Unlike that Bed & Breakfast in Cookham, the case of the Greencoat Boy, a pub owned by Punch Taverns whose manager refused to serve the Labour Party's LGBT group recently, seems clear cut. You may remember that I argued in the Cookham case that people operating their own businesses with their own capital should be able to deploy that capital how they chose and on whatever grounds, prejudiced or otherwise they wanted. Punch Taverns is in a very different situation, however. Whilst it is undeniably a private company, the nature of the business it is in means that it is ...
A large number of Liberal Democrat policies were announced in the Queen's Speech, including the party's major priorities: fair taxes, a fair start for children, a green and sustainable economy, and a comprehensive clean up of politics. The policies include: • Making the tax and benefits system fairer and simpler, including a significant increase in ...
On Thursday 10th June, the Cabinet of Bristol City Council will consider a proposal to turn Grove Wood into a formal nature reserve. If the paper being put forward is approved, the council seeks to enter into an agreement with the landowner of Grove Wood and declare and manage the site as a Local Nature Reserve in consultation with Natural England. If that does not prove possible, then the Council will apply for a Compulsory Purchase Order to acquire the site for the purpose of a Local Nature Reserve. The nature reserve model has already worked well in this area ...
[IMG: Labor pains... the new Minister for Transport John Robertson and Premier Kristina Keneally.] Labor pains... the new Minister for Transport John Robertson and Premier Kristina Keneally. Photo: Simon Alekna PREMIER Kristina Keneally is resisting demands to let NSW decide the fate of her tattered administration by calling an early election. The resignations of cabinet ministers Ian Macdonald and Graham West were greeted yesterday with a near-universal ''enough's enough'' two days before the state budget. The latest scandal has also started an ugly internal power struggle, with backbenchers keen to get their hands on a ministerial pay packet and pension ...
Everyone who reads this blog will know that I often bemoan the fact that I want to improve things where I live, but have not really had the opportunity to do anything about it and actually get involved. Well all that changed last week. I was asked by a friend of mine if I would ...
Here in Woking this week we had a charity gig from local Woking resident and founder of The Jam, Paul Weller who was playing in his home town for the first time in 30 years in aid of the Sam Beare and Woking Hospices. Sadly it seems that the time honoured tradition of making a ...
The Daily Telegraph's hostile piece about some of the payments being made to Returning Officers from the General Election highlights the unusual way in which key staff are paid for their role in organising elections: At least six of the officials responsible for the chaos which left hundreds unable to vote have collected substantial bonuses for their work on polling day. The use of the word "bonus" here is debatable. From one perspective, the payments made to Returning Officers are not bonuses but rather the standard fee payable for running an election. However, the role of being Returning Officer goes ...
Ed Balls seems to be going after the bigot vote: There have been real economic gains from the arrival of young, hard-working migrants from eastern Europe over the past six years. But there has also been a direct impact on the wages, terms and conditions of too many people - in communities ill-prepared to deal with the reality of globalisation, including the one I represent. The result was, as many of us found in the election, our arguments on immigration were not good enough. We faced rising anti-European sentiment with small parties claiming they could seal the borders. One slight ...
With WestFest fast approaching, the team has published its superb programme for all the forthcoming events - it is superb! You can download the programme at http://tinyurl.com/westfestprog.
The Watford Labour Party has published a members' newsletter and placed a copy online. In the report of May's local elections it reads: 'In the Mayoral election, Nigel Bell came a close second'. Which is strange. Because in the vote for Watford's elected mayor, won for the third time by Lib Dem Dorothy Thornhill, Labour's candidate Nigel ...
As we reported last month, the election result in Oldham East and Saddleworth – where Labour's Phil Woolas hung on by just 103 votes – has triggered complaints from the Liberal Democrat candidate, Elwyn Watkins, that Labour's campaign broke the law. The case is now heading to the courts. As the BBC reports, In the last few days of the campaign, Labour put out a small newspaper which was predominantly an attack on their Liberal Democrat opponent, Elwyn Watkins. Mr Watkins believes the leaflet falsely portrayed him as a politician courting votes from militant Muslims; not a group known to ...
Friday's Evening Telegraph and Saturday's Courier covered concerns about the transportation of drugs on the 333 bus service that runs between Perth Royal Infirmary, Ninewells Hospital and Royal Victoria Hospital. I had raised concerns with Professor Tony Wells and have received the following response : "Thank you for your e-mail of 27 May 2010 regarding the transportation of controlled drugs via the Service 333 Hospital Link Bus. I wish to advise you that following the recent extension of the bus route to include Royal Victoria Hospital, ad hoc pharmacy requests for items required outwith the scheduled delivery service are being ...
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 172nd weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere ... Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (30th May – 5th June, 2010), together with a hand-picked quintet, normally courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed. Don't forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox – just click here – ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging. As ever, let's start with the most popular post, and work our way down: 1. ...
I am currently organising a location in which to run regular surgeries in the ward. In the meantime, as some of you already have, please write to me using the address and phone number on the Adur website, or email me using the email address on the 'About Me' tab above. I hope you've been enjoying the beautiful weather as I have!
The Improvement Service last week issued a helpful briefing for councillors on the merits of blogging and featured comments from myself and other councillor bloggers in Scotland about why blogging is a good way to update and connect with constituents, in addition to 'traditional' methods, such as newsletters, attending residents' meetings and surgeries. You can read the guide at http://tinyurl.com/cllrblogging.
Danny Alexander's sudden rise means that many among the wider public know little about him. To be honest, many of us in the Liberal Democrats who know little about him too. Some interesting background come from (of all places) the Mail on Sunday, which tells us about his boyhood: Born in Edinburgh in 1972, Mr Alexander moved to Colonsay at the age of two when his father Dion, known as Di, and mother Patricia chose to swap life in the Scottish capital for beaches and cliffs where seals and rare birds far outnumber people. Twelve miles long and three miles ...
What has Chicago got in common with Pembrokeshire? Actually, I cannot think of a single thing but that has not stopped Wales on Sunday columnist. Matt Withers posing an important question. In his column today he embarks on a rant about the finances of Welsh local authorities, albeit one that is scant on facts and substance: Spare the tears when the councils claim vital frontline services are facing being slashed if their already-tight budgets are cut - in truth, while those in the private sector have faced years of cutbacks, redundancies and uncertainty, local authorities have continued to spend money ...
There has been some recent outrage amongst certain Bloggers and commentators at the information that Peter Thatchel and Richard Darwkins (or Peter thatcher and Richard Darwin as my spell checker tried to convince me) are doing a couple of documentaries on the Pope and Faith schools respectively. The reason for their outrage? well it is because they know that Thatchel and ...
Nick Clegg spent an hour this morning addressing an audience, packing out the biggest possible venue at the Hay-on-Wye literary festival. He spoke about the General Election campaign, the process of forming a government as well as some of the key issues of the day, including the Iraq Inquiry and the Israeli blockade of Gaza. Philippe Sands, who interviewed the Liberal Democrat leader reports on the event at the Guardian Comment is Free website here. His assessment of the mood of the meeting chimes with mine: Some involved with the festival were concerned that he would face a hostile audience, ...
We had to put into a boat yard at Wootton Wawen to sort out our water supply. Close by there was an excellent example of farm diversification where a series retail outlets including second hand books, a farm shop, jewellery workshop etc have been established. We had an great breakfast in the cafe before I set off to explore the Saxon Church of St Peter leaving the Disgruntled Radical to browse the book shop in search of the works of a mistress of a long lost relative. The Saxon bit-over 900 years old- is the sanctuary (first photo). St MMore ...
Welcome to the twentieth and last (phew!) in a series of posts going through the full coalition agreement section by section. You can read the full coalition document here. Traditionally the transport sections of party manifestos contain commitments to various expensive, long-term public expenditure projects. In the current financial climate it is no surprise that the coalition agreement's transport section is rather heavy on matters of regulation and bureaucracy and rather light on directly spending money to improve transport. So we have a promise to "make Network Rail more accountable to its customers", a commitment to "fair pricing for rail ...
On Friday the Guardian ran this piece from me: Telegraph's attack on Danny Alexander is rich Danny Alexander's behaviour wasn't a patch on the sort of tax avoidance measures the Telegraph repeatedly recommends On Monday the Daily Telegraph's personal finance editor, Ian Cowie, wrote of the paper's story about Liberal Democrat MP Danny Alexander and his use of a capital gains tax exemption: "News that the chief secretary to the Treasury, Alexander, avoided paying capital gains tax when he sold his taxpayer-funded second home at a profit reminds us - yet again - that politicians are playing by a different ...
Like The Man with the Child in his Eyes by Kate Bush, this is a song that reminds me of my sixth-form Saturday job in a second-hand bookshop. Being young and ignorant, I had not heard it before. I now know that it had been made famous by Nina Simone in the sixties and it was recorded more recently by Jeff Buckley. Wikipedia has an article on the song's history. Elkie Brooks has been around in the sixties and was a member of Vinegar Joe with Robert Palmer in the early seventies, but she did not enjoy much chart success ...
And here we are making our way down the Hatton flight of locks which have a rise of 146ft 6ins (the canals stick to are imperial measurements) There are 21 chambers spread over two miles. They were opened by the Duke of Kent in 1934 when he was taken through the locks on a barge called 'Progress'. Frankly they are frightening. The gates are heavy and the winding mechanism requires significant strength. They are double locks and we teamed up with a naval barge (I didn't know the navy had canal barges-I wonder when it comes to the defence review ...
It is one of the great battles of 21st century Liberalism to balance the party's commitment free trade while not damaging the foundations of the welfare state which were established by previous Liberal governments. But the point at which both sides of the debate come together can be summed up in a single word: 'Employment', as both sides search for efficient and equitable ways to create sustainable jobs and aid Britain 's economic recovery. When casting his eye across the various options open to Britain , new Business secretary Vince Cable should perhaps look at renewing the Eneterprise Allowance Scheme ...
I'm just catching up after a week on the waterways of Warwickshire. One of my first ports of call was Liberal England ( incidentally I did think that the photos of the Saxon church, canals with their locks and peculiar architecture was very much in their house style). I learnt there that the knife sharpener (reported in the FT) given by my fellow loch labourer, the Disgruntled Radical, to David Laws had been handed down to Danny Alexander. David explained: At the Yeovil constituency post-election party I handed David Laws a present to help with his job as Chief Secretary ...
Today I link to something that I did not enjoy reading, just to illustrate a point. It is a truly poor article by one Niles Gardiner in the Telegraph. I point out merely in passing that the first few hundred overwhelmingly negative comments were deleted by the Telegraph. But the real reason I link is the significance of the strapline: He appears frequently on American and British television and radio, including Fox News Channel, CNN, BBC, Sky News, and NPR. I bet he does. He has no international diplomatic experience, no knowledge of international law and very little experience ...
I spent some time this morning with the Community Payback Team, cleaning the latest spell of graffiti to blight our area. The community Payback Team are made up of a number of individuals on probation. The range of duties these people carry out is quite diverse from removing graffiti to litter picking within different areas. I feel that this type of mandatory work is positive but feel there should be more to it, such as more accountability to the community and their Victims. For example, an apology to the victim could make a big difference to them and could help ...
Somewhere around Birdingbury on the Grand Union we were passed by these fellows on their steam driven barge . We thought it wise to get out of their way
I blogged last week about the new set of responsibilities transferred to the Deputy Prime Minister from the Secretary of State for Justice. It's a formidable to-do list – principally concerning political and constitutional reform – and tomorrow Nick Clegg will reveal the progress made so far. Speaking at the Hay Festival in Mid Wales, Mr Clegg said he would detail some of the early developments in his "menu" to change the political system. He told the audience: "I will be making some announcements tomorrow in the House of Commons about some early progress on the big building blocks in ...
Peter Downes, a former comprehensive school head-teacher and current Liberal Democrat councillor, examines the new coalition government's education policies ... 1. While it is encouraging to see that the Lib Dem case for a 'pupil premium' has been accepted as a policy by the coalition, how this will operate is unclear. The foreword to the Coalition Agreement stated: extra money following the poorest pupils so that they, at last, get to go to the best schools, not the worst.' Does it mean: a) that the extra money to be allocated to pupils who are considered poor because they are on ...
When we came in last night from Anna's birthday dinner last night, I saw that Twitter was awash with comments featuring #bigotbar. It didn't take me long to discover that LGBT Labour had booked the place to hold a function but when they got there, they were apparently told by the manager that had he known that they were an LGBT group h e wuold never have taken the booking and refused them service. That seems to be a clear breach of the law. Look what the Equality Act (Sexual Regulations) 2007 says: (1) For the purposes of these Regulations, ...
For anybody inclined to be sympathetic to BP over the Gulf oil link, note that its latest capping effort is capturing about 10,000 barrels of oil a day, estimated to be about half of what is leaking. But note that for months, BP claimed the total leak was only 5,000 barrels a day and roundly abused the very many experts who suggested otherwise - while rebutting any independent monitoring. So what we now know is that total leakage is about four times what BP were claiming for 90% of the period covered by the disaster so far. Now, ...
Ok people.... ask away! http://formspring.me/nealbrown # Mail complains that Danny Alexander spends money travelling to his constituency. Looks like we have new politics, but same old media! # Ok people.... ask away! http://formspring.me/nealbrown # Bomb Disposal Squad tearing through #Dunstable w/sirens blazing. #itsnicetobehome #fb # Is limping around like Herr Flick of ze Gestapo. Been waiting for hospital appointment 3.5 months now! #fb # ♫ BBC Radio 4 – WPR: Week in Westminster 05 Jun 10 # ♫ Christine Blachford – An Aside With Joe – And Bingo, Bango Here They Come # ♫ BBC Radio 5 live Sports Extra ...
The Watford Labour Party has published a members' newsletter and placed a copy online. In the report of May's local elections it reads: In the Mayoral election, Nigel Bell came a close second. Which is strange. Because in the vote for Watford's elected mayor, won for the third time by Lib Dem Dorothy Thornhill, Labour's candidate Nigel Bell didn't come second, close or otherwise. He came third. In the first ballot of the AV election, the votes were: Nigel Bell (Labour) 10,029 Steve Johnson (Conservative) 10,403 Alex Macgregor Mason (Green) 2,173 Dorothy Thornhill (LibDem) 19,153 After the votes in this ...
Haymarket Pizza Express is one of their outlets with a tightly compress entrance floor and then stairs (circular staircase downwards in this case) to a roomier but gloomier second space. In a traditional food outlet the lack of space on the entrance floor would result in the kitchen being squashed out of the way somewhere, but this is Pizza Express - so there it is taking up one corner of the entrance floor. [IMG: Pizza Express Haymarket] Also in keeping with Pizza Express tradition is the ever-varying Chocolate Glory recipe (no waffers this time, nor any hidden pool of chocolate ...
Back when Cix was the main way of talking to other Lib Dems online, a tradition emerged of posting Lib Dem MPs' maiden speeches so that people could read them and respond - a tradition LDV would like to continue. Yesterday, we brought you Duncan Hames and Simon Wright. I praise the hon. Member for Liverpool, Wavertree (Luciana Berger) and all those who have made their maiden speeches for their eloquence and endurance. It is customary during a maiden speech to speak in complimentary and glowing terms-indeed, frivolous terms in some cases-about the relevant constituency. However, I hope people do ...
Slovenes are voting today in a referendum on whether to accept a deal on a border dispute with Croatia. The subject of the disagreement in the past surrounded the tiny Bay of Piran in the Adriatic Sea and led to Slovenia blocking Croatia's entry to the EU. The problem dates back to the break up of Yugoslavia in the 90's. The nub of the issue surrounded the border and how when extended into the sea it would impact on Slovenia's access to the sea. As part of the EU that shouldn't be a problem as freedom of movement is part ...
A link I came across on Twitter this morning suddenly set alarm bells off in my head about two odd occurrences which now could be linked to a story in the Daily Mail. As my followers on Twitter know, I suffer one of most horrendous commutes in the land at the expense of quite possibly ...
Of all the defences of Israel killing unarmed Turkish protestors - the majority of them shot in the back, four in the back of the head execution style - Nick Cohen's ramble must be the least coherent by a very highly paid hack. As far as I can make any sense at all of his nine pint muddle, it relies chiefly on his usual contention that anti-semitism and anti-zionism are the same thing, plus the idea that anybody who opposes Israeli brutality, supports Islamic extremism. He manages to get in a side swipe at those of us wise enough ...
The decision by News International to charge for accessing the Times and Sunday Times online has reignited the debate over the web and the future of journalism. Here are some things to consider: The future of journalism does not depend on the future of the pressJournalism may evolve, as it has over three centuries, while the traditional press (printed newspapers) may eventually disappearAs the Times paywall approaches the physical newspaper is being given away for free at Victoria station every dayPaywalls defy the inherent structure of the web - linking is key but why link to something if you know ...
Last week I wrote about Liberal Democrat attempts to have the election result in Oldham East and Saddleworth overturned. Asif Ansari, in a report for the North West edition of the BBC Politics Show, has more detail on our complaints: In the last few days of the campaign, Labour put out a small newspaper which was predominantly an attack on their Liberal Democrat opponent, Elwyn Watkins. Mr Watkins believes the leaflet falsely portrayed him as a politician courting votes from militant Muslims; not a group known to be particularly supportive of British democracy. "Why are the extremists urging a vote ...
Whilst I've been away my colleague Richard Hands has been busy. In particular the Friends of Bedford Park have been celebrating the launch of the play builders programme. Mike Booth over on the Kew Ward Blog has reported on the event. I'm sorry I missed it.
The Education Secretary has announced that he is planning to abolish the General Teaching Council (GTC). This is one body that does nothing to support the thousands of teachers across the country.Nich Starling writes about some of the reasons why it should be abolished, but I want to add one other. Paying for the GTC.Paying for the GTC could have come straight out of an episode of Yes Minister.
One of things that I have to constantly remind myself is that I am a political obsessive and therefore the way that I view political events is not the same as most people. I am aware of pretty much everything that happens of any political significance and hence can use all of that information to build up a judgement about events. For the vast majority of people though it does not work like that. Instead they will see a few headlines and perhaps see some of the news stories around politics. If there is a big political story then it ...
So reports The Observer, writing up its interview with Nick Clegg: In an interview with the Observer, he launched a withering attack on the economic policies of Margaret Thatcher and promised instead to look to the examples of Sweden, Canada and the US to deliver "progressive" cuts. "It is important that people understand that fiscal retrenchment does not mean a repeat of the 1980s. We're going to do this differently," said Clegg, in a move that risks angering MPs on the Conservative right, many of whom admire their former leader. The deputy prime minister said he would use his authority ...
The Voice is only a success because of the interest and support from our readers. For many people just lurking and reading the site is all they want to do – and that's fine, we're grateful for people taking the time to read the site. You can though help us continue to produce interesting content for a growing audience. Here are three simple ways: 1. Let us have your tips for stories. Perhaps there's something outrageous going on in your local council? Or you're an expert in a particular area and have spotted a story other people have missed? Or ...
Here is a selection of issues making headlines during the past week: Town centre gets an uplift - Which to me reads as 'New town centre plan delayed' Fifth time lucky as new homes plan passed £1m community centre boost for housing estate - This is at the Parks. Althought good, I thought most of this proposal was originally removed by Wimpey from the plan and then reinstated after protest and council pressure. Todays bonus is Rory Bremner joins famous faces in festival of education It's a shame I would love to link to the Bracknell News paper more but ...
On Friday I went to see the University of Bath Architecture Deptartment year end sho of student work. There was some stunning ideas on show giving clues to solutions to problems in what was called Goldern Cities - Bath Bristol and London. As mentioned before the idea for a stadium on the rec was amongst these. A fabulous concepot by Jonathan Crossley (no relation) which includes as part of the idea a roof top walk that takes the walker from Johnston STreet all the way round to the Sports centre. More information at REAL FRIENDS OF THE REC link Chronicle ...
Please NOTE waste figures are now being collated separately and so the total number has dropped considerably. We are asking for separate notification of waste figures as these are one of the main concerns in Southdown and Whiteway. Explanation Dear Councillor Please find attached the monthly reports for March and April 2010, showing the type of...
In today's Observer, Nick Clegg contrasts the savagery of Thatcher's cuts with those carried out in the nineties in Sweden, by Clinton in the USA, and in Canada by the Liberal government under Jean Chrétien. He believes that those governments did better than Thatcher. Clegg's approval of the Canadian approach makes me a little uneasy. I'd feel happier if Clegg was praising the Chrétien government for its firm regulation of the banking sector which has insulated Canada from the worst effects of the recession, and which contrasts so strongly with the disastrous deregulation by UK governments in the last thirty ...
During the election campaign Liberal Democrat policies were reduced to a mantra of: fair taxes, a fair chance for your children, a fair deal in politics and a fair future in a greener Britain. Like motherhood and apple pie it is difficult to oppose any of these, but the aspirations were not distinctly different to those of the other parties and, when exposed to critical examination were found to contain little meat, or meat of dubious quality (eg the £700 tax cut). In education the pupil premium was and is a good idea, but is was not and is not ...
List of links: Today's list of news, stories, blog articles and so on that I have tagged as particularly interesting or excellent in my news reader. As ever, clicking on the titles should take you to the full version of the story on its home site... Perhaps Derrick Bird's deadly rampage isn't so inexplicable after all by/at: Mail Online - Peter Hitchens Prepare NOW: They "Get It" by/at: The Market Ticker ® Free at last by/at: Velvet Glove, Iron Fist Once upon a time in Afghanistan... by/at: The Devil's Knife Lobbying, the next big thing by/at: Anna Raccoon Taxing our ...
Isn't it amazing that ships are still sailing to Gaza with aid? They are willing to try to break Israel's blockade even though soldiers killed crew members earlier this week. Israeli soldiers boarded the Irish ship the Rachel Corrie yesterday and what struck me was the Israeli spokesperson who said that the lack of violence was proof that the recent deaths were not their fault. What it meant to me was that there are still volunteers willing to risk death. It also tells me that if the aid ship is willing to sail past the Israeli navy then they are ...
