I can't help reflecting on the Boxing Day Test match of 4 years ago - my first visit to our elder daughter's new home and as a treat she'd bought tickets for the 3rd day of the Test match. Sadly, the day was cut short by England's lamentable performance. The shout from my neighbour in the stand to one of our fielders who'd missed what looked like a fairly easy catch if only he'd made the effort
Well it is another day, and another visit to the hospital is over. But having been sent home from A&E in the RVH with some Linezolid, whilst watching Juliet Bravo, at some point the abscess on my cheek burst - so in the morning, it's off up to the GUM clinic to make sure that ...
23:54 Just has a comment from someone who doesn't know who Norman Featherstone is! Don't they teach obscure Middlesex batsmen of the 1970s in our schools nowadays? I am trying to raise Michael Gove on the telephone as we speak. 23:50 There are two expressions that strike fear into the human soul: See me in my study after PrayersThe next commentator will be Christopher Martin-Jenkins23:48 If these two stick around Strauss should consider releasing the tiger sooner rather than later. 23:44 Syd Little is on strike for Tremlett's next over. Up the snoot, Christopher! 23:41 Why wasn't Harris made to ...
I'm finally back from Minnesota. My luggage is stil in Paris, where it has been since just over a week ago. I *was* planning on resuming my Doctor Who reviews, but can't do that until my DVD of The Aztecs (which is in one of the bags) gets back here. Starting tomorrow (when, if my ...
The monthly archives for this blog have only been showing half the posts they should for a while now. So I have switched to weekly archives. In the long run the answer is probably to update to a new Blogger template, which is something I am currently plucking up the courage to do.
And so, as we hurtle into "The Year of Our Lord Two Thousand and Eleven" (2011), it's about time I set myself up to fail by having a list of those pesky resolutions for me to beat myself up for not achieving. So, here goes: First and obviously given I'm half-way through the final year of my curacy is: Find a job. Not just any job, the right job, the God-ordained job, the place where he's calling me and my family to minister and lead for however long the next phase in our life turns out to be. Next up, ...
[Originally posted on Liberal Democrat Voice, 28/12/10] The Coalition government is seemingly intent upon drowning us in a blizzard of consultation papers, green papers, white papers, and hasty legislation. No doubt there is also a bit of kite flying taking place for good measure. One problem with all this activity is keeping track of overlapping ...
I started choosing a Sunday music video when I finally got broadband access in October 2007. You can find the choices for 2007 and 2008 here and for 2009 here. Some of these videos have disappeared since I posted them. Where possible, I shall edit the post and add an alternative version of the same song, but the moral is clear: enjoy these videos while they are still hot. 3 January 2010 Bananarama: Cheers Then 10 January 2010 Thin Lizzy: Whiskey in the Jar 17 January 2010 Martin Carthy & Dave Swarbrick: I Haven't Told Her 24 January 2010 Peter ...
I'll be honest. I loathe the X Factor and everything it stands for. The X Factor is simply a modern paradigm of Social Control. It's bad for society, bad for morality, bad for politics and democracy and just plain insulting. The X Factor embodies the ultimate acheivements of a Marcuse scheme of social control by informal means in capitalist consumer society. Material Social ControlTo explain,
One of the New Statesman's halcyon periods was during the 1970s under the editorship of Anthony Howard, who sadly died just before Christmas. Among the more unlikely contributors Howard recruited was Auberon Waugh, who did some of his best writing for there , precisely because he was going against the grain of his readers' views. Waugh died nearly ten years ago, but although he was probably the funniest journalist of his generation, newspaper and magazine scribblings have a short shelf-life and all the anthologies of his work published in his lifetime seem to be out of print. So it is ...
Throughout the festive season, LDV is offering our readers another chance to read the 12 most popular opinion articles which have appeared on the blog since 1st January, 20109. The ninth most-read LDV op-ed of 2010 was by LDV co-editor Stephen Tall, and originally appeared on 7th May ... The morning after the night before: 10 questions we need to answer (but maybe not today) Here's a few to ponder ... Or perhaps best to sleep on them. 1. What happened to the predicted Lib Dem surge? Did people change their mind at the last minute? Did young people not ...
Time for a look back on the year through the eyes of the struggle for marriage equality in the United Kingdom. What a year it's been! In January, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg came out in favour of marriage equality being the first leader of a major party to do so. In April I gave up hope for any change, based purely on fact I had no visions of anything other than a Tory or Labour Government being in power after the upcoming general election. I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised to find out how wrong I was, although ...
It's an unnecessarily well-kept secret that the Liberal Democrats have already achieved much in Government since the General Election. Despite the Guardian saying today that "the Liberal Democrats have rushed out a checklist of 67 party manifesto commitments already or nearly achieved in eight months in office" it's not that easy to find the checklist online, nor to understand why the newspaper used the word "rushed" when the party has waited two thirds of a year before compiling and releasing it in a low-key way to Lib Dem campaigners. Nonetheless, the list is impressive, and deserves to be shared widely. ...
You know that list of 100 fiction books you must read? That's been all over facebook and LJ and everywhere as a meme? Well, I think there should be a non-fiction list of a similar kind. If you were to compile such a list, what would you put on it? We have a list of about 60 so far... Do feel free to have a good argument with each other in the comments :D [IMG: Dreamwidth] [IMG: Livejournal] [IMG: Blogger] [IMG: Facebook] [IMG: Tweet this] [IMG: Delicious] [IMG: Flattr this] [IMG: LibDig] [IMG: Bit/ly] [IMG: StumbleUpon]
An old school friend of mine has written a very good article on her personal experience with tuition fees. It's well worth a read.
We have reported the pothole Old Fosse Road and Barrow RoadPlease let us know of others
A lot of people talk about what ifs. What if, following the general election, the Lib Dems had done this, or Labour had done that or if the Tories had done something else. Some scenarios have no coalition being made and no confidence and supply agreement either. Somehow this would have led to a magical progressive wonderland where the tories would have been defeated and been forced to implement left wing policies. That indeed is a wonderful image. But complete and utter poppycock. There are three main reasons why any scenario other than the current one was impossible. The first ...
I hesitated earlier this year before deciding to renew my subscription to the New Statesman, and the Christmas issue, which I have just got round to reading, makes me wonder if I shouldn't have hesitated a little longer. The Staggers is of course a Labour-supporting paper, and never likely to see eye to eye with the Lib Dems even when we are not in coalition with the Tories. But at its best, it is broadminded, has contributors with a range of different viewpoints and so is a good read even for those who don't agree with its politics. So while ...
The Guardian takes a look today at the Lib Dems' prospects in next year's local elections, focusing on England rather than the national assembly and parliament elections due in Wales and Scotland. Not surprisingly, they come to the conclusion that Nick Clegg's party is likely to be most vulnerable in those areas where the Lib Dems face a strong Labour opposition — and most likely safer in areas where the local fight is with the Tories. Here's their assessment: In England, the Liberal Democrats will be defending 1,830 seats, Labour 1,600 and the Conservatives just over 5,000. In the equivalent ...
This morning at the McManus Galleries, I attended the launch of the Public Appeal for the Tay Rail Bridge Disaster Memorial Trust and had the pleasure of introducing the speakers - Lord Provost John Letford, Depute Provost Lizz Mogg of Fife, Provost Ruth Leslie Melville of Angus and Stuart Morris of Balgonie, Chair of the Trust. The launch was exceptionally well attended and after the speeches, there was an excellent showcase of Mike Gibb's Five Pound and Twa Bairns - the musical is being brought back in 2011 in aid of the Memorial Appeal. Here's a couple of photos from ...
From today's launch of the Tay Rail Bridge Disaster Memorial Public Appeal : Stuart Morris of Balgonie welcomes guests - above Showcase of Five Pound and Twa Bairns - above
The Daily Telegraph is an arch opponent of the Murdoch empire so what does do? Why it hires some people to do a 'sting' the publication of which results in the decision on whether or not to curb Murdoch's ambition being removed from the one man who might oppose such ambition. Clever stuff huh!
A certain Bill Carmichael, who seems to be given column inches in the National press in which to air his opinions, wrote in the Yorkshire Post on 24th December: " It is precisely the same reason why the Business Secretary was so easily seduced into making a fool of himself in a Christmas special of 'Strictly Come Dancing'. This was written before the show was aired and it is not clear whether Mr Carmichael had seen it. In the event Vince Cable and his partner came second in the judges vote and one judge gave them a perfect 10 score. ...
58) Whitney Otto, How to Make an American Quilt (New York: Ballantine, 1991, ISBN 0345370805). Oh wow, I absolutely loved this. It's a series of tender, but not sentimental portrayals of the very different women who make up the quilting circle on which the book centres. Several of the characters resonated with me quite strongly, particularly Constance with her difficulties relating to other women, and Marianna with her struggle to come to terms with loving more than one person (though overall, her storyline has a more monogamist tinge than I'd ideally like). Otto seems to have a gift for extended ...
Lib Dem Friends of Palestine, a voice for human rights in Palestine, has joined the growing call to the British public and companies to boycott Israeli goods on sale in Britain. LDFP are deeply concerned at the continuing failure of the UK and US governments to persuade Israel to implement the complete settlement freeze without which good faith peace negotiations are impossible. LDFP call on the coalition government and the EU to implement economic sanctions against Israel. Chair of LDFP, John McHugo said, "Our boycott is an ethical one, and will cease when Israel accepts and implements its obligations to ...
I came into politics thirty years ago believing that the abolition of nuclear weapons, private education, health care and a massive expansion of the public sector represented a socialist programme that if implemented would make Britain a fairer country. All these were Labour party policy and as a socialist I was an active member of the party that was happy to use the 's' word. In fact it looked for a while as though the socialist left were going to take total control of the party driving out the remaining social democrats. What actually happened was the party moved in ...
Catherine Bearder, Lib Dem MEP for the South East, has launched a campaign to stamp out trafficking at our Olympics. Catherine wants to raise awareness about the issue of human trafficking in Britain and take action to tackle this problem in the run-up to the 2012 games. Previous Olympics and other large sporting events have led to a rise in trafficking of women and girls to satisfy the demand for the sex industry. South East Euro MP Catherine Bearder said, "Trafficking doesn't just occur on the other side of the world – it happens here in our towns and ...
Both wheelie bin and recycling crews are back working normally, with full team turnouts, but progress is slower in some side roads still affected by slushy snow and ice and they may not be able to complete all their rounds. Put out bins and boxes on your normal collection day. Grey bins are being collected every week from now and into the first few weeks in January to cope with the extra festive season waste. Meanwhile, green wheelie bin collection is suspended Crews report that far fewer people than usual are putting out their bins and recycling boxes. Many are ...
You can't accuse fans of Lech Poznan for not taking their Under 11′s match against Tottenham Hotspur seriously. Fair play to them. In this country it's a farce on a muddy pitch before the hardest Dad chases the Ref out ... Continue reading →
I have just started reading David Laws' '22 Days in May' about the coalition negotiations just after the General Election and already I am struck by Labour's failure to engage with talks seriously and in particular to sign up to serious reform. That is evident again today with their reaction to Government plans to open up the Parliamentary agenda to the public. The idea is to allow popular online petitions to be debated in Parliament. Those receiving most support, probably 100,000 signatures, would be debated, with some possibly becoming bills. Labour's response is to suggest that the scheme will lead ...
From the New York Times via a friend's Facebook feed: Since University College London began transcribing the papers of the Enlightenment philosopher Jeremy Bentham more than 50 years ago, it has published 27 volumes of his writings — less than half of the 70 or so ultimately expected. The painstaking job of transcribing often hard-to-decipher handwritten documents from history's lead players — not to mention a lack of money — has meant that most originals are seen by a just a handful of scholars and kept out of the public's reach altogether. After more than five decades, only slightly more ...
A large part of this morning's Radio 4 "Today" programme was devoted to international aid: does it help development or hinder it, and is it just a gravy train for the well intentioned? For those who wish to "knock" aid there is no shortage of ammunition. Though now rather dated Graham Hancock's "Lords of Poverty" (1989) is a rich source. The frontispiece contains this extract from a delightful poem: We bring in consultants whose circumlocution Raises difficulties for every solution -- Thus guaranteeing continued good eating By showing the need for another meeting For the full text see "The Development ...
The Coalition government is seemingly intent upon drowning us in a blizzard of consultation papers, green papers, white papers, and hasty legislation. No doubt there is also a bit of kite flying taking place for good measure. One problem with all this activity is keeping track of overlapping agendas. How do we sum the parts in a way that allows us to get a sense of the likely cumulative impact of change? One area in which this is particularly acute is housing. Policy which impacts upon housing and the housing market sits with a number of government departments. Housing policy ...
In the Western Mail this morning, Matt Qvortrup of Cranfield University, who is considered a world authority on voting habits, argues that a short campaign and a tough economy will encourage voters to overturn the status quo by voting yes in the forthcoming Welsh Assembly powers referendum: Dr Qvortrup said: "A short campaign in bad times is normally a recipe for a good result. As a general rule, referendums tend to be lost in good times." His analysis will boost the spirits of campaigners ahead of the March 3 referendum who face the prospect of knocking on doors in February ...
I have been contacted by local residents querying stories in an Intouch leaflet delivered by the local conservatives dated November 2010. The banner headline proudly announces that "Test Valley will deliver a council tax freeze". In the interests of accuracy I asked the Head of Finance at Test Valley Borough Council whether this was true. His response was as follows "Council Tax levels have to be set by Full Council, so no decision has been made yet. The Council Tax Resolution for 2011/12 will be presented to all Members at the Council meeting on 25th February, 2011 when the decision ...
It seems ages since Southport have played a competitive game of football but now the website confirms that after a pitch inspection the match at Fleetwood is going ahead.
You may have seen mentioned in the weekly Golden Dozen round-ups reference to LibDig – but there's much more to the site than sharing a story for hopeful inclusion in the round-ups. Thanks to LibDig, Liberal Democrat members can easily share interesting, useful or enjoyable stories, videos or blog posts. You can either post up content you have seen, or vote on content that other people have posted up; either way it's a way of saying, "I found this interesting. I think you'll find it interesting too." Social bookmarking sites like this have been around for a while, but they ...
First, fuelled in part by Labour's debate about how it should be seen relative to the trade unions, we have the news that Ed Miliband may be about to break the logjam on party funding reform: Ed Miliband is to distance Labour from its trade union paymasters by diluting the party's financial dependence on them and reducing their role in electing the party leader. Labour has proposed introducing a ceiling on donations to any political party which could be as low as £500, The Independent has learnt. The move could break the long-running deadlock between the parties on agreeing a ...
This grauniad article had me in a small fit this morning. I shall quote from the unchanging print edition: "The government is to follow the lead of the television programme The X Factor and allow the public to decide on legislation to be put before MPs." EXCUSE ME?! The government is not going to try and make a profit by setting up a pay-per-vote system judging a pointless talent contest! Nor is the X Factor the first opportunity the British People have had to vote, which is something that's been going on for a long time, started by...let me see... ...
Part of my job every day is to monitor the media. It means I read some of the weirdest stories, but this one in the Daily Mail really got me cross! I take my children two or three times a year. We normally see the 3D film of choice. Shrek, Up and a Christmas Carol were all favourites in the last year. This year's film of choice for Christmas Eve was Narnia. We went to a 'Saver' show at our local Vue cinema in Watford and paid £36 for the decent (VIP) seats and enjoyed the film. I do not ...
Lib Dem Manifesto p.22 "We will break up the banks, to ensure taxpayers are never again expected to underwrite high-risk banking. We will introduce a Banking Levy, so that banks pay for their tax-payer guarantee, until the break-up is complete." We have set up an independent commission on separating investment and retail banking, reporting by September 2011, and introduced a banking levy that will raise £2.5bn a year. Lib Dem Manifesto p.26 "Support public investment in the roll-out of superfast broadband, targeted first at those areas which are least likely to be provided for by the market." The Government has ...
What the Dickens? Has A Christmas Carol ALWAYS been science fiction? (tags: scifi writing) Photos: Rare Snapshots from Early Star Trek Conventions You know that bollocks about how only men like scifi and women getting into scifi is new? Here's photographic proof that it's bollocks (and if that's not old enough for you, Mary Frigging Shelley FFS) (tags: feminism startrek) Your Money - LibDem manifesto commitments delivered so far! | Lynne Featherstone Lynne Featherstone details what the Lib Dems have done in office. (tags: libdemmery) Random information for fanficcers/fanartists ["You look Time Lord."] Ever wondered what colour a martian sunset ...
i) births and deaths 28 December 1990: death of Edward Brayshaw, who played Léon Colbert in The Reign of Terror (1964) and the War Chief in The War Games (1969). 28 December 1999: death of Donald Cotton, who wrote The Myth Makers (1965) and The Gunfighters (1966) as well as the novelisations of both stories and of The Romans (1965), three of the best Who novelisations in the range. ii) broadcast anniversaries 28 December 1963: broadcast of "The Survivors", second episode of the story we now call The Daleks. The Doctor, Ian and Susan join Barbara as prisoners of the ...
I am not one of those who have ideological issues with private finance. If done properly as with the Welsh Housing Investment Trust then it can genuinely add value. What does not work as well is the more traditional PFI model as embraced so enthusiastically by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown over the 13 years they were in power. Evidence of that is seen in this article in which it is revealed that taxpayers will end up paying five times over for building projects funded by Private Finance Initiative deals commissioned by the last Labour government. They say that new ...
This might not have seemed like a problem at the time, but-thirteen years on-Labour could still be in office had there been better relations between Labour and the Lib Dems and had more modernisers been sent into the dramatic negotiations in the five days after the General Election in May this year...instead of the likes of that arch-Brownite Ed Balls.
Obituary: Professor Kevin Boyle Sad news; he was a scholar and a gentleman. (tags: northernireland) The Mystery of the Cosmic Hobo (or, Bow Ties Are Cool!) | Tor.com | Science fiction and fantasy | Blog posts Nick Abadzis' take on the Second Doctor (tags: doctorwho) The military failure machine — Crooked Timber "The US military has fought five large-scale wars in the past fifty years, resulting in a draw in Korea, a defeat in Vietnam, and three inconclusive outcomes in Iraq (twice) and Afghanistan. That's a record that makes the worst inner-city public school look pretty good. At least the ...
Almost everyone is entitled to vote. There are a few exceptions and one that I discussed recently is whether prisoners should be allowed to vote. if you divide the number of those who vote by the number who are allowed to vote and then multiply by 100 you get the voter turnout percentage. This figure improved a litte at the general election this year. It improved to 65% but generally the voter turnout has been declining in the last few decades. One reason for this is that our votes don't usually matter. I have never known an election won by ...
