This afternoon I went to a briefing with officers about various economic matters in the East of Cornwall. One of the items we discussed was 'Active Partnering'. This is the fancy name for Cornwall Council working together with town and parish councils to deliver services in the future. This is all very well as a concept but will depend a lot on the detail of what services are delivered locally, how they are delivered, how much they cost and who is responsible for quality. Unfortunately, there were a number of items on the list of possible services which could be ...
Back in June, I advised residents of the latest information on the recycling of plastics. I have now received a further update from the City Council as follows : Dear Fraser, The review period for the acceptance of an expanded array of plastics is now up, and we will be moving forward with these on an ongoing basis. A flyer specifying the new plastic types that we are able to now accept was hand delivered out to all green box residents over the summer. The details on all the plastic recycling bins at points and centres are waiting to be ...
I have just been watching Newsnight and, discussing tomorrow's newspaper front pages, Michael Crick suggested that this Daily Telegraph story, inspired by a leaked letter, means that Liam Fox is on his way out of the Cabinet: In a private letter to David Cameron seen by The Daily Telegraph, the Defence Secretary refuses to back any substantial reduction in the Armed Forces. He says it risks seriously damaging troops' morale. The letter was written the night before a National Security Council (NSC) meeting on the Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR). In it, Dr Fox says the Tories risk "destroying ...
[IMG: Bath University] University lectures start on Monday 4th, but this year's Freshers have already moved in. The addition of over 2,000 students living in halls on the university campus effectively doubles the population of Bathwick ward compared to summer time. The buses are already busy again, but the term timetable doesn't start until next week. How this increased frequency affects congestion on North Parade bridge remains a cause of concern. Our new neighbours will be unused to living away from home, so may take a bit of time to adjust to normal living patterns. If your patience is wearing ...
I was puzzled by John Leech's declaration at a Labour Conference fringe meeting today that he had abstained when Liberal Democrat MPs had voted on the Coalition agreement. Perhaps I missed an earlier revelation, but this is the first I have heard of John abstaining in this vote. If he was going to make the matter public, wouldn't it have been better to have told his constituents in Manchester Withington or his fellow Liberal Democrats first? I am also puzzled by what John wrote on his blog on 18 May in his first posting after the general election: By ruling ...
So, David Miliband has quit the Labour Conference early following a spat with Harriet Harman. Will David Miliband even bother to serve in his brother's cabinet, the signs are not looking good, with only 19 hours until nominations close there is no sign of any paperwork from David, now back home in Primrose Hill, London. Although David stayed in Manchester for Ed's speech, he was spotted by an ITV camera apparently snapping at Harriet Harman. As Ed Miliband criticised the war in Iraq at the podium, David turned to the party's deputy and said: "You voted for it, why are ...
The works on site will start next Tuesday, 5th October. They should last approximately 10 days, weather permitting. During that time the Ride will be closed and walkers will be asked to use the path through the Woods instead.
One of the small perks of my day job as a housing policy wonk is that I'm occasionally asked to speak at various conferences and events. Yesterday was one such day and I found myself on the 6.41am train to London for Capita's Neighbourhood Management Conference. I hadn't paid much attention to the venue details til I got there – it was billed as the ICO Conference Centre. What I hadn't realised was that the ICO is the International Coffee Organisation – a intergovernmental organisation of coffee producers and consumers (surely a mini-United Nations), whose offices are in Fitzrovia. In ...
I've just watched the Panorama programme on Scientology on the BBC and read some articles online to get a bit more background on this so called religion. What I read and saw utterly terrified me. I am not a fan of organised religion to be honest. That's coming from someone who herself was baptised and ...
Following a very productive meeting with representatives of the Western Cemetery Association and the City Council's Leisure and Communities Department on-site at the cemetery at lunchtime, I attended an opening exhibition view of the shortlisted designs of the V and A at Dundee project, held at the library of the University of Abertay, Dundee. I am dreadfully impressed by the imaginative designs and the 3-D Fly Throughs are really helpful. I hope there's a great turnout at the exhibition and that people give their views on the designs. My personal preference is the Delugan Meissl design - really striking - ...
Over recent weeks, making my own opinion known about various events, various topics has become much more easy – when I started really using this blog. This is made all the more easy by the fact that in the United Kingdom and indeed most of the Western world you are unlikely to find yourself in ...
I don't usually comment on the comments that get raised on news sites in reply to other stories but some of the comments on the Guardian this evening in response to Ed Milibands speech were actually quite comical while others were more reasoned and calm. Here's some of the comments for and against that caught my eye ...
Odd story as Paul Walter recounts: The Portsmouth News carries some more comments concerning the reports of a police "investigation" into alleged/reported allegations concerning Mike Hancock MP. I am somewhat astounded that the police have not actually contacted Mike Hancock concerning this matter, according to his spokesman. You would have thought that, with the papers bandying about words such as "police investigation" and "sex", the police would have at least contacted the MP. More over on his blog.
This is a rather brave attempt to wring significance out of the fact that Confucius, the Buddha, Socrates and Jeremiah all lived at about the same time, between them causing a revolution in the way in which humans relate to the universe in philosophy and religion. It did not completely work for me. I found Armstrong's account of the evolution of the Old Testament as a product of the Jews' exile in Babylon pretty compelling, and we have a couple more of her books on the shelves which I am looking forward to reading now. Her description of ancient Greek ...
I have written a piece on gay marriage for Liberal Democrat Voice today and my final piece is calling on Ben Summerskill to resign. I believe his position is now untenable. You can read the article here Opinion: What does Stonewall want if it isn't gay marriage?
Tonight's decision to proceed with the introduction of parking charges at Farifax Road in Prestwich came despite thousands of people registering their objections during the "consultation" phase. Surely this decision puts pay once and for all to the lie that is "consultation" on Council matters. The Council are duty bound to "consult" but I have long suspected that in reality this is just an unnecessary delay to a process in which the decision has already been made. True consultation involves listening to the will of local people and responding accordingly by changing services to meet local demand. This consultation listened ...
I have been informed this evening by the Council that parking charges at Fairfax Road will be introduced from October 11th (a week on Monday). Despite a long campaign led by local Lib Dem councillors, and despite thousands of local people signing petitions and letting the Council know of their opposition to the charges, the Conservative-run Town Hall will introduce them all the same. The official word came tonight, and was as follows: The proposal to introduce parking charges on Fairfax Road Car Park originated as a budgetary issue from Council meeting on 24th February 2010. The introduction of parking ...
Today in Manchester a fresh faced shiny new leader pulled on sheep's clothing, some of the items stolen from the genuine leader of Britan's liberals, round the wolf that is the body of the Labour Party. To be fair, that speech was well written, and well delivered - and it was a pretty good shot at what Ed Miliband needed to do in it - to dissociate his Labour Party from the divided, authoritarian, at times downright wicked rabble which had been noisily disintegrating in Government these past few years. What may be a really good thing was his own ...
It's not really the thing to just to quote other people on your blog, but Simon Hughes is absolutely right here. "Labour can't claim to have moved on until its policies and votes in Parliament reflect the seriousness of the mistakes Labour made and the problems they left." Commenting on Ed Miliband's speech to Labour Party conference, Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader, Simon Hughes said: "One speech can't wash away his record as a key part of the New Labour government that trampled on our civil liberties and left our economy in ruins. "Ed Miliband was special advisor to Gordon Brown ...
Looking through my backlist, this tends to be mainstream fiction books which I bought because I knew a lot of other people had read them, but did not expect to finish with more than just being able to tick the box. In particular, as I look at the two recently read books that seem to me my best answers to this question, they are both books where the title was misleadingly boring, and I didn't know anything about the plot before starting to read. Most recent (actually only read a couple of weeks ago) is Rosamunde Pilcher's The Shell Seekers, ...
Today should have been a landmark day for Ed Miliband. It was his first address to the Labour Party conference as their new leader and he wanted to stamp his authority on the party and show them they way forward with honesty and a new approach. It would seem however that brother David Miliband who ...
The US TV show 'Saturday Night Live' has repeatedly featured "Sarah Palin" in its skits. Now they have pounced on one of Palin's Tea Party protégés, Christine O'Donnell, the Republican Senatorial candidate for Delaware. Ms O'Donnell has the baggage of a vast archive of strange outbursts on comedian Bill Maher's "Politically Incorrect" TV programme. Bill Maher is releasing choice cuts from his library on a gradual drip-feed basis. Saturday Night Live's opening skit last Saturday, below, took full advantage of some of Ms O'Donnell's stranger past pronouncements.
Back in January I blogged about reports that the property company Kandahar was in trouble. This report interested me for two reasons. The first is that Kandahar owns a considerable amount of commercial property in the centre of Market Harborough. As the Harborough Mail put it at the time: Kandahar owns the St Mary's Place shopping centre in Harborough, as well as the two buildings in High Street which house the Subway restaurant and the Monsoon clothes shop.The second reason was that Kandahar is owned by David Ross. He lives at Nevill Holt, which is widely thought to be the ...
Over the weekend I blogged: In the London Mayor selection contest, Lewisham councillor Duwayne Brooks has just publicly thrown his hat in the ring. More information on his Facebook page. The other declared candidate so far is Lembit Opik, who also has his own Facebook page. The number of fans for that latter page has been growing slowly but now there is a direct competitor to judge it against. So far, Lembit is ahead though Duwayne's page has only very recently appeared. Matters have moved on quickly since then, with Lembit's Mayor page continuing to grow slowly (now up to ...
I first encountered the Mars books when I moved to Bosnia in early 1997, and for me they are forever associated with my own discovery of a completely different country and lifestyle, where I too was at long distance from my home base, exploring territory for myself in detail and learning new and exciting things every day (with fatherhood also imminent). So it was pleasant to return to those heady days as I reread the three books this month. Worth it for other reasons as well. I think the Mars books are among the best examples of sfnal world-building, combined ...
If you do nothing else today, you have to read the lovely Elephant's reasoning for backing Jennie Rigg for President. Just for starters, I love his scale of preference: It OUGHT to be, and yet it's actually really easy to place my "one", "two" and "three", with the very important caveat that even my "three" is a sign of very high endorsement.(For reference, Mr Ed Millipede should come in somewhere in the five to six billion range on this scale. Possibly even lower if humanity should encounter any space aliens!)Like me, he wasn't impressed with the speech, then! There is ...
With obvious parallels to the case in the Middle East just a few weeks ago, a rather worrying news story has appeared on BBC News. The headline, "Woman faces sex by fraud charges", doesn't sound too bad but the first paragraph is somewhat more chilling for anyone Trans... A 25-year-old woman has appeared in court accused of tricking two women into sexual contact – by pretending to be a man. Firstly, the obvious: a "woman pretending to be a man" could well be a transman but however they identify, it's likely they're on the Trans spectrum somewhere. Secondly, even after ...
I resigned from Stonewall many years ago when I realised that they don't speak for me or much of the UK's LGBT community and is too blinkered and led by its own politics, rather than campaigning for what their members want. Ben Summerskill and Angela Mason before him only appear to do what Labour wanted, when Labour wanted it. In recent weeks we have seen Stonewall attacked for their silence on the issue of gay marriage, but I want to throw in an extra attack on them before I get onto gay marriage. If you visit the main Stonewall website ...
Here are some thoughts prompted by Ed Miliband's first speech as Labour leader, I'm old enough to have heard about "new generation's" having taken over, this that or the other political party and whilst it may be a cliché to me I'm sure its a fresh concept to the odd whippersnapper or two, but any follower of politics of any age will be familiar with this meaningless banality. Ed Miliband's selection as leader, is indicative of just how Labour and I suppose politics in general has become more like some dull corporate world, neither of the Miliband brothers look big ...
As I've mentioned before, my reading patterns of late have been severely disrupted. Last night, however, I finally managed to finish Vince Cable's The Storm. Unfortunately, given the length of time and sporadic nature of my approach to the book, I severely doubt that I have gained as much out of it as I should have. I also think that to attempt a full review would do an injustice to the book itself. I will, therefore, restrict myself to a few comments and urge you to read it for yourself. Published in early 2009, this is an immediate history of ...
It is fair to say that I have had my run ins with the standards board for England - quite frankly I have lost count of the number of fatuous complaints that have been sent my way. My favourite is still the one where I was accused of deliberately orchestrating a campaign. My defence - that's part of my job! 6 or 7 months later it was decided there was no case to answer so taxpayers money well spent there. If there is a better case for this as to why this whole architecture needs abolishing it is the case ...
Not only is the multi-talented Helen Duffett busy doing all she does for Liberal Democrat Voice, although I doubt dressing up as Count Packula in a fright wig is one of her roles, she has also written a chapter of the forthcoming Total Politics Guide to Political Blogging. Her subject was Twitter. "Do Tweets win Seats?" she asked in an opening sentence that was exactly 140 characters long. Very clever. I even get a mention in it as well, although I didn't in Stephen Tall's State of the Lib Dem Blogosphere, I'm not bitter though as I was in some ...
I'm not actually on the Federal Executive. Not only that, I've never run for a place on it, and nor am I doing so this time. However, it is important. In the past, the view has been that the Federal Executive is just a talking shop, where difficult issues can be parked until they fade away. The inability of the body to get through its business in past years, so that important decisions were deferred, and some devolved to much less accountable bodies (or individuals), meant that those who were elected to take a more radical line were defeated by ...
The Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) is the independent body that aims to get the best out of the Met police. When I was a London Assembly Member – I was on the MPA for the whole five years I was there. It really does hold the Met to account – so definitely worth taking part in this survey. The MPA try and ensure that all of London has a voice and the needs of Londoners are taken into account, especially when they set the annual policing priorities for the Met. To do this they consult as widely as possible and ...
The Portsmouth News carries some more comments concerning the reports of a police "investigation" into alleged/reported allegations concerning Mike Hancock MP. I am somewhat astounded that the police have not actually contacted Mike Hancock concerning this matter, according to his spokesman. You would have thought that, with the papers bandying about words such as "police investigation" and "sex", the police would have at least contacted the MP. The absence of such contact leads one to suspect (dare I say it) that the press reporting is completely exaggerated: A spokesman for Mr Hancock later released a statement saying: 'The Sunday Times ...
Tuesday: You've still got a few hours left to nominate candidates for Party President, and I'd like you to consider making sure Auntie Jennie Rigg gets up to the starting line. It ought to be very difficult to choose between any of the THREE brilliant candidates standing for the post of Party President following the surprise announcement that Baroness Ros will not be seeking a second term. It OUGHT to be, and yet it's actually really easy to place my "one", "two" and "three", with the very important caveat that even my "three" is a sign of very high endorsement. ...
When the Big Society entered mainstream political debate a few short months ago the concept was relatively vague. Many people no doubt grasped that it was something to do with what government was or wasn't going to do. And what we might be expected to do for ourselves or organise at a neighbourhood level. Beyond that things got rather murky. The process of elaborating the concept continues, but at a practical level things move on apace. The June budget cuts, and the prospect of worse to come, have triggered many local councils to reflect upon their role as service provider ...
Ed Miliband took to the stage properly as leader of the Labour party for the first time, and delivered a populist speech that seemed to forget that only a matter of months ago he had written a manifesto that led to the Labour party's biggest defeat since Michael Foot. Not to worry thought the packed crowd, the preacher was on stage, and he was flanked by 'the new generation' of kids, who said politely behind him. He started almost apologetically, referencing his defeated brother David almost immediately by praising his speech and telling stories of their childhood. He was actually ...
Following the closure of J J Mundy's Greengrocers in Gatley, our butchers, Jackson O'Malley, is selling a decent selection of quality veg at good prices. Drop in and give it a try, but remember that if not enough people buy it, they can't keep on selling it.
We've all heard the boasts from Labour's summertime stand-in leader Harriet Harman about the hordes of new members who have overwhelmed her party since the General Election. In a speech to the TUC earlier this month she spoke of as many as 32,000 joining. Since we know that 177,559 ballot papers were issued to members to vote in the party's leadership election, we can calculate therefore that the membership at the time of the election, before these 32,000 new people joined, had been around 145,000. What Labour has been less boastful about is the fact that in their party accounts ...
The election of Ed Miliband as Labour leader — despite losing the vote among Labour party members and MPs/MEPs — presented an easy target for the Lib Dems, a party which has always believed in one-member-one-vote, and where the views of our MPs carry equal weight as any other party member. However, there is another election about to take place within the Labour party: for the 19 places available in their shadow cabinet. All MPs are eligible to stand, and the electorate comprises their colleagues; a separate ballot will decide who will be the Labour chief whip. So far it's ...
Well, that's one job done: the new Labour leader (but not the New Labour leader: absolutely not) has got through his first, major task: to deliver his speech to the party conference. It seemed to me to best understood as a 'detoxifying' speech. Just as David Cameron's biggest achievement as Tory leader was to make it almost respectable to vote for his party, so was Ed Miliband attempting to cast off the most illiberal and unpopular aspects of the last Labour government (even though he was a member of its cabinet). Perhaps inevitably this meant the focus of the speech ...
Ed Miliband used his first major speech as Labour party to leader to position himself and the party back into the centre ground. It was almost as though his brother, David, was giving the speech, talk of having to deal with the deficit, not backing unnecessary strikes over public sector spending cuts and wanting to ...
Today, Ed Miliband tried to rewrite history by putting distance between himself and New Labour and presenting himself as part of a new generation of Labour politicians. The truth is Ed Miliband spent the last 13 years at the heart of the New Labour project. He was an adviser in Gordon Brown's Treasury from 1997 and went on to chair the Council of Economic Advisers, responsible for long-term economic planning, in 2004. He was then parachuted into a safe seat and quickly appointed as a minister in Brown's cabinet before writing his 2010 election manifesto. He was an integral part ...
(National Poetry Day will fall on Thurs 7th October this year. The theme is 'Home'. Visit the organiser's website here.) Planet Home Rarely call it home No other place I'd rather be though Despite the terrible weather And the endless fighting (We do all fight a lot) The feeling that we could all do with a bit more room I love its noisy, messy, chaos It's lived-in feel I belong here and nowhere else And yet I rarely call it home If I step outside for a moment To view it with a dispassionate eye And try and distil its ...
So, the brother who tipped the Labour leadership race has given his first major speech. It came across as old thoughts on what is wrong with Britain. There weren't many solutions offered in the speech. Still, I will be watching Ed Miliband closely and don't think we can afford to ignore him because he does have strong convictions about the centre-ground. There were parts of the speech that I agreed with too. My thoughts are:1. He mentioned 'centre ground of politics' a few times. It is a challenge to the Lib Dems. Ed, during the leadership campaign, spoke more about ...
2:15 pm So, this will be the first big test of Ed Miliband's credentials as a political orator. He's not able to make major policy pronouncements or give us an indication of the make-up of his team as his hands are tied by the elections for the Shadow Cabinet. So today will be all about soundbites, positioning and rhetoric. Judging by his attempt on Saturday immediately after being elected, it's not something he's entirely confident in doing. But we shall see. For now the BBC's cameras are trained only on David Miliband, who appears relaxed and chatty. 2:21 pm The ...
Below is a great letter from Cllr Lianne Williams in last week's South Manchester Reporter.
In a big scoop for the Extra Bold Blog, I have obtained an early draft of Ed Milliband's speech. For copyright reasons, I won't release this until after the actual speech has been delivered. [check against delivery] Friends, comrades, it is 72 hours since I became leader of this party. I want to say how incredibly honoured I am that you have chosen me over my brother to lead our party. David that'll teach you to nationalise my train set. And let me pay tribute to two colleagues who are standing down. Alasdair Darling: you kept cool while Mandelson and ...
Do you think Ed Miliband wants us to think he's the new generation by any chance (insert here joke of choice about Jean Luc Picard or Coke as you wish)? [IMG: Ed Miliband speech word cloud] (Click on image for larger version) Image generated courtesy of Wordle
Although not really hurrah, because it brings bad news. One of my favourite Firefox extensions, Xmarks, is ceasing to be :( Although it will be possible to migrate to Mozilla's new inbroswer service, I shall miss Xmarks enormously. Still, Martin Robbins has a post in The Grauniad which should be read by anyone with a scientific or journalisty bent, Holly's Doctor Who Adventures magazine has a build-your-own-dalek kit on it, and Jesus and Mo is awesome today. So it's not all bad.
It's being billed as a huge speech for Ed Miliband, his first chance to place a personal stamp on the Labour party. 2.25 pm Begins with thanks for advice from all delegates, "some of it unsolicited", followed by warm tribute to brother David Miliband. Ed dismisses idea he's more left-wing; David, he says, threatened to nationalise his railway in revenge for Ed stealing his football. Next up on the tribute list is Harriet Harman. 2.27 pm Then there's Alistair Darling, praised for "keeping his cool" during the financial crisis; and Jack Straw, for his, well, longevity. Then it's straight onto ...
A new report released by Cancer Research UK has highlighted inadequacies in Wales' approach to cancer prevention and treatment and suggests that Wales is now slipping behind both Scotland and England. The report highlights the importance of cancer plans in setting direction, ensuring best use of resources to reduce cancer incidence and mortality, improving cancer outcomes. Worryingly, one of its first substantive overarching recommendations is that: "A more comprehensive plan should be developed to ensure consistent delivery, implementation and integration across Wales." (Page 4) Commenting, Kirsty Williams AM, Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats said: "Cancer Research UK are well ...
We had a good night at Dolce Vita in Ainsdale where there was a goodly turn out to support the first joint fund raising event. Haydn and his team had done us proud and the raffle surpassed the usually collection of unwanted bottles and recycled presents. Before I got there I chair a meeting of the governing body at Farnborough Rd School and welcomed four new parent governors. We met, for the first time, in the new canteen which is an excellent space and an asset not just for the school but the whole community. Birkdale is very short of ...
As many of my more regular readers will know, I work at RNID the charity for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. The charity does amazing work with a wide range of services that many people simply find invaluable. You can find out more about those services here. You can also get involved if you ...
A women who attended our last surgery complained about the damage to a bench outside the Red Chapel. I got the following email this morning: I refer to your recent enquiry regarding the seat outside Methodist Church Liverpool Road Birkdale I wish to inform you that a works order has been given to our contractor to repair the seat
The poor owners of Scone Palace had a nasty shock when a contractor arrived to remove a Marquee which had been used for a private function. The van crashed through a 16th century archway destroying it in the process. The family are looking at all available options for having the arch restored and repaired to ...
I read with amusement the comments of Emma Thompson who has said that people who don't speak properly drive her 'insane'. She obviously hasn't paid any recent visits to the East End of London where this dialect is spoken on a daily basis by all the natives, myself included. I am proud of my cockney accent and make ...
Over the weekend The Sun ran this: KAYA Cheshire may have only recently turned 18, but she's got far bigger things to worry about than boyfriends, make-up and A-levels. The aspiring journalist has turned her compassionate personality and hard working skills to a global issue in the fashion industry – whether airbrushing in magazines is really right. The student from South Wales used London Fashion Week this week to promote her Natural Beauty: Keeping It Real campaign that she launched via Battlefront, a Channel 4 funded project that helps 14-21-year-olds platform charity campaigns... She says: "When I started studying media ...
Members of the Labour Party in Wolverhampton overwhelmingly rejected Ed Miliband as their new Leader.
I detest animal cruelty with a passion. To see the terrible story of Ginger on the BBC news website today breaks my heart. As someone who has a rescued a dog herself, I am simply appalled that anyone could callously dump a dog by the side of the road and leave them to fend for ...
The International Monetary Fund has given strong backing to the Government's economic plans shows that the Coalition's approach to sorting out the economic mess seems to be working. This is good news as the government tries to stem the rising debt and deficit with a programme of public spending cuts. The message that the government will be cutting quickly and cutting now has given the IMF confidence in the country's recovery, even though I know we're about to announce some very tough measures to do it. Doing it now means less debt interest to pay off, and means that we ...
Conference season always makes me dislike politics. There's far too much braying from behind podiums. I didn't go to the Lib Dem conference, partly because I'm a skinflint, but mainly because I don't like all the cheering and chest beating that goes on there and at the other conferences that as a Lib Dem I don't get invited to. Until the world is perfect there is little excuse for cheering at political conferences as far as I can see. We have a job to do, and we haven't yet done it. I just don't get the whooping. My downheartedness sometimes ...
IS YOUR BUSINESS STRUGGLING THROUGH THE RECESSION ? YOU MAY BE ABLE TO GET HELP THROUGH THE RATE RELIEF Small Business Rates Relief (SBRR) is available to all eligible businesses. Those eligible for the relief have until 30 September 2010 to make an application for the period from April 2007 onwards. Businesses who apply for the SBRR after this date will only have the opportunity to claim backdated amounts from 1 April 2010 onwards. For more information or to find out whether your business is entitled to this relief please contact Business Rates on 0161 253 5035. Small Business Rates ...
The deadline for nominations is tomorrow at noon.People who are collecting noms for me? Can you email me at jennieDOTriggATgmailDOTcom how many you've got so that I can count up and see if I have enough? Not that I am panicking or anything... People who have not yet collected me any noms? Please consider doing so if you are able and qualified to sign, You can download the form from the member's area of the party website (registration required), or if you're not registered for the member's area on the party website it's on my campaign team google group (different ...
I had an unexpected experience on Sunday morning, as I was flicking through the channels to see if anything worth watching was on. BBC Parliament was showing the Diversity debate from our Conference last week, and Simon Hughes was on my screen. Given that I disagree wholeheartedly with Simon's stance on the issue, my finger was lingering on the 'next channel' button, until I caught him saying that he was going to be bringing proposals to the next Federal Executive calling for more quotas, beyond even those called for by the motion being debated. I do hope not. As the ...
I don't know Ed Miliband personally, but we both share connections to a place called Haverstock. If the universe of politics had ley lines, then to me Haverstock (named after the hill on which it stands) has all the signs of being one of the special places where they'd intersect. My first encounter with Haverstock came in the council by-election of February 2003, when local community activist Jill Fraser won the formerly safe Labour seat for the Lib Dems on a 20 percent swing. That small, orange-coloured stake in the ground in the midst of Labour's Camden heartlands presaged the ...
The Electoral Commission is plugging a gap in the record of political donations following a decision to change its policy on retaining copies of constituency candidate expense returns. Donations made direct to a candidate (rather than to their party) are only recorded in these constituency returns and do not appear in the donation records published by the Electoral Commission. However, in previous Parliaments both the local copies of these returns kept by electoral officials and the copies gathered in by the Electoral Commission were destroyed after a handful of years. This meant that even before the next general election was ...
Regular readers will recognise two themes that crop up repeatedly in my blogging about journalism: that the press's problems with falling sales are not only a result of the public's changing use of technology, they are also a result of the public's low trust in the press and that the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) should have its remit widened to include generally improving standards beyond dealing with individual complaints. Both of these themes came together in the speech I gave at the Liberal Democrat conference in Liverpool, when the party was debating reform of the PCC:
I don't know how many of you, like me, were greeted when logging into LJ today with an irritating banner across the bottom of the browser window calling itself "LJTimes" and flashing much useful information, all in Russian. If you want to get rid of it, just go here and make sure that the last box ("Cyrillic Services" - "Opt me into services originally developed for the Cyrillic users") is unchecked.
Is the 'Big Society' how the Liberal Democrats want society? I guess some of this is as I have written about (here and here) and some of it isn't. I would like to see democracy being expanded, decision making being given to a wider group of people, and a change in the way the government ...
Congratulations to Caroline and the Queen Edith's Federation Team, who have won the contest to run the new primary school on Gunhild Way.
Politicos use Twitter to communicate with voters, activists and the media. It's sociable and fashionable. It's useful but it has its limits. And if this was Twitter I'd stop there, for the paragraph above is a 140-character summary of the popular micro-blogging service and its emerging role in politics. Having the luxury of a whole chapter, rather than a couple of lines, I can expound a bit. But sometimes I relish Twitter's brevity and the way it gives me both the discipline and the excuse not to write at length. Twitter was to the 2010 General Election what blogging had ...
Tuesday of the Eighteenth Week after Pentecost The crowds that witnessed the healing of the man with the palsy were filled with awe at seeing it, and praised God for giving such powers to men. St Matthew 9.8 How much more should we not glorify God, we who know that the miracle was performed, not ...
I'd really like to get excited about yesterday's report from the International Monetary Fund about the Coalition's approach to the [IMG: IMF] economy. Many Lib Dems on Twitter were crowing about the praise dished out to George Osborne for his deficit reduction plan. I can understand that reaction. When approaches to the deficit are the political issue of the day, the decision on which the current government will stand or fall, any potential vindication of a controversial way forward will be grasped eagerly by supporters of the Coalition. But this was a report from the IMF. An organisation renowned for ...
A few days ago I did an interview about my own career with a new careers advice website, WYGU.com, talking about my own experience of moving around between several different professions - academia, IT, politics and communications with stints in both the public and private sectors. Here's the film: You can find out more over on the WYGU website.
From Stockport Council: Health and Safety that works Small and medium sized businesses in Stockport make a very important contribution to the borough's economic prosperity. However any business which fails to effectively manage health and safety can cost it money resulting from workplace accidents, ill-health, lost works and increased insurance premiums. Stockport Council's Health and Safety Team has produced a new easy-to-use pack to help small and medium sized businesses understand their requirements to manage health and safety and help them to maintain a healthy and safe workplace. The pack contains everything businesses need to know about health and safety, ...
Lord Avebury- A Policy of Appeasement? Published: 23 September 2010 - Written by Chris Blackburn in section: Controversy, Lobbying, News, Policy, Politics A Policy of Appeasement? I was recently having a discussion with a friend about the International Crimes Tribunal in Bangladesh. He couldn't understand why liberals and multiculturalists were being critical about the trial's developments. This criticism is part of a growing trend for supporters of the tribunal. I wouldn't like it to become a split. People have become fixated on the lack of support and naïve pandering to Islamists by western politicians. Islamists based in the Europe and ...
Another day,another study showing that breastfeeding babies with the milk they were meant to have is better for them. A study by Greek researchers shows that if babies are exclusively breastfed for 6 months, then they will have fewer infections and if they do pick them up,they're likely to be less severe. I would theorise that this benefit goes on well beyond the six months - after all, antibodies from the mother continue to find their way into her milk for as long as that milk is being made so it's clear that there will be some protective benefit. It ...
Former Welsh Secretary, Peter Hain is half right when he tells this morning's Western Mail that Labour should support electoral reform in next year's referendum. The idea that they should do so to drive a wedge between the Liberal Democrats and the Tories is though misguided and misplaced. What a number of Labour people do not seem to have grasped is that the coalition is here for the long term, that both sides understand there will be differences of opinion and that we are mature enough to deal with those and move on, even if it does mean legislating to ...
One of the most commonly made comments about insurgencies such as those in Afghanistan or Iraq, and most famously Vietnam, is that in order to win the insurgents simply need to survive. It's a piece of conventional wisdom challenged in a thoughtful piece in Foreign Affairs, based on looking at 89 insurgencies over the last fifty years: Many have assumed that insurgents invariably win by simply holding out. This is incorrect. Historically, governments have won more often than insurgents in the long run. And even wars that seemed to be spiraling inexorably toward defeat, such as Colombia's against the Revolutionary ...
Image used with permission from gyronny.com Last week Ben Summerskill warned the LGB community (Stonewall doesn't do T) to beware of politicians playing political football with the issue of equal marriage. Over the last week the tweets and comments have been coming thicker and faster from all political parties and those with none. There is uproar from a broad section of the LGBT community that hasn't been since 1969 and the original Stonewall riots. I think we have noticed that Ben Summerskill is like a poor confused pupil standing on the playing fields of Rugby unsure of what to make ...
I see Cllr Ken Thornber has started softening ther public up to cuts in staff and services at the county council "to meet government targets." What a pity he didn't think of costs before he authorised £43 million spending on his prestige headquarters in Winchester. No wonder its called the castle. All around the county there are district and borough council buildings under utilised. In Andover for instance there is empty office space at Test Valley's Beech Hurst offices, some already used by Hampshire County Council. Why not cut the costs of offices in Winchester by relocating services out to ...
i) births and deaths 28 September 1919: birth of Terence Dudley who directed Meglos (1980) and wrote Four to Doomsday (1982), Black Orchid (1982) and The King's Demons (1983). 28 September 1937: birth of Donald Gee, who played Major Ian Warne in The Space Pirates (1969) and Eckersley in The Monster of Peladon (1974). 28 September 1986: death of Denis Carey, who played Professor Chronotis in Shada (unbroadcast but would have been 1980), the Keeper in The Keeper of Traken (1981), and the Old Man in Timelash (1985). ii) broadcast anniversaries 28 September 1968: broadcast of third episode of The ...
Men and women go into politics as a career, and in order to transform society according to their ideals and beliefs. These are complementary motives and not either/or choices, but surely, at least for "left of centre" politicians, the second should predominate. Even if David Milliband is not, after all, to be leader of his party, he still has ample opportunity to contribute towards the creation of what is left of the socialist ideal. If he decides not to do so then he will seem like the playground footballer who refuses to play unless he can be captain. The most ...
UN to appoint Earth contact for aliens | News.com.au Mazlan Othman, the head of the UN's little-known Office for Outer Space Affairs (Unoosa). (tags: space)
Dear friends, Have a look at this: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/EU-human-trafficking-directive I've just signed a petition to David Cameron and Nick Clegg to ask them to support the EU Directive on Human Trafficking. They need to know that lots of people feel strongly about this issue and the more of us who email him the louder our voices will be. Click here to sign the petition to David Cameron and Nick Clegg now, it only takes two minutes: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/EU-human-trafficking-directive Thanks, Brian
I'm a little bit freaked out that the Labour party have been quite so... open about their leadership election votes. They have a website of how CLPs1 voted, and a separate table of exactly how each Labour MP and MEP voted. It's this way that we know that Milliband, D won a majority of votes from parliamentarians and Labour members, and Milliband, E edged ahead thanks to Union votes from signed up union members like, erm, Lib Dem MP John Hemming. And it's a little bit fascinating. Here's how Nottingham's Labour MPs voted: Graham Allen – DM 1, EM 2 ...
Another vessel is attempting to breach the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, only this time there is a difference: all the passengers are Jewish. The small catamaran, Irene, is sailing under a British flag and has various nationalities on board, representing several groups including the London-based Jews for Justice for Palestinians (JJP). The cargo ...
I recently received a request by my local council to participate in a budget forum to discuss how we can reduce or cancel services as part of a cost-cutting measure. Our council needs to save around a milliion pounds. I don't know how they got my name. Maybe they read my blogs! I really don't think any councillor gets elected in order to rule over reductions in service. We still want our grass cut and our pavements in good repair. Our street lights have to work and our bins need emptying. I suppose there are some who get elected on ...
In August I posted my initial thoughts on the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) consultation that had just been launched on the Operating and Financial Review (OFR). The deadline for getting your response in is the 19 October 2010. In my draft submission to BIS (below) I suggest there is now a need for Government to look beyond simply improving reporting in the UK's largest companies and to also embrace SMEs in a Gov't backed voluntary CR reporting process. SITUATION: THE OFR DOES NOT COVER SMEs - THE MAJORITY OF UK WORKING POPULATION In these tough times it ...
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Day 3547: Is that REALLY Machiavelli on the Wall? Millennium Elephant meets the Deputy Prime Ministe...
Friday (again) The first thing you see on entering Captain Clegg's Cabinet Office is a picture on the far wall of one of those ascetic thin-looking medieval chaps and you think... isn't that Machiavelli? Well, no, the FIRST thing you see is, of course, the ebullient form of Captain Clegg himself, bouncing around, welcoming you in, looking rather trim as though RUNNING the COUNTRY thoroughly agrees with him. Well, no, the REALLY FIRST thing*, before you even GET to his office, you have to go through some of those glass TUBES off the "Grid" from my SECOND-favourite SPY series, Pooks ...
