You will note that this morning's piece on Afghanistan was posted at 4am. That is because I was awoken by what sounded like somebody rattling the back door. There was however nothing to be seen. Then at 10.22pm this evening, Nadira received a phone call on her mobile from a witheld number. A heavily accented man asked "if her husband was the writer". She asked who it was, and he gave his name as Osman. She noticed that another man was whispering, telling the first man what to reply. "Osman" then started asking repeatedly "Is your husband at home?" Nadira ...
Nothing surprises me any more where the goings on of Thanet council are concerned. I mentioned earlier this week the meeting of TDC's general purposes committee, which was held in secret. Its all relatively simple but here in a nutshell is my summary, Donna Reed was after consideration by Chief Exec's and Council Leaders from Dover, Canterbury and Thanet chosen to be the new Shared Services Director. This then had to be confirmed by elected members of our council after hearing a report to the General Purposes Committee. For whatever reason, officers advised or insisted that this meeting, be held ...
I have heard that famous quote "there is no such thing as society" many times but It was only yesterday that I read it in full context (here it is): They're casting their problem on society. And, you know, there is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families. ...
OK, I now have pretty much sorted out the layout (still need to make the gaps a bit smaller I think) and also done a proper pale version for you weirdos who like things pale. Please click here to test it out, and let me know if anything seems odd or broken. Thanks.
David Willetts comments about students being a burden on the taxpayer have once more sparked off a debate on tuition fees & whether or not they should be raised. I'm actually of the different view, that tuition fees themselves are ... Continue reading →
Cornwall Council is forcing a woman who runs a rescue centre for pet tortoises to apply for a zoo licence if she wants to keep her project open. According to This is Cornwall: "Joy Bloor, owner of Tortoise Garden in Sticker, was told that she must apply for zoo status or close after Cornwall Council reclassified the creatures as wild animals — on a par with tigers, giraffes and elephants. She has been given one month to apply for zoo status for the shelter — which she says could cost her £250,000 a year." Just how many people have been ...
This evening I completely finished the whole pile of washing up for what seems like the first time in months. That's because the election only finished for me today with the delivery of our expenses return to Calderdale Electoral Services. As agent for our general election candidate Hilary Myers this year, my main role was ...
After spending much of the day in Glenrothes with the "day job", I attended the City Council's Scrutiny Committee late this afternoon, where there was constructive discussion about a number of inspection reports by the Care Commission and Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education - on educational and social work facilities in Dundee - and on the city's adoption and fostering services. Later, after my weekly surgery at Blackness Primary School, I had the pleasure of chairing a superbly well attended public meeting of Friends of Magdalen Green in Dundee West Church at which Iain Flett, Dundee City Archivist, spoke on ...
To the House at 11.00, to ask a supplementary on David Chidgey's question on human rights abuses in the run-up to the recent elections in Sudan (www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld/ldtoday/01.htm#d2e29), and also Roger Roberts' question on the return of unaccompanied 16-17 year old child failed asylum seekers to Afghanistan (www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld/ldtoday/04.htm). Then back home to cycle up to King's College Hospital with three faeces samples taken over the last three days, and to have five ampoules of blood taken as ordered by the consultant gastroeenterologist who is investigating whether my blood loss is occurring somewhere within his domain. Then back to the House again, ...
You know, I never thought I'd be so happy to see a Tory veteran like Stephen Dorrell actually winning any kind of election, but today, I'm delighted that he has done so with regards to the chairmanship of the Commons Health Select Committee. This post over on ConHome tells you why; one of the alternatives would have been, in the words of molesworth 2, so unspeakably sordid it makes me shudder. Another election that's been happening, and which I've found fascinating, has been the general election in the Netherlands. Most of the news media here, if they've covered it at ...
Thu 10th
22:10
LibLink: Richard Grayson - Lib Dems must dare to be different over prisoners' voting rights
Over at The Guardian, Richard Grayson, a Lib Dem parliamentary candidate and former director of policy for the party, argues that the Council of Europe ruling against the UK ban on prisoners voting offers the Lib Dems a chance to seize the initiative. Here's an excerpt: While Liberal Democrats have consistently made it clear that they understand the need to punish crimes (despite the way the party has been characterised as "soft on crime" by both Labour and the Conservatives), the party is generally most interested in stopping crime in the first place. One way to do that is to ...
[IMG: green_spaces_gig_poster.jpg]
I have brought the Dowager Lady Bonkers to Church Stretton for a holiday and this is my view from my bedroom window. The hotel has free Wi-Fi, so blogging will probably continue.
Last night was a historic night for the VVD party in the Netherlands and the Liberal movement in Europe. The election saw the centre-right Liberal Party (VVD), sister party of the Liberal Democrats, emerge as the largest party in the Dutch parliament. The Christian Democrat party of outgoing Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende suffered what can only be described as a huge defeat. With more than 99% of votes counted, the VVD had 31 of 150 seats. As the party with the most seats, VVD leader Mark Rutte will almost certainly become the first Liberal prime minister since World War ...
The marketing, advertising and digital professions are awash with people, newsletters, books and blogs that profess to tell you what are the coming things; what's about to be in fashion and what future trends you must leap aboard. But having had the trauma of getting the shirt question twice wrong (tucking in when hanging out was fashionable and then hanging out when tucking in was once again fashionable), I realise the big gap in the market. Forget the trend that's about to hit; what we need to know is the trend that's just become passée. So, with apologies to my ...
There are a lot of interviews with Winwood around at the moment because of the release of his Revolutions box set. I promise not to link to every one of them, but the interview with Dylan Jones in GQ is well worth reading. Three quick points of interest. Jones has used the line about Winwood being the coolest man on God's earth at Blind Faith's Hyde Park concert before. He mentions Mick Jagger's brother Chris being in the crowd that day. We saw him more recently with Tessa Munt and Paddy Ashdown. Winwood wrote the Spencer Davis Group song "It ...
Cornwall Council has announced that the number of bus journeys rose by 5.9% in the past year - continuing a period of increases. That's clearly good news, as is the 97% satisfaction rate with bus journeys among users. But is it really right to describe our bus network as 'good' as Cabinet Member Graeme Hicks has done in the press release? Whilst it remains impossible to travel by bus between Launceston and mid and west Cornwall - there isn't even a link between Launceston and Bodmin - the network is clearly still a long way short of being good. As ...
It's #bbcqt day again and the Live Chat starts on this blog from 10:30pm as normal. David Dimbleby will be joined by the Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, the shadow culture secretary Ben Bradshaw, the leader of the Respect Party, Salma Yaqoob, the businesswomen Katie Hopkins and the journalist and author Toby Young. Join us below from 10:30pm: BBC Question Time - 10th June 2010
Well, sort of. Here's the AFP report: BERLIN — Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has already made history with his meteoric political career and on Thursday he notched up another feat: speaking German to the Germans. "I find the famous Berlin fresh air very refreshing," the Liberal Democrat leader told reporters in fluent German after talks with Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle in Berlin, before talking up the importance of bilateral relations. But perhaps to the relief of Clegg's notoriously monolingual compatriots — he speaks five tongues — he was not completely at ease with the grammatical minefield that is the ...
My colleague Jeremy Rowe has tabled a question for next week's full council meeting asking how many second home owners in Cornwall cast votes in Cornwall in the recent General Election. According to the Electoral Commission, a person is not entitled to register to vote (far less actually cast a ballot) simply because they own a property. In order to qualify, a home owner has to actually live in the property for the majority of the year. The only exceptions are service personnel and students. The latter genuinely live in two places and are allowed to register in both. When ...
As your local councillor I receive a basic allowance (I think its around £6477ish but I will check). In addition I have claimed no expenses from the tax payer.
I managed to get to the Royal Cornwall Show today for a few hours and the weathermen almost got it right! It was cool and blowy and it only spotted with rain for a bit. I hope that they got the anticipated 35,000 visitors - it was definitely busy. Stars of the show today were the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall who spent more than four hours touring the show and speaking to visitors and exhibitors. Considering that the Duchess only had the plaster taken off her recently broken leg two weeks ago, she was a real trooper. ...
When I wrote this last month, I was aware that it would be controversial, but I can't believe anyone would've predicted it would result in the tragic death of nine Turkish people. These events have now taken centre stage in Turkish domestic politics, and the fall-out between Turkey - Israeli relations will resonate for years. Here in London, which has the largest Turkish community in the UK, there has been much anger at the Gaza flotilla incident, in particular, in the way most of the dead seem to have been shot in the head at close range. But what has ...
The Government has today published details of its plans to reduce the ring-fencing restrictions around how local government can spend money. The timing is rather double-edged; giving more control over their own finances to local councils has long been a Liberal Democrat demand, but there's no doubt that Eric Pickles will also have been attracted by the idea of making councils decide where to make future cuts. Even so, it's a step in the right direction. The overall effect is a: Reduction in revenue and capital non-schools ring-fencing this year from 10.7 per cent (£4.5bn) to only 7.7 per cent ...
FMQs is usually a display of brimstone, bluff and bluster from our imitiable showman of a First Minister. Occasionally he surprises and behaves like a grown up, just to remind us (or maybe himself) that he still can. Increasingly, though, he's been all over the place in recent months. He knows that the SNP's star is most definitely waning. Their election was pretty much a disaster - they didn't increase their seats at all despite boasts of a target of 20 seats. Maybe if nothing else the experience has taught them about expectation management. Next May looms closer and the ...
I was pleased to see that Diane Abbot, local MP for my neighbouring constituency Hackney North and Stokey, made it into the Labour leadership race. It will be good to see a real debate in the party, although it is sad that it took a leadership contest and an opponent candidate's nominations to start it. So far the discussion sounds like a Lib Dem conference; they are queuing up to disown the Iraq war, they are finally arguing about trident 2.0, and harsh words are being exchanged about playing on fictional tabloid driven immigration fears. I am tempted to send ...
Over at the Yeovil Liberal Democrats website, David Laws has posted an article explaining to his constituents his resignation as Chief Secretary, and the reasons behind it. Here's an excerpt: ... the root cause of my difficulties has been a decision I took long ago, which logic has never succeeded in changing - the decision to cover up my sexuality. No one person or institution is in any way responsible for my decision to keep my sexuality secret. It is just that when I grew up - just a decade or so after homosexuality was decriminalized in this country - ...
I was amused to hear on the radio that Boris Johnson has waded into the BP situation by attacking American "anti-British rhetoric". He also said that the company was paying a very, very heavy price for the consequences of an accident and that UK pension funds had a "huge exposure" to BP His words have a distinctly off-message tone and he is clearly positioning himself as the champion of the British underdog. Of course as Mayor of London he is not subject to the same diplomatic strictures that his governmental colleagues are. David Cameron might well agree with him but ...
Thu 10th
19:24
Why it is wrong, wrong, wrong to fly the St George's flag above Downing Street during the World Cup....
It had all the hallmarks of an exquisitely well-prepared question at Prime Minister's Questions this week. Who better to ask a question about the flag of the patron saint of England than the Honourable Member for Stratford-upon-Avon, home of our Will, who was born and died on St George's Day? These whips earn their crust don't they? From They Work for You: Nadhim Zahawi (Stratford-on-Avon, Conservative) The Prime Minister will know that I am a follower of my beloved England football team. I ask him to do a great thing for the people of England: cut through the bureaucracy and ...
In amongst the debate over capital gains tax and the politics of whether the Budget leans more towards the previous Liberal Democrat or Conservative policies on the topic is a significant issue of principle. The Liberal Democrats (and previously the Liberals in particular) have traditionally been much keener on the idea that the tax system should treat 'unearned income' more equally to earned income, and so tax more equally the growth in capital value of assets compared with salaries. Of course the use of the word 'unearned' is itself the trigger for a whole range of debates as increase values ...
Sefton's cabinet met this morning. In truth it was a little of an anti climax as we were waiting for a statement from the government about the impact of their deficit reduction plans on the council.There was an interesting moment when Ian Maher (Lab) I proposed that I record one of Mrs Parry's utterances on my blog. I shall ignore his suggestion.I have every confidence that the member for Blundellsands knows all about the facility mentioned at para 2.3 on page 92 on the agenda as well as the site of every tree ever planted in the district.At the end ...
'Half our carbon emissions come from existing buildings': ePolitix.com That's why here in Sutton we are working hard to help local people retrofit their homes to make them more energy efficient. So far our PAYS scheme, operated in partnership with B&Q has been hugely popular and oversubscribed. I hope we can start a new phase of the scheme soon.
I am truly sorry to say it, but UNESCO really is an appalling organisation. Good article here by Liberal Vision. The links to Global Witness are well worth following up, too. I have a lot of time for Global Witness. UNESCO have put millions of UN money into "reconstruction" of Tamerlane monumental architecture in Uzbekistan. Astonishingly, the process often involves demolition of the original remains being "reconstructed". The entire purpose of these Disneyland reconstructions is to host Karimov regime spectaculars featuring singing soldiers and massed ranks of dancers celebrating the cotton harvest. UNESCO seems devoid of moral sense - ...
Wednesday: I say chaps and chaps-of-the-alternative-gender, it's time for fun and lashings of ginger beer - steady on! - as all the old gang get back together again: Ed, Ed, Anne(dy), tomboy George (short for Dave) and Token the Dog, off on a spiffing adventure to recover the lost election plans, find out where Uncle Quentin (Mr Frown) buried the secret of being popular, and unmask the nasty people-smugglers so no more of those icky immigrants can get in. Hurrah! The ASTUTE READER may have noticed a small touch of SATIRE there, and I should like to apologise if anyone ...
Thu 10th
17:56
Gardens are not the place to build houses. Try the countryside | Ross Clark - Times Online
Gardens are not the place to build houses. Try the countryside Ross Clark - Times Online
Heavy rain expected during morning rush hour Hertfordshire Highways has received a warning from the Environment Agency that heavy rain, thunder and flash flooding is expected during the morning on Friday June 11 and is likely to fall during rush hour. The Environment Agency has said that it is likely that the more southern parts of Hertfordshire bordering London will see a period of heavy thundery rain between about 6 and 9am. Given the timing of the rainfall and the likelihood of seeing surface water flooding in places, difficult driving conditions may be expected during tomorrow morning's rush hour. Drivers ...
The Government's decision to deport all Afghan children who have come over unaccompanied to England to escape the trauma of the war is detestable. The Government is just sending the children back thinking this is the best outcome for all of the kids. The four million pounds being spent on a 'regeneration centre' in Afghanistan could be used on doing risk assesments to look at each individual child's case to decide what is the best for that child's future. These children might be in serious danger if they are repatriated. Some of the children that have come over to England ...
The government have published a spreadsheet detailing the Revenue Grant allocations for 2010 - 2011 (the government grant to local authorities. If you have Microsoft Excel or compatible download from here. I'mm no expert in reading this sort of thing, but it appears that West Sussex County Council's grant is being cut by £3.99 million. The worst affect budget is education, losing £2.986 million. Road safety also loses £0.334 million. Drive safely! Nearer to home, Mid Sussex District Council show no grant cuts. More details to come no doubt.
With Ming Campbell a having already declared his willingness to vote against increases in tuition fees I noticed that the BBC News website was carrying a piece about Simon Hughes on the same issue.
Late last year I wrote "For The Flag", at which I bemoaned the upcoming World Cup as I knew it mean seeing two things I hate: 1) disrespectful display of flags and 2) St George's crosses everywhere. (Declaration of interest... I'm human first, British second, Kentish on the outside and sometimes, when it suits, European. English does not feature) I was not wrong. I have returned to my home town since that post (a move that I must say is possibly the best decision ever made) and here, in deepest, darkest Kent, English patriotism is strong. Sadly this patriotism is ...
I attended the official welcome home to the Royal Welsh today at Chester Race course, presenting Medals was Her Majesty the Queen, more on this later. I was fortunate to get very close to Her Majesty and had to take this picture of inside Her Bentley!!!!! Sorry not a great photo of a road atlas. Do you think it is ever needed?
I have been known in the past to post items ranting about poor service from companies, so it makes a nice change now to be able to say something positive about service from a company whose facilities I have used. Mazuma Mobile take a bow! I recently upgraded my mobile phone from a Nokia N95 to an X6. Having done so, I had to use for the N95 so I looked at Mazuma to sell it. It was late on a Thursday afternoon that I registered on their site and submitted the details of the N95. The first way in ...
Since 2005, BP has seen an explosition in a Texas refinary, a big leak in Prudhoe Bay in Alaska, numerous allegations of price fixing, 19 employee fatalities in unrelated incidents and, of course, Deepwater Horizon. In 2000, the company was forced to pay a $10 million fine for its mismanagement of its US properties. According to PIRG, BP was responsible for 104 oil spills in just one year, and in 1991 the EPA cited it as the single company responsible for the largest output of US pollution. BP is also leading the building of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. Despite the fact ...
Yesterday afternoon I hosted a Parliamentary reception on behalf of the IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare), to help to draw attention to the importance of the forthcoming annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC). The IFAW and other organisations have expressed serious reservations about the proposal being put forward at this meeting, which would ...
After a brief hiatus in sermons being added to the church's website, a bunch of my sermons from the last few months are now online. They're all available in MP3 or Ogg Vorbis: Exodus 14.10-31 – Journeying On Acts 2.42-47 – Everything in Common Acts 4.23-31 – Prayer and Power Luke 11.1-13 – Prayer (Part One, Part Two to follow)
The first Prestwich Area Partnership meeting of the new municipal year took place last night at Church Lane Community Centre. As ever it was a packed agenda and well attended, some of the key highlights were as follows: COMMUNITY GRANTS Concern was raised that the Area Partnership were asked to cancel a recent Grants Panel meeting because no funds had yet been allocated to the Area Partnerships for the coming year. Members raised concerns that funds need to be allocated in order that local organisations and activities can be supported. BROADBAND JUNCTION BOXES Residents of Brooklands Road raised concerns about ...
On the surface, David Cameron is the first Prime Minister in generations for whom 'The Ireland Question" is down the list of priorities. The Good Friday Agreement has been a glorious success, with the recent devolving of policing powers to the Northern Ireland Assembly the final piece of the power-sharing jigsaw and the birth of a more conventional policy rather than tribal politics in the province. The 2010 general election saw the Alliance Party gain a seat, the moderate nationalist SDLP doing better than expected and the the failure of the anti-power sharing Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) party to make ...
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... More on schools by/at: ANGRY TEEN Are You Smarter Than A Libertarian???? by/at: The Whited Sepulchre Seriously Though... by/at: Burning our money C4SS Fundraiser: 72 Hours Left! by/at: Center for a Stateless Society The dishonest general election campaign has given us a cynical Government by/at: AngloAustria
This blog is dedicated to Kyle and Stacey You have London in front of you, it's evening and you have 30 minutes to do something. WHAT DO YOU DO? Here are some ideas. 1. The Eye at Sunset 2. A pint of Best in any decent Pub. 3. Make a call from London's first red phone box Off Piccadilly in the courtyard arch of the Royal Academy. There is telephonic history. There is a sheltered red kiosk which was the first. 4. Ride the Tube, you could even visit Mornington Crescent. 5. Row on the Serpentine Rent one of the ...
Hat tip to Jonathan Calder on Liberal England for pointing me to an article by Richard Grayson, primarily about prisoners' voting rights, or the lack thereof, in the Guardian. I should say now that I wholeheartedly agree that prisoners should have the vote, for a whole load of reasons (ideological, not because some European court says so) but it is Jonathan's discussion about what prisons are for I want to focus on here, rather than get sidetracked on that narrower question of voting rights so I won't go into more detail on that. Jonathan highlights this sentence from Richard's piece: ...
Whilst at first glance it might appear a very convincing idea that tougher sanctions impossing oil sanctions would have, in my opinion, been a mistake. With oil sanctions in place Iran would have been forced to pursue energy resources by other means, including greener energy (though the current lack of presence of green energy suggest ...
One of the things I've bemoaned frequently on this blog is the not inconsiderable number of Liberal Democrat members who join the party and never hear from them again. I know local parties who don't send out member communications for years at a time, with the occasional exception of uninviting and intimidating AGM calling notices. ...
David Cameron and the coalition are asking for input as to where cuts can be made in public spending, well suggestion number one, comes not surprisingly (for me) courtesy HM Revenue & Customs. In what has become a twice yearly waste of money, I and I suspect many thousands receive a letter from a cretinous HM Revenue and Customs pointing out an award of £0.00 of tax credits. Now despite HM Customs being informed some long years ago that we were no longer eligible, they have needlessly sent a determination (with big fat form) followed by an annual review (another ...
Now that Lembit has announced his intention to seek the Liberal Democrat candidacy for Mayor of London, now might be a good time to consider what sort of candidate we need and what sort of campaign they should run. And, as you might expect, the answers are rather more complex than might be apparent. There are at least four key players whose views need to be taken into account; the London Regional Party - they are responsible for selecting the candidate, developing the campaign strategy and raising the funds to support the campaign the Liberal Democrat Group on the Greater ...
The thoroughly predictable result of the contest for the deputy leadership of the parliamentary party of the Liberal Democrats is the election of Simon Hughes. Congratulations to Simon. The impression given beforehand was that his take on the role was to be a voice for the backbenches and assert the party's independence. But his immediate comments after the election were about unity and his support for the coalition. This nicely illustrates the difficult balancing act he will have to perform in order to make this role work. I hope he has developed a clear idea of the role he wants ...
Well I watched the launch show of Big Brother 2010 (Big Brother 11) last night and the housemates are the normal collection of very non-normal people. From first impressions I want Ife to win, below are the housemates and information (from http://www.channel4.com/bigbrother/housemates/)
Here's a quick Home Office video explaining yet another layer of bureaucracy that is being added to visa applications: The government is coercively insisting that people are an integrated member of society, and that English is the only language that will enable someone to integrate. There are plenty of other societies that muddle along just fine with multiple languages. Britain still has a few itself. When will the government start coercing Welsh to start speaking English? But why stop at language? There's lots more the government could do to promote integration. Religion for a start. Those bloody immigrants most likely ...
The Heaton Park Action Group are asking local residents that care about preserving the open green spaces in the park to write in and register an official complaint against Manchester City Councils decision to allow Goals Soccer to build there. In particular the HPAG and others grievances centre around the conduct of the Manchester Planning Committee meeting that passed the planning application. I have attached the flyer that HPAG are circulating which highlights the key areas of concern, and would ask that if you feel strongly about protecting Heaton Park, you register a complaint about how this decision came about. ...
Or rather more accurately, Anthony Painter's digital election analysis conducted for Orange can be read below. The launch of the report included handing out a set of prizes, as Mark Thompson has reported. Particular congratulations to Lynne Featherstone (Lib Dem MP for Hornsey & Wood Green and now a Home Office minister) who scooped the prize for Best Use Of Digital Campaigning By A Candidate. In various ways I've been helping Lynne with her websites since I hand-crafted the HTML for her very first back in 1999. I talked a little about the latest revamp at the Social Media 09 ...
From the Council: Stockport Child Safety Week takes place from 21st to 25th June, bringing together a range of agencies, including Stockport Council and the NHS that are committed to reducing the number of children who are injured through accidents. More children end up in hospital because they've been seriously hurt in an accident than any other cause. The week will include activities for under fives at Children's Centres and other locations and will culminate on Friday 25th June with a safety awareness event at Merseyway Shopping Centre. People attending the event can get advice, arrange free fire safety checks ...
The SNP have been going on about a greener Scotland and about the threat of other parties having to make cuts in order for our country not to collapse under a mountain of debt. You'd therefore expect the SNP to have done all they can in every area to protect budgets for environmental concerns. Don't you believe it. As Alison McInnes MSP, Lib Dem Transport Spokesperson, points out ahead of a debate in the Scottish Parliament on the Transport Committee's Active Travel report: "Active travel is good for the environment, good for communities and good for the people of Scotland. ...
Thu 10th
12:25The results of the other Lib Dem Parliamentary contest - Lords Dholakia and Alderdice elected
Simon Hughes was not the only Deputy Leader elected last night ... While Simon was elected deputy of the parliamentary party in the House of Commons (though in reality he'll be known as the deputy leader of the party), Lord (Navnit) Dholakia was re-elected unopposed as deputy leader of the parliamentary party in the House of Lords. Lord Dholakia, who will continue to support Lord (Tom) McNally in his role as Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords, commented: There was an overwhelming turnout in support of the new structure for the Liberal Democrat Paliamentary Party in ...
As the current examination of the Welsh Language Measure and the associated consultation is meant to be an open process with no pre-conceptions on the part of the Minister, then I am sure that the latest letter from 14 Welsh organisations, including teaching union UCAC and Friends of the Earth Cymru will not cause him a problem. However, I am not so sure that he will so easily convince his Labour allies of the merits of all their suggestions. The letter says: We had a welcome opportunity to present evidence and receive a fair hearing for our ideas to strengthen ...
I must admit that one of my vices is to fulminate at newspaper articles that annoy me. I am generally a placid person, but I can only describe my reaction to certain articles as 'the red mist'. The best thing I can compare it to are the scenes in Kill Bill where Uma Thurman sees ...
The coalition deal was something I mostly agreed with, other than a few areas, namely the Academies, tax breaks for married couples, and the big one, a possible rise in tuition fees. Of course the coalition is waiting for the Lord Browne report to be released before it does anything but there are rumours that this will include the removal of the £3,225 tuition fee cap, meaning Universities could basically charge what they wanted. This, in theory of course, could create a two tier Higher Education system as prestige Universities charge more, meaning students from less well off backgrounds could ...
Mixed news for the Welsh Government this morning with the World Wildlife Fund criticising ministers for cutting the flights they take, but criticised them for funding a north-south air link: WWF said the assembly government had cut air travel by 42% since 2006 and gave it a "green" rating. But it said the Anglesey-Cardiff flights were "completely unnecessary". In their report WWF said they had "major concerns" about the twice-a-day air link between Cardiff and Anglesey which has been backed by up to £2.4m from the assembly government over three years. They said the flights undermined assembly government climate change ...
The result of the Liberal Democrat MPs ballot was made known last night. There are more details on Welsh Liberal Democrats may have missed out (disgracefully, in my opinion, writes Frank Little) on ministerial posts and even chairmanship of the Welsh Affairs Committee under the coalition, but at least we have a good friend of Wales as deputy leader. Simon attended Christs College, Brecon, and supported the Welsh party conferences for many years when we had only one or two MPs in Wales. Simon's statement of belief in both the coalition and the future of the party is here: ...
This Sunday a cavalcade of vehicles, old and new, will drive through Bristol as part of the BAC 100 centenary celebrations, marking 100 years of transport development in the Bristol area. Vehicles will set out from the Rolls Royce site on Gypsy Patch Lane between 1.30 and 2pm and return between 2.30pm and 3.30pm. The static display will be open from 10.30am until 5pm.
Yesterday I tuned into Hansard – via the ever-useful TheyWorkForYou.com – to read the maiden speech by new Lib Dem MP Stephen Gilbert. It was very good and you can read it too. All fine so far. I made the mistake of carrying on reading. The next speaker was the Labour MP for Stirling, Anne McGuire. She began: I congratulate all Members who have delivered their maiden speeches. I was going to say that my contribution would be an older maiden speech, but one of those adjectives would not quite be appropriate. I shall now launch forward while leaving Members ...
One is quite contrite that it takes a holiday of supposed relaxation in the ancient civilisation modern state of Egypt to truly recollect our/my reliance upon technology, but most significantly communication. I digress slightly; the telephone by Mr. Bell I do believe; google is not at hand as I type, was created nearly 200 years ...
It seems like Speaker John Bercow has caught the reformist zeal and is getting into the spirit of things... Bercow said it was his ambition to persuade as many as 100 MPs to be in the chamber on most occasions by reordering debate, increasing topicality and trying to throw out time-consuming subjects. Now, I know ...
Today's Cornish Guardian brings the news that Olympic athletes will be descending on Launceston later this month during a John O'Groats to Lands End cycle ride. The celebs, including gold medal winning rower James Cracknell, gold medal winning cyclist Rebecca Romero and paralympic gold medallists Sarah Storey and Jodie Cundy, are expected to be heading a team of more than 600 cyclists. On June 19th, the group will finish their penultimate stage in the town and they are after local volunteers to help them with the event. If you want to help - with anything from helping the food and ...
During the recent General Election, the biggest increase in members for the Liberal Democrat party came from students and young people who felt motivated and engaged by our manifesto for a "Change that works for you". To capitalise on this in Southport and to encourage young people in our town to become actively involved in politics both nationally and locally, we have launched Southport Liberal Youth which is run by young people for young people. Liberal Youth is the youth and student wing of the Liberal Democrats, representing the interests of all members aged 26 and under, and everyone registered ...
Before the election, Lib Dem Voice launched How Authoritarian is your MP?, a website which ranked how authoritarian – or liberal – were MPs in the 2005-10 parliament based on their voting record on 10 key issues. These ranged from ID cards to detention without trial to freedom of speech. The five candidates for the Labour leadership are now official – so we can now see how their voting record compares, and name the contender who is, officially, the most liberal potential Labour leader ... (NB: if you click on their name you can see how their voting record stacks ...
The Friends of Wallington Library and Gardens are once again holding their Wallington Day Fair. It takes place in the library gardens on Saturday 26th June from 10am to 3pm. This is always a lovely event with stalls, music and competitions. The Wallington South councillors will be doing our cake stall again this year with ...
Has Willetts put his foot in it? We're all still awaiting Lord Browne's report into higher education funding. It's very likely, as many have pointed out, that he will eventually recommend lifting the cap on undergrad tuition fees, which currently stands at a little over £3,000. Whatever level fees end up at, I think we ...
Much as I'm pleased to see some of the stuffy protocols regarding flags on government buildings relaxed, I will go through at least 29 different kinds of fury if Andy Murray doesn't get the same treatment as the England team should he, or any other British player, make the Wimbledon Final, or in fact even the latter stages of the tournament. Now that they've set the precedent, it had better happen for all world class sporting achievers these islands produce.
It is occasionally easy to forget that this blog is read by people who aren't Liberal Democrats - my father, for example - so here are links to three pieces I wrote for Liberal Democrat Voice... Diversity and representation - instead of whinging, why don't we do something about it? (19 May) "I have a reputation for being a bureaucrat. Gradualism is my watchword, and has been for most of the twenty-five years that I've been a Liberal and then Liberal Democrat. However, suddenly, I have become an old man in a hurry. Alright, old relative to most of you ...
As the Telegraph reported: Lord Myners, the former City minister, last night criticised Gordon Brown's administration for living beyond its means and said he had been frustrated by his colleagues' "flawed thinking" on the economy. "There is nothing progressive about a government that consistently spends more than it can raise in taxation," he said.
Higher Education Minister, David Willetts' view that the cost of hundreds of thousands of students' degree courses is a "burden on the taxpayer that had to be tackled" is at best unhelpful, at worse downright provocative. He has taken the argument about tuition and top-up fees beyond the carefully crafted compromise of the Coalition agreement and started to make judgements on the value of a university education. Whereas it is right that we should not be setting meaningless targets in terms of the number of students going to university and that we value vocational qualifications as an equally valid route, ...
Thu 10th
08:33
Queen Edith's ... the new Venice of the north? Flooded pavements and cycleways yet again.
I have had several complaints about the drains problems in Hills Road. Whenever we have heavy rainfall, the northbound side of the road turns into a mini-canal. The cycleways are unuseable so you have to go in the road with the cars, and you get a shower as you are waiting to cross Long Road. Late last year, the gulleys were jetted in various places on Hills Road but that hasn't solved the problem. The gentleman I deal with at the County Council said he would try a new way of investigating to see where the break in the pipe ...
I'm roughly nine months into my re-watching of the whole of Doctor Who, and thought I should salute my inspiration and link to a couple of others who are following the same path. The idea is fairly obvious, I suppose, but was germinated in my brain by a conversation with Paul Cornell at P-Con in 2008, when he pointed out that at an episode a day or so, it was a perfectly feasible project. I don't know if he had been talking to altariel , who together with mraltariel had just started their epic rewatch (and putting the pieces together ...
In his comment to an earlier post scarier takes me to task for suggesting that we should have "banged on" about different forms of PR during the election campaign. I take his point. Until recently I spent my leisure hours trying to brush up my schoolboy French. I would ask one of my colleagues in the French department a simple question and he would pin me to the wall and try to teach me three new tenses. We STV advocates tend to be susceptible to the same vice: so enthusiastic about the virtues of this wonderful system that we go ...
I really am starting to wonder if the Tories get economics at all (on a related note, see my latest article on the Social Liberal Forum). In a fascinatingly revealing intemperate rant to the Guardian, David Willetts has described students as a "burden on the taxpayer" and that "the so-called debt [students] have is ...
I seem unable to switch on a news channel nowadays without seeing a caption announcing the death of another poor young British soldier in Afghanistan. NATO has in June so far lost and average of precisely 3 soldiers killed every day, with a multiple of that injured. Two events yesterday highlighted the deterioration in the NATO position. A Blackhawk helicopter was taken down, indicating that the Afghan resistance have regained access to effective missiles, while a 50 truck supply convoy was attacked and destroyed in Pakistan - not in Waziristan, but just outside Islamabad. That is perhaps the most significant ...
Charlemagne on Belgium (translation into Dutch) Election results from the Netherlands: Fistful of Euros. Hooray for D66! Boo for Wilders! Ha ha ha to Verdonk! Although I'm voting in Sunday's election in Belgium rather yesterday's election up north, I have been following the Dutch campaign rather more closely on Twitter, I guess mainly because I actually know a couple of candidates there from long ago. (Was it the Dutch election, or Konnie Huq's engagement to Charlie Brooker, that caused Twitter to collapse yesterday?)
[IMG: LibDem_Tory_Bombshell] The Liberal Democrat's campaigned explicitly against a VAT increase in the 2010 General Election. A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the regressive alliance seeking to undermine the new coalition government at every turn. If that seemed vague and abstract then, it certainly doesn't any more. We should at least respect the Daily Telegraph's candidness; it's attacks on David Laws and Danny Alexander have been explicitly linked with their specific campaign to prevent the coalition's agreement to harmonise Capital Gains Tax with income tax and to destabilise the coalition more generally. What is more unfortunate is seeing ...
I wrote the following in my role as a college Students' Union President. In a rather disturbing article today, The Guardian reveals that David Willets (the new universities minister) has claimed students are a 'burden on the taxpayer' and that students should consider university fees 'more as an obligation to pay higher income tax' than ...
Very often a university degree does not give training for a specific job. If that were the case what would people with degrees in history or classics do for work? However a degree does give prospective employers an idea as to how the graduate can deal with problems that may occur in the workplace or how they would apply logic to issues that arise. I recently read a comment that if everything somebody said was true then it cannot be an insult. It seems fairly obvious to me (philosophers look away now) that even if the truth is established then ...
Well, I realise this may come as a bit of a surprise to some...............but I am delighted at the election of Simon Hughes as deputy leader. It is a bit like finding the corner of a threadbare blanket on a cold night. A glimmer of light in a in a dark room. Oops turn off melodrama (reluctantly). Seriously, this is certainly reassuring for me - and I trust for others too. Simon is nothing if not true to his roots, he is not one to stand idly by and watch while the party he loves and has committed so much ...
