[IMG: Stuart with Paddy Ashdown] The West Country can't afford another Tory Government... because we're still paying for the last one. That's what Lib Dems from across the region heard at a meeting in Exeter today. It was Paddy Ashdown's main message in his brilliant speech. The Tories' sell-off of South West Water and the fact that local people continue to face the highest water bills in the country stand as evidence that the Tories didn't deliver for the West Country when they were last in power - and we still live with their legacy today. And how loud is ...
David Cameron likes to make out that the Conservative Party has changed, thazt it is no longer the party of wealth and privilege (despite the social and educational background and financial status of so many of its MPs and key parliamentary candidates). But now the cat is out of the bag. As reported in the ...
Tomorrow's Sunday Times contains further allegations about expense claims by the Labour MP for Bury North.
As Stephen Tall writes on Liberal Democrat Voice, the Conservatives did not propose radical banking reform last July as they now claim, but: "It's pretty clear when the Tories decided to champion breaking up the banks: when President Obama made his announcement - in the hope that they can coat-tail on his 'change we can believe in' schtick"! Vince Cable put forward a policy of splitting up our big banks as long ago as November 2008.
Nominations for co-option as Vice Chairs for the period until 28 February are now closed, and the nominations are as follows: Vice Chair Campaigns Matthew Folker Vice Chair CommunicationsJoe Rinaldi-Johnson Rich Wilson Vice Chair Membership DevelopmentPatrick Elsdon Thomas Hemsley Polling is underway in each of the contests, with the electorate restricted to the ten remaining members of the Federal Executive, and results will be published here as they come in. As Returning Officer, I wish all of the candidates the very best of luck!
Here is an interesting film. It came, not from LoveFilm, but form Amazon. In fact, on looking back over this blog I found they sent it in error. I had ordered Sir Henry at Rawlinson End. But I kept the DVD (having seen the film once before - on television in the 1970s) and finally got round to watching it the other day. Viewed today, The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer is at once a period piece and strangely prophetic. It is a period piece because so many familiar faces from earlier British films are in it - Ronald ...
A few Saturday West End updates : * Seabraes : Following residents' requests, I asked for litter bins both at the steps and along the path from Greenmarket to Roseangle. I am pleased to say that Scottish Enterprise Tayside has agreed to pay for bins around the steps area (in a style to fit in with the seating) and will attempt to secure necessary funds for further litter bins along the path. There are dog bins at each end of the pathway, but none along it. Residents also requests some more along the pathway given its length, but the Animal ...
David Cameron yesterday accused the Labour government of a 'moral failure', citing the case centred around Edlington, near Doncaster which is on trial in Sheffield Crown Court. I have wanted to write something on this case for a while, and David Cameron's intervention has proved the final straw. He is, in my view, making unacceptable political capital out of a tragic case, and sadly he can cite several cases where children have been tortured and killed including the Baby 'P'. The Tories talk about 'broken Britain' and 'broken society'. Cameron is arguing that the 'Big State' has let us all ...
From today's Independent: The fresh-faced adviser with a vicious bite Congratulations to David Taylor on his appointment as special adviser to the Welsh Secretary, Peter Hain. You can see why a cabinet minister might want to keep him on side ahead of a general election. Mr Taylor may look young, but he was previously used as a Blairite attack dog. When a website dedicated to rubbishing Clare Short for attacking Tony Blair began attracting traffic six years ago, people were astonished to learn that its creator was an 18-year-old student from Wrexham named David Taylor. His other web creations include ...
Oh, three things make me wince about this doctoring of a billboard from m'friend Milliennum Dome, Elephant. [IMG: millennium poster] Two issues for the Tories, and one for us. The first for the Tories – well obviously this terrible billboard has spawned all manner of imitations, with the help of mydavidcameron.com. Just too easy to parody. And perhaps it's just me, but the willingness of people to subvert the message says a little something about the mood of the country, no? Very few people actually want a Conservative government, even if countless thousands are now thoroughly fed up with a ...
Last year I reported that Terence O'Neill had written his memoirs - Never Again - and that they were available on Authonomy. Terence, or Terry, is the brother of Dennis O'Neill, a boy whose death at a remote farm in Shropshire in 1945 was a national scandal and led to the reform of the treatment of children in public care. Terry was with him when he died. Terry tells me that his book has now been taken up by HarperCollins and is to be published on 4 March 2010 as Someone to Love Us. I do hope this book will ...
Bracknell Forest Council annual budget public consultation exercise ends on 26 January 2010. This can be viewed at The council's income for the leisure services it provides has reduced and of course there is a vast amount of money still tied up in the Icelandic bank (around £5million). This means that the council will have to become more prudent in 2010. It appears that a number of cuts to services have been proposed amounting too £3,243k. These among others include (taken from the document); Efficiency Savings Homeless Families -Reduction in families living in bed and breakfast accommodation by providing ...
I went to Wing Yip recently, cos it's the cheapest and (more importantly) most convenient place for getting kitchen stuff. I needed a sharpening stone and a sieve. Of course, I was seduced by some of their many frozen delights, and filled a drawer in my freezer full of fish balls, pre-cooked prawns, a duck, etcI need to empty that drawer so I can fill it with bits of Edmund's pig, so as well as turning the duck into smaller more compact and easily storable pieces, I've been cooking with prawns recently.First, a nice healthy dish. Toss your prawns (fnarrr) ...
With the FA's much heralded live internet tv station unable to actually broadcast Reading's FA Cup game against Premiership Burnley until half way through the second half ("technical problems") - and these are the guys that want to stage the World Cup in 2018 - I managed to find a live feed via Iraq tv!And the Royals go marching on, claiming their second successive Premiership scalp. We're on our
It is always a pleasure to see a new independent bookshop opening. This one is at 52 High Street, Kibworth Beauchamp, a large and growing village about five miles north of Market Harborough on the A6. The shop does not have a website yet, but I shall pass on the address when it does. For the time being, there is more information on the East Midlands Literature Network website.
That's the question posed by the actions Lib Dem candidate for Bishop Auckland: One of the contenders for the Bishop Auckland seat, sitting MP Helen Goodman, accused Liberal Democrat opponent Mark Wilkes of aggression after he bought the rights to use helengoodman.org.uk as a website address. Mr Wilkes, a Durham county councillor, also bought two domain names relating to independent liberal Sam Zair and on Friday added one for Tory Barbara Harrison. Mr Wilkes said he had not decided how to use the site names, and added: "We have bought four names. They cost next to nothing - two or ...
Residents on Hexham estate have been suffering in recent years with problems connected with motorbikes - both full size and so-called 'mini-motos' being ridden on public footways. Problems like this damage the quality of life of many local residents so we are keen to see action taken by the authorities. Some residents got in touch with me before Christmas to report serious problems with bikes and stolen cars being ridden dangerously on Stanhope Road. I raised this with Reading Borough Council and the Police - but I got a very lacklustre response Another hotspot over the years has been the footpath along ...
At the last Council meeting I asked a question about the uptake of free school meals, which apparently hasn't risen during the recession in Reading. Not quite believing the figures, at the Council meeting on Monday I will be asking what the proportion of people who could claim the benefit actually do so. Some people feel shame in claiming for free school meals for their children. In fact, it is one of the best things one can do when times are tough. Children who receive free school meals automatically qualify for other benefits (for example, if they need to take ...
The Lancashire Telegraph has the story: Rochdale Council's deputy leader, Dale Mulgrew, has withdrawn from the race to become MP for Rossendale and Darwen a week after declaring Rochdale was his first priority. The son of comedian Jimmy Cricket drew widespread criticism from both Labour and Tory politicians after his comments following his promotion within Rochdale Council. Speaking after his resignation, Mr Mulgrew said: "This is a decision I have not taken lightly, but clearly my priority from now on has to be on Rochdale. "There are a lot of challenges, and what remains upmost in my thinking is continuing ...
Earlier this month I blogged about a broken and ugly piece of railings in Crouch End: It is these details - the look of road name signs, the style of bollards, the appearance of railings - that cumulatively can do so much to raise or depress the look of an area and the pleasure or dislike it gives people living there. Good design need not be expensive either - but it does require people to be committed to doing their jobs well rather than content with sticking in any old bog standard approach and ignoring its impact. In a small ...
In an article in The Times today Paddy Ashdown says if the Ministry of Defence wants to win wars they must listen to service personnel. I recently told someone that Paddy had been a member of the SAS. Of course I was wrong; he was a captain in the SBS - the Special Boat Service of the Navy. Paddy Ashdown's article in The Times
... the need not to ridicule Tea Party demonstrators who have the wrong answers but genuine grievances, where the latent energy from the public enthusiasm for Obama08 may go, the silent heroism of those that stand in oppression's way, and a bit of Black Flag (amongst other things).
After fisking dear old Lembers for his "Daily J Arthur" column last week, it is only fair that I draw attention to his column this week because it has some good liberal views expressed in it. His brain has obviously come back from holiday (Warf Warf). Well done Peter Black for drawing this to my attention and for his comments below (Prawn Free Lembit does not have this week's column yet): Lembit talks about Haiti and urges his readers to cut out a couple of pints this weekend and give the money to the aid appeal. He talks about Tony ...
[IMG: Me by a gritbin in Mayfield Road] Since I started highlighting the lack of grit bins in Stroud Green, I've had a dozen requests from local residents to get a bin installed in their road. In fact, residents of Woodstock Road and Denton Road pointed out that their roads used to have a grit bin but the Council took it away a few years ago. As a result I've sent in a request to the new Cabinet Member for the Environment Cllr John Bevan, asking for grit bins to be installed in the following six roads: Albany Road Oakfield ...
There's good news for Lib Dem candidate Stephen Lloyd in his campaign to win the Tory seat of Eastbourne – one of his residents, a former Tory MP, has pledged to vote for Stephen declaring the Lib Dem "will prove to be a dedicated, open and hardworking member of parliament for the Eastbourne constituency". The Rye and Battle Observer has the story: A FORMER Conservative MP and Eastbourne voter has publicly vowed not to vote for Tory Nigel Waterson at the forthcoming General election. Ernle Money, a Conservative MP for Ipswich in the 1970s who lives in Furness Road, said ...
It was my pleasure today to be invited to attend the public demonstration that was planned by the Save Barton Moss protest group on Liverpool Road in Eccles. I know the area reasonably well, since in my last two jobs as a sales rep, I frequented the area (including the nearby Makro) and I have never been able to comprehend the council's plain daft idea to build an industrial estate on nearby green belt. Green belt land exists for a number of reasons, which I won't go into here – but given the Secretary of State's recent decision to refuse ...
This time it's Burnley. A few years ago the BNP looked like making a real wave in the town of Burnley. After the decline of the Labour Party the BNP won a number of local council seats and did reasonably well in the European elections in the town. Then the Lib Dems began to put resources in and we stopped the tide and began to turn it back. It's a lesson we could learn everywhere in the UK: where we campaign, we win. Now, far from having been abandoned to the fascists, Burnley looks set to elect a Lib Dem ...
And so the surveillance state gathers even more pace, with arms manufacturer BAE systems developing a "national strategy" for "the "routine" monitoring of antisocial motorists, protesters, agricultural thieves and fly-tippers, in a significant expansion of covert state surveillance" according to The Guardian today. Read the article HERE. It appears that this system is being introduced "in time ...
Tickets are now on sale for the Annual Hatters' Ball in aid of the Mayor of Stockport's Charity Fund. The Ball will be held on Friday, 29 January 2010 at 7.00 pm in the Ballroom at Stockport Town Hall. Tickets cost £50 each and are available from the Town Hall Box Office by calling 474 3256.
With thanks to Dalekat
Well it is 26 years late but if these plans by the police come about then George Orwell's nightmare world of constant surveillance will finally have come true. The Guardian reports that 'Police in the UK are planning to use unmanned spy drones, controversially deployed in Afghanistan, for the "routine" monitoring of antisocial motorists, protesters, agricultural thieves and fly-tippers, in a significant expansion of covert state surveillance.' They say that the arms manufacturer BAE Systems, which produces a range of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for war zones, is adapting the military-style planes for a consortium of government agencies led by ...
The Welsh Liberal Democrat MP for Ceredigion, Mark Williams has called for a meeting with the Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Trust after Ceredigion recorded the lowest emergency response times in Wales. Latest figures show just 49.8% of calls in the county were reached within an eight-minute target in November 2009. The average for Wales was 65%. The ambulance trust said times had improved in some counties, but it was aware of problems in other areas. On average in Wales, 65% of emergency call-outs arrive on the scene within eight minutes, 70% within nine minutes and 75% within 10 minutes. The ...
Following on from the switch of Keith and Diane Bennett from the Conservatives to the Liberal Democrats, a third Conservative councillor in Cannock Chase has now also joined the party: Councillor Mark Green has resigned from the Council's Conservative Group and has been accepted as a Member of the Council's Liberal Democrat Group. Mark represents the the Cannock South Ward.
[IMG: Lamb meeting] It was a reflective and thought-provoking public meeting on Thursday night with Norman Lamb MP and Cllr Nick Hollinghurst talking about the current state of and future prognosis for our health services both locally and nationally. Marlborough Road Methodist Church was nicely full and the audience was treated to a grown-up discussion of the opportunities and threats that the NHS faces. Hick Hollinghurst spoke first on the local picture, positive and negative. Then Norman spoke passionately about the need to improve particularly in mental health provision, about reducing some of the more rigid NHS targets (negative) and ...
Over at The Times today, former Lib Dem leader Lord (Paddy) Ashdown has an article arguing that the the Ministry of Defence is not fit for purpose, branding it sclerotic, inefficient, hamstrung by inter-service rivalry, and resistant to change. Here's an excerpt: While the American Army under General Petraeus has developed a culture of listening, and learning, to troops, whatever their rank or experience, the culture in the MoD is that you don't take lessons from junior officers. The ministry needs to become a learning institution if it is to become effective. The adaptation to counter- insurgency operations seems to ...
[IMG: If He's Dying, He's Going Out Looking Good] [IMG: Creative Commons License] photo credit: John McNab It's very easy to paint Massachussets as a Democratic heartland (as indeed I did) where the Republicans hardly get any votes. That way, the Republican win this week looks even more humiliating for Obama. However, it is worth reflecting on a couple things. First of all, Since 1991, there have been five Governors of the Commonwealth of Massachussetts. No less than four of them have been Republicans. Secondly, it's very easy to assume that Ted Kennedy was always a shoe-in to be re-elected ...
I do find it slightly odd that the Trade Union, Unison, who are campaigning against the cuts to services that the Labour controlled Glasgow City Council are making will then in a few months give yet more money to the Labour Party to campaign in the General Election in Glasgow. Surely, if Unison really cared about these jobs they would divert that money and instead of giving it to the Labour Party actually give it to the Council to protect jobs and services? When I worked in Haringey, despite the Labour Council slashing services, spending £2270 on a TV for ...
A few people have commented on how I have put links to various Councillor's Declarations of Interests in order to help you find out just a little bit more. Some are long and intereting and others, such as my own is much shorter, but do feel free to have a read... here.
Lembit Őpik attracts a lot of abuse for his column in the Daily Sport and it is true, sometimes he says things which are off-the-wall, risqué, over-the-top or just plain wrong. That is what politics is all about, we cannot agree all the time, even within the same political party. What I have noticed however, is that when he writes sensible stuff in this column or even sets out controversial views that amount to mainstream liberal orthodoxy, nobody ever comments on it. People are looking for ammunition to throw at a good constituency MP and a good Liberal in the ...
As the campaign for reforming England and Wales' libel laws steps up a notch, signatories to the national petition to reform libel laws are being urged to contact their MPs and ask them to support the campaign by signing an Early Day motion calling fora re-casting of the libel laws such that, while individual reputation is protected against malicious or reckless smears, lawful free expression is
I made a basic white loaf and added dried basil and parsley. I didn't measure either of these, but I'd estimate I used 2-3 tbsp of each. It's a bit sticky on the bottom, probably because we cooled it in the tin due to the wire rack being otherwise occupied, but it tastes really nice. R has proclaimed it her favourite so far. This entry was cross-posted from Dreamwidth, where there are currently [IMG: comment count unavailable] comment(s). View DW comment(s).
I do find today's headlines a little strange, David Cameron seems to be lurching even more to the right, first we had confirmation that he is still considering charging patients for operations on the NHS and now, he is looking to ignore members of his cabinet and invest in prison ships! Despite a lack of real costed policies from Cameron's Conservatives, he is happy to list a raft of pledges, one of which is to introduce "honest" sentencing and to abolish the early release scheme and these are both going to seriously impact on another of Cameron's pledges, which is ...
Mick Taylor has been selected to stand as the Lib Dem candidate in the Hyde Park and Woodhouse by-election which will be taking place on February 18th. Mick is an experienced local campaigner who will be a great representative for the people of Hyde Park and Woodhouse. Apologies for the legal bit at the bottom. I am the election agent for the election so just to make sure I'm being completely legal this will appear at the bottom of any post about Hyde Park and Wodhouse. Printed (Hosted) by14455 N. Hayden Rd., Suite 219, Scottsdale, AZ 85260, USA. Published and ...
Do you have one of these? Did you get it as a free offer type thing from a garage? Or were you given one of them as a Christmas present? (In which case the person who gave it to you probably got it from a garage as a free offer type thing). Tell me, have you ever actually used any of the mugs? And if you have, have you ever got down to the blue one and used that?
Here are 4 front-page headlines from the most recent issues of my 4 local newspapers. Guess which ones are from independent local papers which make their money through advertising and have their own editorial and news staff. And guess which ones are from Council-funded 'papers' which are run, at the taxpayers' expense, by the PR department of the Council. Exhibit A: "THE COUNCIL IS KILLING US! ... Young people on a Streatham Hill Estate are being dragged into gangs and crime..." Exhibit B: "SCANDAL OF EMPTY HOMES ... Social housing in the Borough has plunged..." Exhibit C: "WE ARE HEADING ...
The headline in today's Telegraph, of all places, says it all: Ed Balls: my struggle to overcome stammer Is it just me or is this article an attempt by Ed Balls to make himself appear more human? More normal... Of course it is. As soon as Ed first realised Gordon was toast he has been mobilising ever since. ...
"Gordon Brown should explain his role in this disastrous foreign policy failure," said the Liberal Democrat Leader.
Here's your starter for ten as we experiment with a new Saturday slot posing a view for debate: Disdainful comments about political motivations and ideological fixations abound. But what Britain needs is more ideology, not less. Because it's having a core of ideological beliefs that gives those in power a plan for action that is more than simply responding day to day to events or taking on board completely the agendas, assumptions and perspectives of those running the machinery of government. Ideology provides a model that can make different ideas hang together in a coherent whole that is more than ...
This week's House Points was a sort of tribute to Bill McLaren. For a more conventional one, see the his Daily Telegraph obituary: "No one voice is more closely associated with a single sport," declared the Telegraph's rugby correspondent, Brendan Gallagher, "and ironically that is now a cross rugby must bear. We have heard the 'best' already. Nothing can or will compare with McLaren in his pomp. He didn't just reflect rugby's camaraderie and ethos, he helped inspire it. Right sport, right man, right time."
From the BBC: The former aide to [SNP] Education Secretary Mike Russell, who left his post after a row over an internet blog, has been charged with breach of the peace. Mark MacLachlan, 47, quit his role after it emerged he had used the blog to smear political rivals... It is understood police took the action in response to emails allegedly from the blogger to his former boss. You can read the full story here.
When politicians start invoking morality alarm bells should start ringing, especially when they talk of "broken societies" and "social recession" as David Cameron did yesterday. He was speaking of the horrific attacks on two little boys by two other youngsters, and of course it brought to mind Tony Blair's comments nearly twenty years ago of Britain being in a "moral vacuum", and look where that led us. An illegal, unjustified, and ultimately devastating war in Iraq because of a sense of moral superiority. I am afraid that should Cameron be successful in becoming PM he would resort to the same ...
Matthew Parris writes a memo to David Cameron today urging him to lay off the custard pies and stop hurling tomatoes at Prime Minister's Questions. In fact the former Conservative MP tells the party's current leader to 'settle into something more grown-up'. The image is almost that the leader of the opposition is coming in wearing oversized shoes, slap on his face and a red nose, ready to reach across the dispatch bow pull at the Prime Minister's belt and pour water down inside. Matthew says that this week Dave got bogged down in the detail of the Edlington issue ...
[IMG: Safer Stockport Partnership] The Safer Stockport Partnership is encouraging people who feel they have been the victim of a hate crime not to suffer in silence and report it. Hate crimes are defined as incidents which may or may not constitute a criminal offence, which is perceived by the victim or any other person, as being motivated by prejudice or hate towards the victim because of their race, religion, sexual orientation, gender or the fact they have a disability. There does not have to be evidence to suggest the motivation, the fact that the victim feels it is motivated ...
Britain is broken, David Cameron tells us, and of course he claims a Conservative government will mend it. How can we tell if he's right? Crime is still a problem, certain crimes in particular. But – like pretty much every western nation – the UK has seen a big fall in crime since the '90s. Having grown sharply through the Thatcher years, crime peaked in the UK in 1995 and has been falling since – quickly at first and more slowly in recent years, but still falling. So not crime in general. Cameron raised the horrific case of two young ...
Back in October I posted about how I thought that the relatively cheap price of alcohol is a major contributing factor to the health problems faced by a significant section of our population, as well as the anti-social consequences of over-indulging and ...
So the Tories and Labour are rushing towards the bountiful world of good and plenty and all that's right in this world. A rush to support the Family. For the Tories in particular, this manifests itself via a minor perk in the tax system. I don't understand it. If the underlying motivation to support the family ...
News. It's an unruly critter. It multiplies daily and yet brave souls try to wrangle it in alarming-sounding ways. CBBC 'Rounds it up, Charlie Brooker 'Wipes it up and Radio 1, gulp, 'Beats it up. I even take turns at writing a news roundup myself, over at Lib Dem Voice. It's called the Daily View, and it's based on news stories and blog posts from the last day or so, with a historical story or two thrown in. I also enjoy reading news digests, and I keep a lookout for ideas to improve my own news summaries. I've been searching ...
[IMG: not a terrorist] If you are at a loss as to what today, you could do a lot worse than make your way down to Trafalgar Square with your camera 1200 til 1300.. There is a protest going on calling for the government to repeal the idiotic anti-terror legislation that has resulted (amongst other things) in reasonable law-abiding folks, doing nothing more threatening than taking snaps of Britains beloved sites, being subject to harrassment, search and arrest. Much to the annoyance of professionals - bemusement of the few tourists left in this country - and indignation of those that ...
Did you know that people with health or mobility problems can have books delivered to their home by the Library Service? Books can be chosen for you, or you can reserve books you choose. Readers of this blog may all be young and agile, but they're bound to know people who aren't and would really like such a service. If you do, encourage them to ring 0191 3706240 or phone their local library. Consett's is on 01207 503606. The service is free, and is even available to people who are only temporarily laid up through an operation or the like. ...
There was a question on Any Questions yesterday (or today if you listen to the repeat) which asked for a question that could be posed to Tony Blair when he attends the Chilcot inquiry next week. The answers were apathetic. He will just evade any question that suggests he was wrong to take us to war. He acted on the best information possible, and even if his information was flawed, he genuinely believed it to be true and he genuinely felt that we had to go to war. He will tell us that he did nothing wrong. We have already ...
