Tonight, along with a fellow ward councillor and others, including Rev George Robson, Minister of Balgay Parish Church, I addressed a well-attended meeting of around 100 parishioners of St Francis' Parish Church, following the recent announcement of the proposed closure from 15th August. The announcement of the Friary's closure has been greeted with great sadness, not just within the local church community, but across the city. A committee is to be formed to act as a voice for parishioners and I wish them every success in their endeavours.
The serious fire earlier today at 60 Roseangle has been a great shock to all the residents in the block and it's a relief that they escaped serious injury, particularly given the extensive damage to the top-floor flat. We are indebted to Tayside Fire & Rescue for their speedy response to the emergency.
Day Two was taken up exclusively by evidence from, and cross examination of, witnesses in favour of the Town Green application. The evidence given is just amassing the experiences of a wide range of local people who have used the open space of Belle Vue over the last twenty years (the only period the Inquiry is interested in). My own perception is that it is clear that there is considerable use of the football pitches for team matches and training during the football season, which will suprise no one, but there is also a considerable use by a wide range ...
Today was all about children, or at least the interesting bits were. St Margaret's play area has been a popular play park for children for at least 30+ years and the play equipment was beginning to get a bit past its best with items being removed when they gave up and not replaced with similar equipment. Two years ago the Parish Council really pushed the boat out and decided to ask the Council
Further to my recent update on the growing success of the West End Boys' Amateur Boxing Club, I was really pleased to hear the news that boxing legend Ken Buchanan is helping promote the club and encourage new membership. Here's a photo of Ken (right) with Emilio from West End Boys (below).
A few holiday photos ... Above : In Naples, Italy Above : Villefranche, France Above : Cocktails on the ship Above : Livorno, Italy And a holiday video! The waiters and chefs from the "Voyager of the Seas"
Liberal Democrat MP Julian Huppert tweeted yesterday: In chamber listening to Finance Bill debate. Labour trying to reduce (!) capital gains rate from 28% to 25%. No, I don't understand why!
Writing on Liberal Democrat Voice, Mark Pack detects Paul Burstow's hand in the new NHS white paper. Disgruntled Radical has the text of the motion on Trident that has been submitted to the party's conference committee. The Court of Appeal's decision to quash the Welsh Assembly Government's order to carry out a badger cull in North Pembrokeshire is welcomed by Peter Black. At Huffington Post Keli Goff looks at the Mel Gibson and Roman Polanski cases and concludes: "I guess the silver lining for abusers everywhere is that it looks like unless you use a racial slur while committing abuse ...
As will be evident, I'm finding this a grimly compelling read. This volume finishes off the story of Volume III, looking at the civilian casualties and, carefully dissecting truth from lies, establishes precisely which soldier fired each shot, usually to a convincing degree of proof. Before I start on volume IV, though, one point I forgot from Volume III. Sifting through the one of the arrest reports, Saville found that Private 006 had arrested a Mr Dillon for riotous behaviour (and also that this was more or less a fair cop), but that the records showed him as having been ...
Paul Burstow, now a health minister, has a long record of campaigning for better coordination and integration between the different services which look after people's health. So although the government isn't talking publicly about which part of the health White Paper has been driven by whom, you can see Paul's influence at work, as reported by The Guardian: The sector has long pressed for the joining-up of health and social care - and the white paper seeks to promote this, particularly through the proposed new role for local government in respect of public health. It also sets out an increased ...
As well as two sets of ruins and the stature of Cardinal Wolsey, Leicester's Abbey Park contains a miniature railway. According to the page of the Leicester Society of Model Engineers, whose headquarters by the railway occupy a more impressive building than you find on most country stations, the line has a ground level railway in Abbey Park catering for 7 ¼" and 5" gauges and a raised track catering for 5", 3 1/2", 2 ½" and 1¼" gauges. The railway at Coate Water, Swindon, is also 5" gauge. Note that the Abbey Park line recognises the importance of tea ...
[IMG: Posted by Picasa] Just had to photograph this chair in Debenhams the sign says "Please do not sit in or play with this chair", I wonder how often passing shoppers had either sat or played with the chair without the correct authorisation.
At the #chelmsford beer festival in Admirals Park with #roundtable
Dear whom it may concern, In the last week David Miliband has made two rather offensive remarks regarding marriage equality, one on Pink News and the other on Labour Uncut, which I think need clarifying. I'll quote the most recent one below: "Q. (from Douglas Pretsell) How do you feel about equal marriage rights - that is opening up of marriage to gay people and allowing religious bodies that support gay marriage (Quakers) to celebrate them. A. I think that religious bodies are allowed to actually. Actually, I was asked this last week by Pink News. The last civil partnership ...
The Doctor Who And Batman week continues tomorrow, now that my computer problems are over and my coursework done (it would have continued today but my wife is unwell and I've been looking after her). I hope tomorrow I'll also get round to answering some of my email backlog. Meanwhile, some links: A talk by ...
Tue 13th
20:20
Miriam Gonzalez blows whistle on sexist media: "treat women for who they are and not simply for what...
Hat-tip to Lib Dem Welsh assembly member Peter Black for blogging the letter by Miriam Gonzalez (or Mrs Nick Clegg as she's known to right-wing tabloids) published in today's paywall-protected Times, in which she directs a well-aimed shot at the paper for its shabby treatment of a woman who happened to have fallen in love with a man in the public eye: Sir, now that Spain has won the World Cup and Iker Casillas demonstrated on Sunday that he is an outstanding goalkeeper regardless of whether his girlfriend, Sara Carbonero, watches him from the touchline or not, it may be ...
So, Lord Mandelson of Foy is flogging his new memoirs. Thankfully what is surely a monument to self-serving deception is being serialised in a Murdoch paper, so I haven't had to read any of it yet. However, the advertisement for the book has been brought to my attention, and it really is a corker: It's bad enough on its own, but I'm afraid that when I saw it, it instantly reminded me of this far more terrifying YouTube hit: It's hard to tell which is more offensive, though... A man who is almost universally despised for his slimy and unaccountable ...
One of the committees I sit on as part of my work as a councillor is the Sea Fisheries Committee. I've blogged before about some of its work - regulating the sort of fishing that can be done in the inshore waters around Cornwall. As a member of the committee, I was invited to go out with our fisheries protection vessel for a trip and today I did just that. The ship is the St Piran and it works out of Newlyn which is convenient for both the North and South coast. On board the vessel today was a crew ...
So Wales Online reports: A WELSH Liberal Democrat candidate in the recent General Election has quit the party and is now standing as an Independent for his local council. Paul Wasley, 60, polled 3,309 votes in the Rhondda constituency, coming third with 10.7% of the turnout. The seat was retained by Labour's Chris Bryant. Next week, however, Mr Wasley is seeking election as an Independent to Rhondda Cynon Taf Council in a by-election. The ward - Cymmer - has no Liberal Democrat candidate. A spokesman for the Welsh Liberal Democrats said: "Our membership services department say he is no longer ...
Blogging ideas are like buses... you wait all week (humble apologies, dear reader) for one to come along, and you end up with two arriving at once... So what is it to be - banks or The Archers... Well, having tossed a coin, it's going to be about banking policy. My love of The Archers will have to wait. In the course of my work today, I came across this story on Citywire. The first paragraph piqued my interest: "Stephen Hester [Chief Executive of RBS] says taxpayers can and should make a profit on the banking bailout, but new Treasury ...
Last week the Education Secretary Michael Gove announced which projects under the 'Building Schools For the Future' (BSF) funding pot would be saved and which ones would be scrapped. All our Rochdale Borough projects are saved which is fantastic news! Our new Rochdale Labour MP and our new Conservative Deputy Leader of the Council appeared on ...
"It is good that the consultation on schools in Bath has happened, but it is very worrying that the cabinet member has not kept to the original proposal to retain a coeducational school on the South of Bath. The Lib Dems have always supported the location of a school on the current Culverhay site, and are now deeply concerned about the provision of education for children in the South West of the
"Segway driver becomes first prosecuted in Britain", says the Daily Telegraph. Relax. It's not Lembit.
Teachers TV are producing a series of short 10 minutes videos explaining the implications of the new coalition education policies. For those that don't care to wade through pages of explanation - you might like to take a look at the multimedia version.
Over at The Guardian's Comment is Free website, the director of liberal think-tank Centre Forum, Julian Astle, gives a personal take on what it's like as a Lib Dem to be taunted as a Tory by Labour's "deficit deniers", and parises the Coalition measures he believes should cheer all progressives. Here's an excerpt: Deficit denial may have its advantages if you are an opposition politician vying for the leadership of your party. Take that denial into government, however, and the consequences would be catastrophic. ... The uncomfortable truth is that, to bring in a lot of money, governments have no ...
Sometimes it can be hard to understand which side of the Liberalism and Liberal argument a subject can fall under. Take the case of the vote today in the French parliament on 'Open-faced democracy' or banning the covering up of ones face such as with the Veil or Niqab and Burka which has now passed by an overwhelmingly vote (although it must now be ratified by the Senate and will have some legal battles to come). The French are famous for their Liberty (not to be mixed up with Liberalism) Maybe some definitions would help Liberty - The condition of ...
It's been a long time since there has been such an open party leadership battle as we're seeing with Labour now. It is extraordinary to have so many candidates, most with a chance of winning. David Miliband leads the fund-raising, but I can't find much recent polling on the race. However, Ladbrokes (hat-tip Political Betting) currently give the following odds: David Miliband 4/9 Ed Miliband 5/2 Ed Balls 10/1 Andy Burnham 20/1 Diane Abbott 33/1 So it looks like a Miliband, then. Indeed, Ladbrokes also give 1/14 that the next leader will be a Miliband and 6/1 that the leader ...
This is what the corner of Iverson Road and West End Lane looked like at the weekend with the little shops half demolished. Yesterday they had gone completely! How many people remember "Jen's Pots" I wonder? And the fight back in the seventies to preserve that little parade?Well - all gone now - let's hope its all for the greater good. At present it's even more hazardous than usual to squeeze along West End Lane between the scaffolding one one side and the roadworks on the other. And with no lights to cross Iverson Road you really do take your ...
Last week we had David Miliband's ridiculous (and I'm paraphrasing for effect) "my friends and I think civil partnerships are equal so they must be" response to a marriage equality question. Well, instead of moving on from this rather insulting and offensive line of thought, he has gone and done it again! Personal anecdotes, whilst giving a warm and fuzzy feeling to the stupid I'm sure, aren't going to convince the sensible that separate = equality. Q. (from Douglas Pretsell) How do you feel about equal marriage rights - that is opening up of marriage to gay people and allowing ...
In their desperate desire to spin today's judgement halting the badger cull Plaid Cymru actually manage to undermine their defence to the first ground of the appeal. In court they claimed 1) That 'substantially reduce' in section 21(2)(b) of the 1981 Act meant simply a reduction that was 'more than merely minor or trivial'Lord Justice Pill considered this to be a fair definition. Neither Lady Justice Smith nor Lord Justice Stanley Burnton agreed. In their insulting press release though they somewhat disingenuously use this to suggest substantial in the usual sense of the term, ie large, not just non-trivial...Lord Justice ...
I like to use the Freedom of Information Act to do my duty as an active citizen and have a little dig around. A few months ago I asked for a copy of what's in Plymouth city council's museum and art collection, and I was quite surprised by what I got back. There is much in the city's museum and art collection that is unique, irreplaceable and which reflects our local history. The bell that belonged to East Stonehouse's town crier, Devonport's old mayoral and deputy mayoral chains, and maces for Plymouth that date back to the early 1600s, for ...
Stockport Council is updating its recycling and refuse collection policy following the roll out of its new improved service. From the Council: The revised policy will be considered by the Council's Environment and Economy Scrutiny Committee on 15th July. By November 2010 the Council will have concluded the improvements to waste collection with the delivery of black wheelie bins for waste that can't be recycled and the introduction of a weekly collection of food waste. The new improved service has been designed to encourage and maximise the waste that residents recycle. As most household waste will be able to be ...
All the focus of electoral reform has been on the voting system used for the general elections that send MPs to the House of Commons. This is understandable - the outcome of a general election gives us our national government, so the importance of this election is (rightly or wrongly) much higher than other elections. However, I fear the Lib Dems may be missing other electoral reform opportunities. The systems used for European and local elections are in need of reform just as much, and they may be a politically easier reform to make. Elections to the European Parliament in ...
HERTFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL TEMPORARY CLOSING AND TEMPORARY WAITING RESTRICTIONS IN ETNA ROAD AND GRANVILLE ROAD, ST ALBANS NOTICE is given that the Hertfordshire County Council intend to make an Order under Section 14[1] of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, to prohibit all traffic from using the following lengths of roads, except for access and to prohibit all vehicles from waiting on both sides of these lengths of roads whilst works are in progress:- 1. that length of Etna Road, St Albans from its junction with A4147 Catherine Street south westwards to its junction with Worley Road, a distance of approximately ...
It seems today was a bad day for liberal democracy in at least one country. France's lower chamber voted today to ban the burkha in public, meaning now that anyone "caught" wearing one can be fined 150 Euros (£125). It does still have to be passed by the constitution council, who I hope throw it out. Also today it became apparent that Conservative backbencher Phillip Hollobone has tabled a Private Members Bill to do the same in the UK. The French banning it surprises me more, probably because of the known nature of some "Dry" Tories in the UK. But ...
This relates to the in-year savings of £6.5 million the Government has asked Stockport Council to find, as our part of sorting out the economic mess the country finds itself in. Stockport Council press release: Stockport's Executive agreed on Monday (12th July) to share collective responsibility for the savings across a wide range of activities so that no single service or group of people is affected too much. The bulk of the savings is being found by cutting back on revenue and capital expenditure planned for later this year; it was also agreed to make a contribution from Council's reserves. ...
[IMG: A Liberal Youth training session] The weekend of the 3rd of July saw the first Activate training event of the new Liberal Youth term roll into Peterborough. With the annual membership-training course being held just 2 days after the elections, new executive members could have been forgiven for feeling a little out of their depth. If that was the case for anyone organizing the event, it certainly didn't show! In spite of a few issues with advertising, the event itself ran very smoothly indeed. There was a good turnout, and lots of new faces from all over the country. ...
If you believe Peter Mandelson, and probably that is 50/50, then Labour Ministers expected to lose the General Election on May 6th. But whilst it is perhaps surprising to hear Mandelson say as such, it does all fit together with what we know followed the result. It's on the record that Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems always made clear that in the event of a hung parliament then we would try and negotiate with the largest party first, which of course we did. But what has always bugged me is the failure to make any progress with the brief ...
I mentioned the other day how I thought that webcasting Sefton Council meeting would improve the accountability and transparency. A view shared by my colleague David Tattersall. I note that other councils are already on with this............
It was with great sadness yesterday that I learnt of the death of Councillor Frank Donovan. Frank was one of those people who, regardless of politics, just about anyone could get on with. He was a true gentleman and he will be greatly missed on Gateshead Council. Frank Donovan, rest in peace.
Last night I attended some training on the Licensing Act 2003. Not the most exciting way to spend an evening, but nonetheless enlightening, and certainly likely to help me in my position on the Licensing Committee at the Town Hall. All of a sudden I now know why and how alcohol licences are given and taken away. And, should I wish to, I could get my own. But I don't wish to, because I am far too busy doing things like attending licensing training sessions. There are several new licensed premises opening in Bury this week when The Rock development ...
In a welcome judgement from Lord Justice Pill, Lady Justice Smith and Lord Justice Stanley Burnton the badger cull in Wales has been halted.The appeal was brought on three grounds:The judge erred in holding:(1) That 'substantially reduce' in section 21(2)(b) of the 1981 Act meant simply a reduction that was 'more than merely minor or trivial'; and(2) That, once it arose, the discretion to make an order under section 21(2) could lawfully be exercised without considering the balance between the extent of the benefit to be gained in terms of disease reduction and the extent of the killing of wild ...
An interesting letter appeared in this morning's Times from one Miriam Gonzalez. Normally, this would not attract any attention but some media commentators have felt the need to refer to it purely because the author is the wife of the Deputy Prime Minister. She would not approve: Sir, now that Spain has won the World Cup and Iker Casillas demonstrated on Sunday that he is an outstanding goalkeeper regardless of whether his girlfriend, Sara Carbonero, watches him from the touchline or not, it may be time for you to eat a bit of humble pie. Trying to blame Sara for ...
The First Minister will today make a statement on setting out the legislative programme for the next year and the Welsh Liberal Democrats are calling on the Labour-Plaid government to make a start on transferring the powers on organ donation. Presumed consent or organ donation 'opt out' is a process where people are considered to want to donate their organs upon death unless they say otherwise. Wales can lead the way in ensuring that people who are on waiting list for organs do not die unnecessary. A switch to presumed consent will mean there are more organs available for people ...
It was inevitable, it had to happen at some point, the honeymoon couldn't last forever (insert any other clichés you'd like to add); the Coalition government, drenched in soft summery praise in its opening weeks - enough to spark a nauseating case of cognitive dissonance in the case of Martin Kettle's latest offering - had to face a stern test of its unity sooner or later, and now we have it. But I'm not talking about the referendum on electoral reform, nor about cuts to public services or even the VAT rise. No, I'm talking about Turkey Twizzlers, fizzy drinks ...
Tonight is a meeting scrutiny committee of WLDC you are now able to view the 'scrutiny' of the council's policies and decisions live on the web: http://www.west-lindsey.public-i.tv/site/ With the council under budgetary pressures, hopefully we will see this committee take more of a role being a watchdog of the council's decisions.
News from the 'disgruntled radical' that I am not alone in wanting Conference to debate the Trident programme. I reproduce below the motion that the conference committee is looking at and as a conference rep I would wish to see debated: Nuclear Weapons and the Financial Crisis Conference notes that: i) Britain is currently in the worst financial crisis since the end of the Second World War ii) Britain's capacity for independent military action is limited increasingly by financial constraint. The Strategic Defence and Security Review Green Paper (February 2010) called for Britain to act more in concert with our ...
I see that I'm not the only person to have read Richard Grayson's pamphlet for COMPASS. Liberal England and Liberal Dem Voice have both since commented. I am grateful to Lord Bonkers amanuensis for drawing my attention to David Boyle's review which is not dis-similar to my own in so much as it agrees with the conclusion but does not fully accept the analysis: I completely agreed with Richard about the future direction of the social liberal wing of the party - "arguing for a new political economy that puts issues of power in the workplace and the ownership of ...
Saturday: For anyone NOT watching the World Final of Footballing (if you're Spanish) or Kick-Boxing (if you're Dutch) - i.e. Generation "SQUEE!" - this weekend was VAMPIRE weekend, with the release of the latest in the TWIGLET saga... ...personally, I don't understand why "wait till you're married then he kills you" is a more CHRISTIAN message than Harry Potter's "love is better than power and murdering people tears your soul apart", but apparently angsty vamps go down very well with the League of Abstinence... ...so this seems like the right weekend to make Daddy do the Vampires of Venice review! ...
USSD – it's a funny acronym. Unstructured Supplementary Service Data. You type a code into your phone's dialler. – the phone queries the network and displays some information for you. There are five types of USSD Command Activate – turn on the functionality: *USSD# Deactivate – turn off the functionality: #USSD# Register – set a particular condition: **USSD# Erase – delete any settings set by Register: ##USSD# Interrogate – check what it is doing: *#USSD# Universal USSD Codes I can't find a definitive list of commands, so this is my scratch-pad for all the ones I've found which should work ...
The party yesterday announced the list of Liberal Democrat MPs who have been nominated to serve on Select Committees: Business, Innovation and Skills - David Ward Communities and Local Government - Stephen Gilbert Culture, Media & Sport - Adrian Sanders Defence - Mike Hancock Education - Tessa Munt Energy and Climate Change - Sir Robert Smith Environmental Audit Committee - Simon Wright Environment Food and Rural Affairs - Dan Rogerson Foreign Affairs - Menzies Campbell Health - Andrew George Home Affairs - Julian Huppert International Development [Chair] - Malcolm Bruce Justice [Chair] - Sir Alan Beith Procedure Committee - John ...
There were six principal council by-elections on July 8th and a single Town Council contest reported to ALDC. Of the six, our best result came in the Cockerton West ward of Darlington, where candidate Brian Jefferson gained a near 20% upswing in the Lib Dem voteshare to leap into second. The urgency with which Labour's council Leader and new M.P. pounded the streets testified to our candidate's well-established reputation as hard working local teacher and community campaigner, who had previously served on the council for the Conservatives. Our campaign team won the literature war, putting out three election addresses in ...
[IMG: Schoolchildren] The two organizations bidding to run the new primary school on Gunhild Way in Queen Edith's will be presenting their proposals to the public at the Cambridge Professional Development Centre in Trumpington (CB2 9NL) this Thursday 15th July. There will be public displays from 5 to 6 p.m. before the presentations. The meeting is open to everyone. There are just two bidders: The Queen Edith Community Federation Group and the Roman Catholic Diocese of East Anglia. You can read their full bids here. If you can't make the meeting, you can comment by contacting: David Clark, CYPS Infrastructure, ...
A union is, apparently, 'outraged' that a head teacher of a Lewisham primary school is earning £200,000. But why shouldn't a head teacher of a highly successful school earn such a salary? Education is one of the most important services that the state provides, and frankly teachers are undervalued and underpaid. Bright graduates who go ...
This was supposed to post yesterday and didn't. Damn you, Dreamwidth! I'll be honest, I've not done a lot of link farming this last week. But I do want to link to a series of excellent posts by the wonderful alas_a_llama , who has been blogging around the Bloody Sunday Inquir, something I was ridiculously underinformed about until his blogs. And so I feel the need to share them. Eric's a great writer, and this is a very easy to read succinct introduction to the event. 11-June: Introduction: The Story So Far. 16-June: The Inquiry Results and Cameron's speech. 5-July: ...
Excellent news that the Court of Appeal have squashed the Labour-Plaid Cymru Government's order to carry out a badger cull in North Pembrokeshire. The BBC say that the appeal was allowed because it was wrong to make an order for the whole of Wales when the Government consulted on the basis of a Intensive Action Pilot Area (IAPA) which only supported a cull on evidence within the IAPA. I am not clear what happened to the other two grounds for appeal but if they were not accepted then it is possible that the Minister could reintroduce the order. That would ...
Let's face it, Christianity has been getting a very bad name (nowhere more so than on this blog). The abuse meted out to others in the name of Christianity can anger even the most meek. But it's easy to forget that in some countries Christians themselves are a persecuted minority.
Norwich South MP Simon Wright has been nominated by his Liberal Democrat parliamentary colleagues to be their Party's member of the Environmental Audit Select Committee.
Over the last couple of weeks I've heard several Liberal Democrat ministers talk to groups of party members about how they are finding it in government. Although the personalities and the departmental challenges vary in many ways, several common themes have come out. One is a credit to the team behind Yes Minister; it is still the default frame of reference for talking about how the British civil service behaves and everyone says they can recognise parts of the behaviour the TV series satirised several decades ago in the current behaviour of civil servants. Not too much, but still some. ...
There is much hand-wringing in the media this morning about the primary school head who earned £276,000 last year. The unions are, naturally, up in arms. As always, the issue is not as simple as it first appears. The pay packet appears to include a large sum from the previous year, backdated. And, considering the ...
The World Cup Final was a let down as often happens with cup finals. The teams get overwhelmed by the occasion and are so cautious they don't do themselves justice. In this instance the team who let everyone one down were the Dutch. They did their level best to kick Spain around the park. I do not understand why anyone was surprised as they did the same with success against Uruguay in the Semi. Well done Spain. They played well and deserved their win. Uruguay had a reputation over the years of being overly physical but this team were far ...
The Crewe-Manchester Community Rail Partnership are a lovely bunch of people very keen on improving our railways (and that one local line in particular). In addition to the website, they bring out a regular newsletter that I manage to get my hands on. One item in the latest issue struck me as a good example of what's wrong with rail fares in this country. [IMG: Duo rail fare Northern] Here's the Northern Rail page for this special offer. Nice idea for the offer, but could they have made it any more confusing? Only valid at certain times, which vary depending ...
Liberal Democrat Conference Committee is considering the following motion on Trident which many of us have signed.Nuclear Weapons and the Financial CrisisConference notes that:i) Britain is currently in the worst financial crisis since the end of the Second World Warii) Britain's capacity for independent military action is limited increasingly by financial constraint. The Strategic Defence and
Last year I read a book called "Outliers" by the sociological writer Malcolm Gladwell. The book examines the factors that contribute to extraordinary levels of success. It is a fascinating read (as other Gladwell books generally are too) and one of the factors that he keeps returning to is what he calls the "10,000 hour rule". This says that in order to truly master a particular field you need to have 10,000 hours of experience in it. He gives numerous examples. The two that stick in my mind are Bill Gates and The Beatles. In the case of Gates because ...
[IMG: 116.jpg] Outgrower produced pineapples ready for juicing [IMG: 117.jpg] Pineapple crowns are replanted. After castration each plant will produce five or six viable suckers which are given to smallholders as initial seed [IMG: 118.jpg] The factory farm will produce its first commercial pineapple crop in March 2011 [IMG: 126.jpg] A small sample of organic peppers from one outgrower being assessed for quality. It is vital that local farmers do not become over-dependent on a single cash crop. In my first overseas job I had the agriculrture brief at the British High Commission in Lagos for four years. Being me, ...
Last night Channel 4 aired"Dispatches: Africa's Last Taboo" by Sorious Samura (see it here, if you're in the UK). It was a surprisingly indepth look at homosexuality in Africa with focus on Kenya, Uganda and Malawi (the home of the arrested "married" gay couple). It was a compelling documentary with Samura interviewing both the victims and perpetrators of homophobia and get very frank answers from both. I've never before seen the subject dealt with so openly and directly and it made for a very enlightening film.
Richard Grayson has written a for Compass, a campaign group essentially concerned with returning the Labour Party to its pre=Blair values. You can find a shortened version in the New Statesman, and David Boyle has written a sympathetic critique of that article. I was struck by the conclusion to the Compass pamphlet: Meanwhile, the public are unlikely to be enthusiastic when faced with an overall record of running down the state to the levels that made voters so willing to embrace New Labour in 1997 after nearly two decades of slash and burn.Was the state run down in the Thatcher ...
i) births and deaths Nothing that caught my eye for this date. ii) webcast anniversary 13 July 2001: release of the pilot webcast episode of Death Comes To Time, the weirdly canon-violating and very long Seventh Doctor story, basically an audio with animation. iii) dates specified in canon 13 July 1643: the battle of Little Hodcombe, and surrounding time-travel events involving the Fifth Doctor, as shown in The Awakening (1984). 13 July 1964: the events of the earlier phase of Whatever Happened To Sarah Jane? - was it Andrea or Sarah who drowned? The best of the first series of ...
In 1988 I was admitted to hospital as an emergency because of a kidney infection. I lay on a trolley for several hours because no bed could be found in the intensive nursing ward. If you have a kidney infection it is important to keep up your fluid intake. I should have been on a drip, but no-one had time to rig one up for me, so my mother ferried plastic beakers of water to me from the wash-room. However, I was eventually found a bed, put on a drip and from that point on received excellent care. In 2005 ...
El beso de Iker Casillas y Sara Carbonero (Telecinco) Spanish football team captain being interviewed by his TV journalist girlfriend sweeps her up into a tremendous kiss at the end. (You already saw this, didn't you?) (tags: football sexandsexualityandgender video)
[IMG: signjpg.jpg] I'm afraid there isn't a reward going for the successful finder of this sign, but I'd appreciate it if anyone who knows where it is could tell me when it was put there! Today the sign was introduced into the Public Enquiry into the application for a Town Green (or Village Green) at Belle Vue, and is actually fixed to the wall of the changing rooms next to the Sports Centre. One of the witnesses today could remember seeing it - most couldn't, including a number who had used the changing room for years. I was so surprised, ...
Warren Bradley, the leader of the Liberal Democrats on Liverpool Council was on the television criticising the coalition government. I was waiting for the punchline saying how well Liberal Democrats were doing at any level but there wasn't one. As I understand it the coalition is allowing Liberal Democrat policies to be enacted. Alright there are some Tory policies too but that is what coalition is all about. The choice is clear. Liberal Democrats act in the coalition and have influence or they stay in opposition and come up with the policies that may affect Government decisions but only if ...
