Mayor's Sunday, and a change in tradition ! we march down and back from Town Hall to Church along the pedestrianised part of the High Street saving closing it off for quite a while. It has taken around 20 years for this change to take place, but it was good to see lots of other tradition in place, and it was an excellent service put together by the new Mayor, his Chaplain and Vicar of...
UK Lolitics (I think - I never understand LiveJournal) has an invaluable guide to "The many ties of Nicholas Clegg". The problem with British democracy, says The Futility Monster, is that MPs are the new social workers. There is a lot in that, though ultimately there has to be someone to intervene on behalf of those crushed by the arbitrary machinery of public administration. Think of the man from Shropshire in Bleak House. Craig Murray explains the current violence in Osh in Kyrgyzstan/ It's all Stalin's fault: "The Soviet Union was in theory just that - a Union of Soviet ...
The Sunday of the year when the newly appointed mayor dedicates himself to the service of the people of the Borough and the people of the borough are invited to pray for their town and the people who live and work within it.Each year there's a march past of representatives of uniformed organisations within the borough, led by retired members of the armed forces. This year they were followed by
[IMG: Katherine talks to Sgt Bob Stephenson at the Fair] Yesterday, I met up with Katherine Reece at the Holy Trinity Church Fair outside the vicarage on the corner of Stapleton Hall Road and Granville Road. When I arrived Katherine was already get stuck in, helping out on the burger stand. The Fair was very busy and seemed like a great success. The local Safer Neighbourhood police team were there, and Katherine and I took the opportunity to lobby them over a couple of crime related problems. For instance, I quizzed Sgt Bob Stevenson about the problem with squatters taking ...
Sun 13th
21:56
Tory MP Caroline Nokes declares extra marital sex wrong while cheating on her husband with a toy boy
Whoops, the Conservatives don't learn do they? So Caroline Nokes, the new MP for Romsey and Southampton North has been having an affair for four years with James Dinsdale, a conservative councillor and activist ten years her junior, despite during the election endorsing a Christian group's declaration that extra-marital sex is wrong. Just last week she celebrated her 15th wedding anniversary. The Mail on Sunday reports: But the MP's young lover Mr [James] Dinsdale, a Conservative councillor and former leading light in the party's youth wing, Conservative Future, told journalists: 'I can confirm Caroline Nokes and I have had a ...
Over on Huffington Post, Will Bunch has an interesting piece about Generation Jones, the cohort of people born between 1954 and 1965. He argues that Generation Jones is coming to power all over the world. But he's not satisfied that we're trying hard enough to solve its problems. Bunch believes that pragmatism has won out over idealism because our underlying anxiety about careers and personal economic security has left Jonesers with an innate aversion to taking risks. The Next Greatest Generation? Hardly. The reality is that Generation Jones is showing up just in time, when the planet really does need ...
Vince Cable, in his role as Business Secretary, has approved the grant to Nissan to develop electric, low emission cars that was initially announced by the last government. Prime Minister Cameron announced last week that the £20 million grant will go ahead. The announcement was important in the North East where the work on developing and hopefully building the vehicles will take place. There is
View Poll: #1578041 Current FIFA rankings: 1emondrops6, naobot, paratti, rcfinch, secritcrush and spikes_luv on calling all three of today's matches correctly. I must say it's nice to have three clear results and no draws. I should add that I am cross-posting these polls to world_cup_2010 and may even shift to posting the polls there and just a link here in due course.
A bit of culture this week, as I am writng this in Church Stretton and the only Shropshire band I can think of is T'Pau. And you wouldn't want that. Shropshire means Housman. And (with apologies to Ralph Vaughan Williams) Housman means George Butterworth. So this week's video brings you Butterworth's poem "Loveliest of Trees" and then moves rather abruptly into his glorious orchestral rhapsody on the theme. It ought to be the Shropshire national anthem. Certainly before "China in Your Hand". As a page devoted to George Butterworth says: Although just about every English composer of the time attempted ...
Last week I made a post about how I was annoyed at the NUS for "going after" the Lib Dems over the tuition fees issue rather than focusing on getting Labour MPs to vote against as they were a much larger voting block. Unfortunately another issue has appeared this weekend along similar lines. This weekend Lord Elis-Thomas, the Presiding Officer of the Welsh Assembly, gave the strongest hint yet that the referendum on further powers to the Assembly may end up being delayed until after the 2011 Assembly Election, saying he thought it could be held in the Autumn of ...
The paper reports: This is a man who was "turned on" - yes, turned on - to the green agenda during a visit to Tanzania with The Economist more than 30 years ago. Ten years later, in a book of his published articles, he declared that it "was going to be the dominant issue in our time, in terms of the potential threat to our existence". "I can genuinely say that I've been committed on the green and climate change agenda for a long time," he explained. "I've always thought what we desperately need to do is combine the commitment ...
and those animals who can no longer be cared for due to their owner's ill health, death or change of circumstances. This is a sad, sad day. There is no explanation on the RSPCA website to this major change of policy. We are no longer able to take in stray cats, dogs, equines or farm animals. If you find a stray animal please follow the advice below:• Dogs - contact your local authority. • Cats - visit our stray cats pages for more information. • Equines and farm animals - contact the police.Now I gather the RSPCA like other animal ...
Sarah Palin is planning a trip to the UK specially to have her photo taken with Margaret Thatcher. (La Palin was unable to tell Katie Couric the names of any of the newspapers she reads. I wonder if she has read the whole of Margaret Thatcher's Downing Street Years. I hope someone asks her when she comes. It would be interesting to know since the book is 832 pages long and considered somewhat inaccessible. Roy Jenkins once quipped: "Wather like the virgin wastes of the Antartic, there are some parts of the book around about page 794 which have, I ...
The condition of the footpath on the north side of Perth Road - between Hyndford Street and Rockfield Street - is in poor shape. As one resident wrote to me "what a mess, almost every slab is broken or sunk down." I have written to the City Council about this, calling for improvements.
Like many other English football fans, I am still in mourning over the lacklustre performance of the national team in yesterdays game against the USA. What should have been an easy game to win, was marred by a rather bad (understatement?) goalkeeping blunder from West Ham's Robert Green. The game ended in a 1-1 draw, ...
Well the World Cup has well and truly started, as I suspected/feared England have proved to be a bit rubbish with Robert Green managing to concede a very soft goal from USA! USA!
In 2008 I was lucky enough, having followed the US presidential campaign closely to go the USA and watch the actual election in their own back yard. Seeing Barack Obama get elected as the first Afro-American President was one of those moments in history where everyone will remember where they were and I am proud ...
I have been a bit disturbed by the vitriol and humiliation aimed at poor Robert Green, England's goalie last night. People seem to work themselves up into an unfeasible sense of excitement about England in the World Cup, so when there is a disappointment they (or at least the press) go over the top with retribution aimed at a scapegoat. Robert Green was chosen to be our goalie. He made a great save in the second half and he made a mistake in the first. Get over it. If the team had played better, particularly in the first half, the ...
Catching up on some political reading after the election, I've been reading (or rather listening to) Vince Cable's The Storm. It's an enjoyable and easy to follow account of the economic crash, light on jargon but not dumbed down in quality of argument. It does at times feel like it was written rather in a rush (as Vince Cable himself concedes) and partly as a result is more a selection of interesting accounts of different aspects of what's happened to the economy laid out end-to-end rather than a book with a clear thread of argument running all the way through ...
Taylor Wimpey and Test Valley Borough Council plan to close part of the existing Smannell Road and divert it through the Augusta Park development at East Anton. An additional roundabout will be added and the journey distance doubled. Due to the substantial number of objections from local residents, a three day public local enquiry will be held in The Lights at Andover starting at 10am on the 20th July. Smannell Parish Council has objected to this unnecessary diversion on the grounds that: Heavy agricultural and commercial traffic will be forced to drive through this dense residential area and along a ...
There has been some controversy in the Liberal Democrat blogosphere over the coalition government's decision to cancel the extension of free school meals that Labour had announced. Nick Perry says "Progressives do not cut free school meals" and Liberal Burblings thinks that the lack of an explanation from the government is "disgraceful". I am not so sure. Was a support for this increase in the Liberal Democrat manifesto? I can recall no discussion of it within the party. It certainly did not feature in our general election campaign. This proposed extension looks more like an elephant trap left by a ...
I started reading Herbert Smith's The Man Versus The State months ago. I should have taken up the kind offer of Jock Coats and listened to his audio version. It isn't that it is a difficult read, it is simply that I find I have less time to read books these days. In fact, I have yet to read the other essays that have been added to the book since it was originally published. For anyone interested in classical liberalism or non-statist approaches to governance, then the book is well worth reading or listening to. Smith's starting point is that ...
We have asked for the grass next to the Wansdyke to be cleared, along with the discarded sofa.
On the right is a picture of some of the Arbury and King's Hedges team running our book stall at the Abury Carnival this Saturday. From left to right Alan Levy, Tim Ward from Arbury. At the front is the Mayor, Sheila Stuart. Behind her is Neil McGovern then Mike Pitt and finally the deputy mayor Ian Nimmo-Smith. Andy Pellew was busy helping to organise the event but he did drop round to see us. Follow that link for a few other photos. Thanks to everyone who dropped round to the stall to buy a book or just for a ...
As mentioned in a previous post, The Prisoner is currently showing on ITV4. The show is certainly a product of its time: a psychedelic spy story. At times it is just plain weird but there is also plenty of classic sixties television fight scenes to keep one amused. The storyline is straightforward. A spy resigns in anger (we know this from the opening sequence) and is abducted. He wakes up in The Village to discover that he is now known as No 6. He is there to provide information. No 6 refuses to do that and each week attempts to ...
This is the last of four maiden speeches presented here this weekend for the interest and comments of our readers. Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, for calling me to make my first speech to the House. I congratulate all those who have also made their first speeches today. I am very struck, and a bit awestruck, by the erudition that they have all displayed. As the Member for Redcar, I am proud to be the first Liberal to represent the area since 1923 and also very pleased to hear this afternoon's debate about potential voting system changes, which might do ...
It's that time again - street parties, fairs and strawberry teas. Yesterday I started by judging the dog contest in Highgate Village's 'Fair in the Square'. Every year Pond Square is the centre of a real village type fair - with stalls, rides and entertainment. This is my second year of judging the dog contest. The categories were: waggiest tail, best looking, veteran class and dogs shown by children under 10. Competition is actually very fierce - and one chap was so cross he missed the start of the veteran class that the organiser had to give him special entry ...
The latest "House of Comments" podcast with myself and Stuart Sharpe of the Sharpe's Opinion political blog is now live. The 29th episode which we recorded on Tuesday 8th June is available to download raw mp3 file here or you can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes here. The format is to invite political bloggers on each week to discuss a few of the stories that are making waves in the blogosphere. This week we were joined by Labour blogger Anthony Painter and Conservative blogger Kate Maltby. We discussed David Cameron's first PMQs, the aftermath of the Cumbrian killings and ...
We are concerned about Bath and North East Somerset consultation over the future of secondary schools in Bath. We feel that if Culverhay is closed this will let the south of Bath down again. Culverhay has served boys in the area for many years. With St. Gregory's having limited admission to non-catholics, it means many boys from the Odd Down/Kingsway area having to travel several miles to school,
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... qotd by/at: The Blue Tourist Some calm(er) reflection on things by/at: Boatang & Demetriou The Ambiguity of "Equal Rights" by/at: Ideas It Is Time To Say No! by/at: Witterings From Witney Grant Shapps fleshes out another half-baked idea which won't work... by/at: Mark Wadsworth Is Intellectual Property Itself Unethical? by/at: Techdirt Do Draconian Gun ...
Nominations are now open for the Social Liberal Forum Council Elections, which will be held over the next couple of months. Full details can be found on the elections page of this website. Anyone who is a member of the Social Liberal Forum is eligible to stand and membership of the SLF is free to all members of the Liberal Democrats. Register as a member on our membership page (if you aren't sure if you have already joined, you might as well sign up to make sure we haven't missed you). The deadline for nominations and new membership registrations (if ...
Yesterday we brought you maiden speeches from Stephen Gilbert and Michael Crockarty; here today we have Stephen Lloyd and later we will have Ian Swales. We are reposting maiden speeches here for the information of our online community, so that people can read and comment on what our MPs choose to use as their first words in Parliament. I am grateful for the opportunity to make my maiden speech this evening. It has been a privilege to listen to so many of my colleagues making their maiden speeches. I mention particularly the previous three speeches-from Mark Reckless, who has deep ...
For all that The Sun took to opportunity to reinforce the stereotype that the Americans don't get football on their front page yesterday, the USA are rated the World's 14th best team and they proved last night that they are easily able to hold their own against a shoddy England team. And despite what The Sun says, American sports analysis in general is some of the best in the world and among those who get football, their writing is superb. Take this piece in today's New York Times. Sitting alongside the normal match report, it's a colour article which takes ...
♫ The Appcast – The Appcast #56 March 7th, 2010 - Movie Apps #fb # ♫ House of Comments 17 – Piracy and the Digital Economy Bill #fb # Could today have been any more stressful? #fb # Doing the late shift tonight, but at least I got North Korea in the works' sweepstake! (@ Bulmershe Leisure Centre) http://4sq.com/crH7Sq # Very tired and in much pain #fb # Tick, tock, tick, tock: the results day countdown begins! #fb # Just over half an hour until the finals countdown is over and I know what degree I've got. Feeling sick with ...
There is an old Biblical Proverb that says "The way of a fool seams right to him, but a wise man listen to advice." A fairly obvious truth, getting the advice of people, especially those who disagree with you, will help you see potential problems and avoid short falls. This isn't saying that you HAVE ...
This man is blowing a vuvuzela. [IMG: Vuvuzela] The World Cup has so far been characterised mainly by complaints about these horns, from players, fans and commentators alike. (It has certainly not been characterised thus far by any decent football, Argentina aside, but I suppose there is time for that to change.) The main focus of the complaint seems to be that the incessant buzzing of the vuvuzelas - strongly reminiscent of a horde of bees, due to their being pitched around the same note (Bb) - detracts somehow from the 'atmosphere' of a football match. In fact the French ...
Warning: This video is very upsetting I realise some of you may have already seen this. But I feel an obligation to post it. The Israeli tactic of blocking all communication from the ship and detaining the passengers for days allowed Israeli doctored pictures to be the only ones broadcast by the mainstream news media. Despite the crudity of the tactic, the MSM have happily gone along with the idea that once alternative footage finally became available, it was no longer "news". We of the new media therefore have an obligation to do what little we each can to expose ...
So suggests Baroness Warsi, Conservative Party chair, in an interview with the Sunday Times: The little-used but contentious Labour legislation allowing terror suspects to be detained without charge for up to 28 days could also be scrapped. "The question I would ask is this: how many times has 28 days been used?" said Warsi, who also has a cross-Whitehall brief on community issues. A review could recommend changes in July. "Of course you have got to protect your country. But we have also got some very clear principles of natural justice. We have principles that people should know the charge ...
Osh lies in the heart of the Ferghana Valley. This extract from Murder in Samarkand gives essential backround: I was determined to set an early example to the staff of getting around the country and wanted to travel to the Ferghana Valley. This high valley, a fertile flood plain where tributaries from the great mountains join to form the Syr Darya and Amu Darya rivers, nestles in the foothills of the Himalayas, beneath the High Pamirs and the Tien Shan, the Heavenly Mountains. It was considered a likely ethnic and religious flashpoint. The Ferghana Valley is very heavily populated, home ...
The latest You Gov poll, in addition to the standard voting intentions, approval ratings for leaders and questioning the performance of the leaders they have also included a poll over what areas should face the most cuts( page 4). International Aid came out highest at 61% the second closest was welfare benefits for people of working age ...
Yesterday was the North East Regional Conference in Gateshead. It was a bit too short notice after the election to have a Lib Dem government minister speak to us (isn't it great to be able to speak of Lib Dem ministers!?). We did have Hilary Stevenson, the party's director of campaigns, speak in the final session. Alan Beith reported that the Parliamentarians from the North East - himself, Ian
It's been interesting to see the final list of nominations for Labour Party leader which, for those that missed it, is: Diane Abbott Ed Balls Andy Burnham David Miliband Ed Miliband The response from all quarters about the list first that its very 'samey', with much said about tokenism and the inclusion of Diane Abbott, not because she's black or a woman but because she represents the old left of the party. That got me to thinking about who would be the best from a Lib Dem point of view. A Leftie Dianne Abbott is the only real left leaning ...
It was the most electric moment of the TV coverage of election night 2015, and David Dimbleby captured it with his customary finesse: "Here we see Harriet Harman, gracefully accepting defeat and holding back the tears as she thanks the returning officer, congratulates her Tory opponent, and vows, 'I'll be back'. She has been MP ...
A fairly standard Ten / Martha adventure set in a near-future world where a small human colony is dealing with unseen monsters and cute little otter-like creatures. Interesting because Martha is knocked out for a chunk of the narrative, allowing the companion role to be distributed among several other characters. It's getting increasingly odd to read books with David Tennant's manic cheeky chappie at the same time as watching Matt Smith's alien young fogey (must try not doing two books and new episode in the same weekend too often).
Stockport's local election results from 1980, in my ongoing publication of the results from 1973 up to 2004. Among the familiar names, Maureen Rowles was elected in Brinnington (Maureen's back on the council this year after a two-year gap) and Paul Porgess won in Cheadle Hulme North. Another very poor year for the Liberals too, winning just one seat. 01/05/80 1980 Stockport Bredbury (10527) @ 1 vote share Prince W. Lab 1848 34.9 Walker R. Con 1810 34.1 Humphries D. Ms. Lib 1643 31 ffff Turnout 50.4 0.7 Brinnington (9076) @ 1 vote share Rowles M. Ms. Lab 3008 82.8 ...
It really is coming to something when the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority has to erect a sign at their House of Commons offices warning MPs: We will not tolerate abuse of our staff ...And the civil servant who was charged with implementing the new system leaves his job. But wait, he was only on a six month contract – and he's quit that and given this explanation: I have left the job for the sake of my health and sanity The Telegraph reports that: Paul Farrelly, a Labour MP, sent a complaint to Mr Gooding and said the new system ...
It is no surprise that Vince Cable has put his name to a cross-party committee report on the Future of Banking. After all it repeats much of the arguments he was making about the banking sector during the General Election: In a report today, fully endorsed by Cable, the commission concludes that bankers should be given formal ethical training before they can take a position. Their performance should also be overseen by an independent body similar to the General Medical Council for doctors or the Legal Services Board for lawyers. "A crucial element will be the power that this body ...
I have already commented here on Ed Balls' proposal to rewrite European treaties and undermine the free market principle on which the EU is built by restricting the ability of central Europeans to come and work in the UK. However, the comments on the Observer's website deal with the issue far more authoratively than I am able to, leaving the Shadow Education Secretary's argument in tatters. I was particularly struck by Wiktor Moszczynski's argument that the decision in 2004 to lift transitional restrictions on the free movement of labour between the UK and central European member states of the EU ...
This morning's Wales on Sunday reports that staff in hospitals across the country have been handed a memo urging them to vet patients before they are listed for surgery so as to check that they have not just arrived in the country: Only people who have been living in the UK for more than 12 months are entitled to free NHS care - but those who have been here less should pay for it. Despite the rules, the NHS in Wales is facing a shortfall of more than £1.3m from foreign patients who have dodged the payment. Under the guidelines, ...
Following the annual reporting of councillors' allowances in the press (Stockport's councillor allowances total a little under £1 million for 63 councillors), which as I wrote a couple of weeks ago seems reasonable to me if we want a good range of councillors able to run, and hold to account, a local authority with an annual budget of half a billion pounds. In this weeks Stockport Times, a letter writer asks whether we could make do with fewer councillors. Do we really need three per ward, or could one or two do the job? Could we run Stockport with just ...
A note to anyone taking a Piccadilly Line train from Covent Garden station: there are four lifts in operation at that station. There's even a semi-permanent sign at the station informing passengers of such. Although I have no idea whose bright idea it was to put that sign between one pair of lifts and the other, so you can't see the second pair of lifts until you walk through the inevitable crowd of people waiting for the first pair and go behind the sign. There, more often then not, you can, as I did yesterday, find two lifts at the ...
Julian's Persian campaign, and his death.
There has been much discussion about various state benefits recently in the context of what could be cut in order to save the government money and the question of means testing has raised its head again. Every time I hear this subject discussed there is always someone from a body who opposes the idea of means testing whatever specific benefit they are talking about involved. The argument often revolves around for example the fact that if a benefit is universal then take up by those who need it most is higher and also that the admin costs per capita are ...
I have now heard a number of debates about England flags on cars. Some people get quite upset with others saying they look tacky or people who drive around with England flags are some how idiots. I have also heard people claim that drivers who don't have England flags are unpatriotic or snobs. Some say it's mums and dads just sticking them on cars for the children. Well maybe it is but so what. Children don't have all these hang ups about how things look or how people judge you or how society see's you. Perhaps we can learn something ...
I don't own an HD TV, and when ITV Sport pull another missing-a-goal-through-cramming-in-an-extra-advert masterpiece purely for the benefit of their High Definition viewers, I have little reason to muster any envy for those who do. I can't say I'm a fan of ITV Sport. They appear to have an unhappy knack of making any sporting ...
Howard's cartoon from Friday's Liberal Democrat News.
Yesterday, two glossy magazines landed on my doormat, possibly delivered together. One was the Council's Town Crier magazine, the other was an independent advertising glossy called "darlington TODAY" (sic). I don't remember seeing this magazine before, though this is issue 21. Maybe that's because I live in Central ward and the target market appears to be people who might send their kids to
Notwithstanding the Cleggmania arising from the first debate I still believe that three leaders' debates, and nothing much from other major contenders for office placed too much emphasis on the personalities of the leaders and not enough on the policies of the members of their teams (see previous post.) Although he has broken no new ground David Cameron has continued the presidential style in this first month that he has held the office of prime minister. Each Wednesday he reads out the names of soldiers killed in service overseas and expresses the government's regret, a pratice begun by Mrs Thatches ...
[IMG: AC Cobra 1] Look! Look! One of the customers came in to work today in an AC Cobra, and he let me and Liz sit in it! I sat in the driver's seat! And it smelled of leather and it was amazing! ( Two more pics under the cut )
Uzbek opposition sources are giving much higher totals of dead than the official 53 in the violence in the ethnically Uzbek city of Osh in Kyrgyzstan. Russia has refused the request to intervene from interim Kyrgyz leader Rosa Otunbayeva - a leader Putin would not be inclined to support. Rosa came to power after May's revolution and is in the process of trying to organise democratic elections. This documentary from Michael Andersen gives essential background to the conflict.
Jock Coats is always worth reading but his post on punishment and prisons sets out an alternative and radical method of dealing with crime. Fascinating stuff.
You are in charge. You have employees and young children in your care and you hear that a former pupil is making serious threats to harm those who are in your care and there are more than 1000 pupils in your school. What do you do? A. Send everyone home immediately. B. Carry on as normal. C. Inform the police and take their advice. I think I would go for C. This happened on Friday when a teenager threatened to kill others in a Newton-le-Willows school, and on the local news on Saturday I heard that one person had complained ...
