Stockton's Greener Living Roadshow was in Ropner Park today, and we were taking our turn at manning the Fairtrade stall. Always enjoyable to be able to talk to people about what Fairtrade is all about, the difference in can make to the producers and how people can make a difference to them buy simply buying their products instead of those from the multinationals. A number of people took the...
As I discovered three years ago, Bryan Magee (the great populariser of Karl Popper's work in Britain) was evacuated to Market Harborough as a schoolboy during Word War II. In his Confessions of a Philosopher he remembers his early intellectual awakening: I remember myself as a London evacuee in Market Harborough - I must have been ten or eleven - lying on my back in the grass in a park and trying to penetrate a cloudless blue sky with my eyes and thinking something like this "If I went straight up into the sky, and kept on going in a ...
1 Iain Dale's Diary (=) 2 Liberal Conspiracy (=) 3 Guy Fawkes' blog (=) 4 Liberal Democrat Voice (+1) 5 A Spoon Full of Sugar (+2) 6 Left Foot Forward (=) 7 ConservativeHome's ToryDiary (-3) 8 Cute Card Thursday (=) 9 Allsorts challenge blog (+2) 10 Cupcake Craft Challenges (+6) 11 Charisma Cardz (+3) 12 Labourlist (-2) 13 And another thing... (-4) 14 Papertake Weekly Challenge (+7) 15 Sketch saturday (-2) 16 Saturday Challenge (+1) 17 Just Magnolia (-2) 18 Stamping Ground (+9) 19 Creative Card Crew (+1) 20 Penny Black Saturday Challenge (+9) 21 One Stop Craft Challenge (+14) ...
The next meeting of the Acocks Green Ward Committee takes place at 7pm on Wednesday 7th July at Acocks Green Baptist Church, on the corner of Yardley Road and Alexander Road. There is just one substantive item on the agenda, which is to approve the lastest items put forward for funding from the Ward's Community Chest funds.
Like many others I joined the campaign to stop the last Labour Government plans to build a new runway at Heathrow. I was delighted when the new Lib Dem - Conservative coaltion scrapped this crazy scheme so quickly. Now we have to ensure that all transport policy in future is based on sustainable principles. As part of the Heathrow campaign I purchased a small plot of land and here is the acknowledgment but unfortuneately I could not copy the certificate of ownership into this space. CONGRATULATIONS! Well here it is - your certificate of Beneficial Ownership of the Airplot, the ...
The Conservative dominated Lincolnshire County Council needs to be pursuaded to stop the lunacy of cow factory farming (an idea from USA) before it gets started in the UK. Please sign the 38 Degree petition on this subject and write to Councillors in Lincolnshire objecting to this proposed horror. Big agricultural companies want to open huge US-style factory farms for cows in the UK. Cows would be kept inside all year and not allowed to graze or eat grass. Animal and environment groups are warning that factory farms of this sort are likely to be bad for climate change, bad ...
Not when it comes to driving apparently. The BBC reported last week on Britain's most dangerous roads, as enumerated by the Road Safety Foundation. As one might expect, half of Britain's fatal accidents happen on one tenth of our roads. The answer to this, according the Foundation, is to spend money making the roads safer. It never occurs to them to make the drivers safer. A particularly telling point is that "most crashes happened at weekends during the summer in dry, daylight conditions" which kind of suggests that the roads themselves are not at fault. They may be twisty, they ...
A recent petition was successful in stopping the whalers get their way. Now we need to stop illegal loggers getting their way. Please sign the AVAAZ petition and support the EU in strong legislation. Within days, the European Parliament could ban illegal timber from entering the EU market — but powerful companies stand in the way. Forests are the habitat and life source of many peoples and are essential in preventing climate change, but while there is high demand for timber, illegal logging thrives, killing species, and fuelling corruption and organized crime. The European Council has just voted for harsh ...
Iain Dale reports that Total Politics is holding its annual poll to find Britain's top political blogs. The full rules are on his blog. The closing date for votes is 31 July 2010. Please mark your entries 1. Liberal England. [IMG: Click here to vote in the Total Politics Best Blogs Poll 2010] How can Labour split the coalition? Easy, says SNP Tactical Voting: "by pushing for PR that Lib Dems won't be able to resist voting for and the Tories, particularly those on the backbenches, will fight tooth and nail against." Birkdale Focus looks back to the 1945 general ...
Ten out of ten to President Sarkozy for clamping down on lavish spending by his Ministers as the public face cuts in the public sector. Two French ministers have resigned after rows over spending thousands of euros of taxpayers' money on a private jet and cigars at a time when budget cuts are hitting the public.Development Minister Alain Joyandet and Christian Blanc, a junior minister tasked with overseeing development have both resigned. Alain Joyandet caused outrage after spending £96,000 on a private jet to take him to Martinique for a conference. Christian Blanc came under fire last month after it ...
A selection of other peoples thoughts that have caught my eye and made me think today 1. Birkdale Focus on squeezing the vote in 19452. Stephen Tall on party leader's popularity3. Andrew Allison on why banning the Burkha is wrong.4. Andrew Reeves on the irony of union leaders calling for strikes5. Spyblog UK on the need for Cameron to re-affirm the Wilson Doctrine
Submarines have over the years found a multitude of uses. In 1978 there was a story about a group of Scottish Footie fans who were going to use one to get to Argentina for the World Cup. Noting our team ended up all at sea before being finally sunk it seemed an appropriate mode of transport. I cite this story because in Ecuador they have found an alternative use for the submarine. The US Drug Enforcement agency have seized one suspected of being about to smuggle cocaine into Ecuador! Meanwhile on the world cup and drug smuggling theme Spanish Police ...
Its the annual total politics vote for the best political blogs. You can vote by clicking on the box below. [IMG: Click here to vote in the Total Politics Best Blogs Poll 2010]
Welcome to Broxtowe Enews, brought to you by the Liberal Democrats and edited by David Watts, leader of the borough council. It's quite a short newsletter this week as things are starting to wind down for the summer, but there are some interesting developments going on. Much of this weeks news, for one reason or another, seems to take place in trowel so I'll start there. 1. Trowell War Memorial At the moment there is no war memorial in Trowell, although a number of young men from the village died in the World Wars. My colleague Ken Rigby, councillor for ...
Earlier in the week the Taxpayer's Alliance released the salaries of 38 Union leaders accusing them of hypocrisy when shouting out about public sector cuts and the unions retaliated saying the Taxpayers' Alliance was "a secretive, self-appointed, right-wing front" that stood up for the rich. The RMT in their typical tradition just launched a personal scathing attack on the Taxpayer's Alliance. A spokesman for the RMT said the Taxpayers' Alliance should publish its own accounts. "Their chief officer, who has launched this laughable attack on the trade union movement, has never been elected by anyone in his life," he said. ...
Those of you who have been following the current debate on Liberal Democrat Voice will be aware that I find myself in the opposite side of the argument to the Ethnic Minority Liberal Democrats, not necessarily for the first time. I'm not going to repeat the arguments here, needless to say that I have my severe doubts as to whether their proposal will be passed by Conference and, even if it does, whether it will achieve what they hope of it. However, as a result, I have been 'challenged' by their outgoing Chair, Baroness Hussein-Ece, or Meral to her friends, ...
Some bumpkins reckon that an art installation will attract 100,000 visitors a year to Dorset. They say this in an attempt to justify the artwork.In this, they are wrong on at least two counts> First, popularity is not a good measure of artistic merit - consider how well "RnB" "music" sells, or how inexplicably expensive some of Damien Hirst's awful work is - and art does not need such jusitification, at least not if it's any good. And second, they're wrong about the number of people who will bother to go along to this ridiculous "observatory".What's more, it won't bring ...
The exact line from Labour on the AV referendum which is likely to be called for May 5th next year is not yet clear. That is perhaps unsurprising given that they are still in the middle of choosing their next leader. The Miliband brothers seem the most unequivocal in their support for AV. Ed Balls is a bit less full-throated in his support and seems to be trying to position himself in such a way as he could back off from supporting it if he so wished. Abbott and Burnham have both been fairly dismissive of AV (although recently, perhaps ...
Total Politics are asking you to vote for your top ten political blogs of the year. Click on the picture below for the instructions. [IMG: Click here to vote in the Total Politics Best Blogs Poll 2010]
Here below is a very impressive Paddy Ashdown on Sky News this morning with Adam Boulton. There's a transcript from PoliticsHome here. Paddy said Labour were behaving like "superannuated students" and blamed David Miliband for killing off the chances of a Labour/LibDem coalition, adding: I do thing there is something pretty strange when you have the responsibility, I'm referring to David Miliband and the Labour leaders at the time, when you have the responsibility to govern the country you duck it, you leave others to pick up the mess afterwards, and then you blame them for picking up the mess. ...
The proposal to hold a referendum on changing the electoral system to the Alternative Vote is Labour's policy, so you would have thought they'd be delighted that the coalition government is going ahead with it, wouldn't you? The problem is, a) Labour's commitment to the policy is at least partly tactical (designed to appeal ...
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 176th weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere ... Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (27th June – 3rd July, 2010), together with a hand-picked quintet, normally courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed. Don't forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox – just click here – ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging. As ever, let's start with the most popular post, and work our way down: 1. ...
Meet Britain's newest citizen, (babies excluded!). I can say that with a quiet confidence as the registry office we attended was the only one we could find doing citizenship ceremonies on a Saturday, and so until tomorrow, Sasha is technically Britain's newest citizen. I hadn't attended a citizenship ceremony before and had heard mixed reports from friends about them. The ceremony we attended had 10 'Brits-to-be' plus their families and was in a nice room usually used for weddings & civil partnerships. The ceremony started with a welcome from the registrar and speeches from the Lord-lieutenant and the Mayor. The ...
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The day of the Gatley Festival (or, technically, the Gatley Fun day, since the festival has been running for the last week). I spent most of the day on the field, but still put in a small fraction of the effort the volunteer organisers have been making over the last few weeks and months. My small part in today's proceedings was to help run the Lib Dem stand (a tombola by the entrance) and helping to set up and pack away the Cubs coconut shy and refreshments in the scout hut. Setting up in the morning we all got pretty ...
The news is from the US and allows people in Britain to give themselves a quick pat on the back because from what's come out so far it very much looks as if the British rules on polling transparency would stop any similar situation arising (at least as far as polls commissioned from British Polling Council members go): I've obtained a copy of the lawsuit that Daily Kos just filed against Research 2000, and this going to get nastier than you thought. The suit contains striking new details about Research 2000′s alleged reluctance to release its raw data and its ...
Interesting piece from the curmudgeon on welfare reform. We should not forget the extent to which every possible step was taken to discourage benefit claimants already under New Labour. A friend of mine who works in what used to be called a Jobs Centre says it is heartbreaking to see the unemployed who have worked all their lives, sometimes in quite senior positions, now being put through the deliberately humiliating and onerous process of claiming benefit. They have to show they have applied every week for numerous often inappropriate jobs and continually provide evidence of their rejection. She says ...
The second, and final, season of Joss Whedon's Dollhouse is showing on ITV4. If you want to catch it, it is on Wednesday nights at 8pm. Whedon created Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Firefly. The shows are terrific entertainment with well-written characters and clever scripts. There are recurring themes in each one, around the dangers of giving too much power to one organisation, the nature of self and the desire of the individual to control their life. In Dollhouse, Whedon brings all of this together to explore what makes an individual. Just as in his other shows, there is ...
After adjusting for inflation, welfare spending today is an astonishing ten times higher than in 1948, according to figures published in yesterday's Guardian. The graph shows that the sharpest rises in welfare spending were both under Conservative administrations (presumably not unconnected with the recessions at those times – 1981-84 and 1991-94 – though the bill rose in all but three of the 18 years of Conservative government). Only under Churchill and Eden in the 1950s did the welfare bill fall slightly. Under Macmillan it rose about 50%, and the welfare bill Labour inherited in 1997 was almost double that they'd ...
Monday sees the 60th anniversary of the 1945 General Election-although the votes we not counted for a further three weeks so that the postal votes from Servicemen could be returned. The Liberal candidate in Southport was Bob Martin (that's right the flea powder and petcare man) whose widow contributed to my General Election campaign in 1983. One of our older Birkdale members Mr Morris recalls the visit of Archibald Sinclair. A fat lot of good it did us as 1945 remains one of the few occaisions we came third in this constituency. Southport Liberals were also interested in the fate ...
Well, it is if you're a Tory MP in a safe seat who was slightly unnerved by a stronger than expected LibDem challenge during the General Election and felt you should make an effort to appear responsive to your constituents. Mark Prisk, the Cornwall-loving MP for Hertford & Stortford opened a twitter account during the General Election in which he didn't really respond to anything other than sycophantic questioning and even then not much (I'd like to check to check the validity of this half-remembered slur but guess what...). Mr Prisk was safely re-elected with 54% of the vote and, ...
View Poll: #1587814 The Dutch 2-1 victory was correctly called by burkesworks, getawaywithit and frightened_eyes. Only sugarimp correctly predicted Uruguay's victory on penalties after each team scored a goal. Because I carelessly forgot to include a 4-0 option for the Germany-Argentina match, nobody called the results correctly. hani, azrhey, lihuen, williamarthur, hotaruanne, intotheaether, madam_raven, sevenorora, askedfour, liona5, tierpolizistin and wm_james all at least predicted a German win without choosing the wrong score. xtinfoiltouch, gmh, slimmeroftheyea, gia86, aisyah156, redfiona99, frumiousb and kou_chann all predicted Spain's 1-0 win over Paraguay. It is striking that nobody's name appears more than once in the ...
Well it wasn't the coastal winds that caused chaos on the first mass finish of this years Tour de France but some of the bends towards the finish of the race. First having just entered the last 3km when anybody involved in a crash has their time protected with the group they are with sprint king Mark Cavendish (HTC-Columbia), fellow Brit Jeremy Hunt (Cervelo) and Oscar Freire (Rabobank) and were amongst those that went down. Later just inside the flame rouge marking the final kilometre there was a second crash which literally blocked the road behind a lead group of ...
Last Sunday 27th June marked the 8th year in passing of one John Alec Entwistle; known to 'Oo fans as The Ox or Thunderfingers. Probably THE best bassist in the world of Rock music and definitely one of the most influential. But it wasn't just his prowess on the bass that made him stand out, he also had a terrifically warped humour and wrote some of The 'Oo's more humorous and dare to say heaviest songs. In fact on Heaven & Hell, My Wife (live) and the Quiet One, it can be said that Pete Townshend really rips it up ...
"It's outrageous that the Lib Dems wield any power and influence having secured just 23% of the popular vote", goes the argument – mostly heard from Labour activists at the moment. I don't recall them arguing that Labour shouldn't have had power after 2005, when the party won 35% of the vote, so I wonder at what point a party switches from no power to total power? Which vote swings it? Perhaps we could identify the actual voter and let them know? Hello Mrs Abercromby – we just wanted you to know that your vote will take your party over ...
[IMG: island-bed-small.jpg] Readers who were concerned at the apparent threat of health and safety assessments to beds at some of our local roundabouts can heave a sigh of relief. The beds that are not to be planted up are the small beds on the approach islands, not the central beds which are not (currently) threatened. I have to agree that I wouldn't want to gardens these beds myself so close to the traffic, though something will need to be done with them as any soil untended will soon enough sport its own fine crop of weeds. In the meantime we ...
We have ask the council to have a look at the brambles over looking Sulis Manor Road/Combe Hay Lane, on the opposite side to the Doctors surgery next to the football club, these are over hanging the footpath in places.
Apparently I suck.
Of course, concerted action by a directed group could achieve this. I wonder...
Many of the visitors to this blog will know that I have been an uber tweeter under the name Spiderplant88. Due to various circumstances beyond my control, I have deleted my account on Twitter and will no longer be tweeting. It has been fun whilst it lasted and I have made some excellent friends who ...
Almost 300 Woking residents have signed the partition to keep local Woking ice cream vendor Pasco Guarino in his usual pitch in the town square. Mr Guarino has occupied a place in the town for over 30 years Geoff McManus, the council's neighbourhood services manager, said: "Due to refurbishment works to the entrance of the ...
Pete Quaife, the original bass player with The Kinks, died last week. That is a good reasons for choosing this track from the LP The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society - my "3-CD special deluxe edition" has at four different versions of it. It is also one of the disappointingly few songs to mention cricket. In 2005 Pete Quaife said of this album: Making that album was the high point of my career. It is something of which I am very proud. For me it represents the only real album made by the Kinks! It is probably the ...
Labour appear to be jumping on every story at the moment. I personally I don't like these cuts but I do understand that they are not going to be 40percent. This is an exercise to find out where cuts can be made and while doing this departments may find cuts they didn't realise they could make. This could give them more options. Some departs will be making say 10% cuts while others 30%. It seems to me that Labour appear to oppose every cut. However they claimed to of made plans for billions of cuts. Surely some of these cuts ...
Yesterday, Pollwatch looked at the state of the parties in June; today it's the turn of the coalition government leaders. As with all polls, what follows comes with caveats. Only two polling companies - YouGov and Mori - this past month asked questions specifically to find out the public's views of the Lib Dem and Tory party leaders. (Harriet Harman's performance as Labour leader is not being measured). And each asks variants on the basic question - do you think Clegg/Cameron are doing a good job - to come up with their figures, so comparison ain't easy. But, still, we ...
I went to a meeting convened by Havco (Haringey Association of Voluntary and Community Organisations) and Haringey's Community Link Forum (HCLF) last week. The meeting was set up for to consider 1) the development of a Voluntary Sector position paper to go to Haringey Council cabinet meeting and 2) begin to examine the changes that may need to be made by the sector to ensure that it can operate effectively within the new working environment.. Obviously there are cuts by central Government to local government - so let's accept that this is straight fact - and concentrate then on how ...
All of us living in Woking are disappointed and angered by the proposed cuts to Surrey Fire services budget. What is more annoying are the comments by Kay Hammond, Surrey County Council's cabinet member for community safety who said that she would like to see the money plowed back into buying people fire alarms as ...
A politically savvy phishing email has just arrived in my inbox: My working partner has helped me to send your first payment of US$7,500 to you as instructed by Mr. David Cameron and will keep sending you US$7,500 twice a week until the payment of (US$360,000) is completed within six months and here is the information below: MONEY TRANSFER CONTROL NUMBER (MTCN): 841-116-3297 SENDER'S NAME: Mr.Alexander Onyibor AMOUNT: US$7,500 To track your funds forward Western Union Money Transfer agent your Full Names and Mobile Number via Email to: Mr Gary Moore E-mail:western.uniontransfer@w.cn D/L: Tel:+447045713697 Please direct all enquiring to: western.uniontransfer@w.cn ...
The world and his dog knows of my disdain for Nadine Dorries, the Conservative MP who not only cheated on Tower Block of Commons by smuggling money into her bra, but who on a regular basis shows signs of being nothing short of deluded in some of her views. This is especially true when it ...
The debate about welfare went up a gear this week following the announcement by Ian Duncan Smith over the future of welfare benefits. Generally I think he is moving in the right direction. Frankly there is not that much to separate it from what Labour was planning when they were in office. That of course won't stop the sanctimonious posturing of Labour MPs who will accuse the Lib Dems of plague,
[IMG: Felicia is one energetic + charming candidate] It was great to see how the challenge of providing an alternative to Labour that wasn't the BNP sparked Liberal Democrats in Barking & Dagenham to put up far more candidates than for many years in the local elections this May. At the Westminster level, Dominic Carman used the opportunity to highlight many powerful anti-Nick Griffin messages - and it was a pleasure to work with him on some literature and his Facebook presence for the election. Since then the team has continued to grow, with more members and a new local ...
Terry badly exposed by route one football. How ironic! #eng #ger #worldcup #fb # Terry caught out of position again. Slow and cumbersome. Why dies anyone rate him? Letting the side down! #eng #ger #worldcup #fb # Upson and Carragher also slow but have positional awareness! And Upson pulled one back! #eng #ger #worldcup #fb # Terry goes missing again. #eng lucky not to be punished again! No wonder James keeps screaming at JT. He wouldn't get 1/10 at this rate! #fb # Last swim school done! [IMG: :(] One more shift left (@ Bulmershe Leisure Centre) http://4sq.com/crH7Sq # I'm ...
Today saw the Launceston Half Marathon run through the streets (and up the hills) of Launceston and the surrounding area. More than 350 runners from across Cornwall, as well as from Devon and as far away as Milton Keynes and Scotland took part. The winner, in 1 hour 12 minutes 30 seconds, was Kevin Heywood from the Bideford Club. The first woman home was Susie Bosustow from Cornwall AC. Also taking place was the Family Fun Run with more than 150 young people, parents and teachers. The first boy home was nine year old Piran Gallington and first girl 10 ...
If you missed this week's first episode of Rev, BBC2's new Dibley With Attitude sit-com, I suggest you catch up prompt via Auntie's blessed iPlayer. It won't be everyone's cup of tea ... there's no laugh-track (how very modishly cinema verite, dahlins), caricatures-a-plenty, and it takes itself seriously enough to allow a couple of reflective lines on the nature of faith. But in return you get an utterly winning performance from one of this country's most fantastic tragi-comic actors, Tom Hollander – incidentally, the son of Oxford Lib Dem councillor Tony Hollander. And some equally sublime supporting performances from his ...
With the growth of the tea party movement I got to thinking what would have happened if in Boston harbour the tea hand't been poured over the side of the M.V. William into the water as a protest to the colonial power. So with apologies to my American friends who don't have a sence of humour and none whatsoever to those that get Python or Douglas Adams, here is a reworking of the Star Spangled Banner to reflect a different historical outcome. Oh, say! let's make tea by the dawn's early light What so proudly we drink after the William's ...
After grumbles about YouGov's dubious methodology during the leader's debates in April, their latest impartial and not at all leading question for the recent Sun poll on the AV referendum is a corker: "Before the election the Conservative party criticised an AV referendum as likely to cost £80 million at a time when the government would be needing to make major spending cuts. In view of the government's current cuts in public spending, do you think it is an appropriate or inappropriate time to hold a referendum on AV?" Wow! That's not leading at all is it? Isn't there some ...
Given all that I have been struggling with the last few weeks the last thing I need right now is more harassment from members of my family. Given that other events have left me on the antidepressant Prozac, sleeping tablets and seeing a counsellor, you would think that my family would be a rock of ...
[IMG: duffield.jpg] This is Linda Duffield's take on the vexed moral question on whether or not it can be justifiable to boil somebody alive to obtain information from them: There were difficult ethical and moral issues involved and at times difficult judgements had to be made weighing one clutch of "moral issues" against another. It was not always easy for people in post (embassies) to see and appreciate the broader picture, eg piecing together intelligence material from different sources in the global fight against terrorism. Linda is now the chief executive of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, an all-party ...
Ribby with Wrea Local Authority: Fylde Borough Council Electoral Region: North Western England Last contested: 2007 Frank Roland Andrews (Conservative) 292 votes (52.2% +6.8%) David Hobson (Green) 11 votes (2.0% +2.0) Janet Wardell (Independent) 256 votes (45.8% -8.7%) Conservative GAIN from Independent with a majority of 36 votes (6.4%) on a swing from Independent to Conservative of 6.8% Clee Local Authority: Shropshire County Council Electoral Region: West Midlands Last contested: 2009 Hayley Clare Fernihough (Conservative) 506 votes (32.3% -5.7%) Richard Mark Huffer (Liberal Democrat) 946 votes (60.3% +23.4%) Graeme Perks (Independent) 116 votes (7.4% -17.7%) Liberal Democrat GAIN from Conservative ...
Looks like Itezy have changed their name / using another one, however the scam is still the same as I exposed a couple of months ago. They call saying they are offering free support. Take control of your computer, then state it is infected and charge you through the nose to get the "viruses" removed. Keep well clear of them. Thanks to John Ingle in the last post for the tip-off. ps, looks like they are comment spamming over the internet trying to boost up their page rankings / dropping the negative articles. If you run a website where they ...
Dear Ms. Featherstone, Yesterday it was reported that you would be beginning "consultations" about the status of equal marriage and civil partnerships sometime in the future (http://bit.ly/cemLBp). It also reports you'll be contacting both sides in this consultation, in effect suggesting equality is not an automatic right for all citizens but one that should be negotiated. I do wonder if the Government of the day consulted racists whilst creating the Race Relations Act. I also wonder who will be "representing" the LGBT community. I suspect Stonewall may well be consulted. This unrepresentative group doesn't represent the LGBT community in full ...
1984 - the year after the Liberal/SDP Alliance got the highest centre party vote since well before the Second World War in the General Election, but ended up with very few MPs for their troubles. Welcome to Jenny Humphries in Bredbury, in a decent year for the Alliance that showed continued growth across the Borough. 03/05/84 1984 Stockport Bredbury (10805) @ 1 vote share Humphries J. Lib/SDP 2658 48.3 Prince W.* Lab 1454 26.4 Treharne A. Con 1387 25.2 ffff 1980: Lab Turnout 50.9 21.9 Brinnington (8604) @ 1 vote share Rowles M. Ms.* Lab 2847 75.9 Howell E. Ms. ...
Chris Fox, the party's interim Chief Executive, has been appointed to the post permanently whilst Lorely Burt, chair of the Parliamentary Party (in the Commons) has been re-elected unopposed. Best of luck to them both.
This morning's Observer abandons its usual hostility to the Tory Liberal Democrat government with an editorial that praises coalition politics and which concludes that this sort of partnership is good for democracy: In particular they point out how ineffectual Labour's faux moral outrage has been: Labour campaigned against Conservative economic policy on the grounds that Mr Cameron planned to form an administration run by the "same old Tories". Lib Dem support for maximum austerity makes that line hard to sustain. But instead of promoting an alternative agenda, acting leader Harriet Harman has devoted disproportionate energy to attacking Nick Clegg's MPs ...
Conwy County Borough Council's Parks department has entered four parks for Green Flag status this year. The Green Flag recognises Parks that are well maintained with robust management plans. I personally believe that a well maintained park can add value to the community in so many ways, healthy living, residents are encouraged to visit the Park, economically it can add to the visitor experience and educationally for our children. I also believe that a well maintained Green Flag park reduces crime as residents feel pride for their park and take ownership. http://www.keepbritaintidy.org/GreenFlag/ The Parks entered are: Wynn Gardens Old Colwyn ...
We usually wake early to the beautiful sound of birdsong, of late it has been noticeably quiet and yesterday we found the cause!!!
I have commented before on Labour claims that they have been in favour of reforming the Barnett formula and implementing the Hotham report all-along, despite evidence to the contrary and thirteen years of inaction. The worst example of this was Ed Milliband on the ITV programme Sharp End just over a week ago in which he claimed that Labour had promised to introduce a fair funding formula in their General Election manifesto. This was a claim which was repeated by the First Minister in the Senedd on Tuesday. It is not true. In fact the manifesto promised nothing more than ...
We it is the first day of the mass starts, another day another country. After a rather wet Prologue yesterday the riders will leaveRotterdam then it is off island hopping along the coast before heading inland near Antwerp and over the plains of Belgium to Brussels. I expect Tour favourite Alberto Contador to be paying close attention at the front. This may be the first stage of the Tour but he'll be remembering another coastal stage last year. It was only Stage 3 of the race but rounding a corner 31km from the line Mark Cavendish's HTC-Columbia team were pushing ...
Poor Lembit. It seems that he can do nothing right. Having put his political career to one side for a bit to try stand-up comedy, the Wales on Sunday say that he is under-fire even from his new colleagues. In this morning's paper the Father Ted star, Ardal O'Hanlon says "Whenever I see celebrities straying into stand-up comedy I feel it's disrespectful." Well that is one vote lost in the campaign to be Mayor of London.
In the Guardian last week, Timothy Garton-Ash argued that the Liberal Democrats' distinctive identity is being lost both by coalition with the Conservatives and by other parties' appropriation of the "liberal" label: The Liberal Democrats should change their name to the Liberals. Here's why. First of all, Liberal Democrats is a pretty meaningless name. That's liberal democrats as opposed to illiberal democrats, is it? Or as opposed to liberal anti-democrats? Lib Dems, to which they are usually abridged, is even emptier. The name sounds like the product of an awkward compromise, which is exactly what it is. When the Liberal ...
Zero marks out of ten for this morning's Observer, whose usual geographical illiteracy is on show once more through them illustrating an article about polytunnels in Herefordshire in the dead tree version of their paper, with a picture of Tintern Abbey. Admittedly, this is there because a High Court Judge quoted a Wordsworth line about the River Wye, but as anybody who is not chained to a desk in London pretending that they are in touch with what is going on around the UK will know, Tintern is in fact in Monmouthshire, on the Welsh side of the aforesaid river. ...
The European Court of Human Rights has ruled against a claim by an Austrian same-sex couple that the authorities' refusal to allow them to marry was a breach of their rights to marry, to a family life and to non-discrimination, all of which are protected by the European human rights convention. But it did so only narrowly, signalling a prospect of a more liberal interpretation in future.
I find myself to have been almost prophetic in a House Points column I wrote back in November 2004: What will become of the foxes in all this? If hunting is banned, they will still be killed and the methods used may well be no more humane than hunting. Worse than that, they will learn that under New Labour nothing comes without strings. Expect to see the introduction of compulsory lectures for foxes on the rights of chickens - or "members of the egg-laying community", as they will probably be called. Look too for a network of Cubs Clubs run ...
Focusing on difficulties is generally quite easy as they are so very obvious when looking at problems/issues and this is equally true of political issues as it is personal ones. This is an interesting post on problem-focused thinking which is worth reading for the difficulties you face when stuck in problem focused thinking. Politically, problem ...
My house overlooks the Parish Church and Graveyard of St Peter, Birstall, though you can't see much of either at the moment because the trees are in full leaf. I was baptised in the church on the 3rd October 1937 by the then vicar, Canon Harry Taverner Robinson. According to a genealogist called Roy Stockhill, who runs a website called "Findmypast", Nick Clegg's great-great-great-great-grandfather, Christopher Clegg, was baptised there on the 12th February, 1775, probably using the same font, which goes back, I believe to the 17th Century, though probably not by Canon Robinson. Like one of my grandfathers, Christoper ...
Following queries by Logie Residents' Association about the rules regarding the installation of satellite dishes in Conservation Areas, I raised this with the City Council and have been advised as follows : "I can advise that the current legislation for satellite dishes from 01/04/2007 is the following : The Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (Scotland) Amendment Order 2007 - Permitted development for antennas on other buildings in designated areas (conservation areas). The amended legislation permits up to 2 satellite dishes (non-fronting) can be erected on a building. The siting restrictions in a conservation area are that the antenna ...
i) births and deaths Couldn't find any. ii) broadcast anniversaries 4 July 1964: non-broadcast of 'Hidden Danger', the fourth episode of the story we now know as The Sensorites, because of the gripping events at the third test match of the 1964 Ashes series (idf you're interested, Australia took five wickets in the course of the day, and another five when the second innings resumed on Sunday; England were unable to make up the difference and so lost the Ashes as per usual), also the Wimbledon women's final between Maria Bueno and Margaret Smith (later Margaret Court) which Bueno won ...
You COULD make it up: On abolishing eggs by the dozen | Nosemonkey's EUtopia Mail on Sunday invents story about the EU forbidding gallant shopkeepers to sell eggs by the dozen; lots of people believe this ridiculous lie (tags: eu)
I have friends who are MPs. I have the greatest of respect for the vast majority of parliamentarians. Having said that, I am completely sick of hearing various over-priveledged windbags on Today in Parliament moaning and whining about how long it takes them to fill in their forms for IPSA, and how stupid and bureaucratic the rules are, and how much time they have to spend ticking boxes, and how unweildy the claims system is... Well, boo fucking hoo. Welcome to the world that YOU have made the rest of us live in for the last thirty fucking years or ...
In the last couple of days I have heard three or four comments about the VAT increase and the Liberal Democrats' poster concerning the Tory plans to increase this tax. Andrew Neil is one person who seemed shocked that the Liberal Democrats were part of the coalition that has increased VAT. Why should he be shocked? I thought he was a fairly clever man. Before the election the Liberal Democrats were warning that great savings would have to be made and an open and honest approach was needed. An increase in VAT was not ruled out. It just so happened ...
