I know this is old news, but it magically appeared on the Market Harborough Lib Dems website all by itself. So I thought I would give it some gratuitous link love. I was there, you know.
The annual Kingsgate Park Easter Egg Hunt and Easter Bonnet Parade will take place on Easter Monday - 5 April - starting at 10.00 am. Come along to this ever-popular free family event.
I ususally try to take Easter off to enoy the long weekend and catch up with friends and family. But not this weekend as it the general election is so close by and I haven't had a chance to talk to enough residents. So a lot of canvassing preceded from leafletting. I was also really gratefull for all the people who came to help today who I hadn't seen on the campaign trail before. One person even came from Rochdale to help!
Is it any wonder that Council Tax rose again this year in Conservative controlled Woking Borough Council when the council paid such disgustingly high salaries to Ray Morgan and Douglas Spinks as this years, Town Hall Rich List showed us? Both Morgan and Spinks earned well over £100k a year. Ray Morgan earned £105, 058 in 2007/ ...
Today the Manchester Liberal Democrats released a manifesto of what a Lib Dem run Manchester City Council would do. Manchester Liberal Democrats are making 5 key promises for the 2010 local elections: 1) Cut Council Tax by £51 for a Band D property. 2) Cut waste, including ending the Council Leader's Chauffeur-driven car and claiming back £421,000 owed by other councils. 3) Lobby for the return of £82million GMP Funding, which would pay for over 500 more police on our streets. 4) Spend over £1million extra on gritting and improving our roads. 5) Reverse plans to close Ewing school; and ...
BBC Question Time appears in Woking next Thursday (as you may have noticed from the sticky post) and already the line up is shaping up to be one of fireworks and excitement. The list so far includes David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary; the former Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Sir Ming Campbell; and the historian Simon ...
A very thoughtful piece in this morning's Independent by Mary Dejevsky questioned whether we've lost the rhythm of the seasons in this country as a result of becoming such a determinedly secular society. Still in parts of mainland Europe and other countries shops would be closed, church bells would toll at 3pm, there'd be no newspapers - a fairly sombre quiet day, in preparation for the joy of
From Lord Avebury April 2, 2010 Dear Foreign Secretary, As vice-chair of the Chagos All-Party Parliamentary group, I write to express my shock and dismay over your decision to make the Chagos Archipelago a no-take marine conservation area, announced during the Easter recess and with only three sitting days left before Parliament is dissolved. You are well aware of the concern in both Houses of Parliament about the rights of the islanders, and the timing of your statement makes it impossible for the issue to be debated until after the new Parliament sits on or about May 19. Furthermore, while ...
The Orwell Prize just listed their list of 164 bloggers who were considered for the prize this year. I entered the fray on a whim to see what would happen. Unsurprisingly I wasnt selected (I dont think I am that good, yet!) but they did take the time to list all the bloggers who entered ...
Last week I attended the annual Fairfield's School concert. It was a great event featuring some incredible talents. Many of the performers dashed from the enthusiastic choir to perform on several instruments. Not only was there talent on show, but also courage. Standing up on a stage and performing for a hall packed full of parents and relatives didn't seem to effect the performers. The teachers who hosted and organised the event also deserve praise and thanks for organising a great show.
The BBC opened shiny new premises in Leicester a few years ago. As well as the studios of BBC Radio Leicester, it contained a cafe with free internet access and a second computer room where, though it was officially used for courses, you could normally find a spare machine too. These days it is rather a sad place. The cafe has closed and the second room always seems to be locked up too. One thing that has survived is the BBC shop and there, last weekend, I bought a reduced copy of The Jonathan Meades Collection. I have been watching ...
During yesterday I managed to speak to Universities UK, the UK Council for International Student Affairs and English UK about the way the Government held the 'consultation' on the changes to the Immigration Rules that affect students, on which I have a motion for debate next Tuesday. Had a good conversation with Maurice on Skype in the evening. This morning, had a visit from Juanda Djemal, Secretary-General of the Achehnese Civil Society Task Force. The resolution of Acheh's political status was a model which deserves far wider coverage than it gets, and the reconstruction programme after the tsunami is making ...
As we have now entered the run up to the council elections there are few major meetings left to report on. The purpose of this blog was to detail some of my work as your councillor, with a bit of information & opinion thrown in, so I feel it is appropriate to suspend postings until ...
Cyberspace seems to offer the nearest thing to the economic theorists' "perfect competition" that you could find. But in reality it has resulted in some thumping monopolies. How to do those monopolies use their power? Not always well, judging by this tale from Books, Mud and Compost: Obedience is what Amazon want. They do monitor sales and listings for transgressions: I was chastised several times for attempting to sell The Secret of Galleybird Pit by Malcolm Saville. Amazon maintained I was attempting to sell a proof copy as my listing contained the word "galley". In the end I gave up ...
Sky News has been reporting: Latest figures from the Government's Defence Analytical Services show that more than 34,000 full-time members of the Armed Forces are not registered to vote. That is 19% of the services, almost one in five of those in uniform – their votes that could be pivotal in a tight contest. The Electoral Commission has been running a campaign for months to try and persuade those in uniform to register. However, according to a survey, more than half the military has not seen a leaflet and only 5% have had a Powerpoint presentation on the subject... Non-registration ...
The BBC reports: The Labour Party secretary in Stoke-on-Trent has said he is going to stand as an independent candidate in the forthcoming general election. Gary Elsby said he would stand against his party in protest at the selection of television historian Tristram Hunt as the city's Labour candidate. Mr Elsby said it was also a protest that there were no local names on the party's nominations list. You can read the full story here. Meanwhile happier news from the Liberal Democrat camp, where I hear that efforts to stand a much larger number of local election candidates than we've ...
It certainly appears that the ACMD's terms of reference below have been overlooked in the hasty manner in which mephedrone's prohibition has come about. The terms of reference of the Advisory Council are set out in section 1 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971(the Act) and are as follows: It shall be the duty of the Advisory Council to keep under review the situation in the United Kingdom with respect to drugs which are being or appear to them likely to be misused and of which the misuse is having or appears to them capable of having harmful effects ...
Now before anyone starts saying that I am a believer in Oligarchy or that therefore the Lib Dem's don't believe in democracy what is about to follow aren't actually my views (though there may be some element of my actual opinion included) The idea of this post is to challenge elements of our beliefs and maybe learn ...
A very busy day with the 'day job' that unfortunately meant I missed today's Dundee West Transition Town Group meeting, but good to see the good write-up about the group's momentum in tonight's Evening Telegraph. Later today, I joined John Barnett and team, campaigning in the West End. Here's John and me, pictured in Logie Avenue late this afternoon.
The first Panda crossing opened outside Waterloo station on 2 April 1962. And it had everything: Painted black and white triangles on the road, like a backgammon board; red and amber signals on a Belisha beacon-style pole; steady pulsating lights; other lights that flashed with increasing speed; the words "cross" and "stop" rather than the now-familiar read and green men. Pedestrians were mesmerised. From the BBC: 1962: New pedestrian crossings cause chaos A new style of pedestrian crossing has caused confusion among both drivers and pedestrians following its launch in London. The first Panda crossing was officially opened today in ...
Residents of Tintagel Close are well aware of the double yellow lines at the entrance and no doubt appreciate them. However they are lost to understand the logic of extending the yellow lines into the parking bay on King Arthur's Way - see picture below. [IMG: Parking on King Arthurs Way] I have raised this with Highways officers who tell me the lines should only extend 10 metres from the junction and not into the parking bay. if you've see someone out there with a tape measure you now know why. I hope they will soon sort this out - ...
http://twitpic.com/1be1xw – Celebrating the clocks going fwd by gigging the night away. Rock 'n roll. # Short 'n' simple >> 'Why did they unsubscribe from your email newsletter?' survey via @sernowitz http://bit.ly/93z2Ol # PCC in abiding by own rules shock >> @markpack highlights criticism of Rod Liddle's failure to check simple facts http://bit.ly/d1GIFh # ROFLMAO >> Osborne 7 out of 10, Darling 6 out of 10, Cable 5 out of 10 http://is.gd/b5C8F #askthechancellors << Nice try @TimMontgomerie # Says it all > RT @daisymcandrew Audience pretty much unanimous cable won, hacks too privately, but many sticking to party lines in ...
If you are looking for ideas on what to do over the Easter holidays, then you may be interested to know that Blakesley Hall, Aston Hall, Sarehole Mill and Soho House have all re-opened after the winter months.There are programmes of events over the Easter holidays for families and most of them are free. Activities include Easter trails, egg hunts and craft activities.Opening times are 12noon-
Dave's story: The nearest other A&E is the Royal Free, which is miles away & very difficult to get to, especially for older people (my wife & I are over 60 and my neighbour 89), even by ambulance (rarely available) or car, due to multitude of intervening "sleeping policemen". Direct public transport is non-existent. 1. About 10 years ago, my wife badly lacerated her arms when a glass door shattered. As waiting an unspecified time for an ambulance was not an option, I drove her to Whittington A&E (took 10-15mins). They were excellent, prioritising her treatment & even the security ...
Iain Dale has written a blog about his tips for Parliamentary candidates based on his experiences from last time round. I thought I'd write something similar for council candidates but from the point of view of someone who works as an agent to get them elected! Always be good to your volunteers. They are the lifeblood of your campaign and part of your job as candidate is to keep them happy.Try not to do all the work yourself. As a candidate the most useful thing you can do is get out on the doorstep and speak to voters. Delivery can ...
Here then are the scores on the doors for 2010 so far, listing the number of reports I've made: 85 graffiti 14 dumped rubbish from the corporate sector 56 dumped rubbish from private individuals 2 road name sign issues 4 utility cabinets issues 8 street lights not working 16 pot holes 19 other issues ... for a grand total of 204 reports so far this year, a rate which if kept up through the year would produce a total of 816 by 31 December. That full year projection keeps on falling due to the huge number (even by my standards) ...
The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) was today struck by another resignation, following on from the high profile resignation of Professor David Nutt and the subsequent seven resignation of other members of the ACMD, all of whom have had issues with how the Labour Government have used the scientific evidence provided to ...
Another member has quit the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. Eric Carlin announced his resignation earlier today. Having read his resignation letter, I am struck by how much sense he makes and how closely his views accord with my own. It is clear that he thinks criminalising people (predominantly young people) for using drugs is very damaging and distracting from what the real focus should be - harm reduction. Given all the other resignations (7 so far) on a similar basis from the body since the enforced resignation of its former Chair Professor David Nutt last year it ...
I have just finished a delivery round in Newcastle and I'm waiting for the rest of my team to switch on their phones so I can tell them I'm finished. However, putting aside the irritating problem of people not switching on their phones, I can report further on the interesting development in Westgate ward of Newcastle. I mentioned in passing recently that Labour voters are developing an increasing
Earlier this year Professor Tim Briggs, medical director of the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital at Stanmore, threatened to challenge local MP Tony McNulty and stand as an independent candidate for Harrow East. Professor Briggs was angry that after a 15 year campaign for funding to rebuild the hospital and a decision to fund essential repairs two years ago, the hospital remains in a state of disrepair, with rainwater seeping through ceilings and a maintenance backlog estimated at £54 million. The situation had worsened further, when a row between the hospital and NHS London intensified, leading to fears that the hospital ...
Fri 2nd
18:00
Spotify Playlist For 02/04/10 - Ella Fitzgerald, High Llamas, Imagined Village, Pearlfishers
I've got a LOT of posts I want to make over this four-day weekend – reviews of The People's Manifesto by Mark Thomas, This Town Will Never Let Us Go by Lawrence Miles, and I, Claudius and Claudius The God by Robert Graves, a post about Batman comics, a review of the new MoffWho, my ...
Today our parliamentary candidate, Nader Fekri, has posted a link to an opinion poll in the Guardian showing the Lib Dems are only 6 points behind Labour. (Click on link to right of my blog to see Nader's blog.) As I said before, I am wondering whether Labour will support the Lib Dems or the Conservatives if there is a hung parliament. Maybe they'll follow the lead of Bradford Council's Labour Group and refuse to take any responsibility. We've had a minority Conservative Group in charge for several years for the simple reason that Labour has had the most seats, ...
This article by the Roman archbishop of New York makes one thing very clear: You're familiar with the crescendo of recent stories on the sad and disturbing case of a German priest accused in 1979 of the vicious crime and sin of sexually abusing minor boys. When these hideous allegations came to the attention of this priest's archbishop, a man by the name of Joseph Ratzinger - who now happens to be the bishop of Rome, Pope Benedict XVI - he rightly removed the priest and ordered him to report for residential assessment and therapy. Mr. Ratzinger knew that someone ...
It's Friday. It's five o'clock. Here's a fistful of lists that sum up the LDV week: 5 most-read stories on LDV this week 1. Ask the Chancellors: live blog (21) by Mark Pack 2. What does Zac make of the Tories' latest nuclear policy? (5) by Stephen Tall 3. Your handy guide to how to be a journalist (9) by Mark Pack 4. Sarah Teather cleared, mystery of forged letters remains (15) by Mark Pack 5. Labservative.com: reaction so far (19) by Mark Pack 5 active LDV Members' Forum threads Eve of poll/good morning Freepost templates Facebook advertising Writing literature? ...
Labour Party members in Stoke are apparently a bit miffed at the lack of a local candidate on the shortlist for their candidate selection, reported by the BBC here. I noticed the story because Oxford Labour Councillor Saj Malik (who defected from the Lib Dems) was one of the unlucky candidates. I always wondered whether Saj's defection was as much down to his parliamentary ambitions as his principles. If it was, he won't be chuffed at this result. But the most startling thing about the reported result is that, in total, only 63 people appear to have voted at all. ...
Unite managed to mess up the simple process of issuing one ballot to each of their members in their strike ballot before Christmas. Now the rail unions have failed in this when organising a rail strike ballot. Next up for the unions is an attempt to organise a drinking session in a brewery.
March may have 31 days, but it saw an extraordinary 39 polls conducted. So frenetic has been the activity, we at Lib Dem Voice even published a mid-month report to keep track of their findings. And despite all the hyped-up headlines – both in print and online – of minor fluctuations signifying some grand new trend which will transform the electoral arithmetic, the reality is that remarkably little changed in March. As you can see from the full list of polls conducted in March, in chronological order of publication: Tories 39.0, Labour 29.0, Lib Dem 15.0 (Opinium) Tories 38.0, Labour ...
It seems that I may have been unfair on Evan Harris and perhaps less so on Chris Huhne about the inferences in their questions to the government on Tuesday in the House of Commons about the prohibition of Mephedrone and similar substances. That Evan in particular may have been playing a more sophisticated game than I gave him credit for by trying to trip the government up over whether they accept the scientific advice of the advisors they have appointed. Such scientific advice may, of course, be meant to include the advice from David Nutt last year that the classification ...
There is something to be said about the Labour parties drug policies it sure can empty a room. Eric Carlin is the latest member of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs to resign over the Government either not waiting or overlooking scientific evidence on which to base its judgement. In his resignation letter he says: "Our decision [on Mephedrone] was unduly based on media and political pressure. The report was tabled to the whole council for the first time on Monday; the chair came to brief you before the whole council had even discussed all of the report. ...
From the Romford Recorder: A councillor has vowed to stand independently at the next election after walking away from the British National Party for being "a bunch of racists". Cllr Mark Logan, who has represented Gooshays ward since winning a by-election in March 2008, said he would be "severing all links with the party and the political group of misfits" because he didn't agree with "the calibre of some people" being put forward as candidates for the forthcoming election. He said: "There's been some really nasty rhetoric directed at coloured people." While it's obvious to most people that the British ...
GREEDY developers tried to get their money-making plans rubber-stamped last week. Local Lib Dems were there to stop them. At a planning inquiry into plans to build a large student block right next to St George's Gardens in Bloomsbury last week, people hired by the developers told a Government inspector to wave through their plans. ...
Labour and Conservatives, Conservatives and Labour: same difference, as the Lib Dems' rather fabulous Labservative website points out. Here are just three examples from the past 12 months of ways in which the Labservatives have blocked Lib Dem attempts to reform our broken political system ... The public's right to sack MPs The Liberal Democrats tabled an amendment in June 2009 to place a responsibility on the Secretary of State to review and report on procedures for constituencies to recall their MPs if they have been found guilty of misconduct. Labour voted against these measures and the Tories refused to ...
While not usually keen on directing you to Labour Councillors' blogs, if you haven't yet caught up with Ian Hazeldine's masterpiece of homespun philosphy, I urge you to read this post on potholes. From the first sentence to the last, it is truely a masterpiece of the genre. Ian shows a healthy willingness to point up the absurdities of local and national government administration. Read and enjoy.
I was definitely the junior participant in this discussion of the role of ideology in politics, hosted by Anne McElvoy on the Nightwaves programme on Radio 3. You can listen to it for the next few weeks here. It starts at 22 minutes or so. I probably speak the least. Quite right too ...
I have never been quite sure how or why Baroness Warnock came to be regarded by government as the nation's premier philosopher, but Ethical Post (or is it called Kingdom?) pays respectful attention to her ideas for reforming education. And they sound the sort of thing I would agree with too. Iain Dale's Diary offers 20 pieces of advice to election candidates. I am not sure I agree with the oft-repeated one about not canvassing on Sundays - in my councillor days I found that people had time to chat then - but it is all useful stuff whichever party ...
Great story in today's Guardian. Both Labour and the Tories are down two points on the last Guardian ...
Kathleen Ferrier sings "Erbarme Dich" from Bach's Matthew Passion.
Manchester Liberal Democrats have today launched our manifesto aimed at ending the wasteful tactics of Manchester Labour and standing up for local people during this recession. Our key pledges are: 1) Cut Council Tax by £51 for a Band D property. 2) Cut waste, including ending the Council Leader's Chauffeur-driven car, and claiming back £421,000 owed by other councils. 3) Lobby for the return of £82million GMP Funding, which would pay for over 500 more police on our streets. 4) Spend over £1million extra on gritting and improving our roads. 5) Reverse the plans to close Ewing school; and cut ...
With politics going to sleep for the Easter weekend, in advance of the inevitable election announcement next Tuesday, it's time for me to launch into an ill-informed, out of date, rant on SCIENCE. I love science. If I was a little cleverer, it would have been my true calling in life. I had the joy of ...
Baroness Warnock has published some interesting reform ideas for education in Questa, a philosophy of education magazine. She makes some slightly controversial proposals for education reform in a time of austerity. Her three proposals for change are: The abolition of targets, league tables and the National Curriculum with local authorities instead setting their own education policies, especially with regards to the provision of special needs education. A tripartite education system at 13+. The end of national examinations. Instead these should replaced with Music Grades style examinations (where appropriate) or be internally-assessed. Warnock is hopeful that with the diminishing amounts of ...
2010 marks the fourth year of Jo Swinson's annual Easter Egg excess packaging report. (You can read LDV's 2009 posting here). This year's headline conclusion? "Some Easter egg manufacturers have drastically cut their excess packaging, while others are lagging far behind." Jo explains her campaign further on her website: Consumers are tired of excess packaging – they are tired of paying for it and tired of having to dispose of it. Easter eggs are a prime example – in many cases, the huge boxes contain more air than chocolate. "Last year we saw Easter egg packaging reduced by a third, ...
I always feel very melancholy on Good Friday. Not sure if I'll get to church tomorrow (foot still a bit "off") but Karl and Sue brought me Holy Communion last week, which was ...
The Passion at St Cuthbert's today. Peace be with you
Commenting on the news that Lord Sugar is heading up a new task force to help small firms turned down for loans, Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor, Vince Cable said: "With this appointment, the Government is showing the same contempt for small business people as Lord Sugar shows them when they complain about the banks. "Instead of this silly stunt, the Government should be making the banks lend business what they promised to last year. "They must take a firm hand with the banks which we own to ensure that they are lending to British businesses and supporting our economy. "Unless ...
From today until 12th April I am off, skiing tenatively down some Alps, while some longsuffering soul takes our kids on the same mountains. Being the sort who thinks a bookfree holiday a contradiction in terms, I need to take one from The Pile. Here it is. What would you choose? Because only light things fit ...
Cornwall Council has announced a special project for the Truro-Falmouth bus route which will see residents along the route given 5 free bus tickets to try to persuade them to use the bus instead of their cars on the route. The aim is an admirable one - to encourage people to use public transport more. But once again the Council seems to be ignoring the problems faced by residents in the East of Cornwall who often don't have the option of taking the bus at all. Take Launceston for example. There are fairly good services around the town and to ...
Reading List have asked me to add this new feature Newsweek. Taken from Reading List: Newsweek is a catalogue of political stories culled from other local sources. It's always worth collecting together a selection of individual news stories to compare and contrast what's being said by people on different sides,. Here is a selection of issues making headlines during the past week: Top hospitals 'censured in tough new inspection regime' - Heatherwood and Wrexham Park Hospitals 'This is where our fight-back begins' - Labour win in Old Bracknell New-look Look In is set to re-open Broadmoor 'doctor sacked unfairly' Cash ...
I am of course far too young to understand what this is satirising:
With the prorogation of Parliament next week almost inevitable it is looking increasingly likely that the Welsh Assembly's bid for law-making powers over affordable housing will bite the dust for the second time of asking. As the Western Mail points out that is because Labour and the Conservatives are engaged in a game of parliamentary chicken over the fate of the Housing Legislative Competence Order, which has been working its way through Parliament for nearly two years. The LCO will become part of the parliamentary "wash-up" process, where the Government and opposition decide which pieces of legislation can be nodded ...
Last month the Howard League for Penal Reform launched its Take Action 2010 campaign, with the general election in its sights. The campaign reflects a growing consensus among experts and campaign groups that penal policy has reached a crisis point. The Howard League's campaign covers four policy areas - investment in the community not prison, ending short prison terms, justice for children, and creating a scheme of real work inside existing prisons. All four of these themes echo Liberal Democrat thinking and I very much welcome the campaign. Billions of pounds are spent on maintaining our prisons and building thousands ...
It's an exciting day for sci-fi; you know'll that Doctor Who returns tomorrow evening, and that tonight the final series of Ashes To Ashes begins. But there are also several other goodies on today which have had less of an advertising blitz. The three closest to my heart are on Radio 4 at 11 this morning - The Doctor and Douglas, celebrating Douglas Adams' work on Doctor Who - and then competing for your attention at 1.30am on BBC2 and ITV1, the movies The Quatermass Experiment (five years to the day since BBC4's later remake) and the fabulous Flash Gordon. ...
There is a fascinating feature in today's Western Mail in which the history of Cardiff 'Bay' is explored together with a look at its success since the Development Corporation was wound up ten years ago. The authors identify several several landmark developments including the Mermaid Quay restaurant quarter, St David's Hotel, which was the first five-star hotel in Wales, the A4232 Butetown Link Road, the £106m Wales Millennium Centre, the adjacent Roald Dahl Plass and the completion of the Senedd on the waterfront which they say have reinforced the area's role as a pivotal place in the capital. They also ...
Three cheers for that wonderfully pink, sweetly delicious, fragrantly sublime produce grown up and down the 'West Yorkshire Triangle' of Leeds, Bradford, and Wakefield. I refer of course to rhubarb. Earlier tonight I made a lovely rhubarb and ...
This morning's Western Mail has picked up on the split at the very top of Plaid Cymru where its Leader is saying one thing on nuclear power whereas party policy (and the chair of their national executive) are saying the opposite. On his blog, Plaid national chair John Dixon wrote: "There's no surprise in the announcement that Horizon are keen to build a new nuclear station on Ynys Môn. The final decision will, of course, be outside the control of the Welsh Government or the National Assembly, and will be taken primarily on the basis of the energy needs of ...
We had our formal process of 'adoption' this week - when LibDems gather to nominate and second the proposals for Parliamentary Candidates for both Hornsey & Wood Green and Tottenham. Sarah Ludford, MEP and Brian Paddick (ex Deputy Commissioner in the Met and our London Mayoral candidate last time out) came and said wonderful things about me (modesty prevents me repeating them here) and about David Schmitz - our candidate in Tottenham. It was good fun - and David made the wittiest and funniest speech I heard in a long time. Sarah and Brian were obviously very complementary - and ...
Well, on the positive side, readership is up this month, with the number of visits up to 2,602 in March, compared to 2,268 in February (up 14.7%, or 3.6% adjusting for the uneven number of days), and 2,466 in March 2009 (up 5.5%). Unfortuately, income from advertising is down, as I earned just a penny last month, down from £1.20 last month, but not too far out of line with last year's 6p. As a result, my first cheque from AdSense is now expected to arrive in April 2015...
The last ever can of beer left the Berkshire Brewery a few hours ago. You can see it leave below. It's a very sad day indeed, made slightly less so by considering the precise nature of some of what was brewed there towards the end. Reading was famous for the "three Bs" – biscuits, bulbs and beer (from Huntley and Palmers, Sutton Seeds and Simonds/Courage respectively). The first two left the town years ago, and now the final one leaves after 225 years of brewing. I worked at the Courage brewery when it was opened at Worton Grange in the ...
Having woken early, I decided to tackle the manifesto mail mountain piling up on the kitchen table. Fellow candidates will know what I mean. Every day the post brings more heavy envelopes, each with its manifesto and covering letter. From Alzheimers to zoo welfare, via rail, small businesses and woodlands, hardly any topic is unaddressed. ...
Frank Field takes the honours with this description of Tony Blair: "Blair reminds me of a water spider. It skims across the water, but once it's gone, you can't tell that it was ever there," the Labour MP says ruefully. "Whenever I met him, I always came away beguiled and convinced that he would do things differently this time. He was brilliant at winning elections, but then did nothing with it. I don't think he had much idea of how to win the machine." He goes on to make equally telling remarks about the Prime Minister: "I've always felt sorry ...
This gentle little ditty says it all.
Changes in position and score are since March's figures, and the same caveats apply as before to these numbers from TweetLevel (i.e. Twitter isn't the only thing in the world, and this isn't the only way of measuring people's influence on / use of Twitter). New this month to Twitter are Evan Harris, Nick Harvey and Charles Kennedy, bringing the total number of tweeting Liberal Democrat MPs up to 30. UPDATE: Mark Williams has also joined Twitter recently. Apologies for missing you first time round Mark. New entrant Evan is straight in at the top of the list. That's no ...
I have to remind myself sometimes that the very thought of me campaigning would, in the past, have been somewhat unlikely. Whilst this is my sixth General Election as a member of the Liberal Democrats, I was somewhat semi-detached in 1992 and 2001, and can hardly claim to have been hugely active in 1987, 1997 or even 2005, when despite being the agent and Local Party Chair, I dealt with the bureaucracy rather than being an active campaigner for our candidate, Jonathan Mitchell. Indeed, I spent the morning of polling day at work, as it didn't seem worth taking the ...
I'm rather puzzled by the story that your paper has run questioning the use of weighting in YouGov's polls Indeed, the piece takes such a suspicious attitude towards weighting that it puts the word in inverted commas and talks about YouGov having "admitted" that it uses weightings. My puzzlement is quite simple. Every single political opinion poll published by The Telegraph during your time as editor has also involved weighting. If it's such a questionable act, why hasn't your newspaper shopped itself first? And will you be abandoning your own practice of publishing weighted figures? Yours, Mark Note: I ...
[IMG: Me with survey responses on Granville Road] Great news – a long running campaign by local residents and councillors for a review of the Finsbury Park Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ) is finally being acted on by the Council, who have at last agreed to put this in their 2010/11 work plan. The review would include a parking consultation with residents who live outside the CPZ who are badly affected by displacement parking, as well as residents inside the Zone. Last year we did a survey of residents in streets outside the Zone which got over 300 responses, and presented ...
£104 to read the Times online - how will the blogosphere react? - http://bit.ly/b3rFav # @carlminns Congrats on the council win in reply to carlminns # @tom_watson What's your view on what will happen in wash up on the bill? in reply to tom_watson # @allanmknox Thanks! in reply to allanmknox # @Jackyboy86 Thanks! in reply to Jackyboy86 # @Tory_Politico No, but then only Heseltine really was been a Tory Deputy PM (I think Wikipedia article defines the term much too loosely) in reply to Tory_Politico # @LSEelectionblog Any chance of you adding www.ElectionLawChannel.com to your list of links? # ...
Twelve years ago good Friday was actually the 10th of April but in the wee, small hours an agreement was met and signed in Belfast. Outside on the hill leading up to Stormont one voice objected loudly that of the Rev Ian Kyle Paisley. With the Reverend Ian about to step down from Westminster it is fitting to look at the path he has taken from that Good Friday to this. In the talks before reaching that agreement Paisley said: "I will never sit down with Gerry Adams . . . he'd sit with anyone. He'd sit down with the ...
2 General Election/statistics-themed stories Holding general election on May 6th would save £7m says Government Which is nothing compared to, say, scrapping the Child Trust Fund – but Gordon Brown's timing of the election has only ever been about saving political skins, not money. Figures disclosed in a Parliamentary written answer show that it will cost £82.1m to stage the election on the most likely date, five weeks today. But if the country went to the polls on any other day, it is estimated that the cost would rise by more than £7m to reach £89.6m. The 2005 general election, ...
Decades ago, when I was at Whickham Comp 6th form taking my A levels, and when I was first studying history at Newcastle University, I used to watch a sci-fi series called "V". I loved it. Couldn't get enough of it! And tonight I discovered on YouTube that there has been a remake. It's on the Sci-Fi channel starting on 13th April. Back in the days when I was of a younger disposition, my studies
Yes, the green light has come on, and the Presidential election tour is underway, with a fairly 'gentle' opener. Ros began her election with a journey from St Pancras to Sheffield, where she visited the Kroto Innovation Centre with Paul Scriven to promote the recently published Liberal Democrat 'Plan for Business', before meeting with local activists in the key target seat of Sheffield Central. Her next stop was Ashfield, where Geoff Hoon has done so much for the anti-Labour cause, and where Jason Zadrozny carries our hopes. Ros met with local activists, before they went canvassing. The final stop of ...
In the morning I went out with the local team of volunteers who clean up along the Prittle Brook. Mike Grimwade, Chair of the local party and Liberal Democrat councillor for Prittlewell, and Bob Archell, Liberal Democrat candidate in Belfairs Ward also took part. It was quite incredible how much litter needed to be cleared. After lunch, I went out to visit a local school. Very interesting visit. Lots of correspondence to deal with too.
Following on from yesterday's blog, I thought it was fairly clear that we had to raise the overall level of taxation. You can do this and not hurt the poor if you shift the burden of taxation. So if the level of tax falls in percentage terms then it might help the poor by a few pounds and it might make the rich hundreds of pounds better off. It doesn't really matter if you call this tax national insurance contributions or simply income tax. The effect is the same for the employee. There is a further tax on the company ...
