The Press Association reports: A top Liberal Democrat candidate for Holyrood has resigned from the party. Hugh O'Donnell was Liberal Democrat MSP for Central Scotland before the start of campaigning earlier this month for the Scottish Parliament elections. It is understood he was unhappy with the direction of the party in Scotland and the coalition in Westminster. A Liberal Democrat spokeswoman said: "We have accepted Hugh O'Donnell's resignation." Hugh O'Donnell has been pretty critical of the party for some time, so much so that seeing some of his comments made to posts of mine on Facebook I did a double-take ...
It's well known that Lib Dems up and down the country (be they councillors, campaigners or candidates) are well known for their pointing at things they and local residents aren't happy about and publishing the details in their local Focus. ... Continue reading →
[IMG: 20110326-223201.jpg] All, As many will know the Conservative-run County Council is running a consultation on closing, or in Shipston's case reducing the opening hours, some of its libraries. I urge everyone who cares about the future of library services in the County to complete the survey, which can be accessed here https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2NKJBY2 We are still waiting for information on when (or if) joint services between the police, District Council and County Council will be run from the library. The Conservative-run District Council shut its offices in Telegraph Street in November 2009 – and then backed out of a deal ...
At the top of the frontpage of the No2AV website they have what they describe as a "weekly reason to vote no". The only problem is that their weekly reason to vote no has been this for the past month: Incidentally, the reason is nonsense as a) the Electoral Commission has confirmed that they won't need or be buying voting machines and b) though, one of the Yes campaign's donors (namely the Electoral Reform Society) is the owner of a spin off company supplying electoral services, this company doesn't manufacture or sell voting machines. So, do you think they might ...
Some of you may remember my post from last week about the petition against the tory-run county council's decision to drastically increase parking charges. Council policy meant that if the petition got 20,000 signatures then the council was required to debate it at the next meeting. Well, the good news is that over 23,000 people signed it and about 19,000 paper petitions were presented at County Hall. Overall, about 40,000 people signed various different petitions asking the council to reconsider. The thing is that the next normal council meeting isn't until June - after the elections and when it will ...
Cuts or invest? Those that propose the alternative to the current cuts is investment are living in cloud Cuckoo land. Where is this investment going to come from? How on earth can the government invest more in the current debt situation? Don't get me wrong, I'm not totally with the current cuts, I never was and never will be. But if no action was taken then we would end up having our credit rating down graded like Portugal, Greece and Ireland. Therefore the government have to make cuts as well as raise taxes to ensure interest payments remain low. I'm ...
Welcome to Broxtowe Enews, bought to you by the Liberal Democrats and edited by David Watts, the leader of Broxtowe Borough Council. A special welcome to the many new readers that we have this week - it's been a while since we had so many people join in one week. It has also been a week for big news stories locally, some good and some bad. 1. Durban House Let's start with some unqualified good news. The DH Lawrence Heritage Centre, based at Durban House in Eastwood, now has a much more certain long term future after we entered into ...
For some reason I cannot get BBC Democracy videos to embed anymore so I have embedded this version of the badger cull debate from last Wednesday using the Assembly's Senedd TV site instead.
In response to constituents' enquiries about the current roadworks at the Perth Road/Riverside Avenue junction, I asked for an update from the City Engineer and have been updated as follows: "The works at Perth Road/Riverside Avenue are for the creation of a longer/wider slip lane off Riverside Avenue into Perth Road heading eastbound. This is a traffic safety related project and is being provided to improve visibility at the junction for right turning vehicles (heading west) at that junction. The works are being carried out by Tayside Contracts and should be completed within 3 weeks (having started on Monday)."
I'm grateful to Prue Bray, who has pointed out a rather worrying statement on March 23rd by Conservative MP Greg Clark, the Coalition minister for Decentralisation. You can find it here. It's about 'planning for growth', which sounds good in terms of improving the economy, but there are some alarming bits for people concerned about over-development: .....there is a pressing need to ensure that
When I last saw High O'Donnell at the Scottish Liberal Democrat conference earlier this month, he did hint that he was going to take the fight about the way the party was going to the next stage. I told him I'd be taking that fight to Sheffield and the Federal Conference the following week and beyond, but what he hinted at to me then was something more. Therefore I'm not that surprised to hear of his resignation today, but I am saddened by it. In my opinion the heart and soul of the party has not changed, that was clear ...
It is fantastic that we all live in a democratic state where freedom of speech is permitted and healthy debate encouraged between people holding differing views. What a shame therefore that some people feel that they only way they can get their voice heard is to undertake anarchic action. Staging a sit in at Fortnum and Masons, throwing light bulbs filled with ammonia at the police and generally causing mayhem has no place in our society. Whether Lib Dem, Labour, Tory or Green, there is no excuse for this type of behaviour that undermines the essential infrastructure that keeps our ...
Leicester politics have been particularly interesting to late and show no sign of calming down any time soon. The latest news is that Nigel Porter, one of the two Conservative councillors for Aylestone (of Meadows fame), has resigned from the party and will fight the seat for the Liberal Democrats in May's elections. According to the Leicester Mercury: At Thursday night's full council meeting, Coun Porter launched a scathing attack on his former group, branding them a "rabble" and saying that Coun Grant would not win the mayoral election, for which he is Tory candidate. It received a standing ovation ...
Welcome to the third part of my season preview, where I shall tell you about some of the things which enhance my F1 viewing. The first two parts are: Rules and Tools Teams and Drivers Once upon a long ago, when F1 came on, you just sat down on the sofa and got on with it. Then the internet came along, and you could access whatever information teams chose to give you online. And you could chew the fat with other fans on various forums, or fora, I suppose if I'm being correct about it. For me it was Twitter ...
I love this party, I really do. It's full of wonderful human beings doing their best for a cause that appeals to few, but which affects all. This includes Linda Jack, PPC, FPC member and frequent conference speaker. I've never ... Continue reading →
As Chairman of Stansted Mountifitchet Parish Council I should like to welcome those residents of Foresthall Park currently in the Parish of Birchanger who following boundary changes will be joining Stansted. Currently the boundaries are not logical and very confusing. Part of Walson way for example is in Birchanger whilst the other part is in Stansted. Following Stansted Parish Councils request to the District Council for a boundary review consultation was held with residents of Foresthall Park. The overwhelming majority of respondents agreed that their best interests would be served by becoming part of Stansted Parish. At Thursdays meeting of ...
Conservative MP Greg Clark, Minister for Decentralisation, issued a very worrying statement on 23rd March on the subject of speeding up planning decisions and pushing councils to decide more often in favour of developers. You can read the full statement here: http://tinyurl.com/6hhx6nn The most worrying bit? The point at which he suggested EXISTING and AGREED developer contributions should be renegotiated downwards: "To further ensure that development can go ahead, all local authorities should reconsider, at developers' request, existing section 106 agreements that currently render schemes unviable, and where possible modify those obligations to allow development to proceed; provided this continues ...
I was amused by this post by Lucy Snyder, in which she actually answers a set of questions from a student who is basically trying to use her brains to write her essay for her. I don't actually know Lucy at all other than having read her livejournal for the last few years (the only fiction I have read by her was a Doctor Who short story, and that very recently) but I think she is an excellent human being for taking the trouble to respond even as briefly as she did. I have a varied approach to this kind ...
Says who? The empirical evidence, that's who. Check out these pictures comparing Hiroshima, Japan and Detroit, Michigan. First in the 1940s and 50s and today. (FYI, Detroit has been at the mercy of overzealous Union thugs for the past 60/70 years. Hiroshima on the otherhand, despite intially using some government money to rebuild itself, has embraced happy Japanese capitalism ever since.)
A number of trade union activists appeared in London today to hear a speech by the Leader of their Labour party franchise. A smaller number of affiliated militants attacked a shop, reducing the amount of tax they paid. The franchise speaker failed to spell out a credible alternative to the Government plan. A Government spokesperson reassured the BBC their plan did not mean sacking all public sector workers. Everyone went home. Nothing changed. Great Britain is 303 years old and over £1 trillion in debt.
Here's the second part of my 2011 season preview concentrating on teams and drivers. The others are: Rules and Tools Gadgets and Gizmos I want to take a look at the teams' and drivers' challenges and opportunities for the season ahead, starting with the current champions. Red Bull Racing The current champions should have had the Constructors' Championship last year sown up a lot sooner than they did. Their season was punctuated with lost opportunities, fuelled at least in part by a failure to properly manage the tensions between their two drivers. Sebastian Vettel seemed stuck to pole position for ...
A little tip I've come across – there's quite a good search facility for finding information that's appeared in published Stockport Council commitee papers (and nearly all of them are publically available). You can use the search facility here. There's a slight bug in there at the moment – some of the files it returns are .ashx. All you need to do in order to view them is simply download the file and rename it to xxx.doc, after which you should be able to open it in your word processor of choice. I'll mention this to the technical people and ...
Today the TUC is orchestrating a big demo in London against the cuts. Yesterday the Labour party hosted a "People's Policy Forum" on the cuts. The focus of both events is anger. The idea that the cuts are unnecessary is actively promoted; all that's needed is for the rich to pay their due in taxes. The Economist's Bagehot gives an excellent description of Labour's forum. The anger is palpable, but where will it all lead? The Guardian's Polly Toynbee thinks this will be a turning point, leading to the complete rejection of government policy by the majority of British people. ...
For years I was a BlackBerry fanboy. I remember snatching a departing colleague's 6710 and lying to the IT department that I was authorised to have my email on my phone. I never looked back. Despite a brief flirtation with the Nokia N95 – I was a BlackBerry Boy through and through. Until this happened. [IMG: Dead BlackBerry] In early March 2010, my beloved BlackBerry Bold took a tumble out of a cab and died. I've been an Android man ever since. Magic, Hero, Nexus, Galaxy – all great phones, but none could hold a candle to the 'berry. Or ...
I... I love the colourful clothes she wears While for the most part I am dealing with the Beach Boys' music on an album-by-album basis, with this song (and one other I shall get to later) it feels wrong. The album this was eventually released on, Smiley Smile, is to my mind possibly the best ...
Development Control Committee I attended this meeting with Cllr Hall as the Old Town Hall railings application was being considered. I explained that lowering the wall and adding railings instead were a key part of improving the access from the library car park into the centre of Wallington under the Wallington Integrated Transport Package. I ...
Further to WWF's earlier post about Earth Hour, here is their campaign video on the subject.
Well, that was an intriguing qualifying session, full of enough of the unexpected to whet your appetite for the season to come. I dragged myself out of bed in the last few minutes of Q1 to find Massa and Heidfeld on the cusp of going out. I had thought that Nick Heidfeld, with his experience of testing for Pirelli, and with Renault having the best car they've had in years, would be scrapping for at least the third row of the grid. As Q1 ended, he couldn't rise above 18th place and fell at the first hurdle. Massa, thankfully, managed ...
I'm sat in the Scottish Lib Dems HQ, as you do on a Saturday afternoon, trying to get the scanner to work to send Elspeth some paperwork she needs for a piece of literature she is working on. I happened to turn round and look out the window and there was Ben Bradshaw MP wheeling his suitcase along carrying a bouquet of beautiful flowers. Initially I couldn't remember his name, so did what everyone does, I googled MP for Exeter. I was somewhat shocked when I then visited his website as it is really out of date, in fact so ...
If you're somewhere between 8 pm and 5 am or 7am, it's probably where you reside .. What's cool about this is we collect no personally identifiable information. The technology community, otherwise quite fond of the whole logic thing, manages some impressive intellectual acrobatics when arguing in favour of their self-interest. The above example is from Bill Nguyen, founder of the recently launched Color social app. It's remarkable how one second he is hinting that his application can figure out where you live by tracking the location of the cell phone in your pocket .. but the next he's saying ...
Earth Hour 2011, WWF's global event is coming up again this Saturday, March 26th. Across the UK and world people, businesses and iconic buildings will switch off their lights for an hour at 8.30pm local time. Last year Earth Hour saw hundreds of millions of people across 3,000 cities and towns in 83 countries take part and send a clear message to governments worldwide that climate change needs to be tackled urgently. But, this will only be possible with enough support and so WWF are calling on everyone to do their part, to get involved and to tell as many ...
It can't be easy being Ed Miliband, having to propose an alternative when all you've got is a blank bit of paper to wave around. But opportunity knocks, and Ed is a top class opportunist. Today there is a large 'anti-cuts' march in London, and Miliband leapt at the chance to join his union paymasters on the ...
Nonlinearity Let me first point out what I mean by nonlinear, because I'm using it in a technical sense. A nonlinear function is a mathematical expression that feeds into itself, e.g. [IMG: f = x^2 + 3x + f^\frac{1}{2}] Now, it may be that something like the above can be easily re-arranged to give you a linear equation (where you have a straight f on one side at some xs on the other,) but assuming you can't this is a nonlinear equation; you can't find f when given x without iterating through your calculation lots of times, and seeing if ...
So what to make of the Pizza Express at 23 Bruton Place, London, W1J 6ND and just round the corner from where Queen Elizabeth II was born? Asked to be seated, if you can, on the first floor as it has many interesting old maps adorning the walls. If the first floor is out, try to go for the slightly raised area at the back as it's much further away from the at times draughty main door into the restaurant. If, however, your dining companion has got there first and been seated in the cheap seats in the main expanse ...
I am sorry for banging on about the travails of the Ulster Unionist Party here, a party from which I have never considered voting (and I am sure that is true of most of you reading this too). But this has been an extraordinary week, just from the technical point of view of managing your party as the election campaign gets under way. Problem 1: the Deputy Chairman (sic) of the party resigned because his local hospital (in Derry) is not getting its proposed radiotherapy department, a decision made by the Health Minister, who is also from the UUP (but ...
Today (March 26th) is the 30th anniversary of the founding of the SDP. To mark the occasion last Monday CentreForum organised a discussion "the Class of 81: Who are the true heirs of the SDP? with leading former SDP members, Chris Huhne , Greg Clark (Tory Decentralisation Minister) and Andrew Adonis (Labour's former Transport and Schools Minister) on the panel. In the audience were Bill Rodgers, Shirley Williams, members of Roy Jenkins' family, countless former SDP members as well as a good few "political anoraks". It was an evening of reminiscing, "what ifs", analysis, historical reflection and a few amusing ...
WWF's Earth Hour is the world's largest display of hope for a bright future. From London to Sydney, New York and Singapore, people all across the world will be switching out their lights for one hour to show they care about tackling climate change and protecting the natural world. In Scotland, thousands of people switched off at the same time as iconic landmarks such as Edinburgh Castle, the Scottish Parliament, Falkirk Wheel, Kelvingrove Museum and the Wallace Monument. Earth Hour 2011 in Scotland will be the biggest and best yet. There is more than switching off the lights - check ...
This is a time of real uncertainty and threat in Israel, and what we saw at the hearing is part of a larger trend of Israel turning in on itself. It is redefining who is a Jew, redefining who is a citizen and now redefining who is a friend. The quote above comes from Jeremy Ben-Ami, founder of J-Street, the newish and moderate (read: left wing in the US) Jewish American advocacy group. Ben-Ami has basically set up in opposition to the rather more hawkish and powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) group. For my part, I find it ...
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. 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 incommers' . ...
If the regular politics of coalition is a walk in a minefield, the Libya crisis presents Lib Dems with a walk in a minefield while being haunted by a pair of malevolent ghouls. Those twin ghouls are ghosts of conflicts past, conflicts where Britain intervened and expedited disaster, such as Iraq , and the countries where the UK sat on its hands, and watched disaster unfold, such as in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. There are a number interesting, and from a Lib Dem point of view welcome, feature of the debate concerning the possibility of the western intervention in ...
Elizabeth Evans launched her Welsh Assembly campaign as Ceredigion's Welsh Liberal Democrat candidate last night in great style! A packed campaign launch event in Aberaeron heard fantastic, stirring speeches from Mark Williams MP and from Elizabeth herself and the buzz in the room from the young and the young at heart alike was electric! It's going to be a busy 5 weeks of campaigning but in Elizabeth, as I previously blogged here, we have a fantastic candidate. It's time for a change in Ceredigion - it's time for Elizabeth Evans!
There is lots I could write about the budget. Much I liked. But I have to first mention the imediate response from the oil and gas industry when it was announced they may have to chip a fairly slender slice of the huge windfall profits from price increases in fuel into the treasury, so motorists can still afford to get to work. Their response was "this will cost jobs". Now I've worked in the
This has been pulled from a previous article[Since the Arab League uprisings] There has been a subtle shifting in the nuance of the term "protest".The word is defined as 1. To express strong objection. 2. To make an earnest avowal or affirmation.However, the colloquial interpretation has shifted.When students protested, older (and wiser) people compared them to those who protested over
Here is Ed Miliband making his first speech as Labor leader to the party's annual conference last September: Let me say, I believe strongly that we need to reduce the deficit. There will be cuts and there would have been if we had been in government. Some of them will be painful and would have been if we were in government. I won't oppose every cut the coalition proposes. There will be some things the coalition does that we won't like as a party but we will have to support. And come the next election there will be some things ...
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In recent months, LDV has been bringing its readers copies of our new MPs' and Peers' first words in Parliament, so that we can read what is being said and respond. You can find all of the speeches in this category with this link. This week, Baron Hussain, of Luton in the County of Bedfordshire made his maiden speech in the House of Lords during a debate on the promotion of enterprise, growth and fundamental rebalancing of the economy. His words are reproduced below. My Lords, it gives me great pleasure to speak in your Lordships' House for the first ...
1. Go to one of the meetings about the future of libraries on 7th April and tell the Conservative County Council Library Service how much you care about Rock Road Library. The first one is the official public meeting, on 7th April at St John's Church, Hills Road, 7 – 9 p.m. The second is a presentation and discussion at the South Area meeting on 18th May (starts at 7.30 p.m. at the Queen Edith Chapel on Wulfstan Way) 2. Sign the Save Cambridgeshire Libraries petition at http://www.gopetition.com/petition/43867.html. If there enough signatures, then the County Council is obliged to debate ...
This morning's Western Mail reports on the rather bizarre all-party agreement to remove the names of individual candidates from the ballot papers for the Welsh Assembly Regional top-up list. What is most disconcerting about this is that despite everybody signing up to this proposal I can not find any of the main Welsh parties who agree with it. As Martin Shipton says, although voters will put crosses against the names of candidates contesting the 40 "first-past-the-post" constituencies as normal, regional list candidates on the second ballot paper will not be identified. Instead, voters will simply be asked to opt for ...
Avon and Somerset police have just launched a new online service for victims of crime. TrackMyCrime is now being offered to all victims of crime across Avon and Somerset. It will allow them to track the progress of their crime as it's investigated by police officers by providing access to information extracted from police systems. Deputy Chief Constable Rob Beckley said: "We've introduced TrackMyCrime to keep victims informed about the status of their crime in a more streamlined and efficient way. It combines policing with modern technology and gives victims more choice about how they want to receive information from ...
For once, I've been a good citizen and put in a few nominations for this year's Hugos. (We have just under twenty-three hours in which to do so.) The process brought home to me that I tend to be a follower rather than a shaper of these things. Usually I read short fiction only after it has been nominated, and this year is no exception; I left all three of those categories blank. I've also read very few sf novels published in 2010 - basically Cryoburn and the BSFA shortlist. So I nominated all of those, except for The Windup ...
Five shows I'd like to see on DC Nation If this comes to the UK and they do a Batgirl I would actually pay for Cartoon network (tags: comics) xkcd: Beauty This made me think of my Dad and the Lucky Dip pickled onions... (tags: funny comics) Moonbase A (Lois Lane, Girl Reporter) Shame this never actually made it into publication. I mean, there's SO MANY awesome role model characters for little girls like mine to grow up with that we really didn't need ANOTHER one, right? [/sarcasm] (tags: comics) Dear Nick Clegg, 10 things you can disagree with Cameron ...
Here's your starter for ten in our weekend slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate... The level of the Prime Minister's pay has become a widely used yardstick for other public sector pay – which suggestions of extra scrutiny for the pay deals of people who are paid more than the PM and counts or complaints about how many people are paid more. But does the Prime Minister's pay (or rather salary and pension, for the benefits in kind such as accommodation are rarely factored in) make for a sensible yardstick? And if not, is there ...
i) births and deaths 26 March 1925: birth of Barry Letts, producer of Who from Doctor Who and the Silurians (1970) to Robot (1974-75), director of Enemy of the World (1967-68) and The Android Invasion (1975), writer of The Dæmons (1972). broadcast anniversaries 26 March 1966: broadcast of "The Bomb", fourth episode of the story we now call The Ark. The Monoids fight among each other; the Doctor and friends find the bomb on the Ark; and the Doctor turns invisible... 26 March 1978: broadcast of fifth episode of The Talons of Weng-Chiang. Leela and the Doctor go to the ...
An Irishman's Diary - The Irish Times - Thu, Mar 24, 2011 (tags: ireland) History News Network Use of 'OMG' in 1917! (tags: languages)
Today I will join my two blogs as I am showing you amendments to a photograph which then became a political leaflet. On the left is the photo you saw yesterday in the photography blog. It has already been cropped significantly and you will also notice that Lancaster Cathedral has been removed. Increasing the brightness and decreasing the contrast makes it the background in the election leaflet on the right. As for the politics, this is an amendment to the leaflet which was seen on Thursday which showed Morecambe Town Hall in the background. It is a simple explanation of ...
I read online this week that Labour councillors in Reading are opposed to the Coalition Council's plans to charge residents for Green Waste Collections. This service isn't free to deliver. So how would they pay for it? They say they care about local services but how would they fund them? Over the past year Labour councillors in Reading have opposed every single saving we have identified and every charge we have sought to introduce which when taken together help protect services to the most vulnerable. In their mindless opposition to everything Labour councillors have not differentiated between bulky waste charges ...
