Today it was a pleasure to welcome Paul Burstow MP - Care Services Minister to Reading. This is the second ministerial visit we have had in recent weeks in support of our local election campaign - following Andrew Stunell MP's visit a few weeks ago. The Lib Dem team in Reading works hard all year round to improve the lives of local residents so it is nice to get support and recognition for what we do from senior figures within the Party and within Government. I was particularly pleased Paul Burstow chose to visit us as social care is ...
Discussing the minor Ealing comedy Barnacle Bill I wrote of Alec Guinness: His genius as an actor means that you believe from his first appearance that he has been a naval officer.Can we say the same here? Not for a while. You are very aware that you are watching Alec Guinness with a Scots accent, a ginger moustache and a ginger wig. But after a while you do accept him as a hard-drinking, working-class acting Colonel who won his promotion as a hero during World War II. The film deals with the clash between Guinness's character and the upright, uptight ...
Dundee City Council proposes to make an Order under Section 14(1) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 for the purpose of facilitating works for the construction of water storage vessels for Dundee University. The Order is expected to be in force for twenty six weeks from 25 April 2011. Its maximum duration in terms of the Act is eighteen months. The effect of the Order is to prohibit temporarily all vehicular traffic in Park Place from its junction with Old Hawkhill for a distance of 75 metres or thereby in a southerly direction. Pedestrian thoroughfare and vehicular access to ...
This morning, along with one of my ward councillor colleagues, I attended a walkabout around the Pentland area with officers from various council departments to look at issues that require action in the area. A number of issues were noted - eg damaged fencing, bin collections and recycling. Another issue raised was the road condition of streets in Pentland (see photo of Loganlee Terrace's roadway - right) and it was good to get feedback later today from the City Engineer as follows : "Loganlee Terrace, Colinton Place and Pentland Crescent are all to have the proprietary Nimpactocote thin surfacing system ...
Many of us vote for a particular party because we believe that party reflects our political views. However, Scotland Votes believes that we would be surprised to learn that if we were to cast our votes according to our policy preferences we might end up voting for a different party altogether. To put this to the test, they have compiled a policy questionnaire to determine which party most closely matches your political outlook: Scotland Votes As a Liberal Democrat (and a Green Liberal Democrat, no less) I was quite relieved that I had a strong identity with the Lib Dems ...
I was out walking my dog in the linear park near to the Post Office HQ on Wight Moss Way recently and I noticed some litter and fly-tipping that had occurred there. Those of you that know the area will know that it is a very pleasant place to walk as the path connects Town Lane with Dobbies and the Newlands Countey Park, via the new footbridge over the brook. This area is also home to a variety of birds. The area is in need of a general tidy up and many of the fences need repairing. The barrier to ...
So my membership renewal has dropped through the letter box and the days of actively supporting a political party are drawing to a close. Or are they? Well, probably, yes. Nothing that has happened since I started this blog has convinced me that I'm wrong and the Coalition is right. We're stilled poised on the edge of economic disaster with an opposition unable to admit culpability and a Government unable to come up with anything but more of the same. The wafer thin list of positives bandied about by senior Lib Dems are a poor price to pay for the ...
Today's Independent carries this worrying story of a spate of sudden deaths in Thailand's northern city Chiang Mai which have not been properly explained. A British couple, a 23 year-old New Zealander and a Thai tour guide have all died within 16 days of each other in adjoining rooms in the same hotel - the 3-star Downtown Inn. They all died in remarkably similar circumstances and whilst the local authorities are blaming it on food poisoning - and specifically to 'toxic seaweed', others believe that it can not be so straightforward. My Chiang Mai Experience Whatever it is that has ...
Paper people The Queen Edith's Community Forum is planning a fun and informative environmental family day in May in conjunction with the City Council. There will be loads to do: games, seed-sowing, face-painting, an artds & crafts marquée, free lunch from Cambridge Foodcycle, Take it or Leave it (swap your old stuff for new stuff), a nature walk round the 'rec, Measure your Carbon Footprint — and more. It's 10.30 a.m. till 2.00 p.m. at St James's Church and outside the Wulfstan Way shops. Hope to see you there!
My own 'server centre' is nothing like this one, but seeing their build-out certainly makes me want more.
Sussex Golden Ale is a decent bottle conditioned brew from M&S. It says clearly on the label ' serve cool not cold'. So what do M&S do- stick it in the fridge with the continental lagers Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device
Wallington Integrated Transport Package Steering Group Meeting I attended the fortnightly Members & Stakeholders meeting which reviews the progress of the works and deal with any issues arising. The group was updated on a late objection to the plans received from Lidl and their proposed drawings for an alternative to the one way stretch at ...
Mon 18th
20:44
BNP's deputy chairman: "We are never going to get our feet under the table under the AV system."
This was Keith Vaz MP on FiveLive this morning: (Under AV) the supporters of these groups like the BNP will have the second bite of the cherry. They will be out but of course their second, third and even fourth preference can then transfer to someone else and allow those that are eliminated at an early stage to influence the result in a disproportionate way Blimey! Where to start? There's a subtext here that the Really Scary Party will win elections under AV. But what Vaz seems to be doing here is to conflate voters and candidates. Where he says ...
« Policing in East Grinstead ALTERNATIVE VOTEAV OR NOT AV - THAT IS THE QUESTION.....04.18.11 It's dirty tricks time....."none of your taxes have been used to print this leaflet" claim the Conservative funding and supporting big businessmen in their expensively produced glossy! News to me that the YES campaign have had public funding....which of course they haven't! Talk about corporate manipulation of the ordinary man or woman in the street! The arguments have been made - it's clear! First past the post only results in an MP who, in the overwhelming majority of cases, most of the electorate do not ...
Yesterday's Sunday Times carries a story that Labour, if they got into power, would start a process which would see people fined £200 for smoking in a car while transporting kids under 16. Don't get me wrong. I don't think there is any excuse for exposing kids to the deeply unpleasant cocktail of poisons and carcinogens that cigarette smoke contains. And, yes, I do judge people who smoke at all when children are around whether during pregnancy, in their own home, or whatever. I am not anti-smoking as such. I used to smoke 40 a day and thoroughly enjoyed every ...
News just in about an event organised by one of the groups supported by Forest Hill ward's Locality Fund: the Friends of Millennium Green. Kids May Day Event Albion Millennium Green (end of Albion Villas Road, SE26) Sunday May 1st 2011, 12 noon – 3pm The Bedlam Bunch Children's Theatre Rocket Ron and Fairy Fidget ...
Details of this planning application can be found by following this link: The case office is Kate Challenger – please email comments and objections to her at kate.challenger, and don't forget to copy us in.
Today's Leicester Mercury reports that Regine Anderson, the UKIP candidate in the current Leicester Mayoral election has not appeared at any of the hustings events so far, and party organisers have said she does not plan to attend any of them.Certainly she does not appear to be at De Montfort University's Big Debate, which is currently streaming live on the web. Where can she be? The Mercury suggests a solution to the mystery: During Mr Farage's visit on Saturday, the party's Leicester South by-election candidate, Abhijit Pandya, told the Mercury Ms Anderson was busy studying for her A-levels but would ...
The Scottish Labour Party have distributed their regional election addresses across many parts of Scotland and in many editions there is an interview with their leader, Iain Gray. Iain Gray is quoted within this interview as saying; "I want a zero tolerance approach on literacy," A very odd line to take. Does he mean he will stamp out literacy in our schools? That is certainly what he implies, did he mean to say he wanted a zero tolerance to illiteracy? According to the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary, the definition of literacy is; • the ability to read and write Far ...
Like other parliamentary candidates, in recent weeks I have been inundated with e-mails from charities, voluntary groups, lobbyists and constituents who all seek to either persuade me of the merits of their own visions for Scotland, prioritise their particular concerns or ask me to sign pledges pertaining to specific policy commitments. I like to hear from these groups, and they are adding something to the democratic process by seeking views from candidates which can be used to both inform their members/supporters and hold elected representatives to account. Often these organisations have their own well-considered and informed manifestos which contain ideas ...
George and his dog inspecting a muddy area in the park Local businessman George Pippas is the Liberal Democrat candidate for the city council elections and he hopes to succeed Viki Sanders on the City Council, who is standing down this May. George and his family have lived in Mowbray Road, Queen Edith's for eleven years and his children were educated here. After many years in business including extensive travel, he had a change of career and now runs two guest houses, welcoming other travellers to Cambridge. So he not only knows the city as a resident, but also sees ...
In a typical establishment diatribe against AV full of the usual half-truths, today's Evening Standard editorial also warns: "Voting reform, ideally full PR, is the Lib-Dems' Holy Grail, and AV a stepping stone towards it." So what do the Yes2PRNo2AV muppets have to say about that?
The Welsh Liberal Democrats today confirmed their commitment to taking advantage of Wales' natural beauty and tourism industry to boost the economy as they visited a successful rafting activity centre in Cardiff. Kirsty Williams, Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, Nigel Howells, Cardiff Central Candidate and Sian Anne Cliff, Cardiff South and Penarth Candidate, saw for themselves the part activity centres like Cardiff International White Water play in bringing tourists to Wales. In their manifesto the Welsh Liberal Democrats promise to: · Prioritise the marketing of Wales as a tourist destination to new overseas markets · Make St. David's Day ...
The papers have been full this weekend of reports of a leaked e-mail from my old boss and top of the Liberal Democrat Mid Scotland and Fife top of the list candidate Willie Rennie. In it he said that we had gone into coalition with the Tories to stop them doing their worst, avoiding the damage they had done during the 80s when he (and I, and Tavish Scott among others) were growing up)and that he was anti-Conservative and pro Coalition. Wow! That's a revelation. Whoever would have thought that? This has led to Labour and the SNP calling him ...
But before I start, I must briefly mention Iraq and Afghanistan. Not the rights and wrongs of starting these interventions as that has been talked to death almost everywhere (for example here). Instead, I want to state something best summarised in Mastermind terms: "I've started so I'll finish." Whatever the reasons, we intervened in both countries and we have a strong duty to finish the job, however long it takes. "Nation building" is difficult and could take a generation, so we must be prepared for a lengthy commitment. Personally, I'm very wary of attempts to declare victory and pull out. ...
TweetSince the General Election of the 2010, the Liberal Democrats have changed. This is particularly evident in our policies, our MPs or indeed or members, but it is however, more evident in our supporters. For years, to many, The Liberal Democrats were nothing more than a slightly eccentric version of the Labour Party, crucially diverging on civil liberties and the Iraq war allowing many natural labour supporters to vote Lib Dem to a) to deliver a bloody nose to Labour b) To stop the Tories triumphing. It's true that repeated polling suggests that many Lib Dems think of themselves as ...
The amounts paid to councillors by Wirral Council and separately for the Mayor of Wirral has (finally) been published. Unfortunately the amounts for outside bodies (eg Merseytravel, Merseyside Police Authority, Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority, Merseyside Fire & Rescue Authority) have yet to be received by Wirral Council (but should be published sometime by the relevant ...
1. Communities First a) Liberal Democrats will put residents and communities first. Decisions should be taken as close to communities as possible. We believe that an effective Council is always listening to communities, and building decisions from the bottom upwards. We want to extend the structure of Area Forums, which already exist in some parts ...
During a recent town centre walkabout, I spoke to the landlady of the Bird In Hand pub who agreed to put out some extra sand buckets for smokers who congregate on their terrace. This should hopefully deal with the problem of cigarette butt rubbish in the road. Please let us know if it continues to ...
The Council recently spent a large amount on getting consultants to advise us on our visitor accomodation strategy. It came up with some clear goals and targets and aspirations for the next decade and more. However since then the ruling Conservative administration have totally ignored their own commissioned study and seem intent on getting as many budget hotel chains into the city as possible. The Liberal Democrats think that the strategy should be incorporated into our planning guidelines and the rush of budget hotels resisted. The Conservatives simply have not thought of the traffic implications or more importantly the impact ...
The Welsh Liberal Democrats will expose an example of the waste and inefficiency of Labour and Plaid Cymru in government on each day of the Welsh general election campaign More than £22m has been wasted by the Welsh Assembly Government on training teachers who do not go on to teach in Wales. Figures released by the Welsh Liberal Democrats in August 2010 revealed that between 2004/05 and 2007/08, Wales trained an excess of almost 3000 teachers, at a cost of over £7500 per surplus teacher. Commenting on the figures, Mike Priestley, Welsh Liberal Democrat Candidate for Aberconwy, said: "At a ...
p-p-penguin!
Eighteen blogs have recently joined my Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator: Olly Grender – http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/olly-grender Lord Tyler – http://lordsoftheblog.net/category/lord-tyler/ Nicola Prigg – http://priggy.wordpress.com/ Gavin Hamilton – http://ghmltn.blogspot.com/ Matthew Lambert – http://iradar666.blogspot.com/ Richard Farnhill – http://richardfarnhill.mycouncillor.org.uk/ Tony Jebson – http://blog.jebbo.co.uk/ Matt Doughty – http://logicalconclusion.net/ Rebecca Taylor – http://centralhove.mycouncillor.org.uk/ James Baker – http://jd-baker.com/ Zadok Day – http://zadokday.wordpress.com/ Michael Hall – http://michaeljameshall.wordpress.com/ Peter Banks – http://peter4scottward.wordpress.com/ Kris Castle – http://bemusedpuma.wordpress.com/ Hornsey Ward – http://hornsey.mycouncillor.org.uk/ Andrew Emmerson – http://andrewemmerson.co.uk/ Andy Pellew – http://www.andypellew.org/blog Focus on Bar Hill – http://focusonbarhill.blogspot.com/ Good luck to all the new bloggers, and why not take a moment to pop over ...
The following is an article by Paddy Ashdown, former leader of the Liberal Democrats, which appreared in last Saturday's Guardian newspaper. It describes my views on how the AV referendum debate has gone, so well, that I thought I'd copy it in full: "There is not a politician in the country who won't tell you they want to improve politics. But as the conduct of the current referendum on adopting the alternative vote shows, judge them by their actions, not their words. I will be voting yes because I believe that changing to AV will substantially improve our democracy. I ...
I'm not sure Winston Churchill is the best person to be deployed either in favour or against changing the voting system given the extent to which politics has changed since he was around, but as John Reid did so during ... Continue reading →
Hmm. No, I haven't turned into a once fashionable left wing Guardianista commentator. But having had a chance to consider my blog on my week off, I'm surprised to see how much easier I find it to write negative stuff than positive stuff. How much easier it is to criticize rather than praise. This is not to say I'm only writing negative stuff. I'm not - I think there are plenty of articles on my list when I've been positive. But there's no doubt it's easier to write copy attacking our political opponents, coalition partners or even (on occasion) our ...
I am pleased that Stephen Gilbert MP for Newquay and St Austell has been raising the issue of the difficulty of getting onto the property ladder. As someone who is currently renting I know how annoying it is. People argue that there shouldn't be such a massive push to own property, however at the end of the day would you rather be paying off a mortgage, which one day will cease and be reflected in the possession of an asset or to pay rent in perpetuity? It's a no brainer really! On top of that you have the restrictions renting ...
Tickets for this year's Sodbury Festival have gone on sale - they usually go very quickly, especially for the headline events, so get yours soon! The Festival runs from June 10th to 19th. This year's highlights include a talk by journalist and The One Show regular Gyles Brandreth, and The Last Night of the Proms. The Carnival Procession will be on Saturday 18th June. Young bands are wanted for the Battle of the Bands competition in Chipping Sodbury Town Hall on Wednesday, April 27. The winners will open this year's free Music in the Street event on Tuesday, June 14. ...
Naomi Smith and Prateek Buch of the Social Liberal Forum write about the Vickers Commission on Banking... At Lib Dem Spring conference in Sheffield last month, delegates overwhelmingly supported the Social Liberal Forum (SLF) motion Tougher Action on Banks and Bonuses. The interim report published recently by the Vickers Commission on Banking went some way to addressing the problems within the industry , but as we predicted in our speeches to the SLF motion, falls far short of Liberal Democrat policy which calls for: A break up of banks deemed 'too big to fail' into smaller, safer entities Greater transparency ...
I see that we have white smoke from Endeavour House, indicating that the Conservative Group on Suffolk County Council have elected a new leader, Mark Bee, the county councillor for Beccles and leader of Waveney Council. And so, in a spirit of welcome... Dear Mark, Firstly, congratulations on winning the contest to become the new Leader of Suffolk County Council! It would be too cheap a shot to note that your colleagues used AV to choose you, but it does give you greater credibility (in my eyes at least). I understand that your election presages a rethink of the 'New ...
From the Shropshire Star: Ludlow churchyard sealed off after bones found
Camborne MP George Eustice is one of those leading the campaign against changing to a fairer voting system. His claims about why people should vote No are becoming ever more ridiculous. First of all, he claimed that electronic voting machines would be needed if the system changed. However, the claim was rubbished by Conservative councillor Jim Currie (who is in charge of electoral issues on Cornwall Council) who confirmed the Electoral Commission's ruling that there would be no need for expensive new voting machines if the change to the voting system is agreed. In his latest argument in favour of ...
Apologies for the lack of blogging lately. This is due to a number of factors. I have been very busy in the local election campaign, work has been very busy because we have implemented a new database, on which I have taken a lead role in its development and training. Worse of all, I then get ill - of all the times to get unwell, mid-April is the most inconvenient. Having said that, I was once ill during Christmas and that wasn't much fun. Having now recovered I have resumed my election campaign in my efforts to be elected to ...
Warren Bradley, leader of the Liberal Democrat group in Liverpool, has stood down as leader today after allegations about forgery on election paperwork for this May's council elections. As the Liverpool Echo reports, His leadership was plunged into crisis after revelations today that he had witnessed an election nomination for his teenage son Daniel for the forthcoming local elections. The candidate himself must also sign the form but the teenager has said he did not want to stand and that his own signature on the form is "a fake". The revelation leaves Cllr Bradley, 44, facing questions as to who ...
Mon 18th
13:13
Give the #NotoAV campaign their due - their propaganda is compelling but that is all it is - propaga...
This morning through the letterbox I got a #NotoAV leaflet and I'm sitting her perusing it. If I wasn't interested at all in politics I have to say that they put together some excellent points. However the fact that I am and know most of what is written is lies and misinformation my heart just ...
I am more than content to admit that one or two Liberal Democrat bar charts have been a bit suspect in the past but even I was shocked by this one. It has appeared on a Conservative leaflet in Swansea West. This is especially so after receiving a lecture via twitter from the former Welsh Conservative AM for South Wales Central, Andrew R.T. Davies about how awful my party is in this regard. It seems that we cannot compete with the Welsh Tories. The Swansea West Conservative leaflet is notable for two things. Firstly, there is the complete absence of ...
... in the latest tube map at least. New maps have started appearing on the London Underground, with Tottenham Court Road moved slightly to the west. This is so that it no longer appears on the Northern Line as those platforms have recently been closed until late 2011 as part of the major Crossrail-inspired rebuilding work at the station. In addition to bringing Crossrail to Tottenham Court Road station, the tube station itself is having ticket hall and entrances expanded and improved. I've not seen any new editions of the printed map with this change, though the pdf tube map ...
I was asked a good question on the doorstep last night. A Labour voter, who has very kindly agreed to support me and Debby Hallett, nevertheless gave me a good 10 minute grilling about the government cuts. The particular issue he raised was about the 'hypocrisy' of local council candidates being photographed in front of Botley Library when it is under threat due to 'Coalition cuts'. A good question and my response was as follows - with apologies that it is a bit long-winded, but pity the poor man who asked me the question and then had to listen to ...
Labour Councillor Jude Robinson has blogged about her frustrations over the community network panel in her area of Camborne and Redruth. I share many of her concerns. When the unitary council was created, the Liberal Democrats demanded that there should be local panels to ensure that the views of residents and of town and parish councils were taken into account in decisions which affect local areas. Under our vision, these would be properly accountable local bodies with real decision making powers. Unfortunately, the Conservatives did not agree and their first action when they took control of the council was to ...
The local press are reporting that the policing of the EDL rally that was held in Luton earlier this year cost nearly £2m. The good news is that the Home Office has agreed to reimburse Bedfordshire Police for the full costs. However, you can't help thinking that the money would have been better spent elsewhere. It also doesn't include the amount lost to shops and other businesses as a result of the town centre being virtually shut down for the day. Let's hope that this is the last time these idiots hold such an event in the town. I wrote ...
A common misconception is that the Liberal Democrats are in the government solely to make the case for constitutional reform and civil liberties, while everything else comes from the Conservatives. This analysis is deeply flawed, but it helps to explain why some political observers, who know little about the Lib Dems beyond the most lazy caricature, fail to understand what actually drives the government forward. Yes, constitutional reform and civil liberties are important to the Lib Dems, but so are many other areas of policy. The Lib Dems are certainly not trading off the whole of the rest of government ...
Exactly one year ago today the Times declared Nick Clegg was "nearly as popular as Churchill" . Now, one year on, the Liberal Democrat Leader is back on top of the polls. The readers of leading LGBT website Pink News have declared him the hottest UK political leader. The poll was of 1,100 gay men, with Clegg ...
Here's the latest election leaflet we're distributing in Cheadle and Gatley at the moment (the printed leaflet is orange rather than red). The leaflet folds down the middle, hence why the top half of the front page is upside down. Oh – and the "X" next to Pam King is inside the box – no idea why Scribd has made it bigger. C&G Easter 2011 a4
Devon and Cornwall Police have been getting some stick recently for their decision to cut 71 civilian crime investigators across the force area. The crime investigators are employed to take witness statements and do all the case preparation work needed after an arrest to make sure that a case can be prosecuted. This work used to be done by uniformed police officers but, in a move to put more officers on visible patrol, the new team of civilians was created about two years ago. If the crime investigators are made redundant then the work will once again have to be ...
The European Commission is due to publish today an evaluation of the EU data retention directive, which was passed five years ago and obliges telecoms companies and ISPs to keep the details (although not the content) of all e-mails, phone calls, faxes and text messages sent and received on their networks. Liberal Democrat European justice & human rights spokeswoman Sarah Ludford, a long-time data protection campaigner, said: "I opposed this directive from the very start, when the then Labour Home Secretary Charles Clarke managed to push it through, ostensibly in the name of counter-terrorism. It gave the green light for ...
Flattr after a year | tante's blog Good piece on the upsides and downsides of flattr. Intergration with delicious would be nice... (tags: flattr) Press Gazette Editor's Blog » National press byline bandits: When the first line of a story is a lie, how can we trust the rest? Ahhh the joys of churnalism... (tags: copyright media) Welcome changes to the Liberal Democrats internal election rules « Strange Thoughts Keep meaning to blog about this myself, but Andy has done a good post here, so just imagine it's me saying it instead of him ;) (tags: libdemmery) When you hear ...
Mon 18th
10:00
The fate of the Lib Dems lies in the economy: Accurate predictions for the state of the economy to 2...
The fate of the government and that of the Lib Dems essentially comes down to the state of the economy in the time they are in office. There are so many predictions and so called experts who tell us what is going to happen only for them to then revise their forecasts. People rely on ...
Much speculation on the continuing rifts within the ruling Conservative group on Cornwall Council. It is an open secret at County Hall that there are a number of Tory councillors who are very unhappy with the leader, his closeness with certain officers and the lack of communication with his wider group. A couple of weeks ago there was talk of a letter demanding changes which had been signed by anything up to 22 Conservative councillors. A number of 'not at all' crisis meetings later and the situation doesn't look to have been resolved. So at the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday ...
Most political journalists in the UK are looking for a story of the break up of the Liberal Democrat-Conservative coalition. Any spat between the two parties is examined to see if it poses a terminal challenge to the government itself. Of course there are disputes, but the surprising thing is that the disputes between the two parties remain less numerous and less rancorous than the disputes between members of the single-party Labour government. Indeed, because the two parties do not expect to agree on everything, so a certain amount of live-and-let-live is inevitable. However, there is an emerging threat to ...
John Hemming MP, who is campaigning against excessive and unlawful court secrecy, has launched an inquiry in parliament into the growing numbers of gagging orders. "I will be collecting a range of different gagging orders," he said, "and then analysing and sorting them into different categories. I will then produce a number of parliamentary petitions summarising the details and pass them to the
I feel really keen to visit as many of the villages as I can today - the sun is shining and the birds are cheering me on - even my chickens seem quite jolly this morning. Isn't it odd what the weather does to our spirits? When the sun's shining people talk to complete strangers - it is very British talking about the weather isn't it but....that's what we are!!
It's almost become a political cliché to quote the (apparently) (appallingly) (allegedly) [delete to taste] low number of black students being accepted to Oxford and Cambridge Universities. But for all the widespread quoting of those numbers, there is very little done usually to put the numbers in context. So here's a simple chart that compares the actual admission figures for black students with what they would be if if the proportion of acceptances who are black was the same as the proportion of people who take GCSEs who are black or if it was the same as the proportion of ...
Today, 18 April 2011, marks the municipally-induced demise of integrated transport in Reading with the closure of Station Hill and atomisation of the transport hub around Reading Station. It is by some distance the worst decision taken in recent years by Reading Borough Council. It will certainly be regretted for far longer than any of the others – longer than my lifetime. Instead of visitors to Reading being able to walk out of the Station – old or new – into easily findable and accessible bus and taxi stops, they'll need to find a map (if one exists) to work ...
My TMA02 result was returned yesterday evening and I'm pleased to report an 18.75% improvement on my mark from TMA01. (That sounds better than saying I improved by 12 marks.) Yay! However, it still makes it my second worst TMA score of all time (DD307 TMA01 being the worst), but I'm happy with it as it's an improvement and it's put me firmly into the pass 2 band. I still can't believe how hard I'm having to work at this course though for what last year I would have regarded as being a pretty minimal return for all that effort. ...
I meet quite a lot of people who ask, "what's wrong with the first past the post system? It's worked for a hundred years." The short film on this link offers a number of ideas I hadn't discovered. If you enjoy it, look in again tomorrow for the sequel explaining the Alternative vote.
Liberal Democrat MP, John Hemmings has argued that a new breed of gagging order is preventing miscarriages of justice from being investigated. Speaking to the Telegraph, Mr. Hemmings said the rising tide of injunctions granted by the courts are threatening to contravene the Magna Carta: The MP has launched an inquiry into "excessive and unlawful court secrecy" and will put his evidence before the Commons Justice Select Committee. The new order to which he refers involves a pregnant woman caught up in a High Court battle with her local authority. The order threatens her with imprisonment if she speaks to ...
Interesting premise behind a new website; one-at-a-time list of achievements the Liberal Democrats in Government have been responsible for. Check it out yourselves; http://www.libde.ms/ Just keep clicking the button to run through the achievements.
The concept of ownership is something that has to be defined as civilisation progresses. From the ownership of land to the ownership of creation, lawyers and governments work hard to encompass definitions to establish rights and financial reward. As we are shifting into the world of the internet, file sharing is becoming an even greater issue than before.MusicMusic has been the principle
"It's Lord Bonkers!" cried a voice as I entered the Lib Dem campaign office for the Leicester South by-election on Saturday. The voice had a Dudley accent, so I assume it belonged to my former Harborough District Council colleague Phil Knowles. He will be Spoken To. A busload of activists had arrived from London earlier in the day and been sent off to the leafy suburb of Knighton. So I set off with our candidate Zuffar Haq to make sure they were not lost or dehydrated and lend them a hand. It was a lovely sunny afternoon and most sensible ...
It's a bit rich for the nation which sends droves of migrants to Spain who have no intention of leaning Spanish and who,far from integrating, create enclaves where pubs are the main areas of social intercourse and fish and chips the main dish, to demand that those coming here should learn the language before they arrive and quickly develop a taste for warm beer and familiarity with the Book of Common Prayer and Hymns Ancient and Modern. Equally bizarre is the fact that the prime minister who complains that many migrants don't speak English is actually cutting the funding for ...
i) births and deaths 18 April 1928: birth of David Whitaker, the first script editor of Doctor Who (from An Unearthly Child to The Dalek Invasion of Earth) and writer of The Rescue (1964), The Crusade (1965), The Power of the Daleks (1966), The Evil of the Daleks (1966-67), The Enemy of the World (1967-68), The Wheel in Space (1968) and The Ambassadors of Death (1970); also of the 1965 stage play, The Curse of the Daleks, and of two of the first three novelisations, Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks (1964) and Doctor Who and the ...
I forbid all young girls Who have golden hair To travel down to Carterhaugh For young Tam Lin is there From all that pass through Carterhaugh He will take a fee Their rings or their green mantles Or their virginity From Abigail Acland's Tam Lin Version X True Thomas actually existed. Much of the information ...
It is easy to write political blogs because politics is all around us. It is even easier to write political blogs at election time as there are political conversations, leaflets put through letterboxes and patent electoral stories make the headlines as they do throughout the year. One of my pet hates (I am a grumpy old man) with political views is that some politicians feel they are completely right and others are completely wrong when it is almost certainly the balance of the argument that led them to their belief in the first place. A few days ago I mentioned ...
Libertarian Liberties – A quite hair-raising post by Anna Raccoon on some of the bizarre characters who run the Libertarian Party. NUS Democracy? – Interesting news for us former Student Union hacks, as Free Radical reports on moves to abandon attempts to democratize the NUS from within and instead replace it with something completely different. No to AV: A campaign of the Tories, by the Tories, for the Tories – Left Foot Forward on where the 'cross-party' campaign is getting its money from. Cleggmania to punchbag - How Clegg inadvertently set this up himself – Interesting take from Matthew Gibson. ...
