That's what was said to me on the doorstep today, by a resident describing the coalition. This isn't a Lib Dem voter, but someone who could see the mess the country was left in by Labour and the need to reduce our deficit drastically. A deficit that's so huge the numbers become meaningless. The debt this country has incurred because we've lived beyond our income for so long means that we're
The Guardian reported today that Green ISAs are likely to be scrapped by the Treasury - and so cutting a potential £2bn of new investment in low-carbon, break-through technologies such as electric vehicles. The Treasury move is to prevent the sale of green ISA products through the government-backed Green Investment Bank. Additionally discouraging the essential change of mindset for mobilising the wider support of individual investors to put their savings into the new green economy. The argument against the offer of Green ISAs is said to be that the bank might be seen as competing with the private sector and ...
Welcome to Broxtowe Enews, brought to you by the Liberal Democrats and edited by David Watts, the leader of Broxtowe Borough Council. 1. Mayors Ball The Broxtowe Mayors Ball, to support his charities Help For Heroes and Hope Nottingham, will take place on Saturday 12th March 2011 at The East Midlands Conference Centre. Tickets (£30 each) are still available. 2. Paradiso Cinema Paradiso Cinema presents Another Year, a Film by Mike Leigh on Sunday 13th March at 7.30pm At Chilwell Arts Theatre, Chilwell School, Queens Road West, NG9 5AL. Tickets on the door are £5 or £4 for concessions. Refreshments ...
This is the first volume of Sherlock Holmes stories, and includes several rather brilliant tales of detection - my favourite is "The Red-Headed League", but it also includes "The Speckled Band" and "The Blue Carbuncle". "The Engineer's Thumb" is another good one - even though Holmes' only deduction is the location of the crime, and even that turns out to be too late, it is an effective piece of horror. However, the collection also includes several stories which are already getting a bit formulaic - the country house with the Awful Family Secret ("The Speckled Band" being the best), the ...
We'll have a once in a generation chance to improve our voting system on 5 May, when I urge you to vote yes to the Alternative Vote (AV) system for national elections. For those of us who've had enough of the years of pendulum politics that the current first past the post system (FPTP) gives us, AV is a vast improvement. Not as good as full proportional representation in my view, but it's the best that the Liberal Democrats could squeeze out of the Tories in the coalition government and certainly better than the zippo, carry-on-with-the old-ways that would have ...
I'd planned to do this later in the week, but Xianrex asked me on Twitter if I had a list of twenty Monkees songs for the neophyte, and in fact just last night I put together this twenty-song playlist. I'm posting it now, before finishing the Cerebus post, because my wife's not a Monkees fan, ...
There are a few tests apart from the fact I have a huge regard for a song that I feel it `in my bones` that I'm looking at an act that is the BUSINESS. I felt it in '07 as soon as I saw Marija in her M&S jumper, in '08 with Dima as soon ...
So far this year I seem to be spending a lot of time away from home. Specifically, I seem to be spending a lot of time working from our Bracknell office – it was 3 days last week and 4 days this week. Inevitably, I spend a fair amount of time at hotels in and around the area. While there's a Travelodge right next to our building (which is great if you need a short commute time and the staff are friendly there), I prefer somewhere that has a few more home comforts if I'm honest. So in no particular ...
Paddy McGuiness. Don't you just love him? If he didn't exist, he'd have to be invented. There is a Facebook page devoted to all his "Take me out" catchphrases. Other gems include: Let the plum see the jam Let the treasure, see the chest Let the wibble see the wobble Let the sun see the tan Let the higgle see the piggle Let the Baker see the buns Let the plumber see the pipes Let the Tomato see the sauce Let the Pork see the Scratchings and, for course: No likey, no lighty
Well, I always get confused. (And for the avoidance of doubt, I am the English Numpty in the title) Fine Gael seem to be the slightly more right-wing party of the two, but usually form coalitions with Labour. Garret Fitzgerald, one of the most eloquent and reasonable former Irish Taoiseachs was leader of Fine Gael – as was John Bruton and Liam Cosgrave. Michael Collins was one of their founders and they identify as Christian Democrats, caucussing with the European People's Party in the European Parliament. Fianna Fáil are somewhat to the left of Fine Gael and caucus with the ...
Well, tallies are now in at least for all constituencies and Tipperary South, Dublin West and Dublin Mid West have actually completed all counts in the election, so it looks as if the new Dáil will look as follows: Fianna Fáil Fine Gael Labour Sinn Féin Green Others Carlow-Kilkenny 2 2 1 - - - Cavan-Monaghan 1 2 - 2 - - Clare 1 2 - - - 1 Cork East 1 2 1 - - - Cork North Central 1 1 1 - - 1 Cork North West 1 2 - - - - Cork South Central 2 2 ...
I am both surprised and concerned that the Defence Secretary, Liam Fox, has disclosed details of a mission carried out by two RAF C-130 Hercules transport aircraft to rescue 150 civilians deep inside Libya, south of Benghazi. This is bound to have been a very complex operation involving the SAS in some capacity on the ground and the crossing of Libyan air defences. With the BBC suggesting some 300 British nationals remain, such a disclosure of this mission must be premature and unwise. The time for self back-slapping is when the last man is out. What a gift it would ...
In a break in my normal stance on looking from the outside, today I ventured out into the activist world. Yes to fairer votes came to Yeovil today in the guise of a street stall. I was cordially invited and ... Continue reading →
The whole of last week Parliament was in recess. But on Tuesday I chaired a meeting on the developments in Bahrain where, following large demonstrations, and the deliberate slaughter of demonstrators by the security forces, the king has asked Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa to enter into a dialogue with the opposition on the political reforms they demand. Hassan Mushaime, Leader of the Haq movement, returned to Bahrain today after a period of voluntary exile. He said that actual reforms are needed, not just talk. It remains to be seen whether the government's offer is genuine. It won't take ...
Residents in Morven Terrace have complained to me about vandalism of the phone unit in the phone box at the entrance to the street. See me pictured (right) at the phone box. I have brought this to the attention of British Telecom and have requested repairs.
New York digs out a series of photos of President Obama waving grudgingly. He looks like he is sucking on a lemon as he waves in most of the photos. But if you look in the comments there are also some lemon-suck-waves from a previous President.
The STV election results in Ireland really are fascinating. It will only be tomorrow afternoon that we should have the final results from yesterday's count but the early results back-up what the opinion polls were suggestion in the lead-up to the poll. The RTE website here are showing detailed coverage of the results as they trickle in. At 6.55pm many constituencies had announced the first count results whilst others are still counting. Of the results currently in, the latest figures are as follows... Fine Gael - 35.3% Labour - 22% Fianna Fáil - 17.2% Sinn Féin - 8.4% Green Party ...
Claire Matthew, who is currently undertaking postgraduate studies in journalism, has been covering news stories affecting the West End. She has recently started a blog at http://westofcentre.posterous.com/ that has already covered items about crime and concerns about the possible closure of the Crichton Street Parcel Collection Office. On the Royal Mail Collection Office issue, Claire has uploaded a video report : Untitled from Claire Matthew on Vimeo.
Today's Guardian has a profile of Lib Dem peer Lord (Matthew) Oakeshott: Lord Oakeshott is the master of the one-liner. Treasury officials, in his opinion, "couldn't negotiate themselves out of a paper bag". Bankers' pay particularly irks him: "If this is bonus restraint, my name is Bob Diamond," is one of the most memorable remarks uttered by any politician this year... [IMG: Lord Matthew Oakeshott] A forthright supporter of the Guardian's tax gap campaign - he read out in the Lords statements that Barclays had enjoined, and which could be revealed only because of parliamentary privilege - he is keeping ...
[IMG: Greenwich Liberal Democrats and Alex Folkes] This morning it was off at a moderately unsociable hour to Greenwich to meet up with Alex Folkes to train Greenwich Liberal Democrats in local ward campaigning. It was good to meet such a large local team, and one moreover starting their planning for the next local elections in very good time. (It's one of the perils of all-out elections every four years that it can be tempting to go to sleep locally for three years out of four.) It was also really good to see what a positive response there was to ...
There's a strange logic to No2AV's arguments; they're trying to push both the "AV will lead to more coalitions" and "AV will lead to less coalitions" on different pages on their Why Vote No? In a sense, they're kind of right; if AV was adopted for 1997, then possibly, yes, the Tories would've been disadvantaged because there was a huge anti-Tory sentiment. But if it was adopted for 1992, it would've led to a hung parliament; Major barely hung on then. In a way, AV makes more decisive elections slightly more decisive, and muddled elections more muddled. This exposes one ...
I attended the exhibition held at Stansted Day Centre today. The proposal is for 75-100 family sized houses. I talked to Will Gemmill and Chris Tivey who acts as his planning consultant. They said there had been a steady number of people visiting. A consultation feedback form was available for completion. If you were unable to attend the exhibition but would like to make your comments known please do so within the next two weeks. You should contact Chris Tivey on 01621 868404 or email him at chris@ctaplanning.com. All comments will be analysed and made available both to Stansted Parish ...
The Times is running an interview today quoting Coalition Liberal Democrat Danny Alexander MP saying: "They're not Tory cuts, they're our cuts too, says Treasury Lib Dem; Saturday interview" Speak for yourself Danny, was my first thought, they're not my cuts if they hurt the poorest unfairly. But then I read the interview and came across the actual quote. "The plans to reduce the deficit are much as our plans as the Conservative plans." That's consistent with what the Coalition set out in 'Our Programme for Government', with its reference to the urgent task to tackle our record debts. "Difficult ...
Note: this is the first in what I think will be a series of questions which will have a one line answer. Answer: their opposition to AV of course!
Regular readers will know that I've taken quite an interest in the case of Gary McKinnon, the man with Asperger's Syndrome under threat of extradition to the US on computer hacking charges. Nick Clegg strongly supported Gary's case, but has now written to Gary's mother turning down her request for a meeting with him. So, how do I feel about that? Well, those nice people at Liberal Democrat Voice have let me write this article for them on the subject, so please go and take a look.
Sat 26th
16:44
Last call for entries: Speechwriting competition - can the right words fend off protestors?
Writing speeches with Paddy Ashdown sometimes happened at difficult times, like when we'd spent weeks preparing his announcement that he would run for the leadership in 1988 - only for it to dawn on us that we'd have to produce another one for the next day, then another, followed by almost a speech a day for the next three weeks. Nor was it much fun when the party was at 4% in the opinion polls or, and this was probably the most difficult one of all, working on his first speech as High Representative to the parliament of Bosnia Herzegovina. ...
I see that on Liberal Democrat Voice Chris White, leader of the Lib Dem opposition on Herts County Council has taken a swipe at the 'Big Society' dismissing it for having 'meatless bones' and amounting to 'not very much at all'. Now don't want to pick a quarrel with Chris, who I generally regard as a kindred spirit. But I do get frustrated at the tone of begrudgery that many Lib Dems adopt when discussing the Big Society. More generally it is symptomatic of a Lib Dem intellectual cringe towards the other parties - as soon as they adopt our ...
We've covered in various forms the moves by the traditionally Labour pressure group Compass to reach out across party lines (such as in this guest post from its chair Neal Lawson and in this review by Paul Walter of one of his articles). Compass this week took a further step by opening up its membership: 68% of our members have voted in favour of constitutional amendments which end the rulings that restrict membership to those already in Labour or entitled to be so. The vote represents a clear sign as to the future direction of progressive politics, a resounding rejection ...
I like the Oyster system in public transport in London. We moan when things like that fail, but Oyster has been a triumphant success. There are inevitable problems, even with the best of systems. So credit must go to my Lib Dem colleague Caroline Pidgeon for looking into what happens when an Oyster user is wrongly charged the maximum fare for a pay-as-you-go journey. Caroline, who leads the London Assembly's Liberal Democrat Group, has raised this issue with London Mayor Boris Johnson, who has provided the following explanation, which usefully explains why this problem sometimes occurs, and what Transport for ...
I'm working on my Cerebus post now – expect it some time this evening, with a Pet Sounds one tonight, and the next part of How We Know What We Know tomorrow. But I've got a question: I've got a pretty good idea for an interesting science fiction novel, and I've been planning to serialise ...
The BBC reports that a Covent Garden restaurant is going to be selling ice cream made from human milk, called - wait for it - Baby Gaga, at £14 a scoop. The milk, donated by London mother Victoria Hiley, for which she is paid £15 for every 10 ounces, is pasteurised before being mixed with Madagascar vanilla and lemon zest before churning and freezing. The BBC's video shows people saying that the idea is "yucky" but who then like the taste. It all reminds me a bit of the episode of Friends where Ross gets himself all in a panic ...
Next Thursday's South Area meeting has some important issues, including how the police spend their time and how the City Council should regulate lap-dancing clubs. The meeting's at Homerton College and starts at 7.30pm. It is open to everyone, but will be focussing on issues relevant to the south of Cambridge, Queen Edith's, Cherry Hint0n and Trumpington. You can view an agenda on the City Council website, but here is a summary: Police priorities The police come to these meetings once every two months to put forward priorities for the next period and hear our views, including suggestions for new ...
A quick search on my own blog for "Gary McKinnon" will show that I have written several times, at some length, on the reasons why I believe that he should not be extradited to the US. I believe that to do so to such a vulnerable person would be a disproportionate action which would seriously and adversely affect his health. For an Asperger's sufferer, change can be really difficult to deal with. The National Autistic Society website states that routine and familiarity are key elements in living with their condition. In my view, it would violate the principles of justice ...
I am at Save the Children's Born to Write blogging conference. I don't know if it is the Wifi here or a more general problem, but I cannot use Twitter. So here is a short post with some links. I shall write more about the day later. Save the Children got a lot of press coverage this week for its new report on child poverty in the UK. You can read an article about it by Gareth Jenkins on the charity's website and also download the whole report from there. You can read about the charity's redoubtable founder Eglantyne Jebb ...
Vaguely UNIT-related links ahoy: Day 3706: Chap With Wings – A very nice tribute to Nicholas Courtney and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart from one of Millennium's Daddies. The Many Brigadiers of Nicholas Courtney – An amusing collection of pictures of the various aspects of the Brigadier. How To Make Oatmeal...Wrong – (For UKers, 'oatmeal'='porridge') How McDonalds can take even the most simple of dishes, and mess it up. The Death Of Bill Hicks – Seventeen years since Bill Hicks died. Man, I feel old now. FactCheck: the AV campaign gets dirty – I'm shocked – shocked! – to discover that a propaganda ...
[IMG: Financial Times logo] Having often enough looked around for Twitter lists for the Financial Times and not found ones that quite suit my needs, I've created two for my own use - but happy for others to use these FT lists too if you find them useful: Financial Times automated news feeds on Twitter Financial Times journalists on Twitter Where there is a feed for a Financial Times journalist that is only automated headlines and links to their stories, then it has gone into the first list. The second list (should!) only contain FT journalists who post their own ...
I was out leafleting just now in the Highfield Road area, and parked my car on the street. I had forgotten that a couple of years ago we successfully campaigned to introduce Residents' Only parking in the area, after local people complained that they could never get a space. And, quite rightly, I got a ticket! ...
Millions of people in the UK (including myself) will get wasted on alcohol this evening. There's something inherent in humans (primates?) that makes being intoxicated an insatiable desire. For many of us, it will be reasonably harmless fun, or at least nothing that a few ibuprofen, glasses of water and rashers of bacon in the morning won't sort out. In the process, many of us will make new friends, or improve the bond between existing friendships. Some of us will meet someone we end up falling in love with, and some of us will get laid. But with all this, ...
The FactCheck blog has been running its eyes over the claims made by No2AV about how much introducing the alternative vote would cost (the subject too of my letter published in yesterday's Independent). Here's what they conclude: No to AV claims that the combined costs of a referendum, implementing electronic vote counting and educating voters will cost Britain a cool £250 million. And just over half of this will be splashed out on shiny new electronic vote counting machines, the campaigners say... The problem is however, that there are no current plans to implement electronic voting machines in the event ...
Following on from my recent blog posts here, here and 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). I'm now up-to-date with the series so here is the 10th installment. Episode 10 sees Alan playing meet an internet entrepreneur and gets a call from the Inland Revenue for massaging his earnings live on Radio...
I can't remember now what I was looking for, but wanderings in Wikipedia took me to the entry for one James Plaskett, who has written an extended essay arguing that Major Charles Ingram who, along with alleged accomplices, was convicted a few years back for cheating on the television quiz programme 'Who wants to be a millionaire?' is innocent. I found Plaskett's arguments rather convincing, although he is preaching to the converted in my case. I always thought the prosecution petty, vindictive and self-serving by the production company, and the evidence flimsy and unconvincing. James Plaskett is clearly an interesting ...
Here are this week's PAD photos: Saturday My Zumba teachers Cheryl and Nadia before a charity fundraising class to raise money for the Scottish team going to the Tae Kwon Do World Championships in New Zealand. Sunday View from the front row at my first ever Ice Hockey match, the Edinburgh Capitals against the Newcastle Vipers. Unfortunately, the local lads lost 10-2, but I loved the atmosphere Monday I get that I'm turning into a Grumpy Old Woman here, but, honestly, Amazon, that box, for that product. Really? Tuesday A trip to Edinburgh to buy school shoes also saw us ...
Today's Times (£) features an interview with Danny Alexander, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, which touches on Coalition cuts, the Budget, banks, Nick Clegg, electoral pact rumours – and even red squirrels. Here's a taster: "One of the things about a coalition is it's two different parties, with different policies and different thinking. The only way you can deal with things is through discussion based on evidence and it does mean that you have a bit more formality about the processes of government than perhaps existed before." When he took over at the Treasury, his predecessor left him a ...
"Democrats have gained Senate seats in Arkansas, Kentucky and Wisconsin, but perhaps the result most eyes in the nation are on - other than the Presidential race - is the Illinois Senate election, where First Lady Michelle Obama has prevailed over incumbent Senator Mark Kirk, by a 6 point margin, 53-47%, with 83% of precincts ...
Sat 26th
11:21
Labour Haringey vote to close day centres, cut youth services and voluntary sector funding
Reports of the Budget meeting of Haringey Council from Thursday show Labour in their true light – clapping and cheering as they cut youth services and day centres. Labour voted to close older people's day centres, cut youth services by £2 million (75%) and slash budgets for the voluntary sector. The Labour group rejected my Liberal Democrat colleagues' alternative plans to further reduce the Council's bureaucracy which would have saved day centres and reduced the effect of cuts on youth services, the voluntary sector and projects to tackle crime and unemployment. Yes – cuts have to be made – by ...
There are times when one has to feel sorry for Ed Miliband. There he is trying to make Labour electable again after their disastrous stewardship of the economy under Gordon Brown and all these ghosts from the past keep popping up to offer him advice. The latest incarnation of this phenomenon comes from Peter Mandelson, the man with more political lives than a cat. According to this morning's Daily Telegraph the former Business Secretary has added a new chapter to the paperbook version of his autobiography, The Third Man in which he describes his misgivings at Mr Miliband's decision to ...
Back in 1989 as we watched the Berlin Wall falling, I remember remarking to someone that I would find myself some day explaining to my children what Communism had once been. This morning, young F. caught a newspaper headline about the Arab revolutions and asked about revolutions in general. This rapidly got us to 1989, and his next question was, "So what was Communism?" The day has come.
In a fascinating discussion on Five Live, Victoria Derbyshire talks to several female contributors about how to get more women on company boards. I should declare an interest here, Michelle McDowell, one of the contributors, is a friend. The contributor from Iceland suggests that to make sure more women get on boards we need something like traffic regulations. She argued that this is because the rules on traffic helps us all behave in a better way. That reminded me of the video below and made me wonder if her supposition is correct. It may be counter intuitive, but would women ...
I was unreasonably grumpy about having to order this book physically from a real bookshop last year. It was well worth going to some extra trouble to get hold of it. It's a lovely collection of 27 essays by fans of Doctor Who, ranging from the gleeful to the mildly profound (as far as one can be in less than ten pages), ranging over various aspects of the fannish experience - watching the show, watching the show with your family (including one on what it feel like if your brother grows up to be Captain Jack Harkness, and two which ...
Last month I spoke at an event organised by the University College London's Constitution Unit on how the Liberal Democrats ended up in coalition with the Conservatives and the progress of the coalition so far: The Liberal Democrats and the Coalition – Mark Pack from Department of Political Science on Vimeo.
Yesterday's Liberal Democrat News carried an obituary of Joyce Wainwright by her son Martin, the Guardian journalist. There was also a report of her death in the Yorkshire Evening Post: Joyce Wainwright was married to the late Liberal MP Richard Wainwright, who represented the West Yorkshire seat of Colne Valley from 1974 to 1987, and for an earlier period from 1966 ... Despite being an MP's wife at a time when the role was mainly a supportive one, Mrs Wainwright was an outspoken activist and campaigner in her own right ... Mrs Wainwright shared her husband's enthusiasm and commitment to ...
Downham January 2011
This remarkable quote is from an article in the Newbury Weekly News entitled Voting system dvivides opinion: The victorious candidate in the last election, Conservative MP for Newbury Richard Benyon, said he would not be voting for change. "AV is a shockingly bad system. In closely fought seats you could often have the third placed candidate coming first. Fringe parties such as the BNP or UKIP could end up deciding the candidate. I'm definitely in favour of first past the post," he said. I have replied as follows in a letter to the NWN: Voters decide who is elected under ...
On Thursday I made mention of Mrs Joyce Charlton, "the Tory matriarch of the day" in Birkdale West. My Birkdale colleague Simon Shaw draws my attention to a connection of which I was unaware. In the early 1960s, when Simon was about 7 years old, the Shaw family moved from Waterloo Road to 53 Trafalgar Road, Birkdale. And who did Peter and Brenda Shaw buy the house from? Mrs Joyce Charlton. Simon was still living there with his parents and his sister, Penny, in 1979 when he first stood as a 23 year old Liberal council candidate in Dukes Ward, ...
[IMG: Yes to Fairer Votes] Having lost the argument and having been consistently out organised by grass roots volunteers, the guardians of the old politics have been reduced to dirty scare stories and smears to try and score a cheap political point. As horrifying as this may sound, the No campaign took out a two-page advertisement in the Birmingham Mail claiming that a sick baby "needs a new cardiac facility NOT an alternative voting system". This is shocking and shameful. This is not the debate that the country deserves. It's clear that the No campaign don't have the decency and ...
Here's your starter for ten in our weekend slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate... Either actual or projected falls in house prices are almost always described as bad news in both the media and political circles. Yet it is also common to hear people complain about the lack of affordable housing, difficulties getting together a sufficient deposit or problems with the cost of mortgages – and those complaints have been common in both times of boom and bust. So if predictions for a fall in house prices this year turn out to be right, will ...
i) births and deaths 26 February 1938: birth of Tony Selby, who played Sabalom Glitz in The Mysterious Planet (1986), The Ultimate Foe (also 1986) and Dragonfire (1987). ii) broadcast anniversaries 26 February 1966: broadcast of "Bell of Doom", fourth episode of the story we now call The Massacre; first appearance of Jackie Lane as Dodo Chaplet. The Doctor and Steven flee Paris as the massacre goes ahead, leaving Anne behind; but is Dodo, who stumbles into the Tardis in 1966, her descendant? 26 February 1972: broadcast of first episode of The Sea Devils, the one with the guest appearance ...
The Hull Daily Mail is reporting that local company the Sewell group has been named in the Best Companies list for the third year running and also holding on to the "extraordinary" status it was awarded last year. Very well done and congratulations for putting Hull on the map for the right reasons
Deputy Lib Dem Leader rallies the troops at party's East Midlands conference.
A glimpse of what real talent can do without national interference...
On the third of February I wrote about record keeping at Lancaster Infirmary and yesterday it became an article on the television news. Basically, confidential documents were scattered across the floor of an office (they are just as confidential on the floor) and patients have missed appointments and been given the wrong medication. The point that I made was that the picture that got things moving had been leaked to the media to highlight the shocking state of record keeping there and it was only by this leak that progress was made. This was confirmed by the director of Operations ...
More despatches from the front « The Cedar Lounge Revolution Notes from canvassing (in the 2007 Irish election) (tags: politics) YouTube - Nena-99 Luftballons new version (2009) with lyrics Somehow this had passed me by when it was released: Nena looking fantastic at 49, revisiting her classic in an idiom of video games. Compare also the original at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQYQTFudrqc (she was 23 then). (tags: video) The UUP and how *not* to do it There are good examples of good practice in political communications, and there are bad examples. Yesterday's performance by the UUP was the absolutely perfect representation of the ...
