After all the excitable tweets over the weekend and the dramatic rhetoric about having been researching the topic for a year, you might have thought that when Guido Fawkes blogged today about Chris Huhne's election expenses there'd be some solid evidence and a plausible complaint. But no. In fact, the complaint is so riddled with obvious errors that one's tempted to say a hacker has snuck into Fawkes Towers and put it up there to discredit Guido. After all, he's certainly had some bona fide scoops in the past. But this isn't exactly in that class. Here's a sample of ...
This evening Olly Grender, political pundit and communications expert, gave Liberal Democrats several reasons to be cheerful, fearful and even tearful, though for once not on Newnsight's tripartite line-up or the BBC's This Week but at an Islington local party's Pizza and Politics. While admitting some things had been handled badly — the tuition fees ...
To Islington this evening to hear Newsnight regular Olly Grender speak. Although our paths have crossed many times in the party over the years, our backgrounds and experiences are fairly different - which made it all the more interesting to hear her make two comments that chime very closely with things I've been saying. She made many good points in a wide-ranging talk about the communication challenges of being in government, and in coalition to boot. But it was those two which particularly got my attention. One was about the importance of community politics - "I'm always up for returning ...
It was Groundhog Day at Deputy Prime Minister's Questions this week. The main theme was House of Lords reform. MPs raised, more or less, the same questions that were raised just after Nick Clegg's original announcement. If this session is any indication, the main opposition to the proposals will come from Conservative MPs, even though they are more or less committed, by the Coalition Agreement and an expected party whip, to eventually support the reforms. I totted up the MPs asking questions. Two Conservative made neutral points. Asking what seemed to be hostile questions were seven Conservatives, four Labour MPs ...
Two and a half weeks after the election comes the Annual Meeting of Stockton Council. There have been discussions galore over the intervening time, ranging from whether this or that coalition can be sustainable to who should represent Stockton Council on community bodies in the borough. Most things were agreed before the meeting and needed to be confirmed today but there were some on which
As I have mentioned before, in my current excursions to Leicestershire and Northamptonshire villages I am often retracing journeys I made on my bike 30 or more years ago. In those days I was too young and stupid to appreciate half of what I was seeing, but I do recall that I never took a drink with me because I took it for granted that when I reached a village of any size I would be able to buy one in the shop. Times have changed. The picture above shows what used to be the shop and post office in ...
Noting the fact that according to press reports Ryan Giggs's lawyers are still trying to get information from Twitter can I offer to organise a collective defence of twitter users in the English and Welsh jurisdiction. Anyone who receives notification from twitter is welcome to contact me via the parliamentary systems.
Today has been mainly about planning issues in and around our town. I met this morning with officers to get fully briefed on the application submitted for around 300 homes and a new school at Hay Common to the south west of Launceston. At the moment this is an outline plan in that the actual design of the scheme has to come back in another application. What is being asked for at this time is approval for the principle of this size of development. A key issue will be the decision to build a new school in place of any ...
Wed 25th
21:48
"Chris Huhne has achieved more in a year than most top politicians manage in a lifetime"
High praise from the Telegraph for Chris Huhne, and deservedly so. Environmental correspondent Geoffrey Lean says Huhne "has been playing a blinder" through the introduction of the Green Investment Bank and the fourth Carbon Budget: Over the last two weeks, as the crisis he faces steadily deepened, he has been the driving force behind two of the most momentous decisions any administration has taken, ones that could shape Britain's economic development for the rest of the century, and beyond. Last week the government adopted the world-beating goal of cutting carbon emissions to half 1990 levels by 2025. No other country, ...
I watched the ministerial appointments debate which took place today in Holyrood. Several things amused me. First was the fact that Iain Gray, now he's going, seems to have found his sense of humour. Mind you, his speech was probably more suited to late night satire than a parliamentary debate, but it made me smile. Then there was the division bell going off as new Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie got up to speak. He burst out laughing, but managed to get on with it. The Presiding Officer said she was sorry but "it wisnae me." Willie's speech was ...
Wed 25th
21:40
Chris Huhne has achieved more in a year than most top politicians manage in a lifetime
Not my judgement, but that of Geoffrey Lean, the environmental correspondent of the Daily Telegraph: For a man with a sword of Damocles hanging over his head, Chris Huhne ... has been playing a blinder. Over the last two weeks, as the crisis he faces steadily deepened, he has been the driving force behind two of the most momentous decisions any administration has taken, ones that could shape Britain's economic development for the rest of the century, and beyond. Last week the government adopted the world-beating goal of cutting carbon emissions to half 1990 levels by 2025. No other country, ...
Caron Lindsay will be proud as well as slightly annoyed, sitting there going, told you so. I am on three days annual leave starting today, but true to form, I started by going into the office for 90 minutes to finish some bits off that needed to be done and I have answered a few emails during the day. Once I had finished I walked back to Princes Street via a few shops and then decided to catch the first bus that came to the nearest bus stop and see where that took me. So, a 26 bus was first ...
I have a link to a story about getting data from Twitter.It remains my view that they will give up trying to prosecute tweeters for contempt, but think how much worse it would be with everyone anonymous and in secret as is happening with yesterday said it was prepared to hand over
Can anyone point me to the Guardian article about what the gentlemen were wearing? You can find out about what the ladies were wearing here.
I am so excited that President Barack Obama is in London as I write this post. Central London is so vibrant with cheering crowds urging him on as his motorcade drives by. There is a constant buzz of a helicopter hovering over the area where I live which is in central London. I have been looking back to when I was 4 years old. George Bush came to London and my mother and I went to see him. I was still in a buggy and I held a placard with a very badly drawn poster which I did myself saying ...
Following pressure from the Welsh Liberal Democrats, the Welsh Government has announced for the first time that they will publish details of all government expenditure over £25,000. In a response to a written question from Kirsty Williams, the Minister for Finance confirmed they now intend to publish payment details over £25k. For months, the Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, Kirsty Williams, has been challenging the First Minister to follow the example of the Scottish Executive and the UK Government and publish all expenditure over £25k. She raised the issue with him in First Minister's Questions on the 23rd November ...
An exchange with Oranjepan on a recent post made me want to write something about the author of On Liberty. John Stuart Mill wrote several books on political economy, political philosophy and one on women's rights. He was a Liberal MP who was on the radical side of the party as opposed to the Whiggish one. In later life he described himself as a socialist. He made a significant contribution to the liberal political tradition. So much so that when a new Lib Dem party president is elected they are given a copy of On Liberty. Arguably, there is something ...
Dear Simon I had an e-mail from you tonight. When I see your name come up in my inbox, I expect that what I'm going to read is going to make me feel all good and comforted. Tim Farron gave us all a kick up the arse on Lib Dem Voice the other day and I thought this was you comforting us. You and him are a pretty good double act. He's the zingy curry, laden with chillies, which invigorates us. You are the mashed potato that makes us feel content. Yes, I needed Tim's boot on my posterior, but ...
Following on from part 2, here is part 3.
There were no surprises at Cabinet today. All the school transport proposals on which the county had "consulted" were implemented unchanged. My interpretation of the county's policy with regard to faith schools was also confirmed as accurate: non Catholic (aka community) schools are "suitable" for Catholics. Catholic schools are not "suitable" for people who are not Catholics. If that's not a case of double-standards I don't know what is. To make life easier for families the council committed to work with partners "to explore the practicalities of establishing a self-financing concessionary travel scheme" to affected schools. It sounds fantastic until ...
Following on from part 1, here is part 2.
As the Prime Minister is photographed spending time with the President of the United States it may seem an odd moment to discuss the challenges David Cameron faces. When I say challenges I do not mean how to tackle the deficit, reform public services or dealing with Libya. Like my two posts on the challenges for Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband, I am referring to the political challenges that face David Cameron. Of course, execution of the coalition policy agenda will have an impact on the Conservative party's political fortunes. Cameron needs to make the coalition a success. If he ...
I watched "The Scheme" for the first time last night. I'd missed the original showings last year, but caught up with the original two episodes on iPlayer and saw the final one on TV. There was a bit of a personal reason too - my wife grew up in the estate round the corner (New Farm) so knew some of the area. She was shocked at how much it had changed. Firstly, on a political point. There was a scene in one of the episodes where a group of residents were speaking to their Councillors to try to get finance ...
Having beaten the ash cloud back to Blighty, I should take this opportunity to report back on my trip to Dresden. My apologies if this sounds a bit like an advert for the German Tourism Board...Alright, I would be the first to admit that Saxony wasn't all that high on the list of places on my 'wouldn't it be nice to go there?' list, but given that ELDR Council was being held there on a Friday afternoon, it seemed foolish not to make a weekend of it, even more so as Ros was going to be with me.And what a ...
This week the Streetzuup bloggers received a blog comment from the esteemed Jim (Blue) Barron, who has been spotted buzzing over the blogosphere in his funny little Focker DR1. Previously he has bombed this website, hitting his target but failing to do any damage. This time he missed by a mile. I have no Idea why this comment was aimed at me, he must think that I am behind the mysterious bloggers who post on that site and expose the good, bad and just plain silly world of politics in Street. Here is the comment in full: Dear me, You ...
And so it went on (with other people's comments added, lifted straight from Facebook hence the odd "Like" buttons and timings): Lee Dargue With regards to "spoiling it for students" – no, he didn't. Are people angry about the broken pledge? Yes, we don't hide from that at all. The point being, is that the pledge was TWO parts – voting against fees, which a minority of LibDem MP's voted for and I DO get the anger. The other part was about making a fairer system. And the system IS fairer AND cheaper, that's not a party line, that's simple ...
President Barack Obama today became the first US President to address both House of Parliament in Westminster Hall. In a very impressive and well received speech that last 35 minutes, the President touched on a variety of topics, including the 'special relationship' between the UK and the US, foreign policy, and the economy. The high ...
There have been recent incidents in the Bath and North East Somerset area where persons have walked into homes and stolen items through closed, but not locked, rear doors and windows particularly patio doors. Please be advised to consider the security of your household, especially the rear doors and windows.With the run up to summer and the warmer weather burglars will use this as an opportunity
I'm not going to write a new blog post. I'm just going to copy-and-paste my emotional yet rational outburst from Facebook, after two people commented on Nick Clegg being a Tory and about broken promises (two people who seemingly don't like Nick, yet have friended a Clegg-based Facebook group. Go figure). "I'm all for attacking policy, or points or order about specific decisions. However, since when is adult and mature debate about slagging off someone that the vast majority of people have never even talked to with childish name-calling. And have mistakes been made? Absolutely, party members of the LD's ...
Four years ago I listened to an abridged audio version of this book, read by the man himself; now I've finally read the whole thing, fourteen years after frenziedly speed-skimming a newly published copy in an Oxford bookshop without actually buying it. It is quite an extraordinary and painful book, by a man who doesn't much like himself and, to his continuing amazement, found in his early 40s that everyone suddenly liked him. Baker confesses many tales of personal betrayal, of lovers, colleagues, relatives, and himself; he is rather fascinated by his own awfulness as a human being, and he ...
First, I want to apologise for being more or less offline for the best part of a month now. I've got a massive project at work which has eaten up a *lot* of my time. I've got 3000 words of the next 7S post done, and just need to flesh that out, but I'm not ...
The Scottish Government have today announced their proposals to combat sectarianism in Scottish football, with a view to getting the legislation in place before the new season starts at the end of July. I'm always pretty skeptical about legislation which is drafted in haste. Experience shows that it usually results in the laws being badly drafted, and need to be revisited within a couple of years. The good old Dangerous Dogs Act is the classic example of this. The devil will be in the detail, but what concerns me is the notion of a new offence of "abuse." This will ...
Members of the Liberal Democrats will now be used to getting e-mails signed by various key figures in the party – Farron, Clegg, Kennedy et al. Today it was the turn of deputy leader Simon Hughes, rightly highlighting how the presence of the Liberal Democrat's in government has pushed the green agenda front and centre. ...
Tonight my team North Down are hosting Balmoral in the NIBA (Northern Ireland Bowling Association) Senior Cup. I love playing bowls as it is a sport where I can always know where my towel is. Most of the time my towel resides in my left had (seeing as I need to bowl with my right). Occassionally if is placed on the ground when I as a back end player have to get down to measure, you don't want grass stains on your white trousers. Sometimes I dangle it above the jack when it is hidden from view from the mat ...
Wed 25th
18:26Liberal Democrats setting the pace on the green agenda - Simon Hughes updates party members
Lib Dem Deputy Leader Simon Hughes has emailed party members to update them on the party's influence in government, in promoting the green agenda. He highlights the Energy Bill, the fourth Carbon Budget, and the Green Investment Bank, detailed this week by Nick Clegg and Vince Cable. It's been a great month for Liberal Democrats, who are setting the pace on the green agenda! Two weeks ago, Chris Huhne, as Energy and Climate Change Secretary, led for the government when his Department's Energy Bill received its second reading in the House of Commons. This creates the framework for the Green ...
A severely disabled five year old girl is facing deportation to Algeria where she is unlikely to get the medical treatment she needs. Whilst I don't know all the ins and outs of the case, it seems to me that, in this specific case, the humane thing to do would be to make an exception and allow her to stay. Please go here to sign the petition to the Home Secretary to allow her to stay. It will only take a moment of your time and could potentially save a young girl's life.
It seems that the verbose Tory ministers and members with delusions of grandeur just keep saying stupid things. The latest, Eric Pickles, has selected a relatively straight vernacular to criticise economic policies to students (of all people, this section of society have /no/ history of overreacting to news and not reading things properly). Pickles' comments are in perfect time to meet the
Well done Obama, but anyone who believes that the average American politician can ever be an honest broker in the Middle East had only to note the 30 standing ovations given to Netanyahu by Congress. If they had any appreciation ... Continue reading →
Following a comment by tory backbench MPs about the "Yellow Bastards" and our interference with the health reforms, ConservativeHome has drawn up a league table of Yellow Bastards. As a result, I hereby declare that the official standard of the Potter Blogger is this: This brings a tear to the Potter Blogger's eyes. In this I am inspired by the Yellow Bastards League on facebook of which I am a member. We are a league of yellow bastards who go forth to fight toryism wherever we may find it! As a wise man once said: "If you're hated by Tim ...
The Evening Standard is keen to promote the down-to-earth projections of Obama and Cameron at a BBQ.For those with short memories, while Obama generally gets away with the 'common man' persona, Cameron's own forray into this area has met with disastrous results, from hug-a-hoodie to clearing up flytipping, he is a little bit too condescending and rich to get away with it, in my own, admittedly
Another of the Big Finish "missing stories", this one drastically expanded by Marc Platt from a note he did for Andrew Cartmel shortly before Old Who was cancelled. I find Platt's work a bit hit and miss, but this was a hit for me: the setting in Moscow in 1967, with the human side of Cold War relations between Britain and Russia colliding with Ice Warriors hunting a malevolent relic and also a plot line which I recognised from one of the later BBC webcast stories. There's a slightly dubious sfnal enhancement of the human reproductive process, and I also ...
A selection of a few of my favourite photos from President Obama's trip to Ireland and the UK. POTUS's car – 'The Beast' – gets stuck as it leaves the American Embassy in Dublin: The prime minister and POTUS get ... Continue reading →
Three TLAs make an appearance...
Speaking purely for myself, as a Liberal Democrat friend of Israel who obviously supports the Coalition Government, I have heard nothing from that government today with which I disagree. Quite the contrary. Certainly nothing that contradicts this speech by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg at Lib Dem Friends of Israel's lunch in November. The Americans and British are profoundly right to be seeking to move forward on the Israeli/Palestinian peace process, however much one can get into discussing the detail of how best to achieve that. President Obama and David Cameron have given their joint press conference, and the President ...
A North West England Euro-MP is calling for a national network of flower filled "rivers" to be introduced across the UK in an effort to preserve vital insects for future generations. Many plants reproduce by bumblebees and other insects carrying ... Continue reading →
I was recently invited to the Windows Phone 7 Mango preview (no, I didn't get a free phone) – here are a few thoughts. The first thing to note is that WP7 still looks gorgeous – the front tiles (aka widgets) are smart and add a real feeling of fluidity to the phone. Juicy The second thing is rather more depressing. Windows is still playing catch-up. It's a standard joke that neither the iPhone nor WP7 had copy-n-paste on release – what's not a joke is the number of "new" features that Microsoft announced are things which have been around ...
Ok in the words of the kids I 'epic failed' today. Whilst reading the excellent piece by David Allen Green in The New Stateman entitled Is it the Sun what lost it? detailing the Ryan Giggs affair and how the newspaper still cannot report the juicy bits that would actually cause people to buy said newspaper, my eyes were drawn to to the headline Ken Clarke was asking for it by the feminist writer Laurie Penny and I was sucked in, clicked on and subsequently read the vitriol she spilled out from her keyboard. Now we know that rape is ...
Larry Towell is a Canadian photographer, poet and oral historian. For Towel Day I'm going to show you a few of his pictures. With all the wind we had earlier this week, this image encapsulating the wind of this group of girls holding unto their hats as there is a dust cloud swirling in the wind, shows how us humans do all we can to deal with weather. A photographer is always looking for that interesting angle on a normal scene to make it just that little bit special, that little bit different. A group of people walking down a ...
We've reported a couple of times recently on the parking issues on St. Ann's Road North – that some cars from the Cheadle Royal Business Park have started parking on St. Ann's Road North, cause problems for residents. At Cheadle Area Committee yesterday we received a report from Council officers looking at what can be done. I don't have the report online, I'm afraid (happy to copy it if anyone particularly wants to see a copy). The summary of the report and our response to it is: When it's been checked, there have been between 4 and 14 cars parked ...
Although I will have my usual surgery tomorrow night at Blackness Primary School at 6.15pm, because next Monday - 30th May - is the Victoria Day holiday, my surgeries will not run then. However, I can be contacted at any time on 459378 or at esurgery@frasermacpherson.org.uk.
Amidst all the concerns which Liberal Democrats have about future electoral prospects, particularly after the local election and AV referendum results, it would be easy to think that everything in the garden is rosy for Labour and Tories who both made substantial gains in the local elections - it is not. What's worrying Labour? For all the spectacular gains which Labour made in the Northern cities and industrial towns - mostly from the Liberal Democrats - in Parliamentary terms this would amount to, at best, less than a handful of MPs. In Liverpool, Hull and Newcastle the Liberal Democrats do ...
* Last night, I attended the Blackness Primary School Parent Council meeting at which, in addition to planning for the school's fete on 11th June, we discussed a number of issues including the need for 'zig zag' no parking markings adjacent to the school. I have again raised this matter with the City Council's Head of Transportation. * Later last night, I attended the River Crescent Residents' Association meeting. We had a useful discussion about a number of local matters including a local water leak issue (I have raised with Scottish Water), road safety locally and pathway access to the ...
Barack Obama addresses the Houses of Parliament today in Westminster Hall. The chatter on the news programmes is once again all about the 'special relationship'. Or has that now become the 'essential relationship'? This has always struck me as something of a British obsession and of rather less concern to the Americans. The United States is a world power and has many important international relationships.China, as the new world power. Russia, although waning, is still a world power (just) Countries with enormous potential and resources like India and Brazil As a world power the United States needs to be at ...
On 5th May 2011, Scotland voted in a majority SNP government therefore sometimes during this parliament there will be a referendum on independence. I'm sitting on the fence over the issue of independence or a union. There is a liberal argument for independence. No government, no country should be able to tell another, how to
"We will work to build a consensus for a mainly-elected second chamber to replace the current house of Lords, recognising that an efficient and effective second chamber should play an important role in our democracy and requires both legitimacy and public confidence."Who said this? Any guesses? *Bzzt* Time's up. The correct answer is of course the Conservatives in their 2010 manifesto. Not that you'd think it from the way they're trying to block lords reform in parliament at the moment.
The City Council's £101,000 improvement scheme for the Wulfstan Way shopping area starts next Tuesday (see previous posts). I met the contractors and site foreman for a cup of tea at the EC Café this morning to talk about the schedule. The scheme will provide more attractive paving and pathways better linking the shops on one side of the street to the other, and there will also be a community noticeboard, extra parking, seating and lighting. Some money has been allocated to public art, and we are hoping to work with local schoolchildren to come up with ideas and designs. ...
Last nights Southwark Council annual constitutional assembly was full of contrasts. We had the wonderful example of public life described of the sadly deceased mayor Cllr Tayo Situ and the new mayor Cllr Lorraine Lauder. But the meeting then went onto Labour councillors deciding to vote for money for themselves via eight more Special Responsibility Allowances. The recommendation from London Councils is that no more than half of councillors should be paid SRA's. Tonight Southwark Labour party decided to ignore this and created another eight SRA's – deputy cabinet members. Presumably this is to prop up their cabinet councillors. So ...
Andrew Lansley (government health minister) has killed people. 600 to be precise. I am not be facetious or deliberately provocative – this contrarian has limitations. Labour's shadow health spokesmen, John Healey, is the individual in question making the assertion; "A ... Continue reading →
The report by the King's Fund published today makes interesting reading in light of the debate that took place during the Welsh Assembly elections on health service funding. The Welsh Conservatives of course proposed ring fencing the health service budget in real terms, a proposal that they estimated would cost nearly £1 billion. The catch was that this would have led to deep cuts in other budgets including schools, economic development, transport and social services. It was for this reason that none of the other parties signed up to this proposal. The Kings Fund suggest that financially, things are worse ...
From Groupon, here is one way to discourage people from unsubscribing from an email list: show them what happens to a member of staff after someone leaves the email list. (Hint: involves throwing coffee.) Showing people this tongue-in-cheek video on the unsubscribe page has apparently been rather successful. Hmm, perhaps I should try this for my own email list. Though I think I'll pick hot chocolate instead... Hat-tip: Nudge blog
TweetThis blog must first start with an admission, yes I read order-order.com, home of vitriolic blogger Paul Staines and contributing editor Harry Cole (Nee Tory Bear), it's rather embaressing to admit actually. It's like watching a car crash, or a particularly horrific accident, something you can't quite help watch in a rather morbid, know you shouldn't way. I often laugh at his vitriol towards politicians and the cross hairs that he wheels out as some sort of morality police the self appointed assasin of established politicians like some sort of perverse reverse patron saint. So when I see Guido turn ...
The latest list of donations of to political parties has been published today by the electoral commision. The Liberal Democrats received a total of £810,029 in donations between January 2011 and March 2011, compared to £3,878,324 for the Conservatives, and £2,882,765 for Labour. It further demonstrates just what kind of a financial disadvantage the Liberal Democrats are ...
Do a search for Towel in Spotify and you get quite a surprisingly large selection. However, for Towel Day here are some hoopy bands who really know where their towel is. First up is Elevator Suite whose debut single could well have been written with Arthur Dent in mind Man in a Towel . The Future Dead certainly know where their towel is, it is in the kitchen. Which does seem to be an homage to Swedish band Loosegoats Towel Going a little instrumental, well auditory certainly here is Heyoka The Way of the Blue Towel Finally as I'm Irish ...
Wed 25th
12:12
Wirral Council - Wirral Council 23rd May 2011 - Part 9 - speeches (Cllr Dave Mitchell & Cllr Chr...
Cllr Dave Mitchell (Deputy Leader, Lib Dem Group) said he had stood up against his own group regarding the library fiasco. No fingers had been burnt but soon he hoped it would be put to bed. The last administration had brought benefits to the people of Wirral. However we needed to look into the reality ...
Wed 25th
11:57Wirral Council - Wirral Council 23rd May 2011 - Part 8 - speech (Cllr Stuart Kelly) on leader motion...
Cllr Stuart Kelly said he had heard what the Conservatives were saying. However it was frankly not enough to address and debate, when this should've been done in the closing weeks of the local election campaign. The points that had been made should've been put to the people. However the people had spoken. He thanked ...
Wed 25th
11:48The Independent View: The richest 1% will soon have a record share of our national income
Just before the general election Nick Clegg complained that the gap between the mean average incomes of the richest fifth as compared to the poorest fifth in Britain had risen from 6.9 to 1 in 1997 to approach 7.2 to 1 towards the end of Labour's 13 years in power. This shift took the UK one quarter of the way towards becoming as unequal in income as the world's most unequal large affluent country, the United States. Within the last 15 months the emergency budget, the March 2011 budget and the comprehensive spending review combined have moved Britain far faster ...
Wed 25th
11:41Wirral Council - Wirral Council 23rd May 2011 - Part 7 - speeches (Cllr Simon Mountney, Cllr Steve F...
Cllr Simon Mountney said he wanted to put on record the work Cllr Green had done since he took post and give his personal assessment that he had been a good leader who had been outstanding in his efforts regarding the management and staff. He called him exemplary and said the changes were not short ...
The good news Is that Manston airport could provide 2000 jobs in the not too distant future according to an independent report from York Aviation commissioned by owners Infratil, the report concedes it would be necessary to allow flights between 7am and 11pm. The bad news is that Clive Hart's Labour has contrary to the hopes and aspirations of ordinary working people declared war on Manston and the significant inward investment like the new Parkway Railway Station. It's in my opinion easy to see where Labour are coming from many Labour councillors are at the end of their working lives ...
Wed 25th
11:21Wirral Council - Wirral Council 23rd May 2011 - Part 6 - speeches (Cllr Lewis & Cllr McCubbin) o...
Cllr Ian Lewis thanked "Sister McLaughlin", but made an apology to the Liberal Democrats. He said that they had suffered the curse of Ian Lewis. He apologised also to Simon Holbrook and Bob Moon and welcomed two others. He also welcomed [Cllr] Pat Hackett. He said that Cllr Pat Hackett had been the one Labour ...
Chatting recently to a Liberal Democrat colleague, I fear we sounded like a second-rate version of the Monty Python four Yorkshireman sketch. That there were not four of us, none of us are from Yorkshire and I'm no John Cleese probably didn't help the imitation as we exchanged tales of past poll ratings (10%? I remember when we used to dream of 10%) and the travails of leading figures (Speeding? You were lucky – what about missing Parliamentary debates due to drink? Pah, that was luxury. What about conspiracy to murder?). Exchanging stories of past problems can be fun - ...
Michel Montecrossa's 'In The Street' dedicated to the Real Democracy Protests in Spain and the Young Europe Awakening. video & further information: http://www.MichelMontecrossa.com
I only ask:
On Friday 1st July, there's going to be all sorts of celebration in Edinburgh. The Queen is going to come and open the fourth session of the Holyrood Parliament. There's going to be all sorts of pomp and circumstance - a procession of the Crown of Scotland, Her Maj addressing the newly elected MSPs, a massive public riding through the Old Town of some 1500 people. The riding is an old Scottish tradition as the Scottish Parliament website tells us: The old Scottish Parliament traditionally opened with a processional ceremony called the 'Riding of the Parliament'. The first Riding of ...
Inspired by reading about a South Wales company being contracted to stabilise a pyramid, Michael takes a look back at growing up with a structural engineer as a father, and particularly at the restoration of Castle Gardens, Lisburn.
Any fan of Time Team will know that a lot of actually archaeology* is down to the final trowel work. The geo-pys and all the other work is pure guess work it's not until you actually unearth something that you know what it really is, indeed on Time Team how often over the three day excavation does what is being looked at change in the eyes of the experts. Well we now have taken archaeology to whole new heights. Infra-red images taken from space have revealed more than 1,000 tombs and 3,000 ancient settlements. Early excavations have shown that some ...
Saturday: How RUDE of the BBC to schedule part two of this Dr Woo adventure for after the Apocalypse! Tune in next week to discover that the Rapture is a load of old CHIBNALLS. Frankenstein is close to the surface of this series of Doctor Who. Not so much Mary Shelley's Modern Prometheus as the movies of James Whale, most noticeably last week with the patchwork people, not to mention Elsa Lanchester hairdo, of "The Doctor's Wife". Even the Silence managed to paraphrase: "we belong dead". By comparison, this week's lightning bolt bringing inanimate flesh to life was merely banal. ...
At Cheadle Area Committee yesterday we gave the go-ahead for double yellow lines on Daylesford Road by the junction with Schools Hill, to keep the junction clear of parked cars – especially at school dropping off and collecting times. On the south west side (the odd numbers) the double yellow lines will extend in front of 1 Daylesford Road and stop just before number 3. On the north east side (the even numbers) the double yellow lines with extend about half the distance (15m), going partly along the side of "Daylesford" but stopping well short of 2 Daylesford Road. View ...
Domestic violence courts to close | The Law Gazette Really, really angry about this. (tags: feminism) MoronWatch: Racism and Moronic Science (tags: evpsychbollocks)
The NHS reforms are a nightmare for the Coalition and has the potential to split the government as the Lib Dems have made a firm stand. There is evidence that this will be beneficial to the party's fortunes but there is another aspect of this that has been ignored which could boost the party's poll ...
You have to admire David Cameron's tenacity in the face of widespread indifference and incomprehension. On Monday he sought to relaunch his idea of the Big Society for the third time. The results of yesterday's YouGov survey were then reported over at Liberal Conspiracy. This indicated that 62% of respondents felt they understood the Big ...
There would have been something very wrong with the Universe if we'd woken up this morning and there had been no post from Stephen in honour of Towel Day. This is the annual commemoration of Hitch Hikers' Guide to the Galaxy author Douglas Adams' work where fans carry a towel around with them for the day. Anyway, I guess that even if the Rapture had happened on Saturday, Stephen's post would still have appeared. It led to the following exchange between me and my 11 year old: "I'm off to get a towel to take to school." "Excellent." (she disappears ...
Wed 25th
08:50
This blogpost is smug, self satisfied and slightly pompous. I wouldn't read it if I were you.
From the Evening Standard yesterday headlined 'Ed Miliband saved my job, says Clarke'. "He had to thank the Labour leader during "my little local difficulty last week". Ed Miliband's call for him to be sacked had totally backfired. "such a demand makes the PM look an idiot if he sacks you, while at the same time rallying the party's tribal tendencies." From this blog last Friday headlined "Deep sighs but credit where it's due. Miliband played a blinder for progressives everywhere at PMQ's yesterday". "Firstly, Miliband probably was as outraged as everyone else by Clarke's comments. But he wouldn't want ...
I am pleased to report that the noisy Virgin junction box on Holbrook Road that had been emitting a loud hum was silenced on Monday morning. Yesterday, I received a message from Virgin Media, which they've asked me to pass on: Thank you for highlighting the issue with the junction box in the Holbrook Road area of Cambridge. We have visited the junction box and have now silenced the noise caused by the power supply within the cabinet. We apologise for any inconvenience caused to residents in the area.
Fascinating how Obama gets so much press coverage yet does so very little. He was all over the Evening Standard and even today's concise I paper gives him a double page spread. The agenda today, and I love the emphasis on the word, as though it is a demand for action, is to be centred around Libya. But no one will mention Wikileaks, Bahrain, Syria, Israel and Palestine, nor will they comment
I suppose it was on the cards. As revealed on Liberal Democrat Voice here on Saturday, the Liberal Democrats are in the middle of confirming a move from its only home since meger in 1988, to a new HQ in the heart of Westminster, this summer. With the loss of the opposition cushioned 'short money' and with the badly handled news of a change in the campaigns structure of the party in recent weeks, it is not particularly surprising to hear that there will be a change to a new office - one which it must be said, looks set ...
On the 11th May 10 years ago the world lost Douglas Adams. On this day ten years ago I gathered, with my towel, with many other Hitchhiker fans, and there towels. We sassed that hoppy Douglas Adams. There was a frood who really knew where his towel was? And here he is to explain just why that is so important. So join me in the immortal toast. To absent friends. So long...and thanks for all the fish.
As it becomes clearer every day that Greece can not repay its debts, many obervers are missing the point about what this means for the rest of the Eurozone. Far from Germany being the virtuous party in the Eurozone, they have committed some serious mistakes and may, in time end up becoming the largest victim of a Eurozone pile-up. The fact is that while German industry has grown in efficiency and regained its position as an export power house, German banking remains weak, overprotected and distorted. Most people will know of the large German banks that operate internationally: Deutsche Bank ...
i) broadcast anniversaries 25 May 1968: broadcast of fifth episode of The Wheel in Space. The Doctor fights back against the Cybermen, and sends Jamie and Zoe on a dangerous spacewalk. 25 May 1974: broadcast of fourth episode of Planet of the Spiders. Tommy is healed by the crystal, but Sarah and then the Doctor are captured by the spiders. ii) date specified in canon 25 May 1977: the Sixth Doctor and Frobisher attend the opening of Star Wars (in David McIntee's 1998 novel, Mission: Impractical).
For eighteen months, I have been lacking somewhat in inspiration for any kind of real photography; yes, I have happily wielded my mobile at anything worth snapping - but I have not picked up a camera and been out shooting for far too long. A few weeks ago, Rob mentioned he had a small pile of expired black-and-white film, and didn't know what to do with it. Rob, who I spent every weekend with in 2005, the two of us stalking the streets of Manchester after dark with our cameras and tripods; I'd get a late bus in and meet ...
I can't help but smell a rat over the current media furore over superinjunctions. It started out perfectly honourably, with a genuine freedom of speech issue surrounding Trafigura. Clearly a company which had been caught dumping toxic waste should not be able to hide behind a legal nicety reserved solely for the wealthy. But what was clearly a debate about the right to report issues which are clearly in the public interest has descended into a terribly English furore about where footballers stick their winkies. Is an important principle of law really being defended right now, or is this little ...
TweetThis is the second guest blog upon the subject of Roger Helmer, this time from the perspective of a Conservative party member. Anthony Cooper is 20 years old, a politics student at Portsmouth University, One Nation Conservative,Conservative Party Member and a Reformist. He can be found tweeting at @Coopster_1991 Not happy with his comments made earlier in the year about trying to convert Homosexuals into "normal people", Roger Helmer MEP is back in the news with his latest disgusting, disgraceful and prejudiced remarks on Rape cases. Let me first be clear, for me rape does not come into categories. If ...
The Turkish and Kurdish communities together form one of the UK's largest ethnic minority groups — some 400,000 people, by some counts, a high percentage of them concentrated in North London boroughs such as Enfield, Hackney and Haringey. For the past five years, they have had a free bilingual Turkish/Kurdish newspaper 'Telgraf' to serve them, covering both UK ...
