Some readers may see this as a deeply political title - Owen recruiting for volunteers to take part in some dastardly plot to smear his opponents in a dirty tricks campaign. Actually it's all a bit duller than that - until the Spring at least. I'm just looking to encourage readers to join the Blackhill, Bridgehill, Benfieldside and Shotley Bridge Partnership bulb-planting next week along the "Carriageway" footpath between Park Road and Durham Road in Blackhill. They've got hundreds of bulbs to plant, and need some willing hands to help them at 10.30 a.m. next Saturday, meeting at the bottom ...
I have just found an article about an appalling situation concerning use of copyright material. As one who has had a photograph taken by me used without permission by RTÉ – the state broadcaster in the Irish Republic, as well as seeing some of my other photos passed off as someone else's work – particularly ...
Michael Meacher seems to have taken the verdict on Phil Woolas rather badly and cant seem to accept the decision concluded by the court hearing last week. On his blog yesterday he wrote: It is not for me to determine whether or not my colleague Phil Woolas did so now that the court has reached its decision. I do however believe that he has been treated harshly, and that some of his traducers should take a wider look at this whole question of truth-telling because it could open up other embarrassing revelations. It;s almost as if Mr Meacher simply doesn't ...
I'm lagging behind on my Doctor Who annuals - should have read this last month while watching Season 12. I have mixed feelings about it; on the plus side, the stories are better written than usual and the artwork is pretty gorgeous, but on the minus side it is very short, the factual filler rubbish seems to take up about half of the 64 pages, and worst of all the pictures of Harry and Sarah don't look remotely like either of them - very well drawn, just the wrong people. I think I would have felt a bit disappointed at ...
One of the untruths that formed the basis of the case brought against Phil Woolas was an accusation made in a Labour leaflet that the Lib Dem candidate breached election law by spending in excess of £200,000 on his election ... Continue reading →
An interesting situation seems to have arisen this week. For years Lib Dems (and perhaps Tories for all I know) have complained that Labour took our ideas and regurgitated them as their policies. This week it seems perhaps the coalition has turned the tables. Ian Duncan Smith said that peope who are unemployed long term will be expected to do 4 weeks of work experience as a way breaking the
This blog has moved.... ....the walls are a little bit blank at the moment but I've set up a new home at http://stephensliberaljournal.blogspot.com/ all the posts and comments are all set up, just some of the nice little additions are still needed. I'll be working out just what I need but think I will keep a minimalistic approach. I will continue to update posts at both locations for a couple of weeks but then will only be posting to the new address. The reason is largely due to the fact that the old url had Linlithgow in the title and ...
The new Southwark Labour led administration is about to approve its Tree Strategy. As a Lib Dem we were planting 400 centrally funded trees a year - roughly the replacement rate - with other Cleaner, Greener, Safer funding for new trees. So overall we were making the borough greener. Anyway, this new Tree Strategy decision comes at the same time as some research about how people, but especially kids, living in greener areas are healthier and less obese. The American Journal of Preventative Medicine vol 35, P547 reported that children living in greener urban areas compared to less green urban ...
Dear Lisa Well, there are only a few days to go until the Presidential election is over. There's only one way to wake up the day after an election - that's with no regrets! That's why I'm continuing to tour the country, listening to members. That's why it's so important that everyone uses their vote. Over the last few weeks I have met hundreds of members from around the UK and I want to say a big 'thank you' to all of you. Interestingly the same points come up wherever I go. There's great pride in the fact that Nick ...
This weekend I was about and about with my fellow Woking LibDems canvassing as part of a local action day that we had planned. I love getting out on the doorstep talking to people and it is something that many councillors and prospective councillors don't do enough of in my opinion. I don't know how people can claim to represent people if they don't get out and find out what they are concerned about. Its simple human politics at its very best and the only way that candidates can really get to grips with what makes people tick. I spent ...
Amey (on behalf of Birmingham City Council) will be resurfacing Pershore Road between Dogpool Lane and Cartland Road from Monday 8 November 2010.The work will last for up to 6 nights and will take place between 22.00 06.00am. Pershore Road will be closed during those times, but pedestrian access will be maintained as will access for emergency vehicles. Residents living on or just off that
And so another visit to Bonkers Hall draws peacefully to its close. Dusk has now fallen in Rutland, Meadowcroft has been retrieved and brushed down, and I am in my observatory on top of the West Tower scanning the heavens with my telescope. A bright speck near Andromeda draws my attention: I study it intently for a few moments, then wind my field telephone, lift the receiver and ask for a number in Shropshire... Earlier this week Autumn has come to Rutland At the first hint of an asteroid My new friends, the Conservatives Evan Harris on a trampoline
.....who believes that `the election court raises fundamental issues to question and criticise politicians.....and that those that stand for election must be prepared to have their political conduct and motives subjected to searching scrutiny and enquiry. They must accept that their political character and conduct will be attacked. It is vital to our democracy that ...
Welcome to Broxtowe Enews, brought to you by the Liberal Democrats and edited by David Watts, the leader of Broxtowe Borough Council. A special welcome to the new readers we have this week. 1. Open Cast Mining I attended a meeting of all the affected parish councils this morning which was organised by Anna Soubry MP. All the parishes have agreed to work together to oppose these plans. We had a good pooling of ideas this morning and will by organising a public meeting shortly. I did read a moaning email from the Labour Party saying that they hadn't been ...
During my school holidays I went to watch a movie called 'Africa United' about a group of Rwandan children who dream of going to the World Cup Football opening ceremony. They don't have any money or any way of getting to South Africa but they keep reading Time magazine which has Obama on the front cover for their inspiration. It was touching to watch how they made sure the magazine was safely kept with them at all times through all the scrapes they got into. I got the Obama dream by the end of the movie. Then what happens? The ...
Yes, that's a phrase used over and over again by coalition MPs to justify their deep and excessive cuts. So why is it that the next generation are the ones being asked to pay for our mistakes ? If we weren't making the next generation pay why is funding being cut to High Schools who are PE academies ? Why is funding for School Sports Co-Ordinators (SSCOs) being threatened ? Why is funding for studying at our of school study centres being cut back ? Why are news school building programmes being halted ? We all accept that some cuts ...
Talking of Portmeirion, British Pathe has two newsreels about it - one from 1939 and one from 1962. In each case, click on the picture to go to the Pathe site and play the film.
Southport lost out in the FA cup this afternoon. The match was televised and Sheffield Wednesday won 5:2. For most of the match Southport were in contention and scored the best two goals of the afternoon. I think this photo show the ball travelling onto the net for Southport's second goal. It was a great afternoon and the club did the town proud. Congratulations all round.
The new and not entirely unwelcome methods used by those awfully nice Wikio people have more-or-less made it easier for me to take this opportunity to withdraw from the political blogging arena. It appears much of how the algorithms are now compiled is based upon Twitter, which is a medium for which I have little time and less interest. Hence there's little point in trying to make my voice heard. Don't get me wrong, I'm not bitter and nor am I complaining about it - far from it, as the new method appears to favour different and more enlightened voices ...
There is something that isn't quite right about this to me although I can see the thinking behind it. Firstly I cant help but notice that once again it was a Liberal Democrat (albeit an Orange Booker) in Danny Alexander who was reeled out to bring out the bad news. Secondly the top line of this announcement makes it look like the government is going to simply push anyone who hasn't worked in a long time into an unpaid 30 hour week work placement. I hope that that is not the case. If so, I cannot agree with it and ...
The Voice is only a success because of the interest and support from our readers. For many people just lurking and reading the site is all they want to do – and that's fine, we're grateful for people taking the time to read the site. You can though help us continue to produce interesting content for a growing audience. Here are three simple ways: 1. Let us have your tips for stories. Perhaps there's something outrageous going on in your local council? Or you're an expert in a particular area and have spotted a story other people have missed? Or ...
Iain Duncan-Smith lost my respect this morning. The intention is that long term unemployed people be forced to do manual work over a 4 week period or lose 3 months worth of JSA. While on the face of it this gets support from people, you need to step back and think. That JSA money buys food. Without it people would die. Now I'm all for incentivising people to into work, however this should be done by paying people enough for a basic existence on benefits and paying extra benefits to people who do this work or who volunteer for training/prove ...
The FA Cup (sponsored by Eon) Second Round draw has thrown up the tie that I least wanted to see - AFC Wimbledon's potential clash with MK Dons. Back in 2002, I was one of those fans who refused to accept the franchising of my team - Wimbledon - to Milton Keynes. Instead, we set up AFC Wimbledon, a fan owned club starting from scratch. We held open trials on Wimbledon Common and took our place in the Combined Counties League - five levels below the football league proper. Meanwhile, the franchise played a season at Selhurst Park before their ...
A link caught my eye on the website of Liberal Democrat County Councillor for Folkestone West, Tim Prater. There in in Folkestone's Sandgate Road Garden of Remembrance was a poppy for remembrance day with a large UKIP political emblem placed right in the centre of it. Tim says he has never seen any other poppy wreath with a political logo in the middle and I can honestly say neither have I. UKIP really have decided to put their politics in the wrong place on this one.
I am continuing to read... What the author tries to convey is the impact that income equalities have on society. For example in the US there are great income inequalities that have impacts on health etc. Sweden and Japan come out consistently better yet have less income inequality. So I was looking at the swedish tourist board website. Wow - the shops are open less and banks dont seem to 'do' weekends. IKEA is alright, but the pictures of serene snowy landscapes and crisp sumemr harbours were idyllic. We are paralysed by a shop til you drop culture in the ...
Between 1989 and 2007 I wrote a great deal of letters to my local paper, the Newbury Weekly News, as well as to other newspapers (I had one published in every national paper except the Morning Star and the Daily Star – the former because it is rather obscure and the latter because they don't have a letters page). I used to have a letter in the NWN most weeks. I petered out in 2006/7 as blogging tookover as an outlet for my typing urge. I don't always read the NWN letters pages thoroughly these days. But I did spot ...
Various spinoff media have addressed the question of what happened to the Doctor's companions after (and in some cases before) their time with our favourite Time Lord. I don't pretend that the list below is complete but I think it is fairly comprehensive, and at least is a good place to find out what other writers may have done with your favourite companion (unless your favourite companion is Steven Taylor). Susan Unlike most companions, but for obvious reasons, there is a fair amount of spinoff media about Susan's life before her first TV appearance. I particularly recommend the Telos novellas ...
[IMG: Brigadier Gerard book cover] Though Sherlock Holmes was by a large margin the most successful fictional creation of Arthur Conan Doyle, he was keen to write of other characters. Popular demand meant the death of Sherlock Holmes in 1893 turned out not to be death after all, but in the Holmes-free years immediately after 1893 Conan Doyle created a new character - the Napoleonic French cavalry officer, Brigadier Etienne Gerard. Gerard is both lovable and ridiculous. He is hugely full of his own self-importance, despite his apparent modesty at times, and a smattering of knowledge of the Napoleonic Wars ...
In recent months, LDV has been bringing its readers copies of our new MPs' and Peers' first words in Parliament, so that we can read what is being said and respond. You can find all of the speeches in this category with this link. Last week, Baron Allan of Hallam, of Ecclesall in the County of South Yorkshire (Richard Allan) made his maiden speech in the House of Lords, during a debate on the Comprehensive Spending Review. His words are reproduced below. My Lords, I thank all those officials and Members who have helped our class of 2010 to have ...
Next week there will be three motions going to Council: 1. to pursuade Councuil to support Culverhat school 2. to look for an alternative solution to the Bath Package of transport measures 3. to start solving the HMO problem in Bath Liberal Democrat motions to Council 16th November 2010 Schools To be moved by Dine Romero: 1. Council believes that, as part of the consultation process on reorganisation of secondary education in Bath, the view of the Council itself should be considered 2. Having considered the published material and comments made, Council supports the retention of two schools in Keynsham; ...
Politicshome reports today: Former Labour MP Margaret Moran is expected to be charged imminently with fraudulently claiming thousands of pounds in expenses for work carried out on her three homes, according to reports. The Sunday Times (£1 day pass registration available) adds these details: Police are understood to have identified at least six suspect invoices that were submitted for work on her three homes. It is alleged that some of the invoices contained incorrect addresses, names and amounts. Detectives have discovered that Moran allegedly claimed for maintenance work that was never carried out. ...One of the expense claims understood to ...
This month there has been an earthquake in the Wikio Political Blog Rankings Top 50; almost a third of the sites have moved by more than 20 places, and roughly another fifth by more than 10 places. There are plenty of new entrants, and quite a number of sites seem to have simply "tanked" in this list. Mark Pack asked if there had been a change in the algorithm this month, so I've done this guest post. The answer is that yes, the algorithm has been "tweaked", in Wikio's words. The main tweak seems to be that a greater weight ...
The FT Blog is reporting that Labour beat the Coalition to yet another policy – this time it's the IDS plan to make four weeks' unpaid work part of the scheme to get the long-term unemployed back into the job market. As Jim Pickard at the FT reports: In case you thought the IDS scheme was familiar – forcing people to do 4 week's labour for their benefits – that is because it already exists. Since last October anyone out of work and claiming jobseekers' allowance for over a year (in most parts of the country) has to take part ...
I don't often take delight in others misfortune (at least I hope I don't). But I am pleased to see Labour's Phil Woolas. As Immigration minister he championed the Daily Mail cause against aslylum seekers, talking tough and nasty in order to please the bigots. I would be pleased if a Lib Dem were to ...
I have today launched my November 2010 update to West End Community Council. Topics covered include : + Thomson Street road closure+ Sports and Environment Project+ Roundabout tidy-up+ Bin collection Scott Street+ Real Time Bus Information Update+ Pedestrian safety at Hawkhill The Community Council meets on Tuesday night (9th November) at Logie St John's (Cross) Church Hall at 7pm. You can download a copy of the update by clicking on the headline above or going to http://tinyurl.com/weccNov10.
Over the past few months and following residents' complaints, I have again raised with the City Council the state of the grounds of the former McCheyne Church on Perth Road at Sinderins. The City Council, after writing to the owners without any action on their part, recently served an Amenity Notice on the owners and this has now resulted in the area being tidied. The Council's Planning Enforcement Officer wrote to me towards the end of last week as follows : "I visited the above site today and all the weeds have been cut back. There are a few cuttings ...
If you had to guess which political party's supporters were most in favour of sharing our aircraft carriers and nuclear weapons testing with the French, which would you go for? According to a YouGov poll a few days ago, those who say they'll vote for the traditionally internationalist and pro-European Lib Dems are clearly in favour (58-36) but – what's this? Even more in favour are Conservative voters, by nearly two to one (it's 61-34 with 5% don't knows). I wrote a few days ago that whether we approve of a policy has far more than we'd like to admit ...
It seems that our confidence and our fortunes have taken a knock since the Spending Review and our conference - the rousing speeches, our unity and all, seem an eclipsed memory. Our leading lights are maintaining a tight Cabinet 'speak' more akin to the self-discipline of a single party or alliance than maybe reasonably expected from a coalition. Labour's strategy is clear enough, to take no responsibility over the state of the nation after their 13 years and to whip up moral indignation at every opportunity whether that be BBC Question Time, PMQ's/DPMQ's, or on Parliamentary Committees'. A few personal ...
Local residents need to check they are registered to vote in next years local elections and referendum on voting reform. The Council are completing their annual canvas of the borough to update the electoral register. This years canvas is more important than ever. Some people may not register as they think their vote doesn't count. Next year there is a referendum to change our out of date
It is rare of me to be reading the Daily Mail's website, but the headline about the Tories putting up a candidate in the Oldham East & Saddleworth election following the ruling of the Election Court with regard to Phil Woolas. The Daily Mail seems to think that it was a 'by-election' that was tainted. ...
[IMG: 3363] [IMG: Creative Commons License] photo credit: BobPetUK There's been a "free cheese for the needy" scheme in Ireland for ten years. But it's recently been the subject of a bizarre incident. A minister, being interviewed about a forthcoming new round of swingeing public spending cuts and tax increases, tried to divert attention by drawing attention to the free cheese scheme. ...Only in Ireland. In a piece littered with puns the Irish Times reports the incident: Ireland entered the Twilight Zone yesterday - tipped into another dimension by a gaffe-prone Government's cheesy attempt to butter up the electorate. Do ...
I can't imagine I'll see anything funnier this year (or possibly next, too) than Ann Widdecombe and Anton du Beke's Charleston last night on Strictly Come Dancing. Anton's choreography and performance were utterly brilliant, and credit to the old bird for gamely going along with it and giving it her best. There's a serious danger that I might actually end up liking her by the end of the series, and that would never do, would it?
I was delighted to read of the success of the "No Knives Better Lives" campaign in Inverclyde which has shown a 35% drop in knife related crime in the area. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-11705793 We rolled out the Edinburgh version of this campaign a couple of months back and I have high hopes of replicating the success of the Inverclyde campaign.
There's a certain sameness to the messages coming out from the 11 candidates for the Liberal Democrat London Assembly list. They're pretty much all telling us how they are good campaigners (aka 'I'll be like Lynne was'), that they'll do the job full time (aka 'I'm not a member of the Lords') and that they are a London (aka 'I'm the local candidate'). The trio of messages has a remarkably similarity with the platform that Lynne Featherstone used for the first selection campaign for the 2000 London elections. However, at the time (and I ran Lynne's selection campaign) Lynne's message ...
Phil Woolas has now been cut off by the Labour party, who, through their insurers, are footing the bill of £800,000 for the legal proceedings about his lies. So now Phil Woolas is passing round the begging bowl to raise £200,000 to get a judicial review of the decision. Having read the judgment, anyone who gives money to Woolas would need to have their head examined. The judgment is extraordinarily thorough – to me, as a non-legal person admittedly – it looks as tight as the proverbial duck's posterior. I keep on hearing that this has all been done under ...
I'm back from a litter pick with 1st Gatley Cubs. We aimed to clean up the path running from Foxland Road to Hawthorn Road in Gatley. It gets more litter than most because it's a main route for many of the kids at Kingsway to go too and from school, and because it's a path, the Council's cleaning machines can't reach it. With about 15 Cubs and five leaders, we spent an hour picking up rubbish: mostly cans, bottles and wrappers. The Cubs filled nine bags of rubbish from the path and the bushes near it (including down the edge ...
Can someone in the Party please look into the full judgement as it affects agents. I refer to the fact that in it section 27 it states: `Section 106 makes provision for the circumstances in which a person is liable for an illegal practice committed by his agent but, as we have already stated, the ...
Over the last few months I've been publishing the local election results for Stockport from the first ever election to the new metropolitan authority in 1973 up to 2004. Stockport Borough has 63 seats, 3 in each of the 21 wards. In a normal four year cycle, one seat in each ward is up for election each year, and then there are no elections in one year. Sometimes (e.g. when the authority was first formed, or after major boundary changes such as in 2004) there are "all up" elections where all three seats are up in some - or all ...
I was having an email debate about stress with friends. To me stress is relative, people who live in poverty, perhaps have to live with violence and are looking for their next meal to feed their children, survive with little support and living day to day, hand to mouth. That person would clearly have a higher level of constant stress than myself. After this debate my brother picked up the email trail and added this funny story of stress. Enjoy. I've just come across this debate, having returned from holiday. Middle class jobs are not stressful as long as you ...
From the moment in 1999 when Kosovo with its mass burials and brutal imagery shocked the world - especially Europe, which had not had a war on its soil since the defeat of Hitler - the term 'War Crimes' has come back into the lexicon with a vengeance. Until then, the words brought to mind the Japanese in Manchuria and Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, but hardly anything closer in time. Conflict in the Balkans brought with it a whole new dimension of war. Ugly new phrases like 'Ethnic Cleansing' appeared. Albanian Kosovar civilians, especially women, became instruments of war ...
I have recently been introduced to Serif PagePlus, the leaflet design software of choice amongst Liberal Democrats, and have happily designed my leaflets with it, having been given a basic training course by Kathy Pollard, our County Group Leader, and borrowed ideas from Andrew Aalders-Dunthorne, our neighbouring Parliamentary candidate earlier this year in Central Suffolk and North Ipswich. However, I was looking at the ALDC website the other day, and noticed that technology is moving on, to the extent that the new product, PagePlus X4, is going to be cutting edge soon. There was even a discount on offer if ...
Let's start this post off with a statement of fact. I am a member of UNITE. Before I was made redundant, I was a union rep. I fully support the right of unions to organise and protest and represent their members. I helped organise a strike picket in defence of pay, employment and pension rights at Fujitsu. Cllr. Debbie Watson was our union organiser. But what we are seeing in Reading is a complete corruption of union ideals. Union members have been fed a lie that their best interests are served by supporting Labour. I have an internal Reading Labour ...
I am wary about commenting on something that's at the moment only a news report, that we haven't heard from the horse's mouth, but even so, I feel the need to lay down a bit of a line in the sand about this report from the BBC. Apparently, a chosen proportion of the long term unemployed are going to be pulled in for month long spells of full time manual work like gardening or litter clearing. That sounds spookily like the sorts of things people on community service do. Except those on community service have been through the judicial system ...
Yesterday I posted that residents we spoke to who live near Cintra Park were reporting a big increase in car crime. We were concerned about this to I wrote to our local Redlands Neighbourhood Police Team . Officers have confirmed to us that they have seen a rise in thefts from vehicles around the edge of Cintra Park in Whitley Park Lane, Cintra Close, Cintra Avenue and Morton Close. I am pleased to report however that as a result of this increase in crime in our area the Neighbourhood Police Team have stepped up foot patrols of the area. They have also asked visiting sports teams that use the ...
As the government sets out how it intends to create growth and jobs in the British economy it is worth looking at successful ideas from around the world. One very successful idea which the government does not seem to have considered is micro business capital investments and credit. Over at Market Oracle this has been ...
Today;s Wales on Sunday reveals that Councils in Wales spent more than £25m on supply teachers in a single year. One of Wales' 22 councils spent more than £3m on supply staff in the last academic year and another paid one temporary teacher nearly £40,000, well above the average teacher's wage. The 18 councils which responded to our Freedom of Information request spent £25,737,776 on temporary teachers. Despite being largely rural, Powys council spent the most on supply staff, paying out £3.1m between September 2009 and July this year - £168.27 per head for their 18,547 registered pupils. Schools within ...
If you haven't signed it yet, you still can at - http://campaigns.libdems.org.uk/libdemsagainstfees
Legal Week reports: Clifford Chance (CC) is set to repeat the first round of its senior partner elections due to a glitch in the firm's partnership deed. The unexpected voting re-run has arisen because the magic circle firm's partnership deed does not state that the contender receiving the least amount of votes in the first round is obliged to withdraw from the race. All three partners in the running – London finance partner Malcolm Sweeting, German corporate finance partner Daniela Weber-Rey and City tax partner Jonathan Elman – were all asked to reconsider their position after last week's stalemate, but ...
Everyone else is linking to these, but I will too: two brilliant scenes made for the DVD of the most recent series of Doctor Who, the first of which could actually be a fairly good introduction to Doctor Who for people who know nothing about it: And the second will go some way to reconciling fans of Old Who with the latest version: Hmm, it's a bit of a blur, but I make that Rose, Sarah Jane, Romana I, Liz, Martha, Romana I again, Rose again, Donna, Polly, Jo, Romana I again, Zoe, Katarina (!), Romana II, Leela, Barbara, Tegan, ...
For a little while, I've been lusting after the Immortal Video Glasses. Sunglasses with a built in video camera – perfect for recording all my action/adventure exploits! But, at £300, I thought they were a bit out of my price range. Undoubtedly fun, yes, but not 100-pints-of-beer fun (or however you choose to measure your fun). I wondered if anyone was selling them second-hand on eBay. They weren't. But there were a whole load of clones. "Spy Sunglasses DVR" and the like. Some were technically very impressive – bluetooth, mp3 players, fm radios – all built in. I went for ...
As this weekend has seen a celebration of what would have been Frank Zappa's 70th birthday at the Roundhouse, it is high time we featured the Grand Wazoo here. I am a good friend of a Zappa completist, so I have heard a good deal of weird stuff over the years, but this is really rather lovely.
It's that time again – my annual Christmas Card competition for primary school children in Hornsey & Wood Green. I visited some of the children actually during one of their painting classes (Highgate Primary – my old school) to see how they were getting on. As I walked in Christmas Carols were blaring out and there was glitter and golden snowflakes everywhere. Paintings full of Christmas trees and Santas – as you would expect – but there are always lots of things you would never have thought of in a million years. Each year to date – I have set ...
To avoid a small collection charge someone recently dumped a sofa in an underpass on Shire Way. Subsequently it was set on fire. Smoke blackening the walls and the roof of the underpass was damaged. The heat was so intense that the paving slabs cracked. Cllr Mandy Sainsbury said "The whole appalling incident could have been avoided if the householder who dumped the furniture had organised for a collection from South Gloucestershire Council. "It would have cost the householder just £17 but now the council will have to foot the bill to clean and repair the subway, which will run ...
The Spin Doctor column in today's Wales on Sunday reveals that the new Labour MP for Swansea West, Geraint Davies is still struggling to come to terms with his adoptive South Wales, after parachuting in from Croydon Central, where he lost his seat in 2005. It seems that he put out a press release proposing that tolls across the Severn Bridge be reduced to £1 a car once the bridge is returned to public ownership in 2017. Unfortunately, he managed to refer to the structure as "the Seven Bridge" six times in total. Far more worrying is why the MP ...
In July, Reading Borough Council agreed a long-awaited new Tree Stategy - something my ward colleague Cllr Glenn Goodall and the Lib Dems have long campaigned for - to safeguard trees now in Reading both now and in the future. You can read the strategy here. The Strategy has a number of objectives that are relevant to streets in our ward namely: Preserving and enhancing the character and appearance of the environment of areas of the town, particularly designated conservation areas, and the amenity of other areas where trees are a notable and important characteristic of the local environment; Enhancing the appearance of the Central Area ...
i) births and deaths 7 November 1950: birth of Lindsay Duncan, who played Adelaide Brooke in The Waters of Mars (2009). ii) broadcast anniversary 7 November 1964: broadcast of "Dangerous Journey", second episode of the story we now call Planet of Giants. Ian and Barbara are trapped inside the laboratory; the Doctor and Susan scale a drainpipe to rescue them but are themselves threatened by the water. ii) date specified in canon 7 November 1987: Peter Tyler is killed crossing the road to a friend's wedding - oh no he isn't - oh yes he is - as seen in ...
Last Thursday George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, faced questioning by the Treasury Select Committee of the House of Commons. According to the Guardian's report (5th November) he was accused of "misleading the public" by claiming that at the time of the election Britain was facing "unprecedented levels of debt," in a "financial danger zone" and in danger of losing our AAA status from the credit rating agencies. MPs pointed out that, of six leading industrial countries, including the US, Japan, France and Germany, we have the lowest national debt as a proportion of GDP of all. Even the ...
Seeing that it was only on Wednesday night that I was called and offered the post of Northern Ireland campaign manager for the YES! TO FAIRER VOTES campaign a lot has been done. I attended two party events and as a result have managed to speak to representatives of five of the Northern Irish political parties. The first of these was a quiz night on behalf of my own local Association of the Alliance Party here in North Down along with their neighbours in Strangford. Michael Carchrie Campbell and myself did form a team, yes just the two of us, ...
I've now downloaded and listened to my penultimate eMusic set for the year, so given that I won't have enough time to absorb next month's in time to make a reasonable judgement, I thought I'd do my Albums Of The Year now. If nothing else doing it this year will give some googlejuice to the ...
Not that I owe anyone an explanation for my recent reticence on the blog, but my own inaction in this venture has been niggling at me. My silence has not been entirely voluntary. And it has helped me to re-evaluate some aspects of my life and make a few, albeit tentative, decisions. Last month, some of you will have noticed that I wrote a blog post - now deleted - bemoaning the establishment of the new "Oxford School of Government" and suggesting that perhaps we ought to try and counter that by establishing an "Oxford School of Ungovernment". In that ...
Should prisoners vote? This was one of the questions on Question Time and Shami Chakrabarti thought that the role of prison was purely to protect society. She must have forgotten that prisons also punish and rehabilitate. One member of the audience felt that rehabilitation should mean that prisoners may vote. The role of punishment should mean that prisoners may not. For me there are so few people who bother voting that any method of putting voting on a pedestal should be applauded - and that means saying that voting is precious and you lose the right to vote when you ...
