Benjamin Woolley's BBC4 series Games Britannia has been a tantalising documentary thus far. For a political gamer such as myself, much of the first two episodes have been meat and drink. I have to admit to not knowing that Snakes and Ladders was adapted from an Indian game called Moksha Patamu which was ...
Is Paul Tyler trying to be the Bob Russell of the upper house? News comes that the Lib Dem peer has put down Lords questions on the final of Strictly Come Dancing. The Guardian reports that Ricky Whittle (who turns out to be the losing finalist and an actor in Hollyoaks) has called for the voting figures in the programme's final to be released. The report continues: The actor was backed by Liberal Democrat peer Lord Tyler, who has tabled parliamentary questions on the subject, and said: "It's completely ludicrous to claim that the Corporation shouldn't make clear how well ...
Sun 20th
22:37
Greg Stone should have the candidacy removed if we are supposedly the party of equality
Mr Stone has been pulled up by Nick Clegg for writing degrading comments about MPs, especially women, on Guido Fawkes blog. When looking at the nature of the comments, he deserves to be removed as a prospective MP in Newcastle East. The comments regarding women MPs are specifically interesting, highlighting how politics, thus, our party, ...
Well it certainly snowed and I couldn't resist going into the garden last night to take a photo - if you didn't have to go out it looked beautiful. Beautiful again this morning and it was a lovely walk over to Church in snow that was not slippy but crunchy. I was concerned about friends in Baltimore, so decided a pre Christmas phone call was called for, and although they have had 18...
Punk goddesses should not lower themselves to take party in reality television. A few years ago Granada Television had a series called Hit Me Baby One More Time in which pop acts from the past competed for the chance to issue a new single. It was won by Shakin' Stevens with Tiffany and Chesney Hawkes in his wake. One of the unsuccessful contestants was Hazel O'Connor, who would undoubtedly have eaten the presenter, Vernon Kay, for breakfast in her heyday. This is her finest hour - a song from the film Breaking Glass, in which she starred. The contrast between ...
All, One of the bits of good news that has already been reported in the Herald is that the Town Council has frozen it's part of the council tax again. This move will reduce the amount kept in reserves, but councillors felt that with economic difficulties still with us it would be wrong to increase the amount we take from local people. The services which the council provides will be unaffected. Of course the Conservative-run District and County Councils have yet to decide on their part of the council tax - and they take far more than the Town Council. ...
All, I've updated my contact details following my recent move, and finally (after 4 weeks of woe with BT) have the internet at home, so I'll be able to keep this a bit more up to date. My telephone number remains the same. Philip
My Lib Dem colleague Caroline Pidgeon, who chairs the London Assembly's Transport Committee, has raised Thameslink's recent problems with the London Mayor. Hopefully, Caroline's question will add to the pressure to sort these problems out. I look forward to my meeting on Monday 21 December with a a senior manager at First Capital Connect to discuss these problems and how to solve them. The recent dispute has caused great inconvenience to passengers using Mill Hill Broadway and Hendon stations.
I find Doctor Who dismayingly bad for a couple of reasons.
I don't much rate the SNP administration at Holyrood, elected on promises undelivered, high on populism and low on any achievement. However, in terms of its long-term legacy of failure, its hopeless management of capital infrastructure financing will cause the most damage. Step forward the Scottish Futures Trust : • The Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) has been an expensive failure. It is a political white elephant which has achieved nothing for Scotland. It should be scrapped. • It cost £23 million in set up costs alone, whilst its budget for this year is doubling to £5.9million and the Chief Executive ...
I've just come back from Carols by Candlelight to hear two pieces of News, the first is that Rage Against the Machine have beaten X-Factor winner Joe McEllderry to Christmas number one. Earlier in the week Joe's mentor Cheryl Cole had said that the campaign wasn't fair to Joe, nothing personal against Joe but I think as he himself said tonight: "It's more against the show than me and I think if any other person had have won, the same thing would have happened, because the petition was going on before the winner had been announced." But some things are ...
One of the achievements of this government (wholly-supported by the Lib Dems), and what separates it philosophically from any would-be Tory government and their narrow definition of what makes a family, was the introduction of the first Civil Partnership Act in 2004. Ironically, the first one should have taken place on 21 December, but due to a misinterpretation of the waiting period, the first in Scotland were actually held today four years back.
A victory for Facebook but the Christmas number 1 is pretty dire, says the blogger aged a lot nearer 50 than 20! I think Joe McElderry and "The Climb" is actually pretty good and Joe has a good career ahead of him.
That knocked Cowell off his pedestal as the majority of the general record buying public stuck their fingers up to Cowell and the X-Factor machine. Is RATM the best song going? It's listenable though I wouldn't go bonkers over it. What I do go bonkers over is that the mindless pap of Cowley/Cyrus was kicked into ...
The Times thinks that they are though not in the way my pithy headline suggests. Incidentally, the first trite comment in reply to this wins nothing. It says that there is a widespread dissatisfaction over Gordon Brown's desire to make electoral reform a centrepiece of the next Labour manifesto; It is understood that five senior figures spoke out ...
A few weeks back Wasps went to Sale, climbed on the coach, and ate pizza while their managers called off the game because of a bit of rain. Of course this had nothing to do with the fact they were short of a few top players. Today, Harlequins went to Sale and played a full 80 minutes, despite the match being delayed 10 minutes from the end for snow to be cleared from around the perimeter. The
Funny that the internet campaign to stop the X Factor winner automatically getting the Christmas number one has succeeded. It's just sad that the vehicle for this project was a real dirge of a song by Rage Against the Machine that has the same record label that Simon Cowell is also linked to. Talk about self defeating !
Sometimes having mates in the industry is very very useful! Here is the leaked UK top 20 singles chart............. One in the eye for the X Factor we all hope and pray! Killing in the name – Rage against the machine 502672 The climb – Joe McElderry 450838 Bad romance – Lady Gag 61677 The Official BBC children in need ...
[IMG: Pigs might fly] [IMG: it-must-be-true.jpg] From Friday's Evening Chronicle
Lib Dem conference is coming to the Sage, Gateshead, in March 2012. The building is one of the best music halls in the country and on Thursday it celebrated its 5th birthday. I filmed the following video at the celebration. For Lib Dems it will give a taste of the venue for conference though I did not film inside any of the performance halls.
Back in March I blogged about the benefits of using NutshellMail to keep on top of social networks. The free service has just been updated, with some very useful extra features added. But first, why use it? What I wrote in March still applies: One of the most common reasons I hear people give for not joining a social network site such as Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn is, "I know it's useful, but where would I find the time to keep up with what's happening?" A typical way of tackling, at least in party, this dilemma is to go through ...
Here are my highlights of the decade: TUNE OF THE DECADE: Outkast - Hey Ya! Unbelievably catchy, impossibly upbeat, and able to transform even the grumpiest of moods to one of unparalleled joy, Hey Ya! seemed to be universally popular across the entire human race, and even persuaded this two-left-footed blogger to shake it like a polaroid picture on several occassions. Runners up: Together - So Much Love To Give Royksopp - What Else Is There? (Thin White Duke Remix) London Elektricity - Out Of This World ALBUM OF THE DECADE: The Avalanches - Since I Left You Constructed from ...
The snow certainly came with a vengeance yesterday evening. I've never seen such huge agglomerations falling from the sky except when propelled by human hands. The result this morning was a walk to church which used my thigh muscles more than they've been used for a long time! It also resulted in some stunningly beautiful scenery, especially on the river banks. I've put one photo here but
According to industry estimates, the amount of wrapping paper thrown away in the UK at Christmas could stretch to the moon if each sheet was laid end to end. (If, like me, you live in Islington then you can find local recycling information here.)
brrr it is cold! Was out on LAS Sector Support work on Friday evening in Harrow/Kenton, doing mentoring of a newly qualified driver, and my god it was cold! The roads where frozen solid and the thermometer was showing an outside temperature of -3C. Thank god for thermal underwear!! Back out tomorrow on a day shift doing ...
*Into the home stretch as we have only five more sleeps to Christmas day and our countdown of Christmas number ones enters. We also enter what must be known as the X-Factor zone. For the talent show ends the weekend before the last chart before Christmas and has dominated the seasonal top spot ever since, despite some concerted efforts to break the cycle in the last couple of years. So in 2005 that was Shayne Ward with That's My Goal. Now there have been a couple of Christmas Number Ones that have be at the top spot more than once. ...
Seems like it's a bit of a negative day for the Tories on here! This story from Lib Dem Voice about the effective war between a Tory councillor and a local residents group in Southend. Now almost anyone who's been involved in local politics will, at some point, have come across some mad local residents associations but the best way to deal with them is not to go to war with them as this Tory councillor seems to have done!
I've just slid slowly back from the Christmas event at the Monastery and found myself wondering what this year's excuse will be for the state of the roads? Manchester is suppposed to keep the main roads at least safe but even Hyde Road was a skating rink. Fine in a straight line, but just don't try the corners. I saw no sign of any gritters or snowploughs and oddly enough neither has anybody who I've been in contact with anywhere else in the City! Surely the snow can't have been that unexpected. On a positive note though, living in a ...
The supposedly independent #Kerryout campaign to see the Labour MP for Bristol East to lose a the next election has been written about by two Tory bloggers today. The website, which ludicrously suggests it is an independent campaign (despite being set up and backed by known Tories) is a pretty low piece of work by any standards. To flagrantly bandy the word "independent" around is something the Tories like to do, particularly in local elections, but to claim in any way shape or form that this is an independent campaign stretches the idea of clean politics beyond what most people ...
As you may have noticed, it's been snowing outside. It may well be that the roads are pretty treacherous, so please be careful. There is work going on to try to alleviate some problems. The Council gritting teams based at Bradley Fold went out at 1pm Saturday and worked until 10pm. They were called out again at 4 o'clock this morning and were still out when the last update was provided at 1pm. There are two teams working in shifts to provide as much coverage as possible, and the trucks are working well and spreading as much grit as possible. ...
Mark Reckons has rightly taken issue with a post from Tom Harris, which takes the line of the Lib Dems being irrelevant. It is the main line of Lib Dem attack by the two big parties: instead of engaging with the issues we raise, call them meaningless and move on. It breaks just about every logical fallacy going, but the Conlabourtives have never been big on logic. Of course the honest answer is that the Lib Dems won't be the next government. There's an outside chance the party goes into coalition with the Tories or Labour, but we won't be ...
Though Christmas might seem a long way off now (particularly if you've got lots of shopping still to do!), this time next week, it'll all be over and the Council will be launching their Christmas Tree recycling facilities! You'll be able to drop your old (real!) tree at Manor House Gardens (Old Road entrance) from 27th December until the last week of January during park opening hours. Your tree will be chipped and used as mulch in parks around the borough. The pic on the right shows the Lee Green Christmas Tree mountain back in January 2007.
The blogging Labour MP Tom Harris had a rather uncomplimentary piece about the Lib Dems yesterday entitled: "LibDems to retain meaningless promise". In it he claimed that the pledge to abolish tuition fees is meaningless: "LibDems keep tuition fees pledge"? Now, technically, the headline is correct. The Liberals have decided to keep their tuition fees pledge in their party's programme. But away from the Liberals, back in the real world, the phrase about "keeping" a pledge would normally mean "honoured". In other words, parties can "keep" their promises by enacting in government whatever promises they made before polling day. Given ...
I've had news from Street Services about what will be collected in the next week. Collections on Friday were cancelled because of the poor weather, but services will operate next week. However, no green waste will be collected, so the next green waste collection will be after Christmas, when natural trees will also be collected. However, ...
In the last week there have been two revelations from the tough men of Rugby Union. The first came from Scotland's Euan Murray who has refound his Christian faith and as such is not playing any rugby at any level on a Sunday. Then there was Gareth Thomas of Wales coming out as gay. The former has made a decision passed on his personal belief and the later has made it known just who he happens to be. Neither of them should really have been headline grabbers yet somehow both are. For Euan it is following the footsteps of Eric ...
As if having five trains breaking down on Friday wasn't bad enough, Eurostar then tried to run services again on Saturday and had the same thing happen to another train again. It seems they learned nothing from their appalling attempt at customer services on the Friday by once again leaving hundreds of passengers stranded for ...
Older and disabled Freedom Pass holders in Lee Green need to renew their Freedom Pass by 31 March 2010 so that you can continue to enjoy free travel across the capital. Current Freedom Passes are renewed every two years, with current passes running out in March 2010. For added security and to help cut down on fraud, the new-look Freedom Passes will also contain a photo of the pass holder on the card. All new passes will be valid for five years from the date of renewal. New cards will take up to 10 working days to be processed and ...
[IMG: 1960 presidential debate photo] I've signed up to support the Sky News campaign for a Leaders' Debate in the run-up to the next UK General Election. More details about the idea HERE. A series of debates between the leaders - and indeed between the lead spokespeople - will help each of the main parties set out their stalls for the electorate, whilst at the same time putting them under scrutiny. Yes, we don't elect presidents and all that, but this would be a means to an end: sometimes issues and ideas get lost in short news reports and these debates ...
Welcome to the 148th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (13th – 19th December 2009), together with a hand-picked quintet, usually courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed. Don't forget, by the way, you can now sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox – just click here – ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging. As ever, let's start with the most popular post, and work our way down: 1. Sandi Toksvig to fight ...
For once the Wales on Sunday columnist, Matt Withers has a valid point. It does not happen often so when it does it should be worth noting. Writing in today's paper about the decision of Welsh rugby player, Gareth Thomas to reveal that he is gay, Mr. Withers notes that the freedom to reveal ones sexuality in this way is not universal across the world. In particular Uganda has recently announced plans to introduce the death penalty for homosexuals. It should come as no surprise to anybody that this development has been welcomed by the narrow-minded bigot, Stephen Green and ...
[IMG: Leafleting in Prestwich] A huge thank you to everyone who made it out for our final leafleting session for 2009 yesterday - leafleting in heavy show on Holyood Road yesterday.
If the Observer's report that the names of nearly a million people who have not been convicted or cautioned for any crime will continue to be stored on the police national computer, even though the government is changing the law so that their DNA profiles are deleted is true then it is a disgrace. The paper says that the government has been forced to scale back the way it holds the details of people held on the national DNA database, following a European Court ruling that retaining the profiles of people arrested but not charged with a crime or who ...
Over at the Sunday Times, Tony Blair waxes lyrically about how under-appreciated he is in Britain: He blamed his negative image in Britain on the press, saying: "They don't approach me in an objective way. Their first question is how to belittle what I'm doing, knock it down, write something bad about it. It's not right. It's not journalism. They don't get me and they've got a score to settle with me. But they are not going to settle it." He added: "It's not true that nobody likes me! Reading the papers in Britain, you'd end up thinking I'd lost ...
Yesterday I spoke with the leader of Luton Council after constituents informed me of the lack of gritting in the areas to the West of Luton. It is vital we do all we can to ensure that such communities are not cut off at this time of year and I urged Cllr. Simmons to do all she can to help all the residents of our community. Since then we have heard the sad news that today the people of Caddington are without gas for the time being due to a major leak this morning. The necessary authorities are currently doing ...
Whatever happened to the concept that an Englishman's Home is his Castle? This comment appeared on an article entitled 'Sufficient v Excessive force' on Conservative Home. You have to wonder at the mentality which views a home from the same perspective of a medieval baron, indeed this is what gives us our clue to what has happened ...
This last week I have been busy delivering Lib Dem Christmas Cards and John Leech's Environment survey across Chorlton. This is a picture of me delivering letters in Chorltonville while it was snowing. Whilst I was out delivering I made a special effort to note down anything worth reporting to the Council, so that it could be cleared up before Christmas. In the last week I have reported over 125 items to the Council which need cleaning, repairing, actioning or inspecting. These have included potholes, poor road surfaces, graffiti on lampposts and other street furniture, flyposting, damaged trees and cages, ...
This last week I have been busy delivering Lib Dem Christmas Cards and John Leech's Environment survey across Chorlton. This is a picture of me delivering letters in Chorltonville while it was snowing. Whilst I was out delivering I made a special effort to note down anything worth reporting to the Council, so that it could be cleared up before Christmas. In the last week I have reported over 125 items to the Council which need cleaning, repairing, actioning or inspecting. These have included potholes, poor road surfaces, graffiti on lampposts and other street furniture, flyposting, damaged trees and cages, ...
It's been a confusing weekend. First, I hear that Manchester City have sacked their manager Mark Hughes, despite him guiding us to the top six and a cup semi final with only two defeats all season. I can just about cope with that, because his tactics were more frustrating than a hot date with a nun. But then I hear that he's been replaced by Roberto Mancini, whom I thought was the guy who wrote "Moon River." Quite how that wil bring Champions League football is anyone's guess. And now, to add to my confusion, I hear that Radcliffe Civic ...
Lexmark are offering 100 all-in-one inkjets to schools. Unlike some school promotions, this one does not involve buying lots of soap powder or collecting vouchers, you just need to nominate your chosen school online. I've nominated St Andrew's Barnsbury where I'm a governor (in fact have been for over 12 years now). In my time at ...
Sun 20th
11:51
Chances are I'll ignore you if you're moaning about how awful the UK is with dealing with snow...
You see, that's because: (1) We get serious snow far less frequently than other countries. So stands to reason they spend more money on being able to deal with snow doesn't it? Unless that is you're keen on paying up more money for snow clearing equipment that hardly ever gets used?* (2) And while we're talking about other countries, have you noticed how people in them are much more likely to clear snow from outside their own homes? You have cleared the snow from your own before moaning, haven't you? (3) And yes, a bit of forward planning is sensible. ...
I generally don't mind some of the robust campaigning that goes on in politics. It's part and parcel of the game. But what certain tory bloggers seem to be doing with Kerry McCarthy (Labour MP in Bristol) is just nasty. Tory Bear and Iain Dale seem to have started quite a personally nasty campaign about her. This type of thing just isn't called for. They're not calling into question her ability to do the job, some of the terrible things she has voted for in the past or some of the policies she believes in (all of which would be ...
A couple of months back, during party conference session, I was seriously considering leaving the Liberal Democrats. I wasn't going to join any other party, because they did not share my political views, but I could not be in a party that did not want to abandon tuition fees. I believe education should be free. It should be open to those who wish it to be to help nurture a sense of life long
I haven't blogged for sometime and there is much I want to say. A couple of weeks ago Mum and I accompanied Dad to the Waltham Forest Civic Carol Service at Walthamstow Assembly Hall. Although Mum and Dad are regular attendees, this was the first time that I had actually been and I am glad I did. It was fantastic.Waltham Forest Music Services, which is still going strong after many, many years
Yesterday, I visited my Niece Emily to wish her a Merry Christmas - after some playing in the snow I gave her her gift and then we played a bit with it before heading out to the snow once more.
Over at the Independent on Sunday, Lib Dem shadow home secretary Chris Huhne rails against the UK's asylum system for combining 'staggering bureaucratic incompetence with institutionalised cruelty'. Here's an excerpt: ... It is one thing to stamp out abuse among asylum-seekers, but quite another to devise a system that combines staggering bureaucratic incompetence with institutionalised cruelty, for every year we are locking up hundreds and probably thousands of children, who have committed no crime, in prison-like conditions. We do not know exactly how many, because the Government will not provide regular figures, but in June there were 470 such children, ...
A bit late I know, but as well as the sort you hang on the wall, there are lots of Advent Calendars out there to enjoy online. I really like the Paperless Advent Calendar from the wonderful Paperless Christmas team. 'Why are we waiting' is a serious-minded calendar from the Church of England, embracing the ...
What better way to spend the Saturday evening before Christmas than driving around Cheadle and Gatley spotting faulty lights? OK, I didn't spend more than an hour before deciding a warm house was definitely preferable, but I picked up a few issues that I've passed onto the Council. 1. Christmas lights in Cheadle & Gatley - The star outside Barclays Bank, Church Road in Gatley is still not working - On Gatley Road, Cheadle the Christmas light outside Meadows Cycle Shop is not working. - At the junction of Wilsmlow Rd and the High Street, the Christmas light outside the ...
Dear Fellow Citizens of Bracknell and the World, What on earth is my granddaughter and her children and their children, and all of our descendants like them all over the world, going to use in the future for energy instead of fossil fuels - oil, gas & coal? We take these currently absolutely essential energy sources so much for granted. Energy that we need to enjoy everything, watch everything, drive everything, dig up everything, cut down everything, move everything, grow everything, catch everything, make everything, cook everything, heat everything, etc etc etc. ad infinitum! PLEASE WAKE UP AND SMELL THE ...
Well - it's my birthday. Not something I particularly would wish to advertise - but in this social networking age - and given my age is out there - am not able to hide the dreadful truth. Forgot when I signed into facebook this morning - only to be greeted by loads of 'happy birthday' messages - which was really nice. Thank you everybody! I had just finished an hour of ironing (which I do every Sunday whilst watching Andy Marr) and was (and am still) waiting for my two daughters to arise and wish me Happy Birthday. So - ...
Richard was watching Match of the Day this morning, when our TV died. (I blame the fact that they were just saying something nice about Spurs.) I am now watching a rather small and tinny Andrew Marr on the PC. There may not be any TV in the Gospel accounts of the Nativity, but Christmas ...
Solutions SK, a Stockport Council wholly owned company have scooped a much sought after national award, beating 50 other entries from across the UK. Solutions SK School Meals team won the National Overall Best Education Catering Team of the Year award at the Annual Network Performance Awards organised by the Association for Public Service Excellence. Winning the award shows that the School Meals team provide a service that delivers value for money through recognised quality and performance indicators linked to standards of excellence.
In the wake of the failure to get any sort of agreement in Copenhagen, African countries are reportedly very angry that no legally binding treaty has been agreed. It appears also that China was the main culprit in preventing a real deal being made. So isn't it odd that African nations, who have readily accepted Chinese grants for building stadiums and "showpiece" buildings in return for access to the natural resources these countries have, are moaning. If they are so very angry, we can assume that these African nations will sever their links with China ? Of course not. Africa ...
Crest have told us that the contract has been signed. A really good boost to the new year.
From Hope-nhagen to Nope-nhagen in one short week. What a shabby affair last week in Copenhagen has proved to be. A once in a lifetime chance to grasp the opportunity of seriously tackling the problems in store for the whole planet has been let ...
The council has now filled in these pot holes, on to the next lot
It's Sunday. It's 7am. It's time for a singing Christmas dog, but first the news. 2 Must-Read Blog Posts What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here's are two posts that have caught the eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator: Snow highlights the selfishness in people: Nich Starling gives it both barrels: "Season of goodwill? You must be kidding. The season of selfishness more like!" A post from the future: Ryan Cullen unveils a very useful little plugin for WordPress bloggers. Spotted any other great posts in the last day from blogs that aren't on the aggregator? Do post ...
Surely the MSPs have not been locked in a time warp bubble over the summer and missed the public fury over the abuse of MPs expenses? I seriously do wonder. I ask because we now learn that Cathy Jamieson MSP is throwing her hat into the ring to become the next MP for Kilmarnock and Loudon following the announcement from Des Browne MP that he is to step down. First we had Holyrood's most expensive MSP, Conservative, John "Bubbles" Lamont MSP announce he was going to stand for Westminster, then Labour's Margaret Curran MSP (the one who lost in Glasgow ...
The Thai Prime Minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, has been busy this week at the climate conference in Copenhagen and like many leaders of developing countries, he has expressed disappointment at the low-level outcome. But not all his criticism or advice has been targetted at the United States and other industrialised nations, or even China. He has ...
St Albans City and District Council is pressing ahead with plans to enhance Verulamium Park and has allocated £220,000 towards the cost of making key improvements. On 11 December, Cabinet gave the green light for work to begin on a list of projects. These include: · Improved entrances and boundaries at the Fighting Cocks, Belle Meadow, King Harry Lane, Holywell Hill and St Michaels, including the Labyrinth garden area; · The development of signs and interpretation materials for the heritage and ecological sites in the park; · An outdoor gym and recreational facilities for teenagers; · The creation of a ...
In November we had the terrible weather that destroyed bridges in Cumbria and took the life of PC Bill Barker. Workington was cut in two and thousands of people were affected. Pupils who used to walk to school had a round trip of hundreds of miles. This mileage came down as other bridges were deemed safe and eventually they got a footbridge. There was a great show of support from all levels of government and I know that many members of the public have done what they can to help. Unfortunately political opportunism meant that the MP for Morecambe called ...
