At 4.30pm today nine of our team met up in Ainsdale to go canvassing. We were soon joined by 5 others: two parliamentarians, two activists and another Councillor. Our objective was to meet the folks who live in the estates built by the sand dunes which is also home to the natter-jack toads. The dunes system in Birkdale and Ainsdale- part of the Ribble estuary- is a fantastic place for wild life. A couple of miles north is the RSPB Marshside Reserve but in amongst the dunes it is the natter-jack toads that are treasured All of which gives me ...
Tweet When not at University, my home constituency is Newcastle Upon Tyne Central. Depending on how you see it I'm rather (un)lucky to be have a new Labour MP, Chi Onwurah. Apart from the obvious fact she is a Labour MP, and a conservative one to. She supports the no side of the referendum. She was also unable to cite when herself or her foot soldiers had ever visited my street coming up with the response about leaflets and then attacking the Lib Dems for a poll saying they might win the constituent posted in the local paper, she seems ...
I was watching the BBC's Politics Show on Sunday and there was a very interesting feature about how much of the Liberal Democrat and Conservative manifest promises had become reality. Lib Dem blogger Mark Pack wrote a brilliant and succinct blog post about the BBC segment and I shamelessly reproduce it here: Sunday's Politics Show featured the results of research by independent academics into how each party in the Coalition Government is doing at getting its polices enacted. The conclusion? Three-quarters (75%) of the Liberal Democrat manifesto is being turned into government policy, compared to noticeably less (60%) of the ...
On Friday I took up an invitation to drop into the royal wedding street party on Eastern Road in Selly Park.My fellow councillor Alistair Dow and I found a very interesting wedding veil in the shape of a beekeepers' hat!It was great to see so many local residents enjoying themselves. It was a great opportunity for local residents to meet old and new friends and I understand that the party went on
Mon 2nd
22:57
Want to know about what's going on with the Lib Dems? Sign up for latest edition of newsletter
[IMG: Newsletter screenshot] Issue number seven of my regular email newsletter about the Liberal Democrats is being put together by me at the moment. It will be hitting people's inboxes shortly. So if you want to be sure to receive it, sign up here now or use the form below. Not sure? Take a look at a previous edition (featuring added Lembit Opik) to see the sort of thing you'll be getting (and here is my post explaining the thinking behind having this newsletter). You can unsubscribe whenever you want using the link on the bottom of all the emails, ...
I presume everyone has guessed by now that I'm not going to finish the next five posts in the Seven Soldiers series by last Wednesday. I'm still going to try to get the book finished ASAP, but maybe trying to get it done in two weeks wasn't the best idea when we had a visitor ...
With thanks to Slugger O'Toole.
The US administration is understandably cock-a-hoop about hunting down and killing the inpiration and figurehead of Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden. It was no surprise to me – or anyone else routinely covering events in the region — that he was located in Pakistan, though it was a startling that he was living cheek-by-jowel with some of Pakistan's ...
Gerry always seems to face a problem when it comes to casting his vote under FPTP. He's been a life long supporter of the Sorbet Party, but everywhere he has lived they have been a distant third or fourth in the polls. This is the party that he really believes in but they never seem to be able to win a seat wherever he can afford to live near to where he works. He's quite partial to the Ice Cream Party, but they have never stood in a seat where he has lived, partially because they suspect they will fare ...
The spiralling cost of building Cambridgeshire's Guided Busway is expected to reach almost £187 million and taxpayers cost be left to pick up a staggering £71 million. Liberal Democrats have revealed the final figures just days after contractor BAM Nuttall handed over the project to Cambridgeshire County Council two years late. The figure includes the cost of rectifying outstanding defects and fighting the case through the courts. It is broken down as follows: £151,154,389 for the Potential Final Account to the Employer - BAM Nuttall's settlement figure on handover.£29,680,331 for non-contractual costs including land and supervision.£5 million allowance for legal ...
The spiralling cost of building Cambridgeshire's Guided Busway is expected to reach almost £187 million and taxpayers cost be left to pick up a staggering £71 million. Liberal Democrats have revealed the final figures just days after contractor BAM Nuttall handed over the project to Cambridgeshire County Council two years late. The figure includes the cost of rectifying outstanding defects and fighting the case through the courts. It is broken down as follows: £151,154,389 for the Potential Final Account to the Employer - BAM Nuttall's settlement figure on handover.£29,680,331 for non-contractual costs including land and supervision.£5 million allowance for legal ...
Thanks to Guardian reader Blair Mcpherson who stated "who says men can't multitask? Cameron manages to be both smug and condescending at the same time"
...I've put up a post on Labour's internal coalition and why the Lib Dems should look at working with the unions.
At last! A proper profile piece on Tavish where he is actually given the chance to be himself. I wish he'd do more of these things. He is very frank about the sacrifices he's had to make in his political life - being away from family and the like. I know it's his choice, but if we want young and youngish people in politics, I think we need to find a better balance which enables them to enjoy more of a family life. Nicol Stephen, our last leader, had a young family too and I really admired the fact that ...
Which is a good excuse to see Kenneth More in action. I have seen this film about twenty times. The most bizarre occasion was in The Gambia, West Africa in about 1975. It was presented in an open air cinema at night. It was scorching hot. There was a huge crowd who also seemed to be familiar with the film. Whenever Kenneth More shot a native there was huge cheering and applause. It was wonderful.
Every year I am reminded that there is little more soul-destroying than shipping 1,000 leaflets and then slumping onto a chair to be rewarded with 1,000 more. There are people at Lib Dem party HQ and quaffing cocktails in Westminster bars who I would gladly murder round about now. But I am too busy for ...
Independent research has shown that three-quarters of the 2010 Liberal Democrat manifesto is being enacted as government policy, Mark Pack reports.
A snippet of detail from an excellent article relating the raid by Time's Mark Thompson: After acquiring DNA samples from bin Laden's corpse, and confirming it matched that of his sister, who had died of brain cancer in Boston several years ago, according to ABC News, his body was buried at sea.
On 1 May 1991 I got off the train at Totnes station along with about one hundred others, bundled onto waiting buses. The buses disgorged us on to the parade ground at Britannia Royal Naval College Dartmouth and we hastily ... Continue reading →
36) Sri Swami Sivananda, Easy Steps to Yoga (Sivanandanagar: Divine Life Society, 2000, ISBN 8170520983). This is the 6th edition of a book first published in 1939. Despite the name, I think it is blatantly unsuited to beginners - it includes some very advanced practices and philosophy, which probably reflects Sivananda's relative inexperience in teaching beginners when the book was first published. I am becoming quite interested in the historical development of the Sivananda Basic Sequence (actually usually considered to have been developed into its current form by his disciple Sri Vishnudevananda after the latter was sent to teach in ...
A guest blog by marianne@bamkin.org.uk The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh has QR codes in some places. Level 6 to be exact. This is the story of what happened when I tried to use those QR codes last week. The article in The Guardian gave explicit instructions of how to access the information linked to the QR code. First you have to go on to the website "Tales of Things.com" to download an app that allows you to scan and read the codes. I did that quite successfully the night before the visit, and tested out the technology from ...
The Trust has now published an excellent promotional leaflet about its aims and objectives that you can download at http://tinyurl.com/TRBMT.
No, I don't mean the number of people you've been intimate with, although if you want to tell me that, I will nod politely and pretend that I don't feel really awkward. What I mean is the number of times your vote has actually counted in a Westminster election. I have now voted in 6 Westminster elections, over 24 years. It should have been 7, but, well, I kind of missed out on 1997 cos I was too busy knocking up for Tony Rogers in Chesterfield that I never got the chance to make the 20 mile journey home to ...
A Daily Mail story came out way below my radar yesterday (no surprise as I avoid that newspaper as much as I can). Titled "'Indecent' lesbian kiss scenes face watershed crackdown", it poses the worrying possibility that an independent report, initiated by the Government, might recommend a same-sex affection ban on pre-watershed television. A review launched with the backing of David Cameron is expected to recommend that sexually suggestive scenes currently allowed before the 9pm watershed - such as the famous lesbian embrace on soap opera Brookside - should not be shown until later in the evening. A ban on ...
Osama Bin Laden, the man behind numerous terrorist atrocities around the world, was been killed in the early hours of this morning by elite US Navy Seals in Pakistan. He was in a compound near Islamabad, close to a training base for Pakistani forces. American news channel ABC have exclusive footage of inside the firefight ...
The "Yes to Fairer Votes" stall we organised in Stevenage Town Centre was featured in The Comet this week. The picture is great, but was taken whilst I was on my lunch break. Now if I were a real politician I would be most upset. So here is a photo proving I was on the stall. [IMG: Yes to Fairer Votes Stall] Still the story in the paper quoted me saying The response from the public was mostly positive, a lot of people were undecided, and a surprisingly large number of people had not heard any explanation on how AV ...
I really didn't get enough sleep last night. It was after midnight when I finally got to bed, and 5:40 when I woke up and saw the news that Osama Bin Laden had been found and killed by US special forces. Not hiding out in the mountains, but in a fortified compound in Abottabad, Pakistan, a hop, skip and a jump from a military academy. The last place you'd expect - although those are sometimes the best places to hide. I have to say that my first reaction was a feeling of unease. Don't get me wrong, Bin Laden was ...
The link is another story is about SBS and whether the science is reliable.
While it seems the Osama raid was live tweeted – which is good – the Osama death has also been the subject one of the not-so-good aspects of Twitter – people smelling conspiracy theories without actually thinking. 'They've buried the body at sea – so no evidence. No proof' – paraphrases many tweets. Der. The Americans had control of Osama Bin Laden's body for several hours. Do folks really think they are dumb enough not to keep some evidence? Never seen "Waking the Dead" or "Silent Witness"? Anyway, ABC reports: DNA testing confirmed that it was bin Laden, sources told ...
In the latest issue of Liberator magazine there is a letter from Peter Wrigley, a retired economics teacher who blogs as KeynesianLiberal. It's actually about a review of David Laws's book, but it contains a wonderful statement that summarises why some people think the the government's strategy of cuts is wrong-headed. It is deeply flawed, but it strikes me how very little attempt is made to explain the UK's economic plight beyond shallow sound bites. I will try make a small contribution to correcting this. But first, the quote from Mr Wrigley's letter: Distinguished economists and commentators, including David Blanchflower, ...
Laura Webb was a colleague of mine who was killed in the Edgware Road bomb in July 2005. Well I didn't know Laura especially well, in a small organisation of 500 or so people, you get to meet most people fairly regularly and I saw Laura most days. She was bright, happy, optimistic and my abiding memory of her is someone who was always smiling. She had what everyone would call a sunny disposition, and the world is a sadder place without her. So on days like today, with news like today, I choose to remember Laura Webb
Cllrs Linda Boon and Adrian Rush celebrate the road closure with local residents Marilyn and Roy Vickers Horseshoe Lane in Chipping Sodbury is a little cut-through that local people have been campaigning to have closed to motor traffic at the junction with High Street . Together with removing a one-way restriction, this now provides a safe route for pedestrians and cyclists to the High Street and also down to Hounds Road via the "back lane".
Following from yesterday, Where do we build them? Not an easy decision but we'll make sure our rural towns and villages are protected from overdevelopment. Just a few hundred houses could destroy the fabric of our villages and not generate sufficient monies for the huge infrastructure investments needed. Growth in rural areas must be sustainable. That means we are opposing Conservative
Here it is:
Of course, when someone says that, it's not always a given that you will like the recommendation - I love The Lord of the Rings but not a reader of other Fantasy novels although that's maybe because I started at the summit... That said, though, a recommendation based on genre is as good a place as any to start and can open up the doors to new experiences and further exploration. This is the aim of Music Map (which I found using Stumble Upon). Although some of the links may be questionable, it produces interesting suggestions and displays them graphically ...
The OU has been silent so far on what it intends to charge for its courses post September 2012, and there's no early end to this silence in sight. We now know what the majority of full-time institutions are looking to charge and it's well above the £7,500 mean that the government worked out its funding calculations on (£8,665.03 at the moment, according to Times Higher Education.) It looks like OFFA are going to have their work cut out over the next few weeks and months in deciding if the programmes these institutions are suggesting will widen participation actually cut ...
This morning, three more vehicles, all vans parked in one bay in Bell Street, all had their passenger windows smashed in. This is an open message to our local Councillors: take this issue up now otherwise you will have a seriously disgruntled constituency baying for results!!
Caron's Musings attended the BBC debate between the leaders of the parties in the Scottish general election. The possible outcome of that election is discussed by The View from the Hills. He offers an intereresting parallel between the prospect of a Scottish parliament dominated by Labour and the SNP and the Fine Gael/Fianna Fail duopoly in Ireland: "Two very similar parties offering plenty of bluster but short on ideas." Why are there so few street parties in Haringey? Richard Wilson explains: "As well as the charge going up to £80, the Council had changed their street party application form to ...
This morning I met with David Shadrick and Phil Wagstaff who are residents of Woburn Road and who are concerned about the application to build five homes on the green there. The green has been used as open amenity space by people from the whole of the southern part of our town for decades and any development there would be quite out of character. The space is used by lots of dog walkers as well as children to play games and even horse riders. Despite all this use, it is a very clean and tidy area (I didn't see any ...
Avon and Somerset Police have launched a new online service for victims of crime. TrackMyCrime is now being offered to all victims of crime across Avon and Somerset. It will allow them to track the progress of their crime as it's investigated by police officers by providing access toinformation extracted from police systems. Deputy Chief Constable Rob Beckley said: "We've introduced TrackMyCrime to keep victims informed about the status of their crime in a more streamlined and efficient way. It combines policing with modern technology and gives victims more choice about how they want to receive information from us." The ...
I have had some wonderful conversations with people in Wensum ward. I think that politicians underestimated the voter's understanding of the difference between local and national politics. There is an increasing wish to take real action on the ground - through Parish Councils and other, less formal routes. If local democracy is to take off and David Camerons "Big Society" is to work - as it once did before Margaret Thatcher said there was "no such thing as society" and set about destroying it - then involvement has to feel relevant and valued. Too many people see little point as ...
Almost 10 years after the 9/11 attacks, America got its man. There is unsurprising rejoicing around the western world and particularly in America on the news that US Special Forces successfully targeted and killed Public Enemy No.1 in Pakistan. Whilst it can not be said that Osama Bin Laden headed the central operations of Al-Qaeda now, his death as a figurehead of this terrorist cell is still a significant and symbolic victory for the west in their war which began in Afghanistan in 2001. It all began under President Bush but under his watch, Bin Laden slipped through his fingers. ...
Mon 2nd
11:25
CCTV Cameras to combat street crime and massive increase in drug dealing/usage in Church Street area
As some of you will know, I live in Church Street Ward, City of Westminster. Residents in my area have been asking the council to install street CCTV cameras to help in stopping street crime in our area, to no avail however. Recently, we have seen a massive increase in the amount of drug dealing and usage ...
Mon 2nd
11:20
A simple, cost effective, education policy which will significantly reduce social inequality: reduce...
One of Nick Clegg's main drives is the reduction of social inequality and the education policy of the Lib Dems has long sought to even the balance of the performance gap between the rich and the poor children. However, there could be some very simple strategies which could make a big difference in this area. ...
For balance, here is David Cameron's response to the death of Osama Bin Laden. To be honest, he has written his from the same authoritarian hand book as Blair. "The news that Osama Bin Laden is dead will bring great ... Continue reading →
You couldn't make it up. Wishful thinking on Fox's part and proof that they are really are stupid as they look. #Fail
Nick Clegg has also made a statement on the death of Osama Bin Laden and whilst it is a far better response than that of Tony Blair, I would have expected a couple of other things to have been mentioned: ... Continue reading →
Obama has leapt to the forefront of World Politics through the death of Osama Bin Laden.The "decade of terrorism", with it's own media title in true hyperreal form, has successfully projected one man to a plateau of the antithesis of sainthood through digital communications.A Brief Global TerrorismThe Americans are good at projecting a hyperreal status to current affairs, as Neil Gaiman observed
Tony Blair has had this to say on the execution of Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan: My heartfelt gratitude to President Obama and to all of those who so brilliantly undertook and executed this operation. We should never forget 9/11 was ... Continue reading →
If you are an American gathered in the streets around Ground Zero this morning you probably think it is but I am not so sure. There won't be too many people feeling any kind of real remorse that one of ... Continue reading →
"My heartfelt gratitude to President Obama and to all of those who so brilliantly undertook and executed this operation. We should never forget 9/11 was also the worst ever terrorist attack against UK civilians, and our thoughts are with all ... Continue reading →
The Welsh Liberal Democrats have highlighted their commitment to investing in public transport to help drive the economic recovery. The Welsh Liberal Democrats are outlining plans to: · Create up to eight Joint Transport Authorities, responsible for all local transport. · Re-regulate buses to so that all parts of our communities are properly served. · Improve the accessibility and safety available of rail stations. · Establish the feasibility of introducing a Wales-wide Oystercard. · Invest in rail transport by, renegotiating the Arriva Trains Wales contract to improve train frequency and quality, beginning to electrify the Valleys Lines and re-opening closed ...
"The other clue as to the interests of the No campaign lies in the feebleness of the arguments against the alternative vote. It is "too complicated", they say, as if counting to six or seven, or even ordering six preferences, ... Continue reading →
This post will not engage in jingoistic rhetoric surrounding the death of Bin Laden. Instead, I choose to post in memory of those who died directly or indirectly due to Osama Bin Laden: Terrorism 212 civilians who died on August ... Continue reading →
One feature of this election is the huge number of surveys that candidates are receiving by e-mail from organisations around Wales. It seems that they all want us to pledge our allegiance to their cause irrespective of the fact that we have published manifestos and are commited to doing what is in them. I suspect one of the reasons is the possibility of coalition talks after the elections, which could see some promises lost or finessed in the spirit of compromise that normally dominates such talks, in the national interest of course. Despite that fact that all Liberal Democrats are ...
When we usually hear about Britain's influence on the world we default to one of two themes. Theme one is Britain's attempts at righting the world's wrongs through military intervention - occasionally getting it right (Kosoveo, Sierra Leone), often getting it wrong (Iraq, and increasingly, Afghanistan), and certainly being mightily inconsistent (Libya vs. Syria, Yemen, Bahrain - and most shamefully Darfur). Theme two is the overhang from our Imperial past - be it through the influence in the Commonwealth, through the fact that the default lingua franca in the world is increasingly English (more thanks to the US than to ...
Delighted to find this eight-part adaptation of Asimov's famous trilogy, first broadcast by the BBC in 1973. The episodes are an hour long, which is longer than my preferred listening window, but most of them have plot breaks in the middle. The cast list is impressive, especially for us Doctor Who fans - two Masters, a Davros and Sutekh, not to mention Julian Glover, Maurice Denham, Dinsdale Landen, Angela Pleasance and Prunella Scales. The dominant voice of the second half of the story is the Mule, played very memorably by Wolfe Morris, who was Padmasambhava in The Abominable Snowmen. I ...
BBC Politics Show comparison of how many Tory and Lib Dem policies are being implemented. Thanks to @mpntod for the screencap
Yet more great comments coming in on the 'Save Prestwich Tip' petition site (see the previous comments: here, here Sign online at www.loveprestwich.com. T. C. from M25 wrote: The tip is a convenient and well used local resource that encourages and enables effective recycling, and reduces flytipping, what kind of logic can there be to close it when people would have to travel loads further to use other tips. J. R. from M45 wrote: This will be a very black mark for Bury Council the tip must stay open to encourage recycling and prevent fly tipping. Who thinks up these ...
Yesterday evening I did a mini-tour of the BBC studios, for both The Westminster Hour (listen again here) and to debate AV with Shane Greer over on the News Channel:
I have little sympathy for the headteachers' union that has decided on a strike ballot strike in protest against changes to their pension arrangements, and nor, I suspect, will the public in general. Some reflections on pensions have already been given in my post on 14th March http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif In this case I presume that any changes will affect pensions to be to be earned as from the implementation of new rules rather than entitlements already accrued. If that is the case then I think it is perfectly sensible to switch from a final salary scheme to a pension related to ...
i) births and deaths 2 May 1941: birth of Paul Darrow, who played played Captain Hawkins in Doctor Who and the Silurians (1970) and Tekker in Timelash (1985). ii) broadcast, publishing and webcast anniversaries 2 May 1964: broadcast of "The Snows of Terror", fourth episode of the story we now call The Keys of Marinus. Ian, Barbara and Susan retrieve the Key despite the efforts of Vasor and the Ice Soldiers. Then Ian finds the last key at their last destination. 2 May 1970: broadcast of seventh episode of The Ambassadors of Death. The Doctor and the brigadier intercept Carrington ...
Ambling Along the Aqueduct: Remembering Joanna Timmi Duchamp on Joanna Russ, who died last week. (tags: death) astromachy: RIO Rio le Moignan, talented author, poet and vidder, died in February. (tags: death) In Memoriam: Much missed: RIP Ron Asmus Ron Asmus, the epitome of Euro-Atlantic diplomacy, has died - obituary from the Economist (tags: death)
The death of Osama bin Laden, the leader of the fanatical death cult of Al Qaida, has sparked celebrations across the United States, and well it might. I do not usually feel elation at the death of a human being, but today is different. Sure Al Qaida continues in various guises in various places: a hydra headed conspiracy that only a couple of days ago sent a 12 year old boy to blow himself up. What did that kid need virgins for? He was one himself. I felt a powerful surge of loathing for the villains who put him up ...
Over the past weekend there have been many stories about Facebook apparently suspending or deleting accounts and groups most of which that I have seen being either political or intellectual property related. A few weeks ago I read "Daemon" and "Freedom™" by Daniel Suarez that tell the near future story of the creator of a massive multi-player online role playing game (MMORPG) who sets up his game as a sort of alternate network in which a new society can emerge from the current crony-capitalist state. I'll likely mention these books again some time as there is some interesting technology in ...
Well we're into the home strait in the 2011 Holyrood election and what an interesting election it has turned out to be so far! Labour has utterly failed to inspire and there seems quite a strong part of the electorate that sees them as kinda irrelevant! This is Scotland and they haven't a coalition to kick - take that away and they are not hated, just not very popular outside of their own support! After such a strong showing in Scotland at the General Election what a difference a year makes! (in fact, what a difference 6 weeks makes!) The ...
Saturday: The Doctor set the monsters on them, the worst monsters of them all: the human race. It's genocide. It really is: an order to kill encompassing an entire race, the Silence. Compared to this, River shooting a dozen of them - in self defence, mind - is pretty fluffy stuff. He owes an apology to Harriet Jones. And the Brigadier, for that matter. After all, he's the one who implanted the entire human race with a post-hypnotic suggestion to kill the Silence on sight. Genocide against the Sycorax or Silurians isn't even leaving that page of the monster book. ...
Someone said to me recently that they would support any party that could get the buses to stop near their house. It would be nice if local politicians could be helpful, but can it be done? One problem is that now, thanks to Margaret Thatcher's deregulation, bus services are supplied by a variety of private companies. The county council has a transport policy, and it can influence these companies in various ways, such as with subsidies, but the days when the council could be like Captain Jean-Luc Picard, saying "make it so" are gone. Another problem is that we might ...
The most tragically hysterical argument from the anti-AV camp I've faced so far: Me: "you still haven't answered my question, btw - why are Australia, Fiji, et al. not democracies we want to emulate?" Them: "Because we tend not to be as racist as the Aussies & leave refugees to die on barges in the sea! Thanks to FPTP system." I am not shitting you. ETA, this came out after a long string of reasons why AV is much better than FPTP: Them: UK's European elections r under PR giving 25% to far right. AV worse than PR. No worse ...
As I said in my first posts, I am a believer in the Single Transferable Vote: it devolves power to the people, is preferential, and is proportional. I'm voting for AV as it does the first two, but I really want the third as well. But we can't win them all. Indeed, as recent polls show, the No campaign — which has been running mostly on the "you're too thick to count to three" message — may scupper the chances for even AV. The Electoral Reform Society did some research into this, but I found the results somewhat... strange. In ...
