Michael Moore MP, the Liberal Democrat Secretary of State for Scotland has announced today that the SNP Government has let the tax varying powers for Holyrood lapse, but yet, just yesterday the SNP finance minister John Swinney MSP failed to mention it to the MSPs in Holyrood. The SNP has constantly demanded more powers and a referendum but yet has now killed off the only tax power expressly voted for by Scottish people in the 1997 Devolution Referendum. The Scottish Government has tried to sweep this under the carpet. It was fundamentally dishonest for Scottish Ministers not to make it ...
Well the first hard frost has arrived along with an email informing me that my Gas and Electric bills are to rise by 7%. The next thing I will expect in the post is a very special offer, asking me to sign up for a freeze in price rises for the next 2 years!!! (only to see a decrease in energy prices in the following Spring and a penalty clause of about £70 for getting out of the contract that was suppose to save me money) Prices are going up but we want to help manage your energy costs Dear ...
Tonight, after my weekly surgery at Blackness Primary School, I attended the West End Local Community Planning Partnership meeting at the Tartan Coffee House in Perth Road, ably chaired by the new Chair, Neil Gellatly, Head of Transportation at the City Council. There was an informative discussion about Duncan - the Dundee co-ordinated anti-crime network - and thereafter we discussed a number of local issues, including community safety, parking, bin collections and community representation.
The tenth anniversary West End Christmas Week will be launched at 10.00am this Saturday (20th November) in Dundee West Church's Community Facilities (132 Perth Road but enter at top of Roseangle) where the West End Community Fayre is taking place. We are very grateful to Barnetts Motor Group for sponsoring the community fayre. Many local organisations are participating and all local residents are invited to attend. Entrance is entirely free of charge and it will be a great way for local people to learn about all the organisations in the West End that are working for the area. At 10.30am, ...
Sharon Purvis, Lib Dem candidate in the Worth valley Ward By-election, is backing David Ward's bill to "Save Our Cheque" with a petition to the Prime Minister. David introduced his bill to save the cheque into parliament on 2nd November - and Sharon is asking Worth Valley voters to sign post cards which will be sent to David Cameron. David says ending payment by cheque will particularly hit small businesses, charities and vulnerable people.
A party member recently asked Lib Dem Parliamentary Candidates from the last General Election to sign a petition against tuition fees. The petition's been sent off to the party's MPs now. I was happy to sign the petition which I am pasting below. The names are not in alphabetical order and mine is about half way down the list. Petition text starts: During the General Election campaign many of our MP's (and now government ministers) signed a pledge with the National Union of Students that they would vote against any tuition fee rises during the course of the next Parliament. ...
A decade or so ago, when we were all very exercised about the euro, there were two kinds of people who were against it. One was nationalist head-bangers; the other was the people - including Liberals - who were afraid that fluctuating exchange rates played an important role. I was in the second category (definitely not the first), and felt somewhat alone in the Lib Dems. Those in favour of the euro at the time, though otherwise charming and sane, took on a kind of Napoleonic certainty when it came to discussing currencies. Which is a way of saying that ...
[IMG: Featured on Liberal Democrat Voice] After the courts overturned the General Election result several hundred people congregated outside the Liberal Club in Chapel St to celebrate the subsequent by election victory. The report in the Southport Guardian dated July 12th 1911 reads : The scene was indeed animated. The result came through at 11.15pm that the former candidate for Southport had been successful and a great cheer went up when Mr E Rhodes announced the fact to the crowd. Iain Sharpe over on the Eaten by Missionaries Blog caught my attention last week when he reported that the last ...
Partly due to the very poor health care that I and other members of my family received in the years before I emigrated to Canada in '06, I do not share the British NHS fetish. I am a NHS sceptic who wonders if it would be better to re-organise it following the example of some of our European neighbours who as David Laws says in his Orange Book chapter. "succeed in delivering health services with greater choice and competition than our own, but also with better health outcomes and fairer access for lower income groups." After we came to Canada ...
David Hall-Matthews of the Social Liberal Forum raised an interesting point on Lib Dem Voice this week. Have the 'left' of the party "become the mainstream"? His evidence for the shift is the result of the internal party elections, which, as with last year showed greater success for explicitly left candidates like Evan Harris than moderates and aspirational liberals. Tim Farron (left) beat Susan Kramer (moderate) for the Presidency, and across the committees the people's front of Judea dominate the Judean people's front. It one sense he's clearly right. I'm not sure though that it means what he thinks it ...
Recent tabloid is a model of understatement I'm just back from a whistle-stop tour of the North-West of England. I spent the best part of yesterday afternoon/evening and this morning in Oldham East and Saddleworth, helping to deliver leaflets and letters. It really is marvellous to see the HQ already well established with an enthusiastic, talented team and all the by-election paraphenalia. If you are not a LibDem supporter reading this, then please sleep on. If you are a LibDem supporter please "stop what you're doing" (to borrow our President-elect's words) and get to Oldham East and Saddleworth to help ...
Last night Cambridge MP Julian Huppert, former Oxford West and Abingdon MP Evan Harris and Jeremy Hargreaves were elected to be the Federal Policy Committee's three Vice-Chairs. Evan and Jeremy have long been high-profile figures in the party's policy-making process and Julian has rapidly joined their ranks as his profile in the party has risen over the last couple of years. So what is notable about the trio is not any of their presence in it, but that Danny Alexander, former FPC Vice-Chair and in charge of the 2010 manifesto team but now a Cabinet Minister, is no-longer one of ...
Students like rebelling, and quite right too. But the Coalition policy they are against is remarkably similar to the National Union of Students policy which they are er, for. This is what Iain Roberts writes on Lib Dem Voice: The NUS ...
(Belatedly) cross posted from Liberal Democrat Voice What a relief! For a change, Prime Minister's Questions gave more cause for Tories to be uneasy than it did for LibDems. Don't get me wrong, LibDems care passionately about frontline policing. Of course they do. But the Tories tend to see it as more of a cojones (or should I invent the adjective "cojonal" here?) measurement issue - it's closer to the nerve with them. So I think there must have been a lot of uncomfortable shifting around on the benches behind David Cameron today. "Squeaky bum time", as Sir Alex might ...
Battle has been joined in the House of Lords over the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill (generally referred to as the PVSC Bill). Having passed all stages in the Commons, it came to the Lords this week. It needs to get to Royal Assent by the end of January for the referendum on using the Alternative Vote for future Westminster elections to be held on May 5th next year. Two controversial measures have been put together in one Bill as part of the coalition agreement. The Government won every vote in the Commons on this Bill with comfortable majorities. ...
The more I read of the economic crises in Greece, Iceland and Ireland the more I think that the membership of the Euro is not the key issue when it comes to economic management. German 10 year bond returns are substantially lower than ours. It's in the Euro. Ireland's are three times higher. So are they. Iceland's are even worse. Its not. The key is not running your country like a casino and planning for long term growth in "real" industries that generate growth and are indigenous so invest profits in your country. Britain has taken it's eye off this ...
As the voters of Oldham East & Saddleworth prepare for a Parliamentary by-election after the courts found Labour MP Phil Woolas guilty lying about the Lib Dem candidate, the voters of Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale can heave a huge sigh of relief. The Conservatives only MP in Scotland, David Mundell has been told that no further action will be taken after the investigation into his election expenses. David Mundell overspent during the election and had split the costs of a newspaper advert between the long and short campaigns. From day one he admitted human error. The action open to the ...
The link is to a story about Stuart Syvret being released a short time ago. I spoke to him a few minutes ago and he is now out of jail although the issue will be revisited later.
[IMG: Press Complaints Commission (PCC) logo] I really like the new site being built by the Media Standards Trust: Press complaints (the unofficial site). It takes all the rulings from the Press Complaints Commission since 1996 and makes them easy to browse, including sorting by titles or by section of the Code of Practice. The latter is particularly useful if you are putting in a complaint to the PCC as the site lets you see the 'case law' on any sections your complaint refers to. Being able to cite how the PCC has ruled previously on an issue is always ...
I thought I'd share some people (and their blogs) who inspired me to start blogging. 1. The Spiderplant – Who showed that it is fine to wear your heart on your sleeve, and whose blog reminds me every day that politics isn't about politicians but about the people they are supposed to serve. 2. Mark ...
I read the article in the Manchester Evening News today about the amount spent by the Greater Manchester Fire Service on management training, and that the training took place in a pretty nice hotel. It made for a bad headline and a fairly predictable newpaper story about wasted public money. The Chief Fire Officer has posted an explanation which, whilst pretty lengthy, I think is absolutely the right way our public service leaders should be responding to such stories. It's clear, honest, and hopefully sets the record straight. I've no connection to the Fire Service other than needing it should ...
And so, the pot of gold is emptied. The bubble caused by a low corporation tax combined with low interest rates has finally burst, and the Irish have been forced to admit that even their stringent austerity measures will be insufficient to save their economy from investors wary of the prospect of a Celtic default. ...
Join celebrity auctioneer Michael Hogben on 1st December and bid for a bargain work of art at a special charity auction to raise money for The Mayor and Mayoress's chosen charities The Folkestone Rainbow Centre and B-4-8s.
For the last 5 years in Parliament I've worked on a variety of gay rights and equalities issues. The issue I'm most closely associated with is efforts to combat homophobic bullying. It's also important that there are openly gay people in all walks of pubic life. I've often been asked why there aren't more openly ...
I have had fun and games a few times with BT over the years. When I went wireless there was the non-arrival of the home hub when promised. And the delay in activating the account. Then there was the joy of the 90-minute helpdesk call that a simple line test could have avoided. Before that, ...
One of my interests outside politics is art, paintings in particular. On holiday I much prefer art galleries to beaches and pools. Whenever I visit a new town or city I always check out their museums and galleries. Of course for the last five and half years I've spent the majority of weekdays in the ...
So, despite having no real economic background and a complete ignorance of all the complexities of their situation, I'm going to give the Republic of Ireland some advice about how to get of their current difficulties. First, leave the euro and readopt the Irish Pound. Quite frankly, being in the euro is doing you no favours and, as it's the Central Bank that control interest rates and the like, leaving the euro would give you a lot more tools to deal with your problems. Leaving would be problematic for a while but at least the Irish Pound would settle at ...
How can you tell when the South East Regional Manager of UNISON is making things up? Easy... he posts another blog entry. It's not just him dancing to the tune of his political masters and fabricating news, the whole Labour Party membership is at it hoping for a state of collective amnesia. They've resorted to making up garbage about the upcoming local elections and a pact that only exists as Labour wishful thinking. They clearly do not understand politics in the modern age. I can assure you that every ward will have a Lib Dem candidate campaigning on Lib Dem ...
Last night I went to a 'Special Council' meeting. Amongst the topics was a presentation from the Director of Resource management Graham Dixon with the occasional chip-in from Cabinet member Lisa Chambers. The topic was the 'New Strategic Direction.' The presentation was full of nice venn diagrams, lots of vague statements and no detail but hey presto savings of 28%. Don't get me wrong, I want more decentralisation, more local accountability and don't we all want cheaper services. The whole presentation reminded me of the blokes you get on the Dragons Den that have an idea and a papier mache ...
I received this email from north Wales Police today: We are writing to update you on our progress in managing the impact of changing finances, and to reassure you that we will continue to provide the highest possible level of policing service to North Wales. North Wales Police Force and North Wales Police Authority have jointly produced a briefing document. This document is available from our website: www.nwalespa.org. The intention is to clarify some of the challenges we know we are facing, to be open about issues which are yet to be resolved and to initiate a dialogue between ourselves ...
Following the revelations that the Wolverhampton South West result showed more ballot papers being counted than had been issued and that the official marked register for part of the constituency had gone missing both Wolverhampton Council and the Electoral Commission have been investigating.
Shrewsbury and Atcham Liberal Democrats are having a debate on Fairer Voting? A look at alternative voting systems.
It's a quiet week in terms of Council meetings, but just because myself and the Town Hall are dealing with unfamiliar feelnigs of separation (during which absence isn't really making the heart grow much fonder) doesn't mean that nothig is happening. This week there have been several local and campaigning issues keeping me busy. Some traffic lights appear to have decided to re-set themselves (or have been foolishly re-set by someone from the Council) and as a result there's traffic chaos at breakfast and teatime, so we're looking into that. Amongst other things I've also met a resident regarding Philips ...
Chris Mills has blogged Charles Kennedy's reply to the open letter organised by Sophie Bertrand asking all MPs to honour their pledge on tuition fees. Former Liberal Youth Executive member Sophie Bertrand wrote last month on Lib Dem Voice: We all know that the [Browne] review is merely a suggestion for how the government should approach this situation. Yet the fact that Nick and Vince seem to be jumping on the Browne bandwagon leads me to expect the worst. It would seem that they need reminding of the slogan we fought with during this year's General Election - building a ...
I was having a rare look through the Lib Dem Voice website earlier and was quite amazed to stumble across this week's Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen which includes a blog post that I wrote last week on the NUS London Protest that backfired. [IMG: Featured on Liberal Democrat Voice] This is the first time that I'm aware of that one of my blog posts has made the weekly 'Golden Dozen' on Lib Dem Voice. It came in at No.5 in this week's list and unless I'm mistaken, that means it was the 5th most read ...
Sophie Bertrand (@LiberalBertie) has received a reply from Charles Kennedy regarding the open letter and it just had to be shared. Dear Ms Bertrand, Thank you for your communication regarding the Browne Report and the issue of university tuition fees. There are long-established reasons as to why I find it impossible to join in both with ...
As with many issues, Net Neutrality is one where I'm somewhere in the middle. Or at least, I was, until Ed Vaizey spoke on the topic yesterday. Prior to that, I would have said I was not a fan of the more extreme "you must never prioritise or block traffic" arguments, simply because in the real world they are not practical. For example, if my network is subject to a denial of service attack, clearly that traffic is going to get pushed into a black hole. Along similar lines, if I find a zombie machine on my network taking part ...
The Spectator's annual Parliamentarian of the Year Awards ceremony took place last night. Nick Clegg was named as the magazine's Politician of the Year, while Danny Alexander and George Osborne were awarded Best Double Act. The Mail has the photos, and Standard diarist Olivia Cole reports David Cameron's topical joke: Best was his line on the "spectacular" coupling. "I can't believe," he said, "that someone middle class, from the Home Counties, could get together with someone so wealthy whose family own a string of mansions." Not Kate ... he was talking about his beautiful relationship with Nick Clegg. Touché. You ...
Wednesday: A year ago, my Daddies started watching THE seminal 'Sixties spy psychedelia: "The Prisoner". Or, more accurately, a year ago my Daddies missed a week because they were busy... and never looked back. But you can never REALLY escape from the Village! So, one year later*... Coming again to "The Prisoner's" amazing title sequence, with its irresistible pounding Ron Grainer theme - and just six months after the General Election when most nights I was doing that very drive past the Houses of Parliament and into the Abingdon car park - I'm reminded just how perfectly composed it is. ...
Like many people, my sole experience of floatation tanks is from the Simpsons episode "Make Room for Lisa". I was looking for something unusual to do on my birthday when I received an offer from Groupon for a £14 session at Floatworks – a short walk from my office. How bad could it be? [IMG: Floatworks] Almost exactly what I looked like.... I am slightly suspicious of any "New Age" claims – but the Floatworks site is remarkably clear of dubious claims and mostly sticks to the facts. And I seriously doubt there are any studies which show having a ...
[IMG: Nick Clegg] Image via Wikipedia After an increasingly trying six months Nick Clegg has finally got some recognition for his recent achievements. He picked up the the Politician of the Year award...at the Spectator's Parliamentarian of the Year ceremony. Just what he needs to re-endear himself with the left of his party. Other moments to note were Ed Balls being awarded Parliamentarian of the Year, by Prime Minister David Cameron, and Osborne and Alexander's award for 'Double Act of the Year'. VN can't wait for their Christmas special. [IMG: Enhanced by Zemanta]
Shepway Council's website says e-petitions can "be created, signed and submitted online via our website www.shepway.gov.uk from 15 November 2010." (http://tinyurl.com/37p7yyh)
Car clubs are great things. I'm a member of Streetcar and although I've only used them a few times, their service can be very useful. Especially as in addition to having cars you can hire by the hour, Streetcar also have a number of vans dotted around North West London. Nancy, Flick and myself have just been contacted by the Camden streets team who are proposing some new locations for car club bays. These are often controversial as they appear to be a loss of residents parking. (Its a natural concern - but when a car club bay is introduced ...
The next meeting of the City Council's North Area Committee will be held at the Manor Community College on Thursday November 25th. The planning part of the meeting starts at 6.30. The main meeting will start at 7.30, or follow on from the planning part, if that over-runs (unlikely as there's only 1 planning application). The agenda is available here (with notes) from the City Council website, the main agrenda items are; 1 Apologies for Absence 2 Declarations of Interest (Planning) 3 Planning Applications 3a 10/0537/FUL: 11 St Lukes Street 4 Declarations of Interest (Main Agenda) 5 Minutes 6 Matters ...
Sarah Palin's hand-picked candidate for the US Senate seat in Alaska has been defeated by a candidate whose name didn't even appear on the ballot paper. And what's more, for their vote to count, electors had to hand write (and spell correctly) Lisa Murkowski's surname. Senator Murkowski was the sitting Republican member of the Senate for Alaska who sought re-election. In the Primary, she was defeated by the Tea Party (and Sarah Palin) backed Joe Miller. Murkowski's only chance of retaining her seat was to run as an independent. But she faced the additional hurdle of not having her name ...
Kent Highway Services and the Shepway Joint Transport Board have agreed to a new section of double yellow lines on Weymouth Road at junction with Langdon Road to make the turning out of Langdon Road easier.
Kent Highways Services have advised that following the Shepway Joint Transport Board's passing of this scheme, County-wide Improvements are now dealing with the scheme, and have a programmed timescale for installation of February / March 2011.
Thu 18th
09:29
Two Days not One: Temporary Road Closure of Caesar's Way, Folkestone from 19 November 2010
Kent Highway Services have advised that for operational reasons, the closure of Caesar's Way, Cheriton, Folkestone will now run into 2 days as opposed to 1 day previously advertised. It is planned that the existing surface will be removed on Friday 19 November 2010 with the new surface laid on Monday 22 November 2010.
I attended a really interesting of Northumberland's Communities and Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee. You won't hear me say that often! The chair had "called in" the Lib Dem run council executives decision to approve a full merger of the companies that run the old council housing stock of Tynedale and Castle Morpeth with Nomad housing and E5. The executive had driven a hard deal to get good representation for Northumberland but the merger inevitably meant that there was a dilution of some local representation on boards. The scrutiny committee started with the Tories in a huff (some of them ...
This morning's Western Mail says that the Westminster Government has confirmed that the Welsh Assembly will be handed the power to shift its 2015 election date to avoid a clash with the next general election. The say that rather than push for a US-style Super Thursday of multiple elections, the UK government has accepted that the Welsh and Scottish polls would be unfairly affected, with media attention focused on the Westminster contest: The Assembly can already vote to dissolve and hold an early election, provided an election is not due within six months. But in what amounts to significant strengthening ...
In our society self-esteem is a highly desirable trait and many policies area focused around improving people's self esteem. This has principally been because self-esteem is associated with less depression and anxiety, and with greater happiness and life satisfaction. While this is all well-intentioned maybe we should relook at this and the true effect of ...
There is consistent evidence that in public elections people with names higher up the alphabet, and hence higher up the ballot paper, do slightly better than people lower down. It is not a major effect, though in a marginal seat a small difference can mean you win rather than lose, and seems to be strongest where ballot papers are more complicated, e.g. if all three seats in a council ward are up for election. So it is no great surprise that after the Liberal Democrat federal committee and interim peers panel election results were declared on Saturday, several people made ...
The decision by the Secretary of State for Wales to pull out of the Institute of Welsh Politics annual lecture at Aberystwyth University because of the danger of disruption by student protestors over tuition fees is extraordinary. According to the Western Mail Dyfed-Powys Police advised the Wales Office they would have had to divert significant resources to ensure order, and Mrs Gillan decided to postpone her appearance. My view is that once you set a price on free speech in this way then you endanger its very existence. Mark Cole sums up how ill-advised this decision is in his blog: ...
Some time ago the City Council agreed to set up a Liverpool Poverty Commission. The idea was to look at issues of poverty and to make concrete recommendations (not just to the City Council). The membership was to be drawn from a range of sectors, including business, the voluntary sector, academia, politics etc. In my exec member role I worked on getting the membership sorted out. We found a Chair we had a list of members and a draft programme of potential meetings. Then the election intervened. Since then I have literally heard nothing about what is going on with ...
Stuart Syvret's new address is:HMP La MoyeLa Rue BaalSt BreladeJersey,JE3 8HQChannel Islands I am sure he would welcome cards from well wishers.
I agree with recycling so I approve of Kate Middleton getting a second hand ring. Very ...
As I wrote previously, the momentum is continuing with many more people signing the petition, Lib Dems Against Tuition Fees. Within a week over 100 more people have signed it (over 270 signatories in total) and I have now sent a letter to Annette Brooke MP.Annette Brooke signed the NUS pledge and the press release can be found on her website here. After signing the pledge Annette said 'it is
i) births and deaths 18 November 1932: birth of Trevor Baxter, who played Professor Litefoot in The Talons of Weng-Chiang (1977) and has reprised the role in Big Finish audios over the last year or so. 18 November 1934: birth of Mitzi McKenzie, who played Mrs Martin in Colony in Space (1971) and Nancy in The Green Death (1973). 18 November 1948: birth of Paul Jerricho who played the Castellan in both Arc of Infinity (1983) and The Five Doctors (also 1983). 18 November 1953: birth of Alan Moore, acclaimed comics writer whose early work included five stories published in ...
Thu 18th
00:15
Labour-Plaid budget a missed opportunity on NHS waste, economic growth and pupil premium
The Welsh Liberal Democrats have responded to the Labour-Plaid budget, describing it as a missed opportunity to build Wales's economic future, root out waste in the NHS and target funding at the poorest school children. Kirsty Williams, Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats said: "Welsh Liberal Democrats want front line health services protected but that does not mean that savings cannot be made in NHS bureaucracy. It is no good protecting the health budget when there is evidence that £1 billion of the health budget is being misspent. "Despite the drop in unemployment announced in today's figures, the economic recovery ...
All too often parents support their child against the school. When I was at school I knew that my parents would agree with the teacher and that was at a time of corporal punishment. Just to put things in perspective there were no major areas of disagreement and I didn't come across many sadistic teachers, but the point stands. Teachers were able to teach because there was discipline in the classroom. Compare that with the present and in particular with haircuts. If a headteacher has to impose the school policy and take a child out of the classroom because of ...
Many Muslims across the world have been celebrating Eid al-Adha over the last few days. Eid al-Adha is one of two Eid festivals celebrated by Muslims.
