For some reason, it never occured to me to look this up before. But both the Madness and Lemmy "slow the pace" ads for Kronenbourg are available on Spotify and the Madness version was released as a full single. Ace of Spades (Slow version) by Motörhead on Spotify Le Grand Pantalon (Baggy Trousers) by Madness on Spotify Le Grand Pantalon (Baggy Trousers): Madness: Amazon.co.uk: MP3 Downloads For those of you outside the civilised world and thus unable to use Spotify links, well, I'm sure you can find other ways... (I looked to see if Lemmy was available, but I hate ...
Now there is a headline I never thought I would write for a blog post. Except you all know its been coming because I have mentioned it a few times in the last few weeks. I was lucky enough to go ...
The Cambridge Cycling Campaign has started an e-petition on the County Councils website in support of the Ring Fort Path proposal. The original website with details of the proposal is located here. I've reproduced some of it below;"The shared-use path should run from the A14 crossing (south-eastern side) alongside the A14 slip road behind barriers and then into Ring Fort Road by the Premier Inn Hotel mini roundabout. Passing near the play areas it will increase the natural surveillance of the sports and play areas in this otherwise remote corner of Orchard Park. "Ring Fort Path" will present a vast ...
The past week's revelations over News International have gone from bad to worse and produced reactions varying from incredulity to revulsion and more. So much has been said, so many column inches written and perhaps not surprisingly some of the most accusatory have been from those who were happy to court the favour of the moguls who could change the course of British parliamentary politics by
Cambridge City Councillors are fighting to get the county council to look again at the axed city centre shuttle bus. They want the bus, which provided a vital link to the city centre for elderly and disabled people, to be included in the county council's review of bus subsidies. It was axed in the first round of cuts despite pleas to spare it from numerous residents and city councillors. The Tory-run county council, which planned to axe all bus subsidies across the county to save £2.7 million, has agreed a stay of execution for the remainder of the threatened services ...
This is quite interesting (if you find this sort of thing interesting – I'm afraid that I do). The DataGM site has collected data on all the road traffic accidents in Greater Manchester since 2002. Then the people at the MEN used Google Fusion (which I probably ought to understand a lot better than I do) to map them all. We seem to build up a lot of folk wisdom about which roads and junctions are dangerous, often based on one or two accidents we know about. This allows us to get an idea of how accurate those ideas are, ...
Lembit Opik and Brian Paddick have both been contestants in I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here! and both hope to the Liberal Democrat candidate in next London Mayoral election. Now they have something else in common, reports the Guardian. Both are to take legal action over the phone-hacking scandal: Öpik said that having been to Scotland Yard to review evidence a couple of months ago, there was "no doubt" in his mind that the News of the World had hacked his phone. "The closure of the newspaper will do nothing to stop the legal action that myself ...
It did strike me as slightly odd when I saw that Hans Zimmer was trending on Twitter today. I must admit that it brought about a mild amount of panic as I considered that this may have been the result of an early and untimely death but on investigation, was relieved to find out that it was probably in fact linked to an appearance on BBC Breakfast News this morning. It did remind me however of how much of a fan I am of Herr Zimmer. His musical scores filter their way throughout my childhood with a resonance that will ...
Cambridgeshire Liberal Democrats are calling for a new smaller A14 upgrade which could be started in the next four years and funded from the government's highways budget. They want the project sufficiently scaled down so that it could be given the go-ahead when the government's next Spending Review begins in 2014 and paid for with money from the Highways Agency budget. "This is the only way that we are going to stop people dying and being injured on this road," said Susan van de Ven, Lib Dem Transport Spokesperson. "For the last 10 years, the Conservatives have pursued a project ...
Mark Valladares, writing on Liberal Democrat Voice, is critical of the Lib Dems' English Party: "From defining the time allowed to deal with disciplinary cases, to establishing a framework for the recognition of council groups, from mandatory tithing to restricting the rights of candidates to campaign in selections, the English Liberal Democrats have been hard at work, often producing guidance that would be difficult to absorb by well-organised, enthusiastic Local Parties with lots of volunteers to share the load, but are an appalling burden to small, struggling ones." Caroline Woodbridge is aghast at plans to ban buses from the centre ...
As part of the Localism Bill working it's way through Parliament Liberal Democrat Peers Lord Greaves (TheyWorkForYou) and Lord Tope (TheyWorkForYou) have proposed an amendment to help promote diverse high streets. This has been called the "Cambridge Amendment" following on from criticism in the press in September last year that Cambridge was the "worst clone town in Britain".The aim of the amendment is to give local people greater power to promote retail vitality and diversity on the high-street. As the traditional party of Localism (before it even became a word) I find it really encouraging that this amendment has been ...
There's been a lot of hatred spouted in the USA (and the UK) about Islam. After my visit to New York last year, I researched quite a bit into the furore into the proposed Islamic Cultural Centre in South Manhattan. There was widespread protest against the plan. I came up with these five facts about it: 1. The proposed building is not at Ground Zero (as alleged) - it's two and a half blocks away 2. It's not (primarily) a mosque - it's an Islamic cultural centre 3. At the proposed site, 45-51 Park Place, there have been regular Muslim ...
Robert Oakeshott died on 21st June. He was a great inspiration to many. In Liberal circles he will be remembered for taking Jo Grimond off to the Mondragon Co-operatives in the late 1970s. He was the John the Baptist of the modern employee ownership movement and along with Grimond set up what I think was then called Job Ownership Ltd- it became the Employee Ownership Association. His connection with Grimond went back further and he was the Liberal Party candidate in the Darlington by election in the 1960's under Jo's leadership. Grimond often called him in aide in his speeches ...
I was at my brother's in Blackburn over the weekend. On Saturday evening a group of us sat down to watch a dramatic World Cup Quarter-Final football match between England and France. It was enthralling stuff. Two hours and a penalty shoot-out later I couldn't quite believe how absorbing it had been as a spectacle - after all, it was England who were playing! What you might have realised by now is that the football match in question was a crunch match in the FIFA Women's World Cup. The fact that it was shown at all was quite a triumph ...
Cllr John Dodd has attacked Sefton Labour Party for stifling debate about Merseyrail. The Labour controlled Merseyside Transport Authority prevented Merseytravel from taking control of the track that its trains run on. This happened at the last minute, despite Labour campaigning for years to allow Merseytravel to take over control of its own track from Network Rail. The Liberal Democrats tried to debate this at the recent Sefton Council meeting, as the decision is going to cost Sefton council tax-payers a considerable amount of money. Labour voted against discussing the issue, on the grounds that it "wasn't urgent". Cllr Dodd ...
User Engagement Grade – 2 Learners rightly value the importance the college attaches to their views on their experience at the college and the college's responsiveness in acting on them. The strategy to involve learners in decision making is highly effective. Inspectors found numerous instances of how learners' views had been sought and acted upon ...
Liberal Democrats Contact: Press Office - 020 7340 4949 Letter calling for Murdoch to withdraw BSkyB bid Three senior Liberal Democrats have written to Rupert Murdoch asking him to withdraw his bid to take full control of ... Continue reading →
The Payments Council, representing the banks, has announced that it will not be scrapping cheques in 2018 after all. They now say that cheques will be will be kept "as long as customers need them". This follows major campaigns by Liberal Democrat MPs, charities and organisations representing older people and voluntary groups. We have reported the campaigns here before, and many of our readers will hopefully have signed the petition by Lib Dem MP David Ward. The BBC has more details here.
When I was a younger man selling cheese on a delicatessen for beer money, a colleague and I used to chat politics in between dishing out 113g of crumbed ham here and 230g of y-fenni there. Often we would get round to who we thought could be considered the most power hungry person in the world. It was not long at all before we reached the semi-default position that Rupert Murdoch was short only of a hairless cat and a fricking laser to complete the quintessential bond villain shtick. The tax-evading, phone tapping, Political Glory Hunting, Fox News creating lie ...
Stockport Poster DAYTIME
Tue 12th
17:18
"Yates must go" - Dee Doocey exposes News International and Met Police's cosy relationship
A Freedom of Information Request has revealed that the then Met Deputy Assistant Commissioner Andy Hayman and Assistant Commissioner John Yates had lunches and dinners with News of the World and executives of News International while investigating alleged criminal allegations against the News of the World. Dee Doocey, the Liberal Democrat London Assembly policing spokesperson and member of the Metropolitan Police Authority said: Such a cosy relationship between the News of the World, News International and senior Met police officers who were leading an inquiry into the News of the World phone hacking allegations goes to the very heart of ...
OFFA's announcement on the sanctioned fee levels for English universities from September 2012 seems to have got rather lost in the heat of the red-blooded battles that are raging around all things News International at the moment. And yet, what is happening on University access and funding certainly has far more lasting consequences to the UK than anything that comes out of the permanently strained relationship between politicians and the media. OFFA suffers at the moment from being a watchdog with no teeth, as well as having little bark when compared to the might of the universities and their cartels. ...
I have just found this Comment is Free article by Peter Mandelson from yesterday in which he says that Labour were cowed from refroming the media because they were too fearful to do otherwise. He says that it has taken the News International crisis for politicians to discover their courage: Now they have to ensure that it is not primarily they who are protected from the "feral beast", but the public. This requires not statutory regulation but a robust, independent process to enable individuals to make right the falsehoods that slip through, or slander that sometimes gets pumped out by ...
Hmm. I've just received a Retweet from Evan Davis, saying: "Breaking: Johann Hari suspended for 2 months pending internal Independent Investigation by ex-editor Andreas Whittam-Smith" I have no evidence if this is true - I am sure we will find out either way momentarily. But meantime, for those who haven't been keeping up.... There have been numerous stories about Johann Hari in recent days continuing the 'plagiarism' allegations that have been levelled at him. However a more interesting thread to this tale has been opened up about a 'friend' of Hari, one David Rose. This character has made a point ...
Nick Clegg has a piece in Huffington Post UK today, on media regulation, responsible reporting and replacing the Press Complaints Commission. He calls new news outlets, such as the newly-launched UK version news and comment website Huffington Post, "a welcome breath of fresh air" at a time when public confidence in the media establishment is being rocked by phone-hacking allegations. Here's an excerpt: The hacking scandal throws up an array of insights. But one in particular stands out to liberals: information is power. It always has been. When elites deploy secretive and opaque practices, it is nearly always to protect ...
"What Price Privacy" is the name of a report written by the Information Commissioner published on 10th May 2006.It gives details of what prices people charged to obtain information (often illegally) about other people.I have always been more concerned about how the press obtain information than what is reported. However, it is worth looking at the report and in particular Table 1 on page 24.
Yep, here it is in all its glory (thanks to The Guardian for the copy...) After Yates' performance in front of the Select Committee today, it's worth another read of what he said back then - just to remind ourselves how convincing and (convinced ) he was that there was nothing to worry about....(I've added a comment of my own at the end...) STATEMENT BY ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER JOHN YATES - 9 JULY 2009 I have been asked by the Commissioner today to establish the facts around our inquiry into the alleged unlawful tapping of mobile phones by Clive Goodman and ...
I've just received the first email to party members from Mike Tuffrey, one of the contenders to be the Lib Dem candidate for London Mayor. He asks: "Are you frustrated at how mindlessly critical (the media) are about the Liberal Democrats, when we are trying to do the right thing after the mess the last government left the country in?" My answer is "no" - I don't blame "the media" when my party gets a bad press, especially now that we are in government and so getting the tough scrutiny that we deserve. Blaming the media is the worst possible ...
This is quite a hard post to write. After all, I've been a party bureaucrat for more than a quarter of a century, from my embryonic days as Secretary General of the Young Liberals, via incarnations as a Returning Officer, a member of the English Candidates Committee and stints as Regional Secretary in both London and now the East of England. Once upon a time, I took the view that, if I couldn't, or wouldn't, campaign, what I could do was do the boring, yet necessary stuff that enabled the Party to fulfil its organisational obligations, thus freeing up people ...
Today I posted my first piece over at Dale & Co. You can find it here: Cameron ploughs on with public sector reform
The constant stream of revelations coming out on a daily basis about telephone hacking are both astonishing and distressing. The idea that any newspaper might consider it to be acceptable to tap into the phones of the victims of quite horrific crimes is difficult to comprehend. The public may have shrugged their shoulders when they heard of celebrities and politicians falling foul of these tactics, but nobody is going to tolerate the outrageous behaviour of News International journalists and others as it has unfolded in the last week. The company and its media outlets have lost public support and may ...
This week I shall be joining the judges as they judge our entry into this year's North West in Bloom Competition. I shall be doing the same next month when we enter the Britain in Bloom Competition. A great deal of work has been done by community groups throughout the year. If you would like to get involved check the link below, enter your post code and sign up! Click Here to Join In Last year's Green Flag Award in the Botanic gardens, Southport.
Tue 12th
13:53Opinion: Liberal Democrats didn't just avoid Murdoch, we tried to cut him down to size
In my last post for Lib Dem Voice, I pointed out that Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems had never courted Murdoch and his cronies. Actually, that was just the half of it. We didn't just avoid him. We have tried, in different ways over a number of years, to cut the media mogul down to size and clamp down on the sort of abhorrent media practices that have been exposed of late. As far back as 1994, the year before Tony Blair chose to fly to Oz to lick Rupert Murdoch's boots, we were calling for the OFT to ...
Tue 12th
13:49
Hello. My name is Charles Sale and I hate Martin Brundle (and to a lesser degree David Coulthard)
Charles Sale is a funny man. His column in the Daily Mail is rarely worth readsing but every so often he delivers a gem that I'm pointed to on a forum somewhere. This happened this morning over on the F1 Thread at Digital Spy. Charles Sale is meant to be the man in the know about all things TV and sport related but half the times his ITK pieces turn out to be wider of the mark than David Beckham's Euro 2004 Penalty miss v Portugal. So what has old Charlie been saying this time...? BRUNDLE AND JORDAN SQUABBLE OVER ...
Please click here to read my latest contribution to Huffington Post - please do go and post comments there, as it would be great to hear your views.
From the Guardian: More than a third of English universities will charge £9,000 as their standard fee next year after their proposals for widening access to poorer students were approved by a government watchdog. A total of 47 out of 123 universities will charge the maximum fee across all courses. Well, that made me shift uncomfortably in my seat. However, if you read Martin Lewis' 20 key facts on student loans and the full Guardian article, the situation is rather more balanced. According to the figures, the estimated average fee is £8,393, far higher than the government predicted, but this ...
This Friday the Medway press was again rocked by the over budget spending that saw the cost to the tax payer rise from £750k to £2-3 million! By all accounts the whole affair has been a catalogue of issues and irregularities that contradicts itself so hold on tight - I'm going to try and unravel it! First off the school proposed building works, which should by UK and European law be opened up to a fair tender process but the job was in fact given to the part time caretaker Tony Ridington the husband of the deputy head and owner ...
...and here's an image of the writ he served on one Keith Rupert Murdoch. My father-in-law isn't a lawyer. He's a retired civil servant, who had an interest in Technology Consulting. And he felt he had a grievance over a paper he'd written. He couldn't get anyone at Sky to respond to his calls or letters. So he did what he always does when faced with a problem. He bought a book. In this case he went to a bookshop on Chancery Lane. I don't know which book he bought but I imagine it was called something like 'Writing and ...
At 2.47pm yesterday Sky News' Alistair Bunkall tweeted: Rebekah Brooks has just left News International HQ in a black Lexus. It seemed a bit early to be leaving the office in the middle of a crisis. At 10.40am today the BBC have reported: 040: The BBC's Colette McBeth says Rupert Murdoch arrived at News International's Wapping headquarters at around 1000 BST but there has been no sign of Rebekah Brooks. Ah. Could there be a connection to this very unusual statement issued by NI in response to the news of the Gordon Brown story yesterday?: We note the allegations made ...
By the time you read this, I shall be on a train making my way to Buckingham Palace in London to attend The Queen's garden party and to be introduced to HRH Prince Phillip, who is patron of the charity ...
London Region Liberal Democrats have announced the shortlist of four for the selection of the party's Mayoral candidate for 2012: Brian Haley Lembit Opik Brian Paddick Mike Tuffrey There will now be a ballot of all eligible London party members. The revised timetable for the rest of the selection is as follows: July 12: Publication of shortlist July 18: Postal ballot mailed out to members in London July 27: London all-member hustings meeting August 31: Deadline for returning ballot papers September 2: Count and declaration of result (note changes in bold) The London all-member hustings meeting will be held at ...
Arguably the most hostile Select Committee I can ever recall. Yates and Lord Blair were extremely arrogant and displaying an ungodly level of contempt for Parliament. More disturbing, Yates did not seek fresh legal advice when asked to review the ... Continue reading →
A while ago I started using google analytics to track what was happening on my blog. And now it's been well over a month so I thought I'd share the wonderful statistics with you. First of all, I'd like to say thank you to the 554 unique visitors who visited the Potter Blogger between the 11th of June and the 11th of July who between them contributed 754 visits. Out of these visits 502 were new visitors while 252 were returning visitors. Between them these visitors contributed 1,115 page views and looked at an average of 1.48 pages per visit. ...
Whilst I sympathise with anyone whose privacy has been violated by the Murdoch press, my condolence with Gordon Brown is attenuated by the consideration that he and his colleagues were in bed with the digger for years. I recall that one of Gordon's first foreign jaunts at our expense was to call upon Murdoch at his ranch. Nor in thirteen years of government did New Labour make any attempt to
On the radio yesterday, Michael Heseltine described a key moment in the Conservatives' victory in the 1983 General Election. It was, he said, when they stopped attacking Labour's policy of "unilateral disarmament" and talked instead of "one-sided disarmament". Unilateral disarmament had actually been quite popular in the polls, until people understood what "one-sided disarmament" simply meant, at which point there was a massive shift in public opinion against unilateralism. Israel would doubtless love to be able to pull off a similar semantic sleight of hand in its diplomatic battle against a unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood at the UN in ...
[IMG: Jennifer Blake campaigning for Peckham] Although the latest by-election results saw the sad loss of a Liberal Democrat seat in Purbeck District Council in Dorset, the results in two other wards were quite encouraging. The by-election in Lytchett Matravers was in Annette Brooke's Mid Dorset and North Poole constituency, and was gained from the Conservatives for the first time last year. The by-election was caused by the sudden resignation of that same councillor for health reasons, and this (along with the national situation) conspired to help us lose the seat. However, a hard fought campaign with a good candidate ...
I tip my hat at Lib Dem Voice and the Divine Ms Duffett, who had this first, but I thought it was worth sharing. I was slightly rueful watching Jeremy Hunt, Culture Secretary, make the statement yesterday in the House of Commons yesterday. But for the Telegraph, it would have been Our Almighty Vince making that statement. He was in good form, however, yesterday, when asked how we would vote on a Commons motion to delay the B Sky B takeover, saying that we'd have to read it, but we were the one party not compromised by dealings with the ...
Now that the Advertising Standards Agency has come down hard(ish) on advertising for homeopathy, the homeopaths have apparently decided to throw out an olive branch to the ASA by opening a survey to listen to the public's views on homeopathy ... Continue reading →
The father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, has been the subject of many biographies and critical studies, but as proof that there is always something new and interesting to say about a truly great figure, David Cohen's The Escape of Sigmund Freud (JR Books, £18.99) focuses in illuminating fashion on the last few years of Freud's ...
Regular readers of this blog might have noticed the presence of a nice, shiny new logo at the top of the page. This was designed for me by a good friend of mine, Lauren, whose website can be found here. The logo in question. What's especially impressive is that she managed to come up with this after just one attempt and with only the vague specification of "Something with the name of the blog and a stylised version of the bird of liberty". Needless to say, I love the new logo. So, if any of you reading this want a ...
Here's an interesting quandary for proponents of dressing in daft outfits and chasing small furry animals across the countryside in packs in the interests of 'sport' and 'control' of the pest that foxes undoubtedly are: the government is planning to shoot itself in the foot once more with a cull of badgers in the interests of controlling bovine TB in cattle, a plan which is contentious in the extreme and one which I cannot claim any expertise on. However, always one to venture an opinion, if the government is advocating shooting badgers to control them, why can't the same be ...
A few days ago Syrian pro-government protesters attacked the US embassy in revenge for the US ambassador's visit to Hama, a focal point of anti-regime protests. (And yesterday they attacked the US and French embassies, injuring three French embassy staff.) ... Continue reading →
I studied history at GCSE level, but not very dilligently. However, there is a comparator between Pakistan/American relations and the Cold War that does not escape me. However, Simon Tisdall suggests in the Guardian that the relationship is symbiotic. As Pakistan is denied millitary aid from the US, yet asked to continue "fighting America's battles for it", America is concerned Pakistan is harbouring Al Queda and a dual strategy. Such posturing does not immediately imply a dependency. However, Tisdall is correct in mentioning Pakistan's need for Washington support in a silent war with India. And Pakistan is equally important to ...
A week is a long time in politics, but it also sometimes seems to move at a glacial pace. It is now two decades since Bill Clinton won the presidency on the slogan that 'trickle down economics' doesn't work. Yet even a couple of years ago, there was Labour's Peter Mandelson being 'relaxed' about people getting 'filthy rich'. Well, finally things seem to be shifting. Even Max Hastings, of all people, writes in the Financial Times that "gross disparities seems likely sooner or later to promote an upheaval, perhaps graver now than most western societies can now envisage." It certainly ...
The revelations for the beleaguered Murdoch Empire just keep coming. The exquisitely timed released of information that the medical records of Gordon Brown's children had been stolen by NI hacks. The growing realization that the Sunday Times, The Times and the Sun are also to a greater or lesser degree involved not only in phone hacking, but also in computer hacking and the theft of personal information on an industrial scale. That payments to the Police were routine. What does Murdoch do next? Despite the referral to the Competition Commission, the bid for BSkyB remains on the table, but short ...
The hostile relations are being whipped into a frenzy in Syria this week, following the dubious decisions by American and French Governments to criticise Assad. I don't recall the environment in Libya being as febrile prior to NATO campaign. However, I don't believe as much support rallied for Gadaffi in Libya either. The damge to embassies in Damascus is indicative of a metaphorical threat more than anything. I have commented before on the bizarre comparisons between Libya and Syria, and yet the complete dichotomy of action taken by the UN, NATO and the EU. I have also deliberated the risk ...
Paper, scissors, stone Here's the problem, though. The police, the press and the leading politicians have each other in a death-grip. Or, to switch metaphors, they each have a loaded revolver pointed at one or both the others. Politicians threaten the press with regulation, but are threatened in their turn by the possibility of embarrassing revelations (some, no doubt, courtesy of the police). The police cannot investigate the press too closely without pulling their own house down; and they continue to rely on the political class for new powers and kit. And the press, however vulnerable they now seem, know ...
There are many good reasons I'd never buy the Telegraph. First there was the way it made incorrect insinuations about people I care about during the MPs' expenses scandal. Then there was the not very small manner of sending undercover reporters to Lib Dem ministers' surgeries which led to a complaint to the Press Complaints Commission being upheld: The Commission considered that there was an important dislocation here between the prima facie evidence and the method used to test it. It was notable, for example, that the newspaper was relying upon off-the-record comments from Conservative ministers on the subject of ...
I am growing incredibly angry this morning with certain elements of the social media sphere who are quite frankly taking the whole hating on Gordon Brown just a little bit too far for my liking. In 2009 Andrew Marr put a ...
Andy Burnham is accusing Gove of being "trapped in the 50s" according to the Guardian. While I'm not in the habit of defending Gove, per se, I'm completely behind a return to traditional subjects. The Guardian reported yesterday that one in five 15 year olds cannot read and write. No amount of art and design will provide students with these fundemental literacy skills, therefore a return to so-called traditional subjects will help kids to focus on what is really needed. An English Baccalaureate would provide a solid foundation in education that a significant proportion of students are missing. Bureaucracy Illogically, ...
Hidden between the lines of the Hacking Scandal are a couple of important other stories. University Charges1/3rd of university's have been given the go ahead to charge £9000 but the fees office. Students will be in uproar - while failing to see the bigger picture. This policy is going to cost the government - not save. As students will be earning more before they have to start repaying. The numbers going to university haven't been hugely effected, so there will still be far more graduates than jobs. We need to seriously look at the goals we set - with UCAS ...
Plok interviews me here. Comments are turned off here, to keep the discussion on that post. EDIT – now contains working link! Tagged: blog tour, mememememe
It's been a good month for the Scottish political blogosphere in the Wikio rankings - most of us have gone up. There are now 4 of us in the top 50. 1 Now, here's a surprise, Caron's Musings at 19. There was a very sad reason for that, I think - the posts I wrote about Andrew when he died which were heavily linked to. 2 Alex Massie at 21. 3 Better Nation at 33, up another 6 places this month. 4 Lallands Peat Worrier rises to 38 5 Underdogs Bite Upwards at 53 up 5 6 Subrosa at 69 ...
For the stage after the rest day we start with a significantly smaller field than the day before. Alexandre Vinokourox (AST), Jurgen Van Den Broeck (OLO), Frederik Willems (OLO), Pavel Brutt (KAT), Wouter Poels (VCD), David Zabriskie (GRM) and Amets Txurruka (EUS) all withdrew on the stage that Juan Manuel Garate (RAB) feiled to start. But over the rest day came the news that Alexandr Kolobnev, the Russian Champion and Olympic Bronze medalist on the Katusha squad failed a drugs test after stage 5 on Wednesday for the diuretic hydrochlorothiazide (HCT). So his team have withdrawn him from the race. ...
New railway station gardens have been created at Meldreth, Shepreth and Foxton to mark the historic anniversary of rail service in the South Cambridgeshire villages. The project has been supported by local primary and secondary schools, residents and businesses. Foxton station is celebrating its 163rd year while Meldreth and Shepreth opened 160 years ago. The railway gardens will be formally launched on July 9, with an open invitation to local residents and anyone keen to support the railway. The gardens include traditional oak tubs on station platforms, as well as a flower and vegetable garden at Meldreth Station and a ...
It's all Guy Barker's fault. Guy is a friend, trumpet player (Sting, Frank Sinatra) and film composer (The Talented Mr Ripley) and one of the healthiest people I know. I mentioned to him that I needed to do something in addition to cycling to improve my fitness and flexibility and he told me about Birkram ...
Over the past few months, I have received concerns from residents in Ancrum Drive about parking problems and road safety issues. The fact that the new 204 bus service will run along Ancrum Drive from next month could simply exacerbate the concerns. The matter has been discussed at the Community Spirit Action Group and, at the last meeting, we agreed that I should ask a road safety officer to meet with us in the street in the near future to discuss the issues and possible solutions. As always, I would welcome views and comments from local residents - ancrum@frasermacpherson.org.uk.
An open letter to Lloyds TSB. The Customer Services Manager, Lloyds TSB. Dear Sir, Yesterday I tried to pay for the renewal of my car insurance over the telephone using my current account debit card. Even though I gave all the numbers and other information correctly, twice, the payment was refused. I could not understand this as there were and are ample funds in my account to meet the payment. Fortunately I possess a credit card with the Co-operative Bank and payment on this was accepted without demure. Had it not been I should have had to repeat the tedious ...
My encounter with the News of the World « Shropshire Star (tags: news) tansyrr.com» Blog Archive » Pratchett's Women: The Boobs, the Bad and the Broomsticks "Pratchett was very much aware of some of the dreadful sexism in his source material, and the female characters he wrote were often in direct response to what he saw in the fantasy genre. His intentions to point out the silliness of the portrayal of women in fantasy, sadly, backfired somewhat." (tags: sf sexandsexualityandgender)
I'm living in Derby at the moment, so have been particularly conscious of the news that new carriages for Thameslink will be built by German firm Siemens rather than local firm Bombardier. Well, I say local. German/Canadian, actually, as if you couldn't tell by the rum foreign way everyone pronounces it. Still, it means the ...
It's almost exactly two years since "Any Questions" came to Moorside and two million people heard me ask the question "Should Yates of the Yard re-open the phone-hacking enquiry?" I'd love to be able to claim that ernormous insight (or is that foresight?) had led me to ask the question. The reality is much less flattering. A friend of mine with much greater skill at turning a question had phrased two questions that caught the programme editor's eye, and since my friend was only allowed to pose one I was asked to ask his second one, "Should Yates of the ...
