TUESDAY 5TH APRIL 2PM COUNTERSLIP BAPTIST CHURCH OPEN PUBLIC MEETING TO PRIORITISE STOCKWOOD'S GREEN SPACES PLAN This is an open public meeting to decide the priorities for the green space plans. All members of the public are encouraged & welcome to attend. The open space on Craydon Road, where the old closed toilet block & bus shelter is, has been withdrawn from the plans and the suggested Housing Development in front of Maple Close flats will not take place. Members of the public can now have their say on other parts of the plans for Stockwood at this meeting, which ...
David Cameron tell us that there is no reason why there has to be fewer frontline police officers. He defends this by saying that the Labour Party would have made cuts too. Not the strongest defence to a statement telling the police that they don't have to make cuts. David did go on to say that cuts would mean freezing police pay, reform allowances (I think that means cuts) and cut down on paperwork. It isn't that long ago that I heard of police cuts affecting frontline officers but let's take their word now that 12% cuts could be absorbed. ...
It's funny how a simple statement of congratulations on a planned wedding can't be accepted in the Commons without a "handbag moment" (see Reeves/Mortimer) dredging up twenty year-old events. Ed Miliband thanked David Cameron for his congratulations adding "I might have to come to him in the next couple of months for advice, because I know that he knows how to organise memorable stag nights." Ooooh! Handbags having been safely stowed, Ed Miliband raised the matter of the stampede of British universities to join the "£9,000 club". Cameron replied that the Office for Fair Access will decide on which universities ...
[IMG: george street, hove] A brief account of two of the local events I've attended in the past 10 days. 21 March: Local Action Team (LAT) Central Hove meeting. Chaired by Hove Town Centre Manager Maddy Carr. Attended by myself, local councillor Jan Young, PCSO Darren Penter, Simon Bannister (Environment Improvement Officer, BHCC) and two Hove residents. Issues discussed were: Cycling: the crossing at the bottom of Grand Ave needs better signage to make it safer. BHCC Highways Dept will be contacted on this. There will be a cycle awareness day 25th June in George Street. Dog fouling in Holy ...
As the final meeting of the third Assembly ended, the Presiding Officer picked up the mace and handed it to Rhodri Morgan. They then left the chamber together, the mace resting on the former First Minister's shoulder. We are now in a period of dissolution and the election period has officially started.
Other Reading councillors may wish to comment on their blogs or elsewhere on the politics of yesterday's Council meeting. However, from my point of view the most significant issue on the Council's agenda yesterday was in relation to Transforming Social Care - a programme I have led since May 2010 and written about here extensively. The meeting where our proposed new policy was to be debated was the culmination of many weeks of deliberation and consultation, in which over one thousand individual responses were submitted by the public and over 27 consultation meetings held by Council officers. This is the ...
Will Straw has rightly taken the Conservative Party's Baroness Warsi to task for not only trying to whip up fake scares about AV benefiting the BNP (who are actually against AV) but also for claiming that AV may make politicians try to appeal to the supporters of extremist parties when in fact her very own election literature did just that. Ken Clarke is pushing on with implementing the Bribery Act – despite claims from Labour earlier in the year that the government could be about to delay implementing the Act indefinitely. A Whitehall IT chief has admitted that, "Labour ministers ...
Ward and parish councillors were invited to Elementis today to see for ourselves how the demolition is going. The most interesting part was a time lapse photo sequence showing some of the work going on. The delicate way in which a huge machine carves up the steel structure and chops it into small pieces was amazing. By the time we'd been able to look round the site and ask all our questions we
Emerged at last from the Spring cleaning, but with plenty of hard work still to do to save us all from Lala's NHS catastrophe, only to discover that someone's been getting Balls talking about himself again, and what a charming figure of 21st century humanity he still represents. Mehdi Hasan in the latest New Statesman reminds Balls that during his leadership campaign last summer, he had a dig at the Miliband brothers, saying it would have been "weird" if he and his wife, Yvette Cooper, had run against each other, and then Mehdi asks whether it isn't already "weird" to ...
We are glad to report that radio and TV presenter Peter Rowell, who went missing in the Yate area yesterday, has been found safe and well in Cumbria. The BBC has more detail here
Robbery, a 1967 film starring Stanley Baker, presented a fictionalised version of the Great Train Robbery. The robbery itself was filmed near Theddingworth on the Market Harborough to Rugby line, which had just closed. The photograph above, which taken from a discussion of the film on BritMovie, shows the bridge over the gated road from Theddingworth to Gumley. Now Market Harborough Movie Makers are proposing to make a short documentary about the making of Robbery and would like to speak to anyone who helped with the filming. Especially, says the Harborough Mail, anyone who helped to rock the mail coach ...
Here's a good video explaining the main reasons to vote against AV:
Residents have expressed concern to me about the state of the pavement in City Road, following the problems with the sewer a few months ago. I have raised this with the City Council and received the following response : "A repair was carried out on part of the footway on City Road on 23rd March 2011. An order is to be raised to investigate the cause of the subsidence ... Road Maintenance will advise you in due course of their findings."
I have shamelessly cribbed the following from my colleague, Caroline Page, as her briefing is very comprehensive and informative: Remember - although EMA has been abolished, this doesn't mean that post-16 students will be left high and dry (although some people want you to believe this, for purely political reasons). Instead the coalition are proposing a new allowance that will be targeted at those who need it most. This is very good news for those who are worried that loss of EMA will prevent them attending school or college The government's intentions about EMA are therefore very different to Suffolk ...
Jeremy Rowe, a Liberal Democrat member of North Cornwall District Council, has an interesting article on the Local Government Improvement and Development website describing his experience of social media. That experience began with what must have felt like a disaster. After taking part in a light-hearted conversation with a number of other tweeting councillors during a three-hour debate on member allowances, he found himself on the front page of the Western Morning News under the headline "What a bunch of Twitterers". But what happened next was instructive. Jeremy's number of followers tripled almost overnight and then: The point at which ...
From my friends in the north: While the party leaders were getting ready for last night's TV debate, candidates from all parties were facing their own challenge in front of young people drawn from all over the Highlands at Action for Children's Quiz the Biz event in Inverness. After exploring stalls from all the parties and taking part in political speed-dating with candidates, the climax of the evening was a secret ballot conducted by Highland Returning Officer Alistair Dodds. The same event in 2007 sucessfully predicted the outcome of the main election a few weeks later. After meeting Highland candidates ...
Two proposed Traffic Regulation Orders (TROs) have been published for Acocks Green. The TROs would introduce "No Stopping Monday - Friday between 8am and 4pm" at the school entrances on Cedars Avenue, Yardley Road (for Cottesbrooke Junior School) and Hartfield Crescent (for Ninestiles). This is being done in conjunction with the current Safer Routes to School Scheme to prevent parking where it currently causes problems in terms of accessibility and safety. Local residents (those with frontages affected and those within 50 metres of the changes) have been sent a letter outlining the proposals. Anyone objecting to the proposed TROs needs ...
This is the third volume of the History of Middle Earth; it contains two unfinished poems tackling the two key narratives of the Silmarillion. The first, a version of the tale of Túrin told in alliterative blank verse, did not really appeal to me, and while I can see why Tolkien, with his background, wanted to give it a try, it's not very surprising that the effort did not come off. The Lay of Leithian, however, is a different matter - telling the story of Beren and Lúthien in rhyming couplets of iambic tetrameter, it has a tremendous energy that ...
At the last Acocks Green Ward Committee (9th March 2011) a petition was submitted (and forwarded to the Planning Committee), signed by nearly all residents of Olton Croft and many more, particularly from Lincoln Road and other roads nearby, objecting to a planning application submitted on behalf of the restaurant at 71 Lincoln Road, which is at the junction of Lincoln Road and Olton Croft. The planning application was for the renewal of a temporary extension of opening hours, from 7am to 7pm Mondays to Saturdays, to 7am to 11.30pm Monday to Saturdays and in addition, 10am to 7pm on ...
I've had a stinking cold all day and stayed in bed, which did at least mean I finished a couple of books and started a couple more. And now apparently Livejournal is suffering the worst DDoS attack in its history, so I'm posting this by email and hoping it will appear once the gremlins have been purged from the intertubes. Having enjoyed Volume 1 and Volume 2 of this series, I had fairly high hopes for this third instalment of the alternate history of a Japan where almost all men were wiped out by a mysterious plague in the 1630s. ...
A Garston resident got in touch with me recently about whether there could be some more allotment sites in South Liverpool. I've been doing a bit of research about the number of plots that exist in Liverpool and what the law actually says. I found a bit of old statute, which seemed to say that an authority had to provide a site if a certain number of people asked for it (getting it checked) However I also wanted to know the current state of play in Liverpool when it came to demand and waiting lists. I asked a question about ...
The housing charity Shelter has launched a new campaign to protect private tenants from rogue landlords. I've signed up in support and I think it's a campaign which deserves to succeed. The principle aim is to get an accreditation scheme for private landlords to help protect tenants from living in squalor and the unscrupulous practices of some renters. I've been a private tenant for a long time. I hasten to add that my current landlord is very good! But in the past I've suffered twice. On the first occasion, a landlady held on to £400 of deposit money. On the ...
Just back from the City Council's Environment and Climate Change Committee. I had a question in about Rotters, the project on Dutch Farm in Garston. One of the things I wanted to know was the knock on effect of the loss of funding on some of Rotters' work. The organisation has been doing some green waste collection on behalf of the Council in the Garston area. I discovered tonight that about 500 of the properties that have been covered by Rotters will in future be covered by the Council. I was told this change was due to happen around 12th ...
On March 30th 1981, Ronald Reagan became the first President in US history to survive an assassination atttempt. Only 69 days into his Presidency, he was gunned down by John Hinckley Jnr in Washington. At first, the secret service declared that 'Rawhide (Reagan's codename) is ok...we're going to the Crown' (codename for the White House). But when blood came out of Reagan's mouth, he was rushed instead to the George Washington University Hospital. He'd suffered a punctured lung and after a successful operation, left hospital on the 13th day. Hinckley, who wanted to get the attention of movie star Jodie ...
It's now 14 weeks since we first asked Ivan Lewis how he would fund higher education, after he (rightly, in my view) criticised those Lib Dems who broke their tuition fee pledge. He hasn't answered. He hasn't answered, I presume, because he has no answer. His, and Labour's, only answer at the moment is to ...
To fight snow falls salt is an integral weapon in Southwark councils arsenal. To ensure salt can be spread it needs to be kept dry else is goes lumpy and cakes. Uncovered salt also leaches away causing environmental problems. The 40thSnowfighters handbook states "Salt piles must be covered on an impermeable pad. Salt users usually prefer permanent structures on asphalt pads with proper drainage. Temporary waterproof coverings can be effective if tended carefully. Covering salt also helps avoid loss of material through leaching and caking. Also, salt without cakes and lumps spreads with no difficulty." When asked, Southwark officers have ...
Wed 30th
16:54
Should broadcasters claim back tax on their TV? Should we be able to use ISAs to avoid tax? Is all t...
During a fascinating discussion on tax avoidance, a radio broadcaster recently revealed that they claim back tax on their TV as a business expense. "I need to watch TV for my job", they insisted. It's an interesting point. How can we criticise the Phillip Greens and the Vodafones of this world for (legal) tax avoidance when we ourselves are following the tax rules to pay less tax by, for example, by investing in ISAs? In the same programme, the broadcaster allowed themselves to be congratulated on their child winning a schools competition, the result of which is on the internet, ...
It seems that the budget figures don't add up – at least not in a good way. Some pretty horrid stuff has turned up. Firstly, there is the strategic decision to engage in a race to the bottom with tax on big companies which I posted on last month. The underlying logic is impeccably neoliberal ...
Good news for Hull & East Yorkshire today with the announcement from the arts council that Hull Freedom festival will get £325,000 towards it's costs over the next three years. In addition to this Hull Truck and Hull jazz festival have also been awarded significant amounts of funding. The news about the Freedom festival is particularly encouraging given that our bid was fully funded (this does not seem to have happened for a number of bids across the UK) I know the team are working on corporate sponsorship too and todays show of support from the arts Council will make ...
Today the Arts Council announced greatly reduced funding for arts projects across Britain, but I'm pleasantly surprised to find that there is some incrreased funding and totally new funding for some relatively local projects. The Forge, based in Stanley, provides a range of innovative arts programmes involving young people. It sees a 26% increase in funding over the next three years. Meanwhile the Gala Theatre and TIN Arts, both based in Durham, will get funding for the first time. The Arts Council does not publish the losers in this process, and no doubt readers will draw my attention to some ...
Just been registering on The Sun website in order to vote in their poll on the Referendum in May – but have come across a snag. They have just asked me (in order that I can vote): 4. Which of the following is your ITV region? If you receive more than one, which would you [...]
Rumours in the Telegraph this weekend of a rebrand, a name change, a leadership challenge? Notwithstanding the dubious origins of a story attempting to rub salt on wounds open since 1988 I mulled over the possibilities. Having debunked 2 assertions in the article I didn't even bother to consider the prospect of a leadership challenge. Would we ditch the freedom bird for scales of justice? Considering the People's Justice Party and more recently the Jury Team used scales, I should hope not. And renaming the party to include the word "social"? Some members in my local party born after 1988 ...
I don't usually do foreign stories. (Largely because I feel without the cultural background to frame a discussion, it can often be unhelpful) I also don't usually write about poly issues. But, via The Wild Hunt, this one has me perplexed more than usual. Over in Canada, it's being argued by the states own lawyer that poly households should be prosecuted. No, this isn't polygamous marriage, just the suggestion that somehow allowing more than two people to live together in a relationship leads to "unmitigated lives of slavery, bondage and horror for the wives" and also causes human trafficking and ...
This weekend I finally managed to get back to running. We had been planning the weekend for about 2 months. On Saturday we had a Old Boy's race at Bryanston (my old school), followed by our first ever go at orienteering in Wareham Forest on the Sunday. However, our injuries were putting a bit of a damper on our plans. We decided on Friday evening that neither of us were fit enough to run, but that we would go down to support the race at Bryanston nonetheless and go along to orienteering just to see what it was like. We ...
Cameron can be impressively polite to MPs across the House of Commons (as pointed out by the Guardian here recently and here from longer ago), always thanking them for their question. But he let himself down twice today. The first was telling a backbench Labour MP demanding an apology for being misrepresented in Conservative leaflets "I can't believe I accused him of anything because I had absolutely no idea who he was!". I think Labour will be more happy with the second burst of anger, which starts just before the 31-minute mark on BBC iPlayer. "I wish the Shadow Chancellor ...
Protest marches are rarely a very effective way to change public opinion. Most look self-serving, some get hi-jacked by violent minorities. They act more as rallying points for the already convinced rather than 'could be persuaded'. With tongue firmly in cheek to make a serious point then, opponents of ever larger government are organising a "civilised and well mannered" rally against "pointless government initiatives" on 14th May 2011. It is unlikely the rally will attract the quarter million claimed by the TUC. Cuts make a small number of people very angry, debt reduction benefits everyone largely invisibly by reducing crowding ...
Commenting on the launch of the Conservative Welsh general Election campaign, Wyn Williams, Welsh Liberal Democrat candidate for Montgomeryshire said: "The Tories say that the Welsh economy is weak but their own policies would take Wales backwards. "Wales' weak economy is a direct result of low levels of skills and underfunded and underperforming schools. "The Tories want to slash budgets for economic development, training and schools in Wales at the very time when these areas need to be prioritised. "Welsh Liberal Democrats will focus on tackling the skills gap and making sure that Wales is a good place to do ...
My wife Claire found this on You Tube. The "husband" referred to reminds me of many people I know who have opinions on everything and they always have the answers. I don't think I'll be voting for Mr Eyres if he is standing next month.
Making your Money Work For You. Free workshop at Westgate Childrens Centre on Tuesday 5th April 1pm - 3pm. A creche is available for children under 5. Must be booked in advance. Topics will include budgeting, borrowing, savings, banking, prioritising payments etc. For full details and how to enrol click here and then click the link to download the Word document "Financial Inclusion Yate".
Poll data (from YouGov) regarding the weekends events in London have been released. "From what you've seen of Ed Miliband so far, do you believe he is or Is not up to the job of Labour leader?" Is up to ... Continue reading →
My colleague Nathan Bale has criticised the time taken at yesterday's full council meeting debating changes to the adult community health service in Cornwall. I respectfully disagree with Nathan's view on this. Health services are a huge concern to people across Cornwall and the changes that are proposed are substantial. If you take the narrow view - that the Council should only ever deal with issues which are entirely under its direct control - then our scope for influence would be very limited indeed. But, as has often been said, the aim of the Council is to be the strategic ...
The Herald reports, THE Scottish Conservatives were plunged into a fresh crisis last night after a sacked election candidate said he had been denied natural justice by the party's "dysfunctional" leadership. Malcolm Macaskill, who was dumped as the leading candidate in Glasgow last week, said his treatment would cost the party £1 million, because his friend, Tom Coakley, a former footballer who made a fortune in property, had now withdrawn a pledge to give the Tories £100,000 a year for a decade. It has also been reported that a second major Tory donor, John McGlynn, the airport car park magnate, ...
[IMG: Cameron and Clegg in Downing Street. Photo courtesy of the Cabinet Office] Following the formation of the Conservative / Liberal Democrat Coalition Government last spring, there was much immediate speculation about whether or not the Coalition would really last its intended full five years. Stories such as the Metro's Voters say the Lib-Con coalition government will not last full term were common. Now, however, such stories are the rare exception. That isn't just because the media mood has moved on to other questions, but also because the list of reasons for believing it will last are stacking up. 1. ...
I can say that without contradiction. They have used a copyright photograph without obtaining permission from the copyright holder in their Reading Banner. That's a £6,000 fine or six months imprisonment thank you very much. You see they believe that the law doesn't apply to Reading Labour as the postal votes fraud in Redlands showed. There's more to that story than ever came out in public if my sources are to be believed and I believe them more than the local Labour Party. They lie and smear in their leaflets. They accept cheating as a way of life when campaigning. ...
Oh, why do I read the Times? It only makes me angry. Today Alice Thompson is claiming that a 1% mansion tax is unfair and unaffordable. Her own numbers in her column suggest that there are 250,000 houses liable, and at 1% of at least £1m. a go that's £2.5 BILLION per year. Consiering that estate agents will value your home for nothing (or perrhaps under this scheme a fee of up to... £100) how on earth can that be unaffordable?? It's ludicrous. Who reads this column and agrees with it?? I'd write more but I'm on my phone.
1. "Fiji is changing its mind on AV" The Prime Minister, from Hansard 9th March: I will be campaigning hard for a no vote in the referendum. I think that it is a relatively simple argument to make. We have a system that is simple, clear and easy to explain. The alternative vote is used in only three countries. They are Australia, Fiji and Papua New Guinea—and Fiji is beginning to change its mind. So that sounds as if the great populace of Fiji has decided, as one, that they can't stand AV anymore and want it replaced, right? Wrong. ...
The Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill about to complete its ride through the Commons, contains a range of items under 'social responsibility'. One of these relates to changes to the way arrests for crimes under Universal Jurisdiction would be implemented (Clause 152). These are crimes such as genocide, torture, piracy and hostage taking, where the UK asserts the right to try people regardless of where the crime may have taken place. This has been controversial in the past, particularly with the attempted arrest for private prosecution of Tzipi Livni, the former Israeli Foreign Minister, in 2009. She avoided arrest ...
Five things I've enjoyed this week. 1. Johann Hari is an economic genius At least it reads that way.... 2. Johann Hari is not an economic genius At least according to the Spectator. 3. George Monbiot should be careful who he has a go at. According to Henry Porter. And to think I bigged George up yesterday... 4. This is about Lembit. I'm saying nothing. I don't want to get sued. 5. Lib Dems pointing Funny. I'm off for three root canals now. Wish me luck.
Wed 30th
11:40
"You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done wi...
Last week's council meeting produced some interesting and revealing moments. There were three motions on the order paper and we shall return to the first two later but for now let us look at the one moved by my fellow Birkdale Councillor Simon Shaw. We trailed this motion earlier in the week. It charted Labour's abdication of responsibility over the budget in Sefton. They have voted against almost all the proposal for reductions and championed every aggrieved lobby group without moving any coherent alternative. The question that is inevitably raised by such conduct in the context of Sefton's all party ...
The upcoming referendum on whether the UK should replace the First Past The Post voting system with the Alternative Vote is generating the normal bored apathy from the electorate, punctuated by shrill hyperbole from political parties. While I don't think the whole thing is worth getting excited about, the way we choose our leaders is worth a little thought. The current debate is so full of claim and counter-claim about the "democratic legitimacy" of either system, that it can be hard to break it down to basics and understand what we are choosing between. To do this let's imagine a ...
An explanation from Stuart Bonar, Plymouth Lib Dem
It's another meeting of full Council tonight at the Town Hall from 7pm. It's the last one of the municipal year, in fact. On the agenda tonight is the Transformation Strategy, which outlines how the Council's services may be provided in different ways in the future as budgetary pressures increase. I'm not sure how the ...
A limit on the maximum number of people eligible to vote at a polling station has been imposed by the Electoral Commission under the powers given to its Chief Executive, Jenny Watson, to run the AV referendum in May. Under the law for referendums, Jenny Watson is the Chief Counting Officer and thereby able to issue instructions as to how the vote should be conducted around the country. Because the referendum is being held on the same day as other elections, many of those instructions in effect also apply to the other elections as well. One of these is the ...
Matt Lingard blogs: It's a long time since I came across the 3-click rule but it reared its head the other day. The 3-click 'rule' is based on the 'fact' that web users don't like to click and if they can't find want they want in 3-clicks they give up and try another website. The evidence doesn't back this up. Research shows the opposite. You can read Matt Lingard's full post here.
STV last night hosted the debate we've all been waiting for - Alex Salmond, Iain Gray, Annabel Goldie and Tavish Scott going head-to-head to debate the issues at the heart of Scotland's future. On this showing, the one result that matters is that the public is unlikely to be as enthused by the political campaigns as they were during last year's General Election. For the most part, it was uninspiring stuff. At times it was so bad I contemplated watching back episodes of Spitting Image, just to remind myself how good political debate used to be! It's no wonder that ...
Figures released by the MOD to North East Fife MP Sir Menzies Campbell show that RAF Leuchars has one of the best records for available flying days among the UK bases. Records for the last three years show that only 7 flying days were lost at RAF Leuchars which were due to adverse weather conditions. The average number of flying days lost at the RAF bases for which figures are available was around 25 per year. Sir Menzies Campbell said: "These figures underline the compelling case for retaining an RAF base in North East Fife. The base is perfectly suited ...
Wed 30th
09:35
Lessons from successful politicians: Helen Clark gains success from relationship-based politics
Success stories exists in politics which offer great learning for anyone who follows politics. Where a party wants to learn about how to do well in coalition politics then we need to look at successful politicians in coalitions and see what there is to learn and New Zealand offers some good lessons for the Lib ...
Excellent news from the Federal Executive this week with the decision to appoint a preferred supplier for a new election fighting computer database. Voter Activation Network, the US firm which services many Democrat Party candidates, has been selected with a view to signing a multi-year contract shortly. Amongst the other bidders were the party's long-running suppliers EARS (though they may still have a role to play as data suppliers, especially given the team's expertise and experience in dealing with different electoral register formats). EARS has provided a valuable service to the party for many years, but the old model of ...
Another day, another report lambasting the Labour-Plaid Cymru Government's record on education. This time it is a document commissioned by the Minister, which claims that too many Welsh schools are "coasting" when it comes to literacy and numeracy, and which warns of a risk of a "downward spiral" in the education system. This morning's Western Mail says that the report also found a "disappointing degree of inconsistency" between providers at all levels and claimed that local authorities, when operating individually are too small to provide high-quality services and professional support to schools in their charge. Coming on top of the ...
A wealthy financier involved in a family dispute has made British legal history by winning anonymity in a libel case. This latest court attempt to censor internet material has led to claims that free speech is being further eroded in Britain.I am unsure how this really helps. The interests of confidence in justice are not being served. The fact that someone went to court to stop people
Sort of a rant, but more an expression of confused bafflement. I really don't get celeb stories in the press. I mean I'm not interested in the tittle-tattle about people's private lives, but I can see how others might be. No the stories I mean are the "So What?" type, typically a picture of a ...
'Average university tuition fees will soar to £8,600 a year under the Coalition's higher education reforms' — so says Research Fortnight, which has analysed universities' response to the Government's post-Browne funding reforms. This invites the question: Is this a case for greater government intervention? That's (unsurprisingly) the position of the Labour-supporting Left Foot Forward blog. But let's turn the question on its head — is the reason fees will rise so quickly precisely because of government intervention? When Lord Browne published his original proposals he set no fee cap — deliberately so, in order that the market would find its ...
Last night's Scrutiny committee finally came to a view on the matter of introducing a standard charging framework for Children's Centres. It was the third time the issue had been discussed, but on the previous two occasions the Cabinet member had been so flummoxed by our questions that he had to go away, have a ...
Some good news from the government on the unfolding international crisis that almost no-one in Britain is interested in, namely the Ivory Coast. The Department for International Development (DfiD) is giving £16m in emergency aid to help deal with the large numbers of people fleeing the violence. Many of them are crossing the border to Liberia, a country itself struggling to recover from its own violence. As The Guardian reported, Last week the UN high commissioner for refugees, António Guterres,visited Liberia and warned that the influx of refugees threatened the country's eight years of peace, following a civil war that ...
Another in my series of posts shining a light on the claims made in Labour literature... The latest Labour leaflet in St Mary's (which I think is also the first one since the general election – you can tell they want your votes again) states that Lib Dems voted to end weekly bin collections. I ...
i) births and deaths 30 March 2007: death of Dave Martin, who co-wrote The Claws of Axos (1971), The Mutants (1972), The Three Doctors (1973), The Sontaran Experiment (1975), The Hand of Fear (1976), The Invisible Enemy (1977), Underworld (1978) and The Armageddon Factor (1979) with Bob Baker and also wrote six spinoff novels. ii) broadcast anniversaries 30 March 1968: broadcast of third episode of Fury from the Deep. Maggie and Robson have been taken over by the weed, and walk together into the sea. 30 March 1974: broadcast of second episode of The Monster of Peladon. The Doctor and ...
Single pensioners with incomes of less than £10,000 would not have to pay any Council Tax at all under Scottish Liberal Democrat plans to be announced today. It's also hoped that this would be extended to pensioner couples with an income of less than £15,000, which is around the Pension Credit amount for a couple. That sort of targetted support is going to make a huge difference and shows Liberal Democrat instincts to give meaningful, practical help to those who need it most. It would mean a saving of £400 from a typical Band D bill, which compares well with ...
Tuition fees were increased under the pretext that the allegedly parlous state of the public finances made this move essential. It was pointed out in this blog that, since the existing fees are paid "up front" by students (or their parents) and that under the new scheme fees would not be repaid until later, then the current fees would have to be paid by the government, thus putting the current public finances into even deeper deficit. This obvious fact was little commented on elsewhere. Now that more universities than anticipated are to charge the "exceptional" £9 000 per year top ...
Gallifrey Series IV « Sci-Ence! Justice Leak! I've nearly finished listening to there and this review by Andrew Hickey has only minor spoilers. As he rightly says, "You already know if this is the kind of thing you like or not (in fact you probably either ordered it in advance or are never going to hear it), but for the kind of thing it is, it's well done." (tags: doctorwho)
Just a quick reminder that the digital switchover is having stage 1 for the Sandy Heath transmitter today. Thats the transmitter that serves Cambridge. What this means is that we lose BBC2 on analogue, but gain more digital services instead. To gain these you will need to return any terrestrial digital box or TV you have. More information is available from the Digital UK website. In particular they give a general guide on how to retune a digibox: A full re-tune should only takes a few minutes and can be done with your remote control. Here are some guidelines for ...
Our multi-lingual Deputy Prime Minister strikes again. I gather from the BBC that Nick Clegg has addressed the Mexican Senate - in Spanish. The Daily Mail may yet be screaming in outrage about it. Personally, I think it is a very positive thing to do. Making the effort to speak in a language which is not one's native tongue for the benefit of the audience conveys exactly the message Britain needs to convey: we're prepared to meet people halfway. We can argue until the cows come home about whether Britain really does meet its partners halfway. I suspect that in ...
