Ed Miliband makes another speech on the Saturday which means the top of the newsreels, saying something of little consequence and seemingly with no meaning whatsoeverEven the BBC could not make head nor tail of his comments, entitling their article; "Miliband urges Labour to inspire with national mission"And where exactly is this mission going?Miliband witters on about social divide, potentially
I thought I'd take a break from all this politics and make a recommendation for some weekend viewing. If you haven't already seen it I do urge you to go watch the BBC4 documentary about the Icelandic sagas on iPlayer. This one hour programme packs a lot in. You get a brief history of Iceland and its culture, social commentary, lessons in the importance of story telling, fascinating insights into the cultural legacy of the sagas for us, how the language of the sagas influenced English, beautiful scenery, lots of rugged Icelandic chaps for those that way inclined, and a ...
I'll start with some of the practical stuff about the pilgrimage, because it's easier to find the right words - so have a list of animals we saw or heard and were able to identify. (Inevitably, there were also plenty that we couldn't. Finches, warblers and pipits might as well have been designed on purpose to confuse birdwatchers. Especially the brown ones.) Forgive me if lists of birds and other animals bore you, but I know I do have a few readers who'll be interested. Grey Heron Mute Swan (in a park - they're rare in the wild in Galicia) ...
Watching Kate Middleton wander down the isle in the much awaited dress, I was struck by how curvy she looked. I found this quite odd, given that she is normally the 21st century ideological stick insect. However, the figure she presented was reinforced by a dress designed to accentuate curves. That's when it struck me, just how derogatory and insulting the modern wedding dress has become, even
It's from South Carolina, where Governor Nikki Haley addressed 30 people, rather than the 2,000 expected. Donald Trump cancelled.
Hooray! The 2011 Hugo Voter Packet is out! For a mere US $50, you can get electronic copies of Blackout by Connie Willis, Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold, The Dervish House by Ian McDonald, Feed by Mira Grant, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin, Chicks Dig Time Lords edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Tara O'Shea, The Business of Science Fiction by Mike Resnick and Barry N. Malzberg, Fables: Witches by Bill Willingham, Grandville Mon Amour by Bryan Talbot, and The Unwritten, Volume 2: Inside Man by Mike Carey, plus loads of other goodies, some already available on-line but ...
News that from Monday the last dining cars on Britain's railways will be no more is a retrograde step. One of the great things about travelling to Scotland on the East Coast Main Line was the opportunity of enjoying a fine meal over several hours. The hiatus so created transformed a four and half hour train journey into something far shorter and provided a welcome opportunity to find out more about your fellow travellers over a digestif. The fact that you could do this on a cheap standard class ticket was an added bonus and one that meant the dining ...
Agenda/Notes for the next meeting of the Guided Busway Local Liason Forum;Local Liaison ForumOakington to CambridgeThursday 26 March 2011, 7.00pmSmall hall, Orchard Park Community Centre, Central Avenue, CambridgeCB4 2EZChair: Cllr Sue GymerAgenda1. Notes of last meeting and update on actions2. Post completion work3. A.O.B.
Mark Pack has highlighted a letter from Lord Lee in the Liberal Democrat News, opposing the long-held Liberal Democrat policy to make the second chamber elected. Mark's post is here. Please email Lord Lee on leej@parliament.uk to tell him he's wrong. You can also send letters for publication to Liberal Democrat News on ldn@libdems.org.uk. How on earth can we hold up the UK as a democratic model when unelected people, appointed by their political chums make laws over the rest of us? There have been countless examples of accusations of irregularity in the creation of honours. Let's not forget that ...
I had meant to blog about this when the PCC announced the ruling, but I was recovering from the election. I am very pleased that the PCC have ruled against the Daily Telegraph, for two reasons. The Daily Telegraph articles quoted a number of private comments made by senior Liberal Democrat MPs in their constituency surgeries which had been secretly recorded by the newspaper's journalists posing as constituents. The MPs featured included the Business Secretary, Vince Cable, in addition to Under Secretary of State for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, Ed Davey, Minister for Work and Pensions, Steve ...
In my continuing quest to track down ancient Belgian sites, we made an expedition today to find the Pierre-qui-Tourne, the supposedly Rotating Rock, of the hamlet of Beaurieux, near the village of Court-St-Étienne (located at roughly 50° 38' 14.61" north, 4° 35' 22.23" east, for those of you inclined to track it down; about thirty km from us). Some unsporting analysts suggest that the local legend that it turns around every time the nearby church tower strikes midnight may not be true. (We wondered if the local church tower is actually equipped with a bell; if not, it would make ...
There was a time, not all that many years ago, when most of the meetings of the governing Council of the European Liberal Democrats (ELDR) were held in Brussels. But these days they occur all over the Continent, both to give the participants a taste of the local sister party and its activities as well ...
Welcome to Broxtowe Enews, brought to you by the Liberal Democrats and edited by David Watts, the leader of the Lib-Dem group on Broxtowe Borough Council. I'm sorry that this edition is a little late in coming but immediately after concluding the negotiations over the future control of the council I flew to Portugal on business (managing to cause tremendous problems at home as I'd inadvertently put my wife's door keys in my pocket as well!) Portugal is a beautiful country but it shows exactly what happens if an economy collapses. There are weeds growing through the pavements, unfinished building ...
Who needs the Cotswolds? This is the grammar school and hospital designed and built by Matthew Cole of Clipston between 1667 and 1673. It is still in use as the village primary school. Pevsner records of the three bays: Originally the centre had the headmaster's lodging on the ground floor, the school-room on the first, and the hospital, which was for twelve men, occupied the two wings.He also says that the frontage is in its original state, but the interior and back were completely remodelled in 1926. The school fete, indicated by some delightfully homemade bunting, was taking place when ...
A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side. -Aristotle Share this: [IMG: Share this page via Email] [IMG: Share this page via Stumble Upon] [IMG: Share this page via Digg this] [IMG: Share this page via Facebook] [IMG: Share this page via Twitter]
Anyone who likes baby pictures should look at the link. Vicky hasn't sent me a photo to upload yet. However, there is at least one more child that has been saved from the adoption machine.See the link in The Telegraph.
Last night my husband took me out in Liverpool - well maybe not the most exciting opening sentence to a blog post I admit but since it doesn't happen very often I thought I would share it with you. Anyway given the infrequency of this can you imagine my even greater delight to find out that he had got tickets to see David Morrissey in Macbeth at the Everyman Macbeth is one of my favourite plays with its politics, power struggles and episodes of madness not to mention 3 witches with the power to determine fates. I have studied the ...
Here is a question. What is the public interest in identifying CTB?The answer is very clear. Anyone who believes they have a legal right of access to Kelvin Mackenzie's emails should not be anonymous.Similarly if they are going to hunt down and attempt to imprison people who tweet on twitter they should not do this anonymously.Personally I believe that trying to get journalists emails is an
I finished a busy Councillors' Surgery in Wallington Sainsbury's this morning where of course everyone wanted to talk about the roadworks in the high street. With my colleagues Colin Hall and Joyce Melican we were well prepared with plans of the overall works and documents illustrating the results of the formal and informal consultations which ...
One does wonder. Legal history is littered with the names of celebrities who have taken legal action too far. Bill Roache springs to mind. But you could go back to Oscar Wilde, who sued the Marquess of Queensbury for libel and then the whole thing blew up in his face and he ended up in Reading jail. You have to know where to draw the line with these super-injunctions, given the internet. Indeed, I wonder if [Premiership footballer] understands the internet. You've been able to find out his name for weeks on non-UK websites and on Twitter. (And is it ...
It is a footballing fairytale! The community club that fought back after seeing their club sold to a town, miles away, are back in the football league! Wimbledon FC were founded in 1889 but were only promoted to the Football League in 1977 and incredibly managed to reach the top-flight of Enlgish football within just 9 years. They then caused probably the greatest shock in the FA Cup Final history by beating the mighty Liverpool in 1988. In doing so they became only the second club to have won the FA Amateur Cup as well as the FA Cup proper ...
I am always intrigued by people who share my exact birth date, and also people who share my name. Through Google Alerts I learn that Nicholas Whyte, better known as Bigga Dean, was killed by the Jamaican police earlier today. Another namesake serving in the US Army (also of Jamaican background, as it happens) was killed in Iraq a few years ago. I am glad to have survived this far.
The glorious sunshine in London is a reminder that there really are sometimes better things for the likes of me to do than blog away eternally on the problems of the Middle East. My near namesake Matthew Parris wrote this wonderful Times piece in 2009 and I often return to it; I recommend it to you today. Not that I obviously won't be returning to the Middle East on this blog in the future, probably very soon and probably quite often, but I do very much see what Mr Parris means, as he wrote: A weight lifted from my mind ...
Oranjepan has asked whether Nick Clegg's 'muscular liberalism' can provide a unifying narrative for the party. He wondered if giving liberalism a moral authority would help. Is being muscular simply standing up to its coalition partners or is it about sharpening liberal policies and messages? If it is the latter then it has the potential to bring the party together. The next question is what Clegg means by liberalism. I have repeatedly argued that he is weaving together different strands of the liberal tradition: the ideas of John Locke, Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill with the practical policies of ...
Two of the main repercussions of the Welsh Assembly elections on May 5th was the demise of the leaderships of the Welsh Conservatives in the Assembly and of Plaid Cymru. For the former, Nick Bourne was ejected from the Assembly due to a quirk in its electoral system. By winning an additional constituency in the Mid & West Wales region (Montgomeryshire from the Welsh Liberal Democrats) and holding onto the Pemrbokeshire seats it already held against expectation, Nick Bourne lost his regional seat. Ieuan Wyn Jones For Plaid Cymru on the other hand, long-time leader and out-going Deputy First Minister ...
I was going to write a post about the astonishing load of old tosh Lord Lee wrote in his letter published in Lib Dem News yesterday. Luckily Mark Pack has done it for me. Do have a read and then write to Lord Lee. Mark's even included his e mail address to make it easy. Thanks all
Just remembered that Tom Lehrer has the ideal song for this day of all days. For a little lighter relieve here is Daniel Radcliffe singing perhaps Lehrer's most famous song. Just in case I'm gone here's a little Blondie for you to remember me by.
Justification of arming British Police forces grows stronger every day. This week, it is arming British Transport Police on the Tube. The justification, it seems, is the threat of a Mumbai-style terrorism attack. We could of course, nod sagely and accept the carrying of guns by our police on such spurious arguments, because, they know best. And I do think the police resolve some terrorism threats
On Wednesday we re-homed our new dog Mona. My wife Claire has been after a second dog for some time and she finally got me to agree when she fouled Mona, then named Sox, on a website devoted to finding homes for Border Collie's. She is 9 months old(Claire is much older) and she has settled in very well with our other(grumpy) dog Sulby. At this point I need to explain the unusual names chosen for our dogs. I have a passion for anything to do with the Isle of Man and have done so since going there on holiday ...
What you and I are talking about is a man forcefully having sex with a woman when she does not want to. That's rape, a serious crime, of course it is a serious crime, and I am very glad people do now go to the police and report it, there used to be a taboo against it in a crazy way. That's the core sentence at the centre of Ken Clarke being reported as saying that some rape isn't serious. Except that he said the direct opposite. Twice. And said that people should report it. And that the old taboo ...
Vince Cable has told the Guardian that people don't realise how bad the economic situation is. He says that the 'model' that was being pursued over a number of years was flawed: consumer spending based on credit, home ownership and an 'overweight' banking system.
Previously, I set out the various challenges that Ed Miliband faces. The BBC reports a recent speech where he sets out his view of the challenges that Labour faces.
Say 'What you need is more of The Time Monster' to most fans and they'd back slowly away. And yet, against all reason, a dozen different Doctor Who stories - right up to last week's episode - take inspiration from what seemed one of the most uninspired. Plucked from the wreckage and polished, other authors took TARDISes inside each other, Chronovores, battles snatched out of time, hermits and more and made something (usually) more interesting of them. Less surprisingly, The Time Monster was inspired by earlier tales in turn; less Greek myths than two other Doctor Who stories in particular. ...
Justice Minister Lord McNally has always been a bit of a VN favourite. However, this story run on e-politix yesterday has made us love him a little bit more: Lord McNally admitted "the other day I was at a meeting of senior high-tech advisers, and I kept talking about biscuits.". When asked about this amazing new piece ...
The Daily Telegraph reports that the expected rapture has not yet hit New Zealand despite the passing of the appointed hour. According to one tweeter this is just as well: David Speer, on Twitter, said: "Oh well no rapture. Just as well. New Zealand didn't need that right now. Another delay to the filming of The Hobbit would've been terrible."
I just love this story about the Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He stood up at the inauguaration of a new dam in his country's central province and accused Western countries of plotting to "cause drought" in Iran by using high tech equipment to drain the clouds of raindrops. Moments after he made the claim, it started to rain. I don't think Mr. Ahmadinejad will be applying for any weathermen jobs anytime soon.
I recently received a concern from a West End resident about the state of the Benvie Road steps down to Lochee Road. I raised his concern with the City Engineer, who has responded as follows : "Benvie Road steps are part of the Council's adopted road network and as such are inspected regularly. Following your enquiry, the Road Maintenance Partnership inspector for the area inspected the steps and has raised an order to re-set two slabs on the top step. No other actionable defects were identified during his inspection."
At 6pm tonight, the rapture will commence. After 2,000 years, Jesus will arrive (about time!) to vanish the virtuous and righteous of to heaven; the rest will suffer a great tribulation, war, famine, disease, glee and Jedward. It has been a ... Continue reading →
CDC EPR | Social Media | Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse - Blog Yes, this actually is the website of the CDC. (tags: funny zombies) Expenses cheat Elliot Morley facing jail *snerk* (tags: politics) 'Don't be THAT guy': Edgy campaign targets link between alcohol and sexual violence Would like to see more of this sort of thing. It won't stop the guys who do it, but it might help to change the acceptability of it (tags: rape) Gove banishes creationist groups from free schools Huzzah! (tags: education)
[IMG: My Life As A Quant - book cover] Emanuel Derman's My Life as a Quant: Reflections on Physics and Finance is a gentle amble through a career that took in physics and then taking mathematical analysis to Wall Street at a time when advanced maths was still a novel approach in finance. At times it has the feel of a local community newspaper about it - unwilling to say anything too unpleasant about anyone and repeatedly name-checking people with only tangential roles in the story. In his case, I suspect (and hope) that reflects a charming, polite outlook on ...
I'm going to bring you best of the Northern Irish blogs from the past week in sort of a Saturday blog review going forward. Here is my first weekly offering of the best Norn Iron had to give. The first two posts reflect on the Queen's visit to the Republic during the week. Conall McDevitt MLA has recounted a poem by Percy French about the last Queen's speech in Dublin, Victoria in 1900, and gives us a poem along the same lines as it by Seamus Murphy to mark the latest one. A hUactaráin, sez she And everyone, sez she ...
Last night, Janet & I had the pleasure of attending a reception at Dundee One at which Kengo Kuma (right), lead architect for the V&A at Dundee project, gave a very informative presentation on this project and previous projects he has led. Kengo Kuma is giving further presentations today as part of the Ignite your weekend! events I mentioned yesterday. V&A at Dundee winning design
"The Lord Chief Justice made an outspoken attack on "modern technology" yesterday," starts a report by Ian Burrell in the Independent this morning, recalling the glories days of the bench. Those were the days when judges had not heard of television and had to be woken regularly after lunch to be reminded what it was. More seriously, the report goes on to say: Lord Judge called on society to bring "under control" those "who in effect peddle lies about others" online. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the current dispute, it is a fact that people are using the net ...
This is getting uncomfortable: I find myself once again agreeing with Benjamin Netanyanu, Israel's Ian Paisley. Mr Netanyahu has said that a 'peace based on illusions will crash eventually on the rocks of Middle Eastern reality'. Yes, Mr Netanyahu, it will. So perhaps a tiny state surrounded by at best truculent, at worst hostile countries, supported by the USA to the tune of billions of dollars a year and with equivalent areas of someone else's land under occupation by Israeli troops and heavily armed and zealous 'settlers', to use the term preferred over 'occupiers' holding the high ground might consider ...
Here's the letter I've sent John Lee. If you agree with me, why don't you also email him on leej@parliament.uk? You can also send letters for publication to Liberal Democrat News on ldn@libdems.org.uk. Dear John Lee, I was very disappointed to see you take to the pages of Liberal Democrat News to argue that the party should give up on wanting either a predominantly or totally an elected Upper House, calling those who believed in this policy "fundamentalist" and saying pursuing it would lead to "disaster and humiliation". I'm disappointed for two reasons. First, it's a basic matter of democracy. ...
21 May 1966: broadcast of "The O.K. Corral", last episode of the story we now call The Gunfighters, and the last episode before 2005 to have an individual title. Doc Holliday and the Earps shoot it out with the Clantons, to the detriment of the latter. 21 May 2005: broadcast of The Empty Child; first appearance of Captain Jack Harkness and first contribution to New Who by Steven Moffat. The Doctor and Rose find London in the Second World War infested by zombies with gas-masks. 21 May 2011: broadcast of The Rebel Flesh
In this post I am not seeking to mount a defence of the Justice Secretary or enter into a debate about rape or the justice system. What I want to comment on is what the row that has centered around Ken Clarke over the last few days reveals about the direction of the Labour party. Ed Miliband has at times tried to set out a more realistic and rational approach to law and order for the Labour Party. It was part of his pitch during the Labour leadership contest. Reading up on this this week I have found that he ...
The next Cheadle Area Committee is on Tuesday 24th May at our new venue, the Upper Rooms (above Tesco), 11 Wilmslow Road, Cheadle. The meeting starts at 6pm. As always, it's open to everyone to come along and participate and we encourage people to do just that. Unfortunately, the agenda doesn't seem to have been put online yet, so here are the items up for discussion: The usual opportunity for councillors and members of the public to hear a report from the police and environmental and highways council officers – and to ask questions. Applications for grants from St James ...
Well, well, well I didn't think that CTB could be that stupid. 2 million people have seen the Twitter account. Over 116,000 have subscribed to it. Twitter have highlighted it.Now CTB has decided to sue Twitter to get the account details.All they can get is the Internet Protocol address unless someone has been stupid enough to use their normal email address.This could be the address of an
Asking the Wrong Questions: The 2011 Hugo Awards: The Short Story Shortlist Abigail picks "The Things", though without much enthusiasm. (tags: hugos sf) Scale of Universe - Interactive Scale of the Universe Tool Brilliant. And for once the background music is not too annoying. (tags: astronomy science) Keep the focus on Morocco's illegal occupation of the Western Sahara - The Hill's Congress Blog ...the Saharawi have no ties whatsoever to al Qaeda or terrorism. [The] claim that Saharawi are fighting for Gadhafi are equally baseless. (tags: westernsahara) Voices of Autism: 'It's Sort of a Good Thing' | GoodyBlog Q: Do ...
I Stephen Glenn, being of sound mind am writting this will and testement before the rapture reported to be 21 May 2011. However, as Matthew 23:36 says: "No one knows about that day or hour. Not even the angels in heaven know. The Son does not know. Only the Father knows." New International Version I'm fully expecting it to be another false alarm just like Matthew 23:23-26 says: At that time if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Messiah!' or, 'There he is!' do not believe it. For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great ...
