Here is my article for Lib Dem Voice...
Today I watched the most abysmal performance by England that I have seen for a long time. It lacked any inspiration. A sorry sight to watch. England clearly have no chance of winning the World Cup. And work needs to start now. The management has to change. The coaching has to change. England have to go back to basics. I am not talking about the Wendyball match against the USA. I am talking
Sat 12th
23:08
Dear Sun: In retrospect, perhaps it is England United who have a lot to learn about "goaltending"
Beware what you say before a match – your words may come back to haunt you
Like everyone else, I am none to impressed with the Oil spill that is tarnishing the coast line and oceans around the Gulf Of Mexico, but I am slightly less impressed by Barack Obama's selective memory with regards to his dealings of the affair. BP ceased to be called British Petroleum over 10 years ago, ...
From the Telegraph: Alan Johnson, Labour's "lost leader", is considering standing down from his Westminster seat and fighting a by-election on the issue of proportional representation, The Sunday Telegraph has learned. ...Mr Johnson, who was the favoured candidate of many Labour MPs to replace Gordon Brown as prime minister, has always been a passionate advocate of electoral reform. If he fought, and won, a by-election on the issue in his seat of Hull West and Hessle - next door to Mr Davis's seat - it would put him in prime position to play a leading role in a referendum campaign ...
Sat 12th
22:41NOTW: 'Lord Ashcroft writing a book which will accuse Cameron of being the worst Tory leader for dec...
The News of the World reports that Lord Ashcroft is writing a book which will tear into David Cameron over the 2010 election campaign: Friends say he will accuse the Prime Minister of being the worst leader for decades – and will blame him for throwing away a 20 point lead in the Polls. One told the News of the World: "We may have a Conservative Prime Minister, but Lord Ashcroft believes the election campaign was a disaster and that the blame lies with David Cameron and his coterie of advisers."
The morning started with the news that Angela Darnell, Head of Egglescliffe school, was awarded the OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list. She is quoted in the press as saying that the award isn't just for her but for the whole school, and that's typical of her. She's a strong leader who knows the value of her team. Congratulations Angela and all at the school, now and in the past, who've
"I give easement and rest now to thee, dear man. Come not down the lanes or in our meadows. And for thy peace I pawn my own soul. Amen." This is the grave of the Munslow family in the churchyard at Ratlinghope in Shropshire. Richard Munslow is said to have been the last 'sin-eater' in the area. A sin-eater attended the funerals of those who had died unprepared to meet their maker. By eating bread and drinking ale, and by making the short speech above at the graveside, he took upon himself the sins of the deceased. Richard Munslow died ...
I am numb from the neck down. I have been playing in a touch Rugby tournament with the Council Team. We got to the semis but were edged out. Six matches takes their toll on an old timer like me but there you go. England have just drawn 1-1 with the USA in the World Cup thanks in part to an English a goal keeping howler the type Scottish keepers are infamous for. Less surprising was the role of Emile Heskey in England's goal. He doesn't score many but sets them up at a staggering rate, He must be a ...
There's a new YouGov poll in The Sunday Times, just published, and it shows: CON 40%(+1), LAB 32%(nc), LIB DEM 18%(-3) A bit of a dip for the Lib Dems, with the party below 20% for the first time since 'Cleggmania' following the first televised leaders' debate. Though before we grow too gloomy, the drop is within the margin of error. Nick Clegg's ratings remain high, with 59% saying he's doing well as Lib Dem leader, and just 21% badly – a net approval rating of +38% (just behind David Cameron's +41%). Interestingly, Nick performs marginally better among Tory voters ...
Here in Madrid (ah yes, I may have forgotten to mention that I'm in Spain for a long weekend), 'El Mundo' reports on the latest political visitor to the home of the EU Presidency. With the almost obligatory picture of Nick gazing out of a window overlooking the city with a somewhat contemplative mien, the interview that follows, given in Spanish (and isn't it great that he can do that?), includes the unexpected news that he flew EasyJet to save money in the new 'age of austerity'. This is a momentous week here in Spain, marking as it does the ...
View Poll: #1577636 Current FIFA rankings: lunar_art, sierra_le_oli and steverogerson for calling all three of today's matches correctly.
The mighty oak was once a little nut that stood it's ground.
As anyone who knows me well will confirm, I am not exactly the world's greatest dancer. Despite this I love watching people dancing and if I'm in the right mood (which happens rarely these days) I will enjoy dancing despite my complete inability to do it properly. Today was the 10th Chance to Dance event ...
I think The Lodger is the first televised story to be explicitly based on a comic strip; Human Nature / The Family of Blood was based on Paul Cornell's Seventh Doctor novel Human Nature, and Blink on Steven Moffat's short story "'What I Did on My Christmas Holidays' By Sally Sparrow". Gareth Roberts borrowed some elements from his comic strip story "A Groatsworth of Wit" for the televised The Shakespeare Code, but tonight's The Lodger is a much more direct lift from his comic strip story of the same name, originally published in Doctor Who Magazine #368 in 2006. It ...
86986. When reconfiguring a set of servers ensure that all services on them are working properly when you have finished. Clue: Checking that some are back is insufficient. 86987. There comes a point in every geek girl's life when the only way to make a machine work is to take a hammer to it with great violence. You reached this point yesterday afternoon — and now that machine works. Congratulations. 86988. Never, ever, EVER say you will make an old server work again where it is made by Compaq (aka HP). IBM X-series are a bit problematic too. Dell are ...
I'm posting this, an article about an economist with some unusual ideas about poor world economic alleviation, relatively uncritically. The central conceit of the article is the work of Paul Romer, a Senior Fellow at Stanford and successful software entrepreneur. Mr. Romer wants to build a series of what he calls "charter cities" – cities run by rich-world governments on land loaned to them by poor-world countries. The article invokes two models – Hong Kong under the British and Lübeck under Henry III of Saxony. If you think that the idea sounds wacky, then you're not alone. It is a ...
Parris writes in The Times "Cameron and Clegg have made a calculation: sacrifice more soldiers in Afghanistan to keep on side with the US"
North East Lib Dems got together today for their first conference since moving into government in coalition with the Conservatives. In one of the the best attended regional conferences for some time we welcomed first-timers with an age range from 13 to 93 - the older of the two saying that she had been too busy to come before! No one would deny that there were disappointments for the North East in the recent election - we dearly hoped to add more than the one extra MP we achieved to our regional tally - but there was an upbeat feeling ...
There seems to be a problem with British democracy these days. Having worked in an MP's office a few years ago, I saw at close hand the amount of times MPs were asked to get involved in relatively minor issues involving planning regulations and issues regarding immigration and welfare. The MP, in truth, didn't really ...
I borrowed this inaugural set of Tenth Doctor comics from young F after discovering that tonight's TV episode is based on one of the stories, and much enjoyed the whole collection - somehow more sure of its ground than the collected Ninth Doctor which I read a while back, and surprisingly grownup in places. The title story, The Betrothal of Sontar, by John Tomlinson and Nick Abadzis, is an interesting retake on Colony in Space with Sontarans instead of human colonists; of the two protagonists, one is nasty even by Sontaran standards, the other somewhat unrealistically nice. Gareth Roberts' The ...
It's a much more divided week than before I was a Minister. Basically now - Monday through Thursday is Government/Parliament - and Friday, Saturday Sunday is constituency as a basic rule of thumb. So yesterday (Friday) as usual I did my advice surgery in Wood Green library in the morning and then a number of engagements. First off was a visit to Area 51, a relatively new Learning Difficulties Service which has just moved to new premises next to the Chocolate Factory in Wood Green. Nicki Quarterman (who started it with George Chrysostomou) - showed me around the most fantastic ...
Left Foot Forward has reported: The United Kingdom Indpendence Party's dispute with the Electoral Commission over its refusal to forfeit more than £350,000 of impermissable donations has this week escalated to the Supreme Court... A spokesman for the commission told Left Foot Forward that there had been 67 instances of UKIP not adhering to the laws on donations by failing to check whether donations of more than £200 were from people on the electoral register, over a period of a year, despite repeated warnings from the commission. You can read the full piece here.
Nick Perry has an excellent article on Liberal Democrat Voice about this, with which I heartily agree (the article that is). The silence from anyone in the government - Tory or LibDem - explaining this has been deafening. It's disgraceful.
This morning I surfaced earlier than normal to attend a five-a-side football tournament organised by the Bury Council Sport and Physical Activity Service. Each of the teams were given the identity of a World Cup competing nation, and I was in a team of Councillors who had ridiculously been given Brazil. I have one or two talents, but they are sometimes difficult to deduce and they certainly don't include football. Eyebrows may have been raised when Fabio Capello left me out of the England squad, but not very many. In the unlikely event of Rooney, Gerrard et al needing some ...
The second maiden speech republished here this weekend after Michael Crockart's, as Lib Dem Voice continues a tradition started on Cix of reposting maiden speeches for the comment of interested parties. Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, for allowing me to speak here today for the first time. I am delighted to follow Jonathan Edwards, and I share his determination to secure a Robin Hood tax on international financial transactions. As it happens, I had the pleasure of knowing his predecessor from my time studying in Aberystwyth, and I am sure he will be a worthy successor. St Austell and Newquay ...
After my surgery finished at 12pm I went down to the Didsbury Festival. Good weather and a great turn-out. I'm now sporting an England flag on my jumper (in time for the match this evening) from the VINE project. VINE is a unique venture aimed to create a fund to support vulnerable children in Kwa ...
As ITV shows the remade American version of The Prisoner, ITV4 has been showing the original series. It is about half-way now and can be seen on Monday nights at 6pm. For anyone who has never seen it below is the opening sequence plus a scene where No 2 attempts to educate No 6.
I recently watched Callan: the monochrome years on DVD. The series began in the late 1960s and went into the 1970s. The anti-hero, David Callan, is an assassin and spy who worked for an arm of British intelligence. It starred Edward Woodward and the supporting cast included Anthony Valentine and Russell Hunter. I watched the programme as a child, probably in the 1970s, and remembered I liked it. I couldn't remember much more than that. Seeing it again, made me realise not just how good it was in terms of performance and script but the affect it had on my ...
Regular readers of this blog will have noticed that it has a new look. I decided to change from the previous design because this one looks fresh, modern and allows for video inserts to be seen as full screen unlike the previous template. It is a template and not something that I produced. My thanks goes to Josh Peterson. I have never met Josh and have not had to pay him a fee to use his work. Blogger, run by Google, provides the service for free hosting blogs and offering standard templates to people like me who have limited HTML ...
I have long supported encouraging plastics recycling as part of the city's overall recycling efforts. A constituent in the West End recently complained that certain plastics that were previously uplifted via the green box recycling service service were no longer being collected - such as plastics with the recycling symbol 6 (such as salad trays and yoghurt pots) - and I raised this with the City Council. I reproduce the positive feedback from the council below : "We recently became aware that our green box sorting crews have with good intentions for some time been uplifting items from green boxes ...
Pottering around with the radio on this morning I caught an item about a Puffin Camera on the Shetland Islands hosted by the RSPB. It is well worth a look. If you missed it there was also a fascinating interview with a young women, Sian Norris, about her upbringing. During the piece she and the presenter discuss David Laws posting on his website. It is available on iplayer shortly .
A simple enough question to pose for today, with the Queen's Birthday Honours in the news: should honours go to people who have already received wide-spread public acclaim and wealth such as Catherine Zeta Jones or should the honours be reserved for otherwise unrecognised people? Over to you...
I was watching Tony Robinson discuss the changes that Labour need to make. One of his big concerns was that the Labour Party should become more open and participatory and turn its back on the centralising and authoritarian model under which it has operated since the birth of New Labour. He suggested that the coalition was already working in a more open fashion and that the electorate would approve. He reasonably pointed out that in order that the Lib Dem and Conservatives keep all their member on board this strategy is not only good of itself but essential.. I have ...
LDV is continuing the tradition started on Cix of reposting maiden speeches of new Lib Dem MPs for the delectation and comment of our own community. We've been reserving them for the weekend, and amongst the new boys speaking this week past, we will be bringing you Michael Crockart, Ian Swales, Stephen Lloyd and Stephen Gilbert. Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to make my maiden speech. I want to pay tribute to Steve Baker for his considerable knowledge of the banking industry. I cannot wait to hear more about that in future debates. It is ...
On both "Any Questions" and "Question Time" it was reported as accepted fact that the Labour leadership contest was artificially rigged by David Miliband so that Diane Abbott got her name on the ballot paper. So, they reckoned that David Miliband, by giving Diane Abbott his nomination, got her onto the ballot artifically. Positive discrimination, in other words, it was reckoned in those programmes. What nonsense! As of Tuesday night, Diane Abbott had 11 nominations. You need 30 to get on the ballot paper. So David Miliband's nomination made 12. So Abbott was still 18 nominations short even with Miliband's ...
Here's a confession: I feel really quite sorry for people who don't like football. For the next month, it's inescapable. We have now entered the four-yearly month-long period when football emerges out of its pop culture bubble, and becomes the dominant theme of media and social life. But for those of us, like your dear ...
-Those words in inverted commas were from a commenter called "Jez" writing below my write-up of Prime Minister's Questions on Liberal Democrat Voice this week: There must have been 5 minutes of time used up this PMQs by various MPs banging on about who'd died in Afghanistan this week and how much they respected our 'heroes'. Look, I get it. We have a brave army fighting in Afghanistan, and war means that a few people will die every week. But this has gotten so tiresome that I'd like to propose that they hold a 10 minute military worship session before ...
RAF Flypast went over our house a moment ago and is now over The Mall
Disclaimer: Everything I know about economics is almost entirely derived from people like Joseph Stiglitz and random educated blogs on the subject. What follows may very well likely be wrong and will take the form of me thinking outloud (or outblog, however we have to use words these days), as it's entirely based on received ...
Syria seems a good place from which to recommence my musings, particularly given I have just discovered that my blog is actually banned from the country's normal internet portals. Banned! Perhaps the authorities here don't like some of my views on Calvinism or EU legislation, or fear, for that matter, that my hatred of the 9-5 working week will have an adverse affect on the morale of the locals (!). Who knows...At any rate, here I am with you having been rerouted via Angola, giving the whole act of writing anything at all a hint of Bond-esque exoticism which a ...
In between Big Brother 11 and the World Cup squeezing in Sex and the City 2 look like it might be tricky, but earlier this week I managed to squeeze sex in with the 'girls'.
Come and join an evening walk round Wapley Bushes Local Nature Reserve with Rupert Higgins of Wessex Ecological Consultants, the expert who has just revised the Reserve Management Plan. This will be an opportunity to find out about how the Reserve is looked after and the plans for the next five years. Everyone welcome - meeting at the Shire Way gate. Please wear suitable footwear.
The 'getting rid of identity cards' Bill (for which I am the No2 and was on the front bench for the 2nd Reading this week) was, in a way, the culmination of a long-fought campaign by many groups- NO2ID, Liberty, LibDems andthe Conservatives et al. It felt so good to be able to take part beginning the process of getting rid of identity cards - and the database as well! Damien Green, who leads for the coalition on ID cards, told the House during his closing remarks on the debate, that his one, single rebellion throughout his opposition years to ...
(via [IMG: [personal profile] ] tajasel) Ask me a question. Anything you like. As long as I am not infringing anyone else's privacy, I will answer it to the best of my ability.
There are many things, in policy terms, that rank and file members will be expected to swallow as a result of the Coalition. There are Lib Dem red lines drawn in the agreement. There are abstentions arranged for the Parliamentary Party on particular issues. The cuts are to come, and we have Danny as Chief Secretary, with the enormous responsibility of managing this process, and making sure that Lib Dem guns are stuck to. It is a huge opportunity and an unenviable task. What is more, the rationale for the various cuts have to be clear, and the PR of ...
Is it me or is there an interesting dynamic developing within the coalition government in which Nick Clegg says what he is really thinking, whilst Cameron takes the more diplomatic route? This seems to be perfectly illustrated by today's Telegraph in which they report that although the Prime Minister is being criticised by some business leaders (and newspapers it has to be said) for his failure to demand that Mr Obama tone down his antagonistic statements, his Deputy is being a lot more forthright: Asked about Mr Obama's suggestion that he would like to be able to sack Mr Hayward, ...
I have never really understood why some Liberal Democrats are prepared to fight hard to give prisoners the right to vote. Or more accurately, I understand, but I'm deeply concerned by the reasons why. Recently Richard Grayson has argued that we should make enfranchising prisoners an issue which defines the Liberal Democrats in this Parliament. I believe this would be a grave mistake. Being in Government gives us a huge opportunity to shake off the lingering perception that the Liberal Democrats are obsessed by irrelevant fringe issues. But we can only succeed in that goal if we remain focused on ...
Thanks to The UK Libertarian for spotting this
Well, I laughed.
Well, OK not 'polluted' as such but after the rather partisan finger-pointing attacks on BP for the absolutely disastrous oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, my dark side couldn't resist a jab back. So the letter I got in reply after writing to American Airlines seeking some contribution to my accommodation costs whilst stranded in Florida for an extra 10 days declares that: 'We are sorry that your travel plans were disrupted by the flight cancellations following the eruption of the EyjafjallajÓ§kull volcano in Iceland. (etc). ........ we are not in a position to assume financial responsibility for our ...
This is a blog post I have been wanting to write for some years. I do not believe in GM foods (neither does the Soil Association), I do not believe we actually need them, what we do need however is for a world wide organisation to oversee and manage our crop growing and ensure where we have surplus that this is moved to where we have famine. I will return to this aspect shortly. I am 42 and although it pains me to say it, obese at 19.5 stone. Bizarrely my diet when I really sit down and think about ...
...but I've drawn South Korea in ang_grrr's pool, so shall be attempting to shout "만세!!!" at appropriate moments later on. If there are any appropriate moments, that is; I fear the Greeks, especially playing football...
Now that's an impressive poster site.
My in-laws are visiting from the US, so blogging will probably be lighter than normal for the next week. In the meantime, some links: On Twitter, Lawrence Miles has started a World Cup Of Things (you'll need to be logged in to see that link). One of the two teams I've entered – 'a 1970s ...
I woke up this morning to the fantastic news that David Coulthard is getting an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list. I followed his F1 career right from his first race, the Spanish Grand Prix in 1994, where he replaced Ayrton Senna, who had been killed at the previous race in Imola. He drove with Williams, McLaren and Red Bull and I really wish he'd stayed for one further season, when Red Bull finally produced a decent race winning car. However, if he had stayed on, he wouldn't be part of the fabulous BBC Formula 1 reporting team where ...
...where 'savage' is to be understood as an adjective, not a noun. Great fanvid to the Buffy theme tune here.
I've got to the stage in life where I routinely scan the British honours lists when they come out twice a year to see if anyone I know has got anything. This was sparked nine years ago when the bloke who I lived next to in my third year as an undergraduate got an OBE for work in East Timor. Now I discover that the quiet medic who I lived next to in my second year as an undergraduate has picked up an OBE for her work fighting diabetes in the United Arab Emirates. By coincidence, the new British ambassador ...
This is a really fresh and fruity tasting cake. It doesn't keep for more than a couple of days, but is absolutely delicious. 225g cooking apples (weigh when peeled and cored) 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 25g demerara sugar 350g self-raising flour 1 tsp baking powder 150g butter 160g caster sugar 2 medium eggs 120ml milk (not skimmed) For the topping 50g demerara sugar large pinch ground cinnamon Preheat ...
Posting again after a glitch first time: View Poll: #1577456 Current FIFA rankings: lauchis, neptunepirate, smhwpf, shaherizad and _toasterhead. Good calls on France-Uruguay by xuvious, tekalynn, burkesworks, surliminal, redfiona99, azrhey and, er, me. Nobody got them both.
Well, as Helen Duffett reminded me on Twitter yesterday, I'm in no position to complain about people tweeting at the World Cup, after what I put my loyal and wonderful followers through during the General Election with my constant stream of things I agreed with Nick about, or things I thought were his fault. Also, so many of my friends who do like football are going to get some rest and relaxation watching the football, which they really deserve after knocking their pans in over the last year, that I can't really begrudge them. I suspect I will have to ...
However, I did find this article in The Guardian An amazing story in British political terms of a cabinet minister (the deputy PM in fact) touring Europe and talking in tongues; shocker! You do kind of get the feeling that the British media are generally trying to fall back into their proverbial 'comfy slippers' of concentrating on Tory and Labour headlines and generally ignoring all things European and Liberal Democrat unless they involve the perceived banning of something or sex or cuts. Perhaps we could do more ourselves and to start with to actually use our own party web ...
Following the near collapse of the banking system and the subsequent credit crunch and recession, no serious politician or economic commentator has been able to pretend that public expenditure could continue to grow and be maintained at the levels of recent times. Therefore, we need to ensure good value for money and the elimination of waste, as ineffectual spending can no longer be afforded by any institution. The Coalition Government in Westminster has been left with the mess that was created by the previous Labour government and we now have the duty to fix the problem and we have said ...
From a Torbay perspective I think the Coalition Government has made a good start when prioritising spending commitments. Cutting taxes for the low paid will help everyone in work or currently paying...
A free cycle map is being launched by St Albans City and District Council as part of a move to encourage residents to leave their cars at home and take to their bikes instead. By opting for pedal power over driving, residents will help reduce carbon dioxide emissions in St Albans City and District and at the same time improve their fitness levels. The map has been designed to help both new and experienced cyclists plan their routes across the District. It plots a variety of routes and includes information on road surfaces, points of local interest and locations for ...
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There was a question on Any Questions yesterday about who to vote for in the Labour leadership election. Well I don't get a vote and neither do most of the panellists but if I did have a vote it would be for the person who would be the worst leader because it is not my party. So it is with a great deal of caution that I hear of Eric Pickles endorsement of Diane Abbott. He has probably not helped her campaign a lot but with all the other candidates looking so similar maybe she has a chance. How do ...
