Well, of course we didn't intend it from the start. We're not monsters, are we? It's just, you have all that data, and you're going to start using it, aren't you? After all, we're a business, and we want to give value to our customers. No, not the users! The advertisers! Look, if you're going ...
On Rochford District Council we have a pretty oppressive form of the cabinet system - if you aren't one of the eight Tory cabinet members, you can never ever speak at a cabinet meeting , even if it affects your ward.So the Lib Dems were pleased to see that the coalition are going to give councils the chance to go back to a committee system, and two of us put forward the following motion:'That
I've had much involvement when I was Southwark Council - Cycling Champion as a councillor. The negotiations with Transport for London were more focused on how quickly they could install the highways than how effective they would be. They had been hoping to get them finished in time for the local election earlier this year. A major achievement was the agreement to make Southwark Bridge Road 20mph. This should ensure the majority of the CS7 in Southwark is along street that are either 20mph or can't be driven at greater than 20mph. The blue rinse cycle path Boris insisted on ...
Coming home from Leicester on Sunday I decided to walk home the pretty way. This involves going along Glebe Road, site of the former brickworks and now home to the Welland Valley Vintage Traction Club. Even before I got there I could tell they had an event on. I was passed by a steam lorry and a couple of vintage tractors. When I got to Glebe Road I found it was the second day of the club's open weekend. I had a cup of tea and admired the vehicles collected there.
Work has started changing the E&C southern roundabout to a signalised junction. The plans look to more civilise the this area and should make it much better for pedestrians who will be able to cross at street level rather than via forbidding underpasses. Also, should be an improvement for cyclists. So good for getting from A to B and also good for reducing fear of crime. I still think it could be even more ambitious but its taken years to get Transport for London to even agree these changes.
On Sunday I blogged about the frankly incredible costs of traffic regulation orders and how it would cost at least £3600 and take eleven people to paint just 40 feet of yellow line outside the old Newport Post Office in Launceston. I've had a couple of updates since that time. On Sunday I compared the Cornwall costs with the figure of £800 that I was quoted as being the charge in Cumbria. In fact, this turns out to be the cost for a different type of order and the typical cost across the country is between £3000 and £4000. It's ...
Well, I was actually feeling quite mellow and cheery, having just written a blogpost meandering down memory lane which you will read at a later date. Then I looked at Jennie's blog, because I always hang on her every word and what I saw there made me very angry indeed. She pointed out this on the Early Learning Centre website. It's their dressing up outfit page. Apparently: For the little princess in the family we have great feminine outfits like Butterfly Fairy, Sleeping Beauty, Ballerina and Nurse's uniform. Why not add a medical case for that extra touch of authenticity. ...
Cornwall Council will consider abandoning the 'leader and cabinet' model of governance and returning to the old committee system. That was the pledge made by Council Leader Alec Robertson when I questioned him today at full council. A few years ago, the Labour Government forced all but the smallest councils to choose between three new models of governance. The vast majority chose the leader and cabinet model. The Council as a whole elects the leader who in turn picks up to nine cabinet members to help him or her run the council. All executive power rests with the cabinet and ...
The problem with some of the more 'ideological' legislation is that the actual nuts and bolts of implementation are often overlooked. Luckily for Baroness Neville-Jones, Ros actually understands how this stuff works in reality... Baroness Scott of Needham Market: Perhaps the Minister can clarify the expression in the Statement that the new commissioner will "set" the budget. Do the Government really mean set the budget, or do they mean manage the budget within its existing parameters? For example, do they intend to retain the precepting arrangements whereby it is the local authority which levies it? If they do, how can ...
Sticking with a Leicester University connection I'm pleased to see that it has chosen to honour the journalist Peter Wilby, a native of Leicestershire, with an honorary degree. Wilby can be credited with having made the New Statesman readable again in his seven years as editor between 1998 and 2005. His weekly column remains the best thing in the magazine. As a columnist, he avoids the Polly Toynbee-ish vice of writing as if senior members of the government are or should be hanging on their every word, so never mind the poor readers. As an old fashioned leftist, Wilby always ...
Tonight's "Evening Telegraph" highlighted the continuing issue travellers' caravans in unauthorised sites - the latest being at the Riverside Business Park, west of the airport. I have written to the City Council's Chief Executive and Director of Housing as follows : David & Elaine I have received concerns from constituents about the encampment of around 20 caravans at the Riverside Business Park, west of Dundee Airport. Residents are concerned about the potential for mess being left from this unauthorised encampment and given the issues that there have already been at other locations recently - such as Birkhill Cemetery and Riverside ...
Catching up with the weekend papers: I confess to not having been aware that the Stirling Prize for Architecture, the shortlist for which was announced last week even existed. No doubt Sir James Stirling was an important architect, a great man etc., but my own close encounter with his architecture - walking past the internationally-renowned engineering building at Leicester University during my time as an undergraduate there - left me as rather less than a fan. None of the engineering students had a good word for the building as a space to work in, and it didn't strike me as ...
So said Nancy Seear once, after a debate in the Lords. And if ever her words were to be proved true in spades, it is by the decision to whip the Parliamentary Labour Party to vote against the Bill to allow a referendum on AV. It is, of course, the right of the Official Opposition to oppose. I expect nothing less. However, to oppose a policy contained in your own manifesto for narrow political calculation is pretty shoddy by anyone's standards. Even more so if it was an offer made to persuade Liberal Democrat supporters to switch sides. The message ...
Part one of a very occasional series....... Best Goal Celebration - Gone Fishing @ Yahoo! Video
Firstly we ought to acknowledge the break through that Birmingham City Council has made in publishing in full the Serious Incident Report following the death of seven-year-old Khyra Ishaq. We struggled to get the Leader of the Council to see the full document after a child death in Sefton and still the access to that document is heavily restricted. You can read the story here.
Most people know I am an East End gal. I was born in the Hackney Hospital, lived in Bethnal Green, went to school in Hackney, college in Newham and worked in the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel (and Tesco's on ... Continue reading →
Today at full council I proposed a motion welcoming the abolition of the regional development agency and its replacement with a local enterprise partnership for Cornwall. We wanted to see the LEP working for the good of Cornwall, not for some amorphous south west region. To combine Cornwall with counties further East will be to our detriment. There are the cultural and historic arguments and these are important. But what is more important is that it is all too easy to ignore Cornwall's needs if you are also trying to think about Dorset, Bristol, Devon and Somerset at the same ...
I've blogged before about Police Officers who ignore the law and their own procedures and think it is ok to detain photographers for taking pictures in public places and often demand that they delete the images. Now I read about 'Rail Enforcement Officers' who have taken to doing the same. This story is, regrettably, typical of some people in authority who have an important job to do but waste time detaining people they have no right to detain for actions which are in no way against the law. It also shows how badly trained these REOs are. Hat tip: Thanks ...
This is the last volume detailing the main series of events on Bloody Sunday, and the longest so far (just slightly ahead of Vol. V by 656 pages to 654). It is divided into three rather different sections. The first section - 272 of the volume's 656 numbered pages - deals with the final fatalities of the day. Four people were injured, two fatally, by army gunfore into the area immediately south of the action so far. First of all Patrick Campbell, Daniel McGowan and Patrick Doherty were shot, Doherty lying fatally injured but conscious and yelling. Then, as Saville ...
A summer of love is breaking out amongst Medway's bloggers! In gratitude to other Medway bloggers and Twitterers who have included me recently on their blog roll or on their 'follow Friday' twitter list, I have decided to do a special post listing Medway bloggers from other parties. Although I might not necessarily agree with some of the views of the blogs listed below, it is healthy for democracy that Medway has such a broad spectrum of political websites and it is good to see Medway punching above its weight in its online political presence. Apologies now to anyone I ...
Guido Fawkes notes that Gordon Brown, despite no longer being Prime Minister or Labour Leader or holding any front bench job, has decided to appoint a PPS. His choice is newbie MP Alison McGovern. Ms McGovern has been elected for Wirral South but I know her from my time working for Southwark Council where she was an elected member. Also an elected member at the same time was Kirsty McNeill who was Gordon Brown's speechwriter when he was in Number 10. Was this perhaps behind the decision to appoint Alison McGovern?
While putting together yesterday's post about Ferrari, I started trawling through some old clips of the great racers of the fifties and sixties. Such an exercise inevitably leads you to, in my opinion, the greatest driver of them all: Jim Clark. Had Clark been racing in the modern era there's every chance he would have ...
From the website of the Early Learning Centre.For the little princess in the family we have great feminine outfits like Butterfly Fairy, Sleeping Beauty, Ballerina and Nurse's uniform. Why not add a medical case for that extra touch of authenticity. The boys are catered for too, with great Doctor, Policeman & Fireman uniforms, not to mention fantastic Pirate and Knight costumes. All these can be combined with a range of accessories so your child will really look the part.Because, apparently, boys can't do ballet, and girls can't be doctors. You can contact them via the page here if you'd like ...
A Timely Reform looks at the questions BBC2's Newsnight failed to ask - in case the answers spoiled the piece knocking the Lib Dems that they presented last night. Sir Alan Beith is interviewed by Total Politics: "There are a lot of Labour's laws that I would like to repeal. They became rather like a nanny state. Very authoritarian party and created supposed anti-terrorism legislation which was only used in situations which had nothing to do with terrorism." Millennium Elephant offers nine good things about saying yes to AV. "Last night I had the 'pleasure' of being detained against my ...
Something has been preying on my mind in the the last few weeks/months and I thought it was about time I shared it. I will be 36 years old this Friday (no it's not an incipient mid-life crisis!) and I have been pretty much obsessed with politics since I was a teenager. However I only joined the Lib Dems a little over two years ago. I had helped them out a bit before and had also got involved with some electoral reform stuff but I have only been a fully paid up member of the party since June 2008. I ...
Forget the Lib Dems' current poll-ratings for a moment – though today's 19% from ICM will have done a fair amount to repair nerves frayed by YouGov's poorer recent scores – and let's focus on the Coalition Government as a whole. Last week, YouGov's Peter Kellner stated categorically: The honeymoon is over. His logic was simple enough: Over the past four weeks, the coalition's approval rating has slipped slowly but remorselessly. Our latest figures report a net rating of plus four (approve 41%, disapprove 37%). In just over two months, the coalition's rating has declined to levels that were not ...
One of the things about this Time of the Moth is the that I get an urge I never get the rest of the time: to sit and watch kids' telly. Preferably with a big bucket of ice cream and a duvet. And I am watching Richard Hammond's Blast Lab. In one sense, it's like your traditional kids' TV game show. It has screaming kids in the audience, and the ubiquitous gunk tank. But the quiz element of it is based around the cool things you can do with science, and experiments. It also has Oliver, the Opel Kadett, and ...
I have used Woking station to commute to London every week day for the last 14 years. I used to exit the station on the car park side but I am glad that I no longer have to. The car ... Continue reading →
We've had a rather long running saga going on Woking these last few months with local ice cream vendor Pasco Guarino being told he can no lomger park his ice cream van in the town centre. Mr Guarino claims that ... Continue reading →
Durham County Council planning committee voted 13-1 to reject the planning depatment's advice and instead approved the proposed Tesco store at Puddler's Corner on the grounds of economic benefits, job creation and job retention, and the regeneration benefits of reclaiming this brownfield site. Only then did a slight "fly in the ointment" emerge. After the vote the planning officer stated that the government office (whicjh had previously looked at this proposal and decided not to "call it in") had let it be known that it wanted to look at it again. This may call into question Tesco's intention that the ...
Apart from Lunch I have spent all day in meetings today with 4 1/2 hours worth of budget meetings alone. I feel knackered but I am not really sure what concrete things of substance I have achieved today. It is on days like this when I get to thinking what does daily success look like as a councillor / senior councillor? I think it boils down three different measures. (and most important) Casework / ward problems solved. Not a lot of things I can point at and say "solved" today! City wide issues solved / dealt with. Again, not a ...
I can update this on the move, I find. The Blackberry really is the supreme procrastination device!
A memo released by the Iraq Inquiry today by Lieutenant General Sir Nicholas Houghton, then-Chief of Joint Operations at the military's Permanent Joint Headquarters (PJHQ) to Ministers, shows that Labour ministers were formally warned that the military needed an alternative to the Snatch Land Rover in Iraq and Afghanistan. Tim Farron, Co-Chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Committee for Foreign Affairs & Defence, comments: This is yet another damning sign that the Labour Government ignored advice from its top military officials on their equipment needs. "As we long suspected, generals told ministers that they needed better equipment to protect their ...
Talking of extending the range of sport on offer to young people - which is part of the Body Confidence project - last night I attended the launch dinner of the Women's World Rugby Cup. This worldwide tournament is taking place from mid-August to mid September in Surrey - and our team is in with a real chance. You can find out more about the World Cup here. What a committed group of both women and men (the sport is well integrated) completely dedicated to promoting and expanding participation in this game - on which I had a crash course ...
Following constituents raising concerns about water damage to part of the Harris Academy building, following heavy rain, I raised the matter with the Education Department to get assurances that all would be well in terms of room condition by the start of the new term next month. I have now received the following helpful feedback from the Education Department : "I have contacted the Property Services Co-ordinator about this matter. He has confirmed that the recent heavy rain caused a leak in the roof of the 60's block of Harris Academy and that water seeped into some classrooms. There was ...
The Guardian website has an article on the restoration of Kentish Town baths. It quotes the councillor who championed the project - the Liberal Democrat (and Liberal Revue performer) Flick Rea:"It's the most exciting thing I've ever done since having two children. I'd spent 20 years in opposition, and until this project my crowning achievement was getting a bench put in by a bus stop."
As part of the Festival of British Archaeology, Bath & North East Somerset Council is hosting a special event called "Englishcombe Explorers" on Saturday July 31.A free event will run from 11am - 4pm and will provide visitors with the chance to find out more about the medieval church, tithe barn and the famous Wansdyke. There will also be a chance to wander around the remains of...
Bury Ranger service are leading the second of their four cycle rides this Sunday, in what promises to be a great way to experience Bury's countryside Join others on a leisurely circular cycle ride starting from St Mary's Park. The ride will be following National Cycle Route 6 along the Outwood trail and the Bury Bolton canal to Bury. Heading through Pilsworth, Unsworth, and Heaton Park back to St Mary's Park. Covering approximately 20 miles the route is both off and on road, some of the off road sections are on rough surfaced tracks and the ride includes some short ...
Anyone who's ever been on a customer service course for work will no doubt have been given some variation on the theme of "behaviour breeds behaviour". You know, if you're nice and calm and pleasant to someone and it looks like you really care about them, then they are likely to respond in kind. If you ignore them, or patronise them or lie to them, they are going to get angry, and understandably so. That common sense approach, of treating others in the way you would want to be treated has positive benefits for all of human relationships - with, ...
Local Government is expected to find £1.166bn in savings in 2010/11. Islington's new Old Labour council is demonstrating precisely the wrong way to deal with this austerity - taking the axe to core services while paying out election bribes to the wealthy and saving their councillors' pet projects. Islington's Labour councillors introduced Free School Meals ...
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson has said that although the Met has issued guidelines to officers about people taking photographs in public places, he cannot guarantee that officers will interpret them correctly. His remarks came at a meeting of the Metropolitan Police Authority at London City Hall on July 22, where Liberal Democrat Assembly Member Dee Doocey asked him, Are you confident that your officers are aware of the law when it comes to members of the public taking photographs in a public place? Stephenson replied, We did go through a period where there was a spate of these ...
This morning's Western Mail reports that Professor David Hawker, the director general of education in Wales has announced he is to step down from the role in September. They remind us that his successor will be the fourth appointed to the position in five years following the departures of Steve Marshall, who was flown in from Australia to take over the department in 2006, and interim boss Dennis Gunning. Shadow Education Minister Jenny Randerson, the Cardiff Central Lib Dem AM, said Prof Hawker's resignation was a concern. "The high turnover of director generals in the education department suggests that all ...
[IMG: Met Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson at City Hall] Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson has said that although the Met has issued guidelines to officers about people taking photographs in public places, he cannot guarantee that officers will interpret them correctly. His remarks came at a meeting of the Metropolitan Police Authority at London City Hall on July 22, where Liberal Democrat Assembly Member Dee Doocey asked him, Are you confident that your officers are aware of the law when it comes to members of the public taking photographs in a public place? Stephenson replied, We did go through ...
I am not sure what exactly Paul the Pyschic Octopus has done, other than to correctly predict the outcome of a few football games through a clever trick involving food and coloured containers, but somehow he has attracted the ire of the Iranians. Apparently, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian leader, says Paul is a symbol of all that is wrong with the western world. The President accused the octopus of spreading "western propaganda and superstition.": Paul was mentioned by Mr Ahmadinejad on various occasions during a speech in Tehran at the weekend. "Those who believe in this type of thing cannot ...
Bath Ringmaster message Number 300.The following priorities were agreed at the Southdown and Whiteway PACT meeting held on Wednesday 14th July 2010:-. Youths causing anti social behaviour in the minor roads between The Hollow and the new build houses and flats on Haycombe Drive. . Suggestion of a live-in warden at Blagdon Park.. Crime and anti social behaviour occurring in the...
The Friends of Roundhill asked the Avon Wildlife Trust to carry out a grass survey of the Roundhill. The key in the column is Y =present, R =rare, O =occaissional and F =frequent. Indicator Wildflower Grassland Species Common Bird's-foot-trefoil F Common Centaury R Devil's-bit...
I cannot pretend that everything I write is grammatically correct or properly spelt but I take comfort in the fact that I am not the only one. Why do all the best typos happen in the reporting of education stories? This morning's Western Mail for example tells us that the director general of education in Wales has announced he is to step down from the role in September. He is the third to go in the last five years. At least one teaching union wants stability in the post and suggests that we now need a director in charge who ...
Tue 27th
15:29
£78,750 was best value for money for getting rid of former director says Council Leader
Finally, Cornwall Council Leader Alec Robertson has gone on the record with a comment about the departure of Peter Lewis, the former Corporate Support Director who left with a £78,750 pay off. Until now, all we have heard from the Council has been that they won't comment because of a confidentiality agreement. Although we still haven't got much further on the details, at today's council meeting Alec Robertson responded to my question by saying that the deal represented the best value for money in the circumstances. This fails to answer the key question of why the Council agreed to a ...
Will The Times's paywall work? It's the question that's been asked ever since Rupert Murdoch's News International announced its intention to place The Times and The Sunday Times websites behind a paywall, blocking any user not prepared to pay a subscription for access. Last week saw publication of early unofficial statistics which were extrapolated at length in The Guardian and suggest The Times's website now attracts somewhere between 84,800 and 195,700 daily unique users – compared with c.1.2 million daily unique users pre-paywall. It's stating the obvious to point out that's a huge drop: after all, the point of the ...
Will The Times's paywall work? It's the question that's been asked ever since Rupert Murdoch's News International announced its intention to place The Times and The Sunday Times websites behind a paywall, blocking any user not prepared to pay a subscription for access. Last week saw publication of early unofficial statistics which were extrapolated at length in The Guardian and suggest The Times's website now attracts somewhere between 84,800 and 195,700 daily unique users – compared with c.1.2 million daily unique users pre-paywall. It's stating the obvious to point out that's a huge drop: after all, the point of the ...
The following xl spreadsheet shows clearly the number of children in the Bath Primary schools and the boom in the number of children in Bath in the coming years. Primary_Postcodes__Oct_09_-1.xls
Tue 27th
15:00
Emergency Closure of A1081 Chequer Street / A1081 St Peters Street, St Albans - overnight tonight
Thames Water plan to complete emergency repairs to a couple of sunken manhole covers in A1081 St Peters Street, St Albans under road closure this evening. This will also mean that A1081 Chequer Street is closed to through traffic. Works are due to commence at 1930hrs and are expected to be complete by 0100hrs.
This week, the Coalition Government announced that a Pupil Premium, funded from outside the schools budget, will be introduced next September. It will mean that from next year, schools taking disadvantaged children will get the additional money they need to provide them with the extra support they deserve, no matter where they are in the country. This could mean more individual tuition or catch-up classes, but it will be for the school to decide, we won't be telling headteachers how to spend the money. This is a real Liberal Democrat achievement. It was the centrepiece of our education policy during ...
In random order: - Museums are Great comments on the coalition government's proposals to close the MLAC. - JaeKay is angry that the Daily Fail seems to think it's OK to be homophobic if you're gay (in which case, what's Jack Straw's excuse?) - Blog Awards season is truly underway: Helen has announced the botties. For openness and transparency, here is who I have nominated:# Best new Liberal Democrat blog (started since 1st September 2009) - Thagomizer by Debi Linton, who dabbles in fossils and bones. # Best blog from a Liberal Democrat holding public office (The Tim Garden Award) ...
Tuesday: 1. It recognises that our VOTING SYSTEM is BROKEN 2. It gives MORE POWER to voters 3. It lets more people feel that they have an MP they voted for 4. It lets people choose HONESTLY with no tactical voting 5. It gives voters a choice between PEOPLE not PARTIES 6. It makes politicians talk to people who aren't in their "base" 7. It makes politicians talk to each other, encouraging grown-up politics 8. As far as what the voter has to DO goes, it's exactly the same as voting with STV 9. It's on offer and STV isn't ...
I came into politics to make a difference for the most disadvantaged in our society. It is over three years since I, as Liberal Democrat education spokesperson, championed the Pupil Premium as our flagship education policy and debated it at Conference. I never dared imagine a time when I would be unveiling it as Government policy and then actually implementing it. But this week, the Coalition Government announced that a Pupil Premium, funded from outside the schools budget, will be introduced next September. It will mean that from next year, schools taking disadvantaged children will get the additional money they ...
Nick Clegg scored another Lib Dem win for the Coalition Government by revealing at today's Deputy Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons. In response to a question by Liberal Democrat MP for East Dunbartonshire Jo Swinson, he announced that legislation will be introduced next year to give constituents the right to sack an MP convicted of serious wrongdoing. Under this proposal, if 10% of constituents expressed a wish for a recall election, it would be held. Nick called for this last year - in fact it was one of a raft of proposals he wanted enacted over last ...
David Cameron has made a fantastic speech in Turkey today not only supporting Turkey's application to join the European Union but also describing Gaza as a prison camp.
Various businesses at the Victoria Works site have been reported to planning for violating the conditions on operational hours which are currently in force. I.e. normal working hours during the week, Saturday mornings and no working on Sunday. The response seems to have been to put in an application to alter the hours to 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday to Saturday and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays. Obviously this will cause considerable issues for the homes which closely surround this site. I strongly encourage people to lodge an objection with Planning, quoting reference 93537/JO/2010/N2. Email to d.jones5@manchester.gov.uk.
Has your Virgin Media email stopped working today? I have an ntlworld.com email address and this morning the incoming mail server started rejecting all requests ("terminated unexpectedly") from Outlook Express. Well, after much googling (anyone who has Virgin will know how pointless and time-wasting ringing them is!) I found the Virgin support forum and this post. The Upshot being what worked for me was to turn off SSL for the imcoming mail incoming mail SSL). I am now receiving email again (I imagine it will stop working again once they "fix" it and I'll have to put it back). ...
I am the first to admit that I am not 100 percent informed about Academies. But it must be wrong to rush the legislation through the way it has been. Lib Dem MP John Pugh wanted to amend it so that, if the governing body of a school was split on whether to go for Academy status, there would be a ballot of parents. This seems eminently sensible. It wouldn't necessarily stop the process (although if there was a lot of opposition it could) but it would give those most associated with the school a chance to have a say ...
I'm always amazed at how upset the Daily Mail gets about the subject of rubbish. It would appear however that there is an element of truth to their story on council race spies secretly rummage through rubbish bins to discover families' habits see here. I'm really not sure why the Daily Mail thinks this is about race as claimed in the article 'Often, officials deliberately picked streets where different types of men and women lived to see if their ethnic origins, type of home or wealth affected the amount or rubbish they threw out'. I doubt this is even possible ...
So what's been happening in our local constituency I hear you ask? Well, not a lot. The towns have settled back into their routine of not much happening. The Sittingbourne and Sheppey Conservatives remain a one man band. Our new MP, Gordon Henderson, has thrown himself into parliamentary life, currently campaigning for the Isle of Sheppey Academy (which I visited during the campaign). He is keeping an excellent diary on his blog giving a view into the life of a new MP. I hope he keeps it going. The rest of the Tories remain invisible. Their web site has not ...
I'm passionate about PR. But when it comes to PR AV is, at best, a red herring. Be very clear, AV is not one jot more proportionate than what we have now. It is a system of first Past the Post pure and simple. It does have other positive characteristics (although personally I think both our current FPTP and AV are systems I'd score at 0 out of 10) but it is not one iota more proportionate than the system we have now. Some people have said that it is likely that AV will produce more proportionate outcomes. I think ...
The Cheadle Muslim Association Fun Day last Sunday passed off without the pouring rain we had yesterday, and was the best attended I can remember. The event, at the mosque in Heald Green, is for the whole community and is well attended by muslims and non-muslims alike. Attractions on Sunday included stalls selling everything from curries to jewellery, a bouncy slide, football, cricket, tours of the mosque and a magic show and archery demonstration for the kids. I was able to demonstrate my rather limited athletic prowess, leading my team to fifth place (out of six) after the relay race, ...
This blog is proud to be XHTML 1.0 Strict Compliant. Just like it is polite to use correct spelling and grammar for human readers, I believe that correct markup is "polite" for rendering engines. I've recently started using DynamicWP's Simple White Theme. The theme is excellent, but generated around 60 validation errors. Luckily these were caused by a scant half dozen errors in the source code. [IMG: Simple White Theme] Here is a quick summary of the errors, why they need to be fixed, and how to fix them. footer.php – line 8 Why: Target isn't a valid XHTML attribute ...
A respected neonatologist has called for the establishment of a body to police the implementation on the International Code on the Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes. Professor Stewart Forsyth, whose research into infant feeding in Dundee found breastfeeding can reduce inequalities in child health, made the plea in an article for the Archive of Diseases in Childhood. This seems to me to be an extremely good idea. He is right that the formula milk industry claims that it's abiding by the code, while organisations like Baby Milk Action are continually finding evidence of breaches. There is nobody who looks at ...
The frequent and ever more vociferous rantings from the Labour party and some supporters about how LibDems sold them down the river is starting to create a noise in my ears that wont go away and is driving me mad. ... Continue reading →
Andy Hinton detailed this in an excellent post nearly a week ago. With quotes and everything. Yes, Vince used the words graduate tax, but I used the words Richard Littlejohn this morning, and that doesn't mean I approve of him or are proposing him as a solution. Can we all please stop believing the myths we are spoonfed by the old media, even when it's about what our own Vince said, and actually LOOK at what was said? It would make life so much easier.
Various people I follow on Twitter (RevdLesley, TheChurchMouse) have responded to the Seven Link Challenge – which is supposed to improve one's blogging. There are seven categories of posts and you have to name one for each. I've been blogging for a long time (getting on towards ten years now, started on Advogato in 2001) so there's a lot to choose from... Your first post – 25 Oct 2001 Advogato doesn't do post titles so it's just dated. I'd registered on Advo and wanted to get it going. Posted about some coding stuff from work and my personal projects. A ...
The Guardian is running the latest ICM poll today. The overall story is good for the Lib Dems – up three points to 19% (both Labour and the Tories are slightly down against the last ICM poll), and the Coalition remains stubbornly popular, still in the 55-60% range. But this is just one poll (and there are others both significantly better and worse for the party), so let's not worry too much about the headline figures. More interesting is the line the Guardian takes and the "marks out of ten" for the Coalition Government. First the line taken in the ...
It is the school summer holidays and children (and teachers!) have some free time. The City Council's ChYPPs team proivde a range of activities during the summer holiday for children of all ages. The brochure (in PDF) is available online with lots of information. Today, for example, their are sessions on St Alban's Rec and Nuns Way. Yesterday on Thorpe Way rec (and many elsewhere in the city). Please do have a look at the brochure and use these facilities: a great chance for your kids to make new friends. You can find out more about ChYPPS (Children and Young ...
This is just a PSA to say that Nick is doing Deputy Prime Minister's Questions in around half an hour. The first session was an hour before the Budget and I knew I was going to be writing about that all day so I very disloyally spent it out on a sunbed catching some rays. It was very unlike me to be so sensible and pace myself, but I think it did me some good. Anyway, I'm really looking forward to watching today's session. I guess it's too much to hope that Labour MPs will be so excited by their ...
Southport's MP John Pugh moved an amendment to the Academies Bill to allow parents to trigger a ballot if a school governing body is divided over moving to Academy status. You can hear the debate from the Radio 4 Yesterday in Parliament. This an an interesting development for Lib Dem backbenchers in challenging the Government and presenting a distinctive Liberal view. You can see the full debate in Hansard. John is a former teacher at local Comprehensive Schools as well as at Merchant Taylor's Crosby.
¬ Why? What is it doing on my keyboard? I mean, it looks packed with awesome but I just don't know what I'm supposed to do with it – what is its purpose?
The BBC reports: MPs have approved legislation [317 votes to 225, Government majority 92] which paves the way for a radical overhaul of the school system in England. The Academies Bill, allowing schools to opt out of local council control as early as September, is now due to receive Royal Assent on Tuesday. However, the Bill sparked a revolt among some Lib Dem MPs, with five defying the whips to back an amendment proposed by Southport MP (and former teacher) John Pugh allowing parents to be balloted if a school governor objected it to becoming an academy. The five Lib ...
The BBC reports: MPs have approved legislation [317 votes to 225, Government majority 92] which paves the way for a radical overhaul of the school system in England. The Academies Bill, allowing schools to opt out of local council control as early as September, is now due to receive Royal Assent on Tuesday. However, the Bill sparked a revolt among some Lib Dem MPs, with five defying the whips to back an amendment proposed by Southport MP (and former teacher) John Pugh allowing parents to be balloted if a school governor objected it to becoming an academy. The five Lib ...
Mondays Newsnight coalition special highlighted a problem for me with understanding the difference for the public of coalition policy and party policy. One young lady said she would not vote Liberal Democrat again because of the Vince Cables proposed graduate tax. Firstly I got the impression that she thought this was going to happen when it is one idea to be discussed. Secondly the Liberal Democrats have not dropped their policy on scrapping tuition fees. If the Liberal Democrats were in power on their own I have no doubt that within the 4 or 5 years of government they would ...
Lots of people keep calling me a Tory, some jokingly and some serious. This is getting out of hand (I take great offence to being equated with an arch enemy) and I want to explain why coalition government doesn't make me (or any other Lib Dem) a Conservative douche-bag. Let's go over (one more time) the idea of coalition governments, and deal with why Labour can't take what happened. When no party secures an outright majority, it is up to the party leaders to negotiate (as the Labour, Green and Nationalist parties agreed, in early May at least.) The priority ...
The more this issue is examined, the more I feel the coalition acted in haste, and now are repenting at leisure. Think about it. Your first couple of days on the job. All that new power going to your head. An anger at the growing realisation of just how bad the government books are. Knowledge ...
A couple of days ago, a Palestinian man got convicted for rape by deception in Israel. The bare facts of the case are this. The man met an Israeli woman in a bar. The two got to talking, and during the course of the conversation the man directly claimed to be Israeli. The two spent the night together; explicit consent was given, and that consent was not made explicitly dependent on the man being an Israeli. Later, the woman discovered that the man was, in fact, an Arab, and prosecuted him for rape by deception. This is a complex situation, ...
Fascinating comment piece in The New York Times. It states that University of Tennessee researchers found that after three years of letting students choose 12 books to take home from school for the long summer break that their reading scores did suffer the 'summer slide'. Apparently this slide in reading skills especially affects kids from lower income families. That kids from families with over 500 books in the home do better. They also talk about research showing in North Carolina that the spread of home computers and internet access has seen significant drop in maths and reading scores. Separately I've ...
Former Tory leadership contender David Davies believes the Coalition isn't right wing enough and rumours are spreading of a "Brokeback Club" to make trouble. Former Lib Dem Deputy Leader contender Tim Farron has referred to the "Toxic Tories" and Simon Hughes, who won the vote to become Deputy Leader, has said the party wouldn't have supported the Academies Bill if it were in opposition. In a sense, Hughes' comment is stating the obvious. A coalition means voting for some of their policies you can live with but don't like, because otherwise the other lot won't vote for yours. It's a ...
Just a few months ago, no Lib Dem MPs had any real political power outside of the party. Despite this they did manage sometimes to make a difference (notably for example with the Gurkhas) but largely they would discuss the party policies, attempt to influence a domestic audience and that was that. Contrast that with this statement that I noticed whilst registering on the autumn conference web page yesterday: Please note, in a change from previous years, the Leader's Speech will now take place on the afternoon of Monday 20 September. Nick Clegg, as Deputy Prime Minister, will be representing ...
Every London home will have paid over £250 towards the 2012 Olympics in Council tax surcharge. Yet to obtain a ticket they have to enter a ballot system which fails to recognise this Londoners subsidy. With such high levels of poverty in London it seems quite likely, as with the likes of the Wimbledon tennis ticket ballots, that home counties residents will take the lions shares. Truly inequitable. To compound things the finals and premier tickets are fully reserved and not for public sale but the gift of the Olympics Committees, corporate and media junkets. I hope I'm wrong but ...
Southwark Council have now published the dates Fire Risk Assessments were completed. This tells how to get hold of a copy of the Fire Risk Assessment. Shame they havent all been placed on line for true real transparency but at least a first step.
Below are the poster designs I posted here a few days ago, but with the thick black lines thinned a little. This was a correction that several of you suggested. I hope you like the result, and thanks for all the comments and feedback - much appreciated. [IMG: Fairer Votes Referendum Poster Idea 1] [IMG: Fairer Votes Referendum Poster Idea 2] [IMG: Fairer Votes Referendum Poster Idea 3] Better, methinks. Let me know if you agree.
Good news. Even though that's not quite how this headline chose to spin it.
The news that the Empire State Building is to retrofit in an environmental way is great news and a great example. If the world's most iconic tall building can do this and produce 40% energy savings why can't the rest of the US and the World for that matter. For the refit all 6,514 windows are to be stripped out, before being renovated with a insulating film and a mixture of inert gases. This will make them 4 times better at heat and coolness retention. At the high tech end the world largest wireless network will be set up allowing ...
Tue 27th
07:09
Revealed : How Southeastern Rail annual season tickets are now three times the cost of an equivalent...
To commute from Kent with Southeastern Trains is not a pleasant experience. And it is certainly not a cheap experience . Given that the North Kent lines are some of the busiest commuter routes in Europe, you could be forgiven for thinking that economies of scale would mean cheaper ticket prices. Think again! It is interesting then to compare some similar commutes around the UK to see how Kent 'fares' up. It makes for a pretty grim comparison for Medway commuters. Looking at the table below, Kent is the most expensive commute in the UK. But why should it cost ...
As far as I can see, even the Grauniad has not yet found someone to mourn the abolition of Investors in People UK -- the quango for distributing meaningless awards. Is there a public building left in Britain that is not exhibiting one of their plaques? Might they become collector's items? If a few got sold at car boot sales at least IiP could be said to have contributed something to the economy.
Nothing particularly grabbed me for yesterday's date. i) births and deaths 27 July 1925: birth of Harry Towb, whose death last year, three days before his 84th birthday, I commemorated at the weekend. ii) broadcast / performance anniversary 27 July 2008: broadcast (and performance) of Music of the Spheres in conjunction with Proms concert. I watched this the other week and it is pretty brilliant - wish I had been there for the real thing. iii) date of real event, implicitly specified in canon 27 July 2012: scheduled launch of the Olympic Games, as seen in Fear Her (2006)
Sheffield is about 36 miles away from my current location, yet it might as well be a different world. Since the shock news came out of the Steelers office on 9th July, I've had a feeling of deja vu. We've been through this before and it's time that as a club we started realising there is something wrong with our model. We are unable to continue the boom and bust notion of the last 19 years. We have for the most part, been an extremely successful club and we have been entertaining. I'm not bothered who owns the club, I ...
Elderly and housebound residents in St Albans City and District, who are unable to shop for food and cook for themselves, will be able to receive Meals on Wheels at weekends, from 31st July. The move comes one year after St Albans City and District Council formed a partnership with Hertfordshire Community Meals (HCM) with the latter taking on responsibility for the delivery of meals to vulnerable residents in the District. HCM currently delivers Meals on Wheels on weekdays to residents in St Albans, Harpenden, Redbourn and Wheathampstead, but will now extend its service to cover the weekend as well. ...
In an unsurprising move Sheffield Wednesday have accepted a renewed bid from Burnley for keeper Lee Grant. The exact figure is unknown however the original figure proposed was some where in the six figure region. There is some speculation that West Brom might have also been interested in Grant, in which case it can be assumed that the bid was a "fair" one to ensure they could get the first word
the loathing for my fellows rises steaming from my brain, In the bath, In the bath And condenses to the milk of human kindness once again, In the bath, In the bath Oh, the tingling of the scrubbing brush, the flannel's soft caress, To wield a lordly loofah is a joy I can't express, How truely it is spoken one is next to godliness, In the bath, In the bath Am feeling much better now. Have had a good long bath, and listened to lots of shouty music, and had several good cries. And have seen a woman driver take ...
Newsnight are having their fun with a Comres Poll showing that 40% of people who voted Lib Dem on May 6th would not vote for them now. That's a loss of about 2.7 million votes. What they don't ask is how many Tory, Labour and "stay at home" voters would have switched to the Lib Dems ...
Marks and Spencer has made the news by selling a 'Plus' range of school clothing for overweight children. Well done to their advertisers. They have recognised that obesity is rife and managed to obtain more advertising space than money can buy. The debate has moved on to how we as a nation tackle obesity but Marks and Spencer has managed to get its name into this debate. I don't think children went to school without a uniform prior to this initiative. Billy Bunter cartoons may have made it look like pupils attended school with a uniform that didn't fit but ...
