It's Conservative Party conference, and somewhat predictably, they're going at it hammer and tong at the Human Rights Act combined with another of their pet hate subjects, immigration. First Theresa May, a Home Secretary that occasionally threatens to make David Blunkett and Jack Straw seem reasonable, briefs in interviews with the press that she thinks the Human Rights Act is stopping us from deporting people, then she goes on to set-off Immeowgrationgate by claiming that a Bolivian man was only allowed to stay in Britain "because he kept a pet cat". Never mind, of course, that she'd lapped up a ...
After seeing some comments on Twitter, I just tuned in to tonight's Newsnight to catch the end of it: It seems to have been some sort of all-female program. I wasn't clear on if it was an all-female panel too – it looked like it was just an all-female audience. As some other woman once said: I am not amused. It looks like it's sending out the message that "Women can't compete with men, so they need their own program". I'd much rather see the BBC apply a reasonable balance across the board instead of trying to fix it with ...
Today's events have borne out what I wrote for Comment is Free in February: Tories are natural dog owners. They are drawn to a pack animal that can be trained to do exactly what you tell it. Thinking about it, it might be more accurate to say that dogs are natural Tories. It would be too tame to call cats Liberals. They are naturally individualists or anarchists - a dog would probably accuse them of being nihilists. But one thing is certain: they are not Conservatives.
The Breeze is the new radio station in Bath and I have now set my car radio to it and am enjioying the music. Today they called me for my third interview on the launch of Bath Community Energy which is launched tomorrow. This will be a local social enterprise taking advantage of the Feeder tarrifs to generate solar energy from people s roof and thereby reduce CO2, generate income and reduce household electricity bills. Now thats what I call a triple lock win.
So the Tory party conference is on. I don't have the time to follow it avidly (the conferences timed themselves to perfection, the only one I could actively follow was the only one I actually care about - the Liberal Democrat one). Even the most optimistic of Liberal Democrats wouldn't be expecting to hear much that they liked over the course of this conference, especially after we had lots of announcements that were obviously in our key priority areas, however two topics of recent conversation have angered me (both mentioned before the conference started I believe). One of which surprisingly ...
Last week, a key Cornwall Council committee voted to save Camelford Leisure Centre. But the Conservative led administration appear to have decided to ignore that decision and cast the facility adrift from April. As I blogged, the Communities Scrutiny Committee voted 8-2 to include Camelford as a permanent part of the new leisure trust. We felt that it was wrong to discriminate against this part of Cornwall and close their leisure centre - especially as huge strides have been taken to cut costs and boost income there. But the papers just published for next week's cabinet meeting show that, whilst ...
Having left years between reading the first two books of the Small Change trilogy, which are separated in time by just weeks, I then find on reading the third a few weeks after finishing the second that it is set almost a decade into Walton's alternate timeline where Britain settled with Hitler in 1940 and moved sharply towards fascism. Now the two viewpoint characters are the gay secret police chief Carmichael and his unsuspecting ward Elvira, and the tangled web of coercion and lies which has sustained the British government for many years is stretching to breaking point. It's a ...
Can you picture the scene? It is a big budget musical and everyone is happy and a character in the mold of Tommy Steele is shaking everyone's hand. Now think of Howard Hughes who had an obsessive-compulsive disorder. He would use tissues to pick things up so that he wouldn't catch germs. Howard's actions don't sound too sensible but if you follow the adverts and want to kill 99% of household germs then maybe these germs are things to avoid (even if tissues aren't the best method of containing them). Maybe that star of the musical should avoid shaking those ...
How can anyone take Home Secretary Teresa May seriously? It's hard enough to accept that the Home Secretary appears to have declared war on the Human Rights Act. Worse still, she appears to have fallen into the same trap as the Daily Mail and The Sun in associating the Human Rights Act with a supposed myriads of illegal immigrants who have misused it to extend their stay in the UK. Ms May says the Human Rights Act "needs to go". Well, something certainly does. I'm just not in agreement with her that it's the legislation. Addressing the Conservative Party Conference ...
Now that Doctor Who has finished again - and started again, gloriously, with The Sarah Jane Adventures back - perhaps you're in the mood for more Doctor Who? When I was a lad, the only way to get more (with no spin-off shows, DVDs or BBC3) was to read the thrilling Target Books novelisations, a series so successful they sold over six million books. And not all to me. Many are now selling as talking books for CD and download, and now six have been reprinted and relaunched by BBC Books as actual books (and downloads). Are they worth getting? ...
I blogged this morning about Theresa May riding a coach and horses through her own argument to abolish the Human Rights Act. Well, she's done it twice in one day. Sky News reports: In an onslaught on the Human Rights Act in her conference speech, she cited: "The illegal immigrant who cannot be deported because – and I'm not making this up – he had a pet cat." A US FactCheck website ranks total inventions by politicians as "Pants on Fire". Theresa May's pants are indeed on fire this evening. Emma Thelwell on Channel 4 News FactCheck ranks the May ...
[IMG: Attribution] [IMG: No Derivative Works] Page Blanche photo credit: Some rights reserved by alter1fo Last Saturday evening was a memorable time in Newbury's Market Place. It was the end of the hottest October day on record – well into the twenties. The Market Place was crammed with people to see French outside theatre group, Compagnie Luc Amoros, performing "Page Blanche". The "cafe culture" of the Market Place was in full swing as people, enticed by the unseasonably warm weather, were sitting around the tables outside the various cafes, restaurants and pubs, watching the performance. I don't think we'll ever ...
Mike Konczal on Rortybomb has asked people on the Occupy Wall Street protest to define freedom. The definitions they choose are simultaneously interesting and terrifying. Before we get onto the 'terrifying' bit, there are several quite sensible definitions, particularly this one: Eight: "Realization of human potentiality." It's pretty broad, but I would similarly broadly agree. Freedom ...
Claws were out at the Tory Conference as Teresa May and Ken Clarke clashed over the Home Secretary's claim that courts applying the ECHR's Article 8 on family life allowed an illegal immigrant to stay in the UK because he had a cat. May has now admitted that this was not true. The judge was ruling on the veracity of the man's relationship with his partner, which was partly evidenced by the
At the Lib Dem autumn conference last month we had some wonderful statements about the tories by senior figures within the party. We had jokes and mockery at their expense and we had some wonderful reminders of just how horrible the tories are. Well, I won't deny that I enjoyed that. I find the tories as loathsome as anyone else, after all. But upon reflection I'm very worried that, as good as it feels, saying stuff like that could seriously damage the party. Ever since the AV referendum we've been pursuing a strategy of differentiation with the tories. We've had ...
George Osborne got quite an ear bashing from Sarah Montague on Radio 4′s Today programme yesterday (starts at 2:10:00). He had to stick to his guns to insist that getting the deficit under control must take priority while she repeatedly asked why the government did not have a more activist growth strategy – saying, "You have got ...
Details of this planning application can be found by following this link: The case officer is Geoff Whitington - please email comments and objections to him at geoff.whitington@lewisham.gov.uk, and don't forget to copy us in at foresthill@lewishamlibdems.org.uk
Details of this planning application can be found by following this link: The case officer is Geoff Whitington - please email comments and objections to him at geoff.whitington@lewisham.gov.uk, and don't forget to copy us in at foresthill@lewishamlibdems.org.uk
Details of this planning application can be found by following this link: The case officer is Geoff Whitington - please email comments and objections to him at geoff.whitington@lewisham.gov.uk, and don't forget to copy us in at foresthill@lewishamlibdems.org.uk
Details of this planning application can be found by following this link: The case officer is Kate Challenger - please email comments and objections to her at kate.challenger@lewisham.gov.uk, and don't forget to copy us in at foresthill@lewishamlibdems.org.uk
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 at foresthill@lewishamlibdems.org.uk
The opening of Turner contemporary's latest offering the sculpture by Rodin "The Kiss" was apparently enlivened by a group of animal rights protesters seeking publicity in their campaign to stop live animal exports from Ramsgate Port. Details of which can be found on the this is Kent website by Gazette reporter Andrew Woodman and if you are prepared to poke around there is insight from Cllr Ian Driver's twitter stream and Stop live exports group on facebook . Seeing Ian Drivers name pop up in connection with the protest, I was curious to find out about his status with the ...
I am pleased that Amanda Knox has been released from the Italian prison in which she should never have been incarcerated in the first instance. While we may never know what happened to Meredith Kercher (lest we forget, the real victim at the centre of this) and while her family will inevitably be seeking answers to emotionally tough questions, I welcome the fact that a miscarriage of justice has been rectified. The evidence against Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito was never compelling and should not have been sufficient on which to make a conviction. And so, as Amanda Knox travels ...
I think we will look back on the last week of September 2011 as the moment when the new economics shifted into a different gear - when the idea of an economics that works for people (not the other way around) finally went mainstream:
The appeal by the Lok 'n' Store developers against Reading Borough Council's refusal of the application to extend the time limit has, regrettably, been allowed. It is obvious from the Inspector's report that she was intent on defending the highly questionable January 2008 appeal decision, to the exclusion of all other considerations including the changes to Reading's planning policy that signal a move away from such low-quality, hi-rise, high density flat blocks. This is wrong. Professional back-covering is not a way for unelected bureaucrats to make decisions that damage people's lives. The saving grace for the residents who have fought ...
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With thanks to @emersonp
This Sunday UK Uncut plan to block Westminster Bridge. It isn't clear for how long they intend to do this. However, as their press release notes: Westminster Bridge, one of London's most iconic landmarks, lies between the Houses of Parliament on the north of the river and St. Thomas' Hospital on the south. UK Uncut claims that "by blocking Westminster Bridge, we symbolically block the bill from getting from Parliament to our hospitals". In a message to supporters entitled "Block the Bridge, Block the Bill", the group encourages participants to adopt tactics including lying in pools of fake blood, performing ...
The Home Secretary Theresa May appears to have set some strange hares running today with her allegation at the Conservatives conference that an illegal immigrant had escaped deportation because of a pet cat. Now I don't want to get into a debate here about the rights and wrongs of the Human Rights Act, there are plenty of places online and elsewhere policy wonks, human rights activists and the hang 'em and flog 'em brigade can abuse each other's views without my help. (Although for the record I support the principles of the HRA, it's the implementation of it that causes ...
"I'd rather take advice from my valet than from the Conservative Party Conference", said Conservative Prime Minister Arthur Balfour at the beginning of the last century. Most Conservative Peers seem to agree. I counted a trio of former Tory Chief Whips, and at least a dozen former Cabinet Members, in the Chamber today, and there was no lack of speeches from their benches yesterday. All their best known characters were in their customary places. They clearly think they can make a better contribution to the life of the nation here, well away from their party conference. However, this afternoon a ...
Among the Liberal Democrat policy gains that Nick Clegg attributed to the coalition government in his party conference speech last month was the ending of child detention. The same claim was made in the Liberal Democrat 'List of Achievements' and in a speech at the National Liberal Club summing up the party's record one year into the coalition government. The only problem with this claim is that it is not true. Child detention has not ended in the United Kingdom. According to the Migration Observatory, more than 400 children were detained by the UK Border Agency in 2010. Certainly fewer ...
The Scott Polar Research Institute have set up an online archive of historic polar exploration photographs called, in a nice little pun, Freeze Frame. It is from that collection that this picture comes. Taken on April fools day 1911, this ... Continue reading →
Did you hear the one about Theresa May, the Human Right's Act and the Cat? Well earlier today the Conservative Home Secretary said in her speech to the Tory faithful. We all know the stories about the Human Rights Act. The violent drug dealer who cannot be sent home because his daughter - for whom he pays no maintenance - lives here. The robber who cannot be removed because he has a girlfriend. The illegal immigrant who cannot be deported because - and I am not making this up - he had pet a cat. Only she was kidding them ...
Ignoring Ofcom's recent warning not to show frightening things before the watershed, the BBC is broadcasting the Conservative Party Conference during the day, and I just watched a bit. Greg Clark, a Tory minister whose relatively sensible views were first developed in the SDP, just said that it is civic leadership that built all great cities - just look at what Boris Johnson has done for London. He timed that line in such a way that I honestly thought it was a gag and he was joking. What exactly has the affable, not-too-bad-really Boris Johnson actually done for London, apart ...
What do the Fukushima Earthquake, Christchurch Earthquake, Queensland Floods, Libyan Revolution, Egyptian Jasmine Revolution and the ongoing struggle in Syria all have in common? If your answer was death then unfortunately you would be correct, however, a more inspirational and uplifting answer would be Sign Language! In all of these cases, the elected officials of Public Office have been broadcasted with a Sign Language Interpreter at the side of them as they make statements on life and death events. This breakthrough in accessible information is crucial for Deaf people who need to know what to do in an emergency and ...
A flurry of new publications from ALDC, the Elections and Skills department and the Party President came out for Conference and our now available for sale: Campaigning in your Community by Mark Pack and Shaun Roberts, This ALDC booklet is about how you too can join the ranks of successful campaigners. It shows you how to find the right issues to campaign on, how to run successful campaigns and how to build up the team and the track-record which then wins your election, and re-election, as a councillor. Copies are available from the ALDC shop. Building a winning team by ...
Queen Edith's Liberal Democrats are organizing a family games afternoon on 29th October, at Morley Memorial Primary School on Blinco Grove (5-8 p.m.). Come and enjoy a traditional game - bring your own or play Monopoly/ Cleudo/ Scrabble with us. Tickets £7 adults, £1.50 children, to include slices of pizza and drink. Available from me: amanda@ajtmail.co.uk. Proceeds go towards producing our regular FOCUS newsletter.
TweetDigital Politico makes the observation UKUncut are planning on creating a visual metaphor of blocking the NHS Bill from reaching Westminster. In a delightful irony, by doing so, the "Robin Hood" youngsters will in fact be blocking access to St Thomas's Hospital, to prevent a bill from altering existing health services. One almost wonders if ...
This morning's Independent poses an interesting dilemma for the Government, what would be the impact on homelessness of proposed new laws to outlaw squatting. The Government is planning to introduce a new criminal offence of squatting along with steps to prosecute squatters for other offences they commit, such as criminal damage, burglary, or using electricity without permission. However, a report, published by Sheffield Hallam University on behalf of homeless charity Crisis has found that the new law will lead to an increase in some of the most vulnerable homeless people sleeping rough. They found that most homeless squatters squat only ...
[IMG: Bede Walk September] Today I went down to Bede Walk (off Hexham Road) to update residents about the action we had taken to sort out some issues that had been causing them some frustration. Litter and blocked gullies Last month residents reported problems of litter and blocked gullies. Reading Borough Council officers have since confirmed to me that Bede Walk will be added to the list of locations on the estate in receipt of enhanced litter picking. They are also investigating the possibility of adding Bede Walk to the gulley clearance contract which will ensure that overgrown vegetation is cut back ...
Conference season brings out the worst in British politics. No question about it. Bad jokes intended to tickle the faithful. Set piece speeches designed to rally them if they're flagging. All sprinkled with the odd soundbite designed to hit the news headlines in the mainstream media. We are offered question and answer sessions displaying differing ...
Mon, 20:32: Gibbon Chapter LXIV: Genghis Khan, and the return of the Turks http://j.mp/pWetQt Tue, 05:04: Three spam DMs in last few days, all from accounts of politically active women. I see a pattern...
Tue 4th
13:16
Election Expenses Candidate: Barbara Sinclair Agent: Barbara Poole Claughton ward 2011 (Wirral Borou...
Candidate Declaration (Barbara Sinclair) Claughton ward 2011 Wirral Borough Council agent: Barbara Poole Agent Declaration (Barbara Poole) Claughton ward 2011 Wirral Borough Council candidate: Barbara Sinclair Filed under: Claughton, Election Expenses, Elections, Wirral Council Tagged: Barbara Poole, Barbara Sinclair
Tue 4th
13:07Election Expenses Barbara Sinclair Claughton ward 2011 Page 14 The Wirral Press Invoice £534 7...
SALES INVOICE Mrs Barbara Poole 11 The Aubynes Wallasey Wirral Merseyside CH45 3JA The Wirral Press Printers & Stationers 117 Brighton Street Wallasey Wirral CH44 8DT Telephone: 0151 638 2763 Fax: 0151 639 3762 Email: info@thewirralpress.com INVOICE NO: 602600 (A) DATE: 24.04.2011 YOUR ORDER NO: Verbal/Email DELIVERY NOTE NO: Description £ p 7,000 A4 leaflets ...
Football- It's full of crazy decisions, Christian Wörns being sent off in the Euro 96 final, Thierry Henry's hand ball in the France - Ireland game, FA officials refusing to officiate between MPs and Press because Tracey Crouch wanted to play, disallowing the second goal in the... hang on what was the last one? Yes it is true, The FA, who were due to officiate the traditional MPs vs. Political Journalists stepped down when both teams insisted that Tracey play. Due to its rules on mixed football, The FA is unable to support this match. As a consequence, once Tracey ...
I have a passionate interest in environmental health from a close family experience. The Food Safety Agency working with local councils have a scheme for giving ratings to all food establishments – based on hygienece, cleanliness, process, training. You can see their 'Scores on the Doors' on line and Android and Apple apps. The ratings go: 0 - Urgent improvement necessary (8) 1 - Major improvement necessary (48) 2 - Improvement necessary (26) 3 - Generally satisfactory (34) 4 - Good (81) 5 - Very good (35) Amazingly businesses don't have to display their scores in a visible place or ...
At 3.30pm today, the House of Lords will meet in committee to begin the process of scrutinising the Welfare Reform Bill. The Welfare Reform Bill is the source of much of the concern of the ESA motion the Liberal Democrats passed at autumn conference the other week. Especially of concern is the introduction of a time limit of 12 months to welfare payments to the sick and disabled - after 12 months all aid is cut off whether the claimant has recovered or not. You can watch the live feed from the committee room here. One of the interesting things ...
The Chancellor of the Exchequer announced his latest strategy for damaging rescuing the UK economy, on Monday, in the form of "Credit Easing". Credit Easing is the equally evil twin of Quantitative Easing. Where the former consists of the Bank of England printing money to buy government bonds, Credit Easing prints money to buy corporate bonds... Now, readers may be forgiven for thinking that this all sounds very familiar. Like sub-prime mortgages, these sub-prime corporate loans will be diced and packaged... with the securitisations being divided and combined, we might face a corporate-loan repeat of the mortgage nightmare of five ...
Tue 4th
12:42Election Expense Barbara Sinclair Page 13 Claughton Wirral Council 2011 Impermissible Donations
Impermissible donations Donor name Address Received Value £ Nature Date and manner dealt with TOTAL 0 Filed under: Claughton, Election Expenses, Elections, Wirral Council Tagged: Barbara Poole, Barbara Sinclair
Tue 4th
12:35Election Expenses: 2011 (Wirral Borough Council) Claughton ward Candidate: Barbara Sinclair Agent: B...
Donations Donor name Address Status Received Accepted Value £ Nature TOTAL 0 Filed under: Conservatives, Election Expenses, Elections, Wirral Council Tagged: Barbara Poole, Barbara Sinclair, donations
Tue 4th
12:28Election Expense Barbara Sinclair Page 11 Claughton Wirral Council 2011 Disputed Claims
Disputed Claims Category Item no Item/service Amount £ Nature of dispute Action TOTAL 0 Filed under: Conservatives, Election Expenses, Elections, Wirral Council Tagged: Barbara Poole, Barbara Sinclair
Unpaid Claims Category Item no Item/service Amount £ Name of court Date of application TOTAL 0 Filed under: Conservatives, Election Expenses, Elections, Wirral Council Tagged: Barbara Poole, Barbara Sinclair
I haven't done a book review on this blog before, largely because I only get round to reading new books years after everyone else. However, the argument put forward in Kwasi Kwarteng's first book is interesting in the context of ideas and themes I've been discussing for some time. Kwarteng's book is an overview of ...
Yesterday was the Dulwich HelplineAGM at held the Dulwich Picture Gallery. It was very kind of the gallery to host the AGM for free. The Dulwich Helpline have been around since 1993 and exists to improve the quality of life and help to prevent physical and mental deterioration from social isolation. This is critical to help people stay at home to enjoy the most from their lives. I hadn't realised how many active volunteers they have. 277 during the year helping 386 people in a huge variety of ways. But times are increasingly tough for all charities. So pragmatically they're ...
ok, I'm admitting a level of defeat here and making it harder to post a comment. I really don't want to (you don't want to jump through hoops and I'm not a lion tamer) but the sheer volume of spam and ddos attacks here mean that I currently need to take some pretty drastic action. And for the moment that means locking down commenting to only verified users. Registration is still there but I need to confirm the registration before you can comment. I've also killed all active sessions. I don't like it, I don't want it. You don't need ...
Why not join hundreds of other Lib Dem Voice readers in getting our latest headlines by email? Some people like regularly visiting a site to see if there's new stories of interest. Some people like subscribing to its news feed (RSS) and checking that way. But if you prefer email, you can instead sign up to get a daily early morning email with a summary of the previous day's posts from Lib Dem Voice, complete with a note of how many comments each post has got and convenient links to click on if any take your fancy and you want ...
Tue 4th
11:43Election Expense Barbara Sinclair Page 9 Claughton Wirral Council 2011 F Accommodation and administr...
F Accommodation and administration Item Receipt/ Item/ Name and address of supplier Date paid Value £ Amount Notional Disputed no invoice service (unless on invoice/receipt) paid £ value £ /unpaid OFFICE USE BCA, 17 BALLS ROAD BIRKENHEAD 30 Sub-totals 0 0 30 Filed under: Claughton, Conservatives, Election Expenses, Elections, Wirral Council Tagged: Barbara Poole, Barbara ...
Tue 4th
11:36Election Expense Barbara Sinclair Page 8 Claughton Wirral Council 2011 E Agent and other staff costs
E Agent and other staff costs Item Receipt/ Item/ Name and address of supplier Date paid Value £ Amount Notional Disputed no invoice service (unless on invoice/receipt) paid £ value £ /unpaid BARBARA POOLE 50 Sub-totals 0 0 50 Filed under: Conservatives, Election Expenses, Elections, Wirral Council Tagged: Barbara Poole, Barbara Sinclair
Tue 4th
11:29Election Expense Barbara Sinclair Page 7 Claughton Wirral Council 2011 D Public Meetings
D Public Meetings Item Receipt/ Item/ Name and address of supplier Date paid Value £ Amount Notional Disputed no invoice service (unless on invoice/receipt) paid £ value £ /unpaid Sub-totals 0 0 Filed under: Claughton, Election Expenses, Elections, Wirral Council Tagged: Barbara Poole, Barbara Sinclair
Missed visits and insensitive responses to complaints are not what you would expect from the providers of social care. And yet, this is what has happened with one provider, who has been suspended from receiving new cases while there is an investigation into what went wrong with the care provision for a resident of St. Albans. Chris White, Leader of the opposition Lib Dem Group on Herts County Council, said: 'This is not the first time that there have been serious issues with care providers in this county. Yet again, the Conservative-controlled County Council has failed to provide an adequate ...
C Transport Item Receipt/ Item/ Name and address of supplier Date paid Value £ Amount Notional Disputed no invoice service (unless on invoice/receipt) paid £ value £ /unpaid Petrol Costs 20 Sub-totals 20 Filed under: Claughton, Conservatives, Election Expenses, Elections, Wirral Council Tagged: Barbara Poole, Barbara Sinclair
THE APPG FOR GLOBALACTION AGAINST CHILDHOOD PNEUMONIA WELCOMES UNICEF EFFORTS TOVACCINATE CHILDREN IN THE DADAAB REFUGEE CAMPThe APPG for Global Action against Childhood Pneumonia todaywelcomed the efforts of UNICEF to provide routine pneumococcal vaccinations forchildren entering the Dadaab refugee complex but warned that more must be done. Childhood pneumoniais the leading infectious cause of child mortality worldwide, causing over 1.5million child deaths every year. Many of these deaths could be averted with theuse of simple vaccines and effective treatments. Without a concerted effort onbehalf of the global community, pneumonia will continue to claim the lives ofmillions of children each year. ...
The following notification has been issued by the hospital's communications team: We are now in the process of drafting and submitting detailed planning applications and we would like to invite you to view and comment on our proposals at St Helier Hospital on 13 October 2011. This is your chance to tell us what you think ...
Earlier in the year, I penned a series of posts profiling forgotten liberal heroes (to which a couple of other people also kindly contributed), looking at some of those who achieved great things for liberalism in their time but have been unjustly forgotten - such as Margaret Wintringham, the very first female Liberal MP. There is also another group of people who I think are often unjustly obscure - those local campaigners who are often at the heart of their local community and local party, delivering liberalism and helping others, but as their stage is a local one they are ...
[IMG: tesco hoover] Before I go on too much, I have to say that when it was suggested that Tesco build a whooping great big supermarket on Margate front, I thought it utterly bonkers, for this reason, it would be out of place and stuff up the traffic (stuff wasn't the actual word). I couldn't imagine Thanet's councillors would be so feeble, so insensitive or that stupid to wreck the efforts to improve Margate with a ( in my view, Tesco lawyers please note) hideous supermarket opposite the beach. But lets face it, few Thanet councillors inspire confidence and the ...
There are too many anniversaries happening this year - many of them cover events which happened 3 decades ago, like the wedding of Charles and Diana, and Bucks Fizz winning the Eurovision Song Contest. In a way, though, I was still a bit of a child then. It's actually worse to think that things that happened when I was unmistakeably an adult are now 20 years old. Take, for example, yesterday's 20th anniversary of Bill Clinton announcing he was running for President. Before then, hardly anybody had heard of the governor of Arkansas. The Clinton Foundation put out a video ...
Tue 4th
09:27
Theresa May just blew to smithereens her entire argument for abolition of the Human Rights Act
"Theresa May moves to make deporting criminals easier" is the headline at Conservative Home, reporting that the Home Secretary wants to change immigration rules so that the right to family life does not necessarily stand in the way of deporting a convicted criminal. Whether or not you agree with this, it rather blows to smithereens the Conservative party's argument to abolish the Human Rights Act. The sole argument I have heard for that monumental, historic abolition is that the HRA makes it difficult to deport criminals. If May is saying that the deportation problem can be solved with a quick ...
There's so much to do and see at the international Kids for Kids Festival at Consett Empire this October. Check it out here: KFK Brochure 2011
Gay couples are being failed in some areas of social policy and the law, Cambridgeshire County Councillor, Belinda Brooks-Gordon told a Stonewall LGBT fringe event at the Liberal Democrat Autumn Conference. She said there have been legal cases where judges had treated same sex relationships very differently to others committing the same offence. Dr Brooks-Gordon was invited to speak on the issue Ensuring LGBT Representation in Public Life. She has written extensively on sexuality as a policy issue and explained how the last government had left in place policy areas that need to be corrected. "Same sex couples are being ...
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're continuing to publish the full results. Today we focus on the performances of the leading lights of the Liberal Democrats — those of our MPs in the cabinet, those occupying ministerial positions, and other leading Lib Dems: LDV asked: How would you rate the performances of the following leading Liberal Democrats and government ministers? Full results are published below, but here's three key lists for ...
Leading Liberal Democrat Councillor, Fiona Whelan, has stepped down from her role as Shadow Cabinet Member for Children and Adult Social Care to concentrate on her career. She has been succeeded by Councillor, John Batchelor, who represents Linton and is a member of the Cambridgeshire Police Authority. Cllr Whelan, who represents Hardwick, took the difficult decision to give up the role because she wants to return to her legal work. She said: "I thought long and hard about giving up this role because there is so much work to be done in the area which deals with some of the ...
In May of last year, the City Council, following my request for proper bay markings in the Pennycook Lane car park, did some lining work to better highlight each parking bay. Unfortunately, in recent months, much of the paint has worn and faded (see right) so I have asked the council to repaint the bays markings.
Along with 1000's of other people around the world earlier tonight, I tuned into a round-the-clock news channel to watch the verdict of the appeal in the Meredith Kercher murder trial. Meredith, a British Language Exchange student was killed in November 2007 during an Erasmus exchange visit to Perugia, Italy. Subsequently, three suspects were arrested; Rudy Guede, a Perugi resident, Amanda Knox, an American student and Raffaele Sollecito, an Italian student. Back to this evening, even the TV presenters were waiting in anticipation. The movement of video portrayed the tension in the courtroom, the reporters and photographers arched over the ...
The proposal to raise the motorway speed limit to 80 mph is just another ill-thought-out vote-catcher. The main argument put forward in its favour seems to be that cars are safer now – but that is a spurious argument – ... Continue reading →
Meols Ward Lib Dem Councillors John Dodd, Nigel Ashton and David Rimmer are holding their next monthly advice centre on Saturday 8th October, from 11 am to 12 noon at St John's Primary School, Rufford Road, Crossens. We will be there to meet you and discuss any Council problems you may have. No appointment necessary. Just pop in. We hold our advice centre every month (except August) on the second Saturday of the month at St John's School.
The news that Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito have won their appeal and will go free is a partial victory for justice. Partial because the family of Meredith Kercher are still seeking justice and resolution for her loss. Hopefully the outcome means the Italian authorities will now properly investigate her murder. A feature of the orginal trial and the appeal was the lurid denigration of Amanda Knox. And with her freedom you would expect it to end and a fairer picture of the young woman to emerge. But not from the Daily Mail who appear to think she is still ...
