In blogging circles, pictures of kittens have often been used as the equivalent of humming "Hey Jude" with one's fingers in the air. But for once, I can publish the photo of a kitten with a connection to a political story. She's called "Beauty" John Hemming MP is looking for this cat. Please help him find it. There may or not be a conection to this story, entitled "MP's wife accused of kidnapping cat from his mistress's home" Say what you like about John Hemming, but he's never involved with anything hum-drum.
The Political Hot Potato; The Treatment of Asylum Seekers. Well, George Osborne may potentially have caused the employment of 490,000... But at least you're not Sylvia... "Sylvia first arrived at the Refugee Council aged 19, she was extremely distressed and confused. She had been living in a refugee camp in Burundi for many years after her entire family was killed in the civil war. The refugee camp was raided and Sylvia was detained, where she was repeatedly raped and tortured. As a result of her trauma, she suffered from vomiting, back pains, severe headaches and difficulty sleeping." Don't worry, I'm ...
South Gloucestershire Council has voted to support a change in the voting system. In a lengthy debate, amendments seeking to undermine the proposal were put first by Labour and then by Conservatives. Cllr Peter Tyzack (LibDem) argued the case for a fairer voting system and that the Council should be proactive in encouraging people to take part and vote. Cllr Tyzack said, "The Labour amendment sought to turn the debate onto other issues and so was rejected, we also resisted the Conservative amendment, which tried to withdraw council's support. We don't care how this will affect the main parties, we ...
I've made the decision to close this blog. Because I've gone and bought site hosting over at chrismills.me.uk and have transferred over there See you at the new place where blogging shall resume very shortly
Ian Holloway is a colourful footballing man. Indeed, we'd be the poorer without this intrepid breed of individual. Today, he's outshone himself with his own inimitable take on the Rooneygate saga. Holloway I feel, speaks for many of us, normal and run-of-the-mill football fans when he rants off about the situation. I'm an Aston Villa fan. I could quite easily say two hoots to Manchester United and laugh at their predicament. But I'm also a a football man and I dislike intensly the way that the game has been taken over by the money men in recent years. The increasing ...
Following our interview with Tim Farron last week, this week Susan Kramer on her campaign for Party President. Some of the highlights include: Why Susan wants to be the connection between the grass-roots and leadership Her views on the smoking ban, green taxes, Heathrow, tuition fees, and the role of Conference Being a pragmatic Orange Book liberal and discretionary attack dog Whether we need another "media star able to put their foot in it" Keeping the internal communications on an election footing outside elections Reaching out to the City and avoiding silly stereotypes. The Kodak philosophy of local party support ...
Its with great sadness that I announce to you all the end of my old pal www.spiderplant88.wordpress.com Sure, its been a long and fraught but enjoyable journey but things are looking up so its time for a change. I can therefore announce that Spiderplant Land has a new home over at spiderplantland.co.uk where I have spent ...
My story Paperwork gone mad at the Ministry of Justice has hit the media today in a nice piece from Matthew Parris in The Times and in a long piece in the Daily Mail. If the latter's piece sounds rather familiar when you read it, that'd be because the wording bears a remarkable resemblance to the story run on this site. Perhaps next time I should slip in a ficticious name and see what happens [IMG: :-)]
The Guardian is reporting an exclusive interview with Nick Clegg on the front page of tomorrow's paper. It says that he has attacked the Institute for Fiscal Studies' methods of measuring the fairness of the CSR and quotes him as saying: "We are going to spend 5% more of national income on the state at the end of this process that Tony Blair and Gordon [Brown] were in 1997. We are going to employ 200,000 more people in the public sector at the end of this process. I think it is a cavalier misrepresentation to claim somehow it is a ...
This has been a truly horrible week. Even those of us as fortunate as me, who are in a comfortable enough position to soak up much of the impact of the cuts, recognise the hardship that this week's Spending Review will cause and the potential damage to the fabric of British society. But rather than give another critique of the review (there are enough in circulation already), here instead are a few thoughts that go beyond the graphs, tables, claims and sound bites that have dominated this week's crushing set of spending cuts. • Every now and again I wonder ...
I have been told that Cornwall Council Cabinet Member for Leisure, Joan Symons, is refusing to meet with Camelford residents to hear their concerns about the proposal to stop funding their leisure centre. I have written to Joan to ask her to reconsider that decision: Dear Joan I understand from Camelford residents that you have declined an invitation to meet with them to hear their concerns about Cornwall Council's plans to stop funding their leisure centre. I hope that you will change your mind and agree to attend a meeting. I think it is vital that Cornwall Council does not ...
There has been a bit more interest in Twinkle and his missing sister. Here is a photograph of them both.In terms of various questions about the kitten(s)a) They were named by my daughter (age 4) - they are her cats.b) They are due to be chipped, but are not yet.c) They are now about 6 months old.I would like to thank those who have replicated the photos of Beauty for their support of the
Won by the BBC News website with: An East Sussex vicar who is believed to have abused a former altar boy was allowed to serve at a church despite being convicted of possessing a gun.
Over at the Daily Hate Mail, they have an article seething about the "price in political correctness" paid by George Osbourne to his LibDem coalition partners. Be amazed at the outrage as the coalition gives money "back to poorer parents", gasp as they recoil in horror at the thought of helping 'disadvantaged' (their quotes!!!) children. I am, like many LibDems, a little queasy over some of the spending decisions, but just this once, indulge yourself. Take a little time out from the soul-searching and self-doubt and just read the article and feel an overwhelming sense of pride.
Wednesday: The Khasi of Kalabar: They will die the death of a thousand cuts! Princess Jelhi: Oh! But that's horrible! The Khasi: Not at all my little desert flower; the British are used to cuts! So, Master Gideon's been playing with the scissors. Look, of COURSE this isn't the Comprehensive Spending Review we'd have WANTED. If the Liberal Democrats had WON the election we could have got rid of Trident AND Tuition Fees. But don't imagine that this is a CONSERVATORY spending plan either. Can you believe that the Conservatories would have put two-and-a-half billion pounds into the pupil premium? ...
For the best part of a year a resident of Hawthorn Road, Gatley has been asking for a sign near the Gatley Green Co-op to be replaced. It's obviously taken a bash at some time and was bent. Pam and I have been chasing this up, and now it's been replaced. I saw yesterday that the electricity was being sorted out (the new post has one of the signs that's lit up at night). It's not a big thing, but over time it all helps. In the same area, the Co-op have now installed a nice ramp , making it ...
From the latest debate in Parliament on the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill: I was also considering the amendments proposed by the hon. Member for Rhondda (Chris Bryant). One of the great advantages of having an overnight break is that we can look back at the Official Report and read what the protagonists have said. I looked back through the report of the 50 minutes that the hon. Gentleman took in proposing his amendments and found that he did not, as I had suspected, mention them once during those 50 minutes. We know not from him what the content ...
One of the most stupid and lazy myths which has grown up about the CSR is the one that "we're paying for aircraft carriers which won't have aircraft on them". Utter, unmitigated, brain-achingly stupid, 100% cobbledashed codswallop! They will have helicopters on them. The first new carrier in service in 2016, HMS Queen Elizabeth, will carry no planes, only helicopters, and may be mothballed once the Prince of Wales begins operations. Helicopters are aircraft. An aircraft is a vehicle which is able to fly by being supported by the air, or in general, the atmosphere of a planet. That includes ...
I was just discussing the Spending Review with some Lib Dem friends, and one thing that came up is local government. It has to be said: there are many things that local councils do that are nice to do, but don't need to be done - and those are the things that can be cut now. To be frank, some of those things were things that the public never necessarily wanted done in the first place - not that they were ever really asked, in some cases, although they were paying for it all with their Council Tax, one of ...
Last Sunday I was delivering Focusases in one of the streets in our constituency where some deliverers consider hiring private protection to go round. Not me. I found myself facing a nice old gentleman who said it was terrible we went in with the Tories and he wouldn't vote for us next time. When younger, I used to get terribly wound up by this sort of criticism of the party. Now, perhaps as a result of age, perhaps as a result of being released from the burden of the councillor's office, I tend to sit back and enjoy such criticism. ...
The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) is looking for up to 70,000 passionate and dedicated volunteers for the London 2012 Games. They will make the difference between a good and a great Games for thousands of athletes, media and spectators alike. So far, over 100,000 people across the country have registered their interest. There is now one week left in the six week application window for the London 2012 volunteering programme so interested applicants are urged to apply now to avoid missing out on their last chance to be a Games Maker. We would ...
I've finally made my mind up, and it's Tim Farron for President of the Liberal Democrats. A month or so ago I was very open-minded about this election; I thought Tim Farron a better media performer, but I'd instinctively prefer a President who wasn't an MP (at least not the young, ambitious sort) and Susan Kramer seemed to have a broader range of experience. I asked each candidate three questions (answers posted on my blog) - there wasn't a huge amount to choose between them; Tim's answers were better-phrased but Susan understood my second question about the (rather arcane, but ...
I have picked up on a lazy journalistic myth in the last 24 hours. That is, that the UK is unusual in that it is the only country bothering to cut its deficit. COBOLs. I have a strange pecadillo. I occasionally get tired of James Naughtie's heavy breathing on Today and randomly fire my car radio at 252 thingemybobs in the long wave. I am then royally entertained by the dear old Irish via RTE. Ireland had to pass an extremely painful package of 4 billion Euros of cuts a few months ago. Greece has been forced to cut back ...
Email from Danny Alexander this evening. I'm not going to respond as this time as it makes me feel sick. Dear Lisa, When we came into office, we inherited an economy that was on the brink. With the largest budget deficit in Europe and no plan for tackling it, Britain faced huge economic risks. These ...
For some reason, my author page on Lulu is only showing the hardback version of my Beatles book, not the paperback. Rest assured, for those who want to buy it, it is still available here. I'm working on getting the ePub version out. While I'm here, as some of you will know I'm currently working ...
Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander has just emailed Liberal Democrat members with a message about this week's Comprehensive Spending Review. Here's the full text: When we came into office, we inherited an economy that was on the brink. With the largest budget deficit in Europe and no plan for tackling it, Britain faced huge economic risks. These could only be dealt with by a clear plan to deal rapidly with the worst financial position this country has faced for generations. On Wednesday, we set out that plan. And while the scale and pace of the action we need ...
It may have been a "miserable little compromise" back in April but AV would now appear to be the big prize. The coalition has to hold together, whatever the cost, at least long enough to allow a vote on electoral reform. But will the way we get from here to there impact significantly upon what happens when we get there? Only those on the inside know what's actually happening, but there are many competing readings of how things are playing out coalition-wise. The most challenging reading for many Lib Dems is that the displays of unity between the coalition partners ...
I remember Tony Jones, the man who is about as independent as Britain's nuclear deterrent. Here's his take on the potential 2008 Labour local election selection. Abbey Page - There for the taking - Who could run him close? Battle Crisp - Mr Invisible in the ward - refer to Civic Offices Caversham Waite - stand down (rather than face defeat to Tories) Church Goodall - stand down (see Waite) Katesgrove Sutton - running, but scared (Lib Dems to win) Kentwood Lloyd - stand down (see Waite) Minster Wilton - stand down (see Waite) Norcot Lovelock - next Leader (god ...
All, Last Monday at the last meeting of Stratford District Council I supported a motion that could lead to fewer councillors on Stratford District Council and for elections to happen every four years (reducing the number of times you have to go and vote). There are currently over 50 councillors on the Council - which has around 300 employees, so thats one councillor for every 6 workers! Each councillor gets £4,400 as an allowance for the time they put in - and expenses for travel to meetings etc. (neither Richard Cheney or I claim any expenses) - so reducing the ...
Yesterday was a surreal day for me. It was the third day of my school holidays and I felt as if I had been transported into some sort of Wonderland. I started my day off by attending a Christian Aid event on tackling global poverty and Jesse Jackson was the main star. It was amazing to just see him. The reason I say 'see' is because I couldn't really understand his accent. I did make out the word ' King' but I wasn't sure if he was talking about Martin Luther King, Jesus or Elvis. It was so amazing and ...
Gideon has spoken and the Coalition government has finally passed sentence on the public sector, outlining £81bn of spending cuts over four years. The Chancellor delivered his long-awaited (feared?) Comprehensive Spending Review to the Commons yesterday in a carefully crafted statement aimed at blunting Labour criticisms of the severity of the cuts. Announcing a 19% ...
One of the ways we can all try to prevent Jack Allen building the waste plant in Garston is to make sure they don't get any public sector contracts for waste. It's clear to me that the company won't take the risk of building if they cannot get contracts to deal with enough waste. Now there's not a lot we can do about private contracts. We don't after all know who the likely customers are. But we do know that in this area the people dealing with domestic waste are the Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority. Their job, among other things, ...
There are serious cross-border criminals at large in Europe damaging the lives of innocent people. A certain numbers of them are more likely to be dealt with when a European Public Prosecutor is created. The British Government needs to escape the defensive dug-out epitomised by Blair's "red lines" and fight for the good that co-operation in Europe can bring for all our people. This is a time for leadership. A federal public prosecutor is provided for in the Treaty of Lisbon with a distinct emphasis on financial crime. I use the f-word, federal, because while it has been excluded from ...
I've heard much about Nadine Dorries (Tory MP for Mid Bedfordshire) - and none of it good. But I've never had much reason to bother looking into it. Until today that is when this BBC news article caught my attention - MP Nadine Dorries says her blog is '70% fiction'. It reports that she told the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, John Lyon that: "My blog is 70% fiction and 30% fact. "It is written as a tool to enable my constituents to know me better and to reassure them of my commitment to Mid Bedfordshire. "I rely heavily on poetic ...
Prestwich Farmers Market will be attracting large crowds when it returns to the Longfield Centre on Sunday 24thOctober, 9.30am to 2.30pm for another jamboree of stuff. I am told in the press release that the market offers a range of locally sourced foods and speciality products to suit every taste. There will be over 30 stalls offering speciality meats, fresh home made pasta, unidentifiable slop masquerading as sophisticated eastern european dips, pies and cheeses and home-made cakes and chocolates. There will also be pastas, chutneys, jams and drinks. The exuberant and wildly enthusiastic press officer responsible for this Council outpouring ...
I appreciate that the national press, influential think-tanks and the country's leaders have given their views on the Comprehensive Spending Review, but I also know that the world is waiting with baited breath for the thoughts of a back-bench opposition Councillor from a quiet northern town. So here goes. Tin hat on. I think that there are some hugely disappointing elements to the CSR. It was a sad day, no matter what anyone thinks about how necessary it was. The whoops from the government benches did nobody any credit. I don't think it's all bad. Nick Clegg is certainly overdoing ...
The mighty Warlingham 4th XV has had a spectacular start to the season. We have won our first three games and are now comfortably top of the Surrey Foundation League. Having handed over the weighty responsibility of captaincy to the immensely able, if somewhat easily rattled, Danny "Anger-Management" Gillespie, I am now concentrating on a new mission: working my way up through the club sides so that by the end of the season I can "Bench" for the first team. This is already proving to be something of a challenge. I am currently probably the 6th choice hooker for the ...
We have covered Christine O'Donnel before. She is the 'scary witch' who would rather like to try be a politician. Like quite a few others I can think of she seems to think that she can spring ready made into the job with out any need to prepare herself and avoiding all the inconvenient hard work. She want to tell us what she feel not what she thinks. A truly spectacular load of nonsense was spouted by her illustrating the depth of her ignorance at a recent school meeting. The Guardian has the full story but here is a flavour: ...
Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards John Lyon has today has today said that "Mr Mackay's decision to claim that the property in Bromsgrove was his main home was a serious misjudgement which was sustained over more than 12 years." he also added, "Mr Mackay should have recognised that it was not right, or defensible, to come to an arrangement which he knew would mean that parliamentary allowances would be used to cover costs incurred on both his homes." Mackay and his wife Julie Kirkbride (MP for Bromsgrove constituency) have paid back £29,243 each earlier this year after Mackay claimed £1,000 a ...
As I write, Chris Bryant is arguing during the Whole House committee for the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill that a method for drawing up constituency boundaries that is severely confined by a mathematical formula is misguided. I completely agree, although possibly for a different reason to the one he uses to support his argument. Mr Bryant has been arguing that a strict mathematical formula will have to ignore natural geographical and physical boundaries. It's true: to bring in the Bill as it stands will create constituencies that are almost constantly shifting and where previously combined communities may very ...
A Hard road to a fairer, more prosperous Britain. That is the mantra of the Comprehensive Spending Review announced yesterday.Labour of course are bleating, but it should be remembered that last November they announced that they would be implementing £72 billion of cuts - so when they come clean on their pre-election plans then they will have credibility in this debate. Painful though this is and will be, I believe the Government had no choice. We had to take action to free the nation of debt and the waste of interest payments;It was right to do this now because it ...
When I awoke this morning, turned on my laptop I looked at the date and my brain immediately went "Ah it's Trafalgar Day". Just before you think I'm being crazy nationalistic, Admiral Horatio Nelson is one of the people I'd ... Continue reading →
The effect of the 'savage' cuts as Nick Clegg called them last September are gradually becoming apparent over the course of the week. What both parts of the coalition insist is that these cuts are about deficit reduction and not a deliberate effort to roll back the state. There is a major aspect to these cuts however which are making this very difficult to believe. If cuts were purely to balance the books, and the economic forecasts of the coalition were correct, there would come a time possibly during a hypothetical second parliament when some of the cuts could be ...
A stark warning has come from the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ulster in light of the Browne Report. Professor Richard Barnett says what he brands a small group of "elitist" English universities lobbied and got a lot of their own self interest included in the Browne Report. A point that if true should send alarm bells ringing amongst those of the Liberal Democrat MPs who seem to have so whole-heartedly switched to accept the recommendations. Recommendations that we were wary of back in May enough to allow us to abstain if we didn't like them. The view of these ...
There has been a lot of talk over the last few months about the Coalition's plans for social housing. Much has been written, and most of it has been wrong, as illustrated by Dominic Curran's piece on Lib Dem Voice yesterday. This piece is intended to explain what we are actually doing, rather than what the Labour party, and their friends in the media want you to think we're doing. Firstly, we will be increasing social housing supply by more each year than Labour achieved in thirteen years added together. That's because Labour sold off almost as many houses as ...
In his excellent analysis of the spending review, Richard Grayson highlights the lack of a strategy to encourage the private sector to grow and employ the thousands of public sector workers set to lose their jobs. Some of us saw this coming. Having worked in both the public and private sectors, it is clear to me that shifting people from one sector to another won't be without some pain. Just as we didn't plan for the peace after the war in Iraq, I fear no one has planned for life after the public spending cuts. My friend the Enterprise Editor ...
Registrations are now open for ALDC's main campaigner training event of the year - KICKSTART - which takes place 26-28 November 2010. Kickstart is for teams of volunteer campaigners - not just for those of us with elections in 2011, but also great for people forward planning for 2012 and beyond. Every year we welcome teams and individuals from across the country who want to learn about how to win local elections. The event has a great track record of success with teams who attend showing a better than average performance in the subsequent May's elections. This year we're in ...
i) births and deaths 21 October 2000: death of Alan Rowe who played Evans and the voice of Space Control in The Moonbase (1967), Edward of Wessex in The Time Warrior (1973-74), Skinsale in Horror of Fang Rock (1977) and Garif in Full Circle (1980). 21 October 2007: death of Peter Moffatt, who directed State of Decay (1980), The Visitation (1982), Mawdryn Undead (1983), The Five Doctors (1983), The Twin Dilemma (1984) and The Two Doctors (1985). 21 October 2009: death of Chris D'Oyly-John who worked in various production capacities on fifteen Classic Who stories from The Ark (1966) to ...
This Sunday (24 October 2010) will again see the Birmingham Half Marathon using the Pershore Road. Unlike last year runners will be running out to Bournville and back along the Pershore Road - less roads will therefore be affected than last year. The full route is available online and Pershore Road should be re-opened to traffic by about 2pm.Local residents should already have received
Jonathan Fryer appears on our blog roll and judging by the statistical information supplied by Statcounter a goodly number of readers do visit his blog. I included Jonathan, not just because he is a 'good thing',but because of his coverage of events and issues beyond Britain. Johnathan works as a journalist and broadcaster and driving between appointments this morning I caught his package on Radio 4's From our own Correspondent . You can listen to it here and learn more about the situation in Algiers.
The recent comments from Bank Of England Governor Mevyn King , regarding the possibility of quantitative easing make little sense in the context of the Coalition's current economic strategy and are contrary to broad Lib Dem principals. The pre-election debate on the economy centred on whether the recovery was strong enough at present to sustain cuts, it is the opinion of Lib Dems, and a view I agree with, that the economy is strong enough to sustain such an action. This view can be boiled down to believing that the level of aggregate demand in the economy has reached a ...
As with quite a number of the Pertwee stories, I found myself enjoying Planet of the Spiders much more than I had expected. Seen in sequence, it is a decided uptick in quality after the last couple of stories; also one appreciates the homage to the Pertwee years now ending - bringing back Mike Yates for a last UNIT reunion, reference to Jo off-screen (the first time I think that an ex-companion has done anything other than appear in reminiscence), the gadgetty chase sequence of Episode 2, even the human colonists of mixed acting ability. The idea that the Third ...
I suspect that sometime in the next few years, we're all going to become heartily sick of the words 'red line' in relation to politics. But, while we wait for a better short description of 'things the Government would do that would make me want to pull my party out of it and reconsider my ...
On Monday 25th and Tuesday 26th October 2010 there will be a lane closed on Chorlton Bridge, Stockport Road, Cheadle (between Park Road and Chorlton Drive). The closure will be from 9.30am to 4pm each day (so avoiding rush hour) with Stop/Go signs to manage the traffic. View Cheadle and Gatley in a larger map
Yesterday's Comprehensive Spending Review will have been well analysed by all the papers and commentators with lots of questions about whether the cuts are "fair" or not and if they are necessary at all. What was more interesting to me (or dismaying) as an economist (but very much lapsed one) was the extent the political ...
I type this post at around 9.30am-10am. At this time, 44 years ago today, Britain and Wales in particular, experienced one of the most heart-breaking disasters in living memory - the Aberfan Disaster. 144 people were killed. Of these, 5 were teachers and 116 were pupils aged between 7-10 which accounted for almost half of Pantglas Junior School. I was not born at the time, but it is an event that scars the Welsh psyche - and mine. I have myself however, paid a visit to the Garden of Remembrance and it proved to be one of the most over-powering ...
"Euro MPs back 20-week maternity leave on full pay," read the headlines, accurately reflecting the result of a first reading vote in the European Parliament. Well this Euro-MP didn't back it, and nor did my British Liberal Democrat colleagues. But the heated debates we have had about the issue in our European Lib Dem Group (ALDE) reflect different national perceptions and a different view of what the EU should be doing. Some of my colleagues believe strongly that Europe should be laying down minimum social standards. They question how there can be a proper sense of European citizenship, and fair ...
[Following the article on Lib Dem Voice, Tim Farron MP offered to write an article for this blog covering NI and Wales, here is the article - uneditied, straight from Tim's keyboard.-Ed.] I wrote an article for Lib Dem Voice the other day about what I would do for Scotland why I hope that party ...
Today Lord_Sugar tweeted 'Don't expect anything positive about me in Daily Mail best practice is what ever they say think opposite and you might have the right story'. I expect in relation to this Daily Mail article 'The Apprentice: Fired Dr Shibby Robati accuses Lord Sugar of being 'biased against professionals'. I have no idea if this is true or not. It is in the Daily Mail after all, so how could I be sure? Lord Sugar may have some dubious apprentices but he has a point, don't you think?
Trading Standards officers in Sefton are backing a national campaign which highlights rogue doorstep traders offering winter home improvement services. The Office of Fair Trading and Age UK have joined forces to warn people, particularly those in later life, the vulnerable and their friends and family, of the problem as winter approaches. The awareness drive highlights the financial risks of being scammed and the emotional toll it can take. It is being supported by resident agony aunt at ITV's 'This Morning', Denise Robertson. She said: "I receive many letters from people who have been swindled by illegitimate doorstep handymen. "They ...
Yate Town Council is consulting about providing additional football and car parking facilities on Yate Common. Please complete The Common Consultation on Additional Football Pitches and Car Parking questionnaire as your views are very important in deciding whether to go ahead with the proposals. The questionnaire has a detailed map of the areas involved.
It's not unusual for me to be less than impressed with Parliamentary debates on election law matters as so many of those deciding on what legislation should say have so many large gaps in their own knowledge. It's particularly galling where the subject under debate is something piloted in the long-running series of electoral pilots under Tony Blair – because you get MPs who voted to spend money on the pilots then, a few years later, debating the same topics without any apparent knowledge that the pilots took place or what lessons were learnt from them. There is good news ...
If anyone has seen this kitten please contact me at the House of Commons. There is a reward for its return.(note that people are welcome to republish this picture of Beauty on the basis that they are aiming to get her returned.)
As reported in yesterday's Evening Telegraph, I have written to CityJet and Highlands and Islands Airports Limited over concerns by passengers who use services to London City Airport from Dundee, regarding the proposed winter timetable by CityJet. The new timetable from 1st November 2010 onwards : Dundee - London City Depart Dundee 08:30 / Arrive London City 10:00 Depart Dundee 14:25 / Arrive London City 15:55 Depart Dundee 18:30 / Arrive London City 20:00 London City - Dundee Depart London City 10:30 / Arrive Dundee 12:10 Depart London City 16:25 / Arrive Dundee 17:55 Depart London City 20:30 / Arrive ...
Last night, I attended an initial committee meeting of WestFest 2011 - it took place at the WestFest shop at 93 Perth Road (right). West Fest 2010 - the first ever West End Festival - was a huge success and it is good to see planning for 2011 already in progress.
I find the House of Commons a very depressing place at times. What should be a place of serious debate all to often, and especially at Prime Minister's Questions, becomes a haven for willy waving and general macho nonsense. Having the weekly event immediately ahead of the Spending Review was a complete and utter waste of time, yesterday. I know I'm paraphrasing a lot, but questions from the Government benches went along the lines of "Aren't the other lot a bunch of irresponsible gits who shouldn't be trusted with the Commons tea fund and aren't the people of Britain lucky ...
I commented yesterday on the good deal Chris Huhne has got for environmental spending (due to go up by a fifth in cash terms over the spending review period). The best settlement for any ministerial area however looks to have been secured for Sarah Teather's early years education brief – assisted by Nick Clegg's own repeated insistence on prioritising the area. Here's what Sarah Teather wrote yesterday to fellow MPs about the education settlement: Today's Comprehensive Spending Review involved some very difficult decisions that we had to take to deal with the black hole in public finances left to us ...
In terms of the significant savings required by Dundee City Council to meet its revenue budget targets for 2011/12, £5600 is not a great deal, but every penny counts ... At yesterday's Scrutiny Committee, I asked how much it cost to print the council's annual Performance Report. 400 copies at a staggering £14 each this year, I was told. My suggestion is - do not print it all - create a PDF to send to those who normally receive it and send it by e-mail. Anyone who cannot receive it electronically could be given a copy printed on an office ...
Yesterday's Comprehensive Spending Review was a difficult and serious undertaking that will affect us all. I am not happy about it and I am sure that none of the Liberal Democrat Ministers who took part in it, were that happy either. However, even Labour admit that cuts needed to be made to rebalance the economy and as Mark Cole points out on his blog, whereas Labour planned undetailed cuts of 20% (£48 billion), the Coalition Government actually announced cuts of 19% (£47 billion) with details on savings and investments. What is also clear is that those hit the hardest by ...
There is no correlation between high public spending and social and economic equality. I favour much greater redistribution of both income and capital than allowed by the current political consensus in the UK. But I also favour much greater cuts in public spending - perhaps four times greater, over a decade - than Osborne just delivered. The two are not incompatible. Under New Labour there was a massive step change in levels of public spending and in the percentage of GDP comprised of state activity. Did social equality improve? No. The wealth gap between the wealthiest and the poorest yawned ...
It is in the news yesterday – courtesy of The Telegraph – that the innocent sounding "Interception Modernisation Programme" is apparently to be revived. I for one am skeptical that the revival of the programme is really happening as the source does not specifically say it is the Interception Modernisation Programme that's back – it just nebulously mentions a "programme to preserve the ability of the security, intelligence and law enforcement agencies to obtain communication data and to intercept communications". Certainly I hope it really is not the Orwellian IMP. This was envisaged under the last government and I sat ...
It seems that last week I was 'Top of the Blogs'. My post on whether I should leave the party following the Browne Review and Nick and Vince's reaction to it, was the most read via Lib Dem Blogs. Those having read that and my subsequent posts know I have decided to stay on and fight the protests and since launched a petition you can sign by clicking here.Stephen Tall, in his commentary, says
The compulsory spending review yesterday announced a £2.5 billion pupil premium with the resultant Barnett consequential for Wales. Shadow Education Minister Jenny Randerson has called for this money to be used for a similar scheme for Wales. "The start you have in life can determine your prospects for the rest of your life so it is vital that extra resources are targeted at those who start the furthest behind. "There is a spending gap with England already and the pupil premium in England alone will just widen the gap. "Whilst the pupil premium will have to be based upon who ...
The continued wrangling over the future of S4C over the last few months shows just how foolish Labour's Rhodri Morgan was to refuse the offer of the UK Government to pass control of Welsh Language Broadcasting to the Welsh Assembly Government. The Welsh Liberal Democrats have a strong record of defending the Welsh Language. Our priority is to ensure that the quality and standard of Welsh language programming. It is clear that the Welsh public have been poorly served by both the management of S4C and the way in which these decisions have been handled. Given Labour's shambolic mismanagement of ...
A jolly good Tenth Doctor and Martha novel, which would have made a brilliant TV episode (or couple of episodes). Mostly set in eighteenth-century Edinburgh, where alien tech has created a flock of semi-sentient hands which are terrifying the locals. A good sense of place and a couple of David Tennant in-jokes referencing Bathgate and Hamlet. Entertaining stuff.
Cockett is the Economist's Africa editor, and has produced here a very readable account of the last few decades and years in Sudan, explaining how the Darfur crisis came about and exploring the international reaction to both Darfur and the sputtering implementation of the peace agreement between the government in Khartoum and the southern part of the country. Among those professionally engaged in Sudanese matters I am a member of the small minority who are not covering Darfur at all, so I found this book very useful in contextualising my own concerns within the international community's wider agenda. Cockett explores ...
There's a scene in Babylon Five, in which Vir Cotto finds himself unexpectedly in a lift with G'Kar. Vir Cotto's people, the Centauri, have just launched a devastating attack on G'Kar's people, the Narn, bombing the Narn homeworld from orbit with asteroids in contravention of pretty much every rule of engagement in the B5 universe and killing millions. Vir, who is profoudly unhappy with the actions of his people, attempts to apologise. G'Kar gives a graphic demonstration of why an apology is, at that point, futile. It's here, if you want to watch it (warning, contains blood, and is probably ...
Back in my Cambridge undergraduate days, we Natural Scientists had a joke about the guy studying English who did not want to look out of the window in the morning, because then he would have had nothing to do in the afternoon. But as I have got more interested in sf criticism, I have felt that maybe I did miss something by not sampling what was on offer in terms of literature studies in the department which was still resting on its laurels from the glory days of Leavis (or rather the Leavises). So I picked up this volume to ...
Freedom Central reports the views of leader Kirsty Williams and local AM and housing spokesman Peter Black. It should be emphasised that the cut in the money Westminster gives to Cardiff for day-to-day running falls only around 2%, and that after predicted inflation is taken into account. The Labour-Plaid Welsh Assembly Government coalition leader is trying to make the settlement look worse by adding in the closure of the Newport Passport Office, the cancellation of the Great Western electrification and the postponement of a decision on a military training establishment in the Vale of Glamorgan. I understand that the principal ...
In East Tyrone Magistrates Court yesterday a phrase was used by a detective constable in a bail hearing that has my brain considering whether this is correct or not. The defendant was arrested at the scene of the finding of some ammunition and a holdall containing a revolver in a car in which he claims ...
A visitor to our city was walking along North Queen Street last evening, and suffered a homophobic verbal assault in the vicinity of the Chinese takeaway in North Queen Street. He contacted me as he knew of my involvement with the Liberal Democrats in the area and that I am Vice Chair of the LGBT ...
In April last year I wrote about the resignation of Bob Quick who was the head of counter-terrorism at Scotland Yard. One of his mistakes was to show confidential information to waiting photographers in Downing Street. I don't think this was his biggest mistake, after all, we all make mistakes but he happened to resign shortly after this. Since then there has been a long list of people who have also shown confidential information to photographers and I have not heard of any other resignations. It is the sort of thing that can happen to anyone. it is a failure ...
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