One of the things which sends me into an apoplectic fury the sort of person who says cheer up, it might never happen (without a sense of irony, anyway). 1, You don't know if it already has. 2, Even if you know it has, and you think it's nothing to get upset about, you have no right to impose your values on someone else. 3, Even if you are completely and totally right, you are NOT HELPING, you are being a cock. I think the thing that pisses me off the most is the automatic assumption that whatever it is ...
It wasn't just the Unitarians I met on the way to the chess on Saturday. The Millennium Gallery in the centre of Sheffield was hosting an exhibition of the Victorian artist John Martin under the title John Martin: Painting the Apocalypse. Anyone who thinks the Victorians were dull should have a look at Martin's work. Call it gaudy; call it kitsch; but you can't call it stuffy. If he were around today he would be designing covers for heavy metal albums - or whatever it is that the young people buy nowadays. His vast oils of Biblical scenes also bring ...
A journalist from the BBC in Plymouth contacted me today to ask if she could use my photo of Bude bathing pool. There's something about those magic letters "BBC" isn't there? Of course, I said I'd be delighted if she used my photo. I was triple choughed with a side order of choughness. And look here it is, with my name on it, illustrating a fascinating story about a new real ale to raise money for the pool! Semantic note: I am going back to calling it "Bude bathing pool". My brother Tim reminded me that this is the traditional ...
Back in June I brought you the exciting news that the William Burges brooch unearthed by the Antiques Roadshow was to be auctioned by Gilding's of Market Harborough. That sale took place earlier this week and the brooch went for £31,000.
sometimes - you hear of a book that you must read. well this was the one - i got ridiculously excited about it and even bought it off of amazon. well the preface is this - bloke in mid 1800s goes and builds himself a log cabin in new england and lives there for just over a year. for me this seemed a good idea and he dealt with nature and isolation and wildlife etc. i'm sure you get the giste. but here is the crux. i felt he was going all dickens on me. the chapters were not aportioned. ...
I've still got quite a bit of writer's block, and am working on a book and on the Mindless Ones stuff, but didn't want to let this anniversary pass unmarked. Five years ago today, Arthur Lee died. I still find it nearly impossible to believe that. While I was never lucky enough to know him, ...
The whole saga of the Warren Swaine incident at Reading Council has me very confused. Yesterday Political Scrapbook posted this, where Swaine had made what is, in all honesty, a racist comment about mixed-race Labour MP Chuka Umunna. Cllr Swaine, whilst ...
Last night BBC1 screened An Abuse of Trust, a documentary by Roger Cook about the headmaster Derek Slade who was imprisoned last year for the physical and sexual abuse of boys both in Britain and abroad. You can watch in on BBC iPlayer for the next six days. The sad thing is that Cook first exposed Slade's activities in a Checkpoint programme for BBC Radio 4 as long ago as 1982. But the authorities failed to do anything about it. Interestingly, programme last night was concerned almost as much with Derek Sawyer, the former leader of Islington Council, as it ...
Last night's "Evening Telegraph" reported my concerns and those of many West End constituents about the proposed withdrawal of the 4S School Bus Service from the start of the new term this month. The 4S serves parts of the West End Ward (eg City Road, Pentland Avenue, Scott Street, Glenagnes Road, Blackness Road, Peddie Street, Hawkhill, Perth Road and Nethergate) and takes pupils to St John's High School. Following concerns I have received from parents of St John's pupils about the service withdrawal, my office at Tayside House sought clarification from National Express Dundee and I paste below the response ...
As mentioned earlier, the time to make comments to the Office of Fair Trading concerning KM Group's submission to acquire Northcliffe Media's Kent newspapers is running out. You have until Monday 8th August. It seems rather surprising and disturbing that the counties politicians have yet to comment but who would report it anyway. KM Group like the minimalist Thanet Extra and Northcliffe Media newspapers such as the Isle of Thanet Gazette/Times etc. are hardly going to wish to stir things up. Kent on Sunday stands to gain so their hardly going whip up a storm. It's unfortunate BBC South East ...
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of meeting Inspector Graham Young, the new police inspector for the West End and Lochee. I had a very productive discussion with Inspector Young about local issues in the West End and we also talked about community engagement including police attendance at West End community events, including West End Christmas Week, and further Police Community Surgeries in the West End. Inspector Young leads a great team of police officers serving the local area - police contact details are available at http://www.tayside.police.uk/Contact-Us.
My second review for Seen and Heard International is of a production of Benjamin Britten's haunting chamber opera The Turn of the Screw at Läckö Castle. As always, Simon Phipps, the conductor and artistic director for Läckö's summer opera productions, ... Continue reading →
Today the Commons defence committee published a report criticising the MOD for decisions taken in last year's Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR). The report claims that recent defence budget reductions will leave our Armed Forces unable to execute the operations the Government sets for them post-2015. I disagree. It is true that the MOD is reducing numbers of service personnel across the Army, Navy and Air Force and indeed the MOD has altered the equipment programme, which led to the deletion of Nimrod and Harrier. But these tough decisions were necessary in order to address the black hole in ...
I had an interesting experience today, going along the cycle path, quite quickly, I came across 3 teenagers on bikes. One pulled out unexpected, but something I had anticipated (this is an occupational hazard along the path), my fault as I hadn't rung the bell. I slowed down and they move away to let me pass, and as they had been kind I said "Thank You" and sprinted off. Upon seeing them again later on I got a lot of abuse, I suspect because they had interpreted my comments as being sarcastic. I felt I had been genuine, as they ...
Appointment with the haematologist this afternoon. As we already knew, the JAK2 blood test was negative but there is a C-MPL W515 genetic abnormality that showed up. The platelet count dropped from 950 in the second last test to foo in the penultimate test but was up to 794 in the last test compared with 150-450 normal. The C-MPL W515 mutation is highly correlated with primary thrombocythaemia, nut the symptoms indicate an overlap syndrome betweem Myeloproliferative disorder (MPD) and Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). This is considered to be an indolent form of blood cancer, which nevertheless carries a high risk for ...
For those that don't know, I do have a life away from politics (several lives). My wife Claire trains and races our dogs in a flyable team. This weekend we entered Mona(above - apt name!) for her first race in the beginners class. Sulby (dog No 1) is quite a veteran. She was awarded her Flyball Dog Graduate Certificate for gaining 3,000 points. If you haven't witnessed this type of event, it's quite hard to describe. Try to imagine a couple of dozen teams of 5 dogs and their energetic owners all barking and shouting at the same time. Each ...
I'm forever reading news stories where they state the information was elicited by making a Freedom Of Information (FOI) request of a public body. I've always presumed it's incredibly complicated and you have to be a professional journalist/politician/troublemaker-without-portfolio to do it. I was wrong. It's simple. I can see a whole new vista of fun opening up before me. Inspired by Tom Watson MP publishing his FOI request to the Cabinet Office (which apparently remains unanswered despite an order from the Information Commissioner to them to comply), I thought I'd find out what was involved (Tom's website has just crashed ...
The BBC posted an article today about the "Bilingual law plan for assembly after translation row". The top line of the article reads: "Consultation begins on proposals to make Welsh and English the official languages of the Welsh assembly.", the row being that Assembly proceedings are not posted in Welsh, even though Welsh and English ...
TweetA new development: Oh and for as my formidable blogging skills: Here we go I recently posted a blog piece about a racist comment, on a famous left wing blog. The editor decided to get in touch with me. Well if you can't admit humility just be nasty right? I was about to right a nice blog post praising them for removing it so quickly. Oh well.
This morning I had a meeting with the new President of Reading University Students Union, Karl Hobley and Steph Johnson, Vice President, Welfare. I have been working closely with RUSU since 2006 on a range of issues affecting students including polling stations, streetlighting and the standard of private rented housing. I know both Karl and Steph quite well (I worked with Steph last year when I was Lead Member for Housing) and I've known Karl for a few years through mutual friends at Reading University. I briefed them both about the Council's plans to consult on potentially bringing in an ...
Former President Hosni Mubarak was wheeled into Court today to face charges of corruption and of ordering the killing of protestors earlier this year. His trial is the greatest test so far for Egypt's Revolution. For the families of those who suffered at the hands of his brutal security forces, this day is almost too ...
Wed 3rd
16:23
The Independent View: What is Big Society Capital - big, new or just Big Society nonsense?
In its first transaction, the £600m fund has invested £1m in Private Equity Foundation, an organisation helping disadvantaged teenagers find jobs when they leave school; £400m of the fund will be unclaimed assets left dormant in bank accounts for more than 15 years, with the rest coming from HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland. - The Independent, 29/07/2011. The Indie report then goes on to tell about the first "social impact bond" project, which is an "investment" in measures to reduce re-offending in Peterborough. So The much vaunted "Big Society Bank" – sorry – "Big Society ...
Over the last few weeks I have been blogging about the ridiculous mess the Luton Labour party have got themselves in over the nominations from Luton Borough Council to fill Luton's places on Bedfordshire Police Authority. You can read my previous posts on this here: Labour cock up leaves Luton without representation on Bedfordshire Police Authority "Labour Party spokesman" wrong on Police Authority formula Meet the Bedford Labour Councillor the Luton Labour Party want to throw off the Police Authority I am a bit behind with the news but I wanted to update Strange Thoughts with the latest developments. It ...
[IMG: smooresAD] Outside of national news we are used to superficial reporting from the BBC, an interesting case in point is reportage of Thanet Councils tough new campaign against "illegal" advertising. Peter Wittlesea's report (Click) has Cllr Simon Moores firmly staring down the lens of his camera, looking uncomfortably formal on what must have been a hot day, anyhoo the councillor suggests, referring to advertising that businesses "go through a proper process. Mr Wittlesea could have asked at this point, what proper processes other than compliances with the CAA, Mr Moores (as a businessman) goes through before dragging airborne banners ...
Collected links from around the webVince Cable scraps plans to block websites, widespread changes to our copyright law-Go Vince A strong step in the right direction, and abandoning the pointless, good good. (tags: Vince-Cable DEAct Digital-economy-act copyright) Ultimate Spider-Man rebooted with half-black, half-Hispanic lead Could be interesting, always liked the Ultimate line when I was buying comics, didn't know they'd killed Peter Parker. Jennie's more interested in the artist, when DC are trying to claw back their alienated female fans, Marvel are just appointed women creators as if it's normal. Good good. (tags: Spiderman marvel) Hyperion - a mostly hollow ...
As liberals, we are passionate about restricting the influence of government; preventing arbitrary power is our duty (it is written on our membership cards.) Whilst we tackle the fiscal deficit, wouldn't it be wiser to reduce the overall size of government as well – not just its expenditure? Do we really need the following: Department ...
Wed 3rd
15:13Vince Cable scraps Labour plans to block websites, outlines widespread changes to our copyright law
The government's controversial plans to block unlawful file sharing websites were scrapped today by Vince Cable. Brought in by the last government in the hastily put together Digital Economy Act, the plans to force ISPs to block websites was shown to be unworkable in a detailed report from Ofcom. The report, withdrawn embarrassingly hours after publication when it emerged that the redacted sections of the report could be read by simply cutting and pasting the document, detailed how website blocking as set out in the DEAct could be easily circumvented, would not be suitable for reducing copyright infringement and was ...
I surely will not be the only person to question the efficacy of putting Hosni Mubarak on trial in what appears to be a hospital bed, having wheeled him into the courtroom? Either the former Egyptian president is too ill to stand trial or he is not. If he is, then he should not be in court today, and the proceedings should either not be happening or should be happening in his absence. I am well aware of the gross human rights abuses for which Mr Mubarak's regime was responsible throughout its many years in power (although, incidentally, it is ...
Localism the New Opportunities A Conference for Liberal Democrats Friday 21st October 2011, London A conference and workshops for Liberal Democrats to look at the new opportunities being created for Localism by the Government Guest Speakers: Rt Hon Nick Clegg, Deputy Prime Minister Lord Victor Adebowale, Chief Executive, Turning Point Gordon Lishman OBE, Author of the 1970 Community Politics Resolution to the Liberal Assembly Andrew Stunell OBE, Lib Dem Minister DCLG Helen Williams, Deputy Director of Neighbourhoods, National Housing Federation Cllr Richard Kemp CBE, Deputy Leader, Liverpool Liberal Democrats Chaired by Cllr Gerald Vernon-Jackson, Leader LGA Liberal Democrats Beavan Hall, ...
This information is courtesy of the Haven Gateway Partnership: THE Haven Gateway has secured nearly £3 million of European funding as part of a £7.5m project designed to shift about 30,000 containers off the roads and on to rail transport. The three-year Low Carbon Freight Dividend project will support more than 300 SMEs (small and medium enterprises) in making important changes in the way they transport freight - with significant environmental benefits. SMEs in the East of England will be offered a Low Carbon Freight Dividend (grant) of up to 30%, for moving their freight from truck to train, where ...
Cold! The temperature today is 82 degrees and it seems a bit bizarre to be writing about keeping warm this winter! However, I've just heard about a really creative idea for helping people in need — the vulnerable elderly, to be precise. I found out about it recently when I visited the Cambridgeshire Community Foundation (CCF), a charity that matches grant givers to groups or individuals in need of funds. Most people over 60 receive a Winter Fuel Payment of between £100-300. It's what is called a universal state benefit, so everyone eligible for a pension gets it. I know ...
Just now I did a five minute Dragon's Den presentation to the senior management of the company I work for. This was the end point of a training session on presentation and how to persuade people to do something. The prize (announced later this week) is a day off from work and most importantly an amount of money for a charity - I chose the locally W4 Youth charity. They help so many kids to have fun, be safe and engage with each other. There was over 30 colleagues bidding for the prize so difficult to know who will win. ...
It's summer and lots more people are outside enjoying the best that our town has to offer. However there appears to be a small minority of people who think they can cause damage and get away with it. Two recent examples are obscene graffiti on children's play equipment in Priory Park and throwing the bin from the green under Newport Bridge into the river (as you can see in the photo). In both cases, Launceston Town Council have been quick to act and they deserve our thanks, but abuse of local facilities has to be paid for and this means ...
The Independent has today rightly highlighted the waste of £6.4 billion on the attempt to create a national NHS IT system. This waste, and the range of failures that caused it, have been highlighted in a report by the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee. The leader article in the Independent, however, includes a bizarre comment in its concluding paragraph. The paragraph starts: "Away from the blame game, however, the bottom line is that this waste has to end." Fair enough. But then it continues: "In an era when the economy was booming, IT faragos, though scandalous, were tolerable." Apart ...
Cornwall is officially on 'Brad-watch' at the moment as the Hollywood star is apparently due in Falmouth to film part of his new film World War Z. He will be accompanied by his wife Angelina Jolie and their children (again according to press reports) and Falmouth Harbour Commissioners have had to set up a no-go zone around the ship being used for the filming. All this is great for Cornwall's image and economy but raises the issue of whether there should be a dedicated team responsible for managing film production in Cornwall and encouraging more producers to use us for ...
I've received the following email from Paddy Ashdown (President of Unicef and former Liberal Democrat Leader); "As I write this, there is a crisis in the Horn of Africa that is claiming the lives of thousands of children. Famine has been declared. Millions face starvation. In Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia we are witnessing the worst humanitarian catastrophe in a generation. It is a crisis that has unfolded slowly, so much so that the media has found little drama to force it to top of news bulletins - which have instead been dominated by the phone hacking scandal. But a starving ...
I've received the following email from Paddy Ashdown (President of Unicef and former Liberal Democrat Leader); "As I write this, there is a crisis in the Horn of Africa that is claiming the lives of thousands of children. Famine has been declared. Millions face starvation. In Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia we are witnessing the worst humanitarian catastrophe in a generation. It is a crisis that has unfolded slowly, so much so that the media has found little drama to force it to top of news bulletins - which have instead been dominated by the phone hacking scandal. But a starving ...
I have nothing to say today. Rather than saying nothing myself, I am here (in a bid to win the Johann Hari Award) re-producing nothing that Stephen Fry wrote in the late 1980s in The Listener (still on sale now in his book Paperweight). In mitigation, before I show you nothing that Stephen Fry wrote, here is something that I wrote about nothing in 1997. For a sketch show called Newsrevue, I wrote the following quickie: "You're watching UK Gold. We wish to announce that UK Gold will not be observing the minute's silence for Princess Diana. Instead, we shall ...
Now there was a time that a DUP elected politician attending a debate at St. Louise's School on the Falls Road would garner nothing but applause. Let me add that of course I'm delighted that the DUP send representatives to the Féile's West Belfast Talks Back event it shows an inclusiveness and more towards normality that was still somewhat lacking a few short years ago. The problem comes from the DUP representative at this year's event. Yeah Jim Wells is the one who will happily attend a discussion on a wide range of issues on the Falls Road, but wouldn't ...
After the disastrous bank run; nationalisation and continuous subsidy by the British taxpayer, Northern Rock have posted losses of £78.8 million for the first half of this year. It is highly unlikely the Treasury will make a profit on its sell (or break even) – many advocated its liquidation at the time. But, alas, the previous ...
I always have a slight childish chuckle when a jokes get played on the Internet or a site gets hacked like that of The Sun news paper the other week. It shows up just how easy it is for web ...
While Louise Mensch has now put the record straight on her Piers Morgan rant, my previous blog post on the topic was picked up by the Newsy news site in the U.S. - and they kindly sent me their take on the whole thing. No one - not Louise, Piers and especially not Guido Fawkes - comes out of this very well. But it is interesting to see how the row comes over in the US. Enjoy! And many thanks to Jennifer Apoian at Newsy for sending me the link (though it's running very slowly here so may be easiest ...
One of the great things about being on leave from work is that you get a chance to catch up on all the reading that you don't get to do when you are at work or rushing around doing other ...
After two days in Chicago sorting out the jet lag and getting used to the heat - yup it's scorching hot here almost 100oF most days - it was time to go get ourselves some wheels and hit the road! As with most American adventures the good salesman was well versed in his up sell techniques and objection handling and within less than six, ok maybe seven, weak minutes of contemplation and soul searching we had agreed to go for the Chrysler 300 - fully loaded of course!! Well we were about to drive over 2,500 miles in this beast!! ...
Video also available at YouTube. Charles Kennedy MP's latest video diary is online now at http://www.catch21.co.uk. Catch21 is a production company which produces shows with the purpose of encouraging and invigorating an informed and politically active young electorate. It's a charity run for and by young people and regularly features video diaries by MPs and Peers in its i-MP slot. [Charles] covers issues like the May elections where the Liberal Democrats lost all but 2 of their seats in Scotland, he says "it was a universally bad picture" and he also shares his views on the health reforms and the ...
I don't think I have ever been part of a raging storm as much as I have this week on Twitter when I voted in the House of Twits poll asking whether or not you were in favour of the ...
Vince Cable might not have an ipod himself, but he's doing more for digital music fans than any minister from Labour or the Conservatives before him. Vince has admitted to Sky News that "I'm still in the analogue era..." but today he is making a speech in which he is announcing that a person who rips a CD or DVD that they own for their own personal use will no longer be breaking the law. Until now, bizarrely, a person who buys a CD and then copies the songs onto their computer and then onto their ipod, phone or other ...
Explaining Cameron's Coalition is the latest in the series of general election analysis by MORI's Robert Worcester and Roger Mortimore, this time joined by two other authors. The book is therefore very much the tale of the 2005-2010 Parliament and subsequent general election seen through the eyes of MORI's opinion polling, with an often pungent analysis which certainly fits Robert Worcester's happiness to point out when he got predictions right and others got them wrong. Though there is a smattering of references to polling results from other firms, the great strength of the MORI data is that many of the ...
This is my eleventh monthly round-up of blog figures for anyone who is remotely interested in who reads my little blog. These stats for the month of July come courtesy of google analytics. Calming Down After the busiest two months on record in May and June, July was a quieter month. Although my output for the month of 30 blog posts signified an increase from the 25 in June, the viewing figures were significantly lower than my previous bests. In July, I had a total of 4,531 absolute unique visitors to my blog - down from the 5,844 figure in ...
DC Comics Reaffirms Commitment To Female Creators And Characters Bleeding Cool Comic Book, Movies and TV News and Rumors Check the picture at the end of the article. Irony. It's like steely but with less carbon. (tags: comics) Debt-hit students urged to sell their kidneys - The Scotsman Is it bad that my first reaction to this was "£28 grand?? Jesus, that's nearly three times my annual wage! Where do I sign up to sell a kidney?" (tags: youcouldntmakeitup) Lady Two-Face The last couple of weeks I have just seen so many things that have made me want to get ...
Wed 3rd
09:45
Voters forgive errors of the head, but not of the heart: Clegg needs to accept mistakes for the Part...
The Lib Dems made a name for themselves in recent years by pointing out mistakes and what should be done about them. It made them right on education in the 1990s, Iraq in 2003, and banking in 2008 (e.g. here). They also made a name for themselves in the General Election campaign as a different ...
Good news is about to hit the UK (or perhaps England and Wales; or maybe just England). Soon we will have photographic proof from the media that the nation's young people have banished the scourge of obesity. What's more, acne has gone too. There's a lot of smiling around however, perhaps as a result. Jumping in the air is also in. Though being a man is certainly on the way out. Why yes, exam results are soon to be upon us which means the media will shortly be bringing us lots of photos of slim blonde women jumping in the ...
Before going any further: I deplore the death penalty for many and varied reasons. I urge anyone who doesn't to read, for example, Jack of Kent's moral argument against it, which includes an overview of some of the other arguments. However one idea that has come up again and again in twitter is that you cannot be philosophically libertarian and support the death penalty. For example I've done a quick search and lifted a few tweets: The incoherence of supposed libertarian @GuidoFawkes supporting the death penalty (which costs more than life imprisonment) is hilarious I'm a pro-death penalty libertarian! I'll ...
Update 3rd August 2011: It turns out that the "study" was a hoax. In a way, that makes my arguments about the dismal standard of science and technology reporting even more relevant. Well, that's my excuse ... Yesterday, one of the more popular technology pieces on the BBC website was this one: Internet Explorer users have lower IQ says study The purpose of this post isn't to question the study itself (though anyone who's ever designed a scientific study will have a number of searching questions they'd want to ask about its design, methodology, sample and so on ...), but ...
While I was on holiday last week figures were published to show that the British economy had grown by only 0.2% in the previous quarter. The news was reported with almost universal lamentation, accompanied, I suspect, by secret relief from the government that the figure wasn't actually negative. Just as unfettered market forces and monetarism have been the unchallengeable economic creed for the past 30 years, a situation which has led to disaster, so now it it seems universally accepted that the only way to achieve full employment and prosperity, is thorough further economic growth, which will inevitably lead to ...
[IMG: Dilbert.com]
It was George H. W. Bush who derided Reaganomics as "voodoo economics" but I am not suggesting for one moment that Adam Price's report called 'The Flotilla Effect: Europe's small economies through the eye of the storm' has any resemblance to the supply side policies practised by the late President Reagan. However, I do think that the former MP for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr's basic thesis that people in Wales would be about 39% richer had it achieved independence more than 20 years ago, is sufficiently flakey to deserve the same sort of derision. This is serious research and deserves ...
Don't douche, she declares acidly "Let your vagina clean itself. It is acidic for a reason, and no, it's not supposed to smell like a flower. It's supposed to smell like a vagina." 'Douchebag' is one of those insults I use freely and unapologetically, and when people suggest it's not relevant, I also point out it means something irritating, unneccessary, offensive to women and generally harmful to your health. It usually applies. (tags: science health)
In this book, Gould appeals to us to consider the full range of complexity in systems, rather than concentrating on the outliers. His overall point is that while human beings may be particularly complex life forms, that doesn't in itself make us the destined end-point of evolution, which will quite naturally increase the number of more complex organisms because all in all they are not as likely to become less complex. He bolsters this argument with a rather moving personal testimony about being a cancer survivor, and an excessively lengthy section ( a quarter of the book!) about why baseball ...
Monday in Chicago started with a visit to those lovely people at Michigan Avenue Immediate Care to evaluate close up and very personal just what were the differences between American and UK health systems. Much as I wish I could say that it was purely for research and issues based fact finding purposes given it remains – and I guess will always be - a political hot potato. Unfortunately for me I was in need of there professional services and advice given this nasty infection I had been suffering with for over a week was not clearing up despite the ...
Stock by-election www.goo.gl/gkpaA is chance for some to comment on £175m spent on consultants www.goo.gl/EEcHC & £472k on gagging ex-staff www.goo.gl/1Emql Chelmsford Borough Council - By-Election for Stock Division of Essex County Council chelmsford.gov.uk A by-election will be held on Thursday 8 September 2011 to fill a vacancy in the Stock Division of Essex County Council.
