Andrew Rawnsley once again hits the spot with his column this morning.
Rutland's most popular fictional peer continues his reminiscences of the early days of television. The Black and White Minstrels get a bad press these days. As they launched Mr Lenny Henry upon an unsuspecting and, in large part, innocent world, I suppose they rather deserve it. (Mind you, Henry went on to marry the comedy duo French & Saunders, so deserves our sympathy more than our condemnation.) However, I must record that the Minstrels were mustard keen cricketers and that my XI's fixture against them was the highlight of many a summer. The details of those games have rather faded ...
Last week saw the departure of Comedy Dave Vitty and unlike the previous week, it was no great surprise in the competition's grand scheme of things. This week saw the final 8 attempt 3 different skills - a real challenge for them all. Unfortunately however, I missed it all! I've been away at a family gathering and only got back in to see Vanilla Ice's conclusion to the evening's programme (and it did look like a stonkingly good performance to his own Ice Ice Baby it must be said!). So I could only comment on the brief highlights that I ...
I was horrified to read Friday's South London Press and discover that 8 Lambeth Labour councillors hadn't been paying council tax for more than two months. So bad that they weren't allowed to vote on the annual Lambeth Council budget! I used to be the Southwark Liberal Democrat chief whip. Such a situation wasn't possible. We'd have expelled councillors from our group for such outrageous behaviour. It will be interesting this coming Tuesday to see if Southwark Labour also have this problem to add to Southwark Labours already long list of problems.
Amazing list of civil liberties restored: - Reform the vetting and barring scheme - Remove convictions of gay men for consensual acts - DNA samples deleted for innocent people from Police databases - Reduction to 14 days for terrorist suspects. - Scrapping section 44 powers used to stop and search hundreds of thousands of innocent people - Rogue wheel clamping stopped - Schools kids no longer fingerprinted without parental consent - Fraud trials held with juries And these are just the headlines. Liberal Democrats in action from within the coalition.
Three years ago I quoted Chris White, the bass player with the Zombies, on the way the band's LP Odessey and Oracle has come to be seen as a classic: Even till the late 70s we were seen as a curiosity - a band who never quite made it - and then slowly in the 80s and 90s you found young bands quoting it as an inspiration. It's quite surprising to me to find that this album nobody wanted 40 years ago has become an icon. Some people have said it's their idea of the perfect album. It's all quite ...
Just a brief note to thank everyone for there cards and Birthday wishes. I have had a great day with so many messages so a big thank you. Hope to see many of you soon.
I tried to get a Cerebus post up today but failed miserably – it'll be up tomorrow with luck. Meanwhile, have some links: Via Alex WIlcock, I've discovered that Lulu are, until the end of tomorrow, having a 20% sale – type HAPPYUK in the promotion box when you order. Now obviously, it would be ...
If it wasn't apparent enough already that Ken Clarke was the most comfortable Conservative in the coalition, his performance on Andrew Marr this morning rammed the point home. He was asked about the protests in North Africa, and managed to use the word liberal three times in the first two minutes. When moving on to ...
Residents are rightly angry at the mindless vandalism of a bus shelter in Blackness Road - see right. It is the most westerly shelter on the north side. I have reported this to both the Police and the City Council and asked the council to make necessary repairs. I have also asked the Head of Transportation for an update on the costs to council taxpayers of vandalism to bus shelters in 2010/11.
Following residents' complaints, I have raised with the Street Lighting Partnership the damaged lamp post in Jedburgh Road, at its west end. I have asked if it can be repaired or replaced.
As recently noted, the BBC powers-that-be have decided to ban the term "electoral reform" being used by its correspondents because the word "reform" sounds too positive (see previous post on why this in itself is preposterous). But now it looks even more absurd! The Prime Minister – who is standing with the NO campaign is still using that self-same term. In his speech on Friday (and i will say this again!), arguing against AV, David Cameron himself uses the term "electoral reform" again and actually defines AV as a type of reform ...quoted on the BBC website... "(David Cameron) said ...
Stop .. Sam Brown version Jamelia version Sam Brown in my view!
And my beloved Leyton Orient showed just why this afternoon by holding Arsenal to a 1-1 draw at Brisbane Road. In a game that technically we were not supposed to win, Leyton Orient showed that you don't need to be ... Continue reading →
This is a tremendously important book, and I am surprised (but I suppose I should not be) that I have not read it before. It is a fairly straightforward narrative of life as a slave; Douglass was permanently separated from his mother soon after birth, his father being either her owner or one of his white household, in Maryland in about 1818; he endured the casual brutality - both the physical violence and the constant psychological degradation of enslavement - for about twenty-five years before escaping to the north with his (free black) wife. The narrative is brief but gripping, ...
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 209th weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere ... Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (13th-19th February, 2011), together with a hand-picked quintet, normally courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed. Don't forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox — just click here — ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging. As ever, let's start with the most popular post, and work our way down: 1. Parcel Monkey scam ...
[IMG: With survey responses in Granville Road] The Finsbury Park Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ) is very likely to be extended up to Ridge Road after 66% of those consulted by the Council asked for resident parking controls. Earlier this week I attended a meeting with parking officers and residents to hear the results of the consultation, which finished at the start of 2011. According to the briefing, 16% of residents in the consultation area outside the current CPZ responded, with 218 in favour of the expansion and 114 against. If the expansion goes ahead as expected the following roads will ...
This is Land At Rear Of 4 Bloomfield Drive Bloomfield Drive Bloomfield Bath p { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; } Should you wish to make any additional comments regarding the appeal, these should be sent in writing to The Planning Inspectorate, 3/25 Hawk Wing, Temple Quay House, 2 The Square, Temple Quay, Bristol BS1 6PN within 6 weeks of the starting date quoted above.
I now have a firm date when I'll be able to pick up the electric car, I'll have for a year as part of the government's CABLED electric car trial. Barring further delays I'll be picking up my Tata Vista EV on Saturday 12th March. In preparation for its arrival, e.on came on Friday and fitted a charging socket on the outside of my garage as this rather dull photo shows: As well as the socket there is a timer, inside the garage, so I can choose when to charge the car – charging in the small hours of the ...
As a connoisseur of Islington Council meetings, I was very sad to miss this month's council budget meeting. Islington's new Labour administration ended up directing the police to eject 60 people and finished the Council Meeting, which made £52 million of cuts, in secret. I have no time for the cuts protesters. They are deficit ...
Yesterday I and the rest of the Alamein Lib Dem team visited Augusta Park to speak to residents about the issues that matter in their area. While the majority of residents were happy with the new estate several raised concerns about specific issues with which I am or will be dealing. Many shared my view that the proposal to divert Smannell Road through the new estate is illogical, unacceptable and just plain stupid. However the government inspector and the government have decreed it will happen. A number of street lights are still not working a year after they were installed ...
It's rare to have an election-free year these days but 2015 is set – for the moment – to be a voters' bonanza in Scotland and Wales. Fixed, four-year terms at Holyrood will coincide with the end of the first fixed five year term at Westminster, meaning two national elections in the devolved nations. Unless Scotland and Wales decide otherwise. On Thursday, the government wrote to the Presiding Officers and party leaders in Scotland and Wales, offering them the chance to move the date of their respective Parliament and Assembly elections. This follows a period of consultation between the two ...
Last week the government announced an humiliating u-turn on its plans to sell off Britain's forests. This followed over 500,000 people signing an online petition against the proposals and over 100,000 people contacting their MPs to register opposition to the plans. I and the rest of the Lib Dem councillors on Test Valley Borough Council all backed the petition and we were planning to raise the matter at this Friday's council meeting calling on the council and our local MPs to support the opposition to the plan. Our motion is still on the table for discussion but given the government's ...
The FT Weekend has an interesting interview with Kevin Rudd, Australia's foreign minister and ex-PM. At the end of the article, he says: "I believe in politics for the two questions it asks of us. One is, 'What do you stand for and why?' And the second is, 'Do you know what you are talking about?'" In posing those two questions, Rudd sums up what I believe politics should be about. No, he hasn't painted the whole picture. After what Rudd cryptically describes as "the events of June 24" last year, he might have added the abilities to keep up ...
I promised to return to this topic as there were some important issues on the agenda. In this posting I want to look at just a couple. Firstly the representations we have received from young people about the youth service and secondly the continuing alliance between the 'official' Conservatives and the Labour Party over £7m extra borrowing for projects which when compared with some of the budget cuts we are making do not appear to be priorities-well that is the polite way of expressing it. Firstly let us look at the Youth Service. The representations on this matter split neatly ...
It's never been the best read, but the recent Stockwood Tory Publication, "In Touch" has apparently not reached all of us Stockwood residents for some reason, so I am told. Certainly the Goulden household in Stockwood failed to receive a copy! However, the few residents that did get Stockwood Tories "In Touch" which in my opinion should be renamed Out of Touch told me that it pictured the usual "glum" looking councillors and very strangely a link to South Gloucestershire Conservatives. Is Cllr Jethwa planning to move seats to an area nearer to where she lives? A rumour has been ...
I am not surprised that the No to AV campaign is actually campaigning and trying to get people to vote in their favour, after all it is what they want. However I am worried by the lies that they are spreading as facts as people might actually believe them. I want people to vote based on the actual issues making an informed decision, not because they are afraid of fascists such as the BNP getting more than one vote. See the email William Hague sent out to No2AV supporters. The most worrying inaccuracy is: * AV is unfair. With First ...
A leader in The Scotsman / Scotland on Sunday backs a Yes vote in May's referendum: The fact that it is AV on offer and not one of the other systems is the product of three specific factors: the offer on PR made by the last Labour government to woo the Lib Dems; the arithmetic of the general election result; and the mechanics of the deal between David Cameron and Nick Clegg that delivered the coalition administration. It is the product of specific circumstances. It is also the only game in town. In the world of realpolitik an academic debate ...
This is crossposted from the Yes to Fairer Votes website: [IMG: This is what the NO campaign call a debate] At 5.30pm on the 16th February I received a call from the No Campaign stating that "seeing as I hadn't provided a speaker for the AV debate taking place in Sheffield on the following day, could I please bring down some Yes literature?" This is the first notice I had received confirming that any debate would be taking place, and indeed the first time I had been offered the chance to have a speaker. I politely declined the offer. Not ...
I said on Twitter on Tuesday that if the Bahrain Government was going to fire on its own people, then the Formula One season opener due to take place on 13th March, as well as the testing the previous weekend, should be cancelled immediately. I am horrified to see that Bernie Ecclestone, someone you may remember who gave a million quid to the Labour Party when they still had ethics, so you'd think he'd have a passing interest in human rights, has now left it to the Crown Prince of Bahrain to decide whether the race goes ahead. Until now, ...
It was a Saturday. Carwyn Jones had just finished his speech, and Leighton Andrews had prepared well for his appearance before the media. He was nervous. He had watched Fawlty Towers the night before. That, and his guilt about the funding gap between English and Welsh students had combined to create the weirdest dreams, where the Coco Monkey was doing a goose-step round a British hotel screaming, "DON'T MENTION THE COCO POPS!" To be fair, it must have been terrifying. And maybe that's why he dressed the way he did. He had chosen a saucy little number. Jeans, suit, shirt ...
You've probably never heard of Ted Jeory - he's a reporter for the Sunday Express. I have never bought the Sunday Express my preference has always been Andrex! Mr Jeory cannot seem to get a fact right. In his paper ... Continue reading →
This week saw the Chinese Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) celebrations draw to a close. I was delighted to be asked to speak to a group of Chinese carers as part of their celebrations this week. The event was run by MECOPP, the Leith based Minority Ethnic Carers of Older People Project who had just won a European Commission Award. They are the first winners of the 'European Local Authorities Competition on Good Practices on the Support for Migrant Elders' Initiatives.' MECOPP currently provides support to around 400 people in the Edinburgh and Lothian's.Some of their principal achievements include:providing advocacy ...
This chapter is mostly a fairly straightforward military narrative, so the things that caught my eye were a couple of side details - apart from the last few pages, which deal with comets, earthquakes and plague.
As councillors we work hard to get things done, and there's nothing we like more than a good local success, but sometimes it turns out to be difficult for all sorts of different reasons. This is one such example – still a "work in progress" but I've been frustrated so far. At the back of Gatley Station car park there's a strip of land – a path running from the tunnel under the railway across towards the South Park Road Estate. Whenever there's lots of rain, it gets very muddy and we often end up with big pools of water ...
How did Lawrence Dallaglio avoid becoming popular in Irish pubs ? By being named Lawrence and not Edward Ian.
Mark Cole has reprinted an extract from the extraordinary interview with the Labour Education Minister at his party's conference in Llandudno yesterday. The relevant part can be seen after 54 minutes here. As Mark says you will see a visibly angry Education Minister lambasting BBC political journalist Aled ap Dafydd as he challenged the Minister on Labour's free school breakfasts policy when Wales ranks so low in a league table of reading assessments: Aled ap Dafydd: "You're giving coco pops to kids for breakfast, for free, that's something that parents might want, they might welcome that, but more importantly I ...
The Independent on Sunday reports on a new book, How to Be in Opposition: Life in the Political Shadows, which warns that Labour must be more upbeat and positive if it is to get back into Government. It suggests that many leaders of the opposition start out promising a "new way of doing things" but slip quickly into an easy comfort zone of opportunistic attacks and that this can lose votes. Oppositions face a constant balancing act between criticising the Government while also not unveiling a detailed policy programme years before an election. Mr Miliband is to stress that his ...
As bankers continue to scandalise the country with the scale of their pay and bonuses while the real economy struggles and youth unemployment soars, we should take a long hard look at the role of banking in the wider economy. For years the received wisdom has been that they make huge profits so they must be simply wonderful, Masters of the Universe, the jewel in the crown of the British economy and so unlike the broken-backed manufacturing sector. But how do they do it? I can see why top footballers are paid a fortune and why Apple's brilliant innovations are ...
Yesterday afternoon Melvin Caton and myself met residents of Bollington Hall, Cambridge Road and Vicarage Lane Ugley to discuss the spate of recent accidents. The last serious accident was during the evening of 30 January when a car came speeding off the road and ended upside down in a residents garden. A few seconds earlier it would have been one of the cottages on Vicarage Lane (pictured) that the car hit. Fortunately, the two young male occupants of the car were not seriously injured. A Bollington Hall resident informed me that last year a car upended into a field. Residents ...
The other day I was walking from home to town when I heard a male voice shout to me. "Dazmando","Dazmando, you should be hanged, people like you make me sick"Me "whose that?"Voice "You earn £40k and your not happy, you should hang""What, where are you"Voice "Go F' yourself"I started to walk in the direction of the voice, "Talk to me about it?"Couldn't find anyone, I couldn't believe it, I'm still a bit miffed, There was no one around, perhaps I'm going mad? I could not see anyone or find anyone there. If your going to have a go at me, ...
"One of the few policies from the last Labour Government that received universal praise was the setting up and funding of Children's Centres" says Romsey's County Councillor, Mark Cooper. "Sure Start, provided mainly in the Children's Centres, is designed to give all children, whatever their background or financial circumstances, an equal start in life". There are 81 Children's Centres in Hampshire and they are funded in full through the 'Sure Start Early Years Childcare Grant' totalling £16.9 million in 2010/2011. The Coalition Government has retained the £16.9 million grant for the coming financial year. "Unfortunately, the cash is not ring-fenced" ...
It was quite an astonishing live media outburst from the Labour Welsh Education Minister during yesterday's Welsh Labour Party conference in Llandudno. Wind forward on the BBC iPlayer link here http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/z1c7n/ to 54 minutes and you will see a visibly angry Education Minister lambasting BBC political journalist Aled ap Dafydd when he challenged the Minister on Labour's free school breakfasts policy when Wales ranks so low in a league table of reading assessments. The key extracts... Aled ap Dafydd: "You're giving coco pops to kids for breakfast, for free, that's something that parents might want, they might welcome that, but ...
Late on Wednesday night Nick Clegg was at the back of the House of Lords to see Royal Assent granted to the Parliamentary Voting Systems and Constituencies Bill. His presence there emphasised his achievement in getting this Bill through Parliament in time to enable the referendum on switching to the Alternative Vote to take place on May 5th. Of course people may not vote to change from First Past the Post. But I have never thought that any measure of electoral reform for Westminster would come about without a referendum. The self-preservation instincts of many MPs means that they are ...
An Order is being made under the provisions of Section 14(1) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 the effect of which will be to close the following from Monday 28 February 2011 A) Vehicular traffic 1) A 1265 metre length of C131 from its junction with A68 near Allensford Bridge to and including its junction with Consett Lane; 2) A 380 metre length of Unclassified road 18.30 Consett Lane between its junctions with Pemberton Road and Hall Road Roundabout, The Grove B) Pedestrian traffic 1) A 1.64 km length of southern associated and contiguous footway of A692 from Consett ...
Empire at the End of Decadence - NYTimes.com Via Andrew Ducker, article and infographic about some of the stuff that America leads the world in, and the UK is not far behind on. None of it is good stuff. (tags: scary) Ikea Stonehenge Ikea Stonehenge; the only thing that is not right about this is that the name isn't silly enough. I mean, after the Fem Vag shower curtain.... (tags: funny) FOX NEWS INSIDER: "Stuff Is Just Made Up" | Media Matters for America Pope shits in the woods news, here. (tags: media)
That's the headline in The Guardian: A report published by the Institute for Public Policy Research North shows polarisation between rich and poor was rising even before the recession of 2008 took hold... The report found that, of the northern regions, the north-west has the greatest pay inequality, with the top 20% earning £427 more a week than the bottom 20%. The greatest disparities are found in London, where the top 20% earn £686 more a week than the bottom 20%. You can read the full story here.
On 28 March, 28 bus routes will be changed in some way, mostly curtailed as part of the cost savings exercise. Two of these relate to the Barton-le-Clay ward: 79 (Centrebus): Luton, Barton Le Clay, Shillington, Meppershall, Shefford, Upper Gravenhurst Revised timetable. Service via Hexton and Pegsdon withdrawn. 223 (Red Rose): Luton, Upper Sundon, Chalton, Toddington, Harlington, Westoning This evening service is to be withdrawn. For the full picture, visit the Council's website at Will this affect you, your life, your loved ones? I'd like to hear from you, tel: 0300 300 8550 or by e-mail janet.nunn@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk
i) births and deaths 20 February 1913: birth of Rex Tucker, who is credited formally as director of The Gunfighters (1966) but also played an important role in the genesis of the show in 1963. 20 February 1954: birth of Anthony Stewart Head, who played Mr Finch/Brother Lazar in School Reunion (2006), Grayvorn in the 2002 Big Finish Excelis audio plays, and voiced characters in Death Comes to Time (2001-02) and The Inifnite Quest (2007) as well as doing voiceovers for most Doctor Who Confidentials since 2006. (Also Giles in Buffy, not that you needed reminding.) ii) broadcast anniversaries 20 ...
On Thursday the Lib Dems in Shropshire gained a council seat from the tories. Despite a strong campaign by Labour who hadn't stood in the ward last time, Andrew Bannerman increased his share of the vote to 41.8% with a 5.7% swing. This is good news for us, not just because of the gain in itself but because of what it tells us. It tells us that we can still win seats against the tories despite Labour trying to sap away our support and that our vote remains solid where it counts. I don't know what this means for places ...
There used to be a TV commercial in which a Welsh choir sang about all the things that are "made in Wales", to demonstrate the impressive diversity of the Welsh economy. Not the Nine O'Clock News' memorable spoof was the same song, but about all the things that are "made from whales - all these things are made from whales". The midnight news just informed me of a speech by Ed Miliband that was made in Wales - but was all about England. This Parliament's first Labour Leader was today speaking at Labour's Welsh Spring Conference, a mere two months ...
Oh dear Tom Greatrex. The Labour MP for Rutherglen and Hamilton West—who is also the Shadow Scotland Office Minister—has been causing a stir over allegations that Lib Dem Michael Moore "is terrified of the truth". It all relates to a vote in the Commons back in July that Moore, Secretary of State for Scotland, missed. ...
I have always taken an interest in developments in the Arab-Israeli conflict. This is, in some respects, unfortunate for me: it seems to be an unfailing source of depressing news. The latest incident I read about is that the Americans have vetoed a resolution at the UN condemning Israeli settlement building in the Palestinian Territories. The motion had wide support - the BBC reports that at least 130 countries were backing it. The settlements are illegal. They are an obstacle to peace. Worst of all, the Israeli government has been defiant on the issue. This is, perhaps, not so surprising: ...
One of the reasons I've started this series of posts is because I have a huge respect for the scientific method – in fact, I'd go so far as to say that I think the scientific method is the only means we have of actually knowing anything about the world, or indeed anything at all ...
David Hasselhoff supports the reopening of the Winter Gardens. That's great! The more support for the reopening the better. However I have to wonder whether the Hoff would still support the reopening if he knew that the Winter Gardens was a theatre and not a set of gardens. It may well be that David has been fed more information, but that's all it is, a feed. You would expect that with such a ringing endorsement that David must have some connection with Morecambe, so I did a bit of searching on the internet and came across this article on the ...
