This morning, after a meeting with the Director of Education and the Head of Secondary Education regarding the report that went to Education Committee tonight about the Harris Academy improved school buildings project, I met with City Development officers as well as representatives from West End Community Council and Blackness Primary School Parent Council at the Sinderins junction (see right) as a follow-up to our meeting there a couple of months ago to discuss safety issues. There's been good progress since the April site visit - the time length of the noise signal to advise pedestrians that it is safe ...
There are only two certainties to the Liberal Youth executive's shape in it's next term to my immediate knowledge - and that is that I will be the Welsh convener and Kristian Chapman will be the Scottish convener, because we were elected at different times to the Federal executive. The rest is uncharted territory. During the campaign I publicly announced who I thought was best to take each post forward. As far as I am concerned now, this is irrelevant. Whoever wins each post, I will work with them regardless. And I hope that everyone else who finds out this ...
Just one tonight: If you played games on a ZX Spectrum in the 1980s then you almost certainly played at least one written by Jonathan "Joffa" Smith. His titles included Cobra, Green Beret and one of my all time favourites Hyper Sports. He frequented an online forum where I am also a regular and I got to know him a little through that in the last few years. Sadly Jonathan died a couple of days ago. Matty on Games has a fitting tribute to him here.
The political highlight of my weekend was down in the basement of the Mother's Union in Westminster, alas hidden from the glorious summer weather, attending the annual conference of the Electoral Reform Society (ERS). The dedicated and indefatigable outgoing Chief Executive Ken Ritchie — who has given 13 years of sterling service to the organisation, ...
North East MEP Fiona Hall is taking a stand against ageism by signing up to the Newcastle Charter for Changing Age that seeks to change people's attitudes and perceptions towards old age. In the European Parliament she is supporting a Written Declaration calling for EU member states to help people over 55 years back into the labour market. Said Fiona: In the North East, latest forecasts predict that the over 60 age group will increase by 221,000 by the year 2026. In the same time, the 20 to 59 age group will fall by 52,000. We simply cannot afford to ...
One of the things that utterly appalls me is the number people - 23% - who think a woman who is drunk at the time of a rape is partly to blame. 17% think she has some responsibility if she is wearing revealing clothing. To challenge those attitudes Scotland's first TV ad aimed at challenging Scottish prejudices against rape victims was aired this evening. The ad features a man leering at a girl in a short skirt in a bar saying to his pal that "she's asking for it". The girl is then seen shopping for the skirt asking the ...
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the way that public protection, which hardly featured when I studied moral philosophy 30 years ago, now dominates debates about the justification of punishment. The was a good example in the first leader of a recent Spectator. It began: One of the many ludicrous Liberal Democrat policies which Tories enjoyed rubbishing during the general election was their plan to send far fewer criminals to prison. But, alas, it seems that some bad ideas are infectious. Last week Ken Clarke, the new Justice Secretary, suggested that we can no longer afford to keep ...
Nick Clegg, Deputy Prime Minister has written to every public sector worker in the country, asking them to help with the Spending Review set out in last week's Budget. The Chancellor announced a 25 per cent cut in spending for unprotected departments over four years. Now, as part of the Spending Review, the Government is launching a 'Spending Challenge' aimed at engaging the whole country in rethinking public services in order to deliver more for less. The first phase of the Challenge aims to harness the experience and insight of those at the front line, including NHS workers, police officers ...
Lat December I wrote a blog post Is photography the new crime? mainly because the Metropolitan Police Service had issued guidance to its Officers, which on the whole seemed to be being ignored. Well this blog post is two fold, one is to celebrate the victory of journalists Marc Vallée and Jason Parkinson who have both received £3500 compensation each after police handling a protest outside the Greek Embassy prevented them from filming. You would therefore now assume that these incidents would stop, unfortunately you could not be further from the truth. The second aspect of this post is to ...
To those in the know, Spen King is probably one of the greatest British automotive engineers. I have always been a supporter of our motor industry. Indeed, every one of my cars bar one have been built in either Cowley (near Oxford) or Longbridge (Birmingham). Spen King started his engineering career at Rolls Royce, joining as an apprentice in 1942. After the war, he moved to Rover and made his mark with the JET1 and T3 gas turbine concepts. Although the gas turbine was proven to be unsuitable as a road engine, he placed in control of new car development. ...
Totally unexpectedly, the poll was inconclusive, aside from that the one most people couldn't make it to was The Pembury. I have therefore made an executive decision, and it's going to be the Bree Louise. This is for three reasons.We always end up at the Head, and I want to go somewhere different It's not that far from the Head, and anyone who could make it to one can make it to the other. I looked at the website, and specifically the food menu and the beer list, and even more specifically the cheese board, and I thought bugger the ...
Over the last few days I have had a slight bit of bother, which i wont go into, that has rather upset me. I wanted to take the time to thank each and every person on Twitter, Facebook and the incomparable Mikey, who have taken the time to tweet me, text me, phone me and ...
I mentioned a week or so ago that I was wondering if civilised government was possible any more, given the markets, the phenomenon of corporate tax avoidance, and the sheer cost of public services - and suggesting another way forward to end government borrowing. Now comes the news that the city of Maywood in California is facing such a big budget crisis that they are laying off their entire staff, including the police, and contracting it all out: They are not the only US city in this situation either. If the USA, the richest nation on earth, can no ...
The media and Tory/Lib Dem government would have you believe that the current coalition is a marriage, indeed David Cameron refers to it as a civil partnership. However I would argue that this is the wrong metaphor and what we are really looking at is an affair by two consenting parties. A marriage or civil ...
The Internet is full of libertarians in a way in which real life is not. In the past, I have blogged about how I find their credo oddly fascinating; and have skirted around the edges of their arguments without ever fully engaging. I felt it to be rather unfair, without being familiar with their core ...
I have an article on the televised leaders' debates that took place during the recent general election campaign in the current issue of Liberator. It's not the most exciting thing I have ever written, but I am including it here for the sake of completeness. X-factor Politics The three leaders' debates during the general election campaign probably did not much affect the result of the election, but they may have altered the course of British politics after all. For a while after the first debate it seemed that the wildest hopes of those Liberal Democrats who had long argued for ...
Here is a selection of issues making headlines during the past week: New MP pledges to make country great again Mobile phone masts to be approved despite objections Cuts to council jobs and services MP's speech on science and being 'Great' If you know of any other local political stories then please add them in the comments below. This weeks bonus is World Cup coaches dress for success on CTV News
A selection of other peoples thoughts that have caught my eye and made me think today. Helen Duffett & Big Brother Watch on more photographers being harassed by police Obnoxio on optical illusions Byrne Tofferings on who kept us out of the Euro Liberal burblings on England's problems-in Geordie Iain Dale on Why England lose Dr Madsen Pirie on moving for work Guido on massive spending cuts
It comes courtesy of the Spectator and Philip Hensher's review of Why Mahler? How One Man and Ten Symphonies Changed the World by Norman Lebrecht. And it is that Beyonce Knowles is his eighth cousin four times removed of the composer Gustav Mahler. I am sure we all feel wiser for knowing that.
If anyone ever asks why there is still the need for Pride marches let them look at the events that took place over the weekend; the 41 anniversary of the Stonewall riots. First off in the City that my family is strongly linked to Derry/Londonderry where a gay couple were attacked as they made their way home in the wee small hours of Saturday morning. Police are treated their attack as a homphobic incident. It has left them both heavily traumatised. However, it pails beside what happened in San Francisco on the 4oth Anniversary of the first Pride Parades which ...
Sorry for lack of blogging. For some reason, there has been a quite extraordinary rush of interest in the film rights of Murder in Samarkand, and I have been involved in some complex and frankly exhausting negotiations. I will keep you posted. Craig
I have suggested on this blog on a number of occasions that the way that Dyfed Powys Police are dealing with the badger cull in North Pembrokeshire is unreasonable and disproportionate. The community itself is upset because they have never seen anything like it before. They are rightly resentful at the way that their right to peaceful and democratic protest is being undermined by paranoia and over-reaction on the part of the Labour-Plaid Cymru Welsh Government and other authorities. However, in many ways, unacceptable as much of the police action is in North Pembrokeshire, it is nothing compared to what ...
A Bristol Liberal Democrat Councillor, Shirley Brown, has been found guilty of racial harassment. She called Asian Conservative Jay Jethwa a "coconut" during a debate at Bristol City Council in February 2009, because Jethwa had backed a proposal to cease funding for an organisation set up to support ethnic minorities in Bristol. Mrs Brown's words were:"In our culture we have a word for you, a
That's right bigger than a coalition government, bigger than Englands dismal performance at the world cup, bigger than the finally of Doctor Who... Wimbledon has so far not missed a second due to rain (although there are some rain showers forecast for tomorrow but hey)
Which is more believable: The Prime Minister's full support for Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt following his Hillsborough gaffe or The G20's full support for the UK's plans to tackle Government debt?
Video also available on YouTube here. A young man was detained by police for allegedly causing a breach of the peace, while photographing an Armed Forces Day parade in Romford on Saturday. Part-time photojournalist Jules Mattsson from Hackney, who is under 18, writes on his blog: The incident started when I took an image (not a very good one it seems) of a Police Cadet unit forming up to take part in an Armed Forces Day parade. I was quickly and aggressively stopped by one of their adult officers asking me who I worked for. I responded that I was ...
I am a member of the City Council's Constitutional Issues Committee. This sounds quite dull and in truth we do often spend a lot of time on what non politicians would consider tedious detail. Not tomorrow however. At the very last minute (ie less than 24 hours before the Committee is due to meet) we get the report linked to one of the agenda items. And in it - the proposal for a huge boost in the Labour Leader's allowances. Labour want to double this so that Joe Anderson would get a special allowance on top of his councillors allowance ...
I was at Overview and Scrutiny Committee this evening pushing for more citizen access to information. Before the election I asked for some research about how easy it is for a member of the public to find and read agendas and minutes for meetings run by organisations like the Waste Disposal Authority, the City Region Cabinet and MITA (Merseytravel). Remember these are bodies which discuss and made decisions about public money and services. We found that in some cases there was literally nothing that could be found easily. Now that can't be right. The default position should be that these ...
If their rather hysterical reaction to the emergency budget is anything to go by, Labour have gone straight to a position of opposition with no responsibilty from a position of power with no responsibility. As they shed their crocodile tears it should be remembered that Labour know all about hitting the poor. Removed the 10% tax band, then compensated the middle classesLowered capital gains tax as a tax break for the richFroze personal allowancesStole council rent calling it 'negative subsidy'Renaged on manifesto commitment to restore the link between pensions and earningsDestroyed the occupational pensions schemes millions relied onYou can see ...
Well it was good, but it could have been better. I really enjoyed that, but the wife was less convinced and a lot of what she said rang true (and is below). OK, we haven't been told what was going on, but the Doctor and his pals have saved the universe for another day (or should that be another infinite continuum). I should warn that spoilers follow. I didn't see the link between what the Doctor said about the tardis and the famous rhyme that allowed Amy to remember it. Very nicely done. The fossil Daleks were nice, and having ...
I went to a fascinating meeting this afternoon with some TV producers from cable channel UK TV Food. They are making a series called 'Monster Munch' which will feature competitions to produce the biggest of certain types of food. One of the ideas they are considering is to produce the biggest cream tea. And, to perpetuate a debate that has been fascinating BBC Radio Cornwall's Laurence Reed for a while, they plan to have a cook off between teams from Devon and Cornwall. And so they came to talk to a group of us in Launceston about whether we would ...
This is priceless. Chris Waddle blows all of Radio Five Live's fuses with a high decibel shouting rant after yesterday's England defeat. It's at 2′ 26" 00 here, delivered in a marvellous Geordie accent. It's worth a listen. Here's the gist of it: The FA just sit on their backsides and do NOTHING after tournament after tournament. Why don't they look at other countries and say: How do they keep producing talent? We coach talent out of players...The amount of money <inaudible> is frightening. All we do is waste money on RUBBISH ideas.
Miss Cornwall has been stripped of her title after it was discovered that she was too old to enter the competition and had no connection with Cornwall. You can find all the details here. Being a teacher, I suppose she could still lay claim to being Miss...
This is Cornwall reports that Devon and Cornwall Police are to go on a charm offensive having seen their customer satisfaction ratings slip over the past year. My own impression is that our Police locally are doing a pretty good job. Whilst crime rates here are, thankfully, very low, the major task the Police face, in addition to investigating the crimes that do happen, is to make sure the public is aware that they are very unlikely to be a victim of crime. Also in the news is opposition from Devon and Cornwall Police Authority to the Conservative plan for ...
The Press Association reports that the Prime Minister's official spokesperson has confirmed that the St George's flag was removed from the Downing Street flagstaff "early this morning" and has been replaced by the Union Flag. I said all along that it was a mistake to fly the St George's flag, instead of the Union flag, above Downing Street during the World Cup. It creates unnecessary division and is an affront to all the Scots, Welsh, Northern Irish and English sportswomen and men who represent us and win in many other sports. It is Little Englander snobbishness at its worse in ...
A disappointing performance at an international tournament from an England team with a well respected International manager who has had many achievements in other countries. Calls for this manager to be sacked by many of the tabloid papers and to be replaced by an English manager. Possible candidates include an English Manager who just unexpectedly ...
I am of course talking about the statement "I have full confidence in ..." the words which pretty much guarantee that it won't be long before you see the person in question out of their job, demoted, "resigned" basically not doing what they were before. So who was this said about today? why Jermey ...
From the Department of Health comes this news: Patients will be offered more choice and control over their healthcare with the launch of the first direct payment scheme, Care Services Minister Paul Burstow announced today. Eight Primary Care Trusts will begin to road test direct payments for personal health budgets. This will allow Primary Care Trusts to give the money for someone's care directly to them, allowing individuals to decide how, where and from whom they receive their healthcare, in partnership with the local NHS. Previously, personal health budgets could only be held by a Primary Care Trust or third ...
If ever there was a non-story then it is this example of faux outrage and artificially inflated crisis spread across a full page of this morning's Western Mail. The paper reports that Welsh Government Ministers are once more complaining that they were not consulted, this time about Iain Duncan Smith's proposals to encourage jobless people to leave housing estates to seek work. They conclude that the UK Government do not understand devolution and yet so unbalanced and uncritical is this piece that not once is the proposition advanced that in this instance it is Labour and Plaid Cymru who have ...
I have just coded the reaction post for today's Who Daily, and it's a bit bare. If you see any good reactions/reviews today or tomorrow morning, could you drop me a link here so that I can add it to tomorrow's post, which I will be doing in the morning. Or if you need a prod to remind you to write a review, consider this it... Lib Demmy peeps, if you wrote a review, please link it here whenever you posted it, because I have been mega busy and not backread today, and you won't get picked up by the ...
Mon 28th
16:11
Pollwatch: British people like clean energy more than fossil fuels or nuclear, worry about energy co...
The energy regulator Ofgem has recently published Energy Issues 2009: Survey of British Public Opinion. The survey was taken by Ipsos MORI last December. Here are the main points I have taken from the Ipsos MORI report: · The various forms of clean, renewable energy are most popular with the British public as sources of electricity. Coal is the least popular and nuclear energy comes second to bottom in the public's scale of preferences. Hydro, tidal, wave, offshore wind and large scale solar power are very popular. But onshore wind energy lags behind the other renewable sources, which should come ...
Good to see that even though the conservatives are in power conservative MP's and commentators are still indulging in some good old style scare tactic politics. Today Daniel Hannan Yet again gave us another "great" reason to fear the EU, there may be a big global emergency and it maybe an unelected politican that makes ...
Please only vote in this poll if you are planning on meeting me for drinkies tomorrow - it will help me to decide a venue, and votes from people in (say) Manchester who aren't coming anyway will only muddy the waters. Please note that ticky boxes are enabled for the first two questions, and you can thus pick more than one option. The last question is to determine preference. View Poll: Venue ETA: I think you should all know that I now have where do you go to, my lovely stuck in my head now...
I will be on LBC again from 8pm this evening as part of Petrie Hoskin's political panel along with a couple of other politicos. You can listen to it on 97.3 if you're in or near London or via this link online if you aren't. You can even call in to join in the debate on 0845 60 60 973 from 8pm.
Hot of the presses comes news that our local MP, David Ruffley, has taken an indefinite leave of absence from his position, following last week's incident where he narrowly avoided death after falling under a train at Victoria Station. In the meantime, neighbouring MP's, Matt Hancock (Suffolk West) and Daniel Poulter (Central Suffolk and North Ipswich) will be taking surgeries within the constituency. Whilst I am deeply sympathetic as to David's plight, it does leave the constituency effectively unrepresented in Parliament, and there is a question as to whether this is acceptable. Unfortunately, the job of Member of Parliament is ...
When I woke up at 2.30 this morning with a rush of a panic attack, layered over it were two emotions: annoyance because high stress and panic attacks make it hard to sleep at 2.30 in the morning in a heatwave with a cat on my bed where my knees should be, and relief, because I can use the adrenalin. If I use it, of course. EVERYTHING THIS MAN SAYS IS TRUE: (except for the bit about Stegosaurs.) Trust me, I'm a palaeontologist. [YouTube Link - The Best Dinosaur] ScienceSomething Deeply Wrong with Chemistry, or: why it took me longer ...
It's quite interesting the attention we have seen dedicated to many Lib Dem's recently. Considering the trouble we've had in the past with getting press coverage to have such attention paid to every word uttered is truely strange. Of course the vast majority of the press, on both sides, is looking for one thing from ...
Now this is a much better idea than many we've seen: rather than simply berate people for using songs illegally, make it easier for people to pay and use songs legally.
Vince Cable's new department, the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, was saddled with the heaviest round of cuts in the first round of cuts announced by the coalition government. They will have to find £836m of savings in 2010. Meanwhile the rest of us have been asked to participate in a comprehensive spending review. There is one candidate for cuts that many in the Liberal Democrats and the country at large would be pleased with - an end to government support for arms exports. One way the government helps arms companies sell their weapons to other countries is through ...
Saturday's Garston Park Fun Day was really good. A great range of stalls and activities with lots of people coming for part or all of the time. Well done to the organisers. I hope everyone who worked hard in the run up to the day feels it was worth while. I managed to talk to loads of people (picking up casework en route). I took a few photographs which, while they are not brilliant, give a bit of an idea of what it was like. They show the Friends of Garston Park stall - talking to people and selling books ...
The clean and tidy environment at Augusta Park (story below) is a complete contrast to the mess I saw when walking back to town past Smannell Road open space. [IMG: Litter at Smannell Road] This weekend the open space hosted one of the regular visits by funfairs which obviously will generate some litter. I was appalled however at the amount of litter around the site and in particular by the number of empty broken beer and wine bottles strewn around the play areas. The area has now been tidied thanks to prompt work by both the fair operators and, following ...
Today is my lovely, longsuffering husband's birthday. It's also now exactly (at around 5 ish tonight) 23 years since we met. I think the best present he could get today would be some relief from the Hay Fever which is at its peak at the moment. On Saturday morning while Anna was at Drama, he went on his usual Saturday morning walk. It's the same walk that he does every week and he takes photos and posts them on Facebook. It's lovely because you can see the scenery through the seasons. He knows that there are trees and grasses on ...
First there was the freeze on child benefit and the curbs on housing benefit in the budget. Plus the change in the ways that these will be paid out. Now we hear that there are plans to cut incapacity benefit. But what about the various tax loopholes and avoidance methods that the Lib Dems had highlighted George? Why are all the headline measures to cut taking from the poor like some modern day Sheriff of Nottingham? Of course having worked in the fraud section of the Social Security Agency I know that there are some benefit claimants who should not ...
Great news that 6/18 Ofsted inspections stated Southwark schools outsanding. This is a great testiment to all the hard works of pupils, parents, teachers, governors, head, council officers and the political leadership of Lib Dems for the last 7 years. Of Southwark's 89 schools - 24 rated oustanding, 33 as good, 29 satisfactory and 3 as inadequate. We've come a long way since the Tony Blair's Labour government took local education away from Labour run Southwark Council. They handed it to Lib Dem Southwark Council and my colleagues worked tirelesly leading it transformation - most recently by Cllr Nick Stanton. ...
Its very sadly official that London has the dirtiest air in Europe. Under EU regulations UK is allowed no more than 35 'bad air' days a year. Last week London recorded its 36th already - not even half way through the year. It seems clear that London Mayor Boris Johnson is not taking anywhere near enough actions to fix this and in fact is making it worse by cancelling the western extension of the Congestion Charging Zone. We need a proper Clean Air Zone as proposed by London Lib Dems. 2012 Olympics will see a world focus on London ...
I think I have finally recovered enough to reflect briefly on the embarrassment that was the England performance in the World Cup against Germany. It was a truly shocking performance - especially defensively and yet again Rooney, Gerrard and Lampard especially underperformed, but the team generally didn't look capable and frankly despite their reputations individually, they just weren't good enough. If by some incredible miscalculation on the part of the FA - they approach me for the job, I would start from scratch and everything would be dictated by the next world cup, so that means I wouldn't pick anyone ...
I was out drinking with a couple of Tory councillors the other day. This is not a frequent occurrence and has become no more frequent since the Coalition. I learned that one of their acquaintance had resigned her Conservative Party membership because of the Coalition. She is a Thatcherite. The days and weeks after the toughest budget for several decades were bound to be uncomfortable. None of us expected to see our Party lauded by the press. The Guardian lambasted the budget for its effect on the poor, the Mail for its effect on middle England. I gave up and ...
Yet again the Pope and the Catholic Church have misread the public mood about the anger of the child abuse scandal that the Catholic Church is shrouded in. The Belgian Police have started raiding Catholic Church Offices investigating child abuse. Pope Benedict has attacked the Belgian Police in a message of support to the Bishops of Belgium; "I want to express, dear brother in the Episcopate, as well as to all the Bishops of Belgium, my closeness and solidarity in this moment of sadness, in which, with certain surprising and deplorable methods, searches were carried out."So, yet again we see ...
Ace Rimmer Vs the NAZIs
I recently became aware of the Energy Saving Trust's new Water Energy Calculator, and it has been a real eye opener as to just how much water is wasted in our daily lives. The Water Energy Calculator has been designed to demonstrate to people the amount of energy and water that is being wasted in ...
England got thrashed 4-1 by Germany in the World Cup second round yesterday. We deserved it too. We were by far the weaker side on the day. The defensive problems that had been apparent throughout the group stage were present in abundance. The final German goal tally of 4 could easily have been more like 6 or 7. So Germany certainly deserved to win and are looking like they might be contenders for the title. Even if we had somehow managed to scrape through by luck yesterday do we honestly think we could have beaten for example Argentina given their ...
I can hardly believe that the changes in housing benefit were successfully railroaded past the LibDems in Cabinet. What was Danny Alexander thinking of? Even if the Tories didn't realise that their proposals would lead to people currently caught in the safety-net of housing benefit to be evicted by private-sector landlords, and thus to more homelessness when the lower limit is imposed, couldn't our chaps have pointed it out? Not to mention the months of worry for the likely victims, as so clearly expressed on Money Box Live programme on Wednesday. (The link is to the main page. It is ...
From the Council: Stockport Council has been crowned joint 'Public Sector Team of the Year' at the Insider Property Awards North West 2010. Over 800 property professionals attended the award ceremony at Manchester Central, which toasted the region's top property performers. Developers recommended Stockport Council for the award and judges described Stockport's year as "jobs, jobs and more jobs". Recent investment successes for Stockport have included the BSkyB announcement of 550 new jobs at BAM Properties' St Peter's Square development on the A6; 300 new jobs at Jacobs Engineering at Cheadle Royal Business Park; and over 100 new jobs at ...
You know how much of a stickler for spelling and punctuation I am. I can't help it. I can't afford the therapy so you have to live with it. Anyway, I must be cured a little bit because when I saw Mark Webber's tweet this morning with "role on Silverstone" in it, not one hair on the back of my neck stood on end. All I felt was relief - and a wee bit of grateful incredulity that someone can have a huge crash one day and say they're feeling good the next. I actually screamed yesterday afternoon as his ...
Whether driven by circumstance or long-term plan, the reaction of David Cameron to the general election result has been an attempt to realign British politics around the centre-right, using the need to strike – and then keep an agreement – with the Liberal Democrats as a way to drag his party away from its more right-wing elements. Doubtless future biographers will spill much ink over what might have been had he got closer to the winning post on his own, or even past it, just as the question of how pluralistic Tony Blair would have been had he not got ...
So England crashed out of the World Cup yesterday afternoon, sadly not surprisingly, after three poor Group games where they barely seemed to turn up and then capitulating to the Germans. The biggest losers though is English football and how much poorer they will be due to the English FA's stupidity and incompetence.
In a post of mind-numbing boredom, today The Futility Monster opted to take a break from his usual posting regime merely to say thank you to the small and ever dwindling number of visitors to this blog, many of whom arrive here by searching for pictures of fireworks. The diversion, entitled Operation Diversion, was craftily ...
Sorry for neglecting you over the past few days - and blogging will be a bit light today as it's Bob's birthday and he has half the day off. Anyway, I haven't been completely lazy - I've been writing in other places. Here's my Steamie post on how the Liberal Democrats added fairness to the Budget. Two parts of that were quoted slightly out of context in yesterday's Scotland on Sunday so if you read the whole thing, hopefully it'll make sense. I did the Scottish Roundup this week. And a Haggis, Neeps and Liberalism slot for Liberal Democrat Voice ...
Yes, polls close tomorrow and for the myriad candidates, the tension really starts. However, for those of you who enjoy the excitement and humour of a good count, the results show will commence at 1 p.m. tomorrow (Tuesday) at Party HQ in Cowley Street, where my team of wizened Italian democracy engineers and I will attempt to demonstrate what you can do with an 'O' level in Mathematics, a sense of humour and a lot of imagination. I'll be live blogging the results as best I can, which will doubtless improve the visitor numbers at 'Liberal Bureaucracy' (cynical, moi?). Naturally, ...
I would think that everyone wants those who cannot work because they are incapacitated to receive financial support. I would think that everyone wants those who can work but who claim incapacity benefit falsely not to receive that support. However, the previous Labour government tried to get people off such allowances and my experience as a local MP from surgery is that the 're-assessment' of people claiming has been variable at best. We need to be sure that there is no perverse incentive to determine that someone can work when they cannot. We also need to be sure that those ...
[IMG: Share photos on twitter with Twitpic] At my bus stop this morning I found this most disturbing grammatical error. Apparently there will be falling services at the Bathgate end of the 417/27/28. Does this mean that buses will be falling out of the sky to their new starting point at the station rather than South Bridge Street. Or is the falling more to do with the more than 10% hike in weekly ticket prices today, for two zones to included Edinburgh and West Lothian up from £24 to £27. Don't these bus companies realise that none of us are ...
I have just spent a long weekend in London (hence no posts for several days), principally to attend the AGM of the Electoral Reform Society (ERS). The main debate was whether to launch immediately "a campaign of education and lobbying against the current voting system and in support of AV and preferential voting FULL STOP, or to continue "and further to use the campaign to promote Proportional Representation by the use of the Single Transferable Vote for future House of Commons and other UK election." The "full stoppers" argued that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to get ...
I have just caught up with yesterday's Politics Show and was horrified to hear what the new Chair of the Welsh Affairs Select Committee had to say. To be frank I thnk he believes that he has more influence and power than he really does. This was particularly so with regards to Legislative Competence Orders and the referendum. When asked what the role of the committee is David Davies replied: We have a scrutiny role because we look at the LCOs, the new laws, if you like, that the Welsh Assembly want to pass and we are I suppose you ...
Hertfordshire 'electrical lovers' are urged to let their unwanted technology and gadgets go. Many of us already recycle everyday items such as newspapers, glass, cans and plastic bottles, but small electrical items can be reused or recycled. This means anything with a battery or plug; from broken toasters and kettles gathering dust in the loft, to old mobile phones in drawers, and disused power tools cluttering up the garage. Old and unused electrical items can become useful again! On average each of us accumulates three new electrical items each year, or 173 million nationally, but we seem to find it ...
Weekly catchup returns this week as the nation, and this blog, have been consumed with debate about the budget. Not for us such petty distractions as the World Cup, the cricket, the world-record breaking tennis or the siren call of the vuvuzela; no, for us, it's all about the 2.5 percentage point difference between the previous VAT rate and the next. We kicked off our budget coverage with a message from Nick Clegg warning us that things would not be pretty. On budget day itself, we asked you what you thought, and spawned a massive comments thread with over 200 ...
I suppose that I should stick with football today because of England's departure from the World Cup. Yesterday's blog was about footballers' attitudes and today I would guess that there are hundreds if not thousands of comments on the internet that have been written about technological advances on the football pitch. I am not too bothered about this myself. I am much more concerned with the attitude and ability of our players. We treat them with so much respect and pay them so much and this in turn raises our expectations. The bubble should have burst yesterday. Our top players ...
