The Fifth Doctor, Tegan and Turlough, reunited with Nyssa in Cobwebs, find themselves in a mysterious human colony where the original settlers have forgotten what they are there for and are now the prey of mysterious forces. To be honest the plot isn't the strong point here, but Lyon is rather good at catching the dynamics of Team Tardis of 1983, and Hayley Attwell turns in a notable guest performance as the potential young leader of the locals. A decent enough sf play which would engage but not fascinate the non-Who fan; sometimes that is enough.
.We really enjoyed "The Imporance of being Earnest" tonight. in Preston Park. Well organised, well produced and what a wonderful setting.Someone said to me that they were sure it was never a serious suggestion that a school would be built in the park. Well it is in the Council minutes that money was to be spent on investigating the site and the Play itslelf showed up the problems of pretending...
I was listening to Any Questions on Friday. It seems that the Liberal Democrats are calling the shots and this shouldn't be allowed. On the other hand Liberal Democrat members are upset because they are playing second fiddle (if that is not an inappropriate political term) to the Tories. Can you have it both ways? I think we are the lesser of the two parties in the coalition but that simply reflects the way the votes went. On the other hand are we calling the shots? Well partly yes, which also reflects the way the votes went. So the answer ...
This book, about the career of Russian spy Sergei Tretyakov before his defection to the US, was strongly recommended to me by someone who said that its portrayal of how intelligence agents handle contacts was scrupulously accurate (and my source is in a position to know). This was before the recent revelations about the group of deep cover Russian agents in the US and UK, and indeed before Tretyakov's own sudden death in June this year (not revealed until July); my informant may have known about the former but I hope he was not tipped off about the latter in ...
I sit here on my sofa and I rant at the TV. I rant on Twitter about my 5 hours a day spent commuting. I grumble about politics and other such things that make me exert grumpiness. But, does that ... Continue reading →
David Bergman, editor of special reports for the website bdnews24.com, has started a new blog on the International War Crimes Tribunal in Bangladesh, see bangladeshwarcrimes.blogspot.com/ This is a useful initiative, as there is a lot of interest throughout the world in legal questions arising from the use of legislation passed in 1973, not entirely in conformity with international standards developed over the last four decades, exemplified by the Rome Statute on the International Criminal Court which came into effect on July 1, 2002.
This is another case of an adoption that reverses as soon as the children get old enough. There will be a lot more of these.
I 'm back from my training trip to Sarajevo.I used to go there two or three times a year as a trainer but this was my first trip for about five years and boy has the city of Sarajevo changed. If anyone is looking for a decent holiday not too far away then I'd definitely recommend Sarajevo. The city is divided into four municipalities officially, but for the tourist you can probably look at it as being the old quarter, the church and embassy quarter, and the rest. The rest comprises lots of 'could be anywhere' architecture and bog standard ...
Now I'm not the World's most domestic type - it would take a fair bit of time to get my house ready for a meeting, but I have done it in the past and know what's involved. So I'm fascinated by David Milliband's instructions on how to hold a house party supporting Dave for leader. It contains step by step instructions for the entire evening starting at 5:30 when the host must get home from work (!) right through until 9 when presumably the evening decorously ends. Apparently the video from the candidate should be shown at 7:50 p.m., but ...
The Lib Dems will be delivering on another manifesto commitment when car clamping on private land is banned. Liberal Democrat ministers Lynne Featherstone and Norman Baker have announced that car clamping on private land is to be banned as part of the Freedom Bill this Autumn. Home Office minister Lynne Featherstone MP when making the announcment said: "The Government is committed to ending the menace of rogue private sector wheel clampers once and for all. "For too long motorists have fallen victim to unscrupulous tactics by many clamping firms. Reports of motorists being marched to cash points or left stranded ...
Earlier this month, the Courier printed an article about the concerns of some of the city's homeless people about the possible lack of bed spaces in Dundee. Following this, I have been in correspondence with the City Council's Director of Housing about the matter, and, as reported in today's Courier, the Director has given me an update on the issue. Below is the substance of her response : "As part of our statistical returns to the Scottish Government (HL1 Returns) we are required to record any applicant who claims to have slept rough on the night preceding their homelessness application ...
I was speaking to my good friend Caron on Thursday evening and telling her I had scheduled some posts for over the weekend. She said she'd probably be crying as she read them, so this one is just for her. Although I suspect that a far number of you will be equally thrilled by it. At this time in the winter months wed generally be settling down at Caron's with a bottle of wine. Getting ready for some gratuitous chest exposure on Strictly Come Dancing. While this isn't Strictly there is plenty of waxed, male chests on show. Enjoy!
Letter from Dr B, consultant physician in Department of Clinical Gerontology at King's, to my GP Diagnoses: EVAR repair (July 2010) Past stage I MALT lymphoma Ischaemic heart disease - coronary artery bypass graft (1995) Barrett's oesophagus and gastritis (2001) Colon injury from RTA - colostomy reversed (2001) Peripheral vascular disease - angioplasty right leg Osteopenia - fracture right hip (October 2009) Medications: domperidone 10 mg mane aspirin 75mg mane Calceos two tablets od bisoprolol 2.5mg - stopped omeprazole 20mg mane atorvastatin l0 mg nocte zopiclone 3.75mg nocte I reviewed this gentleman in the Outpatient Clinic this morning (August 9), ...
Call myself a Doctor Who fan? Well, yes, I do, but it strikes me as incredibly remiss of me to never have heard of Toby Hadoke until a couple of weeks ago when my friend Nikki invited me to see his Doctor Who related satirical show. "Moths ate my Doctor Who scarf" returned to the fringe for one night only last night. We met up for some wine and a chat in the Mercat gastropub, which, since the demise of the Caledonian Ale House (pesky trams) has become a favourite haunt for Liberal Democrats as it's just down the road ...
There have been a rather astonishing 36 opinion polls in the six weeks since LDV's last polls round-up at the beginning of July. Thirty of those 36 originate from just one polling company, YouGov. So let's bring you up-to-date with July and August's polls in chronological order of publication: Con 40, Lab 36, Lib Dem 16 (YouGov, 4-5 Jul) Con 41, Lab 36, Lib Dem 15 (YouGov, 5-6 Jul) Con 40, Lab 36, Lib Dem 17 (YouGov, 6-7 Jul) Con 42, Lab 35, Lib Dem 16 (YouGov, 7-8 Jul) Con 42, Lab 34, Lib Dem 17 (YouGov, 8-9 Jul) Con ...
Look out for lots of What I Did On My Holidays posts - and maybe even the odd one on Liberal Democrat politics.
A good morning's campaigning in Brotton was followed by Leeds 3 Millwall 1 on Yorkshire Radio and then off to Green Lane with Daniel to watch Redcar Athletic thrash Prudoe 6-0.
As part of his ambitious plans to create a sustainable low-carbon economy, the Liberal Democrat Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne has written to all local authorities to announce that they are now allowed to sell renewable electricity to the grid. Until now only 0.01% of electricity in England is generated by local authority-owned renewables, despite the scope that exists to install projects on their land and buildings. In Germany the equivalent figure is 100 times higher. At present local authorities are able to put any renewable electricity they generate to local use, and to benefit from the associated ...
There's no prize at stake - just the opportunity to prove you're wittier than any other LDV reader ... (Credit: Alex Folkes – see his work at Flickr here.) Here's Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg enjoying a friendly conversation with one of his predecessors, Charles Kennedy, during the general election campaign – what do you think they might be saying to each other, or thinking about each other? The winner of our most recent caption competition, the "Paddy swings to the left" edition - according to The Voice's judging panel of one - was this one by Huw Dawson. Got ...
Sat 21st
15:54
A track which involves the words "Barbra Streisand" interspersed with music - not a likely hit you w...
It sounds bizarre and, indeed, disastrous. A basic instrumental track with the words "Barbra Streisand" spoken at regular intervals. But, in fact, Duck Sauce (who are A-Trak and Armand Van Helden) have done such a track and it is magical. It's below on YouTube. I can't find anywhere to download it at the moment, but I'll update this post when I do. It's going to be released on 10/10/2010 apparently.
I found this 5 Popular Zombie Survival Tactics (That Will Get You Killed). Whilst linking to this 7 Scientific Reasons a Zombie Outbreak Would Fail (Quickly) from Dick Puddlecote's blog. Both are a mildly amusing diversion from an otherwise lazy mid Saturday afternoon :-0)
You know I'm not one for compromise. Sheesh, it's been 5 years and I'm still bitter over civil partnerships. I like reforms to be bold and as complete as possible. So no, I'm not overly enamoured with next year's alternative vote referendum. I'm a proportional representation supporter and, like many, I support the single transferable vote as the "best" system. Not perfect, I hasten to add, but I think it is the best. Unfortunately the question that will, if the legislation gets passed, be asked in May 2011 is not about STV, it's all about the Alternative Vote: Do you ...
So the press is continuing to bash the Liberal Democrats, ably abetted by the Labour Party. Coalition is about compromise. It is about two or more parties coming together, thrashing out a programme of government based on their manifestos. In an ideal world it would be formed of two parties with similar values, but after the General Election it became clear that the a coalition with any other
With voting over for the Total Politics top blogs and as I'm busy this weekend I thought I'd tell you just who it is that I did vote for. So in reverse order. 10. Eric Joyce's Blog - As much for the twitting that Eric does as well as the blogging. He has come to this lately and has shown that he has got the idea of being online. Of course as the agent of the Lib Dem candidate against him I had to answer the GE question about his meeting on the Digital Economy Act by saying "if he ...
12.30pm Stanley Park Project Board Meeting I attended this project board meeting at the contractor's site office at Orchard Hill. The board received an update from the Council's Executive Head of Construction & Property reconfirming that planning permission for the school had been received and that work had commenced. We were appraised of the risks ...
At the book's title suggests, Peter Mandelson's memoirs The Third Man do not hold back from placing himself not only at the heart of New Labour but also at its top, variously using the phrases the three musketeers or the triumvirate to describe himself and the two Prime Ministers, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Mandelson is also, alongside Peter Watt and Deborah Mattinson, part of another trio - Labour insiders who have recently published their account of life in New Labour. They all scatter some compliments about Brown through their books, but the overall picture painted of Gordon Brown is ...
The much publicised visit of Labour leadership contender David Miliband to the Co-op at Brotton was upstaged by the Liberal Democrats today. Labour's election stunt was their biggest shot in the Brotton by-election but it backfired when the only residents who turned up were Lib Dem activists with "Lib Dems Winning Here" poster boards. In the face of loud questioning from Chris Foote-Wood, Mr Miliband was soon urging his half dozen Labour Councillors and activists to abandon the stunt and slope off.
The details of the Court case in which Wendy Lewis was prosecuted on public decency offences for actions near the Cenotaph in Blackpool as reported in today's Telegraph make grim reading. There is clearly no excuse for such behaviour. Unfortunately, alcohol related disruption and violence happens in every town across Britain most nights of the week. One thing struck me, though, about this case. Wendy Lewis was due to be sentenced for urinating on the Cenotaph and then performing a sex act while very drunk earlier this year. She clearly didn't do the sex bit on her own - but ...
Test Valley's residents and businesses are being asked to comment on Council proposals to tackle the problem of abandoned shopping trolleys. During a recent two-month audit of the problem in Andover, 57 trolleys were found on just one day. Now the Council is considering using legal powers to claim reasonable costs for collecting, storing or disposing of abandoned trolleys from their owners. Any trolley believed to have been abandoned would be collected by the Council and stored at a central location. The owners would be advised within seven days and would be asked to collect their trolleys within four weeks. ...
Spidey has had something of a mad week. Its now only a few days until Mickey and I move into our new home. Things are more busy than I imagined but in a moment of downtime and preparation for a ... Continue reading →
Sat 21st
12:54BBC licence fee advert song "Push a little button" written by Tony Hatch and sung by his sister, Nin...
This is a fantastic song. I can't believe I overlooked it in during my past in-depth trawls of the Sixties' musical canon. It's called "Push a little button". It is written by Tony Hatch. He made a fortune writing many tunes but three tunes in particular – the Crossroads', Neighbours' and Emmerdale themes made him rich. In fairness, I should mention that he also wrote 'Downtown' and many other hit songs. The song is sung, interestingly, by Tony Hatch's sister, Ninette Hartley. It has recently been used by the BBC for this TV advert for the licence fee online service. ...
Part 13 of blogging my way through my first reading of Atlas Shrugged. You can find the first part here. Chapter 13: White Blackmail Rearden's wife, Lillian, discovers his infidelity by sneaking back to New York in the early hours of the morning following James Taggart's wedding, having told Rearden that she was heading back ...
The Coalition's apparent decision not to hold an enquiry into the Energy Industry, as reported by the Independent , is something which Lib Dems of all stripes should campaign against. Those who may regard themselves as economic liberals will object to this decision on the grounds that it is an example of a Government refusing to act to free up a market which currently is dominated six major players who control 99% of a market where inflation busting annual profit rises have become the norm, with British Gas reporting a staggering 98% rise in profits last July. Economic Liberalism is ...
Game theory attempts to mathematically capture behaviour in strategic situations, in which an individual's success in making choices depends on the choices of others. The prisoner's dilemma is a fundamental problem in game theory that demonstrates why two people might not cooperate even if it is in both their best interests to do so. Over ...
Ever since moving my video to stream from Amazon, I'd been getting a rather annoying error on the otherwise excellent Wordtube plugin with playlists: in essence it refused to play any of the streamed videos on the playlist with the error message 'playlist could not be loaded due to crossdomain policy restrictions'. After much playing around, I finally found the likely cause of the problem via this guide to XML playlists on the JW Player website. In essence, Wordtube was sending the format it uses to store the location for streamed video direct to the JW Player – instead of ...
Welcome to Folkestone and Hythe in 2010, where we have elected a Tory MP who thinks he'd be a Republican if he lived in the USA. I can't decide what's more concerning: his ignorance that the Tory party is probably more left wing than the Democrats, or his ignorance of what the Republicans actually stand for. If he really is a Conservative because he wants to be "free", then his support of a brutally socially conservative American party seems completely bizarre. Let's see some Republican fun: So does Damian Collins wish to get rid of the NHS, deny climate change ...
Local residents have long complained that they have been having difficulty in accessing Stanhope Road from Grimston Road because queuing traffic is selfishly blocking the exit. Chris has talked to highways officials about it and concluded that a yellow box (on the Grimston Road side) would be beneficial in preventing this problem. Obstructing a yellow box is a traffic offence and can lead to points on the licence. As a result, most motorists take it very seriously. The alternative was introducing a mini-roundabout, which would merely encourage rat-running up Breakspear Avenue. Chris will be pressing for this decision to be ...
Like many councillors, not to mention members of the public, I'm not too enamoured with the planning system and its many faults and frustrations, but credit where it's due - it can do the job. Two recent examples in Cheadle: an advertising hoarding had been erected on the side wall of the Village Deli (next to the old BT building) without planning permission. When a resident brought it to my attention, I put in a request to Planning Enforcement at the Council. They gave the owner of the building a few weeks to take it down and down it came. ...
Some people have really got their knickers in a twist over Simon Hughes' comments where he commented that the LibDems should be able to say "No, we can't go down this road." to policies that some LibDems do not believe ... Continue reading →
That's the title of one of the four fringe events I'm chairing or speaking at during the Liberal Democrat conference in Liverpool. This one is part of the series of events that Liberal Democrat Voice is putting on, including also a Liberal Drinks meet-up, the Blog of the Year awards and our top-secret yet to be revealed event.* The campaigning lessons one is at 1pm on the Wednesday of conference (22 September), with Hilary Stephenson (Director of Campaigns), former MP Paul Holmes and new MP Duncan Hames. Hope you can make it and if you can, please sign up either ...
Credit where credit is due, today's Telegraph interview with Nick Clegg covers a range of substantive policy issues and gives the Deputy Prime Minister the space to give nuanced answers where the question requires them. The biggest story is Clegg's clear steer on a graduate tax as the way to square financial demands with the party's dislike of tuition fees: While David Willetts, the universities minister, said this week that it was for Lord Browne's ongoing study to recommend increased tuition fees or a tax, Mr Clegg comes down firmly for the latter. "[Poorer] children are very intimidated by levels ...
[IMG: headless] [IMG: bowl] [IMG: gloria] [IMG: dipper margate]
The casual passer-by to this page might reasonably conclude that I have been terribly lazy throughout the month of August. It's been a while since I've posted, and there are a number of reasons for this. First and foremost is the fact that my job (the one that pays the bills) is currently at full ...
Yesterday a Blog post was released by a Labour party member stating that I, and some fellow Lib Dems (including an unknown Mr Kennedy) were defecting to the Labour party. At the time I originally ignored this rumour as it came from some random Blog that even managed to incorrectly state where I lived and was written by a rival party member (A party which had interestingly just announced £20
Once again, Lib Dem Voice have a varied and exciting programme at the Lib Dem federal conference planned for Liverpool next month. Some of our events are still taking form; others are now so well established they are almost traditional. And don't worry if you are unable to join us in person at conference – we will be making recordings of the events and making them available right here on the blog, so that you can get the conference feel coming in your ears wherever you are in the nation. For your delight and delectation, here are some details. Blog ...
Some very strong words from Nick Clegg in a full length interview in the Telegraph today. I've got a feeling he's been saving this up for a while: The Labour Party has become consumed by collective bile towards ... the Liberal Democrats. That portrays a rather nasty arrogance. They can't believe that [we] could have done anything but fall into line with them. I get the impression, listening to the juvenile vitriol of the leadership candidates, that they can't believe the Liberal Democrats decided to make up their own minds.
I received this comment from a reader about my last post comparing the situation under AV and "optional-AV" in Australia (click HERE to read it). I think the comment raises quite an interesting point, so I thought I would make a post out of it, rather than just reply to the comment: Thanks Brent, very ...
One you may have missed from January 21st 2009 Marshmallows, rocky road and cookies That was the sort of thing we enjoyed at our Obama party in Newbury, organised yesterday, to coincide with the inauguration, by local Obamaniac Chris Day. Rocky Road won the popularity stakes. (I was pleased with this as I snapped them up at M&S on my way to the party.) And it ought to be said that someone had taken the trouble to put Obama's campaign emblem on the cookies in coloured icing. The whole occasion was electrifying. I could feel that - even in semi-rural ...
DW is now going to begin purging deleted accounts and allowing people to buy rename tokens to reuse the names of those accounts. If you run a site where you give access to DW OpenIDs, it will be possible for someone buying a reused name to get access using the previous user's OpenID. Conversely, if you reuse a name, your OpenID will have access to any site the previous user had access to, be associated with any comments they left there, be banned from any sites where they were banned, etc. LJ has a similar issue, but is looking into ...
I've been playing around with making content available via the Amazon Kindle store so as an extra little experiment I've also made this blog available. You can subscribe to get in on your Kindle for the princely sum of £1.99 here. If you don't have a Kindle, feel free to insert thought about how the old ways of the internet are cheaper (if somewhat heavier).
We at LDV Towers know nothing more than anyone else about rumours circulated by Ed Miliband's campaign team yesterday of Charles Kennedy thinking of defecting from the Lib Dems to Labour. According to Lib Dem sources, Kennedy has personally scotched them. The most likely explanation would seem to be that tried and tested Labour technique of spreading unfounded stories about others to cover up bad news about themselves. Whatever the reality, one thing would be very odd indeed were the story to be true: the timing. The information clearly hasn't come from Kennedy, but from the Labour Party. Yet if ...
Today's Independent has a quote from me about Nick Clegg's interview for The Westminster Hour about, amongst other topics, electoral reform: Party members will understand the underlying point Nick Clegg was making - that this isn't a single-issue coalition. However, I suspect many will be disappointed at quite how keenly he talked down the importance of electoral reform in some parts of the interview. The piece is dominated however by the rumours eagerly circulated by Labour sources about Charles Kennedy's supposed interest in defecting to Labour. Olly Grender summed it up well in a tweet: Charles Kennedy rumour re defection ...
date specified in canon 21st August 1572: Admiral de Coligny is shot and wounded; the Abbot of Amboise, suspected of being an impostor who has deraied the assassination plans, is killed by his own allies; Steven (who is fresh from the mayhem of The Daleks' Master Plan) thinks it is the Doctor who has been slain. (as shown in The Massacre, 1966)
Our local police will be at Massie Street Car Park on Monday 23rd Aug from 9am with their 'Have Your Say' Van. This helps the police engage with the community and identify issues using Have your Say cards. [IMG: Have your say card] You tick up to three of 20 priorities and, if you're able to you want to, provide information on when and where issues are happening and who is responsible. This information is then used by the police to tackle local issues identified by the community. Officers from the Cheadle Neighbourhood Policing Team will also be on hand ...
Charles Kennedy and Nick Clegg on campaign trail in Glasgow Your writer is just to the left of shot with other candidates Yesterday evening as we were travelling the rumours of a Charles Kennedy defection to Labour started to circulate. Charles Kennedy was one of the early SDP success stories taking the Ross, Cromarty and Skye seat in the 1983 General Election: just after a young Liberal, named Simon Hughes, was elected in a by-election in Bermondsey. Charles is the last incumbent Lib Dem MP who was elected on an SDP ticket and I like the fact that both he ...
Thank you to Mr Stephen Fry and the Stephen Fry Daily for bringing this to my attention: Andrew
Wales Office Ministers are wrong to dismiss out-of-hand the request to devolve power over alcohol licensing to Wales, the Welsh Assembly Member for South Wales West, Peter Black has said. Referring to the intention of the Health Minister, Edwina Hart to seek legislative competence for the Assembly over the licensing and pricing of alcohol through the planned Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill, Mr. Black said that the proposal deserved serious consideration by UK Ministers. "I was disappointed," he said, "at the way that Wales Office Minister, David Jones, rejected this bid so quickly. I understand that there is currently ...
This is the second part of my article on the current situation in Wales for Liberal Democrat Voice. The first part has been published in two parts and can be found here and here. This second part has also been published on Liberal Democrat Voice here: The third element of the coalition agreement relates to the powers of the Welsh Assembly. At present we can only pass laws piecemeal. An order passing legislative competence in a specified area of policy is requested by the Assembly, scrutinised by us and by the Welsh Affairs Select Committee and then passed in Cardiff ...
