Here is a really cool video I came across on my travels. It highlights, as powerfully as anything I have seen anywhere, the issues surrounding the growing illicit trade in tobacco. MP's (especially those of you who did not support yesterday's Bill for an amendment to the smoking ban) take note.... To everyone else - please spread the word, email the Youtube link to friends, put it up on your sites...you know the drill.
It is hard to be enthusiastic about this BBC News report that London local authorities are likely to be granted more powers: The legislation would: Require people issued with penalty charge notices - for example over littering or parking - to provide their name and address to council officersAllow councils to recover the cost of street cleaning from polluting tradersRequire fast food sellers to display their hygiene rating and allow councils to crack down on unlicensed car dealers.But I was more struck by the comments of the Conservative MP for Finchley & Golders Green, Mike Freer: "Many of us in ...
Written for Liberal Democrat Voice Ed Miliband made a reasonably good start at Prime Minister's questions today. However, ultimately he failed to score a substantive point against David Cameron. Indeed, Ed Miliband painted himself into a corner. He is now basically defending the retention of child benefit for the top 15% earners in the country. Since Osborne's breakfast announcement of the child benefit changes, up until now, Labour have avoided this stance. Miliband started his questioning today focusing on the unfairness for families with one earner over £43K losing child benefit against families with two earners of £40K keeping their ...
On the 12th of this month, Lord Browne published the findings of his report into higher education funding, which contained some good points and some very bad points. One of the bad points was to remove the cap on tuition fees meaning that some courses could end up leaving a student in debt by over £36,000. This is an utter disgrace and cannot be allowed to happen. Vince Cable himself has said the level of personal debt is too high. Why should we force students to take on this kind of personal debt before they even buy a house? The ...
Out knocking on doors to talk to residents about local issues yesterday I met a wonderful woman who's bringing up a family alone and far from her extended family who thought that Eaglescliffe is the best place there is to live, that Preston Park is a beautiful asset and that Egglescliffe school is the best school in the area. She has no complaints, has such a positive outlook on life and what's
As has been noted widely elsewhere David Nuttall's attempt to introduce a Bill to amend the smoking ban has fallen by a majority of 55 (86 in favour of an amendment, 141 against). I agree with Guido's view that the actual votes cast suggest a growing popularity for such an idea (that was reported as "dead and buried" just a few short months ago). So, I can take some comfort from the fact that perhaps, just perhaps, there are some signs that a more sensible approach to personal freedom in this country maybe seeping back into politics in this country. ...
There is no easy solution to the tuition fees conundrum for the Liberal Democrats. Our ministers have agreed to abstain on the question if they are not happy with the final proposals, while many of our backbench MPs have been so vocal in their opposition to any change that they have no option but to vote against those proposals. Personally, I would happy to go back to a system of free higher education, but that is because I believe that the university sector has expanded far too much. So much so that it is in danger of becoming exploitative. Young ...
Welcome to... Helsinki, capital of Finland. I'm in town for the ELDR Congress, it's late in the evening, it's cold, and I'm trying to escape the airport in an attempt to reach the warmth of my hotel room. Unfortunately, ill health means that Ros can't be here with me, which means that this is the biggest political 'gig' that I've done without her since we met, so you'll understand why I'm a mite nervous. I'm sure that I'll handle it though... My hope is to provide up to the hour or so, maybe, commentary on events here, as there's little ...
The first time I tried to reach the lost Medieval village of Little Oxendon it was via Market Harborough golf course. But I was a young teenager and got told off. I finally made it on Saturday, thanks largely to the website of Natural England and its page about the open access area which includes the site of this deserted Medieval village. Even so, I had trouble finding the right spot. In part this was due to an uncharacteristic lack of confidence in my map reading, but mostly it was down to the cows. They were everywhere. I was forced ...
As reported in tonight's Evening Telegraph, NHS Tayside is considering permanently closing James Arrott Drive in the Ninewells Hospital grounds to through traffic, following the completion of work on two major developments that have closed the road temporarily - the new nuclear medicine unit building project and a new extension to the assisted conception unit. As I said in the Tele, I appreciate the problems of irresponsible speeding on this stretch of road but I hope NHS Tayside will consider all options, including traffic calming.
I was very sad to hear that, on Monday, Ron Flight passed away. Ron was a long-standing resident of the Ancrum area and I had the pleasure of working alongside Ron a few years ago when we were both directors of the Ward Road Gym (prior to 2007, the gym was in my former Tay Bridges Ward). Ron had a long and distinguished career in business in the city and he brought his considerable expertise to the Ward Road Gym Board. Ron played a key role in the very successful campaign to upgrade and refurbish the gym to the excellent ...
You may not regonise the other chap in the (greatly used of late) picture of me signing the NUS pledge. Well he is NUS Scotland President Liam Burns. Anyway he has sent me a link to a Podcast where NUS staff discuss the potential implications on students, graduates, and universities. The participants are Aaron Porter (National President), Vic Langer (Head of Political Strategy), David Malcolm (Head of Social Policy) and Graeme Wise (head of Political Strategy), Katie Dalton (President Wales) and Ciarnan Helforty (President NUS-USI).
Students are being squeezed, hence the name of my blog title. I am absolutely stunned at our leadership's acceptance of Lord Browne's proposals on tuition fees. Today I am starting a campaign to abolish tuition fees because this is what the party pledged to do. This is important because so many students and parents of potential students voted LibDem because of this pledge. Now, the Libdems are not getting rid of fees or just keeping the cap but they are removing the cap. I know of some middle class people who were worried about their future and now they do ...
The first item at the Council meeting was to agree how the Council would be run in future. The last government had imposed a choice of two. The elected Mayor model, which made a single person responsible for decision making or the elected leader model which meant little change from the current format where the leader was elected by the Councillors. It is rather like forcing a healthy eating fanatic to chose between McDonalds and Burger King. Large numbers of the Council (not just Lib Dems) are healthy democracy fanatics and want something different, but need the new Government to ...
Thanks to Chris Wilson for his excellent guest post here on Spiderplant Land. Chris has a different take in the impact of tuition fees currently riding high in the news and its one well worth considering. "During these discussions over access to higher education here is a group that will almost certainly be excluded from ...
I've never been a fan of reality TV, most of that genre is built on the back of either sad cranks in the "big brother" type or talentless no hopers as in the "Britain's got talent" sort. Sadly TV execs know that if you set up delusional singers or balmy characters to be humiliated then the great British public will tune in their millions. Still the apprentice, is different, well maybe not, as with the mainstream talent shows the contestants view themselves, as the perfect candidate, for the win, however generally those taking part. are soon exposed in more depth, ...
I hope that all Lib Dem MPs will uphold their pledge. They must remember what our policy says: Liberal Democrats are the only party which believes university education should be free and everyone who has the ability should be able to go to university and not be put off by the cost. cross posted from ...
I hope that all Lib Dem MPs will uphold their pledge. They must remember what our policy says: Liberal Democrats are the only party which believes university education should be free and everyone who has the ability should be able to go to university and not be put off by the cost. Filed under: ...
I've had my issues with Eric Pickles and have blogged about them 1 or 2 times (you can read those here, here & here) I have received a letter from him today with some good news and some bad news. The good news is that he has announced the end of Local Area Agreements. These were targets and Councils and the wider public sector in an area were measured by. At the time they were announced as the only set of targets local authorities and their Local partnerships would be judged on. And then in usual Labour (or Whitehall) style ...
Wed 13th
18:25
Coalition Government children & families minister still supports Scrap Tuition Fees campaign
It is interesting to note that Sarah Teather MP, Minister of State for Children & Families is supporting the Scrap Tuition Fees campaign on her own website. I hope that she will continue to give her full support to this campaign when voting in the House of Commons on the Browne Report. Fair student finance ...
Over on Lib Dem Voice there is a letter which Nick Clegg has sent to all MPs on the subject of Tuition Fees. In it he writes: Like you, I am painfully aware of the pledge we all made to voters on tuition fees ahead of the General Election. Departing from that pledge will be one of the most difficult decisions of my political career. It means doing something that no one likes to do in politics - acknowledging that the assumptions we made at election time simply don't work out in practice. With the benefit of hindsight, I signed ...
Because we think this guy must be up there. And of course it means lots of giggling about the various crazee things he gets up to while running Philadelphia. There must be some others. John Loony? Phil Deranged? Sarah ... Continue reading →
Every hour more and more people have signed the petition to persuade our Liberal Democrat ministers to abandon plans to raise tuition fees. And the support is coming from across the country (see map below). Many people have left comments criticising our Vince Cable and Nick Clegg for selling out the party and it''s principles. You can sign the petition by clicking here. Please forward it to your
I have just joined the Lib Dems against scrapping the cap! group on Facebook. On the 12th of October 2010 Lord Browne published the findings of his review of Higher Education funding. The proposals include scrapping the current cap (meaning that some so called 'elite degrees' could cost £12,000 a year) and reducing funding for ...
According to Communication Workers Union leader Billy Hayes, postal workers won't benefit from owning 10% of the shares in Royal Mail, because they already own 100% of it, as it's in public ownership. I could not disagree more. Royal Mail is not owned by "the public"; it's owned by the state. Just because an industry is nationalised, that doesn't mean that I, as a member of the public, 'own' it. The state is one thing, the public another. I can't walk into a state-owned bank and ask it for money because I 'own' it. This is a fundamental difference between ...
Firstly I want to say thank you. Thank you to the people who left comments to my 'Fed up. So I'm going to stop blogging', Thank you all those on Twitter who asked me to carry on blogging. Thank you to the bloggers that linked to this post and asked me to continue (Walaa Idris for her open letter , Iain Dale and even Nadine Dorries). Thank you to Mark Reckons who emailed me and told me how much he enjoyed my posts. It was brilliant to receive encouragement and advice from members of all parties and none. I now ...
Wednesday, October 6th... An early morning start en route to the third element of our trip, as we drove along the south coast, via Limassol, to Nicosia. We had an appointment... So, we dropped off the hire car, and took a taxi towards our destination. That destination turned out to be up what looked like a minor side street. Nicosia is the last divided capital city in Europe, and has been such for a very long time. The Ledra Palace Hotel crossing was the first to be opened in the Green Line, a concept which hints of barbed wire, armed ...
I complained a while ago that, whilst the media were given a lavish launch party for the Next Generation Broadband scheme, Cornwall Councillors were given no information whatsoever. A week after the launch, the Council finally got round to sending a briefing note to councillors. I've also asked a number of other questions and there is good news and bad news from Cabinet Member Cllr Carolyn Rule. The good news is that: "the roll out will start in the East" The less good news is that: "it will be dependent on business take up as this is funded from convergence" ...
Following on from my last post about the refusal by the Leader of Cornwall Council to tell ordinary councillors what Cornwall council is planning to do with taxpayers' money, my attention is drawn to two more examples of the famed 'transparency and openness' of Alec Robertson and Jim Currie: First up is the decision (details on Jeremy Rowe's blog) not to webcast the Strategic Planning Committee meeting tomorrow which will be discussing no fewer than THREE supermarket planning applications in Wadebridge. It is bad enough that this meeting is being held in Truro, rather than in Wadebridge where the affected ...
At today's Cabinet meeting, I asked the Leader to explain what on earth 'BIG Cornwall' means. As readers will know, this term has been bandied about by the Leader and Chief Executive a lot recently without any real explanation being given as to what it means for services or for local communities. And so when the Cabinet discussed the Cornwall Strategy 2010-2030, they also apparently endorsed the BIG Cornwall scheme. Unfortunately, there was no real clarity in the answer from the Leader. Apart from telling me that there had been plenty of press releases on the subject, he refused to ...
At yesterday's Cheadle Area Committee we received an update on the flooding issues (suspected to be problems with culverts) on Ladybridge Road in Cheadle Hulme and around the Broadway/Wilsmlow Road area of Cheadle. There's a lot of work going on behind the scenes, with the big problem (as usual, I have to say) being to get the Council and United Utilities to agree between them who's responsible for certain elements that may be causing the problem. Residents and councillors were able to ask questions, and several from around Ladybridge Road did so. Next month Kevin Melling from Stockport Council will ...
Another gay American teenager has killed himself. Zach Harrington, 19, killed himself a week after attending a Norman city council debate on September 28th on whether the city should recognise Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender History Month. Pink News This is being reported as a big problem in the United States, but I wonder how ...
I don't know how many of you are aware of this, but I appear to have become a semi-regular contributor to The Pod Delusion, by dint of being able to toss off random bollocks at half an hour's notice if the show is short on content. If you don't subscribe to PD, I would recommend it. It's always interesting even when I'm not on it. For instance, Alex Foster's piece on Letterboxes in episode 53 should be of interest to all Lib Dems - and why not join The Campaign For Humane Letterboxes while you're listening? If you want to ...
Our Area Conditions Officer, Julie Henshall, updated us at the Cheadle Area Committee meeting yesterday. a new Stockport Council scheme to tackle fly-posting on empty private buildings should kick in shortly. a spate of graffiti in Gatley is being tackled (please let the Council know if you spot any graffiti - email streetscene@stockport.gov.uk with the location. the land owner has finally been persuaded to replace fence panels on the passageway near the end of Brentwood Drive, by Gatley Station.
Well the latest Labour leader has made his PMQ's debut. And I think it is fair to say it wasn't bad. A quite debut but reasonably confident, he focussed on the reform of child benefit and his theme was fairness. Claiming that the proposed changes were unfair, although he had to deny he was sticking up for the rich. The trouble is that every issue currently before the house, and not just the House of commons but actually every house, is the spending review. The media has hyped it up and it's fair to say (there's that word again), that ...
I stayed up until 5am this morning to watch the start of the Chilean mining rescue mission. I'm so glad that I did and even in my small way here in Cardigan, in years to come when the world looks back at what is one of its greatest achievements, I'll be able to say 'I was there'. Forget the talk of tuition fees, October 12th 2010 will go down in history throughout the world, and in Chile in particular, as the day when a great tragedy was turned around to become a human triumph for 33 men and for mankind. ...
According to the Western Mail, Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader Kirsty Williams, laid down the gauntlet to Nick Clegg and his fellow Ministers yesterday. She said she would stand up for Wales even if it meant criticising the Conservative-Lib Dem Government in Westminster: "If I feel that Wales is not being treated equally and fairly, if we are having to pay a price for the Labour legacy, then my job is to stand up for Wales in a way I believe the Labour Party in this National Assembly never did for the 11 years when they had their own colleagues in ...
Participant's in Prime Minister's questions are frequently, and rightly, criticised for their confrontational approach. This came to a horrible head today when Labour politician Chris Ruane chose to honour Claire Rayner's memory with ghost noises. His green looking leader had earlier decided to take a more mature approach to proceedings and, having succeeded in not vomiting on the dispatch box, took centre stage. He was quiet, monotonic, boring, but not a complete disaster. Miliband took a mature and commendable approach to the failed attempt to rescue aid worker Linda Norgrove, rightly pointing out her death was the fault of those ...
Ed Miliband can put stop reading The Times, Guardian, Mail and BBC websites, and stop looking at Twitter, because the news that will have them popping the champagne corks at Labour HQ is that I was very impressed with his tactics and performance at PMQs. Politically at least it was very clever. But in terms of its contribution to solving the debt problem, it was certainly not. Prior to May I always wanted to see the Tory get a beating at the despatch box. Obviously since the election the leader of the Tories also speaks for my party, which is ...
Some of these are from my own RSS list, some are from Geek Feminism or The Hathor Legacy, some are from [IMG: [livejournal.com profile] ] andrewducker, and a couple are from Caron.Feministy Stuff:Confronting sexism works, apparently. Have you seen the ruckus about the stereotypical female characters flow-chart? If you haven't, I would recommend this post by [IMG: [personal profile] ] bossymarmalade, this one by [IMG: [personal profile] ] lizbee and this one by [IMG: [personal profile] ] lanning to get a flavour of my feelings. There's a new(ish) feminist blog called Bad Reputation which you should all be reading, and ...
I've been following the Chilean mine rescue since the operation began weeks ago, and it's a true joy to watch it come to a successful conclusion today. I truly hope that all of the miners get out of there unharmed. It's been wonderful to see the unrestrained joy in the faces of the miners and everyone involved. The patriotism and humility that's coming across too is also heartwarming. Thankfully these types of events are rare, but I can't help but worry that if something similar ever happened here, rather than kissing the national flag and pausing to pray, the rescued ...
So you read my post yesterday and want to act. How can you do it? First off, write to your local MP. Be polite but assertive, make sure you voice your displeasure. But make sure you have read the report first. That way you can bring up what parts of the report you disagree with ...
The Liberal Democrat blogosphere has been overheating with the anger felt at the tuition fees announcement - and quite rightly so. During the campaign, many parliamentary candidates, including myself and all our MPs, signed a pledge to the National Union of Students not to increase tuition fees. Indeed in an earlier entry about the coalition agreement, I expressed concern that there was not enough about tuition fees - being allowed to abstain was insufficient. Labour introduced fees and bankrupted the country, the Tories are happy to see bigger fees to make it easier for rich kids to get in, and ...
While I was sleeping it appears that my friend and fellow Northern Irish blogger Michael was having some fun with Wordle and The Browne Report. He's also done a nice Wordle of my short story on the Browne Report as well. Update: There is now a Facebook Group called Lib Dems Against Scraping the Cap, joining other PPCs, AMs and others.
Wed 13th
12:14
Tory leaflet shocker: someone who isn't the candidate doesn't support the local football team
This comes courtesy of the Conservatives in Kentish Town, where there is currently a by-election. Kentish Town resident and Lib Dem blogger Rocky Lorusso writes: "I recently received through my door an astonishing first - a locally-focused Tory campaign leaflet. There's a by-election campaign underway in Kentish Town in another close fight between the Lib Dems and Labour, so the fact that the Tories made an effort to get something out this time is very novel indeed. However, their lack of campaigning experience in the area is noticable from the poor quality of their leaflet. Most bizarrely of all is ...
Monday, October 4th... The big day had arrived, the reason why we had all come to Cyprus in the first place, the wedding of Ros's daughter, Sally, to her partner, Brij. It was, for various good reasons, a relatively small affair, but with family and friends present, they made their vows on a yacht in the harbour at Paphos, before we sailed out to sea to catch the sunset. There was dancing, singing and a bit of carousing - it wouldn't be a Scott family event without them - and not a little emotion. Sally wore a dress which betrayed ...
Sir Menzies Campbell MP has described the defence case for RAF Leuchars as "overwhelming" ahead of the UK Government's imminent Strategic Defence Review. The North East Fife MP, whose constituency is home to RAF Leuchars, said: "The Strategic Defence Review (SDR) is long overdue. The process poses questions about Britain's future foreign policy objectives and defence capabilities necessary to achieve these objectives. These wider considerations will naturally have a direct effect upon defence installations and facilities throughout the country. "The defence case for Leuchars is overwhelming and I take every opportunity to say so. It is an essential part of ...
The "Big Society" got an airing in Full Council today as part of a Conservative motion asking the Council to recognise and affirm its support for the contribution of the voluntary sector. One member attempted to portray the "Big Society" as "a means of devolving power to the individual", rather than merely rolling back the state and leaving things to charity; another suggested Caterham should be used as a model for the "Big Society" in Surrey. [IMG: Big Society] While it was difficult to disagree with the sentiments expressed in the motion, there were no concrete policy proposals. As Eber ...
A few weeks ago, a primary school-aged FOCUS reader got in touch with me to complain that a pedestrian crossing on a very busy main road took ages to let him cross the road. Indeed so long, that he had got a stopwatch to time it and said he had been waiting over 10 minutes to cross. Clearly not right, so I passed on the details to the traffic signals team at the Council and asked them to look into it. The junction in question – which used to be called Kamikaze Island1 until there were so many accidents they ...
The Foreign Ministers of France and Spain, Kouchner and Moratinos, were told to take a running jump by their Israeli opposite number Avigdor Lieberman when he met them last Sunday. They put the case for a two-state solution, arguing that the failure to establish a Palestinian state would undermine Israel's security. The response they got was total dismissal. "Israel will not be the Czechoslovakia of 2010," said Lieberman, making clear that he regards all Palestinian land as belonging to Israel. He then ignored all diplomatic niceties by leaking details of the exchange to the media. The Europeans should have stopped ...
Triggered by a comment from Rob Fenwick, I thought I'd look up the very first five emails I sent or received. As you can see, they are deeply, deeply I say, atypical of what I get up to: A reply from the BBC to a complaint about several editions of Question Time in a row not featuring any Liberal Democrats. (See one of my posts on the long-running issue for some background.) An email about a bug in EARS. (EARS is the elections database program used by Lib Dems. During one Parliamentary by-election I reported so many bugs that we ...
It's been an emotional morning. I watched the rescue of Chilean miners. Here was Archimedes' fulcrum - "Give me a place to stand, and I shall move the world", images instantly around the globe. I thought of the first time we saw live video from inside a warzone, CNN in Baghdad during the 1st Gulf War and then of that first live global television link, Our World,on 25th June 1967, when 400
Reform, the independent think tank looking to improve public services and economic prosperity, is running its annaul Reformer of the Year competition, and the Deputy Prime Minister is among the seven contenders. The full list (with reasons for shortlisting them) reads: Rt Hon Andy Burnham MP, who called for the Government to curb its pledge to increase NHS spending in real terms year on year. Mr Burnham drew attention to the fact that higher spending on the NHS would mean real damage to other services, like social care, despite admitting that his call was "counter-intuitive" for a Shadow Health Secretary. ...
Northern Ireland for the relatively uninformed people of the rest of the United Kingdom is peaceful. Or so they think. Last night, a police officer was taken to hospital after suffering a head injury in Ballyclare, County Antrim. He was on a routine patrol. He has subsequently been released. Some time later, other police vehicles ...
Wed 13th
11:08
The Browne Report - the next steps in the Liberal Democrat grassroots campaign to abolish tuition fe...
Vince Cable's statement yesterday in which he said that the Liberal Democrats had accepted the principles of the Browne Report, removing the cap on tuition fees and lumbering students with around a £30,000 debt, doesn't get any better after sleeping on it. I'm encouraged by the various efforts being organised to campaign against this. The person to follow on Twitter is @LiberalBertie as she has loads of information. If you're on Twitter, she's preparing an open letter to be sent to Liberal Democrat MPs. If you want to sign, send her a direct message on Twitter or e-mail me and ...
At last some common sense is being blown into the labyrinth of council housing finance. Currently councils collect all council rents and right to buy receipts and pass them to the treasury. The treasury then skims £200Million pounds - king of like a tax on council housing - and then passes it back as it sees fit to every council with council housing. The money it passes back is designed to fund the long term borrowing to build the council housing in the first place. Clearly this doesn't encourage paying of council housing debts. The proposed changes are that councils ...
We all got a letter from Vince Cable this morning about tuition fees. Here's mine: Dear Richard, Taking decisions about Higher Education funding isn't easy, particularly in times of fiscal constraint. And I know that some of what was announced yesterday will be difficult for some party members. But in supporting the thrust of Lord Browne's review I believe this Government is taking the difficult decisions needed to deliver a fair deal to both universities and students. We have obtained a much more progressive system of payment for graduate contributions than currently exists. I will outline what the Government will ...
The Royal Bank of Scotland is looking to move out of its offices at the Angel, Islington. The offices – controversial from the start because of the 'dead space' at street level – were built for the bank but then sold and leased back, according to The Scotsman. Their report goes on to say that ...
There are those who might think that two, effectively, three sets of elections as Returning Officer for Liberal Youth might make the prospects of another, how can I put this, less than enticing. However, what I learned from my period as Returning Officer is that having a few old hands around with a knowledge of how things work, what constitutions do and who can help when issues arise is good for an organisation with a relatively high churn of activists and leaders. And so, I would like to take this opportunity to do something that I promised to do a ...
While Michael and I were over at Scottish Conference at the weekend one of our student members Stephen McFarland, a student at Aberdeen Univeristy, asked if he could set up a Liberal Youth Northern Ireland page on Facebook. Both of us being old hands in the youth wing of our party of course ...
Northern Ireland for the relatively uninformed people of the rest of the United Kingdom is peaceful. Or so they think. Last night, a police officer was taken to hospital after suffering a head injury in Ballyclare, County Antrim. He was on a routine patrol. He has subsequently been released. Some time later, other police vehicles ...
Regardless of reports in the press, I have not yet made up my mind as to which way to vote. I cannot practically do this until the government has produced any proposals. However, in terms of the debate some things are clear:Ideally tertiary education should be funded directly from general taxation. That is not an option so there are various options.1. Up front fees.2. A graduate tax (an open
From Stockport Council: Tim Loughton, Minister for Children and Families, shadowed Stockport Council front line social workers for a week in their daily meetings and visits, to get more of a feel for the complex nature of today's child protection services in a busy metropolitan local authority. More information and Mr Loughton's comments on the visit can be found here.
After a fairly exasperated G(lasgow)U(ni)LD meeting last night I thought I'd get stuck in to the Guardian's two-page spread on the Browne review so that I might better judge whether we're right to be furious. I'm probably not going to read the review itself as I have better things to be getting on with, but there are a few things that jump out at me from the article that I'd like to share. Firstly, the IFS analysis: "lower-earning graduates would pay less and higher-earning graduates would pay more" Surely this is a good thing? Raising the threshhold at which repayments ...
Filed under: London, news, Tuition Fees Tagged: Browne Report, Lord Browne, politics, students, tuition fees, UK, university
see the full story here. Filed under: Blogging
A quick update to my blog post about Sir Philip Green's report into public sector savings. Here's the official summary of his report from the Cabinet Office: Efficiency Review by Sir Philip Green - Key Findings and Recommendations
The Welsh Education Minister was undoubtedly right when he told the Assembly Plenary yesterday that removing the cap on university fees in England 'could leave Wales in an impossible financial position' Although policy on this matter is devolved to the National Assembly the cross-border nature of the sector means changes to the system in England will impact on Wales. If English universities are able to charge tuition fees in the region of £7,000 a year, then Welsh colleges have little choice but to follow suit. If they don't then not only would the existing funding gap between English and Welsh ...
The Browne Report, and the Government's response to it, has come as a major blow to those of us who believe that education is an investment in our young people, and in the future of our country. It has also possibly signalled an end to the innocence of Liberal Democrats in government, as a beloved policy has been exposed as being as full of holes as a piece of Emmenthal. The principle of 'no tuition fees' has always been a reasonable one, whether or not you agree with it, but with an ever-increasing student population, the contrary pressures of student ...
The police always attend our Cheadle Area Committee meetings to tell us what's going on and answer questions. They're usually able to find time to speak privately to anyone attending this public meeting who's got an issue they'd prefer not to raise openly. Yesterday, with Inspector Gilbertson away, we had Sargeant Darren Spurgeon along with PCs Mark Shaw and Bob Gallagher from Gatley, PC Gibbs from Cheadle and PC John Bolton from Heald Green. Anti-social behaviour is down across Stockport, and down substantially in our area (a 57% drop in Gatley & 35% down in Cheadle for example). Where we ...
Lord Browne was once well known for living an Elton John lifestyle. He still doesn't have to go without lunch. His thoughts on the motivations and problems of poorer students and potential students are somewhat vague. He does however get along famously with University Principals and Vice Chancellors - spectacular beneficiaries of the incredible salary leap made by senior public sector staff under New Labour. Browne's review reflects precisely the view of University Principals. This group have bought entirely into the notion that universities should be viewed as businesses with turnovers of hundreds of millions. This is unsurprising, because it ...
We, as a country, are completely at odds with ourselves over immigration.
There are a lot of Liberal Democrat members and voters angry with Vince Cable's decision to embrace Lord Browne's Review leading the way to higher Tuition Fees.I decide yesterday I wouldn't leave the party as there is so much I agree with, but I work to stop this policy. Therefore, I have set up a petition and urge any Lib Dem member, blogger, voter out there to sign it and pass on to their
If you're interested in the process of registering a Town or Village Green (TVG), or if you're interested in Belle Vue, please read on. If not surf on to the TV Guide. In order to justify registering a TVG, you need to satisfy the following tests: (a) a significant number of the inhabitants of any locality, or of any neighbourhood within a locality, have indulged as of right in lawful sports and pastimes on the land for a period of at least 20 years; and (b) they continue to do so at the time of the application. The Inspector's report ...
Wed 13th
06:29
Whoniversaries 13 October: Cyril Shaps, Ian Stuart Black, City of Death #3, Day of the Clown #2
i) births and deaths 13 October 1923: birth of Cyril Shaps, who played Viner in The Tomb of the Cybermen (1967), Lennox in The Ambassadors of Death (1970), Professor Clegg in Planet of the Spiders (1974) and the Archimandrite in The Androids of Tara (1978) 13 October 1997: death of Ian Stuart Black, author of The Savages (1966), The War Machines (1966) and The Macra Terror (1967). ii) broadcast anniversaries 13 October 1979: broadcast of third episode of City of Death. The Doctor goes back to Leonardo's studio; and poor old professor Kerensky meets his end. 13 October 2008: broadcast ...
Twitter / @President of Russia: @Schwarzenegger Thx for ra ... Genuine tweet message from President Medvedev to Arnold Schwarzenegger. (tags: world politics russia usa) The Unimaginable: My Night of Violence at the... Awful story of brutality from Belgian police (tags: belgium)
Last year, Nottingham had a sudden cold snap which left the roads and pavements frozen and icy for a number of days. It was at the same time as the rest of the country, but there was a particular problem for quite a narrow area of the East Mids that left Nottingham, Derby and Mansfield particularly badly off. As part of learning from the process and trying to perform better next year, in March, Nottingham City Council's Overview and Scrutiny committee had a meeting to talk to both the staff responsible for winter resilience and staff at our local hospital, ...
I don't get the impression that we are worse off than we were in the seventies which was when I applied to go to university. I was given a grant and didn't have to pay for tuition fees. However our present economic climate has persuaded the government to increase tuition fees. The BBC reported that some universities, like the red brick University of Birmingham, will manage quite well while other univesities will struggle because prospective students will not be able to afford these fees. You may believe that all our students deserve the chance to go to university and this ...
