Here's Jon Stewart's take - unfortunately I can't find any video footage of it. The audience reaction is fascinating and shows perhaps how cynical people in the UK are in comparison:
The "nodding donkey" seems to have gone to the knackers' yard. He knows where he stands, it seems. He has, apparently, had an influence in ensuring that the government has promptly reacted to Murdochgate. Has Nick Clegg, finally, par chance, grown a pair? I only ask. [IMG: Clegg Speech 33] [IMG: Creative Commons License] photo credit: Liberal Democrats
I see that the Institute of Economic Affairs has published another book, "Sharper Axes, Lower Taxes", and that young Mr Littlewood has seen fit to grace the readership of Liberal Democrat Voice with another promotional piece. Now I'm not going to disagree with him entirely, although I do see that he has attracted almost total opprobrium for his rather extreme stance. However, I cannot let his use of polling go uncommented upon. You see, claiming that the public support reducing spending by £215 billion, without actually outlining what that might mean, is a bit of a con. I take that ...
Collected links from around the webTop notch web campaigner and marketer looks for work Tim's been banging on about corrupt practices in the Murdoch media and the way it taints Parliament for ages, he'd like to take some time to do more. I attended one of Tim's seminars a couple years back, definitely worth the journey. If you know people whose websites aren't doing them enough, especially in getting new customers or voters, Tim'd be a good person to work with. Tesco definitely thought so, and I learnt a lot of what I know from him. (tags: tim-ireland seo search-marketing) ...
This is one of the best New Who books I have read, and certainly the most mature of the standard range of Eleventh Doctor novels (which I felt generally have been written for a younger readership). The plot is an alien conflict being played out in rural England in 1936, but the point is the rather good exploration of the regular characters - particularly Rory, from a point in time shortly before his wedding to Amy - and a lot of squeeful continuity references. And I detected a load of other literary allusions in the story as well: I don't ...
...Definitely worth a listen. The climax is articulated by The Daily Show's British reporter: That's right, the guy who got car head from a LA road prostitute is now the moral compass of my nation.
After seeing Wing maze and having lunch at the King's Arms, I visited Artdejardin. The leaflet I picked up there describes it thus: Artdejardin is the strikingly beautiful garden based in the the picturesque Rutland village of Wing. There are over six beautiful acres of garden, woodland and meadow ... incorporating breathtaking sculptures that reflect and heighten natures finest creations.The six acres are split between garden, meadow and woodland. Half the fun of the place is the excitement of seeing what is around the next corner, but the garden's website has a list of the artists whose work is on ...
I'm bored. Even a EuroMillions win has failed to enthuse me. Alright, it was £2.80, but it was a win. Which reminds me, I really must call in somewhere and collect my winnings... But I digress, something that I'm quite good at (he says, as another bunny rabbit takes off across his line of vision...). Yes, it's another redesign, following a fortnight of non-blogging and more existential doubt and uncertainty, during which time I cancelled my Twitter account (yes, @honladymark is no more), gave up on Facebook (no, I don't care about the fact that you have a shiny new ...
London Assembly member Mike Tuffrey launched his campaign to win the 2012 Liberal Democrat nomination for Mayor of London, with an ambitious plan to build enough new homes to house a quarter of a million Londoners. Mike said: "It's time for serious solutions to the big challenges we face if London is to remain a great city to live, work and raise a family in over the next decade" said Mike Tuffrey, who has served as an Assembly member since 2002. "With new powers coming from central government, we need a GLA - mayor and assembly - that is ambitious ...
Will America be forced to test it's mettle over Murdoch? Following from George Monbiot's fantastic piece in the Guardian yesterday on holding media to account, where he referred to the seemingly symbiotic relationship between press and politics in the UK, the power play of American politics and press must now be tested. Monbiot observed, beautifully, how this was a parasitical relationship where by media barons 'astroturfing' stories in a crusade to protect elite interests. However, the power-play of politics and press in the US, from what I understand, puts the UK to shame for it's meagre attempts at corruption in ...
Do you remember Jeffrey Archer who was rich and famous whom politicians courted? Then Murdoch. Who's next in the power battle of the rich? Where there is power there will always be followers.
The Friends of Rock Road Library ran a bookstall at the Morley Memorial summer fête recently. There are some good books left over, which are touring a few Friends' houses in the hope they'll find good homes locally. A few boxes will be outside my house in Holbrook Road as soon as the weather looks safe enough. Do pop by and take a look - money through the letterbox please.
Watching today's PMQs, it would seem that the average parliamentarian has all the calm, competent self-control of a teenage boy undoing a bra in the dark for the first time. No wonder so many women comment on how unappealing the whole idea of being an MP is. Today we had more on the phone hacking scandal. The victims have suffered the loss of family members – including children – to murder, terrorism and war. The nation is outraged at the failures in the national institutions of Parliament, press and police. Both major parties have similar goals for the future, and ...
Dominic Sandbrook, writing on high50, is not convinced by the theory that Chipping Norton is home to an evil cabal of politicians and journalist who run Britain:The truth is that Chipping Norton could hardly be a less appropriate headquarters for a Dan Brown-style international conspiracy. In a wildly overwrought column, the Telegraph's Peter Oborne laid into the "louche, affluent, power-hungry and amoral" conspirators, but none of those words really apply to poor old Chippy. Of all the popular Cotswold towns, it is easily the most unpretentious. You want louche? Try Stow on the Wold. Amoral? Bourton-on-the-Water. Power-hungry? You don't know ...
Liam Fox, the defence secretary, apologised in the Commons today to the families of two RAF pilots originally blamed for the 1994 Chinook helicopter crash. Two RAF air marshals had accused Flight Lieutenants Jonathan Tapper and Richard Cook of gross negligence over the crash on the Mull of Kintyre in which they died along with 27 other people. Many of the passengers were among Britain's leading anti-terrorism experts. The apology came after a fresh review found that Tapper and Cook should not have been blamed and the earlier ruling has now been set aside. Alan Reid, Lib Dem MP for ...
A plug for these Shakespeare performances coming up later this month. Venues include Reynolds Park in Woolton and Sudley House. Sounds like a great way to spend an evening. http://www.liverpoolnetworktheatre.org.uk/
We haven't seen anything like this since the MPs expenses scandal in 2009. Rupert Murdoch's newspaper empire is the centre of a media and political feeding frenzy provoked initially by outrage over mobile phone hacking, and now taking in dodgy relationships with the Police and management cover-up and dissembling. Murdoch has had to close one highly successful paper, and now he's withdrawn his bid for 100% of BSkyB. Commentators are using metaphors such as earthquakes and the shifting of tectonic plates. Frankly I find it impossible not to enjoy this spectacle. Murdoch and his acolytes are hard-nosed businessmen who would ...
This really is a stunner. Over the last four years US-based News Corp has made $10.4 billion in profits and has "paid" minus $4.8 billion in taxes. Or, in plain English, got a $4.8 billion tax refund. A fine piece of reporting by David Cay Johnston of Reuters exposes News Corp as a (corporate) welfare ...
Why was this a government matter in the first place? Don't we have a free press? Media plurality is completely separated from criminal law – and quite rightly! The OFCOM acquisition guidance, including the much mentioned "fit and proper" test, doesn't go into details of an owner's criminal record, as it's all about making sure there's a responsible, diverse set of media outlets distributing news. OFCOM looks at the proprietor's conduct while running other broadcast media channels to see if they stick to the rules, and as such, a parliamentary debate isn't allowed (under competition law) to prohibit Murdoch from ...
(click on photos for larger image) July always seems like a high tide kind of month in the garden. Midsummer has passed and the swelling buds and green expectation of Spring has blossomed into the full on riot of flowers and weeds. The garden has yet to fall into the lazy stupor of Autumn, when all that green growth mellows out and chills for a while in long afternoons under gold skies. But for now, the garden is at full reach. The lawn is awash with clover and daisy. The flower beds, at any moment, will surrender to waves of ...
Cross-posted from Liberal Democrat Voice Oh, what a joy to be Leader of the Opposition at times like these! Prime Minister's Questions today was certainly one of the most important this year. David Cameron has been in a sort of partial purdah for the last few days, no doubt preparing his answers. What we got was quite a substantial exposition of the response to what I'll call, for the purposes of brevity, "Murdochgate". The exchange between Cameron and Miliband started with a large degree of agreement. Indeed, it was almost as if the PM had pulled the rug from under ...
During my studies here in Jerusalem, I've met three PhD whizzkids from Harvard: Cian, Jonathan and Joanna. They're researching biblical Hebrew, theology, ancient history, and loads of other exciting and esoteric stuff, I'm sure. They'd been thinking of going to visit some of the archaeological sites around the Dead Sea - Qumran, Masadah - and after I expressed an interest, they invited me along. To maximise our time, we decided to skive off an afternoon of classes. Jonathan had hired a car, so we drove out of Jerusalem and due east into the heart of the West Bank. Jerusalem is ...
I haven't actually read the Boycott Bill and I don't have time today to trawl the Internet in search of it. I normally like to read things before commenting on them. So I haven't read it, but it appears to me that it is a stupid idea. Mature democracies often pass bad laws and this is one of them, standing comparison with the UK's idiotic past ban on the broadcasting of Northern Ireland terrorists' voices (whose words were then instead read by "the voice of an actor") and France's awful so-called burka ban. I am a clear opponent of the ...
It's hard to believe that two weeks ago the News of the World was Britain's best-selling newspaper. On Sunday it printed its final edition after 168 years of business. I'm far from a fan of Rupert Murdoch's and I see very little reason to empathise with his current predicament. However, I was not thrilled to see the demise of the News of the World because this is a newspaper with history and, whatever I think of it personally, a popular appeal. The paper's staff, most of whom are presumably innocent of wrongdoing, have been laid off as a result of ...
My Leader (who is quicker off the mark than I am) has noticed a report in the Champion-sadly not available in the online edition as far as I can see. he writes: Readers will recall that we Lib Dems recently exposed the ridiculous level of allowances being paid by the Labour run local Transport Authority. The paper quotes a Merseytavel spokesperson as saying "The Authority has agreed to an independent review of members' allowances and has approached someone appropriate for the role." I wonder who the reviewing person is? I also wonder why when all local Councils have had Independent ...
Amanda and 20mph sign There was a lively discussion on the Queen Edith's 20mph trial at the Cambridge South Area meeting on Monday night. The meeting was held at the Cherry Hinton Village Centre for the first time, and was well attended, with many people there specially for either the 20mph item on the agenda or the policing session. Mr Richard Preston from Cambridgeshire County Council Highways Dept was there to report and listen, and at my request, the police stayed on for the discussion. Despite disappointing speed tests showing that drivers have not changed their behaviour much, here was ...
I am very grateful, as I so often am, to Jonathan Calder's blog. This time for the sad news that Sergeant John Sweet has died at the age of 95: http://liberalengland.blogspot.com/2011_07_03_archive.html John Sweet, as fans of Powell and Pressburger films will know, was the American army sergeant who played the role of Bob Johnson in their wartime classic The Canterbury Tale. Like Jonathan, it is one of my favourite films. It manages to combine an amazing Chaucerian simplicity with a sense of such depth and feeling that I am never absolutely sure what the film is trying to tell me. ...
President Abbas blames Israel for the Quartet's not having issued a statement on the Israel/Palestine peace process this week; "Israeli officials" are quoted as blaming the Palestinians. I blame the Russians, whose stance on this deserves a lot more critical attention. Interesting also to see British Ambassador Matthew Gould telling an Israeli newspaper of his government's "preference to avoid" a UN vote on Palestinian statehood in September, as:we are worried that September will be a damaging moment for the future of peace. We are worried that it will make it more difficult in the matter of the trust between the ...
Hubba, hubba. My brain is about to explode. I can hardly take in all this breaking news! I doubt whether we have heard the last of News Corporation's bid for a bigger share in BSkyB. They apparently can launch another bid in six months time. But we shouldn't under-estimate the magnitude of import of the decision to abandon the bid. Murdoch could have sold off News International to save the bid. News International is of less importance to him, given the mega-bucks involved in BSkyB. So this is a very, very painful decision for him to take (even if he ...
Today sees the Institute of Economic Affairs publish its own version of the Comprehensive Spending Review. The research report - Sharper Axes, Lower Taxes: Big Steps to a Smaller State - calls for a radical downsizing of the public sector and sketches out the colossal tax cuts which would become possible. Accompanying opinion poll research, conducted by ComRes, shows overwhelming public support for such a strategy. For all the sound and fury surrounding the coalition's fiscal retrenchment, its proposals are actually amazingly modest. In real terms, public spending will fall by a mere 3% or so between now and the ...
Shrinking the size of the state by abolishing the NHS and limiting overseas aid to humanitarian disasters could save more than £200bn a year and pave the way for growth-generating tax cuts, says a leading free-market thinktank. The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), responsible for many of the policies implemented by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s, said the plans to tackle Britain's budget deficit during the current parliament are not radical enough. So says the Guardian today It is with enormous sadness that I note that someone posing as a Lib Dem -Mark Littlewood- advocates such damaging and wacky proposals. ...
On Monday at the South Area Committee meeting in Cherry Hinton, police agreed to adopt a new priority in the south of the city -mini-mot0 misuse. This is in top of an existing priority to address anti-social behaviour in Cherry Hinton. The south sector neighbourhood police attend the Cambridge South Area meetings three times a year to present reports on their activities over the past season, highlight any trends, and to agree priorities for the coming season with councillors and the public. Anyone can come to these meetings and raise concerns. Monday's meeting was held at the Cherry Hinton Village ...
A couple of links about railways have passed my desk in recent times. The first is an Economist blogger who hates the special language the railways have developed. In the comments, it develops into more hatred for the automated announcements that blight our stations and trains. Lateness is so normal that robots apologize for it without reference to real people. Once a train is more than thirty minutes late, the robot automatically becomes "extremely" sorry. My own pet hates, particularly when I am unfortunate enough to use Nottingham railway station in the morning, are the ticket barriers, and the constant ...
The EU revealed its plan to bring fish stocks back from the brink of collapse in Brussels today after making their way through a demonstration led by North West England Euro-MP Chris Davies. Davies was joined by a cross party ... Continue reading →
I might have advised David Cameron to risk ridicule by postponing Monday's launch of the Public Services White Paper, once it became obvious that the launch was going to so grievously overshadowed by the day's other news. Anyway, in the wake of that launch comes this interesting article by Danny Alexander and Oliver Letwin, which reminds me why I (still) like this Coalition Government as much as I do. This piece blends the best of Conservative and Liberal Democrat thinking to produce a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts; I strongly welcome the approach that it ...
Proposed take-over of BSkyB by News International Ever since the report of our Information Commissioner 'What Price Freedom?' and the conviction and imprisonment of Goodman and Mulcaire in 2006, there has been growing concern about the policy and practices of UK newspaper titles owned by News International. Recent weeks have seen the publication of a flurry of further allegations against your company's publications in the UK which have shocked and sickened the British public, and rightfully so. It now appears that: - an investigator working for your newspaper the 'News of the World' hacked into the phone of a kidnapped young ...
After Nick Clegg's HuffPo debut yesterday, Danny Alexander has co-written a piece with the Conservatives' Oliver Letwin on the Government's Open Public Services White Paper: Our society is blighted by the persistent failure to extend equal opportunity, dignity and worth to all. Inequalities in access to good schools, high quality healthcare, safe places to play, culture, sporting opportunities, decent homes and so much more leave our society less free, less fair and less united. In order to ensure that every citizen is given the opportunities they deserve this Coalition Government has already moved quickly to lower taxes for the poorest, ...
Wed 13th
14:30
Leader gambling Cornwall leisure service and museums on profits from new business ventures
The future of Cornwall's leisure service and of Cornwall's museums are being gambled on the success of a couple of highly risky new schemes. That appears to be the message being given by Cornwall Council Leader at today's Cabinet meeting. Flushed with being labelled a 'can do' council by his new "chum" Eric Pickles, Cllr Robertson appears to be willing to gamble services which are hugely important to many people on high risk schemes which have yet to be proven anywhere in the country. And all this from an authority with a history of missing key financial savings deadlines. Two ...
Rt Hon Simon Hughes MP Tim Farron MP Don Foster Three senior Liberal Democrats have today written to Rupert Murdoch asking him to withdraw his bid to take full control of BSkyB. The full text of the letter, signed by the party's Deputy Leader Simon Hughes, President Tim Farron and Culture, Media and Sport spokesperson Don Foster, is set out below. Rupert Murdoch Chairman and Chief Executive News Corporation c/o News International Ltd 3 Thomas More Square, London E98 1XY Proposed take-over of BSkyB by News International Ever since the report of our Information Commissioner 'What Price Freedom?' and the ...
On four occasions at today's meeting I counted Cornwall Council Cabinet members pleading with the media to give them good reports. Every week councillors receive a briefing from the Leader listing news stories and a total for 'good news' and a total for 'bad news'. The number of bad news stories has never reached above eight, but this relies on some charitable interpretation of what is good news and what is bad (the decision by the Secretary of State to rule against Cornwall on the incinerator was somehow felt to be good). Perhaps this spin is no longer working on ...
Wed 13th
13:56
'Hello. I notice you are a woman in a well paid position. Here's a £3k pay-cut that you must a...
Sometimes I think my headlines are too long. Sometimes I think they are just about right. This one is probably too long but let's get on with the blog. I'm sitting here in my PJ bottoms at what half one or so tap tapping away on my PC doing what I do (seriously working from home can be great when you lack the basic motivation to get dressed) and my phone dings, 'So I'll be losing at least £3k from my wages. I'm incredibly fucked off' is what I stare at on the screen. I inquire as to why and ...
The Essex jobless claimant count was 2.9% in June, unchanged from May and unchanged since June 2010. In Braintree, Epping Forest and Harlow, the unemployment rate was unchanged both month-on-month and year-on-year. This will be a disappointing for Harlow, which needs unemployment to continue its downward trend. Harlow has Essex's highest unemployment rate at 4.5%, well above the regional average of 3.7% and the county average of 2.9%. Chelmsford's jobless problem Tendring had the second highest claimant count in Essex at 4.0%, down 0.1% over May but up 0.1% on June 2010. Chelmsford is of particular concern, with unemployment up ...
A rather rambunctious Prime Ministers Questions has just finished, with the focus inevitably once again on phone hacking. The Dave and Ed show started politely enough, with a general decrying of what had gone on. Then Ed got personal. He wanted to know all about what Chief of Staff Ed Llewyn and Chief Strategist Steve Hilton new, ...
Oh, what a joy to be Leader of the Opposition at times like these! Prime Minister's Questions today was certainly one of the most important this year. David Cameron has been in a sort of partial purdah for the last few days, no doubt preparing his answers. What we got was quite a substantial exposition of the response to what I'll call, for the purposes of brevity, "Murdochgate". The exchange between Cameron and Miliband started with a large degree of agreement. Indeed, it was almost as if the PM had pulled the rug from under the Leader of the opposition ...
Wed 13th
12:40
Oakeshott obituary in Economist and a political legacy we must not forget (more added)
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 ...
A while ago, I said that a 'black swan' could split the coalition. My view was that none of the things that people thought would topple the alliance between the Tories and Lib Dems would but something no one expected might. If Peter Bingle is right in his speculation, then that black swan has arrived.
Wed 13th
12:01
Forest Hill Planning consultation: Land rear of 15 - 17A Tyson Road And 39-53, Honor Oak Road, Londo...
Details of this planning application can be found by following this link: The case officer is Gemma Barnes - please email comments and objections to her at gemma.barnes@lewisham.gov.uk, and don't forget to copy us in.
Ol' blue eyes himself, Frank Sinatra, used to sing about "My kinda town..." Rest assured, I won't be singing. But let me tell you about London – my town – and the kind of campaign I intend to run as our candidate to be Mayor of London. The test of success in the 2012 campaign isn't just the number of votes we win in the Mayor contest – it is how many Assembly members we get elected and how many councillors, councils and MEPs we get elected in 2014. Our very best London-wide campaigning in the past – such as ...
67 Police officers from Kent are off on a day out, to take part in a "Day of Action" in Westminster which will involve over 2,000 off duty police officers demonstrating their concern over proposed cuts to police service budgets, a particular worry seems to be over pay. Life is tough for everybody just now, in the business and private sector people have been suffering for some time, the money has run out. The public sector and the police are part of the same economy so why should they be different, maybe they ought to show some flexibility on pay ...
As part of the negotiations that led to the formation of the current coalition government it was agreed, on the insistence of the Conservatives, that the new government would legislate to reduce the number of members of Parliament from 650 to 600. This was to be accompanied by a review of the boundaries of each parliamentary constituency across the UK with the intention for, as far as possible, each constituency to have the same size electorate. The motive behind this was widely seen as an attempt by the Conservatives to correct the disadvantages they face from the imbalances in the ...
I was not surprised to encounter the story of an increase in male eating disorders this morning on BBC Radio One. Anorexia and bulimia are two emotional and painful conditions; the mental calculations descend into a very dark and dangerous ... Continue reading →
Following the post in which I confessed to bearing joint responsibility for the financial ills of the NHS, I have taken up Buteyko. Buteyko was a Russian physiologist, trained in scientific method, which was the first thing that made his ideas more attractive to me than some of the less scientifically based ways of doing things. In the course of his work he noticed that people with a variety of chronic conditions all had low levels of CO2 in their bodies. He devised a breathing method which he hoped would help people elevate their CO2, and he discovered that when ...
Like many parents of four-year-olds right now, I'm preparing for the big move to primary school this September. Our new school is doing a great job of easing the transition from nursery for our son; but as full-time working parents the difference between nursery and school is deeply stressful. Nursery is run for working parents: open 8-6, three meals a day provided, flexible arrival and departure time, and one itemised monthly bill. School is very different: closed 14 weeks of the year, and finishing around 3pm the other 38. A whole mini-industry of breakfast clubs, after-school clubs, holiday clubs and ...
http://myfellowamerican.us/ sent me this video last night and kindly asked Too lib·er·al [adj.] to display it for readers. I vehemently protest against the alienation or political persecution of any individuals or groups. As an atheist, religion is a choice and ... Continue reading →
Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation (which owns News International and thus The Times, The Sun and so on) makes thousands of millions of US dollars from United States taxpayers. How much in taxes has his companies managed to avoid paying in Britain? On profits of $10.4 bn (ten thousand four hundred million dollars) over the last four years US corporate taxes of $3.6 bn (three thousand six hundred million US Dollars) should have been paid. Instead the US Treasury paid Murdoch companies $4.6 bn in income tax refunds. How is this done? According to David Cay Johnson, a columnist at Reuters ...
Being away at the weekend I am very behind with everything and have only just really been browsing through the blogs I read to see if there is anything I particularly missed. The immediate thing that jumped out at me was this: (picture edited from a screenshot of Diane Abbott's twitter feed as one more tweet had been made) Brought to my attention by a post by the fantastic Richard Morris (although it seems impossible to link to the particular post - he made it on Monday if that helps). I have friends who have quite dark senses of humour ...
In recent years there has been an attempt by the Labour Party and the Tory Party to find new ways of attracting old voters. Labour and the Tories see the need to attract those who vote for the other party, which has resulted in Red Tory and Blue Labour. For the Lib Dems, we have ...
The Sovereign debt crisis is finally exploding. As usual the Anti-Euro nutters are out in force- I see someone has let Ambrose Evans Pritchard out again- but just they always do, they totally miss the point. Of course the Euro is in crisis, but it is not the Euro that caused the crisis- it is a level of government debt in Europe and the US and Japan which is simply not sustainable. It may well be that the Euro is damaged or even destroyed- through that causes more problems than it solves- but the crisis is: that Western governments have ...
Kirsty Williams' initial reaction to the Welsh Government's legislative statement yesterday, that a bill to force joint appointments in local government is reorganisation by the back door is in my view, absolutely correct. As Kirsty said, if the government want to reorganise local government then they should say so and publish a white paper setting out proposals so as to start the debate. The First Minister responded that the Government did not want to do this because of the cost of reorganisaton, which is a valid point of view but it does not address the fundamental problem that his Minster ...
The decision by the banks to abandon plans to scrap cheques is very welcome but is there a bit of smoke and mirrors going on as well. The Financial Times reports that the controversial plan was scrapped after banks were warned in parliament that they had "scared the pants off middle England". They say that worried members of the public sent more than one thousand letters and emails to MPs after it was announced that the 350-year-old payment system was to be phased out by late 2018. The final straw for the banks appear to have been when the government ...
Our local MP Mark Hunter started the the campaign to save the cheque back in 2009. It not only attracted a lot of support locally, but also across the country with MPs and campaigners from all parties taking up the call. And this week we've had the news that the campaign has been successful – due to public pressure, the UK Payments Council have relented and will no longer scrap the cheque. If you don't normally use cheques you might wonder what all the fuss is about. For those who do (and I write many, not least to school and ...
The most recent Dulwich Community Council meeting agreed to making the following East Dulwich streets 20mph speed limits – Ashbourne, Bassano, Blackwater, Chesterfield and Matham Grove with sinusoidal road humps. Plus the following roads 20mph speed limits with no road humps – Crystal Palace Road, Goodrich, Heber, Jennings, Landcroft, Landells, Pellatt, Rodwell, Silvester, Thompson and Whateley. Overall 82% of consultation responses supported the proposals with 16% opposing them. These 20mph speed limit streets will then only leave 5 streets out of the 65 East Dulwich ward streets with limits greater than 20mph – Barry Road, East Dulwich Road, East Dulwich ...
The release of the final Harry Potter film happily coincides with the Great Battle Of Hogswarth which is the hacking scandal. From the book here is part of Harry's final confrontation with you-know-who (Harry) "I'd advise you to think about what you've done ... think and try for some remorse..." (Murdoch, er I mean Voldy) "What is this?" Of all the the things that Harry had said to him, beyond any revelation or taunt, nothing had shocked Voldemort like this. Harry saw his pupils contract to thin slits. saw the skin around his eyes whiten. "Its your last chance" said ...
If so the chances are that you aren't reading this blog – but if you are (or someone you love is) you might just be interested in a life-changing 8 week course that will offer you challenges, self development and a recognised qualification at the end of it. (Oh yes, and free lunches and free travel!) If that sounds good check out the poster below.
The government said yesterday that it would scrap plans to abolish cheques after strong opposition from a variety of groups representing tradespeople, the elderly and disabled, and charities. From the FT: A controversial plan to abolish cheques has been scrapped, after banks were warned in parliament that they had "scared the pants off middle England". Worried members of the public sent more than one thousand letters and emails to MPs after it was announced that the 350-year-old payment system was to be phased out by late 2018. The U-turn came after the government indicated it would intervene unless a suitable ...
... but he did tell us, of course. First he was right about the economic dangers, and then he was right about Murdoch. Vince Cable must be quietly celebrating the fact that the 'unfortunate' Jeremy Hunt, who was handed the BSkyB contract decision after the Telegraph's underhand trap, has had to bow to the collective will of MPs. Cameron and Miliband are busy backtracking after years of toadying up to Rebekah Brooks by their parties. The Liberal Democrats were never considered significant enough to be subjected to her charm offensive. And that may be where News International may have made ...
The Pyrenées loom large on the horizon and this is basically one of only three stages left that the pure sprinters are expecting to take line honours on. So this is a stage that you can expect the teams with sprinters to want to bring it all together at the end. Unlike yesterday there is no climb near the end which can take a bit of a kick out of the sprinters. However, there have been attempts to get away and stay away in recent days. Philippe Gilbert's attack yesterday, then David Millar's counter attack were moves that might have ...
The latest community learning newsletter from the City Council has been published and you can download it by clicking on the headline above or by going to http://tinyurl.com/dundeelearning. This includes details of activities at the Mitchell Street Centre.
Something struck me during David Cameron's press conference about the "Hackgate" scandal last Friday. It was this particular passage: Because party leaders were so keen to win the support of newspapers, we turned a blind eye to the need to sort this issue, get on top of the bad practices, to change the way our newspapers are regulated. It's a bit like MPs' expenses. The people in power knew things weren't right. But they didn't do enough quickly enough - until the full mess of the situation was revealed. Now, when the scandal hits and the truth is plain for ...
Wed 13th
07:56
Has The Sun lost it's moral compass, or is someone standing next to it with a large magnet?
First off, in case you haven't seen an image of today's Sun front page, here's a link to an image of it. Don't worry, it's not a link to The Sun itself. Today of all days, I wouldn't want to give them the traffic. No doubt the editor and the team responsible are patting themselves on the back about having proved Goirdon Brown 'wrong'. And I've read that at the time they ran the original story, it was described by people in the newsroom as a 'cracking exclusive' or words to that effect. So, The Sun: let me make my ...
Simon Hughes, Tim Farron and Don Foster have written to Rupert Murdoch about the proposed take-over of BSkyB by News International. They ask Murdoch to respond to public opinion by changing his commercial strategy in the UK: withdrawing his News Corporation bid for BSkyB and concentrating all his efforts on cleaning up News International. The letter in full: Proposed take-over of BSkyB by News International Ever since the report of our Information Commissioner 'What Price Freedom?' and the conviction and imprisonment of Goodman and Mulcaire in 2006, there has been growing concern about the policy and practices of UK newspaper ...
I hadn't until now realised the immense power of the blogosphere. Yesterday at 06h31 I posted a demand that the banks should retain cheques as a means of payment: by lunchtime they had caved in. Wow. Let's hope there is similar quick action on the far more important subject of today's post. For some reason which I don't understand, but it is quite flattering, there are almost as many (4 847) "page-hits" for this blog from the US as from the UK (6 241). So today's post is aimed at our American readers. British readers will be familiar with the ...
Today British politics will see a piece of history as the next phase of the battle against Rupert Murdoch and his media empire begins. This is the battle between the media mogul and the British Parliament. The House of Commons shall vote on whether Rupert Murdoch should proceed with his bid to take over BSkyB. All of Britain's major parties; the Conservative Party, the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats will today join forces in the House of Commons (which is an extreme rarity at the best of times) and overwhelmingly reject Rupert Murdoch's bid to obtain full ownership of ...
I have just returned (yesterday) from Sonisphere music festival, (metal and rock music), it was a good weekend but it also included one of the most eerie and beautiful moments I have been involved in. One of the headline acts Slipknot lost one of their band members last year Paul Gray (known as #2) from an 'accidental overdose'. As such the festival organisers agreed to a two minutes silence on the Sunday afternoon. Here's a video of it, the song playing before that is their own 'Vermilion Part 2': I know from personal experience that Slipknot have often been criticized/looked ...
Well it was bound to happen at some point. I've been very good at taking my meds, but with the last appointment at the clinic on the day before my civil partnership, I didn't really have time to go and get the prescription for the next few months then. And so we're down to 12 ...
On Monday, thanks to my post about Johann Hari and Amazon, this blog had the most visitors in a day since the coalition negotiations were taking place just after last year's general election. Then yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon I was looking at Statcounter at work (as you do) when I noticed that I was suddenly getting an enormous number of hits on a post about a British Psychological Society report called Understanding Bipolar Disorder and that they were all coming from Twitter. Bipolar disorder. Twitter. A huge volume of traffic. Could it be? I went on to Twitter myself and sure ...
