Yesterday I attended the Press View of the BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery in London, along with not just fellow hacks but also several of the artists and some of the sitters — including Soho figure Molly Parkin in a suitably over-the-top headdress. Not present, of course, was the subject of the winning ...
Today was the big day when the Yorkshire Regiment exercised their freedom to march through the borough with standards flying, band playing and bayonets fixed. Several hundred people had turned out to cheer, to thank them for the job they do and to watch the spectacle.The men, some looking so young they probably couldn't vote in last month's election, marched along the High Street to the Town
Did David Anderson, Labour MP for Blaydon, really mean to suggest that Gateshead Court dishes out justice that is "not as good" as that delivered by Blaydon court? I ask because that was his response to the proposed closure of Blaydon court and the transfer of its functions to Gateshead in The Journal on Thursday.I can understand his desire to want to protect facilities though there are times
Thu 24th
22:22
My Increasing Unease with the Coalition, and what can be done about it: FAO @nick_clegg
My initial positive-feelings-tempered-with-caution towards the coalition, cemented when I voted for it at special conference, have been being slowly eroded over recent weeks. This isn't because of any particular policy, or even a cumulative dripdrip of many policies. I, like David, recognise and accept that part of coalition is that you have to accept some stuff you don't like in exchange for the stuff you do, and so long as nobody's red lines are being crossed then working together is better than working apart. There are some policies which this government has brought to fruition which I like, some which ...
In news reminiscent of London, someone in St Ives has recently paid around £60,000 for a parking space. Full story here.
Heaven knows, I'm not a deficit hawk - though I have Victorian Liberal's horror of waste, especially wasteful public expenditure that is destructive: encouragement for buying cars, subsidised air travel or supermarkets, accountants employed by NHS trusts to code each treatment or to challenge each coding for each PCT. But I have begun to get depressed by the rhetoric of the cuts debate. Has any modern economy actually managed to balanced their budget? Do we actually need to be in deficit just to operate these days? Isn't it time we had a proper discussion about how, in practice, we can ...
There was a briefing arranged today by the team which will be coming to Launceston over the summer to run a six week waste reduction initiative. At the moment, each resident of Cornwall produces on average half a ton of rubbish per year and only around 37% is recycled. Of the remaining 63%, a quarter is material that could have been recycled. Included in the rubbish is around 70kg of food waste per year. This isn't the peelings and scraps which are useful for compost but inedible. This is waste food which has simply not been eaten and has gone ...
View Poll: #1583418 Current (and increasingly irrelevant) FIFA rankings: Current FIFA rankings: Brazil 1st, Spain 2nd, Portugal 3rd, Chile 18th, Switzerland 24th, Côte d'Ivoire 17th, Honduras 38th, North Korea 105th Today's matches included Slovakia's extraordinary defeat of the title holders, leaving Italy languishing below New Zealand at the bottom of the group. Very few people predicted that, and of those even fewer predicted the results of the other matches correctly. reality0junkie would have had a perfect score but for some strange reason thought that the Netherlands would tie with Cameroon. avalon____ , ilovecsr , tokyolights and aisyah156 all called the ...
Residents of Coatham and Redcar are being encouraged to check out exciting plans for a £37m revival of part of Redcar - and have their say on how their community should be improved. Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council is holding a public exhibition next week on the proposals for the new swimming pool and leisure centre for Redcar and consultation session on its plans to improve the Coatham area. The authority's cabinet has given its backing to proposals to build a new swimming pool and leisure centre, 'myplace' young people's arts and media centre, multi-storey car park, library, civic and ...
Excellent news that the popular Tottenham market at Ward's Corner has been saved (despite Boris Johnson going back on his promise to help).
After recent risk assesments it has been decided that several islands and roundabouts will no longer be planted-up and instead the area grassed over. Please see the attatched list. These words were in an email to me today. I have to admit that in an age of austerity defending Derwentside's lovely flower beds is going to be a tough job. What I found particularly surprising, however, was the statement that the decision has been taken on the back of a risk assessment rather than a desire to cut costs. Apparently the decision was taken "due to concerns over the risks ...
[IMG: Don Foster MP at the University post boxes] The Post Office at the university moves 25m down the parade this week. The branch in Fresh closed on Tuesday and will reopen in its new unit on Monday 28th. Opening hours will be 9-17:30 Monday to Friday with a half hour break from 11:15 on Wednesdays. Intriguingly the Post Office official consultation period remains open until July 7th, so you may object to prevent the move up to 10 days after it actually happens!
Thursday Who will the next leader of the Labour Party be? The answer, it appears, is one of the Miliband brothers. As an old friend of their father, the Marxist historian Sir Ralph Millipede, I have known them since they were so high. I well remember them on the hearthrug in their pyjamas, putting together Airfix models of the dams that Comrade Stalin had built to divert the rivers of Central Asia and water the Uzbek cotton fields. I was always struck by how similar David and Edward were - indeed I am not convinced that even Lady Millipede could ...
It's #bbcqt day again and the Live Chat starts on this blog from 10:30pm as normal. Matt Raven will be in the hosting chair. David Dimbleby will be joined by the Business Secretary and Liberal Democrat MP Vince Cable, the shadow education secretary Ed Balls, the leader of the Green Party Caroline Lucas MP, Mail on Sunday columnist Peter Hitchens, and the founder of lastminute.com and mydeco.com Brent Hoberman. Join us below from 10:30pm: BBC Question Time - 24th June 2010
The Harborough Mail tells us that Harborough District Council's head of legal services has written to councillors saying that that Focsa is "in breach of its £26.5m, seven-year contract". This is because the company does not have planning permission for a depot "within or adjacent to the Harborough district" from which to run its waste collection operation. On the other hand, at least Focsa now has a contract to be in breach of.
London Assembly member Mike Tuffrey has been writing for The Guardian about Britain's poor record on air quality: Your report on Britain being given a second and final warning by theEuropean commission to clean up the capital's air (Clean up! Europe warns Britain, 4 June) quoted a spokesman for the mayor of Londonsaying that his air quality strategy will help to "address the concerns that triggered this legal action". I am far from convinced. European Union warnings about fines for air pollution might seem like the last thing we need, but this was a necessary decision. Emission level laws have ...
Twice in the past three months I have blogged about the increasing corporate draconianism of major international tournaments such as the World cup and the Olympics. You can read them here and here The latest reports of the complete capitulation to corporate sponsorship comes courtesy of the BBC. Apparently, if you wish to buy a ticket for the London Olympics you can only use Visa debit or credit cards. All other cards are banned. Furthermore, the BBC reports that Visa credit and debit cards will be the only ones accepted at shops or cash machines at Olympic venues. To me ...
The nef triple crunch blog ("new economics solutions for the interlinked credit, climate and energy crises" - and not a capital letter in sight) sees David Boyle arguing that Liberal Democrat ministers must stand up to the Treasury. Finding it hard to get your head round the concept of "the Big Society"? Don't worry, says The Big Society Blog. Mark Reckons defends John Redwood - and quite right too. You can now be gaoled for five years for owning a war trophy. The Devil's Knife (that's The Devil's Kitchen after it grasped that swearing is neither big nor clever) introduces ...
I was moaning at work yesterday about Capello's team selection, saying that he seemed as wedded to the 4-4-2 formation as Sven had been before him. Who can forget Wayne Rooney limping off against Portugal in Euro 2004 to be replaced by Darius Vassell? It was obvious to every armchair fan that the thing to do was to bring a defensive midfield player on and push Paul Scholes further forward. I contrasted this with Jose Mourinho's approach at Chelsea. He was a master at changing the formation during the game, being quite prepared to replace a defender with a striker ...
In an unusual and dramatic turn in the long-running story of the News of the World (editor at the time, Andy Coulson) and the hacking in to the voicemail systems of people in the public eye, a lawyer whose claims were initially dismissed as wrong by the Press Complaints Commission is now sueing for libel. As The Guardian explains: Peta Buscombe, the baroness who chairs the Press Complaints Commission, has been sued for libel by a solicitor. Writs have also been issued against the PCC itself and the Metropolitan Police by a London-based solicitor, Mark Lewis. He is claiming damages ...
What a remarkable day in the sporting world. John Isner eventually won his epic tennis encounter against Nicolas Mahut in 5 sets the last going to an extraordinary 70 - 68 games. Some one said to me that a pundit stated that the effort would take them the rest of their season to get over. The fact that it was a round 1 match and Isner hopes to have enough energy for another 6 matches plus doubles is more alarming. I sincerely hope this pair milk it for all they can - the deserve it. Not content with France bombing ...
Once again my wrath is targeted at The Guardian, Barclays and Apple. Three massive companies – each one of whom could have stopped this advertising disaster. Mistake #1 Take a look at this rather charming advert on the Guardian's mobile site. The more astute among you will recognise the problem. I'm being advertised an iPhone game when I'm browsing the site using an Android phone. This is the fault of the Guardian – or, more likely, whoever runs their advertising department. Well, let's click on it. Mistake #2 The image expansion doesn't work. This is probably because it uses iPhone ...
This is a bit of catch up by me, having been away for a week in London. This is Alan Beith's speech to the North East Liberal Democrats' regional conference on 12th June. Alan announced the Lib Dem Parliamentarians from the North East - himself, Ian Swales, Rupert Redesdale, Diana Maddock and soon to be ennobled John Shipley _ are to form a group to lobby the Coalition Government on behalf of the
Finally, rounding up my reviews of the Hugo written fiction nominees, here is my rating of the candidates for Best Short Story, as before in reverse order of preference. 5) "Bridesicle", by Will McIntosh, is a very icky story indeed where cryogenically preserved young women are periodically woken up from death by well-off but sexually frustrated men looking for dates. If (and it's a big if) you can get past the ick factor, it's an interesting idea, but Roger Zelazny did it better at least twice, and the execution squicked me out so badly that I rate it lower than ...
I generally read e-books on my Blackberry, converting them from PDF, HTML or word processor format with Mobipocket's free converter. As mentioned previously, this sometimes proves problematic with PDFs. I hit another such problem reading Peter Watts' story, "The Island", which got chopped about quite seriously by the process. One example - I encountered this jumble of words: A red The chimp has forgotten to care dwarf glowers dimly at the center of the Tank. named it DHF428, for reasons I've long since about. Which it turns out originally read: A red dwarf glowers dimly at the center of the ...
Here are my votes for the Best Novelette category, in reverse order. 6) "Eros, Philia, Agape" by Rachel Swirsky is, unfortunately, a story about a sexy anthropomorphic robot who decides to find his soul - told from the point of view of his lover, which is original, but I still hate stories about cute robots. 5) I had formatting difficulties with Peter Watts' "The Island", and while the author deservedly gets my sympathy for his recent difficulties with the US legal system, I didn't get much out of his story; at first I did not understand what was going on, ...
I suspect that when David Cameron pulled "Prime Minister" out of the tombola-of-life, he was probably pretty chuffed. Sadly, six weeks into the job and at the sharp end of the most difficult budget since we had to repair German bomb damage, he may well be having second thoughts about just how wonderful the job is. I am similarly disappointed. When I pulled Italy out of the World Cup sweepstake at work, I thought I was a shoo-in for at least a semi final spot and a small prize. Sadly, I have been badly let down by my Italian friends, ...
Tomorrow I am taking part 'Walk In Our Shoes' to gain an understanding and awareness of disability and its impact on both the individual and the family. Between the 21-27 June, autism charity TreeHouse is launching its 'Walk In Our Shoes' event. It's an opportunity for parents and carers of children with autism to influence local decision-makers. They asked for volunteer families to take a 'decision-maker' (in this case me) into their day so I will get a unique insight into the challenges and positive aspects of disability that affect the family I am placed with. I am joining a ...
Tory MP John Redwood wrote a blogpost earlier this week where he drew a parallel between how a middle class family who finds their income cut by 10% can make adjustments and used the analogy to describe how the UK state could also make adjustments. Here is main part of what he wrote: Tomorrow's budget will probably be proposing cuts of less than 10% over the lifetime of this Parliament. Sensibly managed, this need not entail cutting anything that really matters. The UK state has been living a middle class lifestyle. If you are living on a low income then ...
What a week it's been! This Summer is a frenzy of competitive and political activity. Here's my pick of the blogosphere in the last few days. Meemalee describes her participation in a Masterchef competition at the BBC Good Food Show in hilariously irreverent style. Kavey goes foraging. Stephen might just be a tiny little bit happy that France are out of the World Cup. Bellgrove Belle reports an amusing David Miliband campaign blunder. Paul Edie highlights a new mental health service opening in Edinburgh For Doctor Who fans who don't mind the saltiest possible language, the Eleventh Hour podcast which ...
Being a big supporter of the British games industry I was disappointed to see the planned tax relief for the video games industry being scrapped. I think this will cost jobs in what is a successful but decreasing industry in the UK due to the increased global competition and support by governments in other countries such as Canada. Full detail can be read at Gamespot UK here
Back when I were a lad, you got only two points for winning a game in a group match, and one for a draw. From 1994 onwards, that was changed to three points for a win, and one for a draw, the intention being to give incentives to teams to try and score goals. It occurred to me to wonder how much difference this rule has actually made in practice. There are not all that many mathematical permutations possible for how the group mathematics might end up for a group of four teams who each play a match against each ...
Promised yesterday to do a "catch-up" on matters which affect us - before that just to say they are still working to cut down the poplars in the cemetery and I woke up again to the noise of heavy machinery - this time the machine that grinds up the chunks of tree which annoyed several of my neighbours! Where to start? - first perhaps the "West Hampstead jigsaw" : planning permission was granted thee weeks ago for the rebuild of Emmanuel School at 160 Mill Lane - not without protest from the artist next door! Not sure yet when work ...
Thu 24th
16:54
Budget: Coalition fails its first test - and, pul-lease, spare us the codswallop about 'hard choices...
This post supersedes all previous posts and tweets on this subject, which I hereby retract. The Institute of Fiscal Studies verdict is very clear. The Budget will "hit the poorest the hardest". Nick Clegg cannot wriggle out of this one. Just look at this graph here - it is mind-blowingly unequivocal. The two counter-arguments to this, which Nick Clegg put up this morning, are: 1. If you take into account measures already announced by Labour with the latest budget, then the overall impact is that it hits the poorest the least. In other words, Labour weren't that bad after all. ...
I just want to make something clear: the world isn't divided in to 'real' people and fakers. Take a second and remember you know this. Whether you're defining a woman by her body ("real woman have curves") or a man by his behaviour ("real men drink bitter!") or whatever in fact, you're wrong. All women are real women. Scientists are real people. Even actors are real people. The only people who aren't real people are - well, fictitious*. Take that home and the rest of this post is irrelevant. Please note, this post is about self-harm and suicide and eating ...
I've had an article published today in the Local Government Chronicle. You can find it here. (That is technically a googlewhack)
The Friends of Garston Park have a really short survey. Do please fill it in if you have views about the Park. Click here to take survey
The Labour Party and the media in general are still figuring our how best to attack the Lib Dems – a party which, they all believed not so long ago, could be ignored, safe in the knowledge that it would never get near power. Back then the strategy was simple: ignore when possible and insult when not. Rarely would you hear a mention of the Lib Dems in the press. As far as the tabloids were concerned, the party hardly existed except when some scandal erupted. Labour and the Conservatives rarely felt the urge to address Lib Dem policy (except ...
There's some rather specious reasoning going on over on the Spectator blog today. Fraser Nelson has posted a piece where he refers to an article by James Forsyth in the paper version of the magazine entitled "The true meaning of Osborne's budget". Some of the points from James that Fraser highlights are quite incisive but this one is not: "During the election campaign, nearly every Tory candidate despaired at how so many families on £50,000 a year were voting Labour to protect their £545 child tax credit — despite the overall cost of a Labour government to them being far ...
Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats Simon Hughes has announced an intention to amend the budget to promote fairness. He told the Guardian today that: When it comes to the Budget next week, we will vote for the budget. But if there are measures in the Finance Bill where we could improve fairness and make for a fairer Britain, then we will come forward with amendments to do that, because that's where we make the difference, as we will in the spending review which will follow in the months ahead. This is very welcome, but what should this amendment look ...
The new coalition government has committed to a huge increase in energy from waste through anaerobic digestion. If this is an area in which you are interested, ALDC has been sent details of a conference and tradeshow that may be useful - UK AD and Biogas 2010 is the event to attend this year if you are involved in or interested in this area. At UK AD & BIOGAS 2010 you can: meet leading suppliers, industry experts, financiers, local authorities, researchers, government agencies and developers in our buzzing exhibition network with representatives from the agricultural, waste, energy, finance, water, retail ...
[IMG: Phone mast on The Avenue] A proposal to increase the size of the phone mast on The Avenue, near the university, has been withdrawn. Vodaphone had hope to near double the height of their existing mast so that it would protrude beyond the tree line. Wet leaves damp the signal of the current mast within the canopy. Well organised Beech Avenue residents were able to send enough letters of objection, plus a letter against from Bath University, to persuade the phone company to drop the application. Local residents will be vigilant for any further planning applications.
As of 1pm, the BBC were still running a piece recorded about twelve hours ago on McChrystal's sacking. It included the observation that the military strategy was not plainly succeeding, given the 76 NATO dead in June alone. Keep up. That was twelve hours ago. It is now 83 dead, including 4 more Brits. That does not mention the 412 Nato wounded in June alone as well. When will they stop this madness?
Frankly, this Budget is ghastly. There are some consolations such as progress towards the 10k tax allowance, but overall it's awful. I don't blame Labour for everything. While they made mistakes, they were right to bail out the banks. And it is true that most of the pain is due to the international economic crisis. But Labour did make this crisis worse. After a few years of financial restraint, they flooded public services with money. They should have increased the spending more gradually, and coupled it with reform to improve productivity. Instead, productivity fell. This isn't hindsight, the point was ...
Someone pointed out in a locked entry that the same day that Julia Gillard slightly unexpectedly became prime minister of Australia, Iveta Radičová has been asked to form the next government of Slovakia. This is two days after Mari Kiviniemi took up her position as prime minister of Finland. Oddly enough this isn't the first time that two women have become prime ministers in different countries simultaneously: it was 17 years ago tomorrow, 25 June 1993, that Tansu Çiller and Kim Campbell became the first women prime ministers of Turkey and Canada. (And strictly speaking Radičová doesn't formally take up ...
My unease at the Lib Dem coalition with the Conservatives is crystallising into real alarm. We hear today from Theresa May that the 28 day detention without charge is to be extended. Apparantly is being renewed six months at a time under the coalition as opposed to a year at a time under NuLab. That is supposed to be progress? Bollocks. It appears that the government has predictably been captured by the security services already. Every Lib Dem MP who votes for 28 day detention without charge has forfeited forever the right to call themselves a liberal. Anyone remember what ...
As reported in Messenger Newspapers, Trafford Council has given planning approval for a new business park on the old National Grid site at Partington. The plan is to develop the site over the next few years with up to 27 units which may include research, light industry, workshops, storage or distribution but not (as currently planned) standalone offices. Partington lies on the western edge of the Borough of Trafford, about half way between Manchester and Warrington centres.
Many of us will, of course, continue to watch what this Government does in terms of ensuring fairness and help for the poorest and most vulnerable in our society, but we must equally recognise the mess Labour left us in and that we need to sort the economy out before we can do anything else.
This morning I made my way to the Disability Services Centre which sits on the small remaining corner of the Withington Hospital site that is yet to have houses built on it. The DSC or "limb Centre" as it is known by patients basically services, repairs and fits prosthetic limbs. I had a lower leg prosthesis fitted following a below right knee amputation as a result of a motor bike accident in '95 and have been visiting every 12-18 months ever since. When you go there they steer you to a "fitting room" where you are sat down. The "fitter" ...
In the latest in a string of attacks on the youth, and the whole concept of having children in the first place, the older generations are going to keep pulling that ladder up: The government is to speed up plans to raise the state pension age for men to 66, possibly by as early as ...
The latest "House of Comments" podcast with myself and Stuart Sharpe of the Sharpe's Opinion blog is now live. The 31st episode which we recorded on Tuesday 22nd 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 Benny Austwick (Cardiff Blogger) and Arnie Craven of the Ben and Arnie Podcasts. We discussed the coalition's first budget, Charles Kennedy's attitude to ...
Most of what I could write here has already been written, so in lieu of financial analysis of the budget I offer you Millennium Dome, Elephant's take on it, and Mark Thompson covers most of the points I wanted to make about whether or not this is a 'betrayal' of Liberal Democrat principles. This budget was always going to be a problem for Liberal Democrat supporters. People expect the Conservatives to tax the poor and let the rich off, so a budget that largely does the reverse comes as a pleasant surprise, and Lib-Dem-minded people like them for it. Conversely, ...
OK, so most Labour party activists seem to be reminding the Lib Dems of the poster above in terms of the Budget. I was obviously disappointed that VAT rose to 20% but I will in this post try to do an academic analysis of the Budget rather than a dogmatic rant. Let's see how it goes. "A Lib Dem policy has almost totally cancelled out the effect of the VAT rise." Firstly, our poster says at the bottom (in case it's unreadable) that "The Conservatives would have to raise the average family's VAT by £389 to pay for their tax ...
Largely overlooked in the Budget was the confirmation of plans to introduce across the state sector a new standard for fair pay. The intention is that the best paid will receive no more than 20 times the salary of the lowest paid. There is a wealth of detail still to be worked out, though reassuringly much of that work lies in the hands of Will Hutton, who is heading up a commission on fair pay in the public sector. Particularly important are questions of how broadly the public sector is defined (similar to the questions raised by Freedom of Information ...
For a long time now I've been working very hard on the Terminate the Rate Campaign which was launched in May 2009. Terminate the Rate is a group which has called on Ofcom to lower the Mobile Termination Rate (MTR). You may not know about it, but if you've ever used your mobile phone to ...
The budget was, of course, an appalling raid on the poor. And that is entirely to expected, being largely a Tory budget. I imagine there's a bit of politics going on here in that they want to get the bad news out of the way as quickly as possible - they are going to have 4 more budgets before the next general election so it is better to be bad now and good later. Despite that, that 20% VAT rate is going to scar the Lib Dems for a long time, and will probably still be potent enough to bite ...
The headline pretty much says it all: as promised in the coalition document, the government is moving towards ending the detention of children for immigration purposes. As a result, the UK Border Agency is running a consultation, which closes on 1 July. You can find out more and submit your views via the UKBA website. Although the political commitment is clear, there are plenty of details still to be worked out, as the review document explains. So if it is an area you have some knowledge of, make sure you submit your views by 1 July.
I think one of the key duties of any "liberal" Government is to keep our legal system as simple as possible. After years of Labour adding new Acts and amendments to our legal structure, I would've thought we'd learnt the lesson: simple and streamlined is better than complex and bulky. Sadly, if the Coalition's attitudes to things are anything to go by, yet more layers of complexity are being added to existing structures on top of already complicated systems. So as it stood: religious marriage was different to civil marriage and civil partnerships were different to both. The latter two ...
Interesting as this Western Mail story is about Labour and Plaid Cymru kicking off over the recent budget, one has to ask why exactly it is news? Essentially, the newspaper has handed over a significant chunk of its content to partisan political propaganda. Carwyn Jones and his Deputy believe that Wales got nothing from the budget and argue that it will hit us disproportionately, as if everything had been hunky dory before. But let's face it, it was not the Coalition Government who landed the country with an £800 billion debt, who presided over a rise in unemployment in Wales ...
Just in case anybody thought that things were getting a bit partisan in the House of Commons, it seems that the Ukrainians know how to have a real political dust-up.
The Welsh Liberal Democrat Shadow Transport Minister, Jenny Randerson has hit out at First Great Western for cancelling up to 36 trains on the Paddington to South Wales route to provide extra services for the Glastonbury festival: "This decision will put undue pressure on services through to Wales. It is totally unacceptable," she said. "We're being picked on repeatedly to fill the gap because First Great Western haven't got enough rolling stock. "I can only assume that they consider Wales to be a bit of a soft touch. "I respect the need to run extra trains to deal with special ...
Simon Hughes and other have been rightful to stress that we keep an independent voice in the coalition and remain true to our roots. As such I encourage all Lib Dem to cease shaving and pull out your sandalls! Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
In an unexpected development Labour rewrote its internal election rules and, with popular acclaim, now has its first female leader
Following his appointment as a special advisor to Chris Huhne, Duncan Brack has stood down as chair of the party's Federal Conference Committee (FCC). A key figure in the organisation of party conferences for many years, first as the party's Director of Policy and then on the FCC, Duncan was Chair for seven years. This extends a neat chronological sequence of Federal Conference Committee chairs serving for four, five, six and now seven years. Duncan will be continuing as a member of the Federal Policy Committee (FPC) which I think will provide a welcome extra link between the party's policy ...
An application to permit the jewellers at 9 Wilmslow Road, Cheadle, to be converted into a restaurant, snack bar or cafe was rejected by all councillors at the Cheadle Area Committee on Tuesday, after I called it up. The applicant is the owner of the property who wanted to improve it's marketability by having the option for additional uses. In this case, the application breached the Council policy that the percentage of retail units along certain sections doesn't fall below 80%. The current occupiers of 9 Wilmslow Road - the tenants who run the jewellers - objected to the proposal. ...
There are reports this morning that the government is looking to move the age at which state pensions are paid to 70. There were previously plans in place that would have made the age at which this happens 68 by 2046 but the government wants to go further sooner than this. It is about time. When the state pension in its current form was introduced in 1946 (with its 65 age threshold for men and 60 age threshold for women) life expectancy rates for men were 64 and for women they were 69. Also, many fewer women worked in those ...
The Institute for Fiscal Studies says Chancellor George Osborne budget cuts "hit the poorest hardest".
From DarraghMc on Twitpic: [IMG: Evening Herald prints most insane headline of all time on Twitpic] "Woman in sumo wrester suit assaulted her ex-girlfriend in gay pub after she waved at man dressed as a Snickers bar"
[IMG: image301132936.jpg] On Saturday I got to hear Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, speak to the local government conference of the Liberal Democrats. In The speech itself Nick dealt with the Party's reaction to the current political situation, the pressures of coalition government, the economy, and laid some ground for yesterday's budget. It was a confident and reassuring speech made to an audience of councillors and party actvists. In content it contained nothing very remarkable. Yet it struck me that it was very much the speech of a government minister giving a government line. Not something we are especially ...
Dear Pret, I could be all eco-conscious about how your amazingly large till receipts mean paper is wasted. I could be all customer service focused about how your amazingly large till receipts result in people standing there fiddling with them trying to make them fit in a wallet or purse, so slowing down the service for the people behind them. By instead I'll just say that there amazingly large size isn't only amazing - it's annoying. Please, can you shrink them? Thank you.
At last the 'Land of Our Father's' wait for a Welsh born Prime Minister are over. Although I see a few people including the BBC had taken the line that Julia Gillard was the first Welsh born Prime Minister since David Lloyd George, the famous Welsh speaking Prime Minister was actually born in Manchester where his father like many Welsh men was working at that time, in the case of William George as a teacher. Ms Gillard was born in Barry, Glamorgan in 1961 and her parents migrated to Australia on the £10 immigration ticket as they were advised that ...
Congratulations to Julia Gillard, new leader of the Australian Labor Party and Australia's first woman Prime Minister. Welsh pride can also take a boost as Gillard was born in Barry Island, near Cardiff, where she lived until moving to Australia the ripe old age of four. When it comes to furnishing the world with Prime Ministers, Wales has yet to fulfil its potential. In the UK we had David Lloyd-George (born in central Manchester but undoubtably Welsh) and so nearly had Neil Kinnock. We've had a Canadian born PM (Bonar Law) more recently than a Welshman. Could this be a ...
My poor husband has gone to work with a very long face today. Not only is he miserable with Hay Fever, but he was born in 1951. That means he was looking forward to picking up his State Pension in 2016. Not any more. It looks very much like he's going to have to wait an extra year as the Coalition Government add to a painful week by raising the Pension age. There is some good, though, as this comes in tandem with a fantastic plan to abolish the default retirement age so that people can choose for themselves when ...
United Utilities are saying that there's likely to be a hosepipe ban across the North West, including Greater Manchester, unless we get significant rainfall in the next week or so. Apparently, the first six months of this year have seen the region's lowest rainfall for over 70 years and the reservoirs are running low. Some of this shortfall can be made up by diverting water from lakes and rivers, but we're being told we need to be using less water too.
The more I think about this budget, the less I like it. James Graham sums it up well in the Social Liberal Forum: deficit reduction too fast, ratio of cuts to taxes too high, choice of taxes unfair. The main argument deployed to defend the budget is the need to reassure the money markets. My fear is that the initial confidence of the money men will disappear when it becomes clear that the
It appears that I am in something of a minority about England's display against Slovenia yesteday. Whilst everyone else is getting excited, I remain deeply concerned aobut the makeweights in the England side (and I include Lampard and Rooney in this group) who add nothing to the team given their poor form, and I am deeply concerned about the lack of goals. Remember, just one more goal would have seen us playing Ghana in the next round followed up by a game against either Uruguay or South Korea. Instead now our next three games will be against Germany, Argentina and ...
A message (below) from David Wilson, son of our long-standing friends Cllr Willie and Margaret Wilson of Perth. David is raising funds for the Tayside MS Therapy Centre in Peddie Street : Hi All, As many of you know I dabble in a little in triathlon to counterbalance my ongoing red wine and cake addiction. In the autumn of last year, in a moment of weakness, I decided to scratch the itch and entered Ironman Switzerland 2010. My initial grand plans and finishing goals were scuppered by a virus for most of the winter and spring so now I am ...
The Tesco-owned site in London Road, St Albans is set to be ear-marked for housing development and commercial use following talks between the retailer and St Albans City and District Council. The Council's Chief Executive, Daniel Goodwin, its Head of Planning and Building Control, Heather Cheesbrough, and Leader, Cllr Robert Donald, have met with representatives of Tesco to explore the future use of the London Road site as part of the Council's work on the emerging Core Strategy for the Local Development Framework (LDF) for St Albans City and District. Tesco has made it clear that it no longer has ...
A brief note, reflecting on the criteria by which I proposed we should judge the budget, now it has sunk in: What is the timescale? 5 years, so this is a clear Conservative victory. I am deeply concerned about this, possibly more than anything else, because I think it will damage growth over the next half decade (possibly plunging us back into recession) and thus prolong, not minimise, the pain. What is the proportion of cuts to tax rises? I hear differing figures, but I think the most accurate figure is 77% cuts to 23% tax rises. That is a ...
My recent blogs have been about the way we treat each other and how we have to put in place safeguards in case things go wrong. One example was a vending machine to tell hospital management exactly how their stock was used. It must cost a lot to run this system, so it must save a lot in order to pay for itself. This means that there are a lot of NHS staff who (what is the politically correct term for this...) manage to lose lots of equipment. This is my reading of the situation and it must be the ...
