Perhaps I've missed something this month, but there hasn't been a report on the LibDem Wikio rankings this month so, what's happened? The results are; Liberal Democrat Voice (6th) (down 1) Mark Reckons (20th) (up 1) Stephen's Linlithgow Journal (48th) (no change) Liberal England (51st) (down 7) Liberal Vision (61st) (down 10) Caron's Musings (62nd) (down 4) Andrew Reeves' Running Blog (65th) (up 15) Mark Pack's blog (67th) (up 3) Peter Black AM (71st) (down 14) Quaequam Blog! (77th) (down 12) Miss S B (Jennie Rigg) (89th) (down 13) Freethinking Economist (98th) (new entry) Lynne Featherstone's Parliament and Haringey Diary ...
The fuller quote is, "Freedom only for the supporters of the government, only for the members of a party is no freedom at all. Freedom is always the freedom of the dissenter... and its effects cease to work when "freedom" becomes a privilege".
One of the things that Michael Meadowcroft said last month at Yorkshire Regional Conference was for us Lib Dems to have much more confidence in ourselves and our policies. A prime example is the Economy, where back in 2003, Vince Cable was warning ...
Unity writing on Liberal Conspiracy explains how algebra can reduce teenage pregnancies.Jeremy Rowe on one of my favourite topics: hung parliaments.Mark Valladares takes Iain Dale to task again on the diversity of Lib Dem candidates.James Forsyth on why the Tories changing their internal polling matters.Paul Waugh reports from the rictus grin front-line. Brown's evidence to Chilcot.And a techie bonus tonight. Sasha Muller on the PC Pro blog highlights the sinister side of Spotify. If you are interested in PCs and other techie stuff you really should subscribe to the PC Pro podcast as well.
For almost as long as I have been involved in Norfolk politics, Tesco have been trying to bully, buy, threaten and harrass their way in to the town of Sheringham. After numerous failed applications, constant "tweaking" by Tesco so as to constantly resubmit plans and wear North Norfolk's planning department down, the planning committee held their nerve and opposed Tesco's latest plans whislt accepting a rival plan from Waitrose. All I can say is good. I have been at planning meetinga when Tesco have been there. Their arrogance is shocking. They make sweeping statements, rubbish valid data, sometimes choose choice ...
An update to my post about the public meeting: you can read a report of it over on Lynne Featherstone's website.
Two different stories today, unconnected in one way but both – particularly when put together – speaking volumes for the current state of the Conservative Party. Obviously, panic or disagreements are in no way involved. Not at all. First we have ConservativeHome's take on the party starting to use YouGov in addition to Populus: Up until now now the Cameron team has had only Populus telling them what the outside world was thinking. The intelligence from Populus was brought to them by the same team who run operations in the party's marginal seats. In other words our marginal seats operation ...
The case of Lance Corporal (now Private) Joe Glenton, who was today jailed for nine months after he went Absent without Leave (or AWOL), should raise real worries within the British public. I should point out before I begin, that I'm not here to argue that Glenton was right in going AWOL, or in refusing ...
Only 37 votes separated Liberal Democrat Chris Howes from the winning Conservative candidate in the by-election for Chatteris Mills ward yesterday. Chris fought a stunning campaign, and I hope he returns to the fray next May to provide some much-needed opposition on Fenland District Council. However, Liberal Democrat Diane Baldry was returned - in both senses, as she's been elected before - to Chatteris Town Council, where I'm sure she'll make an excellent representative for local people. The Labour showing - trailing fourth behind UKIP with only 33 votes out of over 650 - was pretty poor for a party ...
Two gains from the Conservatives in town council by-elections (majorities of 16 and 19 – a healthy reminder of the importance of working for every vote) in Winsford and Chatteris. Congratulations to Diane Bladry and Alfred Theron. Thanks also to Chris Howes, who stood in the one district by-election, coming second in a Tory held seat in Fenland. For the full results and other details, see the ALDC blog.
The Islington Gazette has printed my piece on the Whittington march: Hospital march was a truly moving experience THE Whittington march was something special. To march alongside so many people from across north London, united in defending our local hospital, was truly moving. Congratulations to Islington Council, the cross-party Defend The Whittington campaign, and everyone who helped ...
Well, the headlines said that Sarah Palin had made a debut as a stand-up comedian on the Jay Leno show in the States. I beg to differ. She made a debut as a pathetic excuse for a stand-up comedian. The forced laughter from the audience is excruciating. The jokes are rubbish. The delivery is pants. I like her jeans, though.
Delighted to see coverage of the Gentleman's Magazine as part of a One Show piece on obituaries. Back in 1987 I was working on the ESTC project at the British Library. At that stage ESTC stood for EighteenthCentury Short Title Catalogue, but it later expanded to be the English Short Title Catalogue (top tip, if ...
Q. What's the point of using scarce Parliamentary time to debate something which is, in legislative terms, dead and buried? A. To score partisan points against your opponents! After all, that's what a legislature's for - or is it? Try asking my local MP Keith Hill. Hill called a Westminster Hall debate on Wednesday on the subject of the Parliamentary Communications Allowance, which MPs until recently got in order to communicate with their constituents. As a result of the expenses debacle, control of the Comms Allowance has been given to the new independent expenses monitoring body. Parliament isn't taking decisions ...
i heard on radio 4 today that the council are thinking of bringing in chips for bins. the idea is to reward those who have less waste by some sort of rebate or donaton to charity. i like the spirit of that. they already monitor bins in a number of councils across the country. the function will be to install a chip into the lip of the bin. the chip will be scanned when unloading onto the bin lorry. this would then update your record and the reward accrued. in germany they have something similar. what i think ends up ...
Today is a big day in America. Only 36,000 people lost their jobs today... which is really good. Oh dear. Harry Reid. US Senate leader. He's a country mile behind his opponent in November's Nevadan election. And now this gift to his opponents. Brilliant.
Westminster Lib Dems fought a strong campaign to stop Tescos opening at one end of Church Street, NW8 (local activist Martin Thompson championed a petition which gathered over 1100 signatures) but now word reaches us that YET ANOTHER Tescos is opening at 90-100 Edgware Road, at the other end of Church Street. That'll be three different ...
By way of Carl Minns up in Hull and Dick Puddlecote, comes revived comment that the police during the Olympics will have powers to enter homes and business premises near the venues to remove displays and posters they don't like - mostly advertising for products not belonging to the various official sponsors of the games. This did surface last year some time when some Olympics enabling legislation was being introduced from memory. Aside from the obvious civil liberties connotations - and, for example, will it be restricted to non-sponsor advertising or would, say, protest posters be the subject of these ...
My House Points column from today's Liberal Democrat News. It is largely derived from earlier postings on this blog. Follow the latter link and you will find that Lord Ashcroft's quotation about Belize is still in place on his website. Economical truths The most telling thing about the Ashcroft affair is the indignities that senior shadow cabinet members put themselves through to avoid giving a straight answer to questions about his tax status. Here is William Hague being interviewed by Andrew Marr in November of last year: Hague: My conclusion having asked him is that he fulfilled the obligations that ...
At last, a good news story (and a chance to use a photo of one of my favourite pieces of townscape.) The Shropshire Star reports: A hidden burial vault has been discovered under the chancel floor of a south Shropshire church. The vault, which contains about 16 coffins, has been discovered at St John's Church in Bishop's Castle. Anni Holden, for the Diocese of Hereford, said today the vault could be the result of a Victorian revamp to the building and most likely belonged to the Oakeley family. The vault probably dates from the 18th century.
We are just pulling out of the Metrocentre Asda car park, having done one of those rare expeditions to a supermarket to buy the food we currently don't grow ourselves. It's the first time I've been to this store for about a decade and it always looks like a Zepplin hangar to me.Anyway, by coincidence, at the next till to ours was a certain Labour Councillor from Gateshead. I waved. He nodded back
RT @libdemvoice Brand Cameron in lead so far >> POLL: What's main reason you think Tory poll lead has evaporated? http://twtpoll.com/3q5ust # RT @libdig Seven Tory hiccups on the road to the general election | The Guardian: http://libdig.co.uk/1837 << re-living good times! # RT @charliewhelan Exclusive. New ComRes poll confirms Tory lead falls again << Exclusive. Or breaking an embargo. You decide. #
I had been hoping to bring you an interview with Nick Clegg in a short while after he had dealt with some press commitment. But conferences being conferences not to mention the press taking more of Nick's time, something about a Fifer appearing before Chilcott, that was not to be. Instead at very short notice I had to direct my questions to the leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats Tavish Scott. Stephen: What were your highlights of the speech Nick has just given? Tavish: I think his utter commitment to the Scottish and UK values of fairness. The need to ...
The Tory Party's media 'Agents of Doom' (the right-wing press) are currently peddling the line that the 'threat' of a hung parliament will send the markets and the economy into a terrifying downward spiral of chaos and that the only way to avoid this nightmare scenario is to vote Conservative. Er, no thanks. It is, of ...
Jenny Randerson calls for the loss-making North-South air link to be scrapped, as no suitable bidder has emerged to take over the service.
I'm currently up in Perth for Scottish Lib Dem conference and about to have a really nice blog exclusive in the next few hours (indeed I'm preparing it now if all is going as planned). But tradition is tradition and every Friday at 5 it is time for a somewhat topical or relevant relax. As Michael foot passed away on Wednesday aged 96 I think I'd use that as a theme. First up a little cross party co-operation. Tory blogger Iain Dale, interviewed the former leader of the Labour party on his 90th Birthday. Here now on a Lib Dem ...
BBC Radio Wales had a phone in earlier today about MPs pay with particular reference to the 1.5% rise (c£1,000) that has been recommended by the Senior Salaries Review Body. There were the expected comments from the public about it being too much and comparing the almost £66,000 that MPs get with the wages of other groups like nurses and other workers. Iain Dale had put himself up to try and defend the MPs. His position was basically that this had been determined by an external body and that the MPs are entitled to the rise on that basis. He ...
No.
Liberal International reports: The Dutch city council elections on Wednesday saw important liberal victories for LI Full Members VVD and D66. The Dutch liberal parties were seen as the victors of the elections, with the VVD being the second biggest party gaining 14.9% of the electoral vote (13.8% in 2006) and D66 increasing its share to 8.1% (2.8% in 2006). D66 also saw a near five-fold increase of their number of council seats from 141 to 525, while VVD increased its number from 1166 to 1385. The populist Freedom Party of Geert Wilders only ran in two cities, and got ...
[IMG: 3956222340_ce150ccccd] When we knock on doors in the ward an issue that comes up very frequently is recycling. People would like to be able to recycle more - both at the kerbside and on local high-streets and they are frustrated that the Labour-run Council has not kept pace with councils elsewhere on what can be recycled at home. We have led the campaign in Reading for glass and food waste recycling at the kerbside. Sadly the Waste PFI that Labour signed up to with a number of other councils restricts what RBC can recycle. Rather than accept the status ...
On the 213th anniversary of the first peaceful transfer of power between two democratically elected leaders (Washington and Adams), British liberal democracy enjoyed a rather quiet tally of one principal by-election and two reported contests for a total of three Town Council seats. The former resulted in a Tory hold, whilst of the three Town Council seats, two now find themselves occupied by the Liberal Democrats. Tory dominated Fenland District Council's by-election in The Mills saw the Conservatives hold on despite a dramatic 11% decline in their vote, the majority of which fell to UKIP. The Liberal Democrat campaign varied ...
The Mercury reports an incredible turn of events for Lewisham Town Centre, the Housing Minister John Healey has in fact announced that the Government will give £20.5m to Barratt Homes to allow the development at Loampit Vale to proceed. The Housing Minister justified the cash to Barratts with the motivation that: We have used the power of ...
Josie Cohen is Campaigns Officer at ActionAid UK and writes about their biofuels campaign: The controversy surrounding biofuels has been hotting up over the last few weeks, reaching its peak when a comment from a top official within the European Commission was leaked. Picked up originally by Reuters, the senior official warned that taking full account of the carbon footprint of biofuels would 'kill' an EU industry with revenues of approximately $5 billion per year. You would have thought that this revelation would be enough for the EU to put the brakes on the current expansion of biofuel production which, ...
Around 110,000 women are each set to miss out on up to £10,400 over the next decade because they were born as little as a day too early to benefit from changes to state pension rules, Liberal Democrat research has revealed. Government reforms mean that from 6 April this year, both men and women will need to make 30 years of National Insurance payments to be eligible for the full state pension. The changes mean that a woman who has paid National Insurance for 30 years whose 60th birthday falls on 6 April would be entitled to a full state ...
Commenting on yesterday's Defence Committee report, Liberal Democrat Shadow Defence Secretary, Nick Harvey said: "This report shows the shambolic state of the UK's defence equipment programme. "It is exasperating to learn how pervasive the culture of denial and deception among MoD officials is when it comes to acknowledging the £21 billion funding gap in defence procurement. "The British taxpayer deserves to know the exact amount of debt he or she is expected to carry. No MoD official should be allowed to withhold or distort this knowledge. "Only by enforcing regular independent reviews as well as routine MoD presentations to the ...
Up until this week I had not heard any mention of disabled people rights in the run-up to the election. No party seemed to be talking about it and I was not aware of how large of an issue it was. I only realised my ignorance on the matter on Thursday, when I came across ...
The Hansard Society's latest Audit of Political Engagement has added to the view that there is likely to be another risible turnout at the impending General Election. The study finds that only 54% say they are certain to vote. The Hansard Society have offered some ideas about how to boost turnout. They suggest that more should be done to target groups such as the 'disenchanted and mistrustful'. Apparently, a quarter of adults, mostly young and working-class, fall into this category of voters who distrust politicians but not yet entirely hostile. But a report from the Electoral Commission would suggest that ...
With all the money from the tax dodger from Belize at their disposal Sefton Tories still mange to turn out some pretty sub standard literature. Here is a prime example. Not only is the content unremittingly negative and the design naff but a lot of the facts and insinuations are wrong. It was so deliciously bad that we did seriously think about volunteering to deliver it-our Tories do struggle to get leaflets out-unless that is they come by post. You can see the detail on our website at:http://birkdalelibdems.org.uk/resources/index/LeafletsI particularly like the bit that says Conservative unity goes from strength to ...
Yesterday, I upset Iain Dale and, in return, he challenged me to 'answer the question'. So, here goes... Dear Iain, It's all very well telling us that we don't have any BME members in the Commons or the devolved administrations. I had noticed. And yes, as a 'minority ethnic' person, I want to see our representatives reflect more accurately the communities they serve. The difference between you and me is that I haven't just pontificated on the subject, I've done something about it. When the Party debated the issue in September 2005, following a motion promoted by Simon Hughes, the ...
Following concerns from residents that part of the boundary fencing round the former Homebase site in Riverside Drive had been removed by vandals, I contacted the owners regarding this. My thanks to H&H properties who have had this repaired.
Nick Clegg MP, Leader of the Liberal Democrats, was on Tay AM this morning at the start of the Scottish Liberal Democrat Conference in Perth ...
He's a non dom! Oh no he's not! Oh yes he is! Oh no he's not! Watch out Dave, he's behind you! Or is that backing you? Well anyway, thanks to Lord Ashcroft the Conservative party's a bit of a pantomime. Good fun, isn't it?
I am pleased to have been asked to participate in a round-table event with this title next Thursday 11th March starting at 10am hosted by the BCS as part of their "Savvy Citizens" initiative. Here are the details: On 11 March 2010 at 10am, BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT will host a round-table debate at the BCS headquarters in London, as part of the ongoing Savvy Citizens campaign. The topic to be debated will be: 'Will the internet determine the outcome of the next general election?' The panellists are: Elizabeth Sparrow, President, BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT Paul ...
Fenland DC, The Mills Con 301 (45.9; -11.2)LD Chris Howes 264 (40.2; -2.7)UKIP 58 (8.8; +8.8)Lab 33 (5.0; +5.0)Majority 37Turnout 31.8%Con holdPercentage change is since May 2007.Chatteris TC, The Mills2 Seats up. Causes: 1 x Death (Con), 1 x Resignation (Party not yet ascertained).Con 340 (28.8)LD Diane Baldry 324 (27.5)Con 255 (21.6)UKIP 151 (12.8)Lab 109 (9.2)Majority (of elected Conservative
That and more came up for discussion when Iain Dale, Will Straw and myself appeared on 5 Live's Richard Bacon show on Monday afternoon. You can still listen again (until precisely 4:02pm on Monday 8 March) via the iPlayer. We're on 1 hours 25 minutes in to the show.
Another interview with the Lib Dem leader:He's meditated in America's mid-west, he's set fire to cacti in Germany, his 8-year-old son has a master plan to catch Osama Bin Laden and he could become the most powerful player at the next election.Thanks to a tweet from Phil Willis.
We went to see Tim Vine last night at Newbury Corn Exchange. He was absolutely hilarious. But if someone told you that you were going to see a Christian comedian from the home counties who doesn't swear, doesn't tell blue jokes, and just tells, basically, quick one-liners based on puns, you'd expect not to be entertained. But in an unexpected way it is all very entertaining. He is quite mad.
Earlier this week the Electoral Commission published a new report, The completeness and accuracy of electoral registers in Great Britain, looking at how electoral registration is working in the UK. Although it's been widely covered, the coverage has been very similar – taking the top line figures from the report and covering press release without digging in to what the report really says. So if we venture in to the inner reaches of the report, what do we find? The report is a very welcome piece of path-breaking research, based on in-depth local studies. Given the importance of registration, and ...
The story of how United Airlines broke musician Dave Carroll's guitar was one of the 'business gets a monstering in social media' stories of 2009. Carroll turned the incident into a song that made it big on YouTube, spawning huge traditional media coverage, knocking $180 million off United's share price and highlighting the weaknesses in United Airline's approach to social media. Dave Carroll promised to make a trio of songs, the last of which is now out:
Yes, Jan Moir has been at it again. This time it's breastfeeding mothers who incur her wrath. Actually she's probably done mums and breastfeeding advocates a power of good by showing exactly why there is a need for legal protection for breastfeeding in public in England - Scotland having led the way on this some years ago. In her article she recounts the story of a mum thrown out of an East London charity shop by a manager squirting air freshener about yelling that breast milk stinks. That one had passed me by, but I hope that you would agree ...
ALDC will be running the Election Law Helpline service for the Party throughout the 2010 General and local election period. It is vital that everyone in the party stays on the right side of the law throughout the campaign, and we'll be here to help you do this. The Agents and Organisers Assocation has kindly supplied information to help us with this role, (you can also buy a copy of their Agents Manual through our shop), and their helpline is being diverted through to ALDC during the campaign period. What sort of advice and information will be available? Practical issues ...
My blogging colleage, Labour Councillor Nick Wallis, has called on the Tories to stop distributing their latest leaflet which carries a "Printed by..." but not a "Published by..." imprint. I suspect Nick is saying this tongue in cheek, but actually he's right. If there are thousands of these leaflets stacked up waiting to be delivered, the Conservatives must withdraw them immediately and destroy
Before I begin I want to make clear that I am not entering into this post lightly. This is an extraordinarily difficult issue on a horrendously sad case. Last night I watched Question Time, as you do. On it, the discussion turned to whether or not the public had a right to know information about the ...
So: did QE work? The Guardian says that 'The Bank of England deserves a little credit" for averting Depression. In the event, the apocalypse never quite materialised. Last year was the weakest since the war, and the 18-month-long recession saw 6.2% wiped off economic output; but most economists believe it could have been much worse In 'Credit ...
From the BBC: MPs have backed a series of reforms aimed at beefing up the ability of backbenchers to create new laws and hold the government to account. Proposals backed include a creating a backbench committee to set a timetable for Commons business. A bid by the Labour and Tory front benches to restrict the committee to setting a timetable for just 15 days per session was rejected by MPs... The reforms were drawn up by Labour MP and chairman of the public administration committee Tony Wright in the wake of last year's expenses scandal... MPs also agreed to back ...
I've never listened to either 6 Music or the Asian Network, so if they're axed I can't say I'll miss them. But I'm very angry about their impending demise. The BBC is clearly keen to show it can cut back, which is good. I'm not going to argue the case for those two stations, because I don't know the full picture, but it angers me that stations are being axed when the BBC is failing to deal with its core problem: the amount it pays on executive salaries and expenses. The recent report into BBC pay showed 137 BBC executives ...
I would say as a response to amendment 120a that instead of simplifying and enabling website take-downs and blocking we should use this legislation to constrain it. Rather than allowing a civil dispute to cause websites to be blocked at the whim...
Following on from their outraged bleating on the issue, Plaid Cymru have announced that their support for the BBC as a Public Service Broadcaster is now under threat. So what I want to ask Elfyn is, just how petty do Plaid Cymru want to get over this issue? Elfyn Llwyd claims that Welsh Licence fee payers ...
Congratulations to Councillor Ian Mearns. He is currently deputy leader of Gateshead Council but yesterday he was chosen as Labour's candidate for Gateshead constituency. I've known Ian for the past 23 years, since I was first elected as a councillor and I can't find a bad word to say about his character. He's an all round good bloke though were I a voter in his constituency (I live in Blaydon
I wrote the following piece from the Election 2010 edition of Behind The Spin, an online magazine for public relations students and young PR practitioners, expanding on some of my previous posts: When it comes to numbers, coverage of politics in the UK tends to be rather mesmerised by opinion poll ratings and seat projections. However, there is a richness to the working of our electoral system which this narrow focus misses, so here are three simple numbers that give a hint of what lies beyond the simple horse-racing obsession. Just to reassure anyone who isn't too keen on mathematics, ...
It's pretty good, after all it's in the capable hands of Peter Taylor. There are many issues that come up in the interviews. An interesting and difficult one is the imprisonment of 'would-be' terrorists, young people (some very young) who have been planning terrorist attacks or, at least, gathering and sharing detailed information in order to carry out attacks. Obviously, they cannot simply get a
The open letter I co-ordinated from LibDem PPCs (objecting to the LibDem backed Lords' amendments to the Digital Economy Bill) is now up online. We could probably have got 50 signatures or more – apologies to those who were not included initially – but time was of the essence. I felt it was urgent and ...
The sheltered lounge in Tullideph Place is currently undergoing renovations and I recently asked the City Council Housing Department about progress with the works. I was advised by the City Council yesterday that, because of the works at the lounge, residents who normally vote there will instead vote at the Morven Terrace sheltered lounge at the forthcoming General Election.
Fri 5th
09:00
BCS panel debate: Will the Internet determine the outcome of the next general election?
Next week will see a BCS panel debate: Will the Internet determine the outcome of the next general election?
I am particularly pleased to see that the President of the European Parliament used new powers to dock the allowances of UKIP's Nigel Farage MEP, who refuses to apologise for having last week insulted gratuitously the new President of the European Council. It is thanks to an initiative I took in the last parliamentary mandate that such powers exist. My week has focused a lot on constituency matters. I have spent two full weekdays in my constituency - a rare treat - during which I spoke to pupils at Pilton Community College in Barnstaple yesterday and address a conference on ...
Yesterday we covered an open letter from 25+ Liberal Democrat prospective Parliamentary candidates (and see also this comment from ex-MP Richard Allan), expressing concerns over the line the party had taken in the House of Lords on a key part of the Digital Economy Bill. The party's DCMS (Department for Culture, Media and Sport) team has now replied in turn with another public letter. Two things to note when reading it. First, this sort of public exchange of letters is unusual, but very welcome. Although journalists sometimes struggle with the concept of a party that debates policy openly and has ...
Dreadlock Holiday ...
One of the best of the many, many meetings being held on this theme at the moment was the one at City University this week and you can watch it over on their website. Of course, my view of the meeting is in no way coloured by the fact that what they talked about, and what they didn't talk about, so closely matched my eight cell model of the impact of political campaigning and the internet.
Following a resident's recent complaint to me about poor access to the paper recycling facility in Pennycook Lane, I received the following response from Recycling Projects Officer late yesterday : "In response to a request I believe you had in your office yesterday regarding limited access to paper bins within the Recycling Point on Pennycook Lane, a colleague and I have been out to visit the site this afternoon. We took the opportunity to space out the bins as best as we were able while there, and are satisfied that better access has been achieved. This site has been in ...
[IMG: Whittington Hospital public meeting] It really was a packed hall - and very hot! Nearly 400 people came to question Rachel Tyndall (Chair of the Review panel putting forward the proposals on A&E, maternity and all) and Richard Sumray (Chair of Haringey PCT). Robert Gorrie facilitated the meeting (LibDemCouncil leader). Having told the hall he was LibDem Leader - that was the extent of party politics - there were none on the night - this was a meeting for real people to question the health bosses. There was never going to be enough time for all the questions and ...
After that headline, I know that if you're reading this, you really must care, so thank you! This week has been pretty hellish. Every single thing I read, or hear from other people, about this post viral fatigue thingy I have had since I had Glandular Fever last year tells me not to push myself too hard, and in fact that makes it worse. Well, every so often I feel the need to test this theory, just to prove it right. The trouble is that my state of health isn't compatible with a looming general election. Every cell of my ...
I was very glad to see that the no-entry signs at the north end of Old Hall Road, Gatley (around the triangle) are now lit again, after several months. I'd been told there was a technical issue being investigated, so it seems it's been solved. I'm aware of a number of other signs that should be lit and aren't around Cheadle & Gatley - those are being chased up too.
The latest "House of Comments" podcast with myself and Stuart Sharpe of the Sharpe's Opinion political blog is now live. The website for the podcasts is here and the sixteenth episode which we recorded on Tuesday 2nd Feb is available to download via this page here (raw mp3 file here if you prefer). You can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes here. Or you can listen to it right now here: The format is to invite one or two other political bloggers each week and discuss a few of the stories that are making waves in the blogosphere. This week ...
The infestation of the Parliamentary estate by mice has become such a problem that it is being commented about on Twitter by MPs and of course the speaker's wife, Sally Bercow. She has acquired a cat for the official Speaker's residence, which she has christened 'Order' following a poll on Twitter. I suspect that MPs are more obedient to a call of "Order, Order" than the cat. However, such a simple solution is not good enough for the House authorities who are concerned that a cat might wander into the chamber and curl up on the Prime Minister's lap during ...
[IMG: Lynne at the march] Stroud Green campaigner Katherine Reece joined our local MP and hundreds of local residents to march against the closure of the Whittington A&E last weekend. The march gained lots of media attention, which has hopefully sent a clear message to the Government about how unpopular these health cuts are. Sadly, I couldn't make the march as I was at a school governors away day, but I've just been sent some great pictures (such as this one of Lynne) which show how the strength of feeling at the event. Lynne also organised a public meeting which ...
Today is my lovely little sister's birthday. I won't tell you how old she is, because she'd kill me. I already miscalculated and told Anna she was a year older than she actually is and Honor is barely speaking to me. One of the rules of our relationship is that she's allowed to tease me for being old (even though she married a man 6 months and 1 day older, who, apparently is young), but reciprocation on my part unleashes forces of hell that would even terrify Damien McBride and Charlie Whelan, but I can deal with that because otherwise ...
This week has seen a meeting of small Nationalist parties, where they have discussed joining together in Westminster to get a voice. This just proves what the Liberal Democrats have been saying all along, the SNP are irrelevant at Westminster. They are just too small with only seven MPs to make any difference. The SNP are saying they have met Plaid Cymru and now want to meet the Democratic Unionist Party and the Social Democratic & Labour Party. In other words a vote for the SNP is actually a vote for four parties and still it won't be heard in ...
I'm at Make Mine (311 Regents Street, Mortimer, London). http://4sq.com/62hCYd # Annoyed that no #LibDems on BBC Question Time three weeks in four? See http://bit.ly/cCR9No for what you can do #bbcqt # So not the way to encourage more MPs to Twitter- setting up accounts without permission & not saying so on profiles http://bit.ly/dsLcOo # Good post on ConHome on state of Tory campaign but smiled at "Don't panic" headline. Usually means "We're panicing" [IMG: :)] http://bit.ly/9WMXFF # Warning. Warning. Self-referential overload at the AppStore - http://bit.ly/aHxIS3 # RT @mandateblog: Mend the gap: how do we fund social care? Nadia ...
We had some good news from Inspector Stephen Gilbertson at the Gatley Village Partnership meeting last night. We're going to get an extra PCSO and part of an extra PC in Gatley to beef up the team (which will then be a sergeant, 1.5 PCs and 2 PCSOs). The current neighbourhood officers for the Gatley area are: PC 02780 Mark Shaw mark.shaw@gmp.police.uk and PCSO 65081 Mark Salt mark.salt@gmp.police.uk The neighbourhood team direct phone number is 0161 856 9776. This number does not replace 999 or 0161 872 5050 for a police response to urgent and non-urgent incidents. (And before anyone ...
Several months ago I wrote a series of articles about the dangers that Michael Ashcroft posed to the Conservative Party. I was not alone. The problem of a man who did not pay taxes in the UK nevertheless being nominated to be a member of the British Parliament as a result of his being a major financial supporter of the Conservative Party has always been a spit in the eye of British democracy. That the Conservatives now claim not to have known until very recently that Mr. Ashcroft has retained his non-dom tax status stretches all credulity. William Hague is ...
The cost of policing the London Olympics will be in the region of £6 million. Ok I can live with that. This is an high profile event with people from around the world turning up to the party. What I can't live with is this news. Police will have powers to enter private homes and seize posters, and will be able to stop people carrying non-sponsor items to sporting events. Apparently, this is so official sponsors of the Olympics can have their sponsorship protected. What possible law gives the police the power to do this? What are our Parliamentarians doing ...
The Welsh Liberal Democrat Shadow Transport Minister, Jenny Randerson has called on the Welsh Government to scrap its troubled North-South Air link. Her call follows the news that the Government has suffered a further set back after no operators made suitable bids for the latest tender. "It is astounding that even at the shockingly high level of public subsidy, Ieuan Wyn Jones is offering operators, not one has come forward with a suitable bid," she said. "We have always said this subsidy was unsustainable in environmental and public expense terms, this news shows it is unsustainable in operational terms as ...
The Guardian has an exclusive that will cast more doubt on the judgement of senior Conservatives in their dealings with their biggest donor, Lord Ashcroft. The paper says that Ashcroft privately ordered what he boasted was the biggest political polling exercise ever conducted in Britain in 2005, in order to aid the Tories as they targeted marginal seats. They say that the cost of the polls, commissioned from YouGov and Populus, is believed to have approached at least £250,000, but that sources familiar with the transactions have suggested that the bills were paid by one his companies in Belize, meaning ...
I am one of 25 (and growing) Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidates who have signed a joint letter against the amendment of by the two Lib Dem Lord Tims on the Digital Economy Bill. Mark Pack reports the story on LDV: The Digital Economy Bill has become one of the most heavily debated topics on this site. Posts related to it often generate a large number of comments, but today's have done
News from the wilder shores of sensibilty that ANOTHER UKIP MEP has left the party. UKIP has a track record of butter-fingeredness towards its MEPs, in the last European Parliament it started with a dozen and finished with nine after two expulsions ...
A repost of comment I just added to a Lib Dem Voice thread on this subject - Declaring my interest as my day job is now with Facebook, I did want also to declare my profound sense of disappointment that the Lib Dems have been supportive of this particular measure. They did a great job being early opponents of the Government's original Clause 17 of this Bill which had the potential to grant sweeping powers with little scrutiny and we should celebrate its demise. I understand that support for this more specific provision on injunctions may have been seen to ...
The latest election leaflet from Edward Legard, the Conservative candidate for the Darlington constituency, arrived with the pizza menu leaflets on my doormat this evening. Sadly, for a party which got its nickers in such a twist when a flyer in support of Jenny Chapman, the Labour candidate, was distributed without an election imprint to teachers recently, this lastest effort from Capt Legard
Today is St Piran's Day, patron saint of tin miners and, to many, of Cornwall. There are events all around Cornwall. I'll be at Lanson Castle for the flag lowering and then joining in some singing in the Bell.
When I saw this poster I thought it was hard to believe. The Conservatives are funded by big business and they have a philosophy of allowing people to spend the money that they earn. Why should they want to support families as this would increase taxation? The poster just didn't fit in with my perception of the Tory Party. So I thought that I would improve the poster by amending the wording for them. It struck me that this 'genuine' voter was actually working as a model for the party. I presume she got paid and I am sure that ...
