RU LibDem Hoodies: Order NOW! After 3 whole years we're actually making some hoodies! Black with RU LibDem Logo in gold on the front and the mantra "You've got the power, We've got the Cable" on the back, they are available in any size you like as long as I'm told by the end of the week. Only £12.50 each! Email me at markwhiley@readingliberalyouth.com for more information.
There's not gonna be many of the current committee left next year and to continue all the hard work the Society has put in since its inception we really need people to come forward for the new committee. There'll be handover training and the current President will help smoothy adjust people into their new roles, the setup of which has been completely changed for the next year with a strict definition as to what each role entails. If you think you could do a better job, or even still as good a job as us (or have feedback on what ...
I'm not going to Spring Conference, for various reasons. Those of you who are? Please support the lovely Bridget Fox's Emergency Motion on Freedom, Creativity & the Internet. And, you know, have a good time, and sing Ilkley Moor really loudly at Glee Club for me. My March sponsor is Mark Reckons. He's worth reading, you know.
I was walking through Kettering market a couple of weeks ago and saw a stall selling DVDs. Among them was Saraband for Dead Lovers, an Ealing historical drama from 1948 - in fact, the first Ealing film to be made in colour. (The stall also had a copy of Matt at the Movies, but I decided to let it rest there.) It tells the story of the illicit affair between Sophie Dorothea, wife of the future George I, and Count Konigsmark. The two are played by Joan Greenwood and Stewart Granger, who are as near to sexy as Ealing ever ...
If you look at the political blogs which are most read by MPs and political journalists, you find that they are run by a nearly all male cast: Jonathan Isaby, Tim Montgomerie, Alex Smith, Stephen Tall, myself and so on. As I wrote when looking at the impact of the internet on politics in 2010: That's not to say there aren't many, very good, female political bloggers. But overall, despite political blogging being a relatively new field which started up long after women got the vote, the idea of equal pay for equal work became widely accepted as obviously right, ...
This is the new logo for the group which has grown out of the original protests over our Labour MP's suggestion that Eaglescliffe residents should back her in supporting a move of Egglescliffe school into Preston Park.Next Wednesday will see the launch meeting of the group, formation of a committee and all the necessary bits of organisation needed to carry it on for as long as it takes.The
Of course, I read that caption from earlier today as a mark of praise rather than of exasperation: [IMG: Chris Huhne on BBC TV]
Very interesting manouvring by Tories tonight – big dilemma – posh Westminster City Council Civic Dinner (at council tax payers' expense – £23,000) on at same time as important but unglamourous Council Ward Forum for Abbey Road and Regent's Park? What to do?! Well, most of the councillors didn't bother coming at all (not that their ...
Dundee LibDems are most grateful to Tavish Scott MSP, Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, who today spent more time in the West End campaiging with John Barnett, Liberal Democrat Westminster candidate for Dundee West. John and Tavish are pictured above during an interview in Nethergate. This evening, I met with the team leader of the Street Lighting Partnership and Blackness Road residents about changes to street lighting there (where the old SOX (Orange) lights have been changed to High Pressure Sodium SON lights) and although this should result in improved lighting, concerns from residents about the extent the lighting ...
I got a phonecall out of the blue earlier this week from a woman living with her a family in West Reading. They are overcrowded. Three children are currently sharing one bedroom. I get calls like this pretty regularly but that doesn't mean that individual cases are not heartrending. I asked the female caller what impact the current housing situation is having on family life.She told me that her children - three girls and one boy - have no personal space and nowhere to do homework in peace. It affects their social life as they cannot invite friends round. "I ...
Was shown a very interesting paper today by John Kampfner, former editor of the New Statesman and top journalist. Called Lost Labour, it details how most of what he hoped for from New Labour has not happened. It is an interesting read and poses as many challenges to my party as encouragements. John voted Lib Dem for the first time in 2005 over the Iraq war. Now he supports us because he sees us as the true inheritor of the progressive politics championed by Robin Cook in the Labour Party. The paper can be found here: http://www.centreforum.org/assets/pubs/lost-labours.pdf
Let's turn to Sky News to find out... Does my hair look alright?
So, in adding Steph Flanders to They Really Do Exist I decided to google for her to see if she had a website other than her Stephanomics blog. Among the top ten google results for her name is some rather tame* smutfic. The smut itself mayn't be that fabulous, but the disclaimer? The disclaimer is a thing of beauty and a joy forever. I hereby demand that ALL fic disclaimers henceforth be written in the form of open letters to Vince Cable. * your definition of rather tame may differ from mine. My March Sponsor is Mark Reckons, and my ...
I've just finished catching up on, courtesy of iPlayer downloads, the BBC 4 documentary series 'The Great Offices of State' filmed by journalist Michael Cockerell. Unfortunately the series is no longer on iPlayer so you will need to look out for the repeats if you want to watch it. The series consisted of three programmes each looking, as the name suggests, at the three great offices of the British state; the Home Office, the Foreign Office and the Treasury. It made good use of archive footage and interviews with the key players, both ministers and civil servants, to look at ...
Strange to think that today it was the Ulster Unionists that said 'No'. That used to the be single word epithet us from Northern Ireland used to place with the DUP. If this had been the first assembly there wouldn't have been the cross community agreement to devolve police powers. But that was was when the UUP were a bigger Unionist voice than the other Unionist parties now that role is reversed. There is of course one dissenting UUP voice, Lady Sylvia Hermon MP is the widow of former RUC Chief Constable Sir Jack Hermon. She herself trained in law ...
Back in November, I gave a plug to the Memories of St Winifred's book that's been published by former staff and pupils at the two St Winifred's schools in Lee Green. The editorial team tell me that responses have been healthy and the book is selling well. However, there are still some copies left. If you'd like to get your hands on one, email roseanngibbs {at} onetel(.)com
After I reported a number of potholes in Taverham and Thorpe Marriott in recent weeks, Norfolk County Council finally came along to fill in some of the pot holes. Good news ? Well, not quite. What is odd is that holes that I specifically reported have been filled, but my online reporting mentioned "numerous other holes" in the vicinity of the main holes. So what have Norfolk County Council done ? They have filled the biggest holes, but sometimes holes just a few feet away have been left. Isn't it utterly ridiculous that a team of men come out in ...
Just a quick note to say that I understand that the revised design for the stained glass window at Northbrook School was APPROVED by Planning Committee A at their meeting on Thursday night. Papers available here.
A brief visit to Whittlesey Community Fair this afternoon, and a chance to meet several local groups and organisations, both statutory and voluntary. The police are on hand, giving out everything from bells to clip on to handbags as a deterrent to thieves, to leaflets about securing sheds and outbuildings. Crossroads Care Cambridgeshire are here, with a display about their work, from regular carer support and training, to the ICER emergency cover project. I have the opportunity to hear from Laura Bradley from the University of Derby about her work with local residents on street-level environmental issues - two of ...
With the question of how well Lord Ashcroft's marginal seats campaign for the Conservatives really is doing back in the news, now seems a good time to remind people of this which I wrote in 2007: How good is Ashcroft? Well, here's his own account of his record supporting target seats at the 2005 general election: The national swing from Labour to Conservatives was 3.2 per cent, yet the swing in the seats which we supported was 3.8 per cent. Dirty Politics, Dirty Times by Michael Ashcroft, p.296 You read that right: by his own admission, all his expertise and ...
Angela Harbutt writing on Liberal Vision suggests that Nick Clegg needs to be clearer about what he would do in the event of a hung parliament.Liberal England is happy to see John Kampfner come on board with the Lib Dems but would have liked a little bit more notice. Me too!Strange Thoughts has some normal thoughts about coverage of Esther Rantzen in Luton. And lack of Lib Dem coverage.Longrider asks why, oh why, oh why must the law abiding be punished under the latest Labour proposals which attempt (and I suspect will largely fail) to control dangerous dogs.Peter Henley reports ...
On Monday morning there was an opportunity for members to hear directly from Brian Smith exactly what the current state of play is with the Guided Busway. This was a prelude to the issue being presented to Cabinet next week. The Cabinet Agenda is accompanied by an excellent briefing note. If you want a detailed explanation of where we are and a little on how we got here then I urge you to read it. This briefing note was prepared by officers of the County Council and so is completely non-political. In summary the remaining "big" issues are:River Great Ouse ...
Not dead yet, just rather tired and lacking in inspiration; rest assured that I'll have enough energy to mount the soapbox again very soon without any fear of putting my back out though. As it stands I'm up to my oxters in butchered laptop parts that are due to go onto a well-known online auction site shortly, along with other assorted detritus. Once that's done, and the last of this round of quarterly bills are finished off, that's me free to come out of hibernation and travel again, with Leicester, Cambridge, and very probably London on the itinerary over the ...
Former Labour Party supporter and editor of the New Statesman, John Kampfner, has published a pamphlet setting out why he has decided to give his support to the Lib Dems at the coming election. He has also set out his views in the Guardian as well. He says: 'As somebody who has a long involvement with the Labour party, including editing the New Statesman magazine, I have been able to give a frank and honest appraisal of a decade and a half of New Labour. And in it I explain why I can no longer support them, and am instead ...
An interesting post has just dropped into my inbox from the IDeA asking the question in the title of this post. It is written by Councillor Patrick Kitterick (from Leicester City I think) and does a fair comparison of the different roles. In essence the difference is mainly that MPs are meant to be legislators and Councillors are essentially implementers ( my language not his) If you want anything doing goto local governance structures ( in the widest sense of the word) look at the following Health? See your local PCT Policing? Go see your local police authority Schools, libraries, ...
We thought it would be interesting to 'deconstruct' the recent Tory leaflet. We will start with part of the rant on page 2. ' Are you happy with Southport's anti social issues?' Well who we wondered is responsible 'anti social issues' in Southport? Question submitted by Councillor Shaw to the Cabinet Member - Communities (Councillor Porter) "1. Will the Cabinet Member confirm that she is aware that her responsibilities include: "To co-ordinate the Council's response to community safety issues including crime/fear of crime, anti-social behaviour, drugs and alcohol?" (Clause B7 in Part 3 of Constitution - "Responsibility for Functions"); and ...
Following a month of private and public meetings, including some very vocal students disappointed with the lack of Students Union knowledge on where over £9m worth of education cuts will fall, as of today the Students Union are backing the UCU in consultations with the University prior to a decision being made on slashing investment in Biological Scienes; Systems Engineering; and Chemistry. This comes as a result of the University losing top research grant funding this year in other areas and the national cutbacks in education announced by Lord Mandelson, Secretary of State of £900m (since the pre-budget report). Reading ...
Last month Labour home secretary Alan Johnson announced tougher rules for students wishing to gain visas to study in the UK. Lib Dem Voice reader Ian Lawrence has passed us this thank you message from Australia's Cultural Attache aka Sir Les Patterson ... G'day. Just heard my little possums that ahead of Labour's March Visa rules, one group of Turkish students has decided not to go to Bournemouth but to spend tens of thousands in Australia instead – makes a change from Indians. The first of many groups I hope – good on you mate. How did Gordon Brown's prudent/drongo ...
Bath & North East Somerset Council (the Council), as the licensing authority, proposes to issue one premises licence for a small casino within its area pursuant to Part 8 and Schedule 9 of the Gambling Act 2005 and the Categories of Casino Regulations 2008 (SI 2008/1330). As part of this process the Council has produced a draft application pack for prospective applicants. The purpose of this
Today the well-respected political commentator John Kampfner launched the pamphlet, Lost labours, with Nick Clegg. He comments, "As somebody who has a long involvement with the Labour party, including editing the New Statesman magazine, I have been able to give a frank and honest appraisal of a decade and a half of New Labour. And in it I explain why I can no longer support them, and am instead turning to the Liberal Democrats. You can read a more condensed version in an article I wrote for the Guardian here. "Alongside one million other voters, I deserted Labour in 2005 ...
A Lanson Boy reports that a Conservative drive to raise funds from the people of Cornwall has raised precisely, er, nothing. A Cornish Conservative writes: You don't have Lord Ashcroft's phone number, do you? "A full blown Sterling crisis is just around the corner," argues Cicero's Songs. Organized Rage offers some humane thoughts on Jon Venables. On the Spectator's Coffee House blog, Peter Hoskin catches Ed Vaizey dropping David Cameron in in again. Apparently the Tory leader is "I believe, much more conservative by nature than he acts, or than he is forced to be by political exigency." Kperch, who ...
I've now had an answer from the Council about the sale of parking permits in One Stop Shops. As previously blogged, Cornwall Council is centralising the sale of parking permits in St Austell so they will no longer be available directly from One Stop Shops. My concern was that people would go to the OSS expecting to be able to renew their permit and find that they need to send off a form. I was worried that they would have to pay for more expensive daily tickets until their permits arrived. I asked whether the Council was going to write ...
The national press have run stories over the past week after it was announced 2.6 million bins had been chipped. Whether you're concerned about the every growing powers of the 'big brother' state (as I am) or you're in the 'being monitored is only an issue if you're up to no good' is always worth a debate, I have put a 'poll' on the left hand side of this blog. My biggest issue is practical. Last week I was 'binjacked'. I put my bin out to be emptied, it was, and after a few days I went looking for it. ...
Latest news on the London 2012 website proudly announces that London landmark pins have been launched. A quick glance through and you quickly see iconic London sites such as the London Eye, Battersea Power Station and Westminster Abbey to name just three.A closer look for the Waltham Forest version shows off Walthamstow Town Hall. I have always felt that Walthamstow Town Hall is one of the true
From the FT: The Liberal Democrats will centre their campaign on joint appearances by Nick Clegg, leader, and Vince Cable, Treasury spokesman, in an attempt to project a blend of youth and experience. A clutch of former Lib Dem leaders will be deployed in the regions. Paddy Ashdown is taking a hands-on role directing the Lib Dem's defence of the south-west heartlands. Sir Menzies Campbell and Charles Kennedy will be touring seats in Scotland and the north. The article also lists Chris Huhne ("pugnacious, quick-footed") and Lynne Featherstone ("sound media performer") as ones to watch in the Liberal Democrat campaign. ...
It's time to catch up with two recent stories from Shropshire. Last Friday we brought you the news that a previously undetected vault had been discovered at St John's, Bishop's Castle. Today the Shropshire Star site has some photographs. Meanwhile the debate over who discovered the Condover Mammoth is getting murkier by the day.
I have written a post for the science campaign which is linked. On one of the issues we are still taking gas out of Medium Range storage and exporting some of it.This is a really risky thing to do, but on the other hand if the weather gets warmer the UK will be OK.
Since 2006 I've led the local campaign for action to reduce the number of long-term empty homes in Reading. After my Lib Dem colleagues and I successfully persauded Labour's ruling administration to revive the long-dead empty homes strategy in 2008 I've pressed for regular updates on progress to ensure that the strategy delivers. Tomorrow afternoon, in my capacity as Chair of the HHCC Scrutiny Panel I will be going on a tour of Reading's empty homes to get a better understanding of the issue and what officers are doing to tackle the problem. Latest facts and figures from RBC on ...
As of yesterday I am the Liberal Democrat Candidate for Wolverhampton North East for the forthcoming General Election, probably due on 6 May.
It's been a long march towards adopting a fashion sense, here at 'Liberal Bureaucracy'. My long-held reputation for waistcoats and bow-ties failed to survive the onset of general largeness. Exposure to all things American led me to adopt a vaguely Midwest college professor style but, in truth, my unexpected marriage into the nobility meant that, on occasion, I was going to have to essay something more formal. As someone who has studiously avoided suits, this was always going to be a bit traumatic. It has taken the best part of two years, but I am finally beginning to adjust. I ...
The House of Commons Deputy Speaker Sylvia Heal, MP for Halesowen and Rowley Regis has now announced she is to stand down at the General Election.With less than sixty days until the expected General Election the Labour MP - who has a majority of only 4,337 at the 2005 General Election - said she did not want another five years of working 12 to 14 hours per day, six days a week.Sylvia Heal, won the West Midlands seat back in 1997, has said she would continue to work hard for the constituency.I should hope she will as she will also ...
I know I have blogged about this sort of thing before but I still get exasperated when I see comments like this from Peter Hoskin on the Spectator Coffee House blog today: Cameron & Co. say that they would cut further and faster - but, when it comes to the details of what to cut and when, the similarities between them and Brown's government are striking. Indeed, as I've said before, we're largely taking it on trust that the Tories have a plan sufficient to the scale of the debt problem - even though there are timorous signs that that ...
In LibDemVoice, arguing for how QE can be changed to be both more Liberal and more Democratic. Neat, huh?
[IMG: Sanjay visiting Montrose Infirmary]
Speed humps are useful but not universally loved, Lewisham Council loves them so much that it even placed one in front of a wall at least once. But now we have a new road feature, it's the slow hump! The pilot of this scheme is currently 'on duty' slowing down dangerous prams and wheelchairs in Mount Pleasant ...
Conservative leaflets here in Blaydon constituency are like buses. You wait ages for one to turn up, and when it eventually does, a load of them arrive at the same time! Alas, that is the saga of the leaflet delivery for the Tunbridge Wells Tory who is contesting Blaydon. A couple of weeks ago, a local delivery company kindly put three of the Tory candidate's 8 page leaflets through our door here
Tue 9th
16:15
The Independent View: International development beyond aid: an opportunity to change the political d...
Sarah Mulley is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr). Before joining ippr, she was coordinator of the UK Aid Network. A major shift in political attitudes to international development has occurred in the UK during the last decade. There is now strong cross-party commitment to meeting the UN target to give 0.7% of GDP as aid, and DFID's place in government as an independent department now seems secure. But the cross-party commitment to aid, and to DFID, is not as clear cut as it might first seem. First, the question of what counts as ...
Are you going to support the Liberal Democrats or the Conservatives if there's a hung parliament?
Process Guy is no more, but if you find yourself here, you may be interested to know that I have started another blog:Strange ThoughtsWhy not have a look?
At today's Communities Scrutiny Committee I secured a commitment to local consultation on sites for gypsy and travellers sites. This will be a change from the proposed policy which would have seen local councillors told about planned sites late in the day and no consultation at all with residents. Council officers presented their proposed consultation protocol. I and my Liberal Democrat colleagues were concerned that local ward members and parish councils would be told what was proposed only when it was a done deal and that local residents would not be consulted at all. And so I asked for proper ...
As you would expect from an editorial room containing Martin Wolf, the Financial Times knows about the need to address trade imbalances There is a 'fallacy of composition' around the idea that if a country needs to save, then every country saving is a good idea*. Instead, demand falls, prices fall, you get recession. Today's top ...
The following quote is a genuine quote from an academic journal. Oh yes. Why have I thought necessary to mention that? Well, it's about the stock market. And how windy the weather is. And how stocks go up or down depending on how windy it is. Not just the stocks of windbreak or heating/cooling firms. All stocks. Yes indeed: This study investigated the relationship between wind speed and daily stock market returns across 18 European countries from 1994 to 2004. A significant and pervasive wind effect was found on stock returns. This finding was supported by psychological literature claiming that ...
Matt Chorley of the Western Morning News is running the story that Cornwall's Conservative candidates have spectacularly failed in their bid to raise money from the public using the 'MyConservatives' site. The site was meant to be a mirror of the way that Barack Obama raised money for his successful US Presidential campaign but has instead proved to be an embarrassing flop. Across Devon and Cornwall, the Tories set themselves a target of raising £13,000 but have in fact raised just £134 - and all of that in Devon. Conservative candidates taking part in the fundraising drive were Sian Flynn ...
I've blogged before about the level of crime in SE London when I lived there. Compared to that, crime in Launceston is miniscule. That's not to dismiss those crimes which do happen. They can be extremely alarming and harmful to those people who are directly affected, but the key message to everyone else is that they are few and far between. Today the Council's Communities Scrutiny Committee heard from Chief Superintendent Elaine Marshall, the officer who heads up the Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership for Cornwall. I asked her about the level of crime in Cornwall and what local residents ...
[IMG: huhne]
I've made my way home from Perth, having spent the weekend at the Scottish Liberal Democrat Conference. It's been a bit of a triumph for Liberal Youth, with their motion on equal rights and marriage being carried overwhelmingly, and then winning the Rae Michie award for membership growth after a massively successful Freshers round last autumn. For me, it's been a fairly quiet affair, catching up with a few friends, doing a little shopping and getting a little down time with Ros. The Scottish Liberal Democrats give the impression of being a bit like an extended family, it's all rather ...
We all know that the Government is spending more than it is bringing in right now. The Lib Dems, myself included, support this, to keep money moving around the economy and ease us out of recession. What we can do however is start to think about how to bring down the debt in the longer term. Lib Dems would, for example, levy an extra 10% tax on bank profits, earning billions, which would go to paying down the debt. We'd also not renew the Trident nuclear missile system on a like-for-like basis, saving billions. There is lots of more modest ...
The latest UK trade numbers are little short of disastrous. Despite the fastest and largest depreciation of Sterling in history, British exports in January fell by roughly £1.6 billion: a near 7% fall. The monthly trade gap between the value of our exports versus the value of our imports is now just shy of £8 billion. Exports in January were therefore just below £20 billion, with imports topping £27 billion. Oops. This should not be happening. Britain has deliberately chosen to devalue its currency in the international markets "in order to maintain competitiveness", which is to say to allow us ...
Former New Statesman editor John Kampfner has come out in support of the Liberal Democrats in a new CentreForum pamphlet and in an article for the Guardian. The pamphlet Lost Labour: Where now for the liberal Left? is being launched today by Kampfner and Nick Clegg. It can be downloaded from the CentreForum website. In the Guardian Kampfner says:For many Labour supporters, the single most important reason for their party to stay in power is to keep the Tories out. Yet people can only for so long be exhorted to hold their nose, to vote for a party they feel ...
The BNP has announced its Buckingham candidate for the 2010 General Election, adding another candidate to a slate which already includes UKIP, John Stevens (former Lib Dem member and before that, Conservative MEP,) Patrick Phillips ("conservatively minded" Independent candidate) and Geoff Howard (former Conservative and UKIP member). With the three main parties refraining from standing against the Speaker, it will be interesting to see how the vote is split by the minor parties and independents, all of whom have or have had right-wing leanings. The Liberal Democrats have chosen a spokesperson rather than a candidate. From the Buckingham Advertiser: The ...
Stagecoach have announced changes to their Bus timetables across the City/County from the beginning of April. A complete list of the changes is available here. Major changes that affect services passing through King's Hedges are:B (New Service*): New service on Monday to Saturday evenings and Sunday daytimes between Orchard Park and Cambridge city centreCiti 1: Change of route between Addenbrooke's Hospital and Cherry Hinton to serve Queen Edith's Way instead of Wulfstan WayCiti 2: Change of route between Addenbrooke's Hospital and Cherry Hinton Road to serve Wulfstan Way instead of Queen Edith's Way Changes to journeys starting and finishing in ...
I'm proud to be proposing this emergency motion to Liberal Democrat Spring conference, seconded by Julian Huppert, and supported by many more! Text of emergency motion: Emergency motion on Freedom, creativity & the internet Conference welcomes the stand of Liberal Democrat MEPs against web-blocking; specifically that, on 4 March 2010, Liberal Democrat MEPs helped the European Parliament to ...
You know it is nice to know that Drumlanrig peruses this blog on a regular basis to fill his diary column in the Scotland on Sunday. I see that he took the "and finally" piece from my blog post after Nick Clegg's speech to get a few laughs this weekend. The question was asked very much tongue in cheek and taken in that way. I did in fact have a different tongue in cheek question if I had have had the opportunity to interview Nick as originally planned. I'm so glad our leaders are able to laugh at themselves and ...
Every week Lib Dem Voice does a round up from Lib Dem Blogs featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (28th Feb - 6th Mar 2010), together with a hand-picked quintet, usually courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed.If you click on the logo below you can learn more about the methodology. Birkdale Focus has never been No1 before, so thanks to all who helped. [IMG: Featured on Liberal Democrat Voice] As ever, let's start with the most popular post, and work our way down 1. Competition - is this the worst Tory leaflet ...
In case you wouldn't have noticed, another crisis has come on top of the big one. For those who understand French, read carefully this article in the March 5 edition of French daily "Le Monde" . A former German finance vice-minister buries the euro as it is now and advises all Southern-Europe economies (including France) to get out of the Eurozone if they don't clean up their act, behave more like Germany and adopt many unacceptable social measures. Some German backbenchers have suggested these might include selling off some islands (who would buy these? You guess). That doesn't yet represent ...
Living in West Lothian I was intrigued by Mark Thompson's article this morning that was hypothesising that Robin Cook may, had he survived, have defected to the Lib Dems. It would have been one photocall that both myself and Charles Dundas, his opponent from 2005, as the prominent faces of West Lothian Liberal Democrats would have been called in for. But would it have actually happened? Mark bases his premise on the Comment is Free article by John Kampfner in today's Guardian, who describes his political fulcrum as based firmly around Robin Cook's left liberal leanings. Like Cook in the ...
This morning The Times has got another one of those puff pieces on Luton South independent candidate Esther Rantzen – "Esther Rantzen faces formidable obstacles to win over Luton". It also includes a 2 minute video of Esther on the campaign trail. The article is not as annoying as the Telegraph article I wrote about last week. It has a more realistic view of Esther's chances in the election, is only rude about Luton in an incidental manner, and doesn't mention funny shaped vegetables. It also sums up the Margaret Moran situation well: "Margaret Moran, Luton South's Labour MP, had ...
The next step in a radical shake-up of the way disabled people use state funding took place, as Jonathan Shaw, Minister for Disabled People, named the Trailblazer areas which will test the Right to Control. Right to Control gives disabled adults more choice and control over the state funding they receive - allowing them to shape the support they receive, or use the money to buy their own services or equipment. Disabled people in the Trailblazer areas can expect a more personalised service joining up housing, support into work and community care. There will also be extra support and advice ...
Next time you get asked, "what has the EU ever done for us?" here is one positive response. It's given you the right to take your cats, dogs and ferrets on holiday. Amazingly, that is exactly what the British want to do; 60% of all the pets travelling under the EU's Pets' Passport scheme are British! Maybe the numbers are swelled by all those ex-pats with houses in Spain. In the European Parliament we have just been reviewing and updating the scheme. It's been a great success. Onerous quarantine arrangements that were miserable for pets and owners have been cast ...
In the last week, there has been a silly fuss about the risk posed by a hung parliament following the next general election. Nick Clegg has scotched the idea that the Liberal Democrats would undermine stability. In fact, his party has taken far more steps than the others to demonstrate credibility to the markets. Cherished policies have been sidelined in the interest of stablity. The UK's leading economics writer, Martin Wolf, agrees that there is nothing to fear from minority government, adding: "I cannot be the only person who believes that Vince Cable is far better qualified to address this ...
Some on-line advertisements need a translator. What has Bob Geldof got to do with premium bonds? Who told him that greasy hair and a mullet goes with a sports jacket? Why does he look so puzzled? -- Has he lost his car keys, or forgotten his own name, or is he as baffled by his relevance to National Savings as I am? More importantly, how much did NS&I pay him?
(Taken from the Woking borough Council Website) Bargain hunters will have even more reason to visit Woking Town Centre from this Sunday (7 March), when the Toys R Us Car Park hosts the first ever Woking Car Boot Sale, from 10am. The car boot sale has been organised by Woking Borough Council and will be ...
"But you do it too!" as Mark Thompson pointed out was not the best defence of the Tories over Lord Ashcroft's non-dom status. The 'innocent' plea of I'll only do it one I am required to do so, from Ashcroft himself showed how weak and ineffectual first William Hague and latterly David Cameron have been in holding their own peers to promises that they have made to the party. But now Lord Paul has announced that rather than wait until he told to do so, he will pay full UK tax on his overseas earnings from the start of the ...
Despite Guido's history with the so-called dead-tree press and particularly the Telegraph, he seems to be lapping up their lies and insinuations, by regurgitating their non-story about Jo Swinson's non-existent cosmetic expenses. As any fule kno the weasel worded Telegraph article insinuated that Jo Swinson claimed for cosmetics without actually saying that she did because she didn't. One of many stories they made up about LibDem MPs as we clearly didn't have enough (clearly there was some!) bad stuff (well, not compared to the Tories, their "parent party"). Come on Mr Fawkes, I expected better (well actually I didn't really!) ...
John Kampfner, a distinguished war reporter, ex-editor of the New Statesman and commentator with impeccable centre-Left credentials, has written an important and provocative piece for the Guardian today: Why I'm backing the Lib Dems This coincides with the launch (through CentreForum) of his pamphlet: 'Lost Labours: where now for the liberal Left?" (pdf). The webpage explaining what ...
Campaigns like this one really fuck me off... NFR (Nurses For Reform) believes that the next government must liberate health provision from the costly and counterproductive world of top-down and un-innovative state control. First point is I've never heard of them, so I'm immediately suspicious that, especially as the story was in the Telegraph, we could be ...
I have today launched my March 2010 update to West End Community Council. Click on the headline to read it or go to http://tinyurl.com/wecc032010. Subjects covered include : • Recycling paper facility at Pennycook Lane : • Refuse collection - Perth Road near Windsor Street • Sunken manholes • Tay Rail Bridge Disaster - 1879 • The Bridge sculpture West End Community Council meets tonight at Logie St John's (Cross) Church Hall at 7pm.
I've certainly criticised academics a few times for not really getting political campaigning – and so spending time looking in the wrong place (such as in my post on internet campaigning) but one exception to that certainly is Phil Cowley of Nottingham University. So it's not a great surprise that the new Election 2010 blog run by him and colleagues is looking very good, with a regular feed of relevant content – but also content that isn't simply duplicating what is elsewhere. You can take a look at Election2010.blogspot.com.
Tue 9th
09:39
"It started with Iraq... But [the Lib Dems] have become the natural home for left-liberal Cookites"
Astonishing article in today's Guardian by former editor of the New Statesman charting how massive a disappointment the Labour government of the last dozen years has been and how for anyone of a vaguely left/left-of-centre persuasion the Lib Dems are the NATURAL choice.
A non-story spun as something major. How New Labour can you get? Labour peer and donor Lord Paul is announcing that he will abide by the forthcoming law and become a full UK taxpayer, rather than a non-dom. Wow! Labour peer announces he will obey the law! What is overlooked is that the law is changing and peers will have to be full UK taxpayers if they want to keep their seats in the Lords.---
Yesterday, along with other city councillors, I attended a very informative briefing on human trafficking and steps that are being taken to combat this extremely concerning matter. After two surgeries at the Mitchell Street Centre and Harris Academy, I attended City Council committee meetings at which I asked a question about Dundee population projections contained within a report on main issues facing the TAYplan strategic development planning authority, commented on and asked a question about the HMIe interim follow through inspection report on child protection services in the city, and sought assurances that the outcomes of a proposal to introduce ...
Something really fantastic happened yesterday. Readers of this blog will know that Jo Swinson MP and myself have been leading a campaign to push back against the overwhelming onslaught of overly perfected images of the human form that come at us constantly from the beauty, media, fashion, diet industries. We have reached the point where we know that what once seemed relatively harmless - is damaging us. Depression, anxiety, lack of self esteem, eating disorders are on the rise - in women, young people especially - and are rising in men too. Yesterday Jo and I held a summit for ...
[IMG: Improving the area outside Charter Court on Stroud Green Road] As well as being the deadline for views on the W3 Bus (see previous post), this Friday is also the deadline for submitting ideas to our local neighbourhood improvement fund for 2010/11. The way it usually works is that all the feasible ideas go to an Area Assembly meeting for residents to comment on and then local councillors make the final decision based on these views. In previous years we've managed to get a few good little projects approved, such as the children' s mural on Quernmore Road by ...
On this day in 1956, the British authorities ordered the deportation of the Greek Cypriot leader, Archbishop Makarios, in the hope of restoring law and order to the island. Thirty seven years ago today, the people of Northern Ireland voted overwhelmingly to remain within the United Kingdom. In a referendum on the future of the province, 591,280 people (57%) of the electorate voted to retain links with the UK. A poll boycott by the nationalist population meant that only 6,463 voted in favour of a united Ireland. 2 must-read blog posts Bridget Fox brings us up to date with Lib ...
If you are, then the hashtag people are using again looks to be #ldconf And if you're wondering what a hashtag is... it's just a bit of text that everyone talking about a particular event uses. If we all use the same tag, it means you can easily search and find what other people are saying about the event, even if you are not following them (and even without first having to know who they are). For example, this link gives you all the latest tweets using #ldconf as found by Twitter's search engine.
Quite stunning news today from a Times poll showing that Labour and the Conservatives are neck and neck in marginal seats. No doubt this will get acres of print time and air time not to mention copious amounts of analysis in the blogosphere but I have a simple question. Is David Cameron Kevin Keegan in disguise? For evidence I want to take you back to January 1996. Newcastle United were 12 points clear in the FA Premier League and were seemingly unstoppable in the drive for the title. They then went into freefall. Unforced errors cost them much needed points ...
The former editor of The New Statesman, John Kampfner has an article in the Guardian today where he explains why he is backing the Lib Dems in the coming general election. He suggests that the party is now "a natural home for left-liberal Cookites" like him. He goes on to say: I have long described myself as of the centre-left, a left-liberal whose reference point was the politics of the late Robin Cook. His ideological bearings were sensible redistribution, an ethical foreign policy, constitutional change, investment in public services, and environmental protection. Some of his hopes have been fulfilled. Most ...
Gatley residents will have noticed the clock on the old war memorial at the junction of Church Road and Gatley Road has stopped working. It broke during the cold weather in January. Pam King and I reported it to the Council. They've had the experts come and look at it, and the news isn't good. The clock's gone seriously wrong, the company that made it went out of business in 1976 and the estimate for repairing the clock is £3-4,000. The Council's currently looking at where that money can come from and it won't be fixed overnight.
A two day strike by civil servants has led to the cancellation of today's Assembly Plenary session. It is understood that the House of Commons will be meeting as usual. Although it would have been possible to go ahead with the Plenary session a number of Assembly Members and Government Ministers refused to cross picket lines and have withdrawn all business. This is despite the fact that it is their government that has provoked the dispute by unilaterally changing the working conditions of civil servants. The Senedd and the rest of the Assembly estate will be closed to the public ...
David Cameron's grand plan to stand candidates in Northern Ireland has come a cropper. As the Conservative and Unionist Party, the Tories have come under pressure to live up to their name and stand in Northern Ireland. They did this under their own banner in the past only to be humiliated at the polls. So Cameron launched a grand plan to merge with the Ulster Unionist Party. Except that it wasn't a full merger, just an agreement to stand candidates under a joint banner. Well the plan has now come back to slap Cameron. The UUP is holding out against ...
John Kampfner, journalist and former New Statesman editor, has a Comment is Free piece on the Guardian website explaining why he's backing the Lib Dems. My decision to back the Liberal Democrats in 2010 is based on a more fundamental appraisal of Labour's record, together with a positive assessment of the Lib Dems' platform. Their analysis of the failures of the deregulated market has been consistently, and painfully, accurate. Their tax reform plans, taking 4 million low-paid workers out of tax altogether, are the most redistributive of any party, alongside green taxes, a "mansion tax" on high-value properties and the ...
Yesterday's Telegraph reports on a review of the DNA database by the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee that found that an estimated 3,666 crimes are detected a year because someone's profile is already on the system for a previous incident. They say that this is fewer than one in every 1,300 crimes solved in this way. The paper says that the trend will fuel criticism over the retention of the DNA of innocent people, which the Government has proposed should be kept for up to six years. They say that the committee wants a return to "common sense" policing over ...
Last night, I was delighted to speak to a group of young people from Bnei Akiva (BA), a Jewish youth group based near Temple Fortune in my local borough of Barnet. BA's members come from across Greater London, including some from my constituency of Hendon, and this was the latest in a series of meetings organised by BA with different speakers. I am very pleased to have been invited to what was an enjoyable and interesting evening with some great questions from the audience. I do believe that it's very important for politicians to engage with young people, if we ...
In an indirect way Michael Gove, Tory Education spokesperson, has shown a prejudice in the way the Tories view education. He has said: "In the last year for which we have figures, of the 80,000 pupils who are eligible for free school meals, the very poorest, just 45 got to Oxford or Cambridge." He went on to say that Labour had failed the poorest pupils as a result. But hang on I say. Is the hallowed spires of the oldest Universities the only real judge for their success and are Labour the only ones that can be blamed for that ...
Today was budget day – there are 101 stories I could write, including how every Labour councillor voted to close Beechdale Library, but the one bit I had a bit of fun with today was Labour's intention to introduce a charge for replacement wheelie bins. If you are unfortunate enough to lose your wheelie bin in the next financial year, there will be a charge for a new one. At the moment, the first one you lose is free, but the council charge you if you lose any more than that. But as we all know, there are 50 ways ...
Responding to the Confederation of British Industry's submission to the Chancellor urging him to use his last Budget before the election to set out more details of spending plans for government departments in order to boost confidence in the UK's public finances and provide economic stability, Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor, Vince Cable said: "This submission highlights how dangerous the Government's position is. "The country can't afford to have political parties playing politics with the public finances. "The British people and the markets have the right to know how and when each political party will tackle the deficit. "The Liberal Democrats ...
In a message to party workers yesterday, Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg accused the Conservatives of 'a crude form of blackmail' by encouraging fears of a fall in the stock market. Nick told us: "The Conservatives are so desperate that they have resorted to a crude form of blackmail. "David Cameron and George Osborne are stoking up fears in the markets, actively trying to destabilise the pound and reduce the Government's ability to borrow. "It's like a protection racket: vote for us or our friends in the City will lay waste to your economy, your savings and your job. "There ...
The news from David Cameron is that he has clearly acted to settle the Ashcroft matter before the general election. That's good. The Tories say that he will stand down from his party role after the election. That's good. The problem of course is that this is the man who promised to stop being a non-dom ten years ago. Promises are cheap when it saves you millions of pounds not to do what you promise. That is why the words from David Cameron sound hollow. Acting now sounds like ten years too late. If Lord Ashcroft has not done what ...
