My colleague John Dodd is a member of Mersytravel and attended the meeting earlier this month. He has issued this statement today Labour Party Stifles Debate on Control Merseyrail Electrics Network from Network Rail Cllr John Dodd, the Liberal Democrat representative on Merseyside Integrated Transport Authority (Merseytravel), was disappointed that at a full meeting of Sefton Council a motion put by his colleague Cllr Brodie-Browne to suspended standing orders to debate a motion calling on Merseyside Integrated Transport Authority (Merseytravel) to take control of Merseyrail Electrics Network from Network Rail was not supported by the Labour Party. Cllr Dodd, went ...
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 ...
The concerns about the governance arrangements at Merseytravel grow. This is a bit like Murdoch but without the criminality. One big beast who nobody wanted to confront is finally 'sorted' when the fear evaporates. Tony has more
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."Allowances The Liberal Democrats are running a concerted campaign to reduce what they consider to be ...
More on Merseytravel's 'Gravy Train' On Thursday I reported how the BBC in the North West were starting to take a serious interest in the "Gravy Train" antics of the Labour Chair of the Merseyside Integrated Transport Authority (MITA), Bootle's very own Councillor Mark Dowd. Arif Ansari, the BBC's Political Editor for the North West, reported the latest news on Cllr Dowd's £47,665pa position, which makes him one of the highest paid councillors in the country. However, I now learn that Cllr Dowd received rather more than that (pretty impressive) £47,665. In fact, his pay and expenses for last ...
BUS and tram bosses have been accused of riding on a publicly-funded expenses gravy train.A culture of free spending at the Merseyside Integrated Transport Authority is suggested by monthly statements for corporate credit cards.Records obtained by the Sunday Express show expenses for five top Merseytravel managers and its elected chairman Mark Dowd.The credit cards were used for anything from a cup of coffee to a £1,300 corporate banquet at a leading Liverpool restaurant.The items include a £140 payment to the Labour Party by Mr Dowd and £165 restaurant bill for a meal he paid for during the 2009 Labour Party ...
The canal restoration movement has had some remarkable successes, notably the reopening of two trans-Pennine routes - the Rochdale and the Huddersfield Narrow - that were thought to be lost beyond recall as recently as the 1970s. But projects can regress as well as progress. When I first visited Cromford in the 1980s it was possible to travel some miles from the terminal basin in a horse-drawn narrow boat. But the Cromford Canal Society folded at the end of the decade - I recall there was some scandal but not its details. The result is that the canal at Cromford ...
Tim Lund over on the Sydenham Town Forum has highlighted a South London Press report (sorry for the photo) on some work on mutualism that the Lewisham Council committee I chair recently completed. The full report of the Public Accounts Committee can be found here (pdf). We received some fascinating evidence from a range of [...] ↓ Read the rest of this entry...
I've chipped in a bit in part one of the Mindless Ones' annocommentations for League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century 1969. Amypoodle and Zom do most of the heavy lifting, and I do the saying-the-obvious. Spoilers all over the place, for the first twenty pages at least. But this was fun. Tagged: comics, links, me elsewhere, ...
Yes.
Leonard Barden wrote in the Guardian yesterday: The British championship, which starts in Sheffield on Monday, is the strongest in the event's 107-year history, with almost all of England's top grandmasters taking part. There will also probably be a rare head-to-head between the former world finalists Michael Adams and Nigel Short, who are both in good form. Adams tied first at the World Open in Philadelphia, Short at the Commonwealth Open in South Africa. The other interesting prospect is a clash of generations as the long supremacy of Adams, 39, and Short, 46, is challenged by the ambitious and fast-rising ...
Liberal democracy faces profound challenges. Radically different future trajectories present themselves. We are living through momentous times. In Britain the media has spent the last fortnight preoccupied with the Hackgate scandal. Incremental, and ongoing, revelations have exposed the inner workings of the nexus between Westminster politicians and the tabloid media. What we witness is the ...
There's no such thing as the dog poo fairy – that's the message from the latest Keep Britain Tidy campaign, and it's spot on. Most dog owners are responsible and clean up after their pets, but a minority still leave it. Bagged dog mess can go into any bin – a dog mess bin, a normal litter bin in the street or the park, or your black bin at home. But if you leave it lying around – for other people to step in, or for children to touch and get in their eyes – there's no dog poo fairy ...
Next in the series of BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures; Fitz, Sam and the Doctor find themselves caught up in a peculiar Chinese plot to subvert flower power and Take Overr The Wurld by use of a drug grown only by oppressed Tibetan monks. The plot is slightly better than I make it sound, but only slightly. But there are a lot of good character moments for both Sam and Fitz (who briefly gets brainwashed by Maoist cadres but recovers, lucky man), which redeems it a bit.
I missed this. It's toe-curlingly embarrassing. PS. Channel 4 News Factcheck has the low down on this matter. Get your own valid XHTML YouTube embed code
Sometimes the obvious choice is the right one. My only reservation about Winehouse as a performer is that she attended stage school, and you always fear that people like that are about to start tap dancing - even Steve Marriott in some songs. Certainly, when I saw Alanis Morisette live I felt she was not a rocker so much as playing a rocker. But, as rock journalists say, de mortuis nihil nisi bonum and that.
Chris has announced that he will be backing plans for Victoria Playing Fields to become a village green. Chris says: 'It is excellent that there is now a chance to protect this open space, which has from time to time been threatened by developers or urban planners. This is undoubtedly an important green lung for this part of St Albans and the application has my wholehearted support. The note from the county council as to the significance of this application is set out below: A Town or Village Green is defined as land where for 20 years or more, all ...
According to the Guardian: Vince Cable has launched an extraordinary attack on "rightwing nutters" in America who are trying to block the raising of the US government's debt ceiling and who are, he said, a bigger threat to the world economy than problems in the eurozone. Maybe he read something like this blog post with the snappy title "Default -The Two Swwetest Words In the English Language"
I did wonder whether anyone had tried to counter press phone hacking by deliberately placing a spoof message on their phone. Private Eye reports that TV PR Ian Johnson did just that when he was running the BBC's entertainment press office between 2001 and 2004. After suspecting phone hacking, he got a friend to leave a message on his voicemail which impied that June Brown (aka Cotton) was leaving Eastenders. Lo and behold, he was called later the same evening by a Sun reporter who breathlessly told him that they had "proof" that Brown was leaving the soap and had ...
Good question for a pub quiz : Which American state flies the British flag (Union flag, only a jack when flown on a ship)? Hawaii. Listening to Radio 4's Excess Baggage on Saturday morning, I learned that at one point Hawaii could have become British. You have to wonder what chance would Obama have had of becoming Prime Minister ! Not much is my guess.
Guess what ! There's more important things going on than Amy Winehouse dying. Nobody invaded her house, bombed it or shot her. I'm sorry for her, of course, but why don't we praise the rock stars who manage their artistic lives without substance abuse or wrecked relationships ? Now that would be a role model.
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 231st 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 (17-23 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. Something fishy is ...
The church has been given this award in recognition of the work that we have been doing to try to lower our environmental impact and to educate others on ways to do the same. This independently-assessed award is designed to affirm good practice in environmental stewardship and help churches witness to the importance of caring for God's creation More available here. Congratulations to all involved
TweetEpisode 2 is released: Find us on twitter @Socialbookers Your browser does not support the audio element. Podcast Powered By Podbean
The next Roman Way Forum will be on Saturday 30th July from 3:00 – 5:00pm in the Church centre Smannell Road. The meeting will be attended by an Alamein Town Councillor, representatives of Alamein Community Association and local police.If you have any concerns about vandalism, bad behaviour, housing matters or local roads and footpaths, please come along and make your voice heard. I will be chairing the meeting. I look forward to seeing you.
The next CREW (Community Respect and Environment Week) will take place in and around King Arthur's Way and Anton Lakes Local Nature Reserve from Monday 1 August to Friday 5 August. Test Valley Borough Council, Hampshire Police, Testway Housing and a range of other agencies will be working in partnership with the community to reduce anti-social behaviour and crime and to improve and enhance the local environment. Crew week is suppoerted by Alamein Community Association. There will be a wide variety of activities taking place to help make the neighbourhood sparkle and to encourage community cohesion. On Thursday 4 August ...
You might have noticed some problems with the Google Map on this site at some point in the past. Information 'balloons' looked like: [IMG: Faulty information balloon on Google Map - showing jagged corners in top and bottom right hand corners] when they should have looked like: [IMG: Fixed info balloon on Google Map with nicely smooth rounded corners] The problem turned out to be with the TwentyTen stylesheet used as a base for the Winchester Marmalade template for this site. In essence, this section of the stylesheet that sets the width for images on the WordPress page makes the ...
Sun 24th
17:40
Mark Cavendish has achieved more in four years than English football team in last forty
But he's a cyclist. So even now on a quick flick through mainstream news outlets, his victory today has got some coverage but nowhere near the level that his dominance deserves. In the last four Tour De Frances he has won 20 stages, putting him well up the all-time list for record number of stage wins, despite still being a comparative youngster. He has won the most prestigious cycling stage - the final stage in Paris of the Tour De France - for three years in a row. He has become the first British cyclist to win the Green jersey ...
A candle in Oslo cathedral today..... Too many faces of heartbroken parents.
The events in Kingston in three weeks time may take some people by surprise. Next summer the Olympic cycle road race will pass through the Borough. So on Sunday August 14th (this year) they are staging the London Surrey Classic Race over the Olympic route as a test event. Whilst this is all rather exciting, it will also be very disruptive. The entire route will be closed from 6am to 2pm and many of the roads that feed into the route will also be closed. The cyclists will enter Kingston over Kingston Bridge, then go the wrong way round the ...
Vince Cable seems to have caused a little stir amongst some people this weekend referring to some elements of the US right wing political sphere as 'nutters'. Many people have gotten their pants in a twist about it saying he ...
Am I being too sanguine? I asked this of myself a week ago after posting on the Euro crisis. Now I'm asking myslf the same thing over my recent posting on the hacking crisis. Could there be a lot more trouble than I was predicting for David Cameron and the Police? Consider this article in Lib Dem Voice on Cameron. This develops the idea that there was a lot of railroading of the rules when the PM hired Andy Coulson as his Downing Street (i.e. Civil Service) press adviser. The pressure building up on this story could prove intolerable. Of ...
This week has been a horrible week for deaths and terrible events. Norway has quite rightly taken the top spot in the news rankings but no one can have escaped the sad death of the singer Amy Winehouse. Some of the ...
Both the motion on Lords reform and the one on the party's Federal Appeals Panel I helped organise have been chosen by the Federal Conference Committee to be debated at our autumn conference. The Lords reform one is all about backing the idea of elections, whilst the Appeals Panel one is a constitutional amendment to tighten up and improve its reporting to the rest of us on its decisions. Thanks to everyone who helped with getting the motions written and submitted (and don't forget you can back Lords reform via this Facebook page). Also on the agenda will be proposals ...
Further to my Parliamentary question on Tuesday about the incipient genocide of the Nuba people of South Kordofan, I have written three times to the Minister David Howell drawing his attention to the available evidence. Khartoum has excluded journalists from the area, and international aid agencies have left because of
Once again I'm behind with writing these up, mainly because I found some of these stories rather difficult to watch or to care about writing them up once I had watched them. But things had got better by the end. I started watching the Trial of a Time Lord season in a rather foul mood. But in fact, rather to my surprise, I found myself warming to The Mysterious Planet - in relative terms, of course; it's definitely in the lower third of Robert Holmes' stories, and has a number of plot elements recycled from his previous scripts when he ...
Sun 24th
15:25
'The Hughes Report': Lib Dem MP's 33 recommendations to improve access to higher education
Last week saw the publication by Simon Hughes, the Government's advocate for higher education access, of his report for the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister on how more young people can be encouraged to apply for university. It's received little attention, perhaps understandably given the current frenetic news cycles — but it's a shame because the report is a serious piece of work. Though 45 pages long in total, it presents clearly, readably and concisely 33 recommendations designed to ensure that everyone, from young to old, has the chance to experience higher education. You can read the report in ...
Not had much of a chance to read over the last few weeks, and when I have, my time's been occupied by this rather detailed look at life in Britain during its time as part of the Roman Empire. The focus is a bit more archaeological than historical compared to my usual reading, but still had lots of interesting information about life during the period. Not one to read if you're looking for a simple history of the period, but the wealth of detail does make it useful and interesting if you have the time.
I had a chance to catch up with the news that matters - the Oxford Times - and I read about the problems of the elections in the Vale of White Horse and in South Oxfordshire. The Returning Officer has been less than clear in his acceptance of his responsibility, which is unfortunate. As a candidate who lost by 92 votes I don't want to be a sore loser but I do want to ensure that in future every one who wants to is able to vote. The Lib Dems lost the election and that would probably have happened anyway ...
Apropos nothing in particular, I've been thinking a lot about definitions of liberalism of late - English liberalism in particular. A near universal-sloppiness has become the practice of using the word "liberalism" to mean any approach to life that is at least vaguely progressive. Ed Miliband's Labour Party likes to use the l-word because they don't want to call themselves socialists or even social-democrats. In political terms, a liberal is someone who believes in individual freedom. That can obviously mean different things in different contexts, but it certainly doesn't mean Labour. Edward Skidelsky has addressed this problem interestingly in Prospect. ...
From the Guardian this week: Chris Huhne has ordered a private inquiry into which fossil fuel lobbyists "got to" the Conservative MEPs who defied David Cameron and voted down an ambitious carbon emissions target in the European parliament on 5 July. "I have asked for a full analysis of what happened," said the energy and climate change minister, speaking at an event in parliament. "We thought the vote was going to be close, but it was not close. We want to see which lobby groups managed to get to the MEPs." New research by the Guardian and Greenpeace into lobby ...
Amy Winehouse's death at 27 didn't come as a surprise in many respects, but is still terrible. Whether you liked her music or not, I don't think anyone would deny that she was one of the most talented singers and songwriters in the country. It's even more sad though that we will only ever be ...
Last chapter of the original fifth volume. The Turks emerge from Central Asia, spend some time in India, and then start to conquer the East and advance westwards into Asia Minor. Also my notes on Gibbon's geography, Anna Comnena, Jerusalem, the Druzes, the Georgians and the run-up to the Crusades.
On 21st July Policing cuts have been announced with roughly 34,000 police staff, including 15,000 police officers are to be lost. Theorists and Labour believe that the loss of front line police officers will lead to a rise in crime such as burglary. Yvette Cooper, speaking on BBC news 24 said that under Labour crime levels had fallen by 15% and that they would have only made a 12% cut rather than a 20% one that the government are pursuing. She also accused Theresa May and David Cameron of not being in touch with the communities and the fears they ...
A translated transcript of the Norwegian killers motives as said by his lawyer can be found here and on the BBC wesbite here. It's a sad state of affairs that any human being can be consumed with so much hatred that he is willing to orchestrate and carry out the murder of nearly 100 innocent people - his own people. This of course is in a country with a relatively small population. I gather that the death toll accounts for 1 in 5000 of the Norwegian populace. To put that into context, I think that would be he equivalent of ...
TweetI'm creating two football leagues using the premier leagues fantasy football simulator - Would appreciate as many people in there as possible [IMG: :)] So yes go join! http://fantasy.premierleague.com Code to join this league: 230180-69745 - Head to Head Code to join this league: 230180-69770 - Classic! Get yourself in both!
Voting has now started in the Liberal Democrats' selection of a Mayoral candidate to fight next May's London elections. Ballot papers have gone out to all London party members of more than one year's standing and they have until 31 August to return them to Electoral Reform Services. There are four candidates in the field: ...
Over the past couple of years, I've got to know Keris Stainton on Twitter through my F1, chocolate and book loving friend Kate who introduced us because of our mutual love of Strictly Come Dancing. I later realised that she writes books for young adults and she's recently had her second book, Jessie Hearts NYC, published. I started to read this on Aberdour beach last week, but Anna swiped it and wouldn't give it back until she'd finished it. She absolutely loved it. By the time I finished it yesterday morning, I had quite a rosy glow of contentment. Enjoyment ...
News International 'bullied Liberal Democrats over BSkyB bid' is the headline in today's Observer, with the paper reporting: Rupert Murdoch's News International launched a campaign of bullying against senior Liberal Democrats in an attempt to force through the company's bid for BSkyB, high-level sources have told the Observer. Lib Dem insiders say NI officials took their lobbying campaign well beyond acceptable limits and even threatened, last autumn, to persecute the party if Vince Cable, the business secretary, did not advance its case. According to one account from a senior party figure, a cabinet minister was told that, if the government ...
Yesterday, discussing an Observer article by Henry Porter and Toby Helm on News International's threats against the Liberal Democrats, I mentioned Phillip Blond's tweet "it sounds more like Sicily than London". Funnily enough, Henry Porter develops just the same comparison in another article in todays' paper: Murdoch has probably never been rougher than in defending the company against the phone-hacking allegations that imperilled the deal once it was referred. Direct threats were made to senior figures at newspaper groups. One was delivered in a private meeting last March with Alexander Lebedev and his son Evgeny Lebedev, who owns the Independent ...
Whilst he may not be one of my favourite painters, Lucian Freud - whose death was announced earlier this week - did paint one of my favourite pictures: Two Men.There is something tender and intimate about the picture. Whether that intimacy is love, lust, welcomed or threatened is more ambiguous. I have to say, I take it at face value; the clothed figure reclining after coming home late to find his partner already asleep. The National Galleries of Scotland offer a differing explanation and these, too, could fit. What do you think? Andrew
I saw a post on another blog about the sale of Sheffield FC's manuscript rules of the game and comparing it with the price raised by the Jane Austen manuscript. The BBC report of the auction of an old set of rules by Sheffield FC appears to be contradicted by other sources of information. It is not disputed that modern association football is descended from rules drawn up by Cambridge University Football club. The 1848 original is lost, but a copy from 1856 is, it appears, in the library at Shrewsbury School. The 1848 Cambridge rules evolved into the 1863 ...
This is a cross-post of a piece of mine which has appeared on uberpolitics. Well, as we all know, the person who planted the bombs and carried out the shootings was one Anders Behring Breivik who claims he acted alone. Except of course, he didn't. It certainly seems likely that he's the only person who directly killed people but that doesn't mean he acted alone. As more and more information emerges it's becoming clear that this was an individual who held anti-Islamic, anti-left, anti-tolerance beliefs. In short, he was a neo-Nazi who defined his enemy as Muslims rather than as ...
David Cameron had a very good way of dealing with problems. It was the opposite of the Gordon Brown 'Macivity's not there' approach to a crisis. He would let things build, and then, when things were at breaking point, he would step into the fray, be seen to be taking charge, taking responsibility but not blame, looking like a leader.Then having stated how he wanted things sorted, he would step away again. The NHS proposals were a classic example of this, and it worked very well for him. And it's been a recurring pattern of his time in office. Yet ...
Well that's how it works isn't it? Because Muslim extremists carried out the 9/11 attacks and the attacks on London in 2007 the entire world condemned an entire religion. Surely we now do the same and condemn the entire religion ...
How can a Liberal Democrat local party in London organise a successful hustings meeting during our Mayor contest? I've written a short factsheet for London Lib Dems with ten top tips which you can get here. During my time as the party's Head of Innovations I produced a series of similar factsheets (with the help of some excellent assistance from others, such as Pete Dollimore, Martin Tod and Will Howells), mostly on internet matters. It's a format I've always liked and I've not seen anyone else produce a similar series since, whether on internet or other matters. So I thought ...
Business Secretary Vince Cable writes today at the Mail on Sunday on his own reaction to the "Murdoch mania" press coverage and his experiences of News International during his first year as a Cabinet Minister: My own direct experience was as the Minister with responsibility for competition and takeovers. I had to take a decision on whether to approve or refer the bid from News International to acquire the remaining (just over 60 per cent) shares in BSkyB that it did not already own. My involvement started with a courtesy call from James Murdoch last summer telling me of the ...
There is the Billy Connelly film The Man Who Sued God about a man who takes God to court when he one piece of property his boat is destroyed by a lightning strike. The reason of course is the infamous insurance company get out "an act of God". Why am I bringing this us? Well it appears that the Catholic Church is using the defence in court that the priests involved in sex abuse are not technically employed by the church. In a Christian sense they are right, in that priests are effectively called by God to their charges. However, ...
On Friday I wrote a blog post about how I felt that the media had learned nothing from the ongoing hacking events and had jumped to the same conclusions about the bombings in Oslo in Norway branding them the work ...
Poverty and willpower I wish more people understood this. (tags: poverty psychology economics)
Michael comments on a misleading post from a former Moderator of the PCI about tonight's inaugural Faith and Pride event in All Souls' Church, Belfast, at 7pm.
Whatever the truth regarding reports in this morning's Observer that Rupert Murdoch's News International launched a campaign of bullying against senior Liberal Democrats in an attempt to force through the company's bid for BSkyB, it does illustrate one point. That is that whilst Labour and the Conservatives cosied up to Murdoch, the Liberal Democrats kept their distance and were lone voices in calling for his empire to be brought under control. The paper reports on briefings by Liberal Democrat insiders, who say that News International officials took their lobbying campaign well beyond acceptable limits and even threatened, last autumn, to ...
Yesterday afternoon, I had the pleasure of attending a packed Friends of Balgay Summer Meeting at Mills Observatory. There was a very informative and interesting talk from Guide Dogs for the Blind, complete with guide dog trainee Travis aged 9 months! You can read more about Guide Dogs for the Blind at www.guidedogs.org.uk. As an aside, the roadway up Balgay Hill from the Glamis Road entrance is badly pot-holed in places and I have taken this matter up with the City Council's new Environment Department.
Another disco classic from 1978 ...
Today for most of the riders who are still in this years Tour de France it is a porocession. For some, those that struggled over the mountains often in the grupetto at that back there is one dream left to win the sprint on the Champs d'Élysées. Of course for two there is also the change of pulling on the last green jersey of the tour. Mark Cavendish is just 15 points ahead of Jose Joaquin Rojas in that competition. There are 20 points on offer for the winner of the intermediate sprint and 45 for the win on the ...
21st-Century Slaves: How Corporations Exploit Prison Labor A five page article on the treatment of prisoners in the USA. (tags: politics) This column will change your life: Poverty and willpower The psychic costs of applying willpower are higher if you live in poverty. Or: why Green Lanterns are always middle class. (tags: poverty psychology) "Because it feels good": the starting point for talking to kids about sex Honesty with kids? Surely not, you say! (tags: education sexuality) Your beautiful eyes Beautiful breath-taking close-up photographs of the human eye. (tags: science)
Hello San Francisco! I was waitlisted up until 40 minutes before my flight closed, then I was assigned a jumpseat, only to have the pilot bump me off the plane just as the gate was closing. Happily, a friendly staff member from British Airways felt sorry for me, and snuck me into the Club Lounge so I could wait for the next flight, three hours later, in comfort with free wifi and noms - and when I got to the gate for the second flight, I was upgraded to Club on the plane as well, huzzah! Stan, [IMG: [livejournal.com profile] ...
After finding out about the terrible events that have occurred in Oslo yesterday, having now left at least 92 people dead, I immediately thought "oh no! Al Qaeda and muslim extremists again". Seems the media outlets had the same idea as they splashed 'Al Qaeda' across their frontpages and websites. This got me thinking, why do we immediately presume their involvement? its not like other terror groups don't exist in other parts of the world. Of course not many of these have too many a gripe with Norway, granted, but jumping the gun every time and hesitating to suggest other ...
It's sad, but not hugely surprising that Amy Winehouse has died at just 27. She was a talented musician, a flawed person and definitely no angel. And her music reflected this - supported by some great musicianship from her band. Here they are at their best:
The forms were delivered in Tring, Wilstone and Long Marston and Aldbury and Wigginton. The distribution area was the same as for the last previous survey, in 2008, and the form used was very similar on both occasions. The principal differences this year were (a) a warning that the costs might well be going up next year in line with general increases in costs and (b) showing that the DBC proposals would involve some discount for the charge on their suggested first two hour block. About 6,500 survey forms were delivered and it shows the strength of feeling on this ...
