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. 1. Queen Adelaide pub, Kimberley - Greene King, who own the building, want to demolish the Queen Adelaide pub on Babbington Lane in Kimberley and build three houses there instead. This will be considered by the council in due course. 2. Broxtowe Sports programme - Broxtowe will again be running a full sports programme this summer, including a 5K run around Bramcote Park on 15th April, ...
No sound, but there is some lovely footage here. You can even see a couple of trains going over the Bowstring Bridge early on.
As was widely expected, Sir Peter Soulsby was today selected as Labour's candidate in the forthcoming mayoral elections in Leicester — a position which he must have a strong chance of winning, as he has been MP for Leicester South for the past six years, was a leading city councillor for years and Labour is riding ...
The Lib Dem candidate at Barnsley Central gives his impressions of the campaign - and a distinctly unflattering portrait of the town - on the Daily Mail site: In towns like Barnsley, where the Lib Dems once harvested votes as a party of protest, they now attract derision as a party of government. It goes with the territory. The Lib Dems are learning that power brings not only responsibility, but contempt.
This is of no interest to anyone other than fellow bloggers I guess but just as an indication of relative merit of Thanet blogs, I give you the independent rankings for March courtesy of Wikio . How reliable these rankings are, is questionable but being at the top of the pile however briefly, beats my more comfortable underdog placing. And whilst I might be at the top this month, the ranking for this month is lower than last and with the exception of ThanetOnline all of us appear to be slipping on earlier months. Bignews Margate 852 From one end ...
Welcome to the latest in my series of posts debunking the myths pedalled by Labour in the local press. This week is a double header courtesy of Cllr Alan Quinn JP and Bury South's Member of Parliament Ivan Lewis. Eagle-eyed readers of the Prestwich and Whitefield Guide will have seen the photograph of Labour activists celebrating ...
"They" say that the best way to deal with falling off a horse is to get straight back onto it and try again. So following that particular maxim, I've made a concerted effort on SD226 and TMA01 today and I now have a version I'm happy to submit. However, I'm still going to hang onto it for a few days (at least until after the tutorial which I won't be attending as it's at the same time as the one for DD307), but I am going to try to resist the temptation to tweak at it. It's good enough, and ...
Sat 5th
20:48
This is what Buckingham Palace say when they realise there has been a cock-up in the Royal Household
You don't get that often. Savour it. There is an element of reflection going on
The Byzantine Empire still has barbarians at the gates; the Lombards, however, are deflected to go and conquer Northern Italy.
I am advised by the City Engineer that Thomson Street will finally re-open on 11th March. Over past months, I have been raising numerous residents' concerns during the road closure due to the Scottish Water and then Scotland Gas Networks (SGN) works - these concerns covering the delays in the work being completed and other issues such as bin collections. Given that works on the roadway started way back on 23rd August, residents have been extremely patient during what has been many months of road closure. I am therefore hoping that when the remaining work concludes, Thomson Street can get ...
Does that sound dramatic? Yes it does and it is dramatic for me too. You see I am going to do something on Monday that will be a total change in my life and a new way of doing things. ... Continue reading →
An interesting article has just cropped up in my timeline via Iain Dale from the CrashBangWallace website. It seems that some local Conservative Associations don't want to accept new members to their ranks. In an internal 'mystery shopper' exercise CCHQ ... Continue reading →
Uttlesford District Council's Conservative Administration rejected the Liberal Democrat Budget proposals which would have been funded under the New Homes Bonus. They stated they were not sure whether they would get the money, would it come with strings attached, we can't mortgage the future etc. One of our major budget proposals was for a £250,000 Big Society transition fund to help the voluntary sector. I drew the attention of councillors to Epping Forests Councils corporate plan where one of their objectives is stated to build capacity in the voluntary sector. I was told that this was Uttlesford and I shouldn't ...
February has been an interesting month for the site stats throwing up some interesting results for what people have been reading. For example the top 5 posts for the month were: Spidey's New Years Honours List – (158 views) Where ... Continue reading →
It has been a day of quite heated debate on Twitter (when I have been awake) talking about the prospective privatisation of some parts of the NHS in the governments healthcare reform proposals. Now the NHS is something of a ... Continue reading →
This afternoon Sir Peter Soulsby, the MP for Leicester South, won the contest to be the Labour candidate in the city's first Mayoral election. He immediately announced that he will be resigning his Westminster seat to concentrate of this contest. Well, I did warn you. David MacLean, the Leicester Mercury's political correspondent, tweeted the voting figures in the Labour selection. In the first round (they used AV, of course) they were: Rita Patel 28 Abdul Osman 64 Veejay Patel 85 Ross Willmott 104 Peter Soulsby 248 Rita Patel eliminated And in the second round: Abdul Osman 69 Veejay Patel 85 ...
IE6 has been a complete bane for this website. It makes any kind of design a nightmare because it's so dated and non-compliant with standards. It's still 5.52% of Flock Together visits. Fortunately, Microsoft has seen the light and is working to get rid of it. They've kindly provided some code which only appears to IE6 users asking them to upgrade. If you want to see what Flock Together looks like under IE6, then go here - http://ipinfo.info/netrenderer/index.php. Still not a thing of beauty (and IE6 seems to be having quite a big argument with the Facebook box), but at ...
It's the mis-placed vanity which gets me. Robert Lindsay should sue. Citizen Lem from Mancha Productions on Vimeo.
Fascinating
I attended Sefton's Budget meeting on Thursday expecting to hear arguments from both sides relating to the national political situation. I knew what was coming. Labour Councillors would shout that our party had sold itself down the river and had willingly and eagerly submitted to be the sword sharpeners for the killer Tory cuts. Our side would scream back with equal vehemence that Labour spent needlessly and recklessly and that is the reason why cuts have to be made. I mistakenly thought (and hoped) that there would then be some sort of rational discussion regarding the actual budget. I thought ...
General provisions for the Parliamentary boundary reviews [IMG: Parliament - Big Ben] Across the UK, the number of constituencies is being reduced from 650 to 600, with similar reductions in each part of the UK: England 502 in place of the current 533; Wales 30 in place of the current 40; and Northern Ireland 16 in place of the current 18. These numbers come from allocating constituencies in proportion to the electorate of each of the four parts of the United Kingdom, using the Sainte-Laguë method. The two Scottish island constituencies and the two Isle of Wight constituencies are not ...
On Thursday there was a debate on AV at the University of Surrey which had been organised by the debating society. We will be joined by Rebecca Palmer from the Yes2AV campaign and Cllr Chris Ward who will be arguing in favour of AV and James Fitzpatrick, Director of Groundwar for the No2AV campaign and Cllr Rowan Cole who will be arguing against a change in the electoral system.However, the No side decided not to show up. Cllr Cole had to cancel at the last minute, which is understandable, and was replaced by Michael Vivona, President of the university Conservative ...
When Mordecai Vanunu told the world that Israel had nuclear weapons, the Israeli authorities locked him up in Shikma Prison in Ashkelon for more than 17 years. Israel still refuses to admit to nuclear weapons and the UK and the USA still refuse to challenge that deceit. They are too busy worrying about Iran which doesn't have them yet. How does this bias look to the rest of the world ?It
9.30am LGA Localism Conference I attended this half day conference in central London for an update and discussion on the Localism Bill. 7.30pm Planning Advisory Group This meeting was to consider the final version of the Site Development Policies Development Plan Document for Submission to the Secretary of State. The papers summarized the amendments made ...
Just waiting for Nick Clegg's big platform speech. We have a very passionate debate about saving the RAF bases in Scotland from closure. The debate initiated by North East Fife, the powerhouse Lib Dem constituency, was kicked off by Sir Menzies Campbell. Various passionate contributions ranging from former RAF padre and Lord Provost of Edinburgh George Grubb to local Councillor Tim Brett and local MSP Iain Smith. All spoke passionately about how much impact closure would have on the area and how important the RAF was to our defences. George laid into the MOD for sending e-mails sacking soldiers on ...
So, the Lib Dems are less popular than the BNP? In Barnsley, maybe. Otherwise, can the media please get a little perspective in the aftermath of Thursday's by-election? I still remember the days when the Lib Dems swept all before them at almsot every parliamentary by-election, but no-one ever intimated that these victories were anything more than a protest vote against the government of the day, even though the unmatched quality of the MPs voted in at those elections, such as Sarah Teather, often had just as much to do with it. If the significance of the Barnsley by-election is ...
This morning we had a debate at Conference about public service innovation. A good if not a little vague motion which was crammed with good bits. I was more than happy to grandstand on some of the items we have tried here in Edinburgh such as neighbourhood working, our homelessness strategy and off course reablement. I have always been very proud of the team I have worked with in the Council and it was good to see Edinburgh out there in front again.
"Don't write us off pleads Clegg". No, not a plead. Just a statement. "Liberal Democrats worst ever humiliation". No it wasn't - see Hamilton 1999. " [Clegg] looks set to lose his flagship referendum on AV". Well of course the Daily Express from where these quotes come would fervently wish this were true. " A downcast Mr Clegg --". Realistic & resiliant are alternative & more accurate words. I won't go on. My wife buys this "newspaper" on a Sat because of the puzzles not for its reporting.
This weekend is UKIPs spring conference and we now have to put up with Nigel Farage crowing like a demented cockerel all over the TV. Asked on the news whether the economy was the biggest problem facing Britain he oh so predictably replied that it was not. Who governs Britain was the issue. What breathtaking originality. News Corporation; the President of the United States; and our beloved Banks - to say nothing of the fact that we have flogged off most of the Country's assets to those domiciled outside Europe - have much more influence over our daily lives than ...
Every now and then something pops up in local politics that really beggars belief. Yesterday was one of those day's. There I was minding my own business slowly wading though my huge backlog of e mails when the Yorkshire Post calls. They called because they had taken a call from the Labour group on the Council complaining that the Council had changed its postal supplier and they were shipping the Councils mail to a depot outside of Hull before giving the letters to the post office for delivery. They told the Post it was 'only' making a saving of 5% ...
"Sir Charles lay on his face, his arms out, his fingers dug into the ground, and his features convulsed with some strong emotion to such an extent that I could hardly have sworn to his identity. There was certainly no physical injury of any kind. But one false statement was made by Barrymore at the inquest. He said that there were no traces upon the ground round the body. He did not observe any. But I did--some little distance off, but fresh and clear." "Footprints?" "Footprints." "A man's or a woman's?" Dr. Mortimer looked strangely at us for an instant, ...
I recently got a lovely piece of literature through the letter box today from Michael Piper, one of the Tory council candidates for Onslow. Here's an extract which I find particularly amusing: Pictured: complete and utter bollocks So yes, the tories are making the wonderful claim that they're achieving more for our elderly. Thing is, our definitions of "achieving more" must differ slightly. See, when they go and force two centres for the elderly to close, or when they make cuts to free travel for the elderly, I'd say that that's achieving less. I've already mentioned this briefly in a ...
There was a by-election in Hamilton South in 1999 in which the Lib Dems came 6th behind an independent with 3.3% of the vote. Compared against that Barnsley Central where we came 6th with 4.2% of the vote (also behind an independent) is a better result. However, neither were in any way significant by-elections.
Nick Clegg's speech to the party's Welsh conference contained much in the way of summarising the party's current official position on politics and government priorities – and also a reference to Lembit Opik. His departure from the Commons was made the subject of a joke rather than a cause of regret – just the sort of reference that Lembit's own actions do nothing to dissuade people from. Central to the speech was Clegg's description of the Liberal Democrat approach to a fair tax system: Not all the decisions we've made have been easy and we must be honest about the ...
Ahem. Citizen Lem from Mancha Productions on Vimeo. (It may, or may not, help explain this film by pointing out that it is a parody / homage to the Citizen Smith TV credits.) In its favour can be said that it features less ear action than this Lembit Opik film from the 1990s:
With attempts to control the internet ranging from drastic actions of dictators in the Middle East to democratic debates in the US Congress over an internet 'kill switch', and not forgetting the continuing debate over the Digital Economy Act in Britain, The Voice's fringe meeting at the Liberal Democrat spring conference is looking at who has control over what on the internet: Who runs the internet? Wikileaks, piracy and censorship [IMG: Wikileaks] Libel law reform campaigner and former MP Evan Harris, website pioneer Mary Reid, James Blessing of the Internet Service Providers' Association (ISPA) and Jim Killock of the digital ...
I came across the campaign Climate Rush when a member of my family (nearly) took part in singing re-written carols in Central Lobby in the Palace of Westminster at Christmas to highlight climate change. Searching I found the campaign had done many good things which I do admire. Here comes the but. They are, however, a little too please with themselves. The film "Deeds not words" tells the
I am distinctly unimpressed with the English Bacclaureate. As a family, we've gone through the GCSE "options" process this week. There is something not right with the process at the school end of the policy sausage macahine. My beloved is having to do Religious Studies as a core, compulsory GCSE subject. But Religious Studies is not included in the Baccalaureate. But a Modern Foreign Language is in the required subjects for the Baccalaureate but not in the core, compulsory subjects. So you end up with Hobson's Choice between doing a much-loved subject (e.g Dance) and not attaining the EBacc, or ...
The State of Israel is refusing to reissue the Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem with a residency permit - read the Bishop's Press release here. (posted to make sure people know).
Access Eastbourne is a a great idea – which is why I am posting here – as I would be interested to know what people with disabilities think of it and what else is available in other places of a similar nature – if any. The East Sussex Disability Association (ESDA) with huge support (and some funding) from the Liberal Democrat Council in Eastbourne have set up a website to advise those coming to Eastbourne and those living there what the facilities are for someone with disabilites at restaurants, hotels, etc. You can see the site here. It's a kind ...
Residents of Pendleton are celebrating now that the Liberal Democrat-Conservative coalition government has approved a PFI scheme for the area which will see it transformed. Over £100m of investment from the government will build over 1,200 new homes as part of the scheme and see a massive refurbishment of 1,200 council homes. Pendleton is already the home to 13,000 proud and passionate residents and they will benefit from this government-backed large scale regeneration which will return the area back to the once thriving community it used to be. Under PFI the properties will remain in council ownership and tenants will ...
Here's your starter for ten in our weekend slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate... The military coup in Egypt was met with widespread international support – because it deposed President Mubarak. Similarly, the sending of troops into Libya by Britain and other countries to help people leave has been met with barely a whisper of concern about whether or not troops should be sent into another country without any UN motion or similar. Yet pragmatism and self-interest is hardly all the rage – for Tony Blair's attitude to Libya has been coming under much criticism ...
I thought this a particularly good Eighth Doctor story, with our hero and Sam ending up on a grand artifact of planetary engineering and falling in both with human military factions and the local very alien beings (themselves exploited by the humans) while facing 'orrible danger from radiation. Would be a good taster for anyone wanting to give this series a try.
Want to know what this is all about? Click here
As I suspected, Holmes did not stay dead for long (apologies if anyone feels that is a spoiler, but the story of his return was published in 1903 which I think is a decent interval). None of these thirteen stories particularly stands out for me, though I noticed a general trend away from high politics towards domestic drama - for instance in "The Adventure of Abbey Grange", Holmes and Watson confront the murderer but decide that they like him more than his victim so let him go. I also sensed a stronger geographical specificity - one story is set in ...
In an earlier post I spoke of the Estonian entry. Well, Greece have now chosen and their entry is equally, if not more, potent. It starts off with a qualitable rap by Stereo Mike with a bouzouki back track then the vocal gets simultaneously taken up by Loukas Giorkas with his powerful singing that nods ...
My Doctor Who rewatch has brought me to The Leisure Hive (which is better than I remembered) and Meglos (which isn't), both of which feature incidental music of way above average quality by Peter Howell. A bit of googling reminded me that he was the author of the amazing Greenwich Chorus, of which there doesn't seem to be a decent online version. There is, at least, this audience footage of a live performance of the piece by Howell: Fantastic.
We all have weird dreams but often it's difficult to remember them. Last night (or probably this morning) I dreamt that the singer Lynsey de Paul is an old friend of Hilary Clinton. They go way back – presumably to the days when Hilary was just wife of the new, young Governor of Arkansas. The only problem is that I know have Lynsey de Paul and Mike Moran's song "Rock Bottom" stuck in my head and I can't get it out. Where are we? – Rock bottom Tragedies? – We got 'em Remedy? – Why don't we Rub it out ...
Last Saturday, on the Fair Votes street stall, one topic cropped up in a discussion with a passer by that must have been discussed countless times since the start of the coalition. It was basically whether the Lib Dem's had ... Continue reading →
This is brilliant.
Digital spy article Neil: 'Cable made Sky takeover a done deal' warns of the power Murdoch will still be able to hold over Sky News in any handover of the station. This is because he will have a large shareholding and will be providing most of the cash. I also wonder what's to stop News Corp from starting it's own news station in a few years time. I guess the only hope from this media empire is the alliance of media groups which are considering legal options including a possible judicial review. Sky's income is bigger than the BBC and ...
i) births and deaths 5 March 1932: birth of Gertan Klauber, who played the Galley Master in The Romans (1965) and Ola in The Macra Terror (1967). ii) broadcast anniversaries 5 March 1966: broadcast of "The Steel Sky", first episode of the story we now call The Ark. The Tardis lands on a vast spaceship inhabited by humans and Monoids; Dodo's cold spreads throughout its inhabitants. 5 March 1979: broadcast of second episode of The Talons of Weng-Chiang. The Doctor and Jago find a ghost at the theatre; Leela and Litefoot find Mr Sin at the door. 5 March 2008: ...
Deserting democracy in north Africa | European Voice Seemingly oblivious to the democratic fervour sweeping across the Middle East and the Maghreb, the European Union has moved to prop up another autocratic and corrupt regime to the south of the Mediterranean - that of King Mohammed VI of Morocco. (tags: westernsahara) How we found the rudest cities in the world - Analytics @ foursquare | Foursquare Engineering Blog Manchester the rudest city in the (English-speaking) world; El Paso a close second, others (Pittsburgh, Bloomington) way behind. (tags: languages england) NASA Completes 52-Year Mission To Find, Kill God | The Onion ...
Sat 5th
04:20
Lempit Opik doesn't wait for the Lib Dem nomination - to run for Mayor of London either way
He might not have the official backing of the Lib Dems but he has decided not to wait. Lempit Opik will today start knocking on doors in Southwick as he gets his candidacy under way. The former MP for Montgomeryshire will not receive any party funding for his campaign unless he gets selected as the ...
No, not the collapse of the Lib Dem vote. It is the fact that whereas Libyans are being killed because they want the right to elect their politicians approximately two thirds of the good people of Barnsley couldn't be bothered to get off their backsides and go to the poll. They should hang their heads in shame.
Responding to the YES referendum result, the Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, Kirsty Williams said: "I am delighted that there has been a 'yes' vote. It will make our law-making more efficient, it will save money and it will make it crystal clear where responsibility lies for decision making. The Welsh Liberal Democrats can be proud of the role we played in the cross party campaign up and down Wales. We can be particularly satisfied with the part we played in the areas where the Welsh Liberal Democrats are particularly active in area like Swansea, Ceredigion, Cardiff, Wrexham and ...
420 000 adults in Greater Manchester have problems reading and writing. Unless you know the population of Greater Manchester this figure will not mean much to you, but it does mean that one in four people are struggling to apply for jobs or pay bills. They lack basic literacy but how often have we heard politicians say they will target the three Rs? There is good news. We heard about Karen Woods who could hardly read until her late thirties but has now written a couple of books following an adult literacy class. Karen was moved to write by a ...
