With the Football League kicking off tonight I can't remember the last time I was this excited about an approaching football season. It may sound sad but I almost feel like a kid again. There are a couple of reasons for this. Firstly there is the fact that a few of the top Premiership teams seem to have shuffled their squads a bit over the summer and the league could be anyone's (I'll do a post about that next week). Mainly though there is a buzz about my own team for the first time (at least as far as I ...
I am writing this in a hotel room in Shrewsbury, but before I came away LoveFilm sent me this intriguing British film from 1962, which is pitched halfway between crime and horror. Don't Talk to Strange Men is certainly worth seeing, though it did not leave me quite so rhapsodical as it did BritMovie. But it is certainly a surprise to find a film from 1962 that concerns the grooming of a teenager by a stranger. This being 1962, it involves a remote public telephone box rather than the Internet. But then perhaps people 50 years ago were not quite ...
The Press Association reports: Liberal Democrats gained from Tories in this week's only reported council by-election amid signs of revival in some areas following the hacking scandal. Candidate Michael Maxwell won Somerset County Council's South Petherton division on a big swing. It is covered by the Yeovil constituency of the party's former Cabinet minister David Laws. The result comes after it defied Labour at Warrington last week by winning in a marginal ward where it had lost another seat in May's main contests. This suggests that Lib Dems could be benefiting from their lack of high level links to the ...
Many of fellow Liberal Democrat bloggers are encouraging their readers to sign an electronic petition to parliament calling for the death penalty not to be reintroduced. I have no wish to see the death penalty reintroduced, but I shall not be joining them for two main reasons. First, because there is no organised group calling for the death penalty to be reinstated. All the debate of the last few days has arisen from the pro-death penalty petition being run by Paul Staines. Though a couple of not very bright Labour councillors from Leicester have taken it seriously, I suspect this ...
Braveheart is probably the worst film ever made about Scotland and Trainspotting definitely one of the best. So here you can enjoy both in just 100 seconds!
Congratulations are due to Alan Reynolds from Smethwick, writing in this morning's Guardian:Jonathan May-Bowles should not be surprised at the severity of his sentence ... Everybody knows that if you throw pies, you get custody.
Why is it that when you take a week off from work you immediately become ten times as busy as normal? Normal bloggery will resume next week, and I'm hoping PEP! 3 will be out at the end of next week. Meanwhile, links. Andrew Rilstone says all that needs to be said on the death ...
The Metropolitan Police are now encouraging people to turn in their neighbours if they suspect them of being anarchists. [[EDIT: The police actually retracted the statement the next day. I'll leave my reaction here for the world to see, though.]] Now I am no anarchist, as my previous posts should testify, however I have sympathy for many groups defined by the holding of an idea I refute; Muslims are treated despicably by many in the UK for no reason other than holding a set of beliefs, and the police are also more likely to stop and search them owing no ...
Since I posted earlier this week about the worrying problem of burglaries in Redlands I have written to residents relaying crime prevention advice and encouraging them to report any concerns to the Police. Today I received a response from inspector Penny MacKenzie (Neighbourhood Inspector for East & South Reading) to my email: "In relation to this particular incident our CID team are continuing to conduct a thorough investigation - the really good news is that a man has now been arrested and charged with this offence. The burglary figures do still cause me some concern and we have tried several crime prevention and ...
On 11 July the Labour administration of Reading Borough Council agreed to proceed consulting residents in a limited number of streets over potential changes to refuse collections. The Cabinet agreed that residents in 47 streets identified as priority areas would be consulted regarding the reintroduction of a weekly sack refuse collection to replace the current fortnightly bin collection, for residual waste. These streets were identified by Council officers as those that could benefit from such a scheme as one where: a) Very limited or no storage space and narrow footways b) There are regularly access difficulties for collection vehicles The Cabinet ...
There's a programme being shown at 9pm tonight called 'Someone's Daughter Someone's Son' which I ask you to watch because the family of the murdered victim being show in the programme need thousands of signatures to bring their case to Parliament. As Liberal Democrats this is the sort of issue we care about http://www.justiceforjane.co.uk/Violence against women is something I saw today when I was out with my summer play school. I was at a Central London ice skating rink and I heard an uproar. A couple with a small child were shouting at each other. The man then hit her ...
Put simply, no. Put more forthrightly, absolutely not. If you agree with me, please sign Martin Shapland's e-petition at the HM Government e-petitions website. It can be found here at http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/1090. It has currently been signed by over 12,500 people as opposed to the contrary e-petition which has been started by Paul Staines (the infamous right-wing on-line commentator Guido Fawkes) which has currently attracted just over 6,800 signatures. This is an issue of principle. I believe passionately in my view on this matter and it's important that in this on-line battle that those of us who do not agree with ...
"The cause of today's market calamities is the fact that the Eurozone has spectacularly failed to get its house in order, and that no-one has any idea how the US is going to cut its deficit. Both of these are political failures, what could be perhaps termed massive regulatory or policy uncertainty," argues Decline of the Logos. He calls for less policy uncertainty from the Coalition too. For an illustration of just how large the US deficit is, turn to Nick Hollinghurst. Eric Pickles' claim that increasing town centre parking will help local economies and "'help small shops prosper in ...
I understand the arguments for not participating in Sir Peter Gibson's inquiry into allegations of British complicity in torture and rendition. Having myself campaigned for such an inquiry, I was very pleased when the Coalition Government set it up. It now needs rescuing. The Government and Sir Peter should pause for thought. I have not read the terms of reference for the inquiry, so I do not know if they are objectionable. A political animal who understands the intelligence community - maybe Sir Ming Campbell, Lord Ashdown, Lord Owen, Lord Hurd, Lord Carlile, Lord West or Baroness Neville-Jones - must ...
[IMG: margate soul weekend] Not something that normally bothers me, what to do for the weekend, the choice is usually stark, my destination a railway worksite, which recently has been, a dank murky dust filled tunnel, in which men heroically toil for hours on end, to build a better railway, my only choice, the contents of my "pack up", rolls or doorstop sarnies, cheese or ham, mini pork pies or mini eggs, the later I compromise and take both, eleven hours in a tunnel is a long time. [IMG: broadstairs folk week 2011] Hopefully like me, this weekend you are ...
After the success of the 'Ways of Seeing' event last year, The Lightbox in Woking has been given a grant by the Happy Museum Project to host a further exhibition called 'Landscapes of the mind' I went to a special pre-launch ...
Capital punishment: not cheap, not just, not clever Opposing the death penalty I'm from the government, and I'm here to kill you Don't make Guido's day Guido is wrong on capital punishment Anarchy and the death penalty
I was highly sceptical about a full page advert that has been appearing in the local papers for a product called 'Sit and Slim'. Having seen Dragon's Den last weekend I'm now wondering whether I should report them to the Advertising Standards Agency. The product is a combination of a massage chair and an audio tape, and the company really does claim that you can lose weight sitting down. Apparently, in order to use the system, you have to enrol at a local centre at a cost of over £600 per year. The founder of the company was roundly criticised ...
Following Conservative MP Louise Mensch's excellent work on the Culture Media and Sport Committee, pursuing News International with robust questioning about the activities of their newspapers the tabloids have recently tried to strike back. They have of course tried the tactic that they know best. Muckraking. They apparently have evidence that during the 1990s, Louise took drugs whilst partying with violin virtuoso Nigel Kennedy amongst others. Louise's response was swift and was clearly an attempt to cut the story off at the knees: "Although I do not remember the specific incident, this sounds highly probable... since I was in my ...
The Council has now sent out letters to everyone on the South Park Road Estate asking for opinions on various traffic calming options. We flagged this up on this blog a while back, and got some feedback from residents. As a result of that feedback, the Lib Dems asked officers to expand the number of options (including an option to do nothing, as it may well be the case that residents on the estate don't see the need for any traffic calming and, if that's the case, the last thing we want to do is to force it on people). ...
Details of this planning application can be found by following this link: The case officer is Steve Isaacson - please email comments and objections to him at steve.isaacson@lewisham.gov.uk, and don't forget to copy us in
Details of this planning application can be found by following this link: The case officer is Gemma Barnes - please email comments and objections to her at gemma.barnes@lewisham.gov.uk, and don't forget to copy us in.
Details of this planning application can be found by following this link: The case officer is Kate Challenger - please email comments and objections to her at kate.challenger@lewisham.gov.uk, and don't forget to copy us in.
There was one principal local council by-election held on Thursday 4th August. The Lib Dem gained one seat off the Tories. In the two parish or town council by-election results reported to ALDC the Lib Dems made two gains from Independents. [IMG: Cllr Paul Maxwell] In 2009 we lost the South Pemberton Division, of Somerset County Council in the Yeovil Constituency by just 94 votes. In Thursday's election we had a strong candidate in Paul Maxwell who is the district councillor for Eggwood in the division. The Tories tried the same tactic and stood one of the two councillors for ...
LOOK AT THESE COLOURFUL ANTS fornootherreasondave:
July saw a Westmister piranha feeding frenzy over phone hacking. It ended in anti-climax, with an unenlightening select committee appearance from the Murdochs and a wonderfully timed Commons statement from David Cameron. The PM arrived in the Commons just as the story had hit its peak of intrigue and was coming back down again. Even Ed Miliband had run out of blows to land on the Prime Minister, resorting to the tortuous detail of who knew what when over Coulson. The hacking scandal has finally run dry. For now. Or at least until the Guardian's journos come back from their ...
I spent this morning with the Britain in Bloom judges as they toured Southport. Pictured above are the judges joined by myself, officers and volunteers. We are in the Large Coastal Resort category along with Cleethorpes, Bangor, Plymouth and a resort in Northern Ireland. It's difficult to judge the judges, but they seemed very impressed with what they saw and what they were told as they met volunteers at each location we stopped at. The results will be announced at a ceremony in St Andrews next month.
Huzzah! After a slight dip during the period when I was busy revising for exams, my blog has climbed to an unprecedented height in the wikio rankings! In short, the Potter Blogger is now, according to wikio, the 103rd most popular politics blog in the UK! If you look to the right hand side of the page you should see this: It's a shame I couldn't make it into the top one hundred but hopefully I'll manage that next time. Of course, I'm not one of those egotistical, competitive types who obsesses over doing well in the rankings. Oh no, ...
The Courier reported yesterday that the Scotland Office has received a slap on the wrist from the Information Commissioner over its refusal to disclose details of formal meetings between Secretary of State Michael Moore and Liam Fox about the aircraft carriers. This was the second such decision that had been made in the last few weeks. Details of both decisions can be found here (along with details of other cases where the Labour Government was found wanting). Liberal Democrats have shouted hardest and longest about freedom of information, so to have a Department headed by one of our Cabinet ministers ...
Pyrrhic, because having the world's economy go down the toilet to prove your point is a position no-one wants to be in. But it is a victory, nonetheless. The cause of today's market calamities is the fact that the Eurozone has spectacularly failed to get its house in order, and that no-one has any idea ...
Back in July 1988 Ronald Reagan made a famous quip that, The ten most dangerous words in the English language are "Hi, I'm from the government, and I'm here to help." (At least, that's what I think he said - the quote is sometimes given as him saying "nine" - and with "hi" missing; it's a good example of how minor inconsistencies spread and linger online.) Unsurprisingly, the quote is popular with many right wing and libertarian people. What is odd, however, with the death penalty in the news is the number of people who both love the Reagan quote ...
I saw yesterday that there was an e-petition to keep F1 free to air in this country and lots of F1 fans are getting rather excited by this. However when you take a step back and think about this clearly and rationally you see that it is complete and utter codswallop (seriously love that word) and people should think about what the government would really do. If the e-petition gets the 100,000 signatures it needs to get debated in parliament are MPs really going to put the F1 calendar on the protected events list? Is the F1 season of national ...
Many many thanks to those who donated to my JustGiving page - total raised to date £11,7000 for the Alzheimer's Society. Click on link if you want still want to donate. Day 1 Thonon Les Bains - Megeve - 109km, 2743m ascent Rain, nervous energy, fellow raiders look lean and fit (mostly). Hmmm. 5 climbs today including Col de Moises and Col d'Ramaz (both c 14km, ave 8%, 1,000m of climbing). Final climb of day to skiing resort of Megeve. John, my roomie, turns out to be a Cat 1 racer. A class apart (on a bike at least) from ...
Come on Eric do us all a favour will you and go on holiday! There was I hoping to spend my last month as LGA Lib Dem Leader doing little and benignly wishing everyone goodbye. Then you come out with ... Continue reading →
Cameron and Clegg being on holiday is no crime even if there is a financial dustup. It is not like Roy Jenkins (then Chancellor) being on holiday in a deeply rural part of France the day when France devalued the Franc and the French phone system at that time being less efficient than shouting and more expensive. It took days for him to get properly in touch with the Treasury in London to co-ordinate the UK response. There is an UK minister at hand and in charge in London - and I am concerned by who that is. William Hague ...
There will be two road closures in August, one at night time only: A137 Wherstead Interchange southern side only This will be closed overnight for resurfacing work. Date of closure 23 to 26 August 2011 (overnight works from 2000hrs to 0500hrs) Alternative route A137 to Brantham, B1070 to East Bergholt, A12(T) to Copdock Mill, A14(T) to Wherstead and vice versa. Southbound traffic from Ipswich will be diverted onto the A14(T) to circumnavigate at Nacton Interchange. Closure of Elmsett Lane, Burstall Road repairs are being carried out and the closure will be from 30th August for approximately 3 weeks. Alternative route ...
The e-petition mechanism to allow a new public petition service has gone live and media coverage about its merit and importance has gone mad. Let's not over-emphasise the significance of this move and let's not downplay the power of solid, rational argument. I disagree with Sir George Young: this won't give the public a megaphone as such and to say that it will is an exaggeration. What it may do is potentially provoke debate on contentious topics for which Parliament at present has neither the political will, nor the time, to dedicate to matters such as capital punishment, abortion, civil ...
Yes? Then you cant really have a go or have a moan if our politicians take a holiday during parliamentary recess. It drives me nuts when newspapers like the Daily Mirror release front pages like they have today screaming in abject ...
Drivers who take a regular journey through New England, might like to know that the City Council claims that, "Work to improve the safety of the Triangle in New England for drivers, pedestrians and cyclists is progressing well with new pedestrian crossings and traffic islands in place." You may remeber that work started back in May 2011, with the aim to improve the existing road system in the area where Lincoln Road joins the old part of Bourges Boulevard and Maskew Avenue – given that it was starting to get CRAZY down that way! Anyhow, the City Council are assuring ...
What started as a jovial discussion today with Stephen Keevil of the Medway Green party (who came up with the title... You can read his blog here; http://flavors.me/onmejack ) has turned into a serious piece. I got to thinking... Hang on. If we can't say what an awesome job we've done so far how the hell are we going to do it in 2015? Sure we've made a hell of a lot of mistakes and I have been accused of being in a party that stole the votes and that is propping up one of the echelons of the Axis ...
The new name for 'Caught in Spidey's web' which I am very aware that I have not done for a while. Having said that, given me status as LibDem Pariah, I am not sure howmany people want to be in ...
What an enjoyable holiday Guido Fawkes must be having. While he is sunning himself in France he is also managing to create a ludicrous fuss in the UK with his campaign to use the new e-petition website to ask for a vote in the Commons on Capital Punishment. For some reason this seems to have got Lib Dems in particular into a tizzy - blogging, tweeting and generally upsetting themselves about this, to no purpose at all. Here's the thing: there is no chance whatsoever of a vote in the Commons supporting the return of the death penalty. None. It ...
As someday it may happen... Andrew Rilstone on the death penalty: a long post, but worth reading. (tags: politics)
I would like to plug the Coburg Studios Open weekend. I hope to get down there myself to see some of the work the 70 or so artists holed up there produce. My wonderful niece Pauline is one of them. She is a fabulous, award winning jeweler.
Protecting individuals and communities from drug harms Conference notes: 1) That drugs are powerful substances which can have serious consequences for the individual user and society in general; and that it is therefore right and proper that the state should intervene to regulate and control the use of such substances as it does the consumption of legal drugs such as alcohol and tobacco and both prescription and over the counter medicines. 2) That the misuse of drugs can blight the lives of individuals and families and the purchase of illegal drugs can help to fuel organised crime. 3) The need ...
The Edinburgh Festival kicks off today with the opening of the Fringe Festival. There are a number of Edinburgh Festivals - the Film Festival was in June but they are talking about reverting to their old slot in August - the Jazz Festival is in July and the Fringe and International Festival are in August. Toss into the mix the book festival, tattoo and I am sure I have forgotten one or two others. Through my office window the sounds of close harmony singing, bagpipes and street theatre waft in with the late summer breeze. I think it was Joan ...
Impressed by Deathly Hallows 2: good job well done to condense loadsa plot into visually exciting film. End of the Potter decade [IMG: :(] # @sarabedford Try 'n' keep me away [IMG: :)] in reply to sarabedford # @jamesgraham Also: that Ron too has to be convinced (by Harry) that he can kill a horcrux. Thought Emma Watson's acting mighty fine, btw. in reply to jamesgraham # RT @andrewrawnsley In praise of unconventl men with mad ideas http://t.co/bVbMegs < wd love to know which politicians wd make the 300 list # #jpod How journalists are using Google+ # A ...
Fri 5th
09:24
The Lib Dems distain of Labour will damage the Party's votes: How to attract Labour voters
It is almost boring to say that the Lib Dems poll rating has plummeted since the General Election but it is an irreducible fact which worries many. But what worries many more is that the reason for this is because the Party is not representing what they thought it did. The way back is to ...
Here is the apology leaflet put out door to door by Brentwood & Ongar Conservatives for "false" and "inappropriate" claims: (Click on image for larger version) Liberal Democrat Karen Chilvers says over on her blog: Cllr Nigel Clarke and I are now wondering what effect this had on my campaign and the narrow loss of my seat, given that we were the "dishonest propaganda peddling" councillors they were wrongly referring to it seems. Of course, we have seen similar behaviour before (the Honeypot Lane allotments farce springs to mind, as does the Brentwood station matter, where they tried to take ...
[IMG: Volcano!] [IMG: Creative Commons License] photo credit: gilmorec Happy birthday to Neil Armstrong and Wayne Bridge. ...And to Pete Burns, who was born on the same day as me in 1959 as Cliff Richard serenaded the nation with "Livin' doll" at the top of the charts. What's that I hear you say? Happy birthday to me? Oh, how kind! Thank you. Another year wiser? Well, I certainly feel a lot more settled than I have before. Those ants have gone forever from my pants. But as always, I am overwhelmed with humble gratitude to the Good Lord for sparing ...
Notice from the county council (extracts): HERTFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL TEMPORARY CLOSING OF VARIOUS ROADS IN ST ALBANS NOTICE is given that the Hertfordshire County Council intend to make an Order under Section 14[1] of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, to prohibit all traffic from using the following lengths of roads, except for access:- 3. that length of Essex Street, St Albans from its junction with St Peters Road north westwards to its junction with Clifton Street, a distance of approximately 60 metres. 4. that length of Clifton Street, St Albans from its junction with Essex Street north eastwards and south westwards ...
It is that time of month when it is time to take part in Stephen's Five on the fifth. This months theme is My Town so here are some pictures taken around Bangor, not only where I live but where I was born and brought up. Not that I have always lived here. Parks, houses and retail parks Old Tower House and Boat House Reflections on the new Library Extension Floral Contrast in Ward Park Seafaring Town
Fascinating news from New Mexico where The Albuquerque Journal reports that Sunland Park Mayor Martin Resendiz claims he was drunk when he signed nine contracts with a California company that is now suing the city for $1 million. They say that Mr. Resendiz acknowledged during a deposition that he had been drinking for several hours with executives of the firm and didn't know what he was signing. It is not a story I have ever seen in relation to the UK, unless people know better.
Am grateful to James Heald for giving me this, the first of Dunnett's fifteenth century series of thick dynastic novels, set in Western Europe between Bruges, Geneva and Italy. Twenty-five years ago or more I read Dunnett's King Hereafter, about Macbeth (who she reckoned was also known as Thorfinn of Orkney) and greatly enjoyed it. Now I'm a bit older, I can appreciate the good points of Dunnett's writing - she is great at the behind-the-scenes plot threads coming together, and very good, almost theatrical, at setting out a tableau of characters in action and conversation; I didn't feel quite ...
There's another band concert at Magdalen Green this Sunday at 2pm with the City of Discovery Brass Band. More details available at http://tinyurl.com/magdalenbrass.
From Sheena Wellington : Friends of Wighton's fiddle and whistle classes restart on Saturday 6th August. The fiddle class, tutored by Karen Hannah, runs from 11am to 12.30pm, while whistle, tutored by Helen Forbes, runs from 12.30pm to 2pm. Fees are £5/£3 concessions and fiddles are available to borrow and whistles to buy. The harp class will not run during August. Simon Chadwick's Battle of Harlaw series which ran through July was a great success and he is now off on his usual August round of Summer Schools and performances. First Gaelic class, with Wilma Kennedy, of the new session ...
I was sorry to read of the recent death of the cultural historian Richard Webster, who was the subject of a belated Guardian obituary a few days ago. Although he wrote on a range of subjects, from Freud to the Salman Rushdie affair, he was best known in recent years for his work exposing injustices suffered by residential care workers arising from the 'trawling' methods used by the police when investigating cases of historic child abuse. While Webster was very clear that abuse can and did happen ('some of those who are now in prison are there for no other ...
A plug for the national Giving Voice campaign, promoting the value of speech and language therapy. Stockport Council have funded a computer-based language screen for all infant classes in the Borough and, so far, about 80% of schools have signed up to it. Speech and language therapists help a wide range of people, from youngsters with stammers to elderly people recovering from strokes – take a look at the website to find out more.
Fast, Pray, Cook: Ramadan in the Kitchen G Willow Wilson is one of the most consistently spiritual writers when talking of her faith. Here is a brief post about the act of cooking during Ramadan. (tags: religion)
lotherington: The Littlest Wizard A true story of real-life Harry Potter fan-fic. (tags: sf children awww) Half of European men share King Tut's DNA | Reuters Of course, this is only stating that 70% of British men and 50% of European men have a common direct male ancestor with Tutankhamun in the last 9500 years. In fact taking all lineages into account we are probably all descended from any of his close relatives who have any living descendants at all. (King Tut himself is believed tpo have outlived both his own children, even though he died at 18.) (tags: biology ...
The death penalty has been a very serious and divisive subject since its abolition as one of the main social reforms of Harold Wilson's Labour government in the 1960s. Following the social reforms in the late 1960s the only act that was punishable by death was treason. Since then almost every parliamentary term has had a vote on whether or not to bring back the death penalty. The last vote occurred in the early 1990s. In 1998, Parliament passed the Human Rights Act which incorporated the European Convention on Human Rights into British law; this act of Parliament once and ...
After a lovely drive from Springfield we arrived in St Louis mid afternoon and checked straight into our hotel adjacent to St Louis' famous Gateway Arch. Now since we first booked this trip a visit to the top of the Gateway Arch had been high on Sarah's list of must do's - she has a thing about going to the top of large buildings/bridges/monuments etc. So going to the top of the Arch was going to be the highlight of the following day but within five minutes of settling in we decided to go for a wander and do a ...
