Went to Xmas drinks with the Trustees and others involved in New Deal of the Mind. For anyone who doesn't know what this is - is it the result of Martin Bright's original article in the New Statesman titled 'New Deal of the Mind' which laid out a brilliant vision for creating work or training for an army of young people so that rather than become a lost generation without jobs or hope in this dreadful recession - they would be charged with projects throughout the land taking living histories, recording the recession - and many other such programs. The ...
Chris Huhne asks the question on Liberal Democrat Voice.
In one of my favourite all-time books Arthur Koestler's The Sleepwalkers, there is, amongst much else, the story of Tycho Brahe's nose. How whilst still a student, Brahe lost part of his nose in a duel. For the rest of his life, he was said to have worn a realistic replacement made of silver and gold, using a paste to keep it attached. Brahe was important in the development of modern astronomy and our understanding of the heliocentric universe, without which I suppose my previous posting may not have happened.
Brechin recently secured Town Centre Regeneration funding (TCRF) from the Scottish Government. As widely reported, Brechin has secured £1.8m for plans to improve the High Street. Brechin's success is great news for the town and could not come at a more crucial time for Brechin. Visiting the High Street, and seeing how many shops have closed in recent years, it is a worry that Brechin could lose its heart. Thankfully, these funds can help Brechin secure its own future. The loss of Woolworths was a big blow for Brechin. Winning this funding will help Brechin attract businesses back to the ...
The US government and Americans in general come in for a lot of grief, much of it rightly so, but it is easy to forget the wonderful achievements of that country and its contributions to so many spheres of human activity. I've just finished talking to ...
Couldn't resist a picture of a couple of this years calves! These two are females and will hopefully be sold for breeding. Available after Christmas to anyone with suitable facilities..................!
Vince's wife, Rachel, keeps Dexter cattle in the New Forest. Here are my Dexters along with "Chunky Boy", a visiting bull. Dexters are a traditional breed and are hardy enough to winter outside. I normally feed them with large bales of sileage but the picture shows them having a couple of small bales. The big bales are all in a big stack and my tractor isn't big enough to safely shake them free. I've got a neighbour coming round with his large Ford tractor to dislodge some. That's the great thing about farming in this area, everyone helps everyone out. ...
Few local party fundraisers attract three members of the House of Lords, even when one of them is the host, but (Lord) Chris and (Lady) Ann Rennard opened their house in Stockwell this evening for a soirée in honour of Vauxhall's LibDem PPC, Caroline Pidgeon, GLAM, at which the star attraction was former Liberal Democrat leader ...
I was a bit harsh on the Stylish ff extension earlier. I mean, for starters it has made Lib Dem Act bearable to look at... But what is this Stylish thing? I hear you cry. Well, if you are using Firefox, you can install Stylish and use it to make websites with colour schemes which you don't like, or which give you a headache, or which you can't read due to vision impairment... You can use it to make them better. Let's use Lib Dem Act as an example. Here is what it looks like in it's natural form: Now, ...
The whole argument about "non-doms" is astonishing. People who are either member of our Parliament (in the Lords) or are seeking to become MPs who are registered for tax in another Country. Or to put it another way, people elected or appointed to decide on taxation levels for us, spending requirements for our services and to oversee the process of tax collection - from us - choose to be subject to somebody else's tax regime and avoid paying the taxes about which they are voting. Whatever party these non-doms are in, it smacks of the view that only the "little ...
Labour will lose seats at the next election (whether that will be enough to lose the reins of government or not is another question) and following from that there will invariably be soul-searching and an inquest. Many voices will doubtless be raised and amoung them it is to be hoped that the newly mewing one ...
I was selected in the afternoon, then attended a dinner with Vince Cable and Rachel in the evening. It was inspiring to hear Vince tell us a little about his life in politics and his thoughts about the banking crisis, Vince is an economist in another life, but has the knack of putting things very simply for the non economists. i.e. If you borrow money, you eventually have to pay it back. Sounds simple? Many very "clever" people convinced us that it wasn't so, for a number of years, until the house of cards came tumbling down. The picture shows ...
There was great excitement at today's meeting of the Recreation committee of Egglescliffe & Eaglescliffe council. The meeting was held at Stirling House in Thornaby, home of the Stockton council officers who deal with parks and green spaces. Today was the day that the tenders for work on St Margaret's play area were to be discussed. Out of 11 initial expressions of interest 6 designs had been
If you click on the headline above or go to http://tinyurl.com/xmaswinner, you can download the list of winners in the West End Christmas Week shoppers' prize draw. We had a huge volume of entries this year and we are very grateful to the many West End shops who participated by donating prize draw gifts.
Tonight's Development Quality Committee at the City Council was a brief meeting - and the item on agreeing to direct action to tidy up the grounds of the St Peter McCheyne Memorial Church (on the agenda following my request for enforcement action as a result of residents' requests to have the grounds tidied up) - did not have to be dealt with because the owner had the grounds tidied in the past few days. See my earlier item at : http://tiny.cc/mccheynetidied. I am most grateful to the City Council's Planning Enforcement Officer, whose efforts has resulted in a tidied area ...
On Wednesday, I visited Montrose Harbour with Terry Wood of the Harbour Board and Montrose Liberal Democrat Cllr David May. We toured the properties surrounding the northern part of the harbour, many of which house derelict, empty buildings. These are a sad reminder of businesses lost to the area. However, they provide a real opportunity to improve the harbour's infrastructure and provide space to expand for future development. [IMG: Sanjay Samani with Terry Wood, Montrose Harbour Board and Cllr David May] The future development plans for Montrose Harbour are excellent, and I will be supporting them in any way I ...
Was Ryan Giggs a worthy winner of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year? It wasn't a ridiculous result, as in the years when Zara Phillips and, even more, Princess Anne won, but it still seemed a strange decision to me. Giggs has been a stalwart member of a hugely successful side, but then so have Paul Scholes and Gary Neville. No one has ever suggested that they should be shortlisted for the award. My impression is that while Giggs has been a very good player, he never became the great - the next George Best or Bobby Charlton - ...
BA, whose average staff costs are apparently nearly double those of any other UK airline, are faced with 12 days of strikes thanks to the UNITE union's decision to oppose reforms that would give BA a fighting chance of surviving the recession and actually staying in business. It seems that Turkeys really do vote for Christmas.
The New Economics Foundation bring disrepute on New things, Economics, Foundations and think-tanks with the self-evident rubbish they dare to call 'research'. It even brings disrepute upon perfectly valid attempts to find fairer ways of paying people
It's the time of year when people who aren't religious often find their way into church – perhaps to buy charity Christmas cards, or for a carol service. Last night I was in the choir at St Mary Islington for our carols by candlelight, and it was lovely to see some unfamiliar faces there. But ...
Clearly, the House of Lords retains a sense of humour, as today's exchange indicates; Asked By Baroness Deech To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will make proposals relating to the titles used by the husbands of women members of the House of Lords. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Justice (Lord Bach): My Lords, the Government have no plans to alter the existing arrangements in relation to the use of courtesy titles or styles for the husbands of women Members of the House of Lords. Baroness Deech: I thank the Minister for his Answer, albeit that it was ...
Good to see that West Port's Christmas Tree is now in place and the lights are on!
LISA NORTHOVER IS LIB DEM PARLIAMENTARY CANDIDATE FOR BOURNEMOUTH EAST Bournemouth Liberal Democrats have selected local campaigner Lisa Northover as the Prospective Parliamentary Candidate (PPC) for the Bournemouth East constituency in next years General Election. Councillor Northover (née Wilton) was brought up in Southbourne and educated locally at St Katharine's and then St Peters
South Glos Council have announced plans to introduce waiting restrictions on roads around their new Badminton Road Council offices. Claire Young and other local Councillors recently met officers to discuss plans to tackle the impact on traffic of the new offices. With just over 300 parking spaces for around 700 desks, there are worries that employees will park on local roads despite attempts to encourage them to use other forms of transport. The Council's answer to this is to introduce parking restrictions and they want to hear your views now. For more information and to make comments, go to the ...
David Cameron, yesterday, on Sky News: I think it time to pass a law that says that if you want to be in the Houses of Parliament, if you want to be a legislator, you need to be or be treated as a full UK taxpayer." And quite right, too. But what has prompted the Tories' Damascene conversion? After all, they had the opportunity earlier this year to vote for exactly what Mr Cameron is now, belatedly and under media pressure, calling for. Lord (Matthew) Oakeshott's House of Lords (Members' Taxation Status) Bill had its second reading on 23 January ...
Good to see that Culverhill Special School, Kelston Close, Yate has received an "outstanding" OFSTED report, with particular achievements in maths amd sports. More detail from the Gazette here.
I'd thought that local SNP candidate Tam Smith would have learnt his lesson and stopped taking attributed quotes to other SNP spokespeople as his own. Sadly I see I've been proved wrong this time he is Michael Matheson MSP on the health committee. However, the point that Tam raised about how the National Insurance hike will affect the NHS is valid one. As I blogged during and after last week's pre-budget report the pre-budget was full of regressive rather than progressive tax measures. Both the return of VAT to 17.5% and the increase of National insurance are leading to a ...
A few years ago I got TfL to correct the 153 bus stop which had renamed Hemingford Road as Hemmingford. Surely it's not impossible to get placenames right when you are the main transport body for the city! Now they've done it again. I was using the TfL journey planner to plot a route to the ...
Shocking stats that nearly 40,000 children have been fined, cautioned, or taken to court for alcohol-related offences in the last five years. That's nearly one every hour! The number has increased by over a quarter in that period, according ...
Major concerns about the costs quoted for relocating Southport Library into the Market Hall have really begun to concern me. I told the press this week:, 'Conservative and Labour councillors have been claiming the cost of the temporary relocation would be £500,000 - which they say is not affordable.' However I believe that the true cost is likely to be very much lower. "We have thoroughly checked the figures and reckon that the net cost of the temporary relocation is likely to be in the range NIL to £100,000 - nowhere near the £500,000 claimed," "Some of the costs have ...
We are now five (make that four by the end) days from a Global Agreement on Climate Change (touch wood). Today has been very busy, so let me give you a recap of what happened. Bright and Early UK press conference Well done boys. The British delegation appear to be serious about this (in spite of the ...
News has just come through that the Council's Strategic Planning Committee has rejected an application that formed the basis of one of the options for the new Isles of Scilly link project. The application would have meant the in-filling of Battery Rocks, the loss of the beach there and the use by many large lorries of the newly claimed land to off-load freight for the Islands. This was hugely unpopular with many local residents who wanted to see a split scheme with passengers using the harbour and a freight terminal at an out of town site. At earlier meetings, the ...
After a quiet christmas for bloggers and blogging we all know that we can expect the bloggersphere to go mad during the general election campaigning period upto March or May. At the moment the Tory bloggers are at the top and will be for the foreseeable future. However I think this may change if the Conservatives win the general election. It won't be instant just a gentle drifting away to the independent/non-partisan blogs that are critical of the government (i.e. a Conservative government). The problem for the Tory blogger is that there will be a settling in period, an uninteresting ...
LabourList has this rather appalling post by Luke Bozier who seems to have mistaken the traditional festive season emblem as not being doves and partridges but in fact hawks. Bozier's cause for concern is a report in The Times which claims to have received confidential information showing that Iran has plans to test a neutron initiator. Now, regardless ...
It appears that the Conservative Association to which Cornwall Council Leader Alex Robertson belongs has been "duping" a charity choir into taking part in a Christmas carol concert to raise money for party funds as well as charity. The Western Morning News has the full story. In essence, St Ives Conservatives invited the Helston Chamber Choir to sing at an event to raise money for the charity St Julia's Hospice. They didn't tell the choir that they would also be raising money for the Tory Party. The event didn't happen in the end and the organiser has promised to pay ...
Former Director of Public Prosecutions, Ken Macdonald, has written a searing indictment of Tony Blair's actions on Iraq in the The Times. It perhaps loses something in its slightly overwrought language, when you read the whole piece (and what the DPP has to do with Foreign policy? – answers on a postcard, please), but there are some very powerful punches: The degree of deceit involved in our decision to go to war on Iraq becomes steadily clearer. This was a foreign policy disgrace of epic proportions and playing footsie on Sunday morning television does nothing to repair the damage. It ...
The Welsh Liberal Democrat Shadow Minister for the Economy and Transport, Jenny Randerson has accused the Deputy First Minister of "complacent in-action" after he admitted he had made virtually no attempts to limit hikes in the toll prices facing businesses and people using the Severn Bridge. In a staggering series of Written Answers to Ms Randerson, Ieuan Wyn Jones admitted: Neither he nor his officials have had any discussions with the company operating the Severn Bridge about toll rates for next year. He has not sought any advice from businesses on the effect of tolls on the Severn Bridge. He ...
Last week Wokingham was again told its safeguarding service was "poor" and was lumped together with the likes of Haringey in the bottom 9 councils in the country for child protection. This follows on from last year's inspection, that came to a similar conclusion. Just so you are clear, an organisation that is judged poor is (to use Ofsted's exact words)An organisation that does not meet minimum requirements That does not mean that nothing has improved. But it does mean that Ofsted don't think there has been enough improvement. And they still have concerns over safeguarding. There is a whole ...
Residents in Ribble Valley are advised of changes to recycling and refuse collection times over the festive period. The changes are: Normal collection date (rearranged date) - December 21 (19), 22 (21), 23 (22), 24 (23), 25 (24), January 1 (2). There will be no refuse collections on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day, and no green waste collection during the week beginning Monday, December 28. Refuse will be collected as normal on December 28, 29, 30 and 31. Christmas trees will be collected during the week beginning Monday, January 11. Trees should be chopped up and placed ...
The Chairman of Cornwall Council has a budget of £16,000 per year just for taxis. This is on top of her basic and special allowances and mileage allowance. I appreciate the role that the Council Chairman does - attending many events and representing the Council - but Council taxpayers look set to be asked to fork out for a tax rise double the rate of inflation next year thanks to the Conservatives. Surely the Chairman's taxi bill is not the highest priority and could be cut. Let's be clear, the Chairman has a car and receives a mileage allowance of ...
Lib Dem shadow home secretary Chris Huhne has an article in today's Times noting that how much it costs the Treasury to borrow money depends on three ratings agencies ... and asks the crucial question: are they fit to wield this power? Chris's credential for writing an article outside his brief? Well, he founded the sovereign group at Fitch Ratings, and was group managing director. Here's an excerpt: Last week Moody's — one of the big three international ratings agencies — warned that the UK's top bond rating would be under threat if Britain failed to sort out its public ...
Cornwall's Conservatives are planning to scrap weekly rubbish collections in Launceston. The proposal, hidden in the Council's budget book, will come into force in two years time. I, and my Lib Dem colleagues, will campaign to save weekly collections. Residents are rightly concerned that this will have a significant impact, particularly on the tourist trade and will lead to problems with vermin and with smells. The idea of allowing rubbish to pile up in the streets for up to two weeks at a time is horrendous. Liberal Democrats guaranteed to retain weekly rubbish collections in our manifesto and will fight ...
Cllr Andrew Sawdon has been supporting local residents who are furious at a recent order issued by Lambeth Council's housing company, Lambeth Living, to remove window boxes because they were deemed a "fire hazard". This is despite the council running an annual Lambeth in Bloom competition to give a prize to the best window box! As local councillors, we fully support making sure corridors and stairwells on estates are free of clutter and other obstructions. But where window boxes are clearly not causing an obstruction they should be allowed to stay and we very much hope that the council will ...
I blogged yesterday about the Journal being in touch to follow up some questions I had raised at Council last week. Well, two main articles today in the Journal and Evening Chronicle. It looks from the website (I am in London at the moment so I'm reading material on line) that the Chronicle coverage of the slow progress on the Gateshead Get Carter Multi Storey car park demolition was the main
John Humphrys was sounding pleased with himself on the Today Programme the other day. Nothing unusual there, you might say. He was attempting to skewer a minister because civil service managers at the UK Border Agency were being paid a bonus. At first hearing it seemed as though they were each getting in excess of £300,000 for doing their own job. It was only on careful hearing that it became apparent that the figure was the total bonus pool and that the bonuses amounted to little more than £10,000 a piece. The justification for the payments was that they were ...
One of the best interviews of this year in my opinion.
ThisIsCornwall.co.uk has the story: THE Conservatives in Cornwall have been accused of "duping" a charity choir into taking part in a Christmas carol concert to raise money for party funds as well as charity. Members of Helston Chamber Choir were delighted when they were invited to sing at the festive event next week, believing it was in aid of St Julia's Hospice, part of Cornwall Hospice Care, alone. However, when promised publicity material and tickets failed to materialise, and then e-mails went unanswered, the choir investigated further - only to find the concert was also raising cash for the Tories ...
I've joined with Dan Rogerson in a campaign to save the provision of free newspapers in libraries across the county. The Conservative led administration at County Hall has decided to cut this service from January 1st. The savings will be tiny but the effect on some of the least well off local residents will be immense. At present, Launceston Library has the Western Morning News, Times and Daily Mail on the five days a week they are open. (The Mail wouldn't necessarily be my choice of newspaper, but there you go). They also carry the weekly papers (which are not ...
It used to be said that politics was "show business for ugly people", but if reports of Simon Cowell's latest wheeze are true, then maybe we aren't too far away from the point at which politics simply becomes "show business". Cowell indulged in a brainstorming session during an interview with BBC Newsnight in which he basically ...
Nearly 40,000 children have been fined, cautioned or taken to court for alcohol-related offences in the last five years. The number has increased by over a quarter in that period, according to research by the Liberal Democrats. The key points are: · 39,714 people aged under 18 were fined, cautioned or taken to court for alcohol related offences between 2003 and 2007 · This includes 124 children aged 10 to 12 and 6,111 aged 13 to 15 · The number of under-18s fined, cautioned or taken to court for alcohol related offences has increased by 28.4% from 6,764 in 2003 ...
In my weaker moments I have been known to order an artery-congealing lunchtime snack from one of the two branches of Gregg's that inexplicably have enough pulling-power to both exist simultaneously within yards of each other in Ashton-under-Lyne town centre, where I work. Today was one such day, when I made a "Jack and the beanstalk" type trading decision, and swapped my hard-earned cash for a Steak Bake. The problem is, Gregg's pasties lurch between being hotter than the sun, and colder than an Arctic morning. There is no middle ground between a tongue-burning scald-a-thon, and chucking 95% of it ...
In the Times yesterday, Nick Clegg had an article in the paper's Think Tank strand arguing that, what he termed, 'the usual suspects' are preventing reform in politics and banking. Here's an excerpt: For two professions, 2009 has been a shameful year: politicians and bankers. Both had their worst vices and darkest secrets exposed to public view. Such is the disdain in which these two groups are now held, any rational observer would expect significant consequences: radical reform driven through by public outrage. And yet, as 2009 draws to a close, the stark truth is that both politicians and bankers ...
I think that Stylish is simultaneously the best and most frustrating firefox extension there is. It allows you to change the colour scheme of any website to one which is more comfortable to your eyes, and judging by the number of dark themes available, I'm not the only person who likes dark themes. Where is the frustration, then? Well, the frustration is mostly caused by the fact that there are two types of style - global, which affect EVERY website, and site-specific, which affect only specific sites - but no in-between state. There is no way of having a global ...
One of the now hopefully annual highlights in NW3 is the return of the donkeys to Whitestone Pond. It's only the second year but it's a great start of a restored tradition. Cllr Flick Rea (Culture @ Camden) was there to welcome them and also see the queue of local children. It's amazing how many people mention the donkey rides as thing of the past - pass on the news that at least once a year we have them back... The tradition of donkey rides here dates back to the 1820's and froma later victorian era when the local area ...
An intriguing snippet from Cambridge News: The Lib Dems plan to announce their candidate in the middle of January, with speculation mounting that broadcaster/comic Sandi Toksvig might stand. There are also calls among the city's Lib Dems for the former Girton College student to take over from Mr Howarth, according to party sources.
"It is absolutely freezing here."
Well phew, I've just listened to Chris Huhne on the 'Listen to us, aren't we clever' programme on Radio 4 following the prompting from 'Liberal Revolution'. What an interview and what a guy! My primary feeling on listening was to want to pull Huhne away with the words 'he's not worth it' as he absolutely hammered Philip Hammond, the Tories' latest fall guy, over the non dom status of Lord Ashcroft and over Tory refusal to back LD proposals in Parliament to tidy this area up. If this had been a boxing match the referee would have called it off ...
The results of the all the votes from this years X-Factor have been released and are below. The bits that jump out are that Joe topped the votes for the last four weeks, Olly would have gone out on the seventh show if it was decided by votes and not the judges, John & Edward never got more than 10% of the vote but were never last (going out when the judges saved Olly) and poor Rachel Adedeji who topped the voting on Show 3 but then went out the very next week.
The African countries have walked out of the Copenhagen talks because of the lack of movement from the industrialised countries to take responsible action now, beyond the Kyoto measures. The formal talks are currently therefore in suspension. The African nations are amongst those that are liable to feel the first major effects of any catastrophic climatic change. That is if they are already not suffering from this. Around 200 activists in the hall started to shout "We Stand for Africa - Kyoto Targets now" when news of the African unrest that the Danes hosting the summit were about t0 sideline ...
I wanted to share this little poem that I received from a constituent... Dear Mr Rennie Please make an appeal Go go to Gordon Secure the best deal For all of the people Who you represent We cannae hae less than 30 percent. On Copenhagen The Future depends All eyes are all watching The World is agog Turn back the tide We're fed up with smog Cut the emissions We all can breathe Free! Today is the Future Our World's destiny
If you want my review of flawed Libertarian account of the crisis "Financial Fiasco", you'll have to buy the FT for now.
I was worried that the BBC would fail to find the third narrative on the non-dom issue. No need to worry on this one – that Lib Dem warrior Chris Huhne came to the rescue – he sees a goal, he shoots, he scores. What a wonderful way to wake up – at the start of ...
A lot of my casework over the last eight years has been dealing with objections to planning applications. Maybe not the most glamorous part of the job, but it's an area that causes a great deal of concern and frustration to local residents. When a bad proposal is made, they contact me and get help objecting - sometimes written, sometimes in person at a decision-making meeting - and on big developments we can generate a lot of extra comments from people who might be affected. So we make sure that residents' voices are heard and put all our objections as ...
The Digital Economy Bill currently going through Parliament would give Peter Mandelson huge powers to rewrite the country's copyright laws in future – and all without much in the way of Parliamentary scrutiny or checks and balances. But Liberal Democrat peer Tim Clement-Jones has tabled an amendment to the Digital Economy Bill to delete the controversial Clause 17. He's said: This clause would give the Government carte-blanche to change all copyright law relating to the internet as and when they please. Such powers are unnecessary and over-reaching and we have tabled an amendment to delete Clause 17. Good news. Whilst ...
Commenting on David Cameron's plans to bar people who do not pay full UK tax from Parliament and the Government, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Huhne said: "David Cameron's plan is a sham. The super rich like Lord Ashcroft, Zac Goldsmith or Labour's Lord Paul can be fully resident for tax purposes in the UK, but if they are able to opt for non-dom status they will not pay a penny in UK tax on their main fortune outside Britain. "David Cameron has still failed to answer the key question: is Lord Ashcroft a non-dom, yes or no? If ...
Zac Goldsmith, even on the most conservative estimates, has avoided vast amounts of British tax by deploying the non-dom tax dodge," said the Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary. Commenting on David Cameron's plans to bar people who do not pay full UK tax from Parliament and the Government, Chris Huhne said: "David Cameron's plan is a sham. ...
It's coming up to sponsor time of the month. Anyone want to give me some money? Go on, you know you want to. It's also coming up to my birthday - the 27th. Anyone fancy visiting? I'll be working 12-8, but then am planning on having a curry and getting pissed. We will have one spare double bed, Holly's den, one spare mattress on the floor, and two sofas available for people to crash on. I realise that it's an inconvenient time to have a birthday, but think of it as an opportunity to escape from the crashing boredom of ...
Commenting on Ed Balls' announcement that the Government is to water down plans on vetting and barring, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for Bury South, Vic D'Albert said: "At last the Government has injected some common sense into this issue. This u-turn is long overdue. The Governments heavy-handed approach to rules on parental vetting were likely to deny opportunities to young people, damaging extra curricular activities at schools and actually harm parental involvement with their children, rather than significantly improve their safety. "There is still some concern however that this U-turn doesn't go far enough. "The existing daft regulations on child ...
I was at the actual love letters to the future event last night in Copenhagen and we saw this video in between acts on the vega club's projection / sound system – it was totally awesome. Imagine this video, in uber high quality, so loud the bass makes your chest vibrate and with strobes going ...
I see on the news this morning, that a new survey by Consumer Focus is showing that half of those 'sorry you were out' slips delivered by posties because things are too big to get through our letterboxes, were shoved through the door when people were in. The response by the Royal Mail is to repeat the mantra that this is against company policy and that any post person found sticking these notes through the door without ringing - and judging from the report - without even carrying the parcel to the door - will be disciplined. So - if ...
While this blog does not condone physical violence towards elected politicians, one can't help but feel that what happened in Milan last night was something of an exception. Face it, at the bottom of your hearts, how many of you would have liked to have landed one on Berlusconi's oily, grinning kite? In true Italian style, the attacker, one Massimo Tartaglia, appears to have employed the "Bambino", as used with great effect by Bud Spencer in all those cheapo 70s comedy spaghetti westerns he made with Terence Hill. Chalk one up to muscular left-liberalism, and hey, let's watch the film ...
OK, I'll admit it. I'm a fan of The X Factor. But I am in the esteemed company of maybe 15m other people. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. The X Factor is one of life's guilty pleasures for me. I generally dislike reality TV, finding it too corny and too forced because of the ...
Mornin' all, welcome to Monday, and to the beginning of the last full working week before Christmas. What other things happened on this day in history, you ask? Well, 54 years ago, Hugh Gaitskell was elected leader of the Labour party, succeeding Clement Attlee, and six years ago Saddam Hussein was captured. But enough of the past, and on to the present ... 2 Must-Read Blog-Posts A couple of weeks ago, Iain Dale was casually dismissing the revelations that trustafarian Tory millionaire candidate Zac Goldsmith has been avoiding tax by registering for non-dom status: "lots of sanctimonious guff," he told ...
My Copenhagen blog has been quite positive and cheerful I think. I've spent a week in the company of many thousands of people who want to see an ambitious deal realised, and many thousands more - researchers, industry representatives, and environmentalists - who are confident that the answers exist to curb dangerous climate change and would like the politicians to put in place the instruments to realise them. The lower tier negotiators I have talked to have been making progress on their various briefs, and consensus is being secured about huge chunks of text of a final agreement. I would ...
Jargon may be useful shorthand but it also obscures understanding. It's hard to keep track of all the acronyms used in climate change negotiations, and even harder when they get changed. COP is easy to understand. COP15 at Copenhagen is the 15th Conference of the Parties (signatories) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Early COPs drew up the Kyoto Protocol, a legal commitment to take various actions to curb global warming. But not all parties ratified it - notably the USA - so at COPs there are parallel sessions of the MOPs, the Members of the Parties ...
The climate change conference is not in session today. In any case it's the day when I have to head for home, regretting not being able to follow the negotiations through to their conclusion but not sorry at avoiding the frustrations of all those second-week closed doors. I managed to meet up with the Liverpool and Manchester students in the Oxfam contingent of Saturday's protest march. I missed the start, and didn't know the route, but it was easy enough to track it, catch up and overtake by keeping an eye on the helicopters hovering in the sky. Marches march ...
I have blogged about the Gary McKinnon case before and support the campaign to get him tried in the UK. There is a protest outside the Home Office tomorrow from midday organised by the "Free Gary" campaign which is seeking to have him tried in this country. The more people who attend this, the more the government is likely to sit up and take notice of how lots of people in this country feel about this case.
Having spent over 25 years as an elected representative I am well aware of the problems of driving through efficiency initiatives in the public sector. The problem is that unless you are very careful and keep on top of it constantly, the bureaucracy expands to fill any available space. Thus if you save money in one area, before you know it that cash is being eaten up elsewhere and in most cases it is not on anything productive. The Government appears to have run headlong into this phenomenon if this article in yesterday's Independent is any guide. They report that ...
Cross-posted from Dave Press, where I guest posted last week: It's frequently costly. It almost always achieves little. It lets people tick the "use the internet to engage with the public" box without actually achieving much. I am, of course, talking about webcasting council meetings. The idea has honourable roots. But the world has moved on. Both print and broadcast media have steadily moved away from providing lengthy, verbatim reporting of what goes on in elected bodies. That's despite such coverage being very cheap and easy to produce. Stick a journalist in front of the Parliamentary TV channel, give them ...
If the Liberal Democrats, as Chris Huhne suggested on Today, put forward an amendment to the Constitutional Renewal Bill to the effect that all Legislators should be fully domicile in the UK, wouldn't it be wise for the Government to support it? Then, if the Tories oppose it it shows them as the hypocrites that they ...
[IMG: Rotary Logo] My thanks to Gatley & District Rotary Club, who kindly invited me to speak to them last Wednesday - I even got a meal and a drink into the bargain, which can't be bad. The Rotary Club do a lot of good work. It's 1.2 million members wordwide are currently raising money to tackle polio in the developing world (Bill Gates will donate three hundred million if they can match it with their own fundraising). Locally, the Rotarians do everything from providing the Santa for the Walter Stansby Memorial Park to funding a special garden for the ...
[IMG: http://www.wikio.co.uk] Commenting on today's Pre-Budget Report, Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor, Vince Cable said: What we needed was a national economic plan but what we got was a weak party manifesto. There has never been a deficit like this and we need a sensible and coherent plan for dealing with it. The Chancellor has ducked the hard choices on spending and cuts. Instead of facing up to reality he has chosen to move the goal posts by relying on fanciful growth forecasts. He could have used this Budget to make the tax system fairer. But instead people on middle incomes ...
There is a very lengthy letter in this morning's Western Mail from a member of the Joint Committee for Ethnic Minorities in Wales decrying the defection of Mohammed Ashgar from Plaid Cymru to the Tories. Tunji Fahm argues that Plaid Cymru have worked very hard to maintain links with the minority ethnic community and that the election of Mohammed Ashgar as an AM was the culmination of this work, however he is not enamoured of criticism of Oscar as an individual: To describe him as unprincipled in the absence of any credible evidence by the chief executive of AWMEA is ...
The duck pond in Gorton Park has been drained. I've been assured that the drainage is being fixed so that the scenes of flooding should never happen again. Obviously, we're waiting for the next downpour to prove it, but in the meantime, here is a rather peaceful picture of Gorton Park transformed into a lake. Never to be seen again (we hope). [IMG: Gorton Duck Pond 2]
Well done to Nick Perry for Hastings & Rye for: Lib Dems in Parliament question DEFRA over cod lottery
Tales of the Lib Dem implosion as expressed in recent times by SNP Tactical Voting and others appears to be somewhat premature. Ashay Ghai has won the Bearsden South by election for East Dunbartonshire Council from the Conservatives with 1770 votes to 1499. The Conservatives were defending the seat as a result of the resignation of Simon Hutchison who couldn't juggle his demands as a solicitor with his council work. He was the convenor of the planning committee on the Labour/Conservative coalition run council. Local MP Jo Swinson said: "I'm delighted Ashay Ghai has won this by-election. There is no ...
Charles Kennedy and Sir Menzies Campbell must be feeling a little smug this week after Tony Blair's confession about Iraq, although knowing both of them as I do neither would ever admit that. Tony Blair told Sky News that he believes it would have been right to invade Iraq even if it had been known that Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction did not exist. It appeared at the time that Tony Blair and George Bush were two of a limited number of people who believed all their own hype. But let us remember that most, and I do mean ...
There are two letters about Ladywell Pool in this week's Mercury, and both in response to a previous letter about the pool. One is mine, the same that was published the previous week in the South London Press, the other is instead by a woman mostly saying the opposite of what my letter says, and that ...
Today I are bin mostly smashing my own face in. ( picture under the cut ) With that in mind, I'm sure you'll understand if I just linkdump rather than post a substantive entry. Unusually for me, all of these links are good news. Hurrah! Tweet in klingon! It's very silly, and that's why I love it. The Park Bench Nerd Girl goodies. I totally love the design. As it says on the original post, it even has a brain in a jar! Want this one. Pope shits in the woods news: Immigrants are good for the UK. Of course, ...
Just as we celebrate the liberation of the expenses' list Lewisham Council's bosses instead decide that the papers for this week's extraordinary Full Council Meeting regarding the proposal to buy the Catford Centre for redevelopment are all confidential i.e. not for you and me. This is all we're allowed to know: It is recommended that under Section ...
If you do, I won't be subscribing to your comments. I try, I really do, but when I tick the ticky box, it sends me an email, and if I click the link in the email it tries to make me sign in, and I can't remember my password, and frankly, I can't be arsed jumping through four hoops just on the offchance that someone might reply to one of my comments. Yes, I'm lazy. Sorry.
As I write, Ed Balls is defending the CRB checks that need to be carried out under Labour legislation on the Andrew Marr show. It seems that it has never been the case that parents need checks if they organise childcare for each other. It all sounds so simple. I am afraid that Ed is wrong and it isn't simple at all. You only have to go back three months to the case of two policewomen who were told that they had broken the law because they looked after each other's childen. It was generally recognised that the legislation was ...
Birmingham's Frankfurt Christmas Market is open in Centenary Square, Chamberlain Square, New Street and Victoria Square until Wednesday 23rd December. Birmingham's Frankfurt Christmas Market will be open daily from 10am to 9pm.
