Congratulations to Aldbury and Wigginton Liberal Democrats, where Rosemarie Hollinghurst has gained a seat from the Conservatives on Dacorum Borough Council. The result: LD Rosemarie Hollinghurst 593; Conservative 305; Labour 18. Turnout 46.71%. LD GAIN from Con. This represents a swing from the Conservatives to the Liberal Democrats of around 25%.
A reader kindly reminds me that Asil Nadir, like all the best people, one owned an estate in Rutland. This Independent article from 1993 gives the details: He bought the spectacular mansion of Burley-on-the Hill in Rutland for about pounds 7m - without its 2,000-acre estate. He intended to turn the house into a hotel. He subsequently paid pounds 2m for extra land for golf courses, but his business collapsed before these could be developed. For him, as for many others, the 'estate' followed the private helicopter as the ultimate symbol of success.
Gosh, this Seventh Doctor novel is pretty poor. Lots of good ideas, including William Blake, disappearing planets, Cthulhoid monstrosities and the secret history of Rassilon, but thrown together really hastily so that the reader must find some real motivation to make sense of it all, and I could not find that motivation.
Continuing my discovery of Hemingway, I started A Farewell to Arms with no knowledge of the content at all. I soon realised that it was about the Italian front in the first world war where Hemingway had served as a medic, which I was aware of from Haldeman's "The Hemingway Hoax", but then became rather delighted when I realised that I vaguely know the area in question, now the eastern part of Slovenia. (I once stumped a leading French intellectual over dinner in Ljubljana by asking him which nineteenth-century French ruler is buried in Slovenia. The answer is Charles X.) ...
Since I hardly ever go the cinema, I don't know when I'll see the movie, but I must say I liked the first volume: Scott and all his friends are well-drawn characters, and the sheer insanity of ending the book with the first of Ramona's evil ex-boyfriends duelling with the unfortunate Scott, video-game style, at the scene of an abortive gig is very engaging. I also liked the depiction of the Canadian background, hemmed by by snow to the north and the USA to the south. I wasn't sufficiently charmed to go on about it at great length here, but ...
This month's Superman/Batman has a good bit in it. I know, I'm as surprised as you. But here it is – The Joker and Lex Luthor as Calvin and Hobbes I don't know if I've linked to him before, but Ben Gunn is a prisoner who's spent thirty years in prison for a murder he ...
An interesting evening with Fiona Hall, our Member for the European Parliament, and leader of the Lib Dem group there. It was so that our new members could meet her and find out more about her work in the European Parliament where she sits on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) and Development Committees. Her determination to both increase the economic activity in the North East and ensure...
Scotland's former first minister, Labour's Jack McConnell, is to quit Holyrood at next year's Holyrood election. The MSP for Motherwell and Wishaw and life peer said it had been "the greatest privilege" to have served as an elected member since the parliament was established in 1999. Jack McConnell was recently made a life peer, taking the title Lord McConnell of Glenscorrodale. This announcement today will end the speculation that Jack was considering a return as Scottish Labour leader following next May's election. As recently as May when he was made the life peer the questions of whether he would re-stand ...
Otchen horosho.Hat-to: Hit and Run
I'm pleased to see Lib Dems like Roger Williams raising huge question marks over the government using Philip Green as an advisor:Roger Williams, Lib Dem MP for Brecon and Radnorshire, said that while Green was "very capable", the reports of his tax arrangements should be "looked at" by HMRC and the Treasury."We are very keen that artificial arrangements are minimised," he told the Guardian today.
The City Council's Adult Learning Team is holding an Open Day on Wednesday 8th September at the Mitchell Street Centre. Further details below :
I went demob happy and had beer beer and more beer when I finished work because I'm not at work again until Wednesday next week! YAY! In other news, the pod delusuion with my piece about teenagers is up and available for download: click here to get it. Byron's wound is healing good, and both doggies are taking their pills. Night night.
The press notice from the Electoral Reform Society says: Katie Ghose has served for 5 years as Director of the British Institute of Human Rights, a national charity with a mission to bring rights to life for everyone in the UK. A public affairs specialist and barrister with a background in human rights law and immigration, she served as a Commissioner on the Independent Asylum Commission from 2006-2008, where she helped to conduct the biggest ever indepedent review of the UK asylum system. She has worked in campaigns for several third sector organisations including Age UK (then Age Concern England ...
A couple of issues with the Thomson Street road closure that started earlier this week have been brought to my attention by residents : * The length of the road closure - Residents have asked why the closure length is so long at any given time (about 100 metres) when not all of that length is being worked on. The City Council has advised me : "The contractor is trying to balance the inconvenience to residents with completing work as swiftly as possible, hence barriering of the whole 100m sections to avoid any delay in moving parked cars or tracking ...
London setting with wide-spread use of genuine locations. Lovely turns of phrase, such as Arthur Bryant looking "like a jumble sale on a stick". Works round typical writing artefacts neatly, e.g. by having a character very drunk to explain why he doesn't say all he knows
LGBT Labour are claiming that the Coalition Government is going to scrap the international Human Rights Report. This story's been going around the Internet and the lower-quality papers for some days. It ties in with the narrative that the Government are cutting important things. However, it doesn't appear to be true – the article itself ...
A press release reaches me from America. It is headed: Coast Guard Auxiliary Leaders Meet in Arizona Desert Which recalls this exchange from Casablanca: Captain Renault: What in heaven's name brought you to Casablanca? Rick: My health. I came to Casablanca for the waters. Captain Renault: The waters? What waters? We're in the desert. Rick: I was misinformed.
The Ludlow & Tenbury Wells Advertiser reports that a Ludlow cat lover is warning owners to take care when treating their animals for fleas after almost losing two Bengal cats after a routine treatment for wrong. Her name? Jennifer Leyton-Purrier
Blogging has been light here simply because it's silly season and there's little worthy of comment, and anyway it's hard to comment much on politics when you're hamstrung by both stasis and the fact that your party's leadership is behaving more-or-less Johnny opposite to you on many key points; "progressive budget", my arse. Add to that the fact that Bradford (and Halifax!) await Saturday's invasion by hundreds of shouty, lagered-up neanderthals and you can see why there's a little apprehension in the air around this part of the world, even though I'm a good four miles away from where any ...
This years Lions of Bath is proving as popular as the Bladud Pigs 2 years ago. Then we had two pigs - one painted by boys from Culverhay and one by the youth group at Southside. This time we have one artist - Leroy Harding - from Haycombe Drive. We are delighted that we were able to help Leroy on this project and find him his sponsor. Many thanks to London and Country Mortgages
As most of my regular readers know, I am about to move house. This will be one of the last few blog posts for a while, whilst I wait for connections to be restored at the new house. Today has ... Continue reading →
Parents of Culverhay have got together and created a website for the campaign and also an on-line petition. The website is still being developed but can be seen at THIS LINK The on-line petition is available for people to sign at THIS LINK Please sign the petition and help stop the Council's Cabinet making this deeply flawed decision.
Joe Scofield, the Friends of Roundhill and teh St Barnabus Cubs are planning a Kite making evening on the Roundhill in September. Possible dates are Mondays 13, 20 and 27. Keep a check on the Friends website for firm details. Story from Joe Today I made a proto-type of the design that I picked and flew it over the Brickfields. It's stronger than I thought and...
Changes, the Community Holding Team that has emerged in Whiteway that is made up of project leaders who are developing projects ranging from music and the arts to the environment have organised their first major fundraiser in Rosewarn Field, Whiteway. The event is planned for the 30 August, Bank Holiday Monday between 12 and 4. The event will also host a planning for real style...
There's a pretty terrible piece on Lib Dem Voice that essentially argues that because FPTP is biased towards the winning party, the Labour Party does not enjoy an advantage courtesy from the current constituency boundaries. Which is nonsense. But the stats do lead to a graph that suggests a few interesting things. The "fairness ratio" is based on the assumption that if, say, the winning party averaged only 90,000 votes per seat won while the 2nd party required 100,000 seats per seat, then they received an unfair advantage of 90 / 100 = 0.9 fairness ratio. A nice simple concept ...
At last. The formal advert for cycle contra flows has been placed for this financial years planned work. This was agreed with Cllr Paul Kyriacou when he was the exec cllr in charge before the local elections - not long until they're installed either parts or all of: Balfour Street Munton Road Bermondsey Street Chapter Road Druid Street Guy Street Highshore Road Kipling Street Melford Road Silvester Street Stoney Street Swan Street Winchester Walk These contra flows will really help make Southwark easier for cyclists to get around. It also gives no excuse at these locations to cycle on the ...
So, finally, we've got to the Big One, the Grand Prix, the Cordon Jaune: the Liberal Democrat Blog of the Year. There are lots of fantastic Lib Dem Blogs out there, but my suggestions for the shortlist are in my opinion the pick of the bunch. They all have different strengths, specialities and reasons to love them. First up, the best blogging elephant in the history of the world's very fluffy diary. Key strengths: strategic capitalisation and making up funny nicknames for people; explaining things about tax and the economy in a way that's not only comprehensible, but interesting; taking ...
Eric Pickles who is the Communities Secretary keeps on coming up with ideas that I'm quite liking. Of course how can I not like someone who causes Bracknell Council leader Councillor Paul Bettison to run to the defence of Bracknells Bi Weekly bin policy. He want local authorities to have more power (see his speech at the Local Government Association annual conference. He attacked councils for creating. He's pledges to cut 'bloated' council pay. And now he wants the number of unnecessary signs to be reduced and improved Frankly I'm shocked at how quickly Eric Pickles is getting on with ...
Bob Katter of the Three Haystack Amigos - Big tent or Big hat? Well, that's the way I read the situation in Australia. The (Non)Liberals have 72, so do Labour. There's one Green and the three "Haystack Amigos" (Independents). There's one seat left to declare, which is too close to call. So, assuming the worst case for Gillard – i.e. that she loses the last seat to declare – she'll still be equal with the Liberals when you count in the Green, who will align with her. So it's down to the Three Haystack Amigos, one of whom, Bob Katter ...
Today is my 22nd wedding anniversary, another year my long suffering husband has put up with me. Tonight we are going out for dinner, I think to Wagamama. We met just before Kylie released her first single (I should be so lucky), when Den and Angie were still in EastEnders, when petrol cost £1.70 a gallon (there are places on the internet that actually tell you that) and when the Liberals and the SDP were still separate parties - and the SDP were just about to get Robert Maclennan as leader. These years have passed very quickly............ Anyway, I was ...
[IMG: aids ribbon Pictures, Images and Photos] "If the responsibility for prevention is put entirely upon women and HIV-positive people, we are not recognising the combined responsibility of two people." These words were spoken at the end of the trail of German pop star Nadja Benaissa, who was not given up to ten years in jail for having unprotected sex while HIV positive. She had sex with three men after she became affected at the age of 17 eleven years ago. The words of Ms Rademacher of Deutsche AIDS-Hilfe remind us as well as the Germans that the responsibility for ...
For those of our readers who do not regularly read Lib Dem Voice you maybe interested in a posting there by Southport MP John Pugh . I don't know if it is the stimulus of the coalition or the significant increase in his majority but John certainly seems fired up in this parliament as readers who recall his amendments on the Academies Bill will testify.
As readers will know this time last week the Disgruntled Radical and I were plying our way along the Ashby Canal. We got as far as the supposed site of the Battle of Bosworth (who knows where it was fought?) The canal never reached its objective of linking Ashby de la Zouch to the network and stopped at Moira. Mining subsidence forced the section between Donisthorpe and Moira to close in 1944 and second section closed in 1957 down as far as Illott Wharf, south of Measham. In 1966 local residents and anglers and waterway enthusiasts unsuccessfully protested against the ...
We're almost there with BOTY nomination suggestions. The penultimate category is best non Liberal Democrat politics blog. I am going to repeat last year's nomination, which actually made the shortlist, of J Arthur MacNumpty, whose thoughts are ghost written by SNP activist Will Patterson. In 1000 years time, when the internet as we know it is seen as some ancient anachronism, Will's well written weekly analysis of the workings of the Scottish Parliament in the 21st century will be a valuable and probably unrivalled resource. He may not have much time for Liberal Democrats, but he is actually very liberal ...
The government is urging councils in England to cut unnecessary road signs, railings and advertising hoardings in a bid to make streets tidier and safer. Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said the number of signs was damaging the character of towns and villages. Mr Pickles said: "Our streets are losing their English character. We are being overrun by scruffy signs, bossy bollards, patchwork paving and railed off roads, wasting taxpayers' money that could be better spent on fixing potholes or keeping council tax down. We need to 'cut the clutter'." But Richard Kemp, the Liberal Democrat vice-chairman of the Local Government ...
The link is to that dreadful case in Manchester.It does appear that it would have been possible absent adoption targets to have kept the elder child with her birth mother.
Nick Clegg writes an excellent article in today's FT but I think he ought to quit while he's behind in this debate with the IFS. (The article is here and requires free registration to read) He makes two important points: If fairness was a simple matter of benefits and taxes, it would be easy to achieve. ...A bit of an own goal, that. If it's so easy, why didn't you achieve it in the first budget then ?! Imagine a workless couple living on £5,000 a year in benefits, currently categorised in the bottom decile. If we increase their benefits ...
I wholeheartedly welcome the Government's announcement today that they have asked councils to review street signs in a bid to improve safety and appearance of local streets. For too many years the amount of signage on our streets has grown and grown and seemingly as new guidelines are issues new signs are added. Signs never seem to be removed. They are unsightly and clearly spoil the appearance of our high streets, but worse than that in places the sheer number of signs in close proximity must undermine safety. After all as a motorist there is only so much you can ...
'Today, the assumption is that good order is a natural condition and can be taken for granted because 'nothing happens'. But 'nothing happens' is no accident... No one associates the full supermarket shelves, the availability of a range of other goods and the supply of fuels to power our homes, cars and industry with the free flow of sea trade... The free flow that makes globalised trade and the creation of prosperity possible depends prominently upon the presence of naval units at sea, unseen and silent and therefore easily forgotten,' - Blackham and Prins (quoted by the RUSI) Many people ...
Liberal England: In which I find Jonathan Meades's Severn Heaven Liberal England has a very interesting post on cotter's homes or plotlands. Colin Ward wrote a passionate advocacy of this type of settlement in his book 'Cotters and Squatters' reviewed in the Independent here. The type of settlement Jonathan is talking about is also briefly featured in Winifred Holtby's novel South Riding in which a group of ex servicemen back from WW1 are trying to make a living in such a setting. South Riding is being televised by BBC1 later this yaer and it will interesting to see whether the ...
I spent this morning at a photo call in Liberton Cemetery. We have for a long time had a problem with gravestones in our cemeteries. Many older stones had keeled over or have been in danger of doing so prompting the council to lay them flat in order to make them safe. You can imagine that this would be very upsetting for the relatives of people lying in the cemeteries. The council simply do not have the money to re-erect the 9483 stones we had n this condition.A local Liberton resident then had the bright idea of involving the criminal ...
Pam King and I are continuing to look into the smells coming from Longley Lane tip in the last few weeks. We thought the problem had been cracked last year when a new building was put up to hold green waste, along with odour suppresant sprays. Right now Viridor Waste, the company that runs the site, are not admitting to any odour problems at any time - well, from my back garden I can spot the problems. We'll continue working with the Council and Viridor Waste to solve the issue.
So, a new era dawns! Not only with an unusual election result, but with a Queen's speech unusually peppered with political slogans and dumping blame on predecessors. Since this is the only transport we have into the immediate future, we must hope that it is not too uncomfortable a ride. And yes! It is a new era, isn't it? All party leaders have promised us an end to the hypocrisy, dishonesty, and dishonourable practices which sullied the reputations of our Members of Parliament latterly. One of the three main planks driving the coalition programme is fairness. Well, we shall see. ...
A solution focused approach seeks to find what is working at the moment and to amplify this. Here the Financial Times writes about the Lib Dems which is worth repeating: Yet despite the lack of polling lustre, it is a successful project the Lib Dems are participating in. Forging a coalition to deal with the ...
[IMG: Pulteney Bridge restrictions] I have today submitted an objection to the closure of Pulteney Bridge and intend to challenge any decision made in favour of doing so. The Public Realm & Movement Strategy is an excellent plan for our city centre, which many experts in and outside of the council have been working on for years. The closure of Pulteney Bridge to all vehicles is within this and is a measure which, in principal, I support. However, this plan for closure and consequent diversion of bus routes appears to be presented in isolated with no mitigation of its unintended ...
The relatively new stats feature on LJ rarely delivers much of interest, but I did notice something interesting around 3-4 August when traffic to my account doubled: I have to say that my posts on 3 and 4 August were not really sufficiently interesting to warrant that sort of attention, and my first thought was that perhaps a link to an old post - maybe, I flattered myself, the series on the Bloody Sunday report - had found their way onto some very populous but closed online community (a number of obvious possibilities occurred to me), and been widely shared ...
A good friend of mine, interviewed by the excellent Five Books site, on The Psychology of Terrorism.
Stonecross: the lack of school places in central St Albans has meant an increase in the number of people taking very small children from the Carlisle Avenue area to schools in Marshalswick. This involves crossing the Stonecross - a very complex junction. Highways officials have sureyed the area and spoken to schools and parents: they conclude that the best place to cross is at Harpenden Road ie not using the island. A crossing patrol is being advertised via local schools.
In my post, Liberalism and mutualism I asked what one should do to promote the ideas of Swart's mutualist philosophy, if you happen to support them, of course. Jock Coats responded by suggesting that it was time to undertake significant monetary reform along the lines of the Cobden Centre's campaign to return to honest money. The key to this would be to convince policymakers it is a move worth making. If the UK has honest, or sound, money then the argument goes that the boom and bust cycles would be significantly reduced and a virtuous economic cycle would be created. ...
[IMG: Liverpool City Council logo] If you take a look at this page on the Liverpool Council website, you'll see that the council is making available all the contact details for its councillors in one easy data file format - so that people can stick the data into a mailmerge or database and communicate with them all. Badly thought out blanket mailings are often the source of complaint from councillors (and elected politicians at other levels too) so it is a brave council that makes it easier for people to send mailings to all the councillors in this way. The ...
Knowsley people looking for information and advice on skin cancer and sun awareness can pop into the Cancer iVAN, which will be at the Halewood Centre on Friday August 27th, 10am-3pm. This iVAN session will focus on sun awareness, but staff can offer advice and support to people about any aspect of cancer and cancer prevention. No appointment is necessary and people can talk to one of the Cancer Information Specialists or a Cancer Specialist Nurse face-to-face. It's free and completely confidential. Getting sunburn just once every two years can triple the risk of melanoma, the most serious type of ...
Ok, readers, this one I'm handing over to you. There have been thousands of brilliant posts on Liberal Democrat blogs over the past year and to do a retrospective justice, I would have to have kept a record of them all, or at least go through my postings where I'v linked to good articles. Sorry, but I just don't have the time, so rather than direct your thoughts, I'm going to leave it to you to suggest any postings which have moved or inspired you in the comments and I will nominate them. If you want any pointers, you might ...
Earlier this month I highlighted how election posters in Australia, and other countries, feature close up head shots of candidates in a way that is almost completely unknown in the UK. Large head and shoulders photographs did, however, previously feature heavily in our election literature – on leaflets if not posters. For decades many leaflets look like this effort from Sir W Lacon Threlford who was standing for election as a City of London Alderman in 1935: [IMG: Lacon Threlford election leaflet] Pausing for a moment of sympathy for the clerical helpers who had to correct the polling hours on ...
Here are the dates for the Primary School cross country races this season. All the meetings start at 10am, at William Scholes Playing Fields, Gatley. The league is free to all schools. It's been in existence for 35 years and around 300 runners come to each race meeting. For more information contact Ian Burnett on 0161 485 2155 or email i.b.burnett@googlemail.com. Wilf Richards Memorial Primary School Cross-Country League Saturday 18th September 2010 Saturday 9th October 2010 Saturday 6th November 2010 Saturday 15th January 2011 Saturday 5th February 2011 (includes parents race at 10.30) Thursday 17th February 2011 - Walter Hesketh ...
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, writing in today's Financial Times (free registration required), champions the government's commitment to fairness and explains why he believes yesterday's IFS report is asking the wrong questions. Fairness is about every child getting the chance they deserve, regardless of their background. Poverty and deprivation matter enormously but fairness also demands that what counts is not the school you went to, the jobs your parents did, or the colour of your skin but your ability to move beyond the circumstances of your birth. ...there is a bigger problem with the [IFS] analysis: it measures the impact ...
[IMG: bbctourbus2] Finding myself sitting out on the Harbour Arm in Margate at 9:00 chatting about Margate regeneration is a bit of a surreal experience, the apparent casual relaxed manner of those professionals making the programme made participating relaxed and easy. Still whether I had anything worth saying or even made sense is up to those who listened, the chances are the you had better things to be doing between 9 and 10 yesterday still if you'd like to listen to the programme it will be available for a day or two here (my bit is in the final hour). ...
Recent news that drugs-related deaths in Wales have risen by 67% in three years puts the situation in Swansea into sharp perspective. Statistics from the International Centre for Drugs Policy show that 102 drugs-related deaths were recorded in Wales in 2009, compared to 69 in 2006. The position is particularly acute in Swansea where agencies have estimated that there are roughly 7,000 heroin users. However, despite that there are only 450 treatment places. An addict seeking treatment could wait 6 to 9 months to get a place. The truth is that the best way to get treated for drug addiction ...
My thanks to Bobballs, who has posted links to the statements made so far in the UUP leadership campaign. I've gone through them - it didn't take long - and my big conclusion is that I wish I had also done this for the SDLP leadership election a few months back. My secondary conclusion is that neither candidate seems terribly strong on substance, and on the evidence so far, the UUP led by either of them can look forward to more years of the same. My fisking of the two below: Tom Elliott's main piece so far is this article ...
As it is the summer silly season and journalists have huge amounts of newspaper and web space to fill it is inevitable that we will see speculation about the future of a number of Assembly Members as selection processes get underway. The Western Mail has already covered rumours and rumblings around the Plaid Cymru contest for their South Wales West list, a contest that has now got underway, and there is also a strong challenge to Janet Ryder in North Wales from Llyr Huws Griffiths and Heledd Fychan. All the attention however is firmly focussed on the Tory list selection ...
Thu 26th
09:00
The Electoral Commission are investigating the General Election result in Wolverhampton South West
A couple of weeks ago I pointed out that more votes appear to have been cast in the General Election in Wolverhampton South West than were issued -
No, I didn't think so either. Which makes the case of the Yes2AV.org domain name a little curious. Check the official records and you find that it is registered to Matthew Elliott, not the Australian cricketer but the man from the Taxpayers' Alliance who is going to head up the "no" campaign for the AV referendum. Also listed is on the registration is Andy Whitehouse, complete with his Taxpayers' Alliance email address. If you are campaigning for a "no", having a domain name with a "yes" just might cause some confusion, don't you think? Here's what the No2AV campaign said ...
[IMG: The Clouded Yellow] Staring Jean Simmons and Trevor Howard, The Clouded Yellow is an Alfred Hitchcock style thriller from 1950. An ex-spy, discharged after increasing age causes him to mess up a mission, takes a job cataloguing a butterfly collection and gets sucked into a murder mystery that hinges on the traumatic childhood of one of the main characters. The essentials of the plot (murder, people on the run, family angst) are commonly seen in many thrillers, but The Clouded Yellow is not only done with panache, it also has the refreshing change of being based in England rather ...
The first programme on The Jonathan Meades Collection DVD is Severn Heaven, which looks at the plotlands beside the Severn near Bewdley. (I can find no trace of it on Youtube, even at the MeadesShrine.) Plotlands? The London Grid for Learning Redbridge page explains: During the 1890's, agriculture declined because of a series of poor harvests and cheap grain imports from America. Fields were sold off to land agents, who auctioned them off as small plots. After the First World War, the British Government promised 'a land fit for heroes' and building one's own home in the countryside was encouraged. ...
Thu 26th
07:12
Want a cigarette snatched from your mouth by a council-supported flash mob? Come to Medway
Controversy hit Chatham this month as a guerilla teenage group known as 'Ciggy Busters' ran down Chatham High Street snatching cigarettes from smokers' mouths. Worringly this action seems not only to have been supported by the Police but also by Medway Council's Medway Public Health Directorate. The Ciggy Busters group is formed of Sixth form students from The Hundred of Hoo School They filmed the anti-smoking movie with their mentor, media artist Margherita Gramegna, in which they mobbed unsuspecting smokers and stole their cigarettes from their mouths. "I knew we could not really go and film in public and attack ...
Tory councillor David Craggs has sensationally resigned today - less than two weeks after winning the River ward by-election. In a statement to the press, Mr Craggs said: "People will know that I have served as a volunteer special constable on behalf of the people of Kent for the past 17 years, a role that I have held with pride. In the hope that I could expand my community service I stood as a councillor for Medway.'' "I did not believe there was any conflict between these roles and was unaware that police regulations prevent anyone from holding political office ...
i) births and deaths None that grabbed me. ii) Broadcast anniversary 26 August 1991: first broadcast of the so-called 'Pilot Eisode', the first mounting of 'An Unearthly Child' which was not shown in November 1963. iii) date specified in canon that I should have noted two days ago 24 August, 79 AD: Vesuvius erupts, destroying the city of Pompeii, as witnessed by the Seventh Doctor and Mel in Big Finish audio The Fires of Vulcan (2000), and by the Tenth Doctor and Donna in The Fires of Pompeii (2008).
Thu 26th
02:00
Day 3524: No, Captain Clegg is RIGHT; the Institute for Fiscal Studies HAVE gone nuts!
Wednesday: I really, really wanted to write about how we SHOULDN'T be attacking the IFS, because that is just such OLD politics. But then I tried READING their report. I am dismayed... no, I'm ANGRY that something this... ILLITERATE is being passed off as a serious piece of research. Worse, that it is FRIGHTENING people. Their accusation that the Budget is REGRESSIVE hinges on a KEY assertion: "...the top half of the income distribution gains on average as a result of increases to the income tax personal allowance and the employer NI threshold." But this sentence is JUST FLAT WRONG. ...
Sunderland Point was in the news a couple of days ago because a car was stuck on the causeway. The passengers were rescued by helicopter but in the past many drivers have been rescued by local boat owners. It is nice to know that helicopters are available, especially as Morecambe Bay is notorious for its dangerous tides but it made me wonder how we could avoid cars getting stuck. They have improved safety on the Ile de Ré causeway in France by building a bridge. Even before they built it they had a barrier on their road. It can't have ...
