Mary Portas, one of the nation's retail success stories, was in Parliament today to discuss the future of the high street with MPs. Mary has been asked by the Coalition Government to report on the state of British retail and recommend measures to rejuvenate the high street and town centres. Mary was in a commitee ...
Caroline Havers, wife of the No 2 at the Dutch Embassy in London, looks down on Kensington Gardens from their flat in the Embassy building in Hyde Park Gate and since arriving in London she has been regularly taking walks there, as well as in Hyde Park. This experience has deeply infused her latest series of paintings, ...
A special council cabinet meeting had been scheduled for today (Tuesday) with a special council scheduled for Thursday. One item on the agenda of each: Gateshead Council's redundancy policy. Both ourselves and the Labour group had meetings scheduled to take place last night. But around midday yesterday, we were sent a message to tell us that the meetings had been cancelled. Clearly something had
The Reading Chronicle at has the story. I've commented several times before on the internal tension within the Conservatives. I always had the sense that Andrew Cumpsty's experience and mainstream Conservative approach would keep their various factions together. Time will tell whether they elect a mainstream figure as his replacement or turn to a more Right-wing, ideological approach which may make their activists feel better but would alienate the public. I genuinely like and respect Andrew and wish him all the best for the future. socialise this: [IMG: add 'Reading Conservatives' trouble continues as Andrew Cumpsty quits as leader' ...
Tue 18th
21:55
Scottish councillors use Freedom of Information Act to find out what's happening on their own author...
The Daily Record reports that members of Scottish Borders council have been reduced to making request under the Freedom of Information Act to find out what is happening on their own authority. The three councillors mentioned in the Record are David Paterson (Independent) John Mitchell (SNP) and Catriona Bhatia (Lib Dem). The paper quote Bhatia as saying: I take issue with the inference that information I sought was available from other sources and that I've been wasting public money. "It's one thing being able to request information from departments but quite another to receive it. "With respect to officers of ...
[IMG: Whats been acheived] Every little may well help Tesco but in the case of politicians, a little can do a lot of damage. As far as I'm concerned, too many politicians and for that matter citizens expect politicians to do some about blimin everything. Whether politicians are professionals (MP's), semi-pro (councillors who screw those fat addition allowances) and keen amateurs such as TDC back bench councillors they all appear to share an uncontrollable urge, to do something, about just about every thing, they can't help themselves. Take a run down town like ours, trying to reinvent and remodel itself, ...
We have seen Rupert Matthews as a lecture in the paranormal and warning of EU plans to invade Britain. It is time to look at his activities as a political publisher. Earlier this month Political Scrapbook (from whom I have borrowed the photo) reported that a "golliwog book" was on sale at the Conservative Party Conference. That book turns out to have been Britain - A Post Political Correctness Society by Bill Etheridge, published by one Rupert Matthews. It turns out that Etheridge and his wife were recently forced to leave the Conservative Party after posing with golliwogs on Facebook. ...
Follow @_andy_thompson_ The commitment by the Home Secretary and Prime Minister to release all the documentation relating to the tragic events of 15 April 1989 must be applauded. After 22 years, it is time the families of those who died in the Hilsborough disaster find out the truth about the events of that day. I just hope that the Government honour their commitments and publish all documents in their entirety and let the truth finally be known. Lets hope that this is, at last, justice for the 96.
Every so often I see good parenting and my heart sighs and for a brief moment I think that maybe having a kid would be cool. This passes swiftly enough so don't worry (and of course the fact that I'm not the prettiest person in the world kinda doesn't help) but I digress. I have these brief moments every so often but then you get events like I've just witnessed tonight. In a whim I decided I wanted some chocolate cake (see I can be a good Lib Dem...) and in the half time break of the football I headed ...
I've become a zealot for cycling as I have discovered that it convenient, enjoyable and manageable by even the unfittest of people, i.e. me. What continues to amaze me is the apartheid which exists on our roads which forces cyclists to brave potholes, idiots and zero provision to participate in a healthy activity which could benefit everyone - yes, everyone, from car drivers with more space to pollute to future generations with a healthier population relying on less of their tax money. I recently undertook a fundraising cycle ride, aiming to get from my part of Oxfordshire to Stoke-on-Trent for ...
You may have noticed that Woodcote Road is being dug up - again! The work is being carried out by UK Power Networks on behalf of EDF to fix another major electricity outage to premises on the east side of the high street. In such circumstances the utility company can and must do the works. Council Officers met onsite with EDF and UKPN at the end of last week to make sure they fully understand their duty to reinstate the paving, kerbs and road surface with the same materials as we used in refurbishment. Council staff will continue to supervise ...
Alastair Hamilton, Chief Executive of Invest NI, has announced that a new loan scheme for small and medium-sized businesses which can't get lending from banks will start three months after FSA approval.[1] He said that the £50million scheme will be half funded with EU money and the rest from government money or private investment by fund managers. Invest NI won't operate the running of the scheme as it has to be run by someone who is FSA approved and interest rates will be slightly higher than banks. This is great news to help boost the local economy but some questions ...
Don't forget that Liberal England is now accepting guest posts. So far 22 (count 'em) have appeared: In praise of slow government - Simon BeardChildren and the surveillance state: Will the Coalition keep its word? - Terri DowtyStandards matter in higher education, not just participation rates - AnonymousA Woking class hero is something to be - Lisa HardingThe campaign for a Robin Hood Tax - Ian SullivanThe limits of the Big Society - Martin VeartCan hyperlocal news sites be the future of journalism? - Niall SullivanHow Edward Stourton misunderstood The Orange Book - Simon TitleyWhy I caged my son: The ...
Diary of a Benefit Scrounger wants evidence of clearly wrong decisions made by the benefits system - do you know anyone who has been refused benefit who is too ill to work? The World According to Sog reminisces on a trip to the US James Taylor says it's all about trust and gives some ideas for getting it back. Will we really see governments and banks being truly open and honest? The Lass O Pairts subscribes to my school of thought on blogging - it has to fit in with life, not take it over. I have heard it said ...
Newspapers today are listing the contributions from Merseyside MPs to the debate on Hillsborough. They have missed John's contribution. Maybe it is just prescience on their part and they already regard Southport as a Lancashire seat! Anyway here is what John had to say: John Pugh (Southport, Liberal Democrat)I begin by congratulating, on behalf of, I think, all of us here today, Steve Rotheram. None of us can hope to match his eloquence, passion, persistence and, frankly, the raw emotion he has displayed today. I first knew him as a very effective mayor of Liverpool city council, and he has ...
A major consultation exercise has recently started on the Council's Business Plan and Budget for the period covering the financial years 2012/13 to 2015/6. While the overall financial environment for the coming few years is much the same as it was a year ago there have been some significant changes in the priorities for spend at the Council. Most significant of these changes is that following a legal judgement preventing the Council making changes to eligibility to adult social care without further consultation the Council has decided not to go ahead with those changes. This will be welcome by those ...
The steady stream of good news coming out of Derry continues with the announcement that Derry City Council has approved the building of Ireland's first Judo centre of excellence in the city.[1] The centre will be part of a new sports campus which is to be located in St. Columb's Park. The campus will also include a swimming pool, fitness centre and a multi-sports hall. Sport NI (Northern Ireland's public body for developing sport) is not funding the project but closing Lisnagelvin Leisure Centre, which is located close to St. Columb's Park, and selling the land will part fund the ...
I often strongly disagree with my Lib Dem colleague Chris Davies MEP on issues relating to Israel/Palestine (in my party we are allowed to disagree in the process of debating policy), but I was very interested in this piece quoting Mr Davies on the release of Gilad Shalit. This itself includes comments that I strongly disagree with, but it is interesting to read about Mr Davies having met Gilad Shalit's father, and Mr Davies' belief that Israel has handled this correctly - worth a read.
Here's the first twenty or so minutes of the full Council meeting on the 17th October 2011. Apologies for the sound quality in advance, but nearby Tweeters in the public gallery on their mobile phones unfortunately caused interference with the sound recording and with a full public gallery there was plenty of rustling of papers ...
We really need to get the Tea Party folks and the Occupy movement together. They might not agree about much but the central issue of bailing out the banks, and the financial services industry having too much power over our Governments is one they can both agree on and fight against. I have to say I've found it amusing to see people who were so dead against the Tea Party suddenly gushing over the Occupy *Insert Place Name Here* crew. I find both movements a little unsettling, but I suspect that's just my typically British dislike of confrontation which all ...
Debt is often likened to fat. This is due to the idea that debt like fat is a weight that bears down on the individual (or country) and restricts what one can or cannot do. To make this comparison is to misunderstand the biological reason for fat. This misconception can be understood if we consider ...
I caught a bit of last night's Radio 4 Analysis programme driving home from a meeting, on Euroscepticism in Britain. One speaker (I didn't catch who) suggested that the case for Britain being in the EU was mainly economic – that we could put up with a bit of lost sovereignty because we were being hitched to an economic powerhouse that would do our economy good. This he said, was now clearly nonsense. In evidence he said that the EU used to be 26% on the world economy and now it is 18% (I may have misremembered the numbers). "We ...
Went yesterday to an excellent event organised by OneVoice and Chatham House - an event that was so popular that I had to watch it on TV in the overflow room (that's a good thing, as it's great that so many people are prepared to turn up for a serious discussion about the Israeli/Palestinian peace process). The discussion was between former Foreign Secretary David Miliband and former US Middle East peace envoy George Mitchell; you can hear the whole thing here and watch a six-minute video clip here. At the event, Senator Mitchell said:I said this to both Chairman Arafat ...
Below is my recent answer to Bracknell Standards What does Bracknell think column. This week's question was; Bracknell Forest Council recently held a "Twitter Day" where it's Twitter followers were given regular updates on what the council's staff were doing on a an average day. Do you think it's a good idea to get people more involved and knowledgeable on what the council does? Should local authorities embrace social media as a modern, and free, way of getting information to their residents? and, are you a fan of social media or do you prefer more old-fashioned methods like a council ...
Via YouTube here is Chris Huhne on the action he is taking over energy prices:
Well, Lib Dem voice have let me write about it for them here. I've tried to be balanced - but hope I haven't in doing so upset all sides equally...
A North West England MEP who met with the father of Gilad Shalit to discuss prospects for his release has welcomed the return home of the Israeli soldier who was kidnapped by Hamas. Chris Davies says that Israel's decision to ... Continue reading →
On Thursday 20th, Wokingham Borough Council is going to make a decision that affects the Wokingham town centre regeneration project. But I can't tell you what it is or anything about it. It is all being kept confidential, and I am not allowed to disclose it. I have challenged the decision to keep it secret, but my request for the information to be publicly available has been denied. So I am not happy about it, but I can't tell you anything more at this stage. Sorry about that.
Anyone living or walking near Oswald Road is likely to have seen this new community mosaic which has been installed on public land next to Fielden Avenue. The mosaic, along with other improvements to the land were funded by a Manchester Cash Grant awarded to Oswald Road Community Gardening Group. The mosaic project involved work with local artist Tracey Cartledge and children from Oswald Road School and is now a permanent feature on the land. You can read more about the Mosaic at: Congratulations and thanks to everyone involved. I think it looks fantastic and is a real asset ...
It was interesting reading of the Sven Goran Eriksson reaction to Wayne Rooney's sending off against Montenegro. Much derided now, but mainly because of matters that had nothing to do with football. The fact remains that England's best performances over ... Continue reading →
Sign our petition here The Boundary Commission for England have issued draft proposals to make all Parliamentary constituencies roughly equal in size. This requires Southport constituency to be expanded, which could be done in one of two ways. One way would require adding on half of Formby, splitting Formby in two for the first time in its history. Not surprisingly, the people of Formby seem generally to be unhappy with this idea. The other idea would be to rejoin Southport with its historic Lancashire hinterland - the villages to the north and east of our town whose people mainly work ...
I've seen a few comments online over the past few days insinuating that the Scottish Liberal Democrats don't care about improving diversity in the wake of a motion passed at the recent Scottish Conference after a passionate debate and a protracted and complex series of votes. I want to correct some myths about what happened. Scottish Women Liberal Democrats (SWLD) put forward a motion containing a wide ranging series of measures. Most of these were uncontroversial. Who can argue with making sure that the concerns of women are hardwired into the policy process? The first main points of contention were ...
Chatham Bus station under construction. Last Monday Medway's "Dynamic Water Front Bus Facility" opened to the Public with a number of things missing or still under construction. It was also running approximately 6 months late and £2 million over its original budget. Understandably there is a bit of a furor about the whole project. Public response to the new facility or "Mushrooms" as it has been described by Medway resident Robin Juste Emery, has been fairly mixed. It would have been a nice idea if they had just listened to what people were saying. There aren't enough seats, they aren't ...
Yesterday's news that energy firm bosses have agreed a number of measures aimed at reducing household energy bills is very welcome, but do these measures go far enough. They say that among the measures agreed at the summit, held at the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills with Energy Secretary Chris Huhne and the Prime Minister, were: * Letters to be sent to eight million consumers who could save £100 by switching from the quarterly credit billing system; * Government letters to four million vulnerable households - paid for by energy firms - informing them they were eligible for free ...
The community clean up in the Cenotaph area of Garston is this Sunday (23rd) at 3pm. We are meeting at Long Lane Church (unless you spot us already out there litter picking). Our aim is to tidy up the area a bit. This is part of a general project to improve this spot. Watch out for the arrival of soil and plants for the planters and painting of the railings and benches to smarten things up a bit.
You may have seen or heard misleading news reports today suggesting that the UK Border Agency is breaking its pledge to end the detention of children. UKBA has responsed to these misleading news reports and has emphasised the need to hold families at the border, while making clear the bold changes the agency has made to the way families already in the UK are managed and supported. Brodie Clark, head of border force, said: 'We have always been clear that we may need to hold some families at the border while enquiries are made to decide whether they can be ...
Tue 18th
13:42
LibDems want to see more community facilities and having a greater number of apprenticeships
I attended the Ealing Riots Scrutiny Panel laast night and it has pointed the way to areas which the Council should look at to avoid future riots. I was caught up in the riots for some of the evening in Ealing Common and saw some of the problems first hand. My initial thoughts based upon residents views last night are that the areas Ealing Council should concentration on are:• Promoting the current set of community facilities we have in Ealing such as youth clubs• More actively investing in apprenticeships• Encouraging more young people to get involved in Council activities such ...
This is the latest programme I did for the Horticultural Channel. It is the September edition of Self-Sufficient in Suburbia and follows me in my attempts to grow all my own food. We were on Sky earlier this year but the channel is currently internet based and I'm continuing to make programmes for it.Since we filmed this we have bought another 3 hens so suggestions for names would be appreciated.
It looks like there will be two main conclusions from GO'D's report on Liam Fox: He broke the ministerial code He did not gain financially from the arrangement With respect to the first - it will be good to have this made clear, and this is the hard evidence that makes a nonsense of the protestations from the Tory right that he was an "outstanding" Defence Secretary. With respect to the second - remember the politician's lifecycle. Particularly the famous revolving door between government and industry. Liam Fox has only been in government since May last year, and any profits ...
Of course not. It's the Academy stupid. Holes have started to appear all over Belle Vue as contractors test the site in preparation for building the Academy and Leisure Centre. At the Civic Centre the demolition contractor will take possession of the site shortly and hoardings will be erected around the building to protect the public and the site. Progress is slightly behind schedule because of work that has had to be undertaken to re-route communicaton links that were embedded within the building, and because the council's asbestos consultant went out of business which required alternative arrangements to be made ...
Saturday: Rule One: The Moffster Lies. It's funny how many reviews for this have taken longer to come out. Life, obviously, got busy for a lot of us, but that also means that we let it. In part I think that's got to be people rocking back on their heels thinking: "how the hell do I respond to that?" I suppose the obvious, if important, thing to say is that Andrew is right: this was a magic trick, a conjuror's illusion, where almost the entire episode is an elaborate misdirection to keep our eye away from the fundamental bait-and-switch con ...
The Liberal Democrats played the central role in delivering the Coalition Government's commitment to end child detention and we have delivered big time. In 2009 under Labour, more than a thousand children were held in pre-departure detention. In August 2011, there were just three children detained under immigration powers. Indeed, the Children's Society has acknowledged the progress the Government has made on tackling the number of children held in pre-departure detention. But, the recent figures from the Children's Society make it crystal clear that we must now focus with the same determination on the detention of children, who have arrived ...
Two things that are puzzling me about the Liam Fox/Adam Werritty debacle: Why is the media so interested in whether or not Dr Fox gained financially from the arrangement. Surely the key thing about the situation is that Adam Werritty obviously did. How is he entitled to £17,000 severance pay??? At the end of the day he wasn't sacked, he wasn't made redundant, he resigned! I know if I resigned my employer wouldn't be looking to give me a payoff - especially if I'd resigned because I'd broken the code of work practices or damaged the image of my company, ...
It was my first ever visit to an army barracks last Friday and by a strange coincidence, it was the day Liam Fox resigned as Defence Secretary. Once the stories appeared about him, it was only a matter of time before he went.The barracks I visited was Catterick in North Yorkshire and the reason for it was to attend the passing out of Gareth Jones, a Welsh Guardsman and son of a friend. Apart from
I was looking earlier on today to see if there was any news about the new social sciences postgraduate programme at the Open University. There isn't. But they have replaced the image of a woman sat on a bus which used to accompany this information with someone busking on the London Underground. I have my own ideas for a suitable caption, but I thought I'd throw it open to readers of this blog to suggest one. A very small prize is on offer for the best suggestion received between now and 5th November 2011. [IMG: SocSciPG-busking]
I had let this blog fall out of use earlier this year. It wasn't a deliberate decision, it was simply squeezed out due to lack of time. I have kept by allotment blog going (www.self-sufficientinsuburbia.blogspot.com) which continues to get thousands of visits each month. I have, however, received a number of comments from people who have expressed some degree of sadness/loss/devastation to their
As many people will know, I am a massive Star Wars geek. When reading up about Medway's new "Dynamic Waterfront Bus Facility." I stumbled upon an artcile in the Medway Messenger by KMFM DJ Andy Walker entitled; Darth Vader got it right. Within it he suggested that Darth Vader would not have allowed the Death star to have been used until it was fully operational... Unlike the Medway Bus station. Chatham's "Waterfront dynamic Bus Facility" Could you imagine the Death Star with workmen all over it? The toilets not ready, the lifts only working in the Southern hemisphere and the ...
The route for next years Tour de France was announced last week, and I missed it. But here on the left is the map of the route. It will start in Belgium in Liege with a Prologue. More details of the actual rout will come later, but there will be 9 flat stages4 medium mountain stages - one with a summit finish5 mountain stages - two with a summit finish2 individual time-trial stages1 prologue2 rest daysIt makes it a somewhat different race from this years at least on paper. New stages towns to the 2012 tour will be Abbeville, Annonay ...
I had been looking forward to reading this James Tiptree Award winner, recommended by many of you, and started off very much enjoying the well-constructed future Earth of the story - the decayed America, the peculiar infections, the African setting for many of the chapters, the aliens who are more than human and less than human in various ways, the central character who is a newsblogger avant la lettre. But I didn't quite feel that the plot then did much with this promising elements. Perhaps it's just that I got to it towards the end of a long plane flight, ...
Tue 18th
12:06
October Books 12-13) The Good, the Bad and the Alien, Colin Brake; System Wipe, Oli Smith
Two short (200-page, large print) Doctor Who novels packaged together as a double. Colin Brake's The Good, the Bad and the Alien is written rather more for the younger end of the market, and is the same aliens in the Wild West type story that has been done several times over in recent years (including in the Eleventh Doctor audio The Runaway Train). I wondered if Amy would have been old enough to catch Deputy Dawg on TV - was it still being shown in the 1990s? And the "comparing the meerkats" joke passed me by (though I caught the ...
Tue 18th
11:53
Julian Huppert MP writes: High Speed Rail no longer the transport of the future, but a logistical im...
Birmingham in 49 minutes, Leeds in 80, and 45 minutes shaved off the journey to Scotland's major cities. For some, this is reason enough for the Government's new High Speed Rail line (HS2) – stretching from London in the South, to Manchester in the North-West and Leeds in the North-East. Many, including myself, would love to see the line extended all the way up to Scotland, providing a real boost to domestic tourism and sustainable growth. But in amongst the disputes over cost benefit analyses and NIMBYism, there are some startling figures which remind us why High Speed Rail is ...
I've penned a piece for the Journal of Liberal History about the party's so-called triple lock – the procedures agreed to ratify or reject agreements with other parties such as the coalition agreement. As the introductory blurb says: [IMG: Paddy Ashdown] Fears over Paddy Ashdown's talks with Labour in the late 1990s triggered the Liberal Democrats to introduce the so-called 'triple lock' arrangement to stop Ashdown bouncing the party into a controversial decision on its future. Though never used under his leadership, the process technically stayed in force. It was used for the first time to confirm, ironically, a deal ...
Original anthology of sf stories by writers based in Britain, published in 1987. My copy has lots of autographs. I had only read one of the stories before (the one by Dave Langford) and enjoyed all the others - thought the very first one, "Crying in the Rain" by Tanith Lee, was particularly memorable; couldn't really see that there were any sfnal elements in M. John Harrison's "Small Heirlooms".
The news that the bid for a new school at Crescent Road will exclude pupils under 14 is bad news for Reading. Worse, it shows an arrogance in the Department for Education at odds with localism and an ignorance of Reading's local needs. Wokingham Council's beggar-thy-neighbour closure of Ryeish Green left a secondary school-sized hole in education provision for South and East Reading. Reading's then-Labour council rolled over rather than fighting for the futures of children within the catchment area for that school. An admissions crisis followed, and an admissions review which was the first thing the Liberal Democrats in ...
(Jetlagged booblogging starts here) A volume in this generally excellent ongoing series with two main plot lines: the first being the healing of Rose Red, reaching a moment of personal redemption, and the second being the epic battle between the rejuvenated Frau Totenkinder with the evil Mr Dark, which is fairly light in plot terms but has some fantastic art. But the end of the book has their heroes evacuating their last refuge on our world, setting up for the next element of the story. There is one instalment of the story with art by Inaki Miranda, whose style is ...
Dear Mr Osborne, The economic strategy put in place by you and the coalition government in which you serve last May was the right one for Britain. In these turbulent economic times, the one thing we can be sure of ... Continue reading →
Manchester Airport invited Stockport councillors to a meeting yesterday – the aim is to have them every six months or so to keep us up to date with what the airport's up to. There are similar meetings with councillors from Manchester and Cheshire. We were told some facts and figures about the airport which I certainly didn't know. 19 million passengers pass through the airport every year – more than double the next highest airport outside the South East. 19,000 people are employed by over 300 companies on the airport site. You can fly direct from Manchester to more destinations ...
Tue 18th
11:21
A local Liberal hero who knew why Liberals still banded together to continue the struggle
'The truth is that Liberalism is the only hope of a world in which dictators still rule; in which preparation for war is the only insurance against chaos; in which men can be victimised because of their colour or creed; in which there is one law for weak and another for the strong. It is because we know this that we Liberals are still banded together to continue the struggle.' David Bentliff January 1952 In those difficult days for Liberalism Southport Liberals still commanded significant support in the town. Local newspapers described 'the old world part of the town (Churchtown ...
Earlier in the year, I penned a series of posts profiling forgotten liberal heroes (to which a couple of other people also kindly contributed), looking at some of those who achieved great things for liberalism in their time but have been unjustly forgotten - such as Margaret Wintringham, the very first female Liberal MP. There is also another group of people who I think are often unjustly obscure - those local campaigners who are often at the heart of their local community and local party, delivering liberalism and helping others, but as their stage is a local one they are ...
It was a glorious summer's day ... in October. I was told it would be raining, cold, snowing and hailing up North. But still, it was an excellent day for a spot of campaigning in Sheffield. It was an Action Day in the Ecclesall Ward, and we were going to introduce a new candidate to ...
I blogged a few weeks ago about the submission I made, via Unlock Democracy, to the consultation on the draft House of Lords reform bill. You can read what I said here. An email from Unlock Democracy tells me that my thoughts, along with those of over 4,000 other people, have been submitted to the joint committee considering this matter in a document 5,409 pages long! They have sent a shorter document that set out their views on Lords reform that you can read here.
Cheadle Area Committee is next Tuesday – your opportunity to come to the Upper Rooms in Cheadle (above Tesco – access from the car park) at 6pm. You'll hear reports from the police and council officers, have the opportunity to ask questions and have your say. (Questions to councillors need to be submitted at the beginning of the meeting). Main items on the agenda for next week: Planning application to extend 20 Wilmslow Road, Cheadle and turn it from a dental surgery to a residential dwelling. Proposal for yellow lines down one side of Cambridge Road, Gatley opposite the station. ...
BT have announced that they have completed the roll-out of fibre broadband in all of it's street cabinets in Derry.[1] This means that Derry is the first city in the UK and Ireland to be completely upgraded to the fibre technology and has speeds and connectivity better than Hong Kong, London, New York and Tokyo. The roll-out was part of the City of Culture partnership and the service is available to 40,000 homes and businesses. This is another good news story for the inaugural UK City of Culture. Recent announcements seem to imply the buildup to the City of Culture ...
On the 10th of October the House of Lords killed off the prospect of voters getting the power to initiate referendums on local issues. Up until then the Localism Bill had contained a modest proposal to give local people in England the power to call non-binding referendums on local issues if 5% of their fellow voters supported them. The proposal was hedged in with safeguards and protections to ensure that it did not contravene national laws or go beyond the powers of the local authority. But the hopes that this could see revival of local democracy with citizens being given ...
If you got past that headline, you probably aren't just a hardcore political type, so I can tell you a bit about what Anna and I have planned for the school holidays. Despite having the opportunity for a lie in, I wasn't delighted to find myself awake and ready to get up at 8am today. I suspect it'll be a while before herself puts in an appearance. We had a really lazy weekend - I found that the constant busyness of the past few weeks were catching up on me. I felt pretty rubbish and even fell asleep during the ...
Last night, along with the Parish Priest and another representative of St Joseph's Church, I met with a representative of the City Council's Street Lighting Partnership on-site in Wilkie's Lane. The south end of the street, adjacent to the church car park, is extremely dark at night. We discussed the situation and I have now highlighted it with City Development Department officials.
As reported in today's Courier, I have condemned the assault on a 66 year old pensioner in the Nethergate early yesterday. I am shocked that this man has been attacked in the Nethergate and I do hope he is making a full and speedy recovery from what must have been a frightening experience. It is vitally important that the culprit is caught as soon as possible and I urge anyone who was in the vicinity of the Nether Inn around the time to contact the police if they saw anything suspicious. Tayside Police can be contacted on 0300 111 2222 ...
The Lib Dem team have been out and about and we've reported a few faulty streetlights and potholes including: potholes on Appleby Road, Gainford Avenue, Buttermere Road and Grasmere Road in Gatley streetlight outside 47 Gatley Road, Cheadle streetlight on Gatley Road by railway bridge, Gatley streetlight on Pendlebury Road, opposite the entrance to Hyldavale Avenue Please do report any problems you spot, either directly to the Council (click on the "Report it" button from the front page of the website) or to the Lib Dem team.
[Originally posted at Dale&Co, 15/10/11] The Cash for Questions scandal and the associated perception of endemic sleaze contributed to the demise of the Major government. It ushered in a period of institutional renewal. The Committee for Standards in Public Life was established under Lord Nolan in the mid-1990s to keep an eye on MPs' conduct. ...
The latest stage of the Millennium depression is seeing political and financial leaders making one of the most dramatic policy mistakes yet. The Banking system is being forced to boost its capital ratios by a combination of international (Basel III) and individual government legislation. Nothing wrong with that, you may think: the crisis has already proven that bank capital was too small to fund the holes that resulted from the collapse of the property bubble. The problem is that global liquidity is already exceptionally tight: governments are seeking to tap the markets in order- among other things- to fund the ...
For the background to this post please see Testament of Yoof 1 Fourthly, a Liberal is a Rationalist. He will base his arguments on facts rather than emotion. He thinks with his head and not his stomach. Thus he is not hampered by delusions of imperialistic grandeur, nor attachment to a dogma that is already out of date. Hence to improve industrial relations he advocates, along with Co-ownership, Works Councils, rather than silly threats of penal sanctions against Trade Unionists which experience in other parts of the world shows simply do not work. Well, forty years later I certainly stand ...
The Welsh Liberal Democrats Housing Spokesperson, Peter Black has called on the Welsh Government to do more to tackle the housing crisis facing Wales. Speaking at the his party's autumn conference in Wrexham, Mr. Black said too many people are struggling to get a home of their own. "The House Builders Federation estimates that there are 100,000 Welsh families on housing waiting lists, with first-time buyers needing an average deposit of around £30,000. They say that only 918 new homes were registered in the first three months of the year, compared to 1,120 last year, despite rises in housebuilding across ...
For me it has now been over half my lifetime from the match I never got to, but for 96 it was the day their lives ended. Unlike 'The Truth' headline that one paper which I, and many others associated with Liverpool, refuse to to read to this day the truth will soon be revealed. Parliament tonight voted to release the papers. It will not of course bring back the 96 who lost their lived that day at Hillsborough but it will allow the families to get closure over just what happened on that day. Why only one ambulance was ...
