Has anyone noticed the remarkable resemblance between "Popstar to Opera star" judge Rolando Villazon and Mr Bean? Are they by chance etc etc....
Tensions have obviously been high between the Lib Dem and Labour leadership over the last few months. Perhaps it is continuing fall out from Ed's petulance during the AV referendum. Perhaps it is because Labour still don't quite understand that it is the Liberal Democrats not them on the Government benches now. Either way, as ...
From the Guardian: Lib Dem scorecard Nick Clegg claims that he has secured eleven of the 13 changes demanded by his party at its spring conference in March. This is his scorecard: 1. More democratically accountable commissioning. Secured. 2. A much greater degree of co-terminosity between local authorities and commissioning areas. Secured. 3. No decision about the spending of NHS funds to be made in private and without proper consultation, as can take place by the proposed GP consortia. Secured. 4. The complete ruling out of any competition based on price to prevent loss-leading corporate providers under-cutting NHS tariffs, and ...
One of the many advantages of not being on the road any more is that Ros and I get the pleasure of spending weekends at home, just pottering around. And, having finished the weekend's household chores, we took the opportunity to attend our local Open Farm Sunday event in neighbouring Creeting St Mary. Whitegate Farm is conveniently located just off the A140 and is a 109-acre holding, owned and managed by Jason and Katherine Salisbury. However, it is becoming increasing well-known by connoisseurs of fine dairy products as the home of Suffolk Farmhouse Cheeses, and in opening their farm up ...
Most kids would have been reading this annual, featuring the Sixth Doctor as played by Colin Baker, after the bizarre and unsettling experience of watching the new bloke in The Twin Dilemma several months before, and in the hope that in the new season due to begin in January the Doctor would start to behave, y'know, nicely. This annual would have reassured those kids; seven fairly unexceptional stories, one featuring the Master and several other Time Lords, one set in the eleventh century with a historical twist (and no sfnal elements other than the presence of the Doctor and Peri). ...
Not satisfied with the typical Mr/Mrs/Ms/Miss selection for the title field on their complaints form, TfL Buses list the following options for potential complainants to identify themselves: MsMr Mrs Miss Dr Prof Sir Not givenSo far, so reasonably normal. But it continues: Air Cdre Ambassador Baron Baroness Brig Gen Brother Canon Captain Cardinal Cllr Dr Colonel Commander Count Countess Dame Dowager Lady Duchess of Duke Earl Empress Father Fleet Admin Gen Gp Capt Hon Hon Mrs HRH Imam Judge Lady Laird Lieut Colonel Lieutenant Lord Madam Major Major General Marchioness Marquess Mayor Pastor Pc Prince Princess Rabbi Rev Rev Dr ...
I may have mentioned, I've moved to a new URLwww.politicalparry.co.ukIn case you fancy catching up on the following;Why I wore a hijab to #slutwalk LondonEd Milliband continues to fail as a Labour leaderSlutwalk London 2010Degrading Women Only in Marking Cancer AwarenessorMore on Moore and So-called Sexualisation of Children
This is one of the planters placed in part of our area this month. These were paid for out of the neighbourhood fund, a small pot of money that ward councillors decide how to spend. The money was committed before May and it's great to see the flowers here now. These were one of the items decided on by myself, Richard Oglethorpe and Peter Millea (who sadly is not a Councillor any more) I popped into the shop on Garston Old Road the other day and the shopkeeper told me that people were really made up at the difference it ...
They are nine but they seem to think they are still kittens!
This has been a week of balancing my work at Edge Hill with being a Councillor. At this point in the academic year there are all sorts of deadlines to do with marking and degree classifications so the week started off with me having to meet one of them. It's always a big relief when that is done as the students won't get their marks or their degrees if we don't get things sorted in time. Luckily for me I've got some great students and some of the marks are very impressive indeed. That done however, I had some important ...
The first pop video? This is a scene from the 1970 film Performance, starring Mick Jagger and James Fox. My Adventure Through Film explains their two characters: Chas, played by James Fox, is a violent gangster living in a rough part of East London. Though he takes great pleasure from his work, he is often not given the respect that he deserves from his boss. After carrying out a hit that was not supposed to happen, Chas leaves town to lay low for a while. This is where he meets the eccentric retired rock star, Turner ... Played by Mick ...
I have received the following email from our Head of Legal Services at the County Council;"Dear Councillor,I write to inform you of the outcome of today's Standards Committee hearing which met to consider alleged breaches, by Councillor Lister Wilson, of the Council's Members' Code of Conduct. The Standards Committee considered the evidence and found that Cllr Wilson had breached four provisions of the County Council's members' code of conduct.By way of sanction, the Committee has suspended Cllr Wilson as a County Councillor for four months, with immediate effect. Quentin BakerLGSS - Director of Legal ServicesCambridgeshire & Northamptonshire County Councils"As you ...
Well "official" is putting it a bit steep. "Raker" and "discus/javelin picker upper" would be more accurate. For the first time, I volunteered to help at the Wessex Young Athletes Track and Field League event at Bournemouth today. It turned out to be a baptism by full immersion. Here I am below with some of the other cheery officials from Newbury's Team Kennet Athletics Club, after the completion of our last task. Then I came back to see identical weather on the telly from the Canadian Grand Prix. There's a lot of it about....water that is.
The second of the final pair of Sarah Jane Adventures audio books, like all of them read by the much-missed Lis Sladen as the title character. It's a decent tale of monsters from a series of books a la Tolkien / Rowling / Pratchett becoming real through mysterious means, with some cheerful playing with the fourth wall and a few lines about death and moving on which have become rather more poignant in the last couple of months. Sladen captures all the characters well, as she always did.
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 225th weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere ... Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (5-12 June, 2011), together with a hand-picked quintet, normally courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed. Don't forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox — just click here — ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging. As ever, let's start with the most popular post, and work our way down: 1. Is the logic ...
This week parking in the University area has been on the agenda along with a number of other issues. We made sure that people in affected roads knew about this and represented residents' views to the Council's Traffic Management Advisory Panel on Thursday. I have emailed everyone who gave me feedback, and yesterday with the team I delivered letters to all residents in affected roads keeping them in the loop about what is happening on this important issue. This wasn't us making a special effort - we in the Lib Dems see this as an integral part of a local councillor's role ...
Interviewed by the BBC today, London Assembly member Mike Tuffrey said he is throwing his hat into the ring to be the Liberal Democrat candidate for Mayor:
On Friday I held a meeting with Superintendent Stuart Greenfield, Inspector Penny MacKenzie (South & East Reading) and members of Reading Borough Council's Community Safety Team about crime problems on Northumberland Avenue in North Whitley which are having a serious impact on local residents. We discussed what could be done to tackle ongoing anti-social behaviour including drinking on the street, dealing and rowdy behaviour to help improve the quality of life of local residents. Following the public meeting that was held in March and my call for action the North Whitley Police Team have been carrying out a number of activities in ...
... We'd say a big thank you to the 56,674 'absolute unique visitors'* who read Liberal Democrat Voice in May. This brings our absolute unique visitor readership for the last year to date (1 June 2010 - 31 May 2011) to 531,005, 5.8% more than the equivalent figure for 2009-10 of 501,773. The 5 top-read stories during the month were: Opinion: However unfair it is, Chris Huhne should step down (105 comments) by Simon McGrath Chris Huhne's election expenses: once again, nothing to see here, move along (60 comments) by Mark Pack Black Friday for Lib Dems: it's worse than ...
Sun 12th
16:44
June Books 12) Robert A. Heinlein in Dialogue With His Century, Vol 1, by William H. Patterson Jr
Like most sf fans, I passed through a phase of total fascination with Robert A. Heinlein as a young reader - possibly even before my teens; and like most sensible people, I was repelled and appalled by the awfulness of his last few novels, to the point of wondering if they had all been like that and I was just too young to notice. (Though when I checked, I found the earlier ones were not as bad as I feared.) At over 600 pages (including a 28 page index and 100 pages of grrrr endnotes), this book is nothing if ...
On Saturday 2nd July, come along to Gatley Green (outside St James Church and the Prince of Wales) at 1.30pm for a seven mile walk around the bounds. The walk, which should take a couple of hours, will be raising money for St Ann's Hospice (if you'd like to get sponsored, forms are available, but everyone is welcome to come along whether or not they're sponsored).
If the autumn party conference had the backdrop slogan of 'The Party of SME's and the Working Class' it might be controversial but we would be a step closer to carving out a larger constituency of core voters, and more practically balancing 'the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community' than we have to date. Of course Liberal IS enough, it's the brain, the sinew and soul of what we propose but in many ways it is too sophisticated in concept for the current political debate. When Kenneth Clarke is left virtually defenceless after proposing liberal reforms on sentencing, where ...
Well, I did it. Only Sofia and Bucharest stood between me and my aim of visiting all 27 EU Capitals by the time I turned 30. And when my birthday came round on Thursday, we'd made it to them both [IMG: :)] Here I am in Sofia on June 5th, outside the National Assembly... ...and in Bucharest on June 8th, outside the Palace of Parliament: I'll write something about both cities in due course, and I'm also planning to try and put together some kind of Euro-capitals top ten, though that's going to take some cogitating! For now though, I'm ...
Jennifer Blake's story as a local council by-election candidate is a decidedly unusual one. It's one of a life that went wrong, blighted by awful crimes, and yet also one that she turned round in a remarkable fashion: I started as a good Peckham girl. When I was 13, I started at Peckham Girls School and the trouble started - just as it does for too many teenagers in our neighbourhood. I rebelled against my parents, ran away from home, and when I was eventually caught I was put in the Davies Street Children's Home. By this point, I had ...
Across Turkey voters are going to the polls today — and at the polling stations İ have been visiting in Diyarbakır in the predominantly Kurdish south-east, voting has been brisk. Lots of extra police and security forces have been drafted in, and outside some polling stations there is a heavy police presence. Just the other ...
Report from Councillors Sue Carpendale and Kathy Pollard Result of the local poll re possible merger of Babergh and Mid Suffolk The Electoral Reform Society provided a detailed breakdown of the voting by ward and parish - I thought you might like to see the figures for the Mid Samford ward. Parish/Town Total Issued % Turnout % For % Against Capel St Mary 2317 57.92 22.06 77.94 Holton St Mary 173 59.54 33.01 66.99 Stratford St Mary 575 52.52 21.19 78.81 Wenham Magna 120 55.83 29.85 70.15 Wenham Parva 36 50.00 66.67 33.33 The two councils will now be able ...
I applaud William Hague's efforts to get a UN resolution on Syria. Although, given that we have ruled out military action, I wonder what, on its own, a UN resolution would achieve? I remember after China's Tianenmen Square massacre, hearing someone say: "I hope the UN throws the book at them!", and even then, in my late teens, I knew that it means little to give a dictatorial regime a dressing down in an international forum. They just throw the book right back at us, usually with half the pages torn out. The same goes for ambassadors being "summoned to ...
On the 5th May 2011 I failed in my attempt to be re-elected to Luton Borough Council after eight years serving as an elected councillor. This article is part of a series of posts where I attempt to process what those eight years have meant for myself by asking the question "what did I achieve?" in that time. The first two achievements I have talked about in these posts have been a little insubstantial. They have been about decision making, meetings, and processes. This one however is actually something that I can go and point at and say "I did ...
Sun 12th
14:21June Books 11) Short Trips and Side Steps, edited by Stephen Cole and Jacqueline Rayner
The third and last of the BBC anthologies of stories featuring the pre-New Who Doctors, published in 2000. I choose my words carefully, as the collection includes several side steps into non-standard continuity - a brief sequel to the Sixth Doctor stage play, The Ultimate Adventure; a story from the Third Doctor's timeline in TV Action magazine; a rather poor effort with the Seventh Doctor, Ace and K9 (as in Dimensions in Time); and most memorably a piece by Justin Richards set between the two Doctor Who movies, featuring a villainous aristocrat called Tarkin who may or may not have ...
Today's Sunday (Pet) Sound has been embedded in my mind as the result of seeing an advert for something or other. It's God Only Knows by The Beach Boys: Enjoy! Andrew
The practices exposed by Panorama last week at Castlebeck's Winterbourne View care home were profoundly shocking. The case continues to develop - several further arrests were made this week. Ghandi said that "a nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members". What we witnessed at that particular care home suggests our claims ...
There's something bureaucratic and management-speak about a job title such as "Head of Information Governance" which can make you fear that the worst sort of mix of cliches, banalities and PR warm words is about to be uttered. But ... full credit to Lynn Wyeth, holder of this post at Leicester City Council, for her comments to the media following the news that her council had received a freedom of information request about the council's contingency plans for a zombie attack: "We've had a few wacky ones before but this one did make us laugh ... To you it might ...
There is a story today in the Sunday Independent which includes the following text:John Hemming, the Liberal Democrat MP who used parliamentary privilege to reveal that Ryan Giggs was the footballer behind the recent superinjunction, is a leading Pibs-holder and part of the campaign. The group intends to write to the Irish government to condemn its "lack of common decency and fair play".I would
It's been a tough few days for Labour. Between the publication of the Ed Balls secret documents, and David Miliband's acceptance speech that never was, Ed Miliband's leadership looks more vulnerable than ever before. He even has the union barons that got him elected telling him to be "less reasonable"! Lucky then, that big brother ...
For the third year in a row I've read the latest volume of Tayler's webcomic about a group of interplanetary mercenaries because it's been nominated for the Hugo for Best Graphic Story, and for the third year in a row I think I will put it last on my ballot (it came fifth out of five in 2009 and 2010 when the votes had been counted as well). The artwork doesn't appeal to me, I don't really care much about the characters, and the plot, such as it is, is about chasing various bad guys to defeat them in combat. ...
Sun 12th
12:59
A Brucie Bonus for Sir Forsyth! (and how I bombed spectatularly when I once portrayed him in Aberyst...
I won't make any bones about it. I was absolutely delighted when I heard the news yesterday morning that Bruce Forsyth has been Knighted in the Queen's Birthday Honours List. It's not that I'm a huge fan of the honours system in its present state. It needs to be tidied up so that if it is to remain in place throughout the 21st century, it needs to be so on a much firmer, meritocratic footing. Because at present, there are in my mind, far too many people who are getting gongs that they don't deserve and far too many who ...
Now there has a been a lot of fuss about Vince Cables Speech about strikes. As Jonathan Calder makes clear the key passage of his speech is not tirade of mindless Union bashing: We are undoubtedly entering into a difficult period. Cool heads will be required all round. Despite occasional blips, I know that strike levels remain historically low, especially in the private sector. In fact, until March this year the number of days lost through strikes was lower than at any time since 1931. And of course the right to strike is a fundamental principle. On that basis, and ...
News is out that Southport FC will play in the Conference Premier Division next year because Rushden and Diamonds have been expelled. The AGM of the League is today ahead of a court hearing for R&D next week. It is understood that R&D owe in the region of £750k. Altringham FC have three times been saved from relegation at the AGM when other clubs have gone out of business and now Southport are the latest winners of the AGM CUP. The main point though concerns the financial fragility of much of football and maybe it is another example of the ...
The Lib Dems appear to be being circumvented yet again in their attempts to make the coalition more liberal and fair. Following Vince Cable's removal from the Murdoch competition review, where Jeremy Hunt MP took over and approved the Sky News deal, we now see Clegg about to be sidelined by Sir Stephen Bubb's biased review of the NHS competition body. As Lib Dem MP John Pugh observes, "asking
Gmail is great, with nearly 8gb of storage there really is no need to delete old emails, instead just archive them and then when you need to find an email from 4 years ago you can find it via the powerful search engine. However I have a collection of emails which are auto filtered from my webserver letting me know that the firewall has blocked access to an IP or that I've logged in with the root password. Whilst useful at the time, not really need for more than a month, let alone years. You might have the same with ...
Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe: Junior Christian Science Lesson. Apparently, this is a genuine Christian children's program in America. Hilarious and, somewhat, disturbing, too.
I only ask, because Unison general secretary Dave Prentis has been criticising Labour for making reasonable comments: In an interview with The Independent on Sunday, the Unison general secretary suggested the Labour leader can no longer count on his union's automatic support when he said he still has "a lot to get right" and should abandon the strategy of only issuing "reasonable statements". (Independent on Sunday) 'Comrades, we must be unreasonable!' certainly would be an effective demand – if you wanted to caricature yourself into unpopularity.
The short answer is very hard. I have won this listing on eBay for a Grumpy Care Bear three times. Three times. Well when I say won what I mean is I had the highest bid going into the final minute when the seller took it off the auction and re-listed it minutes later yet again at a low starting price of 99p. This morning I had the leading bid of 99p before it got yanked but in my history I can see it once went for £41.05 before being pulled a re-listed minutes later. Now I know it is ...
I'm embarked on a project of reflection on my political and moral beliefs and how they fit into my liberal and libertarian beliefs Abortion is one of those subjects I always try to avoid in just about any situation. The one time I attempted to articulate my feelings in a blog (a post I've yet to unearth I'm afraid, it's not listed by Google anyway) I alienated and upset several online friends, which was never my intention. And so since then I've kept my head below the parapet. But if I am to be honest with myself and open with ...
Huge congratulations to All Walks – the fantastic team of Caryn Franklin, Debra Bourne and Erin O'Connor who are driving forward their campaign to bring diversity to fashion. The latest triumpth in the All Walks mission is the Centre for Diversity. The new centre, headed by Mal Burkinshaw (Head of Fashion at Edinburgh College of Art) will teach students to embrace diversity. Whilst part of this is about learning to cut to sizes other than double zero and to shapes other than model-shaped – Caryn Franklin said that it would teach students a whole lot more than just learning to ...
I've had numerous debates over the last few years with people about the definition of a political tribalist and the fact that I do not think of myself as one of them. I have had counter arguments posed such as the mere fact that I go out knocking on doors and delivering leaflets for a particular political party (in my case the Lib Dems) by definition makes me tribal. I disagree with this quite strongly. For me, tribalism is the sort of "my party right and wrong" attitude that I see from the more partisan political activists, perhaps epitomised by ...
The Seashell Trust Summer Fair is Saturday 2nd July, 12pm – 4pm. Where: Seashell Trust, Stanley Road, Cheadle Hulme, SK8 6RQ. How much: entry just £1 per car What's there: Lots and lots of fabulous stalls Great entertainment including bands, dance groups and gymnastics Train trips Police dogs Watch the Wimbledon Ladies' Final on large screens Chocolate Tombola Face Painting Cakes Bouncy castle Bric-a-Brac BBQ Grand Raffle Climbing Wall Chocolate Fountain Guess the Teddy's Name Coconut Shy Toys Cream Teas Doughnuts Hook-a-Duck Bedding Plants Books & Videos Archery Beat the Goalie Drink Tombola Guess the Sweets Splat the Rat Ice ...
It seems that Energy Secretary, Chris Huhne was as shocked as me by the decision of Scottish Power to raise its gas prices by 19% and electricity tariffs by 10%, adding 48p a day, or £175 a year, to the average daily combined gas and electricity bill of its 2.4 million customers. He has suggested that consumers should hit back by shopping for cheaper alternatives, something that is actually quite easy to do. The problem is that very few people do it. Only about one in six ever switch suppliers. If you want to do that then here is the ...
It has been a strange couple of days. However, yesterday morning I woke up in Kirkcaldy, thanks to Callum Leslie, but more to his mum Susan and step-dad, for putting me, Kristian and Jenny up after Andrew Reeves's funeral. However, with Callum dashing off to Manchester for Liberal Youth at stupid o'clock and me having to back to the airport two cars departed in quick succession. Callum's mum it was who left me in to the airport. The reason for the ungodly hour? Well I had a bowls match to play, not just was I playing I was skipping. I ...
Speaking last night at an excellent anniversary dinner to mark 25 years (yes, 25 years) of Liberal Democrat control on Sutton Council, Nick Clegg said the party has been successful in taming and reshaping the NHS reform plans. The run of political and electoral success achieved by Liberal Democrats in Sutton is, as Clegg pointed out, a standing answer to anyone who doubts that you can achieve and then hold political power whilst continuing campaigning and staying true to your liberal roots. One of the key people in that success was Ruth Shaw, who Nick Clegg personally presented with the ...
An anti-choice agenda cannot be pro-women (tags: dorries)
I was talking about this man only last week, not really sure if he was still alive and now he has died. In March 2009 the BBC4 showed an episode of the series Traveller's Century sadly not available now. A journalist followed Leigh Fermor's 1930s journey across Europe but also told the story of his wartime adventures and finally interviewed him. The most extraordinary part of the programme was
Looking at today's papers, I thought today might be a good time to remind ourselves of my favourite Toynbee-ism: So Labour looks set fair, whatever its own depressives think. Only mighty blunders of great idiocy can stop Miliband's party winning the argument with enough voters Polly Toynbee, The Guardian, Monday 13th December, 2010 Mighty blunders of great idiocy, eh?
End Sarcasm. Look we all know someone who has been raped. We probably also all know someone who has raped someone. Rape is a terrible thing. We can all agree on that. However the problem I have with Slutwalk is what exactly were they trying to achieve? Everyone who will have taken notice of what the women were marching for will know and understand what they were up to already and didn't need a march to tell them that women aren't objects. The two sections of people they need to reach home with wouldn't have given two hoots yesterday of ...
Over on the Total Politics website, Mark Pack has a piece looking at what the coalition's plans for reforming the House of Lords means for each of the three party leaders: For each of them Lords reform offers both an opportunity and a threat. For David Cameron the opportunity is to push on with his mission to change the Conservative Party, modernising it in a continuing effort to shed the problems that have resulted in nearly 20 years passing since it last won an overall majority. Many in the Conservative Party, especially in the Lords, are opposed to the introduction ...
I have today launched my June 2011 Update to the West End Community Council. It covers : · Dundee Airport Runway Works - Noise concerns· Road resurfacing postponed · Zig Zag markings outside Blackness Primary School · Unadopted Footways You can download the update by clicking on the headline above or by going to http://tiny.cc/weccjune2011. The Community Council meets on Tuesday evening at 7pm at Logie St John's (Cross) Church Hall. All residents very welcome.
broadcast anniversaries 12 June 1965: broadcast of "Journey Into Terror", fourth episode of the story we now call The Chase. The Tardis crew and the Daleks explore a house filled with apparently supernatural creatures. 12 June 1971: broadcast of fourth episode of The Dæmons. The Doctor is captured by the villagers, but escapes; meanwhile the Master summons Azal. 12 June 2010: broadcast of The Lodger. To save the Tardis and Amy, the Doctor must pose as a human lodger in a house where the folk upstairs are not what they seem.
The Forestry Commission are offering Tree-planting grants. For information on how to claim and what is involved there is a website with more information. http://www.forestry.gov.uk/england-bigtreeplant The next round of grants will be given out in September and it would be good to see as many applications from Cambridge City as possible - people are clearly passionate about trees and this is an opportunity, in conjunction with local groups, to make our area of Cambridge a little greener! If you'd like to be involved please contact one of the team and, if we can get enough people, we'll coordinate the application. ...
An update, with thanks to Tayside Recyclers : "Tayside Recyclers is proud to announce that our backyard Container Vegetable Garden will feature in this year's WestFest, with an Open Day on Saturday 18th June from 10 a.m. till 4 p.m. We now have our first crops appearing - there may be a chance to pick your own, for a small donation! There will also be all kinds of second-hand gardening bargains for sale. So if you have some free time next Saturday, please do drop in and pay us a visit."
The Plague of the Zombies Classic Hammer cheese, set in a Cornish tin mine, with voodoo and Jacqueline Maximum Power!!!! Pierce and Michael Ripper and Andre Quatermas Morrell... The grey faces and the shambling and groaning are all a class above anything George A Romero ever did, and it's got a cheap workforce solution any Tory would be proud of. Gloriously sleazy performance from John Carson and a lovely climax. Best bits? The zombies realising they are catching fire in the tin mine. Some classic zombie acting there. 9/10 The Hound of the Baskervilles This was the BBC TV version ...
Lynne Featherstone and a number of other Lib Dem bloggers have been highlighting the strange case of world renowned children's hospital Great Ormond Street withholding information from the inquiry into the killing of baby Peter Connelly. They have rightly called for the Chief Executive, Jane Collins, to resign as a result of her involvement in what appears to be a cover up. Here's where I declare a personal interest in Great Ormond Street hospital. My late great aunt, a fantastic (if somewhat eccentric woman - as all great aunts should be) was one of the most famous doctors to work ...
