As one conference closes, another opens... David Cameron strode into the Conservative Conference in his usual, striking, arrogant confidence; the pure arrogance, when you can almost see "born to rule" self inscribed across his forehead... This was of course his first appearance at Conference as Prime Minister but little did he know that several days later he would be facing the fury of his own supporters... By Wednesday, he would be mauled by his own party; Time to feel the aggressive wrath of the rich, stay-at-home mothers... It would appear the slashing of child benefits to those within the top ...
estate walkabout time again. Always good to have a chance to walk round the Council estate, meet residents and look and see with us all there. No chance of passing the buck as to who is responsible as we are all there to pass it back ! We talk and look about where spring bulbs can be planted out of our Community Participation Budget; rejoice at repairs to garage doors done; despair at the chip...
It is hard to escape the conclusion that Alan Johnson has been made shadow chancellor because: he is not Ed Balls;he is not married to Ed Balls.Still, Ed Miliband's decision to appoint does suggest that he is planning a strategy that goes beyond opposing every Coaltion spending cut. That will help the quality of political debate in Britain and will not do Labour's prospects any harm in the long run. You can debate whether this shows Ed Miliband is strong - prepared not to give Balls and Cooper what they wants - or weak - unable to trust himself to ...
Broadly speaking I think that the personnel in the new shadow cabinet are the correct ones, with some notable absences (Ben Bradshaw and Dianne Abbot perhaps the saddest and most surprising). It is hardly a break from the New Labour, however it is my profound belief that the party should make use of their brightest and best - although the change in policy may seem somewhat artificial coming from the old guard. The top three seem to be the most confusing of the appointments. Alan Johnson - Shadow Chancellor Of course, Alan Johnson has been the headline all day. Mainly ...
Before my New York interlude I was working through my summer holiday for you on this blog. I had got as far as White Grit on the way to The Bog and the Stiperstones Inn. Soon I will resume that journey, but in the mean time a reader - who knows what I like - has kindly sent me an article from an issue of the magazine Buses Extra (published around 1981) which recalls a two wander around Shropshire that the author, Tony Moyes, took in 1967. Discussing the route along the main road from Shrewsbury to Bishop's Castle, Moyes ...
One of this country's most prominent European politicians and thinkers, Graham Watson, launches his new book later this month. I'm hoping to be there myself, and it might be an interesting opportunity to explore this relatively little known area of European political dialogue...
Jenny Rohn, scientist and instigator of the Science is Vital campaign, has given the battle to save UK science funding its most memorable slogan (Science - it beats living in caves) - but the article following that magnificent headline is even more valuable as Jenny shares with us her reasons for wanting to be a scientist.I recall very clearly reading an article - thanks to the wonders of
Another focus is starting to get delivered. I started off this audacious task - along with other folk cranking up the shoe elather - up in Brislington today. It's great to see us getting out there, keeping it real, a colourful A3 with some fantastic local stuff on the back. Lets get out there and fly the flag. Keeping in touch. Thats the thing - letting people know that we are there all year round unlike Labour and the Tories round here taht only seem to put their heads above the parapet from new year until election day. Rest in ...
Fri 8th
20:29
ELDR to discuss demographic change next week in Helsinki. 'Liberal Bureaucracy' reports...
Is it really a year since the last ELDR Congress in Barcelona? The answer, it seems, is yes, so 'Liberal Bureaucracy' is pleased to bring to a rather wider audience than might otherwise be the case, a preview of the forthcoming debates. It is traditional on these occasions to start with the theme resolution, a generally weighty tome, running to pages, written in a Euro-variant of English, and this year is no exception. Indeed, so much so, that the report will come in several parts. Bear with me... Liberal Responses to the Challenges of Demographic Change DRAFT theme resolution of ...
Large scale public sector job cuts, the banks not lending to small businesses (at least in part because they are being required to rebuild and increase that capital holdings), Obama struggling to get his stimulus package through all could combine to usher in a time of mass unemployment. Most respected opinion seems to think that we will escape such a mess but if we don't then it would be time to dust off the Liberal Manifesto on 1929. This copy was found in the garage of a prominent Birkdale Liberal H.G. Williamson who lived in Grosvenor Rd. In the top ...
I have decided to support Tim Farron MP as the best person to follow on from Ros Scott as our party's President. Tim is exactly the sort of campaigning Liberal Democrat the party needs as President. Here's a message and a video from Tim : The Liberal Democrats are getting a huge amount out of being in government: protection for the lowest paid, the most ambitious political reforms since universal suffrage, restoration of civil liberties... in fact the only thing we're not getting is the credit we deserve! That's why I've decided to run to be President of the Liberal ...
Following on from a posting last week where we discussed how a moribund right-wing organisation could be taken over by a 'helluva scary witch' comes news that an enterprising doll manufacturer has brought to market a Christine O'Donnell witch Doll-for it is she who is the scary witch She is not the only politician to have a doll marketed promoting their likeness. The same fate befell the excellent Lib Dem MP for Somerton and Frome,David Heath. I'm not sure whether it was the deciding feature in his hard fought victory against the Tory Annunziata Rees-Mogg. By the way I am ...
The political process begins to break down in a democracy when a major political institution becomes moribund and is captured by folk who want to use it to promote their own bizarre and/or often dangerous views. The Militant tendency had little trouble taking over small constituency Labour Parties and didn't much care if they alienated those who opposed them. These folk are often energetic and carry with them an absolute conviction about the correctness of their own ideas. By capturing the 'shell' of an institution that has long held the loyalty of a section of the electorate they can soon ...
Last night, I was 'official minute taker' at the Friends of Magdalen Green latest committee meeting - another very productive meeting of this hard-working, but above all, jolly committee! Matters discussed include :Feedback on the Friends' successful coffee morning on 25th September - and ideas for the 2011 one.The new Friends of Magdalen Green website - soon to be relaunched with a new address and design - more about this later.The continuing problem of parking on the north edge of the Green - our Chair is raising the matter with Tayside Police.Friends of Magdalen Green's involvement with the forthcoming community ...
Fri 8th
19:21
Jeremy Hunt, the kiss of death and a pleasant surprise from behind from Ken Dodd's tickling stick
Jeremy Hunt The Daily Mail have tipped Jeremy Hunt as a future Prime Minister. That's the kiss of death for him, then. After all, who remembers John Moore - except for rabidly obsessed polinerds such as myself? The thing about Jeremy Hunt is that he always seems to have a very strange juvenile grin on his face – as if Ken Dodd has just given him a pleasant surprise in the rear nether regions with a tickling stick.
Paul Scriven, Liberal Democrat Leader of Sheffield Council was on Radio 4's Today Programme, outlining Sheffield's plans to provide more localised services to help combat teenage pregnancies and save money. Take a listen here on iplayer, but I'm not sure how long this link will be live.
The 2010 South Gloucestershire Engage Festival is taking place on Saturday 16 October at the WISE Campus, Filton between 10am and 6pm. More than 250 performers will be taking part in a variety of live performances, youth and environmental activities, interactive information stalls, and there will be an impressive feast of Indian, Mediterranean, Chinese and British food. For more information, visit the South Glos web page. If you go to the event, look out for the young people of extreme sports group Yate Parkour - they're spectacular!
Centre for Europe believes there is a desperate shortage of reliable information comparing the various sectors of public services across the various countries of Europe. So, in Britain for example, when we discuss the optimum structure for our health service we may suspect that these things are better ordered in France or Sweden but have ...
Friday: I said to Daddy this morning: basically, Mr Potato Ed has NO CHOICE. If he gives Mr Bully Balls the Shadow Chancer job, then he's as good as signing Hard Labour up to five years of Balls-o-nomics, the living in denial argument that there's no need to cut the deficit, and he can kiss goodbye to the next General Election today. Nor can he give the job to Ms Cooper because, unlike Mr Ed himself, SHE won't stab a family member in the front. So he's just GOT to give the pair of them the OTHER two "Great Orifices ...
Fri 8th
18:46VIDEO: It's actually quite hard to throw an envelope and hit someone. And when you happen to hit Jer...
And it has to be said that Kyle was behaving most obnoxiously...and he has two dirty great bouncers to protect him. I say all power to the elbow of the envelope thrower myself... Jeremy Kyle gets an envelope launched at his head @ Yahoo! Video
Fri 8th
18:37
Open letter to the Chancellor from Evan Harris: Why it's vital to protect science funding
Scientists will gather at the doors of the Treasury in Whitehall tomorrow to protest against threatened cuts in science funding. This is what we are saying to the government Dear George, As you read this, I hope you are hard at work in your office in the Treasury on a sunny Saturday afternoon working on the Comprehensive Spending Review. I'll be outside your window at the head of a demonstration of well over a thousand scientists and researchers bringing you a message about what's best for the country's future. Many of us will be in white lab coats, but it ...
So Ed Miliband has announced his shadow cabinet. You can see a full list on Paul Waugh's blog on the Evening Standard here. Biggest surprises, for pretty much everyone was Alan Johnson as Shadow Chancellor, and I'm not sure the reasoning behind it. I'd liked to have seen Yvette Cooper as Shadow Chancellor, I think she's quite talented. The other shocker is Ed Balls. Shadow Home Secretary. This was my twitter response: It will be interesting to see how Balls is in the post, but judging from his rhetoric in the past I'm not sure it will convince of the ...
Ed Miliband has clearly changed his mind about winning over Liberal Democrat voters with the appointment of the highly authoritarian Alan Johnson. I freely admit that Alan is a big hitter and more popular than say Ed Balls who commentators expected to get the job. However was this not a chance for Ed Miliband to demostrate how different he is and to demostrate this new generation. I personally think a more radical and better appointment would of been Yvette Cooper. Even though this could of looked like a snub to her husband Ed Balls. I think Yvette Cooper would of ...
A consultant who works at Great Ormond Street Hospital came to see me at surgery today. He wanted to tell me his side of the story about the 'no confidence' letter signed by around forty doctors et al a little while back. He wanted me to know that he had worked there a number of years and whilst there were issues about one thing or another – he was happy with the management and felt they did a good job. His telling about the big meeting of consultants that took place at the time of the 'no confidence' letter was ...
If your easily embarrassed look away now You fought for the Stafford Crips...Huh! H/T iain Dale
Dear Mr Kennedy,Thank you for your letter dated 26th August 2010 and my apologies for the delay in replying. I am grateful that you took the time to reply to my criticisms voiced on my blog.Although I am now secure in the knowledge that you will always be a Liberal Democrat, I feel you have not answered my main point of my article, why did it take you so long to dismiss the rumours and allow the
Here are the Liberal Democrat entries in the top 100 political blogs as ranked by Wikio: 1 (4) Liberal Democrat Voice No change 2 (25) Mark Reckons Falls 8 3 (37) Caron's Musings Falls 2 4 (46) Mark Pack Rises 2 5 (52) Miss S B Rises 4 6 (54) Liberal England Falls 8 7 (58) Liberal Vision Falls 5 8 (61) Craig Murray Falls 16 9 (62) Stephen's Linlithgow Journal Rises 1 10 (71) Millennium Elephant Rises 14 11 (72) Peter Black Rises 3 12 (74) Nick Thornsby New 13 (75) Quaequam Blog! Falls 7 14 (83) Liberal Burblings ...
I spent the first four months of 2010 nursing my mum through a bad attack of shingles. Now I've got it. On Wednesday evening I noticed what looked like a mosquito bite on my waist (we are having an Indian summer here, so a bite was not impossible). Yesterday evening the single blister had become a line running for a few inches round my waist -- a classic shingles rash. I've been feeling under the weather for a few weeks and had an itchy back; that is often how the disease starts. I didn't catch it from mum. You can't ...
Peter Lilley – remember him? I've just finished reading Peter Snowdon's superb Back from the Brink, which should be required reading for Labour politicians right now. Reading it reminds you just how far the Tories have come, and the relevance of Peter Lilley is that he was William Hague's first shadow chancellor back in 1997. Other recipients of the poisoned chalice included Francis Maude and Michael Portillo. I raise that because I think it's quite possible that Alan Johnson will go down in history as a Shadow Chancellor whose term in the job is a mere footnote to a previous ...
What happens to your digital life when you depart the blood and skin world? A first DDD in California earlier this year is being followed up by a UK digital death day unconference in London tomorrow.
It's Friday afternoon and think that there should be some fun. So, Think you know about Scouting? Think again. I'm involved with Scouting in a number of roles, all of them as a volunteer. And having gained much as a Scout – even gaining my Queen's Scout Award back in December 1997 – it feels ...
Yeah this week we lost the comic genius of Norman Wisdom. Even into his 80s he was still a genius of slap-stick and the one liners. But over the last six months he suffered a series of strokes. However, one thing well never really did was heed his words in this song. Basically because we couldn't help put laugh at Norman. Like this scene from A Stitch in Time. His last role was only a few years ago when he was 91. The physicality may have been whithered by age, but the timing and the facial comedy was still there, ...
NEW ENVIRONMENT GROUP For those interested in their Environment, please come along to the initial meeting Thursday 28th October, 2pm in the Community room, Maple close, Stockwood. The flats are just across the road from the Library. If you have an interest in your environment, parks, litter, or any other matter affecting where you live, please attend. This is a sub-group of the Neighbourhood Partnership, for further details please contact Gemma Dando, Area Co-coordinator Bristol City Council. Email gemma.dando@bristol.gov.uk or phone Gemma on 0117 352 1090 If you would like a lift, please let me know. I Hope to see ...
I've been doing my best to give myself an education in economics recently by reading anything I can on the subject, and am currently ploughing my way through Schumpeter's Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, although 'ploughing' implies faster progress than has actually been the case. One of Schumpeter's arguments – or, perhaps, talking points – about ...
I don't have time to do a full blog post on this right now, but here are some quick thoughts on Ed Miliband's Shadow Cabinet. I am not even in the Labour Party and I am fuming that Yvette Cooper didn't get the Shadow Chancellorship. I think that with her knowledge of the welfare system, combined with her experience as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, she would have mounted a credible challenge to George Osborne. As it is, Ed Miliband has given himself a Shadow Chancellor with no experience of any economic portfolio. Alan Johnson will at least have as ...
Prestwich Liberal Democrats are angry at the Council's decision to start charging for parking at Fairfax Road. Charges will start on Monday 11th October, meaning that local people will now need to pay to use local shops, the library and NHS facilities if they park close by. We think the charges are bad for lots of reasons. It will mean that people needing to go to the doctors or the Walk-in Centre will have to pay, and it will mean added congestion on local streets. It will also make it even more difficult for local business to attract shoppers. At ...
I am judging the Smartest Street competition alongside Homesmine editor Jill Burdett promoted by the South Manchester Reporter and supported by lettings agency Jordans. The aim of the competition is to find the most loved and best cared for street in your area. By entering the competition you could win £100 worth of M&S vouchers and get you ...
Such a pleasure to visit some of the projects funded by the Big Lottery in Hornsey & Wood Green. I always enjoy it – and today was no exception. First off was a visit to Exposure where lottery funding is being used in such an imaginative way. Young people with mental health issues produce their 'mind journey' in written, illustrated and printed form. The project originally started with 'mind films' of which we saw three. In each case the young person with mental health issues supprtoed and enabled by the Exposure team was able to visualise their experience through the ...
Birmingham, the city that this week played host to the Conservative party conference, has also been hosting a grass roots battle for Liberty. This battle takes the form of a campaign run by residents against Project Champion. This project involved the police installing automated number plate recognition cameras (ANPR) in a Muslim area of the city. It has now been shown that the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) provided the project's funding as part of an anti-terror grant. This raises the questions as to why people were mislead by senior officers into believing the cameras were installed for crime ...
It has been a good week for defences, with seven of nine principal council by-elections resulting in a hold for the incumbent party. The Tories held two of their four defences; a head-to-head with Labour for the Tithebarn ward on Wyre Borough Council where they sauntered in with 73% of the vote; and in the Maidenblower division of West Sussex County Council with a less impressive 64%. The only seats to change hands on the 7th both went from Tory to Labour. In the Irwell ward on Rossendale Borough Council the Conservatives dropped almost 14% of their previous vote, mainly ...
Lord Ashcroft has spent some the money he acquired through not paying his taxes on a fascinating poll of former Labour voters. The poll looks at 2091 people who voted Labour in 2005 but for other parties in 2010, 47% of them voted Lib Dem. It provides a wealth of information on the attitude of these voters who it is crucial we retain in 2015, and how they differ from ex Labour voters who choose to vote for other parties. The first issue looked at is why did they leave Labour. They are asked to rate a number of reasons ...
Health professions from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland have been attending a conference as the Slieve Donard Hotel, Newcastle to discuss abortion and clinical practice. This is a major breakthrough step in my opinion as currently nowhere in Ireland is it abortion freely available and it is only used in extreme ...
Yesterday I tweeted ""I'm more than a bit worried about this #rainmaker thing. it requires others giving my email address to them without my agreement. #donotlike" in response to my receiving a few 'can we connect' requests on different services which all had "found via rainmaker" on them and going to see what it was all about. Late last night I received an email from Joshua Deixler (signed Co-Founder CloudCenter, LLC joshua.deixler@CloudCenterLLC.com) telling me that "We take privacy very seriously. I would really like to understand your concerns about providing email address. I am not sure how rainmaker facilities (sic) ...
This is Lily Schlaen of Orquesta Sin Fronteras, playing opposite the entrance to Downing Street yesterday afternoon, in aid of Kashmiri human rights groups. Lily is a force of nature and her new orchestra, based in Teddington and including musicians from every nation and range of abilities - including disabilities - is an inspiration. She is also my violin teacher. It was fascinating watching the concert yesterday, with all the political apparachiks dashing by without ties (the civil servants in Victoria Street all have ties). Most people are too busy to listen, but somehow bringing culture into the traffic ...
Alan Johnson has beaten both Ed Balls and Yvette Cooper to the position of Shadow Chancellor. It seems that Ed Miliband simply couldn't decide between the married couple, so went for experience instead. Balls will now Shadow Theresa May in the Home Office, and Cooper will shadow William Hague's Foreign Office. Other notable positions are Andy Burnham rightly being given Shadow Education Secretary, a brief in which he is likely to excel. An equally astute appointment is that of Deputy Leader Harriet Harman to Shadow Secretary of State for International Development. Unsurprisingly Liam Byrne has been moved out of the ...
Anyone out in Prestwich Village this weekend has the chance to sign our petition to stop parking charges on Fairfax Road. The charges are to be introduced by the Council on Monday 11th (this coming Monday) despite massive and overwhelming opposition. There is a petition in Prestwich Pharmacy calling for the decision to be reversed, and it's something we'll be fighting for until it happens. You can also sign online via www.loveprestwich.com Rick
Congratulations to our local MP Ivan Lewis for his election to the Labour Shadow Cabinet. Obviously we have political differences but it's clearly a good result for him and I wish him well and all the best working with Ed Miliband as the Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. Not a bad gig with the Olympics coming, I would suggest. Anything he can do to get more public funded sporting facilities for Prestwich would be a boon too. The Shadow Chancellor is Alan Johnson, who I've always found reasonable and amiable when I've heard him speak. This ...
The police's handling of Oliver Drage is already a disaster in wider practical terms and can only get worse. It has been all over the internet for the last couple of days so I'm sure most people reading this have already seen the story, but to summarise a teenager has been jailed for 16 weeks because he refused to hand over his passwords. He's accused – and we have no idea what evidence the police have – of some sort of "child pornography" offence. The act under which he's been charged, Regulation Of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, is one that ...
The moments in my life when boredom and muse combine are, mercifully, rare. On the unfortunate occasions when I am at a loose end and feeling poetic, this is the type of thing that results. I've had the deficit on my mind, and since I can't pay it off, maybe 32 unnecessary rhymes will help... Enjoy. I'm feeling slightly sick about our finances today. The banks won't lend and there's no money left, but bills to pay. Our taxes up, our wages down, it's causing quite some stress. Our nation's leaders say we're in a right old Eton mess. With ...
Nick Clegg was visiting Northern Ireland yesterday. Me and Mícheál were a bit perplexed that our invites to join him for tea were clearly lost in the post. But he did invite Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness to see him which is probably more important*. Over at the Liberal Democrats in Northern Ireland blog I've written about the statements made by Nick and Peter yesterday, go have a look at what I said about it. "Over time we clearly need to try and create a NI economy which is more diverse..." Nick Clegg, Stormont Castle, 7 October 2010* Though a ...
The New Statesman has been rather painful reading for Lib Dem coalition supporters over the last few months. So there was at least a crumb of comfort to be had in Rachel Cooke's TV review in last week's issue, in which she offered a qualified defence of free schools. (Although she was less sympathetic to free school promoter Toby Young, protagonist of the programme she was reviewing). Cooke comments: I was fascinated by the way the NUT's local representative, Nick Grant, oozed only envy at the thought of Young and others like him. Clearly the idea that some free schools ...
There has been much mirth in he media this week at Cameron's expense that when he came to the "big Society " section of his leader speech at the Tory Conference, nobody applauded. As is customary with the media these days, this provided the catalyst for numerous journalists to interview numerous delegates in order to find out if they know what Cameron is on about. Of course they were delighted to report that many didn't seem to know or possible even care. I have to say I wasn't exactly surprised by the reaction, in fact I would probably be undergoing ...
The first announcement of the Shadow Cabinet appointments brings a few surprises. Mr and Mrs Balls are sent to Home and Foreign Offices respectively. Of more interest is the appointment of Alan Johnson as Shadow Chancellor. Of all the current Opposition front bench he is the one for whom I have most time. Nevertheless, quite how he fits into the "new generation" is not clear.---Sent via BlackBerry
It's been a heady week for British science in the wake of the Nobel prize announcements. British reproductive biologist Robert Edwards was awarded the prize for medicine for his role in developing the in-vitro fertilisation techniques that led to the world's first "test-tube baby". In the same awards, the prize for physics was given to a pair of Russian-born scientists, Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, who we are lucky enough to have currently working at Manchester University. Incidentally, Geim is also an Ig Nobel laureate for developing an experiment in which he levitated a live frog using magnetic fields acting ...
I am backing George Lyon, Lib Dem MEP for Scotland, in his criticism of the Scottish Government for threatening farmers with draconian penalties for breaching rules on land covered by whin and bracken. Irish farmers have confirmed that the Irish Government will not be introducing tougher penalties for breaches of eligibility criteria. This comes after it was revealed last week that England's penalty regime is much fairer and proportionate than the one used in Scotland. Commenting, George said, "For the last five years, the Scottish Government's own guidelines have said nothing about land covered with bracken and whin being ineligible ...
After a lot of hard work, Antrim has been declared Northern Ireland's first Fairtrade Borough. I know that David Ford MLA who was Councillor for Antrim Town worked very hard as chair of the Antrim Council's Fairtrade committee, before he stepped down from the Council on becoming the Minister of Justice for Northern Ireland earlier ...
I've had a request to help publicise a great local project. It's the South Liverpool Foodbank which is based at the Bridge Chapel on Heath Road. The idea behind the scheme is simple. They collect non perishable food and pack it into boxed with enough for roughly three days. People in sudden need are referred to the project and can collect a box of food. Volunteers also make sure they offer hot drins and a place to chat if wanted. The scheme's been going for just over a year now and is always in need of donations of food, help ...
The provisional Primary School results for Key Stage 2 & 3 are now available: It shows that for inner london 511/700 schools took part. I'm told by officers that the 6 Southwark schools you'd expect better results from didn't take part. So its really hard to compare this year with previous years. Despite this broadly Southwark appears around the inner london average. I'm looking forward the final version coming out in January.
The right to vote is a right that has been fought for over many years. In Northern Ireland we exercise this right in the usual way of attending a polling station near to our homes, providing Identification to ensure that we are entitled to the vote (why this is not introduced throughout the UK is ...
Just a quick plug here for firstsite's latest project, The Colchester Capsule, as it finishes tomorrow and it's a chance for anyone to get involved with a piece of art and a message to the future. When it's filled, the capsule will contain a variety of items that represent Colchester in 2010 and will then ...
Yesterday the leader of the Liberal Democrats, the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg was in Northern Ireland. He was meeting with the First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness at Stormont Castle. The major concern for Northern Irish Ministers was the proposed spending cuts that are to come in across ...
Rejoice with me:Stockton Council's Cabinet will meet in public in Stockton Central Library at 1630 on 14-10-10 to consider a report on the future strategy for building work on schools. Among the recommendations from Officers is one "that the strategy should not include any further work on option D2 of the four options proposed for investigation to deal with the demands for pupil places
Blah blah impractical blah blah doesn't work with all doors blah blah. But it'd be a whole lot of fun if Good Morning leaflets were designed using this.
The outcome of the Shadow Cabinet elections has led to unfortunate consequences for Welsh Labour. Having spent the last four or five months banging on about the Secretary of State for Wales not representing a Welsh constituency they now find themselves in the position of relying on Ed Miliband's largesse to put up a Welsh Shadow to her. This result is a particular snub to Peter Hain, who was not so long ago a Deputy Leadership contender but now appears to be yesterday's man. The excuses being trailed around TV and radio studios by Welsh Labour MPs do not hold ...
Nick Clegg was in Brussels early this week to represent the UK at the Asia-Europe Meeting (the Prime Minister being in Birmingham at his party conference). This meant LibDem MEPs had a chance for a chat with him on Tuesday morning. He wanted our ideas about how to cut the EU's budget, since UK public spending is so tight. But all member states have big problems with debt and deficit reduction at present and the easiest way to cut public spending would be to do together at EU level many of the things they currently do separately and where economies ...
Next year the national UK wide census is taken - it happens every decade and is run locally by the local authority. The 80% of Southwark Councils budget provided by central government is based on how many people the census finds. Other public bodies are also funded on the number of people found to be living here. The last census was undertaken in 2001 when Labour ran the council and achieved the 8th worst census completion in the country. This is partly residents not joining in, partly not engaging residents, but equally it takes a well led and run census ...
Oh dear. Ed Miliband makes one speech in which he mentions Beveridge and doesn't overtly attack us, and everyone thinks he's making overtures to us and looking to form a Progressive Coalition after the next General Election. Martin Kettle even wrote a short piece on this in The Guardian. Wake up everyone. The complete opposite is true. When Ed Miliband said he wanted 'to eliminate the Liberal Democrats from British Politics', he meant it. And he's going about it in an ingenious – and invidious – way. Partly of course he's playing the old card of the other two parties ...
PledgeBanking is something designed to help people get things done. It is based on the premise that a lot of good things don't happen because there aren't enough organised people to do them. So PledgeBanking allows people to set up pledges and then encourages other people to sign up to them. A pledge is a ...
This blog will be closed for a short time and up no updates will be posted. Any comments posted will not be visible at this time while moderation is unavailable. Filed under: Spidey Says
You know how it is, you get a day off and you listen lazily to Radio 4 and you pick up all at once inspiration for several mutterings... Sometimes they are things that just make you think about an unexpected subject or issue, at others they might be the sort of thing that makes you want to yell at the radiogram. This first comment falls well into that second category. Groups hail Alzheimer's drug U-turn by health watchdog Hundreds of thousands more patients in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease could get drug treatments following a U-turn by the health ...
The Norwegian Nobel Prize Committee has awarded this year's Peace Prize to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo in a move that will infuriate the government in Beijing. Mr Liu is currently serving an 11-year prison sentence for his non-violent political activities, which include being a member of Charter 08, a group of brave campaigners for the respect ...
The 19 people in Labour's new Shadow Cabinet have been elected. Except it's not all that new at all. Every single member of Ed Miliband's Shadow Cabinet served in Gordon Brown's Government. 14 were MPs during the Iraq vote, 12 of them voting to support the military action. All voted for the introduction of ID cards. Ed Miliband's conference speech promised us optimism, and change (obviously). But he has a Shadow Cabinet that is wedded to the unlucky 13 of Labour's previous years in Government. Miliband wrote the last manifesto, Douglas Alexander who is now in the Shadow Cabinet was ...
EU laws have to be turned into national laws before they can be applied. How this is done is up to each government and parliament. In one country, for example, it could be that the requirements of a single EU law might be broken into parts with different bits then included in modifications to a range of existing laws. Sometimes bits go "missing" or get "overlooked." The easy way to make sure that this doesn't happen is for every government to publish a correlation table that shows how the different clauses of an EU law have been transposed into national ...
From Stockport Council: Stockport Council is encouraging individuals and families to visit the Mobile Advice Centre, known as the "Benefit Bus", next week to check if they are entitled to Housing and Council Tax Benefits. The "Benefit Bus" will be in Mersey Square in Stockport Town Centre from Monday 4th October to Friday 8th October, between 9.30am and 3.30pm each day. This is the third year the benefits bus has been visiting Stockport. Over the last three years Stockport residents who have visited the bus and applied for Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit have received more than £93,000 in ...
Yeay, after months and years of working for Kilburn here is a tangible expression of how special the local area is... It's happening on Monday in Kilburn Priory and Mortimer Place. I'm delighted and proud to confirm that we have Clare Milne, Alan Alexander Milne's grand-daughter coming back to help unveil the plaque. The plaque is the best expression I can think of that is accessible and achievable about what a special place it is. For too long we were in the Borough of Hampstead and currently in the Borough of Camden and yet in fact we are our own ...
@alexfoster Agree, main Kindle use = h'day leisure reading. Tragically my wifi seems to have died, can still d'load via laptop but meh still in reply to alexfoster # @phil_reilly Many thanks for the #ff Phil. Have a great weekend. in reply to phil_reilly # Have decided that, somewhat ironically, Tim Minchin proves there must be a God. #genius # @CllrIainRoberts Ah, love Look Back at 90s. Tho Little Blighty on the Down is the bestest R4 11pm nostalgiafest. in reply to CllrIainRoberts # Just off to @BodleianLibs Duke Humfrey's Night fundraiser: over £40k so far pledged to help the ...
Pitched primarily at a business audience, Stever Robbins's new book 9 Steps to Work Less and Do More is also highly applicable to political activists and public officials. Stever Robbins's book covers familiar ground for personal improvement and business books - how to do more and do it better in less time. Its light touch and emphasis on detailed practical advice raise it above the field - as long as you like the distinctive humour peppered with references to zombies, cats and tall tales about himself. [IMG: 9 Steps to Work Less and Do More - book cover] The book ...
Fri 8th
08:53Social Liberal Forum responds to proposed Child Benefit reforms - Position Statement and Guardian le...
Following Chancellor George Osborne MP's announcements regarding child benefit, the Social Liberal Forum has released the following Position Statement: "The Chancellor's announcement of the end to the universal payment of child benefit will have both welcome and regrettable consequences. The recent Liberal Democrat conference voted overwhelmingly to support a Social Liberal Forum policy motion that called for the Coalition government to 'Ensure that any cuts to welfare benefits are progressive in nature: reducing benefits enjoyed by the most affluent before cutting benefits for the poorest and most vulnerable.' There is little doubt that those earning higher incomes should bear the ...
The UK property market is unusual. Firstly, owning property is considered the norm: Britain did not have the wrenching changes caused by the second world war that gave a folk memory to much of the rest of Europe of losing everything as borders shifted to and fro. Secondly, the proprietorial feeling of "his home is his castle" made home ownership the social norm. Latterly, as Sterling devalued, Property prices through the 1970s stayed stable in real terms, but gave the illusion of go-go returns. In the 1980s, as inflation cooled and the Pound stabilised, a real boom set in. In ...
The moral philosopher Philippa Foot died earlier this week on her 90th birthday. Her work was at the heart of the recent revival in virtue ethics. I recall one of my own Philosophy lecturers (now a professor) saying that when she was an undergraduate studying moral philosophy involved listening to endless papers on "the meaninglessness of moral statements'. Or as the obituary of Foot in Prospect described this long-fashionable view: the non-cognitivist holds that ethical statements aren't statements of fact at all. Therefore the statement "Torture is wrong" is neither true nor false, but rather an expression of attitude (ie ...
Wednesday night I attended the [url=http://www.savethevelodrome.com]Save the Herne Hill Velodrome[/url] meeting. It is amazing good fortune that we have a historic Velodrome on our doorsteps. So far over 3,500 people have joined the [url=http://facebook.com/savethevelodrome]Facebook group[/url]. The Save the Velodrome committee went through the maths. Predicted costs of £120,000 a year with revenue of £70,000. How to close that gap? Once a way of closing that gap is identified the capital costs of resurfacing the track of £190,000 to £240,000 can be found and then around £2M to fully develop the Velodrome to last another 112 years. One idea would be ...
broadcast anniversaries 8 October 1966: broadcast of first episode of The Tenth Planet. The Tardis lands at the South Pole and the Doctor, Ben and Polly are apprehended by the staff of the base; and the Cybermen arrive. 8 October 1977: broadcast of second episode of The Invisible Enemy. First appearance of K-9!!! The Doctor and Leela travel to the Bi-Al research centre in the asteroid belt, get themselves cloned, miniaturised and injected into the Doctor's brain. 8 October 2007: broadcast of second episode of Eye of the Gorgon. Much running around with secret corridors and finally using a mirror ...
As a member of the Legislation Committee scrutinising the Welsh Language Measure it is my intention to submit further amendments to it. I am hopeful that if our sensible amendments are passed, the measure will be a big step forward for the Welsh Language Measure. It is astonishing that the Government has had to put in over 100 amendments to its own legislation. There is 'listening to concerns' and then there is 'not writing it properly in the first place'. They are less 'amendments' and more 'an overhaul'. We have submitted a series of amendments to this Measure as we ...
At this month's Police Tasking meeting Sgt Dave Mirams gave the latest update on crime levels in Acocks Green. September crime figures across the Ward were: 4 robberies 15 vehicle crimes 14 burglaries or attempted burglaries 32 calls about anti-social behaviour (ASB) 12 thefts from shops (all in the Village) These are generally similar figures to recent months, though the shop theft and robbery figures were up on normal - hopefully this is just a blip, but we will see in coming months. Police action during the month has included concerted action against bike thieves with warrants issued at three ...
Dodington Parish Band are giving a concert at St John's Church, Wickwar Rd, Chipping Sodbury at 7.30 pm this Saturday, 9th October. Our excellent local brass band will be performing at this Sodbury and District Twinning Association event. Tickets are £8, available from Vickers Stationery (2 High St), by telephoning 01454 882760, and also on the door.
I took someone to the GP yesterday. The surgery was in the centre of Lancaster but it could have been any major town or city because the problem was trying to park. I was lucky but you aren't allowed to drop people off outside the door so there will be some patients who call out the doctor simply because of this difficulty. There has been talk of building a new surgery which would combine three large practices. The problem with this is the GPs would have combined lists of patients. The chances of seeing the same GP twice would be ...
