This evening we have heard that the City of Culture Offices have been bombed by dissident republicans and Portadown football fans threw a firework at the Glentoran bench injuring the assistant manager and goalkeeping coach atthe Oval. Local party membership officer and two time general election candidate for Linlithgow and East Falkirk Stephen Glenn said: ...
I suspect it is a question of when, not if, Liam Fox goes. If only half of what is in the public domain is true, then it is difficult to see him hanging on. The "friends of Liam Fox" stories doing the rounds have an increasingly desperate air to them. With friends like that, who needs..... The story on the front page of tomorrow's (Thursday's) Telegraph is remarkable. "Sacking me would be weak, says Fox": David Cameron would look as weak as John Major if he allowed Dr Liam Fox to be hounded out of office by a sustained campaign ...
Since there was only one item on the agenda for this meeting it has been cancelled and that item transferred to the next scheduled meeting on 3rd, November, 2011. Of course there have been numerous planning decisions taken by officers under delegated powers, but this is a most unusual occurence. It seems to show that the recession is still not over.
One of the recurring themes of my Introduction to Politics module, U23101, is the question "what is politics?" and, allied to it, "what is a political act?" and I never know quite how radical I ought to be in seminars and so on when they are asking for suggestions. Of course, others are right, so far as it goes, when they say things like it's about "power relationships" or "resource allocation" and similar things. But there are, to me, implied adjectives missing from these descriptions. It is about "illegitimate power relationships" and "coercive resource allocation". My particular favourite description of ...
The man who got a little x from myself in a ballot box in May 2010 is happy that the Pupil Premium is going where it is needed locally and sent out the following Press Release this evening that I am (possibly lazily) going to copy and paste in full: The announcement that Liberal Democrats in government have been able to increase the Pupil Premium has delighted their standard-bearer in Southend West at the last election. Peter Welch said "Raising the cash that schools receive for educating children from the poorest backgrounds was a key pledge in the General Election. ...
One of the reasons for setting up Flock Together was to encourage people to organise Liberal Drinks evenings. To help things go with a swing, we've just had some Liberal Drinks beermats printed. [IMG: Liberal Drinks Beermats and a pint of beer] They cost only £1 per a pack of 4, with 50p postage per order. If you'd like to order some, they're available at http://bit.ly/LibDrinksBeermats. Next stop a Lib Dem pizza knife for Pizza, pasta, poppadoms and politics?
Last month I offered Tim Farron, the Lib Dem President, a little unsought advice: Now that Tim Farron is being spoken of as a possible party leader, he needs to risk the odd unpopular speech. Someone in that class cannot always be telling people what they want to hear.How is he getting on with this project?Judging by his speech to the Scottish Liberal Democrat conference in Dunfermline on Saturday, which Caron's Musings kindly reprints, he has some way to go before he will satisfy me: Being really honest with you now - I envy you. I envy Scotland. I envy ...
From order-order.com: BREAKING: GOD to quit, job split Credit for photo of sun rays in Ethiopia: Some rights reserved by DamienHR
Although the employment news is bad nationally, the figures in the North West are more encouraging. Unemployment is down in the North West this quarter (from 8.6% to 8.2%). There's a small drop for men, and a bigger 0.6% drop for women. Among young people there's little change (the figures are mixed – all small changes, some up and others down). Looking at industry types, the biggest growth area in the North West is "Information & Communication" – with jobs up a massive 38.9% over the last year (28,000 extra jobs). Technical and scientific jobs are also up: 19,000 new ...
A couple of things have riled me this week one is the rather school boyish comments surrounding Liam Fox and his friend, yes undoubtedly a error of judgement has been made, but is it necessary for the media to have hinted at or implied Liam Fox's sexuality as appears to have been the case. Gay or Straight who cares? its none of our business, listening to the radio on way home I hear a couple of obnoxious newspaper editors bleating about press freedom, after all the crime their industry has been involved in, the government now wants proper regulation and ...
In recent days protest has been voiced against the proposed move to individual voter registration. The concerns expressed here by the Electoral Reform Society don't focus on the general concept of individual registration, but rather some of the associated changes proposed. I should say to start with that I agree with some of their concerns – for instance, that dropping the annual canvass could result in a drop off people eligible to vote from being on the register. I think it is right that people should be actively reminded about how they can register to vote and engage in the ...
Last week, I commented here on a Cambrian News article which had brought to light the fact that 2 Ceredigion Councillors had been overpaid a total of nearly £12,000 in expenses over the past 11 years. In that post, I commented that neither of the two had been named which was unfortunately casting a shadow over the remaining 40 of us who had not made the error. Today's Cambrian News front page however, rectifies that. As this article states, there were actually 3 Councillors who had wrongly overclaimed. They were Cllr Haydn Richards (Plaid Cymru) who over-claimed £1,203.40, Cllr David ...
I stood for Parliament last year as the Liberal Democrat candidate for Plymouth Moor View. I didn't win, but I am proud nonetheless of what the Lib Dems who did get elected are achieving by being in government. Take the pupil premium - a key Lib Dem manifesto commitment. No longer just words on page 34 of our manifesto, but a government policy being implemented, delivering lots more money to schools. Today, Lib Dem children's minister Sarah Teather MP announced exactly how much each school is getting. So, thanks to that Lib Dem policy and thanks to the fact that ...
Steve Coogan has dedicated years of his life of the deconstruction of a fictional sports reporter. You have to ask whether it has been worth the effort. Yes, Partridge is vain, prejudiced and deluded, but did we ever think that radio and TV sports reporters were much different from that? Chris Morris's contribution to On the Hour and The Day Today were more important than Coogan's because they were making fun of current affairs presenters and current affairs programmes in general - things we are far more inclined to take seriously. I have a nagging suspicion that Partidge is being ...
Complicity raises some very relevant questions about the Government's proposals for filtering broadband. I have to say I don't like the idea of somebody else choosing what's to be blocked. Mr Doctor Chocolate Man asks if we can guess who said what. I have to wait until next Summer before I can even contemplate the iPhone 4S, but Stephen Fry tells me I have lots to look forward to. I know he's not exactly unbiased, but it's a good counter to the media's sniffy attitude to it. Daddy Alex takes on Charlie Brooker over......trailers. Clair talks about books she wishes ...
We've covered before on Lib Dem Voice the campaign by Lynne Featherstone and others to end the built-in sexism in the rules of Royal succession, whereby men automatically come ahead of women in the line of succession ('Royal primogeniture'), a cause which has overwhelming public support. One complication is that our monarch is also the monarch of other countries, which makes changes the rules a matter of both international diplomacy and domestic action. So good news today with David Cameron's decision to write to 16 Commonwealth leaders about getting the rules changed. As Lynne Featherstone put it previously about Royal ...
I was delighted today when an email from Sarah Teather MP dropped into my inbox. Now Liberal Democrat members do get a number of emails from Lib Dem ministers however today's announcement was really well done in terms of communication and content, The email gave specific information about the schools in Southport which are set to get an extra £677,000 from the Pupil Premium to improve the education of the most disadvantaged children. This basically translates to an extra £488 for each child on free school meals in the town. You can find out what each school in Sefton is ...
I'm just going to quote the Levellers for now: Everyday I look at you Dressed up in your ties of blue Saying there's not much that you can do To help the kids on Hope Street They don't seem to even care That it was you that put them there You seem to think they like it there Hanging out on Hope Street. [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
The old building of my old school, Christ's College People are understandably cynical about statistical announcements from politicians, heavy as they often are with jargon, over-claiming and obfuscation. However, what such statistics often reveal (or conceal) is that some effort is being made to solve a particular problem - and is some effort not better than none? An example of that is the latest data on the Pupil Premium. The Pupil Premium is one of the better Liberal Democrat ideas being implemented by the Coalition Government. Under the Pupil Premium, for every pupil who is on free school meals, a ...
-Not often you see those words together. But I did like the Thought for the Day on Today this week from John Bell of the Iona Community. The text is below followed by a clickable audio recording. "There's a bit of a stooshie in Scotland at the moment, which could become a stramash if it spreads further south. It's about marriage, or more specifically gay marriage. Last week the Roman Catholic Bishop of Paisley took issue with Alex Salmond, the first minister over the SNP Government's intentions to have a consultation on the issue, and implicitly suggested that if the ...
Sefton Council has published plans to consult residents onthe savings that will have to be made to balance the books next year (thefinancial year 2012/13) Labour are the largest party on the Council and Labour hasthe responsibility for proposing the budget. So far, they are taking their responsibilityseriously and have put forward a list of potential cuts totalling £25 Million.From this, the final list of £20 Million worth of cuts for next year will bedecided after public consultation. The Liberal Democrats will scrutinise the proposals putforward by Labour and respond to them accordingly. We welcome the views of residents,community groups ...
The latest forecast shows the number of children in Durham secondary schools falling for the next four years, and taking fourteen years to get back to current levels. Meanwhile primary school numbers show a rising trend over the next ten years. Whilst it's relatively easy to predict the total numbers in education over such a period, what is far more unpredictable is exactly who will be where – partly because of pupil and parent preference, partly as residential patterns change, and now with the particularly unpredictable effects of changes to the school transport rules. For the Derwentside area interesting predictions ...
In the current blitz of publicity I am not sure I should say that I have met Adam Werritty a few times, and the Defence Secretary a few less, usually on pleasantly social terms. The stories that the press are running today bear no resemblance to anything that I could recognize. They are certainly not gay- so far as I can tell- and I think the innuendo is childish and rather unpleasant. Neither are they crooks. Adam Werritty is not some Svengali making millions out of his connections: far from it. It seems to me that out of principle, he ...
Today is National Coming Out Day a day that those of us who have come out as LGBT encourage others that it isn't that hard and surprisingly you'll get a lot of support when you do. Last year I wrote about some of the various comings out that I've ended up having to do. Of course each person has to decide when to come out and to whom they want to come out. After a year in Northern Ireland I've learnt that far more of my LGB friends have yet to tell their family despite their friends all knowing about ...
Well, for those of us about to take the Open University Critical Social Psychology exam tomorrow. An image to instill a bit of confidence: [IMG: We can handle it all] All the best to everyone for tomorrow afternoon – it's been great being part of the course with you all this year.
A change of leadership, a cabinet reshuffle and a policy U-turn were the highlights of today's full council meeting. Former leader Andrew Povey sacked his Deputy, David Hodge, just two weeks ago following a falling out over policy and leadership style. But his plans backfired dramatically when disgruntled Conservatives rallied around Hodge, resulting in Povey's resignation and Hodge's coronation. The new leader immediately announced his new cabinet, appointing Peter Martin as Deputy Leader with Tim Hall taking his place on Children and Learning. Helyn Clack replaces Tim Hall and Tony Samuels takes on the new position of "Organisation and Regeneration". ...
The Education department have released details of the extra money schools are getting to improve the education of disadvantaged pupils. Each pupil eligible for free school meals gets £488 a year extra for their school to spend to enhance their schooling. Here's how the money splits down for the schools in Newbury: School Name Number on roll (5) Number of pupils eligible for the Deprivation Pupil Premium Percentage of pupils eligible for the Deprivation Pupil Premium £ Allocation for the Deprivation Pupil Premium 2011/12 (7) Speenhamland Primary School 274 30 10.9 14640 Robert Sandilands Primary School and Nursery 207 37 ...
This morning I had an excellent visit to the East Edinburgh Local Office to hear about the work that Neighbourhood Manager Jim Hunter and his team are doing there. I was struck by how much the area has improved over the last few years. The East area has some of the most deprived residents in the City and life expectancy in some of the areas of it can be lower than parts of the third world. This picture of decay has been turned around with a lot of work in early intervention and very strong partnership working between council, police ...
From today's Edmonton Journal: "...police look into the deaths of two men whose bodies were found Tuesday morning inside a bullet-riddled SUV found parked on a south Edmonton road. The deaths are currently classified by the police as 'suspicious.'" Edmonton is living up to its "Deadmonton" reputation as the murder capital of Canada. Forty homicides ...
Nick Clegg bemoans the maleness and paleness of the Lib Dems and his sense of shame that our parliamentary party is 88% male seems genuine enough. What is it about the culture of Lib Dems that has brought about this striking gender imbalance? My own experience as a councillor and candidate is that being a (young, childless, solvent) woman is a huge advantage. When I was approved and selected in 2001 you could almost smell the desperation of the party to promote women. The glass ceiling - what was that? But then I did what women do and I had ...
[IMG: locaLISM] Localism the New Opportunities A Conference for Liberal Democrats Book Online Now Don't miss out on the chance to spend a day with other Liberal Democrats in local government, the Deputy Prime Minister and others at our one day Lib Dem Localism conference taking place on Friday 21st October 2011 (LONDON). 9:30am - 3.30pm (lunch and refreshments provided), Smith Square, Westminster, SW1P 3HZ This is a conference and workshop for Liberal Democrats to look at the new opportunities provided by the Localism Bill. Speakers: Rt Hon Nick Clegg, Deputy Prime Minister Lord Victor Adebowale, Chief Executive, Turning Point ...
Cross-posted from Liberal Democrat Voice From memory, this was the first time the Cameron/Miliband exchange centred wholly on the economy. There was plenty of ammo for Miliband to fire at Cameron. Unemployment up to its highest for 15 years. Women's unemployment at its highest since 1988. Youth unemployment at its highest since 1992. He started with a quote from David Cameron himself saying that "Unemployment will fall this year, next year and the year after". (Bit of daft hostage to fortune that was.) Cameron was well armed with all the programmes the government is starting: Welfare to Work programme, Welfare ...
Residents on Godwin Way and Close are concerned about poor parking by motorists, particularly on the corner of Godwin Close. This blocks the view for motorists and pedestrians and is particularly dangerous because there is a primary school on Godwin Way, the Queen Edith Primary School, taking children as young as three. At a resident's request, I have prepared a simple petition calling on the County Council to introduce parking controls, probably yellow lines on this corner - corners should of course not be parked on according to the Highway Code. If you would like to sign, you can download ...
I am in daily receipt of the EFTA news bulletin which provides headlines about the four EFTA states and a summary of international news. In the past couple of months, against EFTA member Leichtenstein, it has said: 'Unfortunately, no news from Liechtenstein today'. I was left wondering whether for reasons of electronic malfunction the important ...
Last night, I attended the latest monthly meeting of West End Community Council. There was a very informative presentation on the recently launched Local Development Plan consultation period and a good question and answer session afterwards about possible future development in the west of the city. A consultation event on the Local Development Plan is taking place at the West District Housing Office on Tuesday 25th October between 2pm and 7.30pm and all residents are very welcome to come along at any time during the event. The Community Council meeting was also advised that an initial meeting to hopefully form ...
Yesterday the Welsh Government launched its initiative for helping young people get into work. It is a a £75 million programme designed to offer 12,000 people six months work experience over a three year period. Unfortunately, it is modelled on the previous government's Future Jobs Fund which largely failed to make an impact. Many of those benefitting from it ended up back on the dole soon after their six months were up. In contrast the UK Government has launched its own programme, which will form part of the replacement for the Future Jobs Fund. Their plan is to set up ...
As my colleague Alex Folkes writes, the Council's Cabinet met this morning to debate the future of leisure services in Cornwall. Inveitably, part of that involved a discussion about Camelford Leisure Centre, which has been under threat pretty much since the Tory-led administration first started to look at leisure services last year. In the end ...
From memory, this was the first time the Cameron/Miliband exchange centred wholly on the economy. There was plenty of ammo for Miliband to fire at Cameron. Unemployment up to its highest for 15 years. Women's unemployment at its highest since 1988. Youth unemployment at its highest since 1992. He started with a quote from David Cameron himself saying that "Unemployment will fall this year, next year and the year after". (Bit of daft hostage to fortune that was.) Cameron was well armed with all the programmes the government is starting: Welfare to Work programme, Welfare reform, Apprenticeships etc etc. And ...
Tsk, tsk, Bromley Conservatives. There is a council by-election campaign underway in Shortlands ward, Bromley where the excellent Anuja Prashar is the Liberal Democrat candidate. (So excellent, I'll forgive her for organising a raffle once that broke all my Lib Dem raffle rules.) She has been campaigning against council plans to axe the lollipop ladies at two local schools and, as part of that, presented a petition signed by 283 residents to the council. And then things started being done differently... For the first time, Bromley Council decided to respond personally and directly to all the signatories on a petition, ...
The disastrous NHS IT project , the great symbol of the pursuit of illusory efficiency (in this case at the cost of £12 billion) began with a meeting in 10 Downing Street in 2002 between Tony Blair, Bill Gates and associated hangers on. As early as 2004, seven years ago, the systems thinker John Seddon predicted that it would fail. He now predicts the same for the IT systems being designed at vast expense to deliver the Universal Credit. And for the same reason: these huge IT systems which are supposed to deliver services efficiently are too inflexible. They assume ...
Being really honest with you now - I envy you. I envy Scotland. I envy your values, your sense of community, of collective endeavour and basic decency. If you want to know my main, even selfish, reason for being utterly opposed to Scottish independence is because a Britain with your values is a warmer, compassionate and caring place to be. So said Liberal Democrat President Tim Farron at Scottish Liberal Democrat conference in Dunfermline on Saturday. If that's how he feels, then no wonder he keeps going on about how the part of the world he represents was actually in ...
So, the owners of Braehead Shopping Centre have been dragged kicking and screaming to sup from the Fountain of Common Sense. They finally and clearly reluctantly apologised to the appalling treatment their security guard meted out to Chris White who was challenged for taking photos of his 4 year old eating an ice cream. The Boycott Braehead group which was set up on Facebook and attracted 4 times more fans than the Braehead site itself said today that it was no longer calling for a boycott, but that Chris White would be actively involved in doing more work on these ...
Cambridge MP, Julian Huppert has welcomed today's announcement that city schools will receive extra money than originally expected through the new Pupil Premium. More than 1,300 youngsters from disadvantaged backgrounds will benefit from £652,000 which means that every school in Cambridge will now get nearly £500 for every child on Free School Meals. Among the schools benefiting are Chesterton Community College which receives more than £52,000, Coleridge Community College which gets almost £43,000 and the Shirley Community Nursery and Primary School which receives just over £50,000. Liberal Democrat Children and Families Minister, Sarah Teather announced the extra money which gives ...
Figures released this week by the IFS show that the UK will witness a severe and sustained increase in child poverty over the coming decade, with almost a quarter of British children set to be living in relative poverty by 2020, compared to one fifth in 2009/10. This is despite a projected 7 per cent reduction in real terms median income over the next three years, reducing the amount of income it takes to cross the poverty line. These figures highlight the growing gulf between the targets set out under the Child Poverty Act, which require the government to reduce ...
Hello again to an old story which I cam across in the archives whilst looking for something else. Trust me, it's more interesting than the Something Else which, even with the use of capital letters and ominous music, turned out to be a damper squib than the empty chocolate wrapper left in the work kitchen last week. So instead... it's back to 1966, again. During the 1966 general election campaign, Prime Minister Harold Wilson visited the Birmingham Rag Market for a public meeting (scene of a famous* public meeting in the 1964 campaign when the then Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home ...
Economists, one might assume, have something useful to say about the current problems afflicting the world economy. Yet, since the crash of 2008 there has been a considerable amount of reflection in parts of the discipline about its failure to anticipate the crash and its failure to offer effective prescriptions for getting the economy out ...
It's a battery: Not much to look at you might think. But this spare Huawei HB4F1 battery remedies the one drawback of my previous favourite tech gadget – the superb 3 MiFi hotspot. The combination of Three's network reach and reliability (at least in areas I frequent), the HSDPA speed (faster than GPRS) and its ability to network more than one device at once, meaning you need pay for only the one contract, would have made the 3 Huawei MiFi a favourite even if it hadn't also been small and light. Its one flaw is a short-ish battery life, measured ...
If you are a parent with kids anywhere in England then today you can find out just how much how local schools will receive thanks to the Pupil Premium which was a staple of the Liberal Democrats manifesto. The Pupil Premium is there is give extra money to schools for every student who comes from a disadvantaged background to help ensure they get just as much of a chance of an excellent education as those who come from a more advantaged background. I live in Southend and as area we will receive just over £2million extra for the school year ...
Despite the pleas of local people, Liberal Democrats and the local Conservative councillor, Cornwall Council's Cabinet this morning voted to abandon Camelford Leisure Centre. As I noted before, the cross party scrutiny committee had voted by eight to two to recommend that the facility was kept within the leisure trust on a permanent basis. This would cost around £62,500 per year from April 1st, but we were confident that this could be found from elsewhere in the Council's budget. The decision to pull out of Camelford sparked furious work by the staff there and local community. The staff managed to ...
Local Lib Dems have welcomed news that schools in Cheadle and Gatley are to get over £130,000 from the Lib Dem pupil premium in the coming year. The Pupil Premium scheme helps target resources where they are needed most. See below for the full table showing the amount each Stockport school will receive. Stockport Pupil Premium
Great news emerged last night that Nick Clegg has listened to the advice of the Electoral Commission and many others, including a large number of experts within his own party, on the subject of making electoral registration voluntary. His proposal had been to withdraw the compulsion to register if you qualify. Combined with the move to individual registration, this would have saved a lot of money, but would also have seen the registration rate drop hugely. Already there are wide disparities with estimates in some inner city areas of rates of no more than 70%. We should be putting more ...
[IMG: olympic legacy] Admittedly it's way to early, to reflect on the London Olympics, but since the future of the main arena is back in the news, what the hell, hopefully there will be a great televisual experience, maybe Team GB will do well (perhaps the last before Scottish independence), but it seems a typical British squabble has already broken out, over the bones of the event. I'm a cynic, so far, from what I've seen, it's a triumph of big business over people, particularly those in East London, I'll explain and fess up to having benefitted myself, around 2006 ...
At last might's Local Committee we received an update on the progress with the construction of the Wallington Local Care Centre - the replacement for Shotfield Health Centre. We were advised by the NHS Project Manager Andrew Grimes that the new building was expected to be open for business by the end of February 2012. A ...
[IMG: Sarah Teather at the launch of the Liberal Democrat manifesto 2010] Lib Dem MP and Government Children's Minister Sarah Teather explains the impact of the Pupil Premium - £488 for every child on free school meals in our schools, what impact that has on our local schools, and why this is a direct result of the Liberal Democrats in Government - on Lib Dem Voice. Worth a read. 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
So you are in a mountain bike race and usually your main fears are falling off and scraping your knee. You don't usually fear a wild antelope coming out and taking you out with a boom but that is what happened to Evan van der Spuy as he blind-sided during the Time Freight Express MTB race at Albert Falls Dam. All sorts of awesome. He was fine and was released from hospital after a few hours of observation. So lesson for you all out there. Wear a helmet as it may save your life. Certainly if wild antelope are near... ...
I've blogged a few times before about the way that increasing the number of polling stations, or locating them better, can increase turnout, by reducing the average travel time for (non-postal) voters to get to their polling place. However, whilst things that involve technology and electricity (text voting, internet voting et al.) tend to grab the headlines and get demands for action (usually from people who haven't noticed the previous British trials which showed their failure to have a significant impact on turnout), the rather more prosaic act of wondering about which school halls to use and where to locate ...
Plans have been revealed for the upgrade of Heald Green Station over the coming months including a refurbished ticket office and waiting area and other enhancements. Work is planned to start in December and be completed by March. Heald Green Station
Conservatives at Essex County Council have rejected a proposal by the Liberal Democrats to open up the Council and let the public speak directly to Councillors at Council meetings, and to ask questions about the work of the Council. This decision was made at a debate on public participation at a meeting of the Full Council on 11 October 2011. Responding to the Conservative comments, Councillor Tom Smith-Hughes, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group and Leader of the Opposition, said: "The comments made today by nearly all of the many Conservatives who spoke in the debate demonstrate a level of ...
From multiple reports this morning, it seems the Big 4 ISPs are not too happy with Camerons announcement of his anti-porn initiative, and he's made out it's far more wide-reaching than it is really. But we do have a few answers, courtesy of Slightly Right of Centre (Who first reported on the ISP response), the Telegraph, the Guardian and of course El Reg. Is it opt-in or opt-out? "Active choice" has been touted – customers will need to answer one way or another, without any default. However, reading between the lines it seems ISPs are (unsurprisingly) leaning towards a more ...
Just a few days after my blog about Tory MEP Roger Helmer 'sharing our pain' he is resigning from the European Parliament. I am not suggesting the two things are anyway related but... Here is what he said: Roger Helmer, a Member of the European Parliament for the East Midlands region has written to the ...
Usually it's quite hard explaining how being a Liberal Democrat Minister in government makes a difference to the people in my constituency. But the Pupil Premium is an exception to that rule. It is a policy with two key characteristics - it has an identifiable impact in every local area, and it's distinctively Liberal Democrat. Today the Government released the final Pupil Premium figures for English schools. In the financial year 2011-12 schools are receiving £488 for each child on free school meals they have on their roll. Anyone can visit the DfE website and search for their local authority ...
Recycling banks are being removed from a number of places across South Glos including: Yate - shopping centre overflow car park, Broad Lane Council offices, and YOSCWesterleigh - Ye Olde Inne Resources are being re-allocated to providing recycling facilities for blocks of flats that don't currently have them. Please let your Focus Team know if you have concerns.
The Daily Mail are reporting that things between Nick Clegg and David Cameron are in good health again and that their recent appointments to top political posts shows how in tune they are with each other, politically. While Clegg has appointed someone to the political right in the Lib Dems to be the deputy head ...
The Liberal Democrats Conference Committee has an unfortunate habit of timing debates I am due to speak in for 9.00 am usually on a Sunday morning. A few years ago we were debating what is now called Ballistic Missile Defence (unless the military-industrial complex has come up with a new bit of camouflage / acronym / euphemism). It used to be called Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI) or more
Charlie Brooker laid into the BBC the other day for spending too much money on glossy trailers at a time of cuts. And that sounds reasonable, in the way that a 22-word summary can be more persuasive than a thousand original words of bile (along with a subtle and reasoned critique of David Cameron, sure to sway wavering voters). But it's not just that he goes increasingly over the top to hide the fact that his argument's a bit short - I know the technique only too well - but that I don't agree with it. I actually like trailers. ...
Spare a though for Dean Grice who missed the Aussie Rules Chandler Medal Awards bash the other night after falling ill on a trip to Queensland. Grice spent the night in bed sick but still managed to win the Paul Edie Medal for Best and Fairest. I had an image of this lovely medal which is of a suitable Hibernian green with white but can't find it. Here is a picture of the main man above. He is on the right. If any readers can supply a url or picture of the medal or tell me who my namesake commemorated ...
The Annual Stockport Fairtrade Fair will be held on Saturday November 12th 2011, 10.30am until 4pm, at Stockport College, Wellington Road South. Stockport Fairtrade Fair
One of Dr Liam Fox's main defences for treating his office like a business opportunity for friends is that he doubts the motives of those criticising him. You would have thought their name ("The Opposition", "journalists") would tip him off that nobody expects (or needs, frankly) their motives to be pure as the driven snow. It is the job of the opposition and the press to take a close look at ministerial misdeeds. A degree of opportunism, schedenfraude or outright trouble-making is how the system works. It's called "being human". Money is not the only incentive that keeps things moving. ...
There is a fascinating story on the BBC website Regarding Clare Hollingworth turning 100. She is the British journalist who reported the beginning of World War II amost by accent as she just happened to be making a trip across the border from Poland to Germany in August 1939. It goes to show that a lot of success in life can depend on having the knack of being in the right place at the right time. You could almost say it is a prerequisite for success!
The news that 98% of FTSE companies use tax avoidance is being reported in the usual "shock-horror" terms of corporate greed. However those protesting are aiming at very much the wrong target. When even the HMRC itself- never mind the corporate sector- uses tax avoidance structures, it is clear that something fundamental needs to change. The UK tax code is the largest in the world. It currently stands at an astonishing 11.250 pages. This is five times longer than the German code. Many of the provisions of this code are contradictory. It is impossible for a single person to understand, ...
This is Stockport Wellbeing Week, organised by Stockport Mind, where you can find more information on what's going on. The events are all about being creative, getting out and about, having fun and connecting with each other and, most importantly, staying well. Stockport Mind works for better mental health. There are lots of free events right through the week – it started on Friday 7th October and goes onto Friday 14th. For example (and this is only a small sample – see the website for more): Beauty therapy Baby massage Weight loss workshop Art workshop Zumba dance workshop 5 WAYS ...
HAT TIP Here is a very interesting article by Patrick Basham and John Luic, providing a very thoughtful and well-researched piece arguing why fat taxes don't work. Their conclusion, surprise surprise is that the answer is a simple economic one – demand for food tends to be largely insensitive to price and that there is considerable research on food prices that has demonstrated this inelasticity... "The latest economic research strongly suggests that a fat tax may simply prove to be a futile instrument in influencing the behaviour and habits of the overweight and the obese. Those consumers 'addicted' (to use ...
