The last week has demonstrated the growing strains in the relationship between Britain and the European Union. Here I will discuss the events of the week, the arguments and proposals for the future of our relationship and my conclusion as to the future steps that I would suggest to the coalition government. We started the week with ...
I spent today at the Battle of Ideas, which is being held today and tomorrow at the Royal College of Art, next to the Royal Albert Hall in Kensington. It is organised by the Institute of Ideas, which is descended from the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) via Living Marxism magazine and the website Spiked (for which I have written in the past). And the Institute kindly offered me a press pass for the weekend. Despite this parentage, the event is notably diverse in the subjects it tackles and the speakers it invites. I was impressed with the number of people ...
Sat 29th
23:23
LibDem MPs: 57 soppy anti-British, pro-crime, anti-education, pro-immigration, anti-family nonentiti...
It would appear that The Mail's Peter Hitchens may have blown a fuse... ...again... Peter Hitchens photo credit: Some rights reserved by Manic Street Preacher [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
Welcome to Broxtowe Enews, brought to you by the Liberal Democrats and edited by David Watts, the leader of the Lib-Dem group on Broxtowe Borough Council. A special welcome to the new readers that we have this week. 1. Future Development Sites I was delighted on Wednesday night to move an amendment at the full council meeting to delete the Toton site next to the A52 from the list of preferred sites for future development in Broxtowe. I also explained some of the difficulties that the council find themselves in with Government regulations, which are forcing us to look at ...
I'm really not sure I should be telling you this, but I was struck by a passage in today's Guardian: Avon and Somerset police reject the suggestion they should have got to Tabak sooner, pointing out that he left the Bristol area for Cambridge and Holland before Yeates' body was found.So if you have committed a serious crime you should flee the country at once. The police won't suspect a thing.
As the nights drawn in for the spookiest Saturday of the year, what could be more appropriate to turn to than Doctor Who's finest and most Gothic season? First broadcast in Autumn 1976, Doctor Who - The Masque of Mandragora opened an outstanding set of stories with Tom Baker's Doctor a freethinking adventurer fighting both mental and political tyranny in the form of terrific villains and superstition incarnate. In the rich period setting of the Italian Renaissance, the Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith face scheming, swordplay and masked monks as they're caught in a dark world of intrigue and sorcery... ...
At the start of last weeks Scottish National Party conference last weekend First Minister Alex Salmond said: "We [Scotland] are leading the global revolution in clean, green renewable energy, and we can and should be at the cutting-edge of pioneering carbon capture technology." This week however, co-convenor of the Scottish Greens Patrick Harvie asked just how green can Alex and his SNP be? In his speech he said: "Alex Salmond now has a very clear and simple choice - he must either fail on Scotland's much-vaunted climate change targets, or he must drop his unconditional support for the fossil fuel ...
Great talk by the Professor Warren explains why the middle class in the US are collapsing, who are slightly further along the income inequality curve we're following:
Dear Polly, I'm really puzzled by one of the sentences in your piece in today's Guardian, Executive pay soars while the young poor face freefall. Where is Labour?. In it you write: "Half of further education colleges report a drop in applications from 16- to 19-year-olds". However, as your Guardian colleague Jessica Shepherd wrote when reporting on these numbers earlier in the month: "Just under half of colleges had seen a dip, while 42% said their figures had risen. A fifth of colleges said the number of students had increased by between 5% and 15%." What is more, she also ...
CREATE, the organisation that recycles and reconditions used white goods like freezers is having an "indoor car boot sale" next Saturday - 5th November. You can find out more about CREATE here
Regular readers of this blog will know that Norfolk County Council has hardly achieved a good reputation for upholding the principles of localism and democracy. In March the Cabinet of the County Council decided to grant a £600 million contract for an incinerator near King's Lynn to Cory Wheelabrator, despite a West Norfolk-wide referendum that ...
I have a confession to make, as a kid I wrote in Jimmy Savile but I never did get to meet my footballing hero Kenny Dalglish on his TV show. When I did finally get to stand beside Kenny the first time we were at Euston station both checking the time of trains, not once but twice the undergraduate me was unable to turn to the man beside and say a word. Fortunately when his son Paul played for Livingston and the man turned up to pull the half time drawer winning tickets, I was past my rabbit syndrome for ...
He was one of the most eccentric names and faces in British entertainment. He was the first ever presenter of Top of the Pops in 1964 and remained at the healm for 20 years. He returned for an episode in 2001 and was on-hand to co-present the final ever episode on July 30th 2006. Savile was also well known for his charitable support. He competed for good causes in over 300 professional bike races and 212 marathons including the London Marathon at the age of 79. He raised millions of pounds for charity and for his efforts, he was awarded ...
The all-member Liberal Democrat News currently in the post to party members includes this update on the party's Leadership Programme, designed to support candidates from under-represented groups: Of the first 11 candidates, five are women, three from black and minority ethnic backgrounds, three have disabilities. There is one LGBT candidate and five of the 11 come from low socio-economic backgrounds ... [and] we have four candidates on the Programme so far who are under 30. The scheme is due to expand to support at least 30 people. You can get a subscription to receive each weekly edition of Liberal Democrat ...
We are approaching November 5th and the City Council is once again hosting a bonfire and fireworks on Midsummer Common. The event is always good fun, and public displays tend to be both more spectacular and safer than private ones. The funfair opens from around 6pm, with a display by Wildfire Productions from 7pm to 7.20pm.The main event are the fireworks and bonfire lighting at about 7.30pm.The display does cause transport problems around Misummer Common, and this tends to have knock on effects up Milton Road. The police have used the eCops to pass on some of the details:Victoria Avenue, ...
Sat 29th
16:37
'No turning back from Green commitments...' my latest blogpost for The Huffington Post!
My third blogpost for The Huffington Post states this Government must keep to its rhetoric of being' the Greenest ever.'
Sat 29th
16:30
Corporate Governance Committee (Wirral Council) 26th October 2011 5.00pm (Committee Room 1) Part 1
The agenda and reports for this committee can be found by clicking on this link. Present: Corporate Governance Committee Chair, Cllr Steve Foulkes Cllr Phil Davies Cllr Adrian Jones Cllr Anne McArdle Cllr Ann McLachlan Co-optee (no voting rights) Cllr Jeff Green Co-optee (no voting rights) Cllr Tom Harney Also present Officers Bill Norman (Borough ...
I'm really missing OU study at the moment. There's always been a gap at this point of the year between modules, but this time there will be no box from the OU marked: "URGENT – EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS" for me to look forward to receiving in December. So while I'm waiting for the OU to make their minds up about the possibility of running masters courses again I'm going to do some reading, or possibly lots of reading as there seems to be no real urgency in their decision-making process. Fortunately there are number of psychology books which I've made a ...
You're only getting here because the word 'leak' is in my blog's title, as a sort of pun or play on words. This blog is not one that links to illegal copies of legally-available material, especially when that material is owned by companies who have several billion pounds more than I do and a vast ...
Nick Clegg has launched a national internship scheme to increase social mobility, end inbuilt disadvantage and conform with the minimum wage. Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt has been criticised this week by a leading national campaign, Graduate Fog, for recruiting unpaid interns. The climate is changing - and yet seemingly not in our own house. I (and presumably some of the Lib Dem Voice readership) have applied for Lib Dem internships, and there seems to be no concerted effort to clean up our party in this regard. I am white and middle-class and was only able to apply for internships over ...
Bus users in St Albans will be able to get clearer information on the city's buses from Monday 31 October when a simple new integrated bus map is launched. The new colour-coded map provides simple, clear and understandable information for existing bus passengers and will help attract new users to the bus network. The map, which has been produced by the Network St Albans partnership, covers the city's 'Pinks' bus network and uses colour-coded routes to help bus users find their way around the new integrated network. The 'Pinks' bus network was launched earlier in the year by Network St ...
If your child will be starting at secondary or upper school in September 2012 you must make an application to Hertfordshire County Council by 31 October 2011. Parents and carers are advised to apply online by logging onto www.hertsdirect.org/admissions and completing the online application form. Online applicants can access their school offer before allocation letters are received and parents are also able to accept the school allocation online. Last year 97 per cent of parents applied this way and found the system quick, easy and secure.
Third of this set of anthologies of sf short stories by British-based authors, the only one of the three I had previously read. I felt the quality of the stories was a notch above the other too (themselves not at all bad). Topped and tailed with "The Grey Wethers" by Keith Roberts and "A Tupolev Too Far" by Brian Aldiss, with the others including "Rainmaker Cometh" by Ian McDonald. Excellent stuff.
( Spoilers for The Wedding Of River Song ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Earlier this year the BBC released a new novelisation of an Old Who story - David Fisher, who wrote the original TV story The Stones of Blood, has now converted it not to a print novel but to audiobook format, read with great gusto by Susan Engel (who played the villain of the piece on screen) with John Leeson doing K9's lines. I had been looking forward to this with hopeful enthusiasm, as Fisher's novelisations of his other two stories are among the best of the Target range. I am very glad to say that I was not disappointed. The ...
From the BBC comes the news: Sons and daughters of any future UK monarch will have equal right to the throne, after Commonwealth leaders agreed to change succession laws. The leaders of the 16 Commonwealth countries where the Queen is head of state unanimously approved the changes at a summit in Perth, Australia. It means a first-born daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge would take precedence over younger brothers. The ban on the monarch being married to a Roman Catholic was also lifted. Good news for Lynne Featherstone's work on this issue, even if the BBC's report slightly ...
Following discussions about bringing in a Fat Tax into the UK that would see food of a certain calorie level taxed in an attempt to combat obesity in the UK. Now a new measure is being suggested and backed by Chatham and Aylesford MP Tracey Crouch. In Last week's KM [21-10-11 Medway Messenger article "Takeaway tax touted by MP in fight against Fat" by Alan McGuinness] it was reported that levels of obesity in Medway were such that 30% if adults were obese and more than 20% of children were overweight. Quite a shocking statistic. To fund education into better ...
I blame oneexwidow for getting me started on this train of though this morning, but bizarrely Kermit and friends has led me around to OK Go. If you don't know who OK Go are YouTube them to see some of the most visually brilliant concepts for music videos anywhere. Meanwhile back to the main feature....roll title music Even the journalists at VEVONews got excited about it and did an on set interview. All good DVD's have a making off documentary, the same goes for all good OK Go videos, this one in no exception.
Sat 29th
11:53
Opinion: The Tories are downgrading democracy (and the Lib Dems are letting them do it!)
On electoral reform and the Coalition, the Lib Dem narrative goes something like this: "Nick Clegg presented an inspiring, comprehensive reform agenda to make voting fairer. Then Cameron came along and cherry-picked it. He rejected some of our ideas, but accepted others, including fixed-term parliaments, Lords reform (in principle), and, er, the AV referendum. Taking our usual view that half a loaf is better than no bread, we signed up. What's wrong with that?" What's wrong, I suggest, is that we didn't stop to think about Cameron's own agenda, and what the Tories actually aim to achieve from their "reforms". ...
Local grandees, residents' representatives and contractors gathered on the first floor of partially-rebuilt Forest Hill Pools on Friday 28th October to witness the 'topping out' ceremony for the new building. After a quick bit of historical background to 'topping out' from the lead contractor Wilmot Dixon's CEO, Lewisham's Mayor was invited to join the architects ...
The increasingly concerning picures coming out of Thailand over recent days have saddened me greatly. Source: BBC News Website Its capital Bangkok is on the cusp of succumbing to an awful flood which has already taken more than 370 lives. Heavy monsoon rains have been causing flooding in Thailand since July with flood waters continuing to creep into northern districts of Bangkok. The centre remains mostly dry for the time being. Officials however have warned that high tides due this weekend, combined with the flow of run-off water from inundated central plains, could cause wider flooding. The city is surrounded ...
There are two meetings at Blyth Town Council this week. Both will be at Ebor House, starting at 6pm Tuesday 1st November, Events Committee This will have initial feedback from this weekend's events, and continued preparation for the Photo competition and for Christmas Thursday 3rd November , Planning & Development Committee Despite recent comments from "someone" , these are both open to the public.
Cuts in legal aid have proved to be particularly controversial in recent months so the news that a small group of Liberal Democrat MPs are working together to reverse some of the most damaging aspects of these changes is very welcome. Labour's position on this has of course been very interesting. They now appear to be opposed to cutting legal aid even though they fought the last General Election pledged to do the opposite. As last year's Law Society Gazette points out Labour went into the last election promising to implement more cuts in the legal aid budget, planning to ...
Here's your starter for ten in our weekend slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate... Over the last three years Obama has had to concede much of his programme to Republicans in Congress. His healthcare reforms had to be significantly watered down even before Republicans won back the House of Representatives in 2010. And the reforms themselves have since acted as a lightning rod for criticism of the President. Obama is struggling to get the economy going again amid continued turbulence in the global economy and unemployment is staying stubbornly high despite the massive £800 billion ...
Last night I attended the Hate Crime Vigil in Trafalgar Square. As with last year – the roll call of those killed by hate is shockingly long and incredibly moving. Stuart Milk, Harvey Milk's nephew came over from the USA to speak at the event. And he really summed it up. Everyone is included in this life with the same rights and same potential to contribute. He said that 'tolerance' was not a word to be spoken in this regard – it has to be about an inclusive society – not just a tolerant society. I totally agree. I paste ...
Sat 29th
07:28Huhne and Pryce - sword of Damocles?: Court orders Sunday Times to hand over more than 100 emails ex...
Goodness knows how all this will turn out. But potentially it has all the makings of a Greek tragedy. The CPS has announced that it has asked Essex Police to provide more evidence in the case it is considering concerning Chris Huhne, Vicky Pryce and some speeding points. Further tidbits of information about the request have emerged. The Mail describes the evidence requested as 'more than 100 messages" between Vicky Pryce and the Sunday Times. The Telegraph names the reporter involved: Isobel Oakeshott was the journalist who first revealed, in May, that Mr Huhne had allegedly asked "someone" to take ...
Thank goodness there is at least one senior clergymen of the Church of England prepared to "Stand up for Jesus" or, more prosaicly, for what Jesus stands. The protest immediately outside St Paul's was a heaven-sent (you can take that literally or metaphorically) opportunity for the Church to demonstrate its relevance. Rather than grasp the opportunity to show the Church as faithful to the teachings of Jesus, our leaders, with the exception of Giles Frazer, have emerged tainted with hypocrisy. The initial appeal to "health and safety", an attempt to shift responsibly reminiscent of that of Pilate, is shown to ...
You may notice a recurring theme in this series - a number of the tracks featured are (and will continue to be) from the late eighties. There's no difference this week with this from Martika - even after twenty-three years, I still really enjoy this without even the excuse of youth on my side! Andrew
Yesterday morning, in addition to meeting various constituents, I had a meeting with sheltered housing tenants at Sinderins Court, a City Council Environment official and Home Scotland staff about the waste and recycling bins at the complex - see right. The current bins are overly large with heavy lids that some of the tenants find difficult to use. During a very amicable meeting, agreement was reached on smaller communal bins and a more frequent collection. Early yesterday evening, I had the pleasure of attending the official opening of the Cherry Blossom Nursery School in Seafield Road. The nursery is beautifully ...
If there's a sure fire way of undermining the trust that, it is said, is needed for democracy to function properly, it has surely got to be making us all pay for it. If I was ever minded to vote again, the thought of having to pay for the privilege would put me off for good. Of course, I have an interest: it suits my agenda just fine if, because of big donations from either business or unions, politicians are seen as venal, untrustworthy, policy for sale money grubbers. They are, for the most part. And the more people know ...
