This special resolution, requiring 75% of members' vote, asks to remove single transferable vote and in its place ask for a proportional system. It justifies this for several reasons; STV is AV in multiple constituences and AV was rejected The arguments were successful against AV, so would be for STV It is easier to find
I have been trying to write a post over the weekend arguing against the idea that the families of those convicted (apparently merely charged in some cases) of offences to do with last weeks riots should be evicted if they live in social housing. Because I have not been well, this post never quite happened, but my basic argument would have been that, though I am something of a hawk when it comes to punishing rioters, it is unjust for one social class to be punished more heavily than another for the same offence. No middle-class family would lose its ...
This is a really self-indulgent post. When I want to write a short story and have no proper ideas, I force myself to sit down and write single-sentence story premises, as quickly as possible, without stopping until I either get to a hundred or come up with one that I think works. I then save ...
Three years ago I wrote about the wonderful Polly Bolton. I was looking for a Dando Shaft track that featured her, but I liked this one best. The band must have recorded it before she joined them. The loose, rhythmic guitar playing put me in mind of Nick Drake. I turned to Electric Eden, hoping to that Rob Young had written about them, but they get only a passing mention. But I did find that he now has a blog called Electric Eden too.
Just found this while looking through some of the drafts of my fiction. I've got no idea where the story was going, but I quite like what there is of it... Birthright It is unacceptable that in these politically correct times, we cannot even talk about the very real problems caused by mass birth, without ...
There's a particularly energetic Sunday newspaper circulation war going on at the moment. They're all fighting to grab ex-News of the World readers. Well done, then, to the Sunday Express for making a big play for the cab driver ex-readers of the NOTW (with profuse and genuine apologies to any liberal cab drivers). "BRING BACK NATIONAL SERVICE" screams their main headline today: RIOT yobs should be packed off to the Army to prevent more terror on the streets, say an overwhelming majority of Britons They want National Service brought back to save a "lost generation" of teenage thugs from a ...
The ongoing argument between Cameron and Tory Cabinet Ministers and the Police is nothing short of childish mindgames. The Government is attempting to score points and win support, and attempting to establish the old Tory 'tough on crime' image, whilst the Police are grasping at straws to restore the public's confidence in them. My father ...Read More
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 234th weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere ... Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (7-13 August, 2011), together with a hand-picked quintet, normally courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed. Don't forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox — just click here — ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging. As ever, let's start with the most popular post, and work our way down: 1. I've just asked ...
Oh yes it is. I can't pretend that I wasn't ever so slightly excited when I saw the big brown package waiting for me in the post on Friday morning. I've been waiting for it for a few days now and what it signifies is that we are now on the cusp of the autumn party conference season. I explained quite comprehensively here last September, why I enjoy attending Liberal Democrat conferences so much. It really does feel like a family environment to me. Politics is an intense environment and it is comforting at times to be in the likeminded ...
Church Road will be closed to through traffic from Greenways Road to Lawns Road for carriageway resurfacing this week, from Tuesday 16 August to Friday 19 August.
Last week I wrote about how misguided David Cameron's talk of banning use of social media in an effort to stop future riots was, and that it was more a matter of some politicians looking to blame the communications channels they themselves are least familiar with: The number of communication technologies in the firing line is far short of the number involved in the events. Rolling TV coverage gave the events wall-to-wall coverage. National newspapers took the story to mass audiences well beyond the reach of a news channel. Numerous rioters were spotted talking into their mobile phones. Calls in ...
It's official I chose a good day of test cricket for my only day at a ground this year - the day England officially reached the number one spot in the ICC test rankings (the rankings will update once the series is over). I honestly didn't think I would see the day. Having followed cricket since the early 90's I grew up with an England team based around players such as Atherton, Stewart, Thorpe, Gough, Caddick, Hussain, as well as my personal favourites of Cork and Knight. This team often produced good days of test cricket and in a one ...
I happen, by fortunate accident of birth, to be a Scot. I am also a European with an internationalist, rather than nationalist, outlook. I am an advocate of the European Union as an institution, although my sympathies do not necessarily extend to the bureaucratic way in which the EU conducts itself or its centralising ethic. However, I have an interest in European issues and make attempts to gain a level of understanding of such matters above what may be gleaned from the British media. I have recently been considering the thought-provoking recommendations of Austrian journalist Hans Rauscher, a writer of ...
The perennial problem of Ridgmont Road – Network's Rail's untidy and easily dismantled closure – is a step closer to being solved. Chris wrote to Network Rail and they are now talking to Herts Highways about some sort of permanent solution. Whether anything will actually come of this remains to be seen. Note: this road is anomalous, since the part from the barrier to Grosvenor Road is public highway, while the stretch from the barrier to Victoria Street belongs to Network Rail, who close it unilaterally to save on the cost of potholes.
... Emma! [IMG: OU 2012 Fees Banner] I knew prices were going through the roof, didn't expect them to reach another planet though Thanks to everyone who entered. A £5 Amazon gift certificate is winging its way to Emma by email. (Well, I did say it was a very small prize ...)
It's been a glorious day in Cardigan. The town centre today hosted its 2nd annual Welsh National Criterium Championship as a part of a day of Cardigan Street Racing. We've had hundreds of locals and tourists in the centre of town watching up and coming youngsters and top quality street racers strutting their stuff in an ubber competitive environment. See below some photos of the event that I took from around the challenging town centre circuit during the course of the afternoon. It's been a good day for Cardigan. Well done to the competitors for putting on such a great ...
Searching back rough my family history timeline, I am often fascinated and ddistracted it has to be said, by some of the more colourful characters in my family tree. One such character is Alexander Popham who was born at Littlecote House ...
It's been interesting this week to see just how many Conservative politicians and commentators turn out to be what one might call 'fair-weather fiscal conservative Conservatives'. Many of those who have been talking for years about the 'bloated' state and ... Continue reading →
A lot has been said about twitter and other social media sites over the past few days. Most of it has been absolute rubbish and some of it has made me feel incredibly sad and disappointed in the way that ...
On Wednesday I was fortunate enough to hear two very promising young Swedish singers in recital. The recital programme is a homage to two of Sweden's greatest classical singers: Jenny Lind (1820-1887) and Jussi Björling (1911-1960), so it was fitting ... Continue reading →
Before anyone gets all "oh god here goes Spidey on a rant about someone who has wronger her", its not that, so calm down. I've not been on Twitter much these last couple of days. Yesterday I drove over to ...
The Bishop of Manchester, the Right Reverend Nigel McCulloch thinks that the riots last week were a result of a "me-first" society and he hopes that "there'll be at least some recognition of the serious and relentless erosion of public ...
My second Saturday in Edinburgh was a day of three halves. The shows I was going to were front-loaded, so by half four I'd seen Finger Mice, Jollyboat and Max and Iván Are... Holmes and Watson. Holmes and Watson is extremely fun with Max and Iván turning in very physical performances to portray the full cast of characters. I'd seen earlier versions of the first half in preview in London and it was great to see how it had developed into the finished show, and to find out how it ended. My reward for following the instructions to fill the ...
Natasha Reid, a 24 year old graduate, was in McDonalds in Enfield on Sunday night. She noticed that Comet was being looted, and went in and helped herself to a £270 television. There is no suggestion that she caused any damage, or was violent in any way. She realised that what she had done was wrong, and handed herself in to the police. She has been found guilty, and will be sentenced on 1 September. District judge Elizabeth Roscoe told her that her remorse would 'very much go in your favour' but warned that she could still face prison because ...
One of the most interesting features of the recent riots and their aftermath is how few people were actually arrested while in the process of committing offences compared to how many have subsequently been arrested after the event, having been ... Continue reading →
Sun 14th
14:05
more on: Time for more radical measures-our economic /industrial policy lacks hope and vision
Politics does not 'smell of hope and generosity' as it should for Liberals. The coalition policies for sustainable growth are predicated on a financing model that was -in large part -the cause of the market collapse that we are suffering. No generation of Liberals in the last century would have left out of their plans the radical restructuring of the ownership and control in industry. It is a prerequisite for sustainable growth as well as a crucial policy in spreading wealth, democracy and power in society. As the resolution passed at the Liberal Joint Assembly of 1968 (reproduced below) asserts; ...
Politicians postering for the upper ground in the aftermath of the riots which spread up and down the UK are making ridiculous suggestions to deal with somef of the perpetrators. Perhaps the most ludicrous is the suggestion that any council ...
Isn't it amazing how modern dialogue is so comfortable with 180º turns from one sentence to the next? Try this bit of verbal gymnastics from Ed Miliband: I deeply regret that inequality wasn't reduced under the last Labour government. But we did great things to tackle inequality in our society. - Ed Miliband, on Radio 4′s Today programme It's like the old "I'm sorry you feel that way" non-apologetic apology. That deliberately changes the subject from what the speaker actually did to your feelings. Similarly, Ed quickly shifts from Labour's actual achievements to doing "great things"! This is nitpicking, I ...
Sun 14th
13:44
Letter to Tim Farron & Nick Clegg; Don't allow evictions or Government attacks on liberty.
Dear Nick and Tim, I trust you are both well and that your holidays, however brief, were good. I'm writing to you concerning a worrying injustice that has begun taking place in the wake of the horrific civil disorders that struck our nation. I should make clear from the beginning that I am in no way an apologist for what has occurred and believe unswervingly in the rule of law and order. However evicting people from council housing is not the justice of the twenty-first century - rather it wreaks of the vengeful eighteenth century landlord evicting tenants they don't ...
Bill Walker MSP seems to have parted company with his senses of reason and proportion this week. The SNP MSP for Dunfermline is one of three MSPs to support John Mason's "equal marriage" motion, which is homophobic in the sense that it appears to support maintaining sexual orientation as a barrier to legal equality. However, Mr Wilson went further than Mr Mason's expressed sentiments, informing a local newspaper that he found gay marriages to be "a contradiction in terms" and that "anything that puts homosexual relationships as any way equal to male-female marriages is just not right". Some of his ...
Mark Pack has been going through his conference documents and over on the MHP blog he has highlighted the bits that are likely to be most controversial and/or interesting. Here's just a sample of what Mark has picked out: An early chance to catch the mood of the party will be the session on Saturday morning looking back on May's elections and AV referendum. Unhappiness is to be expected. What to watch out for is who speaks out and where their comments are directed. A common theme is likely to be the need for the party to present itself as ...
Why does everything have to be 'a row'? Newspapers are obsessed with reporting any signs of debate as signs of division. My party's Deputy Leader, Simon Hughes, has written a very good Observer article in which he utters not a word of direct criticism of the Conservative/Liberal Democrat Coalition Government and in which he says much that others (of all parties and of none) have been saying all week, as well as offering much that is original. He writes: "I said publicly that the police should be allowed to use water cannon and curfews. Liberal Democrats feel as strongly as ...
Last weeks riots in most people's view were about nothing else than the manifest greed and lack of morals of a small minority of yoofs. However it seems that Labour, are rapidly moving from the consensus of blatant criminality, I suggest you follow the link to this Guardian article no surprise reading this you will find it follows the new Labour theory, that cuts are to blame. Most people including Labour were of the opinion that criminals were to blame less than a week ago. Since jobs concerns are at the forefront of new theory I wonder how Clive Hart ...
Sun 14th
12:03
Bring Back National Service............and the Birch........and Zero Tolerance..........and David Bl...
The past week has seen a cornucopia of opinion and counter opinion in relation to the shocking events that swept so many cities in this country. From Melanie Phillips blaming the "liberal intelligentsia" (Melanie darling you are SO last season!) or the delightful Nadine Dorries citing the "moral vacuum"....ah yes dear, so that's what you are blaming for your own lack of moral fortitude is it? Now let's check out your alleged behaviour - hmmmm, adultery, lying and stealing? Not bad to be going on with. But of course, you haven't been caught looting Louboutins from Selfridges, no you were ...
There is an interesting story about the police use of ANPR technology during the riots. It appears they have been identifying those with previous convictions and stopping them entering the city by car. It is worth noting that that ANPR technology can only identify number plates of cars. If someone with a conviction is driving in a different car, not linked to them through DVLA registration information they would not be picked up. Also if they are a passenger in someone else's car they would not be detected. From the report it appears that anyone with a previous convictions was ...
In this chapter, the Crusades continue for almost two hundred years, as the Christian outposts in the Eastern Mediterranean dwindle and eventually disappear - some good descriptions of the eventual falls of Jerusalem, Louis IX and Acre. (The end of the Fourth Crusade is left for the next chapter.) See also comments on Bernard of Clairvaux's penis, Pope Innocent III, the Kurds, colonialism, and the emperor Frederick II.
If anything depressed me after a truly depressing week, it was the Beeb's Young Person's Question Time. I suspected it would be utter, utter balls before I watched it, having seen clips of previous editions, but never did I suspect ... Continue reading →
I wake up this morning to find the President of that unaccountable private company ACPO, Sir Hugh Orde, and the police federation shouting Hell and damnation from every media outlet whilst slamming the government. You would have thought by their strident tones that Cameron had ordered the police to stop tracking down the perpetrators of the disorder or had sacked the entire senior management of the Met. Instead, he's asked A career law enforcement professional to advise the government on gang crime. The problem ( from their point if view) seems to be that he's American. In a stunningly frank ...
Remember the other day I was having a wee moment of despair that our MPs, while not putting a foot wrong and being eminently sensible, weren't really getting across our values in the aftermath of the riots. Well, two of them did. Unfortunately Jo Swinson wasn't called to speak in the debate in Parliament, but she's published the speech she would have given over on Liberal Democrat Voice. I was really impressed by her passionate defence of young people, and her demonstration that social networking was actually a force for good during the riots and that we should be careful ...
The events of the last few days have been alarming and have raised many questions about our society. If you're like me, you're still trying make sense of the violence that we've seen in communities across England. As the leading independent voice for voluntary and community groups working with young people, my organisation has been inundated with calls and messages from our members expressing concern about the impact of the riots on young people, their image in the media and the programmes that are needed to support them. There's no escaping the fact that young people have been involved in ...
I thought I would share this with anyone who is interested. This is from a CD Santa Milongo by Argentine singer Daniel Melingo. It is my newest CD and already a red hot favourite with loads of amazing songs by one of the coolest singers around. And what a voice!
This morning's Observer records the growing row within the coalition as to how to deal with the hundred plus people who were arrested and charged with offences following last week's English riots. They record that the Liberal Democrats are pressing hard for an end to "kneejerk" reactions by politicians and are warning that stripping those involved of their benefits could worsen crime on the streets. Quite rightly, Deputy Leader, Simon Hughes is insisting that long-term solutions lie in supporting communities by offering opportunities and redistributing wealth, not slashing help from the state and cutting taxes for the rich: Writing in ...
With all the newspapers dominated by the very serious consequences of the riots of which, more later, it is little wonder that many of them are heralding the end of the silly season. After all, what news editor even has room for the traditional holiday fillers? The Wales on Sunday is no exception with columnist, David James pronouncing that "The silly season - beloved by tabloid newspapers, growers of unusually shaped vegetables and the owners of humungous pets - has died." How fortunate then that Wales' very own Sunday paper has the exclusive on such hard news stories as "Henson ...
The Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Member for South Wales West, Peter Black, will be holding advice surgeries next week. He will be in Maesteg Library on Friday 19th August from 2pm to 3pm and then be available at Port Talbot Central Library from 3.30pm to 4.30pm. No appointment is necessary.
Nick Clegg spoke to party members yesterday (Saturday) in Liverpool and Manchester, discussing last week's riots and their aftermath. His speech featured the announcement that the Government is commissioning independent research into the riots, (including research into gang culture) and cautions against "overnight policy" and "instant announcements". Nick's speech in full: This has been a traumatic week. Traumatic for the nation; for police forces around the country; and above all for the innocent victims who have lost their homes, their livelihoods and even, in the most tragic cases, their lives. The images of burning buses, looted shops and wrecked homes ...
Good thing someone thought to put this up.
Ever heard of Jim Croce? Me neither. But on being a rather avid listener to Magic FM at home when there's nothing worth watching on the TV, I've come to hear his voice with a growing regularity. Magic FM does have a tendency to play the same playlist of songs on what feels like a loop but then I like the songs that come up so I shouldn't really compain. Jim Croce One of those that pops up keenly and which I've really grown to like is Jim Croce's 'I'll Have to Say I Love You in a Song'. For ...
Taking its title from Rudyard Kipling's famous poem, this book by Conservative MP Andrew Murrison is rather a mixed bag. There is much that is interesting and thoughtful in his study of how wider society views and treats the military in Britain, but that is rather let down by a meandering structure which results in some topics being returned to frequently, the flow within many chapters being unclear and indeed the actual origins of the military covenant being largely unmentioned. We get a little detail of who first wrote the words and when, but almost nothing about what triggered the ...
This pretty much sums up the reactions of large swathes of talking head commentators over the last week: When I look back to what I've read about previous riots in London over the centuries, when I look at corruption scandals or financial collapses, it really does put into perspective how lucky we are and have been. I mean, seriously, riots across all of London, very few killed[1] and the London murder rate actually goes down?. Total deaths nationally five, including three men run down by a car. The bankers are finally brought down, not by deliberate deceit, not by active ...
Liberal Democrat Fire Authority members have launched a petition against cuts in front-line fire emergency services. The petition is in response to plans by fire chiefs in Cambridgeshire for £6 million of cuts to the fire service budget of the Conservative-controlled authority. The petition can be signed on-line or can be printed off in order to collect further signatures and will be presented to the Fire Authority at its meeting in October. Opposition Leader on Cambridgeshire Fire Authority, Councillor Nigel Bell said: "I urge people in the county to sign this petition to oppose the plans for cuts in front-line ...
Further to my recent article about flooding across Balgay Road, I have received the following feedback from Dundee City Council : "The Road Maintenance Partnership inspector has checked the gully at this area of flooding on Balgay Road and has cleared debris from the gully grating which allowed the remaining standing water to drain away. The gully appeared to be running effectively. However he will continue to monitor it during his regular inspections."
I had a thoroughly enjoyable time yesterday at the community barbeque in Kelso Street and on the Elliot Road playing fields (with the council's permission) organised by the residents of Kelso Street, Kelso Place and Jedburgh Road and was very grateful for the kind invitation. It was a great example of community spirit and residents getting together so many thanks to Sarah and the other organisers!
james_nicoll: Have a pretty video Asteroid discoveries from 1980 to 2011 (tags: astronomy)
As a result of their free membership offer, I joined the ERS in July, and received my ballot papers for their Council elections yesterday morning. Several people I know, including two old friends and a few new ones, are competing for my vote. So I need to think it through and prioritise people. One of the candidates, Chris Carrigan, has written some notes on the elections on the Reform groups site, which was founded in large part by activists heavily involved in the Yes referendum campaign who were very disgruntled with central leadership. I, broadly, shared those worries and concerns, ...
There's a great comment piece by the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Simon Hughes for today's Observer. The comment piece comes as a response to the recent English riots. Read the comment piece here:
