Congratulations to Melrose Rugby Club who won their own seven a side tournament for the first time since 1998. Melrose was the place where sevens were invented and is still the premier tournament in the Scottish Borders Sevens circuit. I have been a regular at the Greenyards in the past and managed to see them win in 1997. As a Liberal and a Hibs supporter there was a time when Melrose were the only team I supported likely to win anything!

Posted by Paul Edie on Paul Edie's Blog

So it appears that the Department of Work and Pensions may not have been entirely correct. The Department initially denied that Jobcentre Plus employees were tricking vulnerable people in order to sanction them and stop their benefits, as reported in the Guardian last weekend. The Guardian yesterday continued the story with the news that: The ...

Posted by shodanalexm on Alex's Archives

"Some Tory MPs spend the week in their clubs, camping out in attic bedrooms but lounging in some of the more elegant of London's drawing rooms...Labour MPs shared digs, Dennis Skinner and John Prescott being seen as the People's Party answer to that other 'odd couple', Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon. One Welsh Liberal MP even lived in the regent's Palace Hotel."Thus, Julian Critchley's view of

Posted by David on Disgruntled Radical

You have to give him credit. Ed Balls can apologise like the best of politicians when it comes to his record as Labour's "Light Touch" City Minister. From a blog post calling for more bank regulation: Every government in the world got that wrong - and that's why a fortnight ago I said sorry for the part I and the last Labour government played in that. When the City and the Tories called for lighter regulation, we should have ignored them and been tougher still. Why Ed Balls felt the need, only a year after Labour's historic third-term re-election to ...

Posted by Chris on My tale of me - Chris Jenkinson

st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } This is the money allocated to the ward to be spent by ward councillors in consultation with residents on a very restricted range of things in the ward. The concept was proposed by Lib Dem councillors some years ago and finally agreed by Stockton Council in time to start spending 3 years ago.A resident of Preston who prefers to remain anonymous has commented on

Posted by Maureen Rigg on Maureen Rigg's Blog

The winner is the legend that is Harborough Liberal Democrat Phil Knowles. The Award goes to him for his reaction to the news that the council is to advertise for an interim chief executive to lead the council towards a new system of management that could include sharing a chief executive with another authority: "You can say the job is only for six months, but the captain of the Titanic didn't have his job for that long and look what happened there."

Posted by Jonathan on Liberal England

Road safety groups, said the Guardian this morning, are claiming Norman Baker is unfit for his job as transport minister. Norman has long been one of my favourite Liberal Democrat MPs, so what is going on? It seems that it is because Norman has been seen cycling without a helmet. And he is not afraid to give his reasons: "I don't wear a helmet when I cycle. The first reason is that I don't want to. I don't want to wear something on my head. For me the joy of cycling is to have the wind in your hair, such ...

Posted by Jonathan on Liberal England

I'm like look at this picture and you're like whatever. But wait. The hole to take those large doors was punched in the side of this building long ago becase this used to be Desborough fire station. If you look at this shot though... ...you will see a porch and eccesiastical windows. Could it be? Sneak out of the back door of the neighbouring building that houses a greengrocer and the town council and you will be sure. Yes, I found another tin tabernacle today. Desborough is in a bad way. To the casual visitor it hardly seems to have ...

Posted by Jonathan on Liberal England

The regional conference that took place in the East Wintergarden in Canary Wharf today was confirmation that London Liberal Democrats have made a big step change — now a party in government, more professional, still signing up new members and bullish in the run-up to the Fairer Votes referendum in May. There was a stellar ...

Posted by jonathanfryer on Jonathan Fryer
Sat 9th
20:26

Election leaflets

All, I'll be putting all my election leaflets onto this site as they're delivered. If you want to know anything about me, what I believe in, what I want to change or what I'm up to you'll be able to find it here. If there's anything else you want to know, any comment you want to make or would just like to get in touch, please do. I believe strongly that Councillors should keep in touch with residents all year round, which is why I deliver leaflets regularly, write a monthly column in Forum, maintain this website and am even ...

Posted by Philip Vial on Philip Vial
YouGov

This video was done on my mobile phone with it sellotaped to a stand. I found out that when someone phoned me 15 minutes in it stopped videoing. Hopefully the Freedom Association will have a better video available later.

Posted by john on John Hemming's Web Log

 

Posted on Dave's Free Press

Welcome to the latest edition of LDVideo, the Voice's occasional round-up of current political videos doing the virtual rounds. Here's a fab Yes to Fairer Votes video showing that 'Some people will say no to anything': (Available on YouTube here.) Did you miss this week's Lib Dem local election broadcast? Fear not! Here it is: (Also available on YouTube here.) And finally here's former Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy telling us a little bit about his current work, courtesy of Catch21 which produces videos, events and programmes to help engage young people with politics: (Also available on Catch21′s webste here.) ...

Posted by Stephen Tall on Liberal Democrat Voice

East Grinstead High Street, 10am - 4pm. Pop along to Spring Sunday. Shops are open, events, displays, all sorts of good things to see and do. Llamas will be present, who could ask for more?

There is a massive campaign brewing here in Scotland and the political parties are lining up on one side or the other. The SNP put forward proposals to scrap the current eight Scottish Constabularies and replace it with just one. The cost will be at least £92million and cost between 3,000 - 4,000 frontline police officers. Both the Labour party and Conservatives have joined the SNP and now all three also want to create just one fire service as well. Labour also want to centralise care and NHS services. Although the Liberal Democrats are often against centralisation, the proposals by ...

...So, a few Labourites wish to make the referendum partisan. Disappointing.... Plus, it's promoted by a Tory election agent too!

Posted by danielfurr on Too lib·er·al [adj.]

The City Council has recently published its latest community learning newsletter, including courses in the West End at the Mitchell Street Centre. You can download the newsletter at http://tinyurl.com/commlearn2011.

Sat 9th
18:56

On your side

Dear Fraser, These are difficult times for people across Britain, but this week has shown that this can also be an opportunity to reshape Britain into a fairer, more equal and greener country. Labour's financial legacy has left our country needing to borrow an extra £400million, every single day, just to get by. Labour also left us paying £120million in interest on our debt each and every day - for that we could build a new primary school every hour. Dundee City's share of the country's debt now stands at a dangerous £4.99billion and something needs to be done. But ...

One character from Doctor Who occupies a unique position in the series, and a unique place in fans' hearts. Played by the lovely Nicholas Courtney, who died in February, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart of the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce served alongside no fewer than five Doctors in two dozen TV stories on screen, and many more elsewhere. For an idea of why he was so loved, why not try an entirely made up DVD box set - six DVDs, several Doctors, and the one Brigadier (or, as it turns out, more). I've picked out a selection that offer his very best moments. ...

Posted by Alex Wilcock on Love and Liberty

It's now under a month until the Salford local elections on May 5th and I am proud, to once again, be selected as the Liberal Democrat candidate for Langworthy. My main reason for standing again is simply because I enjoy helping people and solving problems. Being a Councillor allows me to do that in an official capacity and offers me an opportunity to put resident's concerns and problems direct to council officers. While party politics is important, I see myself more as a local champion than simply "the Liberal Democrat candidate" – the Lib Dem way of getting a pothole ...

Posted by Steve Middleton on Steve Middleton
eUKhost

PR Week carries, without any seeming irony, an account of 'tensions' at the heart of the Coalition's spin machine — with Tory insiders briefing their discontent at Lib Dem insiders briefing the media: Cracks are beginning to appear at the heart of the Downing Street comms operation, with the Liberal Dem­ocrats accused of riding roughshod over the Number 10 media grid. Advisers to Prime Minister David Cameron are becoming increasingly frustrated with Lib Dem media tactics, as Nick Clegg's party attempts to distance itself from the Conservatives ahead of the local elections on 5 May. The Deputy PM and his ...

Posted by Stephen Tall on Liberal Democrat Voice

. [IMG: new pills are bigger] [IMG: Creative Commons License] photo credit: nicasaurusrex "Money worries driving more to pills" was one of the big stories of the week. The Express said: RECORD numbers of people are being handed anti-depressants by the National Health Service, worrying figures reveal. More than 23 million prescriptions for the most common form of the drugs have been written in the last four years - an increase of 43 per cent. One slight snag. Ben Goldacre in the Guardian's Bad Science explains that a glance across some of the research data, tells us that it is ...

Posted by Paul on Liberal Burblings

I thought that slavery had been abolished in this country in 1833 so I was dismayed to hear more this week about the growing practise of businesses and organisations offering internships ostensibly on the grounds of providing experience and training to University and College leavers. This means that the 'successful' applicants (and let's be clear here it is free will; a fundamental difference I am willing to concede to the past) are given an opportunity within industry to hone their skills by undertaking unpaid labour where often travel and subsistence costs are not met either. In an era where we ...

[IMG: David Martin and Nicholas Coombes] B&NES Council have published the offical list of candidates for the local election on 5th May There are seven candidates for the two council positions in Bathwick ward. David Martin and I are standing for the Liberal Democrats; there are also two Conservative candidates. While Labour claim to be standing more candidates this time, they have only managed to find one person for Bathwick. The Green Party, who won 6% of votes last time, have two candidates. It is interesting to note that David and I are the only candidates from the main parties ...

Posted by nicholascoombes on Nicholas Coombes

I would probably be the first to admit that I am not the most obvious member of a trade union. And yet, having joined the Inland Revenue Staff Federation in my first week as an employee, I am now approaching a quarter century of continuous membership of my union, now the Public and Commercial Services Union following a series of mergers. Our General Secretary is Mark Serwotka, who is a prominent voice against the cuts. I don't object to that, after all, it is the public sector unions whose membership is most at risk from the Government's spending cuts. I ...

There are lots of ways to make the case for a fairer voting system for electing MPs, but I think I may have come up with the most novel. I was in the staff kitchen at work the other day when colleagues starting chatting about the referendum, triggered by a newspaper article about it. They were split between the YES camp and the NO camp, both drawing on what seemed like standard arguments deployed by both campaigns. I started trying to win over the antis, but wasn't really getting anywhere. Then a thought occurred to me. I was peckish at ...

Posted by Stuart Bonar on Liberal Democrat Voice

The team have been really busy getting our Focus leaflets (and the Yes to AV ones) out to residents in Liversedge and Gomersal over the last two weeks. It's certainly easier in weather like today, which has been fantastic. The temperature gauge in my car says 20°C at the minute, and it certainly feels that way! We've been round the Lower Hall / Middle Hall areas off Halifax Road, and up Spen Lane, Cliffe Lane and Fusden Lane in Gomersal, and its been really good. You're consistently telling me that its Time For Change in the ward, and that you ...

Posted by richardfarnhill on Richard Farnhill

During the week, Liberal Democrat MEP Edward McMillan-Scott used the pages of The Guardian to take up the case of Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei: With the world's attention on the uprisings in the Middle East, Chinese authorities are reacting to the widespread rumblings since mid-February, when a "jasmine revolution" was called across China, and a few brave souls dared to express their protest. Ai, who is best known for creating the sunflower seed installation in London's Tate Modern and his work on Beijing's Bird's Nest Olympic stadium, is the highest-profile victim in the heavy-handed suppression of political dissidents by Chinese ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Liberal Democrat Voice

When you're interested in politics, one of the first things you hear about is the left-right scale (left-wingers and right-wingers). This originally comes from the French Revolution in the late 18th century, when the supporters of the King would sit to the president's right, and those who supported the revolution sat to his left. Originally, as such, the right-wingers were seen to be those interested in the wellbeing of the middle and upper classes, defenders of capitalism and private property. The left-wingers were seen to the those interested in the wellbeing of the lower/working classes, and they defended social justice. ...

Posted by Minus on The Logical Conclusion

From The Ticket: Jefferson Smith loves a good political joke. Early last year, the then-freshman Oregon House member from Portland was getting ready for bed when he and his wife, Katy, began bantering back and forth about what might be the ultimate political prank, something that could lighten the increasingly divisive political mood among his colleagues. As Smith recalls, the idea came almost

Posted by Chris Black on Moonlight Over Essex

Transcript:- Cllr Harry Smith – Point of order Mr. Mayor, I do believe that you asked for the gallery cleared of all people except for the lady with the disability. I do believe there are people creeping back in. Mayor: No, I haven't... Cllr Smith continues talking over the Mayor: I think everyone should be ...

It is an awfully long way from London to Mid Suffolk in terms of campaigning experience, and on a glorious spring day of the kind we have been experiencing this week, I really do experience rural campaigning in all of its glory. Ambling around the ward, environmentally friendly bag full of leaflets in one hand, I am accompanied by the sound of birdsong, including something I had never noticed in the city, collared doves. They're much prettier than pigeons, and they make a warm cooing sound. But that isn't all, so far I've spotted rabbits within ten feet of me, ...

Reports from external auditors have revealed that the Tory-run County Council's mistakes have cost residents over £123,000 in extra audit fees with errors being found worth £250,000. Liberal Democrat councillor Allan Witherick said "£123,000 is a lot of money. Think about all the voluntary groups who have just received funding cuts – imagine what this money could have achieved if invested in the community.' Councillor Ron Tindall flagged up real concerns about the Tory attitude: "These costs are before we take in to account extra time spent by council staff doing this work.' Yet more issues were revealed including that ...

Posted by chriswhite on Chris White

Despite the similarity of the Canadian and British political systems – far, far more similar than the US and British ones – it's American rather than Canadian politics that usually gets talked about for political lessons for Britain. Hence in the run up to the general election TV debates there was plenty of talk of the US debates (Presidential system) rather than the Canadian ones (Parliamentary system). The Canadian approach to cutting a large government deficit was briefly all the talk of London think tank circles last summer. That fashion for of Canada quickly moved on, even though the comparisons ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Liberal Democrat Voice

When out delivering with the Liberal Democrat Focus Team on Beechwood today I noticed a derelict piece of land that used to attract flytipping has now got a big sign on it advertising 2 and 3 bedroom properties in a development called Clarence Park. This is as well as a plan for houses by Liverpool ...

Over here in Northern Ireland we have a different set of parties, with a different set of policies and a different set of priorities to a lot of the rest of the UK. In the run up to the Assembly Election on May 5th they are going to be prodicing a series of election broadcasts. I intend to, if they are easily available (i.e. on YouTube), embed them here so that people outside of Northern Ireland can see what the parties here are saying. I personally won't be passing comment, but feel free to add you own in the comments ...

Posted by Stephen Glenn on Stephen's Liberal Journal

These are difficult times for people across Britain, but this week has shown that this can also be an opportunity to reshape Britain into a better country for lots of people. Labour's financial legacy has left Britain needing to borrow an extra £400million, every single day, just to get by. Labour also left us paying £120million ...

Posted by richardbaum on Richard Baum

The latest edition of the New Statesman has an interview with Nick Clegg, which has mostly garnered attention for the shock news that Nick Clegg is a human being and has been known to cry to music: He is besotted by his "three lovely boys" and is most proud "by a long shot" of the family life he has created with Miriam. They manage to lead a relatively normal life, "not in a bunker in Westminster", and he tries to pick his children up from school and put them to bed at night at least two or three times a ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Liberal Democrat Voice
Sat 9th
12:22

AV in simple terms

Following on from the successful explanation of the problems with first past the post, CP Grey has a new video to explain how the Alternative Vote (AV) Works: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y3jE3B8HsE The video explains in an easy to understand format how the alternative vote system works. You may even notice that the person who suggests the alternative vote is from Australia, where they have successfully used the Alternative Vote (AV) system for years. As I've tried to explain on the doorstep during my election campaign, the AV system has it's flaws but it's a move in the right direction. It removes the ...

Posted by Kristan Smith on Kristan Smith

You couldn't make it up #39846

Posted by Paul on Liberal Burblings

[IMG: Clegg Q and A 25] [IMG: Creative Commons License] photo credit: Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg was seen nipping out of Chevening House for a fag with Elspeth Campbell. So reports Nicolas Watt in the Guardian, bizarrely concluding that this shows that the DPM has guts: A new, tougher Clegg has yet to show its face. But in private he is said to be showing guts. At a recent lunch at Chevening, the Kent country house at Clegg's disposal, the deputy prime minister ventured outside to share a fag with the most charming but fearsome figure in the party: Menzies ...

Posted by Paul on Liberal Burblings

If the Murdoch media empire think that an admission that it was responsible for the hacking of the phones of public figures ranging from a former member of the Cabinet to a Hollywood actress together with an offer of compensation to victims is the end to the affair then I believe that they are mistaken. They above all others have been responsible for the creation of the 24 hours, seven day a week news cycle in which stories like this grow to fill the available broadcasting space, so they should know that there are plenty of twists and turns to ...

Posted by Peter Black on Peter Black

In a month's time we will know the result — will the British people have voted to modernise our electoral system? The next three and a bit weeks will see some frantic campaigning in the first national referendum in a generation. Tim Farron is leading the charge for the Lib Dems, as he described here on Lib Dem Voice yesterday. And today Nick Clegg, who as deputy prime minister steered through the legislation to give the public their say, will deliver a speech on the merits of the 'alternative vote' in London. You can read the full text below. The ...

Posted by The Voice on Liberal Democrat Voice

The Yes to the alternative vote campaigners are at the Bracknell bandstand today. Please do pop along and have a chat. Picture taken from Mondays pro AV banner display.

Posted by dazmando on Bracknell Blog

Click Here Well worth a play. I will put a proper link on here somewhere

Posted by Gavin James on Councillor Gavin James
Sat 9th
10:42

Full Council 07/04/11

This was a short meeting with only one vote taking place. This was to endorse the recommendation that councillors were no longer involved in the appeal process in the event of an employee being dismissed. In most organisations when someone is dismissed they are entitled to appeal to the next person up the chain of command, i.e your manager sacks you and you go to the managers manger if you feel

Posted by Gavin James on Councillor Gavin James

Year of election Incumbent government at time of election Government party vote share Change of government, and to which party? 1950 Labour 46.2% No 1951 Labour 48.8% Yes - Tory 1955 Conservative 49.7% No 1959 Conservative 49.3% No 1964 Conservative 43.4% Yes - Labour 1966 Labour 47.6% No 1970 Labour 42.7% Yes - Tory Feb 1974 Conservative 37.8% Yes - Lab minority Oct 1974 Labour 39.3% No 1979 Labour 36.9% Yes - Tory 1983 Conservative 42.4% No 1987 Conservative 42.2% No 1992 Conservative 41.9% No 1997 Conservative 30.7% Yes - Labour 2001 Labour 40.7% No 2005 Labour 35.2% No 2010 ...

Andy and myself are at the Arbury Community Centre on Campkin Road until noon. Do drop by if you have any problems or just want a chat. It's a lovely day in King's Hedges!

Posted by Mike on Focus on King's Hedges

The Guardian identifies signs that there are changes in the way Mr Clegg is operating in government and this is seen as a strength by them: In recent weeks Clegg has found his feet and is starting to show in public what he has always claimed in private - that he stands up to Cameron. ...

Posted by Matthew Gibson on Solution Focused Politics

Name blank employment | Lynne Featherstone Another quiet victory for Lynne Featherstone in Equalities. (tags: feminism) Whitewashing Earthsea Ursula K LeGuin has a few complaints about what the SyFy channel have done to her Earthsea books (tags: scifi)

Take a look at this cartoon (nod to Julian Huppert for tweeting about this and PZ Myers for the pointer on his excellent Pharyngula blog). As pointed out in the comments on Pharyngula, no paper would use percentages in headlines. So I wondered how the UK papers might react: The Sun: JELLYBEAN ACNE SCARE! "I'm worried for my Billy," says Sandra, 18, mother of two. The Times: POSSIBLE JELLYBEAN LINK TO ACNE. Study flawed says industry spokesman. The Guardian: GREAN JELLYBEANS AND ACNE: ARE THEY LINKED? [ Does the Grauniad joke still work? ] New Scientist: SCIENTISTS DISCIPLINED OVER FLAWED ...

Posted by Tony Jebson on A View from the Swamp
Sat 9th
09:52

Gallifrey Series Four

More spinoff literature, this time the latest installment in the series of audio plays about Romana II, Leela and K9 Mark II (Mark I came to an apparently sticky end, but somehow escaped to make his own Australian TV series). The third series in this line, which came out a whole five years ago, got a bit caught up in its own continuity and one felt almost a bit revived when our heroes fled from a devastated Gallifrey to make their way elsewhere in the universe. This fourth series has a very clever premise: each of the four stories explores ...

Today Wirral Council sent my excellent agent, who then passed on the information to me the invite to the opening of the postal votes (starting on the 20th April) at Wallasey Town Hall. It is not too late to register for a postal vote, if you want one. The form can be downloaded from Wirral ...

Sue and Ruth at the junction with local resident Mr Gale Residents are saying that when they try to turn into Eggshill Lane from Westerleigh Rd, cars parked near to the corner means that they have to stop on the entrance if there's something coming the other way. If vehicles coming out of Eggshill Lane refuse to give way, drivers have to reverse out onto the very busy Westerleigh Road, which is dangerous. What it needs is for the white lines on the corner to be extended a few yards so that one or two cars could wait for the ...

Posted by Paul Hulbert on Focus on Sodbury, Yate and Dodington

The website for the North Area Committee (on the Cambridge City Council website) has just been updated with the twin aims of providing more information and giving more people the opportunity to become move involved in their community. The new website is here; http://www.cambridge.gov.uk/northareacommittee If you have any comments on this you can contact any one of your local Councillors and we'll make sure you comments are passed on.

Posted by Cllr Andy Pellew on Focus on King's Hedges

A few days ago, I wrote this piece on the election ground campaign in Ceredigion for the Liberal Democrat Voice website. It was posted here on Thursday. Here it is re-visited... - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Campaigning in Ceredigion is rather unique. The big beasts of 20th century British politics, the ...

Following the success of their video explaining the problems with first past the post, the animals are back – this time to explain how the Alternative Vote works:

Posted by Mark Pack on Liberal Democrat Voice

These four books, published in 1980, tell the further adventures of K9 Mark I as troubleshooter for the Time Lords, flying around the galaxy in his miniature spaceship the K-NEL. ("Kennel", geddit?) They are available on the DVD of K9 and Company, and I suppose constitute the first spinoff Who novels (as opposed to the Dalek Annuals), years in advance of Turlough and the Earthlink Dilemma or Harry Sullivan's War. Although half of the rather meagre 36 pages of each book are illustrations, the artwork is absolutely gorgeous; the art credits are given to "R.C.S. Enterprises Ltd" and I wonder ...

This is a piece contributed by Ed Townsend, candidate for Newport East, to Liberal Democrat Voice on Thursday.On Tuesday I welcomed Kirsty Williams to Newport East as we launched the Welsh Liberal Democrats campaign for the Assembly elections. It is clear that this election is the most important one that Wales has seen since devolution. After the devolution referendum, this election is about the kind of government that Wales needs. At least that it is what is should be about. It is clear that Labour and Plaid will run a mile before having to defend their record in government in ...

Posted by Aberavon & Neath Liberal Democrats on Aberavon & Neath Liberal Democrats

Now I have the specific figures for how Haringey benefits from the LibDem manifesto pledges delivered by the Coalition for this new financial year: In Haringey: 84000 people are getting a £200 income tax cut – benefiting 23 million people across the country 2900 people (those on the lowest earnings) have been lifted out of paying income tax altogether, with more to come £625million extra has gone to our schools, aimed at the most disadvantaged pupils – rising to £2.5billion a year by 2015 (£4.5million to Haringey). 25500 pensioners have been given an extra £4.50 a week - and those ...

Posted by Lynne Featherstone on Lynne Featherstone » Blog

The Lib Dem/Conservative Cabinet will next Thursday decide upon a contractor for the refurbishment of Cathcart Street Primary School, creation of a new Children's Centre here (as reported by the Liverpool Echo) and provision for holidays/after school clubs. The Cabinet report suggests they choose Paragon Construction for the project. Waiving of call-in is also requested ...

As I sat down to decide whether I would stand again for election to West Lindsey District Council on 5th May, I took stock of what had been achieved by the last government to help the residents of my ward, Gainsborough East. The contribution of the Labour party to the quality of life in Gainsborough East Ward is very grim. Firstly, in our deprived ward where people are mostly employed on the minimum wage – if they are employed at all – now have £14,471 national debt each. This debt isn't spread across families but every person in the house, ...

Posted by Kristan Smith on Kristan Smith

And so we discover that the Department of Work and Pensions had secret targets for the number of benefits claimants to be referred for sanctions, after the issuance of denials that such targets existed. Of course, the Department is run by evil Conservatives, under the leadership of Iain Duncan-Smith, so naturally such behaviour would be encouraged. Except that the targeting started in 2009, when the Government was run by the Labour Party... I have been consistent in my view that targets distort behaviour, and if ever there was an example that proves the rule, this is it. If staff are ...

Sat 9th
07:34

Whoniversaries 9 April

broadcast anniversaries 9 April 1966: broadcast of "The Hall of Dolls", second episode of the story we now call The Celestial Toymaker. Steven and Dodo, competing with the King and Queen of Hearts, must find the two safe chairs to sit in. 9 April 2005: broadcast of The Unquiet Dead. The Doctor and Rose, with the help of Charles Dickens, investigate reanimating corpses in Cardiff in 1869.

Sat 9th
07:32

Two Tory cons

Predictably, George Osborne has seized on the financial crisis in Portugal to "prove" that the Tory cuts are necessary and if they aren't made, there but for the Grace of God, goes the UK. This in spite of the fact that one distinguished economist after another, repeatedly quoted in this blog, have hammered away that the UK's public debt is not historically high, is caused by a fall in revenues rather than government profligacy, is perfectly manageable, that the markets are not calling for its reduction, and that cuts in public expenditure are likely to make matters worse rather than ...

Posted by Peter Wrigley on Keynesian Liberal
Sat 9th
07:17

Strange but true

An interesting article in the Economist has just came to me via twitter. It looks at attitudes to capitalism around the world and says that acceding to polling data communist China is one of the strongest supporters of capitalism in the world -even beating the USA in it's support! What did Deng say all those years ago? It doesn't matter if a cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice. Mao must be spinning in his grave. You can read it here

Posted by Carl Minns on Carl Minns - Thoughts from Hull

synecdochic: LiveJournal's DDoS and Russian Politics I must say I am favourably impressed by the positive and supportive attitude taken by Dreamwidth's team to LJ's recent problems. (tags: livejournal) New Kosovo president Jahjaga sets a precedent - Monsters and Critics 35-year-old policewoman becomes president! (tags: kosovo)

I am very pleased to confirm that, after a number of months of lobbying of GO NorthEast by myself, they have agreed to resolve an anomaly in the bus fares on the number 10 bus. For many years people getting onto the 10 bus in Prudhoe west of the Dr Syntax bus travelling to the Metro Centre, Blaydon or Newcastle have paid substantially more in bus fares than residents living in East Prudhoe. It was a situation inherited by GO when they inherited the route from Arriva. This is because we are in a fare zone that stretches from the ...

Posted by Neil Bradbury on Northern Neil

This month my wife and I are celebrating our tenth wedding anniversary which is a welcome chance to reflect on a decade together. I am standing in the local elections and it is now less than a month until the local elections on 5th May, and I am proud to be the Liberal Democrat candidate for Sherburn. To assist in my campaign I plan to update my personal website http://www.michaelbeckett.org/ this weekend. I am standing to be your local Councillor. Having been a Citizens Advice Bureau Manager I know how to respond to calls for help and stay in touch ...

Posted by Mike Beckett on Mikish musings

Belt up, this is going to be a big one. So yeah. That march a couple of weeks ago. At a generous estimate, 400,000 marched against the government's spending cuts. And while I sympathise with them, I also think that it was just a waste of time due to how it ended up. Miliband's Balls. The first thing is Ed Miliband headlining the rally. This is a giant cock-up for him, seeing as it gives his political opponents (read: the Tories) ammunition to blame him for the violence that occurred in Traflagar Square that night. Doubly so, as the rioters ...

Posted by Will on Will's Liberal Thoughts
Sat 9th
00:05

Good Communication

There are so many cutbacks it makes you wonder how we can improve matters without cost. One such way is by talking. Communication isn't expensive and can save a lot of money. I don't usually see any breakfast television but on Thursday morning I saw an article on a school in Darwen where the teachers had gone on strike. The spokesperson for the NUT, Avis Gilmore is a former physiotherapist and I used to work with her. I know she is a dedicated worker who would try her best to resolve conflict. So how did she get to comment on ...

Posted by Michael Gradwell on Politics for Novices