You may be forgiven for thinking so given the current levels of hysteria in the wake of what is frankly the biggest political and media story to hit these shores for years. Now that David Cameron's complicity in the Murdoch scandal ...
"I would love to see a British Open round here one day. Royal Portrush is a far better course than Troon. This is one of the real great Open courses." Gary Player The 2010 US Open Champion hales from Royal Portrush, the 2011 US Open Champion is the course record holder at 61 of Royal Portrush, on the morning that he won the 2011 Open the Champion's sons were playing on their local course Royal Portrush. Yes, all three of the Northern Irish Golfers who have now won three of the last six golf majors* have some connection to the ...
Could a sentence in Sir Paul Stephenson's resignation statement bring down David Cameron? Martin Tod asks the question. Splash blog! calls for the return of the Liberal Summer School: "A party can become top heavy. Sometimes burdened by its leading lights and activists, that is inevitable and not always bad per se but one which can suffocate new thinking and priorities. And a party in power (even if only in coalition) can easily take on the narrowness and conservatism of the establishment." Alex Foster tells us that you can now read Lib Dem Voice on your Amazon Kindle. Make no ...
I was taken aback when a colleague emailed me to say that the No.1 posting in this weeks Top of the Blogs The Lib Dem Golden dozen was our posting on Robert Oakeshott. [IMG: Featured on Liberal Democrat Voice] The original posting is here Wow, in a week when the New Corp scandal dominated the head lines (and Vince was proved right once again) when the highest levels of the Met Police were shown to be dining with 'criminals' rather than arresting them and Murdoch CEO ((finally resigned) and was arrested etc etc, the No 1 blog post was ...
The resignation of Sir Paul Stephenson as commissioner of The Met is significant in a way beyond the obvious. As someone tweeted earlier, from their resignation statements, one might surmise that everyone who has resigned so far has done absolutely nothing wrong. However, the difference in the Paul Stephenson case is that everybody seems to be falling over themselves to agree. In the hour after his resignation I saw or heard statements from Boris Johnson, Kit Malthouse and Jenny Jones all lauding the honourable decision Sir Paul had made and in many ways lamenting his loss. So, let's take it ...
I have this afternoon informed the Palace, Home Secretary and the Mayor of my intention to resign as Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service. I have taken this decision as a consequence of the ongoing speculation and accusations relating to the ...
Not so long ago, after the mucky AV victory, he looked like a Blair prodigy, a political big-beast and a teflon coated surviver. Someone quite untouchable and likely to be PM for at least two terms. Today, and after the resignation of the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson - as the phone hacking scandal blast radius extends - he looks like the guy who brought into Number 10, someone who may ultimately be jailed for his involvement in phone hacking by the News of the World. The continued revelations and the very simple joining of dots between Cameron and ...
Channel 4 News has published a useful guide to Neil Wallis's dealings with the police, but how was he viewed by his journalistic colleagues? Milne Media, and one of the commenters on the post in particular, give us a useful insight: At the People a favourite game of reporters was to dream up ways of killing him. The baseball bat death in The Untouchables was ruled out as being too humane.
It seems there is a campaign for people to access records of their partner's previous convictions to protect them from potential domestic violence situations. Known as "Clare's Law", the premise that a person should be able to find out about her partner's convictions to protect her from a fate similar to that of Clare Wood. However, this concept of a free-for-all on criminal record access that castes a prejudice against offenders, denies the ability to change and could result in persecution for those who have committed no offence. As Robert Buckland MP states in the Telegraph article, "You cannot have ...
Even leaving aside the concerns about their closeness to News International, the recent appearances of the leadership of the Metropolitan Police before the Commons home affairs select committee were deeply uninspiring. An anecdote once retailed by Lord Donoghue sprang to mind: I am reminded that a senior detective inspector from Maidenhead once explained to me: "You have to understand that the root of this country's law and order problem is that our police are a lot thicker than the villains."
Jaw-dropping sentence in Paul Stephenson's resignation note: Secondly, once Mr Wallis's name did become associated with Operation Weeting, I did not want to compromise the Prime Minister in any way by revealing or discussing a potential suspect who clearly had a close relationship with Mr Coulson. He goes on: I am aware of the many political exchanges in relation to Mr Coulson's previous employment – I believe it would have been extraordinarily clumsy of me to have exposed the Prime Minister, or by association the Home Secretary, to any accusation, however unfair, as a consequence of them being in possession ...
We forget at our peril that markets make a good servant, a bad master and a worse religion. Amory Lovins, CEO, Rocky Mountain Institute The Government's long delayed White Paper on public service reform – Open Public Services – has now been released into the wild. I blogged an early reaction to its rationale over ...
There are few sportsmen in this world these days who aren't simply living off of the life of celebrity (see footballers for case in point) for whom I genuinely feel any sense of compassion for but Darren Clarke, the golfer ...
On Friday I tweeted that I didn't think that the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Paul Stephenson would last the weekend. I somehow wish I had placed a bet on that. This evening after a press statement from the Metropolitan ...
The rains were bad yesterday - yet after 1pm the sun popped out and the sun beamed. Great relief as I donned my walking sandals and victorian costume. Because today I am getting married. This is the second time so I wanted to make it special. As I am a bit of a greenie I decided that the only eco-travel, would be to walk. Also I am an avid hillwalker so the stroll down to the SS Great Britain from Brislington was no arduous. In fact I loved it. I chose a quiet route - going down Sandy Park Rd, ...
Picture the scene. You are a senior figure at an organisation that's messed up. There is no hard evidence that you are responsible for what has gone wrong, so you hope to evade personal blame. So what do you say? You say: "I am very sorry that these problems, of which I was sadly unaware, happened on my watch, and I therefore wish to take ultimate responsibility and resign." Is there a more annoying expression than "on my watch"? It is a way of saying: "I don't want to admit that that this is all my fault, but I have ...
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 230th 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 (10-16 July, 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. Oakeshott obituary in ...
I took a fair amount of persuading to do this by my LibDem pal Andrew Emmerson but here it is, the Social Bookers podcast. Podcast Powered By Podbean Each week Andrew and I, in our own unique way, will talk about ...
TweetThere are very few podcasts around worth listening to, and I hardly ever hear a Lib Dem summary of the news and current affairs, so being bored, and with far to much time on my hands, I've gotten together with Lisa Harding (@thatspidey) and a little thrown in from Old Man Mills (@Cjmillsnun) and our aim is to do a weekly podcast, based on the news and current affairs. All the episodes can be found at http://socialbookers.podbean.com – and there'll soon be an iTunes link! This is our first episode, so it's still a little rough around the edges, we ...
A funny spoof trailerHat tip to Peter Black
For many years the phrase terre des hommes had a somewhat unusual connotation. My family visited Montreal in two successive summers, 1972 and 1973, when I was five and then six; and the place where we stayed was within walking distance of the decaying remains of the 1967 Expo, which had taken as its theme de Saint-Exupéry's title. So the phrase "terre des hommes" evoked memories of desolate and derelict pavilions and disintegrating plastic sculptures. I haven't been to Montreal in thirty-eight years, and I guess they have tidied it up by now. But a few months ago I was ...
I am grateful to the Salford Star for once again being "ahead of the curve" and exclusively revealing that the University of Salford, located on the border of Langworthy and Irwell Riverside wards in Salford, is planning to remove the famous lion logo (opposite) and replace it with the word "Manchester". The current lion logo proudly states "The University of Salford" although some of their letterheads do also state "A Greater Manchester University" – which I do not have a problem with. If the proposed logo does, as the Salford Star mockup below suggests, simply say University of Salford Manchester, ...
The Rambles of Neil Monnery understands that the RFU and the BBC have agreed in principle to a deal that will see all 15 games of the Six Nations tournament remain live on the BBC in the United Kingdom. The deal could be announced any day now and it is expected the deal will be the final nail in the coffin of the BBC's Formula One rights, which run out after the 2013 season. The BBC are paying £40million a year under the terms of the present deal but as we understand it the BBC will be paying less this ...
I set off a bit earlier than usual this morning to take B out for lunch; she does love the occasional chicken curry sandwich, eaten at a picnic bench in the park. Meandering back through the streets of the town where she lives I was astonished to come across a ruined church which I had never seen before, and we stopped to explore it. She was in an unusually good mood, which was very nice to see: It's not clear in the last one, but she is actually jumping with joy. I did wonder if B was fascinated, as people ...
The answer to yesterday's question, which Doctor Who companion features in this story... ...may surprise you: As several people speculated, it is a story called "A Message of Mystery" from one of the spinoff Dalek books, the original Dalek Book of 1964, and must be the very first example of a published adventure in the Whoniverse featuring a canonical companion but with no Doctor in sight.
Michael comments: 'Londis on London Road appear to have submitted a planning application to hive off another piece of their shop in order create a takeaway next to the fish and chip shop they've already opened. How many takeaways do we need on London Road? I shall be calling this in.' Local residents have long expressed concerns about the concentration of takeaways in this area
I really love the casting on this one (via just about everyone online this morning, reposted here just for archive purposes, unless you haven't seen it yet, in which case you must've only just woken up...)
Did you know you can subscribe to Lib Dem Voice using Amazon's Kindle service? You can do so either on their Kindle device or using their apps for iPhone, Android, Mac or PC. The link to Lib Dem Voice on Amazon is here. It will set you back a modest £1.99 a month. Of course, if you think the content we produce here is worth £2 a month, and you don't have a Kindle, you are more than welcome to cut out the middle-person and donate it to us directly by standing order. You can also donate money to us ...
Labour councillors were keen to point out to those of us in attendance at Cabinet on Monday that they had different, superior, priorities from the previous Lib Dem - Conservative Coalition administration of the Council. We were given a steer about Labour's priorities at the June Cabinet meeting but Monday evening's meeting was where the rubber hit the road, so to speak and smoke began to clear about what Labour priorities will really mean for residents. And, as laudable and popular as many Labour priorities may seem - and some of them we are very happy to support - the ...
"Terribly Amusing." - The High Leicestershire Radical
So whilst sitting on Southend Central Railway Platform 2 this lunchtime with the rain lashing down I check twitter on the iPhone and Rebekah Brooks had been arrested. Twitter was full of joyful overtones. However when these people put brains in gear they'll understand that this arrest was a) always going to happen and importantly b) the timing was highly questionable to say the least. The timing – by appointment – on a Sunday is not standard procedure at all. Also the arrest coming two days before she was meant to face questioning before the Select Committee over phone hacking ...
It's not often I agree with a Conservative MP, it's even less often that I hear them say something that actually strikes me as truly insightful. During the parliamentary debate on the BSkyB bid there was one such moment. At 6.25pm Dr Phillip Lee stood up and spoke to a now mostly empty chamber. This was a shame, because what he had to say was, in my view, extremely relevant and highly important. (Hansard) He spoke on the fact that a lot, if not the vast majority, of the news people are getting today comes from not the mainstream media, ...
The Sunday Express today has a story about how over a thousand children each year continue to be wrongly adopted as a result in part of an error in calculating the adoption target.Christopher Booker today in the Sunday Telegraph looks at an additional two case studies.There is a lot of misinformation spread by civil servants (and parroted by ministers) about the adoption targets.Each English
books The Save Cambridgeshire Libraries petition is to be presented to Tory county councillors at Shire Hall on Tuesday morning (as it is the Conservative administration at the County Council that we need to persuade to keep our libraries in their current form.) The 6,000+ names calling for Cambridgeshire County Council to keep libraries open with professional librarians will be presented on the steps of Shire Hall on Tuesday at 9 a.m. before the Council assembles. The Council meeting is open to the public. Join us there! You'd need to be at Shire Hall, Castle Hill, Cambridge between 8.30 and ...
After three days in the Pyrenées today we are on the flat. So the General Classification leaders will be taking a breathe after not doing very much apart from mark each other in the southern mountains. But the guys who have been at the back the last three days will be itching to get to Montpellier ans see what they have left in the tank. Currently the standings in the Green Jersey are: Mark Cavendish 264 Jose Joaquin Rocas 251Philippe Gilbert 240Thor Hushovd 192André Greipel 164The Sprint comes 46.5km from the end of today's stage. So there will be a ...
Yesterday I had my say about the concerns I have about the whole scale marketization of public services, so you are quite entitled to ask what would my solution be to the undoubted challenge to improve them? Firstly – electoral reform coupled with a duty for local and public authorities to engage more meaningfully with the communities they represent. Involving service users as of right, in the design and delivery of services. I want to be able to elect both local and national politicians in a way that improves both their accountability to me but also their interest in doing ...
Sun 17th
12:19
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 ...
Despite the weather our Southport Garden Party went well yesterday-a tribute to the hard work of the fundraising team-Annette, May et al. A big thank you to Alison and Haydn for hosting the event. Mike Booth has written more here and the photos are down to Mike too-thanks.
A lot is being said about Charlie Gilmour and his sentencing for violent disorder on Friday. Most of the left wing press seems to believe this is an unjustified custodial sentence. Causing Harm Ellie Mae O'Hagan writes in the Guardian about her disagreement with the sentence, which she believes is unjustified because Charlie didn't cause harm. This is as illogical an argument as Laurie Penny asserting following the student protests that none of the criminal damage caused was harm. This is a growing attitude in the young, seen on many other blogs as well, that unless it is a physical ...
[IMG: PM David Cameron] [IMG: Creative Commons License] photo credit: UK in Italy Cross-posted from Liberal Democrat Voice In the Telegraph, Tim Montgomerie, editor of ConservativeHome, outlines the results of a recent survey of Tory party members. 1,500 of them were asked to name "what they saw as Cameron's three biggest errors". The resulting Top Ten makes an extraordinary epistle from Planet Tory. Several of the points on the list would be regarded by many as Cameron's greatest non-mistakes: "Supporting climate change policies" - mistake? Well, perhaps only when ConHome add the highly debatable non-sequitur of "...that will increase energy ...
It is time to venture again into the desert that was the 1973 UK singles chart - and it could worse for two or three years after that. I liked this single at the time, though I had to look it up to be certain that the singers were the Detroit Emeralds and not the Detroit Spinners, who enjoyed chart success that year too. It turns out the Detroit Emeralds, like General MacArthur and Bill Clinton originally came from Little Rock, Arkansas. This song, which reached the top five of the UK chart in 1973, finds more gentle Detroit soul ...
If truth be told, today's lead story from the Independent on Sunday is disappointingly pedestrian. Despite all the hype the best the newspaper can come up with is that the the Conservative chairman of the Culture, Media and Sport committee is facebook friends with Elisabeth Murdoch and Les Hinton and that he has met some key figures in the scandal at social occasions. To be fair, if the Chair of the Culture Committee was not meeting major figures in the media, then he would not be doing his job properly. What he does need to do is to remain impartial ...
On Wednesday, as I hopped channels and trying to absorb the unfolding situation I came across Kay Burley on Sky news asking, what I thought was a fairly stupid question. "Does this all mean an end to investigative journalism?" Then I saw comments on the Twittersphere and blogs about government attacks on free speech and press or of the government waging war on the press. When one reads of government interference and control of the press images of Goebbels or a Soviet commissar reviewing and censoring every report. I cannot believe that any government that we are a part of, ...
The Guardian wrote this week Phone-hacking scandal shows why Britain needs the Liberal Democrats which highlights some strengths in the Lib Dems through the scandal which are worth highlighting: as all three leaders look ahead to years of investigations, revelations and no doubt criminal convictions, there are good reasons for thinking that Nick Clegg is ...
The Daily Telegraph wrote this week Is Nick Clegg trying to destroy the conservative press? which offers some praise for Nick Clegg taking a principled stance to the media scandal which is worth highlighting: Listen to any Nick Clegg speech, including the one he gave this morning, and it is obvious which camp he is ...
Writing in his Spin Doctor column in this morning's Wales on Sunday, Matt Withers returns to the issue of the 'Lib Dem two' with what he believes is a decisive parting shot. He says that Aled Roberts used as his defence the fact that he conducts his business in Welsh, and that hapless Electoral Commission officials gave him the incorrect information on eligibility rules in that language. He then goes on to allege that 'a few eyebrows were raised when both of Mr Roberts' speeches, and his statement of opinion were in, er, English.' In actual fact the defence was ...
It is very unusual to hear Labour praise the Lib Dems and even rarer to hear praise from Alistair Campbell yet he has provided some for Nick Clegg in his post Don't faint, but I want to say something positive about Nick Clegg which is worth highlighting: Clegg seems to have learned the lessons of ...
In the Telegraph, Tim Montgomerie, editor of ConservativeHome, outlines the results of a recent survey of Tory party members. 1,500 of them were asked to name "what they saw as Cameron's three biggest errors". The resulting Top Ten makes an extraordinary epistle from Planet Tory. Several of the points on the list would be regarded by many as Cameron's greatest non-mistakes: "Supporting climate change policies" – mistake? Well, perhaps only when ConHome add the highly debatable non-sequitur of "...that will increase energy bills". "U-turn on NHS reforms" - mistake? Hell, no. "Hurrah!" – Say many of us. "Agreement to Nick ...
In this chapter, the Byzantines, Saracens and Franks battle over Italy, and the Normans arrive and take over the south of the peninsula and Sicily, as well as further adventures in the vicinity. Also my reflections on Italy as a concept, learning and toleration, and a strange story about attempted castration which somehow appropriately ends up with Tristram Shandy.
County Tories have been accused of secrecy and the exclusion of local elected representatives over the radical redeployment of £34 million of public transport money. Councillors have been excluded from meetings to discuss how the money will be spent and the Tories have failed to seek local input. Furious councillors, Susan van de Ven, Lib Dem Transport Spokesperson and Tim Stone, who represents Duxford, voiced their disbelief during today's Cambridgeshire County Council Cabinet meeting as members met to halt an earlier decision to withdraw bus subsidies. Cllr van de Ven said, 'It is ironic that one of the biggest Localism ...
Following the commencement of site works on the former Logie Secondary site - to build the new St Joseph's Primary School, Park Place Nursery School and Park Place Primary School - I have had several residents contact me about the building project. Should you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact me at schools@frasermacpherson.org.uk.
Maylong Android Tablet: more versatile than you think | BBYOPEN Brilliant - now you know what to do with your Android! (Options include faking a phone call on it). (tags: phone) Dezeen » Blog Archive » House on the outskirts of Brussels by Samyn and Partners House whose walls look as if they are entirely made of growing plants - awesome! (tags: belgium architecture)
It appears, through the great medium of the internet, that Murdoch's apology will be the start of many apologies to come. Twitter referred me to this article on Gove and Murdoch "News International were very generous to [Gove], paying £5,000 a month for his services as journalist for one hour a week. That's £1,250 a week. Contrast this with the £250 he received from Scotland on Sunday. That's more than generous. The Mail only pay £1 per word! Disclaimer: Note that that it does not mean he knew anything about the phone hacking. Nor does it imply that our current ...
Well done to President Obama from this blog (and I know he's a big fan;-))for continuing to meet the Dalai Lama - despite the bluster from Beijing. The open and western facade of the Chinese communist regime slipped revealing their true authoritarian nature in their comment that 'We demand the US side to seriously consider China's stance, immediately adopt measures to wipe out the baneful impact, stop interfering in China's internal affairs and cease to connive and support anti-China separatist forces'. The Beeb carries the full report here. As the US State Department reiterates in their 2010 human rights report ...
Please watch the above. Now I know I'm not exactly a John Terry guy but I will say he is a good no nonsense defender but why on Earth is he making a challenge like that in a Pre-Season Friendly? Why? If someone can give me a good reason then I'd be delighted. However until then I'll just sit here and shake my head at the sheer stupidly and thuggishness of the man. The England Captain no less... Tweet
