This weekend marks the anniversary of the Martyrdom of Bernard Mizeki in 1896. Still the Anglicans of Zimbabwe are persecuted. Michael stands with them today. You can too.
This morning he was quoted in the Mail on Sunday as saying "There's no reason to join the Tories. We've come over as voracious, crass, always on the take". This evening David Camerons's West Oxfordshire Constituency Party Chairman Christopher Shale has been found dead in a toilet in the VIP area at Glastonbury. His sudden death is not being treated as suspicious but as David Cameron has said ""a close and valued friend - a big rock in my life has suddenly been rolled away". Having lost one such friend myself very suddenly recently my thoughts are with Mr Shale's ...
The Centre Forum pamphlet which started all the hoo-hah has rather more detail of the proposed scheme than most newspapers. What Nick Clegg and other Liberal Democrats are supporting is the idea that once the shares in nationalised banks rise to a price which will cover the cost to the taxpayer of the bailout the remaining profit should be distributed to the people whose taxes bailed them out in
The great debate on Unions storms on as huge strikes are planned for Thursday 30th June 2011. The chess moves so far; Public sector pensions begin to fail as a result of inefficient management by public sector (d4 QG) Coalition Government decides only way to sustain public sector is to modify T&C on pensions (d5) Unions begin defending Contractual agreements (c4 QGA) Vince Cable MP warns GMB of legislative move to restrict strikes (dxC4) Unions begin to coordinate strikes(Nf3) Danny Alexander MP announces changes to public sector pensions (Nf6) School Unions join strike action (e3) Gove MP declares striking will ...
Welcome to Broxtowe Enews, brought to you by the Liberal Democrats and edited by David Watts, the leader of the Lib-Dems on Broxtowe Borough Council. 1. Responses Thank you to the various comments that I received about last week's newsletter. I've been really busy at work this week so I apologise that I haven't replied to everyone yet, I will do so this week. I have been celebrating getting Olympic tickets this week, and whilst I know that not everyone was happy with the system I was delighted with the events that we managed to get tickets for. 2. Broxtowe ...
No, not that Matthew Taylor. Or that one either, come to think of it. I am talking about the Liverpool Conservative (I once unkindly suggested we should have him stuffed) blogger who writes MTPT, stoopid. In a recent blog post he says: Judge-made law - like the current law of privacy in the UK - is able to advance by small incremental steps, without properly engaging with the broader impacts of its emergent principles. Unlike judge-made law, any statutory privacy law has to begin by decide what principles it proposes to follow, and then engaging with the effects of those ...
Mark Pritchard is an MP whose existence had not imprinted upon my conscience until this week. He holds the seat for The Wrekin for the Conservatives and on Thursday the Commons decided in favour of a ban on circus animals following a motion moved by Mr Pritchard. The decision is not binding on the government but it does put them in an awkward place politically given their current position on this subject. Much of the coverage has been about how the MP was allegedly threatened and bullied by the No 10 machine to try and get him to withdraw the ...
As I write I can hear the sound of the bass and drums of the Kings of Leon set drifting over from their concert at Murrayfield. The show was a sell out long ago and in light of the anti social behaviour accompanying Oasis visit a couple of years ago I, along with my constituents, will be hoping their fans are as well behaved as Bon Jovi's were on Wednesday. On the subject of big concerts the Glastonbury Festival hits 40 this year and they have a Spirit of 71 stage featuring artists from that year. I thought I would ...
I have been patrolling as much as possible this week in Bar Hill and I have continued to do so all over the weekend. On Friday, 17th June, there was a report of suspicious activity in Hackers Fruit Fram, Huntingdon Road, Lolworth.The compliant came through as several white vans kept turning up in the area looking for scrap metal, two men were seen helping themselves in some metal that was kept at the location. Please be aware of these people as they may help themselves in any other property they may find, if you come across these people report them ...
"We're not middle aged. Look, we've got really shaggy hair!"
[IMG: Featured on Liberal Democrat Voice] [IMG: Featured on Liberal Democrat Voice]
Minor disaster today. One of my friends from the course here is called Marijn, from the Netherlands. Most people on campus know him as the one whose name they struggle to pronounce. He's a theologian, with a special interest in the Old Testament and a good grasp of classical Hebrew - but here to improve his modern spoken Hebrew. The two of us went into the modern city centre of west Jerusalem for a drink this afternoon. We got off the no. 19 bus at King George Street, walked down to Zion Square, found a decent looking little bar, had ...
On Tuesday, Liberal Democrat MPs need to challenge and vote against an obscure clause in the Finance Bill that threatens to torpedo the Coalition Agreement and the long-held opposition of Liberal Democrats to nuclear power. The introduction of the new floor price for carbon is, in effect, a bung to the advocates of nuclear; a subsidy by anyone's name. The Telegraph – an unlikely but increasingly common source of news for Liberal Democrats - has an interesting report at This concerns a welcome clarification that nuclear clean-up costs should be borne by the industry – but it only happened ...
How would you prefer to report information about criminal or suspicious activity in your area? The question is part of the second week of the 'Have your say' forum launch, an online tool that gives you the chance to help shape the future of policing in Cambridgeshire. All comments, questions and answers will be viewable and the forum will be live for at least the next three months. As part of an ongoing review to improve the way the force receives and uses information the force is this week asking how the public prefer to report information about criminal or ...
How would you prefer to report information about criminal or suspicious activity in your area? The question is part of the second week of the 'Have your say' forum launch, an online tool that gives you the chance to help shape the future of policing in Cambridgeshire. All comments, questions and answers will be viewable and the forum will be live for at least the next three months. As part of an ongoing review to improve the way the force receives and uses information the force is this week asking how the public prefer to report information about criminal or ...
This afternoon I had my first "Ainsdale Cream Tea". The occasion was a fund-raiser for the Ainsdale Liberal Democrats. Pictured above are Councillors Weavers and Preece tucking into the strawberries, cream, jam and scones. The weather was goon, on the whole, and the strong sunshine sent many into the shade in Roy's spacious garden. Cream Teas are often thought of as the preserve of Devon or Cornwall. Haydn, Roy, Lynne and the rest of the ainsdale team proved that they can produce their own version with their own preserves, cream and scones. I left before hearing the result of the ...
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 227th 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 (19-25 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. The SLF are ...
Cool music for a hot afternoon - the Apollo Big Band and Pauline Richings at Picnic in the Park this afternoon (Yate Music Festival, Kingsgate Park)
From Dot Commons on Politics Home: This morning Michael Gove railed against pupils being able to re-sit GCSE exams if they failed to make the grade the first time. He told Andrew Marr: "The problem that we had was instead of sitting every part of a GCSE at the end of the course, bits of it were taken along the way, and those bits could be re-sat. That meant instead of concentrating on teaching and learning you had people who were being trained again and again to clear the hurdle of the examination along the way." But Mr Gove's opponents ...
I'm currently considering writing a book on liberalism. This is a draft, for a potential introduction. Please let me know what you think. Still quite unsure on this project, but I'm carefully pondering the idea. Liberalism is a doctrine based ... Continue reading →
One of the best Rebus books so far, three intertwined mysteries taking our hero and his protégée to the murky underworld of asylum centres, strip clubs, and illegal immigration; I felt that Ian Rankin was trying unusually hard to include social commentary on all these issues into the story, and even more unusually I thought he succeeded. Perhaps the most unrealistic aspect is that we discover Rebus to be a staunch anti-racist, which seems a little (though not hugely) out of character from previous books. Very strongly recommended. And that concludes my book-blogging from my recent travels. Relatively normal service ...
A brief and reflective book by Gould, on the coming millennium as seen from 1997. He makes the entirely fair point that the year 2000 is a rather arbitrary human construct in the first place, and quotes approvingly his autistic son's ruling on whether or not the new century begins in 2000 or 2001: "In 2000, of course. The first decade had only nine years." Nothing much new for me but Gould as ever tells it well.
One of the more obscure amusements of the Reading blogosphere is the occasional reading of the drivel, most of it negative anti-Liberal Democrat propaganda, from the keyboard of failed Green candidate Adrian Windisch, whose aim in politics these days seems to be to try and ensure Conservative councillors are elected in the part of the world where he lives (he is part of the bizarre faction in the Greens who prefer a dedication to resisting the Liberal Democrats to protecting the environment or trying to get Green Party policies into action). Windisch is the head of Reading's Green Party, so ...
It was great to see the Market Place in Newbury today. It's the second day of the making of the Newbury Coat. Alongside the Farmer's Market and traditional music beneath the wonderful sunshine it was idyllic.
I may have just been in a bad mood, but this book just felt like total glurge to me. Little boy and little girl help an unfortunate Santa who has run into trouble, and as a reward the boy gets out of the tropical Christmas that his parents wanted. A very quick read at least.
The Lib Dems were for many years seen as having the most sensible and well thought out policies on education. Be this pledges to cut class sizes, a commitment to reform key Stage 2 SATS, a properly thought out policy on higher education funding and, [particularly under the stewardship of the excellent Phil Willis, the brilliant former Lib Dem education spokesman who stood down from parliament in 2010, teachers felt that there was someone who understood the problems in the education system. So what the hell has happened to this ? Where has the Lib Dem influence of education gone ...
One of the books included in the Hugo Voter Package to help us to determine our votes for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. It's a contemporary novel of a clandestine organistion fighting the supernatural nasties, à la Buffy and many others, with the monsters mostly taken straight from the D&D manual; the protagonist is a wise-cracking gun nut; and as soon as the first female character appears you pretty much know how the book is going to end. Still, it certainly helped me determine one more placing on my ballot paper.
On 1 March 2011 the campaign proper began - and I settled into the routine of an evening's canvassing after my day's work in London. It certainly became very tiring. Far from the aggressive campaign I had originally envisaged, we were conducting a defensive campaign aiming to protect our two seats on Swale Council. The wards in which we spent all our efforts were Murston and Milton Regis. They were both double member wards, both where we had one councillor in place, both where the councillor was in place for a long time and had gained a good personal vote, ...
A collection of four fantasy romance novellas set in Ireland, by Morgan Llewellyn and three other authors I hadn't heard of, Barbara Samuel, Susan Wiggs and Roberta Gellis. I shall not identify the author who named her female lead Ciarann (which I have never encountered as a woman's name) and consistently spells Samhain with the 'h' and 'm' reversed. I will, however, give good marks to Roberta Gellis, whose "Bride Price" is the longest of the four stories and wrenches the story of Findabair and Fráech from the Táin Bó Cuailnge subplot and shifts it to a contest of wits ...
To US liberals, he's something of a hero; to conservatives he'd be a bête noire if they could stomach the use of a foreign label. Jon Stewart's satirical The Daily Show has become a cultural institution in America (and something of a cult hit here) because of the host's pin-sharp riffs against politicians and the media. And what better, more deserving, target could there be than News International's conservative polemical shock-jock channel, Fox News? Jon Stewart recently agreed to go toe-to-toe with Chris Wallace, one of its more intelligent interviewers. The result is a vigorous and surprisingly nuanced 15-minute debate, ...
Professor Benny Morris is a controversial and fascinating figure. Once one of Israel's New Historians, he subsequently revised his own revisionist approach to the events of 1948. In his 2009 book One State, Two States: Resolving the Israel/Palestine Conflict, Professor Morris wrote about Muslims and Arabs in terms that offend me as much as similar writing about Jews would offend me. That didn't stop me reading and enjoying the book after getting a signed copy from Professor Morris at an event in London, but I remain uncomfortable with his turn of phrase on occasions. In his interview with Friday's Jewish ...
I didn't know a lot about the Spanish Inquisition before reading this fairly comprehensive but also short (221 pages) account. Pérez gives plenty of detail on how it operated, as a powerful and brutal autnomous judicial system within the Spanish state, from 1480 to 1834 (admittedly rather gutted of its authority in its final decades). Several interesting points that arose for me: Though run by Church officials, the Inquisition was more an arm of Madrid than of Rome; the Spanish king and government exercised control over it as far as anyone did. Though it was set up to extirpate heresy, ...
Other highlights in this year's Film Festival included the Bill Nighy spy drama Page 8. This topical conspiracy thriller about prime ministerial collusion in torture was excellent. Nighy plays a latter day Harry Palmer, an anti hero spook with a bit of style and a noble side. He has a string of ex wives and an artist daughter plus a collection of very expensive paintings. The film boasts a cast to die for - don't all British dramas - includes Judy Davis, Ralph Fiennes, Rachel Weitz, Michael Gambon and Ewan Bremner who has a small role as a journalist. Bremner ...
A fairly brief (124 pages) but comprehensive guide to the best known Supermarionation show. A lot of things that I hadn't realised about Thunderbirds - that there were only two seasons, with only 32 pisodes (26 in the first series, 6 in the second); that the original half-hour episodes were bulked out to full hour length after Lew Grade demanded that they be made longer; that there had been two feature films in the 1960s which both crashed dismally in the theatres; that the real-life International Rescue Corps was deliberately named after the fictional International Rescue. I was also a ...
I had a really good time on the London Loop yesterday - big thanks to djm4, yoyoangel, nanila, battlekitty, shadowdaddy and babysimon. It was a different sort of walking rhythm than the Camino - a bit more gentle, with more stopping to look at random stuff - but no worse for that. I didn't get the exhilaration I've felt on some of my recent walks, but combined with a longer, more intense keep fit session than usual this week, I think it did help me to figure out what triggers it. I think it's not walking 5k, it's getting an ...
Regular readers will know that I'm a huge fan of Robert Brown, our former MSP for Glasgow. I really feel that Holyrood is much poorer without his grasp of justice issues. This is the guy who stood up against all the other parties bar the Greens casually agreeing to quadruple pre-charge detention times in an afternoon following the Cadder ECHR judgement. I don't always agree with Robert on every single issue, but I trust him 100%. So, I view what I'm about to put before you as a major treat. Yesteday, in sunny Partick, the Scottish Social Liberal Forum took ...
Andrew Rawnsley in today's Observer highlights a key issue for both Coalition partners, in particular — the Tories' failure to make any kind of advance in the north, and the Lib Dems' difficulties in retaining our popularity there. With the exception of William Hague, Eric Pickles and two Lib Dem Scots, the cabinet is a very southern English affair. This may not have been much noticed by the south, but it is very evident if you look through the other end of the telescope. Viewed from Leeds or Manchester or Newcastle, Westminster is more remote than ever. It also seems ...
Back in August 2009 the Home Office issued new guidelines to all Chief Police Officers in the UK regarding the taking of photographs in public places. Contrary to some popular myths it is not illegal to take photographs of landmarks or even of children in public places. However, if a police officer believes that you are acting suspiciously they have the right to challenge you and seek an explanation for your actions. Police do not have the right to confiscate equipment with very good reason nor do they have the right to delete photographs or force the photographer to erase ...
The Independent on Sunday has an in-depth report of research done by BritainThinks. The research indicates a huge decline in the numbers of people identifying as "working class", and some interesting patterns in the remaining 24% of the population claiming the label. The report indicates that none of the main political parties really have the confidence of this quarter of the population. More worrying still for Labour is that it appears to be Margaret Thatcher who comes closest to commanding respect, though she too has a way to go, especially in the North. Ed Miliband seems to have practically zero ...
A useful forthcoming course at the Mitchell Street Centre for people looking for work and who have English as their second language. Go to http://tinyurl.com/justthejob or click on the headline to download the poster below :
I can't imagine many more traumatic experiences than the loss of a child at any age. I don't think, though, that people often understand how awful it is to lose a baby to miscarriage or stillbirth or in the first few days after birth. It's such a hard and cruel thing to go through, physical and emotional agony combining to permeate every single part of your consciousness. For a very long time. And people expect you just to get over it. That just ain't going to happen. It may at some stage not hurt so much, but getting over the ...
Thanks to @ollygrender who tweeted this link to an astonishing attack on David Cameron - from his own side. It must be by an anonymous Tory MP and it goes to show how the unrest on the Tory backbenches is, as predicted, getting worse. Here's a quote about the Pritchard affair: 'Cameron's quasi-Machiavellian later response, laughing off accusations of bullying and dismissing the debate as a storm in a tea cup, is a mark of his contempt for MPs and the public. Flashman has no time for the little people. He spins a glib line, thrashes a few fags (sorry, ...
At an ICJ academic meeting on June 23, attempts were made to silence Toby Cadman, and the President of the ICJ decided, without any consultation with the attendees, to strike Mr Cadman's speech from the record. If there is to be a published account of the proceedings at this meeting, Dr Aggarwala must be overruled, and the ICJ should consider whether it is appropriate to have a President who would censor a speech made at one of the organisation's own meetings at the behest of a small but vociferous section of the audience. I am drawing this to the attention ...
Thanks to eBay, I managed to track down this 1985 bande dessinée, which I remember browsing in a Paris bookstore shortly after publication. The author is Jan Bucquoy, best known now as the writer of the 1994 film La Vie sexuelle des Belges 1950-1978 / The Sexual Life of the Belgians , but at that time combining the careers of anarchist activist and writer of graphic novels. Autonomes is the first of his Chroniques de fin de siècle trilogy, set in (we deduce) about 1993 (so eight years in the future when the story was published). Bucquoy's future history (as ...
No joke but on 1 April Southwark Council became responsible for flood prevention. Initial work suggests the following areas are liable for a 1 in 100 year flooding event: - Herne Hill area (i.e Half Moon Lane) - Champion Park area - Area between Peckham Park Road and Asylum Road. - Area bounded by Willow Brook, Commercial Way, Southampton Way, Well Way and Saint George's Way. - Area bounded by Camberwell Road, Camberwell New Road and Wyndham Road. - Dulwich Park area - Belair Park area along Croxted Road In theory it should mean that flooding events such as the ...
The secret scandal of Britain's caste system Why isn't the Equality and Human Rights Commission taking action against this prejudice? Nick Cohen The Observer, Sunday 26 June 2011 You can tell that speakers are preparing to say something scandalous when they assert that "militant atheists" are the moral equivalents of the religious militants that so afflict humanity. Trevor Phillips, whose flighty management of the Equality and Human Rights Commission is becoming a scandal, was no exception when he announced last week that British believers were "under siege" from "fashionable" atheists. If his claim that "people who want to drive religion ...
Following residents raising the poor condition of the Melville Terrace street sign at its junction with West Park Road, I have asked the City Council's Roads Maintenance Partnership to have this replaced.
The Localism Bill has some weaknesses but many strengths. The bit that I am most passionately in favour of is the section that relates to planning. I am aware that this simple statement might put me on the other side ... Continue reading →
Ed Miliband's determination to extend his own tenuous control over the Labour Party by abolishing shadow cabinet elections may not extend to reducing the power of the union bosses. This morning's Independent suggests the contrary but closer reading indicates that all that is intended is to reach out to grassroots workers so as to mobilise them for Labour causes. The paper says the Labour leader said that he wanted to "reach out" directly to three million nurses, call-centre workers, engineers and shop workers who are affiliated union members. They also say that he wants to reduce union influence on policy-making ...
The folk singer Mike Waterson died last week. He was a member of the family group the Watersons, described in a tribute by the Guardian Music blog as: the Yorkshire singing family whose dynamic voices and instinctive harmonies galvanised the nascent folk scene back in the day and whose early career was guided by the great folklorist Bert Lloyd. "He asked us to sing a song once, which we did, and then he asked us to sing it again," Mike told me, recalling early days with his sisters Lal and Norma. "When he asked us to do it yet again ...
Sun 26th
10:15
Anonymous Tory MP launches broadside against "hypocritical, immature, manipulative" David Cameron
There's a quite extraordinary broadside against David Cameron's leadership in today's Mail – written it appears by a current Conservative MP who chooses to remain anonymous — accusing him of "cynically manipulating" the party's candidates' list to stuff its green benches with "friends who went to the same school or moved in the same social circle". Here's a flavour: Speeches Cameron made before the Election about a new politics gave us great hope. But before too long, the less appealing side to his character became clear as he displayed an immature tendency to poke fun at certain individuals or groups ...
A few coincidences have popped out of my research on Whoniversaries, including that both Adric and the Fifth Doctor were written out of the series on the same date, two years apart. Which other pairs, or sets, of stories were broadcast on the same date? There are a surprising number; I hope that the table below is clear. Story 1 Story 2 # eps Start End Yr 1 Yr 2 The Faceless Ones The Mutants 6 08-Apr 13-May 1967 1972 The Tomb of the Cybermen The Ribos Operation 4 02-Sep 23-Sep 1967 1978 The Krotons Robot 4 28-Dec 18-Jan 1968-9 ...
Last year, unfortunately, the Logie Residents' Association disbanded. The group did valuable work in promoting the interests of the people of Logie and the West End City Councillors have been keen to ensure that there is an opportunity for residents in the Logie area to be kept up-dated on local issues and also have the opportunity to raise any issues or concerns, in the absence of the Residents' Association. A meeting has therefore been arranged at the Lime Street Sheltered Lounge at 2pm next Friday (1st July 2011) to allow all Logie residents who are able to attend the opportunity ...
i) births and deaths 26 June 1914: birth of John Bailey, who played the Commander in The Sensorites (1964), Edward Waterfield in The Evil of the Daleks (1967), and Sezom in The Horns of Nimon (1979-80). ii) broadcast anniversaries 26 June 1965: broadcast of "The Planet of Decision", sixth episode of the story we now call The Chase; first appearance of Peter Purves as Steven, last appearances of Jacqueline Hill as Barbara and William Russell as Ian. The Mechanoids and Daleks destroy each other; the Doctor rescues captured human pilot Steven, and Ian and Barbara return to the 1960s using ...
Asking the Wrong Questions: Game of Thrones, Season 1 Abigail Nussbaum likes the TV version a lot more than the book. (tags: sf)
We're heading into the home stretch now, so hold tight. "Fair was the woman's face, and sweet Her voice, and swift were her noiseless feet, And kind her hands; but her husband knew Full little of her the fair and true To work when the dawn brake golden-fair; At work when the stars of night ...
Finally, I have a complete draft of my project report which has approximately the right number of words in it (just over 4,000) in the right kind of proportions. I'm drained. I need to go back to it before I submit it as the discussion is still too waffly and I've had some ideas for further research that I want to incorporate. I have no idea what kind of a grade I'll get for it. Having reset my own personal expectations I'm determined to regard anything over 70 as a personal triumph. Anything over 55 is not disastrous either. The ...
