Last week, I blogged about the lack of recognition of the Northern Ireland local party of the Liberal Democrats by the Federal Party website. This evening, quite by chance, I noticed that there is a link at the bottom of the Federal Party's homepage for 'N. Ireland'. Where does this link go? It goes to ...
Labour uses the Alternative Vote (AV) to elect its leader. Those voting (like the MPs) don't just get a single 'X' to put on their ballot paper, instead they rank the five leadership candidates - 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Now, if they used first-past-the-post (FPTP), the MPs would only have got one vote each, the classic 'X' vote. In an impressive act of openness, the Labour party has published THIS list of how each MP and MEP voted (put together, their votes account for one-third of the overall contest). Reading this list, I see that of the 266 Labour MPs ...
Mon 27th
23:25
Simon Wright MP urges local schools to go solar - Schools in Norwich encouraged to enter competition...
Norwich South MP Simon Wright is urging schools in the city to take advantage of British Gas' £15 million solar panel giveaway. All schools in the UK are eligible to put themselves forward to the company in order to win solar panels, worth between £20,000 and £40,000 each. Schools will need to demonstrate they are amongst the most sustainable in the country before winning the panels, which could cut as much as 20% off a school's annual electricity bill.
Solution Focused Politics argues that the Big Society is a Liberal idea that the Lib Dems should capitalise on. Ed Miliband "may be a Neil Kinnock, but the danger is that he will also be a Jo Grimond" warns The Real Blog. Liberal Sciences is enthusiastic about a speech given at Liverpool by Chris White which pointed out that Liberal Democrat policies are a mixture of localism and centralism. When I took it into my head to do a single honours degree in Philosophy, no one at home or at school asked whether I thought I could afford it. That ...
There has been much talk in the press about unions these last couple of days after the election of Ed Miliband as new leader of the Labour party and tonight's programme about unions on Channel 4. My problem with the unions rather simple. I dont think the unions do enough for those that they represent and have ...
Saturday, spoke at the AGM of the Advisory Council for the Education of Romanies and Travellers (ACERT), of which I have been President for some years. The Government's policy is to abandon special measures to bring the GRT community up to the level of the national average, and in particular to allow local authorities to run down the Traveller Education Service. We do have a meeting scheduled with the Minister, Nick Gibb MP, and it will be interesting to see how he reconciles the gross educational under-achievement of Traveller children with the Coalition Programme in which we promised additional resources ...
I like a pair of jeans and a football top. I admit it. It's a fair cop. To me there is nothing more comfortable than jeans, my Adidas Samba trainers and a football shirt in which to potter around the house or, as I did for three years at University, to go out in or attend lectures. In short, I think most people feel more comfortable in their casual clothes. What's this got to do with politics ? Stick with it and you'll find out. In direct contrast to the football top, trainers and jeans, I sometimes have to wear ...
He is a proven winner, campaigner, strategist and will be a clear and strong voice for the membership and activists right across the country.
[IMG: Stonewall Awards 2008 protests] It's getting to the point where I don't need to write blog posts about Stonewall – they're writing themselves. Stonewall won't be "jumped into" gay marriage, apparently. Please, they've had five years and spawned a campaign on the topic of their silence. Also: Stonewall has never pretended to be a democratic member organisation. We have never said we speak for all lesbian, gay and bisexual people Who do they speak for and are they actually accountable to anyone at all? It's starting to sound awfully like Stonewall is a well funded clique to keep a ...
Councillors have been invited to a meeting in two weeks time to be briefed on the state of play with regard to communal buildings across the county. The description of the purpose runs as follows: Over the last six months the County Council has been carrying out a review of its Community Buildings and Communal Rooms. This has been a comprehensive review looking at the condition of each building, access, lease arrangements, running costs, management and usage. Information has now been collected on almost all buildings and the key findings have been drawn together. Before moving on to the next ...
Ten days ago I wrote about why I was supporting grassroots activist and fabulous blogger Jennie Rigg to be our next President: Ok, so she hasn't been in the Party since she was in nappies, but in the years she has been around, she's impressed a lot of people with her intelligence, her plain speaking and her originality. One of the reasons I've always loved her blog is because I think it explains what we're about to ordinary people who have no interest in politics. She has the intellectual rigour of having achieved a law degree combined with real, tough ...
Please bear with the utter lack of new material here. I'm currently trying to finish re-typesetting PEP! (corrections authors have sent in), finish up my book, co-author a scientific paper, work on a new project I'll be linking to shortly, get my ideas for the new Convergence collaborative novel worked out... oh, and work on ...
It's been a while since I shared some blog links with you, so here are some more. As mentioned here, my interest in politics has been reawakened in recent months and one of the results of this has been that I have been reading widely in the LibDem Blogosphere. This entry is dedicated to some of my favourites: Stephen's Liberal Journal is the blog of Stephen Glenn - a former Lib Dem activist and candidate in West Lothian who has recently returned to Northern Ireland. His posts cover a range of topics from policy matters to personal news, LGBT issues ...
Labour has elected a new leader and the media seems to be obsessed about two things: How is his brother Dave surviving the shock of being beaten by his younger brother and Is Labour Lurching to the Left? The first question is one of those pointless media exercises. But I find the second question pretty pointless too. For the 19th ...
Image used with permission from gyronny.com "Stonewall has never pretended to be a democratic member organisation. We have never said we speak for all lesbian, gay and bisexual people." Ben Summerskill quoted in Pink News Good because you aren't speaking for me, nor it seems journalist Johann Hari who at the LGBT Labour fringe event today said : "We are not the government, we are making demands on the government." Which is good except for the past 13 year LGBT Labour have been associated to the party of Government and haven't pushed them on this issue. Last week was the ...
After attending today's meeting of the Best Value Review of Child Protection Services, I held my usual Monday surgeries at the Mitchell Street Centre and at Harris Academy, and I then took part in tonight's City Council committee meetings.At Education Committee, I asked questions about the latest report on the proposed Harris Academy rebuild. Following the written questions I made to the Director of Education last week, he responded as follows : "Dear Fraser, Front-loading of this project is not considered a possible option. Although the start date of 2013/14 - which is in line with the release of funding ...
Sunday 10 October 2010 is a global day of doing something to fight climate change and support our 10:10 commitments. What can you do this Sunday? You could join in by doing anything from a low carbon lunch - no air transported ingredients and maybe no meat and cooked with less energy? Insulate your loft - 647 of the 3,500 roofs in East Dulwich ward are uninsulated. Get a smart meter. Radiator reflectors. Chimney baloons...... Our local eco shop is called Karavan and is located at 167 Lordship Lane between Whately Road and Bawdale Road. Pop along and let them ...
The end of another week at Bonkers Hall. I met a member of Liberals Against Choice in Westminster the other day. He thrust a leaflet advertising the group's fringe meeting into my hand, saying proudly: "We've got a civil servant coming." "What is he talking about?" I replied cagily. "Some of these fellows can be awfully dull." "Oh he's not talking," came the reply. "He's just going to stand there so we can look at someone who works for the state. I am hoping I can have my photograph taken with him!" At this point I hailed a taxi, ejected ...
It is not a member-run organisation. It does not give the opportunity to LGBT people to come together. Guess who? Got it yet? Yup. Once again Ben Summerskill, Chief Executive of Stonewall – this time at meeting of LGBT Labour at Labour Party Conference in Manchesteras reported in Pink News. So, quite what is the ...
Following the announcement that the Mega TESCO in Stretford will be reviewed, Chorlton Liberal Democrat Councillor, Victor Chamberlain, has invited Eric Pickles MP the Communities Secretary to visit Chorlton to see the impact the proposed Mega TESCO would have. Coun Chamberlain said "I sent Mr Pickles an invitation to visit Chorlton so that he can see how thriving and important our local independent shops really are. Local traders often tell me that this is a very difficult time for them and that the proposed Mega TESCO would just make things worse. Local businesses like the Barbakan Deli on Manchester Rd ...
The rather raucous article by Matthew d'Ancona in the Evening Standard, comparing Ed Miliband to Neil Kinnock, is quite right - but not in the way it was intended. Ed M is going to have to spend a great deal of time distancing himself from the Left and is doomed to spend the rest of his leadership desperately holding the reins as Right and Left fight it out. That much is good for the Lib Dems. Most of the cleverest Labour Party members I know backed David Miliband, but my sense is that leading Lib Dems feared Ed more. Why? ...
Mon 27th
20:28
The Independent View: Political Innovation no 5 - Government information? Get the public to provide ...
This is a guest cross-post by Lauren Currie - originally posted on the Political Innovation site here. For too long, policymaking has been monopolised by civil servants, self-serving pressure groups and sensationalist journalists. We get a vote once every four or five years and we're expected to be satisfied with that. Public services are too important to get lost in headline issues, and too big to leave to those who have the time and energy to write letters or sit on committees. The best communication happens when it's easy to do, and when it's a conversation, not just a complaint. ...
Manchester City Council has just sent me a set of forms telling me that I must now fill them in in order to be CRB checked, as I am a member of the Executive. I take it that this means that either the Labour Group or some of the Officers are considered vulnerable people. Now it has to be said that it's very hard to commit any sort of CRB-blotching deed as a Councillor without it being noticed in the local press and I am reasonably confident that I've not blotted mine since I was CRB checked a few months ...
We have received this emailYou are cordially invited to the inaugural meeting of the Bath Bus Users Group (BBUG), Thursday October 7th, 6:30pm at St Michael's Church Crypt, Bath,BBUG is an independent, non-partisan group of bus users from across Bath who aimto promote good communications between bus operators, passengers and local governmentofficers and Councillors. It aims as well to
The local Conservatives came out to protest against last weekend's 'Art of Suburbia' street festival celebrating the (nearly finished) town centre refurbishment. Whilst residents were thrilled by Bollywood dancers, Titan the Cyborg, and a custard pie fight our grumpy Tories handed out leaflets pointing out how much it was costing to entertain them. In their ...
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime are one of the biggest global proponents of drug prohibition. They uphold the Conventions that insist that the War on Drugs must continue to be fought, that recreational drugs must continue to be illegal, and downplay all the terrible consequences this worldwide policy is inflicting. UNODC use all the latest communication techniques to push this message. Their Twitter account provides continuing coverage of the impact they make on international media outlets. However this tweet from today was a surprisingly frank admission: UNODC in the news: UN's hard-line anti-drug czar may boost Taliban: ...
The 'will he, won't he' game about David Milliband's future has dominated today's news agendas. For what it's worth, I cannot see how either Millibrother will have much credibility left if David throws his toys and refuses to stand for the Shadow Cabinet. Apparently, David is saying that if he stays the press will spend all their time writing about sibling rivalry. Secretly, I suspect he is also feeling immensely bruised and can't stand the sight of Ed at the moment. He'll come to terms with this, of course. And he'll realise that it's not Ed's fault that he isn't ...
From a pub in deepest West Berkshire. The ball is dangling on a string and spins round when........you get the picture.
I haven't made up my mind who I will be supporting in the election for Party President yet. Here are 3 questions I will be asking the candidates to help me make up my mind: 1. How should the Liberal Democrats be campaigning now we're in Government? 2. The Federal Executive has in the last couple of years delegated many of its powers to the Chief Officers Group and to a number of "Boards". Do you believe this has been a success and do you think this should continue in future? 3. What have you personally done in your political ...
It is Google's twelve birthday today. But before you cheer too loudly a word of warning that means that next year the world's leading search engine with be a teenager and we all know what they are like. So here are the top 10 things you won't be able to ask Google in 365 days time. 10. Restaurants - Unless it has a drive through, a bucket of chicken, or a golden arch you'll not find it. The fast food van outside the school will get 3 Michelin stars whereas the Fat Duck will be just 'Bleugh!' 9. Medical advice ...
I am so behind in my list of things to write about, but I was so angry when I read this article in Friday's Daily Mail. I don't like linking to them, but I actually think it's important that we keep an eye on what they do and challenge their flawed assumptions wherever we can. Essentially the story is about a family with six children living in a 2 bedroomed Council house. Yes, you read that right. 8 people, 6 of them aged under 7, are crammed into a a tiny house which in no way meets their needs. That's ...
There are web petitions to sign should you wishhttp://petitions.tigweb.org/SaveCulverhay
[IMG: Neve Photography's Website] Photograph by Neve Photography, Brechin [IMG: Sanjay campaigning for a flyover on the A90 at Laurencekirk]
Labour's new leader will have to address several science issues, and the science community should make sure he keeps the subject at the heart of his agenda. This is a guest blog by Imran Khan, who is director of the Campaign for Science and Engineering I don't know if we've ever had a self-confessed maths "geek" as leader of Her Majesty's Official Opposition before, but with threats to science funding as they are, perhaps it's not a bad time to start. The Campaign for Science and Engineering in the UK (CaSE) is pleased to congratulate Ed Miliband on becoming the ...
My brother sent me an Amazon.ca gift-certificate for my birthday. He was probably thinking that I could use it to buy e-books for my new Kindle. Only I can't, because to buy e-books I've got to use the Kindle shop at either Amazon.com or Amazon.uk, and Amazon gift-tokens cannot be transferred from one of their domains to another. He wasn't to know this, but you'd think Amazon.ca could flag up "Hey, if you buy a gift-certificate here it can't be used for e-books!".
News just in on the BBC suggests that the founder and owner of the Segway has died whilst riding one of his machines
I have read this article in Fridays Evening Standard 'UCL chief: Paying living wage would cost £1m a year ... and I don't have it' Taken from the article; Bentham, who died soon after co-founding the college in 1826, is venerated as "the godfather of UCL" for his "advocacy for the poor and of human rights" — and it is customary for students in their graduation gowns to be photographed here by proud parents. But were Bentham alive today, one shudders at what he'd make of the Scrooge-like actions of the university's head, Professor Grant, and the escalating row over ...
I see from Friday's Gazette that democracy appears pretty low on the agenda as far as Gazette editor, Rebecca Smith's paper is concerned, admittedly I get obsessive over some subjects, naturally like most democrats I viewed Thanet Councils locking me out of a public meeting a serious issue. Not so Becca's paper (IOTG), in the "Best of the Blogs" column, misleadingly refers to "protesters" in I assume an effort to belittle the facts, "protestors" actually consisted of one neutral blogger me, a resident of Dalby Square, who I understand later spoke to the meeting, and of course Andrew Woodman a ...
The truth will come to you at last When all are one and one is all To be a rock and not to roll And he's buying a Segway to heaven
The Liberal Democrats have an image problem. We are predominantly a party of middle class members, which I know because I've met a lot of members and they nearly all talk like me. Because of the depressingly predictable socio-economic data, this also means that, since our members are better off, they are more likely to be male, white, and able bodied than your average Briton. The only conventional diversity stream that is not underrepresented purely by means of the economic correlations is LBGT, and this group is well represented in the party which hopefully also has something to do with ...
Friends of our's have recently bought a gorgeous puppy. She is the cutest thing you could ever imagine and she's loved by everyone who comes into contact with her. Her family are responsible and ensure that they clean up whatever mess this cute bundle of fluff makes when they go out. However, between their house and their children's school, around a 20 minute walk away, there is only one dog poo bin, and that's pretty close to their house. There used to be two others on that route - one at the railway bridge at the bottom and one at ...
and they were!!!
The news late last week that the Office for National Statistics has calculated the percentage of LGB people in the UK as being around 1.5% has certainly caused some head-scratching in the gay press, because common perception has it that the number is much higher. There have been some pretty unscientific responses though, with one dating site claiming that there must be more than the calculated number simply because they have over 2 million registered users. For a start, I think it's hubris to think that every LGB individual in the UK will have registered on their site and I ...
Now that Federal Autumn Conference is over for another season, come and have some post Conference banter and discussion at the third Belfast Liberal Drinks. This time we've changed the day to a Thursday, hopefully more people will be encouraged to come. If you're a Lib Dem member you can sign up at FlockTogether to ...
The Liberal Party was ill prepared for the 1945 election. They had argued in vain that the war time coalition should continue until Victory in Japan had been achieved. It was not to be and the party suffered badly despite high expectations. In Southport Bob Martin was the Parliamentary Candidate and at a meeting held on 15th of June he read out a letter from William Beveridge, then the Liberal MP for Berwick on Tweed: 'I am more than sorry not to able to visit Southport during the Election because I will miss re-visiting one of the scenes of my ...
... though shame about the slight sea sick camera effect in this new 'inside Parliament' movie, one of a series showing people the insides of Parliament and explaining its history:
If I were David Miliband, I would be hopping mad about the byzantine electoral college that gave his brother the Leadership despite the latter being rejected by the members and MPs. I blogged a couple of weeks ago about the tricks used by the GMB to ensure the bosses got an endorsement for their candidate. This included sending out the ballot papers in Ed Miliband envelopes which urged members to
I've been reading up on Pizza Express's plans to redesign its restaurants and my eye was caught by the news that Sergio Luzzi, Contract Professor and Lecturer in Noise Modelling and Acoustic Design at the University of Florence, is one of the team behind the project. Getting the noise levels right is tricky, especially as Pizza Express has to cater to two different audiences: daytime, when it particularly appeals to parents and children (even if their site only says "mothers" and children, tsk tsk), and evening, when it has a different audience. Moreover some people's far too noisy is other ...
Mon 27th
13:14The Independent View: half of Lib Dems say protecting environment should be more of a priority
The Guardian reported last week that Chris Huhne is having to do battle with the Treasury on a number of policy fronts to save his department from drastic cuts, including to clean energy budgets. According to the newspaper, "When all government departments were asked to model the effect of 40% cuts over the summer, officials at Decc told ministers that cuts of that level to its £3.2bn budget would make it unable to stand alone as a viable entity." A Yougov poll, commissioned by Greenpeace, and published here exclusively on Lib Dem Voice, shows that Chris Huhne has his party's ...
I have to confess to being surprised by the election of Ed Miliband as Labour leader, having convinced myself that brother David would stroll it. Of course it appears that amongst Labour members, David did win handsomely only for the support of the unions to drag Ed over the finishing line. Readers may be interested to know that amongst Bury Labour members David M secured 47% of the vote to Ed's lowly 21% It will be interesting in the weeks and months ahead to see how the post new-labour Labour party will shape up. will we see a re-connection with ...
For those of you in Colchester who've been following this story, a statement: Colchester Borough Council remains committed to listening and responding to the concerns of the people of Colchester Borough as well as budgeting responsibly in these difficult financial times. We would like to thank all the people who have contacted us in the ...
There was a really interesting documentary on BBC4 last week, "Waiting for work" which was filmed in my home town of Hartlepool at about the time that I was born (and featured a member of the family). Several things struck me about the differences in society then and now. Firstly, the well-meaning reporter did seem to report on what working-class Hartlepool residents were like in exactly the same way as he might have reported on the customs of a stone-age tribe recently discovered on a remote island in the Pacific. Seriously, did they never report on ordinary people in those ...
In 1947 Bob Martin stood down as Southport's parliamentary candidate. The executive looked around for a replacement and having failed to persuade Dingle Foot (until 1945 the Liberal MP for Dundee) they turned to a young journalist on the Manchester Evening News one Henry Fairlie. He went on to be a renowned journalist writing a column in the Spectator under the alias 'Trimmer'. The obituary below comes from the Manchester Guardian. He didn't turn up most after being selected as his job moved to London. the Executive finally wrote and asked him to resignIt was about this time that Simms ...
All those who fretted about us losing our souls to the coalition needn't have. The first day of conference felt really odd; there was a tingle in the air of nervousness. A lot of people were worried that coalition would have changed us, somehow, and that it wouldn't be the same. By the end of it, it felt like the same family gathering as ever. Sure, we were in a swankier house, with coppers outside, but everyone was still themselves, and that was comforting. Conference as reassurance? Hell yes. Family means emotions. Sara Bedford and Ros Scott both had me ...
When the Web was young, and I was even younger, there existed a number of schemes which offered to pay you to surf. Usually this involved installing a permanent advert bar on your PC which tracked your usage and displayed adverts to you. I knew a few people who got cheques from these services – most prominently, AllAdvantage. The schemes always had the faint whiff of a scam. The unrealistic targets, the easy to bypass monitoring software, the shady companies who popped up and then disappeared within the space of a few weeks. The web, so it would seem, rejected ...
On this day 280 years ago (which was also a Monday) I note that Gladstone's diary records that he spent most of the day reading Marquis de Spineto's book 'Elements of Hieroglyphics and Egyptian Antiquities' . the book is still in print and available on Amazon .
Despite the government having a Business Secretary, who refers to bankers as 'spivs and gamblers', it seems that many in the City are far more comfortable with the Coalition Government than they are with the prospect of Red Ed Miliband taking the reins of power. According to the Daily Telegraph business groups fear that the new Labour leader will push for more Government intervention in business, deliver more power to the unions, back the break-up of banks, and target high-earners. All this of course is fairly predictable stuff from the usual suspects but it does reflect a feeling I have ...
I will freely admit to being rubbish on this issue. I saw that Lallands Peat Worrier had written a blog post entitled Scotland Legalises Domestic Abuse two weeks ago and had it in mind to pick it up myself. Events and health ran away with me a bit and when I saw another post from LPW three days later saying that the Government was taking action and the issue would be quickly resolved, I breathed a sigh of relief. Essentially what happened was that a man, David Hatcher who had been convicted of breach of peace because of his behaviour ...
Anyone who has read anything from Cornwall Council about the Stadium for Cornwall would have got the impression that the Council was fully backing the project. But it appears that they might be getting cold feet about it after all. On September 1st, Conservative Cabinet Member Carolyn Rule was gushing about the project: "It's great to see the project take a step forward by identifying a location. I'm sure once it's completed the stadium will be an inspiration to all that use it and will encourage participation in sports, as well as the economic benefits it can provide." Not much ...
The BOTYs were quite simply the glitteringest event of the whole Liberal Democrat conference last week, and Lib Dem councillor and blogger Jonathan Wallace was there to film them. If you look carefully, you might just spot the tail feathers of the last flamingo, as it was startled away by popping flashbulbs. Alas, the heat of said flashbulbs also melted the ice sculptures before Jonathan could film those too, but the video's well worth watching for the great speeches from winners and presenters alike: Video also available on YouTube here. You can find the full list of BOTY 2010 winners ...
The late, great entrepreneur Anita Roddick used to describe the corporate bosses dominate our lives as "dinosaurs in pinstripes'. She coined the phrase accepting her first business award. There was a sharp intake of breath and suddenly there was Robert Maxwell, of all people, storming out in protest. She developed the idea later. The corporations were entities, with all the rights of human beings, but which could show no emotions apart from greed and fear. They were able to make a hefty meal of their own tails. It was an idea that was taken up shortly afterwards by the new ...
I've just listened to Alisdair Darling's speech to the Labour Conference. A long defence of what he did in Government. Fair enough. An attack on the Tories in the last Parliament for failing to come up with any solutions to the banking crisis two years ago. Fair enough. That of course is all history. Where was the content about the future, about the way forward? Apart from a quibble with the
Mon 27th
11:58
Never thought I'd be praising David Cameron! Isn't he supposed to be an out of touch Tory PR man?
I am a Liberal Democrat and I believe that there needs to be big changes to how this country is run. I believe in the Lib Dem commitment to reinvent the state and do something different to what we have always done. I was uneasy about the Coalition and wasn't sure how it could make ...
The accounts of the Southport Gladstone Women's Liberal for 1960 have come into my possession and on this week 50 years ago they held a whist drive and raised 19/0 of which they spent 9/6 on prizes
Danny Byrd has done it once again, releasing another barnstorming single on Hospital Records. This one is called 'Ill Behaviour' and it is out today, available on iTunes. Featuring a hook that will embed itself into your brain, backed up by a top quality drum line this tune will cause chaos on dance floors across the country. As with most Hospital releases, it also has immense crossover appeal, and will no doubt worm its way into the mainstream. If you buy the full EP you also get Moowalker 'on the flip side', if such a thing still exists in the ...
Ed Miliband stated yesterday that Labour will not oppose every cut. Quite which cuts he will not oppose are not explained but it is at least an attempt to be credible on the deficit. Miliband's attempt to reposition himself away from all the claims of opposition to cuts he made during the Leadership election however were instantly torpedoed by Ken McCluskey, deputy boss of Unite. This morning, in
From Stockport Council: Stockport Council has issued a warning about a Council tax scam after a resident was nearly conned out of £97. On Friday 10th September, the resident was phoned by a man offering savings of £600-700 on his Council Tax banding by having the property re-surveyed. The survey would cost £97 and the resident provided their debit card details. However the man's alert neighbour - who contacted the Council - advised the resident to contact their bank and cancel their card. The resident checked the caller's telephone number and it began with 0905 - a premium rate number. ...
For Bob's birthday in June, I brought him a new fancy camera, which he's been thoroughly delighted with ever since. He takes it everywhere and is always snapping away. It's as well that I like photos of clouds as much as I do. One of his photos, of Dewar Place Lane, has found its way onto the City of Edinburgh Council's website here.
Picture courtesy of the Press Association Liberal Democrat MP for Portsmouth South Mike Hancock is facing a police probe into allegations that he used his position to take advantage of a vulnerable constituent who came to him for help. The lady, who has not been named, claims that the MP took her to dinner at the House of Commons and showered her with gifts, including clothes, perfume, and a teddy bear he named after himself. Mike Hancock is also said to have sent the constituent intimate text messages after she came to his surgeries to discuss noisy neighbours, and the ...
This article is appearing in The Total Politics Guide to Political Blogging in the UK 2010-2011, which is available from Amazon. Just as people running political campaigns often learn from other disciplines, those active in other disciplines can learn from political campaigns. Much has been written (including by myself, such as in the Hansard Society report http://scr.bi/hansardsociety) on how social media was used in the 2010 general election campaign; far less common have been pieces looking at the lessons that those outside politics can learn from the deployment of social media in that election. Lessons are often clearer to see ...
The Labour party in Bury roundly rejected Ed Miliband in the recent leadership election, as 4/5ths of Bury South members voted for someone else. Ed Miliband picked up less than a quarter of the votes counted in Bury North, and less than 20% of those cast in Bury South. In both constituencies, the candidate with the most first choice votes by far was David Miliband. Here in Bury South, David Miliband received two and a half times the number of votes as his brother Ed, who was nearly beaten into third place by Andy Burnham. The full result saw 136 ...
As reported earlier on this site and also across the media, Labour unions have elected the new Labour leader against the wishes of both the parliamentary and the wider party. Neither MPs nor grass-roots members chose Ed Milliband, but he nonetheless gets to lead the Labour Party. Fortunately, this is just a blip, right? This sort of thing is unusual; a bizarre result from a complicated electoral college system. Normally, Labour's internal elections see the candidate with support amongst members chosen, don't they? Apparently not! In a somewhat less-widely reported story, Lord Prescott has also been defeated, in his attempt ...
At the Environment committee earlier this month I asked a series of questions around alley way sweeping. I wanted to know who was responsible for sweeping them after bin collection and how it is monitored. Well, as I thought, it is in the contract for Enteprise Liverpool and when the wheelie bins etc are emptied from their spot in the alleyways behind houses, the alleys are then meant to be swept by the same crew. This makes a lot of sense. However I am absolutely convinced that in the majority of cases this does not happen. A second answer said ...
The family sat griped last night as the story of 300 unfolded on the big screen. Now don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem with the film, although it was difficult at times to tell what was real and what was computer generated, what does bother me however is the rewriting of history according to Hollywood. The film 300 tells the story of King Leonides of Sparta who fought to hold off the Persian invasion of Greece in 480BC. This is accurate up to a point, but the film does not give the context of this in relation ...
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, John Le Carré I blame Radio 4. The Spy Who Came In From The Cold was one of the most taut, gripping, electrifying adaptations I've heard. So I felt I had to devour the famed Smiley trilogy, beginning with Tinker Tailor. But boy is it hard work. 'Who's the mole?' should create a fascinating, pacy narrative; yet it never quite clicked for me. I get that the character of George Smiley is intentionally anonymous, understated, shadowy. I get that the atmosphere is meant to be drab, grey, uninspiring. But I kind of think a thriller should, ...
Finally a radio app for Android worth getting. [IMG: Presets] [IMG: Now Playing] TuneIn allows you to listen to pretty much every online radio station (well all the UK ones I wanted). Unlike other radio apps, this won't try to open the stream in the build-in player, which then fails to open anything. Instead it handles the steaming itself. You can add presets making it quick to find your favourite stations, and by using GPS it should be able to find the closest local stations to your current location. It runs fine on both Wifi and 3G, however my test ...
There are two different economic debates to be had with Labour politicians these days. One of them is a sensible debate about how fast, and how far, cuts should go. Alistair Darling, just a few months ago, told us that Labour wanted to cut deeper and longer than Thatcher did in the 1980s, with talk of a 25% cut in public spending over seven years and hefty tax rises. The Coalition Government takes the view that the pain of cuts should be slightly shorter and sharper than Labour had planned – still 25%, but spread over five years rather than ...
Monday in the Eighteenth Week after Pentecost Penance is a disposition of the soul, an interior attitude, intimately connected with Christianity. Christ in his first sermon said, Repent, the kingdom of God is at hand. St Matthew 4.17 Repentance is a change of outlook, fresh orientation of thought, combat and deed. It means putting off ...
PoliticsHome completed some interesting research; that people like the Lib Dem's best when being Lib Dem, as personified by Vince Cable's speech: Following his comments on capitalism, seventy four per cent of the public have sided with the Business Secretary, who has also beaten his party leader to become the public's favourite Lib Dem. A ...
Sunday saw the first running of the East Grinstead 10k running race. The race was dedicated to the late Andy Ripley. Rain threatened at the beginning but thankfully held off to provide ideal conditions. The route, along Worth Way to Crawley Down, back to the railway station and through Imberhorne to the finish in Imberhorne Lane was varied and well signed and marshalled. I managed a decent 50mins 33secs and look forward to next years event.
Once my sons were getting older I swore I'd never have to sing this song again (or grit my teeth through yet another snippet of title music / episode of Thomas the Tank Engine) but I find it keeps springing to mind at the moment. There has been so much rain in the last few days that my bicycle is back in the garage and I'm making the most of using buses where available. That said, I have my last Parish Council meeting for the month tomorrow night and - you've guessed it - no bus so on my bike ...
Over the weekend there was a marquee erected next to Bangor Abbey and inside for 48 hours there was continuous praise going on. It was an event organised by Celts on Fire an organisation founded by dear friends of our family Tom and Iris Ross. You may think that 48 hours is a long time for a cycle of people to keep up praise to God yet in the 6th and 7th centuries it is believed that for 150 years the practise of Laus Perennis (continual prayer) was kept up at the Monastery in Bangor, close to the present day ...
Came back from conference Wednesday night – and went straight off at 6.30 next morning to the Women's Business Forum being held in Leeds. Heather Jackson, in nine months, had brought together the key women in the region for this forum – an amazing feat. From a government point of view (I was there to speak on what we are doing about Women on Boards) it was very very interesting. I heard a few speakers before me – one of whom was talking about the woman as purchaser. Any business listening to that speech has to know that to not ...
The first week back of term at the Welsh Assembly has been an eventful one especially for health. It's been difficult to avoid discussion of the McKinsey 'report'. Last year the Health Minister commissioned management company McKinsey and Company to examine the Welsh NHS and make recommendations based on their findings. The main remit of the report was to look ahead to the next five years and suggests ways to improve the finances of the Welsh NHS. Unlike the English report, the Welsh Assembly Government commissioned McKinsey in such a way that its findings would not have to be published ...
i) births and deaths 27 September 1921: birth of Milton Subotsky, who produced and wrote Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965) and Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD (1966), the two cinema films starring Peter Cushing as Doctor Who. 27 September 2000: death of Daphne Dare, who did costumes for most of the first four seasons of Old Who. ii) broadcast anniversaries 27 September 1975: broadcast of first episode of Planet of Evil. The Doctor and Sarah land on Zeta Minor and are captured by the crew of a Morestran space ship, who have been mysteriously losing team members to ...
Dailymotion - Lapsus: Dati confond "inflation" et... "fellation" - une vidéo Actu et Politique French politician Rachida Dati's unfortunate slip of the tongue (tags: french) Cheese or Font Hilarious. Is Castellano a type of cheese or a font? What about Salers? (tags: games) 11 Astounding Sci-Fi Predictions That Came True (tags: sf) Tor.com / Science fiction and fantasy / Blog posts / A merrier world: J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit Jo Walton queries Bilbo's gender identity (tags: sf tolkien) The Seventies: The decade when men stopped being men | Mail Online Apparently it was all the fault of Sarah Jane Smith. ...
A genuine "well done" from this Lib Dem to Ed Miliband for winning the Labour leadership. Well done because I bet £5 on Ed to win when he was 5-1. I'll be donating the £25 to the Lib Dems to help us get our message across over the Labour lies machine! The Labour party has put up the exact figures for the results of the bizarre electoral college the Labour party uses, where MPs and MEPs, members and Trade Unions get a third of the votes each. In proper democratic parties, party members get one member, one vote. Of course, ...
There are currently several local planning applications of a commercial nature in for consideration. One is to convert a terraced house in Derwent Street into a podiatry/chiropody clinic. Another is to extend the time limit for a planning application for the site at the traffic lights at the intersection of Medomsley Road and Hartington Street, and a third is to create a gymnasium on the first floor of 5 Front Street. Every week planning applications like this come up and there is a requirement for them to be advertised in their locality. What you may not know, however, is that ...
I was walking in Lancaster yesterday and I passed a couple who were talking politics. I only heard a couple of sentences but the man was saying that the leadership of Ed Miliband meant that Labour was moving to the left. He mentioned David Cameron and a movement to the right. I think he was saying there were definite differences between Labour and Conservatives. I don't really mind what he was saying as it was really good to hear politics being spoken about in the street. The election does bring into question the methods of voting. One member one vote ...
