On Tuesday I noticed that at least three "Liberal Democrat" MPs, for the moment at least, Evan Harris, Chris Huhne and Greg Mulholland, bobbed up off those green benches to kiss the arse that is Alan Johnson via his Home Office junior minister as he answered questions on drugs classification relating to the recent moral panic on Mephedrone and related substances. Well, to be fair, it was not all love and congratulations. All three also wanted to criticise the Home Secretary and his predecessor Jacqui Smith for their handling of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, with all ...
The arguments over social care rumble on without resolution - a clear sign that the cosy consensus between Labour and the Conservatives continues with no suggestion that either party is ready to take the decisions necessary for the future of the country. Labour has a white paper which won't be delivered. The Tories want the market to resolve an intractable problem. Meanwhile people in need of support for their care needs wait for someone to actually do something. The Lib Dem Shadow Health Secretary, Norman Lamb said "After 13 years in power spent ducking social care reform we probably shouldn't ...
... are the same as usual. Thank you Islington Council!
[IMG: funny pictures of cats with captions] see more Lolcats and funny pictures
I have just posted some thoughts on the cultural significance of James Tredwell over at The Corridor. Talking of cricket, I have added Down at Third Man to my blogroll.
[IMG: Bathwick Lib Dems are angry with the use of Avon Street bus stop] For two years, Bathwick's buses have been running from a temporary bus stop behind the Avon Street multi-storey car park. Since all other services have moved to the new bus station, ours is the only one to still be using the temporary stop. Last year, the council promised that the new bus stop would be available by January 2010. In December 2009 I submitted a written question about the transfer date. The council promised that the move would be complete by the end of March. It ...
Tony Blair's new campaign website to support Labour has an extremely complicated ownership trail behind it that ends in secrecy – but his office has declined to explain why or provide details. A few days ago TonyBlair4Labour.org was launched, bringing to us the shock news that Tony Blair wants people to vote Labour. (Actually, it is interesting is that Gordon Brown's star has fallen so far that now being associated with Tony Blair is viewed as a positive by Labour. At the last general election photos of Tony Blair were frequently all over Liberal Democrat leaflets and often completely absent ...
Today would have been my nan's birthday, had she not passed away last year. My nan was an awesome woman, a brilliant intellect, a fabulous mother and grandmother, an amazing cook, and an inspiration to the entire family. She would have been so proud of how Holly is turning out. Miss you nan. ♥ My March sponsor is Mark Reckons.
Today Gordon Brown lied about the immigration figures. Chris Grayling was obviously quick to get in there, with a well crafted jab at the Prime Minister: ... shadow home secretary Chris Grayling said the prime minister had given an "inaccurate picture of his record on immigration". "Britain should expect better from its prime minister," he said. "No wonder we need change." Would this be the same Chris Grayling who lied about crime figures not two months ago? "I'm not happy about the state of the country - I want change, that's why I've voted Labservative 13 times in a row." ...
Yesterday I joined in a Question on the latest massacres at three villages near Jos, in Nigeria. There communal killings in Plateau State have been recurrent over the years, but 2010 has been the first to be stained with two such incidents, in January and March respectively. The reports estimate that 300 people were murdered in the March bloodbath, which seemed to be a revenge attack on Christians for the alleged killings of Muslims in January. I asked whether, considering that internet traffic beforehand had indicated what was about to happen, the Nigerian authorities had considered establishing an early warning ...
"This is a man. This is a street. Let's talk Labservative." More Alan Partridge than your usual Party Political Broadcast fare: Also on YouTube here.
Dave Hill has the news from Croydon regarding Andrew Pelling: "Croydon Central seat promises to be one of the most open and unpredictable in the country," says Croydon Today, in response to the decision of the sitting MP to contest the constituency again. Andrew Pelling, also a former London Assembly member, snook home as a Tory in 2005 but in 2007 had the parliamentary whip withdrawn following his arrest after his wife alleged assault. No charges were ever brought, but at the end of that year Pelling declared that he would not seek re-election. Well, now that he's confirmed persistent ...
Regular readers will be familiar with the ultimately unsuccessful campaign fought last year to save Leicester's Bowstring Bridge and the neighbouring Pump and Tap pub. Today's Leicester Mercury reports: Leicester City Council used controversial snooping laws to monitor the under-siege Bowstring Bridge site, the Mercury can reveal. The authority said it applied to use a swivel and zoom function on an on-site CCTV camera to gather evidence after a council officer raised concerns over demolition workers' safety. It was one of at least 22 covert investigations, or monitoring operations authorised by the authority in the past 12 months under the ...
Sometimes I think that some officials are told simply to waste taxpayers' money as uselessly and mindlessly as possible. Why do I think this? Because of information like THIS. £1,901 on Ministry of Justice-branded mouse mats... I bet they are highly sought after. And what about the £708 the Minister of Justice spent on MoJ-branded polo shirts in 2008? They must have gone down well because they spent £921 on even more MoJ polo shirts in 2009. My favourite? Probably the £409 spent on Ministry of Justice-branded Post-It Notes. Her Majesty's Court Service is a part of MoJ, and they ...
Not only does the new Angus Reid poll has us up a point to 22%, but Howard Dean has backed the Lib Dems, and Nick Clegg in particular, to win at the election. Governor Dean rails against the unfair voting system and recognises that it will limit what we can achieve, but his endorsement is still very welcome. He is someone, after all, who has see a lot of high quality politicians close at hand and met with all the parties when he was over in the UK last year. It's great that he has chosen to back Nick. (Oh, ...
I know the dangers about sounding off on the basis of newspaper stories. But as this one is reported with quotes by both the BBC and the Yorkshire Post, it is safe to assume there is something in it. It seems that a junior football club in Ripon has stopped boys having showers after a game because of child protection concerns. (If you can hear a strange rumbling noise, it is a thousand PE teachers turning in their graves.) The Yorkshire Post quotes the club's welfare officer as saying: "What we don't want is someone taking a picture as a ...
The Times today: "The Conservatives complained to the programme makers three times during Monday night's television debate between the candidates for Chancellor, accusing them of skewing coverage in favour of Vince Cable. At one point during the Channel 4 'Ask the Chancellors' programme senior Tories phoned the hotline to the production staff CLAIMING THAT THE LIBERAL DEMOCRAT TREASURY SPOKESMAN WAS RECEIVING TOO MUCH APPLAUSE." Here is the link to the On-Line edition: Thanks to Simon Shaw for the info
I posted here a few days ago about how I find it useful to glance through Hansard every now and then, and so it was today. I spotted, for example, that the Department for Communities and Local Government spent £964,064.86 on employing "press and media officers" - not things like their computers and desks and the lights in the offices in which they work, you understand, just the actual costs of paying them, paying for their pension contributions and all that jazz. Now, I am not a Luddite. I recognise that government departments need press offices, but nigh on £1m ...
Nick Clegg was in Cornwall today for three visits on the theme of industry. First up, he went to Hayle with Julia Goldsworthy to visit a precision engineering firm called Rigibore. This is a family business which specialises in extremely precise engineering - to tolerances of 3 microns (three one thousandths of a millimetre). The firm also employs people through the Unlocking Cornish Potential scheme which helps unemployed or under-employed graduates to find the right job and provides support to the firms that employ them. Nick and Julia were shown some of the work done by the firm and some ...
One of the key refrains the people of Wales hear from Plaid Cymru is that "the London parties" are out to get them and that only Plaid Cymru can truly represent the people of Wales in Parliament and stop Wales being exploited. This claim was most recently enunciated by Elfyn Llwyd, when he stated that ...
Today brought the acquittal, as expected, of the police officer Delroy Smellie who had been accused of slapping a protester in the face and hitting her with his baton at the recent G20 demonstrations in London. (Read the article HERE). The outcome was not surprising for various reasons – firstly, I know from experience that it ...
With a hung parliament looking a real possibility, Doctor Huw looks at the historical precedents: "In the event of a hung parliament, on all bar one occasion the incumbent party has attempted to hang on to power. On only two occasions ... has it been successful." Subrosa looks at the Vatican's flawed attempts to deal with the abuse of children by its clergy. It is nonsense to say "all women" share any quality or personality trait, argues Lee's Random Blog. Ashok Kumar, the Labour MP who died earlier this month, is remembered on ePolitix by Alex Bryce, who was his ...
Well, what do you know? I got a letter from George Osborne today wanting to know whom I'll be supporting at the next General Election. I wasn't going to vote Conservative in the first place, Georgie, but telling me in the letter that David Cameron has promised to make you Chancellor of the Exchequer if he wins has only put me off even more. Mine's a Lib Dem vote, George.
James Graham has been slaving away creating a VoteMatch device for the general election – similar to the one for the Euro elections. You answer "agree"/"disagree" for a list of very relevant and thought-provoking statements, then pick the parties you want to be compared with and: hey presto! VoteMatch tells you how you align with the parties. I was 91% Liberal Democrat, 60% Green and 56% Labour. Please visit the devilish device here and pass on the link!
... but they certainly can't take it, if we are to believe this report. I'm sure we can expect a lot more of the same over the coming weeks. Traditionally election time is the only time when the Liberal Democrats get a fair amount of media representation - and it's also often the time when they get a big boost in their poll ratings. Funny that. Having welcomed the (apparently amazingly successful) performance of George "Gideon" Osborne, who managed to get through an hour of television without wetting himself or falling over - although not without producing one of his ...
Juliet's story: I have been extremely grateful for the A and E department at the Whittington Hospital several times in the last few years, including one time when I had a very nasty foreign body in my eye (accident in Muswell Hill, on the 43 bus route), and another time when I tripped on a pavement on the Holloway Road and was in enormous pain after landing on on a hand and, as it turned out, cracking my wrist. The accident happened on the Holloway Road, and I was able to get there, by bus, really quite quickly. The hospital ...
More complaints about the Liberal Democrats and media bias - but this time it's the Conservatives worried that when Liberal Democrats get equal billing, people like what they see. From the Times: The Conservatives complained to the programme makers three times during Monday night's television debate between the candidates for Chancellor, accusing them of skewing coverage in favour of Vince Cable. At one point during the Channel 4 Ask the Chancellors programme senior Tories phoned the hotline to the production staff claiming that the Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman was receiving too much applause. Yesterday the Conservatives warned broadcasters not to ...
The rebranded Luton Arts Festival has published details of this year's programme and launched its website this week. The festival is organised by the University of Bedfordshire and is: "a celebration of all things artistic and cultural in Luton. It strives to bring together students, local community members and national and international artists and performers work and showcase it to the people of Luton." More details can be found at the Luton Arts Festival website.
There has been a lot of talk about what possibly impact of social media on the next election with the general british consensus being that it will have some effect but in general going door to door, the tv debates and other factors will be more important. And I have to say that I agree, at
I don't blame Amber... If my party's Shadow Chancellor had performed as poorly as George Osborne did in Monday's Channel 4 debate between the three would-be Chancellors, then I too would be tempted to write my weekly column about a trip on the East Hill Lift rather than the key economic choices that face the country. It's ...
Want to know what prospective parliamentary candidates think about how to reform our politics, or even if it should be reformed at all? If so then please take a look DEMREF 2010 (click HERE), which allows people to check what their local candidates think. If not all your local candidates are there then go HERE and the website people will do their best to lobby them into taking part. I wrote a piece for it (find it HERE) about why we should switch to a system of fixed-term parliaments. Please take a look, have a read & let us know what ...
We don't have a written constitution in Britain though there are some constitutional laws that are part of our written statute. We have an unwritten constitution much of which has been set by convention and previous actions. Interestingly, much of the constitution grew out of a period when the concept of a political party was a great deal more woolly than it is now. Parliamentary majorities in
Wondering why I haven't been blogging recently? I've been building this: You are reading this because your browser doesn't support Iframes. Try this link instead. After the nightmare that was Vote ...
Former US Presidential Candidate Howard Dean is saying that Nick Clegg could actually win the General Election and become Prime Minister. He's said Nick could be the big winner from Britain's first televised election debates, capitalising on disillusion with the two larger parties. After the success of the first debate between the various chancellors with the undecided and wavering voters from Vince Cable's performance is is possible. I know Nick will do well and won't be making any pig squels into microphone anytime in the next few weeks. If Gordon is terse and Dave lacks any substance, just like George ...
I was more than happy to have been invited to attend the Crown Lane Primary School Easter fair in West Norwood today. It's great to see a school that is so embedded in the community and to meet parents and teachers that are really working hard to try to ensure the children get the education they deserve. For more info on the lib dem policy on investment in better education see here.
Look, sometimes I need a tenuous link to tie together a few things I found interesting. So this is it. A column in the FT argues against either fiscal OR monetary support in Japan. A Japanese Austrian? Fiscal stimulus and monetary easing policies should not be used as they get in the way of real reform. ...
The general election will probably be held during the local elections on May 6th. If it is then many councillors and candidates in local elections will be very pleased as turnout will be up. Others wont because their parties or local MP performance may effect their position even if they have been a good councillor. I do however see some problems with this as local election votes will be distorted more so than a normal local election by national politics. Meanwhile other councils have local elections over the next few years in May (and during European elections in June 2014). ...
The rules governing corporate takeovers must change in the wake of Kraft's takeover of Cadbury to ensure that they serve the UK economy, Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg announced today. Launching 'Enterprise in a Fair Society', Nick Clegg set out details of the Liberal Democrats' manifesto pledges for business. The proposals include: · Restoring a public interest test for regulatory authorities to consider when takeovers are proposed and changing the rules on which shareholders can vote on takeover proposals · Ensuring affordable access to credit for businesses by creating new mechanisms to provide equity finance to smaller businesses · Incorporating ...
More complaints about the Liberal Democrats and media bias – but this time it's the Conservatives worried that when Liberal Democrats get equal billing, people like what they see. From the Times: The Conservatives complained to the programme makers three times during Monday night's television debate between the candidates for Chancellor, accusing them of skewing coverage in favour of Vince Cable. At one point during the Channel 4 Ask the Chancellors programme senior Tories phoned the hotline to the production staff claiming that the Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman was receiving too much applause. Yesterday the Conservatives warned broadcasters not to ...
Great conversations on the doors here for the last few days despite the freezing weather. All of a sudden Lab and Tories are getting tough on immigration. uum.
The joint policy platform unveiled by Plaid Cymru and the SNP is fantasy politics at its worst, an election stunt that underlines the desperation of the nationalist parties to make some sort of mark on the forthcoming General Election. Plaid Cymru and the SNP are irrelevant parties in this election. A handful of nationalists in a hung parliament situation can't bring about change that will really work for Wales. Plaid Cymru must explain how their promise of 'fair funding' will work in reality because if the current funding formula were changed, their Scottish counterparts could lose billions of pounds in ...
The government's Heathrow policy is in tatters after last week's High Court ruling that ministers' decision to give a green light to the proposed third runway does not hold any weight. The judge dismissed the Government's claims to the contrary as 'untenable in law and common sense'. If the government wants to pursue its plans for Heathrow expansion it must now go back to square one and reconsider the entire case for the runway. The implications of last Friday's ruling are profound, not just for Heathrow but for airport expansion plans across the UK. Lord Justice Carnwath ruled that the ...
The Labservative party launched their "unnecessary re-election campaign" yesterday. After 65 years of continuous government the Labservatives expect to be back in for another five years. You can visit the party's website here, www.labservative.com, and watch a video message from their leader, Gorvid Camerown, below: What is all this? Only the best campaign idea the Liberal Democrats have had since "a penny on income tax". Watch Nick Clegg explain.
Swansea and Llanelli have traditionally maintained a friendly rivalry that often manifests itself on the rugby field but is also evident elsewhere. Nevertheless, the good citizens of Swansea may well be bemused as they drive down Fabian Way towards the motorway to find that one group in Llanelli at least is seeking to annex the City's eastern suburbs. This poster advertising Plaid Cymru's Llanelli Team is situated next to the McDonalds on the approaches to Swansea. It urges residents to 'Think Llanelli Think Plaid', a noteworthy slogan if only it were not situated a good 20 miles and a 30 ...
I've been reading that the SNP and Plaid Cymru are saying they want fair funding. Ieuan Wyn Jones Plaid's leader has said of demands of the other parties in the event of a hung parliament: "We would demand fairer funding for Wales and Scotland to protect jobs, our schools, our hospitals and the most vulnerable in society. "At the heart of our platform there would also need to be a real commitment to grow our economies through fast transport links and additional support to create thousands of high-quality jobs in the green and creative industry sectors." So looking at the ...
Peter Hadfield, formerly of the New Scientist, has taken to YouTube to tackle climate change sceptics as he recently explained on the Guardian's Environment Blog: After questioning and listening to hundreds of climate change "sceptics," I have found that not all are conspiracy theorists or religious fundamentalists. Many are keen to learn about the science of climate change, but they have been learning about it from rather dubious sources. So two years ago I began a series of videos on YouTube to explain the science, and rebut urban myths that spin round the internet and end up on the opinion ...
Luton South will be a key seat in the general election if an analysis of the activity associated with it on Twitter is correct. The people behind the political 'tweet' aggregator Tweetminster are conducting an experiment to see whether "activity on Twitter correlates to electoral success". They explain their experiment like this; "Our inspiration for this experiment comes from last year's General Election in Japan, when a group of software engineers and PhD graduates from Tokyo University undertook a study analysing the correlation between 'online buzz' and election results. The aim of the study was to assess if word-of-mouth mentions ...
(My thoughts are in green.) Brown tells illegal migrants: "You are not welcome" Prime Minister Gordon Brown has stepped up his pre-election rhetoric on immigration by telling would-be illegal migrants: "You are not welcome." No shit Sherlock. (Of course he's addressing the electorate, not would-be illegal immigrants.) With Labour facing a challenge in some areas from the anti-immigration BNP, Mr Brown urged a "united front" among the main parties to combat "xenophobia". You expect me to unite around your nasty, populist, xenophobic rhetoric? Fuck off. Talking tough on immigration doesn't combat xenophobia, it creates it. It plays to the BNP's ...
Being a woman is an interesting thing. It's an accident of birth, a slip in a chromosome, from XX to XY, that makes a man a man and an absence of this move that makes a woman a woman. There certainly are some differences between the two genders. One has external sex organs, the other internal. Indeed, that is the very definition of what it is to be female or male. And that is about the only meaningful thing we can say about 'all men' or 'all women'. Why on earth then do we continue to bleat on and on ...
Alas, poor Guido Fawkes. Blogger Paul Staines has posted so often, and with such utter certainty, claiming that there's something dodgy about Sarah Teather's expense claims that he seems just a mite reluctant to admit, "I was wrong". Which is why you won't find him reporting today that Sarah Teather has been cleared by the Electoral Commission, instead insinuating that Sarah got off on a technicality. For the benefit, therefore, of Paul and his readers, here's what the Electoral Commission said following their review of the case: ... following the inquiries made during this stage, we have satisfied that there ...
The first beauty contest of the election season. To be fair I think Krishnan did well. All three level pegged in terms of good points. Hwever, with realism and down to earth wit Vince Cable flew the Lib Dem flag well. George Osborne repeated his main messages well and fair play he came off with less of a mauling than I thought he would. This was in part because Alastair Darling really wasnt on form at all. He was stumbling over his words and his responses at some points were vaccuous. As vaccuous as a Tory manifesto, no, but still ...
Oh Dear! It must be really galling to be called "vacuous" by an ex-Premier whose nickname was Bambi, led us into an illegal war, and some people want prosecuting for war crimes.
In our canvassing we have noticed a disturbing new trend. There are more and more people who have made a positive decision not to vote in the general election. Cynicism and apathy are understandable given the whole series of MP scandals recently. And being insulted and pre-judged by people you have never met comes with the territory when you are running for elected office. But if I was a wealthy crook or a corrupt charlatan, as I have been called, I wouldn't be spending hours of my own time out in cold evenings, knocking on doors or delivering leaflets. The ...
One of the arguments for STV is that it gives voters more choice than many of the alternative voting systems. They can even choose between candidates of the same party. Well, here's a case in point. The Australian state of Tasmania uses STV for electing its House of Assembly (equivalent to the House of Commons). The final count is now drawing to a close and in the seat of Lyons, a long-serving Labor MP, David Lllewellyn, has been unseated by Rebecca White, who also stood for Labor. It seems as if Ms White even campaigned against her fellow Labor candidates. ...
Blogging this for my convenience, but in case you find it useful too... U - post a tweet (update) R - reply to tweet / person you are viewing K - reply to all D - send direct message to author of tweet you are viewing (unlike R, this doesn't work when viewing a person) L- retweet F - follow the sender of tweet / person who you are viewing Z - email the tweet you are viewing V - favourite a tweet S - go to search screen A - go to accounts screen P - refresh T - ...
At last night's Full Council meeting the Tories finally acknowledged that our MPs had been right all along about the threat to Kingston Hospital. (See the Save Kingston Hospital campaign site for more information and to sign the petition) At the Council meeting the Conservatives decided to support the Liberal Democrat motion which called on NHS London to release in full the 'South West London Strategic Plan' and condemned any proposals to reduce services at the hospital. This was in marked contrast to all the accusations of 'scaremongering' and 'electioneering' that they have been shouting over the last couple of ...
The results are in from a survey carried out by Brunel University into how much campaigning the public has been on the receiving end of. The mediocre news as far as democracy is concerned is that 27% of the electorate say they were contacted by at least one of the three main political parties during February (by phone, letter, leaflet, email etc.). Coming just before a general election that 27% figure is not great, even if you factor in that some people do seem to forget they has been contacted and also that other parties have been campaigning too. It's ...
The campaign in Newcastle is going well and I have been lined up to do some deliveries later this week in Central. Talking of which, I mentioned a few days ago on my blog that there seems to be an interesting split developing in the Labour vote in parts of Newcastle Central. Westgate ward in particular was reporting that people were voting for Nick Forbes as the local councillor but not all the
For the last month the opinion polls have been suggesting a hung parliament is the most likely outcome of the forthcoming general election. This has spooked some of those "pin-striped Scargills", who would much rather their Tory friends were able to start slashing public spending without the restraining need to build consensus ahead of what will be inevitably painful cuts. It's an odd argument: in previous serious crises, whether war or depression, most people in Britan have recognised the need for petty tribal differences to be set to one side. After all, we are supposed to be all in this ...
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Find-Protect/
2 Stories What your web browser says about you I was hoping for a horoscope-style "IE6 users are traditional, steady and make long-lasting friendships" style piece to rubbish, but this is a more interesting review of the state of the browser market. The key to the future of browsers may not be on desktops at all, but on mobile devices. In the next five years, in the view of many experts, more people will be connecting to their internet via their smartphones and tablets than via their desktops or laptops. This will doubtless break Microsoft's stranglehold, but it's not necessarily ...
You really don't need any more words for that story do ...
Lib Dem MEP Chris Davies has spotted some rather odd entries in Nick Griffin's expense claims from the European Parliament. Nick Griffin had previously stalled on publishing his expenses but now he's given in to the pressure there are some distinct oddities: a) Nick Griffin claims to have donated £5,575.91 to a fund that has only declared income of £4560.65. b) Nick Griffin has previously said he employs three members of staff, one of whom is shared with another MEP. However the expense claims list eight people, give no names and only one of their job titles matches previous public ...
And you know the myth I mean. You know, there is loads of 'hidden unemployment' that reflects some sort of Labour fiddle, taking the gloss out of the frankly wonderful unemployment figures (certainly compared to the gleeful alarmism of the Conservative press last summer). Here is the TUC's graph-strewn reply. Eight million economically inactive people in 2010 ...
[IMG: Alexandra Road trees March 2010] You may recall our local campaign to highlight the loss of many trees in Redlands and beyond. My redoubtable colleague Glenn Goodall has been raising this issue with Reading Borough Council since he was first elected as a councillor back in 2008 - bringing a motion to Council on trees in Reading and most recently successfull campaigning with residents to get 8 trees replaced on Alexandra Road. The picture of me above was taken a couple of weeks ago on Alexandra Road with one happy resident. I attended a ward meeting a few weeks ago ...
ConservativeHome today argues that the Tory party needs to draw up a contingency plan for a hung parliament. The plans, it believes, should cover the constitutional implications, the approach to take with the Liberal Democrats and the smaller parties and a media strategy. One wonders if Labour and the Liberal Democrats are thinking the same thing. If all three parties end up with a working strategy it is bound to leak to the media and that will lead to even more speculation about what the parties will do, the accusation of secret deals and will distract from the general election ...
I just cannot believe the audacity of Livingston's Jim Devine, Scunthorpe's Elliot Morley and Bury North's David Chaytor. Not only are they still saying that their fraudulent accounting on their expenses is above the law of the land but on their salariesthey will be claiming legal aid to take the hearing through the magistrates court about why they shouldn't be tried in a court in what are expected to be the days before and of the General Election 4-6 May. The MPs' QC is apparently charging 150 hours at £250 an hour and £1000 a day for the days in ...
The Western Mail reports that we are going to have to wait another seven years before we can find out why Wales was left with a massively inferior form of devolution compared to Scotland. Personally, I am more interested in what pressure was applied on and by Ron Davies in terms of the contents of the Government of Wales Act 1998. However, much of this information is academic by now. Perhaps we should stop obsessing about it and get on with winning a referendum to start to put things right later this year.
Although I voted for John Pardoe in the leadership election of 1976, I've always had the deepest respect for David Steel, because he was responsible for introducing the Abortion Act, as a Private Member's Bill, in 1967. For that act alone he deserves ...
Over the last fews days I have been speaking to residents living close to the University of Cumbria. So many of them tell me that the parking situation is becoming progressively worse. With many students coming down from the Ambleside campus from next September I fail to see how this problem will get better without some determined action. I have openly told the residents I have been able to speak with about this issue that this will be my number one priority concern should I be elected on Thursday 1st April. For too long now I believe councillors have made ...
Because I was crazy busy on Monday, I spent Tuesday in catch up mode. One of these things included watching Monday's excellent "Ask The Chancellors" debate on Channel 4. I have a lot of time for Channel 4, in spite of their eternal quest for the yoof demographic that, by now, doesn't give a shit for ...
The Tories were pretty gung-ho on Twitter about the performance of their shadow Chancellor, George Osborne in the three-way debate on Monday. In truth, it was a triumph of expectation over reality. So little was expected of Osborne that as long as he avoided making any errors then he would be seen as a success. It was not so easy for Vince Cable, despite accusations that he is able to be more circumspect because he may never become Chancellor. In actual fact given the way the polls are going, it is very likely that Vince Cable will have some government ...
It's good to see the Open Election Data project starting to take off. The issue is very simple: lots of people make use, or would make use, of local election data but it's usually a real pig to get hold of details. At the moment, there are annual books – but they're on paper, expensive and take several months to appear. There are summaries from the likes of the BBC – an excellent public service, but the more local and detailed the data you need the more rapidly you find the limitations. There are also local council websites – but ...
Labservative - more of the same ...
I think it's really important for councillors keep a high profile within their community – it's the only way to really get to know what is going on. Yesterday I spent time with residents on Cork Road and the immediate connecting roads. Fortunately the weather was nice so allowing local residents a greater opportunity to discuss their community issues with me. One comment that kept reocurring with residents along Cork Road was the desperate need for some resurfacing on the road. There are about three or four patches of crumbling road that seem to have been patched up over the ...
The Energy Saving Trust has some useful advice for tenants who want to persuade their landlord to install energy saving measures in their home - see http://tinyurl.com/energysavingmeasures. The Dundee West Transition Town Group site is at http://transtowndundeewest.blogspot.com/.
The ancient Roman God Janus was the god of gates, doors, doorways, beginnings and endings. His most prominent remnant in modern culture is his namesake, the month of January, which begins the new year. He is most often depicted as having two faces or heads, facing in opposite directions. I suspect that Plaid Cymru Leader, Ieuan Wyn Jones must know how he felt. He has gone on record as supporting the proposed new Wylfa B nuclear power station on Anglesey. He is joined in that endeavour by local politicians of all parties. The difference though is that he leads a ...
My melancholia over, it's a beautiful day AND the day that Rene Descartes was born. Descartes was part of that glorious group of philosophers who re-vitalised European thinking in the 17th century, these included Spinoza, Leibniz, Hobbes, Hume, Locke, ...
Camden's Transition groups, Camden Friends of the Earth, Camden Greenpeace, the Camden Cycling Campaign and the Ask the Climate Question group of green NGOs are holding a joint Hampstead and Kilburn Resilience Hustings at St Stephen's Church on Rosslyn Hill next to the Royal Free Hospital on Wednesday 14th April starting at 7.30pm. It won't be the usual political argy-bargy where politicians fight to put each other down and avoid answering questions. Rather our guests - the five known candidates for the Hampstead and Kilburn parliamentary seat - will be Keynote Listeners for most of the evening. The aim is ...
This was filmed a year ago: In the film I mention a prequel which you can also still watch:
Adam Bienkov has the story: Yesterday was the start of the local elections campaign here in London and the fight is already getting dirty. One such scrap is taking place in ultra marginal Waltham Forest where the Lib Dems are furious at "Labour's lies" about police numbers. Labour leaflets claim that the Lib Dems "want to cut the number of police in Waltham Forest" whilst being "in cahoots with Tory mayor Boris plans to cut police numbers." The Lib Dems deny this, pointing to their fervent opposition to Boris's police cuts on the London Asssembly. The piece goes on to ...
Who would believe that on the last day of March I'd be waking up to a couple of inches of snow! The poor rabbits! They've been losing their thick Winter coats so we've had to give them lots of extra straw. Anyway, the blogosphere has been busy and here are some of its best bits: Oh good, the Liberal Democrats will not support the controversial and draconian Digital Econoomy Bill. Ultra loyal Labour MP Eric Joyce gets why there are problems and thinks it should fall and be brought back to next Parliament. But will he vote against it? Yousuf ...
A report on this morning's news about a UEA professor appearing before a House of Commons committee saw the chairman of the science committee called "Phil Willis MP (Lib Dem)" labelled on screen as "Phil Woolas MP (Labour)". The very fact that Mr Woolas is a government minister and is therefore not able to chair a commons committee would have sent any decent journalist scurrying for the keyboard to get this changed, but it does show the level of journalistic knowledge at BBC East. Remember, it was BBC East who invited the Green Party to the Norwich North debate but ...
Seeing this image of Tony Blair taken during yesterday's speech in Sedgefield reminds me of the fisherman's tale. It was this fair, but it got away. You know in 1997 I was somewhat excited, sure the Labour landslide meant they didn't have to rely on Lib Dems for support but there was a hope that things might get a little better, if not a Lib Dem better. I'd been a child of Thatcher I was 9 when she entered Downing Street I was 27 when the Conservatives finally left office. To be honest there was some great fair stuff in ...
This? This is an excellent face. Tagged: Ask The Chancellors, george oxsborne, Vince Cable
I note with disgust that the worst thing to happen to British politics in a generation reared its ugly head again today under the guise of helping his mate Gordon Brown in his reelection campaign. Tony Blair made an appearance in his former constituency of Sedgefield to talk to Labour Party members about the sterling ...
I found myself chortling somewhat this evening, when i should have been working on other stuff over the guff made my a Conservative MP who took it upon himself to refer to unelected Labour marksman Peter Mandelson as Mandelweasel. MP for the Isle of Wight, Andrew Turner admitted that the comment was something of a "bit ...
I wrote about French poets yesterday and today is the turn of the English with a few lines from Andrew Marvell's To His Coy Mistress which we used at our wedding. It includes the lines which for some reason reflects the rather melancholic and ...
The idea today was to spend the whole day in St Laurence, talking to residents. Sadly the weather got in the way in the morning. In the afternoon, we got through a lot of work, before a cloudburst ended the session. Some really good results though. One of the interesting points was seeing people absorb the results of the television debate. I found this quite encouraging. A the simpler point was that it was good to see some old friends again. A really good session - pity about the rain! In the evening I went to Leigh Folk Club, to ...
OK, so this has turned into more a review of the record label than of the music. Deal with it :-)I recently re-discovered Magnatune, the "we are not evil" record company. All their tracks are available online, and you can even download them for free, with a slightly annoying little speech at the end of each track saying where it came from - although Magnatune themselves say on their website that you can strip that off if you want. But for a trivial sum you can become a "download member", and so download as much music as you like, without ...
Thursday 18 March: On doorstep in Leigh all morning. Afternoon off! Friday 19 March: Mostly dealing with some urgent press enquiries. It would be good to have some paid staff sometimes! Saturday 20 March: visit the farmers' market in Leigh, then move on to a Leigh coffee morning. Members are very busy indeed! In the afternoon, out talking to supporters in West Leigh. Sunday 21 March: Out in Eastwood. Monday 22 March: morning, visit to a local school in Leigh. Afternoon, visiting some people who had been in touch with me from Belfairs ward. Tuesday 23 March: In the morning, ...
On the 18th June last year I wrote about the speed limit on Broadway in Morecambe. The local Liberal Democrats conducted a survey around this area and came to the result that the limit should be lowered from 40 to 30mph. We passed on this result and the reasons for it to the relevant authorities. We were also well aware that local residents did exactly the same thing. I noticed a sign on a lamppost yesterday on Broadway. It tells me that there are moves to change the speed limit and any messages of support or protest may be sent ...
The Liberal Democrat Leader, Nick Clegg, has called for a cross-party Council of Financial Stability to agree the timetable and scale of deficit reduction. He made the call at the London Stock Exchange on Tuesday 23rd March. Nick said that the sheer size of the UK budget deficit will require politicians to take a different approach to public spending to avoid social unrest. Nick criticised 'government-as-usual', which he said could not command the legitimacy to make many of the big decisions necessary in coming years. The scale of the changes required is so great that it will require a different ...
With excruciating timing, just as the bloated zombie of the "New" Labour Government is (hopefully) due at last to lumber into its grave, one of the main reasons to bury it at a crossroads with a stake through its heart returns from the dead. Long-term readers may remember that I was never fond of the pure poison to the body politic that was for too long Prime Minister, so Mr Blair's resurrection today in a body that (like Lord Voldemort's) is no longer quite human started me thinking of the terrible lessons to learn from the fable of New Labour... ...
