Michael Meadowcroft spoke at the Southport Lib Dem dinner and talked about his time as a Southport YL from 1958 onwards. You can view a video of his talk here I had been asked to introduce him and I was trying to recall when I first met Michael. Like any Young Liberal -ten years after Michael- I had heard of him very early on. He had worked in the Local Government Department at the old LPO -a projected sponsored by Richard Wainwright. He then went to Leeds and became a City Councillor-the first for several generation. It was in this ...
The website of "Europe's largest gay news service" reports: Last month, we invited PinkNews.co.uk readers to submit their questions to Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg. The overwhelming subject mentioned was gay marriage, showing how important an issue this is for our readers. Other popular questions were on homophobic violence, faith schools and LGBT asylum seekers. We also gave readers the chance to ask questions on wider policy issues, such as identity cards and student tuition fees. Now read Nick's answers.
I have just finished typesetting issue one of PEP! and, after I've watched a Doctor Who story, will be uploading the PDF to the site, so expect it sometime between midnight and 1AM UK time. I'm uploading an unproofed version, which will be freely available for download to anyone who wants to read it, In two ...
Kerry McCarthy has moved further to try and clear her name in the tainted blood bill travesty that she found herself in earlier this week. I blogged on the appalling and disgusting actions of this young Labour Whip here and was subsequently blocked from her twitter feed. she has felt suitably moved to write to ...
The Banqueting House in Whitehall was filled with several hundred guests this evening, celebrating the Chinese New Year — of the Tiger. That happens to be my year, as I was born in 1950, so I could hardly fail to be charmed by the comments of Sarah Wu, the indefatigible Director-General of the Hong Kong Economic and ...
Birkdale Focus has a video of Michael Meadowcroft giving his memories of Southport politics, which reach back to 1958 and signing up Ronnie Fern to the Liberal Party. At What You Can Get Away With Nick Barlow is going on a sponsored walk to save Colchester's Roman Circus. Allen Green, who writes the Jack of London blog, has stared a new Bad Law column for The Lawyer. Think of him as Ben Goldacre in a wig. Max Atkinson analyses Gordon Brown's interview with Piers Morgan. Writing on Comment is Free, Graham Harvey alerts us to the dangers of the battery ...
As many of my readers will be aware from time to time, here at Bignews Margate we like to spotlight some of Kent Tories more er superfluous money wasting schemes, one such is KCC's Health Watch which has hit all the buttons as far as Tory members and officers are concerned. Most will agree its pointless, little known, incredibly expensive, overlaps professional run services, has no popular public backing and of course just like the recently debunked and now thankfully defunct Kent TV is rarely known of outside of KCC's establishment. By a snow job I mean of coarse, the ...
Yes, someone said something foolish on Twitter. Yes, he then dug himself into a hole with an explanation that doesn't stack up. Yes, he shouldn't have done it. But even for a Twitter-holic like me, you've got to wonder quite why this story is garnering so much online chatter in comparison with the news we may be deprived of the chance to find out the truth as to whether or not one of David Cameron's top advisers headed up an organisations that carried out systematic and widespread criminal activity. As The Guardian reported yesterday about Andy Coulson, for it is ...
It's been pointed out to me that yesterday's post might have looked as though I supported Ms Hossack standing for Parliament. Let me put it on record that I am still a Liberal Democrat. I was a Young Liberal at the age of 16 and I haven't changed my political affiliation since. It doesn't stop me looking forward to an interesting campaign. All we need is the date!Meanwhile the ward and the
* I attended a useful meeting of the Balgay Stakeholders Group today - the group allows all with an interest in Balgay Hill, Balgay Park and Victoria Park to meet and discuss issues of common interest. At today's meeting, there was a discussion about moving forward the proposal to have a proper memorial to mark the 'poor ground' - the graves of paupers - in Balgay Cemetery. * Tonight, I chaired the Friends of Magdalen Green committee meeting where we updated the group's action plan and other matters including membership and future projects, including a possible project with the Scottish ...
A reader draws my attention to a story in the Harborough Mail: The potential perils of pancake-making in the kitchen have been highlighted by Leicestershire Fire Service. Its safety advice was issued yesterday (Monday) in a press release ahead of Shrove Tuesday today. The release stated that the service "would like everyone to enjoy the day safely" before pointing out that in the last year, fire-fighters have attended 284 kitchen-related incidents across the county. Does rural south Leicestershire have a particular problem with kitchen fires on Shrove Tuesday? No. As the same reader explains, this story is probably the result ...
Received today from the City Council : Dundee City Council proposes to make an Order under Section 14(1) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 for the purpose of facilitating gas main replacement works. The Order is expected to be in force for five weeks from 8 March 2010. Its maximum duration in terms of the Act is eighteen months. The effect of the Order is to prohibit all vehicular traffic in (a) Smellies Lane from Lochee Road to Ash Street, (b) Ash Street from Smellies Lane to Douglas Street and (c) West Hendersons Wynd from Douglas Street to Brook ...
Johann Hari has now completed his set of three interviews in Attitude with the three major party leaders. There are some questions which are specific to one leader and his party but several which are generic across all three. Over the next few nights I will be looking at those and giving my opinion on how they responded. Here is how Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg responded to the opening question they all were asked. Why should people vote for [your party] at the next general election: Brown: Because we [Labour] are the anti-discrimination, anti-prejudice and pro-equality party. ...
I was sent a link to a fantastic blog here the other day which I am going to add to the navigation section of my site so that it is always available if people want to read it and the amazing work that this one man is doing in the arena of deaf awareness. The ...
My Lib Dem colleague Caroline Pidgeon has emailed me with a five-point Lib Dem plan to make the Northern Line upgrades go much more smoothly. Caroline chairs the London Assembly's Transport Committee. Tube Lines plans a great many weekend closures on the Northern Line, and the whole thing is a bit of a mess - the Government has created a tangled system, making it frankly difficult to see who is most responsible for there being so many closures: London Underground or Tube Lines. I'm sure when Tube Lines eventually reply to my correspondence on this matter, things will become clearer! ...
With the news that inflation is increasing, despite the fact that the rise is largely false due to the artificial stimulus that has been put into the economy, there is still the worry that interest rates may soon rise . You only have to look at the sickening rise of interest rates on credit cards, where bankers appear ...
Some elements of the Labour party faithful were gushing about how wonderful Gordon Brown was and you could almost hear the sobbing of delight from the various laptops and PCs from around the country. Some in particular even talked about making t-shirts and starting a 'Gordon for Me' campaign that was quit bile inducing. Others ...
This was going to be a great day for getting on the doorstep. Except that it rained too much, and so I ended up staying in all morning and most of the afternoon. I got a lot of stuff done, but it isn't the same as being out there on the doorstep. In the end I was only out for a couple of hours in the late afternoon/early evening, in Eastwood. We knocked on some doors, and delivered some leaflets - and rubbed our hands together to keep them warm. Eastwood used to be a Liberal Democrat ward in the ...
After A. A. Milne in light of news of Westminster plans for civil partnership for MPs and members of the public as result. They're changing guard at Westminster Palace - Christina Robyn is marrying Alice. They're getting married in the Jubilee Room. "The Speaker's really a moderning broom," Says Alice. They're changing guard at Westminster Palace - Christina Robyn is marrying Alice. We looked out over Cromwell Green. "A smiled thinking the puritan wasn't so keen," Says Alice. They're changing guard at Westminster Palace - Christina Robyn is marrying Alice. We looked for the Gordon he never came. "Well, God ...
The true colours of the Woking Conservatives were shown again to me these past couple o evenings by two sets of comments from a couple of local conservatives who made it clear that they intend to smear the local Liberal Democrat candidate for Woking, Rosie Sharpley with some rather unpleasant comments. Their respotes have been ...
I seem to be starting my blog posts in a similar way recently, ie I have said this before.... Either I am getting boring and can only regurgitating the same drivel that I have been spouting, I am not making my point clear or nobody is taking any notice of me (to be honest I think it is the former argument).I notice that Sir Ian Kennedy is suggesting that MPs should give up their right to the
The Tories have recently claimed that more than half of all girls in deprived areas fall pregnant before their 18th birthday. The claim is at best inept and at worst, totally bonkers. The Tories are so out of touch with family life in Britain that they believe over half of teenage girls in the poorest areas fall pregnant, our town and cities are more like The Wire, and that folk will get married for a few extra quid. If they really believe Britain is like this, it's amazing that Tory MPs can pluck up the courage to leave their mansions. ...
I've been excited to see the "Robin Hood Tax" campaign taking off - http://robinhoodtax.org.uk/. This has more commonly been known as a "Tobin Tax" as it was originally proposed in 1972 by James Tobin, an Nobel Laureate winning American economist. It proposes a small tax on all "speculative" transactions by the banks. I really support this idea and it's certainly something which I would argue for if elected as Salisbury's MP. The impact on the banking trade would be minimal, even a tax of 0.05% could raise hundreds of billions which could be used for all sorts of important causes ...
I blogged a month ago about the Conservative's new policy stating that teachers must have lower second or higher degree to be able to teach in this country. It now seems that a Commons Select Committee has jumped on the bandwagon and is calling for a similar policy to be introduced.I agree that a good subject knowledge leads to good teaching, which has a positive impact on learning. But no-one
Went along to the local NP meeting last night. Launch for the new-style of local democracy. Quite impressed with the eye watering array of senior officers in our local youth centre. Almost more officers than residents!! As I had an early shift the next day I only stayed for the first half. There was some interesting discussion about how the NP would function and a start made on local traffic items. I asked a few questions including the priority of narrow estate roads. This is a topic that frustrates like no other. To be fair if you can't get a ...
Am doing Question Time this Thursday. What do you think the questions will be? I remember doing Question Time the Thursday after I was elected in 2005 - a terrifying thing to do to a new MP with virtually no television experience. But actually - it went well. I was sitting next to Boris - still an MP at that point in time. There was a question about whether young people should be banned from wearing hoodies in Bluewater shopping centre. I remember noting down the words 'dress code' and saying that any establishment was welcome to have a dress ...
Sharing of bank records with the US started in 2001 in an effort to tackle terrorism. However, the European Parliament has rejected new proposed agreement after heated criticisms that too much private information could be handed over without good reason. The Register reported: The European Parliament has rejected a proposed interim agreement on SWIFT – under which the US gets access to European bank transactions... Rapporteur Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert from the Netherlands said the Council had not been tough enough on data protection and rules in the interim agreement on data protection were not proportionate to the security supposedly provided. London ...
After some playing with Google Maps, I think I've managed to plot a rough outline of the route we'll be taking on Sunday: View Roman Circus walk in a larger map If there's nothing showing above, then click here to see it on Google. It's slightly approximated at points because it's hard to follow footpaths on Google Maps, ...
...yeah you heard me David Wright. And Eric Pickles is fat and likes to eat pies like a fat man. I does politics me.
It's what we've always suspected... Still, it's nice to have a poll we come top in for a change (!)
The current reverberations echoing around the Blogosphere and Twittersphere about the Labour MP David Wright's alleged Twitter transgression where he is said to have described Tories as "scum-sucking pigs" is in my view being blown out of all proportion. This is what he is alleged to have written: #ivenevervotedtory because you can put lipstick on a scum-sucking pig, but it's still a scum-sucking pig. And cos they would ruin Britain. Some Tory Twitterers and bloggers have reacted angrily to this and demanded an apology. For his part, Mr Wright has tried to claim that he never wrote the scum-sucking parts ...
The artwork for the Liberal Democrat campaign logo has now gone live on the extranet/huddle and is available for use on campaign material. The slogan has been designed to reflect the key themes of our campaign – change and fairness. Throughout the campaign we will aim to demonstrate that we are the only party offering the real and substantive change needed to deliver a fairer Britain. The logo will be a visual indication of that commitment. Our campaign will be built around four steps to a fairer Britain: Fair taxes: We will ensure no-one pays income tax on the first ...
The Secretary of State has now agreed the inspector's report without going into details it basically means that the Inquiry has found for the development to proceed.I am pleased that we are now in a position where further progress can be made on the Swan Development.This will be particularly good news for the residents of Bakeman House who have had to live in a building site for months.
Thanks to the people who e mailed with suggestions for locations for our ward walkabout with the neighbourhood manager later this week. The list includes: * looking at litter and dumping issues around the junction with Greenhill Road and Booker Avenue * litter and cleansing issues around Clarendon/Hartington Road * litter and cleansing issues on parts of Aigburth Road * resurfacing on Aigburth Hall Road * state of vacant land on Beechwood Estate If you have a location you want me to add on, please drop me an e mail at paula.keaveney@liverpool.gov by tomorrow (Wednesday) afternoon.
Tue 16th
15:36
I've been waiting for this: the price index drops. Innumerate right winger shouts 'Inflation!'
Guido is SO confused on this one. Because he seems not to understand how annual inflation figures are created, he presents the first fall in the index as proof that INFLATION is settling in. Proving my prediction in a post a few weeks back: How the Right will be screaming 'Inflation' as we go into deflation. So ...
In Birkdale Focus's series on unsung heroines step forward Pat Sumner. Pat heads up the Southport Lib Dem's fundraising team and damn lucky we are to have her. The planning and execution of Saturday night's do was typical of the thorough way she works and how she manages to bring other people in to help. Congratulations to Pat.
Here are two of the hard working 'unsung heroines' who are so essential to the operation of political parties. Seated is Edna a long standing member of Norwood Ward. Standing is Vera who among her many other contributions is a leading light in the Women Lib Dems.
de Forest If you click on this photo you should reach an album of photos from the Southport Lib Dem Dinner held on 13 Feb 2010
A week ago, 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. LDV asked, How would you rate the performances of the following leading Liberal Democrats? And here's what you told us (with results from September 2009 - the last time LDV asked ...
So the Conservatives are in trouble after getting their sums wrong! Amazingly, in a report about inequality in Britain they made the startling claim that in the most deprived areas 54% of girls were likely to get pregnant before they turned 18. That's right - 54%. Now it turns out that the figure is actually 5.4 and the decimal point was omitted. And sure, it is easy to make proof-reading errors like that. But seriously, what does this say about a party in which when their policy people and editorial people were putting the document to bed no one thought ...
The Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords, Tom McNally, was the guest speaker at the Kettner's Lunch in the National Liberal Club today, giving an overview of where the party stands in the run-up to the General Election. He asked for Chatham House rules to be respected regarding some of the ...
The Hansard Society has a new report out which asks the public what they want out of politicians and the political system online. Although many studies have looked at what politicians do or don't do online, those looking at what the public actually wants are rather rarer. That makes this a particularly welcome report and is based on: Two samples, the first is a national survey of individuals who are already online and the second a group of 'digital leaders'; individuals with a strong interest in social media and politics. The first group is representative of digital Britain and the ...
Jamie Saddler is pounding the streets as the Liberal Democrat candidate in Wirral South and is producing a campaign diary for Catch21, an organisation trying to get more young people interested in politics. Jamie is 23 himself and so has caught their eye. In his first diary, Jamie talks about tax policy, the military and what it's like on the campaign trail: I have more action days planned, I'll be knocking on more doors, delivering more leaflets, and visiting schools and community organisations right across the constituency. It's hard work, but I'm enjoying every minute of it! I'm a Wirral ...
Iain Dale made an interesting point on his "Seven Days Show" podcast on Tory Radio this week. In a discussion about religion and its place in politics he mentioned that the only thing we have in the UK that is close to a religion relating to politics is Euroscepticism in the Tory party. He said: If you actually came out at a selection meeting and said that you believed in a federal (European) union you just wouldn't get selected. I suspect he is right. In fact I suspect that a prospective Tory candidate wouldn't even have to go that far ...
I see there is a new hashtag going round. #IveNeverVotedTory, well you see I have, on more than one occasion. Before my Lib Dem friends hang me out to dry I must say that on none of those occasions was my vote an X it was merely a number and thinking back I do not think my vote transferred to a Tory on any occasion. You see no matter what the Conservative party think about proportional representation it is just one vote, I've actually had more votes in electing multi-member councillors in Kingston and Coventry than I do in electing ...
Go to the Department of Energy and Climate Change. Click on "Email updates" on the right. You get stepped through an email sign-up process which is generally pretty good, even if the list of options for different sources of news from DECC is rather long - and it is a bit surprising to be offered email updates about what DECC is doing on Twitter. But perhaps they regularly do news releases with an analysis of what's up on Twitter and how their use of it is going? Time and my inbox will tell. At the next stage it gets interesting. ...
Yesterday's Daily Post reports that the four-year quest by the Welsh Assembly Government for enhanced powers over housing is facing collapse amid sustained Tory opposition at Westminster. Because of the cock-up over the first Housing LCO that saw it rejected by a joint Houses of Parliament Constitutional Committee, the Welsh Government have tried again with a more wide-ranging attempt at drawing down powers on affordable housing. But, because it has been left so late it is unlikely to get through scrutiny by the ten Whitehall departments before a General Election is called. This means that it will only get on ...
Despite their professed enthusiasm for having a bonfire of the quangos, in practice the Conservative Party keep on announcing new ones – and have rather run in to trouble when pressed to explain what's going on the bonfire (both points I wrote about here). The tally of new quangos the Conservatives is now at least 19, which sits rather oddly with the rhetoric about culling them. However, that doesn't mean all the individual proposals are bad ones. One in particular which appeals to me is an Office of Tax Simplification. Regular readers may have noticed my love of tangling with ...
There's a war going on in the streets of Islington South and Finsbury. With just 484 votes separating Labour and the LibDems in the Westminster constituency, both parties have all to play for and it was bound to get messy. Quoted in today's Guardian, an unnamed Labour member states that the Tories might come second in ...
Liberal England: Colin Ward 1924-2010Jonathan Calder reports the death of Colin Ward. He did much to bring the works of Kropotkin to a new audience. He wrote, along with David Crouch, the classic study on Allotments-their landscape and culture and as Jonathan picked up at the time it was his commentary on the Kropotkin's Factory Fields and Workshops Tomorrow that encouraged and informed a new wave of allotmenteers .His book 'Tenant's Takeover' influenced ideas in housing for a generation.Anyone struggling to imagine how you can create a fair and free world without the threat of oppressive state power will find ...
The lexicon of government neologisms is a heavy and depressing tome. Indeed, politicians and bureaucrats have a remarkable capacity to speak differently from everybody else. Remember Tony Blair's 'sentences' without verbs? Or the verbisation (sic.) of nouns (the latter not unique to government, as anybody who has ever partied will attest)? When did encouraging and rewarding become "incentivisation"? The latest fad seems to be in conflating words, creating one word where two would do. A couple of years ago the new anti-smoking legislation led to the creation of "Smokefree" zones. Today I learn that TfL is to urge London's motorcyclists ...
Whatever happened to the word "enterprise"? Once upon a time, the political discourse in the UK was all about it. Now it is scorned: deregulation is considered to be one of the major causes of the economic crisis that we now face. Yet how can free enterprise be considered to be triumphant when the number of people working in the private sector is at its lowest level in over a generation? It is as though the Thatcherite revolution had never happened. Britain is now dominated by not just state power, but state ownership. I hold a few non executive directorships ...
Imagine, for one moment, you are a resident of a town centre, or - as in our case here in Kensington - a neighbourhood within a London borough. A powerful councillor who styles himself "The Design Champion" decides that there is a budget to install a piece of art in your area. The council chooses a site. They choose the artist. The artist pitches a piece of work. The council agree to go ahead with this. All sounds delightful, doesn't it? Small problem: they don't write to you to tell you about any of this. They don't write to you ...
Average emissions from new cars on the European market fell to 153gCO2/km for 2008, the steepest drop since records began to be collected a decade ago. It means that cars are becoming more fuel efficient, and shows the value of the EU legislation that has set CO2 reduction targets for manufacturers. MEPs helped shape the new law so how well are we putting our words into practice? In 2009 the European Parliament bought 4 cars for the use of its president, secretary general and political group leaders, with emissions ranging from 193 to 224 gCO2/km (mind you, this was quite ...
OK, if you're going to really insist on thinking that Obama is the Holy Grail of Campaigning To Be Transplanted To The UK Because Our System Is Just Like Theirs, then here's a useful statistic for you. The Obama for President campaign raised around $500 million online. Two-thirds of it came from people clicking a "donate now" link in an email. The proportion of people giving and the sums people gave on average was low. But with an email list in the millions (10-13 million depending on whose figures you believe) and 1.3 billion email messages being sent out, that ...
nef have called for a 21 hour week. They seem to believe in the Lump of Labour fallacy, and are under the mistaken impression that working hours have been getting worse and worse. But: 1. Certainly not since the year 2000: down by 5% 2. Certainly not since the 19th century: down from >65 to <40 hours ...
The Conservative general election machine today published a list of 'Ten reasons to vote Conservative' which did not include any reference to the environment or climate change. This is despite David Cameron's claim that he has 'sought to push the environment up to the top of the political agenda', and his own Shadow Climate Change Secretary Greg Clark's assertion that Cameron 'wanted the environment to be a very important part of the proposition we put to the public at the General Election.' It follows the recent revelation that reducing Britain's carbon footprint was at the bottom of Tory PPCs' priorities. ...
Data from the Institute of Directors shows that nearly 60% of businesses seeking bank finance in 2009/10 were rejected by their bank, and that 20% are financing their businesses to some extent with credit cards. Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor, Vince Cable said:"There is a huge gap between what the banks tell us and the experience of companies on the ground. "This evidence confirms that large numbers of small and medium sized businesses are still having difficulty in getting credit on reasonable terms. The nationalised and semi nationalised banks owe their existence to us, the taxpayer and they must make good ...
Commenting on the Tories' mistaken claim that 54% of teenagers in deprived areas fall pregnant before their 18th birthday, Nick Clegg's Chief of Staff, Danny Alexander said: "The Tories seem to think that half our teenagers are pregnant, our cities are like The Wire and that people will get married for a few extra quid. "If they really believe Britain is like this, it's remarkable that Conservative MPs can pluck up the courage to leave their houses. "They should lower their drawbridges, spend less time tending their moats and duck houses, and join the rest of us in the real ...
If you missed last week's exhibition, you can still find out the latest from developer Chelverton Deeley Freed's website http://chelvertonbarnhill.co.uk/ Hard copies of the exhibition materials and comments forms are also available at Chipping Sodbury Library and Sodbury Town Council offices.
In politics, there is nothing worse than a lame duck administration, but whenever they seem to happen in the UK we have to suffer them for a remarkably long time. John Major was doomed by Maastricht, the ERM and then Tony Blair. The country had to sit and wait for years before the inevitable finally happened. Tony ...
Welcome to today's numerically challenged Daily View – a bit like a Conservative policy paper. On this day 51 years ago, Fidel Castro was sworn in as Cuban Prime Minister. Twenty five years ago Clive Ponting resigned from his post at the MoD over the Belgrano affair, despite having been acquitted of breaching the Official Secrets Act a week previously. Just five years ago, the Kyoto Protocol came into force. Today is of course Shrove Tuesday, so get ready for pancakes tonight. But don't rely on your opponents giving up campaigning for Lent. I'm off to spend the night setting ...
In observing the behaviour of my current (and soon to be ex) MP Andrew Mackay I have found him to be an interesting case study in the old ways of practising politics. His actions in a couple of respects were acceptable and worked for politicians 20 or 30 years ago but completely fail to take into account how the modern political world works. The first one is how he behaved during and directly after his now infamous public meeting in Bracknell in May last year. I blogged about it extensively at the time as I was one of the attendees ...
It can be a harsh blow for any parliamentary candidate. You've filled in the forms, been through the selection process, made your speeches, answered the questions and, in a fiercely fought contest that may even have involved more than one applicant, emerged victorious to represent your party in the General Election. And then you discover that the seat, in which your party has failed to top 13% of the vote in either of the last two elections, is unaccountably not having tens of thousands of pounds poured into it by the central party; nor are activists from across the region ...
...An interesting bit of 'explanation' by David Wright MP after he apparently called Tories "scum-sucking pigs" on Twitter. From the BBC: Mr Wright told the BBC that this was a legitimate "edgy Twitter comment about the political process" and the Tories' "general policy position". "If it is good enough for Obama it is good enough for me," he said. But he insisted he never used the phrase "scum-sucking", saying his account had been hacked into and the phrase added by someone after the message was published. "What I think has happened is someone has tinkered with that and made it ...
If you go out and leave your front door open, are you asking to be burgled? If you leave your laptop on the passenger seat of a parked car, is it your fault if the computer is stolen? If you get into bed naked with a man who fancies you and encourage him to have sex ...
As reported in the press last May: Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, called [on 13th May 2009] for MPs to be banned from making a profit from selling second homes which they bought using their Commons allowances. He will prevent Liberal Democrat MPs making money out of selling such a property after having their mortgage interest paid by the taxpayer - and wants the rule extended to all MPs. Any profits from the sale of a property would be handed back to the Exchequer. And today: The head of the new authority tasked with overhauling MPs' expenses has said ...
So, if you live near Colchester (or were watching The One Show last week) you'll have heard about the appeal to raise funds to save Colchester's Roman Circus. Well, as part of the appeal, I'm putting my walking boots back on and hitting the road this Sunday to help raise cash. Along with Jo Hayes and ...
I've got a letter in the FT here. It is about whether deflation is such a spiffing idea, as Edward Gottesman the day before had asserted. After pointing out some factual errors, the conclusion I make is fairly predictable: His greatest error is to imply that savings are necessarily virtuous, and spending necessarily vicious. Everything depends ...
I was sad to hear of the death of the anarchist thinker Colin Ward. As I said last year, he managed to "make anarchism sound a) common sense and b) thoroughly British. Next Left has a good appreciation of him by Stuart White: Colin really stood at the confluence of two traditions (as did the post-war Freedom group more generally). On the one hand, he was of course shaped profoundly by the theoretical tradition of anarchism. He knew his anarchist classics - especially Kropotkin's Fields, Factories and Workshops - and he drew on them. On the other, Colin was also ...
Yesterday in the men's Boarder Cross final the Canadian's thought they were on to a another gold. Most of the way down the track Mike Robertson (red bib) had been in the lead. Defending champion Seth Westcott (black bib) had a poor start away from the gate. Indeed at the turn that had been the unseating of many through the rounds he was lying in fourth spot of the four. But his compatriot Nate Holland fell leaving room for the unexpected French finalist Tony Ramoin who had never podiumed at any event sitting in silver. But the experience of Westcott ...
Having worked within the John Lewis Partnership (JLP) in the past, and coming from Rochdale, the home of the Co-op, I was interested to hear David Cameron's albeit vague proposals to introduce mutualism into public services. On the face of it it sounds perfect – employees taking ownership of what they do, having pride in ...
Well done to the Mirror for this gem. Billy no mates, aka David Cameron wanted desperately to meet Barack Obama before polling day, expected on May 6th to get a photo of the handshake in the Oval Office. The Conservative leader thought a photo of him and Barack may help his poll rating which recently is on a slump, it's because people don't trust you David, not that they don't have a photo of you and Obama in their kitchens. However, Barack Obama's White House team weren't playing ball or hadn't been sent the right script: A Washington source said: ...
Last night I drove to Newport, Pembrokeshire to take part in a public meeting to discuss the proposed badger cull in that area. Over 200 people packed the Memorial Hall, the overwhelming majority of them opposed to the cull. I spoke about the present position following the report on the English badger cull trials and urged the audience to play an active part in the General Election, lobbying candidates to put pressure on their parties to reconsider. There were about 8 or 10 farmers present, all opposed to the cull and one made a strong plea to protect the biodiversity ...
Good stuff indeed
As I wrote last week, I asked Lewisham Council to grit a portion of Nightingale Grove in case of ice because of accidents involving cars that skid there in that specific spot as the road is both very steep and sharply curving. I now received their reply and amusingly it's based on an extract of the ...
Many readers of this website will already have had their say on the Consett "masterplan" direct to the GVA Grimley team and their Partners, Social Regeneration Consultants. That team, however, want to give Community Partnership members and those on the Area Action Partnership environment working group who were unable to attend the recent public event a final opportunity to see the exhibition and discuss with members of the Masterplanning team the issues and ideas emerging for improving the town centre. They are therefore planning a final meeting with these groups on Wednesday 24th February 2010. Since most partnerships have no ...
This is the latest edition of Northern Democrat. Number 48, it features the two visits by Nick Clegg to the North East. Alas, I missed both visits as I was tied up on business on each of them (shooting videos for other people) so my thanks go to the regional office for supplying the photos of the visit.Northern Democrat No 48 Feb 10
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If I had a choice I would watch a rugby match rather than football. Neil Warnock has confirmed my opinion in his latest comments about an assistant referee but don't get me wrong, I enjoy watching both games. Neil has asked for the official to be banned because he made a mistake. It seems that after making the mistake the official did not apologise which prompted the Crystal Palace manager to say "you've got to be taught or trained so that you never lose concentration". Please would you find this course for me because unfortunately I am a member of ...
