Today I made the last minute decision to get signed up to go along to Blog Nation, a event being held by Liberal Conspiracy to discuss the strategic future of the left in the next election. If you happen to be going along then please do send me a message as it would be great ...
So, carrying on from my newly formed way of doing #ff last week which seemed to work really well, this weeks Spidey's web continues in the same theme. Did you get caught in Spidey's web? Read on to find out! Top ten tweeters caught in Spidey's Web: cardiff_blogger – Chief instigator of the Twitter World ...
A superb article from Richard Forer here. I found it really useful. http://www.redress.cc/palestine/rforer20100621
The charity Scope has called for online and text voting to allow people with disabilities access to voting. Their report highlights the fact that far too many polling stations are still inaccessible to many would be voters. Scope has been running reports on the accessibility of voting for many general elections now and have rightly garnered a lot of praise for their work in this area. But whilst their aims are exactly right and the concerns they raise very worrying, their preferred solution would cause far more problems than it solves. Too many polling stations in the UK are still ...
Everyone is hoping that the axe doesn't fall on the plans for a new secondary school in North Kingston. I think it highly likely that it will be funded by the Government since the pupil numbers now fully justify it. I hope I am proved right. Several bodies are interested in running the new school, including the Church of England through the Diocese of Southwark. The Bishop of Kingston is endorsing their proposal on www.kingstonchurchschool.org. Now you might think that I would be fully supporting such a proposal. After all, I am an active Anglican and was Chair of Governors ...
A bit of a bumper poll - I am travelling over the weekend, so I'm including both Saturday's and Sunday's matches, and also inviting you to speculate on what we'll be looking at this time next week. View Poll: #1583858 I'm not going to bother with the FIFA rankings; if you really want them, they are recorded in previous polls. The highest rated team not to make it was the current holder, Italy; the lowest rated team that did make it was South Korea. 만세 !!! All four results on the last day of the group stage were called correctly ...
Peter Black reports: It has taken a long campaign by Liberal Democrats like Mike German and John Warman amongst others but at last a Liberal Democrat Transport Minister has announced that we will be able to use credit cards to pay the tolls on the Severn Bridge before the Ryder Cup lands on our shores in September.
A very early start today - 5am - and the day spent in Campbeltown with the 'day job'. Back at 7pm, so a long day, but very productive and good to have a walk round the town with colleagues on such a lovely afternoon. Above : View across to Campbeltown Loch Above : The Linda McCartney Memorial Garden in the town
Today's Independent has an article about plans by the coalition government to 'cement the relationship'. One of the ideas is to have ministers from each party speak at the conference of the other. I have no intrinsic problem about this. After all, we have seen some Labour and Conservative speakers at the Lib Dem conference before. But such a move by the coalition could be a risky manoeuvre. Should David Cameron speak at Lib Dem conference? Apart from the nightmare that this would bring in terms of increased security (I suspect the Lib Dem conference is already on course for ...
Proper posts tomorrow (on Morrison Batman) and Sunday (on Doctor Who) if possible, but I've got a busy weekend ahead of me (got to work from home to keep to a deadline, and also going to a gig tomorrow night). Meanwhile, some links: Zom at the Mindless Ones is doing an alphabetical look at all ...
The Press Gazette reports: The Scottish National Party has dropped its legal challenge against the BBC's decision not to allow its leader Alex Salmond to appear in its televised debate in the run-up to the general election. A judicial review of the matter was scheduled to be heard at the Court of Session in Edinburgh. You can read the full story here.
A selection of other peoples thoughts that have caught my eye and made me think today. Mark Thomson on the real reason for withholding data on drug policyAnna Raccoon on the great stone man of fifeClaire Thomas on the budgetCharlotte Gore on stupid expectationsBig Brother watch on mosquito'sLiberal Vision on budget stats and twisting the evidence
This book, purchased on my recent visit to the Great Central Railway in Loughborough, has revolutionised my appreciation of films. Take my last two discs from LoveFilm. Thanks to Horton, I knew that Murder She Said - Margaret Rutherford's first outing as Miss Marple, which is treated as a social comedy as much as a murder mystery - would feature all sorts of footage of steam trains. Hardly surprising, as it is an adaptation of Agatha Christie's 4.50 from Paddington. But most interesting of all: NB D600-type "Warship" diesel No D603 passes on an express - medium shot. This is ...
I feel full of energy and - strangely - youth at the moment. The last two nights I did extremely good public meetings with the Global Justice Group in Halesowen http://www.myspace.com/halesowengjg and for Medical Justice in Manchester. http://www.medicaljustice.org.uk/ They were vibrant and full meetings - the collection for Medical Justice afterwards raised over three hundred pounds for their Manchester branch. One of the things cheering me up is that I took a look through my engagements and realised I have raised tens of thousands for good causes at meetings over the last five years. It relieves the fear that my ...
Well, in the list of "101 uses for a Lembit" this certainly comes high up.
Friday What with the election campaign and the burdens of office, I have rather neglected the old demesne of late. So I put matters right by spending a day on Estate business having ditches cleared, hedges trimmed, orphans drilled and so forth. Meadowcroft, I fear, is not at his sunniest and is much given to complaining that the volcanic dust has "befangled his perennials". I stand him a pint of Smithson & Greaves in the Bonkers' Arms at lunchtime, which does much to restore his spirits. After lunch, I write a stiff letter to the Icelandic Ambassador on Meadowcroft's part. ...
Last night saw the Liverpool launch of Take Back Parliament. The meeting, held on Bold Street in Liverpool, was very productive and is certainly the start of big things for Liverpool in terms of Purple Protests. Events, including a purple picnic, purple gigs and a regular street stall are going to be held over the next few months, and more meetings will be scheduled. Check out the Facebook page: for more information of upcoming events. Keep joining and suggesting to your friends, the Southport Liberal Youth campaign 'Southport is voting YES in the AV referendum' on the facebook page ...
After sleeping through it last night, I have now watched Question Time on iPlayer. Vince Cable put in a superb performance – he's particularly strong around 20′. Ed Balls was remarkably hypocritical. This was obviously his audition for the Labour leadership. He seems to have developed chronic amnesia about anything which happened before May 6th. For example, he criticised the early retirement of Jock Stirrup saying that it was dangerous for governments to interfere with independent advisors. The name "Professor David Nutt" means nothing to you then, Ed, does it?
From the Council: Stockport Town Hall is flying the Armed Forces Flag throughout the week, and the Council has organised special events including the presentation of a Veteran's Badge and displays by the armed services in the Market Place. The weekend also marks the 70th anniversary since wartime evacuees from the Channel Islands arrived in Stockport." The programme of events for the day is: · 10.00am: The Mayor of Stockport and the Leader of Stockport Council, Councillor Dave Goddard, will present a Veteran's Badge to a war veteran in a private ceremony at Stockport Town Hall. · 10.30am: Photograph of ...
They will be many on the lunatic religious fringes and the mainly misogynistic dogmatists who will argue black is white, the earth is flat and that climate change is not man made. Many will argue against the new rise of science as fact whatever the outcome. It is welcome to many that The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists' review has stated there is no evidence of foetal pain before 24 weeks. This obviously won't please the above people, because they still believe that a woman has no right to deciding what happens to her and her body. I am ...
Yesterday afternoon I was delighted to attend a Private View of the superb 1001 Inventions exhibition at the Science Museum in South Kensington, courtesy of the Kuwaiti Ambassador, H.E. Khaled Al-Duwaisan and CAABU. Many people in the West are blissfully unaware of how much modern civilization owes to Arab scientists, inventors and thinkers. It's not ...
As a blogger I feel in awe of journalists, the word is one I don't like to use in any connection with blogging, even when its prefaced with citizen- I know my limitations I don't write I "post", the finished article is a post. The fact is a journalist is someone who has to be able to produce saleable, readable space filling text which is informative, entertaining or thought provoking etc. As a blogger I'll sometimes contact media departments, some are helpful, some aren't apparently, KCC Media & Communications which cost you and I £807,000-00 to run in the year ...
It's been a while since I did one of these but a few links have really got me in the mood. First this one taking a sideways glance at the BP situation in the Gulf of Mexico. Obviously I'm shocked by the environmental disaster that is unfolding, it really conflicts with my green credentials. Speaking of Green. On the theme of the World Cup of course the story is the fellowship of the people playing those little plastic horns, aka Vuvuzeala's. They may sound like a hornets nest, maybe that is what they are.
In honour of Nick Clegg's visit to Forgemasters today, I thought I would go back and see what Ed Miliband was saying about nuclear power before the election. On 9 November 2009, he told the House: "We are not going to provide public subsidy for the construction, operation and decommissioning of nuclear power stations." (Hat tip: ...
In this article for the BBC 'Coalition a poor ideological fit, says Lib Dem MP'. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/politics/10395602.stm Tim Farron MP, who recently ran for Lib Dem deputy leader said that the coalition is "ideologically a poor fit". Well it is not a perfect fit, natually but I nor is the Labour party. However I would like to correct Tim Farron on an issue. Lib dems did campaign or at least Vince Cable did on freezing public sector pay see here. Personally I don't agree with big government. Big government equals waste and inefficiency, high taxes and lots of Red tape and ...
The BBC reports: Online voting should be introduced to assist disabled voters after access to polling stations failed to improve for this year's election, a charity said. A Scope survey suggested more than two thirds of the general election polling stations failed basic access tests. Ms Scott [of Scope] said the country's voting system "isn't working for other voters either," demonstrated by "scores of people queuing outside polling stations" at the recent general election. "Over the last decade there has been next to no improvement in the overall accessibility of polling stations or postal voting," she said. "There is a ...
Here are the five most popular posts on this blog from the last week in case you missed them: John Redwood's comments are being taken totally out of contextThe hypocrisy of Simon HefferThe Sheffield Forgemasters "cut" is no such thingRaising the income tax threshold - great news!Labour is increasingly resembling the Tories in the late 1990s And you should have been reading this: Transform reveal the real reason why the Home Office held up an FOI request for information about research for the government's drugs policy.
Right, back to it. So, in short from last time, I analysed that the VAT rise had been cancelled out by the Lib Dem aspects of the coalition, and recognised that benefit and welfare reform is necessary providing it is done with an element of conscience to make sure that it is still there for people who need it. I can now confirm that I favour the Budget as a whole. But here are some things I was disappointed not to see in the Budget, which I hope the Government will look at during now and the next Budget. First ...
I don't have an axe to grind in the abortion debate, except perhaps to agree with Bill Clinton (it should be legal, safe and rare). But anyone who puts human scale and human values at the heart of their politics, as I try to do, might have been as irritated as I was this morning by the interview on the Today programme. This is the problem, I suppose, of asking scientists to rule on something when they have no philosophical training - but how, exactly is, pain relevant to the morality of abortion after 24 weeks? Well, if abortion was ...
Wednesday I attended an NHS Development day discussing "Shifting the Balance of Care" away from principally Hospitals and Care homes towards looking after people in their own homes more. We have made great strides with this over the last 3 years with Re-ablement, Telecare and increased respite assisting but we still have work too do on this if we are to meet our aim of managing 40% of care in peoples own homes. Today we had Full Council where discussion took place on issues such as Trams and Alternative Business Models - ensuring we can deliver as much service for ...
Mostyn Ward Conwy County Borough Council Jobi Hold (Labour) 348 Gary Burchett (Welsh Conservative) 310 Janet Jones (Independent) 198 Jobi Hold Elected Conwy County Borough Councillor for Mostyn Ward Llandudno Mostyn Ward Town Council Frank Bradfield (Welsh Conservative) 253 Jobi Hold (Labour) 351 Robert Edwards (Independent) 67 Gareth Owen (Libdem) 191 Jobi Hold Elected Llandudno Town Councillor for Mostyn Ward
Just a heads up, in the last 24 hours I've received over 100 spam comments on the Livejournal mirror, so I've turned comments there to "friends only" instead of the former "anyone". Comments here on DW will remain open to all, as DW has better comment management facilities and invite codes means spammers have to work to get past the 'need an account' barrier. It's a very small number of old posts targetted, normally I'd just turn comments off for those posts only, but Livejournal has such a weird system that you can't just turn new comments off, you have ...
Surely, surely it is becoming obvious that the scale of reductions required are so drastic that no option should go unexamined. In this context I continue to believe that the Trident missile replacement should be included in the defence review. I was pleased to see that the new Lib Dem MP for Cambridge Julian Huppert has made the case: The future of Trident nuclear missiles should be included in the government's defence review and scrapped unless a strong case for it can be made, Cambridge MP Julian Huppert insisted in Parliament. He raised the controversial issue with Prime Minister, David ...
My House Points column from Liberal Democrat News. "You've written an editorial," Deirdre grumbled. "Can you be funny next week?" "Funny?" I said. "After all these years you tell me I'm meant to be funny?" Labour carping A few months ago Gordon Brown was still refusing to allow the word "cuts" to pass his lips - a refusal whose explanation probably needed a psychologist rather than an economist. Today it is the whole Labour Party that needs its bumps felt, because to a man and a woman they are pretending that no radical action on the deficit necessary. Alistair Darling's ...
With this election campaign now entering its final days, you are now facing your last chance to return your ballot paper and vote for a genuine fresh start for Liberal Youth. We're unashamedly vocal about our desire to reform the internal structures of Liberal Youth to empower the broader membership at branch level and ignite positive, intelligent and exciting debate on policy and politics. Our aim is for Liberal Youth to be absolutely focussed on engaging as many young liberal people in politics as possible. We believe that only with new leadership - separate from the petty squabbles of the ...
As if the impending cuts are not bad enough for the weak, ill, disabled and aged; a report from the British Medical Journal states that welfare cuts can lead to an increase in poor health and increased alcoholism. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/10403797.stm. The social costs to cuts in certain benefits can lead to people already heightened sense of hopelessness to ever greater feelings of despair. As one sinks lower in health and status as valued by ones peers the attractiveness of alcoholic oblivion seems a medication that will numb your emotions and senses. To the already ill and disabled the rigour of another ...
If you lie down with dogs there's a good chance you're going to get up with fleas. With that in mind, I don't suppose I should be in the least bit surprised at the nature of this week's Budget, not least the inclusion of the Tories' favourite tax, VAT. I'm also fully aware of the ...
I blogged recently about the welcome moves being made to open up London's transport data to wider use. A great example of what opening up data can produce is the map showing the locations of tube trains on the network in real time – available for free and produced thanks to the enthusiasm and civic-mindedness of volunteers. But with the current tube strikes in mind, it also shows how opening up data can produce unexpected consequences. Because what is one of the standard parts of transport strikes? It's conflicting claims from unions and management about how widespread the impact of ...
There will be temporary traffic lights on Westerleigh Road, at the twin railway-over-road bridges on Tuesday 29th June to enable a bridge inspection to take place.
The Open Air Theatre in Regents Park is one of my favourite theatres EVAR, matched only, perhaps, by the Minack theatre in Cornwall. I go to Regents Park most years for one of their excellent productions of Mr. Shakespeare's work.This year it was the Comedy of Errors. I'll not bother to review the play itself, because if you don't already know and appreciate it you are a barbarian and Philistine. The production is worth a few words though.Set in French North Africa in the 1930s, it is faithful to the script but also with a few song n' dance numbers. ...
There's a fascinating blogpost on the BBC website today from Martin Rosenbaum. It describes how the Home Office postponed the release of research from a Freedom of Information request from Transform Drugs Policy Foundation and then when they did finally release it, some annotations that were clearly never meant for external eyes had accidentally been left in that showed the real reason for the delay. Here are the snippets: and It's worth reading the full blogpost for the background details but what this demonstrates to me is that firstly, government departments sometimes withhold FOI requests for political reasons which is ...
Seeing that one of my Canuckistani visitors this week is an accountant, and also (mainly, to tell the truth) because someone at work recommended it, I took Mistress Beanie to see ENRON at the Noël Coward theatre a coupla days ago.I can see why some of the critics didn't like it: the US critics wouldn't have liked the making obvious of the connections between political corruption, greed, and crass nationalism, and the making explicit of at least some of the bad guys being devoutly religious. It gets loud and in yer face about how this is the result of the ...
Most people – the normal folks who aren't political junkies – probably don't spend their time watching BBC Parliament. But perhaps they should – just once or twice. Why? The view most of us get from Parliament are the set pieces like PMQs. Benches packed with braying members and the aim to get one over on the other side, to give your team something to cheer about. The Punch and Judy politics every new leader of every political party has to ritually reject for at least a few hours before falling back into line. But most of the debates are ...
I have just been informed of the sad news of the death of former King's Hedges Labour County Councillor Janet Jones after a long illness. Cllr Geoff Heathcock writes: Janet was a True stalwart of local democracy and a campaigner of some power especially on the welfare of Social Services over a very long period of time. She will truly be an act that won't beeasily followed. She was elected as a Councillor for Arbury in 1970, and served Arbury on the County Council from 1973 to 1985, when she moved to King's Hedges. She was King's Hedges County Councillor ...
Cornwall Council has seen sense and has decided to extend the consultation period for its new empty homes strategy. The Council had previously allowed just three weeks for town and parish councils and anyone else who is interested to have their say. For towns and parishes, this is just too short a time. Most only have meetings on a monthly basis and so a three week consultation often denies them the chance to discuss the issue and have their say. On this issue, Cornwall Council is looking to involve the local councils in finding empty properties and so the short ...
Support for the Kent Freedom Pass for the over 60s Keith Nevols, the recent parliamentary candidate for Sittingbourne and Sheppey, has expressed support for Harry Farrow's campaign for a Kent Freedom Pass for the over 60s. 'Harry approached me with details of his campaign', he said, 'and I was very impressed by the support he has accumulated. Harry wants to see a Freedom Pass on the railways for the over 60s, similar to the London model, which would provide free off-peak train travel for visits to family, hospital or work. He has worked tirelessly for over a year, has got ...
Meeting a waste of time and more importantly MONEY! Our deficit denying colleagues in Bootle Labour Party seem predictably enthusiastic about shouting ya boo at any suggestion that spending has to be reduced. Please do not confuse them by pointing out that they too had pledged to cut public spending by tens of billions of pounds (only they conveniently forgot to explain where their axe would fall) The latest episode was Cllr Dowd calling a special council meeting it a rather crude attempt to sabotage the action we need to take quickly. My colleague Tony Robertson has made his views ...
The Liberal Democrats called it The Freedom Bill. The Tories called it The Great Repeal Bill - and there are more of them in the government, so they will probably win the competition to name it. Nonetheless, the aim is clear: to slough off the dead skin of government; to deliver us from regulatory evil. And in a novel (and perhaps suspect) twist, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has promised that it will be up to the public to propose legislation for the chop. I have yet to be convinced! But in this hopeful new dawn, let's not be cynical. ...
The polling reaction to the new government and the budget has been fairly positive (link opens PDF) with the previous government being blamed by half of all people surveyed for the difficult measures in the budget and a majority saying that they think the cuts are good for the economy. At the same time Labour is vigorously attacking the government for what it is doing and also repeatedly accusing the Lib Dems of "betrayal". It feels slightly odd for the opposition to be so strongly railing against the measures being taken when the public appear to be largely behind them. ...
No, not the Ed kind of Balls – though more on him tomorrow – but the other kind. Though the Budget has annoyed me in more ways than one, it has been very interesting, and very good, for another reason. A couple of weeks ago I wrote this post imploring the government to just get ...
Gatley festival starts on Saturday with the carnival and fun day on Sunday 4th July. There's a great programme of events during the week - check out the full list on the Gatley Festival website. So, for example, we've got a day of living history from an authentic 18th century British Redcoat unit in Gatley Rec from 10am to 4pm on Saturday 26th June (sorry - I'll be at the Heald Green festival), the stream clean at Gatley Rec at 10am on Sunday 27th and a gentle 8 mile cycle ride setting off from Gatley Station at 7pm on Wednesday ...
Following on from the welcome news of the review into ending Labour's policy of detaining children for immigration purposes, yesterday a wide-ranging review into anti-terrorism measures was announced. (It's a review that I of course have rather an interest in.) Liberty's take on the review is: Help us end 28 day detention Pre-charge detention refers to the length of time you can be locked up and questioned before you face a charge. In that time you may be unaware of what you are accused of, and unable to challenge the evidence against you. The current period for terror suspects is ...
Probably the most important EU development this week was the agreement in Madrid between the European Parliament and the European Council (which represents the governments of the 27 member states) on the setting up of the new European External Action Service (Diplomatic Corps). Provided for in the Lisbon Treaty, this body should be up and running by the end of the year. Parliament has won the right to full oversight of its activities, including scrutiny of its budget, which will be managed by the European Commission. At least 6 in every 10 of its officials will be permanent EU employees, ...
There was just one by-election in the West Midlands yesterday in the Harlescott Ward on Shrewsbury Town Council. Labour gained the seat from the Conservatives (overturning a 49 Conservative majority to become a 109 Labour majority). The full results follow:
The Maltings is the latest car park to join St Albans new network of electronic signs which directs drivers to available spaces in the City's main car parks. The variable messaging signage system, installed by Hertfordshire Highways with the support of St Albans City and District Council, helps drivers find available car parking spaces as quickly and easily as possible by removing the need for them to drive round the City searching for a spare car park space. It is anticipated that as drivers will no longer be circulating around the City on the hunt for a car park space ...
Hat-tip: Political Wire
Through a strange pattern of dosing and then snapping bolt upright at midnight, I heard Question Time last night through the gauze of my dreams. Then I watched This Week, for once, completely alert. It was a great programme with some excellent discussion on the budget, especially that with Saint Will of the Hutton, who is now my affirmed hero and guru. If you missed it you can watch it again on BBC Parliament tonight at 6pm or it will be here on iPlayer after that.
I'm at Gare de lisieux. http://4sq.com/9qTZIl # Scruffy seat is Eurostar's problem in nutshell: ticket ain't cheap, service ain't up-market http://flic.kr/p/8bTCvg # @rand0m Great story - thanks in reply to rand0m # Catch me on LBC tonight 8-9pm. You can listen online http://www.lbc.co.uk Promise to make more chocolate than World Cup references # Labour has 2 Milibands and 2 Eds running for leader. Govt has 2 Huttons doing reviews. Moral? Make sure someone else shares your name # Rio's Glass Olympics Waterfall http://bit.ly/bhwsUY < Wow. Suspect some guard rails will get added [IMG: :)] # Appearing after 8pm (@ LBC) ...
Yesterday the newly elected deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats Simon Hughes fired the first major warning shot across the coalition's ship bows. It's all coming down to the matter of fairness. Having been canvassing members for the past three weeks there was a noticeable shift in their line of questioning come Tuesday. The reason of course that instead of the speculation of what the budget would bring we had the detail. Simon highlighted one of the concerns the welfare system in this case the pensioners. It's bad enough that many may have to wait longer for a state pension ...
Sometimes the history of an area emerges unexpectedly in front of you and so it was one day the other week when a billboard came down revealing this old painted advert for the trains from Kings Cross to Scotland. The space only lasted for a few days and indeed came to the attention of the South End Green Association who spotted it and featured it in their newsletter... but I managed to get a few pics and then mislaid them. So i'm now catching up and popping them on here. Because I don't think we'll see it again I'm uploading ...
The Assembly referendum saga slipped from drama to farce yesterday when the Welsh Government submitted its own question for consideration by the electoral commission in competition to that already put forward by the Secretary of State for Wales. The BBC say that the Welsh government is "disappointed" that Cheryl Gillan did not agree the words with her, and called her question "deficient", Betsan Powys explains on her blog that the cause of the conflict is over the phrase 'without needing the agreement of Parliament first?' It is a very narrow argument, Lilliputian in its scale, and one that will go ...
It has taken a long campaign by Liberal Democrats like Mike German and John Warman amongst others but at last a Liberal Democrat Transport Minister has announced that we will be able to use credit cards to pay the tolls on the Severn Bridge before the Ryder Cup lands on our shores in September. The next stage of course is to get rid of the tolls altogether. Mike German is to use his last week in the Welsh Assembly to stage a debate calling for abolition and no doubt will be promoting this campaign in the House of Lords shortly ...
Manchester Councillor Paul Shannon (Liberal Democrat) was today re-elected Chairman of Greater Manchester's award-winning Fire and Rescue Authority. In leading the Authority, Councillor Shannon will be joined by Vice Chairman, Councillor John Bell of Tameside, and Deputy Chairman, Councillor Jack Walton of Bury, both from the Conservative party. Councillor Shannon said: "Working together, we have this year delivered record low levels of deaths and injuries from fire in Greater Manchester, as well as setting our lowest-ever Council tax increase. But the future is even more challenging. The global financial crisis and public spending cuts bring change to all public services. ...
I'm pretty sure Douglas would've approved of this: I had a tough choice of icons for this entry, had to pick a non-standard one, I have so many Dalek and H2G2 icons, but none of them link up. That may have to change...
[IMG: 24-06-2010-cash-impact-of-the-budget] The above graph from the Appendix A of the Budget shows the actual material impact of all measures on each income decile by 2012/13. It has not appeared on the left-wing blogs currently claiming the Budget is highly regressive. Instead they use this one from the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Even in that graph though does not support their arguments. What we can clearly see is that from decile 2 to 9 the effect of changes are broadly progressive or proportional. From 9 to 10 highly progressive, and only from 1 to 2 slightly regressive. This one difference ...
I have discussed scheduling with mine host, and determined that Tuesday night is a suitable evening for BEER. Obviously the location will need to be somewhere fairly central so that everyone will be able to easily come. It will also need to be somewhere that has Proper Beer, at least to begin with (although I wouldn't be averse to ending up in the CroBar drinking silly cocktails). Where is good, and who wants to come?
I don't particularly object to working till I am 70. I believe that a role in life does us good and just because we get paid for something doesn't make it bad. Unfortunately there are many people who do not go out to work and enjoy it but they go to pay the bills. However I see most people dying with a house to pass on to their relatives. To me this makes us a fairly wealthy nation and if we have this wealth then most people could choose to retire early. I am sure that in the 1970s the ...
