Tweet There's a cruel joke about the standard Tory leaflet "In Touch" amongst my friends, it's simply known as "out of touch". Well it seems we may need to revise exactly who we call out of touch. With this tweet, Peter Hain deftly proves in just 140 characters exactly just how out of touch with the British mood he is. As Britain celebrates the wedding of a future monarch, the topics of conversation were wide and varied, ranging from the dresses, to the struggle to get the ring on. But one thing the nation was not worried about was how ...
So whenever [IMG: [personal profile] ] matgb and I go in a comic shop, I have to explain to them that 1, it'll probably be me who buys something, so they'd better not do the TalkingToTheBloke thing, and 2, he's a Marvel and I'm a DC. It's a product of chance - I got into DC via Judge Dredd and the Judgement on Gotham Crossover; Mat got into Marvel from reading Transformers comics as a kid. But I'll happily go see Marvel movies. I liked Spiderman. I liked Iron Man. I even liked Fantastic Four. Thor, though? Thor was something ...
A lovely AV related anomaly was highlighted on the TV this evening: David Cameron won the leadership of the Tories under AV and David Davis won the first round. Therefore, under the Tories' preferred system, David Davis should be the Tory leader. This delightful anomaly also applies to the Labour Leader, Ed Miliband, who only won in the fourth round of that election, with his brother David leading in each of the preceding rounds. Now wouldn't it be nice for the 'No' campaign to address these issues...
TweetThe Sex Education show has recently been shown on Channel 4, normally a fairly entertaining show with lots of room for cringe value that I so dearly love in any health programs. I often feel rather pleased to see that under 18′s are being given comprehensive sex education, as for the most part sex education is completely inadequate within Britain. With a push towards sexualisation in so many aspects of the media and the rise and growth of celebrity sex culture. (Jordan, Paris Hilton?) It's therefore with mixed feeling I see the latest episode of The Sex Education show run ...
I couldn't resist...
I enjoyed watching the spectacle of the Royal Wedding today and wish the couple well. What I found increasingly hard to stomach as the day wore on were the fawning and flanneling broadcasters and some of the people they found to interview among the crowds. It seems I am in favour of monarchy: it's the monarchists I can't stand. After today's events the prospects for a Republic in Britain do not seem immediately encouraging, but that is no reason for royalists to ignore problems that arise in the future. So let me offer the Royal Family a little unsolicited advice. ...
Chris Willmore reports: "I hope you have all had a lovely day. I thought I should share the following good news with you. Ruth Davis and I have had a pretty hairy week, trying to get answers on the bus station. This week the officers were giving us the run around, so I wrote to the Chief Executive" "Within an hour, we had discussions going with Steve Evans - the Director who has shown superb understanding of the problem and the need for a solution. More junior officers were still saying there was no money and it was not their ...
This morning, I participated in the third of recent 'walkabouts' in West End estates - this time around the Blackness area - in particular Corso Street, Abbotsford Street, Peddie Street and Abbotsford Place. There were various issues raised including graffiti, a broken gate, a steep drop in a back garden area, and wheelie bins left permanently on the street in Peddie Street (where there is a solution in sight). I was pleased to be advised that the grit issue I raised with the City Council after yesterday's meeting of Blackness Area Residents' Association is being attended to.
Not the long running Radio 2 programme but a rather good song by Olly Murs ...
Mark Pack on Liberal Democrat Voice has picked up a Leicester Mercury report of a by-election hustings held in Evington earlier this week. Mark highlights a comment made about AV made by the Labour candidate Jon Ashworth: Frankly, I don't really care - I've got more important things to think about.As Mark comments: There are some good and genuine electoral reform campaigners in the Labour Party, but this dismissive comment from someone who - if there had been no by-election - would after all have been Head of Party Relations for a man who penned a manifesto calling for a ...
Police have adopted quite a heavy handed approach to quelling protest around the Royal Wedding. I have no enthusiasm for protests that hijack or disrupt national events. I also don't think they particularly work. Such an approach is only going to annoy people who self-evidentially think differently and want to go and enjoy themselves. Personally I quite like the separation of a symbolic head of state and legislative power. I also enjoyed watching the Royal Wedding, and get nightmares at the thought of President Blair, but back to the point. Mr Charlie Veitch takes a different view. His attitude is ...
[IMG: Osborne Villas street party] Hope everyone is enjoying the day. Me and Mark went to probably the best street party in the city, at Osborne Villas, run by a fantastic team of volunteers. Many thanks to Melanie for the invite – a very welcome break before the final few days of the campaign! It was a true community event with nothing lacking – bar, marquee, stage, entertainment, food and morris dancers! Good to see the Hova Villas posse too. Best get indoors now though – a regular storm is in progress... [IMG: Osborne Villas street party (2)]
Dear Fraser, I wanted to email to thank you for the incredible efforts you've made over the campaign so far. The thing that drives me forward every morning is the knowledge that thousands of Scottish Liberal Democrat members and supporters are working so hard to get our message across on doorsteps right across the country. Everyone is already working very hard indeed. But I am asking everyone to join me in doing a bit extra over the final few days to return as many Liberal Democrat MSPs to Holyrood as possible. Think of what a Scottish Parliament would be like ...
A Difficult Year! The cuts in public spending have been difficult for all local authorities. The New Strategic Direction was announced in July last year by Suffolk County Council. However we had to wait until November to find out that what it meant was that many services were to be "divested" to communities or outsourced. For smaller parishes the costs of running services like libraries would have a major impact on the parish portion of the council tax. In my own village of Capel St. Mary there would be a 62% increase in the parish precept. My group put forward ...
A video entitled "Is your Cat confused about the referendum on the voting system on the 5th May?" has appeared on several Liberal Democrat blogs today. Mary Reid is one example. But I fear this video's allusion to an earlier comedy sketch may be lost on my younger readers. But do not despair: help is at hand in the shape of an earlier post on this blog.
I went to my first London Girl Geek Dinners event last night, co-organised with Sci-Fi-London Film Festival. I was intending to go along with Dan, but he found himself a bit ill at the last minute; I spotted Kitty Stryker and her partner Mike outside, though, and ended up spending time chatting to them so I wasn't mooching around the reception on my own. Wine was provided in the lobby before the event kicked off; I wound up donating mine to Mike as it was a little on the strong side, and drinking a veritable bucket of Pepsi instead. I ...
As you may remember from my earlier post, there was a petition against the increases in on-street parking charges which stand to price people out of the town centre and damage local businesses by driving away customers. Because the petition got over 20,000 signatures the council is obligated to debate the matter. However, the Tories running the council voted to postpone the debate until after the election - in all probability so that they could duck the responsibility until it was too late for voters to show their displeasure at the ballot box. As the Guildford Lib Dems report: Because ...
Read the latest blog post from Abhijit Pandya, UKIP's Head of Research and candidate in the Leicester South by-election.
September 11, 2001 was a good day to bury bad news, a government spin doctor famously emailed on the day. What about a royal wedding day? Sure enough, via the Department of Health (DH) there was this announcement, saying that hospitals are expected to make an even higher rate of "efficiency" savings than before: from 4% per annum up to 6-7%. This press release seems to have come out so late yesterday that neither the DH website nor that of Monitor (the regulatory body that made the announcement) have published it. So I have been unable to access the details. ...
'Commoner' was the word of the day. About every three minutes (ok, I am exaggerating) the word was mentioned as if we were seeing something so extraordinary- Kate Middleton comes from a well to do background. She went to Malborough College which is an expensive school. This means that she didn't come from a family that was badly struggling to marry into the royal family. So, I am wondering if Kate's 'social mobility' has been exaggerated. I was really excited by the Royal Wedding because it promoted Britain as a world class country still. However why does sexism have to ...
One strand of the economic critique of government provision is that public providers face a soft bankruptcy constraint. If they operate inefficiently or extravagantly and run out of money then they can turn to government for a handout to cover any shortfall. If the government is short of money to bail them out they just ...
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (Picture from PA) I really couldn't believe it when I heard the set of titles that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II bestowed upon her grandson on the day of his wedding. Creating him Duke of Cambridge, Earl of Strathearn and Baron Carrickfergus was a strange parallel to my family. Before Katherine went to St. Andrews a girl from Lurgan did likewise. She met a man from St. Salvator's in her first year but it wasn't until their second year that these two started to go out, that man's mother at one point taught in ...
Manchester Airport have let us know that, due to refurbishment of runway 1, we're likely to experience more noise from approaching aircraft from 9th – 16th May. The plan is for this to be only from 9am to 4pm on those days, but the work may be delayed if the weather's poor. The noise is due to the need to turn off the Instrument Landing System (ILS) whilst work is taking place, which means aircraft landing at the airport from the northeast (across Stockport, Cheadle, Gatley and Heald Green) tend to cause more noise over Gatley. More details can be ...
The good people of on line magazine Discussion Point have asked me if I'd consider contributing stuff to them? On the face of it, they look like a worthy and respectable bunch. But I know little of them having not run across them before. Anyone experienced them, or care to proffer an opinion? All advice gratefully received.
Like millions of people in the UK and billions around the world, I was glued to my television set this morning enjoying the wedding of Prince William and Katherine Middleton. At a time when most people are feeling worried about ... Continue reading →
Basingstoke and Deane is one of the richests and largest boroughs in the Country, more land and more money than most. It should be a 'pace setter' a Council others look at and think 'wow'. On renewable energy, the Tories have got themselves an embarrassing reputation, people are saying 'wow, look how little they have done'. It's not good enough. A vote for the Liberal Democrats, is a vote
The Government has published plans for the national rollout of smart electricity meters nationwide over the next few years. They have set out the overall timetable for the installing 53 million smart meters in 30 million homes and businesses across Great Britain, estimated to have a net benefit to the nation of £7.3 billion over the next twenty years. Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Chris Huhne said: "Smart meters are a key part of giving us all more control over how we use energy at home and at work, helping us to cut out waste and save ...
What a marvellous occasion this morning's Royal Wedding was. Congrtulations to the Bride and Groom, and to the two families. It made me proud to be British. We may not be able to do World Cup bids or science education these days, but we can out-pageant all-comers. In fact, if the Olympics were more about soldiers ...
Peter Hain and Polly Toynbee's tweets during the Royal Wedding say everything there is to say about the narcissistic left. People don't care. Go and rain on someone else's parade. Saturday's Guardian (Early Edition)
There are only so many times that reminders of Palestinian suffering need to be provided. I've been to Gaza and the West Bank often enough to have learnt of the economic consequences of the occupation and of the injustices and ... Continue reading →
Some rather hurried photos taken first thing this morning in Boundary Road, Newbury. I have counted nineteen ducklings. That's a big family. They managed to make it to safety.
There are a lot of claims and counter claims flying about at the moment so please allow me to introduce some sanity. The PSA have produced a briefing paper on AV which provides unbiased facts on what AV would mean were it to be introduced. Rather than having to read the whole thing, I reproduce here the Executive Summary: Executive Summary We face a very important choice in the referendum on our electoral system on 5th May. But many of the claims being made by both sides are either false or exaggerated. We need a debate that is grounded in ...
@peterhain Loads of TV coverage of Cameron and Clegg at wedding but none of Ed. BBC airbrushing Labour like the Palace? Yes, you read that correct. Peter Hain, and the Labour party, expect the BBC to focus on Ed Miliband ... Continue reading →
On the 5th of May we all need to vote Yes to AV to unleash the awesome power of Reform Cat:
I was going to do a blogpost on how the debate with Jeremy Hunt went last night. However, instead I came across this on Liberal Conspiracy. The people being arrested are street performers who's "crime" was to be planning to perform a mock zombie royal wedding today. Part of it was to involve a mock execution of Prince Andrew. Not exactly my cup of tea but I fail to see how that's a criminal offence. A while back the police said that: This is a day of celebration, joy and pageantry for Great Britain. Any criminals attempting to disrupt it ...
Nokia's marketing team are idiots. They've used URL over which they have no control on an advert for one of their premium handsets. This is the story of how I hijacked stole hacked recycled it and, in doing so, prevented Nokia from having a serious PR problem. E7 PosterThis is advert for the new Nokia E7. It really emphasises the tweeting capabilities of the handset. [IMG: Nokia E7 Poster] Nokia's marketing team have illustrated this by showing off a couple of tweets on the handset. One of which contains a Bit.ly short URL. [IMG: Nokia Tweet] Here's the close up... ...
The Economist Magazine, in a rather shameless piece of 'decision-making following the polls' has plumped for 'No' in the AV referendum, promoting instead a hybrid FPTP+. Something that's not an option in the referendum and would be supported by even fewer people. More refreshingly in other news they note... "A young man and his fiancée were expected to get married in central London on April 29th. Millions of Britons took advantage of the opportunity to take a foreign holiday." Meanwhile, we strongly urge those remaining, to spend, spend, spend, on wedding tat, we need the VAT to meet the £39m ...
Goes to Battle Labour candidate Chris Maskell alongside serial peddler of untruths Cllr Page, who will no doubt be disappointed to be only the runner-up (but there is a clear outright winner. Will it be the embittered old liar himself? All will be revealed...) Maskell posts at (with a very nice picture of Cardigan Road, which is in Redlands ward.... ho hum) about something he clearly knows very little about, in the usual Labour tactic of making false statements in order to steal votes. This time it is to make very belated capital on changes to the residents' parking ...
And here is Archie, one our frogs, on look-out duty (our cats keep up a vigil around the pond). Other things to celebrate: The anniversary of James Cook making landfall in Botany Bay, Australia. It's Duke Ellington's birthday. It's World Dance Day, National Shrimp Scampi Day, Abor Day (a holiday in Nebraska,USA), the Feast Day of St Catherine of Sienna, World Wish Day and the World Day of Immunology (that latter one is perhaps the most significant. Many, many of us wouldn't be here if it wasn't for progress in immunology.
Just to while away the moments before the ceremony starts, if you haven't seen it already, you will laugh at this brilliant Royal Wedding parody to Lady Gaga's Bad Romance. Brilliant.
357 months ago, I woke up after a night of fitful excited sleep to watch the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer. It was 2 days before my 14th birthday and I'd followed the build up and the early years of their marriage with a fervent, almost obsessional anticipation. I'm not kidding - there was a point where if you showed me a photo of Diana, I could have told you exactly when it was just from her outfit. Mind you, I also knew the seats and majorities of all Alliance MPs. I just liked to fill my ...
It would appear to be AV video week. Here is the latest piece of awesome...
The Suck Fairy (and her siblings the racism fairy, the sexism fairy, etc.) A simple explanation for why things you loved as a child are no longer lovable. (tags: reading) andrewducker | Mmmm, Sammich. The history of computer interface design proves how lazy we all are. (tags: funny) The Clinching Argument (via @stephenfry) Extracted from the Dan Snow video I posted the other day (tags: government) Steve's Quotes of the Day for Yesterday some of these will make you groan, but some are v funny. (tags: quotations)
It must be about a decade since I first wrote a leaflet for the local Liberal Democrats calling on Haringey Council to get a move on with plans to put Hornsey Town Hall back into public use. It's been quite an eventful tale of different plans since then, and all the time the clock has ticked on with such a wonderful site left mostly unused for year after year. So it's great to see the latest plans moving ahead and looking good. With the local Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts at the heart of them, it looks like we'll have ...
Hmm, just committed to £1k+ of possible 2012 Olympics tickets. Kinda hoping I don't do /that/ well in the ballot. # RT @alexfoster LDV is suddenly beset by peeps hoping to teach @stephentall about semi naked fetish art http://bit.ly/gw8bjk < don't stop em. # Salivating at thought of dinner at fave Oxford restaurant, Moya. #porkshankmmm # @nextleft Easter date fixed according to when the moon is at high tide, yes? in reply to nextleft # Up to series 2, ep 6 of #Spiral 'Tis tres bon. But I'm still missing Lund and Troels. #forbrydelsen > #engrenages # @jamesgraham wouldn't some ...
Fri 29th
09:25
Building the Lib Dem political party: how to gain local activists and increase support
Anyone following the party will be familiar with the history that the Liberals were the opposition party to the Conservatives and brought in reforms which we are all proud of now. The fall of the Liberal Party was as much due to its own mistakes as that of the rise of the Labour Party but ...
According to the BBC Plaid Cymru leader Ieuan Wyn Jones stood up in Caernarfon yesterday and attacked "Labour's failing education policies". He said young people were in danger of falling further behind. Well yes, Deputy First Minister with collective responsibility for those very same policies, don't you think that this is your failure too? On Dragon's Eye last night, Plaid's Cymru's Deputy Leader argued that because they had allegedly put the case for change within the government apparatus the nationalists were insulated from blame for the way that young people have been let down by this One Wales Government. Well, ...
With a week to go until my civil partnership next Friday, I know that there is often much to be done in preparation, but fortunately Andrew and I don't have to wonder what we will be called after the ceremony. For Kate Middleton there has probably been a bit of a wait but now it ...
One of the biggest bug-bears of local people is dog fouling. It could make a real difference to our areas if this new scheme caught the imagination of the very many responsible dog-owners who find their image damaged by the minority who fail to scoop the poop. Details of the launch below:
broadcast anniversaries 29 April 1967: broadcast of fourth episode of The Faceless Ones. Jamie gets on a Chameleon plane, which is duly captured by the aliens. 29 April 1972: broadcast of fourth episode of The Mutants. The Marshal plans to bombard Solos with ionising rockets; Varan and his men prevent him but the Skybase is damaged. 29 April 2006: broadcast of School Reunion. The Tenth Doctor unexpectedly meets Sarah Jane Smith, thirty years on. (Sob!)
Today's post is a trailer for the forthcoming documentary film "Senna" which promises to be a fantastic portrait of the legend that was Ayrton Senna. I've been a fan of Formula 1 for years although it is only in recent seasons that I've really got into watching every race. As time goes by I get more and more interested in the details of the cars and the politics of it all - although I have a long way to go to match some people I know! By contrast, Senna died when I was still relatively new to Formula 1 and ...
PUNKADIDDLE: Ian Watson, Miracle Visitors (1978) Adam Roberts disagrees with me on <b>The Miracle Visitors</b>. (tags: sf) YouTube - Existential Star Wars (In French) "Life begins on the other side of despair", says R2D2 trundling away over the dunes. (tags: sf funny)
A blog that has been fascinating me for some time is 'Junius on Ukip', which by all accounts has been setup by disgruntled members. Attack blogs detailing sordid details of different political parties have been around for a long time. ... Continue reading →
My first, and so far only, attempt to enter the world of political journalism came at the precocious age of ten, when I collaborated with some other eager young monarchists for an article in the Derby Evening Telegraph entitled Why we like our Queen. It might have been in connection with the opening of a ...
A very short post on The Corridor.
I hadn't been to Hebron before, but it was much as I expected from all that I had heard. The town centre was bustling; full of life, and buses and taxis and donkeys, fruit and veg stalls and plenty of ... Continue reading →
As it is less than a week to our local elections I thought I would choose a political theme for the photography blog and this is one of those occasions when I use the same blog entry for both of my blogs. It is well over twenty years since a Labour councillor showed me the similarity between the Labour Rose and the silhouette of Lenin. I have always thought that there was a strong resemblance but now that I have worked on the photo of a leaflet I am not convinced. Maybe the Labour Rose has changed over the years ...
