Still working on the Bigger On The Outside post, trying to find the same kind of balance I found with An Incomprehensible Condition but dealing with the work of multiple people rather than a single author is difficult. In the meantime, some links. A randomly-generated programming language is as easy as Perl for new programmers. ...
From BBC News: The Welsh assembly will pay £2.3m in rent to a mystery landlord for the building housing the offices of its 60 members, BBC Wales can reveal. The assembly's rent for the Ty Hywel building in Cardiff Bay will rise nearly 30% next year from £1.7m. It is paid to Crick Properties Ltd, registered in Douglas, Isle of Man, but assembly authorities cannot say who the ultimate owner of the building is.
I was at 'Occupy Toronto' last Wednesday (19 October) and spent 3 hours filming, walking around and talking to the protestors. What you will see in these videos is my view about the 'Occupy' movement and a general look around the park where they are camped. It is all too easy to dismiss and criticise these people and to walk by them with your self-righteous nose up in the air. These people are intelligent with points to make. Stop and listen to them. At least they are making a stand. What else are the rest who are affected by the ...
Last Monday 17th October, at about 8:30am, I was sitting at home when I felt dizzy, and suddenly numb on the left side of my body. The dizziness, and the numbness came in waves and I hoped it would subside. After a few minutes of this, though, I started to worry. Although the symptoms were particularly strong in my arm and chest, I didn't think I was having a heart attack, because there was no
You have until Friday 28th October to nominate your local sporting hero for an "Active South Gloucestershire" sports award. There is a range of categories: Sportsman of the Year Sportswoman of the Year Young sportsperson of the Year (awarded to members of a Sport England 'Accredited' Sports Club) Young sportsman, sportswoman and disability sportsperson category Sports coach award The Sports Link award (awarded to a Sport England 'accredited' sports club which has done the most to promote club/school links. Proposals must be independent of the club) School sport award (separate primary and secondary school category, awarded to the school which ...
I've now been informed about the Council's timeline for expanding the Stroud Green Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ) north from Ridge Road into Nelson, Inderwick, Mayfield, Denton and Uplands Roads as well as the remaining part of Weston Park. Below is what I've received from the Council officers in charge of the project: Programme of implementation for Crouch End A and Stroud Green CPZ I am writing to inform you that Councillor Canver has approved the attached delegated report recommending the extension of the Crouch End A and Stroud Green CPZ to the agreed roads within your wards, as per statutory ...
This afternoon, I had the pleasure of attending the media photocall on Magdalen Green to announce that the Guinness Book of Records has given the world record for the largest piggy back race to the event held at the WestFest Big Sunday earlier this year! Here's a photo and a short video from a thoroughly enjoyable event this afternoon! Piggy Back Winners Dominic and Lola Venditotzz receive their Guinness World Records Certificate from Paola McClure, WestFest Chair Also today, I met constituents and Scottish Water representatives about flooding issues in part of the West End and constituents about housing repairs ...
The Lib Dem team have been campaigning for more use to be made of Community Payback to get our paths and green spaces cleaner and clearer around Cheadle & Gatley. A few weeks ago we asked residents to suggest where it might be useful. We added those to our own ideas and passed them on. We've now had it confirmed that the Probation Service aim to spend at least one day a week making Cheadle & Gatley clearer of litter and vegetation, improving our footpaths in particular. This is great news, and will really add to the service the Council ...
A copy of the draft theme resolution for next month's European Liberal Democrats Congress in Palermo has reached me. So, over the next few days, I'm going to publish it (in sections), and let you have my thoughts. And where better to start than... Preamble The effects of the global economic and financial crisis that began in 2008 continue to be felt by the European Union (EU) and its member states. The crisis is not over and Europe's response to it remains a matter of vital importance. So far, so obvious... The crisis has highlighted how interconnected the world has ...
Cllr David Elderton asked officers to respond on demolition & security, parking & access. The officer said Wright Street had been raised in the past. There was a lack of space and there had previously been waiting restrictions. The restrictions had been removed for extra parking spaces. The view expressed was that one more property ...
Cheadle Area Committee this evening approved plans for restricted parking (no parking between 10am and 4pm) outside the houses opposite the station on Cambridge Road, Gatley. This is because residents in those houses have had problems with their driveways being blocked so they've been sometimes unable to safely get in and out of their driveways. We're very glad that our work to get this has moved near to completion, and we'll be keeping an eye on nearby parking.
The Chair, Cllr David Elderton asked if there was a petitioner who wished to address the Committee. A Stephen Walker, who lives in Wright Street did want to address the Committee. Stephen said the petitioners had concerns over the new build, its effect on the character of the area and parking concerns. He referred to ...
Tue 25th
20:31
Planning Committee 25th October 2011 Part 1 Minutes, Declarations of Interest, Site Visit
Present: Cllr David Elderton Cllr Eddie Boult Cllr Wendy Clements Cllr James Keeley Cllr Peter Johnson Cllr Dave Mitchell Cllr Stuart Kelly Cllr Patricia Glasman (deputy for Cllr Brian Kenny) Cllr John Salter Cllr Denise Realey Cllr Joe Walsh Cllr Bernie Moonie The agenda and reports for this meeting can be found by clicking on ...
Do you feel the need to identify with or be loyal to some geographical entity? You might call it country, society, community? But if so do you ever stop to ask yourself why you do so? We had an interesting discussion in Introduction to Politics last week, and again in more detail with someone on Twitter last night (yes, on Twitter, in more depth than in our seminar group - hey - that's the modern world!), about what geographical or cultural entity we identify with most but didn't talk too much about why we do so. Given a choice of ...
TweetThe erudite Julian Assange is never far from the news. He projects a wonderful figure for the media, and attractive left wing protagonists against the government on a backdrop of salacious, if illegal, details. This week, having attended the Occupy London protest, he is keen to point out that Wikileaks is struggling financially following the ...
Forget for a moment the absurd idea that you could have referendum on changing the terms of our membership of the eu without knowing what terms we were changing. What got me was the number of tories who, 13 years ago, opposed greater independence for wales and scotland and 6 months ago ran an angry 'no to av' saying that referendums were a big waste of money and last night standing up to argue
At work today I was writing a news story based on a Department of Health press release about the £32m being made available to fund psychological therapy for children and young people. Three ministers were quoted, but I needed just one for my story. Which to choose? There was the deputy prime minister, a health minister and the children's minister. In other words, Nick Clegg, Paul Burstow and Sarah Teather. There never were such times for any Liberal or Liberal Democrat alive today. Let's make sure we appreciate being in government - though you can see why some Tories complain ...
Navy groups march to mark Trafalger Day Oh dear.
For those of you who haven't been following it, the Irish Presidential election (voting on Thursday) grumbled into life over the last few weeks with the emergence of a dark horse front-runner, Seán Gallagher, who had a bit of a history as an activist with the utterly discredited former government party Fianna Fáil but was better known as one of the judges on the Irish version of the reality programme Dragon's Den. Gallagher came from nowhere to lead the field of veteran candidates, with opinion polls over the last couple of days giving him an unassailable lead over the former ...
Obscurity, confusion and possibly deliberate obfuscation if it's in a Durham County Council report. The word is "re-profiled" Perhaps you'll get the picture from the following: "The reprofiling of the Adult Learning service review saving ......." "The reprofiling of the £0.15m Stairlift saving ......" If that isn't clear it will become very clearly from the lengthy section on "Schemes approved by Cabinet as requiring re-profiling" which include: "Library Modernisation and Maintenance Backlog – re-profiled over 2011/12 to 2014/15 ....." From which you will realise that reprofiled simply means delayed, put off, dithered over, kicked into the long grass, prevaricated. Clever ...
This post was going to be driven by the contents of the answer to a Freedom of Information request from Reading Borough Council. But it's not. Why? Because the accompanying letter announced that the information was – wait for it – copyright. Apparently it cannot be published without the express permission of the Head of Legal Services Mr Brooks, a man about whom it could be said in my days on the Council that answering correspondence was not a priority. So there. The words 'publish and be damned' come to mind, as websites such as whatdotheyknow.com already publish such information ...
Details of this planning application can be found by following this link: The case officer is Steve Isaacson - please email comments and objections to him at steve.isaacson@lewisham.gov.uk, and don't forget to copy us in at foresthill@lewishamlibdems.org.uk
Details of this planning application can be found by following this link: The case officer is Geoff Whitington - please email comments and objections to him at geoff.whitington@lewisham.gov.uk, and don't forget to copy us in at foresthill@lewishamlibdems.org.uk
As regular readers will know one of my pastimes/ sidelines / obsessions is photography. Yesterday I started a daily photoblog over at carlminns.tumblr.com feel free to visit, comment and, of course, promote :-)
The third series of BBC Doctor Who audios by Paul Magrs, starring Tom Baker, have drastically improved on the first two by shifting to full cast plays . The first episode here had us in a cyborg version of the later Russian Empire; here we have something narrsty in a Victorian vicarage, the vicar being ably played by Terence Hardiman. The young boy at the centre of the story is played by Guy Harvey, who struggles a little with the long passages of exposition inflicted on him by Magrs, but otherwise this is a rather good episode, Susan Jameson as ...
The ACMD has today called for further punitive laws to be enacted to tackle the growing number of new psychoactive substances being marketed an consumed in the UK. It wants analogues of already illegal drugs to be banned in the assumption that they will have similar effects. The coalition agreement does state that the Lib Dems will enable legislation that "will introduce a system of temporary bans on new 'legal highs' while health issues are considered by independent experts." We have already done that. This exact legislation was part of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act which passed earlier ...
Former Liberal Democrat leader Lord (Paddy) Ashdown has a piece in today's Times arguing that the European Union must reform if it is to regain public support and fulfil its original objectives. Here are a couple of excerpts: The reasons for European integration are not weaker today than they were when this all started; they are stronger. The EU's founding fathers saw European integration as a means to avoid repeating our past and as the right response to postward turmoil. We should see it as the best means to assure our future and the right reaction to the global turmoil ...
It appears that the anti-capitalist protesters see fit to rally to the cause only during daylight hours. A thermal imaging camera panning across the rows of tents in the grounds of St Pauls quickly spotted that during the night, the overwhelming majority of the cathedral's unwelcome guests disappear from the site. Presumably they head back to their comfortable, upper middle class homes where they
This week I have been looking at some issues in Chorlton, and speaking to local residents about them. Those who have been following this blog for some time will know that I am concerned about the deteriorating state of many of Chorlton's roads and pavements, and the Council's decision to spend as much as five times more on roads in other areas than they spend in Chorlton. Where the Council do decide to tackle a dodgy pavement in Chorlton they do not take the wishes of local residents into account, and this has been a source of some anger. The ...
Reading through the Nebula winners which I have not already reviewed online brings me to this old friend, the first novel of Bujold's Vorkosigan series (albeit one with no mention of the Vorkosigans or their planet at all). It's a feel-good, future engineering novel with a social twist: our hero has to defeat the evil man from management and rescue hundreds of genetically modified children and teenagers from certain doom. A pleasure to reread it and refresh my memory of the origin of parts of Bujold's future universe. The other novels shortlisted for the 1988 Nebula were Deserted Cities of ...
The University Hospital in Wythenshaw, South Manchester has reduced its energy consumption by 26% between January 2008 and April 2010. This has obviously cut down on their gas bills, although prices did rise during the period. Nevertheless they are still saving a net £15,000 a year – and if they hadn't done it their gas bills would have soared. Now they're moving to install biomass boilers burning wood pellets to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions (CO2 from wood doesn't count since it's coming from a renewable natural source). And they've put in a groundsource heat pump in their cystic fibrosis ...
Where would Jesus pitch his tent in the stand-off outside St Paul's Cathedral, I wonder? Well, I know one thing - he is unlikely to have prioritised health and safety:
Peladon is one of a surprisingly small number of planets to figure in more than one televised Who story, and though Big Finish have visited it twice I think this is the only spinoff novel set there. Gary Russell starts with the story of how the planet lifted itself from barbarism, and the stranded human astronaut who married the king; we then get folded into a fairly complex tale of an ancient off-world relic with Ice Warriors, Alpha Centauri, Peladonian factions and the rodent-like Pakhar aliens, with lots for Benny and the Seventh Doctor to do (but rather less for ...
A potential Council Tax freeze will lead to savage cuts in emergency fire cover a leading Cambridgeshire County Councillor has warned.Nigel Bell, Liberal Democrat leader on Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Fire Authority claims the authority faces a stark choice of how to fund an £800,000 spending gap - either cut front line services or raise council tax."The latest government offer, to freeze Council Tax below inflation, is effectively a cut in income next year and each year after that," he said. "The Council Tax freeze last year has already created a 2.5 per cent hole in our finances when the freeze ...
We often reflect on how academies have more cash (at least in the short term) and general advantages than their LA-maintained neighbours. But there are inherent and real dangers of academy status, and systems are being put in place that could in extreme circumstances jeopardise their existence. 1. They are all companies, accountable to Companies ...
Hot on the heels of Willie Rennie forcing the SNP to admit yesterday that, under their plans, even if independence was the second most popular option, it could be counted as the winner in the Referendum, Professor John Curtice of Strathclyde University has expressed similar concerns. Speaking in the Times (£), he says that: "In 1997 the two questions were clearly linked," he said. "The questions in the independence referendum would be in competition with each other, which would create an obvious problem.""They are interpreting this as people voting for devo-max as their second preference but that can't be assumed ...
Social mobility is core to the Coalition and Nick Clegg personally. It means that your birth plays little or no role in determining your life outcomes. It is the opposite of feudalism. Economic mobility is an important part of social mobility. Where you end up economically is determined by your ability and hard work, for sure, but also by whether you get a good education, good advice, and - for some - by whether you inherit. Government should concentrate on what it can do, in this case education. Kids from poor backgrounds generally do much worse at school - and ...
I voted for a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU in Parliament yesterday. Gladstone once said that "Liberalism is trust of the people tempered by prudence; Conservatism is mistrust of the people tempered by fear". As a Liberal I trust the people to take decisions that affect their own lives. I also believe that Government should be accountable to Parliament and not the other way round. This was back-bench business and the Government and Official Opposition shouldn't have whipped members into line.
Earlier this year I was invited by Lucy Watt, former Lib Dem Councillor from innovative consultancy FuturGov to take part in a fringe event about how politicians can use social media to engage. I was chuffed to be invited to speak at the event alongside such luminaries as Lib Dem Voice's Mark Pack and Julian Huppert MP (Cambridge). Lucy has kindly uploaded my personal take on using social media which you can watch below. I spoke about using Facebook and Twitter alongside blogging to get my message across and get feedback from residents.
A pause written by Harold Pinter in 1960 has been found behind a radiator at the Rutland National Library in Oakham. As a Liberal England exclusive, we are reproducing it here in full: Benedict Nightingale comments: Seminal.
That in the event that a Parliamentary debate and vote (24 October 2011) does not result in a referendum of the British people on membership of the EU that that Parliament be required to debate and vote WITHOUT party whips of any kind, from any of the three main parties. If the vote goes in ...
The official governmental enquiry recently published its report into the cause of the summer riots. Unsurprisingly, the tories and right wing tabloid journalists blaming it all on a feral underclass of gang members was wrong. As the Independent reports: Only 13% of rioters were involved in gangsTwo thirds had eduational special needs42% had relied on free school mealsNine in ten had failed to achieve five A* to C grade GCSEsOver three quarters had previous convictionsWhat this shows is that the vast majority of rioters lacked education, lacked prospects and lived in poverty. While it doesn't excuse what they did, it ...
The daily politics did a segment on obesity & health and fitness in response to Andrew Lansley (Secretary of State for Health) telling fat people to "eat less". To start off the debate, they had Emma Burnell who blogs over at Scarlet Standard. Her video piece was effectively a rehashing of our blog: The Personal ...
There's just a week until the 2011 version of National Novel Writing Month kicks off, and as with all my previous attempts at it, I haven't decided whether or not I'll have the time to do it this year. However, one thing I can report is that there'll be write-in events taking place here in Colchester to support it, so if you want to take part and give it a try why not come along? They'll be at Fifteen Queen Street on Thursdays from 7.30, or if you want that information in the form of an image: [IMG: National Novel ...
Just a quick observation, having seen over the last year or so adverts in the press and on telly advising the need to act quickly in the event of someone showing signs of having a stroke, it comes as no surprise that once again the NHS is failing patients. According to the Independent newspaper stroke victims have in many cases been denied vital treatment because of sloppy management of resources like MRI/CT scanners. In the last few weeks it has been revealed That nurses in Margate were issued with aprons suggesting patients should not speak to them. That patients should ...
An interesting exchange between Peter Schiff, CEO of an investment company, and the protesters occupying Wall Street. The quality of the video isn't great but it is worth listening to the sides argue it out. At times there is common ground and at other times complete confusion over issues. At one point, quite touchingly, one of the protesters asks Schiff where he thinks they should be protesting.
Despite a record Conservative rebellion of over 80 MPs (twice the amount as rebelled against John Major) the Government won with 483 vs 111. When I left the debate yesterday at 10pm I was deeply concerned by the way it was looking. As a Europhille (cue booing and hissing) I knew that should a referendum happen then the chances of a an "out" vote being returned was exceptionally high. Unlike the AV referendum I had no illusions that the "out" vote was much more vocal but like a loyal foot soldier I would have wearily manned the Yorktown-esq redoubts against ...
Over at the Adam Smith Institute, Dr. Eamonn Butler has a review of Tom Palmer's new book, The Morality of Capitalism. Summarising one chapter, Dr. Butler explains that The Chinese economist Mao Yushi [presents] an interesting paradox. If we were all completely benevolent - looking out for the interests of other people rather than ourselves - we would have just as much conflict as capitalism is said to give us. We would be fighting shopkeepers to charge us more and reduce their quality. The arguments would be just as red in tooth and claw, but the incentives would all be ...
It appears that the Conservative candidate in the Bude and Stratton by-election knows more than Cornwall Council Leader Alec Robertson on the subject of the level of council tax next year. The official papers passed by the Council's Conservative led cabinet are undecided on the subject. They point out the dilemma for the authority about whether to accept the money on offer from the Government. If Cornwall does take the £6 million then council tax levels would be frozen for another year. But it would also mean either a doubling of the rise the following year or another round of ...
This weeks Bracknell Standard question was "Councils now have the opportunity to return to weekly bin collections after the Government put aside £250 million to help councils go back to the weekly system but councils must sign up for a minimum of five years to receive the money. In Bracknell, council leader Councillor Paul Bettison has not ruled out the possibility but fears it may lead to spiralling costs. "Would you like to see a return to weekly bin collections, or do you feel the fortnightly collections are okay? The council says statistics show people may not be able to ...
Anybody in Manchester got a spare bed/sofa on Sunday night? What with the whole house moving thing I've not got around to arranging anything yet and we have tickets to see Alice Cooper at the Apollo and it'll be a bugger to get home afterwards... We'll be ever so grateful. [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
I'm often rushing between meetings - so a perennial question for me is whether to wait for the next bus - or walk. TfL is now using the web to share up to the minute information about how long the next bus is going to be at every stop across the city - not just the ones that have electronic displays at the stop. So if you go to the site - countdown.tfl.gov.uk - enter your postcode or address (and you can be fairly approximate) it will tell you exactly how long TfL expects it to be before the next ...
The parliamentary debate on a call for an EU referendum last night was not the most edifying of spectacles. What struck me most was the disturbing ignorance amongst many MPs — notably the Tories supporting the referendum motion — about what the EU actually is and what it does. In that, of course, they are sadly typical ...
The Australian inspired first season of American comedy 'Wilfred' comes to an end next week. The shows has been airing on BBC 3 and is worth seeking out on iPlayer or DVD. It stars Elijah Wood as Ryan and Jason Gann as the eponymous hero. Ryan is in crisis. His career as a lawyer has come to an end, he has no job, he sits around his house doing nothing and when we first meet him is attempting suicide. The only thing that might keep him sane is his relationship with his best friend. The only problem is that when ...
Liverpool Liberal Democrats have just kicked off the next stage in our work toward regaining power in Liverpool. We don't run the council, in fact we are some way off running the council. But we know that the ruling Labour administration has no real vision, and as part of our way back towards running the City we wanted to develop and articulate one. So we have published a document and started a "listening exercise". Headlines include our aspirations for Liverpool to be the Green Capital of Europe and for us to take real advantage of the opportunities in the Localism ...
If the politicians don't trust the people then why should the people trust the politicians - Gisela Stuart
In this book, our two protagonists – a teenage boy and a girl – are chatting. They do not know what the other really looks like, for it is online via a huge role-playing game. Think World of Warcraft but more immersive. The boy has a crush on the girl, but is worried she might actually be some middle-aged bloke called Chuck. Boy: Now, spill it. Are you a woman? And by that I mean are you a white human female? You're not black or muslim are you? Girl: That's pretty specific. Boy: Answer the question, Claire. Girl: I am, ...
Derren Brown began his new series with a bold experiment: he wanted to see if he could turn someone into an assassin by hypnotising them. In case you haven't watched it and intend to, I won't spoil what happens. The programme raises some very interesting issues and will undoubtedly excite conspiracy theorists. Conspiracy theories are always fun but tend to be rather outlandish. That said, films like 'The Manchuria Candidate' are based in some reality. During the Cold War there were experiments around mind control but many assumed that the fiction was that any government would actually go ahead with ...
Intersting sidelight on the Rupert Murdoch and News International saga, highlighting splits between Rupert Murdoch and his son James and a thought on why Tom Watson MP was unleased to harry News International. According to the New York Times: In September 2009, as a major Labour Party gathering was under way, The Sun, News Corporation's mass market, populist tabloid, stunned the British political establishment by switching its allegiances to the Conservative Party after more than a decade of Labour support. The audacity of the move was reinforced by the fanfare with which it was announced. The Sun featured a blaring ...
Over the years I've become accustomed to the fact that the SNP have trouble counting. Any analysis of any of their spending commitments at any election has shown a gaping hole somewhere. I think the funniest thing was them accounting for £250 million of savings for the Forth Bridge, which hasn't even been built yet in their most recent manifesto. These are big numbers, though. I kind of gave them credit for being able to work out which was the most popular between three options using numbers between 1 and 100. How wrong I was. Thanks to some investigation by ...
Last night's drama in the UK parliament over the call for an EU referendum is over. Will it all blow over? For now, maybe, but the issue will come back. Wise politicians will be thinking ahead about what they should do when it does. For David Cameron, it looks like trouble. The starting point is that there is mounting pressure for a referendum on the European Union in the UK. Why should this be? We operate a representative democracy, after all, and the issues are complex – not the sort of thing that referendums are supposed to be particularly good ...
Local Lib Dem for the South Werrington and North Gunthorpe area, Cllr Darren Fower has recently been contacted by local residents, in Beauvale Gardens, relating to consecutive nights of anti social behaviour late at night, on local grass areas, ranging from kicking footballs against fences and burning yellow pages. Commenting, Cllr Darren Fower said: "I've spoken to the residents, and a number of them are pensioners and are nervous about the situation. Anti social behaviour is never a welcome occurrence, but when it takes place at time that are late, its even more disturning to residents in the area." Cllr ...
My latest missive from The New Statesman. If you'd prefer to read it in situ, do feel free.... Rather excitingly, I discovered the price of democracy this week. It was printed in the Financial Times. Apparently, it's £10m. In the midst of allegations about mystery donations from shadowy figures funding almost-but-not-quite-official alternative foreign policies, it's quite surprising to find anyone willing to hang so precise a figure on the value of voting. And given the hundreds of millions of pounds the UK has just invested on the military campaign in Libya, I'm sure many will want to argue with the ...
Tue 25th
08:24
Electoral administration lessons from the AV referendum: the Electoral Commission's view
Last week, the Electoral Commission published its report into the administration of the May's AV referendum. Despite the high political temperatures during the campaign, the administration got little criticism at the time and so the report rightly reflects that. However, amongst the details are some important pointers to issues that are likely to come up at future elections. 10pm cut-off for voting The report raises again the big administrative fall out from the 2010 general election: the large queues in some places of people still wanting to vote when the polls closed at 10pm. Since May 2010, the Electoral Commission ...
At the last meeting of Cambridgeshire County Council the Conservative Group, including local County Councillor John Reynolds, voted to increase members basic allowance by a staggering 25% (from £7,610 to £9,500), the allowance for the Conservative leader of the Council from £22,246 to £28,500, and allowances for every member of the Conservative cabinet from £11,659 to £14,250. At a time when hard-working officers across Cambridgeshire are taking pay freezes or even pay cuts, at a time when services are being scrapped, and experienced Council employees are being replaced with inexperienced, but keen, volunteers now is clearly not the time for ...
Although I support the policy of the Welsh Government of mitigating the impact of tuition fees on Welsh students, the latest Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas) figures, as printed in today's Western Mail, raises serious questions as to how it is funded. The Welsh Goverment's plan is to top-slice the teaching grant to Welsh Universities to pay for this policy, calculating that colleges will get the money back through the fees of individual students. The danger is that, because the Government are also funding Welsh students studying in English Universities, the amount of the teaching grant leaving Wales will ...
This is the most beautiful idea for a business that I've seen in a while: Child's Own Studio. The toymaker's blog is fun reading. How cool is it to be figuring out ways to turn a child's cute little drawing into a real stuffed toy? Must be very satisfying. Thanks to Hacker News for the link. A nice moment of zen to start the day.
In the Epilogue to his one-volume gallop through English history Simon Jenkins, having discussed "game changers" such as Cromwell, Walpole, Chatham, Peel, Disraeli, Gladstone and Lloyd George, concludes (p354): "If there is one hero in this book, at least until the twentieth century, it is parliament." His conclusion could doubtless be debated by historians, but there is no doubt that Parliament has played a crucial role in creating our present society. If we are to continue to develop our society on liberal and tolerant lines, parliament, rather than allow itself to be sidelined, should continue to be refreshed, reformed and ...
Sarah Sutton: I didn't ever actually do a Dalek story... Janet Fielding: I think that that means you weren't a proper companion. Sarah Sutton: You think? Janet Fielding: Yeah, I do! Sarah Sutton: I can't call myself a companion? Janet Fielding: No. No. Sarah Sutton: Oh, poo. That's not good, is it? Janet Fielding: That just puts a lie to the last, you know, couple of decades.
My degree course is fifty per cent economics and, after this year, fifty per cent either politics or international relations. Before I started I went through all the various possible modules and thought that the one I was most likely to drop was the international relations bit and concentrate just on economics and politics. The coursework essay due in this week is on international relations, and I am finding it very frustrating. You see for me, the problem is in the title: inter-NATIONAL relations. It doesn't seem to matter which theory of international relations we have studied so far, all ...
Fresh from Hansard, here is the list of who voted how on Mondays commons vote on the EU referendum. The House having divided: Ayes 111, Noes 483 AYES Andrew, Stuart Baker, Steve Baron, Mr John Bingham, Andrew Binley, Mr Brian Blackman, Bob Brady, Mr Graham Bridgen, Andrew Brine, Mr Steve Bruce, ...
From Hansard: The House having divided: Ayes 111, Noes 483. Division No. 372 ] [ 9.59 pm AYES Andrew, Stuart Baker, Steve Baron, Mr John Bingham, Andrew Binley, Mr Brian Blackman, Bob Brady, Mr Graham Bridgen, Andrew Brine, Mr Steve Bruce, Fiona Byles, Dan Campbell, Mr Gregory Campbell, Mr Ronnie Carswell, Mr Douglas Cash, Mr William Chope, Mr Christopher Clappison, Mr James Cooper, Rosie Corbyn, Jeremy Crouch, Tracey Cruddas, Jon Cryer, John Davidson, Mr Ian Davies, David T. C. (Monmouth) Davies, Philip Davis, rh Mr David de Bois, Nick Dinenage, Caroline Dodds, rh Mr Nigel Donaldson, rh Mr Jeffrey M. ...
Here on The People's Pledge blog @PeoplesPledgeEU and below: AYES(voting in favour of the motion) **110 including both Tellers** 80 Con, 19 Lab, 8 DUP, 1 LD, 1 Green, 1 Ind Conservative 80 Stuart Andrew Steve Baker John Baron Andrew Bingham Brian Binley Bob Blackman Peter Bone Graham Brady Andrew Bridgen Steve Brine Fiona Bruce Dan Byles Douglas Carswell Bill Cash Christopher Chope James Clappison Tracey Crouch David T.C. Davies Philip Davies David Davis Nick du Bois Caroline Dinenage Nadine Dorries Richard Drax Mark Field Lorraine Fullbrook Zac Goldsmith James Gray Chris Heaton-Harris Gordon Henderson George Hollingbery Philip Hollobone Stewart ...
Watching over five hours of Parliamentary debate today has got me chomping at the bit. The big innie/outtie question has sparked the kind of discussion that hasn't been seen in a long time, probably not since the eve of the invasion of Iraq. The whips have of course done their job in skewing the vote (and so representative democracy), but the outward rebellion of members has still been remarkable. Indeed it has highlighted the divisions that exist within the Conservative, and to a lesser extent, Labour parties. But while the majority would view such diverging views as internal party weaknesses, ...
