For the second time in three weeks, a LibDem asked the first question at Prime Minister's Question time. Bob Russell asked, first of all, for the PM to list his engagements for the day. As usual, there was the same response as there has been for virtually every week since Noah was in short trousers. "This morning I had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others and, in addition to my duties in the House, I shall have further such meetings later today." Same question, same answer, every blinking week. It is hard not to have a mite of sympathy with ...
With the announcement today that the Labour leadership of Liverpool city council won't cooperate with the government because it has to spend more time with its redundancy notices, I thought it might be appropriate to dig out an old classic as a reminder of Liverpool under Labour rule... Taxi for Mr Anderson
Great news that agreement has finally been reached on bringing The Globe back to life. It's well over a year since we first heard that there was a chance and negotiations have been going on ever since. I first went to the Globe to see pantomimes as a child when Head Wrightson used to take over the theatre for an afternoon for the families of their employees. Later I watched big name stars
John Hemming considers his options over the sale of Forestry Commission land: "Personally I think the idea of organisations such as the RSPB and National Trust being more involved in managing forests is a good idea. The RSPB, for example, have a lot of experience in managing land for the benefit of biodiversity. However, I think the government should strengthen this part of their policy which is why I rebelled on this occasion and will lobby them to strengthen this policy." Cornwall County Council's online video are defended against BBC sniping by A Lanson Boy. "In the world of the ...
This evening, I had the pleasure of hosting a meeting of the Yes to Fairer Votes campaign in Tayside & North Fife. The campaign is to secure a YES vote in the referendum on voting reform in May. You can see more about the campaign at www.yestofairervotes.org.
Amnesty International Meeting Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Abbas Faiz discussed war crimes trials and extrajudicial executions with the Bangladesh Prime Minister © Amnesty International By Abbas Faiz - South Asia researcher for Amnesty International It was a welcome opportunity to meet Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina during her official visit to the UK. Three of us, Lord Eric Avebury of the UK House of Lords, Brad Adams of Human Rights Watch and I met the Prime Minister on 30 January at her hotel suite in London. Bangladesh Foreign Minister, Dr Dipu Moni and the Bangladesh High Commissioner to the UK, ...
Its one of those unfortunate features of Thanet Council, that public statements or information coming from officers and councillors is often misleading and at worst one assumes deliberately intended to hoodwink and bamboozle, we who bankroll and suffer the consequences of slipshod local government. A prime example is Thanet councils decision to seal up the entrance to Margate caves, various figures have been quoted as too how much it would cost to make the caves safe, £100,000, £150,000 and even I am told a rather hysterical £250,000 at one point on Simon Moores Site ( apparently later changed to the ...
Included in Nick Clegg's announcement of the government's new mental health strategy yesterday was the news that Section 141 of the Mental Health Act is the be abolished. This is the law that states that an MP must be removed from the House once he or she has been detained under mental health legislation for more than six months. This morning Archbishop Cranmer - a blogger who believes that God is a Conservative and votes for Iain Duncan Smith in internal party elections - tweeted: Is Clegg abolishing Lunacy Act because it was enacted after one Liberal went insane in ...
Only last month I wrote here about my exasperation at the Welsh enigma that is Gavin Henson. At the time I was hoping that Warren Gatland would reject calls to name him in Wales' 6 Nations Squad. As it happens, days after I wrote that blog post, he was injured and was automatically ruled out of the tournament so the decision didn't have to be taken. Henson signed for Saracens on October 28th - he left them yesterday on February 2nd. Where's the respect? But his decision today to move to the fashionable southern French club of Toulon, ...
Ian Sullivan is a global digital campaigner with Oxfam and sometimes blogs for them here. Last year saw the rise of a massive new campaign in the UK, the Robin Hood Tax Campaign. It's beginnings were the perfect storm for a campaign. Public anger about the financial crisis was still firmly fixed on the banks, there was a celebrity kick start to the campaign with this video from Bill Nighy and a coalition of NGO's and unions got together behind a simple and effective message. That message is that a tiny tax on the banks can raise money to support ...
The government announced today the repeal of a law which automatically expels MPs from Parliament if they have a serious mental health condition. This morning on Daybreak TV, Nick Clegg spoke about the abolition of Section 141 of the Mental Health Act 1983: Today we are announcing that we are repealing an old-fashioned outdated law which means that MPs at the moment are disqualified from being MPs if they have a mental health problem which goes on for more than six months. We are scrapping that – it is a relatively symbolic thing because it has never been used – ...
Lib Dem Opposition Leader Chris White has renewed his party's opposition to the cuts in library hours agreed by the Conservative controlled County Council Cabinet today. Chris said: 'We have made it clear, repeatedly, to the administration that there are other ways of delivering savings in the current Library structure: modernisation, much greater use of new technology and deeper cuts in the numbers of administrators and managers. 'We will also continue to press for greater sharing of services with parish and town councils, especially in rural areas, and at new forms of funding like sponsorship. These are simple ideas which ...
Part Four-you can access parts 1-3 here As we have seen the Ownership for All pamphlet identified the 'gross and shocking' maldistribution of wealth/property and power as a major barrier to the achievement of Liberal objectives. Their answer was not the socialist solution of nationalisation or the for the free for all of laissez faire economics which championed the rights of capital. Instead they advocated using state power to break up monopolies, to redistribute wealth and to promote workers participation in the management and ownership of Industry. As the writers of the pamphlet realised there was real public anger that ...
Seems that Jo Lovelock and Unison as well as spreading misinformation are proposing to waste even more public money on completely pointless referrals of political opponents to the Standards Committee. This is how this inter-web works. This is my personal blog. If you don't like it don't read it. And I think people are entitled to call it a hidden payment if there is no line item in the budget for it under salaries and the appendix containing the text of the agreement has been missing for 13 years from the committee minutes library and not publicly available from the ...
I've been completely terrible at blogging for a while, this is one of the reasons: He was born last week at a whopping 9 pound 5 and a half ounces! There is a lot less sleep going round chez LibCync, whether this will lead to more or less blogging I'm not sure! It will certainly lead to a drop in coherency levels (oi, I heard that :)!
The second edition of my monthly email newsletter about the Liberal Democrats went out earlier this week. Fingers crossed, but the early feedback and click through rates look good, as does the bump in people on the email list, so looks like the newsletter is starting to meet an interest many people have. You can also view it online here and if you would like to receive direct to your email inbox in future, just sign up here.
"The EU budget should be fairer, more transparent and effective. We need farm subsidies to investments in knowledge." Gerben January Gerbrandy said that the presentation of the D66 pamphlet Europe deserves better ! I was pleased to note earlier in the week that I am no alone in advocating that we may have things to learn from our fellow social liberal party D66. This week the published a pamphlet on Europe which is summaries here and can be found in full here
Four years or more after they were first installed the controversial traffic lights at the corner of Mill Lane and Fortune Green Road are coming out! This is what Camden has to say: Dear Councillors You may be aware that in summer 2009 we consulted on the removal of thetraffic signals at Mill Lane/West End Lane/Fortune green Road junction,the results of which led to us to recommend that the signals be removed.This was approved by the then Exec (Environment) Sub-Group on 1 December2009. We secured funding to remove the traffic signals at this junctionin the current financial year; however delayed ...
There has been a real splurge of meetings since the new year, and I've barely been at home at all in the evenings. This has happily coincided with my new years resolution which was to go for a run whenever I found myself at home in the evening. So I can cheerily continue to run ...
Advocacy has dominated today's Council meeting. We have had a review ongoing for two years now and finally we reached the stage of sending it out to tender. This Joint Review with NHS Partners has involved extensive consultations with service users and other stakeholders. We eventually plumped to have three contracts covering different group s . We currently have seven providers and as these are new contracts we need to tender them. This has caused existing providers to campaign against the proposals as it threatens their economic interests. They have opposed the move to three contracts and said if we ...
Labour councillor and Merseytravel Chair Cllr Mark Dowd used his casting vote this afternoon after Merseytravel councillors were deadlocked in a 9:9 vote over whether to increase tunnel tolls. A Liberal Democrat amendment proposed to have no increase in the Mersey Tunnel charges, but to still to ask for a further report as to whether ...
I was on Wave 102 (click 'play' above to listen) and Radio Tay news today about the council budget, again making the point that there was merit in all-party discussions with our Head Teachers to reach the best possible solution for management arrangements in our schools. Having discussed proposals from the Labour Group with Cllr Kevin Keenan, the Labour Group Leader, it is clear these have the potential to release up to £350 000 additional funding for education to help devolved school management - something my LibDem colleague Cllr Helen Dick and I will support.
I'm sorry but I don't understand, Is this expenses system really that complicated to complete? Why are MP's finding it so difficult to complete their expenses? Many people in business manage this every day of their lives. I imagine MP's may have a point over how difficult this new system might be. I don't know I haven't seen it in operation. Maybe I will ask my MP in our meeting next Tuesday. In the mean time the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority has launched a public consultation and they are asking you for for views on the rules governing MPs' expenses. ...
Mental illness has always been a somewhat taboo subject. Yet 1 in 4 of us will experience some sort of mental health problem in our lifetimes. The first rally I ever helped to organise as an MP in my constituency was to prevent the closure of our local mental health ward at Westmorland General Hospital. You would have thought, with the stigma that surrounds mental health, that turnout would have been fairly low, but on that day back in January 2006 as I marched to save our local mental health services I was joined by over 3000 people. The result ...
[IMG: chadderton-field-1.jpg] If you mistook the picture for the edge of Belle Vue, I don't blame you. It is a North Eastern field for which local people have sought village green status, but it's Chadderton Field at Chapel House in Newcastle. Members of their group attended each of the four days of the Belle Vue Village Green Inquiry in Consett las July and we got to know them well. We're delighted for them that their own city council, Newcastle, has reached a quick and welcome decision on their case. The performamnce of our own council with regard to the Belle ...
In the end I did not support the government in the vote although I did oppose the Labour Party. I opposed the Labour Party because in power they sold 25,000 acres of forest land without any protection for public access. The first time people realised that Labour had sold the forest was when padlocks were placed upon access routes and traditional permissive paths shut off to the public without
BBC Cornwall has an article claiming that Cornwall Council videos are watched by just a few viewers each in some cases. I'm going to break from tradition and defend the Council over these. The system isn't perfect (I'll come on to that later) but it's a good start. Cornwall Council's online viewing comes in two forms. First there is the webcasting of full council and cabinet meetings. In the six months since they started, these have attracted more than 45,000 viewers. I'm in favour of as much transparency and openness as possible, and these broadcasts allow people who cannot get ...
Last Sunday a group of Stockwood residents took to the streets along Sturminster Road, the Brook and adjoining areas to litter pick & remove fly tipping. We were assisted by the Payback team, who collected the larger items such as freezers, tyres & other heavy goods that people so thoughtlessly leave in the woods. We met in the hall of the Surminster Club & had hot drinks & biscuits to get us on our way on a cold day! This clean up was organised by the Environmental Group of Hengrove & Stockwood Neighbourhood Forum. Unless they were working in a ...
So now we know. Despite the claims to the contrary, the introduction of car parking charges on Fairfax Road car park in Prestwich has hit shopper far more than commuters. We are grateful to my Lib Dem colleague, Cllr Steve Wright for obtaining figures that have revealed that shoppers are paying four times as much as commuters to park in Prestwich. The charges were introduced in October, with the aim of deterring commuters from parking in Prestwich and taking public transport into Manchester. But figures released by the Council reveal that in the first three months of operation around 90% ...
Here's the main part of the ruling against the East Kilbride News: The complaint was made by the MP for East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow, Michael McCann. The article related to his Parliamentary expenses, which had been published following the release of the figures by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA). Mr McCann argued that a claim made in the article – that his expenses "include £1150 in hotel bills to fund his trips to Westminster, while he also claims for a rented property in central London" – was misleading because it suggested that he had claimed for hotel rooms ...
...A wonderful Midsomer Murders last night. It was great to see the great Geraldine James in it. I slept beautifully as usual towards the end. But I woke up to see Mrs Barnaby asking Inspector Barnaby, standing over a table with his retirement cake on it, what he would do now. Well you could see it coming a mile off, coming towards you like a herd of stampeding buffalo, dust cloud and all. And John Nettles delivered the cheesey line with that extra helping of ham for which Midsomer is loved: I'm going to have my cake and eat it ...
Ed Balls, the man who is responsible for Britain's economic mess, is back in the Labour shadow cabinet. Ed Balls isn't just a deficit denier; he's a deficit enthusiast. It was Ed Balls who decided to let the bankers run riot and it was Ed Balls who ensured that our economy was unable to deal with any economic downturn. Despite that he still refuses to accept that Labour made any mistakes on the economy. He's not a deficit denier, he's a deficit enthusiast. Ed Balls on banks: 'Nothing should be done to put at risk a light-touch, risk-based regulatory regime' ...
My Welsh Hero in the 1990s - Neil Jenkins Tomorrow sees the start of the 6 Nations. Wales play England in the opener and it should be a great beginning to the tournament. Over the past 20 years, since I can remember, the championship has always been built up for me with the quality of the BBC Wales and S4C adverts running up to the big kick-off. 2011 is no different. Here is S4Cs stirring advert for tomorrow's match. No proud Welsh patriot could fail to be stirred by the sight of Barry John, Phil Bennett and Neil ...
The Welsh Liberal Democrats have today announced that they will do everything within the standing orders of the Assembly to oppose the Labour-Plaid government's anti-democratic plan to reorganise local government in Wales without due process, scrutiny and consultation with the communities affected. The Labour-Plaid Government last week announced plans to amend the proposed Local Government Measure. The plans would give ministers sweeping powers to merge or amalgamate councils with minimum debate and consultation and virtually no scrutiny. Welsh Liberal Democrat Shadow Minister for Local Government, Veronica German AM, said: "The Labour-Plaid government wants the powers to allow a reorganisation of ...
Apologies for lack of blogging in the last week but work + illness has made it impossible. Anyhoo I spotted this youtube clip over at the Uk libertarian blog. All I can say is wow - well worth a watch.
[IMG: funny pictures - i iz in ur settingz] see more Lolcats and funny pictures
In the mid 1970s the UK experienced one of its regular financial crises and had to ask the IMF for stop-gap help. That's what the IMF, set up by Keynes, was designed for and there was nothing exceptional about the application, but even so it caused considerable embarrassment and resentment that the IMF, with its US (and now monetarist) majority could tell our sovereign nation how to organise its finances. The resentment cost Labour the next election (even though by them all the temporary loan had been repaid) and it was another 18 years before they had gained enough credibility ...
Thu 3rd
12:26
Area Forum Bidston & St. James/Claughton 2/2/2011 Part 2 - Grit, pigeons, Patient Councils (&...
Michelle Gray said that after complaints at the last Area Forum regarding problems with hearing that they were working on purchasing a portable PA system & loop system which would come with her in her car. The June meeting at St Bedes had had one microphone for the panel and one for the audience. They ...
The appointment of Craig Oliver as the government's Director of Communications, replacing Andy Coulson, means that the man who was in charge of the expensive boat fiasco, the fancy computer graphics and the shortage of hard facts (aka the BBC's coverage of general election night 2010) is now heading up government communications. That BBC coverage was an all too predictable combination of mistakes - this time it was the Andrew Neil boat party that didn't work, but the attempt to do something major on general election night that doesn't involve politicians almost always does go wrong. So too, alas, was ...
Nobody ever died of discomfort, yet living in the name of comfort has killed more ideas, more opportunities, more actions, and more growth than everything else combined. Comfort kills! – T. Harv Eker I've been living in my comfort zone for too long now and over the past couple of weeks my wife and I ...
ALDC has commissioned a series of FOCUS and campaign material templates for use by Liberal Democrat campaigners. These are exclusively available to members of ALDC. Pack 1 was released in December: The templates include: A3, A4, and A3 booklet style FOCUS - all of which have been produced in black and white, two colour (for RISOs) and in full colour (Colour RISO or commercial printer). All the FOCUS leaflets have variations to allow for single and for two and three member wards and election campaigns, and different bar charts for fighting the Tories and Labour. These are accompanied by some ...
[IMG: 1688 - The First Modern Revolutoin by Steve Pincus - book cover] The traditional picture of 1688 is of a rather English revolution - one much politer, less violent, more limited and rather more sensible and rational than the bloody versions of revolution seen in other countries. In this work Steve Pincus sets out to challenge that view. In his view the Glorious Revolution was not simply a quick and painless transfer of power at the top of the state but a wide reaching and fundamental alteration to the state, politics, society and culture - all deliberately planned by ...
The papers and reports for last night's Area Forum can be read here. Present were a representative from Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service, Mark Smith (Streetscene), Lucy Beed (to give a report on the Census), Cllr Roberts, Cllr Smith, Cllr Crabtree, Cllr Foulkes, Alastair Bardsley (representing the NHS Wirral University Teaching Hospitals (Arrowe Park and ...
And so once again I am not well. The persistent cough and cold has not gone away. Despite the use of decongestant and chest rub, I am told by Andrew that it is getting worse. Therefore we are off up to the RVH again this afternoon. Will report back when we know more. The best ...
Not sure how true the following or how often it has happened but I thought I would post onto the blog. BEWARE OF PAPER ON THE BACK WINDOW OF YOUR VEHICLE-- NEW WAY TO DO CARJACKINGS (NOT A JOKE)' You walk across the car park, unlock your car and get inside. You start the engine put it into Reverse. When you look into the rearview mirror to back out of your space, you notice a piece of paper stuck to the middle of the rear window. So, you stop and jump out of your car to remove that paper (or ...
Students at Queen's University Belfast were signing up to the Yes! campaign. You too can join them in changing democracy in the UK in May.
Part one here and part two here Part Three I have been looking at a couple of pamphlets that have a claim to be the most influential of the last century-We can conquer Unemployment and Ownership for All. There are of course others for which I could advance the same claim: Donald Wade's 'Our Aim and Purpose' 1961 which sold an amazing 100,000 copies, Greaves and Lishman 'Theory and Practice of Community Politics' 1980 or Jo Grimond's 'Growth not Grandeur' 1961. (1961 was obviously a very good year seemingly producing more than in the whole Thorpe/Steel era) But for the ...
Here's the official booklet from the Electoral Commission explaining what next month's Welsh referendum is about and which is being sent to every household in Wales: Wales Referendum – booklet from the Electoral Commission The Liberal Democrats are campaigning for a Yes vote, with Kirsty Williams saying, In March, the people of Wales will have the opportunity to vote in a referendum to ensure for the first time that laws that affect only Wales are made only in Wales. The Welsh Liberal Democrats are united in our enthusiasm to campaign for a 'Yes' vote. As well as working constructively with ...
Yesterday I put aside the day to spend it at Farnborough Rd School where I have been a Governor for many years. The day had been organised to let Governors see the school working. There was a good turn out amongst Governors especially parent Governors. The school had planned individual programmes for each of us and I began the day with 3/1 doing maths.The object of the lesson was to confirm that the pupils were able to tell the time to the nearest 5 minutes. I was mightily impressed with the resourceful way the teacher dealt with the tricky issue ...
I hope to be able to post about a classic Rhodri Morgan speech once the record of proceedings is up but in the meantime here is a faux pas by a Tory AM from Tuesday's First Minister's Question Time: Darren Millar: Another issue that may affect the availability of trains for passengers is the strike that is planned for this Friday. You will be aware that, despite a generous 12 per cent pay offer by Arriva Trains Wales, train drivers are still planning to take this strike action, following the rejection of the deal by the National Union of Rail, ...
Yesterday Nick Clegg and Paul Burstow unveiled a new mental health strategy in which more focus will be placed on dealing with mental health problems at an early stage. The new mental health strategy for England promises an extra £400m for therapies, such as counselling, to increase access to them by 60% by 2015. It also stresses the need for early intervention, to nip in the bud mental health problems in children. Mental health represents 23% of burden of disease (30% of people that walk through a GP's door, for example) but only 11% of expenditure. One of the first ...
The central thesis of Philip Salmon's Electoral Reform at Work: Local Politics and National Parties 1832-1841 is that the details of the 1832 Great Reform Act matter because they had large and significant effects on the development of national politics and the embryonic modern party system. Salmon investigates and illustrates how usually over-looked provisions, such as the introduction of electoral registers, encouraged the formation of semi-permanent political organisations at a local level with resulting frequent party conflict over electoral registration as people tried to get their supporters on the register and their opponents knocked off it. Though in the Houses ...
Today's Daily Telegraph reports that the Foreign Affairs Select committee report criticising US policy in Iran was leaked to the Americans before publication, in apparent breach of parliamentary rules. The paper says that back in 2008 the committee report hit the headlines when it urged the Government to pressure the US to "engage directly" with Iran without preconditions. However, secret cables obtained by WikiLeaks have revealed that Washington was tipped off about the most controversial elements on Feb 29 2008, a full two days before it was released. As serious as this is, there is a certain irony that we ...
The new police rules on searching anyone Trans, "Annex F", that I wrote about at the weekend were up for discussion in parliament yesterday. LibDem MP Julian Huppert was kind enough to question the Minister about the topic, even though the minister did not mention Annex F at all in his opening statements. The debate is online both in video format (The section on Annex F starts around 15:21) and in text format. (This link may become outdated as it's the rapidly-prepared text version, I shall update it when the permanent version is available. Here's what Dr Huppert said on ...
A while ago the banks announced that they wanted to phase out cheques in 2018. What is less well known is that we won't be able to use banks cards to guarantee cheques after the end of June this year. Cheques are still widely used by older people, small tradesmen by local organisations that require clear financial controls - clubs, small charities and local councils. As recently as 2008, cheques were used six times more frequently than online payments. The proposed phasing out of cheques in 2018 is squarely based on the costs to the banks, not on any consideration ...
Estonia is often described as a "City State". It is not really true, after all -territorially- the country is quite large, about the size of Belgium or Denmark. Yet given that half of the 1.3 million population lives in Harju County- the area in and around the capital, Tallinn- it is clear that the country is quite urban and quite concentrated. Yet, away from Tallinn, there are only four cities over 70,000 people, so the rest is small towns, villages, farms and forests. Yet what we mean by a City is now being challenged by the staggering urbanisation taking place ...
The Pupil Premium is extra money for every school for each poor pupil they take next year under the government's pupil premium scheme - one of the key four Liberal Democrat manifesto pledges Schools will receive the money for every pupil in receipt of free school meals whose parents have an annual income of less than £16,000. The premium schools will receive is £430 for each child. Head teachers will be encouraged to spend their premium on reducing class sizes or more one-to-one tuition. This should go some way to addressing the gap between kids form poorer backgrounds and those ...
A True Story Of Daily Mail Lies Gives the lie to those who believe that "if it wasn't true they wouldn't be allowed to print it" (tags: media law dailymail) Apple Just Declared War On Amazon Kindle Surely it can't be long before Apple starts getting the same sort of treatment that Microsoft did over Windows? (tags: apple) gladwell dot com - john rock's error very long and thought-provoking piece about how the contraceptive pill was developed, and how the way it developed, informed by catholicism, natch, causes women unnecessary pain, suffering, and cancer. (tags: religion science thought) Hidden Women, ...
Society is rightly judged by how it treats its most vulnerable. But when it comes to caring for our ex-servicemen and women, it seems that this principle is all too quickly forgotten. As a former army colonel with nearly 40 years service I am well aware of the huge sacrifices, and the subsequent burdens, that are placed on our armed forces. None is greater, or harder to deal with, then the issue of mental health. Injuries suffered in battle are completely different to those in normal day life and our brave men and women require special care. In the past ...
The planning application for current Dulwich Garden Centre to be demolished and replaced by a new Grove Vale library (twice the current ones size), 20 flats and a shop has been submitted. This is more attractive than the previous application easthetically. Unfortunately it has had to propose the library in a slightly less favourable position but it is proposed it will be bigger than the replacement one previously proposed. So I'm rather excited by this. Do take a look and let me know what you think:
We've all felt bruised by how rapidly bankers have bounced back from an economic abyss to being bailed out by trillions of public pounds, dollars and euros to now paying mega bonuses again. National Governments such as our own coalition have tried encouraging limits via the £2.5bn Bank Levy and public moral imperatives with varying success. But the Lib Dem Euro MP Sharon Bowles has led the introduction of actual tougher new rules on bankers' bonuses covering the European Union. The key points are pensions being paid at least 3 to 5 years after the employee has retired or left. ...
Last year I gave a presentation at PayPal to show how charities could harness QR codes. I'm not sure if Oxfam were in the audience that day. But if they were, they missed the point. QR codes are a solution for quick interactions with mobile phones. Let's investigate the Oxfam QR code seen in Metro. The Advert [IMG: Oxfam QR Newspaper Advert] So, can donate by scanning the code? Well, it's not really made clear what the QR code is for. There's no text associated with it. The CodeLet's take a closer look at the code. [IMG: Oxfam QR Detail] ...
We are changing the tax system to make it fairer by lifting the poorest workers out of Income Tax altogether and cutting taxes for most people. This April 880,000 workers will stop paying Income Tax when the lower threshold is raised from £6,475 to 7,475. The Institute for Fiscal Studies says the tax changes will mean the richest tenth will lose around 3% more of their income and that the main winners from the 2011 tax changes will be lone parents who are not working, and low-to-middle income households. The IFS report concluded that: · The main winners from the ...
And today, we're 80% Egyptian-related: WorldNetDaily: The Rise of the Muslim Anti-Christ Explains Egypt Unrest – No, I'm not linking to WorldNutDaily, just to Richard Bartholomew's analysis of another one of their bizarre conspiracy theories Arseholes, considered as a strategic resource – Daniel Davies on how dictatorships keep themselves in power. Why Egypt 2011 is not Iran 1979 – a very good explanation of all the differences by Juan Cole da brother's gonna work it out – The Yorkshire Ranter on Tony Blair's support for Hosni Mubarak A True Story of Daily Mail Lies – And finally, something that's not ...
So it seems that my post of yesterday was timely. Nick Clegg's announcement of better services for people with mental illness, and of decent funding to achieve those better services, coincided with my post. I didn't watch any news yesterday, between sick kids, work and other things till late last night. What amazes me is that 3 other women I've liked and admired for a long time have all posted about their own experiences of depression and post-natal depression. I've not seen any of them for some years, but it is incredible how much people go through and for the ...
February 3rd marks the Chinese New Year this year, so the team would like to wish a prosperous and safe year of the rabbit to all our readers and residents.
broadcast anniversaries 3 February 1968: broadcast of first episode of The Web of Fear. The Tardis lands in a deserted London Underground; Jamie and Zoe are captured by the soldiers of an outpost and the Doctor encounters the Yeti. 3 February 1973: broadcast of second episode of Carnival of Monsters. The Doctor and Jo explore further inside the Miniscope, and encounter the Drashigs. 3 February 1978: broadcast of third episode of The Armageddon Factor. The Shadow tries to get the first five segments from the Doctor, who escapes; the Marshal launches his "final attack". 3 February 1984: broadcast of fourth ...
The government are implementing a key Liberal Democrat manifesto pledge and changing the tax system to make it fairer, by lifting the poorest workers out of Income Tax altogether and cutting taxes for most people. This April 880,000 workers will stop paying Income Tax when the lower threshold is raised from £6,475 to 7,475. The Institute for Fiscal Studies says the tax changes will mean the richest tenth will lose around 3% more of their income and that the main winners from the 2011 tax changes will be lone parents who are not working, and low-to-middle income households. The IFS ...
The European Commission has proposed a mandatory system to oblige airlines to hand over reservation and payment details of passengers on EU-bound flights to counter terrorism and serious crime. The EU already allows the US, Australia and Canada to oblige airlines departing from the EU to pass over these Passenger Name Records (PNR). This new system would only apply to flights arriving from or departing to somewhere outside the EU, with a review after 2 years to decide whether it should apply to intra-EU flights. Liberal Democrat European justice & human rights spokeswoman and London MEP Sarah Ludford said: "The ...
First Tunisia, now Egypt - it looks like the winds of change are blowing through some of the most authoritarian, corrupt and undemocratic states in the middle east. Whether these democratic movements succeed over the long term in either of these states or even spread to some of their more unsavoury neighbours it's probably too early to say. But the idea mooted in some quarters that these democratic uprisings could be bad for middle east peace and the security of Israel is patent nonsense. The more of Israel's neighbours that join it in the democratic community - including full rights ...
No Sleep 'Til Brooklands: A True Story Of Daily Mail Lies (guest post) If you know anyone who actually reads the Daily Mail, get them to read this. (tags: news) Expelled after interviewing Saharawi on EU fisheries "They explained that we, as foreigners, are not allowed to speak with the local population. The more we asked about why that is not allowed, the angrier the police got." (tags: westernsahara) Free ebook: The Best of Edmond Hamilton edited by Leigh Brackett - Grasping for the Wind I was rather impressed by the work of both Hamilton and Brackett when I sampled ...
'Your medical records are in here...somewhere' was the headline on the front page of the local newspaper yesterday. There was also a large photo of a chaotic filing system with lots of records piled up on the floor. Inside the paper it tells us that the photo was taken two weeks ago. This is nothing new. I watched a mandatory fire lecture five or six years ago and a similar photo was shown. The reason it was shown was to make us more aware of fire hazards but my first reaction was more to do with how they would find ...
