You will have heard that today Harriet Harman referred to Danny Alexander as a "ginger rodent" in a speech to a Labour conference in Oban. To her credit, she later withdrew the remark and apologised. But it does raise an interesting question. Could Harriet Harman be prosecuted under the Equalities Act that she herself did so much to bring on to the statute book? To begin with a couple of sources that not everyone will trust... At the start of the month the Daily Mail published an article on this act, which was adopted and passed by the Coalition. Under ...
So Ed Miliband has told his Party faithful that the £150 billion debt his government left the incoming coalition to sort out wasn't Labour's fault! It was an international slump which they had no part of he claims. Proof positive of the old adage "to er is human. To blame someone else if politics!" Britain is one of the biggest economy's in the world. The City of London is one of the biggest money markets in the world. Labour were in power between 1997 until a few months ago and had responsibility for regulating the markets. They failed to do ...
Some sensible advice on the Woking Borough Council website today about Halloween and that a little bit of consideration wouldn't go amiss/ I've just foolishly answered the door to some trick or treaters and when I politely said "no thanks" was met with a tirade of abuse from the youngsters who cant have been more than 14 at most. Charming. Police officers in Woking will be working alongside retailers and local people over the coming week to limit the opportunities for anti-social behaviour as people celebrate Halloween. With reported incidents of anti-social behaviour, including criminal damage and public nuisance, traditionally ...
Thanks very much to the Liberal Democrat Voice team for giving me the privilege of guest editing the site today. It was a huge pleasure to be able to contact LibDem friends I greatly admire, and then receive back articles which were of high quality and fascinating in equal measure. So many thanks to David B, Duncan, Katy, Mary, Sue, David R, Colin and Gerald for writing such wonderful articles so promptly and to Mark for posting them up and generally advising.
I wrote a blog about the Tea Party movement on Lib Dem Voice earlier, arguing that they provide a lesson for Liberal Democrats here - that we must be more scrupulously on the side of people, rather than bureaucrats, if we want to avoid a similar populist movement here. I notice that there a comments at the bottom that accuse me of caricaturing them as a right-wing organisation, and also for precisely the opposite. What can this mean?
Copyright Steve Bell in the Guardian Sometimes there are funny weeks in Politics where you wonder what planet our politicians are living in. This week was one of them. Firstly Boris Johnson decides to make an ill advised reference to ethnic cleansing in Kosovo when referring to the proposed Housing Benefits cuts and the impact they might have on driving people out of London who can no longer afford to live there. Then today, Harriet Harman, speaking at the Scottish Labour Party Conference, referred to Danny Alexander as a 'Ginger Rodent' Boris' quote whilst stupid is nothing more than we ...
Those listening to Labour's outrage about the so-called "social cleansing" they believe would result in capping Housing Benefit to four hundred pounds a week might get he impression that Labour opposes the policy. Odd, then, that it appears in the Labour Party manifesto for the 2010 General Election [pdf]: Our goal is to make responsibility the cornerstone of our welfare state. Housing Benefit will be reformed to ensure that we do not subsidise people to live in the private sector on rents that other ordinary working families could not afford. And we will continue to crack down on those who ...
My MP, Jonathan Lord made his maiden speech to Parliament this week. Apart from the fact that he showed far too much love to the ghastly Margaret Thatcher for my liking (great lady my backside) and then said how wonderful Humfrey Malins was (MPs expenses fiddler anyone), it was an OK speech which gave Woking a little bit of exposure that cant be knocked. I wonder who his researcher was who helped him with the history. He still doesnt live here as far as I know so he's either done a lot of day trips or he has a good ...
Time for that part of the week where I drag out some of the things that have caught my attention in cyberspace this week. Its been a rather interesting week with multiple emails from Cowley street about one thing or another and lots of debate between factions on the still coming fall out of the spending review. I still think there are more interesting times ahead as more policy announcements are made. Top ten tweeters: nosugarinmytea – Who sent me a lovely follow friday all the way from Germany hapkidogal – the wonderful pondsider Sharon who is taking out the ...
I think there is getting to be a bit of momentum behind the campaign to sort out English child protection.The link is to a story in the Sunday Telegraph.The only people in a position to reform this system fundamentally are those who set it up in the first place under the 1989 Children Act - the politicians. But they have, with one or two shining exceptions - notably John Hemming - walked away
Following complaints I received about the neglected state of the roundabout on Hawkhill at Hunter Street, I raised this with the City Engineer, who has responded as follows: "The Roads Supervisor has inspected the roundabout and notes that it does look a bit neglected however the shrubs were severely pruned earlier this year to increase forward visibility for the installation of the new pedestrian crossing and there has not yet been sufficient time for the shrubs to regenerate. The DCS Land Services supervisor for that area is planning to carry out a litter pick/weed treatment on the roundabout as part ...
I went to Minsterley chiefly to photograph its church, but I was also taken with this Congregational Chapel. The website Shropshire's Nonconformist Chapels (which I highly recommend) describes it as follows: In 1795 the "chapel house" was licensed for nonconformist worship. A joint church of Independents and Baptists was formed in 1803 which continued until 1833 when they separated, with the Independents building this chapel and the Baptists building the chapel at Lordshill ... The chapel in Minsterley was built of brick which is now rendered. An upper floor was inserted in the late 19th century to be used as ...
HALLOWEEN AT THE JOCKEY, 3.30pm, Sunday 31 October Rather than dress the staff up as Freddy Krueger (they're frightening enough as it is) or make a tacky blood red cocktail that no one wants to drink, we've decided to throw a challenge to the parents of M21. Parents of both two and four legged offspring that is. Who can look the more fiendish on Halloween? The pooches or the kids? We've got prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in each category, and a special prize for the overall winner. So if little Phoebe fancies going all Twilight on us, ...
Having been disappointed by Armstrong's The Age of Transformation, I'm glad to report that I enjoyed reading this very short reflection on the development of mythology through the ages - I'm still not convinced by Armstrong's Axial Age hypothesis, but I found a lot of resonance for me in her thoughts about the importance of myth and how societies have changed their approach to it in the wake of technological and social change since the invention of agriculture to the present day. She urges a wider appreciation of the importance of myth in the present day to which I'm totally ...
Harriet Harman's "ginger rodent" comment aimed at Danny Alexander is jaw-droppingly juvenile. For any adult to make a cheap remark about the colour of somebody's hair is faintly ridiculous. For a former cabinet minister it's ludicrous, and for the former cabinet minister responsible for the Equalities agenda for the last few years it's absolutely mad. Harman should be ashamed of herself for making the comment (not least because someone that experienced in public speaking should know that it really isn't funny!) and it's right she's apologised. Of course, she's not stupid, and knows that it'll probably stick. But how can ...
This week I read the Fawcett society's comments about the spending review with interest. I think it's important to look at issues such as this from all sorts of perspectives, including a feminist one. But ultimately I found their arguments against the spending review and its impact on equality unconvincing. Their response states that "The cuts are so deep and will hit women so hard that they risk more than women's financial security - they threaten hard fought progress we've made on women's equality. The Chancellor's plans undermine the status of women as equal partners with men in the world ...
I've been on the road for the last ten days, so updates have been limited to linking and Whoniversaries, and actually reading LJ and email has barely happened at all. If anything interesting happened while I was away please tell me! Meantime I managed to read several more books, of which the first was this set of anecdotes, borrowed from wwhyte, about (southern) Irish elections mostly since independence (a couple of notes on the 1917 and 1920 elections, and on Cashel as a rotten borough in the years before 1832). A lot of it was material I had lived through ...
Our goal is to make responsibility the cornerstone of our welfare state. Housing Benefit will be reformed to ensure that we do not subsidise people to live in the private sector on rents that other ordinary working families could not afford. And we will continue to crack down on those who try to cheat the benefit system.An extract from a speech by a tough-minded Coalition minister? No, that paragraph is taken from A Future Fair for All, the manifesto on which Labour fought the last election. You will find it on page 20. Which goes to show how ridiculous the ...
So David Cameron believes that in Brussels he has secured a deal to limit the increase in the EU budget to 2.9% Has he never read the Lisbon Treaty? He spent enough time denouncing it last year, but it seems that he never did get around to reading it, and nor did most of the British journalists commenting on this week's European Council meeting. The European Parliament has budgetary powers that match those of the Council. Governments can't do a deal without the consent of the Parliament, and the Parliament negotiating position is to call for a 5.9% increase. Personally ...
Nationally the picture is this. Between 1979 and 1997, the Conservative Governments of Thatcher and Major built 830,00 new homes for social rent. This may sound a lot, but at the same time 1.2million were sold. Right-to-buy may have been the right thing to do, but clearly the government then had not planned for the impact of this policy. They left the nation with 400,000 less Council/Housing
Going into a coalition government with another party was always going to be hard, particularly with the Tories! It feels to me like a trip to the dentist. Something I know is the right thing to do for the long term, but very painful in the short term. I supported the coalition. Given that I spent the last eight years as a relatively high profile Liberal Democrat in Liverpool, a city that judges it's people and particularly it's politicians by how much you hate the Tories, it was a brave thing to do! I supported it for two reasons. Firstly, ...
Well not exactly...
Well not exactly...
So Harriet Harman has been forced into a grovelling apology for her nasty remarks about Danny Alexander. Quite right too. The remarks also seem to have caused some embarrassment within the Labour party. Good. But full marks to Danny Alexander for his response that he was "proud to be ginger", adding that "rodents do valuable work cleaning up ...
If you don't own a property, and aren't planning to buy, then you won't be mesmerised by the endless flow of information about house prices. And if you do own a property or are looking to buy you will know that the last few months have made for gloomy reading. I always take these reports as a fairly accurate description of what is going in terms of buying and selling. Until now that is. I have been told by a reliable source that about half the sales in Islington for one estate agent has been in cash. If you buy ...
[IMG: Sharon Purvis] I am delighted to announce that Sharon Purvis is our candidate for the by-election in Worth Valley Ward of Bradford Council on 25th November. Sharon is well known in the ward, having lived in Oxenhope for 20 years. She is married with four daughters. Sharon cares very much what happens to young people in these difficult times. She is a volunteer who helps to run the Welgudfridayz youth group at Holy Family School. The group is open to all youngsters. She would like more provision for young people in the Worth Valley. Sharon is a member of ...
After all, how else to explain Ed Miliband in his speech on being elected Labour Party leader disparaging people who used terms such as "Red Ed" - saying "Come off it. Let's start to have a grownup debate in this country" - and then Harriet Harman today going for her own bit of 'red' political labelling, calling Danny Alexander a giant ginger rodent? After all, to ignore her own party leader's call for people to grow up would be a bit of a snub for Ed Miliband from Harriet Harman. So she must have fallen asleep and not heard him ...
I've never really embraced what many would argue is my 'gingeriness'. I'm more of an auburn, a rusty blonde as I'd see it. Poor Show Harriet, Poor ShowBut, I'm more than happy to embrace and join in with my ginger friends in defiance of that Labour rodent, Harriet Harman. It's interesting to see a former Minister for Equalities, slamning the "ginger rodent", Danny Alexander in her speech today to the Scottish Labour Party Confernce. Not very fair and equal is it Harriet? Fair play to Danny, his Twitter response was spot on. He stated that he was proud to be ...
On Monday, while in London for a meeting, I picked up a copy of the Evening Standard. (I can never resist a good freebie – I was once an MP after all - and besides it gave me three extra Sudokus to do on the train home). Inside I found four vouchers (one for each of the remaining days of the week) for "i" – Britain's first new quality newspaper for over two decades. The paper only costs 20p a day. But I am such a sucker for freebies that I just could not resist using the vouchers to try ...
I cannot say that I am entirely happy with the proposed changes to housing benefit and remain concerned at their impact on disabled people in particular. I do find the hysteria generated by Boris Johnston and Labour MPs hard to follow however. Rent of £400 a week can get you decent accomodation even in Central London. Official figures show that 96 per cent of 642,200 claimants whose handouts will be reduced will face rent shortfalls of £20 a week or less, and 79 per cent of £10 or less. The proposal does not affect the millions of tenants in social ...
[IMG: shrewsquirrel] The Telegraph notes former Labour Equalities Minister, Harriet Harman, has apologised after calling the current Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander a "ginger rodent". A regrettable error for one so senior who herself has overcome the inherited disadvantage of no discernable sense of humour. We at LV hope she treads more gingerly in future.
I took down my posts about the Lib Dem Autumn Conference for a couple of reasons 1) To finish it this long after the event would be irrelevant, although I have all my notes it's a much larger undertaking then I had envisaged 2) As I have been elected as a conference rep for next year there will be other opportunities 3) With the benefit of hindsight, I tried to cram in as much as possible on my first conference without time to actually sit down and blog it all. What I will do nearer the Spring Conference is do ...
I felt moved to put this up, as I feel strongly that no-one should have to put up with this kind of harrassment. Nick Clegg reporting that the cancellation of the #forgemasters loan (Bingo by the way), has led to dog excrement being put through his letter box. Its been reported in libdemvoice, and links to an article in the Daily Fail. The full article will be in the next 'Esquire' magazine. This is on the same day that Harriet Harman decides to rally the troops in Scotland by calling Danny Alexander a "ginger rodent". The guardian report is here. ...
It was not long ago that I asked the question on this blog, what went wrong for Obama? That was September 5th and now, almost 2 months later, the mid-terms are upon us. Obama's hopes look as bleak now as they did then. For the reasons that I mentioned in that earlier post, it isn't really surprising. However, I couldn't help but notice a comment that I made, that if as expected, the results go against the Democrats, then to quote Bachman-Turner Overdrive and to paraphrase D:ream, 'You ain't seen nothing yet' because 'Things can only get worse'. Hope for ...
Labour's Scottish conference in Oban seemed to be going so well until the same old Party's Deputy Leader, Harriet Harman MP called Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander a "ginger rodent". "Now, many of us in the Labour Party are conservationists - and we all love the red squirrel," Ms Harman said. Danny Alexander is a Lib Dem MP in the north of Scotland "But there is one ginger rodent which we never want to see again - Danny Alexander."Labour's former Equalities Minister, Harriet Harman went on to attack Mr Alexander's other party colleagues north of the border, telling ...
Someone that has to resort to personal attacks is a sign of someone with nothing left to say. Harriet Harman has shocked the country at the Scottish Labour Conference by launching vociferous and malignant remarks at the Liberal Democrats. Stooping as low as to mention the seventh diversity strand, ginger, she proclaimed; "Now, many of us in the Labour Party are conservationists - and we all love
You really don't know how much pleasure it gives me when I see some positive movement towards marriage equality. So after the last couple of weeks of news, I'm smiling from ear to ear (tempered only by my other half's kids heading home today after a lovely week here and a stonking great cold). A couple of weeks ago Patrick Harvie, a Green MSP, introduced the following "motion" (a completely non-binding instrument used to convey an opinion rather than further a legislative agenda) to the Scottish Parliament: Equal Marriage, Equal Partnership—That the Parliament welcomes the commitment by Ed Miliband to ...
Now many of us in in the Labour Party are conservationists and we love red squirrels. However there is one ginger rodent we never want to see again in the Highlands, Danny Alexander.So said Harriet Harman in her keynote address to the Scottish Labour Party Conference in Oban today. I have always had a huge amount of admiration and respect for Labour's Deputy Leader. Her work on equalities, often banging her head against a brick wall in her Party as Blair's and Mandelson's memoirs show, is something I both have a lot of time for and empathise with. Also, I ...
Down here in the South West we are bracing ourselves for the impact of the government's efforts to reduce the budget deficit. The public sector is by far the biggest employer here (about 40%) and redundancies seem inevitable, compounded by posts falling empty and not being filled thus reducing the number of real vacancies. Will the private sector be able to grow fast enough to compensate? I live in Sherborne, a pretty little market town which is renowned for its variety of small, independent retailers. They sustain the local way of life, provide some limited employment opportunities and attract visitors ...
When the BBC Radio 4 proclaimed on the news this morning that people who volunteer could be rewarded with credit to their own care-time accounts, I thought I had woken up in a dystopic nightmare. I completely advocate volunteering, probably spending more of my freed time doing it than paid work, and I am a trustee for the Volunteering Bureau in my home town. But to capitalise on "rewarding"
There's an interview with Nick Clegg in the November issue of Esquire magazine, out in full on 4th November. A preview of the interview is on Mail Online under the title: Clegg: "I'm so hated that people put dog mess through my door". The actual quote from Nick Clegg pertains to the cancellation of the Sheffield Forgemasters Loan, as follows: Yes, people are very angry. You don't have to tell me. I'm getting dog excrement through my letterbox. People are spitting at me. But this loan was one of the biggest commitments, the money has to be borrowed and the ...
Almost every working person knows their salary or their hourly rate. Some can even express it as a fraction of the cost of hiring a plumber. Yet our time outside work lacks similar recognition in the choices we make: we should value our time for more than just the contribution it can make to our household budgets and material needs. There is strong quantitative evidence that beyond a level of around £15,000 per year, extra income has little improving effect on a person's well-being: put bluntly, the extra money doesn't pay you back for your time. Despite this, British employees ...
Today's speech by Labour's Harriet Harman shows that the Labour Party are still bitter over May's General Election results. They obviously thought they had a right to govern and in a hung parliament we should and must have work only with them.They have soon forgotten that if we worked with the Labour Party there would be a continuous unstable government. There was on not enough Labour/ Lib Dem
Having just started to recover from a halloween party, I thought I may share some crafty ideas for Halloween - mainly for kids, but I find the parent enjoy it too! Pom poms, not enough pom pommery about nowadays. This site will show you how although you can do it the Heath Robinson way and use a mug! I bought some orange wool for pumpkins and black wool to make spiders and witches (with the help of pipe cleaners and lollipop sticks). Seconds of entertainment. Ghost Hands - trace round your hand on white paper and cut it out. Draw ...
Have you ever been the victim of malicious software? I have, but not for some years. It was time consuming but fortunately not costly to fix, but I learnt my lesson as a result. I've posted a couple of warnings about conmen in the Wallington area recently and this kind of thing happens online too of course. So here is some good advice about online scams care of Webroot who make software to help you avoid such things online. Scam #1: Your computer is infected! The biggest criminal enterprise is the rogue antivirus product. It tries to convince you that ...
Having been born and grown up with red hair I take exception to Harriet Harman's remarks about Danny Alexander. In my early teens my hair became really bright red, having been a delicate golden when I was very small and becoming a deep Titian auburn in ...
For nearly 50 years Cuba, a small nation of 11 million people, in the Caribbean, has suffered military and economic hostility from the USA. This continues in the form of a trade blockade and the US base at Guantánamo, which also doubles as the prison camp for al Qaeda suspects. For 19 years the United Nations General Assembly has voted to lift the blockade on Cuba, this year there were 187 votes in favour of lifting the embargo, 2 against (USA and Israel) with 3 abstentions. Despite this, on September 2, 2010, President Obama renewed the embargo for yet another ...
So Harriet Harman lacks judgement. So she is limited in intelligence. So she has stooped to insulting someone in the most stupid terms. Where's the story? Harriet Harman was always over-promoted and now her career is over she is lashing out. Where's the story?
As regular readers of this blog will know I try to stay out of day-to-day party politics. This is mostly because of my job means that it would be inappropriate for me to comment on party politics or policy issues. Not only that but many other people write a lot about all that so one more voice in the debate doesn't make a huge difference. Rather, I prefer to look at how political ideas are communicated, the way communication works and the development of liberal ideas that cut across parties. Today though is different. Harriet Harman has called Danny Alexander ...
Thanks to the Team this morning. In not great weather we were able to deliver over 1000 leaflets. I enjoy delivering around the ward as it is a great chance to talk to residents and listen to their views and issues. I have already had 2 telephone calls and a return slip pushed through the letterbox with a ward issue.
There was always one chant I always felt uncomfortable with in the stands at Scottish football stands. It was the one attacking the poor unfortunate ginger player on the opposition team, and how his natural colouring was unacceptable. The reason being that being in Scotland there were plenty of ginger fans in our own section, heck the majority of what are now my grey hairs on head or in beard once were ginger. Therefore to stand at your parties Scottish conference and make a ginger gibe can't not have gone down too well, one of the people sat on the ...
I am out tonight at a Fund Raising dinner, our special guest will be Dr Vince Cable MP. I will post on this after the event.
Cross-posted from Liberal Democrat Voice James Lyons of the Daily Mirror tweeted last night to say "Oh dear - lib dems picked wrong weekend to call for curbs on anti-terror measures". He referred to a Guardian story about LibDem backbenchers calling for the scrapping of control orders and the limit to detention without charge to be reduced to 14 days. Well yes, I suppose if you have a hangover this morning and, therefore, impaired thinking faculties, it is easy to hear the news (of the discovery of the toner cartridge bombs on their way to the US) and think "silly, ...
The government grants to local authorities to help cover the costs of running elections explicitly do not cover the costs of "Floral / shrub or other decoration at count centres or for any stage of the polling process." Makes you wonder what past claim or attempted claim under these grants led to that being included...
I dragged myself up to a well-attended training session on Thursday evening, in an attempt to catch the eye of the Warlingham RFC selectors and make some progress towards benching for the 1st XV by the end of the season. Sadly, my only noteworthy activity was dropping a simple pass, at the start of one of the drills with absolutely everyone watching. Not good. It Saturday morning now and I'm slightly concerned that the backs of my thighs are still aching from the exhausting rucking exercises that club sadist (sorry, I mean Club Coach) Bill Maynard inflicted on us next. ...
Over the last week, we've all focussed on welfare issues, tuition fees and housing. The impact of the 7% pa cut in local government funding has yet to register with most of us. Each council will make its own decisions on how to deal with a total grant reduction of 28% over four years. Coverage will be local, so the public will inevitably blame councillors rather than ministers when popular services disappear. The media have been, inaccurately, talking about a 28% cut in council budgets (rather than in funding) - it's not quite as bad as that, although it will ...
I decided, seeing as my health seems to have taken a bit of a dive this last week, to have a quiet Saturday morning with Earl Grey and bacon sandwiches working through my online to-do list of blog posts to write and surveys to do. The first of these was the Total Politics Top Political Journalists poll, which closes next Tuesday, 2nd November. My only worry was that I wasn't quite feeling charitable enough this morning to do a fair job of it. Actually, I gave much higher marks than I expected to. You have to give each individual journalist ...
St Albans City and District Council's Scrutiny Committee has set up a special "Task and Finish Group" to act as the focal point for ideas on how best to use the land currently occupied by Council-owned garages for the benefit of the whole community, while balancing the interests of the local residents. Their first meeting on 3 November at 7.30pm in the Council Offices will aim to establish terms of reference, provide a briefing to the group, elect a Chair and decide on the dates for future meetings. A preliminary report will be made back to the Scrutiny Committee in ...
South Gloucestershire residents will have to get a massive 2,500 signatures on a petition to require their Council to debate an issue after Tory and Labour Councillors blocked Lib Dem plans for a lower figure. At last week's Council Meeting, the Lib Dems argued that 500 was a large enough number to deter time wasters and said there should be the option to debate any petition or explain why not. They expressed concern about the impact on people in rural areas, as small communities would struggle to get 2,500 signatures. Frampton Cotterell Councillor Pat Hockey said, "If we send out ...
Well, Autumn Conference in Liverpool was an interesting experience. Bumping into Ministers and asking them to sort out issues was strange. An odd aircraft carrier here, and regeneration scheme there. Who knows if these discussions had any effect, but at least we could ask the people who might make the decisions. Few of us now remember the last time this happened. The 1929 Liberal Assembly seems a long time ago now. Being in coalition has this upside. To be able to influence decisions is what we stand for elections for. We think our ideas are better than those of the ...
Ever wondered how to tell the difference between mushrooms and toadstools? Find out on Monday 1st November at Wapley Bushes. Meet at 2pm at the Shire Way entrance for a two hour foray with Justin Smith.
For a blog post title, it does exactly what it says on the tin really doesn't it. It's Halloween weekend and it's one of the times of year that I really detest. Why such an unveiled contempt when many enjoy the celebrations? Maybe it's because I was born in a part of south Pembrokeshire that was sparsely populated of immediate houses near-by. I never lived in a town or village so the whole concept of 'trick-or-treating' never really took off for me as a child as there was hardly anyone near-by to 'trick or treat'! Having said that, that isn't ...
Liberal Democrat Communities Minister Andrew Stunell has announced that Liberal Democrats in Government will deliver the biggest net increase in social housing for 30 years. Speaking in the House of Commons this week, Mr Stunell outlined Coalition plans to provide 150,000 affordable homes over the next four years. Since 1979, both Labour and Conservative Governments presided over a reduction in the number of affordable homes, with each selling off more homes than they built. There were 400,000 fewer homes after the Tories' 18 years in power and a further 45,530 fewer after 13 years of Labour. Commenting, Andrew Stunell said: ...
Part 27iii of blogging my way through my first reading of Atlas Shrugged. You can find the first part here. Chapter 27: 'This is John Galt Speaking' This section of Galt's speech is largely concerned with how clever he was in recognising that the evil socialists who took over the 20th Century Motor Company were ...
Over the past few months, many people within the Liberal Democrats have asked me for my views on the 2010 General Election campaign, and the lessons that we can learn from the experience ready for next time. In the South Central region (where I worked as the Campaigns Officer) the results were mixed. We had substantial swings towards us in both Portsmouth South and Eastleigh, but failed to win Oxford East from Labour, and sadly lost our previously held seats of Oxford West and Abingdon, Winchester, and Romsey to the Conservatives. Clearly any election result is the unique consequence of ...
i) births and deaths 30 October 1978: death of Brian Hayles, writer of The Celestial Toymaker (1966), The Smugglers 1966), The Ice Warriors (1968), The Seeds of Death (1969), The Curse of Peladon (1971) and The Monster of Peladon (1974). 30 October 1997: death of Sydney Newman, without whom etc etc. ii) broadcast anniversaries 30 October 1965: broadcast of "Death of a Spy", the third episode of the story we now call The Myth Makers. Steven and Vicki are imprisoned by the Trojans; the Doctor designs the wooden horse and it is brought into the city. 30 October 1976: broadcast ...
Last week I was in the Glasgow City Chambers for a meeting and as I signed out I noticed a stack of postcards and pin badges. The postcards were for END PROSTITUTION NOW although I do applaud Glasgow City Council for running this campaign, I was somewhat disappointed that it mainly targets the men using female prostitutes. Male prostitutes, as is male rape are topics very rarely covered either in the media or by Governments. This campaign gives just one line of text to male prostitutes. Anyway, I digress. End Prostitution Now is a campaign led by Glasgow City Council ...
Catching up on Welsh blogs after my half-term break I was intrigued to see this post from Glyn Davies MP, who is the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Wales. Writing about the alleged lack of consultation with the S4C Board and Welsh Government Ministers over the role of BBC funding of the Welsh Language channel, S4C Glyn says: Firstly, according to people 'in the know' like Tomos Livingstone of the Western Mail, the decision came 'out of the blue' , and at the last minute. I certainly didn't know – and why should I have known? ...
Apologies for the lack of posts over the last week, I really needed to recharge my batteries in the run-up to the Assembly elections and so took a half term break. This means of course that I now have to deal with a mountain of paperwork, hundreds of e-mails and quite a few matters of interest to look into that have arisen over the past week and which I may wish to take up in the chamber, Whilst I was away I was reselected as top of the South Wales West list and now face a tough challenge to hold ...
[IMG: Nick Clegg] The most recent opinion poll from ICM asked, "Who would you say you trust more to take the right decisions on the economy to ensure a prosperous future? The Conservative/Lib Dem coalition led by David Cameron and Nick Clegg or the Labour party led by Ed Miliband?" Overall there was a healthy lead for the coalition - 44% to 30% - with little sign of a honeymoon for Ed Miliband's leadership. Amongst Conservative and Liberal Democrat voters the margin was, as you would expect, even higher (91%-3% and 70%-17% respectively). However, amongst people who said they voted ...
Below is a breakdown of the Environment departments costs for this years event. This year was another great success and I was particularly pleased to see our tourism brochures being distributed to the 10's of Thousands of visitors. I hope this is enough information for Anon and I also hope that residents see the promotional work for tourism that has been taken advantage of. I cannot guarantee our attendance at this event into the future, which I believe will be a missed opportunity but perhaps we could look for more sponsorship. The cost breakdown is as follows Bedding plants (Sponsored ...
Political narratives have the power to make or break a government or a career. Think about the stories that exist today about Tony Blair or Margaret Thatcher, George W. Bush or Bill Clinton? Whatever we think of these people there is a lot of learning about the stories surrounding their rise and fall and this ...
The coalition government will produce a White Paper which will commit them to look at how local councils can have greater discretion over the business rates. It is mad that councils have little control over the setting of rates locally. Town centres like Bracknell's could be more vibrant if councils can control their own rates. Business rates are set by government, they are collected by the councils and the funds are distributed nationally according to population and other means. I don't have a problem with the government collecting some of this money and these funds being redistributed. But I do ...
The Tea Party movement is even now preparing for its first big electoral test. Banners are being printed, bumper stickers peeled, computerised push-pollers tested. They are a frightening prospect for European liberals. Perhaps any foreign radical movement looks bizarre to outsiders, but the combination of Sarah Palin, red-neck fundamentalists and the shadowy Koch brothers with their billions is a fearsome prospect. Yet the Tea Party has lessons for us, even if it doesn't make its way over here - which in some form or another it seems likely to do. [IMG: Sarah Palin] Because it may not be quite what ...
Although it isn't a Liberal Democrat (or Alliance, SDP or Liberal) party election broadcast, this is the one that had the biggest immediate impact on me when I saw it. It's a tremendously well put together piece, using music in a powerful and ironic way (at a time when Labour was trying to wrest the reputation of being the patriotic party from the Conservatives) and built around showing the viewer the leading figures of another party celebrating at their own party conference. Showcasing your opponents in this way doesn't usually work, but they were unusual political times. The broadcast's impact ...
Let us assume for a moment that the parcel bombs sent to Jewish targets in Chicago were viable devices and this was a real attack by anti-Jewish, and probably Islamic, terrorists. There are other possible explanations, but it is not improbable this was a real attempted attack. We are looking at low level, workaday terrorism. Parcel bombs were not infrequent in the UK in my youth, and the Unabomber caused extraordinary levels of alarm in the United States. Any loss of life is deplorable, but the scale of this threat appears to have been small. It is hard to ...
You still have a couple of days to vote...
Earlier this month, I gave details of the City Engineer's proposal to tidy the roundabout at Riverside Avenue/Riverside Drive (near to the Riverside Inn, formerly Marmalade Pot) and I have now been updated on the timing of works as follows : "A quick note to advise you that the replanting of shrubs at the above location is programmed to commence Monday 1st November and should take 2 / 3 days. Work will be carried out during off peak hours with lane closures on all approaches as well as on the roundabout."
Sat 30th
08:55
Opinion: Did the LibDems pick the wrong weekend to call for curbs on anti-terror measures?
James Lyons of the Daily Mirror tweeted last night to say "Oh dear – lib dems picked wrong weekend to call for curbs on anti-terror measures". He referred to a Guardian story about LibDem backbenchers calling for the scrapping of control orders and the limit to detention without charge to be reduced to 14 days. Well yes, I suppose if you have a hangover this morning and, therefore, impaired thinking faculties, it is easy to hear the news (of the discovery of the toner cartridge bombs on their way to the US) and think "silly, woolly Liberals" for raising their ...
A neighbour phones: "Paddy has been found in a field nearby. I'm looking after him." Later we take him to the vet. He is a bedraggled thing, just fur, skin and bones, hardly able to walk. The vet makes no charge but suggests we bring him back if he is suffering. Back home he won't eat, but laps the water we drip over the tiny portions of food with which we try to tempt him. He purrs, and sleeps.
In past months, I have, on behalf of residents, raised the need for improvments to the Hillside Road road surface. I am pleased to note that the City Engineer's Department is now undertaking works here and has written to householders as follows : "No 32 Hillside Road to and including the junction with Hillside Terrace : Carriageway Resurfacing Works I wish to notify you that work is programmed to commence at the above location on Monday 29 November 2010 and will last approximately 5 days. The contractor for the works is Tayside Contracts. In the interest of public safety, a ...
We've got the Regeneration Select Committee later this week. I am one of the three Lib Dem members. There's a question time for committee members and members of the public to ask questions of the Cabinet Member and Council officers. I have sent three in. Thie (below) is the one on getting ready for winter. "Recent media coverage has hightlighted the problems faced by councils across the country in preparing for winter. It is reported that there is not enough salt supply in the UK to satisfy the potential demands and that some authorities are already looking at sourcing salt ...
Local residents, staff from LMH and volunteers from the Princes Trust were among those helping with a clean up on parts of the Beechwood Estate last week. My colleage Richard Oglethorpe joined LMH staff to help survey residents about the improvements they'd like to see. The helpers, including members of the Merseyside Fire Service, shifted huge amounts of rubbish. For those who know what parts of the communal gardens looked like before, the change is dramatic.
Touring as a musician in 2010 has its downside, what with airport security, visas, bad food, late nights and early starts. However apart from the enjoyment of the shows themselves and meeting lots of cool people one nice aspect is finding yourself in interesting places. This week I played a show at the Eden Court ...
Given Ken Clarke's welcome realisation that prison does not, after all, work, I suppose it makes sense to to cut the funding to the prison service, though it would perhaps be wiser to wait until the cut in numbers has actually materialsed before cutting the staff. However, if fewer offenders are to be sent to prison there will clearly be more on probation, performing community service or otherwise compensating for their crimes. This surely needs more qualified and experienced workers to supervise and guide them. So a cut in funds to the probation service makes no sense at all. Although ...
I found out this evening that I got the job with Coffee, Cake & Kink and I'm signing my contract on Monday. I'll be with them for at least six months, and am incredibly happy tonight :D Have spent the last few hours drinking celebratory cocktails and eating delicious honey cake with [IMG: [personal profile] ] nanaya and [IMG: [personal profile] ] alextiefling and knitting for the competition Lush are running for their South Molton St Day of the Dead party tomorrow :) However, my eyes are going foggy with a need for sleep and as it is nearly 2am ...
I am something of an anomaly in the Lib Dems. I don't support the coalition and I am no fan of the EU. So David Cameron's capitulation to the Eurocrats today came as a ruther disappointment o me. Apparently, according to David Cameron, he "succeeded spectacularly" when he managed to negotiate an increase in UK payments to the EU of £450m a year. It does make me wonder what else he might describe in such terms. Presumably England "succeeded spectacularly" when getting hammered by the Germans 4-1 in the World Cup. I would love to read your suggestions as to ...
Chris Huhne rebuts accusations of a U-turn in this Liberal Voice article.
One of the problems of the capitalist system is that we are seeing companies leaving this country and leaving the EC. There are lots of examples where production has been taken out of the country and this has caused many of the workers to sign on. Manufacturing industry is collapsing in this country and it is almost inevitable that the loss of jobs will mean higher costs in benefits. The owners of the company remain the same and they move the company out of the country purely to maintain or increase profit. So the owners do well but the workers ...
