It is raning, cold, and might snow. On the other hand I should be on the streets meeting people and listening to their problems. Doing feedback from surveys and sorting out the regional lib dem constituion suddenly became attractive. Sorry folks - I'll be out next week ! If you are intersted in scandal, have a look at this, and see just how ridiculous things can get.
The Harborough Mail tells us that the winner to find a British twin for Aleksandr Orlov's home village will be announced at 3 p.m. on Wednesday 23 February. The good news is that As the poll closed, [Meerkat] Harborough was still being recorded in first place with 59 per cent of the total votes cast for the five contenders.I don't want the air to be thick with prematurely counted chickens coming home to roost, but it looks as though there will not be dancing in the streets of Windemeer, Meerkat Drayton, Western Super Meer or Downham Meerkat on Wednesday night. ...
John Freeman, the last surviving member of the House of Commons elected at the 1945 general election, celebrated his 96th birthday today. Ephraim Hardcastle in the Daily Mail provides a summary of his remarkable career: He was elected to Parliament as a Labour MP in 1945 after wartime service as a Rifle Brigade major. Edited the New Statesman when it was an influential political magazine. Conducted the BBC's famous, 1959 'Face to Face' TV interviews, now available on DVD. Became British High Commissioner to India and later HM's ambassador to Washington. Then in 1971 chairman of London Weekend TV until ...
Before Christmas I was involved in the launch of Operation Astrodome aimed at cutting crime during the party season. For the fourth year running we have managed to cut crime in the city centre during the festive season. The overall crime rate dropped by 17% in the city centre compared with the same period last year, and by 21% when compared with averages for the same period over the last 3 years. This success is largely down to the extra initiatives put in place to ensure that residents and visitors could enjoy the night-time festivities in the city centre as ...
Welcome to Broxtowe Enews, brought to you by the Liberal Democrats and edited by David Watts, the leader of Broxtowe Borough Council. A special welcome to the new readers that we have this week. It's been a good week for new subscribers and we now have a new record number of people receiving this newsletter. I know that for the most part it is personal recommendations that bring new readers in so thank you all for that. 1. Council Budgets and Council Tax At the cabinet meeting on Tuesday the council's proposals for the next financial year were discussed, and ...
As I reported earlier this month, it was good to see new - and more long-standing - people elected at the recent West End Community Council elections. Although there were sufficient people elected to keep the Community Council a vibrant organisation, there are still some unfilled places. Nominations have therefore been extended to 4th March and you can read more about this at http://tinyurl.com/weccelection.
I felt a bit guilty sitting in my nice family kitchen eating my poached egg for breakfast while reading this morning's Independent. The front page carried a picture of Bahraini protesters on the streets on Manama, with the headline 'They didn't run away. They faced the bullets head on.' Robert Fisk has been leading the journalistic charge. His accounts from the streets of Egypt and now Bahrain have been fascinating, insightful and highly emotive. People have been drawing parallels between the Egyptian protests and the Iranian revolution of 1979. However, the marked difference is the lack of Anti-American and Western ...
As reported in last night's Evening Telegraph, the West End Boys Amateur Boxing Club has gained the support of the armed forces charity "Who Cares Wins." The Who Cares Wins charity's founder Billy Fitzgerald set up the charity to find funding for a purpose built long stay mental health treatment unit for ex service personnel suffering with severe mental health problems. Emilio Places-Rey of the West End Amateur Boxing Club told me, "If I told you that 15 months ago that I was opening a boxing club and to have Ken Buchanan as President and Billy Fitzgerald backing us, you ...
John Maynard Keynes famously wrote that "[i]f economists could manage to get themselves thought of as humble, competent people on a level with dentists, that would be splendid". Many economists, somewhat uncharacteristically, might well be craving that type of anonymity at the moment. Because they've been getting a hard time of it. And the discipline ...
Further to my last update on this, the City Council has now advised me : "206 of the 319 powered shelters in the city have been repaired (17 Feb 2011). The contractors have tackled the majority of the more difficult shelters (i.e. those with advertising units). A few of the unfinished shelters are at relatively advanced stages of repair. I would expect the work to be completed by the end of April 2011."
Something went very very wrong in the Disney Hall of Presidents....
Writing for the Oxford Student, Ed Watson stands up for the Liberal Democrats: "So, by all means call me and my party incompetent. Call us misguided. Tell us that we're failing to live up to our principles. Tell us that we're just plain wrong. But tell us that we lack principles, or impugn our integrity in some other way, and I'll see you on the meadows with pistols at dawn." On the OurKingdom site Malcolm Stevens discusses the detention of young offenders and calls on the Coalition to match the liberal achievements of... Margaret Thatcher: "Under her command from the ...
With the advent of the increase in student fees some are getting creative. I heard through an acquaintance today that people are sending their kids off to Maastrich now. What's the deal. Well I checked out their website - and yes the fees are only 1600 euros. Also they have programmes that are in english. Gosh! Who'd have thought that the answer would be a hop across the channel. So if the 9k fees of cambridge are all too much lets jump on easyjet and scoot off to holland. A very cosmopolitan education. Combine travel, new living and education.
I know I plugged my article about Larry, but I didn't go this far. Yesterday evening Polly Toynbee sent this tweet, which rather smacks of desperation. Still, her assumption that the world can be divided into trolls and people who agree with P. Toynbee is rather sweet. At the time of writing her article has 1200 comments. Unfortunately, I do not have time to read through them to see how successful her tweet was.
We have passed on these to be fixed
We have asked for the gate to be fixed as discussed at the last PACT meeting
This one is close to the roundabout at Clarks. Part of pot hole watch
I remember the joy of student protesting; possessing an ineffable 'ironic' righteousness against systems which transparently (at least as far as I could see at the time) wasn't working in the way it should. It was only later on, when I'd had the chance to understand the position my proto-opinions took in the great sweep ...
As the Labour candidate in Southport Paul Brant won our respect even if we didn't always agree with him. Now he is Liverpool City Council's budget supremo and has put together an all party budget (Lab/LibDem/Green).It is very instructive and shows what needs to be done to balance council's budgets. Please compare and contrast with the antics of Bootle Labour Party who are happy to vote against seemingly all cuts and suggest to every protester that the reductions are not needed. Here is an extract from Paul Brant's cabinet report Libraries and Leisure Centres The resources available to Libraries and ...
There's been some good news this week for Council tenants. Kingston Council has been awarded £11.6m over the next 4 years to bring homes up the the Decent Homes standard. Although it is less than was bid for, it is still very welcome. You probably know that for years Kingston has struggled to find money to improve council homes. One of the bizarre rules of Council funding is that money cannot be transferred into, or out of, the Council's Housing accounts. Of course, it is quite right that rent paid by tenants should not be used to fund other council ...
@stuartbonar #Labour MP Chuka Umunna attacks #Coalition for Barclays paying so little corporation tax in 2009. Repeat: 2009. Can you spot his error?
This morning's Week in Westminster on BBC Radio 4 included a fascinating discussion about relations between Labour and the Lib Dems. When Labour thought that the Lib Dems were easily wooable, they weren't interested in doing much wooing. But now that Labour realises that Liberal Democrats in government can find other coalition partners, their pursuit of Lib Dems has become both more determined and more desperate. Of course, it's partly about wanting to make Labour appear liberal (some hope), win over Lib Dem voters and attack the Coalition. But it's also about Labour's fear that, having assumed for decades that ...
Little U has started to talk. I don't want to exaggerate how much she says. She says her own name. She says "bye" sometimes. She will point to me and say "daddy", and to her mother and say "mummy", but won't identify other relatives in that way. She can identify the characters from Winnie the Pooh, and from In the Night Garden..., and the Teletubbies, but not from the other programmes which she watches. And she says "go to s'eep" at bedtime. She is eight years old. We have waited a long time to get this far, and who knows ...
This is going to be the shortest of these Beach Boys articles. Partly, this is because I plan on writing at least two more blog posts this weekend – the Cerebus and scientific method ones (and maybe the first chapter of my novel) (and I've also got to get some stuff done for work). Mostly, ...
In my previous post I said I thought the role of social media in Tunisia was a bit of a red herring. I wanted to expand on that thought. As I said on my own blog Wikileaks and social media played a role in Tunisia, and also in Egypt, but these things should be understood as helpful tools, not the root causes themselves. I thought the Foreign Policy article George Kendall cited was weak and the case for Wikileaks as a direct cause of the protests somewhat thin – even by the Foreign Policy article author's own estimation. What is ...
The Six O'clock News on Radio 4 yesterday reported that David Cameron and Nick Clegg had "traded blows" in the issue of the referendum A V . I admit that I haven't listened to both speeches in their entirety, but the clips I've heard from both exuded calmness, reasonableness and rationality (though naturally I placed Clegg's speech higher on the rationality scale that Cameron's). Of "blows" there was no sign. Why oh why does political debate in Britain have to be described in terms of gladiatorial combat? Sometimes the seating arrangements of the House of Commons are blamed, but this ...
You can find me, today, on Left Foot Forward commenting on Egypt and liberal interventionism. Egypt: A vindication for liberal interventionism?
A leader in the Financial Times says: FPTP fits countries that would, in any case, naturally split into two big political teams. It was suitable for Britain for much of the 20th century. At the 1955 election, the Conservative and Labour blocs won 96 per cent of the vote. But UK politics is no longer bipolar. At the recent election, the two main parties won only 65 per cent of the vote. Britain needs a system that is more sympathetic to little parties. AV would allow voters to register their support for their first-choice party, however slim its hopes of ...
As UK Uncut partake in another day of protests, James Shaddock looks at another way at dealing with the cuts. Cuts. They are coming. And they are coming fast. Too fast for some, but there is no denying that they will happen. As Labour's last Chief Secretary to the Treasury Liam Byrne infamously wrote in ...
With the cricket World Cup starting this weekend I was very interested to read David Bond's blog on Thursday with regards the precautions being taken to stop match/spot fixing in cricket. Basically I believe that: The players have to hand in their phones when they reach the ground.There are restrictions on the use of social networking sites/twitter.Each team is only allowed four laptops and only one of them can be connected to the internet.Security officials have "broader powers to monitor players" though these are not being released as they don't want people trying to influence the games to know.If they ...
Sat 19th
13:05
LibLink: Mark Pack - The Liberal Democrat Spring Conference agenda, whistlestop guide version
Over on his Mandate, Hogarth and Penrose blog, Lib Dem Voice's Mark Pack provides the time-pressed among us with a whistlestop guide of the agenda for the upcoming Liberal Democrat Spring Conference in Sheffield. Here are the bits of conference that Mark suspects are liable to be the most controversial: Saturday 10:15am: conference debates the Disability Living Allowance – mobility component, which is one of the areas of proposed welfare reform that has generated much controversy between Liberal Democrats and Conservatives in the coalition. Saturday, 10:45am: a long motion supporting the NHS reforms, including the words, "Conference welcomes the vision ...
Many local residents will have been quite rightly alarmed by the size of the cuts that have been forced on Lancashire County Council. What residents may find even more astonishing was that, despite being full of fury and bluster, Labour were unable to produce any alternative plans about how to get us out of the mess they helped create and could not produce an alternative budget. By contrast the Liberal Democrats produced a detailed alternative budget that would have protected care for the elderly as well as children's respite centres and the youth service and some subsudised bus services. It ...
My PAD photos for this week: Saturday A trip to Beecraigs Loch Sunday Valentine lilies Monday You know when you realise you've forgotten to buy wrapping paper? Not a problem. Just get a piece of paper out of the printer and ask obliging daughter to decorate it. Tuesday What poor Benjamin Bunny has to take for the next 4 weeks Wednesday Loads of snow, as seen from the train at Drumochter Pass Thursday Stone skimming at Chanonry Point near Fortrose with my sister and niece. Saw seals but no dolphins. Friday This is the first grown up meal my niece ...
[IMG: Nick Clegg] The Liberal Democrat party conference still plays an important role in deciding how the party is run and what its policies are, even as the PR role of the conferences has grown in importance and with the emergence of new policy making centres of power now that the party is in government. So the details of the motions tabled for debate at the forthcoming Spring conference in Sheffield (11-13 March) matter and will (or should) be poured over in detail by many outside the party. Here, however, is a quick whistlestop guide to the likely conference controversy ...
Oh dear, this blog seems to have become a bit earnest and angry, focused on defending local authorities against the nonsenses of certain ministers in our otherwise excellent government. So, it's time to change the mood, calm down and reflect. Here are some important questions to ponder, posed by musical artistes, popular beat combos and the like who appear in my iTunes list. (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding? - Nick Lowe Wasn't Tomorrow Wonderful? - The Waitresses Who Knows Where The Time Goes? - Fairport Convention What Time Is Love? - The KLF Is This All There ...
Nick Clegg came to Stockport yesterday (Friday) for a brief visit. He spoke to our councillors, MPs and Chief Exec about how Stockport's making cuts compared to the Manchester approach. In Stockport we're not closing a single library, or even reducing their opening hours. Manchester are closing libraries left, right and centre. In Stockport we're cutting 285 posts (full time equivalents) – 9% of our workforce. In Manchester it's 2000 – 17% of their workforce. Manchester's adult services budget is being slashed by 21%, Stockport's is being trimmed by just 3%. Manchester's children's services is being cut by 26%, Stockport's ...
[IMG: John Thune] [IMG: Creative Commons License] photo credit: Gage Skidmore Palin is unlikely to run. Romney is crocked by healthcare. Huckabee can't be bothered. Newt Gingrich has too much baggage. I suspect we'll see an unknownish figure coming through on the rails. ...Someone who hasn't attracted much heat so far in their career. Someone with a clean sheet. Someone who has come through to the US national political foreground without touching the edges – so far.Palin is obviously not going to run Step forward Senator John Thune of South Dakota (pictured above and below on You Tube). I have ...
Over at http://votomatic.ie/ you can test your views against those of the Irish political parties and see who you would vote for. Not being up on most of the current economic jargon I could not give clear answers in many cases, but none the less was astonished to find it rating me as a hard-line Green Party supporter (my complete ratings: Green +10, Labour +5, FF +4, SF -1, FG -3). However attractive their policies may be, the Green Party have completely failed the crucial test of their ability to actually implement them in their four years in government, and ...
The decision by the Obama administration to veto a UN Security Council resolution condemning illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied West Bank – a resolution that every other Council member, including Britain, had backed — is a telling confirmation that Washington has lost the plot. It seems blind to what is happening across North Africa and the ...
Nick Clegg launched the 'Yes to AV' campaign yesterday arguing that the referendum on 5th May provides a "once in a generation" opportunity to change politics for good. He said: "People want more choice. People aren't engaged enough in politics and they don't feel they are in charge enough. The alternative vote system crucially preserves the constituency links, but, absolutely vitally, it makes politicians work harder for your vote and forces them to reach out to the voters, not just a narrow number of people in their own communities." "Change in the way we do our politics come along once ...
Sat 19th
10:25Investing in social enterprises: government proposes ways to fix the broken investment market
During the week I commented on how "Community Politics" is a term becoming worryingly scarce amongst the public utterances of senior Liberal Democrats. One practical example of this is how so much of the running, both intellectual and practical, in political circles on developing social investment is happening in the Conservative Party. Finding ways to improve the availability of funds to social enterprises is an issue that has got increasing intention in recent years and is an important part of the Conservative vision for a Big Society bank, but Liberal Democrats have been mostly silent as it has become all ...
Following sectarian incidents at the Northern Ireland v Scotland match in the Aviva Stadium in Dublin recently, the Irish FA has said that Information has now come to light which has provided the name of one of those involved. The Association will now seek to confirm the identity of this individual. If their identity is ...
Big Finish have played some brave tricks with continuity in the past (eg Peri's two-year sojourn in fifteenth century England set in the gap between Planet of Fire and The Caves of Androzani), but it is particularly brave to invent a new First Doctor companion. But the potential gap is there, between The Daleks' Master Plan and The Massacre, and Tom Allan (best known as a comedian) joins Peter Purves for an adventure of alien invasion of the City of London in the mid-1960s. The plot is fairly standard, but the story scores for a) the brilliant evocation of Hartnell's ...
Yes 2 AV are at the Bracknell bandstand for most of the day. Please do pop along if you would like any information on the alternative voting system.
If there is one thing David Cameron needs to learn about cats, it is that they have egos bigger than any politician (or actor for that matter) and that they like being the centre of attention, but only when it suits them. Okay, that was two things. This lesson is beginning to be learnt in 10 Downing Street. Today's Daily Telegraph has a picture of Larry being forcibly removed by a civil servant after he tried to gatecrash a photocall between David Cameron and actor, Kevin Spacey, who is the artistic director of the Old Vic. Presumably, they want Larry ...
Sat 19th
10:03
February Books 12) Fantastic Beasts & Where To Find Them, by 'Newt Scamander' [J.K. Rowling]
I don't think even diehard Harry Potter fans will find much to thrill at in this book, 100 pages of guff about monsters looked at from the perspective of the Ministry of Magic bureaucrats with hand-written annotations supposedly by Harry and Ron.
It might be because public sector cuts are unpopular that politicians are resorting to the old vice of ignorant populism, but it is only a sign of immaturity. First was the opposition to the European Court of Human Rights' decision on prisoners' vote, then against the Supreme Court's judgement on the sex offenders' register, and let's not mention forests.It is quite remarkable how MPs seem unable
broadcast anniversaries 19 February 1966: broadcast of "Priest of Death", third episode of the story we now call The Massacre. Admiral de Coligny is shot and wounded; the Abbot (or is it the Doctor???) is killed. 19 February 1972: broadcast of fourth episode of The Curse of Peladon. The Ice Warriors kill Arcturus who was behind it all; Aggedor kills Hepesh; and all ends happily. 19 February 1977: broadcast of fourth episode of The Robots of Death. The Doctor alters the voice of Dask/Taran Capel with helium, and he is killed by his own robots.
Your Excellency, I am writing to you regarding the police action at Pearl Roundabout in Manama around 3am on Thursday 17 February and the shootings of demonstrators in Manama on Friday 18 February. According to press reports, five people were ... Continue reading →
An Odd Down PACT Meeting took place on Thursday 17th February 2011 at St Philips School. The following priorities were agreed at that meeting: Traffic not stopping for pedestrian crossing on A367 (near to Red Lion Roundabout). (Police to monitor/B&NES to investigate changing to pelican crossing).20mph limit on Upper Bloomfield Road. (B&NES to consider speed pipes data/traffic measures)
Sat 19th
08:55The weekend debate: Is it part of government's role to encourage political campaigning?
Here's your starter for ten in our weekend slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate... During the week, Lord McNally said in Parliament, as part of an answer to a written question, that "The Government do not have a role in encouraging party political activity on the ground". Is he right: should it be part of the government's role to encourage party political activity or should government have nothing to do with it? For example, should the government fund (directly or indirectly) publicity campaigns to encourage people to get involved in politics, including via parties? Should ...
Following on from yesterday's blog post here about the return of the comic leg-end that is Alan Partridge to our airwaves, we continue with the series. He's back hosting Mid Morning Matters on North Norfolk Digital Radio (with sidekick Simon). Here are the next 3 installments. Episode 4 sees Alan wine-tasting live on air... Epioside 5 sees an impromptu Sad Story and Alan's take on the Japanese. Episode 6 tells us that Alan's middle name is Gordon (!), gives us the result of his Piper poll and the excellent discussion on King and cars.
Few now will remember him, but for a time there was no performer more popular than Richard Grayson. From Shut That Door! through Liberals, International Relations and Appeasement to The Generation Game he was appeared in an interrupted stream of hit shows. His catchphrases were on everyone's lips: "Look at the muck on 'ere," "Seems like a nice boy "and (an acid comment on the quality of some Focus leaflets) "The things I've had through my letterbox." Best of all were the hilarious characters he invented: Slack Alice, Apricot Lil, L.T. Hobhouse, Everard Farquharson, T.H. Green. How we laughed! Today ...
According to today's headline on the Times website the Government is to change the Colour bar lifted for mixed-race adoptions (paywall) and in the Telegraph White couples must be allowed to adopt ethnic children, new guidance says, a welcome decision in my ... Continue reading →
Way back in July 2009 we had Ben Summerskill saying, in arguing against marriage equality,: '"Well, the issue on marriage is that again, there are a lot of vocal supporters, but the thing they've always focused on is actually the real rights and entitlements. As I said, we know there are quite a lot of gay and lesbian people who wouldn't want marriage, and some have explicitly said so. I think Antony Sher [the gay actor and playwright] gave an interview a while back where he said 'If it was marriage, I wouldn't want it. It recognises what's special about ...
House votes to cut all funding for US Institute of Peace | The Raw Story The mind boggles. Sure, USIP is not immune from criticism, but this is sheer intellectual vandalism. (tags: war usa) The SWISH Report (18) | openDemocracy "The very move towards more representative governance will raise huge popular hopes of socio-economic improvement, many of which will be impossible to fulfil. In addition, we see few (if any) circumstances in which an Israeli government of any conceivable stripe would seriously entertain a just settlement for the Palestinians." (tags: waronterror) The Commons vote to keep prisoners as political outcasts ...
"You're only in it for yourself" is not a comment limited to rogue MPs. It can be directed towards absolutely anyone. Bankers come to mind but anyone who buys or sells does so in order to get the best deal and that means some people get worse deals. At one extreme this is called theft and in that direction you will find con artists. The reason that I am writing on this subject is because I received an email yesterday warning me of a scam. This time it wasn't about an email but a telephone scam. I searched for what ...
Saturday: This week, we learned that the headline rate of inflation is 4% (with the rate including mortgage costs an even higher 5.1%) and we were warned that higher interest rates are on the way, pinching our purses even tighter. For lots of people, particularly those on public sector pay freezes, this is VERY BAD NEWS. Inflation turns a pay FREEZE into a pay CUT: you get the same money, but it doesn't go as far. In fact, inflation does this even if you do have a pay rise. So why risk the EXTRA pain of higher mortgage repayments now? ...
