Briefly, Eric continues to make good progress. He's experienced some nausea, a side effect of yesterday's anaesthetic and a raised white cell count, which could just be a reaction to the operation. All these things are being closely monitored. However, he's been up and for short walks and by this evening the nausea had passed. Lindsay
I don't really understand why some people are getting so excited about the current AV poll results when it has not been properly explained to the public or before a full campaign for or against AV has begun. The results by YouGov shows AV on 39% and First Past the Post on 38% see here. Something else that is not considered in this referendum polling is who is more likely to turn out to vote in the areas where there are no other elections. Are pro AV supporters or pro FPTP supporters more likey to vote. I would have an ...
Good news. Iain Sharpe has started blogging again at Eaten by Missionaries.
Commenting on Eliza Manningham-Buller's evidence to the Chilcot Inquiry, in which she said the conflict in Iraq 'substantially' increased the threat to the UK from international terrorism, Co-Chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence, Tim Farron said: "This is a shattering blow for Labour's claim that the Iraq war did not increase the terrorist threat to Britain. "We already knew that this was a disastrous war for our own brave service personnel and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians. Now we have the head of MI5 at the time saying it increased the threat to ...
Press release from Sefton Trading Standards Fed up consumers in Sefton who say 'no' to receiving cold calls have won assurances from energy firms that they will no longer be bothered on the doorstep. Following campaigning by energy watchdog Consumer Focus and the Trading Standards Institute, the big six energy companies are now committed to respecting the wishes of people who live in recognised 'no cold calling zones' or display signs saying 'no' to cold callers. Research by the energy regulator Ofgem in 2008 revealed that just under half of customers who switched supplier in response to a direct sales ...
The next meeting of the Yardley Constituency Committee takes place this Thursday at 6.30pm in South Yardley Library. The agenda is a light one - indeed so light that they forgot to attach it to my copy of the papers, but seems to consist of a report on the Constituency's finances, the Birmingham Community Cohesion Strategic Framework and possibly one or two other things that don't have papers ahead of the meeting!
More on this tomorrow with links and comment... "Q (from Jae): Following Ed Balls and Diane Abbott announcing their support for marriage equality, will he retract his comments about there not being enough people calling for it and come out in support of LGBT equality? A. My position on this is pretty simple, which is that we did a consultation in the run up to the manifesto, and it wasn't raised with me as an issue. But obviously if it's something that is felt to be an important issue, I understand absolutely the reasons for that, and then it's something ...
Austerity drive will hand billions to private sector cried the Guardian on Saturday. I'm not sure the story quite justifies the headline, and wonder about the retro language used: 'Rubbish disposal is one of the services under threat of outsourcing' as if we were back to the 1980s. But I was more struck by the comment of Labour's shadow health secretary Andy Burnham that: Some private operators are going to have a field day, making a fortune from a system which will offer less public accountability It's as if he has forgotten that neutrality on the question of outsourcing versus ...
The 'purple coalition' talks failed today in Holland on the issue of deficit reduction. Maybe we should be talking to our Dutch friends. Netherlands worldwide radio reports: 'Talks about the formation of a so-called 'Purple-plus' cabinet for the Netherlands - a coalition of the free-market Liberal VVD party, Labour Party, D66 and Green Left - fell part on Tuesday in their third week. Informateurs Uri Rosenthal (VVD) and Jacques Wallage (PvdA) have wound up the discussions and are preparing their final report. (Informateurs are politicians who investigate proposed governing coalitions on behalf of Queen Beatrix. They will report to her ...
As many of my readers will know, I have been busy over the last three weeks trying to find somewhere else to live in what has been a very trying and stressful time. Circumstances have left me feeling unsafe in my own home and a police protection marker placed on my house in case of ...
What is to become of me - I am agreeing with Simon Jenkins nearly every time I open the Evening Standard (though not, for some reason, when I open the Guardian). He was spot on today about the gap between localism and the Big Society. Don't get me wrong. The Big Society is an important initiative, and will be more so if it can grow into a truly cross-governmental project to devolve power. Nor am I against the idea of Free Schools. We urgently need more schools, preferably small ones where parents play a key role, though they need to ...
I've never been a big fan of Peter Mandelson, in fact my feelings are quite the contrary. I find his behaviour and condescension for the electorate startling in its disdain. However I bit the bullet and bought his book 'The Third Man' and have to say, begrudgingly, I am find it rather intriguing. For a ...
Tue 20th
21:41
Manningham-Buller's Chilcot testimony blows apart the case for war - and not just in Iraq
Today the Iraq Inquiry heard evidence from Eliza Manningham-Buller, [IMG: Manningham-Buller] the director general of MI5 from 2002-2007. Unsurprisingly for those who have followed the whole sorry saga of the build-up, execution and aftermath of the war, Manningham-Buller systematically dismantled almost every one of Labour's attempts to justify Britain's involvement, and most of the Americans' for good measure. I say unsurprisingly because she has consistently held this position over the past few years, but judging from some of the media reaction (particularly on the Guardian website, which has reported the 'controversial' evidence at the inquiry with breathless excitement) these arguments ...
The case of the Scottish Parliament releasing the Lockerbie bomber Abelbaset Ali al-Megrahi on so called 'compassionate medical grounds' has again surfaced raising more grief and heartache for the victims families who really must be feeling that they cannot ever get on with their lives. Many people were left with a bade taste in their ...
The accidental soundtrack consists of background music by Elgar and a commentary by Ian.
Longstanding readers will know that my favourite writer as a child was Malcolm Saville. His books are where my love of the Shropshire hills first came from. The first of Saville's Lone Pine books was Mystery at Witchend. In his foreword he says: "The country in which this story is set is real, but if you are ever lucky enough to explore it for yourself you will not find Witchend."Up to a point Lord Saville. If you do explore the Shropshire hills with an Ordnance Survey map and the maps you find on the endpapers of the Lone Pine books, ...
I got an email from my colleague Cllr Frank Hindle telling me that at Gateshead's Cabinet this morning, Labour were claiming that the Food Standards Agency had been abolished. Frank is keen to point out that this is nonsense. The FSA is not being abolished. Frank has kindly done a bit of digging to reveal the true situation and I thought that I would help educate all those Labour councillors who
"There's no such thing as society" said Thatcher. Ah, the irony that her successor is bigging up society - and giving it capital letters. The Big Society is an attractive proposition, and I was quite taken aback when Cameron started using the phrase before the election. Society is already a lot bigger and of greater significance than politicians, of all colours, seem to believe. Encased in the inward looking worlds of politics and government, it is all to easy for them to adopt a world-view which assumes that government is the main driving force in people's lives. In practice, when ...
I missed Gateshead's cabinet meeting this morning as I had a meeting in Tynemouth with Professor Norman McCord. We were meeting to discuss the Roman fort at Washingwell, near Whickham. I am doing some research on the fort and wanted to speak to Norman about it as he was the person who discovered it, back in 1970. Norman was also one of my lecturers at Newcastle University and we meet as a group
Network Rail have continued the narrow view displayed by their predecessor Railtrack in their treatment of the Forth Bridge. Network Rail have declined to support moves to have the bridge declared a World Heritage Site. The old lady is a 120 years old and there was controversy in the past when Railtrack stopped the famous annual painting regime reasoning that all they were interested in was making sure that trains could run. The fact that they had a major national asset and tourism attraction was lost on them. They simply didn't get it. Described by Glaswegian Billy Connolly as Scotland's ...
Andrew George, Lib Dem MP for St Ives in Cornwall, is campaigning against unfair banking charges:"It is not unusual for bank customers to find themselves hundreds of pounds overdrawn within a few weeks of initially straying just a few pence overdrawn. Such abuse by high street banks which were themselves bailed out by poor taxpayers is morally unacceptable." Caron's Musings contrasts officialdom's treatment of Raoul Moat and of Florence and Precious Mhango. The Big Society is just an admission that the state can't do everything, says Tory councillor James Cousins. Congratulations to Labour-run Tameside on finding a new way of ...
I may do a proper post later if I'm not too exhausted, on Marco Polo or Batman. But for now, links: Debi has a new blog, Thagomizer.net, and one of her first posts is a response to my post from yesterday, in agreement but from a slightly different angle. Very good stuff. (That post of ...
Friday 9th July 2010 - Rothbury Armed Police surround gunman Raoul Moat after a week long stand off. Aware of the sensitivities of the situation, they were very careful to take what action they could to try to make sure that this episode ended peacefully. In the end that didn't happen, but that was not through the fault of the Police. They spoke to him gently, using his first name. They got him food and water. In those tense hours, they treated him with the sort of dignity any human being, regardless of whether they are a wife beating murderer, ...
Don't say you never learn anything here! Andrew
Although not quite as exciting or rowdy as Prime Minister's questions, we have something similar at each full council meeting. [IMG: pmq.jpg] I have added a new section "Questions and Motions" containing all questions and motions put by me to the Council. The link is under the "What's Inside" section and sub divided by month. I hope you find it interesting!
A party news release hits The Voice's inbox: Commenting on Eliza Manningham-Buller's evidence to the Chilcot Inquiry, in which she said the conflict in Iraq 'substantially' increased the threat to the UK from international terrorism, Co-Chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence, Tim Farron said: "This is a shattering blow for Labour's claim that the Iraq war did not increase the terrorist threat to Britain. "We already knew that this was a disastrous war for our own brave service personnel and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians. Now we have the head of MI5 at ...
(this entry composed on my phone, so formatting will likely not be very polished. Apologies for that) It's all about the adversarial mindset, baby. Every question is binary, Either/or, yes/no, you win I lose. Is London the centre of the universe? If the only possible answers are yes or no, then everyone who lives in london is bound to say yes, ESPECIALLY people who have moved there from elsewhere, after all, why would you put up with the squalor and the crampedness and the horrendous expense and the faff if it wasn't? The number of people who buy into the ...
Late this afternoon, I had the pleasure of attending the opening of the new "Blossom" yoga and pilates studio at the Hawkhill Medical Surgery. It was good to meet Andrea, Mardira and Lesley and there was a good turnout of local people and the business community in the West End, to support this excellent new initiative. You can read more about the Blossom Studio at http://www.blossomyogapilates.com, with details of massage facilities at http://www.perfectly-massage.co.uk. Wishing the new Blossom Studio every success!
Tonight's 'Evening Telegraph' covers the issue of West End residents' parking and includes some views from local residents and traders, together with my own comments arising out of my recent blog update highlighting delays in moving forward proposals to improve parking in parts of the area. You can read the 'Evening Telegraph' article at http://tiny.cc/tele-parking.
If Nick Clegg is a bit nervous tonight he can be forgiven. Tomorrow he will stand in for David Cameron for Prime Minister's Questions for the first time. If someone had suggested 4 months ago that by July Nick Clegg would be taking PMQs you would probably have thought they had gone a bit peculiar, but here we are. One of the duties of the Deputy Prime Minister is to answer the questions when the PM is away as he currently is in the USA. What I am particularly interested in is how he handles the inevitable mischievous questions. You ...
I know I've written a lot about Florence and Precious recently but I hope you'll bear with me for just another couple of posts. It was a well organised event attended by varying estimates - the Scotsman says 70 but I thought it was more like a couple of hundred and the Evening Times agrees with me. I feel really now because I rather uselessly failed to notice the celebs in our midst at the vigil for Florence and Precious yesterday. I don't watch Scottish soap River City and although I saw the two people on the front of the ...
Earlier today I was told by someone I trust that Chris Rennard was set to be appointed Chief Executive of the Electoral Reform Society - an organisation I used to work for. The story had the ring of truth about it. Chris has always been a passionate believer in electoral reform and, with his long history of running successful campaigns, would be an ideal person to lead the campaign in favour of a yes vote in the AV referendum next year. I tweeted about it and it was picked up by a number of people including Guido Fawkes. Chris has ...
In yesterday's Financial Times, the historian Niall Ferguson writes: [W]hat we are witnessing today has less to do with the 1930s than with the 1940s: it is world war finance without the war. But the differences are immense. First, the US financed its huge wartime deficits from domestic savings, via the sale of war bonds. Second, wartime economies were essentially closed, so there was no leakage of fiscal stimulus. Third, war economies worked at maximum capacity; all kinds of controls had to be imposed on the private sector to prevent inflation. Today's war-like deficits are being run at a time ...
Of course, the advantage of being a Peer is that you're not limited to a particular patch... Buses: Luton Dunstable Busway Question Asked by Baroness Scott of Needham Market To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress has been made on the Luton Dunstable Busway.[HL1143] Earl Attlee: The previous Government granted full funding approval to the Luton Dunstable Busway scheme in March and this was reconfirmed by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury on 17 June following a review of all spending approvals made since 1 January. The contract between Luton Borough Council and the contractor was signed on the same ...
A Treasury press release tells us: The Chancellor George Osborne and Exchequer Secretary David Gauke today established the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS). The Chancellor has appointed a Board of tax experts who will be responsible for leading the work of the OTS over the next year. The Board Members are Michael Jack (Chairman) and John Whiting (Tax Director). Their responsibilities will be to identify areas where complexities in the tax system for both businesses and individual taxpayers can be reduced and to publish their findings for the Chancellor to consider ahead of his Budget. The OTS will undertake two ...
Irritating Twitter feed @NottinghamNews announced today: As part of the redevelopment of Nottingham Railway Station (The Hub), a new facility for short and long stay cy.. http://bit.ly/aUvrcY It irritates me no end that the Council muck up Twitter like that – they use it just to duplicate a feed somewhere and they never care that their titles are too long for Twitter's character limit. It means that the important word from that press release CYCLE or BIKE is totally missing from the tweet. Still, that's not where the success lies. I haven't persuaded the media people to use Twitter correctly. ...
Jeremy Hunt's recent statement on the BBC Licence Fee represents the coalition government's opening salvo in what threatens to be a highly unedifying assault on the Corporation. In all probability (in spite of all the government's noises, backed up by their cheerleaders in the right-wing press) this will have very little to do with fairness, ...
This is a representation of the periodic table. Click through for Web Elements: a comprehensive resource on the chemistry of the elements. [IMG: A periodic table from a screencap of webelements.com] The Periodic Table The periodic table is a perfect example of truth and beauty and simplicity in nature. Invented by Dmitri Mendeleev, and published in 1869, it originated when Mendeleev realised he could arrange all 65 (then) known elements in order of increasing atomic mass, and add line breaks to form a table in which each element shared properties with others in the same column. Mendeleev was Russian, so ...
Before you read on, I should warn you that this blogpost is about ways of measuring computer storage and it gets a bit mathematical. I got a new hard drive for my computer today. It is advertised as 2TB (or terabytes) of storage space. However when I installed it and had a look in Windows Explorer to check the capacity it is reading as 1.81TB. This is before I have copied anything to it. I expect many other people have had similar experiences like this. There is an explanation for it. the storage space has not gone anywhere. It is ...
The Met Office Flood Forecasting Centre has issued an Extreme Rainfall Alert to a number of regions including Greater Manchester. The alert warns of a high probability of extremely heavy rainfall events between 18.00 today (Tuesday 20 July 2010) and 07.00 tomorrow morning. This heavy rain may lead to some localised surface flooding where local drainage systems become overwhelmed. Please take extra care when travelling . For more information please log onto the Met Office website at www.metoffice.gov.uk and click on the weather warnings tab.
At the time the coalition government was negotiated, Trident looked to be one of the most contentious policy areas for the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats to agree on. However, for all the barbed Cameron – Clegg exchanges over Trident during the election, it now looks as if the biggest tensions on the issue are coming from within the Conservative Party. In my series of posts reviewing the content of the coalition document, I pointed out the compromise it contained on Trident: It will be replaced unless there is a better value for money alternative. What the wording leaves unclear is ...
Thank you to everyone who commented on my last post. I am not sure there's anything more any of you lot can do to help, other than being the fabulous lovely people you already are. Offering me work is no good because I haven't got the time or the spoons to do it; offering me free money just makes me feel like a sponging shit, and I already owe so much money anyway... Offering hugs is great, though, and much appreciated, especially from my two big beardy comfort blankets and the delicious [IMG: [personal profile] ] magister, who delivered me ...
It's ironic that it's hardly stopped raining since the introduction of the hosepipe ban a couple of weeks ago. I keep hoping that the irony is catching and that as soon as they announce the massive cuts in public services that are around the corner it will start snowing fivers. Sadly, that's pretty unlikely. What isn't unlikely though is that the steady stream of casework flowing like a leaking BP oil-well into my inbox will cease at any point soon. This week there have been issues about St Mary's Flower Park, hooligans getting drunk and vandalising local facilities, and of ...
Mary Whitehouse, Hyacinth Bucket and Pierre Poujade would all have welcomed the big society launch yesterday and most of all Eric Pickles banal championing of it. I am not sure that the glib assertion that the Big Society is just Community Politics by another name or even less convincingly that it is just Liberalism can be sustained. There are obvious concerns about how universally these ideas can be applied. Coming home from work late last night I stopped of at the 'take away' to get some food. I was served by a woman I recognised from her day job. She ...
I've just been reading the latest government approval figures from YouGov, a bit of a wierd experience to be honest, probably because I'm not yet used to the Lib Dems being a party of government. The figures & Peter Kellner's ... Continue reading →
I have been saying for ages that we need to simplify the tax and benefits system. According to the Guardian George Osborne is planning to simplify the Tax Code - so part way there.
Yet another new series starting from Big Finish, this time with Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor auditioning four potential new companions in a set-up intended more for comedy than common sense. Not all of the potential companions are exactly who or what they say they are; I thought the show was stolen by Joanna Kanska as the manager at the hotel where it all took place, rather than by any of the formal contestants. Lots of stuff happening but it didn't quite hang together for me.
One of several classic Dickens books which I had not previously read, and which eventually worked to the top of my list. I am sure that it was spell-binding social commentary in 1838, but the character of Oliver seemed to me much too good to be true. Any child coming from that sort of brutal institutionalised background would have pretty serious psychological issues; in fact all Oliver need is a comfortable bed and a cuddle and he turns into an angel. The implication is that Oliver, as a Good Boy, is therefore part of the deserving poor, and the Artful ...
Two former Labour leadership possibles-never-contenders have talked in the past week about the future prospects for the Lib Dems and the Labour party forming a coalition at some point in the future. Their differing stances say a lot about the current state of British politics. But what they say about the future? First up, John Denham, the shadow Communities and Local Government Secretary, who made plain his anger at the Lib Dems last week, according to a report in The Independent: Labour would demand the resignation of Nick Clegg before doing a deal with the Liberal Democrats in a future ...
It's interesting seeing a Prime Minister doing that trick popular amongst turnaround CEOs, namely giving up the private jet and first class travel - some chiefs will even then insist on making it perfectly clear they got a basic hire car and drove themselves rather than hire a limo. It's all about sending out a public message of frugality. It rarely lasts, however. Take an example I'm familiar with, Mark Hurd coming in to turn around Hewlett-Packard after all-style-no-substance Carly Fiorina was given the boot. It has to be said that overall he did a great job, and some cost ...
The nominees for this years Mercury Prize have been announced and are as follows: Biffy Clyro - 'Only Revolutions' Corinne Bailey Rae - 'The Sea' Dizzee Rascal - 'Tongue N' Cheek' Kit Downes Trio - 'Golden' Foals - 'Total Life Forever' I Am Kloot - 'Sky At Night' Laura Marling - 'I Speak Because I Can' Mumford And Sons - 'Sigh No More' Paul Weller - 'Wake Up The Nation' Villagers - 'Becoming A Jackal' Wild Beasts - 'Two Dancers' The xx - 'XX' Obviously VN will be backing Dizzee to win (disco, disco, disco,) for his album of grimey ...
Here's how PinkNews reports it: Simon Hughes, the deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats, has said that the government will give gay couples the right to civil marriage. He predicted that the change would be made before the next general election. Mr Hughes said a consultation would take place in the coalition government on taking civil partnership to the next level. Speaking in a video interview, he said: "It would be appropriate in Britain in 2010, 2011, for there to be the ability for civil marriage for straight people and gay people equally. That's different of course from faith ceremonies ...
I hope the day when it is too late to blog about them never comes. If you haven't done a post about them, please think about doing so in the next few days to keep the momentum started yesterday going. Here are some more posts which have appeared since I posted last night. For the sake of completeness I've put them in my original round up post but I think they deserve their acknowledgement on their own too. Malc says allowing them to stay here is a "total no-brainer" Subrosa's support is particularly welcome as I think it's fair to ...
With nine principal council by-elections taking place on St Swithin's day this year, we can only hope our electoral prospects don't stay the same for the next forty days! Of the two we were defending, we lost one, and we failed to pick up any seats elsewhere. The Conservatives held steady, successfully defending four out of five; on Surrey Country Council (Worplesdon division); Great Marlow ward of Wycombe District; Wheatley ward on Rochford D.C.; and Pirbright in Guildford. The one seat lost by the Tories on the 15th, Bloxwich West ward of Walsall M.B.C., was one of a trio of ...
Colin Challen was Labour MP for Morley and Rothwell 2001-2010 and Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Climate Change Group: I am living in hope that Chris Huhne has not been handed a poisoned chalice. From my time in parliament I know Chris to be a dedicated environmentalist who understands the issues as well as being open minded. Of course, as a former Labour MP I had differences of opinion, but on the substantive issues like the need for a proper global framework on climate change or the uselessness of nuclear power we were agreed. It is also true that on ...
Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Simon Hughes has said that by the end of this Parliament the Coalition Government will introduce equal civil marriage rights for gay couples. He rightly points out that this equality can not be forced on religious groups, who decide their own rules for marriage. While the Coalition seems to be moving forward on equality, the lead clones in the Labour leadership race have remained noticeably silent, failing to say if they support this move. This is the definition of opposition for the sake of opposition. Surely a truly progressive party, as Labour insist they still are, ...
It's not often I agree with Eric Pickles, but I'm now in the position of agreeing with him twice in a week. Last Thursday he attacked councils for giving huge payoffs to former officers. Now he is in a battle with Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman over weekly bin collections. Mr Pickles wants councils to keep weekly collections for household waste. Ms Spelman believes that fortnightly collections will save money and help boost recycling. I agree that abolishing weekly collections can save money, but disagree with her view that such a move will boost recycling rates. I think that offering decent ...
Tomorrow (21st July) it's Full Council. I've got some questions in - one on a Labour budget pledge, a couple on democracy related issues, one about fire safety and deafness (that's to the Fire Authority rep) and one on the DNA database (that's to the police authority rep). Sometimes you get the written bit of your answers in advance. I've had some of mine although in at least one case to call it an "answer" is stretching the English language quite a bit. It'll be interesting to see if I get any further with it. The written bits of the ...
A quick reminder about the Cycle Speke dates. If you have a bike this is a good way of meeting people and getting a bit of exercise. Join in cycle rides, starting at 2 p.m and lasting about 2 hours. Depart from Lifestyles, Austin Rawlinson, Parklands, Speke. Participants must have a roadworthy bike. Free bike safety check available before each ride. Dates: 1st August 5th September 3rd October 7th November 5th December
I attended the Mobile Monday meeting "200,000 Apps – Where's Mine" last night. One thing that became clear is that apps don't do a very good job of promoting themselves. One crippling problems with most app stores is that there's no (easy) way to share an app with a friend. Here's some basic code for an Android app which will post the URL of your app to Twitter. Stick it in a button or menu item for easy sharing. String twitterUri = "http://m.twitter.com/?status="; String marketUri = Intent shareOnTwitterIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse(twitterUri + marketUri)); startActivity(shareOnTwitterIntent); Some important things to ...
As Scientologist's complaints about a councillor's comments on Twitter have forced him to face a disciplinary, I thought I'd take the time to just remind people of some resources where they can find out more about the sort of practices Scientology gets up to. (FYI John Dixon's "crime" was to tweet: "I didn't know the Scientologists had a church on Tottenham Court Road. Just hurried past in case the stupid rubs off.") Operation Clambake is the centre of discussion for ex-members and those interested/concerned by Scientology. Xenu TV for awesome news from a former Scientologist. Tory Magoo's Youtube Channel, a ...
So which is it? 20% ? (June 8, 2010) 25% ? (June 23, 2010) or 40% ? (July 3, 2010) Or maybe none of these are possible. Targets to cut government department spending by £35bn by 2011 are "unlikely" to be met, the National Audit Office (NAO) has warned. Since the election, the rhetoric of ...
Crossed Tourmalet STOP Very good course STOP Perfectly passable STOP So read the Telegram sent by Alphonse Steinès on 28 January 1910 to his boss Henri Desgrange about the possibilty of including the Col de Tourmalet on that year's 8th Tour de France. That isn't the whole story however. On the 27th Steinès had asked an innkeeper near the Tourmalet for directions to pass over it. The innkeeper barked back 'you can barely cross it in July'. However, Steinès was underterred and hired a car and driver Dupont and drove up the cart path that was the route over the ...
Deborah Mattinson's account of what she saw during her time as a leading pollster to the Labour Party certainly doesn't stint in portraying her own role in what the book calls "Europe's greatest election winning machine of the modern era". The fact that Labour won three general elections in a row and yet the fact that, even looking no further than the same country and the same part of the century, the preceding Conservative government did one better and won four general elections in a row, does provide a warning against taking everything in the book – whether from the ...
Alberto Contador has issued the following apology for his not noticing the 'mechanical' of Andy Schleck yesterday and then taking advantage of it for pretty much the last 24 km of yesterday's stage. Wonder what Andy Schlecjk would rather have. An apology recorded in your hotel room, rather that on the podium or in the press interviews afterwards, or 39 seconds back? Hmm tough call. I reckon most of the neutral cycling fans will be backing Andy Schleck everytime he goes on the attack today or on Thursday.
Vince Cable's recent announcement about the reform of university funding highlighted the need to both find ways of developing increased funding for universities whilst at the same time reducing the debt burden faced by students and making the whole system fairer for all concerned. As a Lib Dem councillor and former parliamentary candidate, our parties pledge to scrap tuition fees has been a long held committment by my party that I was particularly proud of. So it was with some concern, to put it mildly that we joined the coalition and then effectively appeared to shelve that committment. The proposal ...
Well thanks to Liberal England for drawing attention to Ming's comments this morning: "Maybe it's the shape of the missiles but every time Trident is mentioned there is an outbreak of priapism on the Tory backbenchers. There is a real risk that the whole strategic defence review will be skewed because of the obsession with Trident. It makes no sense whatsoever to exclude Trident, the strategic deterrent, from a proper strategic review." and to Linda Jack's report from the Liberal International (LI) meeting last night where Simon Hughes spoke: So imagine how thrilled I was last night at the AGM ...
My attention is drawn to a letter in the Times this morning. I won't link to it, simply because you won't want to pay for the privilege of reading it... Sir, Reading your Weekend articles about adventurous activities was very interesting. Out here in the real world, from about the age of 9 or 10, children leave for school, they come home, have a quick snack and they are out again until meal time, and then out for another hour. Local amenities include a lake (made from a gravel pit so it's deep), a playground with substantial play equipment, a ...
It seems incredible, but someone at Cornwall Council wants to argue the toss yet again about putting up councillors' allowances. A paper in the name of the Leader of the Council Alex Robertson before Full Council next Tuesday includes a proposal for a 2.3% rise. I cannot believe that this will do anything but lower the reputation of councillors and the Council among the public. At the start of the new Cornwall Council, we debated allowances. The Lib Dems argued for a freeze in all allowances for the duration of the council (ie 4 years). The Conservatives and Independents said ...
The coverage of Simon Hughes response to my question about marriage equality has been welcome. However both his response and the coverage still leave me with concerns. What I want is for the Government to make the marriage laws in this country gender neutral. That is all I ask. They must not give in to the temptation (as they have on so many Marriage Acts of the past) to fiddle around and make new rules here and there covering where and when a marriage can be carried out. Let's see how the Daily Mail reported his comments: However, they would ...
From the extra tracks of Situation Vacant: "I had a brush with Doctor Who you know... you could say! It was fantastic job, because most of the time I was in bed with Peter [Davison], which was quite nice - coming to work and jumping into bed and have bed scenes - yes, I enjoyed it!"
Just a friendly little warning, given that their terms and conditions only grant the following permission: You may retrieve and display content from the Hyndburn BC website on a computer screen, print individual pages on paper and store such pages in electronic format on a personal computer for your personal and non-commercial use. You wouldn't want to go breaking their rules by accessing the site on a device with a screen but which isn't a computer now would you? (Though at least the photocopying strictures are no longer there.)
I have recently been made aware that there is a potential problem with the way the Lib Dems organise their Federal Policy Committee. Apparently the meetings of this group are largely held in London. I know that there are some people who live far outside London who would like to put themselves forward for election to the body but because of the travelling involved would struggle to travel the distance regularly for various reasons. I can understand the logic behind holding the meetings in London. There are facilities available in the form of Cowley Street. It is near parliament which ...
Here is my latest column for the Highgate Handbook and the Muswell Hill Flyer: Last year there were six deaths in Haringey - as well as injuries. One little girl, for example, had both legs broken and will never be able to do sport or such like again - in her life. By the time you read this - the Liberal Democrat group on Haringey Council will have put forward a proposal for 20mph in residential streets across the whole of Haringey. From evidence elsewhere, 20mph saves lives, reduces seriousness of injuries and cuts pollution. 20mph as a pan borough ...
I didn't think I would be writing this when I got up this morning but check out this excellent post from Tory MP Nadine Dorries regarding Iran. I think I agree with about 99% of this post and for me it yet again proves the point that we judge other countries by the lead politicians we see on TV and not by the underlying civic and moral culture. It is always useful from time to time to remember that people, not politicians, make countries and we should not make generalisations about a whole culture from the ruling elites we see ...
Until last year only Gurkhas that served after 1997 were eligible to settle in the UK. The Gurkha Justice Campaign supported by the Lib Dems (and eventually the Tories) worked hard to get this changed. Eventually Gordon Brown's government bowed to pressure and agreed to extend UK settlement rights to the pre '97 Gurkhas. Before they finally did the right thing, the Labour government repeatedly claimed that giving the pre '97 Gurkhas settlement rights could cost £1.4 billion per year. This figure seemed rather high so, with the help of WhatDoTheyKnow.com I requested details of the calculation. It took them ...
"Expensive, dangerous and useless" the words of a senior military witnesss to describe Trident when giving evidence to the working group a few years ago. One of the things that persuaded my good pal Jo Hayes to vote against the fudge that became party policy and for the minority report. As a "risky radical" party, all too often we fall at the final hurdle of the Daily Mail filter when deciding policy, this was one such time. So imagine how thrilled I was last night at the AGM of Liberal International British Group (and if you are not a member ...
Cabinet at St Albans City and District Council reaffirmed its commitment to the future development of The Maltings Arts Theatre following a discussion about the venue at its meeting on 13 July 2010. Plans are being draw up for the arts venue to be turned into a cultural centre for the community providing access to alternative film up to five days a week, live theatre and other events, an upgraded café/bar and a digital lounge that will operate as a venue for film clubs, social events, arts workshops, specialist arts training sessions and business meetings. Cabinet agreed that members of ...
As we know, the government has excluded Trident from the Strategic Defence Review. Now the Liberal Democrats' Conference Committee has excluded a motion on Trident challenging that decision. Surprisingly perhaps, Ming Campbell has challenged the government's decision*. Ming is emerging as the strongest independent Liberal voice in parliament. Liberal Democrat voters and members have to be
The Obama administration has sometimes taken a direct approach to enacting its policies: the determination to ram through its domestic health care policies irrespective of the lack of political consensus has shown that the cautious and academic persona of the president also has a ruthless side. He has under certain circumstances been prepared to cut the Gordian knot and go straight to the point. In other areas the President has been far more circumspect. In much foreign policy, he has devolved the spotlight- if not the ultimate power- to his globetrotting Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, this week attending the ...
Three years ago today our house was flooded as a result of a major storm which hit Berkshire and flooded thousands of properties in West Berkshire alone. The nearby Glade Festival was flooded and children from the local school had to be evacuated by boat. You would hope that by now our property would have been ...
As quoted in the Guardian: "Maybe it's the shape of the missiles but every time Trident is mentioned there is an outbreak of priapism on the Tory backbenchers. There is a real risk that the whole strategic defence review will be skewed because of the obsession with Trident. It makes no sense whatsoever to exclude Trident, the strategic deterrent, from a proper strategic review."
I have often wondered what breakfast was like in the Hitchens family when brothers Christopher and Peter were young. Radio 4's "The House I grew up in" revealed yesterday that they were at each other's throats just as much as now, but physically as well when children. If you enjoy watching brothers arguing, there's more on you tube.
Which Medway do you prefer? When I put the question to an informal poll, the answer was a resounding Option B. The truth is that name changes aren't that popular. Constantinople became Istanbul, and New Amsterdam became New York, but they were both a consequence of seismic shifts in Empires, rather than as a result of a renaming whim. I could not think of any recent British examples. Given the relative unpopularity of renaming towns and cities, I am rather surprised that the local Conservative Administration wants to 'rebrand' the five local towns of Chatham, Rochester, Gillingham, Strood and Rainham ...
There's an excellent article by Ed Balls in yesterday's Guardian which clearly states the Keynesian position. If you're not yet convinced it is well worth a read. Just a pity that Balls wasn't quite so openly enthusiastic about it when he was an influential part of the government. Saying one thing in government, than another in opposition (or vice versa in the case of the Liberal Democrats) does little to enhance the reputation of politicians or increase respect for the democratic process. It is now nearly three months since the election, but there is as yet little sign of the ...
A report by the Auditor General for Wales has concluded that although there have been significant improvements made to the schools estate in recent years, there is still a long way to go before all school buildings in Wales are fit for purpose. The report found that, in a number of local authorities, the effective planning of capital investment in schools has been hampered by a lack of reliable information about the state of school buildings and a reluctance to take decisions on school rationalisation following falls in pupil numbers. Inadequate capital investment in school buildings and poor levels of ...
I didn't forget about this yesterday, just didn't spot any 19 July anniversaries that appealed. i) births and deaths 20 July 1923: birth of James Bree, who played the Security Chief in The War Games (1969), Nefred the Decider in Full Circle (1980) and the Keeper of the Matrix in The Ultimate Foe (1986) ii) broadcast anniversaries - none iii) dates specified in canon 20 July 1966: the day that the First Doctor leaves London with Ben and Polly in The War Machines (1966) and the Second Doctor brings them back in The Faceless Ones (1967), only to find that ...
Here is a selection of the brick walls I am currently beating my head against:Fragmentation. The people I love all live so far apart, and I can afford neither the time nor the travel costs to visit them all as much as I would like - or in some cases, at all. Happy birthday, bruv. Cashlessness in general. I want to flattr people. I want to give money to good causes. I want to take my daughter to the pictures every so often. I want to buy a round of drinks for my mates after karate. I want some new ...
What is your definition of dignity? Is it something to do with value? I remember from my Latin O' level that dignus translates as worthy and this makes me think of Wayne's World and the hero worship that went with "we're not worthy". Should we aspire to be worthy people? Of course hero worship comes in all forms and a facebook page managed to make out that Raoul Moat was a hero. There were calls yesterday for clarification of the law for so-called mercy killings. One man who has had a stroke wants his wife to help him to die. ...
Tuesday: So Harriet the Harminator suggested that Hard Labour's Election Campaign be brought to you by the letter "F"*. Oh, how quickly Hard Labour went from DOWNING STREET to SESAME STREET. Let's look at all the MUPPETS: there's Oscar the Grouch in Number 10; his predecessor as self-styled superstar Miss Piggy; the Millipede podlings are so Bert and Ernie; Lord Prescott of Flummery just IS Cookie Monster; and Mr Mandelbrot is the Count Von Count. At least I THINK they said "count"! And... HOLY CREPE SUZETTE is that Lord Mandelbrot appearing as the Prince of Darkness in his own fairy ...
