News that civil liberties groups will boycott Sir Peter Gibson's enquiry into UK citizen's 'war on terror' torture claims and what Labour government officials knew is a blow to the enquiry - and the government's liberal credentials. The excuse from Malcolm Rifkind that he 'cannot recollect an inquiry that's been proposed to be so open' is entirely irrelevant as previous government's have always allowed the security forces off the hook through excessive secrecy. While it is the case that certain information regarding security issues would always need to be examined in private, drawing up terms of reference so restrictive that ...
I received an email earlier encouraging me to put my number one next to Lembit Opik's name in the ballot for Lib Dem Mayoral candidate. His pitch reads like a surreal version of the 'What have the Romans ever done for us' sketch from Life of Brian. Apparently Lembit: - Has brought us peace in Northern Ireland - Is a match for Ken and Boris in the character stakes (abusing journalists and getting lovers pregnant one assumes) - Won Newcastle City Council for the Lib Dems - Is a vote winner among central and east European voters - Will do ...
Yes, you read that right. The Liberal Democrats in Ceredigion today won a by-election in Aberystwyth. It will not have been highlighted on the major election blogs because it was not a unitary vacancy on the County Council. But a victory in the Rheidol Ward by-election for Aberystwyth Town Council is nevertheless a welcome thing. The by-election was called when former Liberal Democrat Town Councillor Martin Shewring resigned from the party and from the Town Council recently but decided to stand in the ensuing by-election as an Independent. Tonight, he lost as the Liberal Democrat candidate Wendy Morris-Twiddy, the daughter ...
[IMG: Tube station corridor] Lib Dem London Assembly member Caroline Pidgeon has been digging out figures from Transport for London (TfL) again, this time about the huge costs run up by the regular weekend closures of the Jubilee Line which has been beset by over-running engineering works. Each closure costs TfL money in lost fares and in costs for putting on replacement buses. The numbers she has extracted put the bills for weekend closures since April 2007 at £15.7 million in lost fares and £13 million on replacement buses, for a total of just under £29 million. Caroline says, A ...
Visiting Gaddesby last year I mentioned the unsubstantiated theory that the Knights Templar from Rothley were responsible for the extraordinary south aisle at St Luke's. Today I was at Rothley Court Hotel, which includes a chapel erected by the Templars when King Henry lll granted them the Manor and Soke of Rothley in 1231. You can see the chapel foreground of the photograph with the main hotel range further from the camera. As I also mentioned in that Gaddesby post, the hotel has another claim to fame. It was here in 1988 that Mike Gatting lost the England captaincy because ...
Never mind the polls, Cowley Street is on to a winner with this press release: Parents most important influence in a child's early life - Walmsley
To note three BBC dramas and a documentary I have been listening to recently. Voyage, a series of five half-hour episodes, based on Stephen Baxter's novel where NASA goes for Mars rather than the Space Shuttle, adapted, produced and directed by Dirk Maggs, is not taxing listening. One twitches a bit at some of the accents, but Laurel Lefkow as the lead character, Natalie York, is consistently believable. The third episode, which covers the testing of the Nerva rocket, is particularly good, but the fifth and final one, covering the eventual landing on Mars, rather rushes the actual journey. But ...
Jeffrey's former NI Assembly picture The first Northern Irish MP to support the restoration of the death penalty, even partially, is from that supposedly progressive new DUP we're heard so much about, yet in recent days appears to be notable in its absence. It is Jeffrey Donaldson who is the first to raise his head over this particular parapet. He has said: "We (the DUP) have stated consistently that in cases of terrorist murder, we believe that there should be the death penalty. "One of the reasons why I think it should be debated is because I want to hear ...
You can tell it's silly season. The top story today is that a petition on the Death Penalty is at the top of the government's new e-petition site. You might not have noticed that the petition with the most signatures says - 'Retain the ban on Capital Punishment.' Yes I launched the petition; no this isn't a vanity project. Paul Staines (AKA Guido Fawkes) and the Daily Mail, which have both launched campaigns to restore the death penalty, need to be opposed. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance and most Members of Parliament happen to be on holiday. It ...
Today's heavy rain saw more flooding in Smannell a problem which occurs everytime we get heavy rain. Together with local residents I have contacted the Hghways department asking for urgent action. The text of our exchanges is as follows. "Thanks for your prompt response on this. I appreciate you will have had a number of issues today because of the torrential rain. Having driven from Andover to Bordon this morning I have seen several areas where flooding has occured but none as bad as that which occurs far too often in Smannell. I must re-emphasise the point that this section ...
I don't know, you step out of the rat race forever and people start an argument over the death penalty, of all things. The death penalty? For pity's sake, we're in the midst of an economic crisis, and people want to rearrange the deckchairs on the Titanic all of a sudden. Deep sigh... However, for what it's worth, I'm not against the death penalty full stop. Unlike Spidey, who countenances the death penalty for serial child killers, I have a rather quirky view - I believe that there should be a right to opt into the death penalty for those ...
Last Saturday's meeting was another success. Residents have heard how anti-social behaviour in the area has reduced in the last year. PC Simon Merritt and PCSO Becca Williams answered questions from the public and dealt with a number of issues raised. They stressed the need for residents to continue to report all incidents so that they can be followed up. The meeting then discussed speeding and other traffic problems. Town councillor Kevin Hughes will follow up the problems raised with the highways authorities. Residents also asked questions about traffic management in the area and agreed to add this to the ...
Thu 4th
20:16
The staggering cost of the Jubilee Line upgrade fiasco has just got higher - Caroline Pidgeon
After years of disruption on the Jubilee Line new evidence has come to light revealing some of the real costs of the years of dragged out weekend closures.Following extensive freedom of information requests Caroline Pidgeon, Leader of the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Group, has now discovered that the costs of the weekend closures since April 2007 on the Jubilee Line include:32 million passengers being affected by the weekend closures, leading to a loss in ticket revenue of a staggering £15.7 millionTransport for London having to spend £13 million on replacement busesCommenting on these immense figures Caroline Pidgeon said:"A year ago ...
If you can get here to do so.
Thu 4th
18:55
Kent Newspaper Monopoly - Roger Gale, Laura Sandys, (Thanet's MP's) what do they think?
[IMG: the cat gets it] Well damn all it seems, I've not heard any pronouncements or views of any Kent politicians, maybe their oblivious or like the idea of Kent Messenger Group acquiring a virtual monopoly on local newspapers reporting in Kent. I contacted Roger Gale's office earlier in the week, to see if he could assist in revealing more information, I also hoped that my enquiry might provoke a reaction, unfortunately this does not seem to be the case. I did however get an email of Gales View on Thanet Labours anti jobs and anti business policy which while ...
One of the various good arguments against the death penalty is that sometimes things go wrong, and an innocent person would die as a result. So it is entirely fitting that this is what I get when trying to sign a petition against reinstating the death penalty: Exactly, HM Government. Something went wrong. But it's OK that things sometimes go wrong, as long as you recognise your limitations. So let's not be appeasing the fearful and the hateful by actively seeking to dish out death, eh? Hopefully the petition will be back online and we can make steady progress towards ...
SNP MSP John Mason has lodged a motion ahead of a Scottish Parliamentary consultation on the legalisation of same-sex marriage in which he appears to oppose equality of opportunity for gay people on the basis that "while some in society approve of same-sex sexual relationships, others do not agree with them." That does indeed appear to be a strange logic from an SNP perspective. It could quite easily be argued that Scottish independence should never be granted simply because there will always be some within society who will disagree with it. Mason causes further controversy by arguing that "no person ...
I've spent an enjoyable 3 hours today with the local RNLI branch and their fundraising buckets at Cardigan's Tesco supermarket. With thanks to Richard Fletcher for taking the photo! I've helped them before as I also do with the local Royal British Legion Branch every year selling red poppies. It's so easy because everyone knows what both the RNLI and the British Legion do and how important they are to us here in our coastal community. Nowadays of course we're not allowed to rattle the buckets or even to entice people over to us. We are expected to stand still ...
I have received concerns from residents about flooding on the roadway of Balgay Road north of the junction with Sycamore Place - see photo (right). I have raised this matter on their behalf with the City Council's Road Maintenance Partnership.
I've just received a copy of Liberal Youth's policy briefing on the ESA and WCA motion (drafted by yours truly) which they are sponsoring at autumn conference. The motion has changed somewhat from the version I reproduced in my recent blogpost on the issue. The new text is 80 -90% the same with most of the changes being mostly aesthetic and reflecting new developments since the motion was drafted. I'm also pleased to see that it includes Liberal Youth's reasons for supporting the motion, the personal view of Liberal Youth's president and details of support already received. There's also a ...
Now before anyone thinks that I am about to insult thousands of Christians up and down the land, remember that I am one of them. Its just that sitting here for a week makes you realise you have a bit ...
Last week, the hitherto libertarian blogger Guido Fawkes announced that he was launching a petition on the new government e-petitions website to reinstate the right of the state to execute its citizens. The rightwing media leapt on the story, giving ... Continue reading →
Now that Woodstock Road South has been repaired, it is time to turn attention to Woodstock Road North – there is a clear need for patching especially along the sides. Chris has asked Herts Highways to give this due attention in 2012-13.
Official government petitions websites often throw up amusing moments: readers may recall the proposal that the Government change the National Anthem to Gold by Spandau Ballet in time for the 2012 Olympics. I couldn't help but raise a smile at Petition no. 65, calling for the government to lower the threshold for the number of signatures required for a petition to be considered. Okay, you can debate whether 100,000 or 50,000 signatures is the right number, but surely there's a lower limit, right?
1. Am I in favour of bringing the death penalty back into the British Justice System? NO 2. Do I think however, that serial child killers should be executed? YES 3. Why did I vote 'yes' on the House of Twits poll? See question 2. ...
Thu 4th
17:16
Lawrence Fishburne as Perry White? I can see why some people have an issue with that...
Perry should TOTALLY not have a shaved head! And isn't he supposed to be littler than Clark? Larry is HUGE! But, you know, he is an awesome actor and I'm sure he can overcome these minor issues and portray the role well. But seriously. Lawrence Fishburne. Rawr. I now want to go see this film, and I had hardly any interest in it at all before, finding Superman in general a bit dull. Well done, casting peeps. ETA: also: did anyone else have the YAY Diane Lane! OHSHITKEVINCOSTNER reaction to the casting of the Superparents? [IMG: Dreamwidth] [IMG: Livejournal] [IMG: ...
Care of a Paul Krugman tweet, an excellent post by David Frum entitled Were Our Enemies Right?. The key quote acknowledges the liberal camp's superior track record on economic forecasting: Imagine, if you will, someone who read only the Wall Street Journal editorial page between 2000 and 2011, and someone in the same period who read only the collected columns of Paul Krugman. Which reader would have been better informed about the realities of the current economic crisis? The answer, I think, should give us pause. Can it be that our enemies were right? David Frum was once an insider ...
It's ironic then when it comes to residential care we often put those we care about the most into the charge of large impersonal companies. Here in Hertfordshire we have got away lightly from the Southern Cross fiasco. Only one care home seems to have been affected, and happily that situation has now been resolved without further distress and anxiety on the part of residents and their families. Once again we see a private equity group bringing a hitherto successful company to its knees by extracting too much money and replacing it with too much debt. The pressure on already ...
This isn't exactly a new story, but, hey, time works in mysterious ways on the blogosphere. I have just caught up with this Daily Mail article a month old suggesting the this country will downplay the 200th anniversary of Waterloo on 18th June 2015. I picked up on it from the monthly Civitas update – they provided one of the rent-a-quotes. This article appears to be a classic piece of Mail journalism, trying create a shock story from thin air. But it does raise the very interesting question of the status of this battle in British history. Waterloo is very ...
The newly launch website to handle petitions for a parliamentary debate is suffering from overload: You didn't really want to sign did you? I think those first two lines sum up a lot really. High demand in the early days was predictable of course. The problem is if it can't cope with petitions with publicity as they come up. PS I got this as I was trying to sign one of the petitions against the reintroduction of the death penalty as advertised over at LibDem Voice. Update: Sorry for an update so soon after posting but the site started working ...
Mr Beckwith from Bad Machinery Inspired by Mr Calder of Liberal England's post concerning the drop in links in blogging (see Is the blogroll dead?) I shall collect a random selection of posts that have interested me recently that I have yet to link to. First off James Graham has posted a story questioning gushing praise of new technical innovations that neglect the considerable privacy implications post-NotW. Jerry Haye's piece on capital punishment may not be as good as Jack of Kent's, but it is funnier. And a plug for my favourite webcomic: Bad Machinery by the wonderful John Allison. ...
For the first time since this blog went live I have put comment moderation on (only for anonymous comments). Today's exercise in conversational terrorism with its wilful misreadings, straw men, and concern trolling has both bored me and made me weary, and I have done it with a heavy heart. Still, my house, my rules. I apologise to regular commenters without a Dreamwidth account. I'm sorry I have put another stumbling block in your way. I can only repeat my offer of invite codes: if you're logged in there's no moderation or CAPTCHA to contend with. [IMG: Dreamwidth] [IMG: Livejournal] ...
Collected links from around the webSocial-Creature » This Is Why You Share - makes sense to me Why we enjoy sharing stuff--I certainly think through and remember what I've read more if I've had to write one of these 'why you should click this' blurbs (tags: sharing webstuff psychology linkspam) denise: "Real Name" policies: They just don't work. | reasons to love Dreamwidth #526 Agree completely with Denise here, and her years of experience running communities (including times when she's made mistakes and learnt from them) should be something others can learn from. Comments very good as well. (tags: Dreamwidth ...
Following complaints from residents in and around Rockingham Grove, local LIB DEM Councillor, Darren Fower, says he has now spoken with the City Council who have confirmed that notcies have been served to members of the traveller community, both at Rockingham Grove (pictured) and on the old Matalan site. According to the City Council, the group on Matalan have been given until Friday 12th August as there have been "...no complaints about their presence at the moment." However, following the intervention of Cllr Darren Fower, officers at the Town Hall have said that the "..caravan on Rockingham Grove continues to ...
I was pleased when Vince Cable announced, yesterday, the government's response to the Hargreaves Report. Like many people who are interested in IT & IP, I was pretty worried that it might turn out to be another damp squib, where an eminent academic publishes a set of excellent proposals, only for the government to fail to act. This, of course, is what happened after the Gowers Review. Thankfully the Coalition is supporting all ten of Professor Hargreaves' recommendations. They are important copyright reforms that could add as much as £7 billion, or 0.6%, to the UK economy - most welcome ...
It's got everyone riled, hasn't it? Guido and the right are pushing it. We're against (with the odd exception) There seems a lot of debate about whether we should debate the topic at all as a party (nicely analysed and criticised over at Andrew Emmerson's blog) Then there is a debate about whether, even if the requisite 100 000 people sign up for the Guido e petition, it should still be debated in Parliament. And while I am set against every aspect of the death penalty, I do think if 100 000+ people ask their elected representatives to debate it, ...
Cornwall Council is setting up a new leisure trust to take over council run leisure facilities. The benefits of such a change would be to avoid having to pay VAT or business rates. The Council would still retain almost the same amount of control over the level of services and all existing facilities would remain open. So far, so good. But what about the two facilities that had been previously cast adrift by the Council for budgetary reasons - Camelford Leisure Centre and Bude Sea Pool? Back when the decision to go ahead with a trust was taken, I secured ...
This is a copy of a Press Statement on how Lib Dem led Edinburgh is working with the new Scottish Housing Trust to build new Affordable Houses. NATIONAL HOUSING TRUST BOOST FOR THE CITY The first contracts to deliver affordable homes in the Capital have been signed under the National Housing Trust initiative. Developer Places for People will deliver 188 homes in Lochend North and Madelvic 8. The 126 homes in Lochend represent the largest contract signed to date between a developer, Scottish Futures Trust and a local authority. The homes are the first for the City of Edinburgh being ...
The crisis in the US Congress has finally come to an end and President Obama was able to raise the country's debt ceiling without invoking the 14th Amendment. It has been a weekend of worry and apprehension as to how far extremist factions such as the Republican Tea Party were willing to go and whether they were prepared to bring the country to the lowly depths of economic default. Neither major party had seemed prepared to give up what means most to them; the preservation of continued support for Medicare and Social Security (Democrats) or the need for heavy fiscal ...
Stats on this blog post that I wrote about the death penalty have been going nuts today. Capital punishment is the phrase, and bringing it back is the concept on everyone's mind at the moment. As far as I'm concerned the whole 'debate' around the death penalty and the discussion of these e-petitions is complete ...
Liz Jones wrote the most dreadful piece in The Mail the other day ahead of her trip to Somalia to cover the famine.. Brian Kellett wrote the most brilliant reply in response. Not long after I received a tweet from @lizjonesSomalia saying this: I'm starving! Nothing like a business class flight to make you hungry. I was horrified. It took another tweeter to point out that this was in fact a spoof. Which says a lot about me, but also quite a lot about the reputation Liz Jones has developed... Anyway, the @lizjonesSomalia twitter account has been sending out a ...
Ok so things in the Death Penalty post have become quite heated not here but elsewhere. You know where. So whilst I'm waiting for my mate to turn up (who is very late but it is chucking it down so he may well have been delayed) I thought I'd go old school and put a couple of videos from the great Fantasy Football League. Jason Lee and Frank Clark. Those were the days and this was 90s comedy... Relax and enjoy. More on the death penalty I'm sure in the coming days. Tweet
Ever since the coalition formed I have been arguing that we have something resembling a Whig government. Today, Peter Bingle has written, in his musing on the death of the Tory party, that David Cameron is a Whig. For a while I thought it was just me who saw the coalition in this way.
Sir William Petty, a co-founder of the Royal Society, is not a household name. He is not as famous as his contemporary, Sir Isaac Newton, nor as well known as the "father of economics", Adam Smith. Yet, in 1681 Petty wrote The Growth, Increase and Multiplication of Mankind, which Friedrich Hayek argues may well have been the first work of economic science. Take this extract, penned a century before Adam Smith wrote his classic pin factory example of the efficiencies to be gained from the division of labour: Each manufacture will be divided in as many parts as possible. In ...
Thanks to Guido Fawkes and the government's new e-petitions site (it isn't easy to navigate to the currently open petitions - maybe to stop people signing them? They are here) there has been a lot of talk regarding the reintroduction of the death penalty. The House of Twits vote regarding this had at time of writing 28 for and 399 against with 12 unable to decide. Personally, I voted no and here's why. I think you need to break the issue down into two several parts, the first two of which are the overriding considerations. Firstly, are there any crimes ...
After a pleasant evening in Springfield day two of our trip started with our first real typical American diner breakfast at the Cozy Dog drive in and some typical home grown hospitality. The locals helped themselves to refills of coffee and even asked if we wanted a top up as they passed our table, but the best line was saved for Sarah when she took our empty plates back to the counter only for the waitress to tell her they went out back on the table past the rest rooms! I half expected her to let us know where the ...
The launch of the government's new e-petitions initiative has – unsurprisingly – been met by a number of petitions variously calling for the re-introduction of hanging/public flogging/drowning witches. The one that looks likely to attract the 100,000 signatures necessary for ... Continue reading →
TweetWell there should be one according to certain members, and that is the Death Penalty, or at least anything that isn't considered to be 'liberal' but if we are to move forward sure we must periodically re-assess connexion between values and policy, even if some issues like the death penalty remain static. The death penalty has been high on the list of discussion due to Libertarian conservative blogger Paul Staines (I.E Guido Fawkes) and there has been a wide ranging set of opinions. Most notably on a House of Twits poll where two Lib Dems have voted yes, one of ...
Does what is says on the tin, and it is here, created by Lib Dem Martin Shapland.
I have previously written about whether private personal information collected in this year's census would be kept confidential . NO2ID launched a campaign warning people that the census wasn't confidential/ I was fortunate enough to be able to make this point on several radio shows, and the regional politics show: James Baker – BBC Sheffield Census Interview by James Baker Andrew Watson one of NO2ID's leading campaigners had the insight to put in a FOI request asking whether the ONS had actually sought any legal advice about the impact of the SRSA 2007 on census confidentiality. To boil it down, ...
Not a day goes by without more details of the phone-hacking scandal being released in one way or another. There is no question in my mind that what has recently become public knowledge is simply the tip of the iceberg. We now know, as if there was ever any reasonable doubt, that there are more at fault that simply one "rogue reporter". We also know that such practices were not limited to the News of the World or News International. And, sadly, none of this is particularly surprising. But where will it end? There has been a lot said in ...
The death penalty is based on the action of taking a human life, for taking another human life, in order to prove taking a human life is morally wrong. Confused? Of course, the entire system is absurd. Condemning the repugnance of murder does not require participating in the act of murder itself – executions are ...
Anyone witnessing Mubarak, lain in bed and seen through the grill of a cage cannot be insensitive enough to ignore how uncomfortable this is. Rather like the 'perp walk' of Strauss Khan, the process undercuts any rule of law and all human rights of a defendant in a criminal trial. To humiliate and punish when found guilty is one thing, but Mubarak is being used as an enblem of democracy without a fair trail. And there in lies a bitter irony. Egypt fought for democracy, people died for democracy, but now they require a sacrifice to the cause. Mubarak represents ...
Now, it's easy to pretend that your political hero is perfect. It's easy to write hagiographical accounts of a life without mistakes. I felt that about the late Sir Cyril Smith MBE, formerly MP for Rochdale. I shall forever feel proud about how Cyril took me under his wing. I will be forever proud now that Sir Cyril called me his friend and gave me so many tips, so many words of advice about how to do my job. (I was Lib Dem Agent in Rochdale from 2004 – 2009) I wrote about 'our Cyril' for his 80th Birthday... Cyril ...
I do hate tabloid surveys being reported as gospel, even if I agree with the outcome. The title in the Metro "Pay freeze hits 3 in 4 workers" is one in case. The survey repeats the statistics as an ominous rhetoric designed to spread fear, which will of course slow spending as it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy of belt tightening. The survey that is used in such a blanket manner is based on 2000 people. That's a minimal number for a survey is reported as affecting 50 million odd of the population. It's an immoral statistic! However, my organisation, ...
The Metro, that jovial, relaxing and completely objective read, has an article today entitled "The real horror at the cinema... Fatty snacks". Now I'm on a diet, so I naturally looked at the finer calorie details of hot dogs, Nachos and popcorn, and recoiled in horror. Not from the calorific content, although horrific, but from the insinuation only women are affected by this. The Metro breaks down such treats into the percentage of a woman's recommended daily intake, or fat intake, or salt intake. No reference is made to males at all. The seven paragraph article continues in the same ...
This morning I got the following Press Release from Cornwall Council: Cornwall Council is chosen as one of most creative councils in the countryA groundbreaking proposal which will see public sector organisations in Cornwall working with communities to find new ways of tackling local problems has been shortlisted for the national Creative Councils programme. The aim of the programme, which is being run by NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) and the Local Government Group, is to support councils to develop new approaches to meet the challenges facing communities and local services over the next few years. ...
PR Week reports: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has completed the process of building a nine-strong comms team for Nick Clegg, with the appointment of a Home Office senior press officer. Helen Cook will move across from her role at the Home Office, which she has held for a year-and-a-half, later this month. Cook will report to the chief press officer Peter Graham, and takes her place as the final link in Clegg's comms armoury. [James] Sorene told PRWeek: 'The appointment is the end of a process that started last year with the restructure of Cabinet Office and ...
A few days ago my colleague Nick Laitner speculated about whether or not we might see a Tea Party movement in the UK. Technically, there already is a political party of that name as you can see from the Tea Party entry in the Electoral Commission's official register of political parties. However, if you take a look at its official logo (yes, that really is it), it may have some way to go on the presentation front: Cross-posted from the MHP Communications blog.
[IMG: Graph] Here's a graph that demonstrates a poll of opinion on the state of the economy. 77% of people believe that the Coalition is not at fault for the economic situation compared to 40% beliving that the previous Labour administration is not at fault. What happens with the actual economy is a seperate issue but the sad fact of the matter is that it almost doesn't matter what happens with the economy - what matters is whether the Coalition can take the credit for any successes and blame Labour for any failures. So far, it looks like they are ...
Party Reptile has come up with an excellent rebuttal to Labour's claims that the switch in pension increases from RPI to CPI is wrong: 18 November 2010 Labour rallies against permanent RPI-CPI switch Labour Shadow pensions minister Rachel Reeves says the opposition party will oppose a permanent switch in pensions indexation from RPI to CPI. 28 July 2011 Labour's pension fund swings from red to black The shift from red to black has been largely inspired by the government's change last summer from RPI to CPI inflation on pension increases for public sector staff. Labour, although obviously a private organisation, ...
Grr. Bloody Telegraph. Today they've run a story entitled: Voters doubtful on David Cameron's aid policy Fewer than half of voters believe that the government should be giving hundreds of millions of pounds in aid to overseas countries during a time of austerity in Britain, Downing Street's own research has found.Now this is fundamentally dishonest. Voters were asked whether they agreed with the statement that "even as we deal with out deficit, Britain is still one of the wealthiest countries in the world and we should be proud that we're continuing our commitment to international development." In total 48 per ...
It's difficult to quantify the mess the Labour government left us in. Sure, the £158,000,000,000 annual deficit they left behind was one big quantity. But there were also the thousands of children being held in detention, our civil liberties in tatters, university finances out of control, record low levels of house building... the list seems endless. But seemingly this wasn't enough for Labour. In their dying breath they created yet another mess for the next government to sort. The Digital Economy Bill was forced through Parliament in its last week before recessing for the General Election campaign. Grassroots Lib Dems ...
Two items in the press today and yesterday show further progress in improving the openness and accountability of government. First up is this piece in today's Guardian that a series of changes to ease the rules for freedom of information requests are to be examined as part of a public consultation designed to open up Whitehall. The paper says that fees could be changed and a time limit, which means that departments can refuse requests if they take more than 18 hours to process, could be relaxed under government proposals in a consultation document: The consultation document, Open Data, calls ...
Sadly, David Ward died last weekend. He and Pat became friends of ours when he was appointed as Vicar of St Paul's Hook, and I served under him as church warden. David was not reticent about his political views, and when he retired and moved to Tolworth he decided to run for Council for the Liberal Democrats. He was successful in being elected for Alexandra ward in 1994. When Ian became Mayor in 1996 he appointed David as his Deputy, and the four of us had a wonderful year together. There will be a family funeral, but everyone is invited ...
Reading Councillor Warren Swaine has issued an apology for his actions on 27 January. I would like to take this opportunity apologise for making derogatory comments during the BBC Question Time programme on the 27th January especially those relating to Chuka Umunna MP. I made a lot of comments that were insulting that night and I regret that. In respect of one particular tweet, no offense was meant but I absolutely acknowledge that it was recklessly worded and liable to an interpretation that was never intended. For that I would like to offer my sincere apologies to Mr Umunna and ...
Ten supportive things I'm glad somebody said to me A follow up from the "10 Things not to say to a depressed person" – 10 things that actually help. I know the first one is a huge one – and one I'm terribly guilty of not making clear myself, but has been a godsend from some amazing people recently. (tags: health depression)
HOW TO BUILD A NEWSROOM TIME MACHINE « journoterrorist I'm glad to say that by the time I was a sporadic student journalist, computers had already taken over. But my teenage fanzine publications were a different matter... (tags: history) hawkida: Why I'm sticking with LiveJournal AND posting elsewhere One person's solution, well argued, with boxes ticked. (tags: internet) National Centre for Geocomputation Online Atlas Portal Provides access to two online historic atlases : The Irish Famine Population Data Atlas 1841-2002 and The Atlas of Irish Famine Data 1841 - 1851. Fascinating stuff. (tags: ireland history)
