining video of it all kicking off in the Irish parliament. I like the way that people gradually start standing up and shouting back with indignation and the fellow just carries on. You have to admire his sheer chutzpah. Who'd want to be the Speaker in the Irish Parliament, eh? Hat-tip: Peter Black
The picture above is the one being put out on the Christmas card of the Scottish first minister Alex Salmond. There's been a huge amount of contreversy over using the image of a saltire with many arguing that the image is too political for a Christmas card. I have to be honest, I don't really see the issue. I think the picture is really amazing and since when is using the national flag considered too political? I think it will be a sad day when that is the case.
Sometimes a book comes along that defies categories and recently Vitali Vitaliev has written a truly enthralling, unique book. (Full disclosure: Vitali is an old friend of mine). I have even- for the first time- reviewed the book for Amazon.com. Here is what I thought about the book: "Vitali Vitaliev is used to journeys, and in this book he takes us as a companion on a journey of time and space- dozens of countries over two decades- and a journey of the mind. He is a great companion. By turns wry, tragic and laugh-out-loud funny, in the end he delivers ...
Last month, the Economist labelled the Tories' shadow culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, one to watch ... a label which also clearly applies to his expenses claims, as the BBC reports: Shadow culture secretary Jeremy Hunt is to repay more than £9,500 after he was found to have breached expenses rules. The Standards and Privileges Committee criticised an arrangement under which the MP's agent stayed rent-free in his taxpayer subsidised home. ... If the MP "promptly" repaid half of his claims on the home over the period, it said he would face no further action. ... The matter was referred to ...
Key Stage 2 test results were published on 1st December 2009. Verified results show that Stockport pupils are ranked 10th out of 150 Local Authorities for the expected Level 4 scores in reading, writing and mathematics. Stockport did even better at the higher levels (Level 5 and above) in reading, writing and mathematics, and was 7th nationally. Analysis also shows that Stockport's Year 6 (11 year old) pupils made significant progress, and for the first time exceeded expectations based on the most challenging national comparisons.
Sat 12th
10:05
LDVideo ... Nick's PMQs, 'Unparliamentary language' and Jon Stewart's take on 'Climategate'
Welcome to the latest LDVideo instalment, featuring three of the most memorable video clips doing the rounds on the blogosphere. I missed covering this week's Prime Minister's Questions, so here to make up for it is Nick Clegg's contribution – taking to task (with some passion) Gordon Brown for Labour's failures to put fairness at the heart of their policies: The Irish Times has the background to this clip: 'A Green Party backbencher apologised in the Dáil this afternoon after he told a Labour TD to "fuck you" during heated exchanges on the Social Welfare Bill.' (Hat-tip: PlayPolitical.com). And, finally, ...
Tomorrow is the annual BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards, I'll be writing up my views on who I think deserves it most later. However, what I did see in the Grauniad today was an anti-sports personality of the year poll. In reverse order the result was Andre Agassi 1.7% for fessing up to using recreational drugs and admitting to hating tennis Martin Johnson 2.2% for failing to admit England play dull rugby (as an Irishman I say keep it up, we'll take another Grand Slam or at least an English scalp) Tiger Woods 2.3% for well those 'transgressions' ...
Sat 12th
09:55
London's Evening Standard says Jessica Ennis as BBC Sports Personality of the Year would be 'scrapin...
Passing through London today for several meeting before heading home on the train yesterday evening, I picked up the London Evening Standard which apparently now is free. Matthew Norman's piece in the paper on the BBC Sports Personality of the Year is generally pretty sniffy but then comes down in favour of the 'amazing' Jenson Button ...
I am currently heading to Westminster on the train. The purpose of this trip is to film some videos for Lib Dem Parliamentary candidates outside Parliament. Also to take their photos. The videos are for the websites. For most of them, this is an innovation so it will be interesting to see how they do.The climate change meeting yesterday was very interesting and it gave me some ideas I think we
There's no prize at stake - just the opportunity to prove you're wittier than any other LDV reader ... [IMG: nick clegg-baby-bournemouth] (Photograph: Martin Argles, The Guardian). Here's Nick meeting a future Lib Dem voter at the 2008 Bournemouth party conference - what do you think they might be saying to each other, or thinking about each other? The winner of last week's caption competition, The Nick 'n' Vince show, (according to The Voice's judging panel of one) - was Sesenco.
Steve Bell Cartoon from the Guardian 8 July 2003 "I would still have thought it right to remove him [Saddam Hussein]. I mean obviously you would have had to use and deploy different arguments, about the nature of the threat." So says Tony Blair, who has also admitted that the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) were only a convenient, in inaccurate, tool to bring about the goal of regime change. He was being interviewed by Ferm Britton, who has managed to get more candor out of the former Prime Minister that some of the hard pressed political operatives in news. ...
From this week's News Shopper: A Council spokesman said: "Papers published ahead of the standards committee did include a full list of councillors' allowances and claims for expenses. "However, these were not included on our website due to an oversight. We are grateful to the News Shopper for drawing this to our attention and details are now available ...
...or rather "last night a state police announcement nearly took my life" ...Let me explain. Thursday night.... approaching London from the east I ran into "Ultimate Chaos 2"...The blackwall tunnel shut, the Greenwich ferry was only running one ferry, the rotherhithe tunnel was chocker chocker block. East London gridlocked. So a 2 hour journey from my mums to Battersea took 6 hours rather than the usual 2. Ok stuff happens....but not this...... I had seen 3 or 4 police cars with sirens blazing as I approached the Limehouse tunnel - listening to a rather engaging programme on radio 4 about ...
Sir Richard Dannatt was on the panel of Question Time on Thursday and a question did come up about him being in the payroll of the Conservative Party whilst serving in the army. His defence was that he had acted completely honourably and only given advice once he had left the army. Paddy Ashdown had a very good night. He was the expert on most matters during the programme and in particular he had the ideas for Afghanistan. There may be some defence for Sir Richard. There is no defence for the Conservative Party who put him in an uncomfortable ...
Chanukah is the Jewish Festival of Lights, and tradition dictates that even the poorest person must light Chanukah lights. The concept of charity (tzedakah) requires folk to help the recipient in the most dignified manner possible, so the charming custom of giving "Chanukah Gelt" has arisen so that none may be without light. So ah freilichin und lichtige Chanukah far alle.
