The other day I blogged about Grange Park Opera and their production of Tosca at Bonkers Hall (or Nevill Holt, as they insist on calling it) this summer. I was reminded of this passage from Anne Chisholm's biography of Nancy Cunard, who grew up at Nevill Holt. It describes the tensions in the marriage between Nancy's Bonkersesque father Sir Bache Cunard and his artistic American heiress wife Maud: In later years Lady Cunard herself would tell a story that indicates that Sir Bache was not entirely unaware of what was going on. He returned to Holt on one occasion in ...
Local Lib Dems have backed a petition to save Noranside Open Prison to be submitted to the Scottish Justice Secretary. Cllr David May commented: "The SNP Minister's decision to close Noranside will hugely affect the staff and their families from across all of Angus." "Whilst they have been offered choices to transfer to other prisons, prison officers may simply not be able to afford the extra travel or disruption to their family life. Some may even be forced to move home, out of Angus." "The decision may also limit their career prospects as more prison officers compete for fewer senior ...
[IMG: A90 Laurencekirk junctions improvements to be costed] Read more about this story by clicking here for "A90 Marykirk junctions improvements to be costed" at the Montrose Review
Back in 2005 I wrote a House Points column about, amongst other things, my experience of living without a television for several years. That column went on: When I got one again in 2000 the programmes and advertisements had changed. There were lots of people from ethnic minorities on screen, the view of family life offered was uniformly negative and advertising logos had invaded the world of sport. People think the cricket authorities are stuffy, but really they are the most shamelessly commercial administrators of all. There are now logos on the players' clothing and painted on the field of ...
I received sad news in a phone call yesterday evening. Claudio Zangerle, the proprietor of my favourite cafe in Market Harborough, died in a road accident in the small hours of that morning. Today's Leicester Mercury confirms the news. We have all the chain coffee shops in town now, but Giorno had something more individual about it and that was chiefly Claudio's personality. (I did not know his surname until I read of his death today.) He had a touch of continental sophistication and slightly rumpled charm about him - two qualities which can some be in short supply in ...
I do like a good headline, regardless of the story beneath it and this one from the BBC website is a gem of the highest order: 'Malawi row over whether new law bans farting' What's not to like?
Proper posts this weekend, on Cerebus and Doctor Who, but for now, here's some links. For those of you who, as I do, love the Monkees film Head, here's a wonderful resource on it courtesy of comedy site Some Of The Corpses Are Amusing. Leonard Pierce on extinct crimes Big Media Vandalism are doing a ...
Watching Sky News tonight and seeing the UK political debate described in speeches by Ed Miliband, Nick Clegg, and David Cameron. Ed's edited short was concise if glib and inane as if talking to a room of under 5's. Cameron's was prime-ministerial with conclusive arguments. Then Nick's edit. Reading his speech, not looking at the camera and what seemed a rather laboured building of an argument without conclusion. BBC News 24's edit of Nick's speech showed him more robust and conclusive. As I said, subtle - but effective! Very like 'The Sun'! So what do you call that kind of ...
Ed Miliband's PPS Chuka Umunna MP disclosed on tonights BBC News 24 that Labour suggests 20 to 25 years would be a more realistic timescale to reduce the deficit. Either that or they were just trying to manipulate what they believe is a gullible audience - but it's one or the other, right? Umunna, who was well prepared and little challenged, said: "Nick Clegg earlier on was making an analogy with household finance - perhaps if I compare the governments approach to maybe managing ones mortgage, many people have mortgages of terms over 20, 25 years but you don't seek ...
A couple of years ago, I raised, on behalf of residents, flooding at the entrance to Pinegrove on Perth Road. At that time, the problem was resolved by the cleaning out of the polychannel. As you can see from the photograph below, the area was again flooded yesterday and at the request of residents, I have raised this matter with the City Council.
I have today raised with Dundee City Council's Director of Education the following questions and concerns about budget proposals affecting education in Dundee : Jim I would be grateful if you can clarify the following questions for me as soon as possible and certainly in advance of next Thursday's Policy & Resources Committee meeting. a) Primary Promoted Post Structure - I note the revised proposal involves the number of Depute Head Teachers reducing by more than half (50 to 23) and that the estimated saving in 2011-12 from this aspect will be £854 000. This implies a very fast implementation ...
I have blogged many times on our local Lib Dem campaigns to get the Council to repair local roads. The freezing weather we have experienced over the last 18 months has made matters even worse in some parts of the Borough and although it is long since the snow has gone many roads remain pitted with potholes. Good to hear then that Reading Borough Council will be receiving a £400,000 increase in funding for road repairs from the Coalition Government in recognition of the impact the severe weather had on our transport budget. If there is a pot hole in ...
The southern part of Scott Way, Yate will be closed for up to ten days for construction of a pedestrian crossing, long campaigned for by local parents whose children cross Scott Way on their journey to school. The crossing will be where the island is now, level with the corner of Kingsgate Park. Traffic heading for Hudson Close, Shackleton Avenue and Cabot Close will have to come into Shire Way from the Shopping Centre side.
House of Lords Event: Business and the Big Society Each year Lord Tope hosts an event at the House of Lords for our business and voluntary sector partners. As lead member for economic development I had the honour of presenting the keynote address on the theme of business and the big society. To illustrate and ...
15) Carol Lee Flinders, At the Root of This Longing: Reconciling a Spiritual Hunger and a Feminist Thirst (HarperCollins, 2007, Mobipocket edition, ISBN 9780061548307.) Flinders explicitly looks at the connection between feminism and women's spirituality - and particularly the spiritual and psychological development of girls - that is implicit in Fell (below). She identifies four themes which together are symptomatic of the tension between feminism and traditional women's spirituality (focusing primarily on the Hindu-inspired tradition that she herself practises and the Christian tradition she studies professionally: (lack of) voice, enclosure, self-emptying and (redirection of) desire. I found that quite a ...
The latest issue of Progress - the journal of the "New Labour pressure group which aims to promote a radical and progressive politics for the 21st century" - features an article by Professor Paul Whiteley of Essex University, in which he summarises the key findings from a large-scale survey of party members. Professor Whiteley and his colleagues found four dimensions or clusters of grassroots attitudes in the data. These are: "lifestyle liberalism"; "equality and redistribution"; "free-market liberalism"; and a strongly pro-EU stance. But he shows that when there's a tension, the egalitarian impulse will win out. We are, at heart, ...
In the run-up to the general election, I wrote about Havering Council's stated public policy of rejecting applications to join the electoral register from people if they were made on forms downloaded from the Electoral Commission's own dedicated website. It was a policy that caused complaints from residents as well as raising questions about why a council would blanket reject applications from people using the Electoral Commission's own nationally advertised website. This policy arose from Havering Council's reaction to a previous set of attempts to make false electoral register entries, which led it to decide that it would not accept ...
[IMG: Lord Paul Tyler] Continuing working through updating my blogroll, the latest addition is Liberal Democrat peer Paul Tyler, who is one of the bloggers over at the Lords of the Blog site. Although the Lords has a much more civil debating style than the Commons, Paul is often very direct and clear in his views of issues in front of the House of Lords and of the behaviour of fellow peers. Lord Tyler's posts all appear at http://lordsoftheblog.net/category/lord-tyler/
Sorry to have disappeared for so long. I've had flu and goodness knows what else. But I've been roused into activity by the latest leader's speech. Nick Clegg's speech in Rotherham was vitally important. Not only did it re-state the kind of language about the economy that was in the coalition agreement - a commitment to reviving the real economy, not the speculative economy of financial services. It was also important for another reason, which maybe was less conscious. It provides a future agenda for the Lib Dems, if they have the nerve to grasp it. It was a relief ...
* Title courtesy from Richard. Just a short update regarding Dog Fouling and the minority of irresponsible owners who do not/refuse to pick up after their dogs. 6am this morning Police and the Council's Enforcement Team patrolled in Llandudno Junction. Feedback I have is that over twenty owners were observed and no offences witnessed, that said all were spoken to and asked if they carried bags, all did. The team have informed me that most of the people questioned felt that this action was long overdue. I have asked that I be informed of fixed penalties issued in Conwy over ...
The Southport Visiter has the story today that we broke a few days ago: DOZENS of Conservative activists boycotted a crunch meeting to select a new election candidate following the suspension of two stalwart Southport councillors.Just 11 members of the 100-strong Dukes Ward committee attended Friday's key vote to select a challenger to incumbent Labour man Les Byrom.The Visiter understands that of the two candidates selected by Southport Conservative Association, Pat Ball, well known in the town's amateur dramatics circles, received eight votes.Three members in attendance abstained, with second candidate Tony Crabtree receiving no support. It is understood that many ...
[IMG: DSC00045] Kirsten and I have been actively supporting residents who live on Whitley Park Lane for several weeks who are fed up with the state of the muddy, rubbish-filled lane at the back of the shops of Christchurch Road which is on the doorstep. Things looked slightly better today than on previous days (see photo) above, but we would like to see further improvements. Today we held a meeting on site with officers from Streetcare and Highways as well as some of the local shopkeepers to try and make progress. The lane is privately owned by about 12 different landowners (!) ...
I was really sorry to learn today that Labour Councillor for Whitley Cllr Jim Hanley had passed away . My thoughts are with his family and friends. When I was first elected in 2006 Jim went out of his way to be friendly to me in what was an otherwise pretty hostile political environment. This signalled to me early on that he was his own man and not a party hack. We got to know each other better as fellow South Reading councillors working together to find solutions to crime problems facing the community on the South Reading Safer Community ...
You can tell that the No to AV campaigners are getting desperate. They are resorting to lies and personal attacks in the hope of winning May's referendum. There is a case to be made against changing the voting system (although I think that the arguments in favour are far stronger). But Tim Montgomerie is determined to play the man not the ball in his post entitled 'AV can be defeated if voters go into the polling booth thinking of Nick Clegg, broken promises and tuition fees' (snappy title). Mr Montgomerie writes in the post and in a column in the ...
I have spent today at a structured think tanky workshop thingy looking at local society with a clear emphasis on localism and the 'Big Society. It was interesting to do this the day after Liverpool stopped being a Vanguard ... Continue reading →
Fly tipping has a been a problem for a number of years on Eldon Terrace on the corner of Town Place. Rubbish has regularly been dumped in an office car park which backs on to the Terrace, blighting this beautiful Conservation Area. This has posed the Council with some problems in terms of enforcement - mainly because it is occurring on privately-owned land. I have been repeatedly raising this issue with the Council but finally at long last we appear to be making progress. Officers met today with representatives of the landowner to discuss ways to reduce the problem. Amoungst various ...
Overnight on 9th February the Highways Agency will be repairing the road surface on the eastbound M4 where it crosses over King Street Lane in Winnersh. This means there will be lane closures between 9 pm and 6 am, and speed restrictions of 50 mph. For those of you living near the bridge over King Street Lane, the Highways Agency have written to me promising that they will keep noise to a minimum during the night while they do the work. Please let me know if there are problems.
It is good the learn that the government has a strategy for growth. I think we'd all been happier if it had been up their in lights competeing for attention with the deficit reduction package. For too long it sounded as if reducing the deficit was the strategy. Now we learn that it has 4 elements: weaning the UK off debt-financed growth; investing in infrastructure, skills and education; boosting competitiveness by reducing the regulatory and tax burden and opening up markets; and balancing growth across different regions and sectors So what is missing? Well the Liberal bit is missing. Clegg ...
I was pleased to see that Andrew Mitchell- the UK International Development Secretary- has increased the aid that the UK will be giving to Somaliland. As I have noted in previous blogs, Somaliland deserves success in its quest for international recognition, and I believe that the UK should be leading the way so that its former colony can at last take its place as a fully recognised member of the international community. As the impact of Piracy in neighbouring Puntland increases, it is more important than ever that the UK gives its support to the government in Hergeisa- and the ...
Prior to yesterday's meeting at Merseytravel, I submitted some questions about certain aspects of the Mersey Tunnel Tolls changes . A Merseytravel spokesperson responded today. Their answers are below the original questions Q1) Is the difference in price charged between Fast Tag holders and cash payers because of increased costs to Merseytravel regarding the latter? ...
In the words of R Kelly, "It's the freakin' weekend baby, I'm about to have me some fun." I know I'm a tad premature, given that it's only mid-afternoon on Friday, but the sentiment is true and will be entirely accurate in a few hours. But don't worry, such fun is not at the expense of Councilloring. ...
It's been a while since I did this, and I was leafing through OneExWidow today and found his, so here we go: [IMG: Dreamwidth] [IMG: Livejournal] [IMG: Blogger] [IMG: Facebook] [IMG: Tweet this] [IMG: Delicious] [IMG: Flattr this] [IMG: LibDig] [IMG: Bit/ly] [IMG: StumbleUpon]
The Daily Post this morning records Mike Storey's elevation to the peerage : FORMER Liverpool city council leader Mike Storey took his seat in the House of Lords yesterday. He was sworn in "by the grace of God" as Baron Storey of Childwall in our city of Liverpool" amid all the pomp and grandeur of a packed Upper Chamber. His sponsors in the ceremony were fellow veteran Liberal Democrats Baroness Shirley Williams and Lord Rennard. It is good to see a working peer from the North. In the past many of us have been critical of the party's nomination and ...
Throughout my - more years than I care to remember - in the Lib Dems, there has been a lot of chat about "Equidistance" - the need to ensure that we are neatly deposited somewhere between Labour and Tory in order to squeeze votes from both and, presumably, to be available to both if needed. There is a legitimate argument that we should not allow ourselves to be defined by others.......I would agree, but in this brave new world the position surely has to be that we must be seen to be able to work as part of a Labour ...
In November, Claire Young met the Council's Executive Member responsible for transport and Highways officers at the railway bridge on Dodington Road to discuss possible safety improvements. Officers suggested a £10,000 package of new road signs, white lining and a stone and dust path to take pedestrians from where the path currently ends to a safer crossing point with greater visibility. Existing edge line markings have already been reinstated and a "SLOW" marking added and the temporary interactive speed sign returned to monitor speeding traffic. Budget funding is very uncertain at present, and the Exec Member made it clear that ...
Fri 4th
14:25
Council Excellence Overview and Scrutiny Committee - 31/1/2011 Part 15 - Strategic Change Programme ...
Cllr Davies continued by asking why the PACSPE (project 24) was only realising £200,000/year of savings? Mr. Green said that was very unfair. Cllr Davies said the EVR had happened with the privatisation. Ian Coleman said there had been a reduction in the saving being of the EVR. Also certain areas had been taken out ...
Our Nick Clegg has had a very good week. Some of it was his own making - like the fantastic announcement he made on mental health the other day. It was so refreshing to see a politician actually getting what was needed on this - and to present it in such a passionate, unembarrassed way helps smash the stigma associated with mental illness. Some of it was as a result of journalists being crass and trying to suggest he was lazy - a claim so easily shot down in flames and easily laughed off on BBC Breakfast the other day. ...
Reading is not a place renowned for its cross-party harmony, and when I learned the shocking news that Cllr Jim Hanley had died, very suddenly, earlier today aged just 51, I wanted to point out the loss not just to his partner and family but to Reading's body politic. Living in Katesgrove when I first won the ward, Jim, a Labour councillor for Whitley originally from Wales, never had a bad word to say about others – regardless of politics. He was an effective, diligent, informal Chair of Planning and Scrutiny. This time last week I saw Jim in his ...
Fri 4th
14:14Council Excellence Overview and Scrutiny Committee - 31/1/2011 Part 14 - Strategic Change Programme ...
Dave Green replied that he did have a list of assets that were subject to Cabinet agreeing on their disposal. He could supply the list. Cllr Gilchrist requested that he email it to all members. Cllr Keeley mentioned the community centres. Cllr Davies mentioned Westminster House and asked about in Appendix B what the difference ...
Via Stumbling & Mumbling, we learn of a fascinating column on vox which appears to provide a convincing argument that the origins of the financial crisis lay in rising inequality. I'm betting it'll be seized on by the Left as this year's Spirit Level*, so let's have a look at what Kumhof and and Ranciere ...
It has to be said that, occasionally, the word 'analysis' is abused to the point of torture, and I therefore have to bring your attention, gentle reader, to the 'effort' produced by the Institute for Government, headed by Andrew Adonis. This five page document, including three pages of charts, includes a few interesting statements, but barely scratches the surface of what is happening. So, I should take a closer look... Interestingly, if you analyse the results by Department, you'll notice that one of them, HM Revenue & Customs, performs consistently badly, a point thought to be unworthy of recognition by ...
Fri 4th
14:03Council Excellence Overview and Scrutiny Committee - 31/1/2011 Part 13 - Strategic Change Programme ...
Mr. Green continued by saying there was a mechanism for collecting ideas and passing on the information to a Project Manager to expand the program. He said they were happy to "pinch anybody's ideas". He said they would also look at what other local authorities were doing. Cllr Brighouse thanked Mr. Green for his reply ...
As of yesterday, the total in unpaid Congestion Charges and penalties run by embassies in London was £49.4m and at the current rate of growth that figure will break the £50m barrier later this month. Liberal Democrat London Assembly member Caroline Pidgeon has said, "The amount in unpaid Congestion Charges and Penalty Charge Notices owed by embassies is now so large that it could pay for more than 260 new buses on London's streets, or fund the significant expansion of the cycle hire scheme, or alternatively reduce fare rises." Or, as she didn't say, £50m could pay for one Fernando ...
I thought any art lovers would find this release below of interest. Sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi was the father of pop art and an Edinburgh man. He attended my mothers school and sat at the back of the art class doing his own thing. Did she manage to get any of his early works which might be worth something? Sadly no! SCHOOL ARTISTS PAY TRIBUTE TO PAOLOZZI WITH GIANT MURAL Pupils in Edinburgh today revealed a giant playground mural inspired by the work of famous artist and Leith born former pupil, Sir Eduardo Paolozzi. The Paolozzi-inspired playground pop art was officially ...
Fri 4th
13:51Council Excellence Overview and Scrutiny Committee - 31/1/2011 Part 12 - Strategic Change Programme ...
Cllr Green continued with saying that any ideas that staff on higher education courses had got through their studies or wanted them to evaluate was part of the change programme. He said they were keen to reward people, but there had to be a balance between control and creativity. The creativity had to be to ...
It's not often I laugh out loud to adverts, but I did to this. (And yes I know this has been knocking around a bit – I thought I posted this on 10th Jan but found it today still malinguering in my drafts folder).
Oh...........the highs and lows of being a political anorak! From despair to hope to.............? I feel a bit like someone who has been given a big bowl of beastly bugs to eat, washed down with a glass of the finest champagne! What do you do? So, in the midst of serious concerns about the lumps and bumps of the coalition futon...........Nick Clegg delivers - and big time - on a real commitment to improve mental health services for young people. Long suffering readers will know that the issue of mental health services is one that is close to my heart, ...
Yesterday I gave a brief account of what had happened at Merseytravel's budget meeting. As we arrived early, I took some photos of the room in which the decision was made and of the hospitality. Here is the first of the tea, coffee and 35 biscuits provided for councillors, officers, journalists and members of the ...
We reported back in December that South Glos Council had approved the Core Strategy and that there would be a short informal consultation on the changes made. You can make any comments you have - on the changes only - on the Council's website. You have until 18th February to have your say.
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 ...
Seen in the latest issue of Sport Magazine – this rather interesting QR advert for Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. [IMG: Wall Street QR Code] This is a really well executed campaign which should serve as a template to other advertisers. There are, of course, one or two issues that I have with it. Let's start by zooming in to the QR Code. Explanatory TextIt's great to have a little note to explain to people what to do with a QR code. [IMG: Wall Street QR Detail] A couple of interesting points. It recommends get.beettagg.com – this is misspelled. It ...
One of the best things about the return of the Conservatives to government is that it helps us understand what they really stand for, rather than what they claim to stand for. For example, it is a one of the great ironies of modern political history that both the Conservatives and Labour claim that the Conservatives are a free market party, when they are, of course, nothing of the sort. Take Jeremy Hunt's announcement that he wants to create a new TV network that would support local television in its infancy... [To read the full article and provide comments, visit ...
Has anyone else noticed the remarkable resemblance between Ed Miliband and the Pillsbury Doughboy? Are they by chance related?
Following on from my Fox News #megafail where they misplaced Egypt on a map, CNN were not to be outdone. Here's their effort at #graphicsfail. Well done, guys! I had no idea Queensland was that far south.
A member of Plaid Cymru once criticised my blog for saying too much about 'a tiny part of Kent'. Maybe so but I did run for parliament in that 'tiny part'. So here's my warning - this entry is all about Swale in Kent. In May, we have the Swale Council 'all-out' elections. Both the Conservative and Labour groups decided to move to all-outs rather than thirds in terms of electing the Council. This of course gives the Liberal Democrats and other small parties a lot of difficulties (probably not a coincidence) who don't have the resources of the big ...
Dave Hockey, the Lib Dem waste spokesperson, with some loose cardboard recycling Your Focus team has been pushing for a better way of collecting cardboard for recycling. When the Council stopped you putting cardboard in your green bin in November, they said at first that cardboard had to be put inside a larger cardboard box or placed under a bin. When people complained, they told those people they could also use their own plastic box or a strong bag, such as a "bag for life". Unfortunately they didn't tell everyone. Cardboard is very light and blows away easily if it ...
Tom Morris pointed me to this interesting discussion about using Wikipedia QR codes in museums. I think it's an excellent idea. It's something I've briefly discussed with Cristianno Betta for his 100 Objects project. There are five key points to the success of such a scheme. 100% of visitors will be scanning these codes on their mobile phones. The code must point to the mobile version of Wikipedia.<100% of visitors will speak the language of the country where the museum is located (for example, 25% of visitors to the Science Museum are foreign. Pointing to just the English article is ...
At 6am this morning you could find me, together with a number of other parents, standing anxiously by a coach to wave our babies off on their school trip to Belgium to visit the World War 1 cemeteries in Ypres. (I say babies loosely - my son is 13 years old and nearly 6 foot tall but you get the idea) The fact that they are studying World War 1 got me thinking back to my days at high school and the history I studied - from the Italian Renaissance to James II. Thrilling as they were, they are not ...
Down in Cornwall I note that Alex Folkes is commenting on the County Council's webcasting and defending it from BBC Cornwall snipping A Lanson Boy: Council videos and webcasting: 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 to a meeting to see what is happening, especially in an area where it can easily take a resident ...
It's Mumford and Sons and their version of "Golden Slumbers/Carry that weight" from the Beatles' Abbey Road album (below). It really is exceptional. It's from a session they did for Radio Two's Maconie and Radford. Marcus Mumford really has the most fantastic voice. Like Rod Stewart, he could pick up a phone book and sing it and it would sound like the voice of an angel. His voice is so good it fails the "X Factor test". Simon Cowell would tell him he's flat or out of tune or something. Just as the X Factor test would have been failed ...
I listened to an interesting programme on Radio 4 this morning ahead of today's Summit in Brussels about European Enegery Policy. The North German plains are covered in wind turbines. They produce far too much energy for the people who live around them. More often than not the turbines are switched off, because the extra energy cannot be ...
It's become a bit of an urban myth in some (Labour) circles that Labour's 2010 general election manifesto only promised a referendum on the alternative vote, but didn't say anything about committing Labour MPs or the Labour Party to a yes vote. But that's not actually what the manifesto said: To ensure that every MP is supported by the majority of their constituents voting at each election, we will hold a referendum on introducing the Alternative Vote for elections to the House of Commons. To ensure means not only holding a referendum, but also voting Yes.
Vince Cable is caught expressing his view that the Rupert Murdoch empire is more than big enough & he, Vince, is prepared to take it on. He is immediately stripped of the task of deciding if that Empire can be allowed to get bigger. The decision is given to Jeremy Hunt who had already expressed the view that allowing Murdoch to have the rest of BSkyB would not make a substantial difference to the plurality of the British Media. So disagree with Murdoch & be relieved of your duties. Agree and be given them. How impartial, especially when David Cameron ...
The Council and Cycle Colchester are consulting on whether cycling should be allowed on some routes through Castle Park. The proposals concern two separate routes – first, one that would allow cycling on the riverside path in Lower Castle Park, to connect the Wivenhoe Trail and Middle Mill, thus meaning cyclists wouldn't have to use the bridge and Sportsway to carry on along the river. The second route is using the folley that runs between Upper and Lower Castle Park, again linking existing paths on either side. Full plans should be available on the Cycle Colchester website and officers will ...
There is much talk at present about Party membership as Labour have claimed many have joined from the Lib Dems while the Lib Dems claim their membership has increased. The fact that Ed Miliband's campaign to attract Lib Dem members has attracted so few new members is interesting for a number of reasons but it ...
I'm just back from the City Council Cabinet meeting where I and my colleauges Peter Millea and Richard Oglethorpe were attempting to stop a decision to say that Garston should be the city's waste destination. (see previous post for details and links to the Cabinet agenda) Sadly we were not able to persuade them and the Labour administration decided to support the recommendation. This is a blow of course. We were the only Councillors to bother to attend and speak at this meeting but I think between us we did a good job of spelling out the various arguments. I ...
The Labour Party could be largely gone within the next generation. I realise this is quite a provocative statement and I am fully aware that with the current state of the opinion polls there will be plenty who would contend that my own party, the Lib Dems are more likely to disappear before Labour. I should also point out before I start that I do not want the Labour Party to die. I was brought up in a family that had great respect for the party and its socialist foundings and tradition. If I had joined a political party before ...
A selection of events for young people during the half term... YATE LIBRARY Crafty fun with the Ancient Egyptians Tuesday 22 February, 10.30am to 12pm. Free drop-in event, suitable for children aged four to 11. Further information from the library service on 01454 868006. YATE & DISTRICT HERITAGE CENTRE Traditional Textile Craft Workshops Children between 5 and 12 are invited to create their own objects using traditional methods. Wednesday, February 23, 2011 all day "Arise Sir Knight" workshops Make your own Medieval helmet and pennant and design your own Coat of Arms. Thursday, February 24, 2011, 10:30 am until 12.00 ...
I gather it involves a serious discourse from their new shadow chancellor about the causes of the country's economic difficulties... Preview of Labour broadcast (With thanks to Tabman)
From Sean O'Gray in The Independent: December 2010 is the first month in - probably - history where the UK's manufacturing sector had more money on deposit than it borrowed from the banks. Or, to put it another way, industry is lending money to the banks, rather than the other way around. Bizarre.
There are red faces all round in the Welsh Labour Party this morning after their Shadow Transport Secretary gave an interview in which she was less than committed to the electrification of the mainline between London and Swansea. This was the project of course that Gordon Brown announced in January 2009 and said would start immediately. Alas, once the new Government took up residence they discovered than not only had it not started but that there was no money allocated to pay for it and no business plan. The Coalition Government has been busy ever since trying to put that ...
It may well be that I am too young but I was left highly bemused by the analogy with which Rhodri Morgan started his Plenary speech on education on Wednesday. It is not that I have never heard of Sputnik, just that I have never had a Sputnik moment: Rhodri Morgan: I would like to compliment the Minister on his 40-minute Sputnik-moment speech this morning. Those of us who are old enough to remember Sputnik going up all remember why the phrase 'Sputnik moment' came into being. It happened when American educators panicked to some degree at the thought that ...
Cross-posted from Liberal Democrat Voice 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 ...
It's almost admirable how @PatJHennessy can spin quite so much guff out of such a thin story: http://bit.ly/gP6392 # Enough pix of cute kittenz here lately, so here's a full-frontal close-up of Robbie the Terrapin... http://plixi.com/p/73616646 # RT @nakedCservant: @stephentall you will find most Ministerial close their boxes c3pm everyday... « someone shd tell @PatJHennessy # I'm still thrilling to The Killing. You can stick your Stieg. Yay for Scandinavian murder-fests. # Guardian reports Independent's i 'has hit 170,000 sales' http://bit.ly/feRJ58. Credit where it's due, but not my thing http://bit.ly/9ejgbZ # Ok, for what I had thought was a girl-flick ...
The ruling party in Egypt isn't really fooling anyone with their name 'National Democratic Party'. Surely there is no point in using a title when it is clear that the country is far from democratic. Still at-least they haven't gone the whole hog like North Korea and called their country 'Democratic People's Republic of Korea'. A blatant two fingers pointed squarely at the USA. It's a funny old world or it would be if things were a bit more equal.
i) births and deaths 4 February 1919: birth of Peter Butterworth, who played the Meddling Monk in The Time Meddler (1965) and The Daleks' Master Plan (1966). 4 February 1980: death of David Whitaker, the first script editor of Doctor Who (from An Unearthly Child to The Dalek Invasion of Earth) and writer of The Rescue (1964), The Crusade (1965), The Power of the Daleks (1966), The Evil of the Daleks (1966-67), The Enemy of the World (1967-68), The Wheel in Space (1968) and The Ambassadors of Death (1970); also of the 1965 stage play, The Curse of the Daleks, ...
Channel hopping between Question Time and 10 O'clock Live, I caught the following exchange... David Mitchell: The key is that ultimately, surely to save the environment things have to be made more expensive - the things that are destroying the planet have to be made as expensive monetarily as they are to the environment and that's going to involve a lot of sacrifice, don't you have to be honest about that? Caroline Lucas: Well I will be honest about that, what I think it needs is a shift in taxation, not an overall increase in the burden of taxation, but ...
As many will know, I am an approved candidate for the forthcoming local elections for Woking Borough Council. I have started to create a separate online presence for my local campaigning and the site is finally live at http://lisaharding.mycouncillor.org.uk/ All ... Continue reading →
I always thought of America as the place where personal choice and individual freedom where held in high esteem. Where informed discussion was preferred to berating and banning. Where politeness won out over prohibition. Where they chose discourse over directives. Well that was then and this is now. In New York anyway. The very epitomy of the Land of the Free got that bit more Soviet today when Michael Bloomberg -Mayor of New York - extended the ban on smoking to all of city's 14 miles of beaches, marinas and boardwalks and some 1700 parks (including Central Park) as well ...
Yesterday afternoon (Thursday), on the upper floor of a restaurant in London's Chinatown, London's Chinese-language media and political activists gathered to attend a Chinese New Year launch of the Fairer Votes campaign, complete with little red envelopes (usually employed to dispense gifts of money) to mark the beginning of the Year of the Rabbit and short speeches by ...
BBC News - Six exoplanets in close orbit around far-flung star Everyone's been linking to this, but it is tremendous news. (tags: space astronomy)
A friend was telling me recently how we have to reduce our carbon footprint. He thought that we don't have our priorities right and he mentioned an advert about holidays which is on TV at the moment. The advert asks the question do you go on holiday to relax or get fit. He felt that you cannot go to get fit as this depends on a way of life. As for relaxing we are being tempted to take summer holidays in winter and vice versa. Why don't we wait for the appropriate season and save money? What is the point ...
