It's a hundred years since the last serious attempt to reform Britain's anachronistc Second Chamber was made, by the then Liberal government. And some of us who believe passionately in constitutional reform sometimes wonder if it will be another hundred before a further major step forward is made. This is despite the fact that all ...
Another of these shorts from the Rank Organisation. This one was made in 1959 and is narrated by Sid James, very much in his Hancock character.
People all over the place are talking about the Olympic torch coming to somewhere near them. I reckon it will come within 100m of this house as it moves from Bangor to Newtownards on 3 June. But the news is also speculating about who will be the final person to light the torch. Here is a list of the cauldron lighters over recent Summer Games: 2008 Beijing Li Ning winner of 6 Olympic medals in Artistic Gymnastics, China's most successful Olympian 2004 Athens Nikolaos Kaklamanakis yachtsman gold medalist in 1996 2000 Sydney Cathy Freeman at the time the silver medalist ...
Last week I booked tickets for myself and my father to go to one day of next year's test match between South Africa and England at Headingley. I like to go to at least one day of a test per year - this will be my Dad's first ever cricket game (unless he ever watched some of mine in my younger days, I don't think he ever managed it and given how poor I was I hope he didn't!). The teams at the moment are ranked 1 (England) and 2 (South Africa) in the world in test cricket so it ...
I thought you might be interested in finding out which sites in Winnersh Wokingham Borough Council intends to sell for development. The list of "Estimated Capital Receipts" for the whole Borough was published in the agenda for the Executive meeting of 27th October 2011, on p 121. You can find the agenda here: In Winnersh and Sindlesham the sites are: - Sindlesham School (phase 2) Sindlesham School used be where Wheatsheaf Close now is, on Mole Road as you leave Sindlesham for Arborfield. The Council still owns a small part of the school site, having sold the rest for ...
Labour recently issued a briefing concerning, Manston, written by the esteemed local leader Clive Hart, the casual observer might think that the great man is not being as open as he could be, when he writes "The proposed night-time flying policy may well become the subject of a planning application and therefore it would be inappropriate for any councillor to comment further at this time. Some might even be unkind enough to speculate that "local" Labour are just seeing which way the wind is blowing, certainly at one time only Cllr David and Cllr Elizabeth Green opposed expansion of operations ...
At a thinly attended briefing meeting at County Hall last week I was provided with the county's timetable for Belle Vue. I give it to you without comment. Demolition of the Civic Centre: The site has been handed over to MGL (acting for Carillion) to carry out the demolition. Stage 1 is the removal of asbestos, expected to take 6 weeks. In December 2011 the demolition proper will begin and completed in January 2012. The War Memorial is intended to remain at the site. Football Club: Planning permsission was granted for the new stadium at Crookhall last week. Changes to ...
Hatch Farm Dairies will be back at Planning Committee on 16th November. This time I expect to get a decision on whether it will be granted planning permission or not.
If you are unemployed and looking to work with children, but have no experience, qualifications and little confidence, there is an opportunity available with an Acocks Green based, not for profit organisation who have funding to give 12 adults 30 weeks practical training programme. The organisation is House of Play + Education (formerly 8+ Play Opportunties) who have been delivering holiday play schemes in Acocks Green for the past 3 years. This is what they have to say about the scheme: "The project is aimed at adults aged over 18 living in Birmingham who are unemployed or economically inactive. participants ...
Chris Willmore reports: The officer now responsible has gone on holiday, but his boss, Mark King has picked up the story. He replied to my chasing email today " Although we have been promised an update from Trueform, who are manufacturing the shelter we have not received it. They promised we would get an update by the end of last week." Before he went on leave the officer had called them twice last week to chase, and Mark has also spoken to them. They seem to be saying they will finish making it by the end of November, so will ...
Liberal Democrat MEP Liz Lynne has announced she plans to stand down as Euro MP for the West Midlands Region in three months' time, saying 'the time is right' to move on after 12 and a half years representing the region in the European Parliament. She will be succeeded by Phil Bennion, the second candidate on the party's list at the election in 2009. The Euro MP revealed her decision in her speech to the regional Lib Dem party conference at Birmingham Chamber of Commerce on Saturday afternoon, saying: I have decided to stand down as MEP at the beginning ...
I saw Jerry Sadowitz in Lancaster yesterday. I don't mind if jokes are not politically correct as jokes are generally offensive to someone. My rule of thumb is don't tell offensive jokes to the person you are offending as they don't tend to get the joke. The audience was mostly male, white and in their fifties and this audience was spared from being the butt of any joke, unless they happened to come from Manchester or Doncaster or Grimsby or Ireland. Even if they did then all they had to do was keep quiet and nobody would know. Women were ...
My YouTube activities seem to be going from strength to strength. I can now announce that I have passed another YouTube milestone. Over the weekend, I reached 2 million viewings of my videos.The channel can be viewed at www.youtube.com/jonathanwallace.
As New Zealand's general election campaign rolls into its second week, John Pagani argues that the following comment by the National Party prime minister, John Key, sums up what the choice is all about.Mr Key says don't expect a change in style from a second-term National government, should he win a second term.''I think in a lot of ways it will have a very similar look and feel to it...."John Pagani says:It's a consistent message for a conservative party.He then makes a more telling point, through gritted teeth I am sure:The right track/wrong track polls all say most people think ...
Their MD hs just commented: 'There is the potential for some disruption tomorrow morning but our strong desire is to avoid this by returning all our trains to their correct start points north and south of London before the route across central London is closed tonight for engineering work. 'Our advice to customers is to check the live departures board on our website tomorrow morning, www.firstcapitalconnect.co.uk.
I have hesitated to make any comment on the tragic M5 accident. It's difficult not to either sound insincere or "wise after the event" before the full facts are in. The accident seems so horrific it hardly bears thinking about. One image which sticks in my mind is a shot on a video (taken from the southbound carriageway) showing drivers who'd got out of their cars to help those trapped in other cars. One fellow was pulling at the edge of a car door to try to prise it open. What great courage they showed! ...Real heroes. My thoughts and ...
If the Prime Minster offers you the Home Secretary job. Do not under and circumstances accept it, simply politely decline.
How big are the cuts in service that Liverpool council needs to make this year? Well we have a number of different figures. We start with a headline figure of £90,000,000 of savings being looked at. We then get a ... Continue reading →
The Campaign Corner series looks to give three tips about commonly asked campaign issues. Do get in touch - mark.hat.libdemvoice.org.spam.com (this is spam bot hidden email address, replace .hat. with @ and remove .spam.com for the real one) if you have any questions you would like to suggest. Today's Campaign Corner question: I understand some of the principles of graphic design, but I'm not a professional designer. What are the easiest ways to make my Focus leaflets look better? Headlines: make your headlines big, short and clear. Put the leaflet on the floor and stand over it. If you glance ...
About ten years both theLiverpool based micro TV stations folded. Their business model had failed to wok on the cable TV Channels. It is also likely that as both their owners were newspaper groups there was no real interest in ... Continue reading →
Again, I'm coming to events pretty late after a long time out of blogging whilst I completed my notice from the civil service. I hope to begin blogging under my real name (and perhaps to a real audience, not just to myself) in the next few weeks in a re-launched format. I'm just reflecting again how the Government might have handled the EU referendum issue better at the Commons vote a few weeks ago. There's no doubt that the timing was pretty odd, held as the eurozone was crumbling. But, I also feel strongly that the Lib Dems in particular ...
It has today been announced that Stockport will be welcoming the Olympic Torch to the borough on Sunday 24 June 2012. Heaton Chapel, Offerton, Hazel Grove and Heaviley have been named as four of over 1,000 locations announced by the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG), through which the Olympic Flame will travel through during the Olympic Torch Relay. Local communities will be offered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to join in the celebrations and take part in this momentous occasion. Councillor Dave Goddard, Leader of Stockport Council, said: "This is brilliant news which will put the international ...
Lori Philips has been interviewed by the Indianapolis Woman Magazine. A great article discussing the role of the Wikipedian in residence and how QRpedia codes have taken off there.
The Friends of Fortune Green have been busy over a couple of weekends - tidying up the beds, weeding and planting bulbs so that we will all see the benefit next Spring. The FoFG are to be congratulated on their enthusiasm and hard work and for successfully obtaining funds to upgrade the Green in various ways but they have always had support and advice (as well as money) from Camden's Parks Department. Most recently they arranged for Camden to explore the poor drainage on the Green adjacent to Ajax Road. Remember the two big fenced-off holes? (Interestingly they appear to ...
June is unavailable for comment Do you enjoy sitting in draughty church halls, eating fried food and answering trivia questions while people shout "We can't hear!" at the quizmaster in a tone that implies that he's talking too quietly on purpose? If so, then Barnet Liberal Democrats' Quiz Supper this Saturday could be the event for you. Because, this week on Terry and June, Terry (played as ever by Matthew Harris) is again setting and asking the questions at this annual event, with the usual hilarious consequences. Questions that I posed at last year's event included: "In the British Cabinet, ...
This shows part of the former popular Garden Centre at 163 Iverson Road - now cleared and deserted since it was forced to close by its jandlord (Network Rail) earlier this year. Since sold on to developers, it is now the subject of a somewhat bizarre planning proposal which was unveiled to a bemused audience of local residents annd councillors at a meeting held at the Sidings Community Centre last week. It is an awkward site being a small triangle which tapers away towards the new Thameslink station . On the narrow end (shown in this picture) the plan shows ...
At the scrutiny sessions last week, the cabinet member in charge of the budget, Jim Currie, was adamant that there was not yet a decision about what the proposed council tax level would be next year. And yet the Tory literature in the Bude by-election was promising that the Conservatives would deliver a freeze in Council tax. Although that is the most likely outcome, they seemed awafully certain for a decision that has not yet been made. Tweet
When I wrote my piece 'Saving capitalism? The Price could be Democracy' for The New Statesman last week, I wondered if I'd get a lot of 'don't be ridiculous' type comments at my gross exaggeration of the threat to our civil liberties and human rights. Rather worryingly, the opposite has happened. Everyone seems to be agreeing with me. Certainly the comments section on my piece is generally in agreement (although one chap in particular has taken a rather unfortunate line - B. Small, I'm talking to you...) Even before my piece was published, Paul Mason was asking similar questions about ...
It seems that the Conservative-led Cornwall Council cabinet is having another think about the proposal to close up to 114 public toilets across Cornwall. As Liberal Democrats we have welcomed this u-turn. The budget cut behind this was a part of the proposals voted through against Liberal Democrat opposition last November. It sought a £1.5 million cut in that particular service area. A few weeks ago a scrutiny committee worked out the implications of that cut and listed 114 public toilets that could be closed. I think that two thoughts have forced the Tories to think again. The first is ...
Here's my piece over the Weekend in "The New Statesman". I'll be expanding further on it's themes anon... Right now everyone seems to be getting terribly excited about saving capitalism. Which is fair enough, in the face of global meltdown. However it seems to me that the price of saving capitalism is increasingly likely to be 'democracy'. Which would be a shame as I'm a big fan of democracy. On the whole, I think it's a good thing. "What insight" I hear you cry, "what understanding of the basic tenets of human rights'. No? Well, consider this. Let's start with ...
Something is going on out there. The death knell of our current narrow and useless version of economics seems to be tolling - when economics students walk out of their lectures in Harvard, you know something is up.
It looks like Manchester's Labour Council's new car parking fees managed to catch out over 300 motorists on the first Sunday when they were implemented. This measure was never a cost-saver and the Council chose to ignore all of the City Centre residents and businesses who pointed out that the new charging scheme would deter people from coming into the City Centre and spending their money in the restaurants and shops, with places like the Trafford Centre benefiting instead. I am concerned with next Sunday, Remembrance Sunday. Many veterans and families who don't usually come into the City Centre will ...
Most of us know what it feels like to sit in a hospital waiting room, and it is not often a pleasant experience. The time spent waiting can be worrying, stressful and uncomfortable. Indeed, waiting for any kind of treatment is never going to be easy - which is why the Liberal Democrats are committed to keeping waiting times low. We aim to do this while engaging in the difficult task, set in motion by the last Labour Government, to find £20 billion of efficiency savings by 2015. Last year I said that people needed to be seen and diagnosed ...
The Gateshead Lib Dem Council group held a meeting last week with the local leaders of the GMB and Unison. It was at our invitation though we were not sure how they would react to us - and, indeed, how we would react to them. Nevertheless, we felt it was important to have a dialogue with them. I'm not at liberty to report what was said. Both sides agreed that in advance but by all counts, we
Mon 7th
12:21
ANTI HUMANTRAFFICKING CONFERENCE report by Miranda Whitehead Chair Women Liberal Democrats
'On Saturday October 15th, Catherine Bearder MEP and Women Liberal Democrats held a free conference on the theme of people trafficked into the UK. The non-political conference, aimed at men and women resident in the South East, attracted over 50 delegates to the Penta Hotel in Reading. The conference was held as near a possible ...
On July 16th 2012 the Olympic torch, which oddly enough reminds me of a mutated brandy snap, will be within several metres of my front door. This monumental celebration should have me-apparently-falling to the knees, weeping uncontrollably and thanking the gods for rewarding me; on the contrary, as my sarcasm details, apathy is my preferred ...
A while back I wrote to Kent Police authority chief executive Graham Hooper, to express my irritation about inappropriate use of KPA resources, see below details of my email 12/9/11 to the chief executive Hi Graham Hooper I am writing to express concern that Kent Police Authority appear to be conducting a political campaign at taxpayer expense.As evidenced by these two "news items" from your website this on 16th August (click) and more recently this from the 24th August** which are critical of government plans to introduce directly elected Police and Crime Commissioners.We're all entitled as citizens of this country ...
Mon 7th
11:58
Being awkward, wearing our hearts on our sleeves and not letting anyone put us in the corner - the w...
What I'm about to say might seem to be most relevant to Scotland, but I guess that the same principles apply south of the border, so don't let the words SNP in the first sentence put you off. I have heard it said in a few places in recent months that we're being a bit too hard on the SNP Government. Often that comes from SNP activists who have notoriously thin skins when it comes to their Great Leader being criticised, or even questioned, and so can be relatively easily dismissed by the Mandy Rice Davies Doctrine ("They would say ...
The latest edition of the council's free newspaper, Lutonline, leads with a front page story about a new council campaign to get more people to claim for free school meals. The story claims that more than 5,000 children in Luton are missing out on the free school meals they are entitled to. So the Council wants to make sure that the number of parents claiming rises. This is a good thing. Over recent years we have become more aware of the importance of proper nutrition in the development of children and we know that it is the poorest within society ...
Posted by Chris: Glynis passed away peacefully last night after a very special weekend spent with her grandchildren and me.
Mon 7th
11:40
Opinion: Feed-in tariffs and the Lib Dem fight to ensure the Coalition really is 'the greenest gover...
Feed-in tariffs, a policy mechanism designed to accelerate investment in renewable energy technologies, have been used successfully in many countries to increase the amount of electricity being generated from renewable sources. The UK has actually been fairly slow off the mark on this. Our aim to be 'the greenest government ever' included support for feed-in tariffs. Indeed, in the Coalition Agreement the preamble to the section on Energy and Climate Change said: 'We need to use a wide range of levers to cut carbon emissions, decarbonise the economy and support the creation of new green jobs and technologies.' It went ...
Join in the Olympic celebrations when St Albans City and District plays host to the Olympic Flame on Sunday, 8 July 2012 as part of the 8,000 mile London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay Route around the UK. Everyone in the local community is invited to take part in the celebrations, share in the Olympic spirit and give support to Torchbearers from the local community when the Olympic Flame passes through the District. St Albans is one of over 1,000 villages, towns and cities announced by the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) through which the Olympic ...
A couple of weeks ago I went to visit the Occupy London camp outside St Pauls Cathedral. As a student studying politics at University as well as someone who was slightly sympathetic to the Occupy movement; I felt that it was a part of British political history that I just had to witness. Occupy London was the British arm of a movement that in the last few weeks has spread from Wall Street to Central Europe and from Oakland to London. The camp seemed to consist of two main groups your usual SWP Trotskyite socialist types and your typical anarchist ...
Professor Richard Layard has started the happiness movement. He believes that economic prosperity doesn't make us happy: instead of measuring GDP we should measure general well being. Layard hasn't recommended that Ken Dodd become the Secretary of State for happiness but the LSE economics professor would certainly endorse the lyrics of Dodd's famous song. Classical liberals tend to pull their hair out when they hear it suggested that governments should try and make people happy. They prefer governments to let people get on with their lives. But perhaps Layard has a point. When John Cowperthwaite became financial secretary to Hong ...
Lucky for some, you can now read edition number 13 of my email newsletter about the Liberal Democrats, featuring the dog that isn't barking, battling ministers, Paddy Ashdown on Libya, why Polly Toynbee is wrong and more. You can read the Lib Dem newsletter online here. If you like to receive the next edition of the newsletter direct to your own inbox, just sign up here. It's free! You can unsubscribe whenever you want using the link on the bottom of all the emails, and I won't pass your email address on to anyone else (except if required by law). ...
What a wonderful start to the week! I've woken up this morning to hear that the Olympic Torch will be travelling through Cardigan town on it's tour of the UK, on the afternoon of Sunday May 27th! Olympic Torch Route on Sunday, 27th May 2012 As the BBC website details here, it will travel from Swansea to Aberystwyth via Carmarthen, Haverfordwest, Fishguard and Newport before arriving in Cardigan en-route towards its overnight destination in Aberystwyth. The concern was that it may make its way up from Carmarthen to Aberaeron via Synod Inn and miss out west Wales completely but that ...
Mon 7th
09:35The Independent View: Educational disadvantage is one of the most unjust and pervasive problems
The link between family income and educational attainment is greater in the UK than in almost any other developed country. We must all be concerned with a situation where 96% of young people educated in independent schools progress to university, but only 16% of pupils eligible for free school meals make the same progression. This statistic should be hugely troubling to anyone who believes in a society of equal opportunities. The evidence shows that even when children start school at age five on a reasonably even footing, those from disadvantaged backgrounds begin to diverge dramatically from their peers in terms ...
Despite having insisted there would be no more bags for cardboard recycling, South Glos have caved in to the huge demand and ordered some more. Over the last few months your Focus Team has been challenging the Tory Cabinet Member responsible to sort out the chaotic distribution of the first 40,000 bags and last week he admitted lessons needed to be learnt. Many people were unaware the bags were ready to collect and where from as the Council didn't tell them. By the time they found out via the grapevine the bags were gone. Others who did strike lucky were ...
Am intrigued as to how a LGV registered vehicle has obtained a resident parking permit in Zone B! A large recovery truck is taking up over 2 car spaces. Totally ridiculous!
I have an article on Wales Home today regarding the Scottish Parliament's decision to ban the use of Twitter in its chamber. Pop over and have a read.
Yesterday Belfast was the driving force and focus for a forward looking music industry thanks to the MTV Europe Music Awards, today we are the backward cousin of the UK once again. The reason. While the rest of the UK have introduced a 12 month deferral period on men who have sex with men (MSM) giving blood, here in Northern Ireland our health minister, the DUP's Edwin Poots, is still apparently making up his mind. This despite the draft SaBTO report on the issue being available since April and the other three health ministers coming to the conclusion to accept ...
Although the opinion polls say different, there is an emerging consensus among the chattering class that the Conservatives are likely to achieve an outright majority at the 2015 election. Yet, our old friend "events" could well conspire to frustrate this, and after my recent visit to Westminster, I am beginning to wonder if the old Greek adage, "whom the Gods would destroy they first make mad" might not apply to the Tories. The obsessive hostility to the EU which comes not simply from the old guard of Euro-sceptics, but also from many of the new intake elected in 2010 comes ...
Thanks to Mark Pack for this - a Tunisian Get Out the Vote film. Put a huge poster of the former dictator in the middle of the city. Use secret filming to catch the reaction of passers by. Turn it into a film encouraging people to vote. And all this from the Tunisian equivalent of the Electoral Commission. Tweet
The Olympic Torch route for next year has been revealed. The Torch will be coming to Blyth on Day 28 of the route ( I think that's Friday 15th June ) It's really a one-off event, and I await Blyth Town Council's plans to mark the occasion. The exact route is to be agreed but places on the route are :- Morpeth - East Hartford - Bedlington - ( Seaton Sluice ) - Whitley Bay (Much as I welcome it coming to Blyth, before we get too excited about Blyth being chosen, there are over a thousand places on the ...
A number of stories today relate to the spending of the £14 billion or so given to Wales by the Welsh Government. In particular the Western Mail highlights the report of the Assembly Finance Committee on the draft budget and the damning criticism contained therein of the lack of transparency and accountability surrounding that document. The all-party Committee says: "[We] remain concerned that few specific targets or objectives with measurable outcomes were clearly presented for scrutiny, against which committees could consider the potential impact and effectiveness of the allocations proposed in the draft budget, and evaluate value for money achieved ...
Well last night was the MTV Europe Music Awards in Belfast, the place has been a buzz all weeks with sightings of big music celebs all over the place. Well last night they were all gathered in the Odyssey Arena for the little shindig. Of course MTV are closing down most clips on Yoputube. First up, and I make no excuse for combining two guilty pleasures, it is the winners of the Global Idol award Queen with Adam Lambert on vocals. But the BBC do have some images of the rest of the show as do the Belfast Telegraph.
The Independent this weekend carried a brief article reporting that Nick Clegg's aides are urging the party's ministers to be more 'out and proud' of the Lib Dems' successes: 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. Aides to the Deputy Prime Minister fear too many low-profile Lib ...
In a post at Liberal England yesterday entitled Clegg tells Lib Dems to come out from behind the sofa Jonathan Calder responds to a brief piece in the Independent on Sunday. The Indie reports that Lib Dem ministers have been instructed to be a bit less reticent in speaking about the distinctively Lib Dem successes in government. The party is suffering in the polls in a way that the Tories are not. Some better PR would help. Calder offers two reasons why the Lib Dems were behind the sofa in the first place. First, the party is not used to ...
I have today launched my November 2011 Update to the West End Community Council meeting that takes place tomorrow night at Logie St John's (Cross) Church Hall. Issues covered include : · West End Christmas Week Update · Riverside Avenue - technology park ground maintenance· Balgay Cemetery vandalism update· Pennycook Lane Car Park - lining carried out· Peddie Street bin collection and wider issues regarding wheelie bins You can download the Update by going to http://tinyurl.com/weccNov2011.
Aside from the major pieces of street art, such as those created for the See No Evil festival or various Banksy works, Bristol is also home to a lot of random, small pieces of work: Here's a small selection of some that have caught my eye: Andrew N.B. Masthead for this piece courtesy of http://www.graffiticreator.net/
Gordon Brown was ridiculed when, by a slip of the tongue in the House of Commons, he appeared to claim that he had "saved the world" at the London G20 summit. Even so, it is generally agreed that by his determined leadership he cobbled together a package which helped bring the banking crisis under control and averted a complete collapse No such leadership has been evident at the Cannes summit, which appears to have been a crashing failure. Yet a remedy which would calm market turbulence and put the politicians rather than the speculators back in charge, a Tobin-type tax ...
This post and comments from George Potter's blog claims the people behind 38 degrees are manipulating their web voting system to get the results they want. I'm not surprised if this is true - any organisation set up on the basis of populism - from whatever strand of the political spectrum - is always going to face the dilemma of what happens when you're out populist by others. In issues like these I'm always reminded of Gaitskell's put down of Nye Bevin - 'Nye that's not a policy it's an emotional spasm'.
Liz Lynne, Liberal Democrat MEP since 1999, and a former MP for Rochdale, has announced her retirement from active politics next January. Her place in Brussels will be taken by Phil Bennion.
Mon 7th
01:17
An Arrival (Part Two of Doctor Watson Investigates: The Case Of The Scarlet Neckerchief)
Continued from part one. For the first few days my friend was away, life continued uneventfully. Mrs Hudson, used as she was to Holmes' frequent black moods, thought nothing of it when I informed her that he was remaining in his bedroom, though she did insist on bringing enough food for both of us up ...
It's up 2 U attracted nearly 600 voting participants and, based on their votes, has now awarded grants to some very deserving causes. Because of the limited resources it has also disappointed some other very worthy causes, and it will be important that those groups now receive the promised support and assistance to find funding from other sources. But for now let's celebrate an excellent event, extremely well organised by the Derwent Valley Partnership team with the help of the Rural Community Council, and enthusiatically delivered by dozens of committed volunteers. The groups which the public voted to receive funding ...
The official news of the route of the Olympic torch relay has just been announced. We already knew the very good news that the torch would begin its UK journey on May 19th at Land's End and finish the day in Plymouth. Now we know that the route will take in Sennen, Newlyn, Penzance, Marazion, Rosudgeon, Ashton, Breage, Helston, Falmouth, Truro, Newquay, St Stephen, St Austell, Stenalees, Bugle, Lanivet, Bodmin, Liskeard and Saltash. On the way the torch will stop for some pretty iconic photo opportunities at St Michael's Mount and the Eden Project. Of course I'm disappointed that the ...
I'm not the biggest fan of my local council, but I'd hope their Fireworks Night went with a Bang, rather than the damp squib they promised on blue, touchy paper. As I was listening to shrieks and bangs echoing all around the Thames, particularly exploding over Blackheath, I couldn't help thinking of Tower Hamlets Council's forbidding signage committing to a dark and cold evening gathering across from Island Gardens. If revellers were lucky, the cock-up will have been in what they said, not in what they did. But long experience of this council means I've not got my hopes up. ...
