Cambridge residents are now recycling 44% of household waste, just under 700 tonnes a month, and up 3% on last year, before the blue bins arrived. The City Council will be offering three extra recycling services in May and June: a battery bag to attach to your bin at home plastic 'pots, tubs & trays' collections from supermarkets small electrical goods from supermarkets The Council will get some money from the batteries for local services, but the main benefit is that the batteries will stay out of landfill and not contaminate our water. So hang on to your batteries till ...
There are Macbethian witches who have been incanting that the arguments for and against dropping Britain's first-past-the-post electoral system in favour of the Alternative Vote (AV) could 'destroy' the Lib-Con Coalition, but I think it is actually very healthy that there is such a debate within the government and believe that the Coalition will emerge ...
I've been shocked tonight to hear of the death of John Sullivan, the comic creator of Only Fools and Horses. John was only 64 and has died after spending six weeks in intensive care battling viral pneumonia. John wrote many stand-out sitcoms over the years including Citizen Smith and Just Good Friends but it will be his creation of that wonderful, loveable rogue Del Boy and his Trotter family for which he will quite rightly be fondly remembered the most. Only Fools & Horses I'm a big OFAH fan. Indeed, apart from the last 3 installments, I have every single ...
Welcome to The Lost Pubs Project: Although there are 60,000 pubs still in existence in the UK today, they are closing at the rate of 25 per month. Once closed they rarely reopen as most are either demolished or converted to housing. Help us in our quest to index these lost pubs before they are forgotten for ever. If you know of a pub which has closed at any time in the past, please submit it, together with any anecdotes, historical information or photographs that you might have. Pubs do re-open from time to time, so if you see one ...
Welcome to Broxtowe Enews, brought to you by the Liberal Democrats and edited by David Watts, the leader of Broxtowe Borough Council. A special welcome to all the new readers that we have this week, it's been a good week for people signing up. Also may I apologise that there wasn't a newsletter last week. I was working in Cornwall and I thought that the technology would allow me to still post a short newsletter but although it left me it didn't seem to appear anywhere else! 1. Community Litter Pick We have organised a community litter pick for Bramcote ...
A new poll has put the SNP ahead of Labour in the race for Holyrood. The Sunday Mail poll, carried out by Progressive Scottish Opinion, suggests the gap between the two parties is closing. With less than two weeks until polling day, Alex Salmond's party is in the lead with 46% in the constituency vote, with Labour on 36%. The Tories have 9%, with the Lib Dems on 6%. In the regional list vote the SNP leads by 38% to Labour`s 37%, according to the survey. The Tories hold 10% of the vote, with the Lib Dems on 9% and ...
The BBC have excelled themselves tonight with a stellar assault on my emotions. First there was the rollercoaster ride that was the season opener of the new Doctor Who series- of which more probably tomorrow - and immediately afterwards, on CBBC, the programme nobody ever wanted to see, or make - My Sarah Jane. This was a tribute to actress and Who icon Elisabeth Sladen who died on Tuesday. You could tell that this programme had been put together with love and tenderness by people who were shocked and grief stricken at the unexpected loss of a friend and inspiration. ...
SPOILERS and stuff. Well that was certainly a Steven Moffat story, wasn't it? Spacesuits, disembodied kid voices, the Doctor saying various things are cool, the Doctor saying something really annoying like "wobbly bobbly flippity floppity" or something, I don't even remember what, alien monsters that are more a conceptual threat than a real thing, astronaut ...
I'm getting a bit tired of all these "If sporting events were decided under AV then..." arguments from the NO campaign. Because election races aren't really athletics races. If they were, they wouldn't let men and women compete in the same elections. And they aren't really horse races either, because if they were, the Lib Dems have won Orkney and Shetland so many times they would have to be
From The Book of Merlyn by T.H. White: It was England that came out slowly, as the late moon rose: his royal realm of Gramarye. Stretched at this feet, she spread herself away into the remotest north, leaning towards the imagined Hebrides. She was his homely land. The moon made her trees more important for their shadows than for themselves, picked out the silent rivers in quick-silver, smoothed the toy pasture fields, laid a soft haze of everything. But he felt that he would have known the country, even without the light. He knew that there must be the Severn, ...
My column from yesterday's Liberal Democrat News. Strictly Debatable Vote Yes to AV and you are against politics. Vote No to AV and you are against Western civilisation. That was the message given to people who watched the two referendum broadcasts last week. We bloggers often get a bad press, but there is no doubt that a post by one of my fellow Liberal Democrat bloggers was part of the inspiration for the Yes broadcast. Back in May of 2009 Mark Thompson suggested there was a correlation between how safe an MP's seat is and how likely he or she ...
I was guest speaker at the graduation ceremony of the Lothians and Edinburgh Abstinence Programme (LEAP) on Thursday. Three people with addictions managed to turn their lives around to the extent that they were moving on from residing at the project and were now going to the next stage of their lives. It was a very emotional occasion with about 40 or so family, friends and others gathered in a very warm room hearing the stories of the three graduates and their experiences. All three graduates had difficult times and all spoke very eloquently about the challenges they faced and ...
Media diversion tactics a-hoy. The Liberal Democrats complain vigourously about misrepresentation of their coalition part in the press. Scathing attacks across all papers are damaging electoral prospects nationwide,while the Conservatives are portrayed as paragons of virtue by the right wing press. RUmours started at the beginning of the month with Downing Street apparently being "discontent"
I'd never heard of internships until I graduated.Now they seem to be in the news every other day.When I was 15, we had work experience at school. My dad offered to have me work with him, but I declined, wanting to see what the school got me as it would be a different, more exciting world. It was, I got to work at a K'Nex factory where I basically played with stuff all day.How did that set me up
The latest season of Doctor Who is about to start! ... That's all I have to say on the matter!
The AV referendum campaign is hotting up. The No campaign are throwing a lot at it, and seem to have captured the initiative. By and large they are deploying the same old arguments (e.g. "save one person, one vote"), which are nonsense to those that know about the system, but which still serve to muddy the waters. What has changed is the weight of campaigning. David Cameron is taking a very high profile; it looks like the full Tory machine is distributing literature. The Tory friends in the press, like the Evening Standard here in London, are throwing their weight ...
It's not quite Jeremy Paxman vs Michael Howard, but there's a definite echo of it with Adam Boulton's repeated questioning and Baroness Warsi's unwillingness to answer. So if you've missed it doing the rounds on Twitter and Facebook so far, here it is to enjoy (or is that suffer?): (One point on which Adam Boulton lets Baroness Warsi get away with an inaccuracy, by the way, is on how university seat MPs used to be elected in Britain – it was by STV, so the use of transferable votes to elect British MPs is something that used to be part ...
I can remember when the Fraser of Allander Institute was an SNP favourite. I don't know what the SNP will make of this: The next Scottish government should consider letting universities take in extra Scottish students who are willing to pay thousands of pounds in fees, a leading think tank has suggested. The Fraser of Allander Institute report also suggested all Scots should pay towards degree costs after graduation. It called for a major inquiry into the future of Scottish higher education. But university principals said that could delay moves to plug the funding gap between Scotland and England. Currently, ...
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 Back in 2009, the Labour-Plaid government came under fire from business leaders and politicians for spending more than £300,000 on staff "away-days" during the economic downturn. Among the most expensive individual events, revealed by FOI were: · an away-day for human resources staff at the Miskin Manor - a luxury hotel on the outskirts of Cardiff - costing £16,177 · a health department meeting to "improve effectiveness", which cost the taxpayer ...
I've never attempt a lental 'fast' before. But this year I decided that I was up for the challenge to test my will power and what way better than to do so by giving up beer? A more Beer Free than a Free Beer Lent! I'm a real ale/Guinness drinker. On certain select occasions (like these warm, warm days we're experiencing this week), a nice cold lager also goes down nicely. I don't like cider. So with the Assembly election campaign reaching it's heightened climax, I thought the best thing to give up would be this beer. I'm glad to ...
The story of Adam being enticed to take the apple by Eve is not merely an amusing insight into the human condition, its an example of the very first market at work. Markets work on the principal that people respond to stimuli, economics tries to ascertain what those stimuli are, and what the impact of those stimuli on the wider community are. The idea that the government, can or should, protect certain sectors of the economy from the market is a fallacy. While I don't agree with the Coalition's (or indeed Labour's) policy on University funding, the argument occasionally made, ...
What if the Silurians had killed the Third Doctor in the 1970s and taken over the earth, leaving the Brigadier and Liz Shaw as leaders of a hunted and dwindling human resistance? Jim Mortimore brings the Seventh Doctor, Ace and Benny to a parallel universe to find out. It was particularly interesting to read it soon after listening to a slightly different alternate timeline for Liz (The Sentinels of The New Dawn) and also the Ace-in-devastated-England stories, Project: Destiny and A Death in the Family, which Big Finish did last year. Mortimore writes engagingly and I kept turning the pages, ...
I wonder if the Scottish Greens feel if it is the messenger or the message? I suspect the former. "Labour strategists have finally conceded that their strategy of fighting Conservative cuts at Westminster is not striking a chord with the electorate." via Scottish Election 2011: Labour to change campaign strategy to win back support - Telegraph.
Holly-Ann Battye in standing for council for the Lib Dems in the South Northants Council ward of Cosgrove and Grafton. She has a few rather sexy photos up on her personal website and it is newsworthy according to the right-wing media. The Lib Dems are a pretty laid back sort. Sexually liberal I would say ...
Here as HTML, Epub, LRF, PDB and .txt versions. The Kindle version will be up tonight (one person purchased the kindle version that went up by mistake – that should still be the correct text, but is not ideally formatted for ebook reading. If that was you, please let me know and I'll sort you ...
So, the new series of Doctor Who starts tonight (nd, as usual, I'll be at bloody work when it's on). To say that excitement has reached fever pitch in this household would be a massive understatement. [IMG: [personal profile] ] matgb and [IMG: [personal profile] ] magister are both as excited as me, and it's only a shame that Hol is at her dad's for Easter, or she would be joining in too. This is the first time in my adult life that I have been dead set certain a new series of Who is going to be awesome:Ecclescake turned ...
Watch this video: So maybe you're thinking well, OK, I'd rather go to the pub, but I can live with the coffee shop, so does it really matter? I mean, I'm going to get a drink anyway whichever happens... to which I would reply two things: 1, Most pubs sell coffee, so those who want coffee could be satisfied with the pub solution if only they weren't so narrowminded and selfish. 2, Some of us are allergic to coffee. Now, of course, if STV was in action there could be the option of a quick coffee on the way to ...
Recently Ed Miliband's Labour Party TV broadcast expressed his frustration that the world of politics wasn't like the real world. Considering that the entire broadcast was along the lines of painting Ed Miliband as an ordinary guy, it got me thinking on the subject of whether we really want our politicians to be ordinary people. It seems common sense that we want the people who represent us, to be like us. I would question this assumption, especially when we look at some of the other requirements we place on them. The first requirement is obviously that they are knowledgeable about ...
Visitors of all ages checking out the new building today Just a reminder that the new Yate Armadillo Youth Cafe and Venue is open for visitors to look round today (Saturday 23rd April) until 4pm. Why not combine it with a visit to the St George's Day celebrations at the Heritage Centre and the White Lion?
It's good to see some local press coverage in the Wirral Globe (with 37 comments) and other local papers about this issue, which I wrote about on the 19th in relation to the Cabinet meeting of the 14th. Changing an entire culture of an organisation and how councillors do scrutiny in the future is always ...
It's been reported that police down in Cambridgeshire have censored a local website setup to hunt down the location of police travel tracking cameras. The cameras use ANPR (Automated Number Plate Technology), and as regular readers will know the use of this technology is something I have been writing and campaigning about. Andrew Fowler was not behind the group, but had only been hosting the site. He was told by police to take the site down. I've been informed that the reason was they objected to the term 'spy' claiming the cameras were not covert. This is an interesting point ...
Scottish Labour's backbench MPs claim they have been frozen out of the national Holyrood campaign in a fresh blow to the party's faltering bid to win power in the Scottish Parliament. MPs who have spoken to The Times say that while they are free to help candidates in their local area, they have been sidelined by the party's national HQ in Glasgow in a move described by one as "a total nonsense". The criticism of the Labour campaign from some of the party's own MPs is another setback for Iain Gray as he struggles to gain any momentum in his ...
Sat 23rd
12:48
Local events of interest over the holidays - Free swimming for children at leisure centres, Birkenhe...
Over at the Wirral Tennis & Sports Centre there is currently the 11th Annual Easter Weekend Aikido festival. Birkenhead Park visitor centre is currently showing (until the 29th April) a free photographic exhibition about Wirral's industrial heritage (provided by the Friends of Birkenhead Park). Free swimming for children over the holidays will be provided at ...
I fear the Liberal Democrats are destined to make the same mistake as Labour. Well, a minority in our party; mainly Vince Cable. I'm worried by the Yes! campaign for AV; all the rhetoric is quite, potentially, catastrophic. Activists are ... Continue reading →
In short: AV IS THE MOST OBVIOUS WAY OF CHOOSING A SINGLE WINNER FROM MORE THAN TWO OPTIONS.
Paul Burstow MP with our local election candidates in Forbury Gardens Over the last few weeks I've been out campaigning hard for the local elections in Reading on May 5 with our fantastic team of candidates. Knocking on doors seven days a week can be tiring on top of a day job and my Council duties but I've had so much fun this year. This is thanks in part to the lovely sunny weather but mostly thanks to the brilliant group of people who have been joining me on the doorstep week in week out. There is a lot more ...
Now that the Scottish parties have published their respective manifestos, I've decided to read through them and take a look at what each of them is actually promising - and how they plan to do it. Let's kick off with our own. The Scottish Liberal Democrats manifesto, originally entitled Scottish Liberal Democrats Manifesto 2011, places a welcome emphasis on jobs and economic growth, excellent in education and keeping services local. In his introduction, Tavish Scott states he wants to "cut red tape, invest in apprenticeships for young people, colleges and universities, and find new ways to get money to small ...
The London School of Economics reports: 22 voting theory specialists voted to select the "best voting procedure" to elect one out of three or more candidates. Each voter chose from a list of 18 nominated voting procedures as many as she/he approved of. From a possible maximum of 22 votes, First Past The Post (FPTP) - also known as Plurality Voting - received no votes. Approval Voting won the contest with 15 votes. The Alternative Vote (AV) took second place with 10 votes. Meanwhile the Yes To Fairer Votes campaign has released a new campaign video:
Turner Contemporary gallery opens late till 10pm on Fridays, why I don't know but it is a great place just to watch the sun go down. Even for those half empty people, Margate a week after the opening is still looking more than half full. Just a quick note to regular readers, I'm not likely to be blogging much for a week or two for reasons you'll be aware. However since I've been plugging away for more than five years, on pretty much most local subjects, you could always trawl the archives or click labels such as the one at ...
See it here
It's been a while since I've looked at how Liberal Democrat MPs are doing on Twitter, so here's an up to date table listing all 31 with Twitter accounts and their PeerIndex scores. Like Klout, PeerIndex gives a rating out of 100 based on factors such as number of followers, how often their messages are retweeted and so on. In other words, whilst not a measure of influence in the world outside Twitter, it gives a sense of how active and popular their Twitter accounts are in the Twitter world. Please upgrade your browser You can follow all the latest ...
On Friday 29 April 2011 - the day of the Royal Wedding and a bank holiday - all Council owned NCP car parks in the district will offer parking free of charge. To see where they are visit the Council's website: & or telephone: 01727 869593
On Thursday I put a headline that is obviously not true - HERE. I start the blog entry confirming it is not true. And finished the article with something that can't be true. But for some No to AV supporters it appears to be one of the strongest arguments for keeping the current system they've heard, which gives you some idea of how strong their other arguments are! another thing, does
Is AV better than FPTP? An AV supporter tries very hard to be neutral and fails, but is exhaustive (and exhausting) in his examination of all the arguments. "Why do you hate Nick Clegg so much? Presumably because you hate the Conservatives, and Nick Clegg has allowed the Conservatives to govern with a minority. So it's really the Conservatives you don't want. And who has most to gain from retaining FPTP? The Conservatives." Nose, face, spited. (tags: politics) Political Parry: Immigrant Persecution by Press and Government I endorse the views expressed in this post. (tags: racism immigration) Why David Cameron ...
Lord Bonkers solves another of his readers' problems. Now my beloved party is the whipping fag for the Bloody Tories and we have lost all credibility after breaking our gentlemen's (and, indeed, ladies') honour, nay pledges, is there any point in wasting my pennies, and even shillings, on attending our annual bun fight and Conference? - Auld Leftie of Desborough Desborough is a splendid town, renowned for its corsetry. The First Lady Bonkers used to obtain her requisites there and was once presented with an Illuminated Address after keeping a whole factory in work through a particularly harsh winter. As ...
Today I've arranged to meet some relatives at the grave of our ancestor Elizabeth Watkins, Waterloo veteran. I arranged the date for convenience, without thinking about it being St George's Day, but, I am pleased that it is. I think celebrating St George's day is thoroughly un-English. There are reasons we tend to think of ...
Here's your starter for ten in our Saturday slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate... 'Can a progressive alliance between the Lib Dems and Labour work?' That is the question asked in this month's issues of Total Politics magazine, debated by Neal Lawson of the left-leaning Compass pressure group (who argues Yes) and Labour MP Michael Dugher (who says No). Neal's is a thoughtful piece, which recognises the ebbs and flows of history — but does not view them as inevitable. After al, it was only 13 years prior to the Coalition being formed that Paddy ...
[IMG: Yes to Fairer Votes] This is our once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. This referendum is our historic moment, our chance to make a difference for generations to come. Without your support, there's just no way of saying how the vote will go, but if there are enough of you on the ground on that day, we know we'll win. No matter what smears the No Campaign plaster on their billboards. Don't let the referendum pass you by without a fight. Dedicate your 5 May to getting people out of their houses and into the voting booths. Sign up to be part of ...
This is what the council is suggesting, please give us your thoughts
In calling for a yes vote in the referendum on the voting system so as to secure a 'progressive majority' of Liberal Democrat and Labour voters as an alternative to another century of Tory dominated governments, Vince Cable has significantly raised the stakes on 5th May. Although I implicitly support his objective, I cannot agree with his conclusions as to the impact of the Alternative Vote. The fact is that both Labour and the Tories have won majorities in Parliament on a minority of the vote. AV may be fairer but there is no way that it will skew elections ...
Residents have complained to me that the disabled parking bay near the taxi rank at the shops on Perth Road east of Sinderins is very worn. I raised this with the Head of Transportation who has responded positively as follows: "All disabled parking bays will be the subject of review and re-marking in accordance with the Disabled Persons Parking Act (DPPA). Hopefully a large part of these works will be ordered and subsequently completed by Tayside Contracts during the summer months of 2011. The Perth Road disabled bay in question will form part of this review."
Some weeks ago, a resident in the Kelso Street/Kelso Place area contacted me about how to go about getting the City Council to agree to a temporary road closure to allow the residents there to have a Royal Wedding street party. City Council officers have kindly co-operated with this request. Yesterday, the temporary traffic order was published by the City Council - its for a date shortly after the actual wedding date to ensure that it is on a day when as many local residents as possible can participate. THE ROAD TRAFFIC REGULATION ACT 1984 - SECTION 14(1) THE DUNDEE ...
The "No" campaign has launched a new slogan: "Under AV losers become winners." Clever, but by this definition David Cameron is a loser: David Davis was first past the post in the first round of their leadership election. My friend John Cole, described as a "thoroughly good egg" in a comment to a post on this blog (John is dying to know who made it) has a neat explanation as to why running races and choosing a representative are quite different processes , in the following letter to his local paper: "Sir, The "No To A.V." leaflet has a photograph ...
i) births and deaths 23 April 1975: death of William Hartnell, who played the First Doctor from 1963 to 1966 and again in 1972. ii) broadcast anniversaries 23 April 1966: broadcast of "The Final Test", fourth episode of the story we now call The Celestial Toymaker. Dodo and Steven defeat Cyril the schoolboy at Tardis Hopscotch, and the Doctor solves the Trilogic Game; they escape. 23 April 2005: broadcast of World War Three. The Doctor, Rose and Mickey defeat the Slitheen by hacking into UNIT's computers. 23 April 2011: broadcast of The Impossible Astronaut.
Stephen Lillie, Manila: Marshall Islands at risk from climate change A British diplomat visits Majuro. (tags: climatechange) CHERNOBYL: 25 YEARS LATER Pavol Demeš visits Chernobyl, 25 years on. (tags: ukraine nuclear) Hugo Humiliation : Uncertain Principles Chad Orzel reacts to my Hugos post with a confession of his own. (tags: sf) Reading the Hugo Winners | Sphaerula Conrad Halling reacts to my Hugo post (and has some complaints about Livejournal). (tags: sf) life and opinions of andrew rilstone: What if they gave an election an no-one came (3) "The No-To-AV campaign leaflet is quite the most hateful document I have ...
Richard Baker on Newsnight Seriously, its vtial that any policy has official statistics assigned to it that can be referenced at source. If this is how the Labour want to run Scotland then they should be barred from standing though shame.
I received my Labour leaflet on Thursday evening. We have no Labour candidates for the Morecambe Town Council but we do have one labour candidate for the three seats for the Lancaster City council. On the positve side, I don't think Labour are trying too hard which is very nice of them. Their candidate is a university student whom I presume must be studying away from home as his university is not mentioned. On the negative side they call the coalition the Con/Dem coalition. Do they think this is funny? It just comes across as an insult and panders to ...
