If the rumours are to be believed, Alec Robertson has beaten off his opponent and will remain as Leader of Cornwall Council. But what impact will the challenge to his leadership have and what should be his response going forward? Obviously, as a member of the opposition, he is going to take anything I say with a pinch of salt, but it might be worth the Conservatives considering what other parties think as well as their own internal difficulties. We don't yet know the level of opposition in the final reckoning, but I'm guessing that Fiona Ferguson amassed more than ...
I have just marked a little piece of cricket history on The Corridor.
From Sheena Wellington : Launch event at the Wighton Heritage Centre, Central Library, Wellgate, Dundee on Wednesday 4th May 2011. 1.15pm - free! Dr Sally Garden, mezzo-soprano and former Historical Musician in Residence at the Wighton Heritage Centre, will give an illustrated talk entitled: Song of the Silent North: a Scottish voice in Scandinavia. The talk introduces Sally's new classical CD release Song of the Silent North, recorded with Donald Hawksworth (piano) and will explore the themes of landscape, language and lyric tradition that have inspired her recent work. Sally is currently Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre for Scandinavian ...
I was going to write a post about my doubts over the first episode of the new series of Doctor Who and that old conundrum about how you generating suspense when the viewer knows someone won't die (a theme I've talked about before). But then I read Millennium's post and it says all I would have said, but it says it better and it says more. So stop reading me and start reading him.
As I sit here on a late evening train back to Stowmarket, I find myself slightly disconcerted by my experiences. Perhaps I ought to explain...I was born a Londoner, raised a Londoner, and lived in London until fairly recently. I even worked in London until January. It would be fair to say that I was comfortable in a city 'ecosystem'. Now, however, I live in a small village, in the valley of a river known to relatively few, and the biggest place that I visit regularly is Ipswich, population less than 150,000. I don't even really go there, as my ...
Last night, I was 'minute taker' at the latest Friends of Magdalen Green committee meeting, at which we discussed the arrangements for our forthcoming AGM and free public lecture - a talk by Professor Charles McKean - not to be missed! We also discussed our involvement with WestFest 2011 and the forthcoming launch of our 2011 Christmas Card competition, to be launched at the AGM on 25th May.
Just coming to the end of the latest round of changes on this site. You'll notice a lot more Facebook integration, both in the right hand column and in the footer, alongside some tidying up of the design and smaller improvements here and there. But the other big functional changing is trying out moving over to Facebook's comments feature, as you can see at the bottom of this (and other) posts. I've mixed views about the growing dominance of Facebook, yet - for both this site and others I have been involved with - I've long been keen on trying ...
Amazing how much difference a few hours can make. Yesterday morning the assessments of EU government representatives in Jerusalem about the prospects of a two-state solution (or any solution at all) to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians was utterly ... Continue reading →
Wed 27th
21:27
Tales from the campaign trail: There's a mad man in his dressing gown, and he wants your votes
As the local election campaign and fairer votes referendum roll round (eight days, and one Royal Wedding, to go) there's the opportunity for tempers to get frayed. David Cameron got into trouble today for telling a female Labour MP to "calm down dear" in the House of Commons. I worried when I heard that. I bet ...
Ian Birrel seeks to defend Libya in The Evening Standard this evening, and by the same measure, justify any potential activity in Syria. This is my rebuttal. He states; 'opponents must answer why they would have accepted rivers of blood flowing down the streets of Benghazi' My initial response is that we have readily accepted rivers of blood in so many other nations, what makes Libya so different
An element of the No to AV campaign which has angered me is issue around cost of the referendum and changing the voting system. They began their campaign with a poster which had a picture of soldier looking forlornly with ... Continue reading →
The front page of today Leicester Mercury reports that the city's Eco House in Western Park has been forced to close for the Easter holidays after one of its staff was "attacked and threatened by young louts". The report continues: Sophie Inskip, 19, was followed home and spat on after finishing work at the Eco- house, in Leicester's Western Park, on Sunday. Five youths confronted her at about 5pm, harassing and threatening her. As she walked home through the park, they followed her, jostling her and spitting in her face.Shocking stuff. Teenagers today, eh? Except that if you read on ...
I first started blogging during university, as a bit of fun really, then started the site that has become Virtually Naked as a bit of shameless self-promotion. Anyway the site has gone far beyond that now, with 2 or 3 posts and 100-200 unique visitors every day. While I am immensely proud of that, it ...
Wed 27th
20:41
UKIP candidate in Leicester South by-election calls Islam "morally flawed and degenerate"
Regine Anderson, UKIP's candidate for Leicester's first elected Mayor, is busy concentrating on her A levels. So it has fallen to Abhijit Pandya, the party's candidate in the Leicester South by-election, to make a splash in the media. And he has not let UKIP down. As the Leicester Mercury reports: The UKIP candidate for the Leicester South by-election has caused outrage by condemning Islam on his blog. In the article, Abhijit Pandya called Islam "morally flawed and degenerate" and said he backed a controversial Dutch politician, who called Islam a retarded ideology.You can find the full article on Pandaya's blog, ...
"Employee ownership has always been a cornerstone of Liberal policy and in every manifesto from Asquith to Ashdown. Our leaders seldom talk of it now other than to advocate a meagre bit mutualism on the margins. This is a far cry from the policy which the party championed for most of the last century." Birkdale Focus, whom I last saw moored above the top lock at Foxton, calls for employee ownership to be restored as a central concern of Liberal Democrat policy. Neil Stockley sorts the good arguments for AV from the bad. The Cambridgeshire Guided Busway has arrived two ...
Today I have spent part of the day out on the stump bathed in a little too much spring sunshine. In spite of dutifully wearing a hat I still managed to get burnt on my neck. We were joined by our Scottish Lib Dem Leader Tavish Scott and by George Lyon MEP, who ducked by to see what they could do to help. Tavish seemed in very good fettle considering that it is just over one week until polling day. In that time we have the "Full" Council meeting as we call it and then there is the Royal Wedding ...
It is difficult to express how deeply and predictably pathetic Fox News is. When I read thatBarack Obama has released his birth certificate, I was curious as to how this piece of not-news would be received by the right wing. Here's a shot from their front page: Urgent? Seriously? I understand why Fox News does what it does, they make a lot of money. But I wonder how their viewers manage to get through life. The constant palpitations must get distracting.
Don't let the media fool you! The positive reactions that we have had in Herontye ward continue to suggest that once again the right-winged press have got it wrong! On the doorsteps the feeling is very much more considered and even if people don't particularly support the Lib Dems, the good news for East Grinstead is that most of it's citizens are savy enough to make their own minds up in an articulate manner! There is none of this anti-Clegg hysteria that Murdoch et al have whipped up nor is there a sense of impending doom which according to most ...
..for adding me to your blog roll. Genuinely chuffed.
The Welsh Liberal Democrats have today highlighted the record of the Labour-Plaid government on child poverty and reconfirmed their ambition to eliminate child poverty. Wales has the highest rate of children living in severe poverty in the UK and the Labour-Plaid government failed to meet their 2010 target of halving child poverty. To tackle child poverty, Welsh Liberal Democrats will: · focus on lifting families out of poverty through more effective measures such as boosting the economy with our Jobs and Growth Innovation Programme, improving education for poorer children, improving the health service and tackling poverty that affects families as ...
I found these 5 great blog posts all my phone, all on my train trip home yesterday. The Lib Dem blogosphere's hot right now! Enjoy them. 1. 'An Unexpected Inheritance' from Mark Valladares at The View from Creeting St. Peter. While I really want the House of Lords abolished and a fully elected Upper House - I can't deny I'll miss stuff like this... By the way - Mark - sorry, I had no idea about your blog when I named this one. Honest! ! Hope you don't feel I've been camping out on your territory. 2. 'Election for new ...
Personally, I'm disappointed that Patrick Harvie has been excluded from the leaders' debates. The Green Party have, over the last twelve years in Holyrood, made a significant contribution to political debate in Scotland. They bring something to our democracy. It's only right - in my view - that Harvie should be given the same opportunity as the other leaders to get his message across, as well as to be tested and asked tough questions. I could understand Salmond being excluded from the General Election leaders' debates, because his party were standing in only a small number of the UK seats. ...
Cllr Chris Harris, Me, Cllr Peter Beard, Andrew Stunell MP, Cllr Kirsten Bayes and Cllr Rebecca Rye outside the Civic Offices in Reading The Evening Post today published this excellent article by my ward colleague Kirsten Bayes. Kirsten is Deputy Leader of Reading Borough Council and Leader of the Lib Dem Group. She is up for re-election in Redlands on 5 May. Read my post in support of her campaign here. The Lib Dem local election manifesto in Reading can be viewed here.
I will be voting "Yes" to AV on 5 May. But in some ways I will be doing so in spite rather than because of the case that has been put forward by the "Yes" campaign. For a start, I'm not convinced that AV would make "lazy MPs" work any harder. Nor is there any evidence that the 2010 expenses scandal would have been averted under AV. The causes of the scandal were relatively low pay for MPs, generous expenses, a lack of openness, and old-fashioned greed in too many cases. They could have surfaced under any electoral system. Another ...
Last week John Harris from The Guardian newspaper was in Reading making a film about the local campaign for the AV Referendum on 5 May. This short film features my friend Georgina Hughes, Lib Dem candidate for Abbey ward in Reading at the upcoming local elections who has also been a leading light in the Reading Yes 2 AV campaign. Go Georgina!
Did aliens establish a primitive postcode system in ancient Britain? – The answer, of course, is 'no', but what a great headline. Would cannibalism cost you your bonus in the banks? – "The defence given by learned counsel on that would be that at no stage did his contract stipulate that his bonus and exit payment would be forfeit if he devoured members of staff." Antony Green's Election Blog – Can't really pick out a single post here, so go read it all as he points out just what the Australian experience of AV is. Unsurprisingly, it's not what No2AV ...
Pam and I have asked the Council to take a look at the footpath running past the Barnes Hospital site after a Gatley resident told us it had been partially blocked at each end by the site builders leaving bricks and breeze blocks across it. The Council's Public Rights of Way team are taking a look and hopefully we'll see it sorted.
Wed 27th
16:30
Day 3769: If You Strike This Referendum Down, We Will Become More Powerful than You Can Possibly Ima...
Wednesday: Look, I see people in South Africa queuing round the block for their right to vote; I see people in Afghanistan risking Taliban bombs for their chance to have their say; I see people in the Arab Spring facing down murderous dictators because they want democracy, and in this country we get our FIRST CHANCE EVER to decide on our own system of elections and I AM DEEPLY SHAMED that NO ONE SEEMS TO CARE. WAKE UP BRITAIN! This is your chance to GET A GRIP on the people who DECIDE on schools and taxes and wars and everything! ...
I read with interest in the Evening Post that the Green Party in Reading are planning to campaign on fuel poverty at the elections this year. I am grateful to them for helping to highlight this important issue and delighted that Green Party activists are backing the work we in the Coalition Administration of Reading Borough Council and Coalition Government are doing on this issue where Labour failed. Tackling fuel poverty and climate change is a huge, vitally important agenda that all political parties in Reading need to get behind. But as politicians and community leaders we work hard at ...
This afternoon my ward colleagues Councillor Fred Weavers and Madam Mayor, Councillor Maureen Fearn, met at Portland Street Playing Fields. The purpose of the meeting was for a photo shoot outside the new changing facilities which opened recently. However, Fred couldn't resist getting Maureen to sit on the back of his new Harley Davidson. Pictured above are Fred and Maureen on the car park (not on the public road so crash helmets not required). Maureen needed little encouragement to go for a slow spin round the empty car park, much to the amusement of a passing dog walker, as pictured ...
I was keeping this a secret, but now the announcement's been made on a mailing list, I think I'm free to talk about it publicly – I made my first professional fiction sale a few months ago, to an anthology being put together by Simon Bucher-Jones, based around his Obituaria concept. What was particularly nice ...
Employee ownership has always been a cornerstone of Liberal policy and in every manifesto from Asquith to Ashdown. Our leaders seldom talk of it now other than to advocate a meagre bit mutualism on the margins. This is a far cry from the policy which the party championed for most of the last century. Jo Grimond was enthused by the example of the Spanish worker owned businesses in Mondragon to which Robert Oakshott introduced him. These examples of worker owned industries and mutual banks are in a long line of models of ownership which Liberals have highlighted. The great Liberal ...
Liberal Democrats listen. Other parties may produce a detailed manifesto for the local elections, they're telling you what they will do. Why does it have to one way traffic? As local champions, we represent just a few thousand people, so we can and do do things differently. Whether through our Focus newsletters, knocking on your door, sharing our email addresses with as many people as
Is it patronising to say, "calm down, dear" to a woman? Usually. The "hysterical women" stereotype is one of the more annoying ones for the female gender, going by some of the eloquent rants I've read on the subject. The insidious thing about that particular stereotype is that complaints can leave you open to further accusations of hysteria; we all find it difficult to express anger in calmly modulated tones. Friends and relatives can decide for themselves, however, whether it's ok to be patronising for comic effect. Frankly some women deserve to be patronised, just as with some men. My ...
On Saturday local blogger Ian Parsley commented on the state of posters here for the Northern Irish elections. It really does make some interesting reading for my Scottish, English or Welsh friends and may well warrant a fuller response from myself at a later point. However, one thing he did mention is location, he said: "I do wonder if there could be limitations on size and perhaps on location." From my election campaigns in West Lothian and Endinburgh where I have often been the 'poster boy'* I can't believe some of the locations that the LARGE Northern Irish posters can ...
Page under construction Detailed Results from those wards with Local Elections in 2011   Change in Councillors   Composition of Councils after result - only those councils with elections in 2011, NOT all councils.  
Sometimes, it's good to remember that there's a lot to like about some of our political opponents. Participating in local hustings, I've noticed there are many areas of shared policy with other parties, most notably the SNP. There is much in the SNP manifesto that I can relate to as a liberal; there are also figures within the SNP who I have a great deal of respect for, even if I don't always see eye to eye with them. I don't always take to Alex Salmond. I admit he is a capable leader and has had his successes during his ...
First Past the Post is the worst of all systems. We use a version that is effectively single member party lists. FPTP has three things in my opinion that make it the worst system ever. 1. Its not proportional therefore does not give an accurate representation of the people's views in parliament. 2. The Spoiler
[IMG: PM David Cameron] [IMG: Creative Commons License] photo credit: UK in Italy I think so, yes. David Cameron may have thought he was parroting Michael Winner in his insurance ad, but unfortunately he didn't have "it's a commercial" or equivalent tag. And, in any case, Michael Winner is hardly a role model for a Prime Minister. In fact, this aside to Angela Eagle at Prime Minister's Questions is significant because it is emblematic of Cameron's Flashmanesque approach to Parliament. If in doubt, he patronises and insults. Hopefully lots of people will be voting "Yes" in the referendum because of ...
Tomorrow it will be exactly seven days till the AV referendum so from 7pm tomorrow evening I will be going up against Jeremy Hunt MP (Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport) in a public debate about AV at the Georgian House Hotel in Haslemere. I'll be on the panel in my capacity as a member of Surrey Fairer Votes - we've had two debates with him so far and we've won one and lost one so this debate will be the final face-off. Hmm, I'd better put on my war face: The Potter Blogger's war face is ...
Page under construction Results in the wards with elections Change in Councillors   Composition of councils with elections after the Result - only those councils with elections in 2011, NOT all councils.  
It is a sad comment on the backward nature of this country's governance that the thing that unites left wing and right wing enemies is to become Lords together, united in their detachment from reality. Taken from this BBC article, here is Lefty Lord "FTP Is The British Way" Reid writing in the Right Old Times: The beneficiaries would be the Liberal Democrats, both in terms of seats and in their disproportionate influence in hung Parliaments - Lord Reid There's a simple way to check whether this is nonsense: ask a Lib Dem whether they think they have a "disproportionate ...
Julian Huppert's post on Lib Dem Voice, inspired me to think a little bit about Net Neutrality. Julian asks this fundamental question: "Is it genuinely liberal to allow competition on the basis of existing service providers offering different packages based on traffic management which favours one company over another? Or is it, instead, better to provide what is often called a level playing field - where traffic flows at the same speed, whatever the content and whoever owns and operates the website?" Before answering this, it is worth examining what net neutrality means. Stealing from Wikipedia, net neutrality "is the ...
Opposition MP's, and officials, deserve credit when he or she takes a principle stand. Chris Bryant is one of them. This controversial Labour politician has spoken out on Libya and effectively admitted to the correct action needed; We're coming to ... Continue reading →
I usually spend about ten seconds every morning looking at Wikipedia's death notices, on the basis that roughly once a year I find out from there that someone I knew, or knew of, has passed away. This morning, however, I discovered the story of the 4th Baron Ampthill, who owed his seat in the House of Lords to his mother successfully arguing (the House of Lords overruling a jury verdict against her on a technicality) that she had had a ten-month pregnancy while still a virgin. (The Daily Telegraph, inevitably, has even more juicy details.) On the one hand, one ...
Local councillors recently asked South Glos to investigate whether, if Morrisons move out of their warehouse on Armstrong Way, the planning permission could be changed so that it would no longer been used as a distribution depot. This would have the effect of removing a good deal of heavy goods traffic from roads in Yate and the surrounding villages - Iron Acton and Rangeworthy residents have been complaining for years about the volume of lorry movements. The question is whether the site is appropriate for distribution use now - would planning permission be granted if it was a new site? ...
'I' reports today that police in London have been rounding up 'known troublemakers' in advance of the Royal Wedding on Friday. They have also been visiting known protesters to warn them not to cause any disruption. Is this appropriate activity in a free country? The police have a huge task to ensure that everything proceeds according to plan but should they be adopting tactics used in China, for example, in advance of the arrival of some foreign dignitaries? Has the delicate balance between security and freedom - including the right to protest in a free society - shifted too far? ...
The Lib Dems and Labour both confirmed today that AV does not require expensive machines, which knocks £130m off the supposed £250m cost of introducing AV. Slowly the 'no' campaign crumbles.
Wed 27th
12:16
Oh, Alex, you're so vain, you probably think this blog is about you - but the Regional Ballot is not...
You walked into the party like you were walking onto a yacht Your hair strategically combed over bald bit Your were eating an apricot You had one eye in the camera as you watched yourself orate And all the people dreamed that you'd be their First Minister, you'd be their First Minister, and... You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you You're so vain, I'll bet you think this song is about you Don't you? Don't you? Well I hear you went up to Musselburgh and your horse naturally won Then you flew your Saltire One up ...
Protestors at the Royal Wedding?Really? Or just an interesting ploy to further cast #ukuncut as baddies to the middle classes?Afterall, they attacked Fortnum and Mason with no regard for the tradition and esteem of the store.What the majority of people forget, however, is that UKuncut are anti tax evasion, whether legal or not.They could seek to protest about the cost of the Royal Wedding, but it
Rather like Libya, we are now into the long winded discussions about Syria. The prevaricating and pompous gesticulating by Hague, the outrage by Paxman and a few asides from Parliament proclaiming human rights as justification.But there is another, less obvious similarity between Libya and Syria.No video footage, no journalists encamped watching every move. As I commented before, as we were in
Reading Labour state in their local election manifesto that they would reverse our plans to introduce charges for people who could afford to pay for day care services. They also say they would suspend our reforms and launch a full review of the service. These pre-election pledges are both costly and risky. I have already demolished Labour's arguments against day care charges (which compare very favourably to those charged by neighbouring councils and the private sector) but I thought it was worth explaining what Labour's ill-thought out plans actually mean to the Council's budget, local services and taxpayers in Reading. ...
As reported previously Hertfordshire Constabulary attempted to shutdown an anti-ANPR website in Royston. This wasn't done via a court order, but through a bungling communications officer who contacted Andrew Fowley the site host. Andrew feeling threatened by the request, and considering it an order the host took down the site. Only later after advice from this solicitor put it back up, and ask for the police to issue an injunction against it. Cambridge News reported on all of this, complete with quotes from Steve Jolly the anti-surveillance campaigning who helped defeat project Champion. Steve rightly said that people should be ...
'By a quirk of the calendar, the next eight days will bring two defining national events. One will give the people of Britain a chance to express themselves on the system under which the country has been run for longer than anyone can remember. And the other is the AV referendum' Read the whole thing here. Hats off to Jonathan Freedland in The Guardian
He's Deputy Prime Minister. He chairs a clutch of Cabinet Committees. He's got a civil service staff and a dedicated press team. A few weeks of the year he's running the country, nuclear submarines included. I'm me. But stick our Twitter accounts into standard and popular influence measuring tools such as Klout or PeerIndex and most days you'll find me being rated more influential online that Nick. At this point you could give up reading, muttering a joke either about Twitter or the Liberal Democrats, but it does raise a serious point. Quite what is the online influence that these ...
One of the Southwark Council scrutiny committees are undertaking a review of schools admissions and support for parents and carers. As part of this I'd encourage parents and carers whose children have applied for a Southwark secondary school place to complete their questionnaire and tell them how you think it could be improved. Apparently it only takes a few minutes to fill out . Please click on this link to access the survey. Alternatively if you'd like a freepost paper copy then please contact the Scrutiny team on 020 7525 0514 or email Julie.Timbrell@southwark.gov.uk. Deadline for questionnaire responses is 13 ...
One thing that cheered me up this morning was reading the reports about the Edinburgh University Students' Association hustings which took place last night. The Journal has a live blog of the proceedings and you can see how people who were there felt by looking at the #eusahustings page on Twitter. It appears that Edinburgh Central Liberal Democrat candidate Alex Cole-Hamilton really impressed those who were watching.Here's a selection of the comments about him: From someone who isn't keen on the Liberal Democrats: If it wouldn't make me sick in my mouth to think about it, I'd actually campaign for ...
diggerdydum: Aw Really cute cartoon with one of the new "monsters" from The Impossible Astronaut (tags: doctorwho) The FactCheck Blog - FactCheck: AV round-up - the truth behind the claims Summary: both sides are lying, but the no camp are lying more blatantly (tags: government) No to No to AV "So, like many others, I received my "No to AV" leaflet and, like many others, I found that it immediately tipped me over into the "Yes to AV" camp. Rarely have I been so powerfully persuaded of the rightness of an argument by the paucity of the case put by ...
Wed 27th
09:55
Lib Dems should distance themselves from the 'happiness' agenda and start making liberalism more rel...
Come 2015 the government will have gone some way to establish a happiness index in an attempt to shift the focus of quality of life from a purely economic one. Many people are getting involved in this with the launch of the Action for Happiness which brings LSE economists and government advisors together in an ...
The Paystation Network (PSN) has now been down for almost a week, world wide. This effects PS3 PS2 and PSP's plus blue ray updates. Now this would be a disaster for any gaming network at anytime but in the UK bank holiday weekend which would of been for some, a big gaming weekend, its a growing nightmare for Sony. The PS3 message (Network is down for maintenance), yeah right! Why not just admit it, your have been hacked. Now I don't have the time to play games anymore but if I did, this would mean no online gaming, no downloadable ...
We thought you would like to see a copy of the leaflet we'll be distributing shortly in the areas near the Brimsham Park development - it contains comprehensive facts and figures about the local housing development proposals. Click here to download the leaflet: http://www.paulhulbert.org/focus/brimshamspecial.pdf This electronic copy goes one better than the paper version - all the links to websites and email addresses should be clickable. Please forward this email on to friends who may be interested, and encourage them to sign our petition at tinyurl.com/stopbrimsham and/or join our Facebook Group "Stop Brimsham Park Housing" We hope you find this ...
The Guardian reports that Liberal Democrat MP, John Hemming, was stopped from raising the issue of superinjunctions on the floor of the House of Commons, after the Speaker ruled that the matter could only be raised in private because of fears that a public discussion would undermine strict parliamentary rules on cases that may be sub judice: Hemming raised the issue of an injunction taken out by a claimant known as AMM, a married television personality who wants to protect details of his private life. This is not Marr. The MP for Birmingham Yardley said to Bercow: "There is a ...
Worth Way and Forest are wonderful recreational assets, but sometimes the behaviour of people on these routes leave a lot to be desired. I run, cycle and walk on both these routes and here is my plea for cooperation. Cyclists. Yes, it's a national cycle route but other people have a right to be there. Get a bell and ring it in time to let walkers get out of your way. They are usually happy to do so. Dog owners. If you let your dog wander under the wheels of a bike, both your dog and the rider are going ...
I always thought that John Redwood's problem with the Welsh National Anthem was not that he did not know the words but that he tried to sing along to it anyway and in the process devalued and mocked it. Make your own mind up here. It may have been a bit harsh therefore for a letter writer in yesterday's South Wales Evening Post to compare Ed Miliband to the former Welsh Secretary, just because he has difficulty correctly pronouncing Llanelli. After all the Labour leader is neither a Welsh MP, a Minister or Shadow Minister with specific responsibility for Wales, ...
The 5 best things I've run across this week... 1. From John Lewis to workers' co-ops: these Tories love wrongfooting the left. John Harris in The Guardian. Great piece. Very thought provoking. And full of ideas we should be nicking, pronto. 2. Death of Tul Bahadur Pun Alex Folkes on 'A Lanson Boy'. Too easy to forget the people behind the campaigns. Alex keeps it real. 3. The Lib Dems no longer have interns...they have volunteers The Virtually Naked blog once again makes a winning point. Charlotte and the crew are on fire at the moment. They are required reading... ...
Yesterday, today and tomorrow were down as being my only child free days until the day between 8th April and 4th May. I love every single second of having Anna on holiday, and really don't get why people complain about having their kids around. They grow up way too quickly, so my aim is to enjoy every possible moment. Anyway, though, I was kind of looking forward to 3 school days just to catch up on stuff. In particular, yesterday was ear-marked to spend in front of the computer. Then, on Monday afternoon, while we were playing in the park ...
Under the proposed new scheme which would see tuition fees rise to a maximum of £9k a year, no one has to pay up front. The first repayments will therefore be 3 years + up to the next tax year following the date of starting the degree. Or in other words, April 2015 - around the time of the next election... The conspiracy theorists amongst us could almost say that the tuition fees issue has effectively been kicked into the long grass. The alternative proposal, a graduate tax wouldn't have achieved this, because taxes once implemented have a way of ...
I have noted in the past that 'retail politics' is something I have found slightly difficult. In Southwark in particular, the use of blatantly misleading literature by Labour never failed to irritate, and I always swore that the campaigns I had influence over would be relentlessly positive as a result. And now, as the candidate and agent, with control over artwork, message and delivery, I am doing just that, talking about what I am doing and what I believe in. The messages are local, because I am. However, there are hints that the Conservatives across the county don't quite see ...
Consett Rugby Club will be hosting their first (hopefully of many) beer festival on the last weekend in April at their ground at Belle Vue (behind the Civic Centre), Medomsley Road, Consett, DH8 6LX. The Festival will be opened at 12.00 on Friday 29th by Terry Deary, the well known author of many children's books including "Horrible Histories". Other dates and times are Friday 29th April 12-10pm (Royal Wedding) Saturday 30th April 12-10pm Sunday 1st May 12-10pm (bank holiday) The festival will feature 26 local and nationally sourced real ales, 8 lagers from around the world, 6 ciders and a ...
Cambridgeshire Liberal Democrats have welcomed news that the Guided Busway contract has finally been completed and the handover of the project has occurred, exactly two years late and £65M over budget. The project was initially supposed to open in April 2009, but is now expected to open in late Summer or Autumn of 2011 -- well over two years late -- despite strident promises from the Conservatives that the project would be operational earlier. The contract was initially budgeted to come in at £116M in total, but the soaring overspend has risen to £181M -- £65M over the budgeted cost. ...
I'm no fan of Fox Sky News but sometimes something interesting sneaks out. Baroness Warsi recently went on the Boulton & Co show to launch the No to AV campaign's latest poster and barely made it out alive! If you know anybody who is voting 'No', get them to watch this!
After having explained that Australia uses AV the "No" leaflet claims, that : "in Australia, 6 out of 10 people want to go back to the system we use in the UK." I Emailed a friend in Australia and asked what substance there is in this claim. His reply cam yesterday: Re your question, I've never heard of any statistic about ditching preferential voting in favour of FPTP, nor has Liz (his wife) and it's not something that's discussed at all as far as I know. I'll ask around my colleagues, but I think it's a complete non-issue! The only ...
I lost a debate last night. Not so terrible, you might think. We all lose arguments and perhaps I was wrong. I was defending the intervention in Libya by the USA, UK and France under UNSC 1973. My argument was based on the development of the Responsibility to Protect. I am disappointed not that I failed to persuade people that this intervention is a good, practical example of the doctrine,
Peter Anghelides and David Bishop - particularly nice to read these as I enjoyed their stories featuring her very much.
i) births and deaths 27 April 1963 (incorrectly recorded here earlier this month as 17 April): birth of Russell T. Davies, head writer and executive producer of the first five years of New Who (2005-10) and author of Virgin New Adventure Damaged Goods (1996). ii) broadcast anniversary 27 April 1968: broadcast of first episode of The Wheel in Space. The Tardis lands on a deserted spaceship; the controller of the nearby Wheel prepares to destroy it. 27 April 1974: broadcast of sixth episode of The Monster of Peldon. The Ice Warriors are defeated and the miners are reconciled with the ...
Recipes | Doctor Who | BBC America Doctor Who recipes. Really. (And I do have a copy of Gary Downie's magnum opus on my shelves as well.) (tags: doctorwho cooking)
It is good to knock on doors. I have never asked anyone if they will vote for me as I have never thought this question would influence anyone. I get asked if I have been out canvassing so the answer must always be no. For this election we are conducting a survey and we are telling the person who comes to the door that there are simply three yes or no answers. We also tell them that there are no right and wrong answers and this way we manage to speak to a lot of people. We also get a ...
