As the News Corp case unfolds and the Murdochs and Rebekah Brooks are held to account by a parliamentary select committee I have begun to think about some of the dangers of the case. The British people always need a villain, be it the Germans (at war and football), Nick Clegg (a former hero who fell to villainy- the best kind of hate figure.), Gary Glitter and Bin Laden. These are people that you can walk into any Pub or public venue and say "... what a bastard" and get a general murmur of agreement whether deserved or not. The ...
These are dark days for Britain but we may be seeing the turning point. Led by Vince Cable, we waged war on the Red-Top Menace that has spent decades invading our beaches, taking hold of the minds of our citizens. We knew this war would not end quickly and we knew there would be casualties. An unlikely ally of Murdoch's, the Telegraph, lined up an assassination round, the noble Vince was taken out before the war had really begun. But alas, the attack was destined to wound and not to kill and, several long months later, Vince has returned to ...
The Sun's leader today declared: Time is running out for this Government to get a grip. The starting point is to shove the feeble Lib Dems aside and for Conservative ministers to start behaving like Conservatives. That is, by cutting taxes, they mean. There is one fatal flaw with this theorem. So far, the most significant tax cut of this government was implemented at the insistence of the LibDems (namely taking 800,000 lower earners out of tax altogether). It would therefore seem unwise to "shove" aside those very tax cutters.
County Cricket came back to Birkdale today and drew the biggest crowd of the season for Lancs in a championship match. over 2600 packed into the Trafalgar Rd ground to see Lancs take on Notts Wickets soon tumbled in the seaside sunshine-Hogg got five of them and the photo shows his fifth. At the end of the day Notts were all out for 203 and Lancs were 86 for 4 after a late collapse having been 50 for 0. Tomorrow promises another fine day but the odds must be against the game lasting the full five days Full report and ...
There's a sentence I never predicted that I would write. Still, what else would you call an MP who is proposing a bill that would criminalise valid parenting choices solely in order to suppress environmentally friendly and healthy travel options. Her new Private Member's Bill- the Cycles (Protective Headgear for Children) Bill- will make it ...
It's been doing the rounds, but I got this from Sunny Hundal at Liberal Conspiracy. Pretty much sums up right wing hypocrisy regarding terrorism for me: It was sad to see the rush to blame Al-Qaeda before the facts starting coming out about the shooting and bombing in Norway. I really don't understand professional commentators who are not provoked into either deep thinking or stunned silence even by the slaughter of innocents.
Here is my much delayed review/comment on the last Full Council meeting. We started with the Minerals and Waste Plan. As a group we abstained on this item - there are really big concerns regarding the quality of life in some of the villages across the County that will be seeing in some cases hundreds of additional Heavy Goods Vehicle movements. In our view the plan (a strategic document) didn't contain enough information on how these additional movements would be handled.The Bus Subsidies discussion was always going to be interesting. It is the clear view of the majority of Conservative ...
The US Republicans are in real danger of not being able to deliver any deal at all. There is a better than 60% chance that no deal can be done to raise the US debt ceiling before August 2nd. In which case the US AAA debt rating is now 80% going to fall this week. We are being constantly bombarded with the quote from the half American, Churchill: "the US always does the right thing, after it has exhausted the alternatives". Yet, what happens if the House Republicans do not do the right thing and the United States of America ...
This means all. Every last one. Yes, even YOU. On the 1st of August I will be effectively shutting down my personal facebook account. There are myriad reasons for this, but mostly it boils down to: I never really liked Facebook, and now I have something better to replace it with. I am moving to Google+. If you still want to interact with me on Facebook, you will have to "like" my public page, which will continue having feeds from my blog and twitter. I'll be emailed notifications if you comment on the page, so practically, given how little I ...
[IMG: IMG_1612] [IMG: Creative Commons License] photo credit: nrkbeta Sky News have photos and bios of some of the Utoya victims. Seeing the photos brings home the senseless waste of bright, lively kids. It's like Liberal Youth being decimated. A commentator has already suggested the following, so I am seconding it. Oslo has quietly sent us a big tree for Trafalgar Square at Christmas every year since 1947, to thank us for our help during the war. Having seen the quiet dignity and fortitude of the Norwegian nation in the last few days, I think we owe them a tree ...
Tonight I went to a great meeting of residents from Kensey Valley Meadow. It was a follow up to the play day and consultation event we held on the development at the end of April and dealt with issues to do with the roads adoption, the possible new play area and the forming of a formal residents association. The first thing to say is that there was an incredible turnout. I worried that on a nice sunny evening we might have half a dozen people there. But there were more than 40 in total and we had a great discussion. ...
I am not impressed by several reports today that the Coalition has gone back on its intention to delete DNA from innocent people in line with the system we have here in Scotland. This was set in stone in the Coalition Agreement and something that Nick Clegg was very keen to promote. There will be some improvement in that the samples will ne held in anonymised form. However individual police forces will retain sufficient information to marry up samples with their owners' details. And we've had quite enough examples of unscrupulous people accessing information they have no right to have ...
Hazel Cook, the festival's director, explains that this year's Arts Fresco will be bigger, brighter, and bolder than ever before. Born of a chance conversation along the lines of, "Oh go on then... I really don't see why not," Arts Fresco is now the most popular street arts event the East Midlands, attracting audiences from all over the country to Market Harborough. The event includes a sparkling mix of innovative performances ranging from the beautiful to the astonishing, the whimsical to the bizarre and on to the downright silly. In addition to the professional line up, the family friendly programme ...
A few weeks ago I was invited to view the interior of Southport's Atkinson Centre (what we used to cal the Arts centre0. Pictured above is the stripped out interior of the library, which was bank in it's former life. The building programme is on schedule, although there have been several changes to the plans as demolition of former structures revealed hidden problems. I was most impressed by the attention to detail and the preservation of many of the original feats, carried out by the contractors. On the whole the stonework is in very good condition, as can be seen ...
Well loved songs will find that they are covered time after time after time by artistes down through the ages. I gather that the most copied song of all-time could well be Yesterday by the Beatles. One song that I've always adored is Love Letters which was originally written in 1945. As with any song, the connection will be made by the listener to a particular artiste who has made the song his or her own. But Love Letters is one of the few with which I can't claim that that is the case. This list states that the song ...
The graph on the left is borrowed from the Washington Post and reportedly shows how the present US deficit and debt crisis has grown up. The paper says that under George W Bush the deficit grew by $5.07 trillion whilst Obama has added just $1.44 trillion. However, they continue by pointing out that Obama's major expenses were temporary as the stimulus is now over, while Bush's were, effectively, recurring: The Bush tax cuts didn't just lower revenue for 10 years. It's clear now that they lowered it indefinitely, which means this chart is understating their true cost. Similarly, the Medicare ...
A couple of times a year the entire Liberal Democrat opposition group on Cambridgeshire County Council gets together to discuss the direction of the group, what worked well since the last meeting and what we need to work on and improve.It's a rare opportunity to actually get everyone together in the same room as we're most likely to be working away in our wards spread out across Cambridgeshire. And of course when you finally do manage to get everyone assembles there are any number of "other" things to discuss so it's quite useful to have a discussion purely centred on ...
As Neil Monnery points out, James Brokenshire's plan to retain the DNA records of innocent people goes against the Data Protection Act, European human rights legislation and the Coalition agreement. Is lower and slower economic growth such a bad thing? asks The Yellow Bastard. Welcome to Spiderplant Land has been volunteering on an archaeological dig: "It was a fantastic experience and I wish I could go into more detail about the site and its history but out of respect for the work that the team are doing now and in the future, I must respect their wishes not to name ...
It's very disappointing to here that the Coalition government is performing a u-turn on the deletion of innocent people's DNA samples. Particulary now the supreme court has ruled that this DNA retention is illegal The Telegraph and BBC are both reporting that only the entry of DNA on the databases will now be deleted. The actual sample will be retained by proxy by the forensic science labs. There is a scientifically illiterate concept being floated that the DNA can be rendered anonymous. A strand of DNA by definition contains the unique genetic code of a person. Raw information is ...
Rumours are starting to fly round the Internet about infighting within Reading's Conservative councillors. I have confirmed (from multiple sources) that they are essentially true. I will post later about the detail and the background to this which ties in with some of the predictions I made back in May. Suffice for now to say that it looks to be a particularly nasty act. More details in tomorrow's dead tree press. socialise this: [IMG: add 'Tory Trouble in Reading' a Del.icio.us] [IMG: add 'Tory Trouble in Reading' a digg] [IMG: add 'Tory Trouble in Reading' a Stumble Upon] [IMG: add ...
Members of the South Werrington & North Gunthorpe FOCUS Team, have said they are delighted by the decision of Liberal Democrat MEP for Peterborough, Andrew Duff (pictured on the left), to join the teams Facebook page! The Facebook page has seen a strong level of growth and now, alongside fellow residents and city councillors, the page can boast a direct link through to Europe and the MAN paid to represent them! Commenting, local LIB DEM ward councillor Darren Fower, said: "A couple of years ago, Andrew paid a visit to us in this area, and he was impressed with the ...
The Hackgate affair has exposed some sordid goings on at the heart of the establishment with the Murdoch press, politicians and police all guilty of, at best, some very poor judgements. As far as I am concerned News Corp richly deserves the opprobrium heaped on it. Companies invariably reflect the values of their leadership – as ...
I'm beginning to think we need to get the hacking scandal into some perspective. I certainly don't want to diminish the seriousness of hacking into people's private phones and messages, especially when they have been bereaved in the most tragic circumstances. These are clearly against the law, which is perhaps why they are getting the attention worldwide they are currently getting. But in the whole gamut of journalistic excess - taking photos of ailing stars on their deathbeds, or a dying Princess Diana - they are not unique. They also seem to be overshadowing some very serious allegations indeed and ...
Have just finished putting together some comments for the consultation on Wokingham Borough's MDD DPD. Haven't done one for the SPDs for the SDLs but did include some comments on the SHLAA, the SEA, SA, but not on any LDS documents or anybody else's LDFs. Also noted the lack of EIA. Good grief. The most tragic thing is that I HAVE STARTED TO TALK LIKE THAT. HELP! There are some real big issues to do with policy on development for the area in there somewhere. How the heck any normal person is supposed to be able to comment on them ...
[IMG: iconic Site] I've been meaning to comment on this, since last week, when on my way home from a long shift, this site/sight hove into view, as I drove up Fort Hill, heading for Flaig Mansions, it made me smile. At the time although much impressed by the huge neon sign with the legend "Iconic Site"*, on the old Fort Road Hotel, I didn't have the energy to stop, to add yet another image to my growing collection of Iphone classic photo's, last night I had spare 30 seconds, click job done. I don't know whether this is art ...
St Peter's roundabout somewhat the worse for wear Chris White is calling for the St Peter's Street-Hatfield Road roundabout to be entirely redesigned after it was yet again hit by a lorry. Chris says: 'These longer lorries are forever giving the roundabout a knock. It needs to be redesigned to get rid of the high brick surround. Clearly we will all want the plants to remain, but they could be located in a wooden planter.' He added: 'This should be a key positive feature of the city centre but the state it is in means that it is a sad ...
Cornwall Council and bus operators have been holding discussions today following last week's (apparently illegal) attempt by the Council to cut the subsidies given to the operators for carrying free bus pass holders. According to the statement released this afternoon: Constructive dialogue has taken place today between Cornwall Council and major bus operators in Cornwall. The council has to meet reduced budgets and, with the bus operators, will be seeking to minimise any impact on bus passengers. Discussions are ongoing and a further meeting will be held next week. Mark Howarth, Managing Director of Western Greyhound and head of Cornwall ...
Collected links from around the webHorrifying, and hard to read: This Mind Intentionally Left Blank :: Utøya: English version Especially useful, for me, was the praise for the police and their methods, explain everything, apologise for mistakes, is something worth taking forward. (tags: Norway utoya) How cool is this? Cubelets KT01 Construction Kit Review Constructable robotic cubes that do different things if built in different ways? How silly is that? (tags: toys geekery cubelets robotics) Automatically posted from Delicious using [IMG: [personal profile] ] matgbs updated Delicious Glue script.
A Ceredigion County Council budget workshop today decided to shelve plans to re-locate residents from Penparcau's Bodlondeb Residential Home to Waunfawr's Hafan Y Waun. It follows a heated public debate on the issue and a recent Cabinet decision that was split on the matter as I blogged about at the time. Today's all-party workshop looked at the current and future budgets to seek common ground on where savings can be made. On arriving at the Council's Penmorfa HQ in Aberaeron this morning, we walked past a number of campaigners and their 'Save Bodlondeb' banners at the entrance. I spoke to ...
Tue 26th
15:24
George Osborne should welcome the chance to debate with Ed Balls - But the Lib Dems should beware
TweetApparently Ed Balls has challenged George Osborne to a set of TV debates (Although I'm yet to see any official news story) about the economy, the default position from the Tories and most Lib Dems will be to mock Balls and ridicule the idea, after all the election date is set in stone, and a debate will change nothing. However, I still think Osborne should welcome the chance to debate with Balls. The economy is not going the way many would like it too (Although I have already written today why that might not be such a bad thing) and ...
Tue 26th
15:01
James M. Buchanan (1919- ) and Gordon Tullock (1922- ). The Calculus of Consent: Logical Foundations...
The Calculus of Consent was published two years after Friedrich Hayek published The Constitution of Liberty. Buchanan and Tullock should be placed with Hayek and Friedman in the revival of classical liberal ideas of individual liberty, free markets, and limited government. It's not likely that any books by Buchanan and Tullock will ever be as widely read as Hayek's The Road to Serfdom or even the rather longer book, The Constitution of Liberty. Buchanan and Tullock write with great intellectual elegance, but not with elegance of style, or humour of any kind. It has to be said that even Nozick's ...
Tue 26th
14:55
Breaking a coalition agreement, the Data Protection Act and the European Court of Human Rights - wha...
I was woken up this morning by my phone blipping telling me to read the following article entitled Innocent people's DNA profiles won't be deleted after all, minister admits in The Daily Telegraph. Yeah it wasn't going to cheer me up and make me all bright eyed and bushy tailed for the day ahead I can assure you. So let's deal with the political ramifications of this first. In the coalition agreement it states quite clearly that we are going to adopt the Scottish model and delete all DNA records from people who haven't been charged or have not been ...
Hello All. I have finally got round to sorting out the mess that was my Southend Hospital Radio Download Links. Now instead of being listed to the right of the screen they are all listed on one page which I will update frequently. The new page is behind the following link – Southend Hospital Radio Downloads and it can be found at all times in the right-hand nav near the top of the screen. Listed are all the shows that are available to download along with dates, hosts and presenters of each show. There is even a bonus download of ...
Today the ONS released their first estimates for economic growth for the second quarter. These quarterly figures have become the centre of a media frenzy; the papers and the BBC have been speculating about them and their implications for days. Some commentators have worked themselves up into a real state, saying these numbers will be critical to the government's future (see this comment on one which gives quite a good idea of the general coverage before the figures have even been released). This is getting very silly. The first problem is that these numbers aren't very accurate; the second is ...
Tue 26th
14:04Shoebury Police get tough on crime. Well they don't but if you steal two bottles of booze three mont...
Just a quick one here. I do have a couple of longer blog posts penciled in for later today but I saw the following story entitled CCTV of suspected thief in the local rag just now and I am just sitting here in disbelief. Firstly the offence is stealing £20 worth a booze. Not exactly crime of the century. Secondly it is a CCTV still and not a CCTV video showing if he stole said booze. Thirdly the offence happened on May 2. Now looking at my calendar it tells me that today is July 25. So the best part ...
I cannot claim to be an expert on Israel's borders, the technicalities of which are key to the currently-stalled Israel/Palestine peace process. The same, however, cannot be said of the senior, former Israeli army officers and diplomats who have just discussed those borders (and offered some new thinking) with the people who matter in Washington. One of the group, the (retired) Major General Natan Sharoni, has said, of Prime Minister Netanyahu's statement that Israel's pre-1967 borders are 'indefensible': "The 1967 borders are defensible, we just need to define - defensible against what? It's true they are indefensible against rockets from ...
Is over at Liberal Vision.
The summer months are always good for reflection. Parliament is in recess, the party conference season has yet to start which means that politicians and commentators get the chance to take a holiday and think. A bit of thinking time is important for politicians. In the 24/7 news cycle and the push to make their arguments and counter the arguments of opponents, the Westminster village is an unforgiving place. Nick Clegg, and Liberal Democrat MPs, have a lot to reflect on. The party has been in government for over a year now. In a bold move it went into coalition ...
Can the problems the Liberal Democrats are currently experiencing be put down not to the Coalition but, in the long view, to a failure of the party to promote a strong, distinctive liberal philosophy and agenda to the public? That's the argument put forward by Simon Titley in the latest Liberator magazine and I have to confess that he says a great deal that I agree with. He's right say that the party has a smaller core vote than the other two big parties (ours is around 10%, Labour and the Conservatives around 25%, Simon suggests – and I'm sure ...
British economic output grew by 0.2 per cent in the second quarter of 2011 (April, May and June). That's not terrible, but it's hardly outstanding either. However, the Office for National Statistics say (pdf) that growth was lower than it would ... Continue reading →
It's interesting. Last night, Barack Obama has for the first time made explicit reference to the purist, batshit insanity of some Republicans. Yet there's almost no commentary out there talking about it. The media is sticking to the analysis-free "balanced", "issues on both sides" approach. The substance on a matter of global impact remains buried under superficial analysis of political games and media strategy; governance and hard reality barely get a look in. When did it become acceptable for journalists and editors to give up and say, "Objectivity is an unattainable ideal, so why bother even trying?" The debt crisis ...
Jo Swinson, Lib Dem MP for East Dunbartonshire, has won support from an unexpected quarter for her argument that the heroines of children's television are too "pink and princessy". Writing for the Daily Telegraph, Andrew Brown says: She has a point, doesn't she? Boys have plenty of robust role models with occupations on offer - Thomas the Tank Engine, Bob the Builder and so on. But where can girls look for inspiration? Peppa Pig, Upsy Daisy from In the Night Garden, and Bella from The Tweenies - robust isn't the word that springs to mind. Apart from Dora the Explorer, ...
I am delighted that St Margaret's Park in Corstorphine has been awarded the prestigious Green Flag. Edinburgh now has 20 out of Scotland's 34 Green Flags and the Walled Garden on Corstorphine Hill has once again received the Green Pennant - the green flag equivalent for gardens. This is a fantastic achievement. Our Parks team are rightly chuffed at this. So much hard work goes into keeping our parks up to this standard and the inspection is very rigorous. The council also has to demonstrate they have engaged with the community in each of these areas so a big thank ...
From the Police: Sniffer dogs helped police to crack down on drug use in Stockport on Friday night (22 July). The dogs joined the Stockport West Neighbourhood Policing Team to visit 10 licensed premises in Cheadle and Cheadle Hulme. Officers discovered what they believe to be cannabis and cocaine in four of the pubs. In total three people were arrested and four were given street cautions for possession of cannabis. Police Constable Chris Maginess, who launched the operation, said: "The operation was launched at the request of licensees in the area. I'd like to thank people for their patience and ...
Arthur Bryant of the Peculiar Crimes Unit witnesses a woman walk into a pub, The Victoria, who is subsequently found murdered. There is but one problem with his eye-witness testimony of some of her last moments: when he returns to the location, the pub is not there and the site has been occupied for years by a shop. In other words, this - the sixth book in Christopher Fowler's series featuring Arthur Bryant and his colleague John May of London's Peculiar Crimes Unit - is once again an homage to the traditional English crime novel such as Edmund Crispin's The ...
Cornwall Council's Conservative leadership seem to think they are above the law at the moment. As well as using the authority's resources for internal party issues, it now appears that they are ignoring formal legal advice. This latest issue concerns the role of Cabinet Support Members and whether or not they undertake 'executive functions'. It might seem a bit technical, but it's vital for the executive function of an authority to be separate from the scrutiny function. You cannot have a councillor holding him or herself to account. In question is the role of Conservative Cllr Steve Double on the ...
Anyone who spotted the commotion, lights, vehicles, crowds, etc. around the pavillion on Scholes Field and under the railway bridge on the path from Foxland Road might have wondered what was going on. There was some filming for the Channel 4 show Shameless, and there might be some more around the village over the next few days. As my son commented (as we inched our way past the very helpful and polite crew on our bikes), you don't realise just how much goes into this filming, with the numbers of people, vans, trucks, equipment and all the rest of it. ...
The date for a public hearing into the proposed new parliamentary boundaries has been set. It will take place in Truro at the Alverton Manor Hotel from 10th - 11th November and will be one of four public hearings taking place in the South West region. The new draft boundaries will be announced in mid September and there will then be a period of public consultation with the public hearings forming part of this. It is expected that at least one 'Devonwall' seat will be proposed. The public hearings will no doubt see a lot of anger over the Devonwall ...
TweetFirstly I'm not writing this blog post to spin growth figures or stand up for George Osborne, merely to discuss and idea that has stuck with me since my time in the Green party, that maybe, just maybe, lower and slower growth is a good thing, and a profoundly green thing. Maybe the law of unintended consequences means that this government really may end up being the greenest ever. A common complaint about Gordon Brown and Labour in the green quarters was his use of unchecked unrestrained economic growth as a measure of his own success. The question is, how ...
The Commons Work and Pensions Committee has highlighted failures in the Government's Work Capability Assessment, saying these have caused "fear and anxiety" for claimants whose benefits have been stopped. This will come as no surprise to the many people for whom the process has been an ordeal. This is a problem which has been building up for years, since the assessment was introduced by the last Labour Government in 2008 for new ESA claimants. Now it seems that administrative errors have led to people being counted as having missed appointments which they may not even have been informed about. This ...
Diana Rusk in the Irish News today is naming the DUP member who called the people who take part in the Belfast Pride Parade as "totally repugnant". As the Irish Times is like its UK counterpart behind a firewall you can learn about this on The Journal's website. repugnant [rɪˈpʌgnənt]adj 1. repellent to the senses; causing aversion2. distasteful; offensive; disgusting3. contradictory; inconsistent or incompatible from Collins English DictionaryThe fact that the person named ignores the fact that the people who are parading because they are still needing the devolved assembly to pay attention to a number of inequalities that affect ...
Good news from the Cabinet Office, with its announcement of pre-legislative scrutiny of plans to increase the timetable for general elections and, more significantly, for Parliamentary by-elections: the deadline for parties to nominate candidates should continue to be 6 days after the start of the timetable, so parties will have the same time as now to put forward candidates to stand for election. In practice this will now be 19, rather than 11, days before the date of poll, which will allow administrators to begin printing ballot papers further in advance of polling day; provision should be made for updated ...
The row about Cornwall Council's Conservative Leader Alec Robertson's decision to kick Jan Powell off the health committee rumbles on. The latest twist is that the Leader appears to view Cornwall Council as an instrument of his political party. Jan Powell was the Conservative chair of the committee but lost that position as a result of being removed from the committee by Cllr Robertson. She subsequently defected to the Liberal Democrats. She has now made the following statement about the circumstances of her removal: "I am releasing this public statement through my solicitor in order to put on record the ...
A Brew for the Better Half: Molson Coors To Launch Ladylike ... Pink beer? Fuck you, Coors. Not that anyone with any sense would drink the fizzy piss you lot "brew" anyway. (tags: beer) This is why we like Adrian: he has sense. (tags: libdemmery) Love and Liberty: Atrocity In Norway Alex makes the best post I have seen on this. (tags: tragedies)
The arrogant stupidity of Reading Borough Council, it seems, is reaching new heights. This morning, much-needed cycle racks installed only three months ago, at public expense, were being removed. Ironically I stumbled on this having found nowhere to park my bike! Here's the photo: [IMG: 20110726-085053.jpg] With Labour liar Tony Page in charge, it was bound to be the silly season. This time, Tony, you've really surpassed yourself! On a serious point, it is time Reading Cycle Campaign got a lot more loud and shrill about the nonsense going on around the Station, where they along with pedestrians, bus users ...
It is always difficult to establish the exact truth of what is going on in Government from early newspaper reports, but if this Daily Telegraph article is correct then Nick Clegg may be in for a rough ride at the Liberal Democrat Conference in September. The paper says that the DNA of more than one million innocent people will not be wiped from police records despite a clear Coalition Agreement commitment to delete all innocent profiles, apart from those accused of violent or sex crimes, from police databases. Instead the police will retain DNA profiles in anonymised form, leaving open ...
I have just become a reviewer for Seen and Heard International, part of one of the world's leading online classical music review magazines. My first review is of the fantastic Ring Cycle at Wermland Opera that I have written about ... Continue reading →
With the Tour de France over for another year, I decided to stretch out the experience of it a little by reading Boulting's behind-the-scenes account of reporting on the Tour from 2003 to 2010. He'll be familiar to viewers of cycling on ITV4 as the main field reporter for the Tour de France, and also as the presenter of the Tour Series and Tour of Britain (which means he gives Colchester the briefest of mentions late in the book). This is the story of how Boulting went from being an out-of-his-depth football reporter dispatched to cover the Tour (the 'Yellow ...
Full details on the Richard Jefferies Society website.
American website Jezebel.com has heaped high praise on Liberal Democrat MP for East Dunbartonshire Jo Swinson for calling for speaking out against gender stereotyping on television. Margaret Hartmann wrote: We get a bit jealous anytime we hear about a nation in which all political candidates have a solid grasp on reality, but it's particularly depressing that we can't vote for British MP Jo Swinson. The 31-year-old Liberal Democrat led the effort to restrict airbrushing in advertisements, and now she's speaking out against sexism in television programs for children.I wouldn't go as far as to say every politician in the UK ...
A leading Cambridgeshire County Councillor has refused to attend a cross-party meeting to discuss fire spending cuts because it is being held behind closed doors. Nigel Bell, Liberal Democrat Leader on the Cambridgeshire Fire Authority also expressed concern that there would be no official public minutes or notes from the meeting. Cllr Bell was invited by the ruling Conservative group to attend the county council's Policy Steering Group meeting tomorrow Wednesday (July 20) to discuss cuts to fire cover across the county. But he refused claiming that it would be better if the issue were discussed in public by the ...
Further to my recent article about graffiti in Bankmill Road, with thanks to Dundee City Council, this has now been removed following my request on behalf of residents.
Last month, I congratulated the Pennycook and Sinderins Court sheltered housing Residents' Association who have secured over £1000 of funding to get new seating in Pennycook Lane and have some environmental improvements too. With thanks to the Dighty Group who did the work, the new seating is now in place (see right). I have been in touch with the Head Teacher at Blackness Primary School, who has kindly agreed to the school maintaining some planters like the ones in the school grounds and the City Council has agreed to remove graffiti in the adjacent area. The Residents' Association's project for ...
I see Glenn Beck has managed to show a fine display of human fellow feeling by comparing the Norwegian victims of the right-wing murderer to the Hitler Youth. Nice. But then again the US ultra-rightists are not noted for tact or, indeed, intelligence. His fellow travelers continue to hold the World hostage through their manufactured deadlock of the negotiations to raise the US debt ceiling in the US Congress. Vince Cable, in his usual blunt way, has called those Congressman and Senators responsible "Right Wing" nutters. Hard not to disagree, when we hear that the leader of the refuseniks would ...
Monday's Newsnight contained an interview between Paxo and Stephen Lennon - head of the ultra nationalist English Defence League. The premise was some extremely dodgy research that led the BBC to claim that Norway mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik had links to the EDL because he posted on various websites (including Facebook) in praise of them. Paxo's attempted hatchet job on Lennon backfired completely (and it started pretty poorly due to the paucity of the evidence presented) when he ended by claiming that Lennon and the EDL were threatening a similar slaughter in the UK because of Lennon's closing remark ...
With the DUP snubbing yesterday's Belfast Pride event at Stormont, Michael wonders how long it will be before they come on board on the issue of LGBT rights.
Salford City Council has opened an electronic book of condolence, to send messages to the people of Norway and the families and friends of the victims of the horrific attacks on 22 July, in Oslo and at the island of Utøya. Councillor John Merry, Leader of Salford City Council, has added his own message as follows "I would like to express my heartfelt condolences to the families and friends of those affected by the tragedy in Norway. I have been moved by the way in which the nation has come together to support each other in these difficult times." All ...
Friday was a sad day. News broke just as I left work about the tragic news of a bomb attack in Norway. When I arrived home my wife asked me if I had heard about the Ireland. I couldn't believe it. This is tragic and the act of a terrorist. Few have been willing to describe him as such. Most major news outlets have given him this title. Though he is a terrorist and no reason he could give can ever justify the taking of young life in such a way. These are innocent young people who had so much ...
