I'll let you into a secret. When I fill out an expense claim, as well as following the normal labyrynthine rules about receipts and no lunch claims etc etc, I have to print out three copies of the master form – yes, three. I then have to get a pair of scissors. Yes, old fashioned scissors. I then have to take the third copy and cut it so that I produce, out of an A4 sheet, a small postage stamp-like piece of paper which has the expenses barcode of it. I then have to take a roll of sellotape, which ...
A letter in the Newcastle Evening Chronicle tonight reads, "The sight of Mrs Thatcher in the doorway of number 10 Downing Street with David Cameron surely sends shockwaves to the North East." A rant about the killing-all-first-born tendency of the Coalition government then followed.The author of these comments is someone called Nick Kemp, a Labour councillor in Newcastle. I wonder what his
Today I have been to Much Wenlock and its impressive ruined priory. When I see the results of the Reformation I think of Henry VIII as a sort of 16th century Stalin, destroying valuable social institutions to strengthen the state.
The last few months have indicated to me something which I feel is very important in Liberal Youth. And that is that the next twelve months are going to be incredibly challenging. Normally I would never use my position of influence to tell people how to vote in elections, but this time round I strongly believe that we need to return the strongest possible Liberal Youth executive. In terms of recruiting and keeping hold of our important volunteers and activists from all corners of the country, we need the most effective direction from the Chair. The campaigns need to be ...
I went to the Lib Dems North East regional conference in Gateshead on Saturday. It was very busy, with lots of new faces. Particularly encouraging was the presence of three new Blaydon members who joined during the campaign. They threw themselves straight into the campaign and came along to the conference. Our regional chair reported that during the campaign thousands of new young members joined through the web. And contrary to received wisdom we have since received thousands of new members joining after the election too. Its really encouraging to see this and goes to show that all the tales ...
Mon 14th
23:19
BBC Radio Kent - Danger Listeners at work - "ring up if you think your tough enough!"*
I rarely listen to BBC Radio Kent and this has nothing to do with the professionalism of the presenters, just the content which seems so trivial, that it could be broadcast anywhere in the world. Monday morning, since David Cameron had made an issue of Health & Safety, BBC Radio Kent, no surprise devoted the last hour of its Breakfast programme to what I felt was on balance a trivial approach to the issue. I don't doubt there is some lunacy attached to some interpretations of Health and Safety but in construction about 50 workers and in agriculture around 25 ...
[IMG: Nick Clegg Header] Dear Owen, This morning, the Office for Budget Responsibility - an office established by this Government - published its first assessment of the public finances. Regrettably the problems facing our country are even more serious than we had originally realised.We and many others have been warning for some time that the growth forecast in the March Budget was optimistic. The Office for Budget Responsibility confirms this. And because trend growth is lower than expected, the structural deficit is larger than anyone realised. In 2010/11 it's going to be 8% of GDP - that's £118bn; £11 billion ...
[IMG: Bunting] Two more summer events in the community for you to spend your money and have a good time at: Summer Fair this Saturday afternoon (3-5 p.m. 19th June) at St John the Evangelist on Hills Road. Cakes, plants, tombola, games and cream teas which are likely to be home-made, scones, jam and all. Summer Fête at Morley Memorial Primary School on Saturday 26th June, 12 noon - 2.30 p.m. Books, toys, games, hand-made goods and an awesome array of things to eat from the many different countries represented amongst Morley families!
Can you believe how many goals there have been this world cup! its incredible isn't it and no doubt in any small part to the ball that is being used. If you remember back to before the world cup began there were many reports coming from different goal keepers that they couldn't handle the ball ...
I think I heard that right!?! Barack Obama today likened the Gulf oil disaster as America's new 911, a very significant comparison indeed to the impact of that most hideous crime. And the perpetrator is clear - BP or as often referred; 'British Petroleum'. Indeed it is the most awful disaster and my sympathies are with the people of those coastal areas and those who lost loved ones in on the Deep Horizon rig. I kind of expected the comparison with 911 to be made as stated in this blog perviously (Pensacola Misery). BP definitely has questions to answer and ...
Letter to my fellow Lib Dem CBC councillors: "The application for the "Beechnut" for Bedford Square came before the Houghton Regis Town Council planning committee this evening. (Download main application from Central Bedfordshire Council website at http://tinyurl.com/34gmwcb ) "The scheme is supposed to "help make Bedford Square a focus for community interaction and recreation". Yet people already interact in Bedford Square, and there have been many attempts over the years to make Bedford Square less of a recreational area. Surely the last thing to be encouraged is "recreational use"? A secondary aspiration of the project is to "enhance Bedford Square". ...
After two busy surgeries at the Mitchell Street Centre and Harris Academy late this afternoon, I attended tonight's City Council meeting and service committees : * At the City Council meeting, councillors heard from Ali and Khalid El-Awaisi about Ali's harrowing experience on the Mavi Mamera at the hands of Israeli commandoes, when all Ali and his friends were trying to do was bring much-needed aid to the people of Gaza. In my speech to the City Council, I made clear my concern about Israel's breach of international law. The City Council unanimously adopted a motion adding its voice to ...
I've written before about the centralisation tendencies of Cornwall Council. From the decision to put localism on hold to scheduling a Launceston planning meeting in Truro, the signs have not been good. Now comes the news that planning meetings for North Cornwall might be moved from Camelford to Liskeard. Cornwall has three local planning committees. One of these covers the whole of East Cornwall - the old districts of North Cornwall and Caradon. Until now, the planning committee has met in both Liskeard and Camelford and the officers have tried to make sure that North Cornwall applications have been heard ...
View Poll: #1578497 Current FIFA rankings: 4_03_am, horizon_radar and redfiona99 for calling all three of today's matches correctly.
Will Straw on Left Foot Forward has some utterly terrifying figures. Well terrifying if you work for a newspaper.Charlotte Gore explains how the banking crisis came to pass and how public and private borrowing are two very different animals.Iain Roberts on Lib Dem Voice challenges us to think of issues upon which we have changed our view due to evidence.Caron Lindsay thinks the reaction to Rob Green's "hand of clod" slip-up on Saturday is way, way over the top. Amen! Monday bonus is World Cup related. I think the football song attempts this time round have been pretty poor so ...
The EDP reports that Adult Education fees are set to rise by 20% next year, with a resulting possible fall in uptake of these courses by 2000 people next year. For me, this is a really easy target for the Tories to attack, but also the wrong target given the current economic climate. In difficult economic times, people ought to be encouraged to retrain, get better qualified, and be better equipped for the upturn. Sadly, cost is a very important factor in whether people will take up adult education classes, and this will inevitably put people off. I myself did ...
Video of Nick Clegg's speech to the Institute for Government also available here. This morning Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg made a speech on the economy (above) at the Institute for Government, putting the case for cutting debt sooner rather than later. He said that the debt crisis in Europe and Labour's "terrible legacy" necessitated urgent action: The choices that were available to us just two months ago are no longer available. We have to take action now so that we can still be in control of our future. This evening, Nick emailed Liberal Democrat members with this summary: This ...
After I wrote about the problems with long range weather forecasting, I've had an email from a member of staff at the Met Office HQ in Exeter inviting me to come and chat to them about their work and the problems I have with some of their long range forecasting. I've said yes and I'll report back when I've been to talk to them.
Britain was hooked on debt during the Labour era. The government was an addict, and encouraged the public at large to get into debt like never before. The Coalition government faces an unprecedented debt mountain and spending deficit as a result of Labour's failed economic policies. Public spending, and the country as a whole, will have to go into collective cold turkey to stop the spiralling debts and overspend. To achieve this there will have to be public spending cuts and tax rises. Everyone is in agreement on this. Except Labour. Even in opposition, Labour continues to act like a ...
As I blogged last week, Launceston College, together with Cornwall Council and the university, held a presentation evening last week to explain the plans to redevelop Dunheved House, the former boarding house. For non-Lanson residents, it was the home, for part of his schooling, of future James Bond Roger Moore. The project will see the college using the venue as a training kitchen and fine dining restaurant for catering students and the ultimate aim is to open a small number of hotel rooms on the top floor. The University would be able to offer courses there as well as having ...
I have been wondering for a while what David Miliband would do if his younger brother Ed Miliband were to win the Labour leadership. Michael Crick has a post today where he speculates that he would leave politics altogether. I'm not so convinced. Whilst I am sure it would be difficult for David to serve under his younger brother (I write as the eldest of three brothers) I think it would be seen as extremely churlish and indeed childish if he were to strop off if Ed gets the prize. All his talk about wanting to serve the party and ...
Dear Lisa, This morning, the Office for Budget Responsibility - an office established by this Government - published its first assessment of the public finances. Regrettably the problems facing our country are even more serious than we had originally realised. We and many others have been warning for some time that the growth forecast in ...
Here is a selection of issues making headlines during the past week: Ex-MP entitled to £65k 'golden goodbye' - Andrew Mackay's comment was the classic "I have no comment to make at all". I sent Andrew Mackay a list of questions and tried to contact him but never got a response. I guess Bracknell News were lucky to get that much detail from Mackay. New hopes to stem housing developments - "The new Conservative Liberal Democrat coalition Government has announced it is scrapping the South East Plan". As we all know there has been plenty of house building in Bracknell. ...
There's been some good stuff around the blogosphere recently - I haven't done a round up for a while, so here's what you've been missing: In 2008, Mat Follas won Masterchef with an inventive menu of foods he'd foraged for himeslf. He now has a restaurant called the Wild Garlic in Dorset. Kavey has reviewed it. I want to go there......... I have been meaning to link to Cllr Iain Roberts for some time because his assiduous work in collating all the local election results in Stockport in history has to be acknowledged somewhere. He's got to 1980 so far ...
Just had a run along the beach here at Malahide, County Dublin, Ireland. The sun was shining, families were playing on the beach, the tide was low and the views were breathtaking... Perhaps this provides some sort of answer to the commenter who recently told me to get a life...
One of the pleasures of being in the county is that I am able to buy the Shropshire Star. Today's issue features a story about a cow escaping from a field near the Shirehall in Shrewsbury and holding up the traffic. For some unaccountable reason it has failed to make the newspaper's website. The Star has an endearing habit of mixing local and national news on the same page. So this story about a cow appears next to a photograph of Catherine Zeta-Jones accepting a Tony for her role in a revival of A Little Night Music.
Here's a note of controversy for the World Cup. Despite having changed my website to reflect the national hysteria surrounding our bunch of overpaid hospital cases I can't get away from the thought that our national flag, colours and Patron Saint were all introduced by the Normans as they sought to change the traditions of this country root and branch. Now that's not necessarily a bad thing and only a fool would declare that our country is timeless and that our traditions go back into the mists of time. They don't: somewhere along the line of our turbulent and often ...
It's that time again, folks. Yes, Liberal Youth elections are rolling around like a penny in one of those charity things at the supermarket. I'm running for the position of Liberal Youth England Convenor. This job has, up until now, been a bit of a non-job. It hasn't done much for England, but has been, rather, another GEM. (A Very English GEM, if you will). I want to change that. I want the Convenor to be someone who works to build the regions and local parties, who is focused on England and building the party up in that way - ...
The Chipping Sodbury Festival Bike Rides have come around again - they're on next Sunday, 20th June. Both rides start from the Clock Tower: 11.30 am - 25 mile ride 12.30 pm - 12 mile family ride Both rides will finish in Jubilee Park by about 2.00 pm - just in time for the Wildlife Trust Duck Race (great fun for the kids!) For more details of the bike rides please contact Bob Keen of the U3A Cycle Group. You can email him on r2-keen@blueyonder.co.uk or phone him on 01454 881966. Check out the Chipping Sodbury Festival website for details ...
I visited a new Affordable Housing Development at the Western Harbour on Edinburgh's Waterfront. A very impressive development of 102 homes built for Port of Leith Housing Association at Goosander Place, a site next to the old fish market. The development boasts 8 homes for people with disabilities plus many, much needed, three bed roomed homes for families. Another interesting feature was the ground source heating system making this one of the most sustainable development in the country. When I had finished looking at the magnificent views from top floor balconies I wandered down into the garden to find three ...
My World Cup is over. Like Rio Ferdinand and Ledley King, I won't be donning the England shirt this month. I have suffered a leafleting injury which has confined me to the house for the last 48 hours and looks set to keep me quasi-immobile for some time to come. It happened when I was out leafleting on Saturday. I decided that a time-saving ploy would be to forego the normal leafleting etiquette of walking to the end of someone's drive before walking back down the drive next door, and instead to walk to the side of the first drive ...
At the weekend Executive of Liberal International in Berlin, I successfully moved (on behalf of the British Liberal Democrats) an urgency resolution following on the recent Israeli attack on the Gaza aid flotilla. Though it was slightly softened after negotiation with the Germans and Dutch, it is by the far the strongest statement to have ...
Even though it was cancelled as part of my book club, I am currently reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and enjoying it completely after having to let go of my preconceptions of what the book would be about. One paragraph I came across today reads: ...all the writers the students were supposed to mimic wrote without rules, putting down whatever sounded right, then going back to see if it still sounded right and changing it if it didn't. There were some who apparentlt wrote with calculating premeditation because that's the way their product looked. But that seemed ...
Press release from Mark Hunter: Local MP Mark Hunter has hailed the Liberal Democrat/Conservative Coalition's announcement on giving local councils powers to prevent the building of new homes in back gardens as "a great success". Many local residents have contacted Mr Hunter concerned about the number of new houses being built in gardens due to their classification as "brownfield" sites. This means that developers are, in principle, free to use this land to build new properties in the same way that they could with disused factories or railway stations. Last week, however, the new Secretary of State for Communities and ...
The Public Inquiry into Jack Allen's attempt to be allowed to put a waste plant at Garston Dock and next to the Cressington Heath housing development starts tomorrow (15th). I'll be there, with my colleagues, and will attempt to do Twitter updates as the hearing goes on. It's scheduled for four days. Any member of the public can attend, but if you want to speak it's best to be there tomorrow at 10 am and register this fact. I have been doing some last minute media interviews today as part of our effort to make sure people know what's going ...
[IMG: Battery bin] Watch out for events featuring small waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). Energy-saving light bulbs and household batteries can now be recycled at Sainsbury's Coldhams Lane and Cherry Hinton Hall car park. Batteries can be recycled at most supermarkets. Watch for the new recycling bins in the City centre.
It will have taken seven months since the consultation over the future of the Warwickshire Fire & Rescue Service closed in December last year, but finally we are going to get the chance to debate the final proposals for the service at Full Council on the 20th July. I've no idea yet what the new plan will contain, but I very much hope it will look very different to that consulted on last year, especially in terms of fire station closures. I remain totally committed to Kenilworth Fire station being retained in any new plan.
I'd like to thank all the Labour people who commented on the first drafting of this post, it turned out to be factually quite lacking. In it I pondered about cabinet appointments and weather Ed Balls could potentially appoint Yvette Cooper to a position if he was leader. turns out that in opposition he can't! ...
I've issued a press release today responding to a statement in last week's local press by Cllr Alan Cockburn, the Conservative portfolio holder for the Environment on Warwickshire County Council. He had criticised the Liberal Democrats for opposing Project Transform, the giant incinerator project, without putting forward any alternative to this. I said: "It is not true that we opposed the project from the start, but what we have done all along is to ask hard and searching questions - something the Conservatives have failed to do. During the course of last year it became clear that the project was ...
During the election you may remember me being rather taken aback when with a few minutes notice I heard that St. Andrew's in Bo'ness would be live streaming the election hustings they were holding there for the Linlithgow and East Falkirk candidates. In fact I was still tweeting the link at the time we were called to our seats. Well the church, which already had their services available online are now live streaming these as well. Good the see the team at St. Andrew's leading the way.
[IMG: Lynee, Ed and me launching the campaign] Lynne Featherstone has joined the Stroud Green Lib Dem team in launching a campaign to make the pedestrian crossing on Upper Tollington Park (by the junction with Florence Road) safer. The campaign was launched after local residents raised concerns about the speed of traffic on the road and a recent accident near the zebra crossing. This is a key route for children going to Stroud Green Primary School and many years ago the Council employed a 'lollipop lady' to patrol the crossing. However, I'm told that when she retired she was never ...
I ask not because they played so poorly against Germany, losing 4-0, but because to improve their chances of qualifying they decided to become Asian.
Cornwall Council has announced that they are to strip some of the play equipment from the Ridgegrove Estate and that they will not be replacing it. This is despite a site visit in January when an expert agreed that all the equipment was safe to use and only minor repairs were needed. Officers pledged then that the minor repairs (including to flooring) would be done. For some reason, it appears that housing department officers decided not to undertake the repairs and a further inspection was organised for last week to which I was not invited. That found that one set ...
Today, the Social Liberal Forum has published an open letter to Nick Clegg and Danny Alexander expressing our concerns prior to the emergency budget which will be unveiled next week. By coincidence, Simon Hughes, Malcolm Bruce and Lord Oakeshot are reported in the FT today expressing similar sentiments on capital gains tax. The SLF letter covers a lot more ground than CGT including socio-economic inequality, income tax and VAT. But it is a fundamental issue which, more than anything else, will determine the future direction of the coalition. For the past month, Tory backbench MPs and the rightwing press have ...
That's a question that is sparked by the oft-quoted lament: "Why does Birmingham, Alabama have 8 local television stations whilst Birmingham, England has none?". Jeremy Hunt, the new Culture Secretary quoted it in a recent speech. It is a snapshot of a broader issue, that the US has hundreds of local TV stations across the breadth of the country whereas we do not really have (and have never really had) anything resembling that. We did used to have the ITV regions which was a vaguely regional approach with some local programming but there were only 15 or so of them ...
Yesterday the Sunday Mirror reported that the new Conservative MP for Romsey, Caroline Nokes, had been having an affair with her agent. In itself, that news should be nobody's business but Mrs Nokes, her husband and the man involved. What makes this worthy of comment is that, during the election, Mrs Nokes signed a campaign group's pledge stating that extra-marital sex was wrong. My understanding is that her signature was then used to appeal to some of her electorate for votes. If all the above is true, that means that Mrs Nokes campaigned using false promises to the electorate. In ...
To the untrained eye, it may appear that one of these creatures is rather more dangerous than the other and therefore that it may make sense to have rules about keeping one of them which shouldn't apply to the other: [IMG: Tiger and tortoise] However, to the keenly trained eye of a Cornwall County Council officer, it's a different matter. For, as Alex Folkes reports, 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, ...
Northampton borough council has saved 1,154 tonnes of glass via its new glass recycling scheme, enough to drive a billion miles.
Picture 1: Ugh! What ugliness! A revolting blot on our British landscape. Tear them down immediately. Picture 2: Never before have I seen such elegance! From the proudly erect light water reactor to graceful curves of the cooling towers, the pleasure of such majestic architecture should be experienced throughout the land. Uh huh.
The USA is in a state of frustration and anguish about the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. The apparent inability of BP to cap the leaking well that is polluting the sea and the coast is definitely a cause for alarm. Helpfully for the Americans, the culprit has the word "British" in its name (though the Americans own 40% of it). It helps deflect attention away from the inability of anyone to
The sad fact is that any posting about Central Asia sees my visitor figures plummet. I can please myself and don't make money from this webiste. But I can see why commercial media ignore Central Asia. And the harsh truth is that, even when a dramatic crisis is occuring and this blog is one of the few sources of informed comment, only a dribble of people bother to google. A disclaimer - I know Uzbek and Kirghiz people who don't really understand what is happening. The only journalists who might have a clue are Michael Andersen and Monica Whitlock, and ...
From the Council: Stockport Council has beaten off national competition to secure a Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) grant of £269,000 to provide work placements in the local heritage sector. HLF's Skills for the Future programme aims to provide new training opportunities for unemployed people across the UK seeking a career in heritage. Paid training places will be available from the autumn at a range of sites including Reddish Vale Country Park, Stockport Heritage Library and various museums, as well as alongside Stockport's many voluntary heritage groups. The placements, which will be a year long, will teach trainees practical skills like ...
Now that the World Cup is under way just spare a thought for all those that don't like football....... Done that? Good now lets get back to the footy! Sadly Englands performance on Saturday was typical of what we have come to expect. It's not that we were all bad, far from it. But inevitably as the game draws near you scan the team and you along with friends, family, pub etc come to the reasonable conclusion that this England team is a good team and we should expect. First big mistake. Then the match starts and whilst they started ...
My attempt to embed the video didn't work. Interesting stuff from Russia Today. My video is near the bottom of the page. Contrast with total tosh from NATO spkesman.
A break from my memoirs to discuss the Labour leadership contest. Now this is important to all of us for two reasons. Firstly, it is possible that the winner will be our next Prime Minister so we must take it seriously. Secondly, it is important for any government to have an effective opposition to scrutinise it and keep it on its toes. Labour party members must ask two questions - who will provide this effective opposition to the government and who is the most likely to win for Labour at the next general election? Who do we have in the ...
Its not difficult to notice, in any supermarket, that we are in the grips of the World Cup campaign, the tell tale signs have been there for the last couple of weeks, massive stacks of beer in supermarket entrances, almost exclusively non-English, then there are the flags despite all the "come on England" malarkey its probable that they are produced in some sweatshop halfway round the globe. Wandering into the "Official Supermarket" late on Saturday afternoon I was pleased that fortunately many were already doing their bit for England by guzzling copious amounts of Guinness, Carlsberg, Stella thus leaving the ...
I caught sight of this little story the other day from a fellow tweeter. The exact details and alleged comments have yet to be published, but Spiderplant will be watching closely to see how this pans out... The following letter was produced today, immediately after a very upsetting visit to our local Morrisons supermarket. We've ...
We political activists all have our creeds – the various strands of liberal, conservative, labour and other political thinking that our opinions stem from. And most of us, whatever our politics, believe that the evidence also backs us up. Remarkably, my views on policy both stem from my political philisophy and are supported by the available evidence. Even more amazingly, my political opponents believe the same is true for them. What are the odds? Needless to say, this is absolutely not confirmation bias – no way! That's the psychological failing we pretty much all fall prey to at least some ...
Over the weekend Alistair Darling said he hoped David Cameron and George Osborne would apologise if the size of the debt announced today was not as great as they had said during the election. Wonder if he will now do the same seeing as his growth forecast from his last budget has now been downgraded. As the size of the structural deficit is also predicted to rise from Darling's prediction of 7.3% of GDP to 8.0% it appears that rather than the Conservatives misleading over the debt it has been Labour doing just that. The structural deficit which of course ...
Following on from the Social Liberal Forum's open letter to Nick Clegg and Danny Alexander about the emergency budget, three prominent Liberal Democrat parliamentarians have echoed our concern on Capital Gains Tax. The FT reports that Lord Oakeshott, Malcolm Bruce and new Lib Dem Deputy Leader Simon Hughes also advising Nick Clegg not to capitulate. Simon Hughes told the FT that he was "trusting [the chancellor and chief secretary] will find a way of squaring the circle that colleagues in my party can sign up to and that will send a message to colleagues around the edges that they can't ...
JUNE TIME FOR TEA FESTIVAL OFFER Time for Tea, Bury New Road Open: Tuesday - Saturday 9.30-5pm & Sunday 12-4pm £1 for any drink on menu, upon production of this booklet. Phone: 0161 773 3612 www.timefortearoom.co.uk FESTIVE SPECIAL @ BLUE BAY INDIAN RESTAURANT Blue Bay Restaurant, 56-58 Bury Old Road, Prestwich 3 course meal from our traditional menu excluding sea food and duck served Mon-Thurs 5-7pm. Price £9.95 per person. Sunday Family Buffet served from 2-6pm only £9.95 per person / children £5.95. Bury Curry Club 'Gold Award winner 2010'. Phone: 0161 773 4743 or 0161 773 3657. PRESTWICH HOSPITAL ...
It is quiet funny how when Russia marched into Georgia to deal with the protests and sepreatist movement there they were condemned by the international community, yet now with the rise in conflict in kyrgtzstan they haven't acted and also been condemned. There are some stark similarities between the two, both involve minority ethnic groups ...
A common thread running through the Press Complaints Commission's defence of its work is that it has been primarily created to deal with individual complaints, rather than being a regulator whose role is to improve the press overall. That's why, for example, the PCC emphasises the proportion of complaints made to it which are concluded with the complainant happy with the outcome rather than, for example, focusing on how widespread certain practices are and whether they are increasing or decreasing. To give an example: if a blogger were to complain to the PCC about a newspaper taking their work and ...
Simon Wright, MP for Norwich South, will this morning attend the launch of National Carers Week in Norfolk at the Forum.
Intrigue, as the New York Times popped up this morning with a story about how Afghanistan is sitting on a trillion dollars worth of mineral wealth, including massive deposits of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and lithium. There's a few different aspects to this story. Michael Cohen is peeved by the somewhat cynical exploitation of the story by the Pentagon, and he has a point – there's nothing new about this haul. The US found charts detailing the country's mineral wealth in 2004, and even put the details online in 2007, but these charts had been drawn up during the Soviet ...
As I predicted on Saturday, I did indeed end up watching the England game on Saturday night. In a way, I'm kind of glad, because it means that I can comment on the villification in the press of England goalie Robert Green with just a little bit of knowledge. I know that can be a dangerous thing, but I'm going to feel the fear and do it anyway. Now, it came as something of a shock to me that some guy called Green was the goalie, seeing as Twitter had told me on Friday that the England goalie was one ...
We have four new black and minority ethnic women councillors since the last election - thanks to a ground breaking and much-needed mentoring scheme. Less than 1% of women councillors come from black and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds despite making up 5% of the population! So Operation Black Vote and the Government Equalities Office launched a task-force to tackle this under-representation. To lack BAME women means we are losing out, on not only representation itself, but talented and able women who may just never have thought someone like them could go into politics. If you have never seen role models ...
Now that South Gloucestershire Council's Badminton Road offices are open, the new waiting restrictions that were introduced on the surrounding roads are being reviewed. If you have any comments to make, please email mouchel.highwayconsultation@southglos.gov.uk by Wednesday 30th June 2010.
On Tuesday the Wallington South Safer Neighbourhood Team will be moving out of the Wallington Police Station and into Crosspoint House a little further up Stafford Road. Crosspoint House will be the new base for all six local Neighbourhood Teams previously located in the Wallington station, and offers more space and a modern environment. The front ...
In George Osborne's first budget next week, most commentators are expecting him to put VAT up to 20% or thereabouts. It will bring in a decent chunk of extra revenue to help deal with the deficit. Why is it though that VAT is perceived as a natural, easy option for putting up by politicians? If you measure how VAT affects people by relating it to their income then it is regressive, i.e. it affects the poorer disproportionately. There are some who argue it should be measured by consumption (by which measure it is less regressive) but opinion is at the ...
Vast mineral deposits have just been located in Afghanistan - a discovery that looks set to prolong the destabilisation of the war-torn country for many years. The New York Times says that the mineral reserves are worth more than $1 trillion and include cobalt, lithium, iron, gold and copper and were discovered by a small team of US researchers and geologists. By comparison, the economy of Afghanistan is currently worth just $12 billion a year. If such deposits were found in a stable country, it would be cause for huge celebration. There would be new roads and hospitals, better security ...
Manchester Airport are holding a series of outreach meetings at which, among other things, you can go along and have a one-to-one chat with someone from the airport about any concerns you may have (flightpaths has been the main one that's come my way from this area). Our local one is at Cheadle Library, 28th September from 12-7pm, but there are a few you can get to before then without having to travel too far. Here's the poster with all the details. [IMG: man_air.jpg]
I have to agree with his response to this ridiculous claim of Ed Balls that Labour would have won had it not been for Alistair Darling not ruling out a VAT rise. I can only assume this is an attempt to woo the left of the party again after his statements on Immigration (Which by the way ...
Many of my readers will remember Belinda, who worked tirelessly to get Ed Davey MP and the Lib Dems on Kingston Borough Council elected.Just over two years ago Belinda lost her battle with cancer.Rob and Belinda ensured the funeral was a celebration of Belinda's life and everyone who attended was given some bulbs to plant.Well, I planted mine once in the current flat (as I have a balcony) and it has bloomed, as the beautiful picture shows.Belinda will never be forgotten xx ------------------
You have a chance to look at and be consulted on the new County Durham Plan at Consett Library today, between 2.00 and 7.00. The plan was presented to ciuncillors last week and my own feeling was that it was very much centred on Durham City. You can test whether that is true or not by attending the Library and asking your own questions to form your own view. You can find out more about the plan by looking at the county website here
Nick Clegg is due to make a keynote speech today in which he will defend the Liberal Democrats' change of heart in favour of making immediate cuts so as to tackle the deficit. According to the Daily Telegraph Clegg will say that it is vital to take action to tackle the £145 billion deficit: He will tell the Institute of Government in London: "It [cutting the deficit] is the only way we can get our public finances on a sound footing. And to do anything else would not only be irresponsible, it would be a betrayal of our progressive values." ...
I am very grumpy this morning. I'm shattered from a very busy weekend, and my general feeling of yuckness is not helped by events in Montreal at the Canadian Grand Prix this weekend. I've not yet seen all the race because we were out at a friend's First Communion yesterday, but Stephen can testify that I was fit to be tied on Saturday after qualifying. He may even have learnt some new sweary words. Not only did Schumi not make the final pole position shoot out for the first time, but Lewis Hamilton ended up on pole as he was ...
Yesterday I visited Acton Scott and its historic working farm, which you may know from the television series The Victorian Farm. As its website says, it: offers a fascinating insight into rural life at the turn of the 19th century, as farm life unfolds daily and the land around is worked by heavy horses. There are demonstrations of period skills and visits from the Wheelwright, Farrier and Blacksmith, providing a picture of life as it might have been on a Victorian country estate. The former School House, originally built by Frances Stackhouse Acton in the late 19th century, has been ...
Following the YouGov/Sunday Times poll that had the Lib Dems falling to 18% yesterday, a Harris/Metro poll today has the Lib Dems up at 25%. As Mike Smithson reports over on Political Betting, the fieldwork for the Harris poll is actually slightly older, (1st-9th June as opposed to YouGov 10th-11th June). Rather than telling us anything particularly useful – certainly in terms of the outcome of any future elections – these last two are notable more for the pollsters finally leaving behind a run of six post-election polls all of which had the Lib Dems firmly planted at 21%. Since ...
Whatever your feelings about David Willets, he has at least realised a simple truth. In the short term, and possibly in the long term also, the cost to the country of having a university system is not reduced by making students pay fees. Most students take out loans that are repaid long-term at low interest rates, and fees simply transfer a part of university costs from one taxpayer 'pot' to another1. Why, then, are Vice-Chancellors so united in demanding that fees be increased? The answer is not difficult to find. If money comes directly from government, then government is likely ...
The joys of blogging using a completely new platform with a development team that really want to make it work, instead of just make it sellable is palpable. Dreamwidth is, still, not a finished, ready-for-general-release product. That's fine, it's getting there. What's really good though, is that the team behind it are really keen on getting the documentation up to speed, and are generally pleased when you go point out something that isn't working right. After a lot of headscratching, and a bit of trial and error, I've finally got the sidebars to my main layout almost looking right (at ...
Thefts of bikes from station: there has been a problem with these but the Police are very much on the case. There's also bike week: on 22 June in the morning outside the Town Hall you can have free post coding of your bike (and free breakfast!) Anyone can anyway get this done at a police station or mobile police station. For more information about bike security click here.
One of the reasons why adverts work is if people talk about the advert. I take photos at weddings and my best advert is word of mouth. There are quotes such as Brendan Behan's "there is no such thing as bad publicity" which make you think that it doesn't matter what you do as long as people talk about you. However I don't think Gerald Ratner would agree. If you have a reasonably good product or service then advertising will be successful and in these conditions the more people who talk about you the better. Therefore it is with reservation ...
Following our mini-consultation a few days ago, we have written the following letter to Nick Clegg and Danny Alexander outlining our concerns about the upcoming Emergency Budget. Thanks to everyone who submitted their ideas, both on our website and privately by email. To: Nick Clegg, Danny Alexander cc. Simon Hughes Dear Nick and Danny, Next week, the coalition government is to produce its emergency budget. This more than anything else will determine the direction of economic policy over the next few years. It is therefore crucial that it spells out an agenda not only for our straitened financial circumstances but ...
