Today's leafletting in Haughton North was interrupted by a trip to Zetland Street in North Road ward to talk to local householders about flooding in their gardens. As the thaw sets in, the problems caused by the long weeks of sub-zero temperatures are now becoming apparent.Heavy rain and ice melt combined with a blocked drain in the Zetland Street back alley to cause water to pour into nearby
The Torygraph are jumping over themselves when a source close to Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has said of Labour's voting reforms: "They are worthless and don't go nearly far enough." The Torygraph go on to conclude: "The force of his reaction has strengthened the belief that he is much more inclined to prop up a minority Conservative administration than a Labour one." Err....not necessarily. The Tories are more than happy with the status quo on voting systems. They want First Past the Post (FPTP), indeed some of their MSPs who actually owe their presence in Holyrood to proportional representation ...
Our party have really hit the nail on the head with their pledges to tackle the still endemic homophobia there is in society. Clegg has announced in his interview with Attitude, a number of political reforms that will help provide more rights for homosexuals and bisexuals in society, they include (the list is taken from ...
So what do Labour do to get things done? We according to 60 Whitehall's senior officials they have 'few tools beyond the brute force of political edict'. Indeed the findings for the Institute for Government also say that despite their grip on power there is a "conspicuous lack of a single coherent strategy for government". Indeed they call for a radical shake up of Whitehall if it is to function after the election, whoever is in power. As Nick Clegg has been saying recently the old ways are not working, they need to chance, even the Civil Servants are saying ...
Trawling the web I discovered that Consett Green Spaces Group have managed to make it into the (as yet unconfirmed ) minutes of Durham University Council in November 2009 which make reference to two challenges to the Academy site, the second being an informal challenge from an organisation called 'Green Spaces' who were concerned at the loss of an open green space in Consett. A public consultation event was being organised for either 7 or 8 December due to outline how the academy building would integrate with proposed new leisure facilities (to be managed by Council Leisure Services, not the ...
David Cameron has been reported to be a liberal Conservative. Classical lìberals in the Liberal Democrat party have been seen, not necessarily correctly, as close to the Consevatives. I believe that the onus is up to us to point out that liberalism and conservativism are incompatible. Many will remember the arguments between the wets and the dries in the 1970's. David Cameron is, in my view a wet, supporting the idea that the UK is one nation needing a 'caring sensitive goverment'. Wet conservatism ran into problems because people tired of its paternalistic nature, and because it did not ...
Keep on hearing people going on about how we can't win and being crowded out by the media. First, we do have the best media presence in this stage of the electoral cycle than I've ever known. However, it isn't good enough. There are many of us that are asserting our RIGHT to parity of esteem ...
I have visited someone in prison. I have been to a work meeting at Rampton Special Hospital. And when it comes to security precautions, catching a flight from Edinburgh to Luton is right up there with them. Now, cheered on by Norman Baker and Chris Huhne, air travel is about to leap into a clear lead. Full body scanners are to be installed at airports in Britain and abroad so that anyone catching a flight will be viewed naked by security officials before boarding the plane. They are not taking it lying down in Germany. Yesterday the Daily Mail reported ...
At Camborne Town Council this week the police made us aware of an interesting course they will soon be running. The aim of the programme is to help anyone interested gain an insight into the running of the different departments of the police and their partner agencies. The course will cover the reasons why and explain how certain actions are carried out. Do get in touch with the local police if you are interested in attending, alternatively send me your details and I can pass them on to the Town Clerk. The course is on Wednesday nights, starting on February ...
Whilst it would be ludicrous to say all Tories are anti gay, it is true that the Tories party clearly has a record of its MPs being the least friendly towards gay people of all the political parties. And if any proof were needed, the facts, figures and voting records are listed HERE.
I have seen some trip hazards in my time, but the repair required in the middle of the pavement in Tullideph Place, near the junction with City Road, takes the biscuit. I am grateful to the residents in the area for bringing it to my attention. In an area of sheltered housing, it is important that this footpath repair is undertaken as a matter or urgency and I have raised the issue with the Council's City Development Department.
While I've been mostly offline, I *have* read a few things in my Google reader... Marc Singer is returning to comics blogging! Sean has a list of Comics Of The Decade that would serve as a very good primer. I'm planning on doing my own one of these sometime soon... I can't believe I've never come across comics/horror ...
Not all is sweetness a light in Steve Jobs orchard right now, Kodak are the latest company to have taken Apple to court over infringements of patents. Not only that put Kodak are asking the US International Trade Commission (ITC) to stop the company shipping iPhones and Blackberries as these are the products that are using Kodak's patented technologies without financial recompense. Kodak have already reached agreement with Sun Microsystems over the Java programming technology. There is also a claim against Samsung which the ITC ruled last year did infringe Kodak's patent. The rotten Apple cart does not end with ...
Now LDV doesn't, as our readers know, usually focus on individual opinion polls – but this one's a little out of the ordinary, as it focuses on the voting intentions of teachers. The survey of nearly 4,000 teachers for the education charity the Sutton Trust by Ipsos MORI revealed the following voting intentions: Labour 25% Tories 18% Lib Dems 14% Here's what the Independent had to say about the poll in relation to the Lib Dems: Today's poll showed the Liberal Democrats lagging behind the two main parties with just 14 per cent. Traditionally, third parties have done well in ...
Now LDV doesn't, as our readers know, usually focus on individual opinion polls – but this one's a little out of the ordinary, as it focuses on the voting intentions of teachers. The survey of nearly 4,000 teachers for the education charity the Sutton Trust by Ipsos MORI revealed the following voting intentions: Labour 25% Tories 18% Lib Dems 14% Here's what the Independent had to say about the poll in relation to the Lib Dems: Today's poll showed the Liberal Democrats lagging behind the two main parties with just 14 per cent. Traditionally, third parties have done well in ...
Last month, STV filmed at the West End Amateur Boxing Club's Saturday training session (see http://tinyurl.com/dundeewestendabc) and it was great to see the news item on the STV news last night (see http://tinyurl.com/stvabc) - well done to Emilio and a growing membership at the club. And many thanks for their Christmas gift - see below!
Sat 16th
19:06
Spotify Playlist For 16/01/10 - Klaatu, Roy Wood, France Gall, Ella Fitzgerald, Mississippi John Hur...
I'm back. I've had a little while off from the internet, as a whole pile of things have been building up that needed dealing with offline, so I've not even checked my email for a week (I see I have emails from Sarah, Pillock, Brad, Tilt, Trevor, Alex and Richard that need dealing with...) and Twitter ...
Do you have a Wordpress blog, but hate playing about with the source code of your theme to insert the Official Twitter Widget? Do you wish that instead you could just have a Wordpress widget which did all the hard work for you? Well now you can, with the (Un)official Twitter Widget. This simple Wordpress widget allows you to have the Twitter widget on your sidebar. I wrote this widget for a client who wanted the new Official Twitter Widget, however all the Wordpress plugins I came across either used the plain old widget, or did their own thing with ...
Apparently there is a rumour going round that I'm going to call for a no confidence motion in the remaining exec at the York conference. This isn't true and I hope it doesn't happen. There are more important battles to fight.
Nick Clegg made some waves this week by calling for full gay equality, and challenging the Tories and their leader David Cameron to follow his example. Well, now Lib Dem research has shown what an uphill battle the Tory leader will have on his hand even convincing his own shadow cabinet to back such moves – let alone his even more right-wing backbenchers – as The Guardian reports: Nearly a third of David Cameron's shadow cabinet voted against gay rights legislation at some point over the last two parliaments, demonstrating their "shameful" record in tackling discrimination, according to the Liberal ...
It is in the news today that a few questions are being asked about Tory Health spokesman Andrew Lansley receiving a large dontation from the wife of the owner of a health care company. The implication being that questions might be asked as to whether the donation could influence Tory health policy. Still, with a reported £21,000 being donated, it might be nice if Andrew Lansley employed someone to answer his e-mails as I emailed him in good faith about a healthcare issue two months ago, and he has not even had the courtesy to respond, reply or even acknowledge ...
[IMG: Outside Plymouth Police HQ] This first appeared on the PRSD website HERE. To visit the front page of the PRSD website, click HERE. You are probably familiar with the stories. The tourist stopped and searched because he was photographing St Paul's Cathedral, or the person challenged after taking a picture of a fish and chip shop in Kent. Many police officers seem to have gone to town with Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000. This is the law that gives officers the legal power to stop and search people and vehicles for articles which could be used in ...
Tories claim Labour is using taxpayers' money to fund election advertising campaign - Telegraph, 15.1.10 "The Conservatives accused Labour of "raiding" taxpayers' money to fund their election campaign. New figures uncovered by the Conservatives show that spending on advertising has increased to £232 million, which is a 39 per cent increase on the previous year." A tenth of schools fail to meet GCSE targets - The Guardian, 14.1.10 "One in 10 secondary schools in England failed to meet basic targets for GCSEs last summer and academies were disproportionately represented among the failing institutions, government statistics published today reveal. "David Laws, ...
Christopher Hope has an interesting piece in the Telegraph about attempts by the trade union Unite to 'buy' a seat for their General Secretary at the time, Jack Dromey - the husband of Hariet Harman. The unions have had a hold over the Labour Party for a number of years since their financial situation began to deteriorate. labour needs to be very careful that the unions don't turn the clock back to the dark days of the early 1980s Labour Party. On a wider point these allegations by Peter Watt are quite explosive. What is he trying to achieve? He's ...
One of the outcomes of a first-past-the-post electoral system is that it creates safe seats. These are seats where one party has such a large lead over their opponents in their constituency that the chances of being overturned is slim. It seems obvious that people in these seats will be less minded to go out and use their vote. The statistics back this up. This graph compares the size of the majority (the scale of the win) in the 2001 general election to the size of the turnout in 2005 in each constituency. (Excludes Northern Ireland) There is a significant ...
Following my positive talks with First Capital Connect (FCC) about the appalling problems experienced by passengers on the Thameslink route, FCC's Larry Heyman has emailed me with more news for Thameslink passengers. Mr Heyman writes that compensation "...above and beyond Delay Repay...was going to take the form of five tickets equivalent to five return journeys with First Capital Connect. However, following the ongoing severe disruption to Thameslink route services due to the extreme weather conditions, we have reviewed the planned customer compensation package and now propose a revised and increased compensation deal. Details of this will follow in due course ...
The BBC have a video of the debate here.What I find surprising is that Withers have not apologised. The last time this happened (in 1981) the firm concerned apologised by telegram before the motion was moved.There was a case with some similarities in Australia in 2006. The report can be found here. A law firm was found guilty of contempt for threatening defamation proceedings linked to a
With all the political parties now gearing up for the General Election, which is odds on to be on 6th May, the same date as the local elections, they have all been busy putting out policy statements in the past couple of weeks. For the Liberal Democrats the emphasis has been on Fairness. The background for the new Government will be one of a painfully tight financial situation, with the need to cut the huge national budget deficit. Therefore a very sharp focus will need to be on priorities - and other things will have to be shelved until the ...
[IMG: Sven Thames Water] Now the snow's melted, the damage the freeze has caused to our roads and water mains is clear. Sven and I spent some time today identifying pot holes, damged road surfaces and water leaks so we can report them to the Council or Thames Water as appropriate. There are plenty about – including on Manor Park, Staplehurst Road, Fernbrook Road, Manor Lane, St Mildred's Road, Upwood Road, Micheldever Road, Lee High Road and Burnt Ash Road. Whilst we were on Burnt Ash Road, we bumped into a member of staff from Thames Water, who was attending ...
Here's what a Conservative borough councillor Smith Benson made the comment at a public meeting in Colne, Pendle, last year: The problem with Colne is that there are too many takeaways. And too many Pakis, that's why people don't come to Colne." His comment to the Colne town centre regeneration forum – and which he repeated in the meeting when asked to clarify his remarks – led Lib Dem councillor Tony Greaves to complain that Cllr Benson had breached the local authority's code of conduct: this has been upheld, and the matter has now been referred to Pendle Council's standards ...
Today's Times says that the Conservative health team is being funded by the wife of the chairman of one of Britain's largest private hospital companies. They say that, according to official registers, Andrew Lansley, the Shadow Health Secretary, received £21,000 in November from Caroline Nash, wife of John Nash, the chairman of Care UK. Mrs Nash works with her husband running a charity to help the underprivileged young. The charity also sponsors an academy school in Pimlico, Central London. Care UK runs a network of GP practices, NHS walk-in centres, out-of-hours services and NHS treatment centres. The company says that ...
In part two of my musings on what really divides British politics I attempted to explain what I think characterises the statist position. Now it is time for the non-statists. Like statists, one can find the non-statists in all three UK parties. They are also as varied: anarchists, libertarians, mutualists, socialists from the co-operative movement and classical liberals. What characterises the non-statists is the focus on the individual and freedom. They stress the importance of individuals choosing how they govern themselves and the relationships they enter into whether it is economic, social, political or personal. In this society, there is ...
Up to 100,000 pensioners in Wales will miss out on Cold Weather Payments triggered by the recent weather, according to analysis of Government figures by the Liberal Democrats. Cold Weather Payments of £25 a week are paid to people on low incomes who receive a qualifying benefit, such as Pension Credit, which goes unclaimed by as many as 1.7m pensioners across the UK. Commenting, Ceredigion's Welsh Liberal Democrat MP Mark Williams said: "It is a scandal that pensioners on the breadline are missing out on these payments, worth an estimated £2.5m. "With many people struggling to heat their homes in ...
In 2006 two filmmakers decided to document the first term of a little known US senator called Barack Obama. Within nine months their rookie was running for president. The resulting two hour HBO documentary was shown on BBC Two last Saturday (9th Jan). If you didn't see it, do all you can to track it down somewhere, somehow. It is clear that the film-makers formed a trusted relationship with Barack, Michelle and his team so the access to the deeds, the techniques, the emotions and the inspiration of the whole cast from candidate to ten year old telephone canvasser is ...
There is something about turning up in an unfamiliar place, and sitting in a drab room full of people you don't really know, that makes me slightly nervous. Are they going to like me? Am I going to be able to contribute? Today was like that, as I made my way from inner London to a business park on the northern edge of Cambridge to attend my first meeting as a member of the East of England Regional Executive. Having only become a member of the Regional Party in early October, and been elected in absentia to the position of ...
LDV reported on Wednesday that Lib Dem MP for birmingham Yardley John Hemming had been granted an emergency Commons motion to debate what he termed an "intimidating" email received from a firm of solicitors Withers LLP. A brief update, courtesy of the BBC report: MPs have rallied round one of their number who said he was being "intimidated" and prevented from exercising his right to freedom of speech in the Commons by a firm of solicitors. On 14 January 2010, they backed a request from Liberal Democrat John Hemming to refer the matter to Committee on Standards and Privileges, who ...
Following the recent verdict of the European Courts that certain stop and search powers exercised by the police in the UK are illegal, Kent Police have been criticised again for their actions at the Kingsnorth Power Station protest. They were criticised for using stop and search on 11 year olds! This seems a complete abuse of powers by the police and the courts have agreed. The police need to take a serious look at how they police protest and the attitudes they take towards those who are exercising their democratic right to public protest.
Over at the Financial Times Nick Clegg has pledged to be straight with the British public about the state of the nation's finances, and the public spending cuts the Lib Dems will make – called on the other two major parties to do likewise. At the moment, he says, Labour and the Tories are treating fiscal discipline like a "political football": Gordon Brown is determined to keep spending, whatever the risks, to create a dividing line with the Conservatives. David Cameron is determined to insist on immediate cuts, whatever the risks, to create a dividing line with Labour. It has ...
James Graham continues to provide one of the key services in our democracy – specifically bringing us the musings of the LibDems' favourite "Marmite" politician, Lembit (see meaning 3 here) from the "Daily J Arthur"; without us having to wade through inundations of soft-porn. This week's column from Lembit contains a remarkable whitewash job on the Robinsons. Crikey. Strike a light. OK, fair enough, Lembit mentions that the Robinsons are his friends. It's a democracy and he states his view. Fair enough. But blimey oh riley, did he actually watch BBC's "Spotlight" programme? Here's some of Lembit's whitewashery: AS you ...
The danger of watch-lists is just that they are just lists. Words after words after words. Names upon name upon name. There is the name Michael Hicks not on the US no-fly list but on the list of selectee's who are treated to extra security and full body pat downs anytime they fly. It has happened to Michael 'Mikey' Hicks for the past 6 years. So who is this wanten terror suspect? Here you are. This American boy scout, son of a US Navy veteran has been subject to tight security and full body pat downs since he was 2! ...
[IMG: The playfort in August after it was vandalised] Local families really value the play facilities at Stationers Park, so its been very depressing to see the slow decline of the popular children's playfort (see picture), with years of broken promises by the Council on repairing or replacing it. But now there is some good news at last! Thanks to the hard work of the residents in the 'Friends of Stationers Park' and our local parks officers, a bid for a Government 'Playbuilder' grant has been successful. This means that part of the capital funding for a new big play ...
The leader of the Alliance party of Northern Ireland, David Ford, is being tipped to be the first Justice Minister in the province. According to UTV: (The Alliance) party is seen as the only grouping that could command cross-community support. I can remember hearing on the news that the Alliance party was being formed. (This was during the days when the news was read by Kenneth Kendall, Robert Dougall or Richard Baker and invariably had details of some awful atrocity in Northern Ireland – night after night after grim night.) I remember feeling uplifted that at last there was a ...
Try typing http://www.alanmilburn.com/ into your browser. Where does that take you? To the Darlington Conservative Future website, that's where. Sadly, Alan Milburn will not be standing for Labour in Darlington in the general election (that really would have spelt the end of Labour's tenuous hold on this seat) so the Tories' swoop for this domain name is a bit irrelevant now - as well as being
Rory Stewart OBE who was a candidate at the Bracknell Conservative Primary (See how he preformed my review here) and is now the Conservative PPC for Penrith and the border is on television tonight. Rory Stewart if he wins (he should do Penrith is a very safe conservative seat) will be a useful addition to any government. you only need to read his CV on Wikipedia to know that. I'm not sure how good he would be as a constituency MP given his history but if he gets in I will be watching with interest to see how he gets ...
There was once a boy whose name was Pinocchio. He longed to be a real boy who could one day become Prime Minister of his country. But try as he might poor little Pinocchio could not help but say - well, things that were not quite right! Every day ...
No, not Prime Minister's Questions, which is 30 minutes of botched soundbites with the occasional mild joke that always brings the House down in tears of exaggerated laughter, but the BBC's "flagship" vox pop opinion programme, Question Time. I finally got round to watching Thursday's episode last night thanks to the wonders of on-demand television. It ...
This week's Pod Delusion podcast is now out (embedded below) and is up to its usual very high standard. I did the final item on how ITV could improve its future by looking to its past (expanding on one of the themes I wrote about in this post). Contents: David Cameron's Face (0:55) by George Poles The Big Freeze (4:15) by Martin Robbins Google Owns Our Souls (9:23) by Liz Lutgendorff NHS IT Systems (15:16) by Simon Howard Douglas Adams (20:26) by Misty Dan Brown and Tony Robinson (23:10) by Billy Abbott ITV and the Regions (26:42) by Mark Thompson ...
Sat 16th
11:16
These people actually have no empathy! They must have missed out on parental interaction and affecti...
I am rather disappointed, America. I find that your awesome (which had grown remarkably rapidly with the election of the best President you have chosen in years) has gone as fast as it came. Apparently, Rush Limbaugh (who is a Fox News commentator) has said that you shouldn't give money to the Haiti disaster appeal, on the grounds that you can't trust the American Government. Pardon?
Received a bright yellow notice through the door this morning regarding refuse collection changes after the snow in Woking. I have had a number of searches on the blog looking for this information so here it is in full from the flyer. "Important information about your refuse collection service As you are aware, we were unable to ...
It's Day 31 of the Big Freeze here. That's over 4 weeks since the snow came. It's certainly on its way out now. Only a few days ago, the rabbit run had well over a foot of snow on it, now only a couple of inches. We can even see some grass. Our little cul de sac, however, was still regularly scattered with cars in weird positions, their owners having bravely tried to make an escape. I have most sympathy with my friend who bought a sporty wee MX-5 just before the snow came. Sleek and sexy it may be, ...
The leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) — and its only Westminster parliamentarian — Lord Pearson of Rannoch has said that his party wishes to ban the wearing of the burqa or the niqab (full face veil) not only in public buildings, but in private ones too, if possible. 'We are taking advice on ...
Cambridge Liberal Democrats have selected Julian Huppert as their parliamentary candidate to fight the General Election. Julian was selected from a shortlist of six candidates who fought for the position at Hustings at The Michaelhouse Centre in Trinity Street, Cambridge last night (Friday). The ballot was called after MP David Howarth decided to stand down at the general election to return to his academic career at Clare College. Julian said: "I am delighted and honoured to be given the chance to fight for this seat in the general election in my home town; it is a great privilege." Julian grew ...
Sat 16th
10:26
Over 100,000 innocent people added to DNA database since European Court ruling - Lib Dems
More than 100,000 innocent people have been added to the National DNA Database since the European Court of Human Rights ruled in December 2008 that the practice was illegal, research by the Liberal Democrats has revealed. The figures, contained in Parliamentary answers, show: 487,340 profiles have been added to the database since the ruling This includes 101,367 innocent people -a rate of 282 a day In that same period, just 400 people have been successfully removed from the database For every innocent person that managed to have themselves removed from the DNA database under the 'exceptional case system' since the ...
The BBC estimated in its recent report that 14 million meals are needed to feed the people of earthquake stricken Haiti now. Three million people, a sum equivalent to half the population of Scotland, now urgently need food and water. Once those basic, immediate needs are met, there's going to be a longer term need for help with food, shelter and rebuilding. This is the Disasters Emergency Committee appeal broadcast last night. You can give here or by phoning 0370 60 60 900.
Review of the state pension age. We will hold a review to consider bringing forward the planned rise in the state pension age. And now we begin to reach the scraping at the bottom of the intellectual barrel. The Turner Report proposed that the state pension age should increase to 66 by 2030, 67 by 2040 and 68 by 2050, whilst the Government decided that it should increase to 66 by 2024, 67 by 2034 and 68 by 2044 (a precis of the 2006 White Paper can be found here). The suggestion of a 'review to consider' is just weasel ...
Let me first start by saying I completely disagree with this action by the government. I disagree for a number of reasons. Firstly what is to stop the organisation just changing its name and carrying on like they have done at least twice before? Answer: nothing. Secondly it doesn't seem right that we can ban an organisation under anti terror powers just because some of their members have taken part in terrorist acts. What about the BNP, the EDL, Sinn Fein and so on? Finally, and most importantly, it is wrong to ban people just because we disagree with them. ...
Test Valley's conservative councillors have rejected calls to back Twinings workers in their battle to save jobs in Andover. At Thursday's council meeting they voted unanimously against a Lib Dem motion calling for them and the two local MPs to back the campaigners. The motion (see previous story, January 7th) called on Test Valley's MPs to support a parliamentary motion calling on Twinings to reverse their decision on redundancies and maintain full production at Andover In a sometimes angry debate, successive conservatives claimed it was not their responsibility to intervene and refused to back the workers calls for a review ...
Stockport Council is urging low income families to see if they are eligible for a grant to buy a Home Access Computer. The Government Home Access Grants will assist families to purchase a computer and internet package helping to support children's learning at home. The grant covers the cost of a computer, one year's internet access, service and support and safety features. The grant is available to parents or guardians responsible for and living with a child who is in school Years 3 to 9, (age 7-14) and claiming Free School Meals or certain income related benefits. The Home Access ...
By Beau Bo d'Or via mydavidcameron.com
[IMG: Twitter screenshot] Cross-posted from the Mandate blog: Tempting though it may be, especially when it comes to chocolate, more is not always better. Driven in part by a desire by some to emulate the sort of "opportunities to see" and "reach" calculations common in more traditional PR and marketing work, it is common to see people judge social media activities by the "more equals better" formula. The number of followers a corporate Twitter account has, for example, is an easy number to track, makes for nice looking graphs and has a certain logic. However, looking uncritically at such numbers ...
In an interview with Attitude magazine published today, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg sets out a strong Liberal Democrat line on LGBT rights - highlighting the Lib Dem's consistent lead on equality over many decades and and including calls to
Here's your starter for ten as we experiment with a new Saturday slot posing a view for debate: The enthusiasm across the political spectrum for using choice to raise standards in public services is misplaced because: For many public services, it's vital to get the service right first time – for everyone. Children only get to go through school once. You don't want to discover after a botched operation that you should have chosen a different surgeon. Choice requires surplus capacity to be meaningful – but it's hard enough to fund minimum capacity in public services without also building in ...
On Wednesday 20 January from 4:30 pm you can join Nick Clegg's online forum on issues affecting young people. To join in on Wednesday follow this link: Nick Clegg Forum:
I don't think I can add much just to say that everyone should think of donating as much as they can to the DEC Haiti Earthquake Appeal (https://www.donate.bt.com/dec_form_haiti.html). It has been truly terrible to see the pictures coming out of ...
Answer not much. In the Guardian today Chris Huhne Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesman reveals how he fears gay rights would "grind to a halt" under a Conservative government. This is based on evidence of their voting records in West. • Ten out of 32 members of the shadow cabinet voted against at least one piece of gay rights legislation. The shadow Europe minister, Mark Francois, voted against all four. • David Cameron, Kenneth Clarke, Mark Francois, Chris Grayling, William Hague, Francis Maude, Patrick McLoughlin, Andrew Mitchell, George Osborne and Sir George Young voted against legislation to repeal section 28, ...
Every blogger's favourite MP is being formally investigated over her expenses claims for her second home. Dorries famously called the expenses scandal a "McCarthyite witch hunt", but I would also like to draw your attention to what Nadine said about her expenses on Radio 4's Any Questions, 23rd October 2009: You know can I just say before I begin cos I feel I need to say this always now. My name's Nadine Dorries. I'm an MP. I've never claimed for mortgage on my expenses. Therefore I have never flipped. I have never benefited in any way. I've never claimed for ...
Just watched a TV ad commendably asking people to donate to the Haiti appeal. Harrowing pictures of the aftermath of the earthquake physical damage and bewildered injured people. Then along comes the Sun logo and the voiceover asks you to donate. My outrage and fury were sparked by small print that appeared on the TV screen that said of each pound donated, 61p would go to the fund and 39p to administration. 39p? Has Murdoch no shame? His multi-billion pound empire is going to make money out of people's misery on one side of the Atlantic and people's generosity and ...
Oh and that goes for all the other unimaginative Labour luvvies that pretend to be oh so open-minded yet really just want to lick power's arse. They're going to get a rude awakening, I can tell you, in May/June. On they are wheeled or even volunteer to spout old-fashioned crap whether it's the imbecile David Tennant ...
[IMG: Julian Huppert, Lib Dem PPC for Cambridge] Congratulations to Julian Huppert, newly-selected Liberal Democrat PPC for Cambridge. From a press release by Cambridge Liberal Democrats: "Julian was selected from a shortlist of six candidates who fought for the position at Hustings at The Michaelhouse Centre in Trinity Street, Cambridge last night (Friday). The ballot was called after MP David Howarth decided to stand down at the general election to return to his academic career at Clare College. Julian said: "I am delighted and honoured to be given the chance to fight for this seat in the general election in ...
I guess its hardly surprising that a company which can't run a railway can't keep its service road intact, but this pair of potholes on Station Way is beyond what even the county council might regard as acceptable. [IMG: station-way-pothole.jpg] We have been trying to get FCC to act.
Question Time is back and I enjoy listening to the programme for inspiration for these blogs. The best ideas come from the moment when you are ready to throw something at the TV screen. This happened with the first question of the evening which concerned Alistair Campbell standing behind every word of the Iraq dossier. He knew the country was going to war well before Peter Hain knew. Mr Hain admitted that he didn't know but then tried to defend the cabinet decision even though they didn't take part in it. It is the role of a cabinet minister to ...
