Eddie Turnbull's funeral took place at lunchtime in Edinburgh today. Here's some YouTube footage shot by fans outside Easter Road stadium. Eddie Turnbull scored the first ever goal by a British footballer in Europe as well as as becoming a successful and innovative manager of both Aberdeen and Hibs. His death has sadly not received the coverage it ought to have done south of the border - possibly due to the deaths of Henry Cooper and Seve Ballesteros.
As those of you who are, or have been, councillors will know, a council has to meet within fourteen days of an election. I'm assured that there is a good reason for this, laid down by statute I presume. In Creeting St Peter, we don't let the grass grow under our feet, and so we met this evening to meet the requirement. Unfortunately, our outgoing Chairman was unable to attend, and so my colleague Sue opened the meeting by calling for nominations for the Chair. Steve wanted to continue, so we nominated him in his absence, leaving us short of ...
With the news that a twitter account holder has started an account with the specific aim of leaking the names of those responsible for issuing super injunctions, it can't be long before the truth will out. What is clear is that when the subjects of these injunctions do become public it won't thankfully involve indiscrete photos of Jeremy Clarkson and Jemima (Goldsmith) Khan. But one can't help feeling issues of real salience will be revealed. Will John Hemming MP reveal all before the interweb makes his role superfluous?
[IMG: Demolition of the fort] I popped over to Stationer Park today to see the work to replace the ageing play fort with an imaginative new play area. This project is the result of a huge amount of work by local residents and the Friends of Stationers Park over many years. Obviously, for many local families it will be sad to see the old fort go. Lots of young people have happy memories of playing on this well-loved feature. However, small bits of the fort are being kept in the new structures as a happy reminder. The new designs are ...
A thread on Bloggers4UKIP makes interesting reading. The full Leicester South result is here.
Today was my first day at work as the Portfolio holder for Customer Service and Culture. First thing I had a chat with the outgoing portfolio holder Cllr Jim Smith, who has been elected as vice chair of the council. He's been doing a good job in the portfolio and briefed me on the developments. Then it was for a quick chat with the head of the department. Very important to me is the Customer Service brief. I think it's very important that we get every officer and worker at the council with a resident friendly attitude. Staff already go ...
Cornwall Council's Liberal Democrats have unveiled our new Shadow Cabinet and Leadership team at our AGM in St Austell earlier today. Following the recent retirement of Doris Ansari as Group Leader at Cornwall Council, Jeremy Rowe has been elected to replace her and I have been chosen as the new Deputy Leader. We have also unveiled our new Shadow Cabinet team who will be calling the struggling Conservative/Independent coalition at County Hall to account after a series of recent blunders. Welcoming two new members to the Shadow Cabinet Jeremy Rowe said: "In Nathan Bale and Geoff Brown we have two ...
I have just signed an online petition demanding that the Ugandan President Musevini veto the "kill the gays" bill should it be passed in Parliament. We have just learned the "kill the gays" bill - a death sentence for all LGBT people in Uganda - could come up for a vote in the next 72 hours if we don't act now. The Ugandan Parliament may vote as early as May 11 (Wednesday) on the "kill the gays" bill previously reported as shelved. Religious extremists presented a petition to the Speaker of the Parliament, Edward Ssekandi, shortly after the bill was ...
A new planning application has been received which is within Holyrood Ward (Prestwich) as detailed below:- Application number: 53840 Type of application: Full Date Registered: 27/04/2011 Applicant: Mr Tierney Location: Land adjacent to 9 Warwick Avenue, Whitefield, M45 6TU Proposal: Erection of a two storey detached dwelling Plans are now available to view on the Council's website. Should you require further details please contact the case officer: Jennie Townsend on: 0161 253-5320 or for advice on how to comment on this application or to request our representation on your behalf please contact either myself of my ward colleague Cllr Tim ...
Franz Liszt wrote only one opera, Don Sanche or the Castle of Love, while aged 13. When the work had its premiere in Paris in 1825, there was a generous reception — particularly when the pint-sized composer was virtually carried on stage. But the libretto is preposterous even by 19th century opera standards and the ...
In recent days I have discussed the Newspaper English word "youth", showing that a youth can be 11 or 20 but is always up to no good. In the first of those posts I made the observation: There have always been double standards here - a 14-year-old offender is a "youth"; a 14-year-old victim is a "schoolboy".The truth of this was pretty much borne out today by another Leicester Mercury story: Two teenage boys were assaulted by a gang of youths in Abbey Park, Leicester. The victims, both aged 14, were assaulted by the gang after the pair had refused ...
At the end of March, I mentioned that I had agreed to chair the Barney's Fund Charity Committee, set up by local business Barnetts Motor Group to help worthy causes in the West End of the city. As reported in tonight's Evening Telegraph, this morning we had a photocall to launch the charity committee. Along with representatives of Barnetts Motor Group, including Paul Barnett, Group Chairman, I am pictured below with Sandra Myles, Chair of the Community Spirit Action Group (second right) :
My review from Friday's Liberal Democrat News. WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy David Leigh and Luke Harding Guardian Books, 2011, £9.99 Leigh and Harding tell the story of Wikileaks and its release of 250,000 secret diplomatic cables and classified files from the Afghan and Iraq wars. Their own paper, the Guardian, was one of the newspapers that was given this material, and they dissect its often fraught relationship with Wikileaks' moving spirit Julian Assange. This is very much the Guardian's side of the story, but it is clear that Assange, by turns charming and impossible, is difficult to ...
Graham Watson's weekly newsletter reminds us all to remember Kipling and "...meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same..." Here's the rest.IF you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,But make allowance for their doubting too;If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,Or
Just starting an Open University module and found an interesting though slightly disturbing statistic...
I read in the Evening Standard that one of our ministers has said, "It's going to be liberating to take a private dialogue and make it public. We need to demonstrate that we're different from the Tories, not just competent partners. If the process is more public, it'll look less as if we went into a locked room and lost our heart and soul. It won't be a slanging match, but we won't have to
Mon 9th
20:19
Salmond gets a clean sweep, as Annabel Goldie resigns as Leader of the Scottish Conservatives
Annabel Goldie has resigned as leader of the Scottish Conservatives. She follows Labour's Iain Grey and Liberal Democrat Tavish Scott in resigning their leadershp positions after Alex Salmond's SNP blew them all the electoral water. The Scottish Conservative and Unionist party secured only 15 MSPs in Thursday's elections, in what was the only dampener ...
You may not know it, but today is Eeyore's birthday. And if there's one thing that upsets Eeyore more than anything, it's people forgetting his birthday. Traditionally Eeyore might receive a popped balloon from Piglet, or an empty honey jar from Pooh. But since AA Milne's gloomy donkey turns 140 today - which is Very Old Indeed - I think we should surprise him by celebrating his status as a truly great literary character. announces Chris Cox on the Guardian's Books Blog today. Eeyore born in 1871? That cannot possibly be right. The anhedonic donkey first appeared in Winnie-the-Pooh, which ...
The friends of Milton Road library (which is still under threat of closure by Cambridgeshire County Council) are holding a public consultation meeting at St. Laurences Church on Milton Road at 7pm on Monday the 16th of May. It's important that as many people as possible attend these public meetings to show the local communities support for the local library. If you'd like to contact the Friends of Milton Road Library their email address is fmr.library@gmail.com. Attached is a PDF of the library poster (shown on the left), please print this out and display wherever possible.
The recent Local, Welsh Assembly and Scottish Parliament elections must be viewed by those in the Liberal democrats, especially at the top as a message from our supporters that they don't like the coalition and the way it is going, we should not be seen as cuddling up with the Tories. I the Local elections ...
I only ask because rumour has it that the Welsh Conservative Group are poised to support a suspension of standing orders to enable the Presiding Officer and the Deputy Presiding Officer to both come from the opposition. As both posts are non-voting this would give Labour a two vote majority. Apparently the rationale is that this will guarantee a Conservative Presiding Officer. They may expect the Deputy Presiding Officer to come from Plaid Cymru or the Liberal Democrats but as neither group will nominate for the post, it is likely that the Conservatives will inadvertently end up providing the nominee ...
Its always interesting going through the trials and tribulations that life throws at you and seeing how you cope when things get tough. I learned some valuable lessons and things about myself this week and also reaped the rewards for ... Continue reading →
Slut Walks. Nothing like inspiring a "marmite" response. As Rosamund Urwin puts it in today's Evening Standard, do women, "in the name of protecting rape victims... attempt to turn a sexual slur into a badge of honour", really fully consider the implications of what they are doing? As I commented previously, it seems rather like sticking a plaster on a broken leg. Calling women sluts will not
Well last thursday and friday were pretty awful weren't they. (Does this thing still work? Coo look at all that dust.)
You. You over there, at the back, who's been voting Labour or Tory for years and years. The middle aged, NO2AV voting, immigrant hating, no-smoke-without-a-fire, bring-back-hanging tabloid reader. Do you understand responsibility? Do you understand that the public sector ponzi scheme pensions aren't going to be financially stable once your generation retires, and my generation will have to pick up the cost of caring for you as you live longer than any generation in history? Do you understand that the economic development and extremely high standard of living you're now enjoying came out of the burning of fossil fuels, which ...
I have heard that tonight's Labour leadership election will be contested. Exciting... not! UPDATE: Jo Lovelock wins to be leader (Yeah!). Rumours place Graeme Hoskins as the other candidate, but I can't confirm if it went to a vote or whether there was a withdrawal. Tony Page reconfirmed as deputy leader.
....as I have found on more than one occasion over the past 3 days. This post is the sequel to Heartbreak which I wrote on Friday as it became clear that Thursday's election had been much worse for us than even our wildest fears had imagined. Friday didn't get much better for us. Having lost all the Edinburgh seats, our North East Scotland seats bar Alison McInnes on the list and our Glasgow and Central Scotland list seats overnight, the pain continued with the loss of Euan Robson and Jeremy Purvis in the Borders. For a grim moment, at lunchtime, ...
Over on his New Statesman blog, lawyer and Liberal Democrat member, David Allen Green, has posted a piece setting out his thoughts as to what the Liberal Democrats should do now to avoid another round of election results like the one we have just experienced. Here's an excerpt: If the Liberal Democrats are to be a serious party in respect of central government, there are two things to be done. First, they need to be more realistic and consistent in what they campaign for: manifestoes and pledges now need to practical and attainable. The luxury of striking populist poses is ...
Today was my first day back after the election. I'd been looking forwards to getting back into the old routine and seeing friends at work who I knew had all been rooting for me. I'd had a good day catching ... Continue reading →
Missing Sarah Jane Smith? At 7.40 tonight and tomorrow, BBC4 pays tribute to the late Elisabeth Sladen with Doctor Who - The Hand of Fear, starring Lis with Tom Baker in Sarah Jane's very last story (until she came back to do all the others). Enjoy a particularly creepy cliffhanger; a mythic sweep sometimes matched by the visuals; terror in a nuclear power station; a dead planet; and even a quarry. Though not her best, The Hand of Fear is part of Doctor Who's greatest ever season, a year of dark religion with an unusual connection to the current series... ...
Cllr Allan Knox has hailed the voters who backed himself and Mary Robinson in the Primrose ward election on May 5th. "I'd like to thank everyone who voted for me, and everyone in Primrose for the wonderful reception I got on the doorstep," said Allan "We will continue to fight for what local people have told us they want – a fairer deal for people in Clitheroe." Full Result Mary Robinson (Lib Dem) 378 Allan Knox (Lib Dem) 330 Conservative 242 Labour 193 Conservative 184 Labour 168
I was pleased to see a bit of good news for a change. It has emerged that all 218 of the ANPR travel tracking cameras that formed 'project champion' are to be taken down. This follows a grass-roots campaign by anti-surveillance campaigner Steve Jolly. Steve's campaign won backing from civil liberties groups Liberty, Big Brother Watch & NO2ID, it also led to him being nominated for a Human Right's award by Liberty. Steve is now campaigning with Charles Farrier at NO CCTV . This isn't the end of the story however as the cameras will it seems be taken down ...
The council is changing the way it provides council papers, to save money. So do we take an iPad or a laptop. We are worried that the savings will not be possible, a new laptop and an iPad seem expensive
One of mine and politicians of all persuasions over the weekend was the sight of Dawn Purvis being eliminated from the count in East Belfast. Last year after the UVF the paramilitary group associated with the Progressive Unionist Party of which she was leader murdered Billy Moffett, she stepped down as leader and resigned from the party. She was a vibrant and feisty member of the Assembly and did a lot of work in highlighting the double and triple jobbing of some of her colleagues. She will be sorely missed. However, there are now more women in this Assembly that ...
Steve and Nigel would like to thank all those in Odd Down that voted for themElection Candidate Party Votes % Steve Hedges Liberal Democrats 1016 31% Elected Nigel John Roberts Liberal Democrats 858 26% Elected Liz Vincent Labour Party 381
The quote at the top of this blog - and the idea for its title - comes from a speech made by former Scottish Liberal Party Leader Sir Russell Johnston, and was posted on Facebook over the weekend. It's pretty apt, I thought. Friday was probably the worst day in the 20 or so years I've been active in politics. If there'd been something that had been the fault of any of our MSPs, then it would have been understandable. Instead, the election showed the effect that the English-based media had on us, and add in some pretty shoddy reporting ...
23-29 May 2011 is Rabbit Awareness Week.
Cambridge Liberal Democrat MP Julian Huppert has tackled the government over rising train fares and the complex ticket pricing system, asking whether its new rail franchise scheme will help commuters. He sought assurances from Transport Minister, Philip Hammond, that he would take steps to ensure that rail fares under the new scheme do not rise "at the huge rates we have seen recently and start to level out". Julian also asked whether the fares scheme would be "simpler and easier to understand". Mr Hammond agreed that the fares system had been "incredibly complex and passengers had been facing a high ...
I'm delighted with the turn of events from Saturday through to today on the Lib Dems' response to election castigation. In this morning's I paper, the (now ubiquitous) image of Clegg and Osbourne on Marr's sofa looking different ways was presented over an article that simply synopsified the NHS reforms with added lip service from Clegg. Phrases such as 'make a stand' and 'hardball' are simply
There must be something about crushing defeat which has inspired me to blog again. A weekend has passed since the disastrous (if not totally unexpected) results of Thursday night, and it's probably as good a time as any to reflect. ... Continue reading →
It was back to old clothes and porridge today following the excitement of the election campaign. In my weary haste to get a blog posting out yesterday I clean forgot to congratulate two colleagues from the Council who have found themselves elected to Holyrood. Both are former Scottish International athletes. Firstly Colin Keir of the SNP who took Western Edinburgh from the Lib Dem's and who has been Convener of the Council Regulatory Committee for the last four years. Colin was a middle and long distance runner and has served as Councillor for Drum Brae/Gyle since 2007. Next is Alison ...
The debate over what went wrong with the Yes to AV campaign is bubbling along. Given that the "Noes" had it, by 68% to 32%, the quality of the campaign was but one of the reasons why AV went down. (Tom Clark of The Guardian has provided a good summary of the ten main reasons, even though the ordering and emphasis will be debated for a long time.) Nobody expects to ever see another referendum on AV in this country, but discussions about "what went wrong" are neither irrelevant nor academic. But the dismal failure of the Yes campaign carries ...
So what next for the Lib Dems? The next general election and probably many more will be fought using the flawed and unfair first past the post system. We can vent some steam and complain about the poorly executed Yes campaign. Or look like sore losers and blame Cameron and the No campaign's underhand tactics. But the fact is electoral reform is not on the cards any time soon. The challenge for the Liberal Democrats is now prove to the country that coalition government works. Our party needs to provide the country with strong, stable government as it works to ...
Just a quick reminder following on from a Press Release issued by the County Council last week; from today there is the possibility of heavy machinery being on the Guided Busway so that the County Council can lay the surface for the cycleway. The work will take place from Milton Road out to Swavesey and on the entire Southern Section. This was originally announced on election day so a lot of people might have missed it!
The friends of Bar Hill library are meeting on the 12th May at 7pm at the Church to discuss the future of the local library as it is on the "at risk" list published by the County Council. The more people who attend and show their support for this local service the better and now is the time when the library needs the support of it's local community the most.
Today's Financial Times has a feature on the impact of social media on those in the financial services industry: Reputation is one of the most valuable assets companies possess, but controlling it amid the rising influence of social media is a growing challenge. Financial services personnel who naively think their company has no presence on social network sites are sadly mistaken, according to Mark Pack, head of digital at MHP, a Londonbased public relations consultancy. The first thing Mr Pack points out to clients seeking direction on online strategy is that they already have an online presence. This is because ...
Just finished re-reading Viktor Frankl's 'Man's Search for Meaning' (affiliate link) for the third time and have filmed this book review for you to watch.
Nick Clegg sent an e-mail to all candidates and activists after Thursday's elections: Dear Andrew, I wanted to get in touch immediately to thank everyone who has worked so hard in the elections. This was always going to be a challenging time. For the first time in most of our memories we were fighting as a party of Government - and a government dealing with the economic mess Labour left us in. But there is no getting away from the fact that this has been a bad set of results - both the election results for the Liberal Democrats and ...
After the polls, some perhaps more welcome news for the Liberal Democrats. I've recently started running a series of articles on the allthatsleft.co.uk website that set out how the boundary changes in 2015 could play out and what this would mean for the political parties. On Tuesday, I looked at the impact of changes for Devon and Cornwall. These two counties will be linked in the next review, creating a controversial trans-Tamar seat linking parts of both counties. The two counties are set to lose one seat between them, falling from 18 to 17. It looks as if the changes ...
The friends of Milton Road library (which is still under threat of closure by Cambridgeshire County Council) are holding a public consultation meeting at St. Laurences Church on Milton Road at 7pm on Monday the 16th of May.It's important that as many people as possible attend these public meetings to show the local communities support for the local library.If you'd like to contact the Friends of Milton Road Library their email address is fmr.library@gmail.com.Attached is a PDF of the library poster, please print this out and display wherever possible.
Labour seems to talk about only one thing: us liberal democrats and nothing else. Perpetuating an idea that we, the liberal democrats, are some how the authoritative voice in Her Majesty's government. You'd be forgiven for thinking Clegg was the ... Continue reading →
I don't mean for the heading of this blog post to signify my pleasure at the core result of the AV referendum last Friday. Indeed, as with any other progressive, forward-thinking individual, I hoped for a Yes vote so that we could at last move incrementally forwards towards a fairer voting system and finally get rid of the First Past the Post system that is unfit for the 21st century. But it was clear as D-Day approached that the portents all pointed towards a poor result. But whilst the last opinion polls showed a 2:1 feeling against, no-one surely must've ...
The National Youth Choir of Scotland celebrates its 15th birthday this year. It was set up in1996 to provide "high level singing opportunities for young singers" which it does through a network of area choirs. Anna has been involved in the West Lothian choir for five years now. NYCOS has given her many positive experiences and opportunities, but none quite as fabulous as yesterday's anniversary concert in the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow. Over 600 children arrived in Glasgow very early (having left home much earlier) yesterday morning for final rehearsals with artistic director Christopher Bell. Anna was among them. ...
After the humiliating defeat of the AV referendum, a system to which no party aspired to before the General Election, and the disastrous rout of elected Lib Dems in Scotland and England, serious questions must be asked about the future direction of the party and its place in the coalition government. In order to reclaim the trust of the British electorate, we need to be bold and radical, and we must speak up for the aspirations of the British people, particularly the disillusioned young; the Facebook generation, who are the future of our democracy. Despite Nick Clegg's promise of a ...
First planning app to report for a little while. There is an application for a a single storey ground floor extension to the rear of 105 Lovell Road. The reference number is 11/0397/FUL. As always you can get more information from the City website, and in case of difficulty contact the team.
If life gets anymore traumatic/dramatic or even downright interesting I might just seek refuge in an abandoned monastery in eastern Latvia, change my name to Pavlova the untidy and spend my time collecting grit. There may be some eager eyed people in the blogosphere that have noticed that my blog postings dried up some time ago well without offering excuses I can now offer some explanation, thoughI suppose none is necessary. This current traumatic period in my life started on March 6th when my mother died. She had been ill and increasingly frail for many years, but of course that ...
According to this morning's Times, one of the prices to be paid for securing the Coalition is the head of Andrew Lansley.To be honest, that's a bit too easy for my taste. Don't get me wrong, I hold no candle for the MP for South Cambridgeshire, but he isn't the problem. The problem is the policy, in that it isn't wildly popular. That doesn't make it bad policy, ironically, because popular isn't always good - dangerous dogs, anyone? - but it does mean that revisiting the drawing board might be a very good idea indeed.Firstly, strip out the entirely artificial ...
A selection of interesting links on the failure of the Yes campaign: Conservative Home's Story of the AV Campaign A fascinating study of how the No campaign developed over time. It confirms that Cameron's whole-hearted support was crucial in their success, and that much of their messaging was formed by the work of Lynton Crosby, ...
One of the few bright spots in the local election results was Liberal Democrat Dave Hodgson being re-elected as the executive Mayor of Bedford. Dave was only elected 18 months ago in a by-election after the death of the previous independent mayor. So it is tribute to Dave's abilities and the amount he has been able to achieve in that short period that, with the background of such a difficult national picture for the Liberal Democrats, he managed to be re-elected with such a strong result. On Bedford Council itself the three main parties achieved the difficult feat of winning ...
What are Jim Wells MLA and Margaret Ritchie saying below Picture ©Kelvin Boyes presseye.com Answers in the comments below, I may have a wee prize for the best one.
In today's Newsletter UUP leader Tom Elliot tries to defend his outburst in his acceptance speech where he called talked of "the scum of Sinn Féin". I am producing it in full so I cam fisk it in red. My Comment was right um I'll get unto that later by Tom Elliot UUP MY remarks at the count in Omagh have attracted a great deal of attention and comment. The people of Fermanagh and South Tyrone suffered grievously at the hands of the IRA, many of whom were members of Sinn Fein for decades. This is true, there is no ...
Quick SummaryTwitter's secure API hides the contents of the tweets you are reading. But it doesn't hide the images of those you converse with. Raised as Issue 2175. A Bit More DetailTwitter has a secure (HTTPS) and insecure (HTTP) API. When calling the secure API, all the content of the returned message (tweets) are encrypted. Eavesdroppers only see the cipher-text – essentially garbage. However, within that cipher-text are links to insecure resources. For example, a user requesting my tweets will get an object which contains a link to my avatar image. Twitter is currently returning the insecure link: "profile_image_url" : ...
There is a lot of employment legislation in this country. Employees have a lot of rights, and employers a lot of responsibilities. But what happens if employers shirk those rights? Well, if you're in a union, your union will help. And if your workforce is mostly unionised, as an employer you are much less likely to try to shaft your employees. But what if you are one of the 74% of UK employees who doesn't belong to a union? What options are open to you if you employer breaks the law with regard to your rights? You can, of course, ...
The referendum was a clear rejection of the Alternative Vote method. The No campaign convinced enough people that, although they can set their Sky+ box, work out housekeeping budgets, set out saving and pension plans, and download apps to their phones, that when it comes to voting, they are only capable enough to mark an X with a pencil tied to a string. So where does the campaign for a fairer voting system go now? We must bear in mind the following. Firstly, voting reform is no longer just a Liberal Democrat issue. UKIP, the Greens, the Nationalist parties, even ...
As the previous posting by David shows, the Liberal Democrat team won the local election in Kew Ward. In the time honoured method, used at all awards ceremonies. I would like to thank a few people for their determination and effort over the last few weeks. Top of my list are my agent david and his wife Julie. They were always available, always positive and always confident. I must also thank my ward colleagues Maureen and Fred. Maureen wasn't able to contribute to the campaign as she was carrying out her duties as mayor of Sefton, but she was always ...
[IMG: Finance Officer manifesto] Like what you see? Join the campaign: Become a fan of my Facebook page Follow me on Twitter – @chrisjenkinson Join my organising group to help out!
Another Saturday night, another set of boring-but-expensive black shirts, unblinking eyes and clichés galore. Alexander Netherton brilliantly described it as like a venereal disease: "Match of the Day is like herpes, there are periods of respite but you can never truly ... Continue reading →
After a bit of a break, there's so much stuff I could write about. How about Tory MP Nadine Dorries? Sarah Brown commented that she's never been seen in the same room as a certain ultra right-wing US politician. She's not the only one to have had this thought as the Independent today branded Nadine Britain's answer to Sarah Palin. There are certainly similarities, but even the Americans recognised a few years ago that abstenance education doesn't work. And I'm not entirely sure why she only wants to teach girls either, as boys need to take just as much responsibility. ...
i) births and deaths 9 May 1940: birth of John Black, who directed The Keeper of Traken (1981), K9 and Company (1981) and Four to Doomsday (1982). ii) broadcast anniversaries 9 May 1964: broadcast of "Sentence of Death", the fifth episode of the story we now call The Keys of Marinus. Ian is accused of murder, and the Doctor is his defence lawyer. 9 May 1970: broadcast of first episode of Inferno. The Doctor is tapping energy from the controversial Inferno project; meanwhile people contaminated by subterranean gas are turning into monsters. 9 May 2003: webcast of second episode of ...
Today's Start the Week on Radio 4 involved a lengthy discussion of the legacy of President Francois Mitterrand. Denis MacShane said that the French president is both head of state and head of government, unlike in the United States where the two are separate. Ouch! France has a president and a prime minister (the latter of whom is head of government), while the American President is head of state and government. This was not just a slip of the tongue, either, as there was then a few minutes' discussion about the supposed powers of the French presidency, predicated on MacShane's ...
Ha! [IMG: Google autocorrect for cleaning phone boxes]
...and campaigned for them in the 2011 Scottish Parliament Eletions The Pledge Allow for up to £250 million of investment to meet the aims of our Science Nation Action Plan as a challenge fund for universities to demonstrate joint working with the private sector on global level research, science and commercialisation. Why this was important We must maintain the international competitiveness of our university based research and science. Additional support in Science will allow Scottishuniversities, working with business, to gain a global lead and we would continue to fund research and development into renewable energy technology, particularly wave and tidalpower, ...
Last week was undoubtedly difficult for the Liberal Democrats, with the double whammy of losing around 700 councillors and the AV referendum tough for many activists to take. However, part of the problem could have been avoided by holding out for a year on holding the referendum. (I think the referendum had to be done ...
Australia is considering pioneering legislation that if passed would mean smoking becomes significantly less appealing. All cigarettes and hand rolling tobacco would have to be sold in plain, unappealing olive-brown packs plastered with large graphic health warnings. Any brand name would have to be written in a common standard font below the health warnings. The actual cigarettes would also have to be absolutely plain with no branding, colouring and identical dimensions. Its clear from research that removing these marketingdifferentiations will really help in the fight against smoking and the significant ill health it causes. Industry sources suggest that they've found ...
Welcome to the latest in our series giving the human face behind some of the blogs you can find on the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator. Today it is Andrew Reeves, who blogs at http://andrewrunning.blogspot.com. 1. What's your formative political memory? In 1984 Ken Clarke gave me an award at a thank you party for delivering leaflets for him. In front of the 200+ people there he also asked me if I wanted to join the party – and in front of them all I said no! I was pleased he'd won but said that the more I had got to ...
xkcd: Marie Curie Zombie Marie Curie is wise. (tags: feminism funny science) The Best Obnoxious Responses To Misspellings On Facebook I spent a long time laughing about these. And then Mat pointed out that a lot of these people have votes, and I got all depressed. (tags: funny language) Open Letter to William and Catherine Windsor re: Precrime Arrests (tags: civilliberties) Oh, for pity's sake Mr Milliband, no means no! A fist-pumpingly glorious response to Ed milliband's charm offensive. (tags: libdemmery) Where next for the Liberal Democrats? The honourable Lady Mark shows why he is so valuable with an incisive ...
Blogging has been rather light around here over the last few weeks for the obvious reason that campaigning for the local elections has taken up large chunks of my time. The result on Thursday was a tough one for the Liberal Democrats both nationally, here in Luton and for me personally. More on that later. But also disappointing was the outcome of the referendum vote on changing the electoral system for Westminster. Sadly, Luton went along with the national trend and voted 'no'. The full result in Luton was: Yes: 16,002 (31.4%) No: 34,980 (68.6%) More detail can be found ...
I just signed a petition demanding that Ugandan President Musevini veto the "Kill The Gays" bill should it be passed in Parliament.We just learned the "kill the gays" bill – a death sentence for LGBT people in Uganda – could come up for a vote in the next 72 hours if we don't act now. ...
Unfortunately Cambridge Ward local election this year was won by the Conservatives with a majority of just 16 votes. Obviously your Lib Dem Team are disappointed by the result however 16 votes is not a landslide and we will be working hard to retake the seat next year. We had a great candidate in Lauren Keith who was set to replace the retiring Lib Dem Councillor Carmel Preston. Lauren worked hard during the campaign showing a great enthusiasm, commitment and energy which will make her a brilliant councillor in the future. In the main, our support held up strongly but, ...
I had the weekend off - I've had a good snooze and a good time with Erica and my granddaughter Eva so now it's back to work with the question, "Where do we go from here?" For the last few ... Continue reading →
I am conscious that I've now written two posts criticizing our line of attack/defence in the media after last Thursday, and it's time I took a positive line for a bit. And indeed, I think the right narrative is emerging. But I'll post on that later. I need to get 2 other things off my chest first. To begin. I don't like this line we're spinning about 75% of our manifesto is being implemented vs. 60% of the Tories. It's a great message for the members - it reminds us why the pain is worth it. But what does it ...
(I wrote this on Saturday. Nick Clegg has since threatened the veto on the NHS, which is a good start. I hope it's not just a PR exercise following a bad set of elections.) They say the Lib Dems are only interested in power. That's simply not true, as the elections have just proven. The best route to power is to join the Conservatives or Labour, or the SNP in Scotland, or anyone but the Alliance in Northern Ireland. We have compromised in negotiation to get results, not betrayed our principles to get power. It is time for the Lib ...
After a weekend of relative calm the week has started with a bang, as Presiding Officer Dafydd Elis Thomas joins other critics of Plaid Cymru's election strategy in questioning the party's approach. According to the BBC, Dafydd has questioned Plaid Cymru's decision to go negative on their coalition partners, leaving themselves open to the charge of hypocrisy for not taking collective responsibility for government decisions. Plaid Cymru lost four seats in the election and were overtaken by the Tories as the second largest party, a fact that the Presiding Officer believes was down to the party's approach to the election: ...
Aside from the major changes in tax rates (such as income tax allowances up, capital gains tax brought much closer to income tax levels, cuts in tax breaks for the richest on pension contributions), one of the most significant economic policies that the Liberal Democrats have brought to government is the massive expansion of apprenticeships. With Vince Cable overseeing the creation of a minimum of 250,000 more apprenticeship places by 2014, the number will be at record levels – and should bring three major benefits. First, they are good for the apprentices, giving people the opportunity to learn skills which ...
Winning elections is easy. At least if you are Ruth Ellen Brosseau. Never been to the constituency? Doesn't matter! Have problems with the local lanaguage? No problem! Ruthe Ellen was a candidate for the New Democratic Party in last week's elections in Canada. As Wikipedia explains: She is also an animal welfare activist who has worked to find homes for stray animals and help injured animals
The Metro shows Pakistani Protestors burning great pictures of Barrack Obama entitled 'The World's Greatest Terrorist'. But in true reporting style, there is no story with the picture, just a precis of the communication disaster deployed by the US. So why do Pakistanis consider Obama to be a terrorist? Is it perhaps because his troops spread fear, you never know when they are going to attack
The party is in a mess and it's going to take a lot of effort to get us out of it. We don't have one big problem, we have four. The first problem is that it's very hard to sum up our party's basic aims in a sentence or two. Ask most people and they might say that the Tories are in favour of free enterprise, low taxes and reducing the role of government. They'll say Labour are also more or less
The Metro takes a leaf out of The Daily Mail's copy and actively seeks to further ostracise obese people today. The headline 'obesity spreads among fat friends' is intended to share the fear of the 'disease' of obesity. The press is forever guilty of post-modern representation of disease, and obesity is just another example. Presented as 'women are more likely' (gender discrimination anyone
Over on Lib Dem Voice, my co-editor Stephen Tall has been writing up the results of the latest survey of Liberal Democrat members he has carried out. This one included a question about who members would choose as the party's candidate for Mayor of London: [IMG: Mike Tuffrey] 10% - Lembit Opik 56% - Mike Tuffrey 18% - I do not intend to vote for either 17% - Don't know / No opinion As Stephen rightly says, there are some caveats: (1) the sample size was 176, so is more prone to error; (2) we have not verified if all ...
One of my favourite poems of all time is If by Rudyard Kipling - which is also the nation's favourite at least according to a poll in 1996. In 1998, a recording of it by Des Lynam was used by the BBC as part of their World Cup coverage of that year. While this may not be the best reading ot the poem, I've always loved the setting of it with Faure's Pavane, which was the BBC's theme tune for the World Cup that year. On top of that, this version features great graphics by George Horne. As is customary, ...
NDP's Brosseau admits she's never been to riding, but excited to go soon - The Globe and Mail The new Canadian MP who has never actually been to the district she represents and barely speaks French. "In the interview with Trois-Rivieres' Le Nouvelliste, the 27-year-old said that she will quit her job as an assistant bar manager at Ottawa's Carleton University and devote herself to her new post." Glad to hear it! (tags: politics canada) English Russia » The Base Of Human Exterminators Tour of a nuclear missile base. (tags: war)
I had sat down to write a piece trying to respond to Jonathan Calder's call for a stronger Liberal Democrat "ideology". But as, in the process, I was reading and rereading various ways in which people in the party had responded to last week's election results, I began once again to wonder whether I had anything at all in common with some of them, at least enough to think it worthwhile staying and fighting for my left-libertarian, Mutualist ideal. So I ambled over to the party constitution, and in particular to its infamous "Preamble" which most people feel is the ...
"I realize this may be a shock but I can change the world and I refuse to believe that I am part of a lost generation."
I was sitting around near the North Down Alliance team, augmented by Brian Wilson and the DUP's Peter Weir as they accumulated their tallies on Friday morning after verification. Even then it was clear that Peter along with his party colleagues Alex Easton and Gordon Dunne were going to get elected. Stephen Farry of the Alliance also looked safe it was a matter of where the other two seats would go. The UUP were looking like they didn't have a full quota (4015 is turned out) between them, the two independent Alans, McFarland, the former UUP MLA looking to be ...
Among all the lowlights of the last few days there were a couple of highlights. One was a great speech from the former (Liberal Democrat) leader of Lancaster Council. He reminded the Tories how he stepped in because they could not get parties to work together. The Tories gave up on Lancaster and the Chief Executive was given next to no notice. The Tory boo boys (one was female) were vociferously put down by the MBIs - thanks must go to them for that. Another thank you goes to the MBIs as one of their councillors told me that she ...
