Well! What a great day! We expected support for the petition but it really was overwhelming. Almost everyone who stopped in the streets of Penrith had a tale to tell about their or their families involvement with Newton Rigg. We're now heading towards 500 signatures in just a couple of days. We were so busy that we forgot to take a photograph, this one is taken later in the day at Brougham Hall and is of our helpers. Latest news is that the University are considering selling the farms at Newton Rigg. This really would be a backward step and ...
I can see why Labour's spin doctors encouraged Gordon Brown to be interviewed by his friend Piers Morgan after watching the interview this evening. I found the show quite entertaining and I am sure it will make a few people like him a little more (or hate him a little less). The problem for Labour spin doctors is that it's more complicated than that. People are turned off voting for Labour not simply because of Gordon Brown. There are dozens of other facts, not the least of which was the Labour Party's support for the war in Iraq, the underfunding ...
Fair question I suppose, but one I find really tricky. I suppose the answer is no, but I'll elucidate. When I was little, I used to watch Prime Minister's Questions with my grandad, my mum had given me a basic grounding in who did what in the commons before I went to school, politics was always something that was talked about around me, but at the same time, none of my family were 'joiners' of any flavour. I admired the things Paddy Ashdown said when I was what? 9? 10? and had I known then how easy it would be ...
Taken from the Guardian website tonight. The Liberal Democrats are planning to rule out forming a coalition government with either the Conservatives or Labour if Nick Clegg holds the balance of power in a hung parliament after the general election. As Whitehall's most senior civil servants and Buckingham Palace make detailed preparations to clarify the Queen's role ...
This is basically my first, unfiltered reaction to Gordon Brown's interview with Piers Morgan. What did we learn? That Piers and Gordon are great buddies. You can tell that - I've never seen the PM so comfortable during an interview. He was nervous, cos he really doesn't like doing that sort of thing, but he managed to laugh and giggle a bit while Piers did the sex and drugs innuendo. That Gordon Brown is a human being who's gone through some really tough things, including the loss of a child and he's emotionally articulate enough to talk about it despite ...
Over on Labour Matters London Assembly Member Val Shawcross is shouting about possible fire station closures across London. Boris Johnson's appointee to run the fire authority, Tory Assembly Member Brian Coleman, today refused to rule out any fire station closures. Labour's Val Shawcross AM, said: "The Chair of the fire authority ought to be able to reassure Londoners that there is no question-mark over the future of any of our fire stations and the fact that he refused to do so is surprising and a cause for real concern. We need a cast-iron guarantee from Brian Coleman and the mayor ...
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I'm sorry you have to see such offensive language on my blog, but I felt I had to draw your attention to a remark made by Tory Blogger Tory Bear who is about as cuddly as a venomous porcupine. Just after Gordon Brown's interview with Piers Morgan started tonight, he tweeted "Brown looks like paedo." Whatever you think of Gordon Brown, and I don't think a lot of him as PM, this is just unacceptably vile. You just have to wonder what goes through the mind of someone who can write that. What worries me is that Tory Bear seems ...
This afternoon we visited the V & A to see their collection of ancient musical instruments, which they announced were being put into store permanently to make way for a fashion exhibition, only to discover that we were already too late. Its a totally outrageous decision, made without any consultation with the music world, let alone the general public. But then I suppose it stems partly from what they see as popular taste, which they believe esteems fashion as a superior cultural good compared with music. Yet the fashion labels are miles too expensive for ordinary people, and some of ...
Lindsay on the way home from the Secularist of the Year. It was also the Chinese New Year yesterday, and the Chinese community was celebrating it with lively street decorations
This year's winner of the Secularist of the Year was the Southall Black Sisters, a not-for-profit organisation established in 1979 to meet the needs of black (Asian and African-Caribbean) women. They highlight and challenge violence against women; empower them to gain more control over their lives; to live without fear of violence; and to assert their human rights to justice, equality and freedom. They have been at the forefront of challenging domestic and gender violence locally and nationally, and campaigning for the provision of support services to enable women and their children to escape violent relationships. Their resource centre in ...
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The Guardian has the story: The Liberal Democrats are planning to rule out forming a coalition government with either the Conservatives or Labour if Nick Clegg holds the balance of power in a hung parliament after the general election. ... senior Lib Dems are making clear that Clegg has no interest in taking cabinet posts and would focus instead on winning support for four key Lib Dem demands. Clegg would be prepared to throw a lifeline to the Conservatives or Labour by allowing either party to pass a Queen's speech if the aspiring government makes concessions in the four areas, ...
Patrick Wintour and Nicholas Watt have a story on the Guardian website this evening saying that the Liberal Democrats are planning to rule out forming a formal coalition with either of the other parties if they hold the balance of power after the general election. Instead they will allow either party to pass a Queen's speech if it makes concessions on the following points: Investing extra funds in education through a pupil premium for disadvantaged children.Tax reform, taking 4 million out of tax and raising taxes on the rich by requiring capital gains and income to be taxed at the ...
How irritating are the Blairs I was going to comment on this astonishing story, in the Times and all good news media concerning Mrs Blair letting off some bod because he was religious click here I was also going to post about the cold unemotional performance of Mr Blair giving evidence in the Iraq inquiry, however never got around to it till now I find them both tedious ....................... Better not I suppose they are both honest lawyers.
It's Chinese New Year, and I've been invited to contribute an article to the Chinese Shadow Parliament's EU Chinese Journal on the NHS and access by overseas visitors to health services. The invitation came via Chinese LibDems Chair Merlene Emerson, and is in my capacity as a Parliamentary Candidate, and also as a former Vice-Chair ...
I'm home after a great weekend out campaigning for Michael Moore MP. The weekend was run from Jedburgh and yesterday was amazing with over 30 people turning up, including people from Liberal Youth Scotland, Jim Hume MSP, Lord Steel and Jeremy Purvis MSP and we ended up delivering far more copies of Michael's latest focus leaflet than expected - more had to be bundled and prepared for Sunday, always a good sign. I was out delivering with the formidable Elspeth Finlay, and in fact this was our third weekend out togther, the end of January we were in North East ...
Sheila Roy passed away last May; she was a pillar of the West End community through her active participation in so many activities, including her role as founding chair of Friends of Magdalen Green. Sheila was also a good friend. I had the pleasure this afternoon of attending a sale of craft equipment that belonged to Sheila, with the proceeds going to the Friends of Magdalen Green. Many thanks to Sheila's family - and to Gail Stirling and family, who hosted this well-attended event.
Sun 14th
21:47
Grants available now for local voluntary organisations - hurry or they will be gone for good!
£58,000 is sitting in the Grassroots Fund for voluntary organisations in Kingston, and the money must be distributed before September. Anything not used reverts to the Government - and we wouldn't want that, would we? One of the Chessington-based charities that I am involved with has successfully bid for a grant, and it is pretty simple to apply, with up to £5,000 on offer. The Grassroots Fund is administered in Kingston by Thames Community Foundation. You can read everything you need to know here, but I thought I would entice you to apply with a quick summary. To be eligible, ...
At the request of the folk at WestFest, I'm featuring progress with this superb initiative for the West End - 20-27 June 2010! Dundee WestFest aims to celebrate the area's diverse culture and vibrant community spirit. The week long festival will centre on five themes; art, drama and dance, environment, history and music and the week will end with a Parade and Party. The festival is open to all who want to take part, whether that is an individual artist/performer, a small group of local residents or a large organisation. There will be events for all ages, including some organised ...
The Robin Hood Tax is currently being debated along the wrong lines altogether.
Due to schools mid-term holidays, my Monday surgeries don't take place tomorrow, but I can be contacted at any time at esurgery@frasermacpherson.org.uk or at home on 01382 459378.
We've been sent some information from Transport for London (TfL) on the introduction of the new Countdown system across the borough. They're proposing to install four of them in Forest Hill ward, at stops near the station/Capitol, the library and near the Horniman museum. Conversely, Perry Vale ward (east Forest Hill) doesn't seem to be ...
Back in the 1980s all the cool kids had LPs by Suzanne Vega. And Luka from her second LP, Solitude Standing, is one of her best songs. I had always assumed that it was about a woman, but a piece Vega wrote for the New York Times explains: It was my manager at the time, Ron Fierstein, who plucked "Luka" out. "Is that song about what I think it's about?" he asked one day in the back of Folk City. My memory of that conversation goes something like this: "I don't know," I said. "What do you think it's about?" ...
Trawling through constituent casework as Janet watches 'Dancing on Ice' and this comes on. So reminds me of being very sun-burnt in the summer of (I think) 1973!
We're regulars at reporting problems with flytipping, overgrown vegetation, unemptied litter bins etc using the lovelewisham website. The idea is that anyone can use it to report problems with the local environment quickly and easily - they've just got an iPhone app for it, so it's now possible to report on the move without one of ...
Having kept my ears to the ground for some time, I have heard rumours that the General Election may be called tomorrow. I always doubt rumours and hearsay but this particular one seems to add up for a number of reasons:- Having an election before April avoids the need to do a budget, which would have to include the much talked about spending cuts.In April the fiscal figures for the first quarter of 2010 will be released, and will show that we are in fact still in recession. There was much celebration when the economy grew up 0.1% over the ...
The best part of campaigning today was probably the mix of new and experienced campaigners taking part. The worst: probably running out of leaflets before we had run out of energy. We started at eleven am in Belfairs. There were enough of us to split into two teams. One finished off the areas where we still have gaps in the delivery network. The rest of us went talking to residents. Sadly quite a few of these were out. But one our new volunteers, out knocking on doors for the first time, soon came across someone who volunteered to deliver newsletters ...
We're getting a lot of correspondence about the home education proposals in the Children, Schools and Families Bill. Here's what I said in a letter I wrote yesterday in reply to one of them: Thank you for writing to me about the home education proposals in the Children, Schools and Families Bill. We believe these are ill-thought out and heavy handed, as our LibDem spokesperson Joan Walmsley has said in the Lords. Not only have ministers not yet properly thought out what should be expected of home educators, but they are now in danger of enforcing a "one size fits ...
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, as we enter our (scary, but true) fourth year ... Yes, this is the 156th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (7th – 13th February 2010), 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 ...
At the start of the week, Lib Dem Voice invited the members of our private discussion forum (open to all Lib Dem members) inviting them to take part in a survey, conducted via Liberty Research, asking a number of questions about the party and the current state of British politics. Many thanks to the 200 of you who completed it; we've been publishing the results on LDV over the last few days. Today we look at one of the questions LDV has asked a number of times in our members' surveys: Do you think, as a whole, the Liberal Democrats ...
[IMG: State of the Union: DVD cover] State of the Union is Frank Capra's 1948 political satire, laced with both dark humour and uplifting appeals to the American way. There can't be many films which spell the lead actress's name wrong in the credits ("Katherine" for "Katharine" Hepburn), though otherwise this is a film of high production quality, even if the sharp camera cuts within scenes do sometimes jar to an eye used to modern editing. The film tells the story of a self-made businessman (Spencer Tracy) who is lured into politics by a young looking Angela Lansbury and others. ...
Its become more and apparent in every newspaper and advertisement we have a General Election fast approaching.(We have to stomach Gordon Brown's TV apperance tonight). We have local elections in May and this means for Epping Forest Liberal Democrats that we need to work hard in this safe Conservative seat. I have been knocking on doors this week with Cllr Ann Haigh and it became very clear to me that people were undecided who to vote for this year and many are considering defecting from Conservative to Liberal Democrat. This election really is intresting with many people having no idea ...
The headline from today's Independent on Sunday shows, in the words of the great Pete Townshend and The Who, we won't get fooled again! Good grief, we've had Thatcher, then Thatcher Lite or Blair as we like to call him, and now we're being offered Blair Lite in the form of Cameron. No thanks! P.S. The poll shows us Lib Dems up 2 percentage points at 21%.
I am not a total unromantic but spent the beggining of today surveying residents of Dunston Hill who use Lobley Hill Bank on the changes to the roads there. A real mixed bag but a lot of people are not happy with the work the council has undertook. Then a meeting with some Whickham Councillors. This afternoon, however, I took a rare afternoon off and took my wife to a lovely little Cafe followed by a trip to Waterstones. Donna is happiest when she has her head in a book so this is a romantic gesture! She is going to ...
Lately the Conservative Party have been defending their position on Lord Ashcroft's tax status by claiming that it is a private matter, and that there is no difference between him and the Labour donor Lord Paul. But there is, in terms of the way in which they were made peers. When Lord Ashcroft was made a peer, it was on the basis of a promise from the Conservative Party that Ashcroft would become a UK tax payer. The issue is not his actual tax status so much as the fact that a promise was made which the Conservative Party is ...
Andrew Duff's book Saving the European Union: The logic of the Lisbon Treaty, written early in 2009, has an endearingly open comment about his own political views compared with those of his colleagues: My party, the UK Liberal Democrats, and group, the Alliance for Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), have been amazingly tolerant of finding a militant federalist in their midst. Although an enthusiast for a closer European Union, Andrew Duff recognises the need for pro-Europeans to make their case and starts with the roots of the EU in the ruins of post-1945 Europe. He quotes Winston Churchill saying: ...
My thanks to James of Two Doctors for pointing this out to me. In today's Scotland on Sunday the lead part of Drumlanrig's diary piece is: What a furore over Nicola Sturgeon's letter on behalf of a convicted fraudster. Alex Salmond's defence of his deputy raised almost as many eyebrows. As devotees of the Holyrood scene will recall, Salmond maintained that Sturgeon had an "absolute obligation" to make representations on behalf of Abdul Rauf, the 59-year-old who had been twice convicted of fraud. Presumably that means that Angela Constance, the SNP MSP for Livingston, will be obliged to write for ...
Confusion reigns in the Conservative Party over whether or not MPs' and Peers' tax affairs should be private. Back in December, Cameron said If you want to be in the Houses of Parliament... you need to be, or be treated as, a full UK taxpayer. We would pass that law if we get elected... as rapidly as we could. Now we have Eric Pickles saying Lord Aschcroft is entitled to his privacy. and George Osborne saying We live in a country where people are entitled to a private relationship with the Inland Revenue. So which is it? Are MPs and ...
Yet again we have seen another 'poll' showing Wolverhampton as the worst city in the world, this follows the Lonely Planet putting Wolverhampton in the bottom five. Well I have travelled rather extensively around Africa. South and Central America as well as parts of Eastern Europe, the Caribbean North America and Oceania, lived overseas and in seven different places in the UK.
Of all the blogs I read outside my own LJ bubble, Jonathan Calder's is one that resonates particularly well with me. He may not know it but Lord Bonkers of Market Harborough seems to have an uncanny knack of unearthing things I enjoy, and this week his unerring nose for rooting out quality comes up with another choice truffle in the form of the Unmann-Wittering blog. Apart from winning billions of house points from me for referencing Giles Cooper's Unman, Wittering, and Zigo in their title, bloggers Ray and Dick keep up my interest by posting about such subjects as ...
Before I start it is worth considering that there may never be another Labour PM. If they fall into internecine squabbling after the general election it is always possible that the hollowed out husk of what's left might eventually implode. For the purposes of this post though I am assuming that this does not happen. I just wanted to run through a bit of the history of the last 50 years to show how the more recent trend for the next PM after a party changing election has not been obvious. Here is a quick list of General elections and ...
Iain Dale gets annoyed by petty politics Sara Scarlett thinks Robin Hood is a libertarian while Guido Fawkes describes the man in green tights as a tax cutter Jock Coates gives a liberal approach to the Digital Economy Bill
Twenty random, out-of-context lines from PEP! 1, which will be appearing in a day or two (I've almost finished the typesetting): History is, to fundamentally disagree with Alan Bennett, very much not "just one thing after another"; it is a method of organising events into patterns and as such is at least as dependent on the ...
Inspired by Tom Harris, who today described his fruitful (literally) attempts to woo his lovely wife, Carolyn and turned it into a meme, I thought I'd tell you a bit about how Bob and I got together. So, this is the story of how I ran away with a divorced man twice my age.... Bob and I are complete polar opposites in many ways. He's quite quiet and he loves weird things. I guess that figures. Today, part of my Valentine's present to him was (at his request) 4 different versions of the same bit of weird music. It makes ...
Last Thursday, saw the first episode of Michael Cockerell's The Great Offices of State. Cockerell is a seasoned BBC reporter and does these things very well. In the first episode, of three, he looked at the 'dark department': the Home Office. This week he will investigate what makes the Foreign Office tick and in the final programme he takes on HM Treasury. If you are interested in the workings of the civil service, how the policy making class interact and the challenges of managing policy then the programme is definitely worth catching. One striking thing is how the interior of ...
[IMG: Lee COnsultation] Following the issues the Local Assembly has raised regarding parking, the Council is now consulting all areas of Lee Green ward that don't currently have a Controlled Parking Zone about parking in their area. If you're in a road in Lee Green Ward that doesn't have parking restrictions, you should have received a booklet like the one on the right over the last week or so. The consultation explains what's happened to date and then asks if you have a parking problem in your area, asks how you'd like this addressed (a CPZ, extra restrictions like yellow ...
Glover says: "Vote Cameron or my Tories will be taken over by something nasty". Parris says "Vote Cameron but he really ought to move to the Right which is where some of the action is". How about "Don't vote Tory until they are definitely liberal conservatives through and through?
According to today's Observer, and blogged by Paul Walter, the Lib Dems are doing surprisingly well in the celebrity supporter stakes. For Labour, long time backer J K Rowling (who surely could match the Ashcroft money and hardly notice it had gone, if the mood took her) is joined by David Tennant. He must be a worry for Labour – Tennant's support may lose Gordon the Dalek vote his only-slighty-too-authoritarian government seem to have spent the last 13 years attracting. The Conservatives meanwhile have Carol Vorderman, Kirstie Allsopp* and Trevor 'bong' MacDonald. Older readers will remember Carol as the clever ...
Great Manchester Run Take part in the Great Manchester Run on the 16 May and help raise vital funds for RNID. RNID has a limited number of places in this 10km run starting and finishing in Manchester city centre. Run for us and you will benefit from a fantastic support package, which includes: training and nutrition advice ...
There's some great tree planting going on in Sunnybrow Park right now. I am impressed by whoever thought to mix tree planting with speed dating, but it seems to be working. I'm not good with plants (they don't live long when I look after them), so I waved a spade at one or two and hoped that they'd survive it being me who'd stuck them into the ground. However it is really great to see lots of people making their local park better.
In his early stand-up routines Woody Allen had a skit which went something along the lines of, "We were married by a Reform rabbi in Long Island. A VERY Reform rabbi. A Nazi". Which brings me to the BNP and their constitution on which they ...
So as the election in Woking warms up, I note with interest the obvious 'lack of interest' that Conservative PPC Jonathan Lord has in the town of Woking that he proclaims to want to represent. Let us not forget that this is his third attempt to get elected as an MP, having failed in both ...
[IMG: Wood Green police station film screenshot] Here's my latest column for the Ham & High: The police are planning to expand their presence in Wood Green - keeping the existing police station in use but also moving the front counter to the Fishmongers Arms (right next to the Civic Centre, closer to the centre of Wood Green, closer to where people congregate and closer to the crime hotspots). I was impressed with the new front counter - not yet in use - when I went with Cllr Robert Gorrie (Leader of the Liberal Democrats on Haringey Council) to see ...
At the start of the week, Lib Dem Voice invited the members of our private discussion forum (open to all Lib Dem members) inviting them to take part in a survey, conducted via Liberty Research, asking a number of questions about the party and the current state of British politics. Many thanks to the 200 of you who completed it; we've been publishing the results on LDV over the last few days. Back in December, it became clear that the party had yet to decide whether the Lib Dem general election manifesto would promise to hold an in/out referendum on ...
Following all the concerns raised (including by many of my constituents) about the "Winter Light Night" theme last year, I have sought assurances from the City Council's Chief Executive regarding plans for 2010. I also raised the views of many residents that reverting to a real Christmas tree in the City Square would be a good move. The Chief Executive has responded as follows : "Firstly I can assure you that whatever Festive event we have this year, it will definitely have the name Christmas in the title. I will be chairing a group to plan and prepare for the ...
One good thing, perhaps the only good thing, about the MPs' expenses scandal is that it has pushed constitutional reform issues up the agenda. Charter '88, now part of Unlock Democracy, has been plugging away on this agenda for over 21 years. Now there is an upsurge of other organisations on similar lines from 38 ...
The Tories chose David Cameron because he looked and sounded like Tony Blair, Discuss. Well if they didn't some of them sure are getting more than they bargained for, with suggestions in yesterday's Daily Mail that the Tory leader is displaying the sort of control freakery for which Tony Blair was famed. The paper reports that Tory MPs have accused Cameron of mounting a 'Big Brother' attempt to censor their Election leaflets. They called him a 'control freak' after party managers issued a series of commands to prevent any gaffes: MPs were stunned last week to receive orders from Chief ...
As Stephen Glenn pointed out yesterday, both Labour and the Conservatives are apparently thinking about raising VAT to 20% after the election in order to help try to reduce the budget deficit. There was a quote in The Times saying: Though Labour and the Tories have denied having any current plans to increase VAT, neither will rule it out and The Times understands a rise in the tax is being considered by both parties. The problem with VAT rises is that they do not spread the pain evenly. They disproportionately affect people on lower incomes because it effectively increases the ...
Imaginative or bonkers? I refer, of course, to the cutlery laying habits at the Royal Festival Hall Pizza Express. One row of tables laid with knives, but no forks; a parallel row of tables laid with forks but no knives. Efficient or pushy? I refer, of course, to the serving habits at the Royal Festival Hall Pizza Express. Serving the main course whilst the starters are still being eaten is certainly novel. Thoughtful or thoughtless? I refer, of course, to the seating arrangements at the Royal Festival Hall Pizza Express. Stick two large groups with numerous children on the tables ...
Yes, I know it's all commercialised hype, but it does keep people in jobs, which has to be a good thing, especially at the moment. I'm having a lovely relaxed day so far. I am a very understanding wife - I didn't mine when my husband put aside my card to open after he'd finished on his Facebook farm. That's nothing compared to the inconvenience and disruption the Liberal Democrats have caused to his life over the last 23 years so I can't really complain. I certainly have nothing to complain about when I look at the rather beautiful(or, alternatively, ...
Today's literary delicacy, served up for your pleasure, is an account by Edward Stourton of the (now banned) French dish of ortolans. These tiny songbirds are pretty little things, with greenish heads, yellow throats and brown and black striped backs. They must be captured alive and then left for a month to gorge themselves on grapes and figs in a dark box (some connoisseurs prefer to blind them altogether); once they have swollen themselves to a grotesque size they are drowned in Armagnac, roasted and eaten whole, bones, feathers and all. Tradition dictates that the diners should cover their heads ...
David Cameron said back in December: "If you want to be in the Houses of Parliament... you need to be, or be treated as, a full UK taxpayer. We would pass that law if we get elected... as rapidly as we co...
The New Statesman reported this week: In a furious letter sent to Conservative MPs in Westminster, and leaked to the New Statesman, Edward McMillan-Scott describes the decision to allow Michal Kaminski to become the Tories' new group leader in the EU as "disastrous" and says that his own expulsion for opposing the move was designed "to divert attention from political misjudgements" ... Perhaps most controversially, McMillan-Scott accuses Tory high command of a "smear campaign" against him. In a footnote to the letter entitled "ten killer points", he makes a series of extraordinary claims including: ... - "A smear campaign was ...
If there is one issue that continues to dog the Conservative Party and pull them back it is the tax status of their biggest donor, Lord Michael Ashcroft. Whole interviews are devoted to it, spokespeople seeking to get across a wider point find their pitch derailed by questions on it, whilst whole campaigns are being planned around Tory embarrassment in time for the General Election. The Tories' problem is that Lord Ashcroft is pumping millions of pounds into marginal seats. His money could make all the difference between a Tory majority or another miss and yet he remains a controversial ...
This morning's Wales on Sunday gives details of the impact that the squeeze on public spending is having on local Councils. Roughly 80% of a Council's income comes from central government grants so it is inevitable that they will feel the pain when money is tight. According to Steve Thomas, the chief executive of the Welsh Local Government Association, estimated council job losses will be between 2,000 and 4,000 out of Wales' 163,000-strong local authority workforce this year. The paper says: That is the equivalent to the loss of five factories the size of South Wales' Bosch plant which closes ...
During February and into March, there will be roadworks around the new Council offices as the roads are resurfaced. The roads affected are Stover Road, from Badminton Road to the north of the road-over-rail bridge and Badminton Road, from North Road to the roundabout outside the new Council offices. It was decided not to resurface these roads until the construction work had finished, to avoid construction traffic damaging the new surface.
Writing in the Mail on Sunday, Vince Cable argues that the State should pull back on the obsessive checking in its attempts to wrap us all in cotton wool and stop the all bad things happening. The endless checking is costly for the individuals, an unnecessary intrusion and a vast waste of resources at a time when public services are squeezed. Sunday schools and voluntary groups such as the Scouts have difficulty recruiting new leaders, one reason being the problems of adults being alone with children. The Government has backed down from some checks. But the checking machine grinds on. ...
Figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats from Lewisham council have shown that on January 14th, in the middle of the cold snap, Lewisham had only one day's salt supply in reserve. The very next day, as other councils stepped in to supply Lewisham's urgent needs, media reports shockingly revealed that huge amounts of grit were covering the entrance to the Town Hall, in Catford. At the same time, pavements and side roads across the borough were snowbound. Cllr Philip Peake (LD-Forest Hill) said: " It seems because levels of grit were so dangerously low, the Council were reluctant to give ...
This is the Park Gallery and Bookshop in Wellingborough. It is small, friendly and a little chaotic. Rumour has it that there are many more books upstairs, but you are not allowed up to see them.
Plans are being hatched to open a new theatre on Clifton Terrace, the road which runs north from the Wells Terrace entrance to Finsbury Park tube station. With a local school being in the middle of opening its own theatre and plans to turn the old Hornsey Baths building into a theatre too, we could be about to have an abundance of theatres in the area. I visited the exhibition about the Clifton Terrace on Saturday, meeting several of the people behind the scheme. They all seemed committed, pleasant people, though I was slightly surprised at their apparent paucity of ...
Howard's cartoon from this week's Liberal Democrat News.
It may well be Valentines Day but it is also Chinese New Year, so as we enter the year of the Tiger let's look at what I said last Chinese New Year. Then I looked at some of those that were sentenced under the crime of subversion. Just before this new year another sad tale is added to the list Liu Xiaobo who lost his appeal earlier this week against a eleven year sentence for inciting subversion. He is one of the co-authors of Charter 08 and I wrote about his arrest in December 2008. Last month 4 retired members ...
Lib Dem peer, Lord (Tim) Clement-Jones's Live Music Bill has its third reading in the House of Lords on 10th Feb after which it goes to the Commons. It has sailed through previous stages in the Lords with no amendments. The Bill proposes that schools, hospitals, colleges, and small venues up ...
Sun 14th
09:00
Daily View 2×2: 14 February 2010, featuring news from India and the easiest delivery round eve...
It's Sunday. It's 9am on the day when in 1984 Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean won gold at the Winter Olympics in Sarajevo. You want to see the easiest leaflet delivery in the world, don't you? But first, the news and blogs. 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: Paperchase and Copywrong: James Graham's take on the Paperchase copyright story Women Can't Jump – Need for Gender Balance: Stephen Glenn on sexism and the Olympics Spotted any other great posts in ...
Plymouth City Council is selling more parking permits than there are spaces in almost half of all the city's controlled parking zones (CPZs). Some zones have well over a hundred fewer spaces than there are permits to park. There are people buying parking permits without knowing that their local controlled parking zone is hundreds of spaces short. I unearthed all this using the Freedom of Information Act, including a detailed, zone-by-zone breakdown of how many spaces and permits there are for each CPZ. The Hoe's controlled parking zone, which has the code H, is the worst hit. It has 318 ...
This is from Chris Davies' regular email about what's going on in Brussels and the European Union. LIB DEM NOTES FROM BRUSSELS 12 February 2010 The EU is looking pretty chaotic and ramshackle at the moment, but I am writing this having just come from an exciting exchange and historic vote in the European Parliament so I'm not feeling too bad. Before I explain more let me just say that if any Liberal Democrat supporters will have time to help during the General Election campaign, and are not living in one of our target seats, please do read the last ...
From the Guarserver: While the Lib Dems may have bagged Coldplay's Chris Martin, Colin Firth, Kate Winslet, Andrew Motion, Razorlight, the Kooks and Brian Eno, and while Labour wins the youth vote with both JK Rowling and David Tennant, the former Doctor Whostar, the Tories have been slower off the mark, with potential claims so far to the television personalities Kirstie Allsopp, Carol Vorderman and Trevor McDonald. Wow! At last we have some celebrity supporters who could be vaguely described as "cool". But hark, I hear Andrew Pierce, newly anointed consultant editor of the [Usual Suspect] saying "Who are they?" ...
The forthcoming general election is guaranteed to elect a huge number of new MPs, due to all the retirements from the current crop. So, campaigning charities are busier than ever preparing for getting their priorities listened to by the new Parliament. One example is Rethink, the mental health charity, which has set as its broad priorities for the new government to: tackle stigma and discriminationprovide better access to servicesto give fairer treatment to those caught up in the criminal justice systemThey have a petition that you can sign here.
In the summer of 1976 at Montreal and again in the winter of 1988 at Calgary Canada held the Olympics. But as hosts one thing was missing. Home gold. Day 2 of the Vancouver Olympics was the one that Canada hoped that duck would be beaten. However, the conditions of the snow being too soft meant that local Whistler resident Manuel Osborne-Paradis would not get his chance in the men's downhill event. Therefore all Canadian eyes fell to the Pacific Colesium where Oliver Jean or Charles Hamelin went in the short track speed skating or Cypress Mountain where Jennifer Heil ...
Marvel Comics have earned the wrath of Fox News and the Tea Party Movement for featuring protestors holding placards with Tea Party slogans on in the latest issue of Captain America. Hilariously for an all ages comic which was at one point vetted by the Comics Code Authority, it even includes the slogan "Tea ...
Happy Chinese New Year to everyone in Chorlton. On behalf of the Chorlton Liberal Democrat team I would like to wish that fortune and good luck be with you in the year of the Tiger!
My attention has been drawn to very very worthy campaign that i shall be not only raising with my local MP Humfrey Mallins (while he still has a job at least) and also to my PPC Rosie Sharpley. Rosie has worked in the NHS for many many years and has a wealth of experience in ...
I thought Shaun Ley did very well on Friday when he chaired Any Questions for the first time. It was easy to find the inspiration for a blog when I listened to Kelvin MacKenzie give his answer to the first question about whether the British authorities knew about torture or rendition. I don't know if Binyam Mohamed had been subjected to torture or even "at the very least cruel, inhuman and degrading" treatment, so let's talk generally. If you think that torture is wrong then you shouldn't allow MI5 to be involved. Think of the war films in which the ...
