K, trying to break the block, finally got around to setting up [IMG: [community profile] ] fantastic_films, a blog community about the best of classic science fiction, fantasy and horror movies. The idea is to come up with ideas for showing at the annual Fantastic Films weekend, as the organiser is always open to new ideas. Given that Ghostbusters is being shown on Fiver and I'm sitting through it in growing horror. I loved this film once. Am I being overly cynical? Who you gonna call?
It's in the Daily Mail so I don't think we ought necessarily to believe it
So what are our Conservative friends like? It has been what the young people call "a steep learning curve" for me as, until recently, I generally saw Tories from the saddle as we hunted them across the fields of Leicestershire and Rutland. I recall a good run a county councillor gave us until he went to earth near Billesdon Coplow... Anyway, in the spirit of cross-party co-operation, I here offer pen of a few of my new colleagues. My older readers will recall that popular programme from the early days of the moving television, "Have a Go with Eric Pickles". ...
This is a video that is worth looking at although it is a bit long and you don't get into the issues right at the start. I don't agree with everything they say, but it is clear that they have some things right.There are some real problems in the system. To find out more about it you need to follow my questions about Secret Prisoners.
This morning, I attended the Dundee Airport Consultative Committee meeting at the airport. This is a useful opportunity for elected representatives and the West End Community Council, key stakeholders such as the Chamber of Commerce, the University of Dundee and local businesses, airport management and the various flight providers to meet to discuss issues affecting the airport. The key issue discussed was the concern I and many others have raised about the CityJet winter timetable to London City Airport. We had a productive and constructive discussion about the issue and the two CityJet representatives indicated that the company remains committed ...
It is tempting to crow about the Woolas verdict, but a more measured response is called for. No true democrat can welcome elections being determined by the courts rather than the voters. Politics is a competitive activity and those of us actively engaged in local campaigning have to take the rough and tumble. Not a year goes by without one or more of our opponents in Watford complaining about Lib Dem literature that I have written, while I quietly seeth about theirs before deciding to calm down since it's not worth making a fuss about. There is almost an unwritten ...
I am pleased to note that, following the work to remove overgrown bushes on the roundabout at the Riverside Avenue/Riverside Drive junction, replanting with low level greenery took place this week - see above.
From today, Stover Road will be closed and the lights at the junction with the A432 Badminton Road will be replaced with temporary ones so that the road can be resurfaced and the detector-loops cut. The estimated completion date is 17 November. Similar work is being carried out at the junction of Station Road and Cranleigh Court Road. It's hoped this will finish by Sunday.
This is a week dedicated to everyone I follow on Twitter As such I ask you to check my own profile and choose some people who I follow. All of them have treated me with courtesy and respect. My special mention is @SpiderplantBlog, who unlike most other people I follow, I know in real life and respect immensely. I also ask that you remember that with the exception of bots, twitter is full of real people. Think before you tweet and treat everyone with the respect and courtesy that you would like to be treated with. You may disagree with ...
Wednesday: ...is hearing some Tea Party Wing-Nut exclaiming that: "it's time for a bit less Big Government; it's time to cut the deficit; it's time to cut taxes for small businesses" ...and thinking, isn't that COALITION policy, these days? Sigh. The reports of the US Mid-Terms, (including his own!) all say that President Barry O has taken a SHELLACKING in these elections, which is harsh for a man who wasn't even standing and whose popularity remains more than double that of the only Replutocrat anyone has even heard of. (Oh you know - the OTHER one who isn't a WITCH.) ...
The hyperlocal Saddleworth News has been at the centre of the blogging world today for its coverage of the Phil Woolas court case. Meanwhile, BBC journalists have been on strike. So up yours, Andrew Marr. Also on that case, Norfolk Blogger argues: "Many ordinary Labour voters have found the campaigning from Labour in Oldaham to be distasteful and counter productive. There is a line which many people in politics push against, but few so blatantly step over it (although I feel the Dr Death leaflets distributed in Oxford West and Abingdon - not by Labour - in May 210 against ...
This week has had so many omens about it regarding Mr Woolas. He has written his own fate. First, there's the fact that today of all days he has been found guilty of flouting election law. I wonder when the two judges knew what they wanted to write in that judgement! Second, I note that ...
Chris Huhne, Lib Dem secretary of state for energy and climate change, earlier this week emailed party members with the following message, illustrating how the party is putting green policies at the heart of the Coaltion: Today I am announcing details of the Green Deal, a new and radical way of making energy efficiency improvements available to all, whether people own or rent their properties. Through the Green Deal everyone will have a chance to save energy, cut their bills and tackle climate change, just as we promised in our manifesto. Initially, over the next two years, we will almost ...
My column from today's Liberal Democrat News. I am told my set was working beautifully in the repair shop earlier this week. I shall pick it up from the shop tomorrow. Perhaps it just needed a holiday. Asking the Questions Calder on Air should have appeared last week, but I wasn't well and then my television set fell ill too. For a couple of days I put up with the blue faces and purple grass, reasoning that I must have OD'd on Day Nurse, but in the end I realised something was wrong and sent it back for repair. Living ...
At this time of the year it is traditional for me to moan about the way that Halloween has supplanted Bonfire Night. Think of it as part of my programme of radical nostalgia. This time my views have made the Yorkshire Evening Post, with quotations both from this blog and a telephone interview: "I definitely think Bonfire Night's being pushed out," says Jonathan Calder, a journalist for the New Statesman magazine who has written about the phenomenon on his popular blog Liberal England. "When I was a boy in the 1960s we always had a family bonfire and fireworks in ...
Just a quick link to Lynne Featherstone's blog. She visited Sheffield yesterday, and visited 2 Sheffield projects, the Sheffield Domestic Abuse Partnership and the Community Justice Panel. Two worthwhile projects and I enjoyed reading her summary of them.
Arrived in Sheffield early afternoon and went to visit two really excellent projects. Sheffield Domestic Abuse Partnership As I said in my previous post, I inherited recently, the Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) portfolio. So I was very keen to see the new way that Sheffield was handling its Domestic Violence agenda – as they have a new way of working. It's called the 'Sheffield Domestic Abuse Partnership' – and the major difference is that for the first time the volunteers from the sector and the police dealing with Domestic Violence incidents are housed together. This co-location brings together ...
At work today there was a lot of cooing over this video of a dog swimming with a dolphin... But this one of a cat taking no nonsense is more to may taste.
The rumblings from the big banks have started again as talks of regulating their business comes back in to the news. The banks are holding the government to ransom in a familiar and yet different way to other recessions. [Oh I know we aren't in recession, or so the markets tell us, but tell that to those At Risk and those on benefits and those searching job sites every day]I do not have an
Last time I posted on this site, it was in support of the coalition. Let me make it clear that I still do support the coalition. I understand that coalition means compromise, and I have swallowed many already. Last weekend, at regional conference, I proposed the following motion submitted by my local party: Conference notes that: I)Liberal Democrat ministers in Government have taken the decision to promote increased tuition fees for students in Higher Education. II)On 13th October 2010 the Federal Policy committee issued a statement confirming that Liberal Democrat policy remains to phase out tuition fees. A policy that ...
I was diagnosed with asthma at the age of ten - so about 13 years ago. When I was first diagnosed, I was prescribed Beclametasone as a preventative drug, in 100mcg doses, which I took 2 puffs of twice a day. When Beclametasone was discontinued a few years ago, my prescription was changed to Qvar 50, a similar but stronger drug. I continued to take two puffs twice a day. I assumed all this time that there was a medical reason for taking two small puffs instead of one large one (fnar fnar), and didn't question it. Turns out that ...
Following today's ruling in Oldham East and Saddleworth, which found former Labour immigration minister and current shadow immigration minister Phil Woolas guilty of knowingly making false statements during the 2010 general election campaign, Elwyn Watkins said: This verdict is a historic victory for the people of Oldham East and Saddleworth, a victory for fair play and a victory for clean politics. Anyone who knowingly lies to the voters or looks to set constituent against constituent has no place in a democracy. I hope this judgment makes it very clear that if you deceive your constituents you should be kicked out ...
For a while I've been searching for an African hymn but I wasn't sure of the words. My offspring calls it "See a hamster in white sauce" but it is, I have now found, actually "Siyahamb' ekukhanyen' kwenkhos'" – which is Zulu for "We are marching in the light of God". Here it is sung by a Croatian choir called "Rondo Histriae" in English and Zulu.
I was very lucky this week to have gone along to the Norwich City Football Club Study Support centre to see 10 children I teach get presented with awards for the extra work they had done over a series of weeks at the study support centre. This centre, attached to Norwich City Football Club, is linked with the football club, but is funded in the main by central government money, with the aim of targeting children who need extra support in an environment which is exciting, and providing them with real life tasks and practical activities. The children I teach ...
[IMG: Public enquiry into Claverton Down footpath] AQ78 is officially a footpath! The deadline for appeals against the inspector's ruling has passed, so the historic path between Combe Down and Claverton Down is now officially recognised. The council is also now also able to take enforcement action against the landowner to have the fence taken down. However, to secure a long-term solution B&NES Public Rights of Way department have decided not to enforce immediately. They are negotiating with the private landowner, council and National Trust to voluntarily dedicate the entire route a bridleway - much easier than another round of ...
For many Egyptians, November 4th is better known as 'Love Day', a localised version of Valentine's Day initially conceived, pun intended, in the 1970's. If anyone needs a bit of love after last Thursday, it is our Liberal Democrat campaign teams across the country who've had a bit of a torrid time. Of the seven principal authority by-elections that took place on the 4th, a total of five changed hands. Our worst result on the day was the loss of the Lyth Valley ward on South Lakeland District Council to the Tories by a wafer-thin 23 votes. A Conservative hold ...
On this day in 1605, an extraordinary story of political intrigue and scandal gripped the nation when conspirators attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament. Today, another story of political intrigue and scandal is all over the news – ... Continue reading →
It's Friday. It's five o'clock. Here's a fistful of lists that sum up the LDV week: 5 most-read stories on LDV this week 1. Jo Swinson MP writes on tuition fees (123 comments) by Jo Swinson 2. The same policy can be good or evil - depends who thought of it (70 comments) by Iain Roberts 3. Labour's manifesto pledge to cap Housing Benefit (74 comments) by Iain Roberts 4. Opinion: Are there no workhouses? Our skewed housing benefit debate (62 comments) by Dominic Curran 5. Nick Clegg talks of dog mess coming through his door and being spat at ...
One of the most important aspects of the move to a single Cornwall Council was the pledge to set up local forums across Cornwall. So whilst the abolition of six districts and one county council would save tens of millions of pounds, there would remain a way of holding councillors to account for local services on a local basis. When the Tory led administration took over, they put an immediate halt to localism whilst they held a review. This review decided that local community networks would be allowed to carry on and each of the 19 have developed in their ...
Phil Woolas has today been found guilty of knowling telling fibs about his primary opponent at the last general election. A special court met and found that he told lies and that he knew them to be untrue. So why on earth did Mr Woolas then say "It is vital to our democracy that those who make statements about the political character and conduct of election candidates are not deterred from speaking freely for fear that they may be found in breach of election laws"Is Woolas so stupid as to to be unable to tell the difference between knowingly telling ...
Last night, there was much angst on Twitter about Jeremy Browne's performance on Question Time. We were at points faced with the farcical situation where Jeremy was blocked into defending the government position, when all others were against it and ... Continue reading →
What a day. I've just returned home from Uppermill, where two High Court judges ruled that Labour MP Phil Woolas was guilty of breaching the Representation of the People Act 1983 in comments made about his opponent in election leaflets. ... Continue reading →
It is ironic that today's Phil Woolas judgement, which should have humbled some politicians into thinking twice before getting carried away with hyperbole, was immediately greeted by Baroness Warsi as evidence of Ed Miliband's "terrible misjudgement" and of "despicable" behaviour by Mr Woolas himself. Whilst I agree that Mr Woolas has brought politics into even more disrepute than it splatters around in normally, and that it was probably not wise of Mr Miliband to appoint as a shadow minister somebody in the midst of court proceedings, such wild language from Baroness Warsi is typical of the handles politicians so regularly ...
Phil Woolas (I refrain from using the title MP) has been found guilty of cheating in his election campaign by telling lies about the Lib Dem candidate. As he only "won" by 103 votes it probably means he is not really an MP at all. The Liberal Democrat Elwyn Watkins could be the rightful MP for Oldham East & Saddleworth. Why can't Woolas apologise and resign? Oh, yes, because he is probably not a gentleman. I think it's his agent who could go to prison, though. When I campaigned for Chris Davies, the Lib Dem who won the Littleborough and ...
Prepare to be charmed. Routledge are promoting the journal of the Folklore Society with podcasts of a conversation between Sir Terry Pratchett and Dr Jacqueline Simpson, who has, as Pratchett puts it, an "accent that runs round Europe", not dissimilar to that of the denizens of Uberwald. The first podcast also features Sir Terry singing a folksong, and it's not about hedgehogs.
Very funny. Hat-tip to Alec van Gelder, who you should follow on Twitter:
[IMG: Nigel Farage at Lord's cricket ground, London,...] Image via Wikipedia Nigel Farage MEP has won the only leadership contest more boring than Labour's, and become the leader of UKIP once again. This is mainly because he is the only member of UKIP that anybody, including its members, have heard of. The party's website says it will be announced at 4pm, but frankly it could have been announced four weeks ago, seeing as once Farage's name was in the ring that was the end of it. After a poor General Election it will be interesting to see if Farage can ...
Tuesday: This is what it comes down to: where do we find twelve billion pounds? With slightly under two million students, and fees between six and nine thousand pounds per year, apparently, plus some living allowances, at a BARE MINIMUM that's two million lots of six grand. Twelve billion quid. Where can we find the cash? More cuts? Twelve billion pounds is a tenth of the NHS. Or a third of the defence budget. Surely we can't slash more benefits! So the government has chosen instead to tax students out of their future. We've GOT to do BETTER than THAT! ...
So, another week, and more policies announced that are definitely not Liberal Democrat in origin. Particularly one close to my liberal heart on the issue of paying for University education. Now that debate will rumble on and on, but I want to look more closely at whether the Lib Dems did indeed "sell out" on their principles, or whether they were forced to, by an age old, broken electoral system that was built for the bygone era of the two-party dogfight. Cast your mind back to the General Election. Here are the vote/vote share figures: Conservative: 36.1% (10,703,954), Labour: 29% ...
A highly polished and "produced" video from Sarah Palin, featuring a roaring Mama Grizzly bear on its hind legs at the end. I think someone was working at the sound mixer for hours on this. Is it possible for me to temporarily resign from the human race until November 7th 2012? I don't think I can take much of this.
Under the Coalition Government's proposals: 1. All students will repay less per month under this Government's policy than they currently pay. 2. The lowest-earning 25% of graduates will repay less under this Government's policy than they do now. 3. The top-earning 30% of graduates will pay back more than they borrow and are likely to pay more than double the bottom 20% of earners. 4. Over half a million students will be eligible for more non-repayable grants for living costs than they get now. 5. Almost one million students will be eligible for more overall maintenance support than they get ...
Jane Griffiths former MP for Reading East is threatened with being blocked from the Reading Labour Facebook page for uploading some pictures. They don't allow comments on the page, something I'm always suspicious of. Jane Griffiths also reminisces about the bullying within the local party. Activists and members are in this game not for some personal gain but because we think the party we have chosen can do some good in the community and the country, after all it's not a paid role. We disagree on how we get there and fall on difference sides of the political prospective. But ...
Here is a really interesting piece from the BBC News website regarding South and Central Americas increasing tendency to choose female leaders. I have thought for some time that there would be an really interesting book to be written on the topic of Heads of Government who are women. We have had reams written about male power and personality and the way we exercise it. I wonder if the first generation of women leaders in political office had personality traits in common in order to get to the top? Did these differ from their male rivals or their less successful ...
Yesterday Liberal Democrat Chris Huhne announced details of the Green Deal, a new and radical way of making energy efficiency improvements available to everyone - whether people own or rent their properties. The Green Deal will enable everyone to have a chance to save energy, cut their bills and tackle climate change, just as the Lib Dems promised in our manifesto.Over the next two years, we will almost double insulation rates, ensuring an extra 3.5 million homes benefit from new installations with targeting for the most vulnerable and low-income households, so that those who need it most can say goodbye ...
Well done Reading Borough Council. This week a rogue landlord was fined £60,000 for placing her tenants at risk in a rundown property in central Reading. This is believed to be the biggest ever fine resulting from intervention by environmental health officers in the UK. The landlord in this case was charged with 11 counts of failing to comply with housing management regulations. It says something about the demand for housing in our area that this landlord thought she could get away with charging tenants £700 for the pleasure of renting a substandard property. Under my watch landlords the Council ...
[IMG: no student tuition fees] If you remember, this is the opening frame of the party political broadcast the Lib Dems aired just a few days before standing for election in May. You may remember it: Nick Clegg wondered around what appeared to be the set of "I am Legend" on a day when the prevailing wind was coming from the foolscap factory wearing a jacket 8 sizes too big for him. The tagline, the message, indeed the point of the advert was "no more broken promises" – the Lib Dems are different, the Lib Dems keep their promises, it's ...
After the European Courts ruling it appears those in prison will be given the vote. I listened to part of a radio call-in on the topic. Passion was being unleased, so were an army of armchair experts whose qualification was reading certain newspapers or, even worse, the Daily Mail. I think debate is good and there are strong arguments on both sides, without resorting to nonsense spoon fed by
Typical! Phil Woolas is found guilty and the NUJ are on strike meaning there isn't much news on the BBC networks! Is it just me or is this video in this BBC article a little bizarre? I'm probably missing a legal nicety here but I can understand distraught families of victims not wishing to talk to the media and letting their lawyer read a statement but responding to a court judgement yourself quite happily and then getting your lawyer to then read a statement from you whilst still sitting next to him is just a little odd. So, the by-election...Brown-trousers ...
You can now download the Summary judgment and Full Judgments from the Phil Woolas case on the Judiciary of England and Wales website.
Last night I attended a consultation event on Council proposals to provide a ball zone for local children at Sedgley Park Primary School. Officers had erected stands providing information and examples of the type of facility elsewhere in the borough and other information and feedback sheets etc. I attended mainly to find out the general mood of residents towards the proposals and to explain if necessary the background to the facilities and what the proposals would mean for the community and how they would be maintained/monitored etc. The consultation event was very well attended although I think it's fair to ...
Here on the Government's Judiciary website.
I don't know whether this is a cause for optimism or sadness, but it's very moving nonetheless. SKATEISTAN: TO LIVE AND SKATE KABUL from Diesel New Voices on Vimeo.
It will not surprise readers to know that VN rates Foreign Office minister Jeremy Browne rather highly. So when Question Time pitched up in Nick Clegg's Sheffield constituency yesterday, it seemed sensible that someone of his calibre was sent to put both the party and the government's line. The first question was, inevitably, about Lib Dems being wiped out in Sheffield due to the u-turn on tuition fees. Agree with him or not, (VN doesn't like 9k fees,) Browne put up a robust defence when many of his colleagues would have been flattened. Later, while it was deeply disappointing that ...
The verdict of the Special Election Court, held in Saddleworth, was announced this morning. It found against Phil Woolas, the shadow immigration minister. Mr Justice Teare said: "In an election address entitled The Examiner, the respondent [Mr Woolas] made a statement of fact, the meaning of which was that the petitioner [Mr Watkins] attempted to woo, that is to seek, the electoral support of Muslims who advocated violence, in particular violence to the respondent. "In a further election address entitled Labour Rose, he made a statement of fact the meaning of which was that the petitioner had refused to condemn ...
Two High Court judges have ordered a re-run of this year's General Election campaign in the Greater Manchester constituency of ex-immigration minster Phil Woolas.
Whenever I utter the phrase 'free trade' within those Liberal Democrat circles in which I am permitted to mix, the reaction is akin to that which I might get if I suggested making it compulsory for all party members to worship statues of me. And that's a pity (the reaction to the free trade, not the statues) because most people when they meet an advocate of free trade, mutter darkly about the effects of 'light touch regulation'. But free trade and light touch regulation are not the same, indeed in many ways they are inimical to each other. The debate ...
So, Phil Woolas MP has lost the controversial court case and the high court judges have ordered a re-run. A specially-convened election court - the first of its kind for 99 years - was set up in Saddleworth in September to hear the charges against Mr Woolas.Phil Woolas is described on the Labour website as; He is Minister of State at the Home Office responsible for borders and immigration.I suspect that Ed Miliband, Labour's leader is wondering now if he should have made Woolas the shadow minister for immigration (that is his correct job) given that he has now been ...
I'm glad that Caron has agreed to act as judge for the competition suggested in the TUV CSI response brings out phrases they did not expect post earlier this morning. The deadline is two weeks from now. Please put your suggestions in the comments after the original post here. The rules for phrases are that ...
He is the agent for Phil Woolas. The judgement will provide a key test of the responsibilities and fallout of an agent. Now I hear that Phil Woolas is appealing. A very bad move politically in my opinion. Voters don't like bad losers (witness Winchester) and there could have been a backlash against Elwyn Watkins ...
Am heading to a table quiz tonight in CIYMS, Circular Road, Belfast. I'm going with Stephen Glenn and we're going to form a YES TO FAIRER VOTES BELFAST TEAM. Hope others will be able to join us. Filed under: APNI, Fairer Votes Tagged: #allianceparty, #yes2av, #yes2avbelfast, #yesinmay, CIYMS
... and if this is how I was greeted in a new job, I think I might flee in terror: (Also on Youtube here, where the video's description says, "We auditors can be FUN!!!! Team dancing by PwC beijing Staff during the welcome party for the new joiners. The lead dancer comes from Financial Service Group, who graduated from UIBE.")
On Tim Montgomerie's Conservative Home posting, Mark Pack comments: Such are the realities of coalition politics — everyone has to compromise, recognising that no one party won the election. If the public really wanted undiluted Conservative or Lib Dem policies we needed to vote for them in sufficient numbers: we, the public, didn't give either party that mandate, so now the politicians are making the best of the situation. Policies from all parties are being diluted: no wonder purists hate it. As I commented in May, immediately after the Coalition Agreement was signed: Many of the hobby horses of political ...
The Guardian (and many others) reports: Labour's shadow immigration minister, Phil Woolas, was ejected from parliament today after a court ruled he had breached election laws by falsely claiming his Liberal Democrat opponent had "wooed" extremist Muslims in the run-up to the 6 May poll. For the first time in 99 years a specially convened election court has overturned the result of a parliamentary poll and ordered a rerun after two high court judges ruled the result of the Oldham East poll void. They upheld the claim by Elwyn Watkins that Woolas knowingly made false statements. UPDATE 14:20 – Elwyn ...
Growing up in Northern Ireland with an English mother (I know, we all have crosses to bear) and an Ulsterman as a father leads to some interesting debates about what we celebrate in the house. Around our family home in Ballymena there was a great sense of community when my brothers and I were under ...
My first recollection of Phil Woolas was him looking sheepish as he took a grilling from Joanna Lumley on the issue of Gurkha rights. I remember thinking then that he looked sleekit (that's crafty or sly to my non-Scottish readers). So it was with just a little bit of pleasure that today two High Court ...
Click on an image in the gallery for a larger version of all the leaflets in question. Make your own mind up about Phil Woolas' conduct. [IMG: 36f27a9120b8013ed47252826d29c4d0] [IMG: 903db439c4c840b4607d87da991a33be] [IMG: 100115f373e3dd416b037f78859198b5] [IMG: aef121053c81c21c391eb2683b04b2e3] [IMG: c0798aaaed7dd9df0e69d6221d9b2ed3] [IMG: c6061972849e8308c1eefdbd032fb44e] [IMG: cf361981271836b3769594b06d0f5fbb] [IMG: d1123d99cd87c15b44a4ef7bca48d01a]
Woolas found guilty of illegal practices under Section 106 of RoPA - OLD & SAD BY-ELECTION TO BE RE-RUN, and Woolas is disbarred from standing. Of course the charges that nailed him were the mere tip of the iceberg. Goodbye Philip, goodbye to your undistinguished career, and don't bang your arse on the door of the Commons chamber as you leave to pick up your P45. Let us hope Labour do not either promote any of Woolas's team, nor put in a retread, as their standard bearer; whether it be they who retain the seat or whether Elwyn Watkins wins ...
So the long-approaching car crash of Woolas's politics has hit the wall. It's been a long time coming – the democratic world has a lot to thank Elwyn Watkins for. The type of campaigning employed by Woolas is just a nastier version of the type conducted by an arrogant Labour elite up and down the ...
Fri 5th
12:00
+++Breaking News Woolas election declared void - new election in Oldham East and Saddleworth
The mere mention of the name Phil Woolas is enough to make virtually any self respecting liberal cringe. This is, after all, the man who refused the Gurkhas the right to live in the UK and who was responsible for the Immigration system which attracted numerous court judgements castigating them for failing to consider the welfare of children it deported. This is the same guy Ed Miliband felt it was appropriate to appoint to his front bench Home Office team just a few weeks ago, after the Court case. That surely has to raise questions about the judgment of the ...
It's six months and counting to the vital set of elections on 5 May 2011. In Scotland and Wales voters are electing their Parliament and Assembly respectively, all over the UK we'll be deciding whether to change to a fairer system of electing our MPs. In England, half of all all Liberal Democrat councillors are up for election in district, unitary and metropolitan councils across most of England. It's the first big national electoral test that the party will have faced as a party of Government at a UK level. Here's a list of all the seats up in 2011. ...
I am delighted to hear the news that the Election Court has ordered a re-run of the Oldham East & Saddleworth election. The campaign run by Labour's Phil Woolas in May was the most despicable I have ever seen and one he and the Labour Party should be ashamed of. The last time I was in Oldham it was to help run the Royton South by-election (which we won), which preceded the Littleborough & Saddleworth parliamentary by-election in July 1995. We won in Royton South, which was next door to Little & Sad, and I well remember a very gloomy ...
Phil Woolas' election in Oldham East and Saddleworth has been declared void by a Special Election Court. This means that, pending a possible appeal, there will be a by-election for the seat that he narrowly held from Lib Dem candidate Elwyn Watkins. The case centres around sound rather nasty campaign literature that Mr Woolas and his team spread about the constituency: Woolas had recently been brought back to the front bench by new Labour leader Ed Miliband. This looks an even more staggeringly poor piece of judgement given todays events. As of now though, Woolas is no longer an MP. ...
At face value, the figures released by News International this week showing that The Times and Sunday Times had registered some 105,000 customer sales since its paywall was erected in July sounded like good news. As analysts attempted to decipher the company's 'fuzzy numbers', doubts began to creep in. Understanding those paywall figures The reality appears to be that roughly 50,000 individual users have subscribed to gain access to the newspapers' content, whether online or through the iPad app or the Kindle edition. The other c.50,000 customer sales are for single-use or pay-as-you-go access to the website, and will include ...
If anything was going to cheer me up today, it was going to be the news that Phil Woolas has been found guilty knowingly making false statements about Liberal Democrat candidate Elwyn Watkins in campaign literature in the last General Election. In his 2010 re-election campaign, Woolas's campaigning methods were criticised by his Liberal Democrat opponents, some Labour party members, leftwing blogs and the Muslim Public Affairs Committee (MPACUK). Critics accused him, among other things, of "inflaming racial tensions" in an area already known for race riots. Trevor Phillips, head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission and former Labour ...
I was amused earlier this week to be touted as the poster girl of the intolerant left by Jeff over at Better Nation because of what I wrote about Stephen Fry's reported comments on sexuality It's quite ironic that I've been singled out for criticism when I as a Liberal Democrat have been the recipient of hyperbolic, hysterical bile, mainly from Labour on Twitter on many occasions. I at least do try to be fair in what I write and I hope I've been consistent in sticking up for people in other parties if I think it's merited. I tend ...
From @NickThornsby: Labour MP Phil Woolas has been found guilty of breaching s106 of the Representation of the People Act 1983...His election has been declared void...Woolas was found guilty of making false statements re where his opponent lived and his relationship with Muslim extremists...Phil Woolas is sitting in court with his head down. @John Rentoul adds: It's the first under this section of RPA 1983 As of now, Phil Woolas is no longer an MP. The Speaker has been informed. This is heavy stuff. Wow! That's a surprise. I thought that the case was going to be very hard to ...
A few weeks ago I wrote a letter to the Department of Health continuing the campaign to keep maternity and children's services at Rochdale Infirmary and Fairfield Hospital after many Norden and Bamford residents responded to a petitions over the summer. I am delighted to have now received a response from Anne Milton MP, the minister ...
The meeting of the Internal Scrutiny Committee last night was well attended and, I think, sucessful. The two topics debated - home to school transport and the Council's homelessness strategy - were discussed in quite some depth and with passionate and knowledgeable contributions from members of the public, and we made some good progress I think. The issue of home to school transport is a controversial one. The Council proposes consulting on whether or not to stop paying the transport costs for all children who go to far-away faith schools, and instead to restrict payments to only poorer children, in ...
Remember, remember the Fifth of November,The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,I know of no reasonWhy the Gunpowder TreasonShould ever be forgot. Today is exactly six months from the general election and six month until another little explosion under the Palaces of Westminster, I hope. On the 5th May next year 'there shall be' a referendum on changing the voting system from First Past the Post to a preferential system the Alternative Vote. Now Willie Sullivan Head of Field Operations for the Yes to Fairer Votes campaign has sent me and all the other supporters a nice email asking us all to ...
I've just had news that Cornwall Council has had to remove the cradle swings and chains from the top play area on the Ridgegrove Estate due to health and safety concerns. I have therefore sent an urgent email to the council officer overseeing the provision of new play facilities on the estate. As residents and regular readers will know, I have been campaigning since before I was elected to get new and modern play facilities on the estate. A survey of residents was carried out over the summer and there is a plan to put modern new play equipment on ...
ConservativeHome's Tim Montgomerie has today published a run-down of what he sees as the key compromises and trade-offs on new policies that have been made within government by David Cameron and Nick Clegg since the Coalition Agreement was signed. The graphic below sums up Tim's view of the overall effect — that the Tories are being dragged to the liberal-centre as a result of pressure from the Liberal Democrats: Tim lists 10 separate post-Agreement compromises settled, in his view, in the Lib Dems' favour and which few Tories will like, including: A reformed House of Lords elected by PR. Although ...
British democracy has lost its meaning. The political and economic system has come to serve the interests of a tiny elite, vastly wealthier than the run of the population, operating through corporate control. The state itself exists to serve the interests of these corporations, guided by a political class largely devoid of ideological belief and preoccupied with building their own careers and securing their own finances. A bloated state sector is abused and mikled by a new class of massively overpaid public secotr managers in every area of public provision - university, school and hospital administration, all executive branches of ...
This week the European Parliament has been in recess, but since it did not coincide with Somerset school holidays and since Parliament's contact group for relations with the Turkish Cypriots was visiting Cyprus I ended up taking just a long weekend's break, during which my wife and I settled our daughter into university, and then flying to Larnaca. Even in parliamentary recesses there can be significant European developments. My candidates for top three this week would be the UK-French summit at which Cameron and Sarkozy agreed on extensive defence co-operation; the final statement for the defence before the judge retired ...
Fri 5th
09:58
Labour have ceded community activism to the Tories, the Lib Dems are now at risk of ceding our ideal...
The debate about public services is beginning to cut across party, political, and philosophical lines. There are those who argue that the state should continue to provide public services, those who argue that the private sector can better provide them and those who say that there should be a mix. All of these arguments are ...
We were very privileged last night to enjoy "Multiple Personalities in order" by Felix Dexter. My offspring and I got to like him when he played quite a few characters on "Bellamy's People". That was a comedy series on BBC2 based on a spoof tour of Britain by some naff radio presenter. It was a "slow-burn"/acquired taste programme. We hugely enjoyed it. My favourite character on "Bellamy's People" was Julius Olufemwe (played by Felix Dexter). You can see a clip of him below. "Julius" opened the show last night and had us in stitches from the word go. He has ...
A planning application has been received by the Council to turn 80 Church Road (most recently "Flowers by Design", next to the temporary fireworks shop at Gatley Green) into a coffee shop. You can see the application on the Council website, though it looks like not all the documentation is yet online.
Note from Herts Highways As part of Hertfordshire Highways' maintenance of the county's principal road network the A4147 Bluehouse Hill is programmed for carriageway repair during the week commencing 22nd November 2010. Our works will consist of resurfacing and patching the existing worn out carriageway to a depth of 40mm, crack treatment and replenishing the existing road markings. Due to the nature of these works and to ensure a safe working environment for the workforce and the general public we will be completing these works under full road closure. Details of this closure can be found below. 22nd - 24th ...
The Australian Parliament building in Canberra is a gem of democratic political architecture. Australia's capital city was facing the need to expand and replace its existing Parliament building. But where to put the new one? The old one had deliberately been placed at the foot of the hill in Canberra, so that politicians would not be looking down on the public. Now the only suitable free space left was on top of that hill. The solution was clever: chop the top off the hill, build the new Parliament and then stick the top of the hill back on top of ...
Fri 5th
08:51
Just eight days away, the very first Stowupland Action Day - Saturday, November 13th...
Alright, so I'm pushing this quite hard. There is, however, one really good reason why you should come. The Action Day takes place on my birthday. Yes, I'll be celebrating my forty-sixth birthday by doing resident surveying in my ward. I might even deliver some leaflets if time permits. So, don't give me money, don't send me cards, just come and help me win. And then, if I do, I'll do my very best to represent the people of Stowupland and Creeting St Peter on Mid Suffolk District Council. We're only a couple of hours from London, so if you ...
My friend Michael has had some fun (tinged sometimes with righteous anger) looking in different ways at some of the Traditional Unionist Voice's approach to Northern Ireland. I think this excerpt from the 7 June 1886, from William Ewart Gladstone on the Second Reading of the First Home Rule Bill* is as pertinent today as then. Now, Sir, I want to say a word upon the subject of Irish loyalism because we are obliged to use phrases in debates of this kind which cannot be explained from time to time when using them, and it is well that there should ...
I love nothing more that a tramp round a city. Taking the Metro in Paris is very simple – and fairly cheap – but the riches you discover wandering around make up for the extra time needed. A few years ago, Miss Geeky introduced me to Space Invader spotting. [IMG: Now where is that alien?] Dotted around the cities of the world are mosaics of Space Invaders. Placed there by a mysterious artist – seemingly at random. Before I went to Paris, I had no idea that there were any Space Invaders lurking on street corners. I've since realised that ...
With BBC journalists on strike today, the Guardian puts all our minds at rest. In one of their asides they reveal that the Today programme is a key part of the nation's defences. Apparently, Trident submarine crews use it to gauge whether everything is normal back in the UK. If the programme goes off air then their trigger fingers get a bit itchy in case Britain has been destroyed in a nuclear strike. Let us hope that they check first.
Congratulations to Inspector Damian O'Reilly who won at last night's Police Review Awards. As a local Councillor, I can certainly confirm that the impact that Damian and his team has had on local crime and anti-social behaviour rates has been tremendous, and is still ongoing - burglaries are currently at 49% of the already challenging target which was set for the year. The evenings running up to Bonfire Night have been quiet, not sounding like previous years' target practice nights at a missile range. The key contact network uses old-fashioned and new methods to ensure that warnings (such as the ...
My petiton against any rise in tuition fees has reached a new milestone so it will now be sent to another one of our MPs. I will post the letter next week, once the MP has had an opportunity to receive the it.With the announcement that the government is going to increase the fees to £9,000, we have not got much time to change the mind of our parliamentary party, so please encourage all your
i) births and deaths 5 November 1983: birth of Andrew Hayden-Smith who played Jake in Rise of the Cybermen, The Age of Steel, and Doomsday (all 2006). ii) broadcast anniversaries 5 November 1966: broadcast of first episode of The Power of the Daleks. Ben and Polly are getting used to the mysterious new bloke in the Tardis; they land on the planet Vulcan where Stevenson has been experimenting with Daleks from a crashed ship. 5 November 1977: broadcast of second episode of Image of the Fendahl. The mysterious skull is taking over Thea, terrifying Mrs Tyler, and forces the Doctor ...
Welsh Labour's long moan about Wales being downtrodden by the new Coalition Government was shown up as open to question yesterday, when it was revealed that the Assembly Government's bid for one of the super-fast broadband pilot projects failed because they did not put forward a good enough case: The Western Mail reports that an internal note from within the Department for Culture, Media and Sport states: "... it was evident from the proposal that we received from WAG (Welsh Assembly Government) that they had not put much effort into applying for a pilot - there was more text in ...
The offical launch of the 'Yes to Fairer Votes' public information campaign will take place outside the Council House in Victoria Square, Birmingham this Saturday, 6th November at 1-2pm. This will mark 6 months until the referendum on the voting system, and the offical launch of this grassroots campaign. 'Yes to Fairer Votes' is ...
Well it's taken a bit of time. But some of our proposals have finally come through... The Liberal Democrats, for their part, have even more radical proposals. They want to reduce the number of MPs by a third, getting rid of 200 constituencies and enlarging the remainder. Paddy Ashdown's party also proposes tougher rules for ...
At the County Council cabinet meeting on Tuesday we were given a run through the County Durham Residents' survey. I got Mrs T to look at the methodology because she's a statistician, and she was pretty complimentary about everything except the report's tendency to make comparisons between this survey and earlier ones. The reason why they can't be compared is that they used completely different methods and comparisons are not safe. In fairness to the Deputy Chief Executive's report, it does say direct comparisons are of limited value between the Resident's Survey and previous, similar, exercises because of methodological differences ...
Have a look at the version of the Traditional Unionist Voice response to the draft Programme on Cohesion, Strategy and Integration below and see what phrases you can find in this. Some that have already been suggested include: Orange objects parades TUV parades within strongly sexual Unionist culture Ireland Irish people links genuinely Please find ...
Following an exchange between David Vance of the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) and myself on Twitter last night, I agreed to read his work on the TUV's response to the Energy consultation. TUV appreciates that a balanced energy strategy is essential and that renewable energy has a role to play in this. However, we believe ...
Iraq, war and WikiLeaks: the real story | openDemocracy Iraq Body Count has patiently and consistently tabulated recorded deaths since the invasion. It has now conducted a preliminary analysis of a sample of the incidents recorded in the documents (including all the larger ones) (see Paul Rogers, "The harvest of war: from pain to gain", 28 October 2010).This concludes that the logs both confirm the majority of the deaths it has already recorded, and the need for a definite upward revision of the estimated toll. IBC's existing, pre-logs total was a little over 100,000 Iraqi civilian deaths, which has now ...
Back in February I wrote a blog about the value of democracy and I received a comment questioning its condemnation. The anonymous author of the comment said that there was much to be said for "no government" along Proudhonian lines. I replied that Proudhon was famous for saying "la propriété, c'est le vol" but personal property is important to us. Last week I was in the Musee d'Orsay and there is a portrait of Proudhon by Courbet and I wondered what Proudhon would think of the grandeur of his location. You don't get a painting in this museum unless it ...
