It seems the reason that Nessie, the Loch Ness monster, remains undiscovered is that she may have taken up flying...
I last visited St Michael's Mount on 5th June 1968. How can I be so definitive about an event 43 years ago? – I hear you cry. Well, it was the day Robert Kennedy was shot. I was too young to remember the time JFK was shot, but I do remember Bobby Kennedy's shooting, and the bloke who killed him, Sirhan Sirhan, who is still alive (he shot a Kennedy in capital punishment-cautious California, rather than hang 'em high Texas, after all). Anyway, my return trip to St Michaels Mount was stunning. Without wishing to be too patronising, it's like ...
Welcome to Broxtowe Enews, brought to you by the Liberal Democrats and edited by David Watts, the leader of the Lib-Dems on Broxtowe Borough Council. 1. Planning Consultation As we're in the middle of August the news is fairly light this week, but can I start with something I raised last week, which is the consultation on where future building should take place in the borough. A number of people have commented that the consultation page on the borough council web site is not very clear or easy to use, and so to assist people I have put together a ...
Although I made a brief foray into the final TMA for SD226 while I was on holiday, it's only really been today that I've finally managed to get my teeth into it. I think it's gone all right – I've managed to complete both questions and submit my responses to the eTMA system as well! That's definitely a record for me – starting, finishing and submitting a TMA in a single day. The TMAs for SD226 have certainly been much more straightforward than for DD307. I need just 71% on this final TMA to ensure a continuous assessment (OCAS) score ...
I put my back out on Friday and haven't left the house since. It's been that bad that this is the first time I've been able to sit at my computer since Friday morning(which is unheard of if you know me well). Even more painful was having to watch the Coronation St omnibus as I could find nothing better to watch. Claire was out for the day so I had to fend for myself and my survival diet consisted of anything I could reach without bending down; cereals, toast and a pizza(pizza was quite a challenge as I had to ...
Research by the Lib Dems has revealed that Suffolk County Council has failed drastically to meet its own carbon emissions reduction target. The Conservative administration, which has been proclaiming its ambition to be the Greenest County for a number of years, originally set a target to reduce CO2 emissions by 4% per annum, which would lead to a total reduction of 60% by 2025. The Liberal Democrats wanted to the Council to set a higher target, in line with many other councils, and put forward a motion to the Council to sign up to the 10:10 agreement. This aimed to ...
A couple of years ago I wrote a post about the armoured train used on the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch, a narrow gauge line in Kent that still runs today, during World War II. What I did not know then is that footage of that train exists... britishrailways.tv
Bull Shark I know this isn't a political subject but I needed to talk about this. I want to say that the loss of Ian Redmond on honeymoon was tragic. My heart goes out to his widow, no one deserves to suffer a lose like that especially on honeymoon. I can't imagine what she is going through. However, I cannot condone the hunting down of the Bull Shark by a flotilla of spear fishermen who are looking for (as the BBC put it) shark or sharks responsible for two attacks over the last month. What? Sharks or sharks responsible? ...
Recently I've seen a large number of tweet moaning about "New" Twitter, whether it's the layout, lack of old style retweets, the constant pestering at the top that there are New Tweets for you to read. This surprises me, as I really didn't think anyone was still using the website to read twitter, but then checking nearly everyone has "via web" at the end of their tweets. So how do you avoid all these problems? Use a webclient instead. I'm going to recommend dab.argh, why? Because it's my webclient. It's a branch of dabr an open source project which was ...
The Yorkshire Ridings Society's North Riding Group raised £159. 50p for Redcar Lifeboat from sales of white roses. Events included the annual reading of the Yorkshire Declaration of Integrity on Yorkshire Day (1st August) in Redcar High Street. This year it was read by Chris Foote-Wood. "It is not as much as in previous years but considering the weather its not bad." said group secretary Mrs Nancy Hudson.
Ok, so I blatantly nicked that headline straight from George Orwell, but then he is the master of political writings so you can't really blame me right? Its Golden Dozen time again over on Lib Dem Voice and somehow I seem ...
A selection of other peoples thoughts that have stimulated the grey matter today Scientific American on why some people may just be born with a mathematical gift Chris Rennard on elections (what else!) and why it's too early to predict the next election Frances Coppola on managing financial collapse The Telegraph tell us of Hundreds of police officers caught illegally accessing the criminal records computer. And my 5* pick if the day Anna Raccoon's blog with a long overdue tribute to goalkeepers
A little while ago I blogged on the subject of Islam and the modern world, following the BBC series on Mohammed. This included some rather dismissive comments about Christianity, which I contrasted with Islam in some rather unfavourable ways, at least with regard to consistency. Unsurprisingly this annoyed a (Catholic) Christian reader, and we subsequently engaged in a prolonged Twitter conversation, mainly about the crusades. Twitter isn't a good medium to explain ideas, and I feel strangely compelled to explain myself properly, even though I am not going to persuade anybody to change their views. My point is this: I ...
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 235th 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 (14-20 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. Last night Jack ...
For someone who loves his history, being right in the heart of an historic event of a country can be something that really makes a holiday, and that was my experience when I visited Russia in August 1991. While the ... Continue reading →
The Evening Standard decided to extol the efforts of political blogging on Friday with their article entitled "Webminster" on Friday. As a review of political blogging, it seems to focus on the high-traffic, highly paid-for blogs which are led chiefly by the right, much like our press. There is also significant attention provided to Labour and Tory collaboration blogs, but none to Lib Dem Voice, the yellow version of the same. In addition to this, the article disregards other blogging forays such as the Huffington Post which gives cross party coverage and embraces all ranges of political bloggers. The focus ...
Yesterday was the 1960-70s, today we fast-forward to the 1980s... 1982 Liberal Party political broadcast (Available on YouTube here.) 1983 election: Party leaders on the campaign trail (incuding Roy Jenkins at 1:05) (Available on YouTube here.) 1983 election night coverage (following a big swing to the Liberals in Torbay, and featuring a Cyril Smith interview at 5:30) (Available on YouTube here.) The Alliance's 1987 Battle Bus (Available on YouTube here.)
Apologies for the lack of longer posts recently – I've been pretty much burned out. If you look back at my archives, I'm always rubbish in July and August. I'll be back at full strength soon. In the meantime, links: Jonathan at Liberal England asks "David Cameron: Is That All There Is?" A conversation in ...
After my blogpost earlier this week pondering the virtues of a community service scheme and wondering if it's totally illiberal to think it has some good points, I see the Prime Minister has suggested widening the scope of the current pilot schemes. Now, while my natural inclination to think anything David Cameron has to say about the riots is pretty much wrong headed to begin with, once again I have to say I think there is something in this idea. I think the fact that while every child after GCSE's would potentially get the chance to take part in the ...
It is right that the RAF has grounded all its Hawk aircraft until the cause of the tragic accident to a Red Arrow is established. However this must not be used as an excuse for the cost cutters and safety obsessives to disband the Red Arrows altogether. One Australia day c. 1995 my wife & I had the privilege of watching the Red Arrows perform over Sydney Harbour. Hundreds of thousands (well over half a million flank Sydney Harbour on that day & it's vast enough not to feel crowded!!) of God knows how many Nationalities were cheering & clapping ...
There are many good reasons not to read the Times, Rupert Murdoch being the most obvious. But one of that newspaper's best features for some years now has been the output of political cartoonist Peter Brookes. Like all the best of his breed, he is topical, irreverent and puts the boot in where it's needed. ...
Four years ago, David Cameron was on the run. The Conservatives had 'thrown the kitchen sink' into winning the Ealing Southall by-election in the summer of 2007 and they had raised expectations of a Tory victory based on the appointment of a well known local Asian businessman as 'David Cameron's Conservative candidate' in a seat with a lot of Conservative Councillors. But on polling day, the Conservatives not only failed to win the by-election (or even overtake the Lib Dems), but they fell from second place to third in the parliamentary by-election in Sedgfield following Tony Blair's resignation from Parliament. ...
I don't know who wrote David Cameron's article in today's Sunday Express, but the bit about "the establishment" sounds ridiculous. According to the Prime Minister's ghostwriter, "though it will mean taking on parts of the establishment, I am determined we get a grip on the misrepresentation of human rights." Who are the members of this "establishment" and how, precisely, do they stand in the way of our head of government and the things that he wants to do? It is a rhetorical flourish in the wrong direction, reminiscent of when Mr Cameron (in opposition) called for the Liberal Democrats and ...
Jerry Hayes over at the Coffee House has some nice quotes from Chris Mullin's new diaries. Insights into all your favourite new Labour figures are there including this snippet from a discussion Mullin had with an MOD official regarding the nuclear bunker. 'Have the Blairs been round?' 'Yes, they took a look at the Prime Minister's quarters.' 'And they were satisfied?' 'No, as it happens. Mrs Blair didn't like the décor. We had to redo it'. You couldnt make it up :-)
Since the riots we have seen extreme views from right and left of the commentary spectrum but somehow they don't meet in the middle. Dreadful events which took place. Families, organisations and businesses suffered enormously with desperately sad outcomes. While ... Continue reading →
Just over a week ago, I mentioned that I had raised with the City Council the poor state of the tennis courts at Victoria Park. I have already had constituents contact me to say how impressed they were with the council's speedy response to my request for improvements. I took a look myself this morning (see below) and its good to see the courts in a much better state now, with decent nets and proper line markings - so many thanks to the council's Environment Department for its prompt attention. At the tennis courts this morning!
The Mail on Sunday reports that Ed Miliband is behind secret moves to get more money for Labour by increasing the Councillors levy and "Labour's frontbench team has called for increases in wages paid to Councillors, which would benefit the party by resulting in an increase in the value of the new levy." This of course is the same Labour Party who claimed Redcar and Cleveland allowances were obscene yet still claimed every penny, promised there would be no increase in them then promptly increased them.
Apparently, John Hemming MP said: "...Smacking children rarely does any long-term harm but allowing children to grow up in an undisciplined manner is damaging for the child and society as a whole. Children have been placed on the child protection register for being smacked. This undermines discipline." Come on now Mr Hemming! ...
This is one of the first comedy programmes I remember watching on TV. It was aired from 1967 to 1969 in the afternoon on ITV. It starred several of the those who went on to be in the "Monty Python" team. It also had David Jason in it. You can see the origins of the Monty Python style very clearly here.
Was on the Tay Talk In on Tay AM this morning about the bus situation affecting the Number 4 service and the 4S school bus. Click 'play' to listen:
Nominations have opened for the Lib Dem Blog of the Year Awards 2011. This blog (and postings on it) are eligible for nomination in several categories, including: Best new Liberal Democrat blog (started since 1st September 2010 - my blog started in January 2011; I copied across older posts from my previous blog), Best posting on a Liberal Democrat blog (since 1st September 2010) and Liberal Democrat Blog of the Year. So this is your chance to nominate whatever you consider to be the best blogs and postings, including mine, should you wish to do so. It's very quick and ...
Yes, two reality tv posts in one day - but it's my blog and I'll write about trash if I want to. The return of the X Factor always makes me feel sad because it feels like Summer's over and we're on the home run to Christmas. It always seems to come back the week the schools go back up here, too. This year is the first season without Simon Cowell. Whatever you say about him and his squillions and his worrying obsession with personal appearance, his instincts about people's talent are usually good. He's popular and his absence from ...
Blair is acting like he is the leader of the opposition, and, quite shockingly, 'pwning' Cameron while doing so. This is, of course, the benefit of staying quiet for periods of time. Blair is no longer someone the journalists are calling, day-in, day-out, so has had the benefit of hindsight. Two weeks of reviews, arguments and dialogue or diatribe on our so-called disaffected youth, and he has chosen the best points to put forward as his own. Rather like Jeremy 'rent-an-opinion' Clarkson, Blair has, and I am loathe to say this, hit the nail on the head with his front ...
The recent phone hacking scandal has thrown into sharp relief a corrupt nexus: between media organisations (I use the plural advisedly) that consider themselves above the law; a craven police culture that makes it effectively so; and a body politic so in thrall to that same media power it's unable to distance itself from those responsible for illegal activity, much less hold the press to account. As enquiry after enquiry ensues, we seek the reform of the press, of the police and of politics, the need for which has rarely been clearer; we must also seek to strike a balance ...
With thanks to Stephen Tall and Mark Pack for putting this on Youtube and LibDem Voice. The simple, newsy style and hard hitting messages - plus what would now be called 'celebrity' endorsements - or vox pops - make this far better than anything I've seen since. In February 1974 the Liberal party polled just under 20% of the vote across the country - despite fielding candidates in only 80% of seats - almost equivalent to the the 23% scored by the party in 2010. Just 14 Liberal MPs were returned in the hung Parliament.
This Monday I'm going back to uni to resit an exam. I'm also going to be resitting another exam on Tuesday. Unfortunately, like most politically active students, I'm afraid I spent a little too much time politicking and not quite enough time revising. In fact, as it happens, a lot of my fellow politically active young people can be heard voicing the common refrain of "I would have got a first if it hadn't been for politics!" The exam I'm resitting on Monday is for the module Electronics VI and I have to confess I probably revised it the least ...
Translation of video: With this weapon, I either kill or die today, you will not take al-Libiyah channel. You won't take Jamahiriyah channel, Shababiyah channel, Tripoli or all of Libya, and even those without a weapon are willing to be a shield in order to protect their colleagues at this channel. We are willing to ...
You may well not come up with the same answers as me, but I hope you find the five questions I asked myself useful whilst deciding how to order the candidates for the Electoral Reform Society's council: 1. Does an inability to produce a good written manifesto matter? Some of the them are obviously very poor, a fair number are rather sloppy and a good number are deceptively bad (they look good at first glance but ask yourself five minutes later what distinctive reason to vote for the candidate you can recall). For me this is an important factor because ...
The address is technically Serpentine Road, Hyde Park, London, W2 2UH though the location is easiest to describe and visualise as right-hand end of the Serpentine, bottom-right corner of Hyde Park. It has unusually low chairs inside. You can see all my cafés with view in London here and also in my Foursquare list.
On the sleeve of Jethro Tull's Songs from the Wood (1977), Ian Anderson sat, a Robin Hood brewing a cauldron at his forest hearth; their follow-up, Heavy Horses, pictured shire horses harnessed for farm labour.The romance of time travel had tipped over into outright Luddism.Rob Young's Electric Eden does not have a lot of time for Jethro Tull's folk-rock period, but when I was in the sixth form I thought these were just about the best albums ever. Then a strange thing happened. I bought another Tull LP - Repeat: The Best of Jethro Tull, Vol. 2 - and it ...
It's only been four years since Tony Blair resigned as Prime Minister (somehow it seems longer) — and he's back today with an opinion piece for The Observer on the underlying causes of the riots, 'Blaming a moral decline for the riots makes good headlines but bad policy'. Here are 5 thoughts on his article: 1) Mr Blair remains the ultimate triangularist Witness the oxymoronic opening line: 'Both David Cameron and Ed Miliband made excellent speeches last week and there was much to agree with in what they said.' First, no they didn't; neither speech rose to the occasion. Nick ...
The news that Ofgem is to bring in forensic accountants to scrutinise how the Big Six energy suppliers calculate their profits is very welcome. The Sunday Telegrpah says that Ofgem made the appointment last week after growing concern that the Big Six may be attempting to appear less profitable in their retail divisions as they look to justify higher prices. They add that the new investigation by BDO will investigate the hedging practices, trading profits and wholesale prices paid by the companies: In March, Ofgem published a review of the retail market and later queried the transparency of five of ...
This isn't an easy thing to admit in polite company, but I've been sucked into watching Celebrity Big Brother. I'd forgotten it was starting on Thursday night and had been catching up on Torchwood. I had, honestly, intended to watch News at Ten, but saw CBB listed on the planner and decided to watch it, just for a few minutes, to see who was going in. I have always liked new host Brian Dowling, ever since he won the second series a whole decade ago, although, inexplicably, the Channel 5 budget doesn't seem to stretch to a suit in his ...
Google's Official List of Bad Words | F.A.T. (tags: censorship google)
The story in the Guardian this morning about government plans to increase social housing rents by 80% once again show that the Conservatives in government have no real interest in helping the poorest members of our society. Saying you want to ...
ALDC (the Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors and Campaigners) has made an excellent change in its communication plan for members. Instead of some of the previous mailings, all ALDC members are being sent several short free books each year. My enthusiasm for this is of course in no way related to the fact that book number one, being posted out currently, is one I've co-written with Shaun Roberts called "Campaigning In Your Community". It is a short guide to campaigning in your community, with a distinctive community politics angle, for everyone from those starting from scratch through to councillors with ...
Sun 21st
09:53
A very young Gerald Howarth (now a Tory MP) questioning Jeremy Thorpe on a show hosted by Jimmy Savi...
You couldn't make it up. Looks like about 1974 vintage.
A fascinating account of a shadowy historical figure of varying spellings, an exact contemporary of Elizabeth I, who appears to have used her own resources to prey on shipping along the Atlantic seaboard of Ireland; it's difficult to be sure what is fact and what is fiction - did she really give birth on board one of her own ships, and then a few hours later struggle to the deck to take pot-shots at Algerian raiders? did she really kidnap the son of the Earl of Howth in retribution for a failure of hospitality? - but it adds up to ...
Written in 1980, with storylines set in 1962-63 and 1998, this is a scientists' sf novel, the future 1998 world facing ecological and social catastrophe and its physicists trying to communicate with their predecessors to prevent it from happening. As a Cambridge NatSci graduate I loved the visceral detail of the decaying 1998 setting, though Benford failed to predict one element of real life decay, the extinction of independent bookshops - he still has Bowes and Bowes open and staffed by attractive young women, when in real life I think it closed in the early 90s. But it's a bit ...
Ron Paul has been a thorn in the side of the Republican establishment over Iraq for many a long year now. With this in mind I wasn't surprised when a new video popped up in a Facebook friends news feed. It is a very well produced video highlighting his views on the Iraqi war coupled with clips of historic speeches and quotes. What is interesting is that he (his campaign) is claiming the video has been banned and his account has been deleted from you tube. Whether this is true or not I have no doubt that this has helped ...
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending WestFest's WestFiesta BBQ at the Vine. It was a well-organised and enjoyable afternoon and good to speak with local residents who attended. You can see the latest WestFest updates on their Facebook page at http://tinyurl.com/westfestfacebook.
Full stats are here. Best Novel: Blackout/All Clear, Connie Willis (beating Feed, which got the most first preferences, by 24 votes on last count; The Dervish House came fifth, though the honours were fairly evenly divided, third place going to Cryoburn by a six-vote margin over The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms) Best Novella: The Lifecycle of Software Objects, Ted Chiang (a pretty clear result: the others, in order, ranked 2) "Troika", 3) "The Lady...", 4) "The Sultan...", 5) "The Maiden Flight...") Best Novelette: "The Emperor of Mars", Allen M. Steele (again a clear result with clear rankings for the others: 2) ...
My throat's been getting sorer each morning and I'm increasingly feeling like I'm getting The Fringe Cold. Alternatively, it could just be from performing every day, although it's not like I'm doing an hour-long show. I mean, I am, but I only speak for about 15 minutes of it. I've failed to go to the gym so far this week so, despite my malady, I dragged myself down to Holyrood Park for a run. I only managed a mile before slinking back home and then heading out for a fried breakfast. This weekend is more than making up for my ...
It's not often I agree with Tony Blair - but his comments on the riots in the Observer (if the Beeb report is accurate) seem spot on. Blair pointed to a group of people 'outside the social mainstream and who live in a culture at odds with any canons of proper behaviour'. 'Focus on the specific problem and we can begin on a proper solution' 'Elevate this into a highfalutin wail about a Britain that has lost its way morally and we will depress ourselves unnecessarily, trash our own reputation abroad, and worst of all, miss the chance to deal ...
