An organisation called the School Food Trust has issued a report critising the content of the average school lunch box and by association the average parents who fill them. Instead of sandwiches and a bag of crisps they suggest parents should include such delicacies as: - Butternut squash soup with wholegrain bread - Cous cous with roasted vegetables and chickpeas - Wholegrain pasta salad with tomatoes, green beans and sweetcorn in green pesto sauce - Low-fat cream cheese on wholegrain cracker with grapes Now apart from the logistical problems of trying to get a six year old to safely transport ...
Stockport's ruling Lib Dem group have brought forward proposals to help businesses in the Borough during the current challenging times. The Council has taken a lead role in supporting local businesses in recent years: for example, through the Boost campaign and the LABGI (Local Authority Business Growth Incentive) resources. Although there's now less money available we believe it's absolutely essential to support businesses as best we can. So we propose: Support for a Citizen's Advice Support Worker – £30,000 to deliver this service for another two years. The service is currently funded to the end of this year and has ...
At 8:50pm the Daily Fail published the news from Perugia. Only it wasn't the news that all the rest of us were seeing. In what appears to have been a pre-written story ready to go live when the verdict was give the Daily Mail is unique in not actually reporting the news. As events were happening on the 24 hour rolling news the Fail decided to print the following (I'm fisking in red) Judge Claudio Pratillo Hellman also ruled that Raffaele Sollecito, 27, Knox's former boyfriend, should remain in jail and confirmed the original 25-year sentence on the computer studies ...
Remember this next time a mainstream journalist moans about bloggers... Later. Look, I don't want to get sententious about this. We all know that the Mail makes things up. But how does the paper explain the rest of the report, which WhatCulture! took the precaution of harvesting before it was taken down? As Knox realized the enormity of what judge Hellman was saying she sank into her chair sobbing uncontrollably while her family and friends hugged each other in tears. A few feet away Meredith's mother Arline, her sister Stephanie and brother Lyle, who had flown in especially for the ...
[IMG: Daily Mail Amanda Knox Guilty] Daily Mail jumps the gun and prints that Amanda Knox is guilty Getting the news fast is important, getting it first is great but getting it right is still the most important thing. Daily Mail Fail. Tweet
Out campaigning in the Norland ward by-election this evening (including an, er..., interesting delivery round), I caught up on one of the many ways that Kensington & Chelsea Council has been rather profligate with money when it comes to looking after senior council staff or Conservative councillors. It turns out that Kensington & Chelsea has been spending thousands of pounds on couriering council paperwork to a Conservative Councillor Daniel Moylan's holiday home ... in Thailand. The council's argument is that this is a necessary action as he has to keep up with the paperwork and it includes large maps which ...
Some instant reactions as Knox and Sollecito are found not guilty of murder on appeal regarding the muder of Meredith Kercher. First of all Rudy Guede is still in jail for the murder. Secondly I have no idea whether either Knox or Sollecito are guilty or not. No idea whatsoever. However from all the reports the DNA evidence was all extremely unsafe and that is what the judge thought and decided to disregard all the DNA evidence in the case. After he did this he decided along with his fellow judge and the six jury members decided that the conviction ...
You can find pictures and videos of the occupation of Brooklyn Bridge on Mashable: "The movement began in July after anti-consumerist group Adbusters called for an occupation of Wall Street on Sept. 17. It quickly gained support from groups like Anonymous. Around 1,000 showed up for the first protest. Over the next two weeks, the protests gained steam and drew the attention of the mainstream media." Slugger O'Toole reports on Ulster Unionist MLA Sam Gardiner, who appears to have been consulting a marked register before deciding whether to help his constituents. Did The Scottish Government and Aberdeenshire Council give Donald ...
You have a delivery round stuffed full of properties that have just had railings, gates and doors painted in black paint. So you wait until someone turns up in a black suit to give them the delivery round, don't you? And of course, when the delivery round also has the little trap for the numerically conventional of numbers 1 and 2 on one road being located between numbers 60 and 61, you wait not only for someone in a black suit to turn up, but someone who you think can handle the tricky stuff, don't you? Oh, and when you ...
A quite remarkable e mail has just popped into my linkedin account headlined... Employee Issues? Suspected Employee Disloyalty. It was from a firm of private investigators offering their services to spy on employees who are suspected of breach of contract or who are taking a firm to tribunal. And they finish with a flourish...... In addition to the above, we can undertake pre-employment screening or report on the "lifestyle" of an employee you may have concerns about. We have a team of surveillance specialists who can report the movements of individuals and undertake the relevant undercover work or surveillance needed ...
We're happy to announce the end of the long fight to get extra train carriages from Yate. From December the 7.40 and 8.09, and the return journeys from Temple Meads at 14.41, 15.41, 16.41 and 17.10 will each have an extra carriage. First Great Western told us this good news at the rail users meeting this evening. Also for those affected by the complete failure of the commuter train service to Bristol on the morning of Monday 26th, Nigel at the station has forms for users to obtain refunds, or you can claim via the passenger charter.
The Rambles of Neil Monnery was delighted and teary eyed when the staff received an e-mail from one of Gaddafi's men pleading with us to get the truth out. All the reporting and excellent journalism we have been treated to was just western fallacy – a ruse to make all us idiot westerners believe that what we were doing what was right. Clearly though that is not the case and with no bias at all this e-mail from a Gaddafi loyalist will clear up any misinterpretations that we may have had. I will obviously post the e-mail I personally received ...
The winners of the musical fireworks was pyrotexfireworx Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device
Details of this planning application can be found by following this link: The case officer is Steve Isaacson - please email comments and objections to him at steve.isaacson@lewisham.gov.uk, and don't forget to copy us in at foresthill@lewishamlibdems.org.uk
Recently I asked the Community Payback Team for some assistance with a couple of "Grotspots" around my Ward and today spent a couple of hours with them addressing these issues. Two areas of my Ward were cleared of overgrowth and Litter. Believe it or not, the photo above had a flattened Sofa in the scrub and about 8-10 bags of builders rubble. The team also addressed some graffiti issues in some other locations around the Ward. Feedback from residents is good and I have sent an email to the Area Manager in Probation Services thanking today's team. All in All ...
This Thursday, 6 October, I will be taking questions about the party conferences along with Iain Anderson and John Lehal on CIPR TV. You can submit your questions here.
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 241st weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere ... Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (25 September-1 October, 2011), together with a hand-picked quintet, normally courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed. Don't forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox — just click here — ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging. As ever, let's start with the most popular post, and work our way down: 1. Rory Weal ...
I was going to leave this a few days, but because of scheduling stuff my Doctor Who post will now be going up on the Mindless Ones tomorrow rather than today, so I brought this forward. And so we come to the last album the four Monkees would all appear on until the mid-1990s. Head ...
Or so Axegrinder claims on the Press Gazette website: There are grumblings of revolt at the Leicester Mercury where journalists and the commercial team have now reportedly been squeezed on to one floor in a bid to save money. Fair enough, we all have to tighten our belts in this age of austerity. But journalists have apparently drawn the line at plans to build a stage so that ad staff can hold their weekly prize-giving. Said Axegrinder's mole at the Mercury: "Editorial have complained about this for a long time. They were often loud and disruptive when they were in ...
In all this weekend's heat, a new event for Reading took place and was a spectacular success. But it wasn't just the spectacular weather that made Reading Town Meal so great. Here's why. First, it's run by Food for Families, a relatively new charity who help people and especially families grow their own vegetables. I first came across them when I was shown the school allotment they built at New Christ Church School. Second, they proved that there is such a thing as a free lunch. 1000 people ate a free 3 course meal, sourced from locally-grown produce and cooked, ...
TweetThis has to be the worst concoction of an idea that the Conservatives have come up with. Raising speed limits on motorways will help economic recovery. No. It won't. Hammond MP's proposals suggest that by saving journey time, people will save time. What do they do with this apparent time? Well, either make more business ...
First of all, the Fail has an apologetic David Cameron saying that he'd dearly love to rip up the Human Rights Act and use it to line his children's guinea pig's cage, or words to that effect, but Nick Clegg just won't let him. Secondly, the Sun editorial today could easily have been written by Nadine Dorries: The Prime Minister lets himself be pushed around far too much by Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems.This week, Mr Cameron has to show Tories he is in charge. It's no longer good enough to blame the mess he inherited from Labour. He's ...
George Osborne delivered his speech to conference today. The full text can be found here. He blamed the current financial crisis on 3 things: The last Labour Government The Banks The Euro First two are spot on but the third, i'll blame that on him being a Eurosceptic Tory. The eurozone is in crisis, yes
The Equality Network has helpfully provided some quotes from a Sunday Herald interviews with the Scottish Conservative Party leadership contenders on marriage equality: The Sunday Herald yesterday interviewed the four candidates for leader of the Scottish Conservatives. One of the questions was "Do you support the introduction of gay marriage?" Jackson Carlaw said "Those churches which are content to hold gay marriage ceremonies should be allowed to do so. Those churches that do not wish to do so should not be compelled." Ruth Davidson said "I do support the introduction, but with a vital proviso: that faith organisations should not ...
Last year's council tax freeze was very good politics, even if it wasn't necessarily very good for local government finances. Any council freezing its precept was given additional funding equivalent to a 2.5% increase. I say 'any', although my fellow parish councillors will note that we weren't included in that offer.I suspect that the long-term implication - that if the 'bribe' stopped, or was stagnant in cash terms, then precepts would need to be increased rather more than inflation - did not go unnoticed. So, here it is again this year. What this means, effectively, is that local authorities who ...
Over at Huffington Post, I am washing the Conservatives' clean linen in public - click here if you want to have a read of that and join in the debate over there.
It has always been the temptation for Lib Dems, especially when in opposition, to ignore the big issues of the day in favour of time-worn favourites; the environment, electoral reform and civil liberties. To a certain extent that has had to change now we're in government, but the perception remains. Too often it seems to ...
Recently released information shows Manchester's Labour Council has failed to collect nearly £43million in Council Tax arrears since Council Taxes were introduced. The equivalent of £255 per household with residents. Manchester City Council has consistently been amongst the worst Councils in the whole country for collecting Council Tax; last year nearly one pound in every ten owed in Council Tax was not collected - depriving the City of nearly £11million. In March this year the Labour Council voted to cut their budget by £109million, resulting in the loss of 1500 jobs, the closure of Libraries and public toilets and putting ...
Chorlton Good Neighbours Care Group wishes to appoint a part-time worker based in their office with some outreach work. This post is temporary until 31st March 2012, but with potential to continue. They are seeking a person who has experience of working with older people to join their team of staff and volunteers, and support the work of this well established Neighbourhood Care Group. Car driver/owner preferred. 1. Part Time Group Assistant, 20 hours per week The post holder will work for: 6 hours per day on Tuesdays and Fridays 4 hours per day on Wednesdays and Thursdays • To ...
We'd rather allow the state, not ourselves, to make the everyday mundane choices in life. Promoting individual liberty does not equate to despising government and advocating demolishing the state to its foundations - far from it. A brief extract from my latest contribution to Liberal Democrat Voice. You can read it here
We are very fortunate to be apart of this nation. It's traditions and values are, to an extent, admired across the world. From the birth of the Magna Carta 1215, De Montfort's Parliament of 1265 and the Bill of Rights 1689, the concept of freedom and individual liberty has been a source of inspiration. As Prime Minister Lloyd George once said, "Liberty is not merely a privilege to be conferred; it is a habit to be acquired". But that liberty has been forsaken, forgotten, to a previous age. There is a reluctance to even consider the prospect of a government ...
Following the plans to redevelop the old Lucas site on Spring Road (with a Morrison's supermarket, an Extra Care Village and new housing), another set of plans has now been published. These would replace the current Eaton Electical factory site (off Reddings Lane and running beside part of Olton Boulevard West) with a retail park, containing a large Asda supermarket and some other retail units. Under these proposals Eaton would build a new (much smaller) factory on the old Lucas / Yuasa battery factory site off Formans Road. There would also be a small amount of new housing built. These ...
My favourite contemporary economist is UCL's Professor Wendy Carlin. She was my tutor at UCL, and led my second year macroeconomics course, and a third year course on European institutions. Her patient, dispassionate analysis is worth so much more than all that shoot-from-the-hip banging on by celebrity economists, Nobel Laureates and all. It was her analysis, well before the current crisis broke, that demonstrated to me that the last government's economic "miracle" was unsustainable (the combination of an appreciating real exchange rate and a trade deficit being the giveaways). She also helped me understand the Eurozone, and pointed out the ...
A lot has happened since I last posted. Scotland have made an exit from Rugby's World Cup following a heartbreaking late loss to England. France lost to Tonga but still go through to face England. The form teams from the Home Nations, Wales and Ireland, will square up to each other and from what I can see of the draw there will be a Northern Hemisphere versus Southern final. I would tip it to be New Zealand V Ireland at this stage but Rugby is a very funny game. On Thursday I spoke at the opening of a Welfare Rights ...
Yesterday Mark Cole brought you the delights of possibly the longest headed goal in footballing history. That was in a Norwegian match. Well those crafty Spaniards hate being outdone by one of the smaller footballing nations (come to think of it they hate being outdone by Germany, Italy or England as well). So step forward Eduardo Gonzalez for a perfectly timed sliding tackel on Valencia's Sergio Canales who had already but his team one up against Granada. A sliding tackle you say, how can that beat a long headed goal? Well because Señor Gonzalez was the man in black, and ...
Вс, 15:26: RT @ninews: NewsLetter: MLA probed over use of voting records: A POLITICIAN is under investigation after challenging constit... http://t ... Вс, 17:28: October Books 1) The Twilight Streets, by Gary Russell http://j.mp/oXIjcY Вс, 17:35: Undue Influence is a corrupt practice http://t.co/kBwGTSu5 More trouble for the UUP, hassling voters who did not vote! Вс, 18:03: 18th wedding annversary! #fb (@ Villa San Martino) http://t.co/kvg9BREV Пн, 11:43: Enjoying the sun while it lasts. (@ Square Ambiorixsquare) http://t.co/06aWBpWr
Maybe the 50p rate of income tax paid by the highest earners on incomes over £150,000 is bringing in a few hundred million a year. Maybe it isn't. Either way it won't be raking in billions. What the debate about the 50p rate is all about generating headlines without really changing much. The government fiddles about with a few hundred million to grab headlines all the time. The government will spend £680bn this year. Throwing a fraction of one per cent of its tax raising and spending power changes nothing fundamental about the impact government has. The Coalition's commitment to ...
This post isn't about cuts to services in West Hampstead - distressing those these may be - but about a really bizarre and even perverse proposed cut which divides the West Hampstead community in half! Can you imagine how odd it would feel if one side of your street had one MP and the other side had a different one? That's what could happen to Mill Lane and Broomsleigh Street and part of West End Lane if a new plan proposed by the Boundary Commission goes ahead. In order to make all MPs constituencies roughly the same size, they have ...
The 10:10 campaign, dedicated to helping people reduce their carbon emissions, is currently developing a new project called "Solar Schools". This new project allows individuals and businesses, for as little as £5 each, to sponsor new solar panel installations for their local primary or secondary schools. In the words of the founder; "The idea is simple: we help schools get their own solar panels by giving them tools to raise money from the local community. This cuts their carbon emissions, generates long-term income via the Feed-in Tariff and provides a brilliant educational resource for the pupils." The beta project is ...
The sorry story of Medway Tunnel continues to ravage... well local news stands and the concerns of Medway motorists who are already hard pressed for money. The root of the problem seems embedded in Gun Wharf and the Council offices, however it is not clear whether it is a Conservative Council cock up or a Labour party ruse. What is clear that in the confusion Medway citizens are kept in the dark, what they and the Liberal Democrats want, is answers. The story of the Tunnel is long but interesting and worth noting. Before the tunnel opened only the A2, ...
Brian Clough is a legend in Derby and Nottingham. No mean feet to be looked on with affection by both sets of fans, as probably their best manager in both cases. Derby won the league under him in 1972 for ... Continue reading →
I was looking through my Cs in my record collection and came across the fifteen year old Farewell to the World album by one of my favourite bands, especially live. I do have all the studio albums as well. Of course the farewell only lasted 10 years as other bands were coming back in the mid 90s so too did Crowded House. A little bit of Crowded House trivia for you the Finn brothers were actually called Cornelius Mullane and Brian Timothy. So I reckon that they got the best possible names out of what their parents gave them to ...
[IMG: Terence presenting QRpedia at OTA11] © Caroline Mockett As I stepped onto the stage at OverTheAir 11 to present QRpedia, I was buoyed by the overwhelming reception that it received on the Interwebs over the last few days. Here's a quick roundup. It all started with a blog post on Wikimedia. ReadWriteWeb called QRpedia Probably the Coolest QR Thingy Ever Made! This was syndicated into the New York Times. Gizmodo gave QRpedia a great write up. The Hipster Effect talks about how QRpedia enables rapid access to knowledge. A small but positive write up in Forbes. Lots of blog ...
It looks likely that a decision will be made on the Hatch Farm Dairies planning application in the next few weeks. When I have some more information I will let everyone know.
The election for the next leader of the Scottish Conservatives has become increasingly rancorous. Murdo Fraser, the current deputy leader has put forward an interesting and brave idea that the "Conservative" brand in Scotland is so toxic that it needs to be changed. The remaining four candidates reject his analysis and suggest that the way forward is simply to be more vehement about where they stand now. The fact is though, that the Conservatives stand nowhere. They long ago lost the support of the urban proletariat, then the Kirk, then latterly even industry, and now farmers. Without renewal, they are ...
As a huge fan of the Smiley novels of John Le Carre, and the original Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy TV adaptation, I was worried I would be disappointed by the new film. Not a bit of it. It is absolutely brilliant and the flashbacks give more character to some of the figures involved. If you haven't seen it yet make sure you do. It must surely win every award goind.
TweetThe Conservative Conference announced a cut on right-to-buy prices, and a new flood of council homes. But the 'precariat' generation, and the middle middle, are predominately disadvantaged. The Metro reports a discount of 30-50% for purchase of council homes to 'fire up' recovery. This is a spurious and illogical decision to appease Conservative voters, and ...
The new (and in fact only) biography of Nick Clegg is very much a book of two halves. The first - a fascinating tale of Nick's multinational family; the second - a fairly standard recount of some of the political events of the last few years, with little in the way of revelations. If you do not follow political news closely, you will still find in the second half much of interest, but whether or not you do the first is illuminating not only because of the colourful relatives (as one newspaper put it, think Tenko meets Reilly, Ace of ...
You can follow my blog, and other messages, on Twitter as OwenTemple2.
Westbere copse, on the corner of Westbere Road and Minster Road is a small pocket of natural charm on our doorsteps. Unlike parks like Fortune Green, in Westbere Copse priority is given to the speices that would otherwise be crowded out of the city. It is one of several nature reserves in Camden, all of which have Friends groups who look after the reserves interest and co-operate with Camden council in running events in the reserves. However, friends groups need friends and the Westbere Copse friends are actively looking for more participants at the moment. Involvement isn't too onerous - ...
This weekend's been marked by several messages from people at the Church and Mossley Hill Children's Centre (I call it Dovedale!) The Council is consulting on whether or not to close this centre (and others) Some of the messages about how the centre helps parents and children are so touching and they really underline the good work done there. The centre has set up a campaign website which I promised to tell people about. You can find it at this link http://www.savemossleyhillcc.org/
Over the weekend, Paul Head criticised the party's Leadership Programme, saying, While the Candidate Leadership Programme seems like a good idea, giving candidates from underrepresented groups the support and training they need to go on and, hopefully, become MPs, I believe it is destined to failure for the same reasons that shortlists are not the answer. They both ignore the real problem. Shortlists in particular are a quick-fix, tinkering round the edges, top-down attempt to create the façade that we are a party that is representative of the whole country. The truth is we aren't. A quick look around the ...
A tiny group of protesters in New York has spread to Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, Denver and Seattle. Unions, students, left wing activists, army veterans, libertarians, and ordinary Americans are protesting against the influence of corporate America over the political system. Both parties are under attack. The man, who helped rescue Bear Stearns, AIG and ...
A North West England MEP is calling for action to combat the "slow moving disaster" of global warming that he claims will have consequences as far reaching as war. Chris Davies says that economic problems have sapped the will of ... Continue reading →
A new Chief Executive at the UK Border Agency takes office this week. The fairness and effectiveness of our asylum system will fall squarely within Rob Whiteman's responsibility. It seems an appropriate moment, then, to look at the way the Coalition has approached this dysfunctional area of public policy. When politicians talk about asylum, they invariably remind their audience that the UK has a proud historical record protecting people who have fled chilling human rights abuses abroad. Polls consistently show substantial public support for ensuring protection for those who need it. And these were the opening notes struck when Nick ...
Mon 3rd
10:23
Bashing the Daily Mail will kill off the Lib Dems: We need a smarter strategy on difficult papers
It is very popular in the Lib Dems to bash the right wing media, particularly the Daily Mail. At conference we heard most ministers having a go at the Daily Mail and Nick Clegg particularly had some strong mocking words reserved for the paper. This seems a funny strategy considering the Daily Mail is the ...
Most Liberal Democrats, I suspect, felt slightly queasy, in the aftermath of the recent riots, at some of the very Tory rhetoric used (particularly) by the prime minister. In fact, I know many Liberal Democrats felt a little more than ... Continue reading →
[IMG: image] I recently returned from a holiday, now for me being cautious, the problem always arises, of how to take your money with you, in a safe and convenient form. Till this last trip I've always taken a bit of cash, cards and travellers cheques, as I was getting cash for my trip, from the post office, I decided rather than use travellers cheques I'd get a "travel money card plus" this looked a lot less fussy, more 21st Centaury and perhaps more secure than the old American Express travels cheques. Below are the main bullet points stressing the ...
Another Liberal Democrat Conference recedes into the distance: holding government ministers to account; debating policy (even nearly managing the rare feat of throwing out a policy paper); catching up with friends. But while it's still fresh in Conference Committee's minds, I have some small suggestions for next time. Talking to Lib Dems who may not have read every word of the Agenda or Conference Daily updates, and to people who were watching at home on BBC2 or BBC Parliament in their vast ratings of one or two, just a few simple changes could make Conference a lot easier to follow. ...
I haven't had much time for blogging these last few days, but rest assured that I have been frothing at the mouth over the announcement by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles that he's found £250 million to enable Councils in England to restore weekly bin collections. That's a phrase I really don't like anyway. Every house has a bin emptied every week. That means that the bad bin, the landfill bin, gets emptied once a fortnight. And people complain about it like mad. Let's get it into perspective, though. The worst that can happen from the fortnightly landfill bin collections is ...
Below are reports from many of our fringe meetings at the recent Lib Dem conference in Birmingham – more to follow! The SLF's fringe programme at this year's Lib Dem conference got off to an excellent start, with the panel ... Continue reading →
As the UK Coalition raises the minumum wage, there are claims that it may be putting off employers from taking on new people. Except that these warnings come not from the usual suspects but from the Low Pay Commission. New rates for the minimum wage took effect on Saturday. For 18-20 year olds, the minimum wage is now £4.98, up from £4.92. For 16-17 year olds, the new rate is £3.68, up from £3.64. However, the body charged with tackling low pay has said that firms may be reluctant to create jobs by recruiting inexperienced staff because they are put ...
Mon 3rd
08:50
Guide dogs allowed on London Underground escalators - Caroline Pidgeon campaign success
Following a campaign by Liberal Democrat London Assembly Member Caroline Pidgeon, the legal ban on guide dogs travelling on the escalators on the London Underground is being lifted on Wednesday. Transport for London and the Government are changing a by-law which originated in the era of wooden escalators which could expand and contract depending on heat and humidity. This meant larger gaps have to be left by default than on modern metal escalators, with resulting fears that guide dogs (now often called assistance dogs) might get their paws stuck on days when the heat and humidity was against them. The ...
Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Over 550 party members responded, and we've been publishing the full results. 85% back EU membership... but 51% reject move to ever closer union LDV asked: Which of the following options would be your ideal future for the UK and the European Union? 48% – The UK should remain a full member of the EU and work towards ever closer union, economically and politically. 37% – The UK should remain a full ...
TweetThe Metro screams on page four "IDS vows to fight benefit tourism threat". Seven words that are assisting the Tories to maintain a rightwing society discriminating against EU citizens and those on hard times. The European Commission has started to tut about Britain discriminating against EU citizens if they apply for benefits here. The Euro-sceptic ...
Perhaps the unseasonable weather drove it from the fields to seek food? Whatever the reason, the Rutland & Stamford Mercury reports: A veterinary centre is looking for the owner of a bearded dragon which was found in a pub. The lizard was found in the George and Dragon in Seaton at lunchtime on Thursday. If it is yours please contact Uppingham Veterinary Centre in Ayston Road, Uppingham.
...... our new hamster. We were all very sad when Fluffball passed away at the age of 2 years and 8 months in June and it took until a couple of weeks ago for Anna to decide that she wanted another hamster. So, yesterday, we picked up Aurora. Her name is an ironic reflection of the fact that all the other hamsters in the shop were fast asleep, yet she was bouncing around the cage looking very animated and interested. She seems to have settled well into Fluffball's old cage, although with new fixtures and fittings and toys. She is ...
The following letter is self-explanatory: 27th September, 2011. The Rt Hon Vince Cable M.P. Dear Vince Cable, I believe you were too dismissive of my suggestion, put to you at the Guardian debate last week, that, instead of a Mansion Tax, we should simply slap a few more Council Tax bands on top of the existing ones, which in England presently stop at Band H (over £320 000.) My argument is that your proposal of a tax on "mansions" worth over £2million (though I preferred your original proposal of over £1m, from which our party cravenly back-tracked) is politically unpopular ...
[Originally posted at Dale&Co, 01/10/11] How should we refer to the users of public services? What sort of identity should be ascribed to us? Over the last 30 years the concept of the service user embedded in policy has been radically reworked. The language of "clients" or "claimants" in the postwar welfare state was criticised ...
At the City Council's City Development Committee on 26th September, approval was given to consult on a replacement for the existing Dundee Local Plan Review 2005 with a new Local Development Plan. The process of preparing, consultation and adoption of the new plan is expected to continue until late 2014. The new planning proposals represent something of a shift of new development in Dundee from the east to the west of the city. You can download more details by either clicking on the headline above or by going to http://tinyurl.com/localdevplan. A presentation on the new Local Development Plan will take ...
Cambridgeshire County Councillor, Belinda Brooks-Gordon has called on the government to change the law on prostitution for groups of women working together as protection from violence. She spoke out at the Liberal Democrat Autumn Conference in Birmingham saying it is vital the police target resources in the right direction to catch violent men rather than prosecuting working women. Cllr Brooks-Gordon supported the motion Tackling Violence Against Women put to conference by MP Tom Brake and Baroness Sally Hamwee, Co-chairs of the Home Affairs, Justice and Equalities Committee. But she said that although the motion mentioned prostitution, it did not deal ...
Door knocking in Hackney on the 5th May 2011 "Excuse me sir, have you already voted today?" "Yes I have, and you look like Boris Johnson."
