/me blows the dust off this blog BLEG: any interesting links you have to share on education theory? Prompted in part by a talk at Cambridge Geek Night #13 about the poor quality of ICT in schools, I am mentally exploring the possibilities of unschooling and am interested in what's already been attempted in this area. Essentially, school to me seems like an only moderately successful way to keep kids quiet during the day so that adults can work, and I strongly suspect that the current system does very little for those who aren't so smart or who have crap ...
Aluminium cans This afternoon the Environment committee had the opportunity of a site visit to the plant at Hartlepool which deals with the cardboard and plastic recycling we put out in our white bags. It was a noisy but fascinating visit. Seeing the cardboard & plastic, mixed with paper and cans from other authorities that don't do kerbside sorting, being shaken and blown about to separate
Watching the House of Commons live on the BBC Parliament channel often throws up some interesting late night debates but you don't often get really annoyed because most of the big players have gone home. Tonight one Conservative MP has ...
A press statement from Redcar Labour Party claiming that the Lib Dem Councillors for Zetland Ward, Ron Harrison and Jim Rogers, who were forced by Labour to resign their seats because they worked for a foundation school, were incompetent is disgraceful. Ron and Jim did everything correctly and acted in good faith. They included their place of work on the forms and their nomination papers were validated by officers of the Labour controlled Council. It was not until three months after the election that bad losers Labour began their campaign to get Ron and Jim out. They started on the ...
Ex-service personnel have been given a boost in their bid to find a new home by the City of Edinburgh Council. Councillors have agreed that the length of time people have served in the armed forces will be equal to the amount of time others have been registered on Edinburgh's common housing register (EdIndex). The decision was taken at today's Health, Social Care and Housing Committee (11 October) because many ex-service personnel find it difficult to get social housing once they leave the armed forces as they have been living abroad or in service accommodation. Those who have served for ...
Tonight's cabinet meeting was quicker than usual; it lasted only an hour. I had got back from a week in Portugal playing cricket. From temperatures of 28 degrees to ones nearer ten! The first item that was discussed related to Blue Badges which help more vulnerable / disabled get about and park in locations where it is often tricky. The report is similar to what other local councils are doing which is to automate the process by getting residents who wish to obtain a blue badge so that it is faster and cuts our fraudulent claims. I asked a number ...
Lottery winner Angela Dawes said she and her husband woke up as ordinary people in the morning and now have over £100 million, adding, "It's mad". She's right. Millions of people bet money on the lottery every week (not the Dawes - they tried only three times) with astronomical odds against winning. Ask the same people to vote for a government that wants them to pay one penny more in tax to be
TweetSo, the small piece of news that has somewhat been obscured by the so-called "Foxhunt" is that IPSA should have published MP's Expenses today, revealing the MPs that had been investigated for misuse of funds. There has been a lot of fuss kicked up by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA). Most notably the Compliance ...
I am greatly admiring of the efforts of andrewducker to set up a viable system for us all via either Pinboard or the new mutated Delicious, but for now I'm going to post the last week's worth of interesting links by hand. (Though with thanks to Pinboard for speeding up the process.) How To Lead Clever People - via Peter Wicks. I don't agree with it all but most of it struck a chord. Let Her be Eaten!: Ursula K. Le Guin's The Tombs of Atuan - Jo Walton's second review in the series. The Adventures of Tintin - Official ...
The people of Portsmouth and the surrounding areas hold their breath. Another club wants their manager. Time for the messageboards to get into overdrive and wild gnashing of teeth but wait what do we have here? We seem to have a peaceful and serene state of affairs with more offers to drive him up to Nottingham than to kidknap him until he agrees to stay on as the man in charge of the club. I don't think it's unfair to say that I'm not a Steve Cotterill guy. I never have been and I never will be. Rightly or wrongly ...
My children's primary school is absolutely brilliant, so I won't name it here - or draw any conclusions about the school from this. But a phone call after lunch has reminded me quite how counter-productive Labour's safeguarding regime became. My youngest had been stung: was he allergic to stings? Probably not, we said, but could they put some ointment on it? No, apparently, they can't do things like that. I wonder if they would have been able to do anything if he HAD been allergic to stings. Would it have made him feel a bit better? Yes. Were we as ...
A number of journalists have been honing their maths skills today, with respect to the Fox and Werritty enigma. Joe Murphy of the Evening Standard calculated that Adam Werritty has spent up to £85,000 (perhaps over £100,000 if any first class travel was used) in travel costs over the last 15 months. The Guardian puts the figure at £40,132. Company accounts suggest Werritty received around £20,000 during the period. So the question is: Where did Mr Werritty get sufficient dosh to travel around the world in a seemingly coincidental route to our Dr Fox? The Spectator has gone some way ...
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.
Take two people: one a successful female businesswoman and one a male Tory MP. Then take two public statements: one calling female Cabinet members "an ugly bunch" and "I could not look at them"; the other calling for companies to be better at ending the male dominance of the boardroom. Who do you think would have said which...? As you may have guessed from the fact that I've asked the question... it was the male Tory MP (David Cameron) echoing previous calls from the likes of Vince Cable and Lynne Featherstone for changes in company boardrooms, and it was Mary ...
I've been trying to write practice essays and essay plans over the last couple of days. Conclusion: I probably know more than enough to get through the DD307 exam on Thursday, but it's going to be a struggle writing it down on paper! Take this afternoon for example. I managed to write around 800-900 words in 50 minutes for a question on prejudice and conflict. However, as the question was actually focussed on approaches to conflict reduction I spent too little time talking about that at the end of the essay and too much time talking about Adorno, Rokeach, Fisher, ...
Hertfordshire's council taxpayers will be unimpressed to hear that the County Council has been forced to write off £22.2m worth of Council assets, leaving just £0.5m in their report. Liberal Democrat County Councillor Allan Witherick was astounded by the figure: He said, "We expect the occasional accounting error to come up when an item isn't worth as much as expected, but to take the entire book value of £22.7m and be forced to reduce it to just £0.5m when an Auditor checks the details just beggars belief. About the only upside is that it's unlikely the Council will have to ...
[IMG: British Army Gurkha's on parade] From The Univeristy of Kent: The first ever study on Gurkha settlement and their integration process in the UK has revealed that working age Gurkhas are the most economically active and self-reliant social group in Britain. They are also outward-looking and actively seek advice before making important decisions, with almost 80% considering proficiency in English and having children in education, employment and training as most important. Seventy-one percent are involved in voluntary work in their communities. The South East Strategic Partnership for Migration-funded study was conducted by researcher Nina Gurung at the University of ...
Tue 11th
16:53
Baroness Judith Jolly writes: The House of Lords will challenge, revise and improve the Health Bill
Tony Blair, on the eve of the 1997 General Election, famously proclaimed that we have just "24 hours to save the NHS". A nice rhetorical flourish, but lacking in objectivity. Perhaps somewhat like the Labour party. Similar language is once again being used this week as the House of Lords debates giving a second reading to the Health and Social Care Bill. Opposition groups have jumped on this by suggesting that this is the last chance to 'stop' this Bill. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the complexity of the inner workings of the House of Lords, this doesn't properly reflect the role ...
[IMG: Parked cars on Nelson Road] Council officers have revealed the results of the consultation to extend the Stroud Green Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ) into the vale roads north of Ridge Road. 54% of respondents were in favour of the expansion with 42% against (and 4% unsure). There were 186 responses. The parking officials have now recommended to Cllr Canver, the Labour Councillor in charge of parking in Haringey, that the Stroud Green CPZ is extended to cover the entire consultation zone (Nelson, Inderwick, Mayfeild, Denton and Uplands Road and Weston Park). Although there were strong pockets of objections in ...
Defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox looks set to ride out the storm over his friendship with Adam Werritty who appears to have been allowed unprecedented access to such senior Cabinet member for someone not even on the payroll. Tory MP's were quick to rally round the slippery Fox and deployed defensive techniques the Royal Marines would have been proud of, standing shoulder to shoulder with their wounded colleague. While Labour smelled blood and an opportunity to take a senior scalp Fox was quick to fire off an apology to the Prime Minister, the House of Commons and his private secretary. ...
There are a lot of fights going on in Colony In Space, last week's Doctor Who DVD release, with guns, fists and ideologies. The Doctor fights to prevent the Master from gaining control of the most deadly weapon in the galaxy, but that's not the only battle: individualists versus big business; the DVD versus the book; even EastEnders versus Corrie. But perhaps the toughest is whether the story can overcome its own reputation as long, drab and dull. It's Jon Pertwee's first crack at facing the unknown dangers of an alien planet, and it's a quarry. Is there anything deeper? ...
I've done a little bit of blogging elsewhere in recent day. Over on LGBT Lib Dems NI Dave for equality in marriage we need equality in language Looking at the language used by several in talking about the government proposals and how the Prime Minister and his party still have a way to go to understand equality. Anglican Archbishop of Armagh calls for "reasoned and rational" same-sex discussion Although the Church of Ireland Archbishop does understand that language needs to be inclusive and discussions on this issue need to be reasoned and rational. Solas successfully argue against religious marriage altogether ...
Tue 11th
15:20
Nick Clegg signals government set to drop proposal to make electoral registration voluntary
Answering questions in Deputy Prime Minister Question Time this afternoon, Nick Clegg said that he is "minded to change" the proposals currently out for consultation that would make electoral registration voluntary following the concerns expressed by the Electoral Commission and others. Good news. He also reiterated his support for providing returning officers with the necessary resources to check all postal votes in future. (At the moment, the law requires returning officers to check the personal identifiers given on at least 20% of postal votes though many check 100%.) All good news. UPDATE: To explain in more detail – it is ...
The month formerly known as November will soon be upon us. If you know me at all you'll know that for the past two years I've taken part in 'Movember', a charity drive for prostate cancer research which involves idiots like me spending a month complaining about an itchy top lip while we grow a ...
Small firms represent a large amount of employment, especially when it comes to employing people in the local area. They also account for a large proportion of training in our community colleges and apprenticeships. More than this there is the more qualitative reasons for small businesses, they add to the character of an area, promoting growth in their own right to drive forwards local retail and business districts. Small firms are essential to the community in Merton and Wandsworth, but successive governments have done them acted in favour of much larger businesses and with the Credit Crisis in 2008 small ...
The conference motion "Tackling Violence Against Women" rightly highlighted the fact that only 10% of local authorities offer dedicated services for Black and Ethnic Minority Women many of whom are subjected to specific forms of violence such as female mutilation and forced marriage. In areas like Rochdale with a large Pakistani/Kashmiri and Bangladeshi community, the need for such services and support is very real. This is particularly the case when the arranged marriage involves someone from the Indian sub-continent and the marriage breaks down within two years. Under our current immigration system these women (and some men) are subject to ...
Tue 11th
14:43
Tory led Essex County Council vote not to allow the general public to speak at council meetings
Today a debate and vote was held at Essex County Council HQ as to whether Council meetings should be opened up more with members of the general public being allowed to engage with the councillors directly in open council proceedings. The Tories were against such a plan as they were very much of the belief that they know best and that the general public are a bit smelly and annoying. I may have made up the reasoning although if it was me they were thinking of then I am both smelly and annoying so it would have been fair. Anyway ...
The Welsh Business Enterprise and Technology Minister has announced today that she is arranging a managed closure of the Prince of Wales Innovation Scheme (POWIS) which uses European money to help fund research linked to and based around the specific needs of industry. Given the problems of the University of Wales, which leads on this scheme, this announcement was perhaps inevitable, especially as the scheme had been suspended due to alleged irregularities. However the demise of POWIS means that there is now no comparable scheme in which the Welsh Government directly invests in such research. That is to be regretted ...
Hebden Royd Town Council has launched a consultation about what should be done with the Picture House cinema. There was quite a debate about the content of this consultation within the Council Meeting. Many of the Lib Dems present wanted the original proposal of a community trust running the cinema to be included within the consultation. However the Labour group voted against allowing this on the consultation. The Labour group that are running the Town Council have already decided that it should be transferred to the Town Council, and put out a press release to that affect. As such this ...
The Government have announced backing for a campaign to keep Internet based porn away with an innovative "Opt in" system, and the Liberal Democrats want to remove Nuts magazine and Page 3 from the Sun. Are we now living in Victorian England? The Nuts and Page 3 model Sophie Howard The answer is No... and this is why. I shall divide this into two parts, the one I agree with and follow it with the one I don't. The Liberal Democrat Conference held in Birmingham had some very interesting headlines and debates, none more so than Dr Evan Harris' ...
I have no idea what is going on with regards to Liam Fox and his relationship with Adam Werritty, that is a matter best left for the enquiry that is now underway. However, as today's Daily Telegraph points out Labour Shadow Minister for Defence also has some interesting connections in the defence field. The paper repeats an allegation by Dr. Fox that Jim Mr Murphy and his front bench team, received a £10,000 donation from Cellcrypt to go on a visit to the United States. Dr Fox added: "The Opposition has said all they want is to get information, but ...
Thanks to Steve Green for flagging up this sensationalist Daily Telegraph story, headlined: "Children to be banned from blowing up balloons, under EU safety rules" with a summary para "Children are to be banned from taking part in traditional Christmas games, from blowing up balloons to blowing on party whistles, because of new EU safety rules that have just entered into force." It's a lie. Fullfact.org has done a detailed analysis of the piece here. The new EU directive applies to toy manufacturers and sellers, not users, and in any case simply repeats safety requirements that have been in force ...
There was a meeting last Thursday evening in the Scout Hut, Rugby Road, about the possibility of Thames Water constructing storm tanks in Acton and Chiswick with the aim to reduce pollution in the Thames. Local Liberal Democrat Councillor Andrew Steed attended the meeting and reported on some of the issues raised: Councillor Andrew Steed said: "Thursday night was well presented and informative, with an effective Q & A session which most people seemed satisfied with. As the second stage of the Consultative Process has been delayed, we await publication of a great deal of information, which will be released ...
During his conference speech Dr Vince Cable made a comparison of the Economic crisis to being at war. He was slated by some critics for his comments but I think they have some veracity and wartime experiences can be called upon by the populous to help with the austerity measures. Firstly the comparison. The world is struggling to sort itself out after the cataclysmic blow caused by reckless banking and misuse of the economy by different governments but like the war it has struck everyone from every walk of life. None of us has got away without being touched by ...
On Saturday, 15th October I am going to Anti Trafficking Conference in Reading sponsored by Catherine Bearder MEP and the Women Liberal Democrats. This event is not political, open to men and women 'We would like to raise awareness of the issue and to help bring people together who want to see trafficking stopped. Trafficking ...
It drives British Eurosceptics mad that many in Washington tend to sigh at their warnings of the perils of European integration, instead tending to take the view that if the Lilliputians across the Atlantic care to form themselves into a single delegation, that might make them slightly less time-consuming and pathetic. The Economist isn't given to rabble rousing against their closest ideological bedfellows, the Conservatives. So this opinion piece in the Bagehot column is an enjoyable read. If Liam Fox stays in his role, it's going to be straight back to the early 90s for Tory sleaze. Which would be ...
"Confusion reigns" over the new proposal to filter internet access, because it has not been properly announced yet. Or, more likely, because it's not been properly thought out. What we do know is that we know very little, but that's OK because that well known technical expert, David Cameron, will be telling us all about it "later today". Is it opt-in or opt-out? This is the Opt-out, i.e. switched on by default, is clearly a bad thing. The big four ISPs involved in this seem not to know themselves, but commercial pressures will tend towards it being opt-in only. Filtering ...
Looking through the local council by-laws still in force in Islington, I came across this one on spitting: No person shall spit on the floor, side or wall of any public carriage, or of any public hall, public waiting room, or place of public entertainment. Aside from the loophole which excludes ceilings from this ban, the by-law does raise two more serious issues. First, like many of the others that are still in force, it is out of date – in this case by limiting the maximum fine to 40 shillings. Second, the wording of the by-laws (which, remember, we're ...
Agendas for the Sandgate Parish Council meetings of the Environment Committee and Full Council to be held on 11 October are now online on the Sandgate Parish Council website. The meetings will be held in Sandgate Library on Sandgate High Street, and are both open the the public. The Environment Committee is scheduled to start at 6pm, and the Full Council at 7pm. Published and promoted by Tim Prater, 98a Sandgate High Street, Folkestone, CT20 3BY Printed (hosted) by Prater Raines Ltd, 98 Sandgate High Street, Folkestone CT20 3BY
Any regular reader will know I'm not a fan of the "War on Drugs" which is mainly due to the US's policies on the matter. One of my main objections to it is that it can often lead to criminal records for people who've done nothing that has harmed another person or society (there may have been harm further down the supply chain, however this is also specifically due to the "War on Drugs"). It is therefore possible that a teenager's life could be ruined just because they want to impress people and happen to get caught carrying a couple ...
My friend Bill Beaton would have been 100 years old today. I call him my friend, and I count it a privilege to have known him as one. But the truth is that Bill was far more to me than that. I was 16 years old when I first met Bill who, at the time, was a young 82. I was away from home for months at a time - such was the reality of living in the Hebrides and attending school in Oban. Spending so long away from family can be a difficult experience for many, but Bill was ...
The local paper The Chronicle ran an article with a positive slant on Fracking READ HERE Whilst the Guardian has also run a positive story on this from an interview with the minister READ HERE However if you look around YouTube it is easy to find examples of the risky nature of this business. See this YOUTUBE What is clear is that no licence to Frack should be granted without a lot more research into the methods used and the outcomes researched properly.
In an article on the effects of the economic crisis on the morale of we UK citizens Guardian columnist Marina Hyde uses such phrases as "weird formless terror," "the horrors still to come," "the cataclysmic event around the corner," and "vague inchoate dread." Little is to be gained from this wild exaggeration of the true state of affairs. Even if our economy will take several years to return to our 2008 level of output (when. as I recall, we lived extremely comfortably), we continue to be extremely rich. With a bit of courage from the government and a modest bit ...
I remember when I first found some 'erotica' at home. I was still very much a young and naive child of 12 or so — they were far simpler times back then — and it was a book called "The Perfumed Garden". I could tell there was something forbidden about it as it wasn't on our bookshelves but hidden away (where, to be fair, I shouldn't have been looking anyway!) I didn't really understand what it was about, so put it back and ignored it. This morning, however, I hear and see news reports that the Government has 'persuaded' four ...
So, the Mothers Union (a Christian group) have decided to impose its will on the rest of us, and decided parental control features are not good enough. Pornography must be prohibited, unless you opt in, via the state. BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin (oh the irony) have agreed with the Prime Minister to restrict sexually explicit ...
A very brief post just to say that I will be taking part in a bloggers' panel on the Guardian website between 2-4pm this afternoon. The idea is to talk about the future of the UK and our national identity as it's affected by continuing devolution and stuff like that. I would really love you all to come along and take part in this with me.I will confess to feeling a few nerves about the whole thing, but am also looking forward to it. I have to say that I was a bit shocked to find this morning that I ...
The Liberal Democrat party stand at a crossroads, one way leads back to Government and a role in this nation's future - the other is the path of wrack and ruin leading to political obscurity and eventual death. But who is manning the helm? It appears the electorate are becoming more and more disheartened by the system and politics, voter apathy has become a real phenomenon with vast swathes of the people turned away from politics. In Medway less than 40% turned out to vote for the AV referendum! Whether you agree or not with AV is not the point. ...
Collections of policy essays from new or junior MPs rarely have much of an impact or shelf-life in British politics, but however fallible their predictions for the future they can be illuminating about the current state of the authors' party and its broad ideological direction. So it is with After the Coalition which is very different in tone and hope for the future from last year's Which Way's Up? by Nick Boles. The contrast is there in the sub-titles for the two books. Boles had "The future for coalition Britain" whilst the five authors behind this volume have gone for ...
We are currently living in a two tiered society with those who own their homes and those who do not. This situation was initially fueled in the 80′s with Thatcher's right to buy, which led to the inevitable housing boom leaving many people in negative equity. Then in the 2000′s it had a resurgence as the availability of credit became increasingly accesible. The problem is that as more people bought more homes, and saw a property as not just a store of wealth but also an investment, we saw a rise in the number of landlords, which in turn led ...
Chris White, Lib Dem county councillor for central St Albans, has welcomed the government decision to fund the new Alban City School on Hatfield Road. He said: 'I have been campaigning for a new primary school in central St Albans for over five years and am delighted that at last we are seeing action. Parents can be assured that in 2012 there will be more school places in a central location – and so they won't have to drive their children past oversubscribed primary schools in order to get their children educated. 'There are still some practical issues to resolve ...
I am delighted to report on the new initiative taken by Sefton Council and NHS Sefton to install gym equipment in a number of its parks with the aim to get more people exercising. My local park has benefited from 7 different exercise machines including an exercise bike, a rowing machine and a couple of other stretching/lifting contraptions. The great thing in Hesketh Park is the way these machines have been installed around the park at various discrete locations creating a "circuit". 2 of the exercise machines installed in Hesketh Park I have in the past been a member of ...
'Nobody from whatever school they come from, whatever background they come from, should be discouraged from trying to do good things with their lives. Aspiration, ambition, hope, optimism is always important, but it's especially important in the teenage years.' Nick Clegg, at Charles Edward Brooke School for Girls in Camberwell, as part of the Speakers ...
Last month I wrote in praise of Alastair Campbell (at least partially) and his concern over the moves to make electoral registration optional. Another interesting foray into this debate comes from the ever-intelligent Mark Pack who has penned a piece on the various pros and cons of individual electoral registration and this one on making the process voluntary. All this might seem pretty anoraky (and it is), but my required party political dig is about Labour's hypocrisy on (at least part of) the issue. They now claim that individual registration is wrong, despite the fact that it was they who ...
Rt. Hon Michael Gove MP Secretary of State for Education (Conservative) Michael Gove Surrey Heath's MP needs no introduction. His angry clash with Harriet Harman over the relationship between unemployment and social deprivation was one of the defining media events related to the riots. Lord Maurice Glasman (Labour) Maurice Glasman is famous for promoting ideas of "blue Labour" within the Labour Party. These are centred on faith, hearth and heritage or three Fs history, hearth and heritage or three Rs roots, reciprocity, and relationships. His ideas feature a strong aversion to unrestricted market forces. Tom Brake MP (Liberal Democrat) Tom ...
A few weeks ago we posted about our concerns that the delay in the Public Inquiry for the Core Strategy may leave our countryside at risk of unwanted development. Officers at South Glos have been working hard to provide the extra information the Inspector has requested. One area of extra work is on the closure of Filton Airfield. The Council will be holding some drop in exhibitions, some staffed, others unstaffed. You can find details of all the exhibitions and view the exhibition material online. The deadline for comments is Monday 24 October 2011. Your Focus Team is also very ...
We all know somebody who at some point in their lives have been involved in a relationship with someone else while they've been married. These things happen. People fall in love - and apart from making sure that financial and parental responsibilities are sorted out appropriately, it's none of the State's business. Really not. We accept that here, but if you live in Iran, it's a different story. In this quite harrowing video, comedian Shappi Korsandi takes us through what happens to a man caught committing adultery. The matter of fact delivery and the upbeat background music makes it all ...
TweetThe Guardian makes an astute observation that Immigration is such a contentious subject, a Prime Minister's
TweetThe Commons watchdog IPSA today will publish 20 MPs who have been investigated for their expenses. Watch this space. It appears it wont be revealed any time soon. Time for an epetition?
What do the Liberal Democrats stand for? Well that's a question which some people have difficulty answering. So I thought it'd be a good idea to start a project where Lib Dems answer three questions so we can see where Lib Dem supporters think alike and if there are any common strands in concepts of what we stand for. More info is explained in the video below. Just to reiterate, the questions are:What do you think the Liberal Democrats stand for?Why are you a Liberal Democrat?What are the three greatest Liberal Democrat achievements in government.Please do get involved and spread ...
Though others are viewing the demotion of Angela Eagle from Shadow Chief Secretary as a move by Ed Miliband to clip the wings of Ed Balls, it does mean Miliband has sacked from his Treasury team one of the Labour MPs with the most dramatically wrong track-records when it comes to economic predictions. Keeping her well away from future economic policy it would seem is no bad move at all on Ed Miliband's part.
The Scottish consultation on religious civil partnerships and marriage equality makes the Westminster version look positively backward. Whilst Westminster has categorically stated what can and cannot be involved in the consultation, the Scottish Executive has been a lot more open in allowing a more frank discussion on FULL marriage equality. And this means that the opposition, that dark conservative grouping of Telegraph journalists and Catholic priests and all the miserable souls in between, has moved from grumbling to action. For years the fight has simply been to get marriage equality on the agenda. The Stonewall controversy, the lobbying of politicians, ...
TweetYesterday's Defence Questions provided viewing for thousands of Twitterati, Journalists and anyone else who was interested in accusations surrounding the Defence Secretary's inappropriate liaison with Adam Werrity. Watching vicariously through Twitter, I found the way in which so-called Liberal Intelligentsia behaved distasteful to say the least. The practically salivating centre left fell upon their victim ...
Adam Werritty has been such a constant figure at the side of Liam Fox that one has to ask: Will Liam Fox be able to effectively carry on his tasks as Defence Secretary now that he has been abruptly deprived of his companion? Werritty has obviously been a great support to Fox in political matters and also from the point of view of personal friendship. It seems quite cruel that Liam Fox will be cut off from this support in future. I do wonder: will he be able to cope?
The latest in my series of posts that I should tag as correlation does not mean causation comes from across the pond. Hard line anti smoking activist Stanton Glantz has done some 'research' that shows films that include scenes of smoking are less popular and make less money than non smoking films. Or as he puts it..... "Putting smoking in the film isn't leading to more popular films that make more money," Glantz says. It's leading to less popular films that make less money." As to why films with smoking make fewer dollars, Glantz says he is uncertain, but he ...
Last year, Conservative minister Mark Harper got up in Parliament to announce the government's plans to speed up the introduction of individual electoral registration. At the time, the news was fairly low key and uncontroversial. It was the previous Labour government that had legislated for its introduction following repeated calls from all political parties and the Electoral Commission that the current system of household registration (where one person fills in a form on behalf of everyone in a house, rather than each person registering individually) is too open to fraud. However, since Harper's announcement, the political controversy has built up ...
I have today launched my update for the West End Community Council October 2011 meeting that takes place at Logie St John's (Cross) Church Hall tonight at 7pm. The update covers bus services, car park improvements, litter in Nethergate and vandalism at Balgay Cemetery. You can download the update by clicking on the headline above or by going to http://tinyurl.com/weccoct11.
Under regulation 3 of the Social Security Benefits Up-rating Regulations British pensioners who retire to any one of over 120 countries, mainly in the Commonwealth, have their rightful state pension frozen. Meanwhile, those who retire to other countries have their pension uprated annually, just as though they never left the UK. This discriminatory policy currently ...
If you listen to the business of the Welsh Assembly you will often hear their native language in full flow. In Stormont it is most often confined to "Go raibh míle maith agat, a Comhairle" or "Go raibh míle maith agat, a LeasCheann Comhairle" Thank you, Speaker or Deputy Speaker. Earlier today Dominic Bradley the ...
