Tonight:Make sticky post for blogFind large bag of cash lying around. Or even a small bag of cash. But one which has enough in to pay the rent (overdue) and the council tax (due next week) would be nice.Friday:LaundryClean kitchenWater gardenTake things to the tipF-list cull on twitter and facebookWork 4 - midnightSaturday:More laundryClean living room (and probably take more things to the tip)Listen to the News Quiz and Any Questionshave bathwork 4 - midnightSunday:work 12 - possibly 6.30, possibly 8, depending on whether the train tickets which Duracell Bunny has kindly bought for me get hereGo to Luton by ...
Spiderplant notes with interest that some of our esteemed elected MPs are already sputting their dummies out over the changes to the expenses system. I suggest they try even harder to realise that there is another 'real' world outside of hallowed walls of Westminster. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8696021.stm Filed under: General, General Rantings, Politics, Spiderplant Says, UK Current ...
Next Tuesday, the Launceston Forum are running a big consultation event in the town square on the future for the town. This event forms part of the refresh of the Launceston 2020 plan which they produced some time ago. The update has been commissioned in part by the new Launceston Community Network Panel which is identifying the priorities for our area (not just the town, but the surrounding 16 parishes as well) to shape our work in the coming years as well as to form part of Cornwall Council's local development framework. Already, the Forum has received the views of ...
You may recall that Focsa the firm which collects the waste for Harborough District Council, has been operating a depot in Great Bowden without planning permission. Today the Harborough Mail website has the news that the firm's retrospective planning application has been turned down by Leicestershire County Council. The newspaper suggests that the firm may now look at a new site on the A6 near Kibworth. Meanwhile, there are still serious questions about the Harborough District Council's handling of waste collection in the district to be answered.
Tonight I had another of those new political moments that I have been experiencing in droves in the last few months thanks to an unexpected invitation to the Mayor making ceremony in Woking. I have decided that I quite enjoy sitting in the council chamber watching all the events unfolding below and thought tonight was ...
The Council's AGM will be held at 4pm on Tuesday 25 May 2010 and the agenda is available online (pdf, 26KB).Technically there will be two Council meetings on Tuesday - the first one being a short special meeting to create two Honorary Aldermen, including Lib Dem Jim Whorwood, a former Lord Mayor, who stood down from the Council this year. Jim's career is reviewed in today's Birmingham Mail.The
I was one of the speakers on the panel at Being-Social 2010's event on Politics & Social Media – alongside Tweetminster's Andrew Walker, Tom Watson MP, LabourList's Alex Smith, and Total Politics' Shane Greer, with Gabrielle Laine-Peters moderating. You can watch all 70 minutes of our discussions here: Politics & Social Media – mashup*'s Being-Social 13th May, 2010 from Simon Grice on Vimeo. (Also available on sociable* (beta) here).
The Electoral Commission has produced an initial report into what went wrong with voting procedures on May 6th. They have found that 'at least' 1200 people were denied the right to vote despite being in a queue at a polling station at 10pm. They have also found that returning officers had not taken sufficient account of the likely time voters would take to cast their ballots - particularly in areas which also had council elections, had put too many electors into some polling stations and had cut back on staff and ballot papers in some cases. The Commission is quite ...
This evening I attended the Adult Learners Awards which were handed out at County Hall. The Adult Education Service is one which Cornwall is rightly proud of. More and more, it is delivering a range of qualification based study as well as more traditional recreation based courses. That's not in itself a bad thing, of course. But the pressures from the Learning and Skills Council - which provides a lot of the funding for the service - are getting greater and greater. A recent budget cut from the LSC will have a significant effect and the Board of Governors, on ...
My principle focus this week was chairing the Health Social Care and Housing Committee at the Council. We had a very meaty agenda of policy reports, updates and motions. Topics varied from what we are doing with the record investment in Affordable Housing to the Homes are upgrading with new windows, kitchens and windows. Another positive development was that we have finally met our targets for moving homeless people on from bed and breakfasts for the first time. We have a chronic shortage of Affordable Housing and a requirement to house more than 5000 people a year so we rely ...
Probably if you come from that majority whom connect or feel they belong to either Labour or Conservative clans. Still for that not inconsiderable minority of Liberal Democratic sympathisers a quick scan through the Government's plans, gives some hope that Cameron and Clegg might be the real deal and have come up with a new kind of politics. Anyhow if you feel the need to scrutinise the Governments Plans do click here, I'd waffle on a bit more, however rather than have Murdoch, and all those media muppets interpret the programme for government I might wade through the document myself ...
Apologies for not starting on the Batman etc posts just yet – I forgot about commitments that will stop me writing a long blog post til the weekend. Normal daily bloggery will restart then. In the meantime, links: Richard Cooper looks at The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The NIght-Time from the perspective of ...
Spotted this whilst waiting for the First Minister at the official handover ceromony.
After what has been the best fortnight on this blog ever for comments and unique visitors, I know I ought to follow this up with daily postings and lots more news. The problem, is, I don't really know where to take this blog at the moment. So whilst I don't intend to totally stop blogging, until I have something really important to say or at least have some issues I can get my teeth in to, expect blogging to be patchy, at best.
Outside Inside The View from Inside
It's #bbcqt day again and the Live Chat starts on this blog from 10:30pm as normal. Once again Matt Raven has saved my bacon as I can't be around for the start of the chat tonight and he will be hosting. I will however try and join in later on. The panel includes the new Home Secretary Theresa May, Labour's Caroline Flint and Ming Campbell for the Liberal Democrats. David Dimbleby will also be joined by the Director of Liberty Shami Chakrabarti and the journalist and writer Douglas Murray. Join us below from 10:30pm: <a Question Time - 20th ...
On 10 May I blogged: Poor Gary McKinnon provides an important test. The Tories and Lib Dems have said they would halt his extradition under Blair's vassal state one way extradition treaty with the USA. New Labour apparently remain determined to extradite him - and that means Miliband and Johnson in particular. That should be food for thought for anyone considering New Labour leaders touted as more acceptable to the Lib Dems, I am delighted today that Teresa May has called in the McKinnon case for consideration - something New Labour refused to do. It does appear that Conservatives ...
In both tonight's Evening Telegraph and on STV News at 6pm, I made clear my concerns at the failure of Public Health Minister Shona Robison MSP to intervene regarding the future of Ward 6 at Royal Victoria Hospital. It is important that Shona Robison now promptly intervenes given the extent of concerns about NHS Tayside's proposals. Tonight, after a busy surgery at Blackness Primary School, I attended the West End Local Community Planning Partnership meeting that was kindly hosted (at short notice) by Tayside Police at the Lochee Police Station. There was a very useful update from Social Work on ...
There's no reason for me to offer this advice; still less reason for Labour taking it. But here goes ... I wrote last week about the potential danger to Labour of adopting a tribally oppositional approach to the Lib Dem / Conservative coalition government, at least while it's enjoying its honeymoon: The public, generally speaking, likes to see politicians working together sensibly and rationally, rather than tearing each other to bits. The sheer novelty value of the coalition is going to intrigue voters, many of whom will be willing to give Clegg and Cameron a chance. With a leadership contest ...
If I was an MP and member of a grouping that traditionally consisted of backbench MPs of my party and which was used as a way of gauging and communicating feeling on the backbenches to the party leadership, and then that grouping was bounced into accepting members of the party leadership as part of the committee thus rendering it much less effective then I might well consider my options. Such as disbanding the grouping and then setting up a new one consisting of backbench MPs and with the same rules as the old one. Oh but with one extra rule. ...
I've just had a phone call from Mike Cooper at "Microsoft" claiming that they will provide me with free IT support. He advised me that I was being called because when Internet Explorer crashed and I pressed Report this to Microsoft the problem was so important they phoned me and that the problem on my computer had actually infect Microsoft's own servers! Not only would he help fix my computer but he would provide free software to keep it protected in the future as no one anti virus software would protect me "100 person". All I had to do was ...
The next meeting of the Yardley Constituency Committee will take place at 6.30pm on Thursday 27th May at South Yardley Library. It looks like being a short meeting, unless there are significant issues raised as matters of urgent local concern. The items on the papers are: Election of Chairman and Vice Chairman (there will be a new Chairman with Jim Whorwood having retired from the Council in this year's elections) Noting members of the Committee Apologies Declarations of Interest Minutes and Matters arising from the last meeting Constituency Governance Framework Update Schedule of Future Meetings Appointment of representatives to serve ...
Thanks to a lot of lobbying by your Lib Dem team on behalf of local residents, the Housing Association agreed to remove the repeatedly vandalised wooden fencing in Carew Road. On the advice of the local Police Safer Neighbourhood Team, it is being replaced with metal railings which will be less easy to vandalise. The ...
You may have noticed the works in front of Barclays Bank in Wallington Town Centre that were started a while ago. These works are to provide a new loading bay so that the bus stop in front of Tesco can be made a clearway to prevent delivery lorries blocking the bus stop. The works have stalled because ...
This week has seen three issues relevant to the fight for marriage equality. 1) The Good: Portugal has joined the 5 other European countries who have legislated for marriage equality. This is yet another supposedly "Catholic country" who has taken the brave step of granting equal rights to it's citizens in the face of religious opposition. Portugal... we salute you! 2) The Bad: The Coalition has presented it's programme for Government. Like this blog post it's a mixed bag of the good, the bad and the ugly. However with regards to LGBT rights it is yet another step (but just ...
Quote of the day; "The coalition document sets out how we are going to oppose welfare" - William Hague with a Freudian slip while being interviewed by Eddie Mair on PM there, marvellous. Actually, that part of the coalition document does not seem, on paper, quite as grim as expected; indeed there appears to be the return of one of the more worthwhile initiatives of the 1980s. The Work for Yourself Programme appears to be Son of Enterprise Allowance Scheme, and as such could end up providing me with an escape route when or if our funding at work runs ...
Congratulations to Paul O'Brien on being chosen to be Launceston's Mayor for the second year in a row, and also to Rob Tremain who will remain as Deputy Mayor (and town crier!). I know that both will continue to do a great job to represent the town. Also today, Olver Harris was made an Honoured Burgess of the town. Nowadays, this is a ceremonial position but it is fitting reward for more than 60 years of service to the communities of Lewannick and Launceston. In his speech, Olver told of how he started in local politics. He was kicking a ...
The next meeting of the Acocks Green Ward Committee will take place at 7pm on Wednesday 26th May in Acocks Green Library. The main agenda items are: The usual appointments to make as it is the start of the municipal year, The next tranche of community chest applications to be considered, as recommended by the Ward Advisory Board. If all these items, listed below, are approved, total spend from the £100,000 community chest, for 2010/11 will stand at £72,650: Yardley Youth Festival: £2,600 Burglary Lock Fitting Service: £2,500 Security Gating: £2,500 (second tranche, total funding allocated now £5,000) Summer Reading ...
News I've picked up so far: Danny Alexander (Secretary of State for Scotland) – Willie Rennie and Alison Suttie Vince Cable (Business Secretary) – Will de Payer Chris Huhne (Secretary of State for Climate Change) – Duncan Brack and Joel Kenrick David Laws (Chief Secretary to the Treasury) – Katie Waring Nick Clegg / Downing Street – Sean Kemp, Jonny Oates, Lena Pietsch and Chris Saunders
Thu 20th
18:05
The Lib Dems may have won only 23% of the votes on 6th May but a whole load of Lib Dem policies have...
The Lib Dems may have won only 23% of the votes on 6th May but a whole load of Lib Dem policies have now been adopted as Government policy. A Lib Dem vote was clearly not a wasted vote! The Coalition: our programme for government (Chelmsford Liberal Democrats) www.chelmsford-libdems.org.uk Deputy Prime Minister / Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg andPrime Minister David Cameron today published the full policy agreement for the coalition. You can read the full document at the link below. It covers 31 separate policy areas. They are:
Or so the rumour goes. Jon Craig writes on the Sky News site: We also have elections for the Commons Deputy Speakers to look forward to. Let me mark your card. Because the Speaker, John Bercow, is a former Conservative MP, the new Chairman of Ways and Means (the most senior Deputy Speaker) will be a Labour MP. That means it won't be Tory MP Sir Alan Haselhurst, who has done the job since 1997, and he won't be putting himself forward for election for the more junior Deputy Speaker posts. The Labour candidates to succeed Sir Alan, I'm told, ...
So, following the Scottish Conservatives returning just one MP at the general election and Bill Aitken announcing his resignation (for next year) Annabel Goldie rushes out to rearrange the deck chairs. The Scottish Conservatives leader, Annabel Goldie has rushed to rearrange what deckchairs she has left. The BBC reports; John Lamont, who failed to win one of the Tories' UK election target seats, is handling justice issues. Now John Lamont was one of 5 MSPs who chose to ignore the dual mandate issue and their parties and stand as a candidate for Westminster while already being an elected parliamentarian - ...
[IMG: cream tea] So you thought the Labour leadership campaign was important, did you? Maybe you thought the relationship between David Cameron and Nick Clegg worthy of serious attention? Well, shame on you, frankly. Not even the seismic political shifts that have taken place in recent days can hold a candle to this most serious of cultural issues. It will divide households up and down the country: brother will fight against sister, father against son, mother against daughter, and indeed all other such demographic and anthropological relationships will erupt in conflict. Yes, that's right: the Guardian is asking the dreaded ...
The Electoral Commission has published its interim report into problems at polling stations on 6 May, when queues left voters unable to cast their votes before the 10pm deadline. At least 1,200 people were still queuing at 27 polling stations in 16 constituencies at 10pm. There were scenes of confusion as polling station queues and ballot paper shortages led to problems and protests in several cities. These included students in Sheffield trying to stop ballot boxes being removed, lock-ins in Birmingham, lock-outs in Newcastle and a sit-in in Hackney. Following the polling day problems Jenny Watson, Chair of the Electoral ...
The new Welsh Assembly Building was completed and officially handed over to WAG today, it was refreshing to hear that it was delivered not only on time but also to budget,(why am I impressed with that?? ) now the work starts to make this building work for our economy. More Photos later including a very interesting one I captured.
There are now 6 contenders in the race for the Labour leadership. I was still in bed this morning only half awake when Diane Abbott announced her candidacy. I responded by pulling the duvet over my head and going back to sleep until the newspapers arrived and were deposited next to the pillow. Whether all 6 will survive the nomination process is yet to be seen. My assumption is the Milibands and
Hip hip hooray for Xmarks - a tool which lets you synchronise web browser bookmarks across different computers and different web browsers. It means that if, for example, you run Internet Explorer on a machine at work and Firefox on a machine at home, you can have the same set of bookmarks available in both, with any updates on one automatically reflected in the other too. In my case, I've got three machines (work, home, portable) and each has three browsers on them - which used to make for nine different sets of bookmarks and endless issues with something having ...
in order to make up for my abandoning the blog for a day owing to us relaunching a website, soon. Here is the world's top blogger Cowen hoisting an excellent quote about Benthamism: Bentham is a total mess. One commentator said that Benthamite utilitarianism is a philosophy that tells you what to do when you ...
I have spent a bit of time crunching the numbers from the recent general election with a specific focus on the Lib Dem performance. There were certain things that I was interested in looking at regarding the progress made by the party. Despite the fact that the overall vote share increased from 22.1% in 2005 to 23.0% (and increased in absolute numbers by 14%) in 2010 the number of seats we held dropped from 62 (as per the 2005 General Election, an extra one was won in a by-election during the parliament) to 57. It is interesting to note that ...
Labour created thousands of new criminal offences in its time in office. The new laws added to the statute books in each of the parliaments since 1997 dwarf anything from any previous parliament. Did those laws transform our country into a utopian land? No. But it would be foolish to think that repealing some of that weight of law will be a simple task. We might disagree with many of the laws. We might think they do more harm than good, or that they're ineffective, or address a problem that doesn't really exist, or are being applied in a way ...
Like most political anoraks across the country, I've glanced over the Coalition Programme today, in an attempt to see the shape of legislation over the next five years. One paragraph in particular in the Justice section has attracted my attention: "We will introduce a 'rehabilitation revolution' that will pay independent providers to reduce reoffending, paid ...
The Electoral Commission, the independent elections watchdog, has completed its review into why voters in some polling stations were unable to cast their vote before the 10pm deadline on 6 May. The report sets out what needs to be done to avoid a repeat of the problems two weeks ago. The review found: at least 1,200 people were still queuing at 27 polling stations in 16 constituencies at 10pm in some areas the numbers of electors allocated to particular polling stations were too high and some polling stations had too few staff in all the areas affected there were also ...
As a little bit of procrastination, to tithe me over for five minutes when I should be revising, I figured I'd pop this up, a wordle of the full text of the coalition deal. Once my exams are over I'll ... Continue reading →
The Electoral Commission has published its interim report into problems at polling stations on 6 May, when queues left voters unable to cast their votes before the 10pm deadline. At least 1,200 people were still queuing at 27 polling stations in 16 constituencies at 10pm. There were scenes of confusion as polling station queues and ballot paper shortages led to problems and protests in several cities. These included students in Sheffield trying to stop ballot boxes being removed, lock-ins in Birmingham, lock-outs in Newcastle and a sit-in in Hackney. Following the polling day problems Jenny Watson, Chair of the Electoral ...
The report into the problems encountered on election day where queues of people were waiting for hours to vote and were not issued a ballot paper before 10pm (therefore not being able to vote) requires a change in the law says the Electoral Commission report. There were 1,200 people affected who were still queuing to vote in London, Sheffield, Newcastle, Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham when Big Ben struck 10 on May 6th. As the law stands you have to have been issued with your ballot paper when 10 pm comes not merely be in the polling station or in a ...
The supposed independence of Select Committees was revealed as a sham at the Council AGM. The Lib Dem motion requesting that the Council replace damaged salt bins and fill them in time for winter was referred to the Transport Select Committee in March. After full consideration and debate they recommended that the Council should pass the motion at the AGM today. [IMG: grit-bin.jpg] So I was astonished when after further debate, the motion was rejected. The hypocrisy is that all the Conservatives who had voted for the motion in the Select Committee now voted against the motion in Full Council! ...
Having seen trailed in advance the research being done for today's piece on why Labour/Lib Dem talks broke down, I was intrigued as to what James Macintyre would dig up. But reading his piece, it's a big disappointment - because it makes a trio of misjudgements, all of which burnish Labour's reputation. Let's take them one by one. First, he claims that the vetoing of a private meeting between Vince Cable and Alistair Darling someone shows the Lib Dems weren't serious about talking to Labour. Actually, no. What it shows is that the party remembers how Gordon Brown went for ...
What a title eh? But all connected I assure thee. Tomorrow is a very big day for me. My first proper trip to London in what seems years. Since being diagnosed with clinical depression five years ago, I have hardly travelled outside of Portsmouth. Making very occasional trips off the Island to the QA Hospital, one trip to Chichester which lasted 20 minutes before a panic attack so severe I had to come home and one trip to Southampton (that was a mistake!). In the summer of 2006, I saw an outdoor gig from The 'Orrible 'Oo, I froze and ...
The full coalition agreement document has just been published, covering a much wider range of policy areas than the initial document released previously.
[IMG: Lime Grove School] Lime Grove special school is now on the open market. If you want to buy it, the details are here (but there agents don't reveal the price!). This is perhaps the best proof available that the council have given up plans to continue using the site, including as a possible location for a wet-house. Last week when I met the Conservative cabinet member responsible in a council corridor, he confirmed that there were no plans for a wet-house, or even an experimental wet-house, on the site. He protested that a recent Chronicle article had misrepresented his ...
Reading some of the rubbish being put around by Reading Labour councillors in the last few days is immensley amusing. It's been like watching a child when their mum has taken away their favourite teddy to wash off the vomit. I don't define myself as progressive because it is a completely meaningless term used by vacuous people post-election to mean "Not Conservative". Labour members have to increasingly define themselves by what they are not because they no longer know what they stand for. I have no need to because I am quite clear what a Lib Dem believes in and ...
During the election campaign the flood of new helpers coming in to the party made me write a post, OMG! People want to help - what do I do?, which turned out to be rather popular. Now that the campaign is over, it's important to keep those new helpers involved – and also to make the continuing flow of new members feel wanted and involved too. Far more people have joined than have left the party since the coalition was announced, which is a promising sign for the future. There will though be some tough times ahead and a strong ...
There was a very good event at Wright Robinson Sports College last night where the police and other agencies were briefing the public about what they've been doing over the last 6 months. It was good to see that well over 400 local people were there and that the police took it so seriously that the Chief Constable was present too. The good news is that by all of the agencies working together, from the Police to the Council, there has been a lot of success in reducing certain crimes in the area. However, the police still need more help, ...
Advance Notification of Temporary Road Closure Road Closure to Replace Rail Bridge at B581 Station Road, Elmesthorpe September 2010 to January 2011 Network Rail will be carrying out work to the bridge that carries the B581 Station Road over the railway at Elmesthorpe. This will involve demolishing the existing bridge and building a new one. Network Rail is carrying out the work to increase the headroom to allow larger rail freight containers to pass underneath the new bridge. As the highway authority and to ensure that it is carried out safely, Leicestershire County Council has granted a road closure between ...
The new Government's coalition agreement includes a very welcome section on equalities. Among the promises are several dealing with sexuality - a welcome change enabled by the Conservative Party's massive shift in stance on the issue over the past four or five years. Two of the pledges are: • We will stop the deportation of asylum seekers who have had to leave particular countries because their sexual orientation or gender identification puts them at proven risk of imprisonment, torture or execution. • We will use our relationships with other countries to push for unequivocal support for gay rights and for ...
I very much hope so.
I am working my way through the coalition programme for government at the moment and have just noticed the following: "We will review the criminal records and vetting and barring regime and scale it back to common sense levels" Now of course this is quite vague on vetting and barring (a piece of legislation I have railed against in the past) but at least a promise of a review is there. I would like to know what form this review will take and whether the public will be allowed to input into it. If anything, I would suggest that this ...
Just over a week ago, we ended up with the first coalition government since the Second World War after the Conservatives agreed to enter a coalition with the party I am a member of, the Liberal Democrats. This is what I make of the arrangement. The coalition's "manifesto" in my opinion represents that both political parties have had to make concessions in their ideologies, something that members of both sides will be unhappy about. For example, the Conservatives will no longer be pursuing their aspiration to change the threshold at which you pay inheritance tax on your estate, something they ...
As one of the people responsible for the Lib Dems' policy on Royal Mail, I am pleased to see that Vince Cable as Business Secretary is, according to the Guardian, set to take this policy forward. Labour attempted a partial privatisation of Royal Mail last year but withdrew the plans. In effect, the Labour proposal would have meant the worst of both worlds - stuck mainly in the public sector
Harold Wilson's phrase that a week is a long time in politics was never more true than the dramatic developments that took place last week. The creation of a new Government, with Liberal Democrats at the heart of it and with so many of our policies built into the coalition agreement, has quite rightly dominated the media. I am sure these events will not easily be forgotten by many Liberal Democrats. Against such as background it is far from surprising that changes that have taken place in town halls across London and at City Hall have not received a huge ...
On Tuesday, my ward colleague, Marilynn Ord, and I visited the open day at Sacred Heart Primary School in Byermoor village, on the edge of my ward. Gateshead Mayor John Eagle was there as well. Typically, I turned up with my camera and took some photos (which means I am in none of them!)The weather was sunny so some classes took place outdoors.John specifically asked for this one to go on the
Thursday: Congratulations today to Ms Diane Abbott-and-Portillo, not just for discombobulating Mr Naughty on the The Today Show with her surprise announcement, but also for totally opening up the contest to be the next leader of Hard Labour. The contest was looking increasingly like a choice of pale-male mini-me's to be Hard Labour's Mr William Vague. Now we have a genuine choice! Will Mrs the Queen's Loyal Opposition be led by the next Mr Vague or... the next Mr Michael Foot! Seriously, though, it IS a relief to see a genuine lady-person in the contest for the top job. And, ...
Chapter 4 of the final coalition agreement: COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT The Government believes that it is time for a fundamental shift of power from Westminster to people. We will promote decentralisation and democratic engagement, and we will end the era of top-down government by giving new powers to local councils, communities, neighbourhoods and individuals. We will promote the radical devolution of power and greater financial autonomy to local government and community groups. This will include a review of local government finance. We will rapidly abolish Regional Spatial Strategies and return decision-making powers on housing and planning to local councils, ...
Labour needs a leader who, quite simply, gets it.
The First Minster has just issued a statement on the referendum. In it he says that he has written to the Secretary of State for Wales to claim that it is his understanding that the drafting work on the Order in Council to be laid before Parliament will have been substantially completed by the end of this month. He has also provided a suggested question in both English and Welsh for the Secretary of State to consider. This requires a simple yes or no answer and asks: Do you want the Assembly to have the power now to pass laws ...
The coalition government has just published its full agreement. Party hacks from both sides will be poring over the agreement spotting 'their' policies. One item which stood out to me was this: "We will fund 200 all-postal primaries over this Parliament, targeted at seats which have not changed hands for many years. These funds will be allocated to all political parties with seats in Parliament that they take up, in proportion to their share of the total vote in the last general election." What does this mean? In Totnes before the last election, the Conservatives chose their candidate, now MP, ...
I am in and out of committees all day so I have not had a chance to absorb all the details of the full coalition agreement. However, on first glance there seems to be some tangible benefits specifically for Wales, in addition to the reforms and actions that are planned to put the economy onto a firm footing and to create a more liberal constitution. This is an extensive and detailed reform agenda that puts national interest before party. Deficit reduction remains at the heart of everything. This government will deliver fairer taxes for the people of Wales, with significant ...
Along with the benefits the people of Wales will see from a Conservative-Liberal Democrat UK government, like lower taxes for workers and a fairer pension settlement for older people, the commitments in the full partnershiop document demonstrates the clear contrast between this active government and the idleness of the past 13 years of the Labour government. Making sure that housing powers are devolved to the Assembly, supporting further electrification of the railways and setting up a Commission to look at funding for Wales are all issues the Welsh Liberal Democrats have been fighting for and I am pleased that the ...
It was a relief to find that the 'new coalition' was eventually supplanted by other stories at the top of news bulletins. I wish it hadn't been the violence in Thailand, as that's a truly awful situation which is tearing apart a wonderful country, but that then made way for Lord Triesman's demise at the Football Association. Some people laugh at the Triesman fiasco, but I don't, and it has nothing to do with football. In fact it has a lot to do with the coalition. There was a lot of talk at the election (much of it from me!) ...
Just saw this in the colation programme document which is here in full. It is an interesting step towards public funding of political parties but I am a tad concerned that the wording excludes Sinn Fein from this fundfest: We will fund 200 all-postal primaries over this Parliament, targeted at seats which have not changed hands for many years. These funds will be allocated to all political parties with seats in Parliament that they take up,in proportion to their share of the total vote in the last general election.
It still seems strange to think of the Liberal Democrat party being part of the Government with Liberal Democrats sitting in the Cabinet. The announcement of the coalition with the Conservative party was a bitter sweet moment – at last, we were entering Government, but we were doing so with a party we have long fought against. It is a fantastic achievement to see long cherished Liberal Democrat policies being part of the Government's legislative programme. There is disappointment though that other policies are not part of that programme. We must ensure that we continue to fight for these aims, ...
Whilst I was at university studying politics it became obvious that amongst my classes there was a slight majority of female students as opposed to male. I don't think many male students had any objection to this but it does strike an interesting point. If politics at university level attracts so many women, then why are so ... Read more
Thanks for all the good luck messages tweeps! I think it went well.... now to enter the job market! # [IMG: :(] (@ Bulmershe Leisure Centre) http://4sq.com/crH7Sq # NewsBiscuit – New Google only searches for sites that match your preconceived opinions http://bit.ly/9nE3rG #fb # I'm at Bridges Hall (Whiteknights Road, Melrose Avenue, Reading). http://4sq.com/bghJq4 # Powered by Twitter Tools
While media attention has been focussed on the dramatic developments at Britain's national government level, more prosaically, but importantly, changes have been happening at the seat of London government: City Hall. On the Liberal Democrat front, Caroline Pidgeon has become the new group leader in the London Assembly and she has already highlighted several issues ...
Both from the Orange Book and recent acclaimed CentreForum publications you can see the real influence of proper liberal views influencing policy. Look at the Coalition agreement: The Royal Mail agreement – keeping Post Offices as they are, allowing the Royal Mail itself to have private investment – is rather similar to what Vince called ...
This post expands on my earlier What sort of internet election was it then? piece. Particular thanks to Nick Anstead for the idea I've expanded on and to Mick Fealty for offering me the guest post slot on Slugger O'Toole which made me sit down and write this piece. You can read it in its original location on Slugger here. If the 2010 election can be summed up as "the XXX election", it was first the TV election, with very traditional TV formats dominating. TV debates have been around since Sweden in the 1950s, and our debates were 90 minutes ...
Ofcom's latest 'Media Literacy' survey is out and it includes some significant findings for firms wishing to sell to the public: Communication preferences have changed since 2005 - for example, adults are now more likely to prefer to check their bank balance online (30% vs. 22%) and less likely to prefer to check their bank balance by making a home / landline phone call (12% vs. 18%). Booking a holiday online / by email is now as popular a preference as booking a holiday in person (36%)... Just over eight in ten (81%) internet users say they have saved money ...
Twenty largest swings from Labour to Liberal Democrats: Redcar 21.8 Ashfield 17.2 Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney 16.9 Barnsley East 14.0 St Albans 13.9 Bosworth 13.8 Norfolk North West 13.4 Pontypridd 13.3 Maidstone and The Weald 12.9 Hemel Hempstead 12.5 Selby and Ainsty 12.4 Hull North 12.2 Wycombe 11.9 Canterbury 11.5 Chelmsford 11.3 Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford 11.2 Sedgefield 11.0 Northampton South 11.0 Brent Central 11.0 Wellingborough 10.8 Sheffield Brightside and Hills 10.8 Leeds North West 10.8 (Actually that's 22, but the bottom three are all tied.) Twenty largest swings from Liberal Democrats to Labour: Edinburgh West -11.4 Orpington -9.5 Renfrewshire East -8.0 Paisley and Renfrewshire North -8.0 East Ham -8.0 Dunbartonshire West -7.9 Glenrothes -7.7 Paisley and Renfrewshire South -7.6 Blaenau Gwent -7.1 Bradford West -6.5 Caithness, Sutherland and East -6.4 Haltemprice and ...
The second coalition agreement has now been published. I have it in a PDF form and it would be messy to simply copy the text into the weblog hence I am not publishing it here.It is here.
Thu 20th
10:08At school sports day. Entertaining for parents and good that its not in really hot weather.
At school sports day. Entertaining for parents and good that its not in really hot weather.
Yesterday afternoon I joined actress Sadie Frost to help raise awareness of World Hepititis Day. World Hepatitis Day is organised by the World Hepatitis Alliance, a coalition of over 280 patient groups from around the world, to raise awareness of chronic viral hepatitis both nationally and internationally. There are around 500 million people in the world ...
A reminder that the 10th Chorlton Arts Festival launches today. There is a wide gamut of shows and events as ever. The main celeb highlight is the Bad Shepherds, Adrian Edmondson's band. The launch event is tonight at St Clements. There is also a festival hub based in Chorlton precinct by Boots. I will be part of the festival, in a thankfully small role. I will take part in a debate at Iguana about Graffiti. In an email, it says I will be attacking the graffitists, which might be a bit strong representation of my views, but come along to ...
Diane Abbott has announced she is tostand in the Labour leadership race. At last there is some diversity. I don't just mean in her race or gender either. Now we have a diversity of views. When John Cruddas announced he wasn't standing I thought we were heading towards a vanilla election not just the white middle-class males, some would say all five looked like brothers rather than just the Milibands, but also in their opinions. Now all us political wonks know that Diane is more free-flowing with her views on the new Labour project, on the This Week sofa, sipping ...
The full coalition agreement document has just been published, covering a much wider range of policy areas than the initial document released previously. There'll be plenty of commentary and analysis on this, but for the moment here is the full document for you to read: Coalition Programme
The Guardian reports an interesting, and revealing, distinction between the respective leadership styles of the Lib Dems' Nick Clegg and the Conservatives' David Cameron. The two party leaders gave a taste of their different styles of leadership yesterday as they consulted their parties [on the full coalition ement, to be published today]. Clegg and his fellow Lib Dem ministers presented the document to a meeting of their parliamentary party last night where MPs and peers were taken through the document page by page. Cameron used a meeting of the Tory parliamentary party to announce an immediate ballot to limit the ...
There has been much mirth on Twitter and elsewhere this morning at the news that Diane Abbott has decided to put herself forward as a candidate in the Labour leadership contest. It is clear that some see her as a joke candidate who has no hope of winning. Perhaps we should first look to history though. Long serving female MP not given a chance by many in the commentariat throws her hat into the ring for a leadership bid. Sound familiar?Margaret Thatcher was equally widely seen as not a credible candidate when she ran against Ted Heath for the Tory ...
Well, as Evan Davies said on his twitter feed just before she came into the studio, Diane Abbott is always good value! And the race for the Labour leadership will definitely look more diverse now that t she has entered it. And she will indeed have an impact on the discussion and issues raised. And she has 'earned' her place on the short-list, as Simon Wooley says in the Guardian this morning. But even he's not suggesting she's actually going to become the Labour leader. She's not going to win, everyone knows that and there's the rub. What will happen ...
I'm not so sure this is a coalition. It seems looser than a coalition to me. I know this sounds odd but let me explain. Nick Clegg has the space to make speeches which include some Tory policys as shown yesterday in his political reform speech because this is strong Liberal Democrat territory. Also afterwards Teresa May speech on giving powers back to the police (showing trust) included aspects of Lib Dem policy. It seems that this coalition is providing the space for the parties to express themselves as Tories or Liberal Democrats as well as coalition partners. I would ...
I heard Diane Abbott announcing her candidacy for the Labour leadership this morning, and I was really pleased. I like Diane a lot. Unlike the Milliblands and Balls and the other dude, you actually know what she stands for (don't you, Jon Cruddas?). She's popular with the members, and she's popular in ther general population. She could be just what the party needs. So why is twitter full of tweets like Diane Abbott? Come on guys it's the 20th of May not the 1st ofApril. People are saying it is because of her decision to send her son to private ...
[IMG: Ed Balls & John McDonnell both announced their intent to run for the Labour leadership yesterday.] Ed Balls and John McDonnell both officially announced their intent to run for the leadership of the Labour Party yesterday. With Diane Abbott's 'shock' intervention this morning, that makes it five people in the race, once you've added the Milibands. Balls and McDonnell were busy launching their campaigns yesterday, and had varying amounts of success. I happened to hear Balls on Radio 4's PM, interviewed by the deeply strange Eddie Mair - albeit decidedly stranger on TV than on the radio, for anyone ...
When is privacy, privacy?Facebook has become our first line of interface with the outside world is this a bad thing ?No as long as we all remember that every interaction with that outside world may become public-no it can't I hear you cry I set all the privacy settings only my friends can see itWrong facebook sells your information to others it's analysis of what you write is storedI have no real
What do you mean, it's time for the annual Liberal Youth elections? Didn't I just do that? Oh no, I forget, that was just a by-election for virtually the entire Executive Committee, not the same thing at all... Hmmm... and nominations closed last night. I'll announce the provisional list of candidates later but, before I do, this is what I hope to see; A more thoughtful contest I was astonished at the level of casual unpleasantness last time, between candidates, their supporters and even supposedly innocent bystanders. Occasionally, some of that came my way. I certainly had to spend more ...
Nick Clegg's speech yesterday on political reform ticked so many boxes for me that it is essentially a summation of many of the reasons why I became a Lib Dem in the first place; to argue for things like he talked about to be implemented. Here are some of the highlights for me with my accompanying thoughts: ...sweeping legislation to restore the hard won liberties that have been taken, one by one, from the British people.This government will end the culture of spying on its citizens.It is outrageous that decent, law-abiding people are regularly treated as if they have something ...
It does not take any particular genius to notice that the Conservatives are a fairly disparate and occasionally divided party. The battles of the "Nasty Party" (tm. our new Home Secretary), were mostly with each other, not with the other parties, which is why their electoral record became so poor. The Cameroons were, and are, a minority that is forced to do deals within a shifting pattern of allegiances. Nothing too unusual there: most parties are the same in that sense. What made the Conservatives divisions so painful was the incredible vehemence with which different sides held their views. Instead ...
Whatever decision Aberdeen City Council took last night regarding the city square development, roughly half the city would have been angry. I've not been at all involved in the controversy over the plans to create a new city square which have polarised the city, so I'm wary about writing about something I don't know a huge amount about, but here's how it looks to me. On one side you have Sir Ian Wood pledging to give £50 million towards a plan to turn the picturesque Union Terrace Gardens in Aberdeen city centre into what supporters called a "chance to transform ...
Dear Ian, Today I have given my first set-piece speech as Deputy Prime Minister - you can read the full speech here. I'm proud that this speech was on a topic which I know is close to every Liberal Democrat heart, political reform. What I have announced today is the biggest shake up of British democracy since the Great Reform Act of 1832. It is a fundamental resettlement of the relationship between state and citizen that puts people, not Whitehall, in charge. Step one - we will repeal all of the intrusive and unnecessary laws that inhibit people's freedom. This ...
The conventional wisdom is that before David Cameron made his offer the day after the election a coalition between the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats was simply unthinkable. I say much that in tomorrow's Liberal Democrat News. But is the conventional wisdom right? Today I came across a posting on this blog from February 2007. It discusses a story that Ming Campbell, then the Liberal Democrat leader, was in talks with Gordon Brown and other Labour cabinet ministers to ensure that a Labour/Liberal Democrat coalition would continue in power at Holyrood after the elections to the Scottish parliament elections ...
The suggestion from Conservative and Lib Dem MPs that those accused of rape should retain their anonymity is completely overdue and will remove the endemic problem of tabloid accusations causing guilt by trial by media. We must grant those who are accused rape the presumption of innocence we proclaim to grant them and keep them anonymous until they are proven guilty.
Coming from a very Labour family, one that suffered serious hardship under the Thatcher era, being a Lib Dem black sheep is not easy. Since the rise of the Tories to power, buttressed by a Lib Dem flank that couldn't wait to get its hands on the tiller, I have been questioned on a regular ...
All major news outlets are telling us that later today we will be hearing more detail arrangements about the coalition deal. But rather than concentrating on the programme of government that will be set out for the next five years. they are already trying to scrutinise what 'compromises' will be made.We all know that there will be compromise and there will be policies that are all dear to our
There is a report which shows that Scotland is capable in the next 40 years of providing 7 times the energy requirements it needs through renewable energy. In the report from the Offshore Valuation Group that by harnessing 20,000 offshore wind, wave and tidal devices would acheive this. There would be an export of surplus energy to the rest of the UK or Europe and 50,000 jobs created. Of course such benefits need investment as much as £4bn a year just in Scotland. Niall Stuart, chief executive of Scottish Renewables, said: "There has never been a clearer and more dramatic ...
I am delighted at the new Government's pledge to roll back and repeal some of the worst civil liberty abuses of the Labour Government, including the ability of the police to keep innocent people's records on the DNA Database set out in Nick Clegg's first speech as Deputy Prime Minister. As well as changing the law on the DNA Database, the Government will abolish the Labour Party's plans for expensive, intrusive ID Cards and biometric passports, end the finger printing of children in schools without their parents' permission, and stop the Government from storing internet and email records unless there ...
At one time the Labour government combined the Department of Education with the Department of Employment. The clear implication was that the government regarded the main purpose of education as to prepare our young people for their jobs (hands for the factories) rather than to develop individual talents, open windows, develop self reliance and self-confidence and help young people to achieve their potential as human beings. There is quite enough pressure from parents and pupils themselves to see education as a means to good qualifications and jobs. The government and educators should be pulling in a more altruistic direction. Happily, ...
Okay, so I am a bit of a late comer to what started as a Twitter discussion between @Obotheclown, @Bellagerens, and @John_Demetriou. They were having a bit of a "one hour blog race" to post their impressions of what they called "left-libertarianism". I have the advantage of having seen (two anyway so far of) their results and therefore can take issue, if I want, with some of their arguments. Like any discussion, it seems, that involves the use of the... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
On the day of the general election I had a short conversation with the (now) former MP for Morecambe. It was all very amicable but she did happen to mention something about the Liberals. I know that my party is called the Liberal Democrats and I expect she does too. I said to her that I did not think it was an insult coming from her, but Gordon Brown went out of his way to call us Liberals even when he had been asked a direct question about the Liberal Democrats. I wondered at the time whether it was ignorance ...
I completed the May edition of the Northern Democrat this evening and have sent it out to everyone on my mailing list. Copy as follows:Northern Democrat No 51 May 10
