The adventure continued after our 48 hour stopover in St Louis as we headed south west and towards Springfield, Missouri, yes there is more than one Springfield and neither of them is the one in The Simpsons! It's was always going to be a long day's drive and things got off to a scary start when the lift in our hotel stopped between floors as we went to collect our cases from the room after breakfast. Thankfully after a short pause it carried on its ascent and Sarah's heart returned to normal service without too much damage being done! However ...
The news that Standard & Poor's has downgraded the United States long-term credit rating should come as no great surprise to those of us who have observed the slow-motion car crash that is Capitol Hill over recent years. The creation of two 'great' parties, each of whom have a base of support with nowhere else to go, scrabbling to garner the centre ground by painting the other as extremist and dangerous, combined with a political architecture that protects the minority at the expense of the majority and has almost as many checks and balances as the Federal Constitution of the ...
I'm not very good at writing tribal pro-speeches. I think of friends and fellow 'bloggers who are on the other sides and try not to offend them. BUT sometimes offence surely must be caused? After all politics and debate often holds disagreement and arguments. It is our nature, as a party to constructively argue and debate and I hope that what I'm about to do... *Clears throat and steps up to the podium* I would be lying to you if I said that we were riding the crest of glory OR if I said that we were even a force ...
Pretty much anyone who has been involved in local politics or community and residents' groups will recognise the following: the person who knows for certain the solution to all an area's parking, traffic and transport problems, who is certain that his solutions are the only possible way forward and only idiot councillors and officials could fail to support everything he proposes. He dismisses all counter-arguments as 'rubbish' and is unable to conceive of alternative points of view, let alone how many of his neighbours see things differently. For the most part, the job of elected representatives is to listen to ...
TweetI seem to have lost a longer more detailed post as i published. Do we really need to see stuff like this posted on twitter? This will cost more lives than any good it can ever do. Jody McIntyre should be ashamed of himself. As I watch a double decker bus and a property on fire with no confirmation as to whether everyone involved escaped, this could end up being a needless loss of life. I will follow this up with a more detailed post on what has gone on when the facts become apparent, but in the mean time ...
Silly season takes a macabre turn. Was it this bad in the 1980s? Unlike most other summers, we have had the hacking scandal, a horrendous terrorist attack and a global financial crisis to keep us occupied since Parliament went into recess. However, this has not been enough, and irrational violence is now on the agenda. The details are sketchy, but an incident with firearms resulted in a man being killed and now what may be rioting, or what may just be a kerfuffle is taking place. Violence of this degree is usually an outlet for some other social issue, whether ...
As I've been sitting here recording the social bookers podcast with @AAEmmerson and @CJMillsnun there has been breaking news of riots in Tottenham. Early indications seem to be that the riots are taking place after a march was held over the ...
Killer plant 'eats' great tit at Somerset nursery
"Even if you have nothing to write, write and say so." Marcus Tullius Cicero With little to write that is not fueled by rage and confusion, I thought I would highlight a few good blog posts I've seen recently; Spiderplant Land despairs over Dorries Soph on Too Liberal observes the futility of the e-petition Some sustained faith in Vince Cable on the Banking Crisis is due after his post on Lib Dem Voice A delgithful review of the nonsense of opinion polls by Neil Monnery "Great is our admiration of the orator who speaks with fluency and discretion." Marcus Tullius ...
Norway's Prime Minister has vowed to fight terrorism with "more democracy". But would he still be so keen if Norwegians voted to execute the man responsible for the terrorist attacks on Oslo and Utøya?* Democracy is the ultimate hurrah-word. It ... Continue reading →
As I have been visiting Shropshire for 25 years, I thought it was time I devoted a day to studying its county town. This I did today, with the help of an excellent town trail booklet from Shrewsbury Civic Society.
I am pleased to see that a motion calling for an independent inquiry into the decriminalisation of possession of all drugs is to be debated at next month's Liberal Democrat Conference. And I hope it will be passed. This is for two reasons, the first being that Richard Nixon's "War on Drugs" has been a disaster and can never be won. But it is also important for the future of the Liberal Democrats. As Simon Titley argues in the current Liberator, the party's weakness is that it has failed to build a large enough core of habitual supporters. This weakness, ...
The audacity of the strapline "The sheer number of immigrants who would head for Britain could cause huge problems for the capital" in the Standard so recently after severe xenophonia fuelled a mass murder spree in Norway is beyond belief. From the outside it is clear that the message to be conveyed is that any and all types of immigration are negative and should be condemned. Melanie McDonagh seeks to enrage those with right-wing, anti-immigration tendancies, choosing in her first paragraph to infer that Poland's presence in the EU has also damaged Britain. McDonagh, who I know little of but ...
To the HMV Forum last night to see The Jayhawks perform in their classic, mid-90s line up, for the first time in 16 years. They have a new album coming out in the autumn, and apparently the reunion is permanent rather than a one-off tour. The last time I saw the Jayhawks in this incarnation they appeared set to make the commercial breakthrough with their single 'Blue'. They were supported by a little-known band called Wilco, who were less than memorable (in fairness their first album A.M. released that year gave little hint of the great things to come.) But ...
They didn't happen so often in the past but they seem to be picking up in frequency and this makes me happy so here goes. I've been awaiting delivery of my new car this week whilst on holiday. It was a ...
Michael Adams won the 2011 British Chess Championship in Sheffield this morning, defeating Nigel Short in a two-game play off after they had finished tied on 8½ after the 11 rounds. The first game of the play off was drawn, but Adams won the second and the title. You can replay this decisive game on the official website - the diagram shows the position in which Short resigned. This play off took place after all the other prizes from the fortnight had been awarded. According to the Guardian C.J. de Mooi was asked not to present the prizes, as previously ...
Sat 6th
18:55
News in Brief: Ming savages Danny, 'Parenting Matters', and Don Foster on "rodents with wings"
Former party leader Ming Campbell is apparently furious with fellow Scottish Lib Dem, Danny Alexander, according to the Telegraph. The two MPs are, it appears, at each others' metaphorical throats over the handing over to the British army of RAF Leuchars in Fife (Ming's patch), while RAF Lossiemouth in Moray (Danny's neighbouring patch) — though it should be noted that RAF Kinloss, also close to Danny's own consituency, will suffer the same fate as Leuchars. The Telegraph quotes Ming implying with scarcely veiled fury that Danny's intervention in the defence review to save Loissiemouth was politically convenient: "It's a remarkable ...
This is the second in the Chroniques de fin de siècle, written in 1985 but set in 1993 shortly after the breakup of Belgium and the subsequent invasion of Wallonia by the French; I read the first, Autonomes, a couple of months ago. There's not a lot about Belgium here, in fact, apart from the first few pages where Prince Laurent, installed as puppet king of Wallonia (wartime fascist collaborator Leon Degrelle having been recalled as geriatric prime minister) by the French, gets frisky with his German wife. (In reality Prince Laurent married an Englishwoman some years after this is ...
Here's the thing... I'm not a supporter of this government. Of course I'm not. I'm a Lib Dem, and this government's MPs are 5/6 Tories. But nor have I been a supporter of any other government in my lifetime (possibly I may have supported the dying days of the Callaghan administration, but I was only ...
This is always the test of chart readers.There is obviously an international element to the recent market movements. There is also recognition that even the US cannot simply fund demand on increasing debt.I think there is also an August over-reaction as a result of many people being on holiday and people closing out positions. However, to hazard a guess I would not expect the market to go below
It's Friday. Okay, it isn't. But at least it's five o'clock. Here's a fistful of lists that sum up the LDV week in our belated Friday Five: 5 most-read stories on LDV this week Opinion: Why we should praise Louise Mensch (37 comments) by Lee Chalmers Could you edit The Guardian? Take a simple test (32 comments) by Mark Pack Opinion: Nick Clegg and the next parliamentary term (34 comments) by Charlotte Henry Councillor Warren Swaine reinstated after Twitter race row (26 comments) by The Voice Who are the Lib Dems 'unconventional men (or women) whose mad ideas make us ...
I'm writing this as part of Transatlantic Blonde's Feminist Friday series. I know it's Saturday but punctuality has never been my strong point. This week's theme is television - how male and female characters are portrayed in the shows our children watch. A couple of weeks ago, East Dunbartonshire Liberal Democrat MP Jo Swinson asked tv executives to take action on gender stereotyping. Jo is so right about the way in which programme makers make girl characters all pink and precious while the boys get to do the action stuff. The Disney princesses are starting to improve, slowly - in ...
A complicated Irish political story in the Jewish Chronicle refers to "John Connolly, a 22-year-old Zionist blogger from Ealing" (whose blog I can't find, but never mind), "who has faced accusations that he is a Mossad agent". This is most unfair - how come he gets to be accused of being a Mossad agent and I don't? It's like when there was a row about MI5 allegedly bugging British left-wingers' phones in the 1980s, and various people were cross not to have been considered important enough to have had their phones tapped. How come the people who find Mr Connolly ...
'Suddenly, the air was thick with the sound of chickens coming home to roost!' Not my line, I'm afraid, it's Alan Bennett's. It comes from his clever if slightly disjointed play 'Habeas Corpus'. It's one I've quoted a lot over the years, and I've been aware of it this past week. There is a smile on the faces of the Eurosceptics. They believe the chickens are coming home to roost on all things European. The woes of the eurozone have accompanied news that one of the most popular e-petitions on the Downing Street website was one calling for Britain's withdrawal ...
Collected links from around the webEx Urbe - an anglophone in Florence. Brilliant, and very funny, new blog I spent less than 48 hours in Florence as I wanted to get to Sienna. I've been wanting to go back for ages as it's, simply, a beautiful city. Someone linked to this and I started laughing. And learning things, then laughing more. Can't pick a single entry, just, y'know, go have a look. (tags: blogs Florence travel) Listening to Thud! ~ Recessional has some observations on one of the better Pratchett's Pretty much agree with this-the reason Vimes is an interesting ...
So says The Sun, oracle of all political prophesy, and (as we now know) superbly connected to the occupant of Number 10: OUTED Treasury chief David Laws is lined up for a surprise return to Government in the autumn, The Sun can reveal. PM David Cameron plans to hand the expenses scandal MP a new role – probably in the Cabinet Office. ... Mr Cameron and Deputy PM Nick Clegg believe his peace-making skills within the Coalition will outweigh any backlash about his frontline return. Mr Cameron told a confidant: "Nick and I want David back. September or October is ...
[IMG: The cover of a graphic novel named Blanetsm by Craig Thompson. The cover is predominately blue - and shows bare winter trees stretching up the page. At the bottom, a curved whit space indicted snow, and stadning in the snow, to the right of the page are a heterosexual couple, iin warm winter gear, holding each other affectionately.] Writer/Illustrator: Craig Thompson Publisher: Top Shelf What's it about? In an autobiographical tale, Craig Thompson tells the story of his childhood and adolescence, focused through the lens of first teenage love. In many ways, it is a very typical and relatable ...
The Sun is running an article that David Cameron has suggested that David Laws is to be brought back into Cabinet as early as September of this year. It also suggests that Cameron has jotted the date May 2012 for his first Cabinet Reshuffle. The article takes the line that the vacancy for David (Laws) could be created by Chris Huhne's resignation in light of his Speeding Points scandal. Personally I don't feel it to be likely that Chris is going to lose his job (although it's certainly a possibility). I hope that David's imminent return is neither a false ...
...All good fun yesterday. We dropped off our 14 year-old and her friend at Victoria Park in London for the Underage festival. It all seemed remarkably well organised and a great time was had by all. The photo above was taken by our dearest teenager while in the thick of the Rizzle Kicks crowd. I have now learnt what a "mosh pit" is. It is explained here on the ever brilliant Urban Dictionary. It does not seem entirely innocuous. It seems easy for it to get out of hand – even with 13-17 year olds. But, hey-ho – all part ...
Lib Dem business secretary Vince Cable has sought to reassure the British public that the financial crisis currently destabilising the markets is substantially different to the 2008 crash which sparked the 'credit crunch' and recession. While the Lehmans-triggered crash left the British economy reeling because of the knock-on effect on our banking-reliant financial services sector, notes Vince, this current crisis is the result of the markets' failure to be convinced by the US and Eurozone efforts to curb sovereign debt — whereas the Coalition's austerity measures to cut the deficit have the confidence of the markets. Here is Vince speaking ...
The Neighbourhood Policing Team at Werrington will be working on these priorities over the coming weeks. PRIORITY 1 To reduce the number of ASB incidents in the Paston area. A drugs warrant has been executed in Malvern Road and a male was arrested. PRIORITY 2 Reduce criminal damage to vehicles in Paston and Walton. The number of reports of vehicle crime in the area continues to reduce. There have been 2 reports of vehicles being targeted in the area. Officers continue to patrol. PRIORITY 3 Speeding issues on Lincoln Rd, Werrington North and South of Cock Inn. No Speedwatch undertaken ...
Do you remember 1968? To find out what else happened in 1968, along with how Labour councillors prioritised giving money to an expensive Park Lane Hotel over front line services, you'll have to come along and help David Sant's campaign in St Peter's ward, Islington. Polling day is this Thursday, 11 August. To help please contact Terry Stacy on terrystacy@me.com / 07940 502 683 or Bridget Fox on libdembridget@yahoo.co.uk / 07966 255 821, and on polling day itself just turn up at 66 Prebend Street, N1 8PS, where you're guaranteed a warm welcome by our candidate David Sant and all ...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaTKDMYOBOU PLEASE, watch this heartrending account of events in Bahrain. Whatever happened to the "duty to protect", and how can the international community ignore the horrendous crimes perpetrated by the al-Khalifa hereditary dictatorship against the people including mass arbitrary arrest, torture, extrajudicial execution, demographic engineering, violent suppression of peaceful demonstrations, harsh punishment of criticism, and mass sackings from public sector employment? The Foreign Secretary, the Rt Hon William Hague MP says the Government "share your concern about the situation and the continued and credible reports of human rights abuses. The arrests of opposition figures, the reports of deaths in custody, ...
It gets better
Slightly bizarre story here of failed council candidate Joshua Bonehill-Paine (wrestler name?) who drank a bottle of whiskey, got thrown out of his hotel room, was "chased by 'yobs'" and, upset that the police couldn't give him a lift home, used his Conservative party membership card to slide open the lock and break into the station, stealing a full police uniform and then attacking the officers when they tried to arrest him. Full article:
Sat 6th
12:23
Petition to retain ban on capital punishment has DOUBLE the number of signatures as opposite one
Please sign the petition to retain the ban on capital punishment here. As I write, 14,222 have signed it, as opposed to 7,800 people who have signed Paul Staines' petition to restore capital punishment. If the last hour is anything to go by, the retain the ban petition is attracting support at twice the rate as the Staines one. I just find it staggering that anyone can believe that trying to restore capital pubishment is a good use of human energy. I am now considerably long in the tooth, as my birthday reminded me yesterday. I have been involved in ...
I know, like everyone else that the death of a student in Norway due to a polar bear attack is a tragedy. But, I can't stop myself from thinking, that there is something else here that people are forgetting. The ...
Located just off Fleet Street, the former home of newspapers, this Pizza Express is split over six levels making it very handy if you go dining with someone you don't want to spend time with (not that this happened on my visit, of course): just slip a small bribe to the waiter and get them to claim there are only two tables for one available, sadly with four intervening levels between them. Evening made perfect. St Bride Street itself takes its name from St Bridget, a 6th century Irish saint after whom the famous St Bride's Church on Fleet Street ...
Yes, you read that right. There is an interview in the Guardian today with the Tory MP for Mid Bedfordshire, Nadine Dorries. More on the rest of this interview in a minute as there are some gems which I cannot ...
Drug reform has long been the third rail of British politics. Nine years ago, a newly-elected Tory MP was able to write in The Guardian from the safety of backbench obscurity: 'I am an instinctive libertarian who abhors state prohibitions and tends to be sceptical of most government action, whether targeted against drug use or anything else.' It's hard to imagine David Cameron daring to repeat those words now he occupies Number 10. Yet the Lib Dems are preparing to move the debate centre-stage by recommending at this year's autumn federal conference the setting up of an independent inquiry into ...
I'm getting near the end of my rewatch of Old Who now, and I wondered to myself if I could have tried reading the various Doctor Who novels, novellas and annuals in parallel with watching the shows, in such a way that I could follow the continuous narrative all the way from An Unearthly Child to Survival. (I did in fact slot the annuals from 1966 to 1986 into my reading schedule as I watched the old stories.) Using the chronology here, and stripping out short stories, comics, and (with a slightly heavy heart) Big Finish audios, but adding in ...
Early indications are that the Sainsbury's and Morrison's applications for a fourth supermarket in Wadebridge will be heard by Cornwall Council's Strategic Planning Committee on 25th August. Sainsbury's have a slightly modified plan for the land around Higher Trenant while Morrison's are submitting an amended application for a smaller operation by Wadebridge Town Football Club's ...
You'll live just as long if you drink and smoke | TG Daily (tags: hahahahahaha) 6 Scientific Reasons Social Networks Are Bad for Society | Cracked.com Cracked is usually suspect, but I link to this purely for the following quote: "scientists were worried that Facebook is resurrecting more ancient sexism than a group of cheerleaders having a sleepover in Castle Dracula" Lessons Learned: Why diversity matters (the meritocracy business) An oldie but a goodie (tags: feminism) Record grooves under an electron microscope Can you tell I am emptying out my "things to link to" folder? (tags: cool art) A Muppet ...
Top notch news values from the British local press. Makes you want to stand up and sing the national anthem, doesn't it?
Its not often an article which seeks to promote the Liberal agenda gets to use Alan Sugar and Peter Stringfellow as case studies. But the millionaire duo, are, through no fault of their own, examples of all that is wrong with the approach successive governments have taken to welfare provision. As Lord Sugar explains, he receives, despite never having applied for it, the winter fuel allowance available to all people over the age of 60. The businessman even explains that he subsequently spent more than an hour on the phone trying to give the money back, only to be told ...
I am behind on the current series of Torchwood - did watch the first episode but have let it slip since then. I will hope to catch up when on holiday later this month. I guess I am also way behind with the books published to accompany the first two series of the show. I listened to the audio version of this, the first Torchwood novel, three years ago, and didn't quite get into it - John Barrowman's audio skills have come on a lot recently but he didn't really engage me in the story when I was listening to ...
S&P's statement on US downgrade "We have lowered our long-term sovereign credit rating on the United States of America to 'AA+' from 'AAA' and affirmed the 'A-1+' short-term rating. We have also removed both the short- and long-term ratings from CreditWatch negative. The downgrade reflects our opinion that the fiscal consolidation plan that Congress and ...
County may have fallen from their peak as a mid-championshipship-table club who could see off Man City to this year falling out of the League for the first time in 106 years, but can their new manager turn things around for the club? A good piece in the Guardian gives a flavour of what's to come. Hamann watches silently - becoming even more sharply observant during a training game as he works out which players may help him lift Stockport back into the Football League. A draining session ends with races and ropes before, over a lunch of white fish ...
An an 80s child, the Police Academy series of films were a rite of passage and I lapped them all up (well, apart from the final installment). The ludicrous characterisation of the main characters is what made the brand such a popular and long-lasting one. It was therefore with no small degree of sadness that I heard a few days ago that one of its giants, both literally and metaphorically speaking, has died aged just 66. Bubba Smith It can be far too easily forgotten that Charles Aaron 'Bubba' Smith was in fact first and foremost, a famed professional sportman ...
From Monday 15th August, there will be changes to the Friendly Bus - the shopping service for sheltered housing residents. The service will still run on a Tuesday in the West End (and on other days in other parts of the city) but the good news is that at last Richmond Terrace/Richmond Court finally has some bus provision - this will be a boon to several elderly residents there - and the Ancrum Place/Morven Terrace sheltered housing will now also be covered by the Friendly Bus. I have a meeting with the tenants at the Morven Terrace/Ancrum Place sheltered housing ...
The new Ministry of Sound 80s GROOVE 2 box collection is rather superb - and this - from Gladys Knight and the Pips from 1980 - is, in my view, the best track :
For centuries, until the Enlightenment I suppose, most societies lived in fear of their gods or god and felt the need to avert disasters by placating them, him, her or it in various bizarre ways. Today all societies are in thrall to "the markets." This is as irrational as sacrificing a bull, lamb, virgin or whatever in order to produce a good harvest. It is ludicrous that the welfare of millions, in Greece, the US, Europe generally, the developing world, should be put at risk, not by belief in an external force over which we have no control, but by ...
The Doctor Who Tube Map For the two of you who are interested and haven't seen this yet! (tags: doctorwho maps) A Black Sea voyage Taking a ferry from Ukraine to Georgia. (tags: ukraine georgia) Amazon App Store: Rotten To The Core Yet more appalling behaviour by Amazon. (tags: amazon) How do you solve a problem like maria? The best headline I've seen for this widely-posted story. (tags: astronomy) 50 Fun Things for Professors to Do on the First Day of Class This got quite a lot of comments when I posted it elsewhere, but for some reason forgot to ...
The BBC reveal that the irrepressible MP for North East Somerset, Jacob Rees Mogg is trying to close down a Twitter account set up in his name. Posting under the name of JakeReesMogg, the so-called imposter writes about politics and cricket amongst other subjects: Some of the tweets on the "JakeReesMogg" account, which has 1,498 followers, appear to parody the Old Etonian MP. One reads: "Our 3 year old killed a pheasant this morning, leaving me with a terrible dilemma: What does one do with an out of season bird?" Another tweet soon followed: "Probably worth pointing out that the ...
I'll be honest, I just wanted to use that headline. Full article:
The regular readers of this blog may have noticed that I haven't been writing about politics lately. To tell you the truth I was a little sick of it following the Scottish elections. If UK politics were like music scenes then I would say we were in the middle of a slightly crappy late 70′s ...
