How sweet. Labour have nearly bankrupted themselves by;(a)charging ludicrously cheap membership fees to convince themselves that people still want to join them after the state they left the country in; and(b) spending all that money (really, over £650 billion a year on Public Services to implement a mediocracy?!) As a result, they have attempted to market their severe lack of funds as a "Policy
Edinburgh's finest (and most underrated) punk band shows how its done. Don't worry about the picture but turn up the volume. I once bumped into Faye Fife in a sandwich shop in Tollcross...
Earlier on today I put my expenses claim in at work for the last fortnight. I travel around quite a bit for my job and because of that, it's not unusual for me or my colleagues to have claims of several hundred pounds outstanding each month. I thought I'd compare our expenses procedure to what I heard Roger Gale MP on BBC Radio 5 live today calling the "incredibly bureaucratic" regime that our parliamentarians are now subjected to by IPSA, the independent parliamentary standards authority. He outlines their procedure as: 1. "You enter everything on a computer" 2. "Then you ...
Unusually for a Scot, I'm a big cricket fan. I'm less of a fan of Geoff Boycott, who really should be retired from broadcasting in the same way that Andy Gray and Richard Keys were. A fine player he may have been, but when it comes to behaving in an appropriately sensitive matter when talking about someone who is depressed he clearly has a lot to learn. England all-rounder Michael Yardy has returned from the Cricket World Cup suffering from depression. I like Yardy as a player, but have even more admiration for his courage and strength in being so ...
I was shocked tonight to hear that my local MP, Labour's David Cairns, is in intensive care in a London hospital being treated for acute pancreatitis. This puts party differences into perspective, and I am sure other constituents would join me in wishing him a speedy recovery. I know from experience that David works hard for our community and I have in the past had reason to be appreciative of his efforts on my behalf. I am sure he is in good hands and wish him well, although obviously my thoughts are also with his friends and family. Hopefully he'll ...
Last autumn I visited St Saviour's, the derelict George Gilbert Scott church in Leicester. This week came news that it is up for sale. As the Leicester Mercury reported: St Saviours, which could seat a congregation of 1,000 people, is being sold as part of a package with a former neighbourhood centre next door, which used to be a church school. Rupert Harrison, managing partner at Andrew Granger and Co. said: "This is a really special property the like of which is rarely seen on the market. "It is important to secure a sustainable new use for such a beautiful ...
I meant to write this months ago, when it wasn't quite so widely known what was going on, but had been reported to councillors at the Development Control (aka planning) committee and a regeneration scrutiny committee I'm on. Now it's been in the papers and everything, and there's currently a model on display of the future plans actually within the shopping centre, so go and have a look and have your say! You can also find the information at www.broadmarshdevelopment.com/ The Broad Marsh shopping centre has clearly been on a bit of a downward spiral for the last ten years ...
My column from today's Liberal Democrat News. Satirical selection I grew up on tales of how Private Eye and That Was the Week That Was brought down Harold Macmillan and Alec Douglas Home. And there were times during the last years of Tony Blair's government when it seemed that Rory Bremner was the leader of Her Majesty's Opposition. In retrospect, that may have had more to with the limited effectiveness of the real opposition parties than with the bite of his satire, but for a while his style of political comedy swept all before it. If 10 O'Clock Live (Channel ...
Watch him trying to be funny. In today's Herald, Galloway was playing up his extraordinary abilities, pledging to single-handedly "shake up Holyrood". He also claimed that the government's spending cuts are "entirely unnecessary", based as they are on "a deliberately exaggerated picture that's drawn of the country's financial state". Of course. Galloway is deluded if he genuinely believes that any politician enjoys making unpalatable cuts so much they're prepared to stake their entire political future making them for the love of it. Obviously Galloway doesn't quite appreciate current reality - for example the unexaggerated fact that next year alone the ...
Talking about public spending and the deficit on Andrew Neil's This Week last night, Charles Kennedy said he was "on the unreconstructed Keynesian end of the argument". Except that he isn't. Charles's leadership of the Liberal Democrats broadly coincided with the years in which things the economy was going well. In such circumstances a consistent Keynesian would have been calling on the government to run a surplus and pay off debt. But Charles did nothing of the sort. Like the rest of the Liberal Democrats, he spent the early Blair years demanding higher public spending. In particular, at the 2001 ...
When George Osborne said 'a society should not just be judged by the strength of its economy', I looked to see whether children had been helped by the budget. Children are often overlooked when it comes to political distribution. I hope that the lifting of the tax threshold to £8,105 will help those people who have to make difficult financial decisions in their lives such as heating the house or feeding their child. There are families who can't afford a holiday or even a day out and I hope this will make a difference to their lives. The Junior ISA ...
There was much activity on Magdalen Green this morning - a film crew from Greenroom Films were filming the green as part of a production for a V&A at Dundee promotional film - see below. It is great to see the green featured along with other key Dundee locations, such as Broughty Castle, The Law and Maggie's Centre.
Today's news that, in the contest for the new Greater Anglia rail franchise, National Express have failed even to make the final three contenders comes as no great surprise. Their record of axing catering facilities, customer service staff and cleaners whilst presiding over increasing shoddy rolling stock and poor punctuality was always likely to make their chances of retaining the franchise minimal. And, ironically, they themselves had obviously begun to realise that, with extra cleaners engaged, a new breakfast service launched, and increased frequency of services turning up just as the franchise contest heated up. All too little, too late, ...
There's one item in today's list of items stolen from the Ministry of Defence that has really caught my eye: a bridge. [IMG: Forth Bridge] This bridge has not yet been stolen Not the easiest of things to steal, you might have thought. Nor the easiest of stolen objects to then make use of. (Unless, boring, boring it's a pontoon bridge and was stolen for its scrap metal value.) But looking into how you might steal a bridge (and researching a blog post is the excuse I'm giving any law enforcement officials who coming asking why my search trails are ...
1) There are four new Eleventh Doctor novels out, published as two double volumes. The first combines Death Riders by Justin Richards with Heart of Stone by Trevor Baxendale; the second combines The Good, the Bad and the Alien by Colin Brake with System Wipe by Oli Smith. They seem to be aimed at younger readers; though all four are reasonably well established Who writers (especially Richards who has written more Who books than anyone except Terrance Dicks). 2) The Brilliant Book of Doctor Who 2011 includes a short story by none other than Brian Aldiss. Further reports to follow. ...
Responding to the speech by Ieuan Wyn Jones to Plaid Cymru Conference, Liz Evans, the Welsh Liberal Democrat's Assembly candidate in Ceredigion said: "Plaid Cymru are desperately trying to run away from their record in Government with Labour. We've heard of a sham marriage. Now Labour and Plaid are engaged in a sham divorce. "Plaid and Labour have spent more money on economic development than any other part of the UK, but Wales is now the poorest part of Britain and we're falling further behind. They spent more of our money on the NHS than England, but we put up ...
One of the central arguments by which certain Lib Dem MP's were, ahem, persuaded, to march through the 'Yes' lobby to support tuition fees was the understanding that max charging would be the exception not the rule. Yet this report in The Guardian suggests that of the 16 Universities who have announced their fees for 2012, 13 have gone for the maximum and only 2 have schemes in place to ease the burden for students from less wealthy backgrounds. And even those 2 schemes look fairly mean spirited - and where are the big campaigns to persuade and help less ...
A quick look at some of the issues Chris will be facing in the next week Meeting Guy Verhofstadt (leader of Lib Dems in Europe) to discuss Chris' campaign for good implementation of EU law (correlation tables) Chris addressing a group of WWF Environment ... Continue reading →
Councils have been told how they will benefit from the doubling of funding available for repairing potholes as announced in Wednesday's Budget. The Transport Secretary has written to all English local highway authorities to inform them of their share of £200m. This translates into an extra £3,792,323 for Lancashire To promote greater transparency and accountability, all local highway authorities have agreed to publish information on their website by 30 September 2011 showing where this extra money has been spent. Clitheroe's Lib Dem County Councillor Allan Knox said: "This additional cash for Lancashire roads is really useful boost. Recently we have ...
It's Friday. It's five o'clock. Here's a fistful of lists that sum up the LDV week: 5 most-read stories on LDV this week Parmjit Singh Gill withdraws as Lib Dem candidate for Leicester South (7 comments) by Helen Duffett Nick Clegg on Libya: "This is not Iraq" (57 comments) by Helen Duffett Parmjit Singh Gill selected for Lib Dems in Leicester South (12 comments) by Helen Duffett Dominic Carman writes... Why I want to be the Liberal Democrat London mayoral candidate for 2012 (63 comments) by Dominic Carman Opinion: How 295 losers could have been winners (26 comments) by Mark ...
[IMG: A Century in Motion] [IMG: Creative Commons License] photo credit: VERY URGENT Photography Updated and derantified 23:16 Boycott's comments about Michael Yardy stray beyond commenting on his cricketing skills. He said of Yardy: He must have been reading my comments about his bowling, it must have upset him. That's a rather mystifying comment. How could someone be launched into depression because of the views of a Yorkshire cricket commentator? Then he says: I've been, with respect, a better player, I've been able to hold my place in the team for Yorkshire and England, I always got picked and played ...
Never ones to be left out of a musical or technological trend, VN has watched with amusement as day after day US teenager Rebecca Black has shot to infamy with her continuing presence on the twitter trending list. It is all down to the video of her song Friday, so.... Happy weekend readers!
27) Stephen Cherry, Barefoot Disciple: Walking the Way of Passionate Humility (London: Continuum, 2011, ISBN 9781441182869). I read this because it is the Archbishop of Canterbury's Lent Book for this year, and reading his selections is a discipline I've been following for many years. As I said to [IMG: [personal profile] ] tree_and_leaf recently, if nothing else, it keeps me in touch with what's being written in parts of the Anglican tradition other than my own (and occasionally different Christian traditions altogether). This particular Archbishop hasn't had a particularly good track record of selecting things I actually like, though, and ...
A bad couple of days for Nick Clegg, according to some. The Telegraph positively crowed when he was recorded privately joking with David Cameron after a joint appearance, and certain Lib Dems could subsequently be seen sighing heavily, wishing that ... Continue reading →
Rumour reaches us that a senior member of the Cabinet has started referring to Nick Clegg's pet phase as "the people Nick Clegg likes to call Alarm Clock Britain". A helpful clarification, and touchingly loyal. It is hard though to find commentators with a good thing to say about this phrase. Who after-all wishes to be associated with a thing that forces you out of bed. Liberal Democrat activists tend to pause before commenting, usually adding, 'well of course he means people who work'. To be entirely correct they should add 'and are lower rate tax payers'... 'with children'... and ...
Video also available on YouTube. Yesterday marked just 6 weeks to go until the most important poll of our lives, the Fairer Votes referendum on May 5th. Since we kicked off the Liberal Democrat Yes! To Fairer Votes campaign in Manchester last Friday there's been a flurry of activity to really get momentum going. Everyone is getting involved including our former Parliamentary Candidates, MPs and we've even roped all the MPs' staff in on the action! Up and down the country we're starting to see some great examples of Yes! To Fairer Votes campaigning activity. In Kidderminster the local group ...
Ed Miliband suggested the deficit now is MUCH lower than the one Labour inherited in 1997. Facts: Budget deficit in 1997 was £15 billion. Budget deficit in 2010 was £152 billion.
I cannot always claim to agree with marjorie wallace of Sane but on this occaision I emphatically do. Report of the out burst by Boycott has caused disgust. Typical of reports is the one below: Geoff Boycott has caused a storm by criticising England cricketer Michael Yardy over his depression, suggesting that the player was feeling down simply because he was not good enough at cricket. The Sussex spinner pulled out of the World Cup after being diagnosed with clinical depression, but former England batsman Boycott had little sympathy for the 30-year-old during an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live. ...
I have been an office holder of some sort in the LGA since it first met in 1997 and before that was on the executive of the AMA. There have been two rules in the LGA since it was founded ... Continue reading →
A few weeks ago I blogged about the ongoing problem of speeding on Northumberland Avenue and our local campaign to get action taken to improve road safety. This matter was discussed again at the recent public meeting on anti-social behaviour around the shops on Northumberland Avenue which I attended. Since then the Council and the Police have responded to my request that a Community Speedwatch campaign be launched on Northumberland Avenue - where members of the community help the Police measure car speeds to identify speeding drivers as a way of tackling the issue of speeding in the local area. We now need residents to help volunteers to ...
Yesterday, Labour held a seat in the London Borough of Lewisham and gained one from the Independent in Pontypool, Torfaen. Lewisham LBC, Bellingham Lab 1100 (51.4; +8.3) Con 340 (15.9; -3.1) LD Jenni Steele 334 (15.6; -11.1) Others (12.3; +6.6) Socialist Alternative – Lewisham People Before Profit 264 Green 100 (4.7; -0.8) Majority 760 Turnout 22% Lab hold Percentage change is since May 2010. (In May 2010 "Others" was an Independent who got 5.8% of the vote) Torfaen UA, Pontypool Lab 178 (30.9; +0.3) Others (57.3; -12.1) Ind 161, Ind 80, Ind 46, Ind 25, Ind 12 PC 50 (8.7; ...
Come with me if you will to the Council Offices in Badger's Drift where the planning committee is assembling: 'Right gentlemen can we come to order. Have we any apologies? No' 'Let the minutes show that Major Smythe (Chairman), Mr Algernon Moncrief, Mr Ernest Bunbury, Rev. Dr Canon Chasuable, Mr Jack Worthing JP, Mr John Rimmer, Mr Oscar Ball ' 'Our first item is consider a petition from Mr True-May. In which he urges us to maintain the unique character of our English village and to put the interests of those who have lived here for generations in front of ...
George Osborne is not exactly the most popular man in Britain. That won't worry him. What might cause more concern is that his long-term strategy for economic growth will need him to be the luckiest man in Britain. He made a huge gamble in cutting so soon and so quickly. His "shock and awe" approach to deficit reduction was never likely to be popular, but the risk Osborne took was dependent on his fiscal package facilitating economic growth. I have never been convinced of the need to cut so deeply, and felt that a wiser tactic would have been a ...
Lib Dems respond to ruling on Forest Heath housing strategy was 'legally flawed' Commenting on Today's (25thMarch), High court ruling that Forest Heath's Local Development strategy was 'legally flawed Cllr Tim Huggan (Lib Dem) said 'The Liberal Democrat group on Forest Heath has consistently opposed the Local Development strategy as rushed, lacking in local consultation and flawed in its vision for Forest Heath. The fact that the racing lobby have now won in the High Court and at the same time cost local taxpayers tens of thousands of pounds in legal fees to prove the point fills me with sadness ...
How utterly wonderful it was to come down the stairs this morning, turn on the tv and hear the scream of F1 engines. Even the doof doof doof of the tools in the garages made me literally want to jump up and down with happiness. I know I can't be a proper fan if I didn't get up to watch practice live, but, honestly, I need my sleep too much so I only do all nighters for elections and party conferences. My body clock can't take any more disrespect of its rhythms. After Bahrain was quite properly cancelled, hopefully not ...
Plaid Cymru start their conference today with a pledge that they will change the "culture of excuses" and that the next Assembly Government will take the initiative and take responsibility. According to the report in the Western Mail the party will continue to oppose the public-sector cuts made by the UK Government, and attempt to shield Wales from its effects, but they will not use them as an excuse for poor performance and weak delivery by the Assembly Government. So where exactly has the Plaid Cymru leader been for the last ten months when Ministers in his Government of both ...
Chief Finance Officers World reports: Nick Clegg has called for widespread reform of Britain's banking sector in the hope that the country becomes less reliant on what he called "overwhelmingly important" companies. An interim report on the subject from the Banking Commission is due out next month and Clegg has pre-empted its release with calls for the influence of the banks to be reduced in the interest of the wider economy... The banking commission will deliver initial findings on April 11th, with a final report due by the end of September. In an interview with Reuters this month, Lib Dem ...
One paragraph leapt out at me from the 34 pages of judgement with which the European Court of Justice dismissed most of Den Dover's arguments and found him liable to pay back £345,289 to the European Parliament. It contains one ... Continue reading →
As regular visitors will know, I'm not a huge fan of National Express East Anglia, indeed, I have called for the franchise to be taken away from them on a number of occasions. And it is therefore with great irony that today, of all days, I feel duty bound to write something nice about them. Yesterday, Ros was travelling back from London after her labours in the Lords, and when she arrived at Stowmarket, she crossed the footbridge to the car park thinking, it's really nice to be doing this without luggage. At that point, the penny dropped, and she ...
The weekend is nearly upon us, hooray! Obviously the sunny weather which has leered at my through the window throughout the working week is disappearing off somewhere just as I am released to enjoy it, but I remain unembittered and focus my ire instead on more controllable irritations like our electoral system and the silly ...
To support the need for Culverhay to go co-ed the Culverhay Action Group is running a surveyWould you consider sending your child to a new co-educational Free School on the Culverhay site?A 'Free School' is fundamentally the same as an Academy; funded directly by central government and accountable to central government, but with more input from parents and the community. It has the same legal
With a depressing predictability, my post at the start of the week about how the Ivory Coast's violent political tragedy is being largely ignored has been one of the least well read posts on The Voice during this week. But The Voice's readers are pretty typical of the wider world in this respect at least. Until the end of yesterday, for example, Libya had got 54 mentions in Parliament so far this year, the Ivory Coast only six. Yet this week has been another bloody one as defeated President Gbagbo refuses to leave office. The UN says 52 more people ...
That's the difficult question I asked myself this morning on reading of Nick's overheard comments to David Cameron yesterday. "If we keep doing this we won't find anything to bloody disagree on in the bloody leadership debates" It may have been said in jest, but like many jokes it perhaps comes closer to the truth than we would like to believe. Despite my feelings about the Coalition I have not changed my personal regard for Nick, just as I have Tory and Labour pals I am really fond of, I still regard him as a good, brave and liberal person, ...
Fri 25th
12:43
Elderly people's homes - major petition triggers South Glos council debate, maybe rethink
Cllr Alan Lawrance supported the petition and managed to get the timetable for closure reconsidered At South Glos's meeting this week, local resident Mr John Williams prompted the first petition debate at South Glos. He had presented a petition with over 2600 names at Cabinet and therefore secured the right for a debate in Full Council. The petition challenged the closure of Wapley Court Elderly Persons Home in and other residential homes before replacement homes promised had been built - planned for 2014. Mr Williams spoke of the failure of the Executive Councillor and the Director to engage fully with ...
Essex County Council tweeted excitedly this morning that they've been given £5.3m extra from the Government to deal with potholes. That's good news, and I look forward to seeing some of the potholes I've reported recently to them being filled in. Just in case anyone from the County Council happens to drop by, here are three of the worst that they could be getting on with fixing: First, in Priory Street In West Stockwell Street And at the junction of Serpentine Walk and Catchpool Road
5000th post I'd like to express my sympathy to Sheryll Murray MP and her family, on the news that her husband, a fisherman, has gone missing at sea. Paul Waugh on PoliticsHome has quoted Sheryll's speech in the Commons yesterday about the closure of coastguard stations, making reference to the worries of a fisherman's wife. I think it is fitting to quote that speech in full here: I intend to put a different slant on the debate, and I declare a special interest as the wife of a fisherman. I start by paying tribute to the men and women who ...
That's one way to put it, the quote in todays Gazette, taken from Cllr Clive Hart referring to the extraordinary goings on in Thanet Labour, which last week saw the unusual and for me unbelievable suspension of one of Labours most hardworking and capable councillor Mark Nottingham. 'Sad but inevitable' could of course refer to the Gazettes placing the story not on the front page but buried inside the paper on page five, of course it could also refer to the inexplicable delay by senior Labour members in dealing with matter fully and openly.
Stonewall do seem to struggle when figuring out which campaigns to support, don't they? No, they haven't failed to support one this time. Instead they've decided to jump on last decades Jedi bandwagon by asking people to list their religion as "Lesbian". This is a really bad idea for two reasons. Firstly, putting any religion in there will mark you down as religious, no matter how silly it is. It's far better, as the Census Campaign have been urging people to do, to tick "No Religion". And secondly, the reason for the Census Campaign in the first place is that ...
(One of a series of regular posts on the run up to the AV referendum on May 5th. As the post makes clear, I'm in favour of voting Yes. For those whom it concerns, I believe the question is either a choice between FPTP and AV – or between standing still and electoral reform – and not what I think is the best voting system.) Generally speaking, you can get to the same outcome by holding out for twenty or forty years to get something you believe in, or by making slow progress over twenty years or forty years. If ...
"Gaffe" is putting it a bit strong. It's quite funny really.
For me, this budget goes some way towards rebalancing the economy. The last Government left the country in almost financial ruin and have come up with no credible policies in opposition. The chancellor had very little to play with in his budget but I think the steps he is taking are the right ones. This was definitely a budget influenced by Lib Dems. It was pleasing to see how many of our policies made an appearance in the budget, particularly the increase in the personal allowance over the next three years. The budget also provided confirmation of the go ahead ...
I contribute code to Dabr – a mobile twitter client. It's a great project to keep my hand in the world of PHP, APIs, SVN, and all the other tools that are essential to the modern online world. Dabr's strength for developers is two-fold Dead easy to install. Unzip the files, fill in your API key(s), upload, done.It's under an incredibly permissive Open Source MIT License. Essentially anyone can do anything with the code and they don't need to ask permission, nor contribute anything back to the code base.It's a really popular tool. Although it's hard to count how many ...
This will start being delivered in Chells this weekend. I've never particularly liked any photos of myself (does anyone?). The idea of getting thousands of copies of this printed to put through letterboxes is strange. The full PDF download is here (547 KB) Chells FOCUS Spring 2011
Here's the introduction I gave to London Web Standards for their State of the Browser conference. Introduction to State of the Browser from London Web Standards on Vimeo. Slideshare seem to have screwed up some of the formatting, but here are the slides. State of the Browser – London Web Standards View more presentations from Terence Eden Full details of the day on Lanyrd. Thanks to Nick and the rest of the team for inviting me. It was an excellent day full of demos, discussions, and debates.
Den Dover, the former North West Conservative MEP, has been ordered to pay back £345,289 to the European Parliament and could now face prosecution for fraud. The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg today dismissed attempts by Dover to avoid ... Continue reading →
I apologise for the rather sparse posts this week. Apparently my website address has been the indirect victim of some sort of cyber attack on the whole "mycouncillor" system. In a defensive move a number of IP addresses have been "blocked" from accessing the site – and mine is one! That's why I can't get on to make my entries from my own computer. I'm doing my best to get this sorted so that normal service can be resumed. In the meantime, please just keep checking in. I'd hate to lose you.
With Ed Miliband preparing to give a speech to an anti-cuts rally (even though he publicly said Labour would be doing the same, if they were in government) his world has a few problems. Recent Sun/YouGov polls recorded near 70% ... Continue reading →
Stockport West Police Newsletter – Spring 2011
The higher your personal income, the more likely you are to under-estimate how well off you are compared to other people in Britain. That was one of the findings in a piece of MORI research from 2008 which looked at people's actual level of personal income and how they thought that level of income compared to everyone else. Of people who were in the richest 10%, nearly four out of five (79%) thought they were less well off than that and were not actually amongst the richest 10%. Only a fifth (21%) got their place in the richest 10% correct. ...
Fri 25th
10:18
How to help the public from Labour councils: How the Lib Dems can take the initiative in saving jobs...
The Lib Dems have tried to make headway about the fact that Labour councils are cutting more jobs than Lib Dem or Tory ones with Clegg and Cameron calling them politically motivated moves by Labour councils. Yet the reality is that these councils have a problem which the people living there will not see as ...
As part of the Conservative-run County Council's slash and burn approach to bus subsidies, the subsidised evening and Sunday service on routes 87 and 88 will cease on 2 April. However, for some at least, there is some good news. Galloways have announced that they will be running a revised Sunday service on the route, between Stowmarket and Ipswich via Needham Market six times a day between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m., using one bus. My only confusion is that the timetable is labelled 'Mendlesham - Stowmarket - Claydon - Ipswich', yet there is no indication that buses stop at ...
Earlier this month Communities and Local Government launched what they describe as an 'informal consultation exercise' reviewing the statutory duties placed on local government. It's aiming to gather views on the full range of statutory duties with a view to identifying any that are no longer appropriate or necessary. The Department makes it clear that ...
We keep wondering – and seem to be getting no closer to an answer – who will be the Lib Dem candidate for London Mayor? It turns out that the Politics Show is likewise intrigued. Here is a clip from last Sunday's show – featuring a piece about this very subject . Well actually it's about Lembit – as he appears to be the only Liberal Democrat in London who wants the right to be ritually humilated right now. The more observant of you will notice Liberal Vision's very own Andy Mayer being interviewed in the pre-recorded piece at the ...
It's true, I couldn't make it up. As reported on the front page of the southern edition of this week's Cambrian News, Dyffryn Arth Community Council have increased its precept 6 fold this year from £5,000 to £30,000 in one, fail incredible swoop. Dyffryn Arth is a rural community council in mid-Ceredigion to the immediate north of Aberaeron - taking in villages such as Aberarth, Pennant and Nebo. The residents from this community council area will have had quite a shock when their annual council tax demand arrived in the post this month from Ceredigion County Council. It shows that ...
Doctor Who Does Ghostwatch URP has freaky images from the new trailer (tags: doctorwho) We've gone on holiday by mistake! What if someone took Richard E Grant's lines from Withnail and I, and put them in the mouth of the campest robot ever to grace a Galaxy Far Far Away...? (tags: scifi) Gendered advertising remixer | Geek Feminism Blog Funny and scary in equal parts (tags: feminism) At Last - The Terry Gilliam Interview! You lucky, lucky barstud, Tez Burke (tags: montypython) Clegg and Cameron: a bit of harmony in Government can't be a bad thing, surely Caron on Clegg's ...
The BBC reports: Nato has agreed to take command of enforcing the no-fly zone over Libya from the US. But Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen made clear that other aspects of the operation would remain in the hands of the current coalition for now... The US initially agreed to lead enforcement of the UN resolution, but made clear it wanted only a limited role and would hand over responsibility as soon as possible. But the handover to Nato became bogged down when Turkey made clear its view that action should focus directly on enforcing the no-fly zone and arms embargo, ...
A joy to usher in my 34th b'day with skiffle rendition of 'What shall we do with a drunken sailor' down The Cellar #justactingmyage # And here are said skiffle combo, The Severed Limb, as bopped along to tonight – top-notch stuff. http://plixi.com/p/85062713 # @mssusieday Yay, 'twas ace [IMG: :)] TY for being a party to my party. in reply to mssusieday # @heyjames You ain't 34 til you've had some skiffle [IMG: :)] Happy Belateds! in reply to heyjames # @helenduffett TY [IMG: :)] (Can't believe I'm that old or that young??) in reply to helenduffett # Currently celebrating ...
It's simply amazing and surely puts some of our longer road projects into prospective. First picture is after the earthquake in Japan. The second is after the repair of the road just 6 days after the earthquake damage.
Gina Trapani (founding editor of the wonderful LifeHacker blog) has written an excellent article on women in technology. There is much excellent advice regarding inclusivity, and some great links. My headline about hiding behind a screen is a bit of hyperbole, but it makes sense in the context of some of the comments on the article. First, my favourite quote that Gina has peppered her article with: There's no perceived value in open source for mentoring, facilitation, disciplining of unruly users, training of newcomers or non-technical users, etc., which are needed to support both designers of any gender and women ...
I was pleasantly surprised by how good The Leisure Hive looks. Two lots of aliens, who both look convincingly alien. The legacy of a terrible war, combined with organised crime (which I now know is a standard combination in real life, but I don't think that was as widely appreciated in the 1980s). Lots of technobabble and decent special effects. Apparently the budget was way overspent, but the money is visible on the screen. It also of course is a new show. The title sequence is new. K9 is blown up in the first scene. The first episode ends with ...
Cross-posted from Liberal Democrat Voice This week Prime Minister's Questions contained a discussion of the military action in Libya. The need for Arab involvement in the task force was emphasized. Ed Miliband asked for David Cameron to clarify the position on the targeting of Colonel Gaddafi. The Prime Minister didn't clarify it. Ed Miliband then made a good point which David Cameron tersely swotted aside with worrying brevity. Miliband asked why the government is taking away the mobility component of the disability living allowance for those in care homes. That sounds a bit convoluted but if you look here you ...
As part of some long-overdue clearing out I have come accross the log book of a hike I organised, with a female colleague and her husand, in the mid-6os during a very educative spell as a primary school teacher. We took eight girls and eleven boys aged 10 or 11 for a five day walking holiday in the Yorkshire Dales during the Whitsuntide holiday (which in those days really was held at Whit and had not morphed into the Spring Bank Holiday which we're now thinking of abolishing.) We travelled by train (a first for several children) and bus, stayed ...
i) births and deaths 25 March 1920: birth of Patrick Troughton, who played the Second Doctor from 1966 to 1969 and returned on various occasions. He would have been 91 today. ii) broadcast anniversaries 25 March 1967: broadcast of third episode of The Macra Terror. Jamie and Polly are made to work in the pit, while the Doctor tries to analyse the mysterious gas. 25 March 1972: broadcast of fifth episode of The Sea Devils. The British government attempts to organise a nuclear strike on the Sea Devils.
On Tuesday Chief Constable Chris Sims told the Commons committee, on the Protection of Freedoms Bill, that criminal investigations throw up a thousand matches a year from the DNA database to DNA held for people who have not been convicted of a crime. He was unable to indicate what type of crimes were involved, nor ...
There have been many surprises since Britain last May got its first Coalition government since the Second World War. Who would have thought that the Conservative David Cameron would be standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Nicolas Sarkozy in leading the international acceptance of the Responsibility to Protect vis-a-vis Libya? But there have also been big wins in the ...
Locally the Lib Dems have long led the campaign to increase the range of materials that can be recycled by residents. The environment is something we care strongly about hence we currently hold the Environment and Sustainability Portfolio on the Coalition Cabinet. In the Coalition Agreement we signed with the Conservatives last May we agreed to review recycling with a view to increasing recycling and reducing waste being sent to landfill. The latest positive step in our campaign was taken today with news of the introduction of Reading's first battery collection service. From the Council's website: "Residents will soon be ...
Nick Clegg was caught on microphone joking with David Cameron about the 2015 TV debates about how they'll find it difficult to find topics to disagree on. In part, yes: they won't be able to criticise the record of the past 5 years of the other party in government. But they will be able to offer a different direction for the future, for the Lib Dems based on the policies we pass at our conferences and the manifesto drawn up by our democratically-elected policy committee, and for the Tories... whatever mechanism they use (and I doubt it involves their party ...
There was a disruption to the Morecambe Town Council meeting last Thursday. I read in the local newspaper that two police community support officers arrived and asked a member of the public to leave. According to the chairman this person "made allegations about us being crooks". On the other hand the member of the public said that the council had no respect for democracy. The bottom line for the police was that there was no breach of the peace as he was not being abusive. They had been called for disruption but "he was simply expressing his right to freedom ...
Wednesday: Master Gideon's second budget was really quite unexciting. What changes there were were moderate and predictable. A bit off fuel; a bit more tax on the oil giants. A bit off company tax; a bit more bank levy. Another step towards the £10,000 personal allowance. Then Mr Potato Ed stood up and read out the speech he'd written a month ago. "Same Old Tories ," he said, "you're just robbing Peter to pay Paul." He doesn't seem to understand: ALL government spending "robs" (taxes) somebody to "pay" (spend on) somebody else. Perhaps Mr Bully Balls has been "explaining" it. ...
