While its only a few weeks since the 2010 Carnival, the preparations are under way for the 2011 Acocks Green Carnival. The organising committee are on the look out for keen and enthusiastic people to help with the many tasks necessary to make next year's Carnival a success. If you are interested in helping, please turn up to the next meeting of the committee, which is on Thursday 23rd September at Acocks Green Methodist Church, Shirley Road at 7pm. All offers of help will be welcome!
I don't swear for the total authenticity of this recipe, but it tastes good! 1kg beef shin, cut into 5 cm cubes 400ml red wine 200ml beef stock 2 cloves garlic, chopped 2 sprigs fresh thyme 1 bay leaf 300g shallots 250g cubed pancetta or unsmoked streaky bacon 150g button mushrooms Pre-heat the oven to 140°C (Gas 1, 275°F). ...
In one way, Tony Blair was the most brilliant politician the UK has ever had. That is the way in which, during his time, politicians became more anonymous and less in possession of character. He won three general elections, was Prime Minister for ten years - the fifth longest unbroken stretch of any Prime Minister - yet I always felt we never really knew him. He threw up a mask and has kept it to this day. In the case of his predecessors, Margaret Thatcher and John Major, whatever you thought of them, you knew the sort of people they ...
I know I'm a big softie, but when I read William Hague's unprecedented personal statement, I actually had a tear in my eye. It must have been really difficult for both him and Ffion to be so frank about their personal situation. I certainly don't have much time for him politically - he took the Tory Party into a very bad place on issues like immigration and fought a very nasty campaign in 2001. It's worth remembering that Charles Kennedy had the good sense not to pander to the Daily Fail lobby, hold his ground and kept to a liberal ...
Blogging is, in general a good thing. It gives people a voice, it bypasses the mainstream media, and in many cases it gets news out in to the open which in other cases would not be heard, for example, after the attempts by Trafigura to muzzle the mainstream press with injunctions or the case of Oligarchs trying to stop criticism of them. But today, the shortcomings of the one man blog was highlighted for all to see, in my opinion, today. One advantage that the main stream media has over bloggers is that there are sub-editors, lawyers, and people who ...
We have a cat. He's fifteen years old and has a lovely relaxed nature. He loves being fussed, and sunning himself. He's a lot slower now than he used to be, but even in the spring he was able to catch a bird in the garden, and until last year was fairly regularly bringing the ...
Rumours have been flying around the internet for weeks now about William Hague and his special advisor Chris Myers. I had considered blogging about it a week ago but decided otherwise because it just felt wrong to give a greater ... Continue reading →
I like this. The Mayor New York City, Michael Bloomberg has recently been plagued with questions about whether he will stand down. Now he has refreshingly answered those questions: At his Bronx Q and A, The Post's Dave Seifman asked if there were "any circumstances" under which he wouldn't finish his third – and hard-fought-for – term. "Yes," the mayor replied. "What are they?" asked Seifman. "If I died," Bloomberg said.
At a cost of £78,000, Cornwall Council has today published the news that an expert report has proposed that there should be a 'Stadium for Cornwall' built in either Truro or Threemilestone. Yet the Council has yet to publish any evidence that a stadium for Cornwall is needed or would be anything other than a white elephant. Some of my colleagues have blogged asking why the stadium should be in Truro, rather than Bodmin or elsewhere in Cornwall. They have a point. Truro is not on the main A30 and simply being in the middle of the population doesn't seem ...
From Political Wire: Though a majority of Alaskan Republicans still like Sarah Palin, a new Public Policy Polling survey shows she can't count on a whole lot of support back home if she runs for president in 2012. Key findings: 62% of Alaska Republicans are opposed to her making a White House bid and she gets only 17% in a hypothetical 2012 primary in the state tying for her second with Mike Huckabee behind Mitt Romney.
On a day when even Tony Blair's autobiography has been forced from the top of the news bulletins by the William Hague story, it seems that no other political subject could possibly make the headlines. Yet there is one story which should do. It is the New York Times story on the involvement of Andy Coulson in the royal phone tapping scandal. At the time, Coulson was editor of the News of the World and denied any knowledge of the phone tapping by the paper's royal reporter Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire. Yet he resigned anyway and went ...
So, Total Politics are starting to drip feed the results of this year's Total Politics Best Blog lists and today was the turn of the Top 50 Scottish Blogs. There are 23 new entries, just 8 blogs went up from last years position (including mine), 2 stayed where they were from last year including Tom Harris MP who retains the top spot and 17 slipped down the pile. So, thank you to everyone who voted for my little blog. Congratulations to Tom Harris for holding the top spot, Caron Lindsay for moving up to 4th position, Stephen Glenn for finally ...
This post has taken me a good few hours to finish. I've actually toned it down a lot on re-reading, all of which wasn't doing my blood-pressure any good I guess. Trying to be as objective as possible when I'm this close to the subject has been hard. So I decided to screw on my journalistic head (just like Wurzel Gummage if he had one) as much as I could. I may have only been back in Northern Ireland for only 10 days but I've already learnt a lot in my few short days back here. First a personal observation, ...
Today was the first meeting of the new Culture Board for Cornwall, followed by a consultation event about the new Culture Green Paper. I've been appointed by the Council's scrutiny committee to attend meetings of the Board and to report back. My role is not to play a part in decision making, but I don't see it as meekly watching from the sidelines either. I will be asking questions (sometimes difficult ones) and challenging assumptions in order to make sure that the new Board (which is an excellent idea by the way) really takes the lead. The members of the ...
Clun's church is situated on a rise of ground on the English side of the river. It looks as though it was built so that it could be defended if the Welsh cut up rough. The original Saxon settlement was here too and probably for the same reason. Later a new town was laid out in the shadow of Clun Castle on the other side of the river and the parish was moved from Wales into Shropshire. This is the reason why, when you look at a map of the border today, Clun Forest just out into Wales You will ...
My Voice colleague Iain Roberts has already blogged about this afternoon's big political news that William Hague's special advisor Christopher Myers has quit his post following allegations — vehemently denied by both — that they might be having an affair. Iain writes: "We at Lib Dem Voice wish both the Hagues and Christopher Myers well," and I agree 100%. However, there are two further points I'd make. The questions were fair enough... Paul Staines blogged about the issue on 24th August, using the Freedom of Information Act to ask three questions inquiring as to the suitability of Mr Myers acting ...
My Voice colleague Iain Roberts has already blogged about this afternoon's big political news that William Hague's special advisor Christopher Myers has quit his post following allegations — vehemently denied by both — that they might be having an affair. Iain writes: "We at Lib Dem Voice wish both the Hagues and Christopher Myers well," and I agree 100%. However, there are two further points I'd make. The questions were fair enough... Paul Staines blogged about the issue on 24th August, using the Freedom of Information Act to ask three questions inquiring as to the suitability of Mr Myers acting ...
So, Tony Blair doesn't like bloggers. He quite contemptuously dismissed people who write blogs as non-representative of the views of the population as a whole. Instead, he claimed he had a direct link with the people and knew exactly what they thought. He was equally dismissive of journalists. Andrew Marr had to remind him that intermediaries - the media, in all its professional and amateur forms - necessarily stood between the PM and the people. This exemplifies a problem that is a real one for everyone in public life. Politicians inevitably come under attack, and in order to maintain their ...
Well, such is the drift of an otherwise inscrutable performance by James May on the Simon Mayo show here at 1:05. If you've ever wondered how to fly a A330 (I thought that was a road near Birmingham) there is some clue in the clip.
Well, he's been leading up to it for a long time but this time Guido has really shown his true colours for all to see.... Let's step back a bit – as they say. One of the "life skills" which I have acquired is living through (a) losing a child and (b) ten years of trying for children. These are the sort of "life skills" which make one a "grown up". Making cheap shots at someone in a general fog of homophobia does not make one a "grown up". It is valid to question the appointment of an alleged friend ...
In fact I told you so back in December 2008, simply by quoting the Guardian. So why has the BBC been spending money trying to keep a secret that was told long ago?
I managed to get to most of three days of the Discworld Convention in Birmingham last weekend; it was great fun as I expected. The headline for me was that Terry Pratchett himself is looking and sounding very well. I saw him speak at the opening ceremony on Friday and the "Man in the Hat" interview on Saturday, and my friend D won the draw to meet him in a klatsch and reported that he was just as lucid in a group conversation. Long may he continue. The striking visual thing about the con was the number of people in ...
It is striking that David Miliband is trying hard to play down his former closeness to Tony Blair, but no one holds his brother or Ed Balls's closeness to Gordon Brown against them. This suggests two things. The first is that Blair has become the new Harold Wilson: someone who won multiple general elections for Labour but has now been written out of Labour's history. The second is that Labour clearly has little idea of what it has to do to regain an appeal to the wider electorate.
The link is to an English Translation in the german newspaper Der Spiegel. They are talking about Peak Oil being around nowish. (Although on a geological scale even a thousand years from now would be around nowish).
Guido Fawkes ran a story yesterday, Exclusive: Hague Shared Night in Hotel Bedroom with SpAd on his blog just yesterday. Hours later Guido then ran this follow up story, FCO Says Hague/Myers Relationship Professional. Then first thing this morning Iain Dale posted this story on his blog, Guido Fawkes Should Cease & Desist. I wasn't going to say anything about this for fear of breathing new life into the story, but I can't stay silent any longer. However, I'll keep it brief. The campaign against William Hague on the Guido Fawkes blog is nothing short of reprehensible. The lies, smears ...
Allegations have recently been posted on Paul Staines' blog Order Order (where he blogs under the pseudonym Guido Fawkes) about a relationship between William Hague and one of his special advisors, Christopher Myers. These allegations have led to Myers resigning from his post and to the Hague's releasing a full and frank statement which include revalations they would, I'm sure, have rather remained private about the problems they've had in their attempts to start a family. The allegations have been categorically denied by William Hague. We at Lib Dem Voice wish both the Hagues and Christopher Myers well. Claims are ...
At last, a proper news story. From the Leicester Mercury: A motorist was stopped in his tracks when he saw what he believes was a panther bounding across the road. Solar panel fitter Pete Base was driving past Greetham Valley Golf Club, in Rutland, when he spotted the animal about 100 yards in front of him. It is the first big cat sighting in Rutland for several months. The Mercury quotes a "big cat investigator" as saying: "There was another sighting at Drayton, near Medbourne, two weeks ago when one bounded across in front of a woman on a path.Drayton ...
I've just returned from a Neighbourhood Partnership meeting where the news is that crime in Gorton is down, by over 50% in terms of some crimes. The police and other agencies have put a lot of work into identifying risks and taking proactive action to prevent crime. Although Gorton is far from crime-free, that's still a great acheivement for all involved. Well done to all concerned.
William Hague is in some ways a pretty strange guy. Think teenage speeches, baseball caps and 14 pints. He's also an obviously highly talented man, with intelligence and wit. Many years ago, I met him in a work context and he was utterly charming. Had he been able to wait a few more years before ...
It's been a while since I last updated my blog- but we're back to work after the sumer recess - and I have a new mode of transport for the month of September! For some time now I have been trying to get a better bus service for Caldectote where I live. For those who are fit, healthy, energetic and able to walk a mile or two to the top of the village, there is the Citi 4 service in to the City. However, if you have to walk more than a mile (and many in the heart of the ...
As part of an ongoing attempt to put my online world into some sort of order I have today refreshed the website for my company, Grit & Oyster Limited. This website hadn't been properly updated for quite a while. So it needed to be changed to reflect the current status of the business, given a more attractive look, and to be brought into line with current internet standards. I also wanted to move it to WordPress as its platform for content management. This was not only to reflect the fact that a large part of the work I am doing ...
Today I tweeted this "@GuidoFawkes Disgusting you & the press have lost a man his job, caused family heartache & have committed a big error @iaindale was right" (see Guido Fawkes Should Cease & Desist). This was in response to Christopher Myers resigns from the FCO, citing "untrue and malicious allegations" with William Hague. See Guy Fawkes Blog Exclusive : Hague Shared Night in Hotel Bedroom with SpAd. This type of story where the media and/or bloggers try to out someone for being gay and therefore cheating on their wife because two men share the same room (yep I have ...
It is indeed that time of year again. Total politics are currently in the middle of announcing the list of the Top Political Blogs for 2010. Today it was the turn of one of the categories for which I am eligible that of the Top Scottish blog. For the past two years I have actually finished in eleventh place in Scotland on both occasions. This year however I am into the top ten at number 7, the spot held last year by my dear friend Caron, she has climbed to number 4. My spot for the last 2 years was ...
This is a guest cross-post by Tim Davies – originally posted on the Political Innovation site: The communication revolution that we've undergone in recent years has two big impacts: It changes what's possible. It makes creating networks between people across organisations easier; it opens new ways for communication between citizens and state; it gives everyone who wants it a platform for global communication; and it makes it possible to discover local online dialogue. It changes citizen expectations of government. When I can follow news from my neighbour's blog on my phone, why can't I get updates on local services on ...
Something interesting landed in my E-Mail today: a complaint about illegal file sharing via Bittorrent. In itself, that's hardly remarkable. We get over a hundred most months and because we go so many, most are just automatically forwarded on to the customer without any comment or action. Most are one-offs but I've previously estimated about 34,000 people could be affected by the Digital Economy Act because of repeated allegations. This one wasn't well formatted though, so needed a human to look at it. It's regarding, from what I can tell, some sort of specialist computer aided design package. I'm really ...
It's good to see that headline, even cloistered, as it is, in the august environs of the FT, behind a free registration wall. Cleggie deserves a boost. He's doing a good job. And it's good to see such prominence being given to a humble LibDem Voice forum survey, in which I took part. But our national poll rating has halved, so why are members not up in arms? Well, firstly, I think there is a masochistic strand within the DNA of LibDems. We enjoy the occasional purging which comes with low poll ratings. We all thoroughly enjoy remembering when we ...
Dear Colleague, I expect that you will have read or seen the media coverage over the Bank holiday weekend about NHS Direct. I wanted to write promptly to you to correct any misleading impression that this may have created that NHS Direct as an organisation is being closed down. This is not what the Government has said, nor is it their intention. The Government has confirmed that the 0845 46 47
Joined with a group of residents on Moorland Road on Bank Holiday Monday to protest about the latest planning application to turn a shop into an office. Moorland Road already has too many estate agents and offices. It needs to keep to its retail classification.
I remain bewildered by the Right's conviction that AV will make it more difficult to remove a government and that this somehow counts against AV. The comments on this IEA piece are rather indicative. I suspect that this is going to be the main thrust of the No2AV campaign; not least the statements from the ...
So Tony Blair's book has finally been published. I have very much enjoyed reading the tweets about the book and as far as I can tell so far, there is too much information about him and Cherie, he doesn't think too much of Gordon (shocker), and he feels for those who fought for Iraq. I am holding off reading it for a while because even looking at pictures of him still makes me angry, and suspect that I may have a few issues with what he has written. I shall just make a donation directly to the British Legion and ...
The Member of Parliament for Redcar, Ian Swales, will be joining a fundraising bike ride on Saturday 4th September. The event is one of around 50 'Fresh Air Miles' events taking place across the country to celebrate 15 years of the National Cycle Network. The event is being hosted by leading UK charity Sustrans who help people to make smarter, healthier, cleaner and cheaper travel choices.Sustrans work with families, communities and partner organisations so that people really do have options. Ian Swales will be joining Philip Chisholm who is Sustrans' volunteer liaison ranger in Redcar on the bike ride.It will ...
On the day that Mister Tony's Erinnerungen finally hits the bookshops, as we've been constantly reminded on the news all day, it's depressing yet altogether unsurprising to see that the Mirror, which still carries some clout among traditional Labour voters, has decided to endorse the deeply uninspiring David Miliband as the new Labour/New Labour leader. Is it too much to ask that they pick someone who might just offer a glimmer of hope that they won't be in hock to the military-industrial complex, the corporations, and the banks? I thought the clue might have been in the party's name, but ...
No, I haven't read Tony Blair's A Journey yet (though it should be waiting for me at home). I haven't even had time to read more than a handful of the preview articles, such as The Guardian's trailer. With that confesion of near-total ignorance of A Journey established, I think there are three points worth making... 1. It's an Event. The decision that Mr Blair's book would not be serialised (apparently modelled on the strategy for Alastair Campbell's diaries) has made publication day much more of an Event-with-a-capital-E, the political anoraks' equivalent of a release of a new Harry Potter. ...
[IMG: http://www.wikio.co.uk] May be this is just a story to plug his new book but... There have been some odd mutterings from Tony Blair today. He practically admits the failing of the last Labour Government: i.e. they failed to tackle the deficit, they failed to reform welfare and they failed to reform the NHS. In the Telegraph he practically stabs his friends in the back saying of Brown: Political calculation, yes. Political feelings, no. Analytical intelligence, absolutely. Emotional intelligence, zero Blair goes on to state that the Tories and Lib Dems have come together to deal with Labour's legacy, and ...
...racing driver Ben Collins apparently. Picture courtesy of The Telegraph The High Court has this afternoon overturned the BBC's request to not publish Mr Collins' autobiography, in which he claims to be the mysterious Top Gear driver. The producers of Top Gear argued that by revealing the Bristol born Ben Collin's identity, the aura that is so key to The Stig's brand has been removed. It is quite an interesting case, in that presumably Ben Collins wanted to defy his employers at the BBC and publish his book, or he would not have written it or agreed to a publishing ...
There was an interesting little piece in the Guardian few days ago suggesting that local authorities could save £51 million by moving some council employees to Open Office* and ODF**, and away from Microsoft Office and their document format, with the total savings rocketing to £200 million if every council employee in the country moved over. This sensible proposal came from Cllr Liam Maxwell who's reponsible for IT in the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead, and I'm sure Cllr Maxwell would be the first to acknowledge it's not a new suggestion. The office suite – as a commodity piece ...
When bloggers meet, I often find that old allegiances (be they left right, or Unionist/Republican often dissolve into a different political spilt. Those of us who imagine that we 'get' the read-write web against the political colleagues that we have who, we believe, fail to foresee the possibilities or the threats. I've occasionally witnessed left-right-and-centrist bloggers in (non) violent agreement with each other - not about political direction, but about what is possible in harnessing the power of the web. About how a more effective participative political culture can bring about a range of subtle changes - to reverse the ...
Recommended reading for Lib Dem councillors and local campaigners from the last seven days or so in the media: Aside from the Labour Leadership contest, the main political stories over the weekend focussed on: - debate on the future of NHS Direct, and its replacement by the 111 number. Here's how libdemvoice reported on the our minister Paul Burstow reassuring us that New 111 service will be better than NHS Direct. Here's the original story in the Guardian. - Chief Secretary Danny Alexander's statement on taxation. Here's Danny's interview in the Guardian; here's a rather critical editorial from The Telegraph.... ...
Originally posted at 04:18. Now updated with new information which in my humble opinion makes this vitally important and potentially a coalition deal breaker. Yesterday on my way to Liberal Drinks in Belfast I read a story that really got me seething, sadly I couldn't get signal on the train or it would already have been written up. Apparently the coalition government has used its European opt-out not to sign up to a directive that includes a common definition of trafficking which makes it easier to convict people across the 27 member states. Dennis McShane is up in arms about ...
Nominations open today for a series of positions within the machinery of the Liberal Democrats today, as follows; President Federal Executive (15 positions) Federal Policy Committee (15 positions) Federal Conference Committee (12 positions) International Relations Committee (5 minutes) There are, in addition, two more esoteric elections taking place; Interim Peers Top-Up List (15 positions) ELDR Delegation (8 positions) I have, in a spirit of openness, requested two nomination forms from the Returning Officer, and given that the election count is due to take place on my birthday, I may have more reason than usual to celebrate. These elections are more ...
Fans of the alternative vote system would do well to look at the result of the Australian election. Australia and Fiji are the only two countries in the world to use AV. The two main parties got about 80% of the vote. A record* 2 million+ people voted for minor parties, that's around 17% – a 50% increase of the number of people not voting for the big two. And the result? Well the two main parties got 145 seats and the minor parties 5. Now at this point defenders of AV will be saying "yes we know AV isn't ...
As regular readers will know the Electoral Commission are investigating the General Election result in Wolverhampton South West after I pointed out that more votes were cast in the General Election in Wolverhampton South West than were issued - (also see
Just testing whether it's now possible to crosspost DW -> LJ -> Twitter all in one go... ETA: ... to which the answer is yes. Okay, I'm done with testing now - as you were. This entry was cross-posted from Dreamwidth, where there are currently [IMG: comment count unavailable] comment(s). View DW comment(s).
[IMG: Financial Times report on Lib Dem Voice survey] So starts today's write up in the Financial Times of the latest Liberal Democrat Voice survey of party members. It's a reflection of the media's current deep interest in talks of splits or absence thereof that the FT should have given a long page 2 column to the story no less. Full details of this survey and all the previous ones are over on Liberal Democrat Voice. The FT's story will at some point move behind its paywall, but here are the views Stephen and I express in the piece about ...
Looks like it may only work with default security set to public... ETA: Yup, that was it. Now I need to decide whether it's worth changing that setting. I will not be crossposting my comments, btw, so the entries and journals you don't want all of Twitter/FB to know about are safe from me.
Just testing LJ cross-posting to Twitter. Nothing to see here, move along.
I returned home last night to discover that my new wife had nearly had her head chopped off by the door to our loft, which had mysteriously swung open as she walked underneath. Spousal decapitation would have been a sad end to the day, although on the plus side, my mortgage would have been paid off. She escaped with merely a grazed neck, and my disappointment in having to do some emergency DIY was only compounded when I opened my post to discover the new issue of "Intelligent Life," the lifestyle magazine I get with my subscription to the Economist. ...
Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of a variety of key issues, and what you make of the Lib Dems' and Government's performance to date. Almost 600 party members have responded, and we're currently publishing the full results of our survey. Today we're looking at a trio of questions relating to how the Lib Dems and the Coalition will govern in the next few years. First up, we asked: Do you agree – yes or no – with the following statement: The Coalition is implementing a significant part of the Lib ...
Yesterday, Twitter disabled the basic username/password authentication for client applications. This is a move toward greater security but it did mean that anyone using Gwibber will suddenly have found that their Twitter stream stopped updating. A mere matter of hours later and an updated version of Gwibber has been pushed out that supports the new "OAuth" method. People using openSUSE have two options to get hold of a fixed version. The first is to follow the relevant links on the openSUSE wiki entry for Gwibber and grab the version from GNOME:Apps. I just sent an update request for this package ...
TED talks ... about Orgasms
Many people who I have worked with in politics over the years, and readers of my old blog, will know of my slight obsession with process and organisational structures. The simple, but often overlooked, fact that the processes by which organisations make decisions has a direct impact on the quality of those decisions and thus determines how well that organisation achieves the outcomes it has set for itself is something I am always keen to remind people of. So I was interested to spot this in the coverage of the extracts from Tony Blair's memoir; 'Blair writes of his earlier ...
With direct Israeli/Palestinian talks set to begin in Washington, I was pleased to read this cautiously optimistic article by Martin Indyk in the New York Times. I heard Martin Indyk speak at last year's conference of J Street, an organisation which has much to commend itself to all Lib Dems with an interest in Israel/Palestine. It can be difficult to summon up much optimism for the Israel/Palestine peace process, especially in light of yesterday's tragic news from Hebron - and anyone whose politics prevents them from seeing this incident as tragic needs to examine their consciences. There is no valid ...
To be frank I am not inclined to buy or read Tony Blair's book. That is not to say that I am not interested in what is in there, just that I have a lot of other books to read first and I doubt if I will ever get around to it. Nick Robinson gives us a flavour on his blog. However, as he says Blair just confirms what had been speculated about in the first place, specifically: • Tony Blair blamed Gordon Brown for starting the cash for honours row which led to the first ever police investigation into ...
It's been a long time since I've been the healthiest in this house. We all have a nasty bug which involves misery in the stomach, throat and chest departments, but I seem to have got off lightest. Bob is utterly miserable and has a nasty cough which sounds a bit like there's a tubercular bull up the stairs. Anna is lying on the sofa, actually more miserable, congested, sore and washed out than she was yesterday. I was amused by her certainty that the fact that her throat sometimes isn't quite as painful is down to hot chocolate and not ...
It looks like the Gothic pub near Gatley Green has closed - for now at least. I don't have any firm information on why, and I don't know if it's likely to re-open as a pub. Gothic's closure follows on from that of the Red Lion a few months back and leaves three pubs in Gatley - the Prince of Wales, the Horse and Farrier and the High Grove on Silverdale Road.
There is a horrible way to have proportional representation in single member constituencies. Instead of counting the votes cast, draw one at random. That candidate is elected. The more votes a candidate receives, the greater the probability of them being elected. At a constituency level, this is very unfair to the individual politicians, particularly those who don't get elected despite being the most popular. However on a national scale across all the different constituencies, the law of large numbers means the net result will tend towards one that closely represents the will of the people. There are no wasted votes ...
As the political world starts its rather leisurely return to school, thoughts in the devolved parts of the country return once again to the problems of multiple referendums and elections on the same day in May 2011. And as Betsan Powys raises the very good question as to which of the various polls will be counted first, I'd like to pose one of my own. Why do we keep forgetting Northern Ireland? It may have escaped our notice, but their devolved government has (perhaps most miraculously of all) survived its four years and will be due elections in May 2011 ...
For a few weeks we've had on-off smells around the north west corner of Gatley (Altrincham Road, Lorna Grove, Dingle Grove, Frances Avenue, Green Walk and other roads in that area). Before last September when we had those smells, it was always a problem at Longley Lane tip with the green waste. They then built an enclosed building for the green waste on the other side of the site, with odour suppresant, which looked to have cracked the problem. Pam has been investigating these new odour issues, and the people at Longley Lane tip have been saying that they check ...
The gas works and the 'temporary' removal of the pedestrian phase at the junction of Lordship Lane with Barry Road junction (where Dulwich Library is) and vehicles, due to temporary lights, driving on the opposite side of the road causes me very real fear. This is exactly the scenario we had over at Peckham Rye/East Dulwich Road junction where a young school girl tragically died crushed by a lorry while trying to navigate the temporary situation on her way to school. Is everything being done to speed these works through? Can a temporary lolly pop person be assigned to help ...
Last August, the then Labour government commissioned a KPMG report into the future of NHS Direct (along with some other related NHS services). The report has been submitted to the current government, though not published. So if Labour MPs and members were saying how the government must publish the KPMG report right away to see if it justifies the plans to migrate NHS Direct over to the planned 111 service, fair enough. But for many in Labour to be demanding that the NHS Direct plans be abandoned without knowing the outcome of the KPMG report is tantamount to saying, "Who ...
But now? The news that MySpace is letting its users synch their status updates with Facebook is just a small curio.
Following on from the last blog post it isn't just women and children who are the victims of sex-trafficking. In Spain they have broken a male sex prostitution ring. Apparently 60 - 80 Brazilian men were given a travel bag and airline ticket to Europe (often flying into Schengen, Luxembourg before being moved to Spain. Once there they were under threat to pay back their flight expenses and kept in brothels and given cocaine, poppers and viagra and put to work as male prostitutes. To pay back their fees of over €4000 on top of daily expenses of up to ...
Mercury music prize nominees, Foals, are set to headline an electric and eclectic line-up at Freedom Gardens during this year's live music, dance and arts festival, Freedom, Friday 10th and Saturday 11th September. The Oxford quintet will top the bill on the Freedom Stage which will be based at the Hull College end of the gardens and covered by a large canopy structure. Foals will close a full festival programme in Freedom Gardens which includes dance spectaculars and the very best local and alternative bands running across two stages on Saturday 11th September from 11.45am. A further third stage - ...
I wish it were more broadly appreciated that respect for human rights has very positive economic benefits. Perhaps conservative thinkers would then shift from the default position of seeing them as an expensive indulgence. There are national security benefits too, but that's for a different post. Author and commentator John Kay argues against the inclusion of internet access as a human right (FT. com – registration required). This is in response to a BBC poll that finds 79% of the UK in favour. His objection is one of cost. In other words, he makes a mistake that many others do, ...
They do take fish quite seriously in Canada. On the East Coast, the decimation of cod stocks wiped out the Newfoundland fishing industry, leaving a shadow of a trade which employed thousands. On the West Coast, it's all about salmon. Last year, the number of salmon returning to spawn in the Fraser River system was at its lowest in recorded history, just 1.5 million, and there were genuine fears that salmon fishing in British Columbia might go the same way as cod fishing on the Grand Banks. The usual suspects were blamed, sea lice from farmed salmon, predation by sea ...
So, continuing my monthly stat porn figures for anyone who is remotely interested (I am so there), the monthly summary of my visitor stats according to google analytics is as below for August 2010. The busiest day on my blog last month was Tuesday 31st August and the story was about the coalition replacing NHS Direct but highlighting Labour's hypocrisy and lies on this as it was in their election manifesto, to do the very same thing - many thanks to Guido Fawkes for linking to the story. Last month I had 4,661 absolute unique visitors, nearly double the numbers ...
Tony Blair's enemies are legion. Many express themselves forcibly: he is a "political shape shifter", "unprincipled or deluded", "master of lies and spin", "the ultimate hypocrite". Gideon Rachman in yesterday's FT, suggests that the hatred of Blair is overdone, and that eventually a more balanced view will emerge. Perhaps this may be true about some of his policies in office, but the huge mistakes that Blair made are obvious to even an unbiased observer. The half baked version of devolution that Labour offered will cause us constitutional problems for years to come. Even what Blair regards as his greatest success, ...
Wed 1st
07:45
LDV survey: What Lib Dem members think are the biggest dangers to the party in the next 12 months
Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of a variety of key issues, and what you make of the Lib Dems' and Government's performance to date. Almost 600 party members have responded, and we're currently publishing the full results of our survey. Today we're looking at what the Voice's sample of party members consider to be the biggest dangers to the Lib Dems in the 12 months to come. We asked: Which, if any, of the following factors are in your view the biggest danger to the Lib Dems in the next ...
In the Telegraph , Mail , Mirror , Express and Independent. I am disturbed by the disgusting level of homophobia (through comments) surrounding the origin of these rumours in a particular blog. There also appears to be only the thinnest veneer of "evidence" to support any allegations of an inappropriate relationship. Reports from an unnamed source of "body language" at breakfast a year ago is hardly what you would call a cast-iron, "slam dunk" case.
Wed 1st
06:45
Whoniversaries 1 September: Burn Gorman, Destiny of the Daleks #1, Thorington, Roz's funeral
i) births and deaths 1st September 1974: birth of Burn Gorman, who played randy (and later undead) medic Owen Harper in the first two series of Torchwood (2007-2009). ii) broadcast anniversary 1st September 1979: broadcast of episode 1 of Destiny of the Daleks, opening episode of Season 17. Romana regenerates; the Tardis lands on a radioactive planet; the Doctor is captured by the Movellans, and Romana threatened with extermination by the Daleks. iii) dates specified in spinoff literature 1st September 1991: happens over and over again in the Suffolk town of Thorington. Incidentally, what happened to the sea? (as told ...
Liberal Youth Wales today announced they are relaunching their campaign for homophobic bullying guidance, revealing that the Welsh Assembly Government had promised everything and done nothing towards stamping it out. Oliver Townsend, Campaigns Officer for Liberal Youth Wales, said "It's plain wrong. Almost half of those who suffer homophobic bullying at school consider suicide as a result. The neglect Labour and Plaid Cymru have shown is despicable. There are young teenagers suffering every single hour of every single day. The weight of the statistics is a story of pain for hundreds of vulnerable teenagers across Wales, yet they are just ...
"What will my friends say, I can't tell them, they won't understand. What would my parents think? They'd be so ashamed if they knew. And my partner, what if they leave me? I can't tell the kids, they're too young and won't get it. I can't tell anyone, people will laugh. I might lose my job, I can't come out, the risk is just too high." This person has a mental health condition, just like millions across the UK and hundreds of thousands of people in Wales. In fact a quarter of people in the UK will experience mental ill ...
Although still busy dealing with residents' issues over the summer, Council is officially in recess until September and therefore I haven't had much council business to report for a while. However I have been baking and I was very proud to win first prize and the Bowerman cup for "Best Loaf of Bread" at the Leigh Summer Show. [IMG: Cup] [IMG: Bread] I thoroughly recommend a visit next year if you haven't been before. The highlight is the competition tent where you can see a fabulous display of vegetables, home produce and arts and crafts. If you fancy entering something ...
There is something distinctive about the North. As a Lancastrian who has lived on the banks of the Tyne all my adult life, I love it all from the Albert Docks to the Hull waterfront and up to the moors of Northumberland and Cumberland. I have always felt in discussions of Englishness vs Britishness a crucial link has been missed out. Not whether you are from the Government Office region for the North East, North West or Yorkshire and the Humber. I am a Northerner. I always feel like I have a lot in common with people from the north ...
The M6 toll road has been in the news recently. It has been criticised because it seems that toll roads don't solve congestion. It was opened nearly seven years ago and I have travelled on it a couple of times. Generally I stick to the M6 and there has only been one occasion when I regretted my choice of route. However I don't usually drive at rush hour and I can understand that many regular drivers would prefer to avoid the jams. There have been many times when I have been told that there was congestion on the M6 and ...
