I read this article in the yesterday's Guardian and my letter says some of what I feel about it and the full report. I've tried to keep it short and edited bits out, but may be too long to publish. "At a time when the story is told many time of the birth of a baby in a situation none of us would choose for ourselves, and the flight to escape death, your article "Detention centre...
The Big Issue this week carries an excellent interview with Paul McCartney. After a few interesting interviews he's done with Chris Evans and Johnnie Walker on Radio 2, and now this, my respect for the Macca is increasing. A couple bits from The Big Issue particularly caught my eye. He breaks down the anatomy of "A Day in the Life" including the ending "orchestral cacophony": The idea was telling each instrument to start on their lowest note and fine their own way to the highest note at the end of 23 bars or something. He also described how John Lennon's ...
So you organise a public meeting. And you print a leaflet advertising it. But you don't put it through my door until 10 days after the meeting has happened. Oops.
Oh dear, over a week since my last post! Maurice arrived from New Zealand on December 12, and survived the journey with only a bit of jetlag, so we've been keeping him and Olivia fairly busy since then. This evening they've gone to a carol concert at the Albert Hall with Sue and Lyulph; earlier I took them to the Imperial War Museum where we looked through the Holocaust exhibition. Its difficult to comprehend how an advanced society can be led into such inhuman behaviour, though I always think of Milgram's 1974 work on 'The Perils of Obedience' as a ...
Over the summer, Newquay had a number of problems involving the combination of alcohol and young people. Most tragically, there were the deaths of Paddy Higgins and Andrew Curwell who fell from the cliffs around the town. Two very different ways of tackling the problem have been evidenced in the past few days. The Tories sent George Osborne to the resort to issue soundbites. But Newquay Town Council has other ideas and backed a plan by my colleague Geoff Brown (a Newquay Town Councillor as well as Lib Dem Cornwall Councillor, although it should be stressed that this scheme is ...
70) Terry Pratchett, Nation (London: Doubleday, 2008, ISBN 9780385613705). I loved how dark this was, and it had some messages about heroism and responsibility that I approved of. Contrary to reports, I don't think it is really about nationalism to any meaningful extent; you could replace the word "Nation" with any other word that might be used both by Pacific Islanders and by British Imperialists to describe their communities and the story would work just as well. The atheism/existentialism was written rather heavy-handedly at times, especially early on, but some of it was also quite moving. Inevitably the handling of ...
Further to my various posts about the lighting issue at Seafield Road recently (see http://tinyurl.com/seafieldlightshere), I am pleased to say the replacement lighting unit has now been installed (see right) and should be fully operational soon.
Shop of the Week this week is a shop I've been meaning to pop in to for a while, but hadn't got around to it until my sister dropped a subtle hint that she couldn't think of what to get me for my birthday and perhaps I might like to choose something myself! The shop in question is Manchester House, at the upper end of Trelowarren Street. I tend to think of Manchester House as one of the few remaining hallmarks of Camborne's glory years - a proper shop, where well-made and carefully-selected quality items can be purchased. My visit ...
If there's one thing I have found out over the past year, it is that Tibetan Terriers are real characters!
This weekend I received the statistics about press coverage of Durham County Council in November. They demonstrate that in terms of stories about Politicians, Resources or Regeneration the majority were either negative or balanced. Funnily enough, although the figures in the tables prove my statement to be true, it isn't quite the way the Media Relations Officer presented them! Which all goes to prove that when you are presented with statistical statements you need to look behind the figures. I hope the Media Relations Office know to include Private Eye in the December figures. Do you think they will consider ...
In October of last year, I introduced our puppy, Bunty (see http://tinyurl.com/buntypuppy). Since then, she's grown up! See below ...
Above : The scene this morning across Logie and Cleghorn Street towards the Law.
Iain Dale has tagged me to write a letter to my 16 year old self giving myself 3 pieces of advice. So here I go. Dear Nich, Here is some advice for you. Contrary to what you might think now about your future, you will actually go on to learn and be educated and you will realise it is what you were meant to do. I know you loathe school, can't wait to leave, and as a result have no desire to do A levels. But don't be too depressed when after two months at Norwich Union you realsie you ...
Do you scheduled lots of posts on Wordpress? Do you then find yourself posting an immediate post 10 seconds before a scheduled post is going live? Do you kick yourself for ending up with two posts so close together? If yes to all three, then my plugin may help. Scheduled Planner is an admin plugin which appears in the Add New / Edit Post section of Wordpress. At the moment it justs rests in the top right as I've yet to work out how to make it in to a nice widget. It shows the last two posts published on ...
Cartoon by Martin Rowson in the Guardian 19 December 2009 Well the world came, they talked, they didn't really agree anything. The sportsman in me knows that you have to set a goal a target to aim for. Sometimes you end up reaching that goal, I have won two Irish Junior cups at bowls as well as several other titles. Sometimes you miss, I didn't make the 1992 Olympics for example. But they were both goals that were set and they were both something that I strived for. What has come out of Copenhagen is a non-binding accord to limit ...
Welsh Liberal Democrats have selected former North Wales Police deputy chief constable, Bill Brereton to stand against the police minister for the Liberal Democrats at the general election. Mr. Brereton has been selected as the candidate for Delyn, a seat held since 1992 by Labour's David Hanson. Until recently, Mr Brereton was clerk to Nercwys Community Council and is a police and security consultant
Arrgh me hearties. This morning some of ye land lubbers may have seen update on my Facebook or Twitter referring to Pirate Golf. That be because my elder nephew was having his birthday party at the crazy golf outside Dundonald Ice Bowl. Sadly the weather did affect the day's play. There was too much ice outside the Ice Bowl that the preferred course Blackbeard's adventure was out of bounds. So my crew of young pirates were unable to play about the ship that is a feature of that course. However, even on the Captain's Challenge course there was some Ice ...
You can do so on Spotify and then linking that to the last.fm charts.
Last night I managed to catch the tail end of Paul O'Grady's cahtshow on Channel 4. It was simply delightful, and he was (understandably) quite emotional. He said of his five years on the show, that he'd been through a lot "my partner dying, my dog dying, two heart attacks, becoming a granddad". Phew! What an understatment. I've long been a huge fan of Paul's both in his guise as Lily Savage, what a wicked tongue, and over the last decade as his own self, a genuinely warm and witty character, with a generosity of spirit little matched in the ...
The Daily Telegraph reports that in some parts of the country there is a camera for almost every 100 people after the Government and local councils spent hundreds of millions of pounds to treble their numbers in the last decade. They say that Town halls now control around 60,000 cameras, which are used by the authorities and police to spy on the public and investigate crimes - compared to just 21,000 in 1999. Although there is still support for CCTV amongst the general public as a means of deterring crime, the evidence does not necessarily support that. A study by ...
The photo above shows Little Bowden recreation ground and the neighbouring allotments this morning. Unlike the reindeer last night, some people managed to make it to the town centre this morning. Please insert your own joke about elf and safety here.
Well the countdown is hoting up we are mere days away from the big day. But in 2004 the same song was Christmas Number one for the third time in 20 years. It was time to know it was Christmas time with Band Aid 20. Here are all three versions of Band Aid and Do They Know It's Christmas? 1984 So take it away Paul Young..et al 1989 over to you Kylie and friends....including Cliff. 2004 and finally Chris Martin of Coldplay and the rest for the latest version....Bono back doing his line that Jason Donavon and Matt Goss didn't ...
There's no prize at stake - just the opportunity to prove you're wittier than any other LDV reader ... Here's Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, with Manchester Withington MP John Leech, visiting business leaders in Chorlton – - what do you think they might be saying to each other, or thinking about each other? (Image courtesy of Paul Ankers blog). The winner of the most recent caption competition, the 'never work with children' edition, (according to The Voice's judging panel of one) - was Painfully Liberal.
It's sponsor time of the month in two days. Anyone want to give me some money? Go on, you know you want to. Think of it as birthday present for me. There are four crash spaces left for visitors on my birthday, Space 1 claimed by [IMG: [personal profile] ] burkesworks and space 2 by [IMG: [livejournal.com profile] ] hairygit. Any more for any more? Mat and Holly and the doggies and I are off to Devon on Monday until Christmas day. We will be taking the laptop, but I don't know how easy it's going to be to get ...
just watched a pretty eye watering film on dvd. made in 1973 this film is older than me! charlton heston stars in this film set in 2022 warning of the effects of mass over-population. there is a little about global warming which is insightful by 1970s terms. but the main thrust is that people are poorly housed and have rations of food which transpire to have been made from dead bodies. people disappear, voluntary euthanasia. bodies are processed and make these little green wafers. all this lends to a thought provoking film. i am veggie bar fish so for me ...
Allegations of intimidation, harassment, vandalism and more in a fall out between Conservative councillor Jason Luty and the Residents Association of Westborough (RAW). The local CouncilBust blog reports: Dr Jason Luty, Conservative councillor for Eastwood Park, has claimed that RAW is a politically- motivated organisation that has embarked on a campaign to victimise him. Cllr Luty has also asserted that Martin Terry, independent councillor for Westborough, controls RAW and is behind the campaign. At the same time, members of RAW and Cllr Terry have claimed that Cllr Luty has been deliberately attacking RAW by harassing its members, threatening their properties ...
Following my post last week about our campaign to get problems of overspill parking tackled connected to the Royal Berks Hospital sorted, more news has come to light that could make matters even worse for staff, visitors and residents. Cllr Gareth Epps (in neighbouring Katesgrove) blogged about the University of Reading's plans to redevelop the London Road. I share his frustration that the University seems to be able to find a large amount of money to spruce up this campus and yet apparently cannot find the cash to continue funding PCSOs around the edge of its campuses. This is the second controversial announcement ...
Dover and Deal Liberal Democrat Association have selected John Brigden to be their PPC for the next election. John has been a Sevenoaks District councillor for some years, is an experienced campaigner, and has family connections with Deal. He is the Chief Executive of Bluesky Public Relations, and also organiser of classic-car events. While there is evidence that rather suggests this constituency is on the receiving end of Ashcroft money, the local Tories have not been polling anywhere near well enough in local by-elections to suggest that could take this seat off Labour. The local Conservatives have been pushing for ...
The OFSTED Report for Prestwich Arts College has been made available by the school. The school was granted the score 'GOOD: GOOD" by OFSTED, which is excellent! Read the report here: http://www.prestwich.bury.sch.uk/OFSTED/OFSTEDREPORT2009.pdf
Desperation amidst the arrival of Obama and other heads of state seemed to galvanise efforts in the final moments of the Copenhagen Climate Summit yesterday but do we have a deal? Ok agreements were reached which were broadly in line with some hopes, but it is questionable as to whether any of it is legally binding. Targets also are a bit thin on the ground and there would appear to be so much dissagreement outside the US, China and India ie especially South America that you wonder whether this will hold up at all. We should try and be positive ...
[IMG: Globe on fire] Last week I attended a workshop on how Stockport can play its part in tackling climate change. The challenge is to reduce our carbon footprint (as the fairly innacurate jargon goes). This one focussed on buildings, development and power generation, with transport being considered elsewhere.It was a workshop to get ideas and opinions so no firm decisions were made, but it was interesting and encouraging to see what's already been done. For example, we looked at whether we should have wind turbines. The answer a definite maybe (I'm not convinced). Wind maps show which parts of ...
Sat 19th
13:36
Eurostar demostrate the perils of not joining up marketing with customer service and PR
[IMG: Eurostar trains] The need to integrate customer service, marketing and PR is one I've talked about several times before. It's an important theme because whilst from the corporate perspective these are often viewed as different skills, run by different teams (quite likely in different offices) and using different suppliers, from the point of view of the public they all merge in to one. When Googling for product information people will see news stories, when looking for customer service information people will come across marketing presences on social media and so on. Eurostar's disaster with broken down trains and stranded ...
Fresh Squeezings From the veins of the InternetCopenhagen has achieved precisely knack all then. Hands up who's surprised? Anyone? Like [IMG: [livejournal.com profile] ] lonemagpie (see here) and Jeremy Clarkson, not only am I not surprised, I don't think it would have made a blind bit of difference if they HAD reached an agreement - or, to put it in Clarksonian terms The fact is this. Global warming's coming, so you can don your King Canute hat and stand on the beach waving your Toyota Prius at the advancing heatwave, but it won't make a ha'p'orth of difference.. It's happening. ...
The next few days sees the last days of Borders - huge discounts to be had! On a more serious note though, it is a shame to see the demise of what is without doubt the best book shop on the high street, and it is unfortunate that the administrators where unable to save the business. *sigh* ...
This is the third article for LDV by Fiona Hall, Lib Dem leader of the European Liberal Democrats, giving her account of the Copenhagen climate change summit. You can read Part I here, and Part II here. What a mess. After yesterday afternoon's impasse on an international agreement, President Obama took matters into his own hands, struck a deal with China, India, Brazil and South Africa – and promptly left the country. It's leadership of a sort – but, sadly, in the wrong direction. The rest of the world has been offered a watered-down Accord which – as it stands ...
Despite the weather forecast saying that we would be clear and dry today, the snow has hit Launceston and made driving conditions very tricky indeed. I've been on to Cornwall Council asking them to send gritters to the area as soon as possible. As things stand, a couple of inches of snow have made the main roads very tricky and some of the side roads next to impassable. It's currently sunny and blue sky over town but that is likely to mean falling temperatures as the afternoon progresses and so the remaining snow will turn to ice. The Council will ...
Christopher Lovell has a blog suggesting that the recent 'confusion' over the Liberal Democrats policy on tuition fees is the media's fault. Nothing could be further from the truth; the blame lies squarely with Nick Clegg and the leadership. In reality, the policy announced by Clegg yesterday via e-mail, that we will retain our committment to ...
The Copenhagen Accord, as named in the attached PDF, is a massive letdown. What we have here is an IOU from world leaders. There is some nice language, some good sentiment, and a table of emission cut targets; but no consequences. There is no incentive to act, only a promise to. And to be honest, when it ...
Copenhagen's outcome is a huge disappointment. The stakes are high and the cost of failure is enormous. Ambitions before the conference were very high. But we must not stop now. We may not have got the binding treaty we need but we have the foundations for an agreement that cannot come too soon. So whilst Copenhagen is very disappointing in what it has produced, we can build on the agreements we
I really like the old "desk-style" theme I had on this blog, but unfortunately it just doesn't deal with my needs. I have found that I need a three column style, rather than two. Over the next few weeks I will be trialling some out. Please let me know what you think. Alternatively, if anyone can suggest a three column desk-style theme, then please do. I will be most grateful!
I live at the very end of a hill which, to be honest, is a little bit treacherous in the snow and ice. Still, it does not stop people with perfectly adequate driveways from parking on the roadm thus maing the road even more dangerous to other road users. However, several hundred yards away from where I live, there is a gritting boxm a large yellow recepticle full of sand and rock salt which is placed strategically at the bottom of our hill so as to enable people to put a little grit on the road to stop peple sliding ...
After an initiative from Keighley Town Council there has been an agreement with Bradford Council to supply more grit bins in Keighley. We certainly need them in this Pennine town with a large number of very steep roads. It will be interesting to see how long it takes to install them, though no doubt the present snowfall will hold things up. The idea is that the general public can use them to grit the road in the vicinity and there is a community contact who will check the nearby bin and let a Bradford Council contact know when it needs ...
Last night's so-called deal at the climate change summit has, unsurprisingly, kicked cynics like me into action. Because, yes... the hot air of the past two weeks seems to have been a phenomenal waste of time. At the end of it, we have a silly little piece of paper, with no legally-binding agreement, and mere platitudes ...
Gibside is a National Trust property in my ward in Gateshead. It is the former home and estate of the Bowes-Lyon family, of Queen Mother fame. Once a month a farmers' market is held here. It is on now and I am currently having a coffee in the cafe waiting for the final trader to arrive. Despite the snow the event is going ahead but the final trader is the one who sells the exotic gins (which we
Vince makes the front page of the Daily Express, Nick scores two page leads in the Mail, Huhne forces a Tory U-turn, Paddy bazookas a Brigadier, Bob Russell biffs a Bishop and The Telegraph's Deputy Editor says George Osbourne is a childish prat ... A few press clippings you may have missed, in our Newspaper Review of the Week. "Tories lack clarity" – Simon Heffer, columnist: Daily Telegraph, 16.12.09 "Do the Tories enunciate a clear alternative that will benefit not merely their supporters, but also the country? Not yet. It's not just that George Osborne seems to have no clear ...
I decided to write this post after all the confusion that there has been around the Lib Dem position on tuition fees. The root of the confusion seems to lay with Nick Clegg and some of the statements he made before the party conference this year. Clegg suggested that certain flagship policies (like the tuition fees policy) may have to be temporarily abandoned because they were unaffordable under current economic conditions. But just look at how it was reported in the media here. This story is just not true. The Liberal Democrats never even came close to scrapping the tuition ...
Stockport Council opening times over Christmas and New Year are as follows: · Thursday 24th December - Open until 12 noon. · Friday 25th December - Closed. · Saturday 26th, Sunday 27th and Monday 28th December - Closed. · Tuesday 29th December - Open 8.30am to 5.00pm. · Wednesday 30th December - Open 8.30am to 5.00pm. · Thursday 31st December - Open 8.30am to 3.30pm. · Friday 1st January 2010 - Closed. · Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd January 2010 - Closed. · Monday 4th January 2010 - Open 8.30am to 5.00pm. The closures will not affect essential Council services. ...
From the Harborough Mail website: An event in Harborough featuring real reindeer tonight (Friday) has been cancelled due to the snow.
From the Liberal Democrat History Group's email list: Since the publication of The Orange Book: Reclaiming Liberalism edited by David Laws and Paul Marshall in 2004, there has been an ongoing discussion in the Liberal Democrats about whether the party needs to return to the nineteenth-century Gladstonian inheritance of non-interventionism in economic and social affairs, self-help and an emphasis on personal and political as opposed to social liberalism. Now, in celebration of the bi-centenary of the birth of William Ewart Gladstone in 1809, the History Group is holding a meeting to find out what Gladstonian Liberalism was and how it ...
Welcome to the final part of our "Introduction to blogging" guide for Liberal Democrat bloggers or would-be bloggers. It's been appearing each Saturday in the run-up to 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 we're finishing where we started, with reasons to blog. Alix Mortimer is at the keyboard... Why blog? The whys and wherefores of political blogging generate a lot of heat. Amble around the internet a little, and you'll find denunciations of blogging ...
A little fun for the Christmas season. Below are the opening sentences of 20 works of fiction (a handful of them written for children). Please leave the title and author in the comments below. I shall fill the answers in as they are guessed. The winner gets tea at Bonkers Hall (terms and conditions apply). The opening sentences 1. Marley was dead: to begin with. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens 2. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays it was Court Hand and Summulae Logicales, while the rest of the week it was the Organon, Repetition and Astrology. The Sword in ...
With the Healthcare reform bill reaching a crucial stage in the US Senate, there are interesting things going on with Joe Lieberman. The acting Chair of the Senate (Sen Al Franken) objected to allowing him an extra minute of two, after he (Lieberman) overran his allotted ten minutes speaking time (see video below). There followed outrage from Lieberman's friend John McCain, who indignantly declared that he could never remember a Senator's request for an extra minute being denied before, in his 27 years of Senatorial experience. "I don't know what is happening here in this body, but I think it's ...
Bacon. Proving the existence of God. And you can't argue with the logic there. Al Murray's Pub Landlord
Saturday: Previously, I have mentioned how the universe is made of CHOCOLATE. It surrounds us and penetrates us and binds the galaxy together... no wait, that's the FORCE! Anyway, scientists call this delicious substance DARK MATTER, because it appears - or rather DISappears - to be invisible. Yet it makes up FAR MORE of the Universe than bits we can see. (In fact, 70% of the universe is dark ENERGY which is even MORE mysterious but if the sums add up right then a quarter of everything is dark matter; that's FIVE TIMES as much dark matter as light matter!) ...
It is absolutely fantastic that Cardiff Blues player and former British Lions captain, Gareth Thomas has announced he is gay. The reason I say fantastic is this, there are quite obviously many gay sports players out there, but for many different reasons don't feel they can come out. That is really sad and it sends out a negative message to young people tormented with their sexuality when they see major sports stars hiding their sexuality. I hope Gareth's announcement will encourage other gay sports players to come out. Speaking to The Times, Gareth Thomas said; "I don't want to be ...
[IMG: http://www.wikio.co.uk] [IMG: takepowerbacklogo.jpg] I think its fair to say that after our Bournemouth conference, rather than the 'fresh-start' being the main take home story, its was whether or not our National party was going to dump its policy to scrap tuition fees! At the time even veteran ex-leader Charles Kennedy waded in, stating that the policy was far too important to voters to be dropped. This even led to some scandalous remarks from the Greenie-meanies suggesting it was a forgone conclusion that the policy would be jettisoned. Also, they stated their (authoritarian) party would be the only choice for ...
Thais are celebrating coming out top in the medal tables in the South East Asian Games, which were held in Vientiane, Laos (for the first time). Thailand just pipped Vietnam in the gold medal tally (over 80 each), as well as overall. In honourable eleventh and bottom place came tiny East Timor, with three bronzes; ...
Malcolm Turnbull, recently deposed as leader of the Australian Liberal Party, turns out to be the great-grandson of Arthur Lansbury, who was the brother of the George Lansbury, the leader of the British Labour Party. This makes him a kinsman of the actress Angela Lansbury and the late Oliver Postgate.
Now I know Tom Harris is a Doctor Who fan, a fan of reality TV shows, but his recent blog post contains the phrase "back in the real world". The post in question is about the Lib Dems pledge to keep our promise to axe tuition fees for students. In a fit of Kerry McCarthy-esque pique he is saying that the Lib Dems are keeping a meaningless pledge as he says we will not be able to enact it in the next parliament. Strangely his own party therefore have made meaningful pledges in each of the last three General Elections ...
Not content with providing a miserable, overcrowded and expensive service, FCC have now found a new way of fleecing passengers: a surcharge of 1.8% will be applied to credit card transactions. Chris comments: 'This is little short of theft but typical of this robber baron company. It is time yet again that their franchise was removed.'
As the Copenhagen summit draws to a close, there has been no deal on reducing emissions. No deal on which to base mankind's future on this planet. Some states (USA, Brazil, South Africa, India and China) have agreed to limit global temperature increases to 2C, but have not agreed on how to implement this. It has been referred to as a 'first step'. If this is true, then what was Kyoto? That was 12 years ago, and we've only just reached the first step? Give me strength! Okay, so we have Obama's America that is still in the pocket of ...
I received an email last week from someone who wanted to know about the Morecambe Town Council. I referred them to a local Liberal Democrat councillor or to the town hall but I was thinking how strange to get information from me. It seems that they found me through my blogs and sure enough, if you search for the council then you find one of my blogs on the first page. You also find sites like Lancaster City Council. Unfortunately they don't carry any details for Morecambe's council. We live in a wonderful age of technology. I can put photos ...
Peter Black has the story.
Sat 19th
00:00
Day 3268: Government treats religious faith as an "eccentricity" practised by "oddities"... says man...
(Last) Saturday: So, the Beardy-Weirdy of Canterbury wants to know why we don't like hearing about our politicians' beliefs and why, if we do, we think it makes them a bit... peculiar. Two words for you, your weirdiness: LORD BLAIRIMORT. Yes, Britain's most famous (living) GENOCIDAL THEIST, author of pamphlets: "How I Did It!"; "I would have did it ANYWAY!" and "Nozink in ze vorld can SCHTOPP ME NOWWWWW!", back in the news with the revelation that he DIDN'T GIVE TWO HOOTS about the legality of invading that Middle Eastern county. Religious convictions? We'd settle for convictions for War Crimes! ...
