There is something poignant about encountering fragments of Britain's industrial past. They evoke a way of life that no longer resonates. They hint at the era of Britain as the first industrial nation; an industrial power. They speak of a time when the country's economic success was less dependent on the post-industrial cocktail of shopping, ...
What a great day for Launceston. Early this afternoon, Launceston Colts beat St Ives by a last gasp penalty to win their league. This evening, Mel and Roddy at Jericho's hosted a cracking evening of Launceston bands with Jumping on Rooftops, Isaac and Marcus and the fantastic Crowns.
If one more person mentions Nostradamus to me... Today we see the initiation of air strikes on Libya. And my exploration of pacifism continues. My reluctance to approve of the action taken against Gaddafi is not driven by approval of his actions, but by my own lateral interpretation of the Middle East Uprisings. As Cameron says, "now is the time for action". But such action has consequences, and
One thing about today's military business in Libya - at least the UK government does not include anyone who, in office, inflicted on us such a shameful farrago of lies during the march to war in Iraq in 2003. We can perhaps hope that the intelligence advice now being given to the government has drawn on the lessons of that time. And the various intelligence services have the confidence to give our current government accurate and sober advice, not fitting the evidence to the political requirements of the moment. But are we repeating some more general mistakes? Too many people ...
Having discovered that I become a candidate on the first day for nominations, at least, having announced myself as the Liberal Democrat candidate for Stowupland ward in a previous leaflet, which I guess amounts to the same thing, my expenses are going to be calculated as running from the day that nominations open, i.e. 25 March. So, it was handy that my March leaflet arrived yesterday, giving me a chance to deliver as much of it as possible before that important date. However, we're still putting the house back to rights, so it was agreed that I would deliver leaflets ...
I am devoted to my little digital camera, but it really needs a sunny day to produce good results. Well, it was a sunny day in Leicester, so here is a shot of the Jain Temple in Oxford Street. Jainism is one of the world's oldest faiths. It is followed by several million people in India and by sizeable numbers of migrant Jains in Europe, East Africa and North America. But as far as I am aware this is the only Jain temple in Britain. Read more on the temple's own website. As that excellent publication Where Leicester has Worshipped ...
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. After last weeks mammoth edition things seem to have been a lot quieter this week, but we still have a few things to mention. 1. Japan Appeal I sit on the Board of Trustees for Voluntary Action Broxtowe, and one of the other trustees is Kiyoko Naish, a Japanese resident of Wollaton. She is organising a fund-raising charity for those affected by the earthquake and tsunami ...
Calder's Second Law of Politics holds that: "The power that government has, the more arbitrarily that power will be exercised." As an illustration take these two stories from the past week. BBC News told us: Up to 181,000 migrants who should have left the UK since December 2008 could still be here, according to UK Border Agency estimates.Meanwhile, I was being asked to publicise an event on 26 March that is being staged to urge the Coalition to deliver fully on its promise to end the immigration detention of children: Not only was a child detained on Christmas Day, as ...
The papers for this weeks Finance and Administration committee reveal that there is now a projected favourable variance of £631,000 for the 2010/11 financial year. This has risen from £584,000 since January. The recommendation is that this underspend is transferred -yes you have guessed it -to reserves. Unlike other Conservative councils such as East Cambridgeshire and Tonbridge and Malling who included the New Homes Bonus in their 2011/12 Budget Uttlesford chose not to do so. The projected receipt is £714,000 and payments begin next month. This money is not ring fenced which means that Council is not restricted on how ...
Partly because it's taken me *much* longer to get the next Cerebus piece up than I'd hoped (either tonight or tomorrow, even if I have to spend the entire time glued to the keyboard), and partly because at least one person I know has started reading Cerebus recently and is deeply unimpressed with the first ...
A great novel of two people in a Caribbean port of South America who fall in love when young, are parted by social circumstance, and then after fifty years are reunited. Full of careful observation of what love does to your soul and body, and of the different ways in which people deal with it. Not a lot to write about it except that I really enjoyed it.
Smalltown Boy by Bronski Beat I'd never watched this video before this evening. Music videos were not something that were encouraged when I was growing up, and I suspect that this particular one would have been seen as provocative. Still, it saddens me to think that there are still gay boys that have to run ...
As you will have seen in the news our coalition government has successfully led efforts in the UN Security Council to agree a 'no-fly zone' across Libya. Colonel Gaddafi's treatment of his own people has been brutal, savage and wholly unacceptable. We have worked with Libya's regional neighbours, especially the Arab League, and countries across the globe, to secure a resolution in UN Security Council. This resolution will allow us to act lawfully in deploying our forces to up-hold a 'no-fly zone' in Libya. The Prime Minister gave a statement yesterday, which you can read here. And on Monday we ...
The Executive A key decision at this meeting was the agreement to extend the Oakleigh Care Centre consultation in light of the re-interpretation of the Care Quality Commission Guidence, to explore the feasibility of transferring Oakleigh to another care provider. The Executive was updated on the progress of the Transforming Lives programme and the revision to current ...
I took advantage of the first day of spring by spending it delivering letters for six hours to a large part of the ward. I have encountered every type of letterbox and garden gate ever manufactured, cut my fingers to ribbons in the process, and made friends with approximately two dozen neighbourhood dogs. Unfortunately, as ...
The script was well and truly torn up for the last day of the Six Nations. Scotland refused to be the Championships whipping boys and saw off Italy relatively easily in the end. The score was 21 -8 and Chris Paterson managed a clone of his try saving tackle of last week. Scotland also did well enough to avoid the wooden spoon. The story of their season has been of narrow defeats and concession of early tries. That happened again today but they pulled it all back thanks to a couple of good tries from De Luca and Walker. Richie ...
Sat 19th
19:53
March Books 17) The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Vols III & IV, by Edward Gibbon
As I did when I finished the first of the Penguin volumes, I'm logging this as a book completed in March (though started last August). The chapters in the original Volume III are: Theodosius, the destruction of Paganism, the sons of Theodosius, plus Rufinus and Stilicho, the Sack of Rome, Arcadius, St John Chrysostom, and Theodosius II plus Eudoxia and the eunuchs, the Vandals in Africa, Attila the Hun, Attila the Hun again, the end of the Western Empire, monasticism and Arianism, what was happening meantime in France, Spain and Britain, and finally some general observations on the fall of ...
Over on his Telegraph blog, director of the Centre Forum think tank and former Paddy Ashdown adviser, Julian Astle, casts his analytical eye over a piece on the alternative vote by the Times's Danny Finkelstein. Here's a short extract from the post, but do go and read the whole piece – there are even some charts, for those of you who are that way inclined: What is remarkable is the movement of the dots from the red and blue triangles into the white area in the centre, showing the growth in the number of MPs (now around two thirds) who ...
For the past three years I have been working with local residents and council officers to bring quality broadband to Smannell and Little London. This project is now close to completion. I attach below the update on prgress recently released by the chair of the broadband group to the parish magazine. "I am pleased to be able to tell you that we are on the last lap of the project to get better broadband to our parish. Hampshire County Council has appointed a supplier to carry out the work and they will soon go ahead in the next couple of ...
I have had a number of complaints recently from elderly residents about the punctuality of the Friendly Bus sheltered housing shopping service. Earlier this week, the bus was an hour late getting to one sheltered complex in the West End and was also too small to accommodate all passengers. I have raised this with Stagecoach Strathtay who operate the service and am promised a full investigation into the matter.
Congratulations to Lib Dem Voice for scooping everyone with news that Parmjit Singh Gill has been selected to fight the Leicester South by-election for the Liberal Democrats. Parmjit won the seat at a by-election in 2004, only to lose it at a by-election the following year. This afternoon, via Twitter, came news that Jonathan Ashworth has been chosen as the Labour candidate. A Labour insider adds: Frankly, I am amazed that he got it. He is only Ed Miliband's PR chief and the husband of the Labour staffer who ran the selection process. Later. The voting figures are on the ...
There are signs today that the campaign against the building of football pitches and their associated facilities on the nature reserve at Aylestone Meadows in Leicester his heading for victory. The front page of today's Leicester Mercury reports that both Sir Peter Soulsby, the Labour Mayoral candidate, and Gary Hunt, his Lib Dem counterpart, have both said they will not go ahead with the plan if they are elected on 5 May. The Conservative candidate, Ross Grant, is quoted as making a confused-sounding call for a review. Just as significant may be the words attributed to Robert Wann, Labour's cabinet ...
I'm getting a bit fed up with commentators who launch into diatribes based on generalities, without bothering to examine the facts of the case in point. Libya is the latest example. I have read two articles critical of the UN motion authorising military action; Max Hastings in the FT, and Sean Collins in Spiked. The situation in Libya is interesting because it is unique; these articles are almost worthless because they never get beyond generalities. In fact exceptional circumstances make the UN-approved action a viable way forward; and no doubt that is why it was proposed. Mr Collins's article is ...
The County Council's on-line petitions webpage has been live for over two months and currently has six petitions open for people to join. If you wish to browse the current petitions use the link below. https://consult.hertsdirect.org/petitions/
This chapter is a masterful summary of the theological discussions of the origin of the Incarnation and also of the later development - up to Gibbon's own day - of the history of the Nestorians, Jacobites (Syrian rather than Scottish), Maronites, Armenians, Copts, and Abyssinians. See also my notes on Ethiopia, king Alfred, and Cosmas Indicopleustes.
Today's beautiful early spring sunshine was the perfect backdrop to a clean up and planting of whips (very young trees) in the Westley Vale Millennium Green. Here is Councillor Penny Wagg and Sue Weake of the 260th Scouts by one of the newly planted trees:
Over on Liberal England one of Lord Bonker's Six of the Best is a post he declares everyone should read, Anna Raccoon writes; "Mr John Hemming, (Lib Dem) MP for Yardley in Birmingham, rose to his feet and used parliamentary privilege to list some of the secret prisoners, the people who have lost their liberty in the UK behind closed doors; the court orders which detail the secret injunctions - not for the benefit of footballers or bankers ... but the injunctions, not mere 'super-injunctions' that the media could not mention, but 'hyper-injunctions' which even prevented the aggrieved citizen from ...
The No2AV Campaign has been all too delighted to parade has-been politicians to back up its arguments — the Yes2AV Campaign has rather more wisely stuck to letting the public have its say in this first UK referendum in 35 years. Here members of the public explain why they'll be choosing the Alternative Vote this May: (You can watch it on YouTube here.) While here WW2 naval veteran Ralph tells us his story, and how he's looking forward to helping boost the democracy he fought for: (You can watch it on YouTube here.) You can catch up with the Fairer ...
Whilst the popular uprisings for democracy in the Arab world are heartening to the democratic mind, the West must tread carefully to avoid a backlash in which these historical events dwindle, to as brief an interruption to oppression as was the Prague Spring. This is not just about the Arab populous wanting western style democracy and values but as much about poor standards of living and getting rid of obvious state oppression and typically, minority rule. Of course Al Qaeda, given a free reign, can offer nothing and other Islamist extremists or would-be military rulers, little more - but such ...
UN Security Council resolution 1973 regarding Libya is a milestone in the development not only of the concept of the Responsibility to Protect but also the realisation of its practical implications. Muammar Gaddafi had shown such flagrant disregard for the well-being of his people, in his brutal attempts to suppress the popular uprising against him, that ...
In a post that should chill the marrow of every reader, political blogger Anna Raccoon has reported on Thursday's parliamentary debate in Westminster Hall. The debate, secured by Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming, was on Articles 9 and 13 of the Bill of Rights; you can read a full transcript here. To spend time discussing two clauses of a Bill passed in 1689 under William and Mary may seem an abstruse use of a Thursday afternoon. But Thursday's debate was a step on a lonely but important path that John has, to his credit, been beating for a long time: ...
Lorna Spencely has sympathy for an old adversary, Robert Halfon, is under threat of legal action from Liverpool John Moores University over views he has expressed in the House of Commons about that university and Libya. This is not the only case in which Parliamentary privilege must be defended. In a post everyone should read, Anna Raccoon writes; "Mr John Hemming, MP for Yardley in Birmingham, rose to his feet and used parliamentary privilege to list some of the secret prisoners, the people who have lost their liberty in the UK behind closed doors; the court orders which detail the ...
I had the real pleasure of opening the new LGF (Lesbian and Gay Foundation) Community Resource Centre in Manchester earlier this week – and at the opening launching the Government's LGB&T action plan. LGF is now housed in fantastic new premises – and clearly provides a vital heart to serving the LGB&T community in Manchester and beyond. Having met all the staff and volunteers – I was overwhelmed by their warmth and commitment to the community. Congratulations to Paul Martin and everyone there who have made the LGF such a wonderful place and wonderful resource. The action plan highlights the ...
My name is Harry Hayfield, a Liberal Democrat member from Ceredigion (the 3rd most marginal Liberal Democrat constituency) and over the next few weeks I shall be posting a series of videos looking at the electoral history of the Liberal Democrast since the 1950 general election. This week, the 1950's
As leader of Pirate Party UK I often feel like 'the elephant in the room' at debates about the future of the Internet and file-sharing 'piracy'. Good natured calls of 'who let him in here?' notwithstanding at the Lib Dem Voice fringe meeting on 'who runs the Internet?', I actually felt quite welcome. I guess that is because, as the panel pointed out, the web was founded on principles that are liberal and democratic in a way that most of us can get behind without needing any kind of orange book. Unfortunately, these principles are under threat. The Digital Economy ...
Courtesy of Lib Dem Voice's caption competition series, here's my caption of the week: "Alright, Tim, you can have a play, but be careful, that is the only thing which can land on our aircraft carriers now..."
I am always a bit wary when folk who aren't our friends start giving us advice. Jackie Ashley was at it in yesterday's Guardian. The Lib Dems are not a centre party. Their centre of gravity is a bit to the left. They are less statist, less pro-union and more civil libertarian than Labour, but their instincts fall on the same side of the divide. They want to change the world; and you can't do that by sitting in the centre. Like all Liberals of my generation I have always considered our party to be of the Left. Many of ...
Seems the local Standards Board has a particularly bizarre intepretation of being allowed to have personal opinions. It also makes a completely unfounded accusation that I blamed council officers... unless of course they are infering that union officials who do not report to any manager in the council and are free to conduct politicking paid for by council tax payers are council officers. Fact; In 1997 the unions asked the Labour council to fund three full time posts. Prior to that they were not fully funded posts. Fact: The Labour council subsequently acquiesed to that request and agreed to fund ...
In recent months we have seen the fall of Governments in Egypt and Tunisia and uprisings across the Middle East including against the regime of Colonel Gaddafi in Libya. This has often seemed rather far removed from most of us in Torbay and the rest of the country, but is coming all the more immediate through the announcement that British forces will likely be involved in preventing attacks on the Libyan rebels by the Libyan air force. As with our two involvements in Iraq over the past 20 years, whatever happens will have a profound impact upon the world as ...
There's no prize at stake - just the opportunity to prove you're wittier than any other LDV reader... (Image credit: Alex Broadway / SWPix.com via Flickr) Here's Lib Dem Minister of State for Pensions Steve Webb joining in an armchair aerobics session at Bristol Rovers Extra Time project, funded by the Football Foundation and Comic Relief. What do you think Steve or his fellow fitness enthusiast might be thinking or saying? The winner of our most recent caption competition, "At last, it's the Nick and Tim Show" Edition — just cast your minds back 10 weeks — according to The ...
Crossing now open The new crossing in Woodcote Road between HSBC and NatWest is now open and working. There are some concerns about how drivers, queuing in the road to get past the one-way working under the railway bridge might behave if these lights go red when the temporary ones are green. The fear is that they will jump the lights and endanger pedestrians. I stood in the sun in Woodcote Road and watched drivers at the junction for 15 minutes today and everyone was being sensible and there didn't seem to be a problem. So I think we will ...
Dear Daniel, As you will have seen in the news our coalition government has successfully led efforts in the UN Security Council to agree a 'no-fly zone' across Libya. Colonel Gaddafi's treatment of his own people has been brutal, savage ... Continue reading →
Sat 19th
13:36
Silence of the editors as Clive wins what? Hollow victory? His own way? Another term as opposition l...
[IMG: image] I doubt Thanet has ever witnessed such a contentious political outcome as the news that last night Cllr Mark Nottingham, was suspended for 2 months from Thanet Labour group, those of you, who have taken the trouble to plough through the evidence and accusations in this case might, well be surprised to learn, that unlike last night's Labour group meeting, you will have probably given more time, to assess the situation concern Labours choice for Northwood than the Labour group was allowed last night. It seems, in a Labour group lead by Clive Hart and his mates, the ...
Helping Hendfield Court Beddington Gardens has now been one-way (eastbound) for a couple of weeks by the parade of shops near Woodcote Road. Drivers who have come down the road from Carshalton and not realised that they will not be able to get out on to Woodcote Road have to turn around and head back to Shotfield. Quite a few people have been using the entrance to Hendfield Court to turn round and this has caused difficulties for people who live there and need to get out in their cars. At the Stakeholder meeting* on Thursday this week we discussed ...
This is the weekend of the month's Big Finish releases. I'm never sure which to listen to first, so by the magic of my MP3 player I am going in alphabetical order by title, which means starting with this month's Companion Chronicle, a Second Doctor story with Polly, Ben and Jamie, told by Anneke Wills with occasional interludes from Fraser Hines. The story, by David Lock (who appears to be a newcomer to Who writing), is not all that great - rather odd timey-wimey aliens, somewhat stilted framing narrative which has a weak ending - but Wills' voice is beautiful ...
A short book but an endearing one, with the narrator, stranded in the desert, distracted from his deadly predicament by the philosophical odyssey of the spacefaring little prince. I was struck on this reading by the difference in the prince's relationships with the exploitative and manipulative rose on his own planet, and the earthly fox which is affectionate but also prepared to let him go. (And there's that very weird business with the snake as well.) I should probably try it in French some time too.
Local Birkdake student and Liberal Youth activist Sarah Handing has a posting over on Lib Dem Voice this morningSarah Harding writes... Fairer Votes: young people are leading from the frontBy Sarah Harding | Published 19th March 2011 - 11:55 amOn the 5th of May, we have a once in a lifetime opportunity to effect a change 100 years in the making.This is our chance to finally fix the broken system that has failed the people of Britain. And Liberal Youth will not waste it.Young people are leading from the front in the fight for fairer votes. University and college campuses ...
Kitty Wilkinson's story is one of unbelievable determination, courage and selflessness Councillor Flo Clucas Despite the tragedy, the Saint of the Slums went on to save hundreds, particularly through the cholera epidemic.She pioneered the public wash house movement which gave poor people somewhere to clean their clothes.
As we all know, councils across the country are facing cuts at the moment and Guildford is no exception. That's why it's surprising that Guildford Borough Council has left £21 million unspent. Now, to make this clear, this £21 million comes from section 106 agreements. Section 106 agreements are a system where developers pay the council a certain amount of money for local services and infrastructure as a condition of getting planning permission. So this money is meant to be spent on stuff like a new playground, or a bus stop, or tree planting. Here's an extract from the Surrey ...
On the 5th of May, we have a once in a lifetime opportunity to effect a change 100 years in the making. This is our chance to finally fix the broken system that has failed the people of Britain. And Liberal Youth will not waste it. Young people are leading from the front in the fight for fairer votes. University and college campuses across the country are coming alive with a new wave of political participation. Young people from all political parties and none are uniting to fix our political system, and to give us a electoral system fit for ...
Students from Derwentside College and staff from McDonalds are working with he Durham County Council "Pride" team to heighten awareness of the problems of litter, especially litter trhown out of cars. The litter pick will take place on Monday, 21 March at 10am in the area around the Consett branch of McDonalds. McDonalds will be rewarding the students with a meal following their efforts to keep the area clean and green.
Grimsby Councillor Les Bonner has blogged about the fact that the Labour government paid hundreds of millions of pounds to private companies for operations that were not carried out. It is well worth a read but here is a flavour. It has been discovered that Labour wasted £252million by paying private companies for operations on Health Service patients that were never even carried out. The £250 million that was for operations that did not take place between 2003 and 2010 would have been the equivalent of the salaries of more than 1,700 nurses at that time. As well as showing ...
Local councillors have received a letter from Tesco about the store being built at the Red Lion on Church Road. Feel free to post your comments – I'll answer as best I can or contact Tesco for answers as needed.
It was the double-headed Roman God, Janus who marked the start of a new year by looking back over the old one, whilst at the same time surveying what was to come. From recent publicity it seems that there are a number of MPs who wish that they had his gift. Peter Hain has already gone on the record as opposing a further Labour-Plaid Cymru coalition. At least he is consistent. He wants his party to work with the Welsh Liberal Democrats if they fail to secure a decisive majority on 5th May. We would be happy to talk, Peter. ...
Unity Arts will be doing a mini young people & families fun arts day in part of the park. It brings to an end the 'Positive Activities for Young People' (PAYP) programme as the cuts to youth work start in the financial year. There will be a small music jamming session, Urban art, Visual arts (postcards & T-shirts as part of an ongoing education campaign in Chorlton) face painting & a few stalls – young people as the focus. Open invitation for the 'Friends' or 'Traders' if anyone would like to do something to advertise events or anything else that ...
As Liberal Conspiracy highligted last month, Conservative Westminster Council are playing to introduce a by-law that makes it illegal to "sleep or lie down", "deposit materials used as bedding" and to "give out, or permit another to give out, food for free". Essentially they want to criminalise homelessness in the Victoria area, and stop people from taking part ...
Word reaches me from the Twitterverse that an erstwhile adversary from my Harlow days, Robert Halfon MP, is under threat of legal action for defamation from Liverpool John Moores University over views he has expressed about links between Libya and British universities - information here and here. Clearly, having stood against him in two General Elections (2001 and 2005) I'm not a particular supporter of Robert's. But Liverpool John Moores' actions in this case seem to me quite illiberal, and I'm therefore pleased that Robert is being represented in this case by the estimable David Allen Green, prominent legal blogger, ...
As part of Parliament's deliberations over the Fixed-term Parliaments Bill, this week the House of Lords debated the possibility of moving to weekend voting. In The two electoral tests the Coalition should run, I made the point that, Weekend voting has been once briefly trialled (in Watford a decade ago). It was not a success then, but there are good reasons to try again given the details of how the trial was conducted - especially holding the weekend elections just after the usual national round of local elections, with the result that residents in Watford were seeing in all the ...
I've opened the comments section on all my blog posts to anonymous comments; so do feel free to have a rant. All debate gratefully received. This should also allow people to comment from I phones etc. I would appreciate feedback if anyone still has problems.
Leicester South Liberal Democrats last night selected Parmjit Singh Gill as their candidate for the Leicester South by-election, at a hustings in the constituency. Gill was previously the MP for Leicester South from 2004 to 2005, having gained the seat from Labour in the 2004 by-election. Current MP Sir Peter Soulsby (Labour) is resigning so that he can stand to be Leicester's first elected mayor. Commenting on his selection Parmjit Singh Gill said, It's an honour and privilege to be selected to fight Leicester South for the Liberal Democrats. Only last May the Labour MP convinced constituents that he was ...
Ten-Second Staircase by Christopher Fowler is an enjoyable outing for the detective pair Bryant & May, even though it does not show off his pair of detectives from the Peculiar Crimes Unit quite at their best. The book is rather heavy on characterisation - which is a joy as the characters are so rich and often funny - but the plot is weak at times and not quite up to the standards of other titles in the series. The narrative is much more straight-forward, with little shifting of viewpoint between the police and other characters, and the final scene in ...
New research reveals that many voters think that the Lib Dems joining the Coalition Government showed that the party was "prepared to take real responsibility, not just oppose from the sidelines." And 64 per cent of voters who considered voting Lib Dem, but actually decided not to, think that the party is "making an important contribution to the government of Britain" The detailed private research was commissioned by political enthusiast and lifelong Conservative Lord Ashcroft, former treasurer of the party, who poured huge sums into the Tory general election campaign, so his personal comments are particularly interesting. He writes: " ...
For the last 10 years I've worn corrective orthotics in my shoes. I'm now saying goodbye to them for good. I started wearing them because when I was 17 I had a spell of really bad lower back pain. I ended up at a specialist who worked out that one of my legs was shorter than the other, that this was tilting my pelvis and putting stress on my back. The solution? Orthotics, one of which was thicker than the other to correct the difference. While they were at it they thought they would correct my "fallen foot arches" with ...
Here's your starter for ten in our weekend slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate... During the week Foreign Secretary William Hague talked of having a network of diplomats who are past their retirement age of 60 but can be called on to help out at times of international crisis. However Labour MP Frank Roy attacked the idea saying that the Foreign Office instead should be "nurturing young talent". What's your view on this and more generally – should we do more to keep on the skills of people beyond 60, or should people be promptly ...
Alright, it isn't the question that keep me awake at nights, so why ask it, I hear you say. In truth, I've had a rather distracted day at the office today, productive enough, but not quite as good as I'd like. Anyway, my attention was drawn by a memo to staff inviting nominations for Honours. And, whilst I fail to see how doing my job qualifies me for one, I was intrigued and so read on. As I read, it became clear that even the Honours system is gradist, i.e. if you're lucky enough, sycophantic enough or simply good enough ...
Yesterday the cross party members appointments panel met to consider a new senior management structure. The proposal was to cut the number of posts by almost 20% saving £400,000. If approved this would mean the number of senior posts at the Council would have fallen by just over 30% in the last 4 years and reducing the pay bill by £1 million. As I have said before, I don't take this option lightly. At the end of the day senior managers have mortgages to pay and families to feed like everyone else but it is only right they share the ...
i) broadcast anniversaries 19 March 1966: broadcast of "The Return", third episode of the story we now call The Ark. The Tardis returns to the Ark centuries after its original visit, to find that the Monoids are now in charge. The Doctor and Dodo are sent to investigate Refusis. 19 March 1977: broadcast of fourth episode of The Talons of Weng-Chiang. The Doctor escapes from Li H'sen Chang on stage; Weng-Chiang's men capture the Time Cabinet from Litefoot's house. 19 March 2005: broadcast of the Doctor Who night on BBC. 19 March 2008: broadcast of Adrift (Torchwood), the one with ...
At dawn today I visited the nooks and crannies of Bristol's city centre counting and talking to people sleeping on the streets. I joined the outreach team of the charity St Mungo's on their regular Friday early morning trawl of known areas where people sleep rough. Bristol has very good provision for people who are ...
We have been putting out regular leaflets in Morecambe which will hopefully turn into votes for the May elections. I live in a residential area with a leaning to the right so how do we get our message across. The first method is to let the electorate know that you are working. That means leaflets and it means this blog. It means replying to enquiries which range from conversations in the street to blog comments to replies on the tear-off section on each of the leaflets. I think that is all that is needed for most voters. They want to ...
