What's wrong with Football's world governing body Fifa is fairly self-evident from the outside of the organisation. A aging elite, far too satisfied with the prestige and power of their positions, entirely out of touch and unaccountable to the people the organisation serves. As a result it appears corruption has been allowed to thrive. World football is diminished and tainted. The House of Lords and Parliament by association has been in entirely the same boat, albeit far closer to reform than Fifa. Although only peer, Lord Taylor of Warwick has been jailed for expenses fraud, it should be noted that ...
Twitter announced their follow button earlier today. Just so you don't feel left out, it's now installed on FlockTogether. Follow @flocktogether
Coming up for 3 years ago on www.dundeewestend.com, I mentioned the various versions of the classic song "You don't know me" and invited views on which version is best. Out of the blue, I received this rather late entry in my in-box yesterday! "I appreciate Elvis's version of "You don't know me" and Willie Nelson's as well. However, my favorite by far is the version by Mickey Gilley. I may have a bias due to the fact that this is the first version that I remember hearing and at a time when it had some meaning in my life. If ...
Robert Humm is one of Britain's more individual secondhand bookshops, occupying the old station master's house at Stamford (the station is still very much open) and specialising in transport and industrial history. They once obtained a copy of Eric Tonks's Snailbeach District Railways (some years before the recent reprint) when other shops were telling me it was unobtainable. That said, today I bought Martin Smith's fascinating Stamford Myths and Legends there.
Good evening out door knocking tonight. This is me with Councillors Erica Kemp and Tom Morrison. People really appreciated us calling. We got round loads of doors although my feet are very tired now.
Well as you are no doubt now aware the leadership of the Liberal Democrat group on Cambridgeshire County Council has now passed from Fiona Whelan on to Kilian Bourke.Fiona stood down after suffering months of back pain so she can concerntrate on getting better and our group elected Kilian as our new leader.Did we use AV? Yes. Well. Kind of. Our formal policies call for us to use the Single Transferrable Vote (STV) system as defined by the electoral reform society when we run elections. It's pretty indistinguishable from AV.The three candidates were David Jenkins (Histon and Impington), Lucy Nethsingha ...
Well, they only went and did it! Swansea City are in the Premier League! On Sunday I blogged here about the journey ahead of me and my first ever visit to Wembley - and it didn't let me down! Bus No.18 Having stayed overnight with my friend Chris, our 8-strong group of 'the boys' met at 6.30am yesterday morning and made our way to the Liberty Stadium. There were 76 buses waiting in line to take a vast number of the 40,000 fans travelling to London and ours was number 18. It was pretty full but as we'd all arrived ...
No point beating about the bush, if you want to find several handful of Liberal Democrat Parliamentarians who I think are wrong just look to the Liberal Democrat benches in the House of Lords where, as today's news showed, there is a very large minority opposed to introducing elections for the upper house. Despite Lords reform having been a long-standing Liberal Democrat (and before that both SDP and Liberal Party) policy, despite the party being in a coalition committed to Lords reform (a pretty remarkable opportunity when you consider the Conservative Party's traditional view), despite Liberal Democrat party leaders having ...
I always like to keep an eye on what other councils are doing to see if there are things I can learn from. Or avoid! I noticed today that one of the first decisions of Newcastle City Council which was run by the Lib Dems before the May elections but is now run by Labour was to to reinstate neighbourhood warden posts. This sounds like a popular move - but on balance a rather foolish one. Crime fell when Lib Dems were in control of Newcastle and the administration was nationally-recognised for the way in which the Council and the ...
It was announced today that there will be a meeting of the North Whitley Neighbourhood Action Group on 7 July. The meeting will be held at the South Reading Community Centre on Northumberland Avenue from 7pm. My Lib Dem colleagues and I have actively supported local Neighbourhood Action Groups (NAGs) in the ward since they were first set up a few years ago. I am a founder member of the North Whitley NAG and I have worked hard to give strong backing to the selfless residents who have chaired the meetings and taken the minutes! However, I have always been acutely aware that many people suffer ...
As a lifelong manchester United Supporter, I have to admit that the better team won on Saturday. Before the game kicked off most experts had them down as clear favourites. It's always disappointing when your team loses a cup final, but in this case it was less so. The match was played in good spirit without the usual bullying of the referee. In fact I thought the referee was one of the best performers on the pitch! If United are the best team in England this match provided evidence of the gulf there is between the standard of play in ...
The new issue of Liberator is on its way to subscribers, so it must be time for this blog to visit Bonkers Hall again. I don't know about you, but I find these modern-day scandals awfully dull. Who cares if [redacted] has been playing fast and loose with [redacted], if you have no idea who [redacted] is? In fact, I am not sure I would recognise [redacted] if he walked into the Bonkers Arms either. How different things were in the past! Harold Macmillan's daughter Sarah turned out not to be his daughter at all but to have been fathered ...
From PoliticsHome: The Electoral Commission has said it has not launched a formal investigation into Chris Huhne's expenses, but that it is reviewing the facts of the case after a complaint was made. A spokesman for the Commission told PoliticsHome: "We received these allegations regarding Chris Huhne's election expenses on 25 May and following an initial assessment of that complaint, we have now started a review into the matter. "That review would look to establish the facts of the case to see whether it merits an investigation." The spokesman said the review would only examine facts, not whether any wrongdoing ...
No, your eyes aren't deceiving you, nor is your computer upside down. We're experimenting with reversing the order of comments so the most recent appears top of the list under each post rather than the oldest. That's a popular choice on other sites though by no means universal. Do let us know what you think of our experiment.
Underworld is not the most highly regarded of Doctor Who stories. You'll know this if you've read my critique of it in the Myths and Legends DVD set, or watched it yourself and thought, 'Oh.' Despite starring the bloke in the scarf, the woman in the leather bikini and the tin dog, despite pirating Greek myths, despite its starting point of a hundred-thousand-year Quest, it's all just a bit dull. So I may be pushing my luck to return to it so soon (particularly after more of The Time Monster), but here's a look at how it might have been ...
Saturday: No, I'm getting confused with that OTHER Doctor Who episode where they nearly use one of Mr Ben's titles and the Doctor goes {spoiler deleted}*1 at the end: "Remembrance Tanks of the Daleks". THIS is the one where {spoiler deleted}*2 turns out to have been {spoiler deleted}*3 shaped by {spoiler deleted}*4. Hang on...that's INTERFERENCE again... Anyway, it CAN'T be the Daleks, because the Mr Moffster has announced that he's AXING them. Apparently this ISN'T because of the reaction to his Dalek redesign but because they've been defeated, like, four-hundred times. IRONICALLY, their last adventure was "Victory of the Daleks". ...
Rather lost in the glamour of the Obama visit last week was the meeting of the G8, and the decisions that came form that meeting, many of which were cited by David Cameron in his final press conference of the event last Friday. The first thing to note, and something that seemed to be underreported over the ...
Below is the rather lengthy text of the Leader's rebuttal message to Councillors as a result of the credit card saga which has engulfed the Tory-led administration at Cornwall Council for the last few days. Much has been said and written about this affair, so I think it only fair to allow the Leader's response ...
This'll just be a quick post because I'm revising for an Operating Systems exam tomorrow. I don't normally do online petitions, but given that this one is going to the United Nations in an attempt to finally end the war on drugs, and has some serious weight behind it, I'm going to get onboard in the hope that it might do something. Avaaz is running a campaign to end this frightful waste of money, sign it here and get your friends to do the same. This could be a huge step in the right direction for civil liberties worldwide. The ...
There's a new front in Australia's climate wars - the battle of the frames. Actress Cate Blanchett has appeared in a TV advert to urge her fellow Australians to back the Gillard government's proposed carbon tax. But Tony Abbott, leader of the Liberal Party (that's conservative in Australia) weighed in with this comment: "People who are worth $53m have a right to be heard - but their voice should not be heard ahead of the ordinary working people of this country." And this: "You do not give special weight to celebrities . . . ''You do not give special weight ...
You can watch Chris here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXsz5Y5Md9Q
Monkey not listening Following a health debate at the April meeting of Cambridge City Council, Council Leader Sian Reid issued an invitation to attend a public debate on the government's health 'reforms' to both the city's MPs, Julian Huppert and Andrew Lansley. Cambridge City MP, Julian Huppert accepted the invitation very quickly, but nearly two months later, we still await a response from the Rt Hon Andrew Lansley, MP for South Cambridgeshire (into which Queen Edith's falls) but better known as Secretary of State for Health and the architect of the government's planned changes to health service commissioning. This is ...
Bring on the salacious details, cry out the public. After all, we've been trained to see gossip as a commercially viable transaction with a variety of positive outcomes. The feeling of elitism of knowing the details of one affair to another is apparently unrivalled as another Tweeter launches titbits of social currency into the world wide web. The value is measured by his Klout, his audience
Here is a Satement regarding the Council's consultation on how we house returning service men and women. People leaving the armed forces could be given a boost in their bid to find a new home by the City of Edinburgh Council. Many ex-service personnel find it difficult to get Council or registered social landlord housing once they leave as they have been living abroad or in service accommodation. However Councillors have now agreed for consultation to take place so the length of time people have served could be given the same importance as the amount of time others have spent ...
On Saturday, Paul Walter, who writes the fabulous Liberal Burblings blog, wrote a post criticising the Sexy MP website, with the highly appropriate headline "Stop this stomach churning pernicious nonsense". Well, he is probably now the coolest Liberal Democrat blogger after his comments were picked up by Radio 1's Newsbeat website. It's now third most popular read item on the BBC News Front Page. I'm concerned that the quotes from inside the Westminster Bubble seem to suggest that this is all a great laugh. Actually, I think it's degrading and dehumanising. If you are one of those people laughing at ...
I'm doing a lot of listening, a lot of learning from my fellow Lib Dem Councillor's...especially those who've been on the authority for a long time; they are like mentors
Just eleven days after Scottish Labour announced their new front bench team, they have been plunged into turmoil as Malcolm Chisholm resigns. Malcolm Chisholm was their education and life long learning spokesman. Malcolm Chisholm said he reconsidered his position after failing to be appointed by his party as convener of Holyrood's health committee. A Labour spokesman said: "Iain Gray asked Malcolm Chisholm to use his experience and ability in the shadow cabinet and he had agreed to do so. "He has since reconsidered and changed his mind." Ken Macintosh has taken his place as education spokesman while Patricia Ferguson becomes ...
The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be brought to you by zerox in four parts without commercial interruption, The revolution will not be televised. Gil Scott-Heron's dad was the first black player to sign for Celtic. Look it up. Whilst this is about the only notable connection this now sadly deceased (as of this weekend) exponent of the proto-hiphop underground Manhattan music scene had to Scotland, these lyrics could at full stretch have a message to those Parliamentarians who now find themselves on the opposition benches at Holyrood: Even if you hatch a plan for the ...
Michael discovers his most listened to songs and artists as he starts to explore Last.FM following the recommendation of his friend Phil O'Kane
Governments often pursue brave, bold new policies. But genuinely brave Government isn't always about acting; it's about listening, understanding and acting. And it's also about admitting when you haven't got it right. You'd have to have been living on another planet not to know that we have "paused" the Health and Social Care Bill. Our Sheffield conference made it perfectly clear that Liberal Democrats will not sign up to proposals without changes. We understand that this has to be much more than superficial tinkering. The message has been received loud and clear: only substantial changes will do. And that's exactly ...
I'm not a poshist; some of my friends are posh. And what good chaps they are, even though some of them are girls; in an earlier age they'd be referred to as the officer class and be the first into battle, no matter the odds. However, I am greatly amused by the rearguard action currently ...
The Times poll today showing that the majority of peers are not only opposed to Lords reform but feel it would be "unconstitutional" to proceed without their blessing begs an important question: in a country without a codified constitution, what on earth is "constitutional" anyway? Where the peers may have a point is that when the courts looked at the Parliament Act's applicability with regard to the Hunting Act in 2005, there was a suggestion by some Law Lords that judges might be able to strike down attempts to use the Parliament Act to affect constitutional changes. Of course, this ...
Who would've thought that 140 characters could limit the in depth discussions of geopolitics and abstract ideas? Much appreciation to a Twitter follower, called Sophie, who is responsible for myself pondering the concept of Europe. Jeremy Rifkin wrote an excellent ... Continue reading →
Television. Television pictures are made of a series of dots. Standard definition TV is about 580 lines by 780 columns, meaning your crystal clear picture is actually a grid of about 450000 dots, in red green and blue. Sit too close and you can see the dots that the picture is made up of- it's ...
In one of my previous "day jobs" I used to deal with bug reports for a major application. While there was the odd genuine problem or poorly designed bit of UI, the majority of the "bugs" were PEBCAK – aka people so unbelievably dense they couldn't work out that print button does nothing if you didn't have a printer attached to your machine... We're now seeing the same sort of problems in the QR space. Marketeers are using them without any really thought of how or if they work. It doesn't need to be this way. There are some simple ...
Today's Daily Mail caries a story bizarre even by that publication's usual standards. So bizarre that I was not prepared to believe it until I had obtained verification from another source. But it is true. A secondary school in Glasgow has changed its school uniform regulations and in order to frighten parents itno complying has ...
Last month's Total Politics magazine featured a profile of Liberal Democrat Armed Forces Minister, Nick Harvey. The piece looks at Nick's life before politics, his time as a pre-coalition MP, and the various issues that now end up on his desk as a minister in the Department of Defence. Here's a sample: "This is a difficult and challenging time for the Ministry of Defence and it's vital that we meet the needs of our service personnel," said Nick Harvey following his appointment as Minister for the Armed Forces in May 2010. At a time of unprecedented budgetary constraints it promises ...
This morning, just a month late, the details of who will sit on the new Local Enterprise Partnership Board were announced. As expected, the private sector has a majority but what was unexpected is that this majority does not simply rest on the Chairman's casting vote. The decision to have six private sector members and five from the public sector is a strange one given what was said before the announcement. From the public sector, the names are: Cllr Alec Robertson, Leader of Cornwall Council Cllr Chris Ridgers, Cabinet Member for the Economy Cllr Robin Teverson, former MEP Philip Hygate, ...
Sean McGlinchey Double jobbing MP and MLA for East Londonderry Gregory Campbell had the call to object to the new Sinn Féin mayor of Limivady Sean McGlinchey by saying: "It doesn't lend itself towards a party committed to looking to the future whenever Sinn Féin keep appointing people who are a very stark reminder of the past." He goes on to say: "If we saw some remorse, regret or apology for what they did in the past that would be a start but we haven't seen any of those things." Now surely keeping raking up someone's past is just as ...
The ongoing row over allegations of corruption at FIFA and the current election process of current FIFA president Sepp Blatter may seem like a joke to many of us in Britain. But what I have found interesting is how little response to these allegations there has been from outside of the UK. Yes Australia and the USA are not happy about the selection process for the bid winners. But English speaking countries share similar views on corruption to us here in the UK. There is a cultural difference being shown here. Fact is that while corruption happens in Britain, it ...
Another one bites the dust. This time a peer is jailed. Basically, Lord Taylor lived in Ealing, West London but actually claimed his main residence was in fact in Oxford. The property in Oxford was owned by his nephew. He pleaded not guilty to the charges - saying had been told by senior peers it was normal practice to make false expenses claims - but was convicted in January. His legal team argued that he should not face prison because, as a peer, his crimes were less serious than those of MPs found guilty over their expenses. They said a ...
TweetSometime in the last week or so, a Lib Dem Peer Baroness Hussein-Ece tweeted the following "Help. Trapped in a queue in chav land. Woman behind me explaining latest EastEnders plot to mate while eating largest bun I've ever seen", it's provoked somewhat of a storm in a teacup with the Political Scrapbook picking up on it, and now Polly Toynbee the archetypal champaign socialist has pitched in in a guardian article. However, she is dead wrong in her view on chavs and class abuse. The Storm in a tea-cup created by Baroness Hussein-Ece is in my opinion completely unjustified ...
Two Planning Committee site visits originally scheduled for Monday 20th June 2011 have now been rearranged to Thursday 16th June. This is because the original date of Monday 20th June 2011 clashed with the "Flay a Flag ceremony". 10 a.m. – APP/00065 – TOWNFIELD CLOSE, CLAUGHTON, CH43 9JW – Demolition of existing petrol filling station ...
Cambridge MP Julian Huppert will meet head teachers, school governors and other education officials on Friday (May 20) in his fight to get more government funding for schools across the county. Julian will discuss the issue with members of the Cambridgeshire Schools Forum with the intention of lobbying the government for a better deal for the county under the new national funding formula for schools. Cambridgeshire schools are among the worst funded in the county with each pupil receiving £438 less a year than the national average. If the county were brought into line, Cambridgeshire County Council would have an ...
MP Julian Huppert will meet head teachers, school governors and other education officials on Friday (May 20) in his fight to get more government funding for schools across the county. Julian will discuss the issue with members of the Cambridgeshire Schools Forum with the intention of lobbying the government for a better deal for the county under the new national funding formula for schools. Cambridgeshire schools are among the worst funded in the county with each pupil receiving £438 less a year than the national average. If the county were brought into line, Cambridgeshire County Council would have an extra ...
One of the things that was drummed into me by my first OU psychology tutor back in 2007 when I did DSE212 was that you shouldn't talk about "proof" when you really mean "evidence". She was right, of course – not even experimental psychology "proves" anything, it just generates evidence that something is probably (or probably not) the case. You reject the null hypothesis, rather than accepting the experimental hypothesis and this distinction is an important one. So it was nice to be temporarily back in the world of mathematical absolutes last night when I attended the Exeter University Theatre ...
Good letter on Lords reform last week from Stuart Bonar in Liberal Democrat News. If you agree with Stuart, why not also send a letter for publication to Liberal Democrat News on ldn@libdems.org.uk? You can also sign up to support the grassroots Liberal Democrats for Lords Reform campaign on Facebook.
Canvassing yesterday in Harrow brought to mind one of my favourite political cartoons, by Chris Radley from the 1980s, which still says an awful lot about politics in just two panels: Chris Radley was the cartoonist for the SDP's weekly newspaper, the Social Democrat, for many years and his work was featured by the Journal of Liberal History in 2003.
Exactly 100 years ago today the hull of the second Olympic class vessel to be built on Queen's Island in Belfast loomed large under its Arrol Gantries and over the former Lord Mayor of Belfast William Pirrie, Chairman of Harland and Wolff. He gave the order from the head of the slipway, "Release the triggers"and 62 seconds later the 882ft length of the RMS Titanic's hull, without her upper decks, funnels and engines on board had slid into the water of the River Lagan. Titanic was first afloat and apart from a few short weeks in dry dock in early ...
From the BBC: Ex-Tory peer Lord Taylor of Warwick has been jailed for 12 months for falsely claiming £11,277 in parliamentary expenses. The 58-year-old claimed travel costs between his Oxford home and Westminster, as well as subsistence for staying in London. He said he had made the false claims "in lieu of a salary", and had been acting on the advice of colleagues. Lord Taylor pleaded not guilty to the charges, but was convicted in January. Read the full story at the BBC News website.
Yesterday, George Potter blogged about the need for the Liberal Democrats to have a radical manifesto for the 2015 General Election. Today he sets out his suggested themes: I suggest that we limit our 2015 manifesto to two main themes. The first should be the proper implementation of community politics – and we need to emphasise what this means. Community politics is not just a strategy for winning elections; it is a philosophy for empowering communities and giving people control over their lives. It is about giving people freedom from dependence on the council, and the government and the rest. ...
Do you know this man? Hi there... Following this post over on LJ_UK I thought I'd try to help out the original poster. If you can't be bothered to click on the link this is what they had to say: If anyone knows this man, they should send him this photo. I was attempting to take a picture of a tasty restaurant next to Hampton Court Palace earlier today and this man struck a pose. Not sure who he is, but I think he deserves this photo as he is clearly awesome. So does anyone know? If not please try ...
What on Earth is David Miliband planning? His twitter account is abundant with travels to Pakistan and meeting government officials; commenting on foreign affairs and providing advice to ministers' on Afghanistan. Recent television interviews demonstrate his vast knowledge, and strength, ... Continue reading →
Nick Clegg, you may have noticed, has come in for a bit stick recently. To dismiss it as just about tuition fees, or just about working with the Conservatives, is too simplistic. While his decisions on both these issues undoubtedly made him unpopular with large parts of the electorate, in my opinion the 'Cleggophobia' goes ...
I was intrigued to see a blog called Political Parry claiming that, on his recent state visit to the UK: "Obama did not mention Palestine/Israel at all in his speeches, and neither did Cameron. It would have had an effect on their "essential relationship"." I have attempted to post a comment on Political Parry to explain that this is not true - the President and the Prime Minister amply mentioned Israel/Palestine at their joint press conference; Mr Obama also mentioned it in his speech to Parliament. For the record, at the press conference, President Obama said: And at a time ...
A North West England Euro-MP has finally succeeded in persuading the European Parliament that it must insist upon members accounting for their expenditure. Liberal Democrat Chris Davies has been a long standing campaigner for financial transparency in the use of ... Continue reading →
Tue 31st
11:07
Wirral Council - Wirral Council 23rd May 2011 - Part 16 - speech (Cllr Steve Foulkes) on being made ...
He said they can do better. Cllr Foulkes was "truly honoured and privileged", however he suggested they get together to deal with the nuts and bolts. His first act as leader was to make Cllr Phil Davies the Deputy Leader and Cabinet member for Regeneration. This way they could be good cop/bad cop. He thanks ...
Has Chris Morris been writing today's news? The Daily Mail heads a story this morning: School orders pupils to wear baggy clothes 'to deter paedophiles who like boys in tight trousers' What appears to have happened is that King's Park Secondary School in Glasgow has introduced strict new uniform regulations and, in an attempt to ensure parental support for them, has decided to whip an entirely unjustified paedophile scare. According to the report police say there have been no incidents of schoolchildren in the area being targeted. I suppose that if the school is determined to choose its uniform on ...
Tue 31st
10:51Wirral Council - Wirral Council 23rd May 2011 - Part 15 - speech (Cllr Steve Foulkes) on being made ...
He then went on to discuss in-house bids for council services and how that they've got to run things more efficiently. This had been somehow bypassed by people drafted in. He asked Cllr Kelly what was wrong with Overview and Scrutiny Committees being ambassadors and going to the public? This way they would get a ...
Tue 31st
10:40Wirral Council - Wirral Council 23rd May 2011 - Part 14 - speech (Cllr Steve Foulkes) on being made ...
Cllr Foulkes said that the Notice of Motion of Cllr Gilchrist was very good and mentioned a serious review of SIGOMA (The Special Interest Group of Municipal Authorities within the LGA). He then went onto mention the changes to how business rates are distributed and said "when we work together we can achieve a great ...
Nursing a sprained ankle, I am finding it a little tedious to get about- hobbling across the cobbles of the Old Town of Tallinn, I wonder if the large number of Finnish tourists drinking beer for breakfast in the the Town Hall Square are simply used to Quasimodo impressions. Although it is said that swearing releases the pain, I think that this is a frankly rather debatable point. Mind you each time I jar my ankle I certainly test the theory. One thing is for sure, I am in a rather irritated mood. I suppose this is why instead of ...
I am not a football fan, nor indeed a fan of any other sport (though I did once win a cup and several spoons at dinghy racing) but two football matches over the past weekend have interested me. One was the match between Manchester United and Barcelona, where I hoped Barcelona would win, which they did. This may sound disloyal, but I prefer to see the team owned and run for the benefit of its supporters and the sport to succeed over one run for profit by an American or Russian (I'm not sure which) billionaire. In addition I understand ...
Southwark Council has been piloting a food waste recycling scheme and fortnightly rubbish collections involving 10,000 homes for many months now. It has been undertaken on homes with direct access to its street and this type of waste collection has been undertaken – not much to learn from this. Unsurprisingly having chosen the keenest recyclers for the pilot its been a success. At a review with the Environmental Scrutiny Committee it has been agreed to my proposals to try offering blue recycling wheelie bins – sadly only to homes in Crebor Street which feels like tokenism – and to extend ...
It speaks!: on being a woman and an activist « Another angry woman Fabulous, fabulous article on benevolent sexism (tags: feminism) Abortion needs to be taught in our medical schools : Pharyngula Terrifying, terrifying story of the logical end point of letting people like Life and Nadine Dorries dictate your sexual health policy. (tags: feminism usa) The Daily Mash - Government sexual health adviser to be hatchet-faced old bag One of those satirical pieces that would be funnier if it wasn't so close to the truth. (tags: funny) Cameron, Clarke, Dorries, Willetts... The Tories keep screwing up on gender equality ...
Oh, wow. Isn't Twitter marvellous? See when you make a total arse of yourself, all you need to do is get on Twitter 24 hours later and say sorry and all will be well with the world. I'm not sure that's quite how it works, Lewis Hamilton. The McLaren F1 driver, who has over the years habitually blamed others and never himself when things go wrong, has lied to stewards to gain a place at the end of a race, who has driven recklessly on track and put others in danger ranted at the stewards after Sunday's Monaco Grand Prix. ...
I suspect most of you with a bit of interweb nous will have been monitoring the Mr Monkey proceedings recently. If not a quick run down is that Mr Monkey is the man (or men) behind a blog (and subsequent twitter feeds) that basically revealed interesting tidbits about South Tyneside Council and the councillors on said council. Seemingly other members of the council weren't too keen on some of the things he/they wrote and promptly decided to sue the people behind the blog and twitter feeds. That is all fine and dandy. However... Instead of doing it in their private ...
Tonight, at 9 p.m., a conference call will take place between Paul Burstow, Minister of State for Health, and the English Regional Chairs (plus, I'm delighted to see, young Thomas Hemsley as the English Convenor of Liberal Youth). And, as our Regional Chair, the lovely and fragrant Julie Smith, can't make it, I'm standing in for her. But I need your help. I'm not an expert on health issues, and I'm not a policy wonk. So, there is an opportunity for someone, anyone, to effectively ask Paul a question. I will, if possible, put it to Paul, and report back ...
The developers have provided a website, which gives some clues as to what they intend. Any feedback gratefully received. http://www.thelondonroadproject.co.uk/
[IMG: Funny Pictures - Cute Kittens] see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!
The Electoral Commission has this past week published the latest donation and borrowing figures for the political parties, showing that the Lib Dems raised £810,029 in the first three months of this year. (At the foot of this post is the full breakdown of cash and non-cash donations received by quarter since 2005, and annually between 2001 and 2004.) By comparison, the party raised just £219,915 in the first quarter of 2006 (the equivalent stage of the parliamentary cycle), suggesting a far more sustainable level of fundraising success is being achieved; although the party has been hit very hard since ...
I feel somewhat vindicated by the current situation in Libya. I have been voracious in my insistence Nato and UN should not have gone in to the conflict, and instead should have adopted diplomatic relations. President Zuma has proved me right as he visited Gaddafi this weekend. Gaddafi has agreed to ceasefire. But the rebels have declined. Of course the rebels have declined. They have an
The Olympic drama bubbles on over tickets. There was significant success in getting the Olympic park up and running within budget. We're all grateful for that. However, the continuing farce over tickets is a quagmire of issues. The obscure process of applying, having money taken and then finding out what you got is completely illogical. It offends the very British love of queues, is complex
Germany's announcement yesterday to close Nuclear reactors was met with a literal cheer in my house yesterday. One of the greatest acheivements in the UK Coalition was the proposal the government would no longer fund Nuclear power. The dangers of the plants are in peoples' minds with the Fukushima crisis in Japan. People with slightly longer memories will recognise the threats Sellarfield and
The Western Mail also leads on the Swans and nobody would want it any other way. However, I was intriqued by a small item tucked away at the botton of page 17, which does not (yet) appear on-line. The paper tells us that more than 40,000 people in Wales no longer pay income tax, with the country's population amongst the biggest winners from last months's tax changes. They go on to explain that a £1,000 cash increase in the personal allowance for under-65s to £7,475 in 2011-12 was announced in the June 2010 budget and came into force last month. ...
It's hard to avoid the ubiquitous Cheryl Cole; she's in the broadsheets, on Radio 4 and everywhere else you chose to look. In spite of representing the very worst of popular culture, some sort of capitalist dream that is exploited until the world moves on, she is in the forefront of the British public's minds. The question is, what is the purpose in her extravagant media presence in the last
It was a fantastic, nail-biting match yesterday in which Swansea City Football Club did the City proud. How important is this success to the City? It is massive. The South Wales Evening Post sums it up in a banner at the bottom of its front page: 'Swans, Swans, and more Swans - see pages 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 & 12 PLUS our 12-page Post Match pullout' There is no other news in Swansea and that is how it should be.
Tue 31st
07:43
Last day of free parking in The Centre, Livingston - help save shop workers from £40 per month...
Imagine if you were suddenly hit with an extra £40 a month charge that you weren't expecting. How would you cope with that? In this climate, when many haven't had a pay rise and costs are rising seemingly exponentially? From tomorrow, that's exactly what will happen to shop workers at The Centre in Livingston when parking charges are introduced. It's hard to argue against charges for the public, to be honest. And I doubt they'll deter people from shopping. If you're going to spend a hundred quid on clothes or spectacles or whatever, the 50p or £1 it'll cost you ...
i) births and deaths 31 May 1983: birth of Reggie Yates who played Martha's brother Leo in the 2007 series of Doctor Who. ii) broadcast anniversaries 31 May 1969: broadcast of seventh episode of The War Games. The Doctor and friends start a rebellion, capturing the 1917 chateau from General Smythe. 31 May 2008: broadcast of Silence in the Library; first appearance of Alex Kingston as River Song. The Doctor and Donna meet a team of archaeologists exploring a planet-sized library, and endangered by the Vashta Nerada. One more month to go in this project. We have made a start ...
