This weekend has been a very difficult one for my family. This evening I would like to say a very big thank you to the members of the Mourne Mountain Rescue Team who trekked up Slieve Donard late on Friday evening/early on Saturday morning to find my brother, D-, who was up on the mountain ...
The first week of the month is a busy one for community groups. Tuesday October 5th: Berry Edge Residents Association 7.00 p.m. @ YMCA Wednesday October 6th: Consett North Partnership 7.00 p.m. @ YMCA Thursday October 7th: Blackhill, Bridgehill, Benfieldside & Shotley Bridge Partnership 7.00 @ Blackhill Baptist Church Hall You'd be more than welcome at any of these meetings.
Business Secretary Vince Cable caused a great deal of overblown media fuss in his conference speech in Liverpool the other week by explaining some fairly basic economic theory. As good a speech as that was, I have been much more impressed by the remarks he made on Friday to a meeting of MEPs at the European Parliament in Brussels. While it has fewer jokes, I think that this speech is of much more significance and needs greater attention paid to it than seems to have been the case. There is some interesting stuff in there about the government's approach to ...
The Vauxhall, Nine Elms, and Battersea planning exhibition on Friday and Saturday saw a copy of early proposals for the redevelopment of the existing Nine Elms Sainsbury's on Wandsworth Road. The proposals would see the re-orientation of the store, so that it faces Wandsworth Road, with the car park located underneath the store. The railway line arches that are currently behind the store would be opened up, with a view to creating additional retail outlets. The plans would also see residential development above the store, although the height of such development is not currently known. Concept drawings for ...
This Friday and Saturday saw an exhibition of various plans for the Vauxhall, Nine Elms, and Battersea (VNEB) area. This included the plans for Battersea Power Station, Tideway Wharf, Embassy Quarter, New Covent Garden Market, and the Nine Elms Sainsbury's. The plans include new public space in the form of a 'greenway' through Nine Elms, and the opening up of the riverside. Planners estimate that the projects could create a combined total of 40,000 - 45,000 construction jobs, 20,000 - 25,000 permanent jobs, and 16,000 new homes. The Oval Lib Dem Action Team visited the exhibition to seek reassurances that ...
I think describing how I feel today as "like baked death" might be a slight exaggeration. Microwaved, perhaps.
Looking forward to meeting the beginnings of a new Friends of the Earth Group in Stockton by going to the coffee evening on Tuesday, 5th October, at The Friends Meeting House on Norton Green, Norton in Stockton. 7.30 till 9.30 pm. All are welcome.
The July White Paper on the NHS Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS contains several good ideas - like giving county councils a role in improving public health - and it claims as a main objective an increase in democratic involvement. A consultation paper has also been issued nicely entitled Local Democratic Legitimacy in Health. But it seems to me it takes several steps backwards. There was a Coalition Programme commitment(agreed shortly after the election) to have people directly elected to the PCT Boards so that they could play a full role in representing patients and the public in setting ...
Welcome to Broxtowe Enews, brought to you by the Liberal Democrats and edited by David Watts, the leader of Broxtowe Borough Council. 1. Beeston Town Centre This is the big news this week. I'm afraid that after more than a year of negotiations with the leaseholders, plans to redevelop Beeston Town square have collapsed. I put the blame for this completely at the door of the leaseholders. We have between us managed to agree all the terms bar one, which was that they refused to give us a commitment to start work within a reasonable time. We were asking for ...
Welcome back or just simply welcome! Freshers is here which means much drinking, not much work and plenty of freebies at Freshers Fayre. This year we have free chocolate and pens on offer and where we can, ready to answer your questions on the Coalition and on what we've done over the Summer with several of our campaigns on Bus Fares, Cracking Down On Dodgy Landlords and Recycling yielding results over the break. First social will be Liberal Drinks in Mojo's the day after Freshers Fayre (Thursday 7th) from 8 till Late where we'll be mixing with members and friends ...
The last 5 months have been anything but ordinary with the first coalition government since 1977 (after the Pact that nearly was between Lib and Lab in 1997) formed between the Liberal Democrats and the Tories. In Reading, we also have our own new administration between Conservatives and Lib Dems. As the new term starts, what can we do to keep our head above water, and what can we be proud of? Liberal Democrats have often cried from the sidelines at excessive bureaucracy; top-down centralised government taking money away from local councils to improve their own council housing stock and ...
A planning application has been submitted for the construction of a Travelodge hotel at 1-9 Bondway and 4-6 South Lambeth Place - this is part of the stretch of buildings between the bus station and the railway line. The hotel would be six stories high, with 148 bedrooms, and space for a bar, restaurant, and shops on the ground level. The building is currently unoccupied, and the adjacent Big Issue office and Centre Point hostel would remain. Artist's Impression taken from planning applicaton - Copyright Dexter Moren Associates You can view full details of the application on the Lambeth Planning ...
Budding apiarists in the Vauxhall and Kennington area will be able to find out more about beekeeping on Saturday 16th October, at the Keeper's Lodge, in Kennington Park, from 10:00 - 15:00. The session is free, with a suggested donation of £5. To book, email shawbarnaby@hotmail.com
The New Strategic Direction for Suffolk, as proposed by the Conservative Group on the County Council, is rapidly becoming a road to nowhere. A deceitful road to nowhere, to be honest. Here's the report on the County Council's website... At today's Full Council meeting it was agreed that the future role of Suffolk County Council in delivering services will be different. By changing the way council services are delivered, the county council will be able to reduce costs, reduce its size, cut out waste and bureaucracy and give the people of Suffolk a better say on how they receive services. ...
As part of the Thames Water's Thames Tunnel project, which aims to reduce the outflow of raw untreated sewage into the River Thames, Thames Water are consulting on the location of an access point in Vauxhall, to build connections between the tunnel and existing 'Combined Sewer Overflows'. There are four points under consideration, with Thames Water's preferred location located by 89 Albert Embankment. Of the four points under consideration, this is the location furthest away from residential properties, but it is close to office buildings. The proposed site, by 89 Albert Embankment - Copyright Thames Water You can view the ...
It now seems almost certain that there will be a referendum on changing the way we elect our Members of Parliament to the Alternative Vote (AV) next May. The referendum is planned to coincide with the local elections, so voters in Birmingham will be given two ballot papers, one to elect their local Councillor and the other to say yes or no to the change to AV. The referendum on AV is an important part of the Coalition Agreement. It is not something that many Conservatives were very keen on, so was an important concession by them to the Lib ...
Desmond Banks, Lord Banks of Kenton sometime speech writer to Jo Grimond , Director of Policy Promotions for the Liberal Party etc, etc introduced a very long paper to the Policy Committee (it may still have been called the Standing Committee in those days) during the preparation of the 1979 election manifesto. The topic was 'tax credits' and contained such concepts as 'negative income tax', it was a fully function system which integrated benefits and tax into a single payment/invoice. Nobel prize winner and Keynesian economist James Meade had written a paper on the topic the same year. At Desmond's ...
Plans have been submitted for the installation of a new commuter pier at St. George Wharf, potentially making Vauxhall Cross a Bus, Rail, Tube and Boat hub. The Putney to Blackfriars commuter service currently passes Vauxhall, and if it were to stop at a pier in Vauxhall, commuters would have a direct boat link to Embankment and Blackfriars piers. It could also help to alleviate some of the rush-hour congestion on other transport modes at Vauxhall Cross. The planning application can be viewed at the Lambeth planning website (10/02300/FUL). Don't forget to let us know what you think.
The excellent Vaxhall Park Cafe has recently reopened, offering a wide range of refreshments. The cafe originally opened in 2008, following the hard work of local residents, and in particular the Friends of Vauxhall Park; it can be found on the corner of South Lambeth Road and Fentiman Road, just a few minutes walk away from Vauxhall tube, bus station and rail station.
After midnight last night, a resident was walking the family dog on Magdalen Green where he discovered three rabbits caught in snares. He released the rabbits and contacted the police about this illegal activity. Not only is snaring illegal, it's incredibly stupid to put snares out in a popular dog walking site. I have been in touch with the police and the Leisure and Communities Department of Dundee City Council about this matter today. Our local Police Inspector has confirmed that officers are investigating, adding : "It was reported to us around 0130 hours this morning. I agree, it is ...
Now there's a sentence I never thought I'd write. Today, EPolitix.com reports that Nadine Dorries said the following at a Conservative Party conference fringe meeting: "In my own perspective, and speaking in no other capacity but as an individual, I would rather die than go into a full election as a coalition candidate," I think that every single Liberal Democrat would feel the same way, even if they wouldn't express it in quite that manner. But seeing that nobody has either seriously, or jokingly suggested this as an idea, I think we can all rest easy. It was Nadine's later ...
Shirley Williams celebrated her 80th birthday in style during conference this year. Folk who played a key role in the Crosby constituency were brought together by Drew Hayden for a party. For Liberals one of the memorable things about the by election was the selfless way that Anthony Hill stood aside to let Shirley be the candidate. She has fulsomely recognised Anthony's move. Those were heady days and there were people new to third party politics who felt we were going to sweep all before us at the General Election. I remember remarking to Scott Donavon (Shirley's Constituency Chair and ...
I received a complaint today that a load of dumped items (mainly clothes) have been dumped at the recycling centre in Pennycook Lane (see right) - I have asked the City Council to have this tidied. It is a pity that an irresponsible minority make this sort of mess - a clothes recycling ban in immediately adjacent.
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 189th weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere ... Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (26th September — 2nd October, 2010), together with a hand-picked quintet, normally courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed. Don't forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox — just click here — ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging. As ever, let's start with the most popular post, and work our way down: 1. ...
Sun 3rd
19:25
Arnold Schwarzenegger's priceless words in rejecting a bill which removed an apostrophe
From Stu Woo on Washington Wire: California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is using his veto pen to push back on some bills that legislators passed while they dallied on a solution to the state's three-month budget impasse. He's also using it as an outlet for his sense of humor. On Thursday, he attached this veto message to Assembly Bill 2418, which would have removed the apostrophe in the "Contractors' State License Law." To the Members of the California State Assembly: I am returning AB 2419 without my signature ... -Number of legislative committees that took time hearing this bill: 3 -Number ...
In recent years, Friends of Magdalen Green have published a calendar featuring the best photos of Magdalen Green, following an annual photography competition. This year, Dundee WestFest ran the photograph competition for a calendar, so we now have a calendar with shots taken all over the West End (including Magdalen Green!) The calendars have just gone on sale, at £4.99 each. They are being sold at Blackness Library, Perth Road Post Office, the Dundee WestFest shop and by mail if you email westendfestival@rocketmail.com. The Dundee WestFest shop on Perth Road is staffed by local volunteers and is open Tuesday to ...
Watching the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony today and seeing the chair of the organising committee being jeered by the crowd, it makes you wonder on the benefits of holding games such as these where you have to build large amount of stadia for that purpose only. I am totally behind our bid to host the World Cup. We have the stadia and every game will be full. I have always been sceptical of the benefits to Britain of the Olympics coming to London in 2012. What Britain needs like a hole in the head is further centralisation with massive one ...
The Justice Service is an ancient service of Christian worship insituted by the High Sheriffs, at which congregations pray for the visiting High Court Judges. High Sheriffs are appointed by the Crown: formerly county administrators, now responsible for the wellbeing and protection of High Court Judges and for sustaining and improving the morale of people involved in adminstration and charity work, particularly of a judicial or legal nature. The service has taken place in other parts of the County such as Ely and Peterborough in recent years, but today it came back to Cambridge for the first time in ten ...
Sun 3rd
18:37The Tory embarrassment that just won't go away: Andy Coulson 'listened to intercepted messages'
From the Guardian: The prime minister's media adviser, Andy Coulson, personally listened to the intercepted voicemail messages of public figures when he edited the News of the World, a senior journalist who worked alongside him has said. Coulson has always denied knowing about any illegal activity by the journalists who worked for him, but an unidentified former executive from the paper told Channel Four Dispatches that Coulson not only knew his reporters were using intercepted voicemail but was also personally involved. "Sometimes, they would say: 'We've got a recording' and Andy would say: 'OK, bring it into my office and ...
My experiments with downloading kindle files from the Internet Archive have not been an unalloyed success. Some of them are too garbled to be easily read. Two of them were completely different books to the book described. One of them crashed my Kindle and I needed Amazon's technical help to get it up and running again. On the other hand, I've managed to get a complete collection of Peninsular War memoirs from members of the 95th Rifles and the regimental history by Sir William Cope, and it is a lot easier reading them on the Kindle than in PDF form ...
Iain Dale was reviewing the papers with Sally Bercow at the end of August on Sky News when the subject of a Migration Watch report came up. Sally Bercow said something which Iain quotes on his blog today. It has subsequently become the subject of a legal scenario following a letter sent on behalf of Andrew Green, Chairman of Migration Watch. I quote from "The Lawyer": Green's lawyers at Milton Keynes based Geoffrey Leaver Solicitors have demanded an apology and legal costs from Bercow after she commented that a Daily Express story on migration and youth employment was grossly oversimplified. ...
Carrot or stick? It's a common policy debate – do you get the best outcome by punishing or encouraging? [IMG: Speed camera] At the moment, it most frequently comes up in political debates over the environment, and in particular recycling. Can recycling levels best be raised by encouragement, such as discounts for recycling more of your waste, or by threats, such as legal limits on how much you can place in your bins? It is a question that can be applied much more widely, which is why I was interested to see the initiative in Sweden where a speed camera ...
What is wrong with us Liberals? For years we been known as the anti-estbalishment "awkward squad". Yet, we get into government and we're as quiet as mice. My own view is that we have been very vocal about several hot button issues. But we're not seething with chips on our shoulders like the Tory right. We have been strong in defending certain red lines, but we don't do it with the same outraged indignity as the Tory right do – e.g Dr Liam Fox. Yesterday I linked to an article in the Times by Fraser Nelson which observed that there ...
The 10:10 campaign, set up to persuade people and organisations to commit to cutting their carbon emissions by 10% by the end of 2010, has shot itself in both feet. No Pressure, their latest mini-film, tried to push climate change back into the headlines in a way that made people laugh. Produced by Richard Curtis (Blackadder, Four Weddings and a Funeral), the mini-film contains four scenarios in which people who do not make pledges to reduce emissions are blown up by committed carbon campaigners, scattering their blood and bits across the faces and clothing of classmates, workmates and friends. Bill ...
I'm doing two local party events next week. [IMG: Yes to Fairer Votes banner: click to visit campaign site] In Camden on Wednesday evening it's "The Fairer Votes referendum: why the party wants it and how to win it". Details on Facebook and Flock Together. Canvassing is also taking place for Nick Russell's Kentish Town by-election bid earlier in the evening. Please ring Elizabeth Stanton Jones on 07981 872 106 for details. In Hackney on Thursday evening it's "How Liberals win: past, present, future". Details again on Facebook and Flock Together. I think this event certainly wins the prize amongst ...
I support Tim Farron for president because he is an outstanding public speaker, very strong campaigner (witness his massively increased majority from 267 to 12 264 last election) and very good in the media. Times are challenging for the Liberal Democrats. Lots of people who are not used to Coalition government don't see the difference ...
I was very pleased to see that the lines at the top of Schools Hill (around the junction with Turnfield Drive) have now all been repainted, including the centre lines, bus stop lines and parking bay lines. This is something Pam and I asked for a while back. At first, due to an error, only the Turnfield junction lines were done. We're still waiting for the double yellow lines to go down at the junction of Daylesford Crescent and Schools Hill - I'll be chasing that tomorrow. There's also something odd happening with the pooling at the bottom of Schools ...
The Conservative Chair of the London Fire and Rescue Authority announced this week that fortnightly waste collections are a fire risk. The reason, he tells us, is that they attract arson attacks. Meanwhile I have received a number of hostile letters because I suggested in a council meeting that there was no retail crisis at the north end of St Peter's Street in St Albans. That, far from there being a blight of empty shops, somehow caused by parking charges which rose only modestly last April, footfall is in fact increasing and void tenancies are decreasing. And anyway St Albans ...
On May 5th 2011, there will be a referendum on whether to adopt the Alternative Vote. The First Past The Post system hands power to the lucky few who live in marginal constituencies and sucks it away from the vast majority of us who do not. So over the next eight months the Liberal Democrats will be fighting hard, with others, for a 'yes' vote in the referendum. I've pledged to vote YES to fairer votes on May 5th 2011. We've seen the results of the current voting system from the War in Iraq to the MPs' expenses scandals. The ...
Cuba is one of the few remaining communist countries left. It survived the collapse of communism 20 years ago. Whilst most countries sent socialism packing, Cuba clung to it, though at an enormous cost to its economy and standard of living. I visited the country 4 years ago and saw at first hand how threadbare and rundown everything is. Now I see that under the leadership of Raul Castro, Fidel's
[IMG: incinerator-web.jpg] A cause for celebration this week! Both Coventry and Solihull councils have decided to pull out of Project Transform, the joint project with Warwickshire to build a new giant incinerator. This kills the PFI project, and forces Warwickshire to go back to the drawing board. I have long argued that the project was fundamentally flawed, that it would be too big and too expensive, and that cleaner technologies should have been used. Warwickshire now need to develop a "Plan B" waste strategy, with much greater focus on pushing recycling rates up towards 70% and getting residual waste down ...
Sorry, couldn't resist the alliteration in the title. I have a longer post planned for tomorrow morning which includes discussion of Stonewall's response and the Independent article, but in the interim here are a couple of updates from Twitter and other sources that may be of interest: There's a protest brewing, with it's own Facebook page Why The Silence Stonewall? have Stonewall's belated reply to their letter, as well as Andrew's response to it. The Independent picked up the story yesterday and also ran an opinion piece by Scott Roberts. The original Pink News Story is online at Gay Critic, ...
Last month saw the inauguration of the "Blavatnik School of Government" at Oxford University, described as "Europe's first major school of government". How on earth, one wonders, could we have done without all these centuries. And what does it say about our current crop of leaders here in the UK who have a plethora of Politics, Philosophy and Economics Bachelors' degrees from the University that such qualifications aren't actually enough to give them the skills to run countries? Leonard Blavatnik, who has donated an initial £75 million to the project, is not one of yer "traditional Russian oligarchs"; for a ...
While I'm generally supportive of the coalition government's attempts to fix the problems that 13yrs of Labour mismanagement have left us, let me make it clear – I am a Liberal Democrat. There are many Conservative activists, councillors and MPs I can converse with (even if I don't necessarily agree with their politics), Nadine Dorries is certainly not one of them! Nadine Dorries has been in the news again this week. On Friday Lucy Glennon wrote in The Guardian that the Tory Bedfordshire MP had blogged about one of her disabled constituents' frequent tweeting. Dorries assumed that someone who could ...
The posting below was written before I realised I would not be able to embed Martyn's 1987 live performance of this song in Dublin. So I suggest you watch that one rather than listen to the version here.. In Electric Eden Rob Young writes: Watching footage of Martyn playing live can be an unsettling experience. After a tortured, deeply emotive passage or song rendition, Martyn instantly snaps out of character, undercutting the intensity of the moment with a cheery "Awright!", the "Eyethangyew!" of a pompous music-hall entertainer or a crude joke.That tendency is well displayed in this tribute to Martyn's ...
Part of the Coalition deal was that the Lib Dems secured five cabinet posts, a number in proportion to the party's number of MPs. But there was another appointment which can be counted a success of the Coalition from the Lib Dem perspective: the appointment of Ken Clarke as secretary of state for justice. It's a success on two levels. First, Ken Clarke is a liberal Tory — so for the first time in 17 years (since Ken Clarke was home secretary in John Major's government) the UK has a believer in restorative justice setting government policy. After the right-wing ...
I, along with Sue and a delegation from the Southport Liberal Democrats, attended a mega training day put on by Chris Davies our regional MEP. It was a great day, with lots of training events to keep us all up to date with the latest campaigning techniques and messages. The highlight for me was listening to Andrew Stunell, MP for Hazel Grove and our party's Minister in Government for Communities and Local Government (pictured). He was also one of our negotiating MP's who helped to formulate the Coalition Government agreement. The word 'revolutionary' is often overused in politics, but I ...
Sarah, who is one of the very lovely Twitter F1 crowd I've met over the past year or so, has tagged me in this meme about Twitter. In a week where Nadine Dorries has shown such ignorance about social networking, it's great to have the opportunity to properly celebrate Twitter. When did you join Twitter? I wonder how Sarah found out the exact date. You used to be able to from Tweetdeck, but not any more by the looks of it. Why did you join Twitter? Mainly because I was sick fed up of seeing my friends' Facebook statuses referring ...
Well – education is certainly alive and well at Coleridge School. I went there on Friday to let year 5s grill me on the coalition, parliament and Crouch End! Whenever I go to a school (and I do go pretty often) I can always tell if the children have been taught well. This applies to all parts of the constituency – from the leafier parts to the areas that are more deprived – the children match the teachers. Clearly, from the level of enthusiasm to the intelligence of the questions – these children were on it! For an hour they ...
I gave a quick talk at BarCamp Brigton about how to hack the Amazon Kindle 3G. These hacks come in two flavours – easy and very easy. Very Easy – PicturesWouldn't it be great to view pictures on your Kindle? Well? OK – pictures, perhaps not so much – but comics? Yes please! For best results, image files should be the same resolution as the Kindle. 600px * 800px – and grey-scale. Let's use the XKCD comics – mostly because they're already the right size and mostly in black and white. And they're awesome. This hack can be done in ...
Part 25 of blogging my way through my first reading of Atlas Shrugged. You can find the first part here. Chapter 25: Their Brothers' Keepers AtlasWorld grows worse and worse; the machinery of civilisation is breaking down in the absence of its motivating minds. Rand's straw men, the moochers and looters, begin to demand that ...
Mark Pack blogged here on LDV this morning of Promising news on welfare spending as major reforms set for go-ahead, and noted that "Steve Webb's backing for the policies is a promising sign". Also crucial, it seems, was Nick Clegg's role, according to the Wall Street Journal's Iain Martin: I revealed in the summer that IDS and George Osborne had a stand-up row over the welfare budget, with a deal eventually being brokered in which IDS delivers cuts but gets to keep several billions for his reforms. The shape of those reforms will be announced at Tory conference next week. ...
Local police have praised young people after Chipping Sodbury's traditional "Mop Fair". The neighbourhood team of police officers and police community support officers (PCSOs) were joined by Special Constables in patrolling the two-day event on Friday and Saturday September 24-25. The Avon and Somerset Police website says Sergeant Adrian Fallows said: "It was a great opportunity for us to engage with local people. It was nice to see families with young children enjoying the event alongside teenagers. The atmosphere was friendly and relaxed." As part of Operation Relentless, focusing on keeping young people safe, police checked the parks and other ...
The Liberal Democrats are currently choosing their new President and you couldn't move at the conference in Liverpool without being asked to support Susan Kramer, Tim Farron or Jennie Rigg. My initial thoughts were that Susan was a serious if ... Continue reading →
Saturday: There's an election on in our local borough for a MAYOR for TOWER HAMLETS. Hard Labour have fired their candidate and are in total disarray; the No Respect Party aren't fielding a candidate of their own, but tried to stitch up a deal with the fired Labour candidate. There is EVERYTHING to PLAY FOR and that's why it's VITAL that Liberal Democrat John Griffiths stand up for the actual PEOPLE of Tower Hamlets! So, thanks to London's Finest, Helen Duffett, my Daddies got off their fluffy bottoms and went out to do some delivering for the Liberal Democrats campaign. ...
All the indications today are that Iain Duncan Smith has won his battle with the Treasury to reform the benefits system, thanks partly to backing from Nick Clegg within Government. The plan is that housing benefit, income support, incapacity benefit and dozens of other payments will be swept away as the Government seek to break the culture of welfare dependency by making work pay. Of course the next stage is to get the details into place and then to identify and create jobs, especially in many of the deprived communities around Wales. Nevertheless this is an important first step to ...
I have just voted in the 38 degree poll to cut waste by scrapping Trident. Not only is it a waste of money it is based on the false assumption that we are a big powerful country. We are not and we cannot afford Trident let alone the moral arguements that no-one should have these weapons. Some of the email from 38 Degrees All the issues are important. But what's the one big thing we should focus on in the next month? Stop spending money on Trident? Crackdown on wealthy tax cheats? Make the banks pay their fair share? Challenge ...
I suspect rather a lot of us don't care if Ed Miliband and his partner are married or not. Once again the media have subjected the 'new kid on the block' with their dirt digging and unique brand of the 'Mary Whitehouse' experience. This happened after the first leaders' debate during the election campaign to Nick Clegg. At that time, I was informed by a Labour supporting tweeter that the Lib Dems should get used to the 'scrutiny', without any degree of sympathy. This week I have been tempted to tweet back, but I disagree that this is genuine scrutiny, ...
There's an extremely lengthy post or article to be written by someone on all the reasons why Colchester Carnival didn't take place this year, but that's for another time and probably for someone who wasn't involved in the whole process to write. However, preparations are now underway for a Carnival in 2011, which Colchester Round ...
I'm in the home stretch with the Beatlebook now – with a little luck I'll be getting it uploaded tonight and I can get on with real work again. In the meantime, some links: CosmicOs is a Free Software project to essentially create a computer program which can be used to communicate with alien intelligences. ...
Yes, I know I'm late this week but its been a crazy one and I had a very important meeting to go to on Friday night which meant I was far too tired to do this properly when I got home. So here is this weeks Spidey's web which may or may not tickle your ...
The Chepstow to Tintern path straddles an international boundary, with all the complications that that brings. Like the Two Tunnels route, it will reuse an 'Engineering heavy' railway line with tunnels and a large bridge. It's a 'Connect2′ project - and it is one of only two Connect2 projects that started as a community-led idea. So lots of similarities with the Bath 2-tunnels project. The development of the Two Tunnels route has been blessed with a lot of support from near and far, as well as having concerns and issues that needed answering and resolving. The Chepstow to Tintern route ...
Liberal Democrats are going to be electing a new Party President soon. The role is up for election every two years and Ros Scott, who has done an excellent job, has announced that she will be standing down this time. I'm only aware of two contenders now - our own Susan Kramer and Tim Farron, MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale. Bloggers were given the opportunity to interview the candidates at Conference, but sadly I wasn't up in Liverpool in time to meet Tim Farron. Susan's interview was booked for Monday afternoon, immediately before Nick Clegg's speech when the conference halls ...
Well into the Blair era and the results in Stockport are taking on a feel that won't change a great deal in the following decade. 1999 was the year the Lib Dems first gained overall control of Stockport Council. It was under no overall control to 1975, then Conservative run to 1983, then no overall control again to 1999. The first Lib Dem administration only lasted a year - the council slipped back to no overall control in 2000. We regained our overall majority in 2002 and have hold it ever since. 06/05/99 1999 Stockport Bredbury (11718) @ 1 vote ...
You have to be fair, it is refreshing sometimes to have a government capable of raising the level of political and cultural discourse in this country. In this case, I refer to the discussions that have been sparked off by David Cameron's choice of Wilfred Owen's 'Dulce et Decorum Est' for National Poetry Day on Thursday. The Prime Minister says that this is his favourite poem which, as Harry Ricketts says in the Independent on Sunday is surprising: He is, after all, Prime Minister of a country involved in a protracted, much-debated war, and Owen's mind- and stomach-churning account of ...
I thought this photo on The Herald website was a great catch. It shows Iain Gray MSP, leader of Scottish Labour with an obvious item sticking out of his neck, so which of his own MSPs has done that? Obviously, it is a microphone, just in case you were wondering?
Well, it's been quite a week. We know Clegg called Ed Miliband to congratulate him on his victory at the weekend. Quite right too. Ed then strolled around telling everyone how he and David Miliband were, to quote Mark Knopfler, "Brothers in arms". Ed then unveiled his road to Damascus moment - on civil liberties, Iraq, banks, AV and justice reform. Spot on, Ed. His keynote speech said cuts were bad in general, but some were needed. But not which ones. Or when. He implied he now thought the Lib Dems not quite as bad as when he campaigned for ...
Ed Miliband has been working hard to position himself as the leader of the 'New Generation' Labour party. This got me to thinking. How does his plan for the future of the party stack up against his record so far? I decided to compare his speech to conference against his record of voting whilst in ...
Late last night I saw via author Keris Stainton's Twitter that Tesco's new advertising campaign includes more gender specific toy marketing. She highlights a blog post by Caroline Smailes which outlines the reaction of a 7 year old to an advert that states that baby faced dolls are for girls and transformers are for boys. Littlest watched the advert and got really bothered. Her response was, "But that's not fair. Transformers are good for boys and for girls." We had to explain to her that it was OK for her to like Transformers too. She didn't understand why Tesco would ...
For some reason on Friday morning, I ended up with Tinita Tikaram's Good Tradition running round my head. So, in the spirit of sharing here it is, in a video from 1988: And you can visit her website here. Andrew
The Greater Manchester Integrated Transport Authority (GMITA) is working on it's Local Transport Plan that will shape the way transport develops across Greater Manchester for up to fifteen years. The consultation will run from 4th October to 24th December, so there's time for us all to have our say. I've got quite a few schemes I'm keen promote, including some you'll probably have already heard about (e.g. new stations on the Stockport - Altrincham line) and I'll report back to you with more detail of the ideas I and my fellow councillors have come up with. I'd really like to ...
My little blog continues to go from strength to strength and this week another first was achieved. On October 1st my blog was mentioned on the Society Daily section, written by Patrick Butler. On my radar ... • Nadine Dorries MP. I thought at first her blog attack on "benefit scroungers" who Tweet was a hilarious spoof. But apparently not. Much Tweet anger followed yesterday, and some good blog ripostes, such as these by blogger Mind in Flux, Ms Humphrey Cushion and Liberal Democrat activist Andrew Reeves. Reeves writes: "Oh my god, it is stupid ridiculous comments like ...[Dorries'] that ...
A decent enough novel taking the Sixth Doctor and Peri to the phone phreaking and computer hacking culture of mid-80s America, the story told in first person by a transsexual Australian journalist. Ages ago I read Underground: Tales of hacking, madness and obsession on the electronic frontier by Suzette Dreyfus which covers some of the same ground from an Australian perspective, which was really all I knew about it; Orman's novel seems a fair reflection of what happens when aliens appear and semi-accidentally start to hack the human race. (The 'Blue Box' of the title is a hacking tool, not ...
Following the letter I received from Charles Kennedy regarding my criticism of the delay in his dismissal of his defection to the Labour Party, I have now had a chance to reply to him.Charles's office in Westminster should receive the letter Tuesday, Wednesday by the latest and I will post the letter next weekend/ early next week on here.
As my last post seems to have struck a chord with some people, it's become hugely popular and some good points have been bought out in discussion in numerous places. Rather than try to reply in all those places, I'll put a post up here. Firstly, I'll keep up any comment that's reasonable debate and not a personal attack. Here's a hint though, if your comment includes phrases like "Suck it up", it's going to get deleted. My blog, my rules. Deal. It also seems some people misinterpreted the post to mean that I no longer identify as a woman. ...
Simon Schama says in the History of Britain that Britain has not really been one for revolutions with big changes often happening in incremental stages. And so we have to dig to see the changes taking place and now is one of those times where there is a silent revolution taking place in Britain. Sam ...
I know for many members in the Lib Dems the five years that this coalition will be in power will be at times an emotional rollercoaster. I am certainly feeling it. First disappointment at the reduction of MPs we got elected, then a feeling it was right to talk to the Conservatives first. Then on the day David Cameron took power a belief we had given up everything just to win power. The day
Finding strengths is important in the change process so lessons can be learnt from what is working well. Here the Guardian has a piece on the Tories but makes an interesting point about making the country more liberal: Lib Dem members of the cabinet privately joke that the most liberal member of the coalition is ...
So, I have completed 3 cycles of chemotherapy, and now with a fair wind and favourable test results its time for the big one. The bone marrow transplant. Its due in October, subject to the above fair wind. It feels like the big hump to overcome, but I know that its just the start of a long process of building a new immune system, if it goes well. Its a very strange feeling, knowing that this is my only chance for a cure, and it is a potential cure, combined with an enormous sense of trepidation of the process and ...
Last month I highlighted this video from Greenpeace which promoted the green message in the style of a terrorist video with added threats. It looks like the 10:10 campaign has taken a little inspiration from this style of video by releasing their own showing anyone who is a little sceptical of the campaign being blown up. Some apparently find this amusing whilst others are screaming its offensive. As for me I can't get wound up either way but given the reaction from all sides of the debate it is certainly an own goal.
I can now announce that I have been voted by Lib Dem members as one of the seven candidates on the Mid Scotland & Fife regional list for the 2011 Scottish Parliamentary elections. Former MP for Dunfermline & West Fife ... Continue reading →
On Friday I mentioned how the old Liberal Democrat policy of integrating and simplifying the tax and benefits systems is getting a revival courtesy of Iain Duncan Smith. The former Conservative leader turned Work and Pensions Secretary has been arguing hard for the funds to introduce a simplified universal benefit that also is more generous than current rules to people in low-paid jobs. This would mean that people who currently find that taking a job makes them worse off, or only marginally better off, than being unemployed thanks to loss of benefits would lose less of their benefits and so ...
Without a doubt it's one of the nicest and most hidden treasures of Hampstead and all the better for not being the focus of historic pilgrimage... It's Golden Yard - sadly not named after some Midas element but after the Goulding family who lives here from about 1580 until Sarah Brown (nee Goulding) sold the last property in 1779. In some document's the yard features as Goulding's Yard and clearly just changed over time and useage. As I have blogged previously The Mount Square was previously known as Golden Square and probably had the same family name origin. For those ...
The Korean War broke out just three weeks after I was born, so I have absolutely no recollection of it. But after North Korean troops crossed the demilitarised line in June 1950 into the South, and newly-Communist China then piled in, the United Nations sent its first ever international intervention force. The United States was in ...
Eye On The Hill: Weeman! Where are all yon weeman? "...the UUP looks set to produce another raft of candidates for election who are very much more of the same... If so, it is a desperate gamble that relies on a lot of the allegedly stay-away voters suddenly realising that the 1950s are the political era they want to live in." (tags: uup northernireland) Fun with Gini Coefficients — Crooked Timber Achilles and the Tortoise discuss Gini coefficients and New Labour's record (tags: economics ukpolitics) John Scalzi on Atlas Shrugged I'm about a third of the way through it at ...
Last week I spoke at a conference on Home Care Modernisation. In Edinburgh we have made great strides forward in this area. Our old Home Help system was inflexible and inefficient. People once they got care had a Home Help in perpetuity. Faced with soaring numbers of older people we were forced to totally reform the system. we introduced the innovative re-ablement system where people were given intensive support to help them relearn their life skills. At the end of the 6 weeks 48% didn't need a home help at all and that resource was there to be used for ...
Over the last few months I have been involved in a string of letters in the local newspaper with two Labour Party members. Well I have had two replies. Here is my latest letter. Thanks to Simon Rudd (letters 29th October) for his reply to my letter and thanks for calling us by our correct title, Liberal Democrats. To answer his questions, the Office for National Statistics does tell us there is a £4 trillion debt and this figure includes £770 billion of unfunded public sector pensions. The ONC report suggests that this amount should be included in the total ...
