The controversy surrounding the eviction of Irish Travellers of Dale Farm demonstrates the tension between equality before the law and the human rights of 400 people living at the site. Predictably the majority are on the side of the law and opinions are as far apart as possible. Many feel aggrieved that a certain ethnic group that has popularly been cast as inherently criminal could have more rights than them when it comes to planning and housing. If one group is advantaged, then it strikes against the notion of equality before the law. When the United Nations Special Rapporteur on ...
(I don't read nearly enough cover to cover, though the blessing that is Kindle is helping me get back into the habit. I should of course add that Sean is a friend, but I did actually purchase the book with my own money, so this is an honest, if slightly humourous appraisal...) I finished The Churchill Memorandum at half past one this morning as I was waiting for my Mises Academy lecturer to take to my vid-screen to teach me about Rothbardian factor pricing.. A jolly good read all told. I started it yesterday morning at seven o'clock and didn't ...
There are three interesting early 19th century graves in the churchyard at Bishop's Castle. There is the grave of Matthew Marston, the "Honest Burgess", who refused to exploit his position in the days when the town was a notorious Rotten Borough and died in 1802. There is the grave of I.D., "a native of Africa", who died at Bishop's Castle in 1801. And there is the grave of Lieutenant Colonel Louis Paces, a Napoleonic officer who died whilst a Prisoner of War at Bishop's Castle in 1814. Local legend has it that the French prisoners enjoyed a form of parole, ...
Two recent changes have triggered the production of a new version of the London tube (plus London Overground) map: the opening of the latest (and most likely last for the foreseeable future) extension of the DLR plus the creation of an additional version of the "step free access" wheelchair logo. This means that the Tube map now distinguishes between stations with step free access to trains and stations where the step free access only extends as far as the platforms but you will have a step up or down to the trains themselves. You may have noticed the two versions ...
Some final adjustments still to come but these results are not expected to change much either way. Excellent Results from Ysgol Aberconwy. I wonder if the BBC will cover this story?? Well done to all involved.
Tonight, after my weekly surgery at Blackness Primary School, I attended the Board meeting of Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA). There were useful updates on DCA's community and education work and by Creative Scotland, and it was also good to learn that DCA is progressing towards Investors in People accreditation. The Board meeting was extremely positive and highlights the dynamism of this world-class centre for the development and exhibition of contemporary art and culture based in the West End of Dundee.
From an editorial in tomorrow's Financial Times:It is entirely right for ministers to care about business. But if the government is really concerned about smaller companies being squeezed, there are things it can do to help. If all else failed, it could simply subsidise them directly. But delaying bank reform will neither give businesses more credit, nor create the growth to help them prosper again.
Oh good grief, is there anything more frustrating for a blogger than when you spend hours on a blog post, hit 'save', only to start up the next day to find an empty screen? Bad form, WordPress. There isn't even a revision history to choose from. ANYWAY, Ladies and Gentlemen, shall we talk about Leonardo? I feel I've bored a lot of people on Twitter, chat and real life with my love for this show recently, but I'm sure I haven't mentioned it on blog. Which is a terrible shame, because as far as historical inaccurate British children's TV dramas ...
Dan Hodges on Labour Uncut describes Shaun Woodward's memo on Labour strategy as "a sort of stamped and self-addressed Zinoviev letter".
I've been involved in quite a few football related protests in my time. I've turned my back on play. I've sat in the away end. I've blown up and released black balloons to drift across the pitch. I've proposed motions on fan ownership at party conference and lobbied MPs to support the fan ownership advocates. I've stood outside the ground as my team played inside. I've written for the 'alternative matchday magazine' which outsold the official programme five to one. But I've never heard of the playing staff going on strike before. Sure, you get the occasional prima donna in ...
In an article that arrived too late to be included in the Conference issue of Liberator, The Potter Blogger writes about "the utterly disgusting way in which sick and disabled people are treated in this country". Martin Williams on Liberal Conspriacy reveals that local authorities across Britain are paying a fortune to private security companies to police public meetings. "In one case, Portsmouth Council called in a private security company to a total of 31 public meetings between 2009-2010. They explained it was because "Protesting and placards etc are not allowed at public meetings." The Rambles of Neil Monnery marks ...
Thu 1st
20:32
State of the Nation: Mike Beckett's thoughts on Economics, Public Policy and Social Policy going for...
An informal discussion document - Sept 2011 As things change the Big Society seems to be the answer to all our social ills and to fill all the gaps. I think this is an extension of what the voluntary and community sector has been doing for years. However while in my opinion there is enough volunteers available, the management of the volunteers requires funding and with the contractions in funding I foresee more charity mergers and contrary to the localism ideals I see local autonomy increasing moving towards larger structures with substantial funding and away from small purpose built indigenous ...
...but what saddens me the most is that he is my MP Jonathan Lord here in Woking. I recently wrote to him asking his view on Nadine Dorries' amendment which aims to restrict the right of women's right to choose ...
The Lib Dem's initial budget proposals for 2012/13 have been published, as the start of a three month consultation. The agenda for next Monday's Executive meeting (open to all, come to Stockport Town Hall, 6pm on Monday) has all the information. It includes various different items, some budget related and others not: Proposal to set up a new Community Hub at Woodbank Nursery where community organisations can come and work together. HCA Affordable Homes Framework Medium Term Financial Plan (this sets out where the Council is now financially, and the savings we need to make over the next few years). ...
The animal rights organisation GAIA has taken out full-page ads in the Brussels free-sheets today, calling on all men to abstain from wearing underpants on 9 September (slogan: "Let 'em hang out"), in solidarity with castrated piglets. (I kid you not.) I must say that I cannot think of many campaign techniques which would be less visible to non-campaigners.
Thu 1st
19:12
Sports-based training for young people - Chance to meet an England player - Chorlton Leisure Centre
I've recently been informed of a programme Youth On Solid Ground (www.yosg.org.uk) are running for young people in conjunction with FC Utd, a semi professional football team. The purpose of the project is to provide an opportunity for young people to get a qualification in a supportive context in an activity which engages them. Youth On Solid Ground hope that young people will, on completion of the course, move onto employment, an apprenticeship or more formal and demanding training courses. Youth On Solid Ground are now recruiting young people to the programme. The programme is aimed at young people who ...
Thursday: I may be a little slow, but I'm not quite sure why the triangle conspiracy need to engineer a Miracle in order to achieve their aim of segregating people into categories of alive and dead when, well, death was achieving that pretty well on its own. Still, I'm not a sinister geometric figure so what do I know. It's difficult to describe this as "enjoyable" given that - spoilers - it concludes by incinerating Torchwood's only decent character, but it's certainly the best episode so far this series. If you'll forgive me, this is where the series caught fire. ...
I've written before about the poor quality of the debate over the UK's budget deficit, about what actually caused the deficit and about why there is really no alternative economic policy to the one now being pursued. Unfortunately, the deficit ... Continue reading →
Come to Stockport on Saturday for the first Stockport Festival. Led by businesses, retailers and store owners, the festival has a host of things to do and see around the town centre and, if that wasn't enough, there's free parking all day in the town centre Council-owned car parks and the on-street parking. Why not come along.
This was the Daily Express's frontpage on November 2nd 2007. This myth has been circulated in our mainstream media for the last four years. There are more examples here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. Oh and here: It is total nonsense. The 'maths' to make this myth work is basically equivalent to saying 2 - 2 = 4. Thankfully, Left Foot Forward has today brilliantly destroyed this argument by doing the same calculation with disabled people.They took 219% of all new jobs last year!
Council officers will tomorrow be distributing leaflets about opportunities for residents to have their say over the future of Hexham Road Community Centre and also to hear the findings of a recent survey of residents living on the estate. Both meetings will be held at the Community Centre. Meeting Details: Monday 5th September 7pm-9pm Friday 9th September 11-1pm The meetings are being held to discuss: Hexham Community Association 15th Anniversity - Find out about the Centre's plans to hold 15 events throughout the next twelve months. Do you have an idea about what one of these events could be? If so ...
This is my twelth monthly round-up of blog figures for anyone who is remotely interested in who reads my little blog. These stats for the month of August come courtesy of google analytics. Summer Disruption The problem this month however, is that I'm not going to give the detailed stats as I have had 'malfunctions' with the google analytics link to my blog. It is in fairness my fault. During the month, having passed the 100,000 pageviews milestone, I decided to give my blog a make-over and therefore freshened it up with a whole new look and new local links. ...
Fellow Liberal Democrat blogger George Potter has asked the blogging community to share this post on sickness benefits as widely as possible. Please make sure every single Liberal Democrat conference voting representative knows about this as we need them to go and back his motion at Conference on the Saturday at 4.15 in the afternoon. I've reproduced George's article in full below. Please spread the word as there are a lot of very sick people out there relying on us to fight for them. Labour won't, as they set this iniquitous system up in the first place. If you have ...
There is an article on Politics Home today about which of the following kisses are acceptable before the TV watershed. Straight Kiss Married Kiss Gay Kiss Lesbian Kiss The following result by party supported (i.e. voting intention) shows no surprises. So while LGBT Labour groups were going around giving out "Never kissed a Tory" badges at various Pride events up and down the country would appear justified, there are over 50% of their own party who don't want to see LGB kissing before 9pm, at least not on their TV. Heaven knows about on theri streets. Labour also seem to ...
What will now become a monthly tradition, I shall be reviewing the 5 most visited blogs of the last month. So here are Augusts! 1. The Pictures that tell the story of the London Riots. - A collective view of the images that were floating around social media 2. #Enfield & #Tottenham Riots: The ugly side of twitter emerges. – Highlighting the disgusting tweet of Jodie McIntyre 3. Jodie Mcintyre – Sacked from the independent - That digusting tweet went and got Jodie sacked from his blog at The Independent. 4. Should there be taboo subjects of discussion in the ...
So I did it for the Tour de France with pictures symbolising the greatest of the Grand Tours. Yesterday British cyclist Bradley Wiggins assumed the lead of the 2011 Vuelta, as good a reason as any for some more cycling inspired art. The famous orange colours of the Basque team Euskaltel Euskadi appear to be the subject of this pastel by Miki de Goodaboom. There is this 1960's Spanish Stamp celebrating Cycling And this sculpture
"I am not an MP for any reason other than because God wants me to be...There is nothing I did that got me here; it is what God did. There is nothing amazing or special about me, I am just a conduit for God to use." Nadine Dorries I hereby denounce my atheism. Forgive me, ...
According to Nadine Dorries she is an MP because it's Gods will. Now unless this 'God' character is a registered voter in Mid Bedfordshire I think Nadine has some how misunderstood the fundementals of democracy. With a special hat tip towards @Sunny_Hundal and his blog Liberal Conspiracy, i've been pointed to the following quote made by Dorries in an interview with The Salvation Army. Go ahead and read it and for the non-religious it may be quite an experience. p.s sorry for those of a weak disposition who had a looming face of Dorries fill their screen when they opened ...
To avoid nervous exhaustion, I have avoided Blog awards nominations etc for several years. I now feel strong enough to at least nominate some Botties. Also, a certain prominent ex-blogger no longer awarding himself the top prize has relieved some of my concerns about the odd nature of the whole blog awards cottage industry. Apologies for lack of links and inaccuracy on whether blogs are new or not due to the restrictions of my Palm Pre and the extraordinarily idiosyncratic nature of Vodafone's coverage on the Isles of Scilly – I am slap bang next to their transmitter but the ...
It's not cricket at least. But quiet rejoicing over Lithuania's 80-69 victory over Britain at the European Basketball Chamionships. However I will be hoping for good UK performances in the rest of the games in Group A especially if these help Lithuania head the qualifying group. Krepsinis (basketball) is very much Lithuania's national sport and my mother was in the stadium when Lithuana won the European title way back in the 1930's having played traunt from school to queue for tickets. And once again the finals are actually in Lithuania so it is a bit of a 1966 'coming home' ...
Oh dear! The Vickers review on banking reform hasn't been published yet, and the news is full of people taking positions and what it might or might not recommend. I have a lot of sympathy with our Prime Minister, who wants the blessed thing to be published before we have a row about it. What to make of it? The reporting is a bit confusing. The Independent has hyped the thing up to be a war between the Vince Cable and George Osborne, not so much about the proposed reforms, but how quickly they will be implemented. Meanwhile somebody has ...
TweetThere is nothing so permanent as a Transitional Government. Mission-creep is being played out in verbose strategy through the British Media. The TNC are now the 'leaders' of Libya, according to our government. And we'll see the rest of Europe agree and begin to battle for the spoils today. As Andrew Mitchell MP reveals a war file from a National Security Council, the government has become more lapse in their disclosure on Libya. The apparent military action to maintain a ceasefire quickly became a war against Gaddafi. The rebels were quickly recognised as a council, we retrospectively discover our own ...
There were a few cynical groans in tech and PR circles this morning with the news that an Apple employee had lost a secret test copy of the new iPhone when out drinking (to which I was able to add my own exclusive). It's not the first time this has happened and hence the speculation about whether it was a deliberate or accidental loss. From some of the details, it certainly looks a genuine story, though what most caught my eye was the question of how good 'Big Brother' tracking technology really is: CNet says that Apple contacted the San ...
The new Five Islands school at Old Town on St Marys, Scilly, will open in a few days. Part of the now defunct/reformed Building Schools for the Future programme, it is the biggest building project in the islands history. A special ship, the "Ivor B" (stern pictured below, docked at Penzance last night) was bought specifically to transport shedloads (technical term) of building materials over to St Marys for the scheme over the last two years. The school is ground-breaking in that it will educate all the islands children from the ages of three to sixteen. So, it is a ...
The New Statesman write Nick Clegg might be unpopular, but there will be no regicide in which they give an appraisal of Clegg's current position which highlights some interesting points worth reading: The Tories' authoritarian reaction to the riots has given Clegg's party a much-needed opportunity to sound distinctly and dissentingly liberal. ...
The Daily Telegraph write Go ahead, belittle Nick Clegg - but he is not nearly as weak as he looks in which they give a good appraisal of Clegg's performance behind the scenes which are worth reading: Prime Minister David Cameron's Liberal Democrat deputy has quietly emerged as the more successful Whitehall operator ... Clegg has manoeuvred ...
TweetThe Liberal Democrats are back in the news, with Clegg up the front in full fury aimed at the demonised bankers. Cable was at the top of the news yesterday denouncing the banks' attempts to lobby the government, delay the reviews demanded and put off a breaking up of the banking sector for as long as possible. Clegg has now stepped up, angrily attacking bankers' whines about having their ability to pour money away in economic busts curtailed. As he stated; There has to be reform because we can never again allow ourselves to be held hostage by irresponsible behaviour ...
Thu 1st
13:18
As of tomorrow (02/09), everybody will actually know who the Lib Dem Mayoral Candidate is.
At least, everybody that's interested will know. So not many people will know, then. It has been, at the very least, an interesting competition. I am of the opinion that the contest results will actually be rather unpredictable as the majority of people bothering to vote will most likely have made the decision just by reading the ballot paper and manifestos that arrived with the ballot paper, so using the Hustings and internet battlegrounds to try to predict the outcome is likely to be limited in accuracy. Factor in that it's an AV election with second and third preferences and ...
The Electoral Commission have published the returns of the bodies who spent less than £250k on the AV Referendum. Those over £250k will be published in November. The most intersting figure is that the Labour No campaign spent £192k, vastly more than the Lib Dem Yes campaign £62.7k or Conservative Yes , £6k. The full ...
Many of us joined the Liberal Democrats, having previously been members of other parties, precisely because we never felt at home anywhere else and we're proud of the mix of personal and social liberalism our party (and only our party) espouses.
During the week, The Independent covered one of the most interesting pieces of work that has come out on the causes of the riots. It's a piece of research that was released earlier in August from a group of researchers at Essex and Royal Holloway Universities: Lack of trust in politicians was a significant factor behind the riots that erupted in England this month, according to a major academic research project. Although poverty and lax moral values played a part in people's decision to join the disturbances, a stronger influence was their attitude towards politicians... According to the report, "There ...
With kind permission of the article's author: George W. Potter, I have linked The JUDGEment to The Potter Blogger so you can read this well thought through piece which is itself thought provoking and shocking. For those who want more details of the experiences of disabled people who have gone through the Work Capability Assessments (contracted to ATOS) which is necessary to qualify for Employment Support Allowance (ESA) then please head over to HoC Work and Pensions Select Committee's Publication site where you can download their The role of incapacity benefit reassessment in helping claimants into employment report which is ...
Thanks again to everyone who reads my blog. August was again a record month for page views and I'm truly grateful for every visit. Here are my blog posts of the month. We start with a record breaker. 1. Libya, Tunisia, Egypt et al - uprisings all started by a fruit seller in Sidi Bouzid. My most read blog post ever - thanks everyone, really grateful. Do click the link, sign the petition and write to Time Magazine!! 2. I've just asked Nick Clegg how many seats he wants to win at the next election. Here's his answer. You know ...
G8 Grants for Local Campaigning (Scotland) The "G8 Grants" Committee is now seeking applications for funding for "Stage 1" grants in Scotland. Stage 1 for England and Wales is now closed. Later in the year we hope to be running a "Stage 2" round of grants, subject to funding. 2012 Local Elections in Scotland: Rewarding Early Campaigning We know from experience that early campaigning activity works. We want to reward those that are starting early on their campaign for 2012 and are therefore making grants to local parties to reward early campaign activity in the summer and autumn of 2011 ...
Ongoing problems with Virgin Media's network have meant I have been without a landline service since last Friday. Apologies to anyone who has tried to call me during this period. If you need to contact me, you can email me via roger@rogerharmer.net or roger.harmer@birmingham.gov.uk You can also call the Lib Dem Group Office on 0121 303 4204 and leave a message and I will call you back. Hopefully the problems at Virgin Media will be resolved soon.
It's starting to get a whole lot more encouraging in London - or more precisely, Tottenham. Having endured around 14 months of Hell at the hands of the grubby media, this could be the moment Nick Clegg begins his rehabilitation as he steps into the limelight and confirms his role as the Minister for Doing the Right Thing. His support for Vince and their joint call for banking reform to happen now, not when Dave and George's chums in the City want it, is what we fought the last election for and what the prophetic Vince has been demanding for ...
Unemployment has risen over the summer, though Acocks Green has done better than other parts of Birmingham. Seasonally adjusted unemployment rose from 5.2% to 5.5% in the UK and from 12.0% to 12.3% in Birmingham. Ward based data (which is only available in unadjusted format) showed Acocks Green's unemployment rising by 10 or 0.1% to 1.120 or 9.9%. This is 27 (or 0.2%) lower than the same time last year. Overall unemployment in Birmingham is up 3,167 (or 0.8%) than the same time last year. The only other wards, showing a fall are Billesley (-14), Bournville (-7), Sheldon (-29) and ...
Its time to scrap GCSE targets because, lets face it, what is so special about five A*-Cs? Why is the target five and not six or four? Once you step back, look at it all logically and stop spending a large proportion of your life ensuring you hit the target you realise it makes absolutely no sense and is an arbitrary measure for measuring success. For this reason it's time to change the measurement to something more meaningful to parents and communities. Instead of just jumping onto new targets the first question should ask is what exactly do we want ...
I read the following article yesterday entitled Tories cold on gay kissing over on Politics Home and the content wasn't a huge shocking. The piece was about a survey done on what is acceptable to broadcast on TV both before and after the watershed and the options were a straight kiss, a married kiss, a gay kiss and a lesbian kiss. The results were unsurprising as in the party affiliation breakdown we saw that the Lib Dems are in general the most chilled out about what they see on their television sets. Both they and Labour don't mind straight kissing ...
Botanic Gardens in Churchtown has been awarded the prestigious Green Flag Award. The Green Flag recognises and rewards the best parks and green spaces in the country. Now you have the chance to vote in the People's Choice Award to decide which of the parks flying the Green Flag is Site of the Year. To vote for Botanic Gardens, all you have to do is visit the Green Flag Award website page for Botanic Gardens and click on the 'Vote for this Site' button. The winner will be announced on 21st September 2011.
[IMG: LibDem conference] If you are, then the hashtag people are using again looks to be #ldconf. And if you're wondering what a hashtag is... it's just a bit of text that everyone talking about a particular event uses. If we all use the same tag, it means you can easily search and find what other people are saying about the event, even if you are not following them (and even without first having to know who they are). In other words, it's a bit like the difference between watching a sports event with or without the colour and noise ...
This is an article I wrote for the conference edition of the Liberator, but, due to my stupidity, I missed the deadline for submission. This article concerns the utterly disgusting way in which sick and disabled people are treated in this country and I sincerely implore everyone who reads this to share this article with their friends and any Lib Dem members or representatives they know. If any bloggers are reading this then please consider crossposting it or linking to it on your own blog. Thank you. The main form of support which sick and disabled people receive, is called ...
Last night Business Secretary Vince Cable did a "town hall meeting" style event with Scottish Party members in Aberdeen. We had Nick up last week and Vince this week, both, answering questions from activists. The meetings were packed and, although there were some tough questions, both men were on form and well received. Unfortunately, I couldn't get to Aberdeen last night, but I know not one but two men who did. This first account is the collected tweets of Lib Dem activist Stephen Harte. I've sat in events trying to tweet them on a phone and it's not easy, so ...
The unsurpassed Terry-Thomas, here from "School for Scoundrels".
This year's Bailey's Bike Ride takes place on Saturday (3rd September) The event is in aid of the premature baby unit at Wansbeck Hospital. Jules and Shaun Butler, the parents of Bailey, put a huge amount of effort into fund raising for the cause. Bailey is now four, and will be taking part in the ride this year. Leaving South Newsham Pavilion at 1 pm, the charity cycle ride goes to St Mary's lighthouse at Whitley Bay and back , a journey of about two and a half thousand miles ( alright, I exaggerate , but it seems like it ...
The scaling question is one of the more famous Solution Focused tools which is widely used now in all walks of life. It was developed as a tool to work with people to motivate them in a particular direction, or to at least identify how important things are to them. The beginning part of the ...
The Voice's Mark Pack has been guesting over on the Huffington Post again, this time writing about what he thinks is missing from the Birmingham conference agenda: There are many weighty issues on the agenda for the Liberal Democrat autumn conference in Birmingham, as well as some potentially significant debates overthe party's medium term strategy and policy outlook. There is also, however, a curious omission: tax. The word tax is not completely absent from the agenda, but aside from a reference in one motion calling for the party to look at its tax policy as part of a big policy ...
Apologies for the relative lack of proper posts here recently. I've been working 60-hour weeks, and that's left me so burned out I can barely function. The usual political ranting and stuff about Doctor Who and so on will be back, but probably not for a couple of weeks yet (though a Monkees post will ...
So that's it then - no more Mr Nice Guy! Freed from the burdens of national office I can say what I really think about some sensitive issues. No more crawling to Mr Clegg to keep the Party on an ... Continue reading →
One of the charms of the Pizza Express chain is the distinctive character of each outlet. But it is rather unexpected even by Pizza Express standards for this one to have a large area that looks and feels like a slightly cramped loft conversion. My seat gave me a perfect view of the fire exit door, which rather worryingly looked rather battered from regular use even though all it led out to was a fire escape down the building. I'm sure there are many reasons people have had for going through the door rather than this being arson central for ...
Yes, it's true, Brangelina have moved in down the road and it's been the talk of the common all summer. I am yet to spot them in Malcom's hardware shop on the parade or in the Hand and Flower, nor do they appear to be regulars in the Saqui Tandori. Indeed if it wasn't for the occasional helicopter landing, you wouldn't know they were there. But it's certainly given the place a bit of a buzz (no pun intended). So what has this to do with all things Lib Dem? Well, it's prompted me to think about one of the ...
There is quite a debate going on about an amendment that Nadine Dorries is promoting to the Health and Social Care Bill. The first problem I have is that I have looked on the parliamentary website to find out precisely what the amendment is. I cannot find it. Hence it is difficult to comment precisely as to the amendment itself. There are some simple principles, however. It would be better
Just a reminder that tonight and tomorrow night the A14 will be closed westbound between Histon and Girton tonight and tomorrow night between; 8.00pm and 6.00am Thursday night 8.00pm and 8.00am Friday night There will be a diversion in place, Emergency vehicles are not affected.
The BBC reports on a Welsh Government Cabinet paper that seeks to bring order to the way that local Councils collaborate but only succeeds in raising questions about the Government's own direction. On the one hand they are promoting four regional consortia to deliver education in Wales, on the other they are now seeking to decree that all future collaboration should take place within six defined regions, that have different boundaries to those already being promoted by the Education Minister. They also say that existing collaborative projects will remain unaffected despite the fact that many of those involve groupings of ...
This one passed me by at the time, but there's been another positive comment for Willie Rennie's performance as Liberal Democrat leader in Holyrood, this time from Scott MacNab, a Scotsman journalist writing on The Steamie. He says: Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie has been rattlin' the cages at Holyrood since he took over the reins of the party in the immediate aftermath of their election disaster. Rennie has invariably led the criticism of the most powerful government since devolution, including over the extraordinary onslaught against the UK Supreme Court, the SNP splits over gay marriage and even Mr Salmond's ...
Statements in the past few days have caused me to feel a surge of pride in our Liberal Democrats in government. First Vince Cable is proclaiming loudly and clearly that the the gambling and retail activities of the banks should be separated and that this should happen now and not "after the next election." Most people wonder why the banks were allowed to gamble with our money in the first place (and then come to us as taxpayers for a bail-out when they got things wrong), why it has taken three or four years to bring forward proposals to put ...
The Economist notes that not a single airline appears in both the Air Transport Rating Agency's list of the ten safest airlines in the world and the 2011 Skytrax World Airline Awards for front-line product and service standards. The lists are: Top ten for safety (ATRA, alphabetical) Top ten for service standards (Skytrax) Air France-KLM AMR Corporation (American Airlines, American Eagles) British Airways Continental Airlines Delta Airlines Japan Airlines Lufthansa Southwest Airlines United Airlines US Airways 1 Qatar Airways 2 Singapore Airlines 3 Asiana Airlines 4 Cathay Pacific Airways 5 Thai Airways International 6 Etihad Airways 7 Air New Zealand ...
The Hindu : Sci-Tech / Science : World's 7 billionth person about to be born (tags: development) tree_and_leaf: Recipe post: Slow roast chipotle pork; chipotle pork chile. Two pork recipes (tags: cooking)
As the party political conferences come upon us so too does the optimum time for the publication of books about politics. All those activists dying to spend a little money to find out more about the people who run their party is too big a temptation for publishers to resist. Let's face it, if you are committed enough to spend hundreds of pounds of your own money to go to a political conference then the chances are that you are also somebody who reads avidly about politics. I write from experience here. However, contrary to popular belief the must-buy book ...
St Stephen's Hill will be closed on the next two Sundays to allow essential tree work to take place.
