Wagner's left XF and Take That's `Progress` album is still no 1 – hoorah!
I'll make it clear – the HB problems mainly reside in London and the South East. It's part of the nexus that demotivates whole populations outside of these areas and encourages votes for both Labour and the BNP. I'm not happy about some of the welfare reforms but I was delighted about the benefit cap. ...
Juliette Jowit in the Guardian on Wednesday made some very good points about the loans that home-owners will be able to take out for energy saving makeovers. She points out that on the Decc's own figures, if the loan is taken out for solid-wall insulation, the annual payments for the loan will be more than the amount saved on fuel. Jowit does not take into account the effect on the home's value of making the improvement. At the moment insulation may not increase the home's value very much, but as fuel bills rise, buyers' are going to become more aware ...
The BBC reports: Millions of people who currently claim housing benefit are to be given more time before cuts are introduced. Ministers had planned to introduce a cap from next April on how much housing benefit could be claimed. But the BBC understands that existing claimants will now have until January 2012 to adjust their circumstances if needed before the caps are brought in. The Department for Work and Pensions would not confirm the move, which it said was "speculation". Simon Hughes's response has been: If the reports about changes to the housing benefit proposals are true, then this will ...
I'm trying to fix some issues with my and Jennie's layout for display on mobile devices, if anyone knows enough about either the DW style system or CSS media types to help, the question is over at [IMG: [community profile] ] style_system Using @media commands to print separate stylesheets? Essentially, it's considered good practice to have a different stylesheet for different sorts of browsers. For example, on my computer, the browser needs to be told that i want the sidebar to the right, how wide the boxes should be, etc. But on my phone browser, that information is actually worse ...
Advent Sunday, preparation for the real Christmas begins today with our Advent Service. Christmas pud is mixed, stirred and wishes are added. Then the trip to Stockton (yes the roads were gritted enough!) for the turning on of the Christmas lights - the offical beginning of commercial christmas, and I must say it was done well. The tree in Wellington Square looked lovely as the...
Well what can I say about this week? Its been one of the politically coolest weeks I have had in a long long time and spawned one of the best blog posts that I have ever written. As anyone who ... Continue reading →
An anthology of stories set in Willingham's world of Fables, interpreting traditional tales and nursery rhymes in his contemporary idiom. The story of Snow White's revenge is typically inventive; likewise Old King Cole and the three blind mice; and also the tragic after-story of the Frog Prince. Lots of different artists illustrate the stories, all good - the one that really took my breath away was Brian Bolland, unfortunately illuminating the shortest and slightest of the component stories. Another unfortunate point is the dubious orientalism of the framing narrative (though it too is gorgeous illustrated by Charles Vess). A good ...
This is another of the sixties tracks where I have always known the song but probably could not tell you the name of the band that recorded it. The Herd was a South London band given, in the happy phrase of Wikipedia, "a unique blend of pop and flower power" by the songwriters Ken Howard and Alan Blaikley. This was their most successful single, reaching number five in March 1968. It's most significant member was Peter Frampton, here a fresh-faced young guitarist who must have been all of 18. Indeed, he was named as "The Face of 1968" by the ...
I am pleased to have received a commitment from Dundee City Council that it will ensure Thomson Street will be fully resurfaced following the road being dug up for works by Scottish Water and Scotland Gas Networks. I approached the City Council on behalf of residents to get assurances that the "patchwork" road surface that will be left by weeks of work would be properly reinstated and have been advised by the City Engineer as follows : "We have agreed with Turriff Contractors that it would be best to delay the surfacing works until early next year as we have ...
I have spoken today with a number of residents during a day of rather challenging weather conditions. Details of the City Council's winter maintenance arrangements and contact details can be found on the City Council website or by clicking on the headline above.
Nick Thornsby rightly takes aim at David Mitchell's column in the Observer today, saying that he uses it: to join the long list of lefties who have set their sights on enemy number one: Nick Clegg. And there was I thinking comedians valued originality. On top of its tedious lack of creativity, the column is also hopelessly misinformed.You can read the whole Mitchell piece here. It is feature of modern Britain that we take the political pronouncements terribly seriously. Biting the hand that briefly fed me, I commented on this on the New Statesman in my first New Statesman column: ...
Transport for London have published travel advice for the tube strike from 6pm on Sunday 28th November to 6pm on Monday 29th of November. TfL have advised that they expect both Vauxhall and Oval tube stations to be closed on Monday 29th. Further afield, Pimlico station is also expected to be closed, but Stockwell and Kennington should remain open, making these stations a good bet for your commute. As always, it is worthwhile to check the TfL website before you travel - and good luck with any journeys you make.
The new white paper on education was launched by the coalition this week. I have not read it great detail, but noticed the clear Lib Dem influence. Of course it included new rules on discipline and encouraging more armed forces personnel to qualify to become a teacher. These things will go down well with the right wing. You can imagine the headlines "armed forces drafted in to problem
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 197th weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere ... Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (21st -27th November, 2010), together with a hand-picked quintet, normally courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed. Don't forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox — just click here — ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging. As ever, let's start with the most popular post, and work our way down: 1. Why I ...
Some of you have been asking what's happened to the West Hampstead/Fortune Green area forums that you found so helpful. The answer is that the Council is changing the way it involves local people in decision-making by launching "area action groups" across Camden this autumn. The good news is that one of the options under the area action groups model is essentially to continue with area forums much as before, which gave you an opportunity to discuss important local issues with your councillors and neighbours, and speakers for relevant outside organisations, and to influence decisions about the West Hampstead area's ...
Last week saw the annual AJEX (Association of Jewish Ex Servicemen) hold their annual speaker and presentation meeting at Southport Town Hall. Michael Braham was Master of Ceremonies which ensured that a good time was had by all. The deputy Mayor, Paul Cummins, took the chair and having been well warned that he might be the victim of Michael wit had come well prepared. There is always a frisson of expectation when Michael speaks, a certain fear that his wit licences him to say things that others might only think. Do not get me wrong I didn't for a moment ...
Today is the first Sunday of Advent. That means we're now in the Christian season of preparing for Christmas. In contrast, the commercial season of preparing for Christmas starts on August 28th with the first DFS sofa advert with sleigh bells in the background. I now feel in the mood for carols. Have this one on me. It's Aly and AJ with "Deck the halls". It's got 433,887 hits on YouTube, so it can't be that bad.
Until Christmas, parking is free in the Council car parks across Stockport's eight District Centres, including Cheadle - happy shopping!
I spent another afternoon in Oldham today, canvassing for the by-election which will now almost certainly take place in early January. The response was again very positive – which is, perhaps, not that surprising given that the Lib Dems are ... Continue reading →
I've had several days off work in a row (took holiday time because I'm on the brink of collapse from exhaustion) and have spent those days intending, but not succeeding, to write pieces on Batman comics and a short story. I'm failing again to write either of those, because I've just heard something wonderful. Last ...
Mark Cole reports: Ceredigion Liberal Democrats [have chosen] our new candidate for the Welsh Assembly election next May. I'm absolutely delighted to report that that candidate will be Cllr Elizabeth Evans from Aberaeron, Or as she is more commonly known, Liz. I've known Liz for 7 or so years and have found her to be one of the friendliest, most genuine and hard-working people I know – and she's a liberal to the core... She is a popular, well liked and hard-working local campaigner and community activist. She's a former recipient of the prestigious Welsh European of the year award ...
David Mitchell, it seems, is a dedicated follower of fashion. He uses his Observer column today to join the long list of lefties who have set their sights on enemy number one: Nick Clegg. And there was I thinking comedians ... Continue reading →
The national independent regulator and inspectorate of adult social care services in England, the Care Quality Commission has concluded that Reading Borough Council's adult social care services are performing well. From the official Council press release published earlier this week: 'CQC inspectors who have been monitoring the performance of the Council's adult social care service, graded the Council as doing 'well' against all seven criteria. The Council was given particular praise from CQC inspectors for consulting with residents on the range of adult social care services available in Reading and how they could or should be receiving them in order ...
We are hearing it again and again that the Liberal Democrats are losing supporters all across the country and we are receiving low opinion polls month upon month. So could AV be the reason for this?I am a broad supporter of the coalition. I believe it was necessary to have a stable government at a time when the economic situation in the country was gloomy, to the say the least. I know that
A completely unwarranted attack on a local journalist during the Sefton Cabinet meeting last week left many of us stunned. My colleague Tony Robertson who was chairing the meeting has already written about the incident. I hope that Cllr Dowd the Labour leader will, on reflection, see fit to apologise to the young lady involved. The incident occurred late on in the meeting. Cllr Dowd had not been getting his way, this causes him to become very annoyed and his judgement slips. The journalist, who I must admit I had not seen before, was sat in the public gallery-that is ...
I love Christmas - loves it I do! It's the inner child in me. But this year, I make no bones with the fact that I'm more excited about this Yuletide time of year than I have been in years. The reason? Two words - Alyson Rees! We'll have been together officially for a year as of Boxing Day so this will be our first proper Crimbo together and whilst she lives with her parents in Llanboidy you wouldn't think it such has been her impact on my house these past 12 months! Most notably at the moment is the ...
The employees at Botanic nursey should be offered the chance of taking over the operation themselves. Well that was the proposal I put to Sefton's cabinet on Thursday. The council had agreed that they could no longer afford to run the nursery themselves. Southport is proud of the floral displays around the town but sadly the market price is significantly lower than we have achieved in- house. For some time now we have been buying in bedding plants. There is a lot of competition out there and if the nurserymen want to make a go of the business themselves I ...
Southport Botanic Gardens 1 Originally uploaded by David J C.I was really impressed by the photos of the Botanic Gardens on this flickr site that I wanted to make sure I gave the proper credit .
During the week the trial for war crimes of former Democratic Republic of Congo Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba began in The Hague. Any trial at the International Criminal Court is notable given the severity of the crimes that have to alleged to get before the court, but Bemba's case has two particular features. Bemba is the highest profile politician to have been brought before the court (Slobodan Milošević was being tried by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia when he died). In addition, Jean-Pierre Bemba's trial is the first before the ICC to centre on rape, with allegations of ...
The Daily Fail hasn't wasted much time in predicting industrial armageddon, including job losses and costs of thousands of pounds, if businesses are forced to give mothers "breastfeeding breaks." Let's try and give this all a bit of perspective. The Mail suggests that breastfeeding mums need to express their milk several times a day and it can take up to 40 minutes. Before everyone gets exercised that every workplace will be full of screaming babies and women with their boobs out round every corner, let's just think a bit. All that's being asked for is that mothers are given the ...
My new son Landon was born Tuesday at 5.53am. He's the reason why I haven't been blogging much lately. But I thought I would quickly blog my thanks to Frimley Park hospital. My new son Landon was born Tuesday at 5.53am. He's the reason why I haven't been blogging much lately. But I thought I would quickly blog my thanks to Frimley Park hospital. Hospital experience is personal and is not an indication of how good care is for everyone for all treatments at a hospital. But I have to say that in my experience Frimley has been brilliant. My ...
Work on the first phase of the Warwick Road route enhancements (from Percy Road to Stockfield Road) is due to start on Monday 6th December and is likely to last for ten weeks. The work consists of: Installation of a pedestrian refuge at Seeleys Road Construction of a build out at the Weston Lane / Battery Road Toucan crossing Installation of two refuges at the Warwick Road / Knights Road junction and the prohibition of right turns from the Warwick Road into Tyseley Hill Road Removal of existing build-out opposite Tyseley Working Mens Club To save time and waste, the ...
Hampshire County Council have now made a decision on the future of concssionary fares in the county. I can report they have conceded on some but not all of of the extra elements currently offered by Test Valley Borough Council. This as a result of the vast number of responses from residents of Test Valley and across the county calling for them to maintain the exisiting provisions. Funding is there to pay for these services and cuts to these services would be an attempt to divert that funding to other areas. Full details of the new provisions are available on ...
This book was given to me by the author in 2006 (you can see it on top of the pile of papers in front of him in this photograph) and I have been putting off reading it ever since. As I expected, most of it is a fairly standard uncritical rant from the headline Greek Cypriot nationalist perspective. One would scarcely realise from the book that the Turkish Cypriots had ever had any legitimate grievances. I found the analysis particularly lacking in two areas. First, the description of US interests and activity in the Eastern Mediterranean relies entirely on sympathetic ...
Welcome to my weekly round-up of two blogging highlights from the past week: the post that I found most interesting or enjoyable to write and the post from someone else that I found most interesting or entertaining. A post from me... What's so special about political polling? A political polling event last week triggered a thought that has been knocking around at the back of my mind for a little while now: Given that we know political polling goes wrong without extra adjustments beyond the basic demographic and lifestyle ones, why should we trust polling on other topics to be ...
I went yesterday to give the oration at the planting of a Wild Cherry Tree in memory of Joan Schwitzer who was a historian and Founder Member of the Hornsey Historical Society and of the Friends of Hornsey Church Tower. I had met Mat Schwitzer only recently when my office told me that I had to go to his house for a 'chat'. All I can say is that we had a very pleasant half an hour philosophical discussion over a whole range of issues – and that whilst Mr Schwitzer may be old – he is very, very charming ...
First of all, thanks to all the people who got in touch after I raised the question on my blog - "Tution Fees: How Many Lib Dem MPs will rebel?". The situation is in flux and, if anything, I'm further from a final answer than when I began! Here's a round up of the latest developments: WHEN WILL THE VOTE BE? No date set yet, but Lord Young announced on Thursday 25th November the government's intention to hold a vote before Christmas on the specific question of raising the cap on fees. This is an issue the government want settled ...
So reports the Independent on Sunday: Owners of second homes could be stripped of their council tax discount under Liberal Democrat plans to raise millions of pounds for town halls. Danny Alexander, the Lib Dem Chief Secretary to the Treasury, is among ministers who back ending rules that force local authorities to cut bills by 10 to 50 per cent for owners of weekend bolt-holes. In a Commons motion, the Lib Dem president, Tim Farron, suggested the cost of providing the discount could be spent on local services or cutting council tax bills for all... Mr Farron, whose Cumbrian constituency ...
The Wales on Sunday reports on Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Member, Eleanor Burnham's fear that the Welsh National Assembly could lose its reputation as a beacon of workplace sexual equality. In a speech to a Hansard Society seminar last week, Eleanor spoke openly about her sense of rejection by Liberal Democrats in the North Wales region after she was relegated from first to second on the party list in an all-member ballot. She has been replaced by Councillor Aled Roberts, the leader of Wrexham Council and as a result is unlikely to hold her seat next May: Ms Burnham said ...
The imminent publication of millions of classified cables between Washington and US embassies around the world by the website Wikileaks promises to provide hours of entertainment as the Obama Administration seeks to limit the damage done by frank assessments of their friends and allies. The Independent on Sunday says that it understands that State Department correspondence between London and Washington covers a catalogue of sensitive diplomatic issues, including the release of the Lockerbie bomber, Britain's contribution to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Conservatives' position on the economy before the election. They suggest that some of the embassy ...
Details were published this week outlining the impact on public transport of the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics. Details were published this far in advance to help businesses make alternative plans so that their employees can, where possible, work remotely or at flexible times. The good news is that Vauxhall and Oval, despite being on the Olympic Road Network (shown in red and dark grey above), escape relatively unscathed. The following transport impacts in the local area have been identified: Roads Some congestion on the north side of Vauxhall Bridge, and on the south side of Lambeth Bridge.No other local issues.Tubes ...
The Independent on Sunday contains a fascinating article this morning on the sort of reforms that Ed Miliband wants to introduce to bring the Labour Party into the 21st Century. Headlining the article is the idea that the party will turn to social networking sites for things to put into their manifesto. I somehow doubt that the document will contain a series of pledges no more than 140 characters long, especially if the examples given are anything to go by. My favourites are @peregr1n Freezing earthworms makes them easier to sharpen and @rosycottage It may be a very fashionable vote ...
Another Eighth Doctor novel, with the Foamasi and Wirrrn (Russell adopts the Ian Marter spelling) competing for attention in subverting a future interplanetary Olympic Games. Russell's depiction of the Foamasi is competent and his Wirrrn are memorably awful and nearly invincible. But the book is somewhat spoiled by a half-hearted enquiry into the nature of religious belief, which is territory usually left unexplored in the Whoniverse, and I think wisely so.
That Eric Pickles has got my dander right up again. Not content with telling councils how to collect the bins or where to put railings, Mr Pickles is now moving on to banning local authorities from including non-Christian elements in any celebrations they organise in winter. Yes, that's right, not just banning local councils from failing to include the Christian religion; but banning councils from organising winter celebrations which include anything other than Christianity. Apparently, local councils should not be free to decide to run events called Winterval, or Winter Lights, and must include 'Christmas lights, Christmas trees, carol services ...
Since the introduction of charges to park at the previously-free Council-run Fairfax Road car parks, we've had plenty of complaints. Most have been about their imposition in the first place, since the results of the consultation were unanimously against them. Some have been about signage and the eagerness with which enforcement officers are slapping tickets on people's windscreens. I am convinced that if litter enforcement officers worked with the same gay abandon we'd have the cleanest streets in the world. Now though our prediction of knock-on effects seems to be coming true. When we were asked about these charges earlier ...
I've generally been enjoying these graphic novels about Scott and his battles with his girlfriend's evil exes, but I thought this one was particularly good: hitting Scott's angst about commitment to Ramona, working out the depth of his own feelings, at the same time as their friendship group, which has been a fairly stable background through the first three volumes, undergoes some fairly radical changes, with ghosts from Scott's past and confused sexuality thrown in. A high point of the series so far.
This was an unexpected pleasure. It's a very short book, with the framing narrative actually set in Belgium, concerning the wonderful society of Utopia which the main narrator claims to have visited in the coat-tails of Amerigo Vespucci's explorations of the continent which now bears his name. The Penguin editor, writing in 1965, is much exercised with More's advocacy of what he calls communism, and whether or not it can be taken as a serious reflection of More's own views given his rather non-communist record when actually running the government of England. I was much more struck by two other ...
i) births and deaths 28 November 1987: birth of Karen Gillan, who plays Amy Pond in New Who (2010-). Gosh, isn't she young! ii) broadcast anniversary 28 November 1964: broadcast of "The Daleks", second episode of the story we now call The Dalek Invasion of Earth. On the flying saucer, the Doctor passes the Daleks' intelligence test and is made ready for robotisation.
This one really did blow me away. Just a couple of weeks ago I read the Analog 6 anthology from 1968, a rather staid collection of stories in the classic sf mode. Most (though not quite all) of this 1973 collection are tremendous, many of them somewhat subversive - particularly on gender issues, this at a time when the author was still believed to be a man (and is referred to in the masculine in Harry Harrison's introduction. The one that particularly lingers with me is "The Man Who Walked Home", which I had forgotten was by Tiptree - the ...
Sun 28th
09:26
Tim Berners-Lee on net neutrality: it's needed for free markets, democracy and science
Only one person can start an article like this, The world wide web went live, on my physical desktop in Geneva, Switzerland, in December 1990. That's Tim Berners-Lee, and after that succinct explanation of why he knows a thing or two about the web he goes on in a piece for Scientific American to to talk about the importance of net neutrality – a topic on which there have been mixed signals coming out of the Conservative Party at times: Net neutrality maintains that if I have paid for an Internet connection at a certain quality, say, 300 Mbps, and ...
An interesting and well-observed novel about the dislocations of a household caught up in both the 1986 Gorkhaland demonstrations in West Bengal, and the effects of India's relationship over the decades with both Britain and the US (or, more specifically, Cambridge University and the catering industry in New York). It didn't really blow me away, though it obviously worked better for many other people (including the Booker Prize judges).
[IMG: Show Film First] I'm a big fan Show Film First. A company which aims to get people to preview screenings of films – for free. There's also a confusingly similarly named company called See Film First with broadly similar aims. I'm not sure what, if any, relationship the two have. Show Film First concentrate mainly on bloggers – getting them to exclusive screenings in the hope that they will generate some online buzz about a movie before release. To help you on your way to creating a blog, they've created a handy (if somewhat patronising) guide to blogging movie ...
At my friend's house yesterday I was flicking through a copy of Venue (Bristol and Bath's events guide) and I found a feature on a double act called Frisky and Mannish. Intrigued, I took note and, thanks to You Tube, I would like to share them with you too. Firstly, here's a 5 minute showcase from the launch of their show at last years' Edinburgh Fringe Festival: and here's a cover of Destiny Child's Independent Women: You can find plenty more here and here! Enjoy! Andrew
The BBC reports that X Factor's Gamu Nhengu visa ruling has been reversed:
The link is to a story (in French) about the stealing of children in England by the authorities.The following figures give the number of children adopted from care as a proportion of those leaving care in the past 5 years (up to March 2010) In care 42,510 42,550 41,930 41,290 42,900Into care 7,700 7,700 7,400 8,200 9,500Therefore out of care
Sun 28th
08:50
What Sort of Centre Party Will Labour Become and Will Anyone Forgive Them For Being AWOL In Oppositi...
Admittedly Ed Miliband has not been in charge for long and Labour has been rudderless since the election in May but their strategy remains one of using the language of 'no-cuts' and failing as an official opposition in tackling the government on deficit cutting by not offering credible alternative scenarios of cuts and spending priorities. They are, on the biggest issues facing our social-economic lives, defaulting politically; a credibility AWOL. Now under Ed Miliband, they are choosing to make the most of opposition to re-organise and to distance themselves from both the economic policy blame and the solutions and instead ...
Back in July Australian Labor Senator Penny Wong backed her new leader's position on marriage equality with these words: "On the issue of marriage I think the reality is there is a cultural, religious, historical view around that which we have to respect. The party's position is very clear that this is an institution that is between a man and a woman." She did not say "This is the party's view and I respect that. However, I hold a different view." No she said nothing about believing in equality here did she? Perhaps she didn't want to rock the boat. ...
Having been enthusiastic about David Cameron's proposal to measure Gross National Wellbeing, it is rather disappointing to find that he is proposing to do it in such an airy-fairy manner. Both he and the statistician in charge at he ONS talk vaguely about asking people how happy they feel. While as a social scientist I cannot decry the value of trying to measure subjunctive feelings it is disappointing that solid facts such as hours worked, a measure of equality, suicide rates, the stability of marriages and partnerships, etc (see earlier post) are not to be taken into account. Perhaps Cameron ...
Cardiff Central Liberal Democrat MP, Jenny Willott has confirmed that she will vote against the proposed increase in tuition fees to £6,000 a year. Jenny stated her intention on Friday as police patrolled outside her weekly constituent surgery in the city amid fears of further student protests. She said: "I have said all along I will vote against any rises in tuition fees. The Browne Review in its current format, although there are parts I agree with, is not something I can support." She added: "We didn't win an outright majority at the election, if we had we would be ...
You will recall that Chocolate Orange Dave has oft grumbled about supermarkets alcohol pricing policies . You remember his "20 tins of Stella for a fiver" line surely. Now it looks like he is going to do something about it - planning to introduce a ban on supermarkets selling wine, beer and spirits below a national "minimum price". If true , one has to start to question seriously the philosophy - or lack of it - of this man and his government. Far from rectifying the mistakes of the previous regime. They seem intent on a repeating them. We are ...
In 1819, four years after Waterloo, protesters in St Peter's Field, Manchester were attacked by soldiers. Around a dozen were killed and hundreds were injured. This was partly because the police had used a system called kettling. Well they didn't call it kettling then but you know what I mean. It became known as the Peterloo massacre. Soldiers on horses moved into the crowds and used sabres. Some deaths were from the sabres and some were from crush injuries. On Wednesday there were protests across the country about tuition fees and mounted police rode into the crowd at Trafalgar Square. ...
