This evening we received a presentation from Sara Thornton, Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police. Over the past few months we have rightly focussed on Council spending and building a sustainable budget for the coming year in the fact of big reductions in our grant settlement. This evening we gained an insight into the budget-making process Thames Valley Police has been going through, as well as local policing priorities. Ms Thornton explained that the Force would need to make milllions of pounds worth of savings and confirmed the following in TVP's budget plans over the coming four years:- Frontline Police ...
Together with other councillors and the Parish Clerk I met this morning members of the Gemmill family owners of Elms Farm, Church Road and their planning consultant. The farm comprises 220 acres and includes a Repton designed park of 100 acres. The family admit that the existing farm buildings are unsightly. They would like to see redevelopment of the farm site. This would mean the relocation of the farm up beyond Stansted Hall, adjacent to the M11 and the demolition of the old farm buildings. In their place they would like to see a medium sized development of housing. A ...
Following the tragic accident on Riverside Drive on Sunday in which Philip Fleming of Step Row died, I have been in touch with Tayside Police and the City Council about the circumstances. My thoughts are with Philip's family at this very difficult time for them. Today's Courier covered my concerns about the proposed Crichton Street Collection Office closure by Royal Mail. Astonishingly, having been advised by Royal Mail on Friday : "We do not have a relocation date as yet but once a date is confirmed we will write to yourself, all opinion formers and business customers. Posters will go ...
One of the areas of housing policy I am most passionate about is around improving the quality of life of residents - regardless of where the live and what type of housing they live in, but particularly those residents living in areas that have been neglected for whatever reason. I first became interested in this when I was first elected and I noticed areas of Reading including my own ward which were rundown and in need of some TLC - in part because the then Labour-controlled Council focussed on meeting Decent Homes targets and forgot about improving estate areas. In ...
All, A briefer than usual Town Council meeting tonight – all wrapped up in a little over one and a half hours! Some of the decisions were: The Council decided to oppose the potential closure of Shipston's public toilet by the Conservatives, after a proposal from me. This is clearly a ridiculous idea of the District Councils – and could lead to already hard pressed traders closing if people choose to use the town less for this reason. Councillors approved an expenses scheme for members of the Town Council. This is not likely to be expensive as the only claimable ...
Worth watching for the clip montage alone, here is Christopher Lee getting his BAFTA fellowship, long overdue in my view. Watching it reminds me of watching Peter Cushing on Jim'll Fix It not long before he died. He's so thin and frail. I haven't got the words at the moment to describe how sad that makes me feel. For the last twenty years Christopher Lee's barely aged, and then suddenly... :( For more eloquent comment, see this post by [IMG: [personal profile] ] magister. And have a drink to the sexiest voice in acting - he's still there, but watching ...
The opportunities offered by internships should not be auctioned off at black-tie balls, says David Skelton on the "modern liberal Conservative" blog Platform 10. And he is right. Liberal Conspiracy, in the person of John Band, takes the Observer to task for supporting punishment without trial because of "generic paedo-hysteria under which won't somebody think of the children? trumps all other concerns". He is right too. Daniel Furr at Too lib·er·al [adj.] catches Brendan Barber saying something particularly silly: "The most worrying thing about the Big Society is that Prime Minister truly believes that polices of slash, burn and sack ...
Perhaps it's just that I'm eating my tea (dinner, for posh types) between 7 and 8 P.M and I turn on to BBC News 24 to catch up on the world but I would be correct, I believe, to say the Labour spokespersons dominate this hour. The real highlight of the hour is of course the Chuka Umunna show - you know the guy - famous for saying "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 to wipe out your mortgage over ...
Hi plenty to say and not the time to say it, hopefully I shall update you, tomorrow night just a quick note on council payoffs, its clear, that there is more than Thanet Council would wish to place in the public domain and frankly the council suggestions of wildly inaccurate statements is almost as wildly inaccurate as Matt B over on Thanet Star. In the middle lies the truth. Keep up the good work Matt. Also some thoughts on Labour Boss Clive and Labour bod Mark Nottingham, and what Clive needs to do, before Labour is reduced locally to a ...
Another Green World quotes what is apparently a statement by Vaughan Brean, the Green Party candidate for South West Devon: With some regret, I am leaving the Green Party. I support the parties core environmental views, but can not concur with the widely shared view in the party that all cut to spending should be resisted no matter how wasteful.The general populace of this country enjoy a standard of living way beyond that to which we are entitled, and the Greens seem to be committed to encouraging people to expect and demand these ridiculous levels of consumption, whilst I agree ...
A few days ago I brought you pictures of the ID card databases being crushed. Now you can watch as Damian Green puts them into the shredder. A good day for liberty! H/T Liberal England and for some party political balance I tried to find a Labour one but couldn't!
I recently stumbled across a dog eared copy of Winifred Holtby's novel 'South Riding' in a charity shop. I had never heard of the novel or its author, but it is one of the best and most emotive books I have read. By a strange coincidence BBC One have just filmed a version of it which starts next Sunday, but its actually not very strange at all. While this book was written in 1935 the message it has is still resonant and relevant now. Its about a community and its political figures making and dealing with tough economic times and ...
This blog has been covering the opposition to Leicester City Council's plans to build build build all-weather sports pitches and an accompanying car park and pavilion on the Aylestone Meadows nature reserve. Friday's Leicester Mercury carried the news that, though a decision on the development has yet to be taken, the council has already spent £150,000 on the site: More than £68,000 was paid to a private firm to carry out investigative works, looking at the ground which would house the development. The design of the site and architectural expertise cost more than £55,000 and about £25,700 was spent on ...
I have a question this Valentine's Day. Wold a heterosexual couple want to have a civil marriage (they not being allowed a civil partnership) in a place of worship? The answer I think you will find is no. If a heterosexual couple wanted a marriage in a church, synagogue or mosque they would go for a religious marriage ceremony. Therefore why is there talk of allowing civil partnerships to same sex couples to be allowed in places of worship, most particularly are these deemed civil? As a gay Christian and a advocate for equal marriage I'm actually going to agree ...
Labour blogger Luke Akehurst, whose blog is always worth a read, has an interesting list of the World's remaining authoritarian regimes, based on the list put together by the Economist Intelligence Unit. Given the controversy over the fact that Hosni Mubarak's National Democratic Party was found to be a member of the Socialist Interational, and had to be expelled at fairly short notice, you'd have thought Socialist International might have held some sort of membership review – you know, just to check there weren't any other authoritarian regimes in there, nestling alongside the more harmless members, like the Luxembourg Socialist ...
Just thought I'd post up part of the Lib Dem council group response to Wokingham Borough's consultation on the admission arrangements for 2012 - all of it would be a bit too long. The most contentious issue by far is what is to happen to the designated areas ("catchments") for Maiden Erlegh and Bulmershe Schools. Below is what we said about that part of the consultation, bearing in mind that there are many more children in Earley and Lower Earley than can fit into Maiden Erlegh, which is the Earley secondary school. - and that what the Conservatives are saying ...
I made the fatal mistake of reading Benedict Brogan's blog on the Telegraph website today and there really are some people that just don't get the whole concept of volunteering. The misconception that when you volunteer you work for free, ... Continue reading →
Prime Minister David Cameron has spent the whole of Valentine's Day trying to make us fall in love with the Big Society. Again. Appropriately, Respublica and Progress had organised a debate tonight in Parliament between Francis Maude, the Minister tasked with implementing the idea, and Labour's Tessa Jowell. Unfortunately, so many people wanted to spend ...
Equality minister Lynne Featherstone has indicated that the ban on same-sex marriage is to be lifted, as well as announcing that the law will change to allow civil partnerships to take place in religious buildings. This is great news. When these changes become law, the two-tier system which effectively discriminates against homosexuality will become history. Civil partnerships were a significant step forward, but ultimately there is no reason why in a democratic society all people should not have the same legal rights to be married. It is also welcome that the the package includes plans for heterosexual couples to have ...
Mon 14th
18:53
Henry Porter: Why we should believe Nick Clegg when he promises to restore liberties stolen by Labou...
In yesterday's Observer, Henry Porter, who has written widely on civil liberties 'stolen' by the previous government, talked to Nick Clegg about the government's recently-announced Protection of Freedoms Bill. As you probably gleaned from the headline, Porter is generally extremely enthusiastic about the Bill, though he takes the deputy prime minister's advice to "hold the government's feet to the fire" by listing some additional illiberal measures which he would like to see removed. Here's a short excerpt from the piece: Negotiation over the bill has been long and intense, especially with the Home Office and police over the deletion of ...
Inspired by the TED talk by Christopher McDougall, which I blogged about last week (here's the link), and I'd still highly recommend watching, I decided to try my first barefoot run today. In truth I had run barefoot once before, but it was because my shoes broke half a kilometer into a fast 3km run and I was too stubborn to stop, so I took them off and ran hard the rest of the way without shoes
Here's the link to the story on our alternative budget from today's East Anglian Daily Times: The Conservatives have already ruled out any support for our amendment. Tomorrow I am on the panel of Radio Suffolk's Any Questions event. This should be broadcast on Wednesday evening.
I've been thinking whether this blog should have a "theme". Some of the blogs I most enjoy have a strong theme, including: Geekstats - http://www.geekstats.com/ Inside Out from Totem - http://www.totemdevelopment.co.uk/blog/ Brain Pickings - http://www.brainpickings.org/ Flowing Data - http://flowingdata.com/ Baobab from The Economist - http://www.economist.com/blogs/baobab/ These are all great
I have just sent the following letter to all those who have contacted me regarding Albemarle music centre. ............................... Thanks for your e-mail expressing your views about the budget proposals for Albemarle Music Centre and the schools music service in next year's City Council budget. As you may be aware, the Government has asked all local councils to help reduce the national deficit. Consequently, Hull City Council has had the settlement, the amount of money we receive from central Government reduced. This year it has meant making some very hard choices as the Council has significantly less money. We have ...
My new(ish) wife tells me, every once in a while, about the dreams she had in her youth concerning her future husband. Since I am no Brad Pitt in the looks, fame or wealth departments, I have to make up for it in romance. Occasionally we have strayed into her thoughts on how she might ...
I am instinctively very supportive of the Big Society. But it is not a new concept and I have another name for it. I call it liberalism. My liberalism is a belief that power should start at the bottom and feed upwards. It is about personal empowerment, choice and, sometimes, quirky individualism. It is about self-pride, community and, often, a suspicion of authority. It is human in scale and organic in its development. I have a nervous attentiveness to the need to protect this precious but delicate grassroots liberalism from the steam-roller of the overbearing state. What my liberalism is ...
Someone's just pointed me to this summary from the Royal Society. It's worth reading in full, as it's a useful outline of where there is broad agreement on the state of scientific knowledge about climate change, but also where there are uncertainties. But if you don't have that luxury here's the summary at the end: "There is strong evidence that changes in greenhouse gas concentrations due to human activity are the dominant cause of the global warming that has taken place over the last half century. This warming trend is expected to continue as are changes in precipitation over the ...
I'm not going to go into the rights and wrongs of Dr Hans-Christian Raabe's farcical appointment-then-sacking from the ACMD. For good summary of the background to this story, see Mark Easton. It suffices to say that it appears Dr Raabe was sacked for writing a paper that links homosexuality to paedophilia. As Tom Chivers explains, there is no link: The University of California's psychology department does a very good "facts about homosexuality and child molestation" section, and I've taken the following from there. First, the idea of "homosexual [or heterosexual] paedophiles" is not really an accepted one in psychological circles: ...
David Cameron relaunched his Big Society today with a visit to the People's Supermarket in Camden. It was the same People's Supermarket that featured on Harry Hill's TV Burp last Saturday (hat tip Paul Waugh) as follows: Watch THIS from 11.15mins. Narrator: "Can Arthur's dream of a supermarket that's owned and run by the people change how Britain shops for food?" Harry: "Er....No" (cue guffawing audience) Narrator: "Will people in the UK be so keen to give up their time unpaid to work in the People's Supermarket?" Harry: "Er....No" (cue more guffaws) Where is Andy Coulson when you need him? ...
After the issue was raised at the recent Area Action Group, moves began to resuscitate the "Friends of West Hampstead Library" ("FOWHL") which has been in hibernation for some years If ever there was a time for people who support libraries to come forward, this is it. Those with long memories may remember why the Friends/user groups sprang up in the first place - to save their local libraries 20 odd years ago when Belsize Library was the first of the Camden libraries to be threatened with closure.There will be an SOS meeting for restarting FOWHL at the libraryon Tuesday ...
Now that the UK's 1400 top scientists have spoken ("Climate Change, A summary of the science" from the Royal Society), there's no longer any doubt that human activity is a significant cause of the steady warming of the planet over the last hundred years. So, unless we change our habits, we face an increasingly unstable climate, with rising sea levels and worsening floods and droughts leading to major disruption to food production. With the predicted rise in world population from six to ten billion by 2050, it is clear that humanity is in serious trouble. So with NASA data suggesting ...
A while back Demos published a report called Reinventing the Firm which advocated employee ownership as a preferred model in place of the present dominance of the one that is focuses on building shareholder value. These arguments are old hat to Liberals in Britain who have been lonely advocates of such reforms for generations. Nevertheless we should be pleased to see a renewed interest in this issue especially in the aftermath of the financial crash. as Demos says: Reinventing the Firm argues that companies' obsession with short-term performance measures such as share price and quarterly profits made many banks and ...
The Financial Times have got hold of this rather fantastic email from David Davis, in which he invites all 234 MPs who vote for his prisoner boting motion last week. It reads: Thank your for supporting the motion on prisoner voting last week. It has been a long time since four newspapers have carried front ...
There are a lot of people who are active in politics and political journalism who did not grow up watching House of Cards (and its sequels) and the New Statesman, or even Yes Minister, and therefore How Things Actually Work is a closed book to them. This post brought to you by the blindingly incompetent "analysis" of current political events by almost everyone, and mine and [IMG: [personal profile] ] matgb's ongoing fascination and amazement with it [IMG: Dreamwidth] [IMG: Livejournal] [IMG: Blogger] [IMG: Facebook] [IMG: Tweet this] [IMG: Delicious] [IMG: Flattr this] [IMG: LibDig] [IMG: Bit/ly] [IMG: StumbleUpon]
Liberal Democrats today from central St Albans have welcomed the fact that the county council Cabinet has agreed to open a new two form entry primary school in central St Albans. The site includes the University Law School and some adjacent land. Cllr Jack Pia, St Peter's Ward, said: 'We have been campaigning for a new school for some years and so I am delighted that we have now got to this stage..' Cllr Chris White (St Peter's and Clarence wards) said: 'This is good news. There are some issues in relation to traffic to sort out but it means ...
We in the Liberal Democrats trust local people and local communities, we always have.
I was recently reporting on the continuing ructions in Southport Tory party and in particular the resignation of Lady Lesley Watson. I fear I may have failed to adequately explain the enormity of her departure. If we were talking earthquakes this would be up around 9 on the Richter scale. She comes from arguably Southport`s most influential political family. Her grandfather was Sir Herbert Barber, three times Mayor of Southport, Leader of the Council for donkeys years, knighted for services to Tory party in 1953. Her father was Harold Barber , Councillor 1949, Alderman 1961,Mayor 1966 and father in law ...
There was a really good piece by Jeremy Browne on the Guardian's website last Thursday which I have only just read. In it I think he perfectly highlights the dilemma that faces the party. Mainly a large section of the votes for the Lib Dems were simply a vote against the main two parties. They were never expecting us to get into government so they were using their vote to increase the opposition to the status quo. I always felt that the Lib Dems came across as the moral conscious of parliament attempting to hold the government to account over ...
Just like all local authorities up and down the land, Sheffield is facing the biggest reduction in our budget for many years as a direct result of the reckless spending carried out by the previous Labour Government. Not quite the 'post Soviet meltdown' predicted by Sheffield's Labour MPs, but a reduction none the less. Setting the budget has not been an easy process. Colleagues and I have been agonising over what to de-prioritise and what to protect, listening to what local people tell us they value the most whilst ensuring that the vulnerable in our community are protected. I know ...
I really do not understand how the TUC thinks a small government is anything like Somalia. Brendon Barber, who earns more than most workers in the public sector, said the following; "The most worrying thing about the Big Society is ... Continue reading →
Five years ago Rolls Royce had a share price of £4.5 which fell to £ 2.4 but it is now back to £6.60. It has consistently paid a dividend of between 2% & 4%.. By contrast RBS [Royal Bank of Scotland] five years ago had a share price of £6 which during the crash fell to 10p & is now 44p. It hasn't paid a dividend since 2007 & doesn't expect to until 2012. Even HSBC, which avoided the debacle of RBS, had a share price five years ago of £8 which fell to £3 & is now only back ...
Following on from After The Ice, I realised that my knowledge of ancient history – especially outside of Greece and Rome – was pretty poor, so reading Sumer and the Sumerians was a first step on the road to more knowledge about that. Most of the knowledge I have of Sumerian civilization comes from books, usually science-fictional ones that touch on some of the concepts of civilization. As fun as Snow Crash and Timewyrm: Genesys – to name a couple – may be, they're likely not the generally accepted truth of how civilization developed in Mesopotamia. This book wasn't quite ...
On saturday morning I was delighted to have been invited along as guest speaker to the inaugural St.Margarets Men's Club breakfast. (For all those concerned about sexual equality I'm sure there is a womens club also!) I should add that this wasn't some seedy smokey backroom men only club that preoccupied its business with less savoury male pastimes, but a meeting of male worshipers at St.Margarets Church Prestwich with a topical conversation (or not) as the headline whilst consuming full english breakfast at TGI Fridays. I must thank Fr Neil Shave, Curate of St.Margarets Church for the invite. The title ...
Last night I was one of approximately 80 people to sleep rough outside County Hall in protest at Cornwall Council's plans to slash the supporting people budget by 40%. The supporting people service funds accommodation for homeless people as well as advice and care at home and projects such as the Foyer Network. There is a dispute about the amount of money we have received from Government for supporting people. The raw figures suggest we have got a similar amount to last year but there are effects such as damping (broadly speaking - the Government feels Cornwall gets too much ...
This information, about money for women setting up in business, has come to me on e mail today. I'm posting it here to help get it to a wider audience. It is pretty self explanatory. If you have queries about it though please contact the organisation not me! "The Women's Organisation are delighted to announce that we have been able to open our £200 business start up grant to every woman in Knowsley or Liverpool who is starting up a business regardless of their employment status. In order to access the grant the women will be asked to complete a ...
Liberal Democrat Councillor Keith Lock, who represented Mortimer Ward in West Berkshire, died on Saturday night in hospital in Reading, having broken his hip a few weeks ago. Keith had been a Councillor for West Berkshire and the predecessor Newbury District Council for 38 years. During that time he had twice held the positions of Leader and Chairman of Council. The Reading Chronicle reports: The Lib Dem councillor, who was born in Welling, Kent, moved to Mortimer in 1969 and sat on West Berkshire Council from its formation in 1998, having also served on its predecessor, Newbury District Council, since ...
This story in the Independent Life/Style Fashion section, titled "Gender-blending: Sexual ambiguity in fashion" could so nearly have been a nice "Hey, look, transgender gender-f**kery is cool" story. But, instead, they've managed to completely confuse transgender and transsexual in a way that ends up being downright offensive. It's not just the usual confusion of nouns and adjectives that one expects, with references to "a pre-operative transsexual in little beyond a smattering of magenta body-glitter". I could live with that, largely because if one gets annoyed with every grammatical error in the papers, one would spend life in a constant rage. ...
Business Secretary Vince Cable appeared on Andrew Marr's show yesterday for the first time since his wee spot of bother before Christmas. Unfortunately, Marr stuck completely to politics and didn't ask him about his spin round the dance floor with Erin Boag in the Strictly Christmas special, but Vince did have lots to say about the banks and the economy. Vince was quick to say that this week's agreement with banks is "by no means a finished article" but was "helpful in getting the banks, including the private banks who are not owned by the state to make commitments in ...
There's much talk about the House of Lords on-going 'go-slow' with the legislation for the AV referendum. The latest obstacle thrown up being the 40% voting turnout threshold. Meanwhile, the 'Yes 2 AV' campaign continues with its ground campaign in readiness for the expected d-day of May 5th. But here in Wales of course, we have another referendum on our mind – the referendum on further powers to the Welsh Assemby in Cardiff Bay. Referendum Day – March 3rd! The referendum was promised by the 'One Wales' Labour-Plaid Cymru coalition government within the 4 year life-scale of the current government. ...
In a good news story for Bidston & St. James, Park Group have bought the premises they use as a headquarters on the Valley Road Business Park in Bidston. Chris Houghton, Managing Director Park, commented: "An opportunity has arisen to consolidate our freehold properties on the estate and the Board believes that by taking this ...
Listening live to President Obama's press spokesman in the early stages of the Egyptian uprising, you might easily have believed - especially as he kept emphasising it - that the right of Egyptians to access social networking sites was the fundamental human right that the United States wanted to defend in the current crisis. As our own administration shifted the language about Mubarak's - from 'government' to 'regime' - there is was discernable nervousness about articulating precisely want they want the Egyptians to do, and what this whole crisis was about. They used words like 'democracy' and 'freedom', as if ...
Hertfordshire Highways will be carrying out resurfacing works on Drakes Drive, St Albans. Works are due to start on February 17 and are expected to take two days, weather permitting. Full details about the works, including road closure information, can be found on:
I was listening to Shaun Bailey, one of the new Conservative envoys for the Big Society, on the BBC yesterday evening. He was being treated courteously enough, although the questioning was robust, and then he said something that really caught my attention, claiming that there was no civic society in this country. Now, I don't know much about Hammersmith, the seat he fought at the General Election, or about whether he gets out much, but I do know one thing. He's wrong. Not only is he wrong, but the approach of his colleagues is designed to put the backs up ...
Mon 14th
11:55
Posts of the week: what happens when you don't vote Labour and when you do a deal with the Tories
Welcome to my weekly round-up of two blogging highlights from the past week: the post that I found most interesting or enjoyable to write and the post from someone else that I found most interesting or entertaining. It's a pair of videos this time, which stretches the idea of writing just a little, but hey... A post from me...Liberal Democrats and the coalition Last month I gave a talk at UCL's Constitution Unit about how and why the Liberal Democrats ended up in coalition with the Conservatives and how it is going. Earlier this week I blogged the video from ...
It's that time of year again when every economic liberal can celebrate the reduction of our highest emotional connection with another human being by supporting the greeting card, floral and sugar processing industries, whilst ignoring the troubling history of the festival. The original St. Valentine, about whom little is known, is claimed as a priest martyred in the reign of Roman Emperor Claudius II (@270 AD). His principle crime was helping Christians marry, the pre-medieval equivalent of birth control. His doom was only confirmed after arrest when the pagan Emperor tired of his endless attempts to convert him, and romantically ...
Single? 'Between relationships'? Just plain hate Valentine's Day? Never fear: VN is here for you. Here are five endlessly fun events for you to celebrate today, rather than being down in the dumps. Statehood Day - Oregon and Arizona Today is the birthday of the US states of Oregon and Arizona (152nd and 97th respectively). ...
Freedom loving Switzerland have, unsurprisingly, rejected gun control in order to bring down the high suicide rate involving firearms. Of course, if you are suicidal, you might find other methods to end your life...not just a gun. So I was ... Continue reading →
I was very saddened to hear of the death of Councillor Keith lock. My deepest sympathy goes to his wife Mollie and their family. Keith was a real gentleman and the model councillor. He held what ought to have been a Tory seat in the leafy rural Berkshire village of Mortimer for 38 years under two councils. That didn't happen by accident. He worked extremely hard and was very well known and respected on his patch. He personally produced his own regular Focus leaflets. Even during his recent illness, from his hospital bed, he was issuing instructions about residents surveys ...
Six weeks ago, my son Charlie and I travelled up from London with Simon Hughes – to leaflet on behalf of Elwyn Watkins in the Oldham by-election. The campaign was fantastic: dozens of Lib Dems in a well-equipped campaign office and many more leafleting and campaigning on the streets. It produced an excellent result in difficult circumstances: Elwyn even increased his share of the vote to 31.9%. On Saturday, I was selected as the PPC for the forthcoming Barnsley Central by-election, to be held on March 3rd. At the 2010 general election, the Lib Dems came second to Labour in ...
In the week before recess for both House, one thing is likely to dominate proceedings: The Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill. Oh goody! On Monday, we have the Third Reading in the Lords—the last chance for peers to alter the Bill—with the only interesting amendment relating to party election broadcasts. If the amendment goes ...
Some time ago Dulwich Park had a missing children's post installed by the Pavilion Cafe. Nice and colourful and easy for kids and parents to find. Talking to local Police a godsend seeing a dramatic reduction in call outs to find missing children in Dulwich Park. So successful that I've asked the head of Southwark parks if the same can be installed for Peckham Rye Park after another scare this weekend just gone. I can only imagine the fear when you suddenly realise you've lost a kid or in this example two young children 6 & 7.
Mon 14th
10:56
Help Me Persuade Time Magazine to make a Tunisian fruit seller called Muhammad Al Bouazizi their 'Pe...
Time Magazine gives the title 'Person of the Year' to the individual who 'for better or for worse...has done the most to influence the events of the year'. They are clear that the title should not in itself be a prize, but an acknowledgement of influence on world events. Recent winners include Mark Zuckerberg, Ben Bernanke and Barack Obama. I think - and I know its only February - but in 2011 that title should be given to a Tunisian Fruit seller called Muhammad Al Bouazizi. It would be a fitting tribute to one man who has clearly already influenced ...
As reported last week, the council has launched its consultation about the future of the library service. Two issues have subsequently come to light. Firstly, the paper copies that are available at West Hamsptead library and those that were sent to the councillors for the West Hampstead Area Forum last week were missing the background information that explains the questions they're asking! Councillors expressed concerns about this when we were allowed to see the (already printed) copies of the questionnaire a few days before the consultation went live. We were promised that wherever the consultation would be - the second ...
Looking through my emails I've discovered that RCRE will be facing an industrial tribunal on 14th-16th June. This relates to a matter that I chaired a personnel sub-committee panel on. I was asked by RCRE to keep those dates free for a potential appearance as a witness and to provide a statement. You know I might just do that!
The Tories are usually very supportive of victims of crime. Ask David Cameron who, last year, said that a burglar doesn't deserve to have any human rights after he's entered your house. Unfortunately, their sympathy for victims doesn't seem to extend to the crime of rape. Shadow Tory minister for Community Safety in the Scottish Parliament Bill Aitken has apparently asked the Sunday Herald whether a victim of an horrendous rape in Glasgow earlier this week was a prostitute. This woman was dragged down a lane by 3 men and raped. This was the latest in a series of similar ...
Welcome to the latest in our series giving the human face behind some of the blogs you can find on the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator. Today it is Olly Grender, who blogs at http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/olly-grender. 1. What's your formative political memory? A toss up between my Mum voting in favour of joining Europe in the referendum and my Dad feeling agitated about and improving workers rights in industry. 2. When did you start blogging? In January, so please be gentle with me! (though all constructive feedback from fellow LibDems welcome). 3. Why did you start blogging? Have been thinking of doing ...
I have written recently on some ways of potentially increasing party membership (see here, here, here and here) which focuses on potential members i.e. those involved in politics but not yet members. However, the research undertaken by Opinion Leader Research is interesting if you are a Lib Dem. They set up focus groups of activists ...
Way back in oh I don't know when, I suggested that there was a strong case for universities becoming hubs of social enterprise and the Big Society for their local hinterlands. Now I see the government has caught up, sort of, suggesting that there might be a "big society university" (though why just one I have no idea - a "really big society university" perhaps rather than local ones. First again! Feel free to call i you want any advice Cam! Advertisement: read more
Local First Bus fares to Bristol are rising by up to 20p, at the same time as changes are being made to timetables - some reroutings, some reductions in frequency, a few extra journeys. One of the routes affected is the Showcase X42 route. This route is supported by extra funding for things like the new bus shelters and bus lanes to encourage bus use, but the changes are being brought in without discussion with South Glos. Cllr Claire Young (Lib Dem, Westerleigh) said: "All these changes are being made without any agreement with the council. Cllr Pat Hockey has ...
But one of my posts has now been named in the Lib Dem Voice 'Golden Dozen'. Thanks to everyone who's reading the blog - stats are heading north at a rate of knots. You can see the LDV Golden Dozen here . Big posting later today on AVFHC.
Sometimes, it's amazing how little information can generate so much news. This weekend, there has been much speculation about equal marriage, apparently due to an article in the Sunday Times suggesting that Lynne Featherstone, LibDem Minister For Equalities will be announcing... well, something. Later this week, we're told. (It's paywalled, so I've not seen the article) Other news outlets have taken a different angle, with The Independent and The Guardian concentrating on religious civil partnerships being allowed in churches. It's worth noting that religious organisations will simply be given the choice under all proposals I've seen and none will be ...
Iain Dale wrote a piece for the Mail on Sunday yesterday entitled "Nothing to do with us, Guv - It's those wicked Tories!" in which he claims that some Lib Dems in government are essentially trying to have their cake and eat it by being in power but trying to shirk responsibility for the unpopular decisions. His thesis runs thusly: ...too many (Lib Dems in government) seem to believe they can cherrypick the government decisions they can bring themselves to support. Their attitude to the coalition's more unpopular policies seems to be "nothing to do with us, guv, it's those ...
I was very pleased to hear this weekend that the Westminster government has found £27m to continue for one more year at least, the excellent support that CABs give with the Financial Inclusion Fund. I should declare an interest here as I am the Chair of the Cardigan & District CAB and Joint Chair of the Shadow Ceredigion CAB Trustee Board and I can not over-state the amazing work that the volunteers and staff members do to help vulnerable residents in our locality - particularly in what are economically trying times. But for some time now, a cloud has been ...
So the crusader of the Sunday Express yesterday squeaked not roared. They produced a story which was no story because their Tory masters told them to. To recap, as you won't have bought the paper (neither did I), Erica and ... Continue reading →
Here's some movie news: Atlanta Nights, by Travis Tea, has been optioned for a film. The book was created in 2004 as part of a sting operation by members of SFWA against the publisher PublishAmerica. After the book was accepted the the hoax revealed, PublishAmerica canceled the contract. Well, you think, maybe they just got a good book and used it as part of the sting. Nothing wrong with that getting optioned. But there's more... Each chapter of the work was written by a different author with no regard for plot, continuity, spelling, or grammar. I'm hearing that Michael Bay ...
The poll to decide which town will be twinned with Meerkovo remains open until Friday 18 February. Please hurry over to Facebook to vote for Meerkat Harborough. The winner will be announced the following week in The Meerkovian, the meerkat newspaper to be found on the Meerkovo website. According to a media release reproduced by Benzinga, the winning town will receive official Meerkovo twin status by changing its name for the day and will also receive a donation of £5000 to be used for community purposes. The date of the twin town day will be agreed with the winner.
This morning's Western Mail asks the question of Assembly Members of what laws they would make if the technical change to do away with the legislative competence order system to be put before voters in the referendum on 3rd March is passed? All of Plaid Cymru's 14 Assembly Members put forward proposals, as did three of the five Welsh Liberal Democrats, but Labour and the Conservatives resisted the invitation, with only one AM in each group responding positively. They took the view that they would publish proposals as part of their manifesto and did not want to preempt that process. ...
Just a photo of a local resident and me in the now open new park as promised: In the foreground is the SkyStation. An interesting combination of bench, climbing frame and public art. Some background on the work can be found at this website.
i) births and deaths 14 February 1942: birth of Michael E. Briant, who directed Colony in Space (1971), The Sea Devils (1972), The Green Death (1973), Death to the Daleks (1974), Revenge of the Cybermen (1975) and The Robots of Death (1977). 14 February 1970: birth of Simon Pegg, who played the Editor in The Long Game (2005) and narrated the first series of Doctor Who Confidential. ii) broadcast anniversaries 14 February 1970: broadcast of third episode of Doctor Who and the Silurians. Quinn, who is shielding the wounded Silurian, is found dead by the Doctor. 14 February 1976: broadcast ...
The Economics of Blogging and The Huffington Post - NYTimes.com If the case that The Huffington Post were making to its bloggers were a little more frank, along the lines of the following: "Sure, we'd love for you to post here. And there's the chance that your post could do very well. But odds are that only a few hundred people will see it, and we'll be lucky to sell enough ads on it to afford a slice of pizza." ...there might be fewer complaints that it doesn't pay its bloggers. (tags: copyright blogging)
One wonders if Strathclyde Chief Constable, Stephen House, read my blog post of 13th January - stupidity of SNP police plans - as he launched one of the most ludicrous justification for a single Scottish police force. His argument is that a single mega force is needed to deal with major incidents like the Derrick Bird shootings, because the small Cumbria police had to ask for outside help to deal with it. Now there have been a grand total of three such mass shootings in the last 24 years in the UK. I guess you could throw in the occasional ...
I had intended to try and find something about celebrating the joys and perks of being single for this post but struggled to find anything suitable - and all of it from a woman's perspective. I did find this about an annual anti-valentines day event in Edinburgh along with suggested songs and films for the the occasion but it didn't quite seem to fit the bill... I then found this image: While this amused me, yet again it didn't seem to quite fit the bill. This is probably because if I were in a relationship I would probably be buying ...
Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury was in the news following last week's BBC's This Week programme as he suggested that local footballers should bale out Liverpool Council. I think we can agree that Premiership footballers are paid well, too well for my liking but at least they have one thing in their favour, they are in the public eye. There are so many others who are anonymous, like the bankers whom he also critised, who are earning obscene amounts of money. Of course no individual should be compelled to hand over their "hard-earned" money to any charity or ...
