That's a genuine question. I don't understand. He's crass and offensive and racist and sexist... But somehow it's endearing, when in anybody else it would be appalling. Perhaps it's because he's slightly unreal; a caricature of all things that are offensive and awful about very posh people, and somehow he comes out of the other side of awful and reaches some glorious sunlit upland of comedy inappropriateness... I'm watching Have I Got News For You and in every clip of the Obama visit it's Philip that makes it, from him pointing and laughing at his OWN SON'S combover flapping in ...
I've been rather busy. Yesterday with all the family we went on the Titanic Walking Tour this is a part of our history that Belfast is coming to terms with. We here now say "She [Titanic] was alright when she left here." Indeed she first left from here, of which more will follow. I then had some discussions with Michael, before heading out for a drink (or several) at the continental market, almost a year to the day since we first had a proper chat in the same venue, then across the road at the Appartment. I had to ensure ...
Much of this is crossposted from a shorter article on Exhibitfiles. And geez, my language when writing for exhibit developers is overly formal. I'll work on that. For more information on any of the science I allude to here, check out my post How the Biggest Dinosaurs Became When I first realised that the latest exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History was going to feature a video in the centre of an open space, my heart sank. I envisioned a room of noise, with exhibits competing with each other, and the video in the centre always audible and ...
I liked the first five minutes of that. Then the continuity errors started annoying me - how many ( Spoilers ) - then ( Spoilers ) annoyed me. Then ( Spoilers ) looking like ( Spoilers ) really annoyed me. Then the Doctor ( Spoilers ). He's spent the entire two-parter telling us that ( Spoilers ), that ( Spoilers ), that ( Spoilers ), that ( Spoilers )... And then he ( Spoilers ). I'd figured out that ( Spoilers ), and was wondering how they would resolve it, but I never, never thought they would do it like ...
TweetWithout going into to much detail, as most of the best of it can be found here, Nadine Dorries recently had a 10 minute rule bill passed in regards to abstinence for girls. It was all pretty disgusting. However looking at the list of members that voted for it, I spotted 2 Labour Party members, quite shockingly. One of them was none other than Ronnie Campbell, MP for Blyth Valley, not only was he No2AV, but he voted against the bailouts with other Conservative Party members. Is he ready to claim the title of the most conservative Labour party member? ...
This is the question I have been asking myself these last few days because frankly I am really not sure. I know he says he does regular surgeries here in the constituent but you never really hear much about them ... Continue reading →
A while ago I watched 'The Long Walk to Finchley', a BBC dramatisation about the early political career of Margaret Thatcher. One thing I remember from it is a scene where Thatcher is despairing of ever finding a winnable seat. Her husband Dennis gives her the advice to turn her greatest weakness into her greatest strength. Her perceived weakness was the fact that she was a woman and in the dramatisation she then goes on to turn this into her biggest strength. Now, this may have happened or it may not have, but it doesn't matter. The advice itself is ...
This is the first weekend since the campaign ended that I have completely and utterly to myself. I have absolutely nothing planned, except a spot of housework and some reading interspersed with slowly making my way through my presidential library ... Continue reading →
I first started thinking about the Swale 'all-out' elections of 2011 during the general election campaign last year. The awareness brought about by the campaign, plus the effects of 'Cleggmania', had resulted in a number of new members and interest and I was receiving many emails from people wanting to know more about the party both locally and nationally. I was especially pleased to get some interest from younger people in the Isle of Sheppey - both young people and Sheppey members are a rarity in our local party - which even gave me the idea of setting up a ...
There is well-founded concern among LGBT folk of Islamic prejudice against us. And it's a topic not without it's controversy as the East End Gay Pride fiasco showed. It's certainly something that needs more discussion and, even more importantly, action given the anti-gay poster "campaign" and the faux gay "frighten the Muslim vote" leaflets of late. However I draw the line at what I see as a "brewing" reaction among certain LGBT people; namely a desire to get back to "good old British values". It's the equivalent of a collective thought along the lines of "Bugger, look at what we've ...
The party's reorganisation of its Federal campaign team continues, with the appointment of three senior campaigns posts. Jake Holland, Shaun Roberts and Victoria Marsom are to head the three new central teams, reporting to Hilary Stephenson as Director of Elections and Skills. From a Cowley Street memo: Head of Campaign Development - Jake Holland Key Objectives: to research, test and deliver cutting edge campaign techniques and to maximise uptake through a well planned and coordinated training and support system. Head of Ground Communications - Shaun Roberts Key Objectives: to develop effective messages, visualisation and artwork for ground communications, to fully ...
More than four score Heads of Mission from the diplomatic community in London gathered at the Hyatt Regency London – The Churchill hotel for the 2011 awards from Diplomat Magazine, for which I write regularly. As Diplomat's publisher, Hugo de Blocq van Kuffeler, pointed out in his speech, 'despite the conveniences of modern technology, the tact, ...
I felt the stories in this annual had a slightly more didactic edge to them than usual - bringing peace through negotiations, diagrams of how osmosis works, a story about exporting criminals from which Tegan is mysteriously absent. No comic strip, for the first time, but two pieces about Who continuity - the annual starts with a review of the five Doctors so far and there's a quiz as well - and an interview with two of the designers. And the Brigadier seems to have rejoined UNIT (Turlough is also in that story, "The Nemertines", so it's definitely set after ...
Sage Construction reports: The Green Investment Bank is set to be a "transformational institution", Transform UK ["the home of the Green Investment Bank campaign"] has claimed. Following deputy prime minister Nick Clegg's recent speech on the establishment, programme director for Transform UK Ed Matthew welcomed the news that investment opportunities will be open from April 2012. However, he noted that there are a number of points that need to be addressed. "The key thing is to have a process where they confirm that the bank will have the power to borrow from the capital markets and not just the treasury," ...
A necessary period of reflection following the disastrous AV Referendum. My own modest campaigning efforts included a stint on a stall in Broadway Market E8. Campaigning alongside "Yes to AV" Tory, Green and Labour representatives. This revealed a distinct difficulty in explaining the proposed (and major compromise) system of AV to voters, but also exposed the voter-cynicism manifested in "why should I bother to turn out at all; politicians, they're all the same; makes no difference to me; blah blah blah ..". Although our best efforts in Hackney clearly paid off, with the (very small) consolation prize of being a ...
There's a great tradition of big things happening in the Middle East in the middle of the Liberal Democrat party conference, nicely timed to disrupt the best laid conference plans of Lib Dem Friends of Israel. Good to think that there's nothing much likely to happen in the region this September, then...Well do I remember being sat writing this piece in 2007, when I saw this news story on the BBC website, about Israel declaring "the Gaza Strip a "hostile entity" in response to the continued rocket attacks by Palestinian militants there." Although I very much doubt that this news ...
As a small child, I lived about a mile away from where Baby P, or Peter Connelly as we were later to know him, lived and died. Just a small distance, but miles away in many ways, as my family home was in the Victorian housing of Bowes Park and, maybe more significantly, the Borough of ...
(Warning: this post contains facts and documentation. If you are of a nervous disposition and are easily confused by evidence you may wish to skip the post before posting the obligatory comment saying 'It's all spin!') There are a couple of loose ends to tidy-up from the non-emergency, non-Liberal Democrat meeting featuring a cycle lane that Harry Cole and Guido Fawkes got so wrong during the week. Getting a story wrong is, in itself, something many bloggers (including myself) have experienced. But even after having the errors in the story pointed out to him, Harry Cole has continued to try ...
This was pretty much my first exposure to the zombie apocalypse sub-genre, but I must say I rather enjoyed it; set a quarter-century after the dead rose in 2014, it is the account of a group of newsbloggers who follow a presidential campaign in a much altered America. Good marks for a vivid depiction of a paranoid environment where everyone has to submit to blood tests practically every time they enter a building, and also for the central character and narrator of most of the book, Georgia Mason, whose sardonic humour at the horror around her just makes the impact ...
It's shaping up to be an epic. Arguably two of the best club teams in world football at present will fight it out tonight for Europe's top prize - to be Champions of Europe. The current Spanish champions take on the current English champions in what will be a fitting climax to the tournament this year. The Wembley Factor The venue is also adding to the occasion. It is a venue that goes down in glorious history for both clubs. Manchester United won their first European Cup against Benfica at Wembley in 1968 whilst Barcelona won their first European Cup ...
So the Daily Telegraph figures are not completely accurate. Phew. I'm so glad that Cornwall Council probably didn't spend £650,000 on two nights in a Bangkok hotel. According to a statement put out by the Council Leader, some of the overseas figures are in local currency and not sterling. But key questions remain. How many of the figures are inaccurate? Presumably the explanation only applies to overseas transactions. Are the rest kosher? And why did the Telegraph publish incorrect figures in the first place? They only used what they were given by Cornwall Council in response to an FoI request ...
You may think that this is a rather perverse and even nonsensical statement for any Lib Dem member to make but stick with me if you will and I will explain why. For as long as I can remember, the Liberal Democrats have been the party of protest in two ways. Firstly as the safe option for a protest vote because secondly, we were seen as a party of perpetual opposition. We were the cross on the ballot paper that puts two fingers up to the government of the day without really changing the political landscape. We were the party ...
Someone came here on a search for 'when is rubbish collection day in Colchester when there is a bank holiday?' and I can tell you that next week it's one day later than your usual date. So if your waste is normally collected on a Monday, it'll be collected on Tuesday, if you normally have a Tuesday collection, it'll be on Wednesday and so on with regular Friday collections being picked up on Saturday morning. Hope that helps – for more information you can check the Council's website here.
Take that!
A Seventh Doctor novel in the New Adventures series, featuring a renegade Time Lord disguised as the head of an Oxford college and equipped with a killer android who he is using to execute the sinister plans of his horrible ally. Not quite as good as that description sounds; there are some very graphic battle sequences in the future space station to which the 1993 Oxford setting has a mysterious link, and some nice nods to Gallifreyan continuity, but it's a bit like trying to rewrite Shada as a slightly more coherent and violent novel. Decent enough but not top ...
Last night there was a fire at Arthur Cottage, Cullybackey. Arthur Cottage was the ancestral home of Chester Alan Arthur, 21st President of the United States of America. At the time of writing, the cause of the fire is not known, nor do we know if it was malicious. However, what I do know is ...
It's arguably the biggest weekend in the F1 year. It may be the slowest race of the year with the slowest corner of any race track in F1, but the Monaco Grand Priz oozes the class and most importantly for me, the history that puts a win around its famous corners as one of the most prized possessions for any Grand Prix driver. The Famous 37mph Loews Hairpin The first Grand Prix around the tight street circuit in Monte Carlo was held back in 1929 and was won by Briton William Grover-Williams in a Bugatti. The race was not ...
Here, written by my one-time co-author Noel Whelan, including this anecdote: I, along with the Northern Ireland elections expert Nicholas Whyte rushed out a Tallyman's Guide to the 2003 Northern Ireland Assembly Elections. Such was the rush that the book contained tables with columns which had not been completed. At the launch, a sharp-eyed photographer captured Garret, with his own calculations, handwriting in the missing figures to his own copy. I can absolutely confirm this and still have the photograph of Garret completing page 44:
The House of Lords is "rowdy" and "grossly inflated" because David Cameron cannot stop appointing new peers, according to Lord Harries. As reported by the Daily Telegraph, he told an audience at the Telegraph Hay Festival that the House is now full to bursting. "There is no doubt about it, the House of Lords does need reform. It's not that it doesn't work, it works very well indeed but it is now grossly inflated in terms of numbers," he said. "David Cameron is shovelling them in every week. I'm serious. There is nowhere to sit, the place has got rowdy, ...
The court's decision was that Sharon Shoesmith was unlawfully dismissed because of procedural issues. My understanding is that the court is not saying that she should or should not have lost her job, but simply that proper procedures to dismiss her were not followed. The real crux for me is that after each terrible tragedy we are always told 'lessons will be learned'. Well – one of the lessons we learned from Victoria Climbie's death (which also happened in Haringey a few years earlier) was that no one took ultimate responsibility for the failings in Haringey Council. The then Leader, ...
It is Saturday morning in Belfast and, after a day of bomb alerts yesterday, we hear from the BBC about another two shootings of young men in our country. Men injured in shootings in Belfast and Sion Mills A 22-year old man has been shot in the ankle in a so-called punishment style shooting in ...
Sat 28th
12:23
The Independent View: Alternatives to Trident replacement must include the possibility of no nuclear...
Since Liam Fox made his announcement last week that while Trident replacement design is going ahead, the Lib Dems will also be looking at alternatives, there has been a flurry of derision about the latter initiative. Most obviously this comes from Liam Fox and the hard-line pro-nuclear lobby who just want to rubbish it. But criticism of Lib Dem efforts also comes from some anti-nuclear quarters and I am not convinced that this is totally reasonable. From my point of view, it would be very easy to have a pop at the Lib Dem leadership for not backing CND's maximum ...
I was surprised to discover an amendment to the Firearms Act. Thomas Docherty (Labour Member of Parliament for Dunfermline and West) introduced a private members bill to legislate a minimum age of 14 for a shotgun license. I did not ... Continue reading →
Sat 28th
12:00
3 ways you can say no to £40 a month parking charge for Livingston's Centre shop workers
Land Securities, the company which owns The Centre shopping mall in Livingston, is, as I've written about over the last couple of days, about to introduce car parking charges for the first time. I know it's very unusual to find anywhere free parking is the norm these days, but I've lived here 11 years and never had to pay to park my car in a town where, sadly, driving is the norm as public transport is so poor. Now, I'm absolutely not complaining about having to pay to park myself. Most shoppers don't park every day and the cost to ...
The NHS is quite rightly the holy grail of British politics. What started as a twinkle in an old Liberal's eye has survived recession, bureaucracy and more than one questionable Thatcherite regime. So why now – after the struggle and change that has spanned its existence – is the NHS suddenly under threat? That's right, ...
The Daily Telegraph has splashed an extraordinary story about Cornwall Council's use of credit cards. The report reveals nearly £9 million spent on items as diverse as fish tanks, home cinema systems and disco equipment, while also detailing extraordinary levels of spending on flights and hotels – including over £300,000 on the Sky Hotel in ...
I've deleted a post from last night which was intended, I now realise obviously misguidedly, to ridicule the latest Sexy Mp website. I totally agree with Caron's post here. Young people's political ambitions are, almost invariably, shaped by role models. Shirley Williams followed Lady Astor, for example. Those role models should be held up for their passion and views, not "looks". It really is appallingly demeaning and pernicious to focus on the (highly dubious) presumed attractiveness of MPs. Many of the "high scorers" have very questionable views, for example. I am sorry I misguidedly try to ridicule the website. It ...
Best to go to the link.
The revelations in today's Telegraph about Cornwall Council's credit card spending are quite incredible. It's clear that Alec Robertson and the Tories simply haven't got a grip on how Cornish taxpayers' money is spent at a time when our budgets are being slashed. The Daily Telegraph has exposed almost £9 million of credit card spending by the Council on an extraordinary range of items from hotels and flights to fish tanks and disco equipment. Cornwall clearly uses the corporate credit card to pay for a lot more than most councils and many of the payments will be for run of ...
Over at The Holmes Report website, Lib Dem Voice's Mark Pack has a piece setting out how the Liberal Democrats should approach the issue of political reform in the wake of the substantial defeat for reformers in the AV referendum. Here's an extract from Mark's piece: It would be a mistake for Liberal Democrats (or indeed reformers in the Conservative Party's ranks) to conclude from the referendum result that all political reform should now be side-lined. The referendum No vote was not a vote of confidence in our political system. Politicians continue to be one of the least respected professions ...
About once a month I volunteer at the Heart for Abbots Langley coffee morning. My coffee and walnut sponge has become a great favourite amongst the mainly elderly clientele and I am now asked to make it every time. The secret for a moist cake is to make it really thick and for a well-risen cake to fight the curiosity ...
As we get to the end of the week and reflect on the last 7 days, let's spare a thought for the poor news management folk in Lib Dem Towers, who must be oscillating widely between a state of abject despair and wild eyed fury. Last weekend they must have been got home, poured a stiff gin and relaxed, safe in the knowledge they had two cracking agenda setting topics to lead the Lib Dem line: the launch of the Green Investment Bank and Nicks speech on NHS reforms. What's more, both popular topics were led by Nick - another ...
I am on holiday for a couple of weeks, and won't be attempting to post while away. I'll be back later. Last week has been busy, so I've not posted much – but I've got lots of ideas...
Green Bin Lady Queen Edith's councillor Jean Swanson is the new Executive Councillor for Environmental and Waste Services in Cambridge. She will be responsible for a range of council services, including street sweeping, bin collection and recycling. Jean is already a Recycling Champion and is very committed to managing our waste in a way that is as environmentally-conscious as possible. She has only been a councillor for a year, but as Queen Edith's residents know, she has been very quick to get stuck in and got to grips rapidly with being an effective ward councillor. When this executive post became ...
Why most anti-EU arguments are tosh (tags: Europe politics) Film Downloads and Streaming Rentals of LOTS of climbing movies (tags: climbing) Sexy MP dot co dot UK exactly as terrifying as it sounds. Apparently David Millibland is seventh sexiest... O_o (tags: politics scary) Blackbeard's anchor brought to surface what a marketing opportunity for the pirates of the caribbean franchise... (tags: pirates)
i) births and deaths 28 May 1935: birth of Anne Reid, who played Nurse Crane in The Curse of Fenric (1989) and Florence Finnegan in Smith and Jones (2007). 28 May 1940: birth of Frank Cox, who directed directed part 2 of The Edge of Destruction (1964) and parts 5 and 6 of The Sensorites (also 1964). 28 May 1968: birth of Kylie Minogue, who played Astrid in Voyage of the Damned. (Births also of Patricia Quinn and Faith Brown in 1944, Michelle Collins in 1963 and Carey Mulligan in 1985; much as I enjoyed their appearances in Who, they ...
At the request of residents, I recently asked the City Council about the possibility of providing plastics recycling facilities at Tesco Riverside. Many local residents have yet to be provided with the "green recycling boxes" that cater for plastics, bottles, etc and the provision of plastics recycling facilities at Tesco Riverside would be of benefit. The City Council has responded as follows : "I'm afraid we are currently unable to provide plastics recycling bins at Tesco Riverside. As I thought, this had been considered when the current bins were originally installed but could not be implemented due to issues with ...
It's been a great month for Liberal Democrats who are setting the pace on the nations 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 Deal, a comprehensive programme of energy efficiency improvements for housing and office buildings, cutting both energy bills and emissions. Householders and business will be able to see up to £10,000 invested in insulation, at no up-front cost, paying back the investment through the lower energy bills ...
Reading my twitter feed last night, amongst all the "OMG! Take That are in Sunderland" nonsense, I was surprised to see this tweet, retweeted by Sunderland Council's official account: Yes, that is a 'labourwin' hashtag on the end of that. I wasn't the only one to notice, and within a few minutes, three people had replied, and questioned the fact the City Council had RT'd a 'political' tweet. Funnily enough, the tweet was deleted from the City Council's timeline shortly afterwards, with no acknowledgement that a mistake had been made. I say mistake, as I'm charitable enough to believe it ...
Sat 28th
09:17
Want to know about what's going on with the Lib Dems? Sign up for latest edition of newsletter
[IMG: Newsletter screenshot] Issue number eight of my regular email newsletter about the Liberal Democrats is being put together by me at the moment. It will be hitting people's inboxes shortly. So if you want to be sure to receive it, sign up here now or use the form below. Not sure? Take a look at a previous edition to see the sort of thing you'll be getting (and here is my post explaining the thinking behind having this newsletter). You can unsubscribe whenever you want using the link on the bottom of all the emails, and I won't pass ...
The verdict in the latest round of Sharon Shoesmith's legal battle against her sacking has shown the dangerous path we sometimes find ourselves on when politicians pander to the mob's mentality. The death of Baby P was a tragedy for so many reasons, of which maladministration at the Council concerned was certainly one. If, after a ...
The radio has been talking about the poet and musician Gil Scott-Heron, who has died at the age of 62. I hope the obituaries will record the fact that his father played football for Glasgow Celtic.
"The Tottenham Outrage," I said at work yesterday, looking through my notebook. "What's that?" asked the writer of Arse Online, no doubt suspecting it referred to a disputed penalty award in a North London derby. Not so. Earlier this year I went to see the exhibition Churchill and the Anarchists at the Museum of London Docklands. While there I made a few notes on things to look up when I got home, and the Tottenham Outrage was one of them. The Outrage was an armed robbery and double murder carried out by two Latvian anarchists that took place in Tottenham ...
Seth Godin is probably the leading living writer on marketing and his blog is one of the most widely read. The reason he has such a local following is because of the clarity of his insights on the role of marketing in the spreading of ideas. His latest book 'All Marketers Are Liars' is about the stories we tell to sell our products, services, brands and even political candidates. If you want a deep, a really deep understanding of marketing in the 21st Century then you should read this book. It will make you think in a whole new way. ...
That is the contention of Dan Hodges one of the masterminds ( he came up with some of the worst attack ads) of NO (and a Labour supporter)
I blogged quite a bit last year about Iris Robinson so it's only fair that I cover two pieces of news concerning the BBC "Spotlight" allegations. Slugger O'Toole reports: The Deloitte report into the awarding of the Lock Keeper's Inn contract to Kirk McCambley was delivered to Castlereagh Borough Council tonight and gave everyone concerned - Iris Robinson, as well that of other councillors and council officers - a clean bill of health. Castlereagh Borough Council said: The report concluded that there was no evidence of financial loss to the council or any impropriety by council officers or members directly ...
Invertebrate Diaries: Cicada Emerging Pretty pretty timelapse video (tags: insects nathistory science) The mystery notebook | Curatorial Trainee Gina tracks down the author of a field notebook. Yay curatorial detecting! (tags: curation museums nathistory)
Wow, this was surprising news to come home to: Gil Scott-Heron has passed away. He and my friend Rory kept me going through many a retail assistant hour. Here's a man who combined speaking a message we need to hear, with music that needed to be heard. Decades it old it may be, but The Revolution Will Not Be Televised is still required listening. Here are his three utterly essential tracks: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised Whitey On The Moon Johannesberg They might not all sound relevant to the UK until you think about unfair income distributions. I'll be ...
I've been meaning to link this wonderful track for ages.
The first time I heard Long Live the Queen, it made me think of my stepdad. I spoke at his funeral, reading a humanist prayer he asked me to recite to the same effect as the song, but grief can cloud your vision, make it easy to forget that it's okay to celebrate a life lived as well as miss a life lost. I still cry regularly; I've written before about how I listen to music that reminds me of him to make my tears flow, to get my grief out in the open so that I'm not carrying it ...
