Just to give people a head's up – a week from today I'll be withdrawing my ebooks from smashwords.com , so anyone who has bought them but not yet downloaded a copy should make sure they have one. The reason for this is that Lulu, who I do my print books with, have announced that ...
I was on my way to bed when I stumbled across these two articles, both of which I think are prime examples of how the Liberal Democrats, uniquely of the main parties, are prepared to stick their necks out at conference to back radical but effective policy solutions to problems facing this country. The first story is about brilliant proposals to do with ensuring the media acts responsibly and does not abuse its position of influence and power: "An emergency motion, due to be published on Wednesday and discussed at [the Liberal Democrat] party conference next week, calls for the ...
Tue 13th
23:01
Labour blames the tories for train debacle. and who was minding the shop for 13 years..?
Tory Philip Hammond has said the railways are a rich man's transport. That much we all know. Then Labour says it is the fault of the government. I sometimes wonder if its just me who's left sane and the world has gone mad... Let's be clear: the Tories bear the ultimate blame for the fiasco that is the privatisation of trains and the resultant chaos which has ensued, but Labour politicians have got some nerve blaming this government. What were they doing for 13 years? Where was the plan for bringing the trains back under some kind of central control, ...
At this evening's West End Community Council meeting, I gave a presentation on the preparations for this year's West End Christmas Week. You can download my slides on this by going to http://tinyurl.com/westendchristmas2011.
Earlier today, along with a number of my councillor colleagues, I took part in a further briefing on winter maintenance preparations for next winter. This was a follow-up to the debrief that I participated in at the end of February that looked at lessons learned from last winter's severe weather and the City Council's response. Today's meeting was lengthy and detailed and I raised a number of issues of concern to West End residents. The council is now looking to use some additional resource (external contractors, farmers and the building trade) to supplement existing resources for winter maintenance. This is ...
News from Lewisham's regeneration department about some upcoming road works along Kirkdale: Over the next few months, the Council's highway works contractor, F. M. Conway Ltd will be working at various locations along Wells Park Road, Kirkdale (between Dartmouth Road and Sydenham Hill) and Sydenham Hill (Kirkdale roundabout to the junction with Sydenham Rise). These ...
Details of this planning application can be found by following this link: The case officer is Gemma Barnes - please email comments and objections to her at gemma.barnes@lewisham.gov.uk, and don't forget to copy us in.
I am pleased to announce that I will be taking part in the Great Manchester Health Experiment and I hope fellow mancunians join me in what is the first of its kind. This is a great experiment and the first ... Continue reading →
As I said when writing about Arts Fresco 2011, The Spouting Man deserves a post all of his own. The act is described well by the Avanti Display site: The show dissects the unequal relationship between a famous speciality performer, "The Spurting Man", and his downtrodden assistant. Performed to Ravel's Bolero without a spoken word this show is meticulous to character and detail. The pompous "Spurting Man" shows his tricks whilst his assistant, dominated and undervalued, is given no credit for the role he plays. The assistant despises his master. The master ignores the assistant. The bizarre and unequal relationship ...
Another visit to Bonkers Halls draws to a close. For many years, my favourite pair of opening bowlers were J.K. Galbraith and J.K. Lever; I was happy whenever I could persuade them to turn out for my XI together. Galbraith's height and his talent for exposing the inadequacies of laissez-faire economics with witty apercus, together with Lever's ability to bring the ball back in to right-handers, made them a fearsome combination indeed. These days, the only J.K. I know is J.K. Rowling, and her only appearance for me proved that she cannot bowl for toffees. I once tried reading one ...
As Liam Fox exults in Britain's role as a major arms exporter, Obliged to Offend looks at the contradictions of David Cameron's foreign policy. Brain Pickings directs us to two films on democracy and despotism made by Encyclopedia Britannica immediately after World War II. Richard Littlejohn recently claimed that the Great Train Robbery was "like a military operation, carried out with immense precision and chutzpah". Zelo Street demonstrates that this is nonsense: "the sheer amateurishness of the heist is the stuff of legend". "The fact that they're cute is a decided advantage, and farmers are being encouraged to make provision ...
Uttlesford District Council has responded to parish councils' concerns about the lack of consultation in the rush to change green waste collection from village skips to and kerbside collection. The Executive has sensibly delayed the decision for a month to allow time for further consultation, although I wonder whether they are just going through the motions. The council confirmed it is introducing the long overdue kerbside collection of glass and is doing away with the despised brown wheelie bins, replacing them with a smaller caddie for kitchen waste. This indicates there is no intention to switch to a mixed kitchen ...
Yet more sensible voices on drugs policy. This time the Guardian reports "The UK Drugs Policy Commission ... says it backs the broad thrust of the Lib Dem motion to be debated on Sunday." The motion itself basically calls for: The removal of criminal penalties for possessionA regulated market for cannabisExpanded heroin maintenance clinics. On a couple of occasions it makes reference to the brave Portuguese model that I have written about previously. At the end of the day surely it just comes down to something similar to what I wrote in my last blog (about the judicial system), is ...
A friend of mine recently asked me for recommendations of books on the Balkans - not textbooks on history or politics, but more interesting stuff, novels for preference. This was my reply.Dear X, When we were on the phone earlier, I strongly recommended the classic Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Rebecca West - not really fiction, and madly pro-Serb, but the Macedonian and Bosnian bits are very good - and Bosnian Chronicle/The Days of the Consuls by Ivo Andrić. A few other thoughts: Contra my hasty statement on the phone that there is no worthwhile fiction about the conflicts ...
Over on the History Today site you can listen to a recording of an interview with David Boyle about his new book Voyages of Discovery.
[IMG: ho11] I had someone comment, that maybe I blog to frequently, and they have a point, so anyhow yesterday I was in sombre "back to school" mood, so tonight I shall stop badgering officials and just post up some holiday snaps. [IMG: hol10] [IMG: hol9] [IMG: hol8] [IMG: hol7] [IMG: hol6] [IMG: hol5] [IMG: hol4] [IMG: hol3] [IMG: hol2] [IMG: hol1]
Tue 13th
20:19
"Consulting opinion pollsters is surely one of the worst imaginable methods of devising a criminal j...
"Consulting opinion pollsters is surely one of the worst imaginable methods of devising a criminal justice policy" I think this is probably one of the most sensible comments I've heard in relation to criminal justice policy, so imagine my surprise when it turns out that the person who said it is Peter Oborne, Chief Political Commentator for the Daily Telegraph. This is written in his Foreword to a report by the criminal justice think-tank 'Make Justice Work' and has been analysed by Mark Easton, who as usual appears to be spot on. The other key sentence I picked out from ...
The Leicester Mercury wins with its: A ram named after former Leicester Tigers star Lewis Moody had a lucky escape when the car towing it burst into flames.
Another fabulous selection from the best blogs I've read recently: Keris is not amused by some of the humour in Friends with Benefits - and I get her point entirely. Ellen writes about perceptions of 9/11 from kids with Asperger's Syndrome. Cicero's Songs is never cheerful, but the author is not impressed on a return to his homeland. Mark reckons Osborne should resign if cocaine allegations are true - but not for the reason you might think. Daddy Alex continues his excellent series on liberal values - this time tackling freedom from ignorance. Fancy writing for Feminist Friday this week? ...
I got a bit of flack today from some of Twitter's more left leaning officianados' after seeing Ed Miliband's speech to the unions in which he was heckled rather badly. What did I dare to do after the Unions had heckled their own man? ...
It is traditional when formulating lists that you make 10 salient points. I only had 9 so have added a ringer. See if you can spot it. 1. Against the 2010 election results in England, Cons lose 2% of their seats in England, Lab 7.3% + Lib Dems 23.25% under the proposals. H/t to @pollycurtis. 2. There is an argument that as the coalition agreement says "we will bring forward a bill.... for the creation of fewer and more equal sized constituencies" and we have done that, we are under no obligation to support it. I do not buy this ...
Community groups in our area had a successful night at the recent Area Forum. Grants were awarded to: Shireway Community Association and Midway Social Club - Outdoor Performance Area - £2,000Yate and West Dodington in Bloom - £2,000Dodington Parish Band - Music and uniforms - £1,950Jacobs Well - £1,030Chipping Sodbury Festival Society - £750Horton and Little Sodbury Village Hall-Village hall enhancement 2011- £800The next round of revenue grants will launch on 24th October with a closing date of 5th December. You can find out more on the South Glos website.
If, like me, your pass for Liberal Democrat Conference (which I gather takes a degree in origami to assemble) has not yet arrived, you may well have contacted Conference Office. I phoned and left a message yesterday and phoned again when I hadn't heard back. I was told to e-mail conferences@libdems.org.uk which I was a bit annoyed about. I was asked to quote my booking reference. So, I spent ages searching all the e-mails and it wasn't there. Thanks to Chris Mills on Twitter, I now know that you can find it by logging in here. It would be much ...
TweetPhillip Hammond MP says that "trains are a rich man's toy" due to the ever increasing fares. I would argue, as more and more people are forced to travel further to work due to the reduction in employment, trains are far from a rich man's toy and more a household necessity we could do without rising. The coalition government is focused on choice to empower the consumer, the alarm-clock British squeezed middle, who work hard and battle to keep their head above water. But in train travel there is very little choice. Home counties like my own are held to ...
The last 24 hours' political news has been dominated by the Boundary Commission for England's proposals for new parliamentary constituencies — and in particular the reduction from 533 to 502 in accordance with the Coalition Agreement to reduce the size of the House of Commons. I'm a self-confessed politics geek, so I find this stuff interesting. But I was surprised that it should be the lead news item on BBC Radio 4′s Today Programme this morning — does the public care as much as us anoraks? I doubt it. True, some members of the public will have particular concerns about ...
It may seem like we are still arguing over this year's, but the first set of proposals for next year's charges for Cornwall Council car parks have just been published. The parking panel have gone to a lot of effort with these new proposals and they are better than the current set of charges, but there are still many issues with them. First, the bare figures for Launceston car parks. For the three town centre 'short stay' car parks, the charges are: First hour - 50p (no change) 1-2 hours - £1.50 (down from £1.70) 2-3 hours - £3 (up ...
We've been bombarded with a series of badly kept secrets over the last few days. The boundary review will cut 50 MPs and the Conservatives are expected to lose the least. Labour are expected to lose the most. The current system works in Labour's favour, allowing them to win majority goverments on lower shares of the vote that left the Conservatives with a Hung Parliament. Labour have vowed to oppose the boundary redrawings, calling it a gerrymandering exercise. I don't really blame them, constituencies can be drawn in so many different ways that you have to resist the ways that ...
So, because I'm rather a sad political wonk with nothing better to do, this morning I decided to sit down and check the impact on my home constituency of Guildford of the boundaries commission initial proposals to reduce the number of MPs from 650 to 600. As it turns out, the changes won't be that big. Basically, Guildford will lose the Ewhurst ward (Waverley Borough) to the Mole Valley Constituency and it will lose the Pilgrims Ward (Guildford Borough) to a new Woking constituency. These are just the initial proposals of course and will now be subject to two separate ...
Liberal Democrats in the Coalition Government have achieved what Labour couldn't be bothered doing and the SNP just weren't interested in helping out with - a cut in fuel duty in the most remote communities. Tim Reid from the BBC has just said on Twitter This is a good start. This won't help those far flung communities in Galloway or Sutherland or Wester Ross where, believe me, having a car is essential, but let's hope that there will be further applications. This is something Scottish Liberal Democrat MEP George Lyon has been working on and campaigning for ever since he ...
While at Update Conference, I met the amazing Georgie St Clair who was modelling her spectacular QR code "info dress". [IMG: QR Code Dress] She told me about her ambitious plans for a QR Code Treasure Hunt across Brighton. Working with local artists and businesses, the Brighton QR Treasure Hunt offers an interactive experience of the city that is both factual and entertaining. Your team of 2 to 6 people will go in search of clues embedded in QR codes, hidden around the city centre, with prizes for the winning team. Whether you bring your mates, colleagues, kids or your ...
On this day one year ago, an election court consisting of two High Court judges began hearing evidence in the case of Woolas -v- Watkins in the Uppermill civic hall. On the morning of the case I published a post ... Continue reading →
Last year I got all excited about the elephants out and about on the streets of London. Unfortunately, I wasn't well enough to get to see them but there's now a similar project a bit closer to home. There are vibrantly and beautifully designed hornbills, orangutans, crocodiles, tigers and elephants all over the centre of Edinburgh - 130 of them in total. These are a selection of my favourites so far. I think the green crocodile with the elephant dung clearly visible inside, called Croc O'S**t wins the prize for the best name. We went out on Sunday afternoon to ...
Back in July I blogged about plans by the Council's Labour-run administration to consult residents about introducing a possible Article Four direction to potentially limit the number of new Houses of Multiple Occupation (HMOs) in the University area, a date has now been set for a public exhibition on the issue in Redlands. The power that the Council is consulted on is called an Article Four Directive. It would require people to seek planning application in a particular area should they wish to convert it into an HMO. This event is designed to provide members of the public with more information and ...
As usual Chris Davies MEP puts things rather well in a defence of freedom of speech. Filed under: Merseytravel Tagged: Chris Davies, Chris Davies MEP, Cllr Mark Dowd
... but I'm nearly there now on the SD226 EMA. One part of one question to go and a quick tidy up of my experimental report and that will be all. Tonight, hopefully!
A recent survey by Manpower has said that jobs outlook in Wales is second worst in the UK. The report says that employers in Wales are looking to lose staff or freeze numbers, rather than hire more workers. From the BBC: "Wales is behind the other regions when it comes to hiring by SMEs [small ...Read More
I returned home to my Aneddfa home in Cardigan today after a few days away to find the usual pile of post waiting for me. Most of it was junk mail, some of it was Council paperwork for future committee meetings. One piece of post stood out - a card shaped envelope with my name and home address hand-written on the front. I opened it to find a lovely 'Thank You' card inside from a local resident who I helped recently with a housing problem. Without naming names (caswork confidentiality of course), this lady got in touch with me a ...
Tue 13th
16:29
Economy & Regeneration Overview and Scrutiny Committee 5th September 2011 Part 1 Budget Issues f...
The Chair, Cllr Johnston welcomed people to the meeting, he said he was varying the agenda to bring the budget item first, then apprenticeships, then the rest of the agenda. Cllr Stuart Wittingham declared a personal interest as a Director of Wirral Partnership Homes in item 3 (Affordable Housing in Wirral). The minutes of the ...
Tue 13th
15:20
an abuse of power, the action of a bully......Chris Davis on Lab leader of Merseytravel
The recall of James Murdoch to the House of Commons Culture Select Committee is a welcome move which comes after conflicting evidence on the Phone Hacking scandal was heard by the committee. I only hope the MP's who sit on the committee do a better job than last time. As one media outlet said the only punch packed in that anticlimactic meeting was thrown by Wendy Deng, Murdoch jrs step mum.
Here's a prediction (which isn't exactly unique). The boundary changes proposed today won't happen. The proposals were needed because of the decision in Parliament to reduce the number of MPs from 650 to 600 and to force all seats to be within a small margin of error of a uniform size. There are a few exceptions - the isolated Island seats and a sop to the Tories on the Isle of Wight - but the room for manoeuvre for the Boundary Commission has been very small. And so they have come up with a set of proposals which please almost ...
Cambridge City Council has just put out a reminder to local groups that grant applications should be in by 5th October 2011. Sustainable City grants are, as the name suggests, to fund projects that improve sustainability. They should meet one of the following three aims: Tackle the causes and consequences of climate change Minimise waste Protect the local environment See to see the type of projects that have been funded recently. Application forms should be sent to Helen Brookes at Cambridge City Council: grants@cambridge.gov.uk Community Development and Leisure grants are also available. Here is a list of the types ...
There are definitely some perks to being a Government minister. And we do seem to have our fair share of petrol heads in our party. Remember last year, when Vince Cable got to drive an Aston Martin and a chocolate power car made of carrots? Last week, as reported in the Sun, above, Secretary of State for Scotland Mike Moore went to the British Touring Car Championships at Knockhill. My first reaction on hearing this was pretty much pure jealousy. I clearly missed a trick. I mean, why on earth could I not have interviewed him there rather than sitting ...
The Southfield police forum (which is made up of residents, local councillors, police) are having their Annual meeting on Wed 28th September from 7pm at the Carlton Road Day Centre, Carlton Road, W4. The meeting will report on a number of local police matters concerning Chiswick and Acton that have happened over the past year. A new committee will be elected (each year some stand down) and so volunteers are needed. You can ask the local police team questions. They will give you advice on reducing crime. There are only four meetings a year so it isn't hard work (sometimes ...
The one thing that really gets my goat is the hypocrisy from politicians with regards drug policy. I have written before that you cannot knowingly break the law, think that it foolish but then still think that it is criminal if someone else commits the same "offence" as you - that is just ridiculously hypocritical. I am bringing it up again because of the recent rehashed story regarding George Osbourne allegedly taking cocaine with a dominatrix. If the story is true then I feel that the dominatrix element is irrelevant - he is entitled to a private life. Visiting a ...
[IMG: Inappropriate Baby Congratulations Card] [IMG: Creative Commons License] photo credit: tengrrl I've been receiving so many testimonials for this blog that I am now supremely confident of winning "The Most Consistently Mediocre Blog Award" in this autumn's flurry of blog awards. Just look at some of the glowing tributes this blog has recently received -completely unsolicited – which, hitherto, modesty has prevented me from publishing. Just today "Horse Sitting" left a comment saying: Wow, amazing weblog format! How lengthy have you ever been running a blog for? you made running a blog glance easy. The overall look of your ...
Is Asquith's party dead? As always I'm a little behind the news and only read Graeme Archer's article this morning. I must admit I'm firstly stunned by the line of reasoning. It is indeed true that the star of Liberalism was in decent since the collapse of the last Liberal-Conservative coalition at the end of World War I but I think that by the fact that the party is still around is proof that Liberalism is needed in British politics and indeed a physical embodiment. Mr Archer makes the comment that if he was a LibDem in the Coalition he ...
Care of @Mike_FTW, this is a sad story about American fear. I was to stand, face the wall in a position so the camera above the toilet couldn't see, and take off my clothes. "You understand why we have to do this, right? It's for our own protection," she told me. The protagonist describes herself as "a half-Arab, half-Jewish housewife". She's so potentially dangerous that she and two other suspiciously non-white passengers required a heavily armed SWAT team to escort them off the plane. Apparently there were 50 similar incidents across the US. It's understandable that security forces were being ...
[IMG: House of Lords. House of Lords. Parliamentary copyright images are reproduced with the permission of Parliament] Liberal Democrats for Lords Reform is putting together a list of all the Liberal Democrat peers, their views on Lords reform and the best contact details for them. Once we have a (fairly) full set of data together, we can then start using it to target our campaigning at the key peers we need to persuade or reassure. You can see the list in our Google document - but it has got quite a few gaps at the moment! So this simple request: ...
Tue 13th
12:02
'Nick Clegg: the most dangerous politician in Britain' - Nice to know we are pissing off the right-w...
Yes folks that is the title of James Slack's latest piece in the Daily Mail. You can read it here if you so wish. It is a wonderful feeling when right wingers in the Daily Mail are getting so pissed off with the Lib Dems. Every week someone says how awful we are that we are busy protecting human rights or civil liberties or wielding too much power for having just 8.7% of MPs in Parliament despite having 23% of votes from the electorate. So when you look at it closely it isn't our fault that the percentage of votes ...
Cllr Jonathan Wallace has arranged some photo ops for conference which will be of interest to ALDC members and other Councillors. All will be held in Hall 5 of ICC. The Nick Clegg photo op is for council candidates for 2012 only (Leader's office stipulation) and members will need to notify Jonathan in advance if they are coming to the NC event by email to jonathanwallace@compuserve.com. Sunday 11-11.30am Stand alone session (no MP but with props for income tax cut and pupil premium) Monday 11-11.30am Chris Huhne (Green Deal) Tuesday 4.30-5pm Nick Clegg (for 2012 council candidates only, no props) ...
This is, colleagues in Scotland in particular note, an England only policy announcement: We consider that the use of commas in existing constituency names is currently inconsistent and sometimes does not aid clarity. We have therefore taken a policy decision that commas will no longer be included in the names of constituencies.
Yesterday the Boundary Commission for England released it's proposed changes to parliamentary constituency boundaries. The headlines for Luton are: Luton South loses the parts of Central Beds (the village of Caddington and the surrounding area) it currently has to a Hemel Hempstead seat. It gains from Luton North the two wards of Barnfield and Saints. Luton North loses those wards but gains the four Central Bedfordshire wards that contain the town of Dunstable. It is renamed Luton North and Dunstable. I'm not yet sure what I think about this change. The big news for the rest of Bedfordshire is that ...
(The headline is meant to be 'wait a moment' but it barely works...) Now here's an interesting story which might not receive the coverage it deserves [I have tried to insert a link but it appears to not want to play today so check out the Independent for more on this]. It seems that Turkey is promoting itself as the leader of the Arab world. Turkey is of course the home of the former Ottoman Empire and has managed to reinvent itself as a moderate, democratic state - not without much difficulty but still with considerable success. The fact that ...
Today the Boundary Commission for England has released it's proposals for changing the electoral boundaries that will be used in the next General Election (currently scheduled for sometime May 2015). Amongst the North West shake-up, they propose to abolish the Salford & Eccles and Worsley & Eccles South Constituencies, instead creating a new 'Swinton' constituency and then splitting the rest of Salford across Leigh and Manchester. Kersal and Broughton will remain, as currently, in the Blackley and Broughton constituency. The proposals are as follows: Manchester Central Constituency: (For a map, click here) Ancoats & Clayton Bradford City Centre Hulme Irwell ...
Today I had a second phone call from someone telling me that my computer was faulty. The first time I got this call, a couple of weeks ago, I must have sounded suspicious because they put the phone down on me. This time I decided to play naive and let them take me through the spiel. The caller told me that he 'knew' that my computer had more than 1000 faults and that it might crash at any time. He rather spoilt his line by then asking if I had a computer, but I ignored that and battled on. He ...
This weekend, apart from the wedding, one thing has been burning on my blogging sensitivities that I have to blog. It is my thoughts on the former army chaplin, now minister in my late father's home congregation and his decision to attend the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis on Friday. Everywhere I ahve turned over hte last week there has been mention of him, in the newspapers, on the television, on radio on Sunday Sequence and then on Monday on The Nolan Show guest hosted by Sunday Sequences William Crawley. First Derry Presbyterian Church On Friday the Rev Dr David Latimer ...
Tue 13th
10:25
MP conference fringe league table 2011: Vince is the new Simon, Simon is the new Vince
Back for its third year (see 2009 and 2010) is my conference fringe meeting league table, showing how many fringes each MP will be speaking at. As ever, this is based on the information from the official fringe listings in the printed conference directory. The Simon Hughes Memorial Prize for Multiple Simultaneous Fringe Booking award this year was tightly contested. After Simon Hughes winning in 2009 and then in 2010 the honours being split fourways between Burstow, Cable, Featherstone and Teather, 2011 saw a tight contest again. There were numerous MPs who managed one, or more, double bookings. Special mention ...
A new mobile phone app which allows bus users to plan their journeys has been launched by Intalink, the Hertfordshire Transport Partnership of the county council and transport operators. The new 'Herts Bus Info' app is available to download on iPhone and phones using Android. Key features include departure information, journey planning, timetables and maps. In addition, the app uses GPS location software to allow users to search for bus information wherever they are situated. The app is part of a growing package of digital-based transport information in Hertfordshire produced by the county council, which includes QR codes, the Intalink ...
Cllr John Dodd has welcomed proposals to reduce number ofcommittees at Merseytravel from the current 34 down to 8. Cllr Dodd says "This is something the Liberal Democratshave been requesting for a long time. Iam glad Labour have taken on board what the Lib Dems have being saying. Thisnew committee structure brings Merseytravel in to line with other localauthorities and will better serve the public of Southport and Sefton as awhole". Cllr John Dodd is the Sefton Liberal Democrat representativeon the Merseyside Integrated Transport Authority (Merseytravel). For furtherinformation please contact John Dodd.
I certainly didn't, until I watched the first of her impressive new documentary series about The Queen's Palaces last night on BBC1. She took us through Buckingham Palace with a breathless enthusiasm and managed to fit in a few location visits, notably to Venice, as well. The script that she'd written was so warm and fascinating and told us a lot more than we learned when we did the official tour of the State Rooms in August. I was particularly fascinated by the choice of gift for a Royal Mistress - not one I would have chosen but never mind. ...
The UK Military Covenant Commission report identified injustices in a lack of past medallic recognition for those who had served in the British Armed Forces. This led to the Conservative Party policy in their 2010 General Election manifesto and the Coalition "Programme for Government" commitment to undertake a comprehensive Medal Review. But the Ministry of Defence has stuffed our veterans. The Ministry of Defence failed to publicly notify when the medal review started; what its terms of reference were and when it would report; failed to consult with veterans, and produced unsubstantiated findings based on false arguments. In a matter ...
Tue 13th
09:25
Boundary Commissioners: Don't under-estimate the emotion of the Cornish in Bude and Launceston
"The Song of Western Men" is also known as "Trelawny". Some regard it as the "national anthem" of Cornwall. It was written by Rev. Robert Stephen Hawker in the days when rural parsons had time on their hands to write poetry, rescue ship-wrecked sailors, finesse scientific theorems etc etc. What's interesting about Hawker is that his parishes were at the very northern extremity of Cornwall, centred at his magnificent rectory next to Morwenstow church. So that song, "Trelawny", encapsulating for many the essence of Cornwall, was inspired and written slap bang next to the Devon border. Though I have been ...
I haven't had a chance to read the full proposals yet, but today's Boundary Proposals seem to be a bit of a curate's egg. It's amazing that the media are concentrating on the people who occupy the positions currently, rather than the actual new constituencies, but for Northumberland there are some pretty radical (although not politically radical) changes. Locally, the Blyth Valley constituency will disappear. Blyth and Seaton Sluice will join with Ashington Bedlington and Newbiggin whereas Cramlington will join with parts of North Tyneside and Newcastle. Personally I would have prefered to see the county boundaries retained for this, ...
Here is my projection of the three most recent election results in Northern Ireland - the 2010 Westminster election, the 2011 Assembly election and the 2011 local council elections - onto the sixteen proposed new constituency boundaries. For each constituency I note the old constituencies from which its voters have been drawn, the changes proposed, the projected results and the likely consequences for Westminster and Assembly representation. (See also my BBC commentary here.) North Belfast (89% from old N Belfast, 11% from old W Belfast): Takes in three Shankill wards. DUP UUP Oth U Alliance Oth SDLP SF 2010 W ...
This morning's Independent reports that Britain's banks will be given until 2019 to implement sweeping reforms designed to ensure taxpayers never have to bail them out again. The paper says that the Chancellor has promised that all the legislation to bring in the changes will be on the statute book before the next general election in 2015 and that he has welcomed in principle the blueprint from the Independent Commission on Banking (ICB), that called for firewalls to be built between the banks' high street and riskier investment operations. The Commission also recommended that the large retail banks should have ...
There's a great analysis of the new proposed boundary changes over at The Guardian - data galore - including a re run of the 2010 General Election results. This doesn't bode well for us. To quote the accompanying piece to the data... The Labour party could have netted 14 fewer seats, the Liberal Democrats 10 fewer, while the Conservatives, who dominate England, might have lost just six seats. The UK's only Green MP, Caroline Lucas, would not have been able to win her seat, according to the preliminary figures. Now, at this stage we are of course playing 'fantasy politics'. ...
From Tom Brake on Twitter:
I've been worried. What's happening to me? I've been finding myself agreeing pieces in right wing publications such as The Telegraph and The Times. Although I guess Caitlin Moran isn't really a right winger. Still, of late my longstanding habit of reading papers of all persuasions is turning up a lot of surprises. More and more often I'm find things that I agree with in places I wouldn't expect. Alternatively, easy pickings to criticise the coalition are not being delivered by the left. I'm not the only one noticing this - two examples are found in pieces by John Harris ...
Community projects throughout the county have been put at risk after £4 million intended to support them is being used to bail out the county council's finances. The government's Local Public Sector Award grant should have been used to help voluntary organisations provide community schemes across the county. But instead it has been taken by the ruling Conservative-group on the county council who claim they need the money to pay for high speed broadband across the county. They had already intended to go-ahead with the scheme and fund it from various funding sources, including county council reserves. But instead they ...
The meeting for volunteers interested in being involved in next years Arbury Carnival is taking place at 7pm tonight at the Arbury Community Centre (on Campkin Road). The more volunteers there are the more that the Committee will be able to do for the local community and the better the event will be. Events like this only happen because of the small band of dedicated people working hard behind the scenes to make it happen; Could you be one of them?
The Boundary commission has published it's proposed changes across Cambridgeshire in order to make MP's constituencies roughly balanced with somewhere between 72,810 and 80,473 electors. At the same time the number of constituencies (and therefore MP's) will be reduced to 600, in England this will mean a reduction from 533 to 502. Here in Cambridge there is no change at all the only slight exception to this being that Queen Ediths will now sit in a slightly reconfigured South Cambridgeshire. Cambridge will not change in the slightest. The brief, from Government, was for "minimal change" and that certainly seems to ...
As I wrote last week, Troy Davis, sentenced to death in 1989 for the murder of a police officer in Georgia, has had a new execution date set, for a week tomorrow, despite the disintegration of the case against him. A friend of mine, someone I'd trust with my life, a lawyer type, who's good at sniffing out the truth, went to visit the crime scene a few years ago and he concluded that Troy couldn't have committed the crime from where he was. This Friday, there's an international day of solidarity for Troy, organised by Amnesty. As part of ...
West End Community Council meets again tonight (7pm at Logie St John's (Cross) Church Hall) for the first time since its summer break. I'll be giving a short presentation on preparations for the 2011 West End Christmas Week and I have also prepared an update on local issues covering parking in the West End, school bus provision in the West End and the Crichton Street Royal Mail Collection Office closure.
George Osborne's repose to the Vickers proposal to create a "firewall" between the retail and "casino" activities of the banks is perhaps more robust than many feared. However, several questions remain. Most obvious is: why on earth do we have to wait until 2019?. It is already four years since the run on Northern Rock. Four years after the Great Crash of 1929 the Americans actually introduced their Glass-Seagall Act which created a similar separation, not proposals to think about it. It is the repeal of the Glass-Seagall Act in 1999, with similar deregulation in the UK, which is largely ...
SpongeBob 'may impair concentration' What a load of nonsense! (tags: children) BBC News - New Borders, new names? Notes from my radio appearance on Sunday. (tags: northernireland) Five Paradoxes of Peace Operation, by Richard Gowan (PDF) 1) Military peacekeeping has grown in scale ... yet lost operational impact. 2) Peacekeeping is cheap ... but it is also still too expensive. 3) All peace operations are political ... but not all are guided by credible political strategies and few peacekeepers are good at politics. 4) Peacekeepers promote democracy and justice ... but democracy and justice don't always promote peace. 5) Emerging ...
It's almost two years since Durham County Council trumpeted the Consett "masterplan", an expensive document to be produced by consultants described as "a masterplan for the creation of a 21st century modern and vibrant town". Readers of this week's cabinet papers will find a much less triumphant tone in the description of "a focus on realistic and deliverable interventions". There is some really good news in the report, particularly the public announcement of the £3.8 million extension of the Consett Business Park, but much of it is a rehash of things long on the books. There is the investment of ...
