An extraordinary story in tomorrow's (Friday's) Daily Mirror. There's a big photo of Oliver Letwin apparently putting papers into a public waste bin. You can see the front page here. The text goes: David Cameron's right-hand man Oliver Letwin has been caught dumping secret papers in park waste bins. The PM's blundering policy adviser was seen on five separate days throwing away sensitive correspondence on terrorism, national security and constituents' private details. The Cabinet Office minister disposed of more than 100 papers in the security breach in a park near No.10. One revealed how intelligence chiefs "failed to get at ...
Right wing Tory MEP Roger Helmer has announced he is quitting the Conservative Party and the European Parliament at the end of the year. Liberal England reports that his place on the list will be taken up by one Rupert Matthews - an eccentric writer and self styled expert on alien abductions. This Rupert Matthews is the same Rupert Matthews who was a councillor in Surbiton and managed to lose his seat twice in eight years to the Liberal Democrats. Matthews was one of the young(ish) very right wing Tories who took over the Conservatives in Kingston and Surbiton in ...
I didn't like The Wedding Of River Song Tagged: mememememe
Cross-posted from Liberal Democrat Voice Whisper it. A quiet revolution has happened. Keep this quiet, please! Deputy Prime Minister's Questions used to be akin to Bear Baiting (with apologies to bears and ursine mammal lovers everywhere). Nick Clegg would stand up and have all sorts of sticks prodded into his midriff by Labour members, while their sistren and breathren used to shout and jeer. The poor bear Clegg used to get all red in the face and start shouting back at them, before escaping to nurse his wounds. Something has changed. This week, apart from the odd bit of rowdiness ...
A local Labour Councillor's petty complaint about Ian Swales MP having a party logo on a Government funded website led 19 other MPs into bother. 8 of them were Labour, of which 2 were Labour Co-op. Two of them were from the north east and not new MPs either. The second Ian realised that a mistake had been made by the provider of the site he paid the small amount of money back and has claimed nothing at all for the site. Yet at every opportunity local Labour activists have abused him about it in leaflet after leaflet, even accusing ...
Far be it for me (or anyone else) to intrude on the private grief of Reading (East in particular) Conservatives, but it is worth putting into perspective some of the behind-the-scenes chicanery that has led to their apparent implosion. Because this is a public service blog, and it's worth setting these things on the record. And because - let's face it - those of them wielding daggers would gleefully do it to anyone else. The principal character in this is the person holding the powerful Conservative Association role of Deputy Chairman (Politics). In the case of Reading East Conservative Association, ...
Lewisham councillors received a presentation on Monday 10th October from five of the borough's housing providers about their response to the changes in the rules around provision of social housing put forward by the government. The housing providers present were Affinity Sutton, Family Mosaic, Hyde Housing, Hexagon and London & Quadrant, and the evening was [...] ↓ Read the rest of this entry...
Yesterday Hold the Front Page broke the news that Keith Perch, the editor of the Leicester Mercury, was quitting the paper with immediate effect. I had, of course, already heard this, but the nature of my source meant that I could not blog or tweet it as a scoop myself. Keith's resignation is bad news for the Mercury. At various points in the recent past it has either been absurdly right wing or far too friendly with the city council. But under his editorship it has consistently broken important stories and held the city's politicians to account, thanks largely to ...
Further to my recent update about progress with sports improvements for the West End, I attended a very useful meeting of the West End Sports and Heritage Association committee last night at the Vine in Magdalen Yard Road. We discussed the first WESHA funding bid. It is looking good (thanks particularly to Steve McSwiggan and Matthew Miller who have written the content) - a step towards improving the facilities at Riverside, for the benefit of sport in the West End.
Alex White, Matt Downey, me and Huw Edwards. (Matt and Alex are talented liberal youth who are my good friends) I have discovered something new about myself and it isn't often that this happens to people. Thanks to George Alagiah and his series on Mixed Race Britain I am part of the new growing colour mix of people. The surprising thing is that I don't feel any different or special compared to single race people. However, I do think that the history of how mixed race people were treated is important because if we do not understand this then, as ...
Yesterday Guido Fawkes broke the news that the Tory MEP Roger Helmer is to resign from the European Parliament, in part because of his "increasing disillusion with the attitudes of the Conservative Party". There is more about his resignation in today's Leicester Mercury, including some delicately worded tributes from other local politicians. Louise Mensch, the Conservative MP for Corby, was less inhibited - as you can see from the tweet above. Helmer is to be replaced at Brussels by one Rupert Matthews. And what an interesting fellow he turns out to be. Hynd's Blog tells us: The front page of ...
Shocking large figure isn't it? This is for External Debt - the total public and private debt owed to nonresidents repayable in internationally accepted currencies, goods, or services.That's a little under 150,000 each. We currently stand third of all the Countries in the world for our per capita debt, it's almost at the stage where it's pretty certain that none of us alive today will see our debt burden reduced to zero. Our children will be quite lucky to clear this debt.Hopefully this gives you some idea how completely unrealistic the "cut nothing"-brigade are. And don't even get me started ...
Old favourite heard on the radio on the way to a 'day job' event in Grangemouth today!
Walls of Derry Derry is on the build up to being the UK's first City of Culture in 2013 but for the second time in a year the City of Culture office was the target for a bomb attack. The bomb went off at about 23:00 last night. A warning was received at about 21:45 and police had just cleared the area and an army bomb squad where on their way when the bomb went off. This is a sickening and cowardly act which will not deter the people of the city from getting ready for it's City of Culture ...
Thu 13th
21:07
Left Out of the Equation report show homophobia not tackled in Northern Ireland Schools
The Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister last year produced their Draft Programme for Cohesion, Sharing and Integration which as many people pointed out ignored LGBT issues, failed to promise to deliver a Sexual Orientation Strategy before 2012. Indeed failed to take us on much since the investigation intohomophobic harassment and violence of 2003. Is it any wonder that with such institutionalised inaction by the NI executive that the Left Out of the Equation report from The Rainbow Project and Cara Friend looking at the experiences of LGBT young people at school is so harrowing? 94 per ...
Follow @_andy_thompson_ As I write this post I am sat on board a Ryanair Boeing 737-800, 37,000 feet above Portugal and on my way to what I hope will be a relaxing week in the south of Fuertavenutura. But the relaxation will have to wait for a few hours time, till we are back on the ground and away from the incessant selling by Ryanair staff. As we board we are I am aware of the classic tune playing over the onboard public address system: one of those popular ones that you can hum along to. But the pleasure of ...
Strathclyde Police issued an extarordinary statement today in relation to the complaint made by Chris White, the dad whose Boycott Braehead Facebook page, set up in response to the fuss the authorities made over his photograph of his 4 year old, attracted 24000 fans in a day. Braehead Shopping Centre's owners eventually saw how stupid their no photography policy was and changed it in response to the global outcry at its actions. The Police, however, are giving no ground. I wrote yesterday about how the Police Federation Chair made a prat of himself on Newsnight Scotland. Today their statement says ...
Cambridgeshire Liberal Democrats are celebrating victory after a Tory decision to ban wind farms on county council land was sent back for a rethink. Liberal Democrats had called-in the decision by the Tory-controlled Cabinet on Cambridgeshire County Council which they claimed reinforced the ruling group's lack of commitment to climate change. The decision, to put a hold on wind farms on council-owned Farms Estate land, came despite four tenant farmers having worked with the county council and invested money on wind turbine projects. Cambridgeshire County Council Shadow Cabinet member for Planning, Enterprise and Environment, Kevin Wilkins said: ""It is good ...
That's it – all done! Bye bye DD307 and good riddance! I think I managed to pull together two decent answers on attitudes and bystander intervention, complemented by an iffy one on prejudice and conflict. Provided I've managed to score more than 55% on the examinable component (and I already had a nice head-start from the project) I'll be very happy indeed at some point in December. Always assuming I've got through SD226 as well, of course. Because the OU psychology degree is accredited for the graduate basis for chartership (GBC) with the British Psychological Society, I can also pay ...
Thu 13th
18:55
Raising the most money possible from the wealthiest - the Irish show how *not* to do it
Some 18 months ago, I welcomed the news that the Coalition Government had abandoned thoughts of messing with the Gift Aid scheme for charitable giving — there had been proposals, supported by some charitable organisations, to introduce a composite rate of Gift Aid that would have reduced the incentive for higher-rate taxpayers to maximise their philanthropy. I was reminded of this by a story on the UKFundraising website today, Tax changes may have caused big drop in donations in Ireland: Changes in Irish tax rules brought in in 2007 may be having the effect of reducing the amount of money ...
In recent weeks, both Liberal England's Jonathan Calder and Mark Pack have criticised Party President Tim Farron for doing too much crowd pleasing stuff and not enough side taking, not being willing to upset people by sticking his neck on the line. First of all, if there ever was a year when we needed Farron's gobby, barnstorming, feel-good stuff, always delivered with a good kick up the backside at some point in the proceedings, it's now. This year has been pretty crap all round and part of the President's job is to be there for us when things are bad. ...
People grow attached to the status quo. There used to be a large packing crate in our garden when I was a boy. When my elder brother problem objected that it was unsightly and we should get rid of it, my mother countered that: "But the cat likes to sit on it!". This was too much for my brother who took an axe to the crate shortly afterwards. An unsightly item was removed, and the cat had no difficulty in adapting. So it is with the British parliamentary boundary reviews. There's a lot of fuss, with many saying that fundamental ...
Here's the image I have been looking for to illustrate the deficit reduction policy which inhibits growth and therefore reduces the revenue from taxation and makes the deficit harder to reduce. These men were installing bollards to stop vehicles going on the pavement. How are they going to get out now ?Go away and read Keynes, the lot of you !
Tweet(I doubt that's an original title, my apologies). The case of Dr Liam Fox MP and his not/advisor Werrity have dominated the headlines for days. The spurious and real accusations have become a quagmire of fact and fiction. There's only one thing to be completely sure of, if Cameron lets this paticular Fox stay in ...
HAT TIP : Tonight's Question Time promises to be a lively affair as Mark Littlewood (formerly of this parish) joins the panel. Having enjoyed his many media performances over the years (see our send-off video from a couple of years back) and with a reputation for shaking things up we reckon this will be a cracker.
TweetTechnology and instant gratification are wonderful things. Getting a blog post on Twitter is instantaneous. But not everything in life is like that, and we have developed into a culture of people who expect everything to be like that. The Evening Standard reports this evening that obese adults in London alone cost the NHS £883.6 ...
A couple of weeks ago I suggested here on this blog that the Lib Dems were the natural party of small business (The Lib Dems: In search of new voters...) and that with about 23million people working in small and medium sized businesses, they were a pretty attractive voting sector to pursue. A study out today provides us with another damn good reason why the Lib Dems really should think about its relationship with small businesses – they disproportionately employ vulnerable people – making them both economically and socially important. The IEA report Self-employment, Small Firms and Enterprise, by Peter ...
Wandsworth Guardian has reported today how the Council are looking to close all three of their adventure playgrounds (York Gardens, Kimber Road Gardens and Battersea Park). Earlier this year the Council was looking to start charging children to use the Adventure Playground in Battersea park. But facing widespread opposition from a number of community campaigns including the Battersea Liberal Democrats the Council withdrew their plans. Local Lib Dem Richard Davis says, "At a time when the Council is looking at the causes of the riots they should not be closing services for children in the area. It is outrageous that ...
Thu 13th
16:31
Free half-term football & tennis sessions at Wirral Tennis & Sports Centre (for teenagers)
Wirral Council are running free sessions of football and tennis over the half-term holidays for teenagers at Wirral Tennis Centre. The sessions are free, however advance booking is required, either in person, by telephone on 606 2010 or online on Wirral Council's website. There are also a number of free sessions at other leisure centres ...
This afternoon I actually sat through a whole debate on whether MPs can use hand held devices within the chamber. What I saw was basically a few of the old guard (and Simon Hughes – really Simon? Why would you do it to me? You seem so cool and up with everything and then you go and diss twitter and say that it should be banned in the chamber. I'm hurt. Hurt I tells ye...) anyway a few of the old guard saying that if they liked they could sit and watch the cricket whilst in the house and that ...
Thu 13th
15:56
"[GMP] have no intention to reduce policing levels at neighbourhood level" in Chorlton - GM Police C...
A number of residents have contacted me about the closure of the Chorlton Police Station. I understand that this is because the Old Moat ward has joined the Chorlton neighborhood policing team; and unfortunately as Chorlton Police Station is not suitable to deal with a larger policing team and requires significant investment to modernise it had to close. Chorlton Police Station had not been open to the public for a number of years. However the Police will continue to have a presence in Chorlton ward in the form of a Police Post in the Chorlton District Office. It was also ...
There's still a shocking absence of women from the top in politics and leadership roles across society. We can all see that for ourselves. Progressive Women set out to bring women together to discuss issues of inequality, and to network. In the two years since we were established it's become blatant to us that we need to do more than just talk. That's why Progressive Women are taking practical action to help and support potential future women leaders. That's why we are launching our leadership development series of workshops, tailored specifically to enable women to develop the requisite tools and ...
Last night I went to the Coding For Kids Barcamp. This event, organised by Emma Mulqueeny, was designed to bring together geeks, parents, kids, and educators to see if we can improve the woeful state of computer science education in this country. This is the blog version of the discussion I lead. Kids And Phones Kids love their phones. Can we use that love to encourage them to learn how to code? Here's a great stat about teens and mobile phone ownership: Two-thirds (65%) of children aged 8-15 own a mobile phone 49% of 8-11s 82% of 12-15s. Pretty stunning ...
The full details of the new money available to schools across the UK as part of the pupil premium have just been announced. The total amount will be £488 per pupil in receipt of free school meals. In Launceston: St Catherines has 21 free school meals pupils (10.2% of the total) and will get £10,248 St Stephens has 60 pupils receiving free school meals (30.5%) and will get £29,280 Windmill Hill has 36 pupils receiving free schools meals (17.4%) and will get £17,568 Launceston College has 138 pupils receiving free school meals (12.8%) and will get £67,344 That's a total ...
If you haven't read it already, I would strongly recommend reading Ruth Bright's excellent article on Lib Dem Voice, None shall be enslaved by maternity. That rattling you hear is the sound of some of this party's skeletons being thrown out the cupboard onto a hard, ceramic floor. I am appalled that people in our party have behaved in such an appalling way towards PPCs who have just given birth. Ruth states how her local party chair insisted she deal with correspondence two days after the major trauma of an emergency caesarean and while her baby was still very sick. ...
I was going to write this here but decided to post it over on [IMG: [syndicated profile] ] onehotcrumpet_feed instead at the last minute. So: for National Coming Out Day this year, Kitty wrote about her body image struggles - as someone who is already very out, she picked something different to the expected. I read it, feeling sombre and then, as I reached the final paragraph I began to feel tears pricking at my eyes, and then wrote about true depths of my own body image struggles. [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
The application from Bovis and Persimmon to build 433 homes, a primary school to replace Bearwood, and a new road from King Street Lane to Lower Earley Way is finally going before the Borough Council Planning Committee on 19th October, after being worked on for 5 years. I know a lot of people are interested in the outcome of this application. There are widespread concerns about flood risk. The part of the site nearest to Lower Earley Way is subject to flooding from the Loddon. The main reason for the long delay in making a decision on the application has ...
Below is a summary of speech I gave at the House of Commons, alongside LibDem peer Lord Alderdice and Turkish freelance journalist Firdevs Robinson, at a seminar on Democratisation and Turkey, organised by the Foreign Policy Centre and the Centre for Turkey Studies and Development: Turkey: A Country of Contradictions In foreign policy terms, Turkey ...
I had to share James Naughtie's astonishment at the responses of the Sandwell NHS Trust chair this morning. As if somehow more training and new systems were really an adequate response to the appalling news about care of older people in the NHS. It really is extraordinary that the care is now so bad in a fifth of all UK hospitals that they are breaking the law - not feeding patients, not helping them go to the loo, and a range of other abuses. We need some kind of working explanation for the complete disappearance of the public service ethos. ...
BAE has agreed to sell the Woodford site to a buyer (who's name has not been made public) with a view to transforming at least part of the site into a film studio. As the MEN is reporting: Screen agency Vision + Media has identified the site as a potential film set and the organisation this week published a newsletter, which said: "The site offers huge production build facilities, office accommodation, vast expanse of hard standing and green space for technical parking plus many individual annex buildings for storage, construction and prop houses. Full phase power & water facilities are ...
There's been nothing dramatic about this conference season apart from a few gaffes, but under the surface, I think the Labour conference was significant. While I enjoyed the Lib Dem conference, I don't think the journalists did. Whenever I passed a well-known TV presenter, they had a face like thunder. They were looking for factionalism and controversy, but all they found was Lib Dems facing up to a difficult situation with determination and loyalty. That makes dull TV, so they must have been tearing their hair out. The Tory conference was more entertaining. Theresa May's remark about cats, and the ...
Manchester Liberal Democrats are pleased to announce that the 'I ♥[Love] MCR' campaign generated over £900k of free media for the city (eighteen times more than the cost of the campaign). The campaign cost Mancunians just £50k to set up and that money is now being reimbursed from the Coalition Government's Recovery Scheme. Chorlton Lib Dem Councillor Victor Chamberlain who uncovered these figures said: "The 'I ♥ [Love] MCR' campaign helped to unite the city following August's riots. Thanks to the Government's support the campaign has had a positive economic impact for our city too. I am pleased that Liberal ...
The High Court has just issued its judgement on the legal challenge to the St Dennis incinerator. They have found for the objectors and against the Secretary of State's decision to allow the incinerator to be built. This will come as a huge blow to Council Leader Alec Robertson who, controversially, wrote to the Secretary of State asking him to allow the incinerator to be built. This was despite the position of the former County Council being to refuse planning permission for that particular site. The details of the judgement have yet to emerge, but the spin from County Hall ...
At Yesterday's meeting of Manchester City Council, the Lib Dem Group put Labour's handling of the future of Sure Start in the spotlight. The Lib Dems also raised concerns about the £251k currently being spent employing temporary staff for the service. Councillor Mary Di Mauro, Northenden Lib Dem Councillor and Shadow Executive Member for Children's Services, told Councillor Afzal Khan, the Executive Member for Children's Services that the Council must make every effort possible to ensure that the Consultation on Sure Start's future is transparent, accessible and accountable and parents are listened to. Coun Di Mauro also sought assurances that ...
Kent Trading Standards is advising consumers of a recall of some products in the Dolmio Pastavita range by Mars Foods UK Ltd. The recall is due to the possibility of insufficient heat treatment during manufacture. The affected products are: Dolmio PastaVita Bolognese - 300g Best before dates: 24/09/12 and 25/09/12 Dolmio PastaVita Tomato & Basil - 300g Best before date: 25/09/12 Dolmio PastaVita Sweet Pepper - 300g Best before date: 25/09/12 Dolmio PastaVita Roasted Garlic & Tomato - 300g Best before date: 25/09/12 If you have purchased any of the products mentioned above, do not consume them. Please return them ...
Shelter's recent report on rental affordability shows County Durham as one of the more affordable places to rent a home, taking into account average earnings and local rent levels. I know that this won't be of much comfort to hard-pressed local families, especially in the light of yesterday's announcement by the Office for National Statistics that the North East has the highest unemployment rate in the country at 11.3%. On the other hand, when we've got something that's better than average I'm all for celebrating it. The map below simply shows how we fare as compared with the rest of ...
The very first single I ever bought with my own pocket money was Wings' Mull of Kintyre. It might not be the height of fashion now but in 1977 most of the population were, like me, totally captivated by a beautiful song and video shot in the spectacular and slightly haunting Argyll scenery. To this day, it's a song that absolutely comforts me. In fact, Paul McCartney's distinctive voice is likely to do the same, to be honest. I love John Lennon's as well, but he doesn't have the same effect. I didn't know much about the history of the ...
Yesterday GLA member Caroline Pidgeon joined Brian Paddick and others campaigning against Transport for London's proposals for Blackfriars Bridge. Here's the background to the issue with Caroline's letter to TfL from April: I am writing as the Liberal Democrat Transport spokesperson, to set out concerns with the new Blackfriars Bridge road layout proposals by Transport for London. I recently went on a site visit to Blackfriars Bridge with TfL, including one of the engineers working on this layout. I was very surprised at the seemingly inflexible attitude to any suggestions I made. I welcome the surface level pedestrian crossings in ...
Thu 13th
12:53
Jenny Willott MP writes: 18 months and over a Billion pounds - Lib Dem victory on Women's State Pens...
The UK is getting older. In 1970 a person reaching 60 could expect to live a further 18 years. Last year, this had become 28 years. Advances in healthcare, living standards and technology mean that people are living longer and life expectancy is rapidly increasing. That is why the Government took the decision to bring forward planned increases in the State Pension Age. As I've said on Lib Dem Voice before, it is absolutely right for the Government to do this. It's not a nice decision but doing nothing would risk plunging future pensioners into poverty with less and less ...
Thu 13th
12:15Opinion: Ever wanted to be a European Liberal Democrat, if only for forty-eight hours...?
In my capacity as one of Liberal Democrat Voice's foreign correspondents, I've been covering ELDR events for a few years now. So, why might you be interested, and how do you get to go to an ELDR Congress? The annual Congress of the European Liberal Democrats (ELDR) is an opportunity for liberals from across Europe, including beyond the European Union, to discuss the issues of the day, and to get a sense of how liberals in the European Parliament are responding to them. Delegates get to debate with parliamentarians, take part in sessions with Commissioners and leading academics and, perhaps ...
The glorified echo chamber that is Twitter is awash with comments about Margaret Thatcher's birthday this morning. Many people wishing her happy birthday and some people wishing her death (something I wouldn't do), al of which goes to show just ...
Yesterday Cornwall Council's cabinet 'debated' the first draft of their budget for the next financial year. I use inverted commas because it was hardly a debate. And the first evidence has emerged that new service cuts are included in the plans. After a very brief initial welcome by the Leader and Finance cabinet members, the bulk of the presentation was made by an officer - the Director of Finance. I was a bit surprised by this. Nobody is pretending that officers haven't been involved in preparing the budget, but the decisions about where to prioritise spending should have been taken ...
As winter nears, Age Concern Birmingham have launched a new campaign aimed at reducing illness in the coming months. From October to early November they will be working to promote the flu jab to: Anyone aged over 65 Anyone who lives in a residential or nursing home Anyone who cares for or works with older or disabled persons All pregnant women Anyone with a long term health problem [including babies aged 6 months or over] This winter's flu jab protects against the same three strains of flu as last year's vaccines. These include the H1N1 strain of the flu virus. ...
I read in my paper today, that the Japanese Tourism Agency are looking to select 10,000 people to offer free plane tickets to, according to the i, the agency said this "We are hoping to get highly influential blogger-types and others who can who can spread the word that Japan is a safe place to visit. " So as one the leading members of Thanet's Bloggerati I'm expecting my ticket probably business class for a blogger of my calibre to arrive pdq. If it speeds up the selection process I'm happy to state here and now how marvellous Japan is, ...
My apologies to my readers that there has not been much from my desk in recent days, I've been on ...Continue reading »
Stephen Glenn has made comment about the comments of others surrounding the use of language in the past few days. ...Continue reading »
Whisper it. A quiet revolution has happened. Keep this quiet, please! Deputy Prime Minister's Questions used to be akin to Bear Baiting (with apologies to bears and ursine mammal lovers everywhere). Nick Clegg would stand up and have all sorts of sticks prodded into his midriff by Labour members, while their sistren and breathren used to shout and jeer. The poor bear Clegg used to get all red in the face and start shouting back at them, before escaping to nurse his wounds. Something has changed. This week, apart from the odd bit of rowdiness during a question on the ...
Extra money for education is always welcome, especially when it's targeted at the most disadvantaged. So I was very please to see the following from Sarah Teather "Dear Christopher Liberal Democrats have always believed that education is the engine of social mobility, now we are making it happen. Today the Government released the final Pupil Premium figures for every English local authority, constituency and school. I am delighted to announce that every school this year will receive an extra £488 for each child on free school meals they have on their roll. Schools in your constituency of Mid Sussex are ...
Thu 13th
09:39
Nick Clegg positioning the Lib Dems into oblivion unless we set up a new strand of strategy
The Lib Dem conference was notable for a few things, but not least for the differing tone that different speakers took on the Tories and Labour. The majority took to the stage to have a go at the Tories while Nick Clegg seemed to not only attack Labour but to give a clear signal we ...
The London Bus X2C service into Bristol, which only started in June, has been withdrawn from service as there have been fewer passengers than expected.From 30th October, there will be an additional 327 journey at 1940 (1935 Saturdays) from Yate to Bristol.Also from 30th October, there will be minor changes to early morning and evening times and on Mondays to Fridays the 0833 X42 journey from Chipping Sodbury will be withdrawn.
Nick Clegg's conference announcement of £50m to fund summer schools for the disadvantaged caught the headlines (even in the Daily Mail!), and received some support in editorials and from some Lib Dem bloggers. However, though it might be a crowd pleaser and a nice idea, in truth it's little more than a sticking plaster for deeper problems. Would I have them rather than nothing at all? Possibly, but I'd rather the money stayed in the Pupil Premium where it is at least targeted through mechanisms (schools) that are already set up to identify and address students needs. Perhaps even better ...
The link is to the debate yesterday on the economy. I did not mention unemployment in that speech because time was limited and the debate was about the macro economic picture.Obviously the government does need to work to reduce unemployment. However, that has to fit within the spending envelope which is why I have previously made proposals that reduce unemployment without unsustainable demand
TweetThe ipaper reports today that at least 20 NHS trusts are struggling for survival due to a 'public purse' drain. For those of you who have worked through the mighty tome that is the NHS Bill (and I have), you will be aware that when GP Consortia take over in July (in spite of the ...
TweetThe press release Amnesty International gave on the Libyan Transitional National Council torturing suspected Gaddafi supporters simply shows NATO have allowed one dictatorship to beget another in a brutal civil war. The side that fought for so-called democracy want no opposition to their own control, continuing to attack Sirte. Anyone who opposes the TNC are ...
This morning's report by the Care Quality Commission, on the shocking findings of unannounced inspections to wards for older people in various hospitals, should be a wake-up call. It exposes problems which have long been with us, but which get little attention. They seem to be widespread, and – as my NHS users' survey from four years ago showed – they can exist in small quantities in otherwise excellent hospitals such as the Royal Berkshire. (Indeed, it was the only area of criticism against the RBH) The root cause appears to be one of management and leadership; do senior management ...
This is the third volume of the authoritative New History of Ireland series, edited by T.W. Moody, F.X. Martin and F.J. Byrne, first published in 1976 and updated in 1989. Given my ancestral researches, I was most interested in Chapter IV by Gerard Hayes-McCoy, on the 1571-1603 period, but realised that I have read a good half-dozen more detailed and more recent studies of Elizabethan Ireland. However, it was interesting to pull back the focus a bit and look at the transformation of the country from medieval backwater in the early 16th century to geopolitical distraction by the end of ...
Well, it's kind of true. Yesterday I received an e-mail from Nick Clegg's office in response to one I had sent to him back in August. Not a quick response I hear you say? Well, indeed. Funnily enough, the reason I wrote to him in the first place was due to this snail-like response of his office to e-mail correspondence. Let me explain... Back in August I'd been contacted by a local resident in Cardigan who happens to be a Liberal Democrat member as well. He had e-mailed Nick Clegg on a number of policy based issues that were on ...
Today figures have been released by central government for the amount of pupil premium each school is to receive. The total figure for each school is based on the number of Free-School-Meals pupils the school has enrolled. King's Hedges schools will receive the following amounts; The Manor £52,704King's Hedges Primary School £55,632The Grove £27,328The total amount for King's Hedges is £135,664. As Chair of Governors of the Manor this is fantastic news for the school and for the local community. King's Hedges contains some of the areas in Cambridgeshire with the highest levels of deprivation. Any extra money that helps ...
A few days ago I read that a Lord Hunt of Wirral is the "front runner" to become Chairman of the Press Complaints Commission. I am sure he is eminently qualified for the post, which doesn't seem to me to require any particular expertise (it can't be al that difficult to decide whether something is genuinely in the public interest, or just of prurient interest to the public and therefore likely to sell more newspapers) but am appalled that if he gets the job he will be paid £170 000 a year for a three-day week. Lord Hunt of Wirral ...
Conservative Councillor James Malliff is in trouble with his party after attacking David Cameron's support for gay marriage, saying that you "may as well legalise marriage with animals". The Conservative Party says that action is being taken against him for "completely unacceptable" language. But wait, rummage through your political memories and recall this? If gay marriage was OK – and I was uncertain on the issue – then I saw no reason in principle why a union should not be consecrated between three men, as well as two men, or indeed three men and a dog. That would be one ...
[IMG: Outside the play fort building site] The Friends of Stationers Park have organised an amazing medieval themed grand opening ceremony for the new play area, this Sunday (16th) from 2pm till 5pm. There will be music, jugglers, crafts and entertainment – with a medieval fancy dress parade, and prizes for the best costumes. Drinks and nibbles will be provided by local Crouch End businesses. I'm looking forward to joining in – and seeing the new play fort at the heart of the local community. Getting the new play area built has been a huge battle, with a massive amount ...
Nick Clegg's conference announcement of £50m to fund summer schools for the disadvantaged caught the headlines (even in the Daily Mail!), and received some support in editorials and from some Lib Dem bloggers. However, though it might be a crowd pleaser and a nice idea, in truth it's little more than a sticking plaster for [...] ↓ Read the rest of this entry...
Two of Scotland's finest traditional musicians, singer Sheena Wellington and fiddler Karen Hannah, are the guests at St Paul's Cathedral's Lunchtime Recital on Saturday 15th October. Dundonian Sheena Wellington's pure clear voice and extensive repertoire has enchanted audiences in clubs, festivals and concert halls throughout the British Isles, Europe, North Africa and the Far East. Karen Hannah is well-travelled young fiddle-player having toured in the UK, throughout Europe and as far afield as New Zealand. As well as being an accomplished soloist she is a member of several duos, trios and ceilidh bands. She is involved in organising music events ...
The BBC report on claims that the UK's first independent badger vaccination project has proved that the technique is "viable and affordable" as a means of tackling the reservoir of bovine TB. They say that the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust vaccinated 35 badgers during the summer against the bacterium that causes tuberculosis (TB) in cattle. They say that the trial did not look for any impact on disease in badgers or cattle: Instead, the idea was to see how feasible it would be to train staff and vaccinate the animals, and how much it might cost. "We are delighted with the ...
To the citizens of the United States of America from Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II: In light of your immediate failure to financially manage yourselves and also in recent years your tendency to elect incompetent Presidents of the USA and therefore not able to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of ...
Thu 13th
00:11
Scrutiny committee to look at the expensive Southall car park plan after Labour defections
At a scrutiny committee tonight which myself and fellow Liberal Democrat Councillor Andrew Steed attended, it was agreed to look (at its next meeting) the business case of the proposed 5.5 million pounds car park for Southall. There were a number of Labour Councillors who voted for the proposal to review the business case which meant that the proposal, supported by myself, won 7-4. This means that the Council officers will get together the business case figures about why £5.5 million pounds should be spend on a car park. It is good to open up this subject for discussion, as ...
