Anyone who knows me knows that i am a massive Level 42 fan. There is a certain young lady in America called Heather, who is a huge fan of the band. She has been making these awesome little videos trying to get the band to come over to the states and do a show. The ...
Christmas has really begun now (if you don't look at the state of our house, my "todo" pile, and e-mails built up with all the computer problems) - the Peace Light has arrived, and was brought to Queens Campus of Durham University for their carol service. This light comes from Bethlehem via the scout movement bringing with it a message of peace and hope. When I was mayor I started what I am so...
Carter Ruck and Trafigura are at it again, so...
It's become traditional to praise the emergency services, but the Morrison's fire again demonstrated their professionalism, along with store staff, as the building was evacuated without injury. As a businessman, I've sometimes complained about strict fire regulations but a fire like this does bring home the importance of being able to evacuate a building quickly. Sometimes we complain about red tape and regulations, however it's all too easy to forget the benefits that it sometimes brings. As ever, it's a question of balance.
A quick reminder that the South Gloucestershire LINk (Local Involvement Network) now has a website where you can find out how to get involved in improving health and care services locally. On the site you can find out more about the LINk and all the events it is organising.
I watched 'The Age of Stupid' last night on BBC4. Its a film about the possible consequences of runaway climate change - the Age of Stupid refers to us, now - for failing to do enough about it while we have the chance, which in the film leads to disaster for mankind. It was a well made film, and those that know my views, will know I fully agree with its main point. But it was so depressing. Too depressing. So I wouldnt really recommend it, despite a good performance by Pete Postlethwaite and some very funny (in a tragic ...
It seems it was just press speculation. The shortlist to be the next Liberal Democrat candidate for Cambridge is: Tim BickBelinda Brooks-GordonRod CantrillJulian HuppertSian ReidJulie SmithCambridge News has more about each of them. The most enthusiastic press speculation came from the East Anglian Daily Times: Casting their net to find a successor to one term MP David Howarth in Cambridge, starry eyed Liberal Democrats have alighted on broadcaster, comedienne and children's story writer Sandi Toksvig and human rights campaigner Shami Chakrabarti.Probably because either would have made a better story as candidate than a competent local councillor. There was, however, a ...
Here's one of those shops! I've known the staff at Cumbria Photo for a long time as I used to be in the same line of business. Their shop was always known as one of the stars of the Kodak Express network and has survived when many other high street labs have shut down. They prosper because they look after their customers. There's no magic about it, whether you're in politics or photography the customer (or voter) is king.
On the one hand the website the website of a bunch of violent racist neofacist nutters. On the other hand an advert for "The International Muslim Matrimonial Site". I suspect some very interesting search terms placed this ad!
Penrith is a great place to shop. It's full of little corners and unexpected delights. The New Squares Project (of which more later) is a problem but at least it's not a very visible problem to the casual shopper. The Morrisons fire has had an effect on trade with most shopkeepers feeling that it has resulted in trade being taken away from Penrith. As ever, parking is the big problem. I'm left wondering whether Westminster actually knows about the issues in towns like Penrith, or whether the elite are so ensconsed in their ivory towers that they just don't see ...
This afternoon I was invited as chair of the Fairtrade Borough Partnership to attend the carol service at Queens Campus of Durham University and then to be part of the lantern procession over to the Town Hall for further carols and refreshments. The first issue to be resolved was transport - using a bus to get to Stockton for 4 would be OK but getting home again after 7? Not so easy, so on a
[IMG: Rotten Borough] Reproduced with kind permission of Private Eye
Let's be generous and welcome a couple of initiatives from the other parties. In this morning's Guardian Tessa Jowell had an article trailing the Progress lecture she gave this evening: on the supply side, we need to do more than hold up the model of the relentlessly managed plc. We should look instead at other successful ways of delivering goods and services. There are important lessons to be learned from studying how the Co-op and John Lewis work, companies owned, respectively, by their customers and their staff. Public services exist to serve, and are paid for by, the public, so ...
As reported in tonight's "Evening Telegraph", (click on headline to view or go to http://tinyurl.com/victoriaparkdundee) I have called upon Dundee City Council to properly and urgently consult with park users over proposals to use Victoria Park for playing facilities for the new St Joseph's and Park Place Primary Schools and Park Place Nursery School. I have written to City Council Chief Executive David Dorward in the following terms : "Although the detail of the schools' project will now come forward as a planning application to Development Quality Committee in due course and this will allow for public consultation on the ...
As well as the Best Christmas Shop Window presentation today, there was also a presentation to Shahbaz Majeed, winner of the best photograph of this year's fireworks competition. See more at http://tinyurl.com/fireworksphoto. Above : Shahbaz (right) presented with his award by Rob Carstairs, our West End Christmas Week pyrotechnician and www.seabraesfireworks.co.uk webmaster. Above : Shahbaz's winning photograph.
Here's a few photographs from today's presentation to the Shelter Shop in Perth Road, winner of the Best Dressed Christmas Shop Window in the West End - as covered in tonight's "Evening Telegraph" : Above : Photocall with Shelter Shop staff and Aimee Henderson who designed the shop window, other local businesses, Liz and Ann who organised and judged the competition, Rob and Shahbaz (more on them later!), and yours truly! Above : Christmas Shop Window! Above : Another photo of the Shelter Shop window!
Shock news from my YouTube Channel! I now have 4 videos with over 50,000 viewings. The video below is of the Burj al Arab Hotel in Dubai. I visited the emirate state in 2002 (I hasten to add I did not stay at the 7 star Burj) and filmed this short video. I only added it to YouTube last year.For those who don't know the Burj, it is the hotel built on its own island in the shape of a sail (not a
Today the Government has told us that it intends our forces to be in Afghanistan for some considerable time to come. OK it didnt say that exactly. What it did say was that "hard decisions" had to be made on what programmes to abandon in order to enhance frontline support by £900 million over the next three years. Amongst other things it is committing to splashing out on 22 new Chinook helicopters....the first ten of which will not be ready til 2013 and the remaining dozen some time thereafter. So we are clearly planning to stay in Afghanistan for some ...
An announcement was made last week about the "Northern Dunstable Bypass". The powers that be seem to think that a new road linking east to west and to the M1 will relieve the traffic running north-south through Dunstable's A5. But here's the reality of the new road: Thousands of extra homes are expected to be built in the north of Houghton Regis parish. Clearly without the new "bypass" Poynters Road, Park Road North, and the High Street Houghton Regis, would be unable to cope with all the extra traffic. I'm not sure that even the Northern Bypass will actually relieve ...
[IMG: Imperial Buses’ D261 (N261 PJR), a Dennis Dart/Plaxton Pointer, at the 2009 Cobham bus rally at Wisley Airfield from There has been some local concern about the withdrawal of the H1 bus service from 19 December. County councillor Janet Whitehouse and others raised concerns about what bus services would be available over the Christmas period before the launch of the revised Service 55 on 4 January. The latest Bus Passenger News reports that: From 19 December 2009, Essex County Council will fund a Saturday service operating to the current H1 Saturday route and timetable. This service will be ...
Shops. Shops. Shops. I have previously mentioned the Brislington Hill shops. I am also concerned about the Sandy Park Road shops. Some units are vacant. I hear whispers that one will be coming back online soon again. That will be good news as it has been looking a bit pants for a while. The panasonic shop is back again risen again as a newsagents and general grocers. Good Good Good
The New Statesman is reporting that despite the humiliating defeat when trying to prevent the Grauniad from publishing information regarding Trafigura raised in Parliament, lawyers Carter-Ruck are continuing to take legal action against BBC's Newsnight over an investigation entitled: Dirty Tricks and Toxic Waste in the Ivory Coast. As a result of the libel action, the BBC have removed the video from their website. However, bloggers have been keeping the video in the public domain, and I am happy to help in this regard. So, to ensure we continue to have a free media, here is the Trafigura investigation:
Alex Salmond has been left red faced and embarrassed after three prominent figures stood him up at an event where he was among the speakers. California's Republican governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and London mayor Boris Johnson were listed to speak at a session of the climate change summit in Copenhagen. However, all three had pulled out of that event. This is quite embarrassing for the First Minister because he had highlighted beforehand that they were among the scheduled speakers. The event was billed as a "commitment session" in the Danish capital. Although Scottish ministers are not ...
As the New Statesman reports the BBC has withdrawn a video of a Newsnight video of the investigation into Trafigura, 'Dirty Tricks and Toxic Waste in the Ivory Coast', from its website after legal threats from the oil firm and Carter-Ruck. So in the interest of transparency, a free media and the rights of freedom of speech in Parliament. Here is the video:
London Assembly Member Richard Tracey has past form on writing odd letters to local newspapers in London. In August I reported on his claims that a Tory mayor and Tory boroughs were responsible for London not seeing a rise in unemployment – when in fact unemployment, sadly, has soared across the whole of London. Now he has sent this letter to Southwark News: "The introduction of speed cameras to enforce 20mph zones in Southwark, Waltham Forest and other London boroughs is bad for London's hard-pressed motorists. There are already too many revenue-raising speed cameras on the capital's roads, London does ...
He argues, on the basis that, since we can only use 60% of the reserves between now and "forever" (i.e. 2500) in order to hit our 2 Degree target, in order to be taking the 2 degree target seriously, we need a moratorium on prospecting for new fossil fuel sources, and we need to be deciding who can sell what proportion of their reserves. I have a question for him; while what you have proposed is "cleaner" economically, it doesn't allow for any social energy allowance and exposes most earners in the UK and elsewhere to a massive bill they ...
I was very pleased indeed to see the grids and gullies being properly cleaned along Styal Road - between Church Road and West Drive in Gatley. Some background on this. Pam King and I identified, with help from local residents, that some of the grids and gullies haven't been cleaned out in years. They're checked at least once a year, but for some reason not cleaned. There are often good reasons for not cleaning out a grid. For example, if a vehicle is parked over it or it's jammed. We couldn't see why those should apply on Styal Road though. ...
Bracknell Forest Council is proposing to cut the £60,000 annual funding for the The Look In Café in the town centre. The Look In Café is used by Elderly people many of whom can't afford the prices of the coffee shops in town. It is also used to hold meeting of the Alzheimer's Society who have drop-in sessions at the café. If a cut was to be made it is believed that the council would conduct a Consultation exercise. This will be discussed at the todays executive council meeting. I hope a way can be found to save this Café ...
Following Liberal Conspiracy's lead I've embedded the Trafigura video. And this is the link to the pdf What more can I add?
Last Saturday Transition Belsize held the first of four seasonal foraging workshops on Hampstead Heath. The aim is to train up a group of expert foragers so that we can help others to understand the pleasures and hazards of wild foods. You might think that mid-December would be a barren time for food on the Heath, but it wasn't at all. We came back with thirty edible plants and concocted a marvelous meal of roots, leaves, greens and fungi. Yum! See the Transition Belsize website for details of more skills workshops like this one.
Another revelation from the Conservative Budget Book. They want to close some public loos or cut the hours that they are open, saving £100,000 this year and a further £200,000 next. Ask any councillor and you will find that public loos are viewed as essential services by many residents. Being caught short when you are out of your house can be worrying and if there is no public loo available then it can be incredibly embarrassing. If there is no public loo available then many people (particularly older people) are likely to stay at home more. There is the additional ...
There is a bit of a hullabaloo at the moment regarding the revelation that Zac Goldsmith has contributed £260,000 out of his own pocket since 2007 to his attempt to win Richmond Park from the Lib Dems at the next election. This got me doing a bit of reading around though and I came across a very interesting article on ConservativeHome from August 2006 entitled "The costs of being a candidate". It focused on the experiences of Conservatives trying to get selected/elected (17 A-listers and 20 other candidates) and analysed the amount of expenditure to incurred in trying to become ...
In Blaydon constituency recently we had a significant quantity of Xmas cards produced and dropped off ready for putting into envelopes. The whole lot of them were dropped off at my house and 8 of use worked an entire evening last week to stuff as many of them as we could. There were still lots of boxes left to do when we stopped at 1am. I won't say how many we had delivered - such tactical
I was on Radio Tay news today (and also Wave 102 news) about the West End Christmas Week "Best Dressed Christmas Shop Window" competition presentation - you can listen to this below :
There are now just 1o sleeps until Christmas, so I'm going to run down the 10 Christmas Number ones of the decade. Along with a classic number one of the season from the past (as to be honest most of them aren't very Christmassy). In 2000 we were had the animated renderings of Bob the Builder. Anyone with a child, grandchild, nephew, niece or knowing a young person growing up this decade will have encountered Bob at some point. So let's get a little more into Christmas. Henry Belafonte was Number 1 in 1957 with Mary's Boy Child. Only I ...
The IEA are the only people left on earth thinking that you can quote Churchill to prove Keynes wrong.
There have always been two schools of thought about the track of this particular crisis in the British economy. Firstly that the dramatic contraction in spending power would lead to price deflation- that the reduction in spending power would lead to a nominal fall in prices. The second was that the crisis would make money worth much less: that inflation would take a hold. Of the two, the policy makers fear deflation much more, because it is much harder to combat once it takes a hold- as the state of health of the Japanese economy has shown. Furthermore, inflation gradually ...
Our campaign to get a town centre library in Southport continues apace. One of the highlights was my colleague's radio interview. If you want to hear Richard's excellent live interview with Radio Merseyside on Thursday morning, you can find it at 2:06:50 When I get a moment I will clean up that link so you can go straight to the bit with Richard.
It's December 15th. It's 4 years since Latvia amended its constitution so that same-sex couples would not be entitled to marry. 2 Big Stories Registrar who refused to carry out civil partnership ceremonies loses appeal Islington Council has won its High Court appeal against a ruling that it had discriminated against a Christian registrar who refused to conduct same-sex civil partnership ceremonies. From the Islington Tribune: Lillian Ladele, 48, had hoped to overturn a decision by a top employment tribunal judge who had backed Islington Council in the dispute. The council said Ms Ladele's religious beliefs, that same sex unions ...
A couple of musical doodles for The willow Tree.
There are questions in discussion recently - is there a God? - will England win the world cup? - when will the general election be? Well, yes, there is a God - I would love to see us win the World Cup but don't think we will - and my money was on an election on the last possible date - 3 June. I figured that, like John Major's government in 1997, Gordon Brown and co would hang on to every possible last second of power before the inevitable collapse. Others agreed with the common view that the election would ...
Many are blase about social networking yet with any potential downsides (too shallow, too immediate) sometimes it comes up trumps. On OUTeverywhere last night (as I was listening to Manu Chao and chatting to a good buddy on MSN) I noticed an anonymous support thread under the subject support:depression the title of it being `The End`. In ...
Sadly with 3 meeting all scheduled between 5 and 7pm last night I probably didn't contribute as much as I would like last night, arriving late and leaving early from the first two! ALLOTMENTS It has been a grwoing for some time that the Council could with encouraging more "grow your own" veg etc and as part of this there is the feeling that we could do with more allotments in the area. Despite there being 559 at present there is a waiting list of up to 400, some of whome have probably been waiting years. The big problem is ...
The government has dramatically watered-down controversial plans requiring anyone working with children to be vetted and registered. After protests from teachers' groups, volunteers' groups, charities and others, the rules have been changed to exclude private arrangements and school exchanges. David Laws, the Liberal Democrat spokesman for Children, Schools and Families, said "This u-turn is long overdue. It has been clear for some time that the heavy-handed Government rules on parental vetting were likely to deny opportunities to young people, rather than significantly improve their safety. "There must, however, be concern about whether the Government's u-turn is going to go far ...
I've spent a fair bit of time on the phone to customer services departments over the last few days having just moved house from Inverness to Glasgow, and my heart sinks every time I hear an Asian accent asking "Mr Howel?" Immediately when I hear them murder my name (which incidentally is Hoyle, and is pronounced as read) I know that they are unlikely to understand what I am asking for, will repeatedly say the same things over and over again no matter my request, and will find me getting ruder and more impatient on the other end of the ...
This is the BBC Newsnight report on Trafigura that has been gagged: Now do the same.
Tory candidate Zac Goldsmith has been accused of seeking to 'buy a seat in Parliament as if he were punting on a roulette wheel' today after it was revealed that he has spent more than a quarter of a million pounds of his own money on getting elected. According to the Electoral Commission, Mr. Goldsmith has donated £260,000 to his local Tory Association since he was selected to fight the Richmond Park seat in 2007. Virtually all of the money goes to office staff and "office costs". The party says that Mr Goldsmith set up his own office in Richmond, ...
There's a very insightful interview with Labour MP and blogger Tom Harris over on Tory Rascal. In amongst the questions, this one particular caught my eye. Although Tom Harris admits he didn't previously write the truth, I think he comes out rather well from this answer: About a year ago, you lost your ministerial post. On your blog you really took it in your stride - no protest about it, no anguish or bad feelings... I lied. I thought it was important to come across as more philosophical than I actually felt, but I was absolutely gutted. Heartbroken. I really ...
Latest figures from the Electoral Commission reveal that Zac Goldsmith, Conservative candidate for Richmond Park, has spent more than a quarter of a million pounds of his own money in the hope of getting elected. From today's London Evening Standard: "The environmentalist has donated £260,000 since he was selected to fight the Richmond Park seat in 2007, according to the latest figures from the Electoral Commission... "Virtually all of the money goes to office staff and "office costs". The party says that Mr Goldsmith set up his own office in Richmond, separate to the local association's headquarters. The candidate employs ...
I've never had a campaign success so quickly! Neil Burden, the Cabinet Member responsible for libraries, has just written to all councillors to say that as the amount of newspaper content that is available on line is being restricted, he has abandoned his plan to cancel library newspaper subscriptions. That's fantastic news for linrary users.
This is what female members of the party's list of approved candidates for the Westminster Parliament thought in 2007: National leaders: Have too little / far too little influence over the selection process: 26% Have about the right influence: 58% Too great / far too great: 5% No view/ answer: 11% Regional officers: Too little / far too little: 21% About right: 56% Too great / far too great: 12% No view/ answer: 12% Local constituency officers: Too little / far too little: 8% About right: 62% Too great / far too great: 18% No view/ answer: 12% Local party ...
OK, so last night I didn't have time to explain Connie Hedegaard's cryptic reference to a means of paying for all the development required in the G77 to meet the ambitious goals of the COP15, which she let loose at the Civil Society Q and A. She said that Civil Society should not be asked to ...
On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me, Twelve Strikers Picketing, Eleven customers waiting, Ten lords aren't flying, Nine ladies not on dancing holidays, Eight maids not going home for Christmas, Seven continents without BA, Six geese are the only ones flying, Five golden wings, Forty two Thousand BA workers striking, Three French airlines laughing, Two hundred and ninety two loss, And a partridge in a Unite union! Unite are planning twelfth days of strikes. I understand that its because BA are planning a cabin crew reduction which will result in contractual changes, extended working hours ...
The two months since the party's last Federal Executive have, as usual, been pretty busy. In that period I have visited local parties in Aldershot, Altrincham & Sale, Winchester, Islington, Sutton, Wycombe, Amersham & Chesham, Swindon, Gloucester, Stroud, Cheltenham, East Dunbartonshire, Glasgow North, Edinburgh Pentlands, North & Leith, West, Ochil, and Consett. I have also attended the North West and West Midlands Regional Conferences. The two meetings of the party's Chief Officers Group which I have attended are reported separately to FE, but I wish to highlight the work done to develop the business plan and budget which were agreed. ...
In South of the Borough we have had to deal with some pretty controversial planning applications, and on many occasions the councillors have wished that they had stronger policies to support their decisions. So we are very interested in getting the Local Development Framework right. The Local Development Framework is the complete collection of planning policies that underpin, and are used to justify, decisions about planning applications. The opportunity to review these comes only once every ten years or so. The review goes through a lengthy process of drafting, re-drafting and consultation. Tomorrow we are using the Neighbourhood Committee slot ...
[IMG: carol-serv.jpg] On Monday December 21st from 7pm, Join the Mayor of Bury, Local Councillors, Faith and Community leaders for the 1st Prestwich Community Carol Service at St.Mary's Church, Church lane, Prestwich.
Noise fears over music law change for pubs and bars By DAILY MAIL REPORTER Last updated at 12:27 AM on 12th December 2009 Allowing pubs and bars to put on live music without the need for a licence would mean a massive in complaints about noise, council leaders warned yesterday. Nine out of 10 council licensing officers said they believed that relaxing the rules for venues would lead to an increase in complaints about noise and nuisance according to a poll by the Local Government Association Group (LGA). More than half said they expected the increase to be considerable. The ...
Many thanks to the Cheadle Muslim Association who welcomed 1st Gatley Cubs to their mosque a couple of weeks ago. As well as a tour of the mosque, we had a presentation from Mr Mirza and snacks all round. [IMG: Cheadle Mosque] In the presentation, the Cubs learned something about Islam, with the emphasis on the many similarities with Christianty and Judaism. Mr Mirza was keen to point out how some practices associated with Islam, such as forced marriage, are cultural and have no religious basis. [IMG: Mr Mirza] Cheadle Muslim Association is always keen to open their doors and ...
The Tory budget book (see below) contains a promise to cut One Stop Shop opening hours in areas where the service is not well used. We don't yet know where the axe will fall (and I sincerely hope that it will not be in Launceston, but this particular cut blows the gaff on Lance Kennedy's promised review of One Stop Shop opening hours. First we were told by the Chief Executive that One Stop Shops would be opened longer, including into the evenings and on Saturday mornings. Then we were told by Cllr Kennedy that there would only be a ...
I have written many times regarding innocent people and DNA testing. This normally kicks off a healthy debate on my facebook pages and on this blog. The two sides of the argument basically break down into "I have nothing to hide so I don't care." and "I don't trust the state." The recent statement from Durham police must cast some doubt for the defenders of innocents being on the DNA database. They recently issued a warning in a press release relating to mephedrone, which began by establishing that the substance remains legal to possess. Now, leaving aside the rights and ...
Again in a long queue in the freezing cold outside the conference centre. Despite media headlines about yesterday's disorganisation they seem to have learned little. Tried to observe the talks yesterday evening only to learn it was a closed session, government representatives only, so I trooped off into town to speak to youth leaders brought here by America's Environmental Defense Fund instead. But how can I inspire idealistic young people to go into politics when they see governments acting with such scant regard for transparency? Next month I will show in the EP a film entitled World Vote Now. Watch ...
The Wales Audit Office has published a report today that concludes that emergency care in the Welsh NHS is "disjointed and confusing". They conclude that too many people who have urgent reasons to access the NHS or social services encounter inefficiency, uncertainty and delays and they identify a "fundamental weakness" in a failure to plan for demand on services: The report says: "The emergency department is commonly a bottleneck where people can face delays but only some of the delays are due to the management of the department itself. "Very often, the delays in emergency departments are because of problems ...
As stories emerge this morning about how Labour allegedly tried to get Commons Speaker John Bercow to defect to them, in my mind the old problem emerges. What about democracy? I'm one of these crazy people who believes the electorate don't vote for a person. At least, not here in the UK, under our political culture. When ...
a list of a few of the nef mistakes in their "worst publication of the year" report, 'A bit rich'.
An very occasional series highlighting a previous post that (a) I still think was actually pretty good, but (b) the server stats say not many people came and read. Just in case you, dear reader, may have been wrong in overlooking this post here it is for your enjoyment once more: Why wasn't it "the economy, stupid" in 1997? At the start of September, Mike Smithson drew attention to the improving figures on economic optimism - and how they haven't been accompanied by a revival in Labour's political fortunes: Like in 1997 the fact the index is "in the black" ...
It's time to bring this series of entries from Hansard's past to an end as there are only so many speeches about paperclips and potato salad to be written. So to finish off the series, here's a rather more sombre written question and answer from 1938 which was horribly and tragically overtaken by events: Mr. Mander asked the Prime Minister whether, in the course of his interview at Munich with Herr Hitler, he received an assurance that Germany had no territorial claims in the territory of Memel? The Prime Minister Herr Hitler informed me not at Munich but at Berchtesgaden ...
Islington has been at the forefront of gay rights campaigning, including the first gay rights demonstration – led by Young Liberal Louis Eakes – on Highbury Fields nearly 40 years ago. Just last week I was having coffee with a supporter who first joined the Lib Dems because of our pioneering record, championing gay, lesbian ...
If you happen to be in Central London this lunchtime, and you support Asperger's sufferer Gary McKinnon's case not to be extradited to the US on computer hacking charges, you might like to support his family and friends as they gather at the Home Office between 12 noon and 2 pm to protest at the Government's failure to protect him from an unfair process. Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg will be there lending his support as he's supported Gary's case from the start. Gary's mother, Janis Sharp, has fought tirelessly for her son and deserves our support. She wants those ...
Well done to Liz Barker for retailing a Roger Hayes anecdote familiar in Liberator circles in the House of Lords: Many, many years ago-about 30 years ago-a very good friend of mine, Mr Roger Hayes, left school and went to work as a horticultural trainee for a London council. One afternoon in the summer he was working away, doing his job in the potting shed, when there was an almighty bang outside the window. He looked out to see flames shooting 30 feet into the air. He dialled 999 and asked for the fire brigade. It was all going very ...
When I used to work for H. Samuels in London my December routine was easy. I worked along the Piccadilly line so on the 24th I would trundle my suitcase or carry my rucksack into work with me, then after the post drink work it would be on the tube to Heathrow to catch the flight I had booked. Normally this was the last flight just to be sure I would get to it on time; 8pm was pushing the drinking time a little too much. I would be returning on the first flight of the 27th and often straight ...
[IMG: http://www.wikio.co.uk] Commenting on the Home Office announcement that the use of intercept evidence in court is 'not yet viable', Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Huhne said: If Australia and the United States can both use intercept evidence in court without the world coming to an end, it cannot be beyond the realms of British ingenuity to do the same. The Government needs to put more serious effort into this project. International investigators of organised crime find it a joke that we attempt to deal with such crimes without the use of these tools.
That's Happy Zamenhof Day to you. Saluton. At the risk of sounding like Arnold Rimmer in Red Dwarf, I have always been a fan of Esperanto ever since a teacher in my secondary school decided to have classes one lunchtime and a few of us attended. I got to be quite good after a few weeks but lost much of it after said teacher moved on later in the year and the class folded. I liked the (relative) simplicity of Esperanto, but I suppose more so I was (am) attracted by the idealism and internationalism of both its creator Dr ...
Oh I'm not the Young Pretender The Galleries say it's not true, ooh, ooh, oooh The brushes delicate touch, has fooled you so much I'm Henry and no-one could tell. Yeah the news today is that what has for many years been widely regarded as the official portrait of the Charles Edward Stuart, aka Bonnie Prince Charlie isn't him after all. The National Galleries of Scotland who purchased the painting by French master Maurice-Quentin La Tour for £22,000 in 1994 is in fact that of his younger brother Henry Benedict Stuart, later a cardinal. The Galleries had denied claims by ...
[IMG: Private Eye - December cover] I'm not a Private Eye reader myself, but today I was presented with a copy to show me that Durham County Council had made it into the Rotten Borough Section of that illustrious magazine. I suppose it makes up for not getting any green flags in the Comprehensive Area Assessment. Unfortunately the story is not in the online version, and I'm not going to breach copyright by publishing it here, but I'm sure the magazine won't mind me advertising their December 11th edition by displaying the cover so that you can recognise it in ...
One... two... three... four... ONE TWO THREE FOUR! The Beatles' seventh album – and their last as a touring band – starts with a count-in, in a deliberate echo of the start of their first album, Please Please Me, recorded a whole three years and two months earlier. While nowadays people tend to think of Revolver ...
Tue 15th
00:05
McNally on the Lords: "it must not just be for the rich, the retired and the London-based"
The report of the Senior Salaries Review Body was being debated in the House of Lords on Monday – and Lord (Tom) McNally was there to put forward the Lib Dem view that, whatever and however peers are paid, the second chamber becomes a place which is open to those of all backgrounds, income and geography. The Lib Dems in the Lords submitted evidence to the SSRB which recommended replacing the attendance allowances and all office costs with a single taxable daily rate with a specific receipted overnight allowance. The SSRB recommended reforms to expenses which would see the introduction ...
Take a look at The Guardian is inviting the general public, and in particular anybody with financial expertise, to help shed light on the mystery of Tony Blair's finances. If you need any help they have published some of Tony's key documents, including the partnership register and accounts for one of his many ventures. The prize for the winner is an original Steve Bell cartoon. They speculate about the various possible financial motives Tony might have for his labyrinthine arrangements. But then they accidentally give the game away: "The structure is so artificial that in one part of it, ...
