From 23 November Chorlton residents will be able to dial 101-the national single non emergency telephone number, when they need to contact the police on matters that do not require an emergency response. People can report crime, anti-social behaviour or speak to the police for advice or information using the new 101 service, although GMP's existing non-emergency number, 872 5050 will be retained for the foreseeable future. Calls to 101 will cost the local call rate, though mobile rates may vary. Callers will be connected automatically to their own police force. A message will tell them which force they are ...
Chorlton police report that they responded to a spate of bike thefts by holding a successful bike-marking event on Manchester Road. PCSO Carolyne Drennan marked more than thirty bikes and gave crime prevention advice to local cyclists. Chorlton Neighbourhood Policing Team regard bike theft as a priority and Carolyne received fantastic feedback from residents. She said: The general public were very proud of the police and thought they had done a brilliant job. I felt very humble at the amount of people that approached me with such positive vibes." The police carry out these events on a regular basis. I ...
I've not been around much the last few days, because a new symptom in my ongoing health problems has turned up – my left eyeball keeps spasming (as well as me having a nervous tic in my left eyelid). This has made it near-impossible to concentrate on writing. I hope to have the next part ...
Another of these Look at Life films from the Rank Organisation, this one looking at Swinging London. The sourness of the commentary is notable, even if there is something in the thesis that not all London was swinging and that the beautiful people were on holiday from real life. And I love old street scenes whatever the commentary. If you do too, see this video from The Purple Gang.
Ward Committee met on Wednesday 2nd November. The following items were discussed: 1) Supermarket Proposals: The proposed Morrisons development on the former Lucas site off Spring Road and Shaftmoor Lane. There was as presentation given by several members of the team promoting the development including representatives of both the supermarket and Extra Care who plan to build a retirement village on the same site. The planning application for both sites are in and can be viewed via planning online using the application references 2011/06775/PA and 2011/06776/PA and are live for comments until 30 November 2011. Meanwhile the team running the ...
Today would've been my Father's 75th birthday. He passed away in June 2003 aged just 66 and I have mentioned him many times before in this blog. His lasting legacies to me are plentiful, many of which I have touched upon previously. But to celebrate his birthday today, I wanted to remember him through the music that he enjoyed and which I in turn in turn, grew to enjoy and love also. He listened to a wide ranging mix of music did Dad and I suppose that in itself answers why my taste in music is so eclectic. Here below ...
Conventional wisdom has it about right regarding the oeuvre of The Bangles. Their first album, 1984's All Over The Place, was a fine example of the emerging sixties-influenced guitar-based, jangle-pop 'Paisley underground' thing that was happening at that time. Instead of continuing in similar vein, the band sought a short-cut to stardom, through songs such as Manic Monday and Walks like an Egyptian, enjoyable pop confections in themselves, but less than the band was capable of creatively. And then of coure they recorded the excruciating power ballad Eternal Flame. So I wouldn't have bothered with their latest effort Sweetheart of ...
Cllr Gillian Risso-Gill has set up a new initiative - the West Hampstead Business Forum. The inaugural meeting will be held at 6pm on Wednesday 16 November 2011 Emmanuel School, 101 Mill Lane, London NW6 1NA The aim of the forum will be to: • improve the trading environment in West Hampstead. • give business a voice to contribute to the planned "intensification" of West Hampstead • provide networking opportunities and promotional events for local business. A flyer has been mailed out to around 250 mainly retail businesses in the area for the launch event. Attending the meeting will be ...
I for one am very proud to consider myself on the centre-left of British politics. I believe that three years ago I joined the party of the centre-left. And I also believe that as a party of government, this party promotes a centre-left agenda and enacts many of its centre-left policies. Surely, goes the conventional wisdom this party must be the Labour Party. However it is not the Labour Party; I became interested in politics due to my opposition to what was then an authoritarian Labour government. No this governing party of the centre-left is the Liberal Democrats. How can ...
Peanut butter and sweet potato soup
BBC News reports that Liz Lynne told the Lib Dem West Midlands regional conference yesterday that she is to stand down as an MEP: "Although I still find the work stimulating and worthwhile, the relentless travelling particularly to and from Strasbourg is onerous to say the least. "Stepping down now will also give my successor, Phil Bennion, enough time to bed down and make an effective contribution in the remaining two and and half years of this Parliament ..."I will continue to support the Liberal Democrat party in any way I can. I remain a strong supporter of Nick Clegg's ...
Sun 6th
19:13
Britain's Greatest Footballing Manager - Sir Alex Ferguson (closely followed by Brian Clough)
Today is my father's 75th birthday. He wasn't much of a football fan but he did take me to Villa Park on my first trip to that footballing mecca of my life back in the autumn of 1995 when I was 13. So he wouldn't have had much interest in the fact that his birthday coincided with a remarkable date in footballing history and to my amazement, I only realised it myself in recent days. For on my father's 50th birthday on November 6th 1986, Alex Ferguson became manager of Manchester United. Little could the footballing world have realised what ...
TweetBy integrating two responses to Rowan Williams called for Robin hood tax into his showy political rutting, David Cameron has insulted the public and any unhappiness about Pareto's own economic sustained in the UK. During Prime Minister's Question Time on Wednesday, David Cameron's response to the occupied London protest outside St Paul's was a copout. ...
TweetTheresa May is a useless Home Secretary and is an insult to all politicians in the UK. Her "cat-gate" notoriety has only helped add to her list of "headline grabbing" inaccuracies. Still intent on demonising all young people and referring to cliches like "broken Britain", this week she had launched the "Ending Gangs and Youth ...
Sun 6th
18:35
Isle of Wight Lib Dems withdraw support from council candidate over masonic bank account allegations
The Isle of Wight County Press online reports: MIKE Carr, the Liberal Democrat candidate for the West Wight Isle of Wight Council by-election, has been de-selected by the party days before the poll. An investigation prompted by an anonymous e-mail, suggesting Mr Carr had wrongly withdrawn money from the bank account of The Needles Lodge of the Freemasons. The money is now being paid back. ... In a statement, Mr Carr's election agent, Bob Blezzard, said when Mr Carr was adopted the party had been unaware of the situation that had come to light. "As a result of this information, ...
From Tunisia, via Benedict Pringle, who explains: The equivalent of the electoral commission decided to restore a giant poster of the former dictator that used to be a landmark of a suburban area of Tunis. Passers-by are astounded and seemingly nervous when they see it in the morning, however, soon their stupefaction shifts to anger and the revolutionary tendency returns. The whole episode was filmed by secret camera and subsequently turned into the best 'get the vote out' video I've seen.
Yesterday morning myself, with fellow Southfield ward Councillors Andrew Steed and Harvey Rose, met the planning committee, developers, the Council's planning officer and residents to discuss the current proposals for converting St Albans Church into ten flats and a house. Nearly 50 people turned up to welcome the Planning Committee of Ealing Council as they carried out a site visit prior to the formal meeting this Wednesday (9th November). In addition representatives from the developer and the Montesorri School attended. The hour long visit provided an opportunity for council members to acquaint themselves with the site and to also listen ...
In the early morning of 31 July 1943, our village's peaceful slumbers were interrupted by an explosion on the railway line to the south. The Resistance had successfully attacked a German troop transport, causing fairly substantial damage to the train itself and to the railway line. These pictures were taken by a German soldier and developed by a local chemist who had the foresight to run off some extra prints: (Pictures copied from this article.) Although local legend speaks of 250 dead Germans, and reprisals prevented by a local cigar manufacturer who bought off the Nazi commandant with a barrel ...
Sun 6th
16:52
No more social science masters programmes to be offered by the OU for "the foreseeable future"
I received the following email earlier on this week from the OU. It was in response to my many enquiries over the last year about their social science masters programmes – specifically those in psychology. Sadly, it looks as if around 8,000* potential students each year really are going to have to find somewhere else to study if they want to pursue a masters in social science by distance learning. Dear Tim Thank you for your email This message covers your reply to <name redacted> and also the phone message that was passed here to the Yorkshire Region. Unfortunately all ...
It's important to find things to be cheerful about in these serious days. So I was pleased, last weekend, to be recognised publicly as an errant lefty by my good friend Stephen Lloyd, the MP for Eastbourne, in his speech to the South East Regional Conference in Whitstable. It's been a difficult Coalition so far for many of us, particularly the social liberals (or left-leaning liberals as I am very happy to be known). At the time of the tuition fees debacle, a group of 104 of our 2010 general election slate got our 15 seconds of 'media' as we ...
There was much made of the stupid cartoon that came out the Scottish Lib Dem press machine, but there is something to just what dreamworld Alex Salmond is living in over his quote about Scotland and Qatar. What he said was: "As nations, we both have considerable expertise in oil and gas production, but as we look to the future and a low-carbon economy, we must increasingly develop new technologies. "We discussed the remarkable similarities between our respective nations. "Although both Scotland and Qatar have common strengths in the oil and gas sector, we are both seeking to develop our ...
A Torchwood novel set towards the end of Season 2, with Owen already dead but still walking and alien creatures intruding on Earth via sets of game cards (so the 'pack' of the title has a dual meaning). Another good effort from Anghelides, reinforcing my view that the Torchwood novels are an insufficiently recognised literary achievement of the Whoniverse.
[IMG: Ferme Park Road would be split in half by the boundary change] Ever since I've started raising awareness of the Boundary Commission's proposals to move Stroud Green from the Hornsey parliamentary constituency to the Tottenham one, I've been amazed at the strength of feeling from local residents. Katherine, Ed and I have been conducting a paper and online survey, and have been asking people to contact the Boundary Commission directly. I've now looked at the first 100 responses to the online survey, and the results are: 100% of respondents oppose the Boundary Commissions proposal to move Stroud Green into ...
A recent British Election Survey commissioned by the Runnymede Trust asked if the Government should make the effort to improve equal opportunities. The results of those in agreement were roughly as follows: Indians 65%, Pakistani 71%, Black Caribbean 74% and Black African 75% — but in the case of the white majority, only 19% agreed. This was a huge eye-opener for me. I had previously assumed that most educated and fair-minded members of the public would support an equalities agenda to address the democratic deficit. However, that was clearly not the majority point of view. The survey also found that ...
I hadn't got around to reading this until now, and it was quite amusing to be submerged again in the long-ago world of 2008, when Gordon Brown had just become Prime Minister and the US presidential campaign was just getting under way. A lot of the humour is childish rather than undergraduate, but some of the barbs are still telling: an advertisement for putting your money Under The Bed (instant access twenty-four hours a day, but not regulated under the financial services compensation scheme), for instance. I love the list of made-up facts about the Queen and Prince Philip: Although ...
Here is a comment I posted over at Black Shoe Diaries. I'm not a lawyer but I have been the foreman of a jury is a sexual abuse case against a minor so I have a little insight into how a jury operates in such a case. From a legal PoV a lot still has to play out. As far as we know the whole case against Sandusky will not include any hard physical evidence. There will be no physical evidence presented in court against him. The jury will have to decide who they believe - the accusers or Sandusky. ...
In this chapter, the successive emperors and popes of the early fifteenth century negotiate (again) union between the churches. The increased contact between East and West causes the Renaissance. See also my thoughts on kissing and the English, the filioque debate, the number of students at Oxford, how one might miss out on becoming Pope, Ancient Greek pronunciation, and the Renaissance.
... Belinda! [IMG: SocSciPG-busking] Having completed DD307, John began his research on bystander apathy to buskers on the underground. Thanks to everyone who entered – everyone's efforts can be found in the comments on the original post. A £5 Amazon gift certificate will be winging its way to Belinda by email. (Well, I did say it was a very small prize ...)
I was horrified to read a report showing that English school children are the most fearful for their safety before and after school in Europe. It feels shameful that we've not created a country where children feel and are safe. The report by Stephen Moore of Anglia Ruskin University discovered that of 4,000 children surveyed in eight European countries aged 12-16, 31% of English pupils felt scared of being bullied or worse comapred to 19% across those European countries. Four percent said they were often or always victimisaed on the way to or from school. 1 in 25! Apparently kids ...
I came to London last night and was persuaded by a group of Labour friends to join them to watch the Crystal Palace fireworks from the Grape and Grain, the pub at the top of Anerley Hill. Apparently, it was going to cost £5 each to get into the park for a top notch view of the display. Why not watch it for free at the top of the hill, from the comfort of the pub courtyard? What a great idea! That
Beautiful video about the work Derby Museum has been doing with Wikipedia & QRpedia. Derby Museum using multilingual QR codes from Andrew James Sykes on Vimeo. In 2011 Wikipedians wrote and translated 1200 new articles to allow the museums objects to read in over a dozen languages using QRpedia codes.
The Financial Times this weekend reported what it labelled 'one of the fiercest and most fascinating political battles of the year' — a battle which looks set to pitch David Laws and Nick Clegg against George Osborne and the Labour leadership. The issue concerns the amount by which the Coalition should increase benefits: based on September's inflation figure, this should be 5.2%. The Tories are pushing for a below-inflation settlement, but Mr Laws — co-editor of The Orange Book, and firmly identified as an economic liberal — is urging the Lib Dems to reject such a move: Mr Laws, considered ...
My Father once said; The only man to enter parliament with honest intentions was Guy Fawkes - Look what happened to him! Exposure to Parliamentary procedure and vast amounts of negative press and viciously tortured and executed. Much like... Nick Clegg and the Lib Dem party. Nick led the party into power with the intention of bringing about electoral reform and change that would benefit everyone. The intentions of the party were pure and honest - we had nothing to hide. However exposure to parliamentary politics and the Coalition agreement has dulled the blade of Liberalism and the policies. Association ...
An excellent, thorough look at the works of the much-missed author, taking us through how Jones educates her readers subtly through her writing, which made me want to fill in the large gaps in my own reading of her works. By fortunate coincidence, the Diana Wynne Jones issue of Vector arrived just as I was finishing this, which gave me a chance to reflect on why Jones was such a good writer in from several other perspectives as well (also a transcript of a discussion in which the genesis of this book is explained). Very stimulating, even if I can't ...
There has been a considerable reaction to Tuesday's blog post - Is this the stupidest cartoon in Scottish political history? It seems I struck a chord with many and touched a nerve with others; while not anticipating the level of the response I am pleased I appear to have kick-started a rather interesting and overdue discussion about both the strategy of the Scottish Liberal Democrats and their attitude towards the SNP and Scottish independence. I'm going to reproduce a lot of the comments that have been made in various forums, as well as some of the messages I have received ...
I'm not one of those who react with tribal anger to COMPASS's Plan B for the economy. I was actually quite pleased that at least some sections around the Labour Party were seriously engaging in the issue of how to get growth going, I also have a sneaking suspicion that if we had not taken on the burden of sharing government with the Tories(chiefly because the Labour Party had lost the public's confidence and hence their votes) we would be floating plans not too distant from Compass Plan B but with some distinct differences. Like many Liberals I have been ...
Mozza channels the Modfather. Enjoy.
From the Independent website this morning: Nick Clegg's ministers have been told to go on TV and declare proudly "I'm a Liberal Democrat" in an effort to improve the party's poll ratings. Party strategists are demanding better "messaging" from politicians. It includes using the phrase "as a Liberal Democrat ..." at every opportunity, and regularly uttering the word "coalition", which research finds is popular with voters.The report goes on to say that "aides to the Deputy Prime Minister" fear too many low-profile Lib Dems are viewed by the public as "little-known Tories". The party needs to emphasise its successes, including ...
I wrote a couple of weeks ago about the polite parliamentary row between two Liberal Democrat MPs, Sir Alan Beith and David Heath, over proposals to give select committees the power to table amendments to legislation in their own name. This suggestion, which would strengthen the powers of backbenchers, was supported by Sir Alan but opposed, on behalf of the Government, by David Heath. At that time Government opposition was strong enough to stop the proposal moving forward. Now it seems that the House of Commons Speaker, John Bercow MP, has given his backing to the idea. Or at least ...
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Sun 6th
10:10Mike Tuffrey AM writes... The question I asked top London Tory: "Is there anything you would not pri...
"Is there anything you would not privatise?" That was the question I asked Brian Coleman, the controversial chair of London's Fire Authority — a public body which sadly is in the grip of an ideologically-driven Conservative administration thanks to shameless gerrymandering by London's Tory mayor Boris Johnson and unelected political appointees. My question to him was prompted by the Tories' current plans to privatise the London fire 999 emergency control room. Mr Coleman's answer? It was a bald and brazen "No": there's nothing he wouldn't try to privatise if he could. It's true that in the London fire service we ...
Those of us who have visited Chorlton Meadows recently will have noticed that the grass on the Hardy Farm site appears to have turned brown. When I raised this with Councillor Victor Chamberlain he said that a number of local residents had also contacted him on the same issue. He was already in the process of making enquiries with the City Council's Environmental Protection Group. Councillor Chamberlain has now confirmed that this is part of plans to convert the meadow into playing fields and carry out other works to the site. The grass has been recently sprayed to deter grass ...
Pam King has been pressing United Utilities to get on a fix their drains along a section of Styal Road which is regularly getting flooded. We're very pleased to hear that United Utilities plan to start repair work this week – hopefully on Tuesday and Wednesday. They'll start by repairing the section of sewer nearest to Styal Grove. Once that work is done, we'll get the Council to clear out any grids that need cleaning.
McDonnell faces immediate questions and longer term dilemmas @bbcmarkd on the new SDLP leader. (tags: northernireland ) Air Space - a trip through an airport detention center - Boing Boing What being on the TSA watches is like. (tags: waronterror )
I want to describe the symptoms that I'm feeling, and how they've changed since I had my stroke on 17th October - almost two weeks ago. I've definitely improved in some ways, having recovered much touch sensation, but I'm also feeling more pain and cold. My stroke (for which I'm still awaiting a definite diagnosis, by the way) was a pure sensory stroke. It hasn't affected my mobility or
When I saw a tweet a few days ago from a reputable source suggesting that passengers at a London transport venue were being asked for identification by police I thought it was strange but, as I had no more details I moved on. Today though, a story in the Observer leads me to believe that it could have been part of an operation whereby Border agency officials are conducting unlawful passport checks on buses and other public transport to try to catch illegal immigrants. The paper says that documents it has seen suggest that staff from the UK Border Agency ...
There was an interesting discussion on Twitter yesterday between Charlie Stross and Pat Cadigan about Klout.com, which I vaguely knew of as one of those sites that attempts to measure how wide and effective your use of social media is, attributing to me expertise and authority on subjects about which I know little and tweet less. Klout had further annoyed me by unilaterally changing their algorithm to decrease my Klout score and then demanding that I change my behaviour to increase it back again, which didn't interest me at all. @cstross made the excellent point that Klout's data-mining of our ...
Details of the Friends of Magdalen Green 2011 Christmas Card :
Here's details of the forthcoming West End Community Council meeting, taking place on Tuesday. I'll launch and upload to www.dundeewestend.com my Update to the Community Council tomorrow.
For the record, the results were: Alasdair McDonnell 127 140 188 Conall McDevitt 105 131 152 Patsy McGlone 70 76 - Alex Attwood 46 - - Attwood's transfers went 26 to McDevitt, 13 to McDonnell, 6 to McGlone (1 plumper); McGlone's transfers went 48 to McDonnell, 21 to McDevitt (seven non-transferable). (Figures from @KenReid_utv.) Congrats to McDonnell; commiserations to the other candidates. Ian Parsley jokes that I am responsible, but I rather doubt it!
Yes its long, I'm sorry – but I guess Education deserves that, it ought to be discussed and so here are my views. I'm open to being persuaded and my thoughts aren't set in stone so feel free to comment! Having read a very well written and articulate article from Andrew Emmerson at The Yellow ... Read more
