Please read the following, taken from my colleague Iain Brodie-Browne's Blog. I cannot believe that greed such as this has gone unreported by the press for so long: Victory!! BBC report curbs at gravy train Merseytravel Lib Dem campaignRead all about The BBC report reads: Merseytravel is the authority which co-ordinates public transport across Merseyside.It is the only local authority in the country where councillors still set their own allowances.Not only that but councillors claim multiple allowances depending on how many committees they sit on, rather than one overall payment.Professor Jon Tonge, head of politics at Liverpool University, says ...
Well yes actually! This one managed it last year. OK, I hadn't been in space for a week, though the heat of Alabama was quite disorientating... The return to Earth of the Atlantis this afternoon has reminded me of my visit to the US Space and Rocket Centre in Huntsville, Alabama http://www.ussrc.com/ last September. I was ...
I'm not the only Lib Dem aghast at hearing Lib Dem Mayoral candidate for selection, Lembit Opik, saying that if we'd been attractive to NI we too would have cosied up to them. If this is the level of his political judgement he should consider his position and withdraw from the race. It's not as ...
TweetA few days back I posted the blog bost about a new Lib Dem Podcast – Social Bookers! Well we've just been listed on iTunes, so here we go – Click Here to get to it! There 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 ...
So, early this morning it became apparent that Edinburgh Lib Dem councillor Elaine Morris had joined the SNP. Apparently it's because she doesn't like the UK coalition and she thinks that we've not shown enough leadership over the city's troubled trams project. Yes, you heard that right. She supports the trams but has joined a party whose noisy opposition to the project was less than helpful. No, me neither. If the truth be known, she took a lot more than she gave to the vibrant and awesome campaign team in North Edinburgh and Leith. The people who worked so hard ...
For some time the Lib Dems have been working with local residents and police to tackle anti-social behaviour on Diamond Jubilee Park, Cheadle. For anyone who uses or lives near the park, there's an open community forum on Diamond Jubilee Park which will take place on the 18th August 2011 at Cheadle Library 6.00pm to 7.30pm. At the meeting we will be looking at how the park users feel the park can be improved and how Parks and Recreation can support the community to bring about these changes. We are hoping that there will be representatives from the police and ...
Read all about The BBC report reads: Merseytravel is the authority which co-ordinates public transport across Merseyside.It is the only local authority in the country where councillors still set their own allowances.Not only that but councillors claim multiple allowances depending on how many committees they sit on, rather than one overall payment.Professor Jon Tonge, head of politics at Liverpool University, says that's unique: "You or I might like that in our jobs, but it just isn't the reality in any other walk of life."AllowancesThe Liberal Democrats are running a concerted campaign to reduce what they consider to be a ...
Watch "Hackgate: The Movie" on YouTube
Never let it be said that life is dull in mid-Suffolk, and yesterday proved that point once and for all. Until 2005, Ros was the County Councillor for the Bosmere Division, which covers Needham Market and a string of villages to the south and west, one of which is Great Bricett, the home of what was RAF Wattisham, and is now Flying Station Wattisham. When the RAF left, and the Army arrived, Ros worked with them to build strong links with the local civilian community, many of whom worked on the base, or lived in close proximity. One continuing activity ...
I've just been through my blogroll to see how other OU bloggers are currently reacting to the announcement yesterday of the OU's revised and massively increased fees structure in England post September 2012. From the mathematics blog – Course fees up : change of plan – reflecting the concerns of an overseas student as to what the increase might mean: Study is entertainment for me, I won't make a single Euro more if I add a Math degree to my c.v. I could spend time solving Project Euler problems for free for years to come. From the self study masters ...
Proposals to change the types of GCSEs that are measured bodes badly for students who do not learn best through rigorous examination testing. The proposal appears to be designed to move to a 'traditional' concept of education at GCSE level, where students will be encouraged to study 'pure' subjects that are not geared towards jobs or careers. The Guardian reports that "qualifications such as NVQ level 2 in Hairdressing... Are likely to be ditched" from league tables. All of the work done by Labour to change our education system away from academics and towards the real world is likely to ...
I spent last week watching the 2005 BBC adaptation of Bleak House. You may recall that it was shown in 30-minute episodes the early evening just after EastEnders, rather than on Sunday afternoons, and was widely and justifiably praised at the time. But it is important to appreciate why it worked so well. It was not, as the person writing the blurb on the box seemed to think, that the adapters rescued the story from Dickens' sentimentality. It was that by employing something close to a soap opera format they stripped away some of the faulty preconceptions that have gathered ...
TweetCycling through some back posts on Lib Dem Voice, I came across a curiously titled blog post "Opinion: Phone Hacking is an attack on our civil liberties", my jaw dropped, and I could barely read the article without breaking into a sweat, the article is wrong, and wrong on a monumental scale. Phone Hacking is NOT a breach of anyone's civil liberties. When people talk about civil liberties they often aren't clear as to what exactly they are, and what exactly they encompass, they are often used by the populace as a general sense of a right to privacy, freedom, ...
James Murdoch's evidence has been questioned by former News Corp executives. Please, please, let the precedent be set that excuses such as "I'm not aware" and "I don't recall" are no kind of defence when the charge is willful blindness. A certain kind of person has no problem with how ridiculous it sounds. Remember US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales defending dodgy dealings in the Department of Justice? I haven't counted but I'm told he used that excuse 72 times:
Who wants elected police commissioners? Not Paul Crossley and not more than 100 Lib Dem council leaders and group leaders either. And not me either, come to that. "The queues had started over seven hours before the committee began ... And while it was a festive mood, it was also tense: the official line as to how many people would get into the room kept changing, and some people were certainly facing a wasted day. Questions popped about. Was space being cleared for the Dowler family? Had the tiny Wilson Room been chosen so as not to look like a ...
Paddy Ashdown writes today at Comment is Free on the urgent need to help famine-stricken Somalia – a situation which has been overshadowed in the news by more sensational events. The problem when a child is dying from starvation is that they can't wait. They can't put their hunger on pause until the glare of the media decides to turn its spotlight on them and help spread the word that children are dying. Instead, they will slowly starve to death. This is exactly what is happening to nearly 2 million children in Somalia right now. Nearly half of these children ...
Thu 21st
18:53
Notice how Nick Clegg and Danny Alexander don't nod or smile in this video of all those repeated que...
A Guardian collection of most of the repeated questions to Cameron yesterday about his discussions with News Corp executives. It's an end of term hoot. I particularly found Mike Hancock's question a golden comedy moment, for some reason. It's his Hampshire burr which does it, probably. Nick Clegg has often been accused of being a "nodding donkey" when Cameron speaks. But notice that any nods or smiles are conspicuously absent from the heads of Nick Clegg and Danny Alexander during these clips.
I don't have any particular problem with Louise Mensch, the Conservative MP for Corby.I follow her on twitter where she can be quite informative (even if the ra ra David Cameron gets a bit wearisome at times) and I thought she did a good thing yesterday on the floor of The House raising a point of order about the two reporters who had their passes removed during, ahem, 'piegate'. So the fact that I'm having a go at her twice in 2 days is unfortunate. But she really got my goat today. I can forgive her for knocking Piers Morgan ...
I had a bit of a grumble when I saw the news today that Scottish & Southern Energy were going to whack up our electricity & gas. We are lucky enough that it only makes us grumble. Rises of way above the rate of inflation are going to cause real problems for people, meaning that some will have to choose which basic necessities they will have Nd which they will have to go without. It's hard to sympathise with companies who make great big profits and then say they need to hike prices. They would doubtlessly argue that they have ...
Along with manty other Liberal Democrats I have signed the joint letter calling on this daft idea to be scrapped. Sir, One of the concerns raised by the phone hacking furore is need for a clear separation between politicians and the police. They are both important pillars of the state but they can only work effectively when one sets strategy and one carries it out. This is one of the chief reasons why many people in local government bitterly oppose the Government's proposal to introduce elected police commissioners next May. We can think of no situation more confusing to all ...
It's called 20:20 vision. It's nothing to do with me - They kindly asked me to write a piece on #hackgate so I have posted an article on what I think has been the central theme of recent days - the fight to gain control of the narrative and the agenda. You can read the piece here. Meantime I'd value everyone's feedback on the site, in case I get asked again (of course, they may not ask...). I'll be having a ponder and a wander around it myself. I wouldn't mind feedback on the article either. Cheers now
Cross-posted from Liberal Democrat Voice 5 Live Drive had a poll yesterday on "Who do you trust?", particularly with Hackgate in mind. Emerging, blinking, from two weeks of saturation "Breaking News", answering that question is a good way to take stock of where we are. Who do I trust? Vince Cable is the first person who springs to mind. He (inadvertently publicly) "declared war on Mr Murdoch". He was then forced to be "hors de combat". He said "I think we are going to win" and we did. Murdoch is in retreat. Well done, Vince. Tom Watson is the second ...
Cornwall Council has backed down in the row over disappearing bus subsidies after a day of outrage across the airwaves. Councillors received an email just after 5pm this evening from Cllr Graeme Hicks, Cabinet Member for Transportation, saying: "I have called for a temporary halt in the process so I can reflect on the best way forward" That is the good news and something for which Cllr Hicks has form. The bad news is the the Council still seems to be intent on making draconian cuts and the bus companies have confirmed that their reaction would be to slash services ...
Today (21st July) IPSA have published figures for the 'expenses' claims of all MPs for 2010/11. I very much welcome the new transparency and openness about the new system. I thought it might be useful if I reported back my own claims and how taxpayers' money enabled me to do my job. My total figure for 2010/11 was £142,671. The main elements of this were: - £105,508 for staffing; this is the cost of employing staff in the constituency office and at Westminster, including employer NI contributions and contributions to staff pensions; in 2010/11 one member of staff went on ...
A bubble popping I have been scared to surface for the last two two days in case I get infected by the ignorance going around Westminster. You know how easily children pick things up. It is as if nothing else exists apart from the phone hacking. I blogged about this a few days ago. Anyway, I sat through 5 hours of the select committee hearing and the thing I noticed the most was that Rupert Murdoch did not match up to the Shrek like Ogre which people had portrayed him as being. I kept asking my mother whether ...
Steve Lyons is always interesting if not always completely successful, and this Seventh Doctor novel is a great idea which is not perfectly executed. The Tardis, with Benny and Ace, lands in an English village where mysterious things are afoot, but what appears at first to be a murder mystery turns out to be a return to a situation from the Doctor's past. This was Lyons' first Who novel (indeed, I think his first published work), and his prose style is still a tad unpolished in places with too many characters jostling for attention. But the core idea is audacious ...
Whilst having my hair cut by a Cypriot barber in Southgate a few weeks ago, we got to talking about Cyprus, and I remarked that most British people today know little or nothing of the Cyprus Emergency of the 1950s and 60s, involving as it did so many British troops. Basically, we British do not know our own modern history, including the bits that reflect less well on us. I thought of this again today upon hearing the news that the High Court has given four Kenyans the right to seek damages from the British Foreign Office in relation to ...
My husband tells me that when he was a teenager he used to sneak onto Tentsmuir beach and watch the Lightning interceptors take off from RAF Leuchars. He stood there in awe as they virtually stood up on their tails after rocketing down the runway. Maybe that's what inspired him into engineering, although a very different kind. yi We've been reminiscing this morning, as the space shuttle made its final landing, how great technological and engineering advances in our youth and childhood have now lapsed with nothing to replace them. He remembers being woken up at night in his St ...
I'm at a mobile 'phone crossroads in my life. When I first went to University in Aberystwyth back in 2000, I borrowed my mother's mobile to regularly keep in touch with home. It was a brick with an ariel but was very much of its time I suppose. My first personal mobile 'phone was bought probably a year or so later - a good decade back. I'm pretty sure that my mobile number now is the same number that I had with my first mobile. Certainly since I was elected to local government in 2004, I've had no desire to ...
Neil Kinnock's been in the headlines (ironically?) for suggesting that the same laws enforcing balance and neutrality in the broadcast news should be applied to the print news. You only have to compare Sky News and Fox News to see the real benefit to our society of our statutory enforcement of balance and neutrality laws on TV. I am uncomfortable supporting moves to regulate newspapers into neutrality but think it should not be dismissed as the nonsense that (by an amazing coincidence) every British newspaper seems to think it is. I see something like legally distinct News and Opinion sections ...
Photographs of a century ago show every port around our coasts full of fishing boats. There's a reason for that; there were more fish to catch. The wooden boats of Victorian Britain landed many times more fish than our modern ... Continue reading →
I recently got sent a new gadget through the post, a 3M MP180 Pocket Projector. A reader of my blog decided that it'd be good if I tried it out and wrote about it, so here I am. You can see what it is here Firstly, I love technology, so I was very pleased indeed to receive this gift and even more excited by the fact that I was actually going to make use of it. It's essentially a hand held projector that you can use to project pictures at the wall, powerpoint slides and the like. I've used it ...
Liberal Democrat Autumn Federal Conference 17-21 September 2011 Birmingham If you've not already signed up, this is your last chance to save up to 30% on members' registration rates. Register online by 29 July to take advantage of fantastic offers. Don't forget - full week, weekend and day passes are all available to members online so make the most of your time at conference by registering in advance. You'll receive your pass and any papers straight to your door, avoiding any queues at on-site registration.
Announcement here.
[IMG: Merton Lib Dems Mayoral candidate hustings] Photo: Mayorwatch. See also @mayorwatch's live tweets from last night's event. Merton Liberal Democrats held the first hustings of the London Mayoral selection last night with all four candidates addressing an audience from Merton and surrounding constituencies. I had never met or heard any of them before but the one speech I was expecting to enjoy was Lembit's. I thought that I would be drawn to him despite myself but the reality was frankly disappointing. He was the most ideological, describing himself as a 'left libertarian' but his policy ideas on supporting small ...
Two points I particularly like in Nick Clegg's interview with Julian Huppert regarding the hacking inquiry: Powerful people going in front of a select committee shouldn't be seen as unusual, and we need to see it more often. The world often improves through incremental change and slides back down slippery slopes. Waiting for a crisis before asking hard questions of powerful people is quite literally a recipe for disaster. Wilful blindness is an important theme. It can be a very difficult thing to judge, but we shouldn't let that be an excuse for not insisting on good, demonstrable governance in ...
I'm afraid I've been swept along by the drama of the hacking scandal, even as the Euro heads for meltdown, the US for financial suicide, and famine ravages the Horn of Africa. I watched the Murdochs before the Select Committee on Tuesday afternoon, and spend more time than I should reading online articles. The human drama is compelling, with a steady stream of people coming a cropper. But as I posted last week I am a lot less sure about longer term consequences for the press and politics in general. There may be further damage to come for News Corporation. ...
China's ability to get things done when they're ripping off somebody else's work is quite impressive. They're almost as good as the Huffington Post. Here's an excellent blog post – great photos – on a knock-off store in an obscure Chinese town by a Bird Abroad. The interesting detail is that the staff have no idea who they're really working for.
This Saturday (23 July), Cllr Glenn Goodall and I will be holding our regular monthly advice surgery at the Hexham Road Community Centre, 1am Bamburgh Close, Reading. Please pop in and speak to us if we can help on any issue between 10:00am and Noon. No appointment is necessary.
Thu 21st
13:48
Stephen Gilbert MP writes: How do we deal with the high prevalence of suicides in the LGBT community...
We all know how the following story works. Governments use stats to demonstrate the problem. And then they give us their answer. The more shocking the figures, so it goes, the greater the need for bold action. But too often we don't consider the human impact of these figures. Let me give you an example. This week I learnt that every two hours one person dies as a result of suicide in England. It is truly harrowing to think that each and every day, so many people feel they have nowhere else to turn and end up taking their lives. ...
The Council meeting closes with questions to the cabinet members. As the main opposition, the Lib Dems lead the questioning. The first was about housing. Originally the Council was going to decide the number and location of the homes needed to support the Conservatives vision for growth in September last year. As the party is completely split on the issue, they have created delay after delay.
The space shuttle is of the icons of my childhood, ever since it first launched. Once we thought we'd all get a chance to fly into space. Now I'm grateful if I just get to take my shaving gel with me to Dublin.
Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Member, Peter Black and the party's Parliamentary Spokesperson in Swansea West, Peter May have jointly called on the Welsh Government to follow the example of Ministers in Westminster and give Councils the right to set local business rates and keep the revenue they generate. Currently, local councils collect business rates (technically, the National Non Domestic Rate) on behalf of central government. The Welsh Government then redistributes money to councils in the form of the Revenue Support Grant, according to a population-based formula. "Under the current local government funding system, government dishes out grant allocations to councils ...
Thu 21st
12:53In full - the eleven occasions Cameron was asked yesterday in the Commons about whether he discussed...
Using Hansard's excellent service, I have cut and paste below all the mentions/questions to David Cameron yesterday about discussions he had with News Corp about BSkyB. You have to hand it to MPs. He was asked no less than eleven times, by eleven different MPs, in a concerted attempt to nail him down. Frustrated by the PM's repeated form of words ("no inappropriate" discussions), Graham Jones MP finally asked: Has the Prime Minister ever uttered the word "BSkyB" in the presence of Rebekah Brooks, Rupert Murdoch or James Murdoch? To which the answer was "You know-urgh!" – whatever that means. ...
Authors of the best accounts of the New Labour years delved deeply into the rival Brownite and Blairite versions of events before coming to their own conclusions. Those who did not frequently ended up with embarrassingly lopsided and inaccurate accounts. Mehdi Hasan and James Macintyre, the authors of Ed: The Milibands and the making of a Labour leader, have avoided making the next generation's version of the same mistake by talking to both sides of the Miliband family, even returning more than once to the conundrum of when Ed told David he was going to run against him for leader. ...
Having been away in London, I've not had time to comment on the incredible #hackgate developments. It has been an astonishing pace of events that has shook the British media, its police and its politicians to their foundations. Much has been said and is being said about what has happened and the situation is so fluid that we can not tell where this is going to end. So the best that I can do at this juncture is to take a step back and to make some observations on what has already happened from my perspective as a historian. Hackgate ...
June 2011 saw the 2011 Local Government Conference, at Clifton in Bristol. Friday saw a range of satellite events, including a Liberal Democrat "Group Leaders Day", and a training day for Liberal Democrat Council Group Researchers. In the evening Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader Kirsty Williams AM addressed the annual LIberal Democrat Local Government Dinner. [IMG: Kirsty Williams AM Liberal Democrat Local Government Conference June 2011, Bristol] [IMG: Richard Kemp, Paul Burstow, Nick Clegg, Liberal Democrat Local Government Conference June 2011, Bristol] [IMG: Liberal Democrat Local Government Conference June 2011, Bristol] [IMG: Nick Clegg, Kath Pinnock, Liberal Democrat Local Government Conference ...
A surprising snippet of information from the recently updated Jad Adams biography of Tony Benn: back in around 1950 the later Labour MP and Cabinet minister Tony Benn was training at the BBC and required to come up with program ideas. One of his was You the star, in which a radio drama would be broadcast with the leading part left silent. The words for this role would be published in the latest edition of the Listener so that the public could act out the leading role for themselves. The idea never made it into production, quite likely in part ...
I extracted these stats from the Eurostat site: (the numbers are births registered in each month of 2009, taken as a percentage of all births in 2009, divided by the number of days in the month) September is just ahead of July as the top month for average daily birthrate in the EU, though July is top in more member states (16 to 8). November is just below December for the EU as a whole, though there is a lot more variation. Fascinating that most countries show a dip in August as compared to the two neighbouring months. The outliers ...
There is a saying in our family that sometimes people have a convenient forgettery as opposed to a memory. The Prime Minister in the House yesterday Yesterday David Cameron while making his statement and answering questions kept saying he did not any inappropriate conversation with Rebekah Brooks. He also said they he could not recall every conversation that he ever had when being questioned about specifics about conversations with John Yates. I have just one question how come he is certain that not once in all the 26 meetings with Rebekah Brooks he can be sure that not one he ...
The Parliamentary session has ended with a busy three days. Monday, I got in on David Chidgey's question on the DRC. Then in the Grand Committee on the Education Bill there was a very good debate on my amendment to end compulsory acts of Christian collective worship in non-religious schools, and to allow pupils of any age not to attend acts of worship that are held. Doreen Massey, Shreela Flather, the Bishop of Oxford, Mabel Turner, Joan Walmsley, James Touhig, Sal Brinton, Maurice Peston, Leslie Griffith of Bury Port, Stewart Sutherland, Janet Whitaker, Thomas McAvoy, Francis Listowel, Elspeth Howe, the ...
5 Live Drive had a poll yesterday on "Who do you trust?", particularly with Hackgate in mind. Emerging, blinking, from two weeks of saturation "Breaking News", answering that question is a good way to take stock of where we are. Who do I trust? Vince Cable is the first person who springs to mind. He (inadvertently publicly) "declared war on Mr Murdoch". He was then forced to be "hors de combat". He said "I think we are going to win" and we did. Murdoch is in retreat. Well done, Vince. Tom Watson is the second person I trust as a ...
Seven Sunday nights in Autumn last year saw my Twitter feed full of praise for new ITV drama Downton Abbey. It really annoyed me that I wasn't able to join in as it sounded exactly the sort of thing I, as a child raised on the antics of Mrs Bridges and the Bellamys in Upstairs Downstairs, would love. The reason? STV's protracted and unnecessary dispute with ITV which basically meant that anything decent ITV produced was not shown in Scotland. Unless people were lucky enough to have the Infernal Wickedness of Sky, they couldn't see this quality drama up here. ...
I don't know quite what the BBC was on yesterday – but the excitement of the past 48 hours clearly got to them. Whilst covering the emergency debate in Parliament – the BBC also felt it necessary to show images of a jet taxi-ing at Luton... with the dramatic headline "RUPERT MURDOCH IS EXPECTED TO LEAVE COUNTRY" .... Is that really news? Still it wasn't quite as mad as the earlier incident - when BBC News channel cut off an interviewee in mid-sentence to "cut to (equally un-)dramatic pictures of ........David Cameron getting into a car ! – on his ...
Penny Red on the Pie and Murdoch This is why I like Penny. I don't always agree with her, but when she writes a post like this one... (tags: government media)
I'm reminded that it's 30 years since Ian Botham's historic rise from the cricketing depths to turn around, single-handedly, one of the most astonishing games or cricket that will ever be seen. Though I watched the final day when Bob Willis bowled like a man possessed to destroy Australia and win the unlikeliest of victories, my parents and I were en route somewhere on the Monday – so I remember hearing Test Match Special describing Botham partnered by an unlikely supporting cast – first Graham Dilley, then Chris Old – on a mission to make the Aussies bat again, never ...
Today's Telegraph reports that attempts to reform the expense regime for the House of Lords has rather backfired on the Government with the average sum received by members rising from £270 to £274 for every attendance: The new system was put in place last October following a series of scandals that resulted in two peers being jailed. The £174 overnight subsistence, £86.50 day subsistence and £75 office costs allowances were scrapped in favour of a tax-free flat rate of £300 per day, or £150 per half day. Travel expenses were reimbursed separately as previously. Unveiling the system, Lord Strathclyde, the ...
I'm from military kin yet I understand surprisingly little about Military ritual, rhyme and reason. Other than how to polish my boots to a high shine. The stories on Helmand Handover yesterday fascinate me, predominately because it was called a ceremony. But why? The 'civilisation' process of Iraq and Afghanistan, to the casual observer, has been one of instilling the processes and proceedures that facilitate a democratic oligarchic country. Oligarchic because the functions of the state are both preservers and punishers; from police to fire services, thereby fulfilling a function of being an arm of state. I have always criticised ...
Today is Day one of the Col du Galibier, in the celebration of the 100th year in the Alps and the 100th year of that peak. To honour it the Tour is going to have its highest ever stage finish on top of the Col itself. Yes we have ofter summitted the Galibier but the Schlecks will the pleased to know that today there is no final descent*. Of course today is no easy day. There are indeed two other Hors Categorie climbs on the way to the Galibier. The first the Col Agnel is actually the highest point on ...
Last year, Lynne Featherstone MP and I launched the Campaign for Body Confidence. Since then, we have been raising the profile of the urgent need to address increasing body dissatisfaction in the UK. Everyone should be able, whatever their size, shape, age or skin colour, to feel good about their body. The bombardment of super-skinny flawless models advertising everything from face cream to cars is puts an overwhelming pressure on women, men and children to conform to impossible and unrealistic beauty 'ideals'. This is damaging our sense of wellbeing and leading to increasing unhappiness, anxiety, low self-esteem, depression and eating ...
Yesterday, David Cameron repeatedly refused to answer whether he discussed the BSkyB bid with Rebekah Brooks on any of the multiple occasions he met with her since becoming Prime Minister. Instead he has relied on a rather precise formulation of words where he claims he had "no inappropriate conversations" with her and he also points out that he had been taken entirely out of the BSkyB bid process. It is true that the ultimate decision lay with Jeremy Hunt the Culture Secretary and that he is supposed to be following a quasi-judicial process. But it still matters if (and I ...
Finally, on the last day of the parliamentary term, I receive the Secretary of State for Health's response to my request for an investigation into the withholding of information from the 1st Serious Case Review by Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH). It's a no! Dissappointed – yes. Surprised – no. The Secretary of State has taken the view that things have been put right since the dreadful events surrounding Peter Connelly's death – and that although the 1st Serious Case Review into Baby Peter's death was inadequate – a 2nd was ordered and carried out and that if the Chair ...
Last night was my first Board Meeting for Six Town Housing – Bury's 'Arm's Lenght Housing Management Organisation (ALMO). The Council appoints four councillors to the Board, who join a mixture of independent and tenant members of the Board. It was a long agenda (apparently one of the longest meetings for some time!), but some really interesting issues discussed. The agenda and full papers for the public part of the meeting are here. One issue that was immediately apparent is that there is a lot of change in the pipeline for local social housing providers like Six Town Housing. The ...
Not all phone-hacking, all the time: Paper, scissors, stone – Heresy Corner collects George Michael's tweets on his relationship with the News Of The World, and notices that they point towards some very dodgy-sounding behaviour from the Metropolitan Police. (via) Don't pity Gordon – he supped from the devil's hands – "At its core, it is an issue of the abuse of political power not by Murdoch, but by Gordon Brown, Tony Blair, David Cameron and every other elected quisling who supped with the devil not with a long spoon but from the devil's own satanic hands." Dominic Grieve is ...
On Monday afternoon I was called upon to sit on the Cambridge Traffic Management Area Joint Committee as a substitute for Cllr Burke who unfortunately wasn't able to make the meeting. I used to sit on the AJC as a full member a while back and found it to be one of the more interesting committees as it combines both the City and the County. The main issues on the agenda were around Parking Controls in the De Freville Area (by the Old Spring pub off Chesterton Road). The introduction of a scheme managed to bring out petitions both for ...
Bus routes across Cornwall are likely to be slashed following Cornwall Council's latest ill-judged decision to cut the funding they give to bus companies for carrying 'free' passengers. As a result, passengers in many rural areas are likely to suffer and I've written to Cabinet Member Graeme Hicks asking him to re-consider his decision. There is a national bus pass scheme which entitles holders (including those over 60 and people with disabilities) to free travel after 9.30 in the morning. Until this year, Cornwall Council operated a slightly better scheme which allowed free travel at all times for pass holders. ...
Last night, I was minute-taker at the latest meeting of the Tay Rail Bridge Disaster Memorial Trust at the Vine in Magdalen Yard Road. The Trust is going from strength to strength and, in the autumn, Trust office-bearers are giving talks to various societies and schools across Dundee and Fife on the 1879 disaster and the work of the Trust. You can read more about the Trust's work on its website - www.thetaymemorial.com.
So, how much does the queen cost? Puts numbers on the things I was beginning to get sick of explaining to people a couple of months ago. (tags: politics economics) An Eye-Opening Adventure in Socialized Medicine Being a British person living in New York, with the minimum required health insurance (that still put me back a hefty amount), I live in fear of what would happen should I require a doctor, as I haven't even the slightest idea how to go about seeing one. In this article, an American visiting the UK experienced the horrors of socialised healthcare. (tags: health ...
The parliamentary fists of the majority - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News "The Boycott Law is a double-edged sword that threatens to harm Israel's international standing, and to play into the hands of those criticizing the quality of the country's democracy." - says the Speaker of the Knesset. (tags: middleeast humanrights)
Yesterday was another extraordinary day in the 'Hackgate' scandal. David Cameron had to make a statement to the House of Commons regarding the hacking scandal as well as his judgement in hiring Andy Coulson as his spin doctor. On Tuesday we saw the Emperor himself being thrown to the Select Committee lions as Rupert Murdoch eat humble pie (pun very much intended). Speculation is rife as to whether the Murdochs will retain leadership of their company and whether David Cameron will retain the leadership of the country. Now there are concerns over whether the PM and Rupert Murdoch discussed the ...
[IMG: IMG_0673] [IMG: IMG_0672] [IMG: IMG_0671] [IMG: IMG_0670] Chris asked for Essex Street to be repaired and this is the answer that Herts Highways gave. This is exceptionally poor quality work, with loose stoens left behind and only some of the work done. No wonder residents are unimpressed.
I was invited by the excellent County Councillor for Bamburgh, Pat Scott, to talk with the Parish Council and the development trust about moving the library into the youth and sports centre in Seahouses. I am was keen to do this, partly because I was asked but also because the Seahouses library is in a bad condition and is beyond economic repair. I turned up to only be able to find a space in the overflow car park and to find it was a public meeting with about 50 people present. It was a great event. There was so much ...
Proper blogging will resume in a couple of days, but for now here's some links. Firstly, I got an email through from lulu today saying that if you buy my latest book from their site before 15th August, they'll give you 15% off if you use the code MYBOOK305 at the checkout. In praise of ...
