From the Daily Telegraph, 27 March 2008: A New Zealand man who claimed he was raped by a wombat and that the experience left him speaking with an Australian accent has been found guilty of wasting police time.
You'd think after all the hard work of the local elections a week or so ago, that I would have had enough of local activism for a little while, but no. This weekend I threw myself straight back in at ... Continue reading →
If you have read the three preceding posts, it's all down to a very helpful comment from James Kelly who writes the Scot Goes Pop blog. Like me, he lost blog posts when Blogger had its hissy fit the other day and told me he was able to retrieve them through Google Reader. Unfortunately, I couldn't do that, but discovered that they had fed into the Facebook Notes application so I was able to copy and paste them back. James is a complete and utter Eurovision obsessive. I've kept this year's contest at arm's length a bit because I knew ...
If the sign outside it is accurate, the new Tesco Express on Church Road, Gatley will open on Friday (20th May 2011). The Tesco is an interesting case: they didn't have to apply for planning permission to open it. Because there was previously a pub in the building, planning law says that you can open a retail unit in the same premises without any additional permission. Had they wanted to change the frontage of the Red Lion they would have needed permission, but you'll see they've retained the frontage (whilst cleaning it up) and put in access via a new ...
Look at what the teachers, from the rector (that's Scottish for head teacher) down, did as a surprise for leaving pupils at Bell Baxter High School in Cupar. Mind you, Anna already thinks high school is going to be somewhere in between Waterloo Road and Glee. I'm not sure this helps to make her perceptions more realistic.
Have a go at this:
There is a website devoted to pictures of Nick Clegg looking sad. However, PoliticsHome reports that Clegg has dealt a blow to those who revel in him looking sad. After the LibDems' May 5th "mixed results", Nick Clegg today attended a private party in Wimbledon looking, according to the Wimbledon Guardian: ...relaxed, well-rested and surprisingly cheerful as he chatted with other guests, including his wife Miriam, and three young sons, Antonio, Alberto and Miguel. The youngest spent much of the visit dozing on his father's shoulder. Nick even took his jacket off!
I have had time to take stock after 'Bloody Thursday' as some have called it. There is always a temptation after a reverse to walk away from everything. That has never been my nature. So after consultation with friends and family I agreed to serve a further term as Chairman of Stansted Parish Council. The Parish Council elections were deferred for a year because of a boundary review involving Foresthall Park. It is thought appropriate that I should see out this council and provide continuity. I am also keen to ensure that Liberal values are preserved in the council after ...
That was... I don't even have the words. Every time there's a new Neil Gaiman thing - book, film, whatever - I always have such high expectations. And every single bloody time he blows them out of the water. Just... that was absolutely awesome. There's three grumpy old Who fans sat on this sofa, and all three of us have tear-stained faces. There may be something less squeeful after confidential. I bet [IMG: [livejournal.com profile] ] doctard is going mental right about now...
You'd think so, reading today's Scotsman,who says that Lib Dems in Scotland are plotting to oust Secretary of State for Scotland Michael Moore. It says that Liberal Democrat sources have told the Scotsman that they want to push forward our plans for greater devolution of power. Well, of course we should. We'll be facing an independence referendum shortly - you won't find many Liberal Democrats who think we shouldn't advance the ideas in the Steel Commission. We need to make them a bit less academic and a bit more relevant but to me they are the best of all worlds ...
He's been on, off, one, off, on, on, off, off etc for months. But tonight it seems Mike Huckabee will finally announce on Fox that he is running for President in 2012. Well that is the only conclusion it seems possible to draw from this email to supporters: Many friends have said, "how can we help you in the decision?" My answer has consistently been, "Pray that I have clarity." I have it and will share it Saturday night during the show. Please be patient if I don't respond immediately to an email because I expect that once I pull ...
First has announced that it is to surrender the Great Western rail franchise, but only so that it can bid for a longer contract - perhaps one as long as 20 years. As the major rail provider for Cornwall, local residents and businesses will be paying close attention to what happens. If First are to get their long term franchise then they need to promise a better service for customers. In particular, they need to get the punctuality record up to at least the UK average; they need to bring down some of the stupendously high fares and they need ...
Today I went on a hair swoshing 11 miler across the hills from Pontypool and back over the Beacons. The wind was back against us on the return. Sun was high. Wind was out. Achey legs now.
Over at The Guardian, The Voice's own Mark Pack has taken part in a discussion with Hugh Muir and Martin Wainwright of The Guardian and Conservative Home's Harry Phibbs to mark the first anniversary of the formation of the coalition. The discussion touches on most of the high and low points of the last year, and the views of the contributors as to whether the government will last its full term through to 2015. The discussion, as well as contributions from voters in both Nick Clegg's and David Cameron's constituencies, is available to listen to as a podcast at The ...
Today is World Fair Trade Day. Our local Dundee Fair Trade Forum marked the day with a stall in the City Centre. I recently asked the City Council for an update on its support for Fair Trade and received the following response: "The Chief Executive asked me to respond direct to your enquiry about the Council's commitment to Fair Trade. This is demonstrated in the following ways: - the Fair Trade logo now appears on the front page of the Council's website, and takes visitors to information about the Council's approach to Fair Trade and to a link to the ...
After the GAVI event I chaired a meeting on Bahrain organised by the Islamic Human Rights Commission, the highlight of which was a telephone call with Nabil Rajab of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights. He answered questions from the audience, and the picture he painted of the current situation was of relentless oppression against the leaders of the opposition, and against Shi'a intellectuals and professionals in all walks of life. Here is the BCHR update on yesterday's hearing in the military court: Update-12 May 2011 At the trial today, and despite statements that the hearing would be open to ...
"Vince Cable, it seems, has notched his Tory-baiting down from 11 to about 8." |Pete Hoskin describes the Busincess Secretary's appearance at a Fabian meeting today on the Spectator's Coffee House blog. Andy Strange - on Strange Thoughts - complains that he has become the poster boy for Liberal Democrat misery. Look, there he is again! Living on Words Alone has a novel explanation for the Liberal Democrats' unpopularity: "If parents have two children - one usually well behaved and one usually naughty - they will always come down harder on the well behaved one if they misbehave than they ...
.......believe me, I would be saying exactly the same as I am now. If you don't believe me, I am pretty soft hearted and my reaction to Gordon Brown's wee faux pas with Gillian Duffy was to want to give him a cup of tea and a cuddle. I do try to be fair to people and try to look at things from their perspective before casting judgement. I'm sure I don't always succeed, but I try. I think the 7 day suspension meted out to David Laws for breaches of the rules on expenses is incredibly harsh. Especially when ...
Last of the Eurovision updates (promise!) prior to tonight's 2011 Eurovision song contest, here's a great resume of classic ballads by female winners from the 70s, 80s and 90s ...
Yeah it is that time of year again when all of the UK will watch some singing then, in all possibility shout at the screen when the votes come in. Or will we see Blue give us all reason to smile. One person who of course always managed to give us something to smile about even when things were tough was our Terry, well actually Ireland's Terry, which is our for me, but you know what I mean. So here is Terry doing what he did best, passing comment on the acts. From the 2006, final's run down, especially love ...
There's a very interesting recent update on the RETRO DUNDEE site about the building at the Hawkhill/Perth Road junction, immediately west of the flats at 207 Perth Road and the Rosebud flower shop at 209. The RETRO DUNDEE site continues to have very interesting and regular articles and is well worth a visit. (1982 photo - right - by Neale Elder)
The core strategy is document that decides where houses are built in B&NES. The next stage is a public meeting chaired by an inspector nominated by the government. His decision is binding on the council. We will be putting forward thoughts to the inspector. See below to find out howSubmission of the Bath & North East Somerset Core Strategy I am writing to inform you that the Council has
The last of the money from the section 106 money from Clark's has been allocated as follows. I hope I got this right !For the boxing club we weren't sure how much they wanted, so we could allocate them any money. body, div, table, thead, tbody, tfoot, tr, th, td, p { font-family: "Arial"; font-size: x-small; } body, div, table, thead, tbody, tfoot, tr, th, td, p {
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One of the (few) things I remember from being a nipper at Middle School are my History lessons, largely because of my teacher, Mr Scialuga. He was a highly entertaining Spaniard whose lessons were packed with the sort of anecdotes that are highly amusing to ten-year-olds – castles taken by spies climbing up garderobes, King ...
Human Rights in Bahrain Testimony prepared for the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission May 13, 2011 Joe Stork Deputy Director, Middle East & North Africa Division, Human Rights Watch Congressman McGovern and other Distinguished Commission Members: Thank you very much for holding this important hearing on the human rights situation in Bahrain, and for inviting me to participate. Human rights conditions in Bahrain have grown increasingly grave since mid-March, when the government violently put down pro-democracy and anti-government street protests. Since then, we have seen an unrelenting official campaign of punitive retribution against Bahrainis who participated in or otherwise supported ...
humanitarian news and analysis a service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs In Brief: Bangladeshi monks call for demilitarization of CHT Photo: David Swanson/IRIN The CHT has a largely Buddhist population BANGKOK, 12 May 2011 (IRIN) - The Bangladesh Jumma Buddhist Forum has called for the demilitarization of Bangladesh's Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) in a statement addressed to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in Bangkok. "We are asking for the withdrawal of the 365 military camps, as promised in the 1997 Peace Accord, to end the human rights violations against the indigenous people," Dipayan Chakma, president ...
The fall of David Laws, and his resignation just 17 days into his role as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, was surely one of the legendary moments of the coalition government. His appearance at the dispatch box on 27 May last year won praise from all sides, making the events of the following day all the more shocking. Since then, he has been waiting for the outcome of the inquiry into his expenses arrangements which, it seems to me, has taken far, far too long in reporting. In the interim, Laws has been portrayed as a sort of 'king over ...
Is the death of a man on television a significant milestone for the 21st Century?A man took his dying breaths on the BBC this week, which could be considered a revolutionary step forward for media development, although a much more macabre one than Big Brother.The "viddy screen" is a huge social and cultural element of our lives, whether you watch while on Twitter or are a regular soap digestor,
When the coalition was formed it was clear there was a meeting of minds between Clegg and Cameron and the two party leaderships. The vision was of a "joint agenda" – a radical and reforming government that would tackle several of the great UK problems: the gargantuan budget deficit, widespread welfare dependency, constitutional reform, NHS restructuring, etc. The mood was "can do". No issue was too big, or too totemic to tackle. The 5-year coalition of a centre-left party and a right-wing party would create a government of moderate centre-right, with the centre of gravity over the Ken Clarke/Michael Heseltine ...
Dear residents Many of you may already have heard the results of last Thursday's borough elections. For those who have not full details are on the council website at As a result I cease to be your borough councillor. It has been an honour and a privilege to represent you over the past eight years. During that time we have achieved many great improvements to the area and I have enjoyed working with all of you to make Alamein, your community, a better place. Without your support and help many of these achievements would not have been realised. I ...
Dani Rodrik, Professor of International Political Economy at Harvard University, has written an excellent article on the limitations of markets at the Project Syndicate. It's a bit of a dry read – he's punting his book, I reckon – but touches on many points of deep interest to the Lib Dems. In short, he argues in favour of the democratic process instead of simply trusting to the markets. Two important points: Markets fail. Domestic and foreign rent-seekers, financial panics and the distribution of outcomes are part of the litany of reasons why the free market ideologues are out-and-out wrong. Markets ...
It's FA Cup Final day. I'm not always in a position to be able to watch it but today I am at home and am looking forward to watching a real David Vs Goliath clash and I shall of course be supporting David - in the guise of Stoke City. But why is the FA Cup Final being played on the same day as Premiership matches? Not only is there a clash between cup and league but it is more than likely that Manchester United will today secure the point that they need to win a historic 19th league title. ...
Ed Miliband is facing growing criticism from party members in Scotland over the type of inquiry he has ordered into the reasons for last week's disastrous Holyrood election defeat. The Labour leader is being accused by senior figures in the Scottish party of setting up a top-down, Westminster-led inquiry which, they say, effectively sidelines both Labour's ruling Scottish executive and the party membership north of the Border. The deep unhappiness in the Scottish party about the way that the inquiry was set up and is being conducted is certain to surface at a meeting of the Scottish executive today at ...
If you only ever buy one book about marketing make it Al Ries and Jack Trout's 'The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing' (affiliate link) and my video book review explains why.
Sat 14th
12:41
Addressing Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
I just wanted to acknowledge the representations that have been made to me via Twitter in regard to the terrible crimes against women in the DRC and to let people know some of the action that the British Government is taking in this regard. DRC is one of the worst place in the world to be born a girl. Women and girls are systematically disadvantaged and on the global gender equality index DRC ranks 137 out of 138 countries. Nearly two thirds of married women report being physically or sexually abused by their partner and this underlying problem is overlaid ...
Our great depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars, but we won't. We're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed ... Continue reading →
Rehearsal studios often have gear with odd layouts, as I found out yesterday when I plugged by bass effects gizmo into a tuner output rather than the effects return as planned. Normally if you plug your bass into an output jack, it gets you nowhere. But it turns out you can turn it up to 11, and the leakage from one circuit to another will get you by until you spot the problem. If there's one lesson in rock, it's this: when things don't seem to be working - turn it up louder!
A poll by the Refugee Council shows that 44% of British people think that more than 100,000 asylum seekers were granted refugee status in the UK in 2009 - the correct figure is actually 4,175. Hmm, slight difference between 4,175 people and more than 100,000 people. That shows the ignorance that frequently shrouds the British public debate on asylum and refugees. Ignorance deserves to be dispelled. So I was very pleased, as the grandson of refugees who came to this country as asylum seekers, to see Nick Clegg's speech to the Refugee Council the other day, in which he said: ...
Last Thursday Sir Peter Soulsby, the Labour Party candidate, was elected as Leicester's first executive mayor. At the the same time Labour won 52 of the 54 seats on the city council, which is the body charged with scrutinising his running of the city. This was a remarkable achievement for Labour, but it does present the city and the executive mayor model of government with some problems. I have never been a great fan of elected mayors. Their introduction was born out of a Blairite impatience with the compromises and coalition building of traditional local government. The idea of a ...
As a Liberal Democrat who won last Thursday, I find myself in a strange and pretty odd situation. Just as I reach electoral triumph to become the youngest person ever elected to my particular local authority, it seems like elsewhere the world is ending. Since then - we'll call it Black Thursday, because it's over ...
The environmental credibility of the Liberal Democrats is under threat. Its general election manifesto was easily the most ambitious of all the main parties, with the environment firmly at the heart of every policy area. So our hopes were high when the party joined forces with Cameron's Conservatives last year - and higher still when one of the new Prime Minister's first acts was a promise to lead the greenest Government ever. Twelve months on the picture looks much bleaker. Friends of the Earth asked the former chair of the Sustainable Development Commission, Jonathon Porritt, to review the Coalition's first ...
Some of you may have noticed the world falling off its axis yesterday, as people absorbed the shock of Blogger being off-line for maintenance. How did the world cope without the important insights offered round the clock by bloggers like myself? I can only imagine that people were crying in the streets. Reminds me of when I was running 4-Tel and somebody joked that we should go on strike and I said: "Yes, we must strike! We must cut the world off from its supply of ancillary teletext. Then they'll listen." Also got me thinking again about this piece.
David Marquand reviews Vernon Bogdanor's new book The Coalition and the Constitution in today's Guardian. Bogdanor is clearly not impressed with the Coalition's mandate to pursue its radical agenda. And Marquand agrees. He is particularly scathing on the process by which the Coalition agreement was established as the basis for government. As an interim conclusion ...
The St Albans Festival 2011 was officially launched to the press on Wednesday 11 May at the Town Hall in St Albans. St Albans City and District Council are proud to present an exciting and varied Festival programme covering theatre and dance, music, comedy, outdoor events and guided walks. We have a new event to mark the start of this year's Festival - our FREE One Day 'Festival for All'. Join us on Saturday 18th June from 1pm in Verulamium Park for a day packed full of high quality live performances, with a mix of professional and community artists. It ...
Today I'm at Arbury Community Centre for the latest King's Hedges Liberal Democrat Surgery. If you have a local issue you'd like me to look at or just want to talk feel free to drop by. I'll be around until midday, and if you can't make this one then you can always catch us at the Arbury Carnival on the 11th June.
Defending the latest soundbite is always difficult. After a long and bruising local election campaign, what do I see in the news? The advent of 'Muscular Liberalism'. 'Muscular' seemed appropriate as my first reaction was 'give me strength!' At first I thought it might just be a term which the media invented - but now see that Nick Clegg used the expression in a speech to mark one year of the coalition. 'You will see a strong liberal identity in a strong coalition government'. Yes, no problems there but I take an issue with the sentence before that. 'We will ...
After my post on Wednesday about the lack of publicity for the new car park charging hours, Cornwall Council put a small extra notice on the parking boards in town. So small that drivers are still paying when they don't have to. So I've now produced this short video and, from Monday, we'll be taking the 'Free after 4' campaign across the town.
You can imagine my extreme annoyance to find that Blogger was down all of yesterday so I couldn't write about my old boss Willie Rennie announcing his candidacy for the leadership of the Scottish Liberal Democrats. I should point out that he is not paying me any more, nor will he be, so I am under no obligation to be nice to him, and if I disagree with him in the future, you'll know about it. And if he thinks I will treat him with any sort of reverence, just because he's leader, he should disabuse himself of that notion ...
Babergh and Mid Suffolk councils are already making large savings from sharing services. What is now being proposed is a political merger, which would mean the abolition of both councils and creation of a new council. For Babergh residents this would mean higher council tax, joint responsibility for Mid Suffolk's £12m debt (Babergh is virtually debt free) and, no doubt, the introduction, for the first time, of parking charges for short term stays in Hadleigh and Sudbury. In reality there are few savings to be gained from reducing the number of councillors, as councillor allowances are very low. Much would ...
Blogger seems to have had a hiccup and deleted my original post "Night Mayor". I'm trying to recover it. In the meantime, This is a "holding" version of the post which may remain permanent if I can't find a cached version. Perhaps I should ask the Lib Dem press office for a copy ;0) It has been a tradition in this town to rotate the post of Mayor between all the parties and the position of Mayor is seen by most people as a non-political position adding to the civic tapestry of the Borough. I voted for Gul Khan last ...
There was a highly symbolic moment late in the Yes campaign when its final TV broadcast was made. The TV broadcast featured Dan Snow and was a remake of an earlier Dan Snow film, shot to higher production standards (understandable) and also, intentionally or not, featuring a cast that overall looked younger. From being a film that featured people of a range of ages it became one that primarily featured young people. That was the general tenor of the campaign – with an overall cast of talking heads (in online films, TV films and elsewhere) younger than the average voter. ...
In our most recent survey of Lib Dem members signed-up our discussion forum, we asked what folk think of the comments posted by our readers on the public blog. We've tried different approaches to comment moderation on Lib Dem Voice. Initially, we were uber-liberal almost laissez-faire, only moderating comments which we judged were legally risky. Then, at the start of 2010, we decided in response to feedback from readers (including from those who 'lurk' but rarely comment) to moderate more actively, declining to accept comments which were at all abusive, or were completely off-topic. Our aim was, and is, to ...
A fascinating poll by YouGov of LibDem members. The coalition is popular amongst members ('good for the country but bad for the party'). They are split on Clegg, think Ed Miliband is doing a bad job. They support the coalition's economic measures, broadly. They think the tuition fees debacle was...er....a debacle and are even more concerned about the NHS reforms. The poll also covers former members and finds them mainly "left wing" who were particularly unhappy about the coalition's economic policies and hate Nick Clegg. Full details are on YouGov's website here.
Cornwall is set to keep weekly black bag waste collections despite proposals by the Council to move to a fortnightly service for black bag waste. On Wednesday the Cabinet will agree a new waste contract that keeps weekly collections after residents voted by 65% to 35% in favour of the weekly service. I trust that the Conservative led Cabinet to respect that view and drop any plans to move to a fortnightly service. My Liberal Democrat colleagues and I campaigned to keep the weekly bin collections and fortnightly recycling service because we believed that the consequences of a change for ...
Yesterday I got the great news that the application to build houses on the village green at Woburn Road has been withdrawn by the Council. That's great news for local residents for now, but we expect a new application to be made at some point in the future.
Sat 14th
08:26
The issue of midwives (NHS) - Is Labour telling the voters two different things on the NHS?
I read Frank Field's well balanced piece on midwives in the Wirral News with interest. However it reminds me of this question posed by a voter to me on the way to my local polling station and this story in the Wirral Globe with a quote from Cllr Foulkes. So what do these two senior ...
I'm just going out for the day but I have glanced at Gregg Beaman's latest post. His first sentence is wrong, which is par for the course. Martin Gradwell, my brother does not live in Morecambe. I do. I only live a couple of RC parishes away from Gregg who has chosen to lie, insult, withdraw the metaphorical hand of friendship by banning me, and not answer any specific question. This is my 788th political blog of almost entirely enjoyable writing. Maybe it is time to concentrate on my other blogs but I will write one more when I get ...
For those of you who wern't able to attend the meeting at the Church it was very well attended, several times additional rows of chairs had to be added as more people arrived. Elected representatives for Bar Hill for the district, parish, and county councils were in attendance. The meeting was hosted by Mike Hosking and Christine May from Cambridgeshire County Council. On everyone's chair at the start of the meeting were two documents; the Future of Cambridgeshire's Library Service (available as a PDF here), and Bar Hill Library Profile (available as a PDF here). The format of the meeting ...
With John Griffiths newly installed as Environment Minister, questions are already being asked as to whether he plans to proceed with the previous Government's plans for a badger cull in North Pembrokeshire. This was an initiative led by the Plaid Cymru side of One Wales in defiance of all the scientific evidence and commonsense. There never was much enthusiasm for it on the Labour benches. Lawyers for the Badger Trust have already been in touch with the Minister to ask about his intentions. They say that there is very little time for a statement on this issue: The Badger Trust ...
Earlier this week I blogged Less than 72 hours to stop the Ugandan "Kill The Gays" Bill after religious extremists presented a petition to the Speaker of the Ugandan Parliament, Edward Ssekandi. The original bill was shelved in March. Claiming 2 million signatures, the petition demanded continued passage of the bill. Using the riots currently roiling Uganda as a distraction, supporters of the bill tried to pass it before the legislature expired on May 18, 2011. Bishop Christopher Senyonjo, Frank Mugisha, and other activists deliver your 500,000 petitions to the Parliament (Credit: James Akena) However, the LGBT community mobilised against ...
This is a collection of historical essays, edited by David Edwards, Pádraig Lenihan and Clodagh Tait, about political violence in Ireland between the mid-sixteenth century and the 1690s. I found the first essay, by Edwards, much the most interesting for my own selfish purposes; he finds that political violence escalated during the sixteenth century because the English government increasingly used it as a political tool; he challenges the received wisdom that the endemic violence of the system before roughly the 1540s was as serious as it subsequently became, and also points out that violence of the earlier period hit the ...
The Kilburn History Festival will take place from Thursday 7th - Sunday 10th July 2011 - a series of talks, walks and guided tours round interesting and significant local buildings. More and more Kilburn residents have been making enquiries about the local history of the area - often triggered by the knowledge that the Kilburn High Road is the route of the ancient Roman Road, Watling Street. The history festival comprises a series of 3 history talks, a guided history tour of the Kilburn High Road (repeated 3 times) and a series of local interesting old buildings that will be ...
In an article in last Sunday's "Observer" (08/05/11)Will Hutton notes that estimates of the amount the UK needs to spend cumulatively in the next 15 years if we are to meet our climate change targets are in the range of £450bn, but only £70bn is planned. He comments: "...the coalition members' chatter about not leaving huge public debts to our children, or Britain 'maxing out on its credit card' is unadulterated rubbish. While this can be expected of parts (but not all) of the Conservative party, better could be expected from the party that is heir to Keynes. I would ...
i) births and deaths 14 May 1925: birth of Ysanne Churchman, the voice of Alpha Centauri in The Curse of Peladon (1972) and The Monster of Peladon (1974), and a Spider in Planet of the Spiders. also 14 May 1925: birth of Tristram Cary, who wrote incidental music for six First Doctor stories and two later ones. 14 May 1942: birth of Prentis Hancock, who played a reporter in Spearhead from Space (1970), Vaber in Planet of the Daleks (1973), Salamar in Planet of Evil (1975) and The Ribos Operation (1978). ii) broadcast anniversaries 14 May 1966: broadcast of "Johnny ...
Well, if you can call it a review, because mostly I just want to spew out superlatives. That was astoundingly good. I'll get the negatives out of the way first: there was an amount of genderfail, but given the setting that was entirely realistic (and there was an awesome little old lady). The effects weren't mindblowing either, but that was never what this film was about. It's all about the growth and character development of the people in it and the story is only really there to drive that development. The plot is pretty simple, but it's rich enough to ...
This website (like many others) has been off line for a day or so. So my thoughts on last week's Lib Dem rout are probably a bit more irrelevant now than they were 48 hours ago. Anyway the big question that still appears to be unanswered (or at least still being debated) is the differing performances of the two coalition partners. The Conservatives did well - their vote holding up and making gains in council seats - despite defending their 2007 high. The Lib Dems crashed spectacularly, losing 700 council seats and control of all the metropolitan councils it held. ...
I had the misfortune to look at Gregg Beaman's blog a few days ago. He is not a nice person. In fact he hates niceness with a vengeance. I tried to moderate his insults of the Liberal Democrats with my comments but I'm sorry to say it hasn't worked. I am particularly sorry because we share the same faith and I find this the hardest thing to deal with. I mentioned and quoted the comment my brother sent to him in my last post. Gregg didn't publish that comment, but he did continue to insult my brother and me on ...
