Today has been a day of protest. First the deluded fools of the EDL unfortunately chimed with David Cameron's anti multicultural speech (more about that later). More important to me was the nationwide protests of people whose libraries are at risk of the cuts. Hopefully there wasn't much protest in Northumberland. The council remains committed to our libraries. Personally the library growing up was very important to me. I devoured books as a child and remember the excitement when I was allowed an adult ticket. It filled me with a love of reading. When I go to other peoples houses ...
I was polled by Yougov yesterday. It was clearly a poll funded by some malingering trotskyite trade union with various leading questions about the horrid cuts. But the poll contained two significant blunders. Firstly many of the questions confused government 'debt' and the government's 'deficit'- no doubt to the satisfaction of the union's political masters in Labour (who are deliberately confusing the two). But most significantly in the voting intention question the Liberal Democrats were referred to as 'The Liberal Democrat Party', while Labour and Conservatives were described correctly. The Lib Dems were described correctly elsewhere in the survey. Now ...
The anti AV campaign have made Nick Clegg and his 'broken promises' the centre of their campaign and in so doing have given the Yes campaign a major boost, focusing the whole argument on the failings of the current FPTP system. The Lib Dems got 23% of the vote and only 8% of the parliamentary seats and thus had to make more compromises than if they had got more of the MP's that people voted for. Sure people are angry that some pre-election promises have been shelved, postponed or watered down to a greater degree than what people voted for ...
Back in November I wrote about Churchill and the Anarchists, 1911 at the Museum of London Docklands. I have not yet been to this exhibition, which tells the story of the Siege of Sidney Street and the Houndsditch Murders, but as it runs until 10 April there is still time. In the mean time, here is British Pathe's (silent) newsreel of the event, complete with troops, Churchill, an enormous crowd and the fire which finished the affair. As ever, click on the picture to view the newsreel on the British Pathe site. Lord Bonkers adds: A little foreign fellow was ...
Today brought us two contrasting news stories which give further insight into the approach to policy making under the Coalition government. Today's Guardian contains an interesting piece by Ben Goldacre on the reform of the NHS (available here), while the BBC have been carrying an item - triggered by a statement from the CIEH – about the ...
The Lords tends to 'take an interest', and oral questions are a good opportunity to briefly raise the issue of a subject, prodding a Minister to do something, and Ros has used this tool herself in the past. Monday saw a question from Lord Gavron about the pre-Christmas disruption at Heathrow. His stance was typical of Labour, sniping at foreign ownership of British assets, whilst missing the key point. Ros didn't though, raising the point that annoyed so many people caught up in the chaos... Baroness Scott of Needham Market: My Lords, does the noble Lord agree that a bad ...
After many months of road closure due to Scottish Water then Scotland Gas Networks works, as reported in today's Courier, I have welcomed an update the City Council has given me that Thomson Street is scheduled to re-open to through traffic in around three weeks' time. This project has taken longer than planned and the residents have suffered many months of no through traffic and parking difficulties. It is good to see the works now coming towards an end and the street returning to normality. As I indicate in the Courier, the City Council has given me a commitment that ...
Well I've no idea if it is true, I've certainly not seen any hares on the Moss yet this year, but it is good to see that the Birkdale irrigation allotment group have their website up and running here and it is they who report the hares. Mind you there is some independent corroboration for the sighting of hares in these parts on the RSPB Marshside website.
Following the release of the December crime statistics on police.uk, the deputy local police area commander for West Berkshire, Ch Insp Judith Johnson told Newbury Today: I think we are very lucky in that West Berkshire is a safe place to live. Based on the December figures, indeed we are in a relatively safe area when you compare it to Manchester or Down Town Manhattan. But not if you compare it to comparable town and cities in Berkshire and neighbouring counties. I checked the numbers for 24 such towns/cities, using the town centre police beat area of each. That beat ...
Details of this planning application can be found by following this link: The case office is Steve Isaacson – please email comments and objections to him at steve.isaacson@lewisham.gov.uk, and don't forget to copy us in.
The Guardian reports: Barclays was tonight accused of making a mockery of attempts to call a truce with the government over "banker bashing" amid fresh expectations that its chief executive Bob Diamond would be awarded a bonus of at least £8m. After months of talking with the banks, the coalition is yet to announce a deal, codenamed Merlin, under which the industry would to agree lending targets of up to £190bn and show restraint on bonuses in return for less criticism from the government. The talks with the banks have been led by Diamond's predecessor John Varley and tonight Lord ...
So the ICC have banned three Pakistani cricketers for two different offences following the News of the World allegations of last year. Captain Salman Butt has been banned for ten years (five of them suspended) for failing to disclose information about a meeting and an agreement with a dodgy bookie. The two fast bowlers who ...
Last night I was over in Putney for the first annual Putney Liberal Democrats dinner, where amongst the other visitors were Bridget Fox, Shas Sheehan and Jonathan Fryer - who has written up Dick Newby's excellent speech. Rivalling the speech in excellence was the raffle tickets, which are of a decidedly superior cut in Putney. What most struck me about the speech was the way in which Labour's tactics in the Lords has driven Conservative and Liberal Democrat peers closer together as they spend hours in each other's company with shared distaste for Labour's crude filibustering. A smarter opposition would ...
Sat 5th
17:37
Another US news network #geographyfail: now CNN says Townsville is the capital of Queensland!
We all know now that Fox news can't find Egypt on a map (click here to see that doosie!) but it seems that CNN has outdone their earlier effort to beat Fox as the "dumbest US News Network". Not content with putting Queensland where Tasmania ought to be (click HERE for that post), CNN just ...
Ok not quite as dramatic as the famous "Garbo Talks" headline but here is a link to the interview I recently did with the guardianedinburgh on line about this blog.
Prime Minister David Cameron has delivered a speech setting out his approach to tackling terrorism. He has correctly identified the need for a rethink, and was at pains to set out how his approach was different to that of the previous government Unfortunately, the need for a rethink remains. Reading his speech reminded me a little of my A-level French studies. At that time, I had to write essay after essay analysing multiculturalism (in the context of France) and examining both positive and negative aspects to the French experience. Perhaps the strongest conclusion I reached is that nobody really knows ...
Immigration is Complicated The butt-end of it; when a "native" resident (of whatever ethnic background) loses their job to an immigrant worker who will do it for less money, seems simple. "Job theft" is an easy concept to understand and get cross about; there is a victim (the now unemployed "native" worker) and the perpetrator (either the interloping foreigner, or at your discretion the politicians who opened the "floodgates.") But this isn't the whole story, and you know it. The Ideal Gas Analogy. So imagine people are particles. You have a rarefied, cool gas on the left hand side – ...
I started reading a daily newspaper around the age of 17. Prior to that I watched news on television and listened to it on Radio 4. Ever since then I have bought a national newspaper most days and read it fairly thoroughly. In the last couple of years, I have noticed that how I am consuming news has changed. I check for the latest story on the blogs and Twitter feeds that I follow. The tweeters I kept an eye on are journalists and people interested in the same stories as me. So if I haven't spotted something they probably ...
You know how it is. You move house and something you use a lot gets lost in the process. Maybe months later, it'll suddenly turn up. That's how it seems it's been with David Cameron's dog whistle. We saw it lots in the run up to the election, when he was talking about how burglars should have no human rights, or when he was on about immigration for example. But apart from a few moments like the one where he said the thought of prisoners getting the vote made him sick, he's not been as bad in recent months. However, ...
In a speech yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg outlined the government's four-pronged approach to economic growth, setting out the measures that are being taken whilst also admitting that no government has an effective magic lever it can pull to guarantee growth. The four prongs are a switch from deficit-fuelled growth to investment-fuelled growth, developing the nation's 'hard' infrastructure such as transport links, supporting the 'soft' infrastructure such as a workforce with the skills business needs and achieving a better balance across the different regions of the country and sectors of the economy. Nick Clegg said, The outgoing Labour Chief ...
Earlier this week the next step in creating a destination Burgess Park we can all be proud of took place - granting of Planning Permission. I was first involved when the chair person of Southwark Cyclists when we obtained significant funding for the central avenue. My great aunt's drapers shop is under Burgess Park along Albany Road and my great grandparents were born on streets where Burgess Park now is. My Lib Dem colleagues had been trying for many years to obtain funding until successfully winning £2M from the Mayor of London and another £4M from Aylesbury New Deal. £6M ...
Lots has been said about the changes to Tuition Fees over the last 6 months. What a raw issue. I thought it might be useful to remind everyone of the actual facts: - No student pays anything upfront. - Increasing the repayment threshold from £15,000 to £21,000. - Ending upfront fees for part-time students. - Part-time students become eligible for student loans. - More generous grants for lowest income students. - Ensuring all students will repay less per month than they currently pay. - Under the scheme, any student eligible for free school meals who is accepted for a place ...
I don't need to say anything. This picture is just simply hilarious.
Councillor Ishbel Brown and the Oval Lib Dem Action Team joined Friends of Tate South Lambeth Library this morning to campaign against threatened cuts to libraries in Lambeth, collecting signatures for a petition and speaking to local residents who were furious about the risk to their local services. The Tate South Lambeth Library plays a vital role in the local community, and a cut to services would hit local residents hard. Whilst collecting signatures for the Friends of Tate South Lambeth Library's petition, we met many local people who used the library for a whole range of activities, including after-school ...
Meetings of the Executive at Woking Borough Council can often be lengthy rather tiresome affairs if you don't know what's going on. I often find them the same myself even though I am geeky enough to read all the notes ... Continue reading →
[IMG: Uncle Sam's Hat Vector Image] [IMG: Creative Commons License] photo credit: Vectorportal The Christian Science Monitor has an interesting article breaking down who the US owes money to. Most of it, 53%, is owed to the US itself – to US citizens and corporations: Foreigners hold about 47 percent of US public debt. And yes, the largest foreign holder here is China - but only by a hair. Chinese investors are owed 9.8 percent of US debt. Next comes Japan, at 9.6 percent, and the United Kingdom, at 5.1 percent.
A fascinating autobiography - though in fact it covers only the years from the outbreak of the second world war, in the late 1930s, to Grass's first marriage 20 years later. I don't think you can read it without also reading or having read The Tin Drum, which has a lot of autobiographical elements in it, here carefully untangled and explained. Grass of course did not have the option of not growing up; he ended up rapidly inducted into the SS as the Eastern Front crumbled, hints at being interned together with the future Pope Benedict XVI, and was cast ...
My expectations were low of this month's Big Finish main sequence release, The Crimes of Thomas Brewster, mainly because I was never impressed by the eponymous character, played by soap heart-throb John Pickard in three Fifth Doctor stories in 2008 and then as one of the Three Companions whose story was released episodically by Big Finish in 2009-10. But actually it was not bad at all: there wasn't too much Brewster in it, in any case Pickard seems to have raised his game significantly, and the Sixth Doctor / Evelyn Smythe interaction is hugely lifted by the reintroduction of Anna ...
Here are this week's PAD photos. Saturday This wine is gorgeous and only £4.49 a bottle in Sainsbury's (at least it was the last time I was there on Thursday) Sunday The essentials for a girlie movie night - popcorn, chocolate and an overdose of Colin Firth Monday These lights are in our local theatre - I think they are gorgeous Tuesday Presents from Parliament! Wednesday Anna turns photographer. "You look weird, Mummy", she said. Thursday I keep seeing this little car parked in town - I just love it. We had a Hillman Imp when I was a little ...
Sat 5th
11:55
Everything you ever wanted to know about... Policy and the Parliamentary Party (part 2)
(This is the third column from Lib Dem Voice's Party Bureaucracy Columnist Mark Valladares – for Part 1 see here.) Ah yes, the Federal Policy Committee, or FPC for short, a body of twenty-nine members, consisting of Nick Clegg, as Leader, one other MP elected by and from the Parliamentary Party in the House of Commons, one MP each elected by and from members of the Parliamentary Party in the House of Commons representing constituencies in England, Scotland and Wales respectively; one Peer elected by and from the Parliamentary Party in the House of Lords; one MEP elected by and ...
Nicholas Clegg CBE is Nick Clegg's father and is non-executive chairman of United Trust Bank. The government press release yesterday describes it as a "small" bank. The latest accounts on UTB's website are for 2009 when the bank had total assets of £101 million. In comparison Barclays in 2009 had £1,378 billion of total assets. So it is probably fair to describe UTB as "small". There are 9 directors of UTB, including Nick Clegg's father, and in 2009 they received total remuneration of £642,000 between them. The highest paid director received £204,000. That compares to Bob Diamond, Barclays CEO, who ...
As I mentioned on Twitter yesterday, I spent half an hour of Friday afternoon being interviewed by Jason Cobb of Colchester 101 magazine (and the onionbagblog, of course) about my role at the Council, and various related subjects. It's now up on Audioboo for you all to listen to – I've listened to a bit, but I always find it weird listening to my own voice – and if I've got it right, it should be embedded below for your listening pleasure as well: Listen!
[IMG: Mark Nottingham] So looking at Mark Nottingham with even the most cursory knowledge of local politics and his background, its clear that as a respected councillor and Labour party member, in what crazy circumstances would he not be selected? Now coming back to Clive Hart, he is of course as good as any, in presenting and arguing the Labour party agenda, in Thanet council, but surely has no authority having said he would resign following Mark's revelations, "I am a team player and always have been. However, I simply refuse to be the leader of a group with a ...
Recently I have had a number of Twitter debates about the AV referendum with Charlotte Vere (@CharlotteV), the Finance Director of the No2AV campaign. They have usually consisted largely of her claiming that nobody really wants AV and me pointing out that most reformers, and certainly all of those backing Yes2AV genuinely think AV is an improvement over First Past The Post. However yesterday the discussion took a turn for the interesting. I realised that Charlotte was the Conservative candidate in Brighton Pavilion in the general election last year. What makes this pertinent is the fact that the Conservatives ran ...
The latest Police Tasking meeting for Acocks Green was held on Thursday. The main issue from the previous meeting in January was a rise in burglary in December. In January burglary remained higher than a year ago but it did fall from December's level. A targetting exercise took place which resulted in 10 warrants being taken out in the month. Traffic offences were a significant problem but two new officers have now been trained and will be deployed. Parking outside some schools remains a problem, and police will continue to target offenders. The good news is that across Acocks Green, ...
If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind. John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (1859)
Talking of the Welsh Education Minister there is another story in this morning's Western Mail that raises some serious questions about his solution for funding Welsh students entering higher education in future years. I am already on record as saying that I support the principles behind this plan to top slice the teaching grant of Universities so as to reduce the burden imposed on indigenous students by excessively high tuition fees. However, I would expect that before it is introduced there can be assurances that the model is robust, properly-costed and that the risks posed to Welsh Higher Education Institutions ...
There is a rather bizarre story in this morning's Western Mail, who report that Welsh Liberal Democrat Councillor, Mike Powell has been barred by his local authority from tabling a motion in support of a 'Yes' vote in the Welsh Assembly powers referendum. The paper says that the action was said to contravene a procedure which states that motions "must be about matters for which the council has a responsibility and which substantially affect the well-being of the administrative area of the council". Given that the Council has a responsibility for organising the referendum and that its outcome could well ...
Here's your starter for ten in our weekend slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate... Here's an issue which often comes up when tax avoidance and evasion is talked about on this site. Is tax avoidance acceptable, i.e. is it morally acceptable to follow any and every legal means to avoid paying tax? And why (or why not)?
Rocket-powered octopi all the way down... Space Stasis – Fascinating Slate article from Neal Stephenson on all the factors that had to come together to make rocketry so important Caroline Lucas' U-turn on taxes – It seems that Ten O'Clock Live stumbled on an exclusive as Caroline Lucas radically rewrote Green Party policy on air. Unfortunately, they were too busy coming up with the great satire of calling Harry Cole a journalist to notice Tree octopus exposes internet illiteracy – In the spirit of this article, I would like to point out that you all owe me £100 Cracking the ...
Last month I highlighted the litter problem at the junction of Porter Square and Hornsey Road, where an unfinished area of pavement was acting as a litter trap. As you can see from the photograph below, the council has leapt into action at a commendable speed to extend the paving stones up to the wall: [IMG: Pavement work, junction of Hornsey Road and Porter Square] With this success, and also the repairs to the Gigantic Pothole of Partington Close, which long-running local problem should be next on my list? I think it is time to turn to the piece of ...
I've been following the grim collapse of the Irish political system with awed fascination over the last few months, thanks to posts by natural20, Slugger O'Toole and in particular the excellent Irish political reform blog, where Adrian Kavanagh has made a series of posts about the electoral maths. This has sparked my own thoughts about just how badly the main government party, Fianna Fáil, is going to lose; having been the biggest single party in every election since 1932, are now placing not second but third (after Fine Gael and Labour) in most opinion polls, with some hints that they ...
The link is to an article I have written in The Daily Telegraph about the Court of Protection.What particularly concerns me about the Court of Protection is that there are judges to try to stop people complaining to their Members of Parliament.If all is well in the Court then why are people not allowed to complain to their MP?
It's worth just reminding ourselves occasionally of the complete and utter mess in which Labour left the public finances when they were kicked out of office last year. This year we'll be spending over £43bn just on the interest on our debts. That's £830m per week. Just under £119m a day. For that money, we could - build a new primary school every hour - buy a new Chinook helicopter every day - take 11 million people out of paying income tax - triple the number of doctors in our hospitals.
broadcast anniversaries 5 February 1966: broadcast of "War of God", first episode of the story we now call The Massacre. The Doctor and Steven land in France; the Doctor wanders off looking for an apothecary, and Steven falls in with Huguenots. 5 February 1972: broadcast of second episode of The Curse of Peladon. Jo and the Doctor suspect the Ice Warriors, but they in turn suspect Arcturus; and the Doctor is condemned to death. 5 February 1977: broadcast of second episode of The Robots of Death. Poul suspects Uvanov and relieves him of command; the sandminer's engines are stopped and ...
Interesting headline for a post on Political Betting: Is now the moment to replace Dimbleby Even though -like many others – I rarely watch Question Time now, because it's become so pointless and merely a reflection of a Westminster political culture that regards shouting at people and never backing down as the most important skill to possess, I think I can answer that with a 'probably'. The show needs a complete rethink, and a new host would be part of that. But wait, there's more to the headline... with Andrew Neil? And suddenly you realise that there are so many ...
Filibustering Labour peers have totally pissed off Crossbenchers in the Upper Chamber with their efforts to block electoral reform legislation, according to Dick Newby, who was the guest speaker at last night's (Friday's) Annual Dinner of Putney Liberal Democrats. OK, that wasn't quite the expression he used, but that was clearly his meaning. Thirty years on ...
In March last year I showed some photos of this statue called Venus and Cupid which you can see on Morecambe prom. I have taken a few photos of it over the years and I have to say that I quite like it. I know there are some who aren't keen but that's art for you. It is in the news now because it doesn't belong to the council and money is needed to keep it in place. I have written previously about the Morecambe Bay Independent Party who deny that they are a party when it comes to election ...
