Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Chris Jefferies, Rebecca Leighton are all just names but also people whose livelyhood's have been tarnished, tried in the court of the media and public opinion and had their freedom taken away from them for some time. All of these people will never face trial and a jury because there was never enough evidence against them to warrant such a thing. People in this country (and others but I can speak primarily for this country) want justice for those crossed but half the time they don't give two hoots how justice is gained and if it means that ...
At another time I will explain how I've landed up at Gladstone's residential library in Harwarden . Suffice to say that I'm here with work for a couple of days After Gladstone conceived the idea of building a library to house his collection 32 000 books -his diary suggests that he read 22 000 in some detail-the question arose what of building would house them. Well the initial answer was to build a 'tin tabernacle'. It was to this corrugated iron building that Gladstone wheeled his vast collection of books. He also rented the former village school to become hostel ...
Jonathan Calder has blogged that liberals shouldn't be concerned about Free Schools making profits so much as about ensuring that they're open to all. As usual, I completely agree with him. The fundamental idea behind Free Schools is liberal. Genuine parental choice and control over the school they send their children to is something that every Lib Dem should be fighting to achieve. In Scotland we have probably the most uniform education system in Western Europe. In terms of attainment Scottish schools have been stagnating over the past decade in comparison with their counterparts South of the border. I'd love ...
Much recent discussion about accreditation has been about the inefficient operation of the process. I wouldn't care if the process was the smoothest I had ever experienced. It is simply wrong that an organ of the state has any say in who attends a political party's conference. No Liberal should have any difficulty understanding this principle. It is also wrong if the party's Federal Conference
An Indian friend told this astonishing tale of hidden wealth in a Temple in the middle of Trivindrum. The wealth stashed in the vaults so far comes to about £15 Billion with more to be valued!!! This is roughly equivalent to the deficit George Osbourne is trying to claw back. The story is below courtesy of the Times of India. I visited this Temple a few years back - not that I was allowed actually inside, local custom forbids non Hindus from entering temples in Kerela. As you can see from the snap it wasn't exactly Fort Knox!
As the NHS reform proposals make their way into parliament this week after prolonged a "listening exercise" sparked by the Lib Dem spring conference, concerns reach boiling point.Dr Evan Harris has said the reforms were "Poor in all aspects."Andrew George MP, Lib Dem member of the parliamentary Health committee has already vowed to vote against it as it is "driven more by private profit than by concern about patient care."Baroness Shirley Williams has indicated that there will be opposition in the Lords and that the "battle was far from over" Against these pillars of Liberalism Nick could only muster;"Let me ...
I Must admit I am a little late to the comings and goings of this debate but as I understand it - and do correct me if I'm wrong...Ms Dorries wants to put an amendment to the Health bill regarding abortion.The amendment is a long the lines of making all independent information, advice and counselling services completely to the NHS. Any private body that supplies advice must not be able to supply the termination.On the face o f it this is a reasonable measure, it'll give women more choice and could remove any essence of pressure to receive a termination.However ...
Catching up on lots of goings on over the past week or so one of the major topics of conversation in the Lib Dem world that I seem to come across has been the selection of Brian Paddock to be the Liberal Democrat candidate for the forthcoming Mayor of London elections. Congratulations to Brian. I have previously stated that Mike Tuffrey had impressed me with his ideas, however Brian has also impressed me following the London riots in particular with his handling of the media. I'm sure he'll make an excellent candidate and I wish him the best of luck. ...
I've blogged before about the problems with Oyster users on London's public transport network being over-charged. There's good news however in today's Evening Standard: Hundreds of thousands of Tube passengers overcharged for 'honest mistakes' will share in a £15 million annual refund. Commuters who accidentally forget to touch out will escape penalty fares in the biggest change to Oyster technology. A new tracking system will "remember" the journeys passengers usually take - and make sure they are not overcharged. The change follows growing concern over Transport for London's annual £60 million income from excess fares. Caroline Pidgeon, chairwoman of the ...
Despite its length, my blog post over the weekend about the security checks being carried out for Liberal Democrat conference, didn't go through all the issues in equal detail. So here to make up for some of the areas I wrote less about are some excellent blog posts written by others: Over on his blog, Stephen Glenn explains how slow accreditation can make conference more expensive for people by giving details based on his own situation. Zoe O'Connell has dug out the figures which show how problematic the checks being used are for transgendered people, as they rely on a ...
This is just amazing. I blogged this morning on Freddie's 65th birthday and chose 'Don't Stop Me Now' in tribute not realising at the time that those crazy, cool guys at Google had made their own wonderful tribute to the same song. Here is their Google Doodle for September 5th 2011 (September 6th in America)... This Guardian article asks what would Freddie have been doing today if he was still with us. It gives a link to an interview with Brian May on this anniversary. He says: I was first introduced to Freddie Mercury—a paradoxically shy yet flamboyant young man—at ...
Last year at conference, a motion calling on the party to "urge" people "not to take up the option" of the new Free schools was overwhelmingly carried. It was a very Liberal Democrat kind of conference motion. It had no teeth, had the political lobbyists chuckling into their gin and tonics and the likes of my friends and family asking what the hell that meant? It meant very little. A squeal from the activists at having lost some of their historical power over the party, a squawk against having to work with the hated Tories. A symbolic gesture. And a ...
I recently had a surreal experience. As I think I may have mentioned previously, I have just enjoyed an exceptionally wonderful holiday on the Isles of Scilly. If the weather is bad, a holiday on the Isles of Scilly can be relatively nightmarish – take a stout brown paper bag if you want to venture between the islands. But when the weather is glorious, then Scilly is as near as you get to paradise in this world. I slightly digress. There was one fly in the ointment during the holiday. We were slap bang next to the mobile phone (and ...
Representatives at the Birmingham Lib Dem Conference should get up early on the Wednesday to vote on proposals to relax the rules on campaigning in internal party contests. Mark Pack explains why 675 railway stations are to be left without ticket office, reports Neil Monnery. We find Kirk Elder, Senior Citizen from Peebles unimpressed by plans to give the Scottish Conservatives a new name. "Shouldn't a true Conservative be resigned to the principle of referring to a Snickers bar as a Marathon, whatever it says on the wrapper?" The View East marks the 50th anniversary of the construction of the ...
Manchester Withington MP John Leech has today called for the immediate resignation of Cllr Eddy Newman as Chair of the Health and Well Being scrutiny Committee following his back door deal with NHS Manchester to close Withington Walk-in Centre. In the June meeting of the scrutiny committee it was agreed by a majority vote that the Withington Walk-in Centre should be kept open and that Cllr Newman was to be tasked with writing to Secretary of State for Health to see what could have been done to reverse the closure of Withington Walk-in Centre. Astonishingly Cllr Newman went back on ...
... the cellar has flooded again. In between the cellar flooding last week and the cellar flooding tonight, I fell over walking the dogs and ended up in hospital with a suspected broken patella (luckily just bad bruising but I still have crutches and huge amounts of pain). This means I have missed some shifts at work, and will therefore be missing my wage for those shifts. I was trying to save up for conference, which is less than two weeks away, and now it looks like I won't be able to meet the rent. At least we paid for ...
I was out in the Old Town on Saturday night and the decision to run there is creating buzz. Someone actually said she thought it was "awesome". Possibly the first (and likely last) time Stevenage Liberal Democrats have been described as such. And when I was out shopping on Sunday a complete stranger said, "Hello Tim," That's something I always find disorientating. So we are getting somewhere. Next job is to decide a campaigns theme. I am just off to the campaign kick-off meeting in a pub in the Old Town. In fact, we held most of last year's Chells ...
[IMG: Michael Moore 66ème Festival de Venise (Mostra)] [IMG: Creative Commons License] photo credit: nicogenin I had an unusually large-sized head, though this was not uncommon for a baby in the Midwest. The craniums in our part of the country were designed to leave a little extra room for the brain to grow in case one day we found ourselves exposed to something we didn't understand, like a foreign language, or a salad. -Michael Moore from his forthcoming book, Here comes trouble – Stories from my life. Hat-tip:Political Wire
Most of the discussion of Nick Clegg's speech this morning has concentrated on his insistence that the new free schools will not be run for profit. I shall return to that in a moment, but I want to say how much I welcome Nick's emphasis on the need to make sure that children from poorer families and in poorer areas benefit from these schools. As he said:"I want them to be available to the whole community - open to all children and not just the privileged few. I want them to be part of a school system that releases opportunity, ...
A genially educational novel for kids; George's parents are anti-technology environmentalists, but luckily the girl next door has a magic computer, and together with her scientist father they manage to foil the fiendish plan of the evil school science teacher in alliance with the class bullies. Lots of text boxes explaining about planets and stars. Credits also go to Christophe Galfard, who gets a 'with' on the title page but I note has gone on to write novels in his own name, and Garry Parsons for excellent illustrations on every page.
The daily link posting function from Delicious.com seems to be broken, and unfortunately it seems that Yahoo are letting the service wither on the vine. So until further notice I shall be posting interesting links on Twitter and then doing roundups every few days. Eliza Dushku alert: In northern Albania. Emma Watson alert: Advertising perfume. If you sing the Doctor Who theme to yourself with your own made-up words, you can either stop doing it or else put it on Youtube. (I recommend the former.) A history of patient modesty, Part 1 and Part 2. "Exposing the body for medical ...
Today I got two bits of very welcome news- one of them was expected but the other was a delightful surprise. The first bit of good news was that the amendment Sophie Bridger and I have written to the ESA motion was submitted to the Federal Conference Committee today by Guildford Liberal Democrats who are kindly sponsoring it. This now means that the FCC will formally consider whether to allow the amendment to be placed on the agenda for the debate on the original motion itself. Under the circumstances, I can't see any grounds for blocking a debate on an ...
I haven't written a blog for a while as I've had a week off visiting my family and also a couple of days in Amsterdam with one of my oldest friends. As such I'm only up to Sunday 28 with the Lib Dem Voice and most other blogs that I read (although I have caught up on a couple of my favourites) so the only thing I can write about now is the Dam. One of the many canals For those of you who haven't been I totally recommend it. It is genuinely a beautiful place. Out of all of ...
After a long campaign by Caroline Pidgeon, Leader of the London Lib Dem GLA Group, a new system will help Oyster passengers who occasionally forget to touch out. Transport for London (TfL) has introduced a new facility for Oyster pay as you go customers who occasionally forget to touch out at the end of their Tube, DLR, Overground or National Rail journey. Currently those who do not scan their pay-as-you-go card at the end of a journey are charged the maximum Zone 1-6 fare of £7.90. But a new system will calculate the likely journey based on the individual's travel ...
Lib Dem Voice has reported that Chris Fox has resigned as Chief Executive of the party, news I have received with both surprise and sadness. I think Chris has done a fantastic job in modernising much of the way the party operates centrally - I guess the most obvious sign of this is the move to new headquarters but I am also conscious of the much better internal communications we now have from HQ - kudos to Helen Duffett who runs it, in a role created under Chris's leadership. The party is now far more financially stable than if was ...
News has reached me today of proposals led by Reading University to redevelop Wells Hall on Upper Redlands Road. Wells Hall has been vacant for a few years. Apparently the University is seeking planning permission to demolish the existing buildings to make way for housing on the site. I contacted Reading Borough Council planning officers for more information and received this: " I can confirm that we have a pre-application enquiry for this site, submitted on behalf of the University, which normally requires that the details are dealt with as confidential. However, we have also just received a Screening request for the site (11/01344/SCR), which ...
A bit of light relief for this gloomy Monday evening... (Courtesy of the New Statesman) *This may not be a real moustache.
For those of you who don't read the Daily Mail every day, there was a lead article last week all about how awful the Liberal Democrats are. No great surprise there, I hear you say. The reasons given this time were that the Lib Dems are looking to keep the 50p tax rate in place, uphold the Human Rights Act, and "frustrate every effort to cut immigration". The party is also trying to promote too many green policies as well, ones that "threaten to cripple business". Apparently, we are "reverting to type as the fringe party mouthpiece of Left-wing causes". ...
The next meeting of the Acocks Green Ward Committee will take place at Fox Hollies Forum, Greenwood Avenue, this Wednesday, 7th September. Items on the agenda include: Parking on Dudley Road Stationary Buses on Shaftmoor Lane and Summer Road Planning Applications (while not yet a formal planning application, the proposed developments on the old Lucas site off Shaftmoor Lane are likely to be a big issue of discussion) and Community Chest projects
It can't be much fun being Alex Salmond these days. The euphoria of May has subsided, and he's realised that there's nobody else to blame for his majority Government's actions. On top of that, wherever he looks, he sees the grin of Wilie Rennie, keen to highlight any example of anglophobia, of dodging , delaying, ducking and diving. The Scottish Liberal Democrat leader has had accolade after accolade in the press for providing such high quality opposition to the SNP bulldozer. There's another Liberal Democrat making Salmond's daily life uncomfortable. They don't come more reasonable than Mike Moore, Secretary of ...
I always thought that I was indifferent to the X Factor - well not completely indifferent. I like to see contestants sing badly and then listen to the comments of the judges. As for those who audition well, they have to follow a formula. Firstly they have to be able to sing and hit the notes, secondly, they have to sing in a popular style. Maybe their voice could be influenced by blues or jazz or a number of other influences but essentially they have to produce formulaic pop music. What changed my opinion from indifference was watching the highlights ...
There has been a lot of talk about the future of the union in particular Scotland's place within it. The other day, Danny Alexander, Chief Secretary to the Treasury kindly told us that Scotland's share of the deficit was £65 billion which would be one of the largest in Europe and that had Scotland been
BiCon 2011 was awesome. I think I cracked the perfect mix of socialising, sleeping, serious workshops and having fun: did stuff like talky Advanced BDSM workshop (to be written up for One Hot Crumpet when I find time) and Public Speaking for the Terrified and also Strap-On Shakespeare, which had me performing the part of Patroclus in Troilus and Cressida. I had a fight with Troilus, who accused me of being a masculine whore and threatened me with a flogger. (It's possible that our interpretation was not quite what Shakespeare had in mind when he wrote the play...) Also, I'm ...
A reminder to LMH tenants in the Stamfordham Drive area that there's an open day tomorrow (6th) at the Bridge Chapel Centre. LMH tell me they'll be putting their bathroom and kitchen packages on show and providing information on the external work that'll be going on. The event is a drop in one from 12 to 6 and tenants from the affected roads should have had invitations. The roads include Ramsey, Lascelles, Hylton, Hardinge, Caldwell, Blomfield, Verney Crescent (and Crescent South), Stamfordham, Mostyn Avenue and Brocklebank Lane
Following Chris Fox's decision, announced today, to stand down as Chief Executive at the end of November, Nick Clegg and Tim Farron have praised the transformation he has brought to the party organisation. Chris Fox took over the role of Chief Executive in July 2009. During his time in the role he has led on strategy and the air war and headed up the executive team during the General Election. Since then he has focused on modernising the party which culminated in a move to new high tech headquarters in the heart of Whitehall a week ago. Chris Fox said: ...
The flat in Stratford hasn't worked out, and I'm having to move. My mum has been trying to convince me to return up north for a good 18 months and I've cracked. She's offering me somewhere to live that will cost me nothing. I'll still be broke, but won't be worrying so much about whether I can really afford to eat more expensively than Tesco Value. I can see my family and old friends more, and still have some money left over to catch up with London friends now and again. I can hack about at MadLab and see folk ...
There are a fair few reasons I'm glad I live in Scotland. Apart from the fact that it's just a beautiful country and I feel completely at home here, there is a reasonably strong political consensus around the NHS and education. There is no appetite for the sorts of reforms proposed in the NHS down south, for example, and they will not be implemented up here. Similarly, and thankfully, there are no free schools up here. The first schools, set up by faith groups, parents or charities, out of local authority control but funded by the state, open this week. ...
Cornwall Council's Conservative Leader says that the members of the authority's Cabinet should be thought of as volunteers and should not be subject to any formal expectation of how often they need turn up to work despite each taking home more than £28,000 of taxpayers' money. I wrote to the Leader back in August after I received complaints from a member of the public and a voluntary sector organisation about a particular cabinet member being absent for the whole summer. I asked Cllr Robertson if he could tell me what expectations are placed on cabinet members for their work hours ...
Interview: Mike Moore MP - Action in Government, ideas for the future It can't be much fun being Alex Salmond these days. The euphoria of May has subsided, and he's realised that there's nobody else to blame for his majority Government's actions. On top of that, wherever he looks, he sees the grin of Wilie Rennie, ready to highlight any example of anglophobia, of dodging , delaying, ducking and diving. The Scottish Liberal Democrat leader has had accolade after accolade in the press for providing such high quality opposition to the SNP bulldozer. There's another Liberal Democrat making Salmond's daily ...
As we end the summer break and approach the conference season, it is an appropriate time to give ourselves an assessment of what has gone wrong and how we can improve. Recently ConservativeHome ran a piece on David Cameron's ten biggest mistakes - an article which caused much debate. In the same sense, I would like to list what were, in my view, our biggest mistakes over the last 18 months. Tuition fees: No problems identifying the biggest error. This will rank alongside the poll tax as one of the greatest political blunders of our time. We had rightly made ...
So we are paying way above inflation for hikes in train tickets but what are we getting for that money? I don't see a tonne of new rolling stock out there and with the new today that 675 train stations have been earmarked for having their ticket offices closed it is just another kick in the teeth for passengers. If I'm just popping into town then I have no issue using a ticket machine but older people do not trust technology and I have to admit I won't use a debit or credit card in an un-manned ticket machine. Far ...
I was one of those who supported the strategy pursued by the Liberal Democrats during the party's first year in government. For the short-term, demonstrating cohesive government was more important than poll ratings. Governing was more important than politics. That ... Continue reading →
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust are reported in today's issue of the i (the 20p version of the Independent) the be considering the closure of St Mary's Paddington. They have asked a number of architects to provide quotes for turning the site into a 3000 flat development. This is in order to address a reported ...
Tragedy struck again, this time at Bunker Bay, Australia, as a 21 year old body boarder had his legs taken off by an unknown shark.Although rescued from a sea of blood, the man died of blood loss. This was the first attack in these waters for twenty years- so why? A surfer To be honest, the conditions were perfect. There were at least twenty surfers in the water, the splashing of swimming is proven to attract sharks as it is the same noise an injured or dying fish or seal make.Surfers laying on their boards also look like seals from ...
Well it was said that the Riots left imagery reminiscent of the Blitz so it makes sense that a Fascist force should march in the wake as was the plan in 1940. Is this a fair assertion? Up until yesterday I had no real idea or interest in who the EDL were or what they stood for as my interest in far right politics died with Goring, Ribbentrop and the others at Nuremberg in 1946. As I'm neither a racist and have an interest in rights and democracy for ALL I've not really noticed the BNP or the EDL as ...
It's the usual phenomenon of two party political systems. When the party of the right moves further rightwards, the party of the left is faced with a choice to either move into the centre to occupy the vaccuum (and votes) or to use the opportunity to invisibly indulge themselves and move further left. The reverse is true also, of course. The only way Margaret Thatcher stormed to power was because of years of increasingly leftward-bound Labour politics. Tony Blair was able to ride to success by poking the Conservatives into a rightward direction and occupying the void. Now the blues ...
Good news on the Wednesday morning of the Liberal Democrat autumn conference in Birmingham. The Federal Executive's very sensible proposals to relax the rules on campaigning in internal party contests will be voted on after a debate scheduled for 9am-9:30am. As I wrote previously of the proposed changes: Regular readers of The Voice may notice a certain similarity between these proposals and the ones I submitted to the rules review before Christmas. Whilst in part that is welcome news (to me at least [IMG: :-)] ), I fear it also reflects the relatively small number of submissions made - and ...
Brian Paddick's campaign as the Liberal Democrat candidate for Mayor of London had its press launch at the Party's new national HQ in Westminster this morning, with most of the GLA List candidates — headed by Caroline Pidgeon — also present. Media included the BBC, ITN and the Press Association, as well as Spectrum Radio. Simon ...
Lib Dem Voice has a consultation up on the review of the AV campaign being carried out centrally. I thought I'd put my response to it up here: 1. Did you do any telephone canvassing? Did you enjoy it? If not why not? If so, how would you improve the process? I undertook many telephone ...
This press release below explains it all. The City Council have been nominated for Best Council a the prestigious APSE Awards later this week. Published Monday 5 September 2011 The City of Edinburgh Council is in the running for a prestigious public service award as one of the top local authorities in the UK. They have been short listed from over 300 entries in 'Council of the Year in Service Delivery' awards from the Association for Public Sector Excellence (APSE). In addition to the top nomination the council has also been short listed in four other categories:Best Efficiency Initiative: Energy ...
The call made by Mark Pack, amongst others, for suggestions for media reform is both timely and important. For the majority of the country, the media represents the most important source of information we access on a daily basis. As a result, it cannot help but shape our opinions and inform our democratic decision-making; it is a key part of our national discourse and must be seen as such. And yet the phone hacking scandal has demonstrated that we cannot rely wholly on journalists to hold themselves and their colleagues to account for their own ethical transgressions. A press that ...
I thought it might be helpful to give you a a brief update on the University-Hospital Area Study which is now underway. I attended a meeting of the Steering Group a few weeks ago and helped influence the shape of the consultation following the many comments I had received from residents. If you live in this area of Redlands you should by now have received a leaflet from Reading Borough Council called 'Managing our Transport - Improving Our Neighbourhoods - Traffic Study'. This is an initial consultation to gauge residents views and will help scope the study, and if ...
Today I have finally received my email from Lib Dem Conference Office confirming my accreditation for this months conference. The fact that it has taken so long, for someone who applied for early bird registration raises the question, how much extra would it have cost me to get there and stay there if I'd waiting until now to book flights and accommodation. Here is the answer. My flights were booked as soon as the availability for September became available. The additional cost of £113.85 is actually more than double what I paid. This is for the same flights on the ...
As Royal Mail closes the Crichton Street Collection Office for DD2 and DD3 customers today and moves facilities to the remote Baird Avenue offices, I was on Radio Tay News this morning about the continuing campaign to have a City Centre facility for collections (click 'play' below to listen). Dundee City Council's Chief Executive confirmed to me this morning that Royal Mail will meet with councillors this Friday afternoon to discuss our concerns about the loss of this facility in the City Centre.
Here he is with the "Monster Sketch" from his BBC series. Another comedian I used to love watching...
As a big fan of Francis Ford Coppola's Godfather films I was bemused to wake up this morning to discover that Tony Blair is godfather to one of Rupert Murdoch's young children. There is no connection between the two of course, but as a means of cementing a friendship, acting in this capacity for the baptism of somebody's children is quite effective. The Telegraph says that the former prime minister was reportedly present in March 2010 when Murdoch's two daughters by his third wife were baptised on the banks of the Jordan. They suggest that Mr. Blair's close ties to ...
The tuition fee debacle was bad. But at least there was a reason, if not an excuse. Neither major party was committed to removing tuition fees. So whoever the Liberal Democrats ended up in Coalition with it was unlikely that the party was going to be able to honour its pledge. The hand was no ...
An idea floating around the Scottish Tory Party is that to become electable in Scotland they need to break away from the Conservative Party and become a new right wing party for Scotland. A radical solution for their poor performance. However, it also raises some interesting points for the Lib Dems and whether the Scottish ...
First off, many congratulations to Brian Paddick in becoming our candidate to be Mayor of London. I made no secret of the fact that I gave my first choice vote to Mike Tuffrey and I explained my reasoning back in July. And I'm sorry he just missed out. Never the less, I think Brian will make a fine candidate and his performance in the media over the last few weeks discussing the riots has been excellent. I am sure Brian will run a first class campaign and I will be shoving leaflets through doors supporting both him and all our ...
The majority of people in Scotland would subscribe to an idea of multiple identity. Being Scottish and British and European is something that a large number- probably the majority- of the people of Scotland accept as their identity. However the rise of the SNP has brought the central pillar of this identity- Britishness- sharply into focus. A significant number of people reject their British identity. Campaigning at the last general election in the North East of Scotland, I found plenty of doors that said "I never vote for London based parties". Even when I pointed out that the Scottish Liberal ...
The award goes to This is Kent for its: Whitstable mum in custard shortage
This is Tin Drum Books on the Narborough Road in Leicester - the land of exploding kebab shops. In the words of its Facebook page: Proprietors Ian and Valerie Smalley. Lots of sci-fi, horror and tatty books for book-art projects. Also a few text books - lots of copies of Norton and lots of politics. Permanent sale of 10p books outside (weather permitting).Student discounts.
Booker Prize winner and Independent columnist Howard Jacobson has taken it upon himself to make some comments about blogs: "When I wander off from the newspaper and into the world of blogs I'm a bit chilled. What you read is extreme ignorance and pure poison. It is a poisonous, poisonous medium. You can't believe how malicious, how ignorant, how stupid... and you do wonder if they don't have anything better to do than attack people who have written articles. And you do wonder whatever happened to the idea of the critic; of the reviewer... people who have given their lives ...
Today is Freddie Mercury's 65th birthday. If he'd have been alive now to witness it in person, it would've been a riot! Incredibly, it will be the 20th anniversary of his passing this coming November. Time really does fly. But for die-hard Queen fans like myself, Freddie hasn't left us. He remains, through the wonderful musical legacy that will echo down the ages as I mentioned in this blog post of their lesser known hits back in December. Wherever you are now Freddie, you'll be having a right old knees-up I'm sure! So in tribute to Freddie on this day, ...
The Saturday morning of party conference sees a consultative sessions on the May 2011 elections and AV referendum. Ahead of that, a brief outline report has been published by the party which is embedded below. It is from James Gurling, chair of the party's Campaigns and Communications Committee. The party's post-general election review has attracted criticism for being kept fairly low profile, both in terms of who was asked to contribute and the subsequent circulation of the lessons. The general election report has not been made public by the party or circulated very far internally. So it's good to see ...
The "revelations" in Alistair Darling's memoirs do nothing to enhance the British public's respect for politicians and the political process. Darling was allegedly a principal supporter of Gordon Brown over a long period, and a senior partner in government, but shows no hesitation in "slagging him off." What has happened to decency and loyalty? Clearly they take second place to self justification and the desire to make a fast buck. On a slightly different plain, but equally demeaning and off-putting, the editorial in this week's Liberal Democrat News repeats yet again the tired and misleading mantra of "the economic mess ...
Michael Moore, the Secretary State for Scotland, was in the news last week for making an important speech on the future for Devolution in Scotland. In the speech he highlighted the UK Government's Scotland Bill and what he believed it could mean for Scotland, and he set out to show it as an alternative to Independence in the range of options Scotland now has. As such he set out a rebuttal to nationalism and made the case to consider alternatives studied by Calman and being offered through the Scotland Bill. Central to his argument was that there will need to ...
My link posts are done automatedly. If you didn't know this before you've probably worked it out over the last couple of days. I have tried a number of things to sort it out, including (eventually) deleting the job from the automated poster. Since I deleted it, it should have stopped posting. It hasn't. It has posted again since I deleted the job. I don't know how that's even possible, but clearly it is. If it posts again, all I can do is apologise. I don't want to be a spammer, and have tried to stop it from happening; I ...
The Doctor Who News Page: Target reprints reach North America I was able to leaf through these in a bookshop last month, and they are all brilliant - particularly the introductions. (tags: doctorwho books) james_nicoll: Not related to previous post James asks, "Who's been saying the Hugo process is corrupt?" I think the answer to the question is, nobody - apart from the voices in some people's heads. See much slapfighting in comments. (tags: sf)
And I'm on the cusp of them. Yesterday, the 4th, is my brother [IMG: [profile] ] angeliiii's birthday. Jon was a huge part of my chilhood, even though he's a lot older than me and moved away when I was younger than Holly is now, and I still miss him. Although, you know, him living in Brum is proving kind of useful in a couple of weeks' time... Today, the fifth, is (pretty famously) Freddie Mercury's birthday. I had a whole post in my head about that, but none of it seems to make sense when I go to type ...
