No one who saw Roger Alton's attempt to defend the Murdoch empire on Newsnight this evening will forget it. Puce in the face, sweating like a pig, spouting nonsense. It was sad to see a man brought so low. No doubt it will appear on Youtube soon. Until it does we will have to make with his appearance on Channel 4 News earlier this year in which he blamed Mumsnet for the closure of the News of the World. By contrast with his performance tonight it is a model of calm rationality.
I recently took a minor part in a discussion on Amazon's Kindle forums. This started because some of the people on there were looking for a way to filter out self-published authors (like me) and only see 'proper' authors. This would obviously not be something I'd be keen on. But the thread I was drawn ...
Thu 10th
22:45
Labour councillors shouldn't interfere in private property. Yes that's you Cllr Nick Forbes of Newca...
For those of you who aren't football fans or sports fans, you may not be aware that the owner of Newcastle United Football Club, Mike Ashley, has decided to rename Newcastles football ground St. James Park. The new name in the hope of corporate sponsorship is Sports Direct Arena. I may be accused of hyperbole with my next comparison, but I assure you it's not. To understand what this means to the people of Newcastle, and not just the football fans, imagine the catholic church renamed all of its places of worship Barclays Bank religious centres. So where does Cllr ...
A huge chunk of the corporate world will be taking a very sharp intake of breath right now as it is announced that Australia is to become the first country to seek to strip private legal companies of their trademarks. The Australian government has today effectively passed a bill that will mean from December next year, all cigarettes will be sold in olive green packs, with no trademark brand logos permitted on any packaging. Companies will be able to print their name and the cigarette brand in small, prescribed font on the packets together with stark health warning messages and ...
Dear Fraser, Today at First Minister's Questions I asked if the SNP government would use some of the £67 million of extra funding they have received from our government at Westminster to fill the £40 million college funding gap. The SNP took the decision to cut college funding, which could threaten nearly 9000 student places next year and compromise the depth and quality of the subjects on offer. Liberals have always understood the importance of colleges in giving people, no matter what their background, the opportunity to gain the skills needed for secure, well paid jobs. As such, we have ...
Following yesterday's post I've been asked about the legal position on parking and also what is being done to help solve the problems. In Stockton the council is responsible for enforcing parking restrictions in most cases. The main issues we have in our estate roads are parking partly on the pavement and parking on bends or junctions or across someone's drive. Drivers often park with 2 wheels
Last night, I attended the West End Sports and Heritage Association (WESHA) committee meeting at the West End Community Base in the Vine in Magdalen Yard Road. There was a useful update on the Sports Facility Payback Fund application that WESHA and other sports community hubs in the city have applied to - in our case to see real improvements to the changing rooms and adjacent car park at Riverside. I've suggested - and the committee has agreed - to an 'open day' type event for sports groups in the West End during Spring 2012. WESHA is a really dynamic ...
Mike Beckett by Anne Pilgrim QR Code Mike Beckett says "A big thank you!" Thank you for your support with the North Yorkshire County Council Thornton Dale and the Wolds By-election campaign with voting held on Thursday 27th October 2011 and the count starting at 10am the following day. The candidates visions were set out in the Gazette and Herald they also wrote about the Conservatives minor quibble about a quote which is a matter of public record. This I believe was done to draw attention from the Conservative candidates voting record both in favour of access for a housing ...
Percy Shelley Men of England, wherefore plough For the lords who lay ye low? Wherefore weave with toil and care The rich robes your tyrants wear? Wherefore feed and clothe and save, From the cradle to the grave, Those ungrateful drones who would Drain your sweat -nay, drink your blood? Wherefore, Bees of England, forge Many a weapon, chain, and scourge, That these stingless drones may spoil The forced produce of your toil? Have ye leisure, comfort, calm, Shelter, food, love's gentle balm? Or what is it ye buy so dear With your pain and with your fear? The seed ...
Loughborough has an ornate Edwardian public library. It is rather like the one in King's Lynn, though not as fantastical. And, as far as I know, they don't need bouncers at the Loughborough one either. The similarity of the two buildings is not so surprising, as both are Carnegie libraries. As Wikipedia explains: A Carnegie library is a library built with money donated by Scottish-American businessman and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. 2,509 Carnegie libraries were built between 1883 and 1929, including some belonging to public and university library systems. 1,689 were built in the United States, 660 in Britain and Ireland, ...
That's HMS Belfast not the city on the banks of the Lagan. Earlier this week the London 2012 organiser had released a advert that shows an iconic stretch of the River Thames without one of that part's icons, the one that sits on the water. Picture comparison via BBC They said that the omission of the World War II and Korean War veteran was "a simple mistake in the advertising production process", Bizarrely the ship has been there for 40 years, far longer than City Hall to the fore of the image and many of the buildings around it. But ...
A second day on the, er, unique Bonkers Hall Estate. Tuesday I have, ever since serving on the Escape Committee at prep school, taken a keen interest in the latest developments in education and have been able to introduce many innovations to the village school. Vocational training, the teaching of foreign languages, shoes... we have been at the forefront of all of these. So I was intrigued to read of a school that will be drawing its staff from former members of the Armed Forces. Funnily enough, here in the East Midlands there was once a regiment that was drawn ...
So says the sign in the window of the London 2012 shop at St. Pancras station. Before I caught my train home this evening, I had a quick look around inside. I do wonder if Visa are proud of them though. I couldn't identify a single item that I would consider buying as it was all (a) too expensive or (b) amazingly ugly and tacky or (c) both. Maybe it's because I'm old and grumpy, but I've never seen it looking very busy, so perhaps there are lots of other people who agree with me too. I did mischievously wonder ...
During the 2010 General Election all three of the main parties accepted that there would have to be cuts. The Conservatives said that they would make cuts of £92 billion if they got a majority. Labour announced that they would halve the deficit by 2014 if they were re-elected* (Labour's Fiscal Responsibility Act 2010 committed it to halve the overall budget deficit by 2013-14 from its 2009-10 levels). The Liberal Democrats campaigned for cuts of £80 billion. After the election neither Labour nor the Conservatives were able to form a government on their own. The Lib Dems eventually formed a ...
Because New Labour 'reform', in practice, meant excising the human element, imposing sclerotic and centralised IT systems and driving out the most effective people from front line positions:
The DUP MPs David Simpson, Sammy Wilson, Jim Shannon, Gregory Campbell and Jeffrey Donaldson say they are backing a motion to discuss the return of the death penalty. They say this issue was last discussed in 1998 in Westminster in 1998 and that it was now time for the debate to be reopened. Indeed Mr Donaldson had earlier said that he wanted it brought back for convicted terrorists. Time I think to republish a certain photo. The issue had of course been debated in each parliament since the abolition of the death penalty up until 1998 when it was last ...
The final decision on the £120 million Croxley Rail Link is now only four or five weeks away. This project rebuilds an old railway line between Croxley Green and Watford Juction, connecting the London Underground Metropolitan Line with the West Coast Main Line that runs in to Euston. The railway will follow the London Overground route from Watford Junction and then branch off down the old track after Watford High Street. The line will be rebuilt to double-track throughout with a new station – Watford West – at Vicarage Road to serve Watford Hospital and the football ground. The disused ...
With so much doom and gloom in the news its nice of the Australians to work so hard to cheer us up :-) Australia crash to their lowest Test total in 109 years as wickets tumble on day two of first Test in South Africa*snigger*
I came into central London yesterday to do a walking tour of little known historic sites in the City. We had planned to avoid the student protesters but found that the route of the protest went right past the pub where we where having lunch. The result was we were locked in and the protesters were locked out. Nevertheless, I was able to take some photos of the protesters going past through the
Excitement is clearly mounting as the Queen's visit approaches and for me a bit of disappointment as I have commitments elsewhere. Still life goes on, and I'm sure that I'll be able to catch up on the BBC's news programme tomorrow night, aswell as the magic of radio or in my case 3g connectivity on the old smart phone. I understand BBC Radio Kent's, Julia George's 9am phone in programme, will be discussing the Queens visit to Margate, at nine o'clock and I assume that the earlier breakfast programme will have information on the visit including traffic and all that ...
Party President Tim Farron MP was the guest speaker at the Northern Durham Liberal Democrat dinner last Friday. I was there with camera so here are a few of the photos I took.
Cross-posted from Liberal Democrat Voice Prime Minister's Question Time (PMQs) is often criticised as a bad advert for Parliament. It is confrontational and glib. - That particularly applies to the portion which is shown mostly on news programmes. Anyone who is concerned about this should watch, or read the record of, the House of Commons Liaison Committee. Each quarter, it questions the Prime Minister for an hour and a half. The sessions are thoughtful, thorough and comprehensive. It is all very polite and earnest. One could criticise the sessions for going to the other extreme of the style of PMQs. ...
As a follow up to my last post – and following some off-line discussions with fellow Liberal Democrats – I think I should expand on why "upping our game", as defined in that annoying Independent piece , is not enough. We don't need some faceless aides stating the bleeding obvious. We need a plan. Just to be clear, and at the risk of repeating myself, I am not against Lib Dem MPs reminding interviewers/viewers which party they belong to (well one or two perhaps!) that is year one, level one comms basics... I would have thought that every MP had ...
I'm one of those Liberals who was sceptical about the euro from the start. Not because I was sceptical about Europe - quite the reverse: it seemed to derive and encourage Europe's darker side. I even said so in a speech to the Lib Dem conference in 2000. I can't find that now, but just over nine years ago, I gave the New Economics Foundation's Alternative Mansion House Speech at the Old Bank of England pub in Fleet Street, warning that the euro was like the disastrous 1925 return to the Gold Standard - an illusion that currencies were based ...
The BBC reports: A groundbreaking £1bn, 10-year deal for a private firm to run a struggling NHS hospital has been confirmed. Circle is to take over Cambridgeshire's Hinchingbrooke Hospital in February – although it will stay in the NHS. The deal will see Circle assume the financial risks of making the hospital more efficient and paying off its £40m of debts. But fears have been raised it could pave the way for "wholesale transfers" of hospitals to the private sector. There are a group of about 20 hospitals which have run into financial difficulties and Labour accused the government of ...
Now here's something clever to do with a chocolate bunny: One of the better uses of video for business to business and business to consumer social media marketing, bringing to life what could otherwise be a ran dry and technical subject.
I was very interested to read this typically candid piece by Jewish Chronicle Political Editor Martin Bright, about Nick Clegg's recent comments on how best to counter extremism Martin Bright writes: "It may come as a surprise...that...Nick Clegg has taken such a strong stance on...the Federation of Student Islamic Societies (Fosis). The decision by ministers to cancel a civil service recruitment fair organised by Fosis because the organisation had "failed to challenge sufficiently terrorist and extremist ideologies" was a bold one. Mr Clegg's comments to the Community Security Trust in Manchester last week were intended to illustrate his ...
I had a meeting this morning with Hilary Stephenson and Shaun Roberts from the Lib Dems' campaigns department. It was held in HQ in Great George Street. It was my first visit to the new HQ. I worked for 7 years at Cowley St so I got used to its warren of rooms and corridors. The new HQ is completely different. It is all open plan and all on one floor. I was impressed. It may not have the historic
East Riding Tory Councillor Paul Robinson has found himself in hot water with his standards committee for comments made on his blog....and by comments I don't mean his posts but comments left on his blog by third parties in the comments section. The complaint was made by his Labour opponent in the last elections According to the Hull Daily Mail the following comments were left on his blog One described Mike Whitley - a political rival of the Howdenshire councillor - as an "absolute idiot". The other referred to American writer Mark Twain's descriptions of troublemakers being stripped, tarred and ...
Thu 10th
13:00
Health and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee 8th November 2011 Part 1, Howard Cooper retires...
The agenda and reports for this meeting can be found here. Present Non-voting reps/co-optees (who are part of the committee) Sue Lowe Diane Hill (LINKS) Sandra Wall (Older Peoples Parliament) Councillors (part of the committee) Cllr Mike Hornby Cllr Geoffrey Watt Cllr Sheila Clarke Cllr Cherry Povall Cllr Patricia Glasman (Chair) Cllr Denise Roberts Cllr ...
A classic. Representative Joe Walsh of Illinois was holding a cosy discussion with (by my count) five constituents in the Uno Bar and Grill Gurnee, Illinois. One of the constituents then hits a nerve and Mr Walsh screams at him, before threatening to ask him to leave. The constituents all seem amused and bemused. [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
Just received this from Tfl: Bus service proposal: new night bus route N113 and changes to route N13 Overview During Transport for London's (TfL's) regular review of the bus network, we received requests for a night service on route 113. We are now proposing the introduction of a new route N113 which would combine with the N13 to provide the existing level of service between Finchley Road (Fortune Green) and Trafalgar Square. The N113 would give a new night service between Brent Cross and Edgware. Why we are consulting New route N113 The new N113 service would run every 30 ...
Learning Disabiltiy Meal Provision, Development Plan, Community Resettlement Service Last night was the regular meeting of Bury Council's Executive Committee. This is made up of the eight Executive members from the ruling Labour Group, and the two opposition leaders (myself and the Conservatives) as sit on the end as non-portfolio members (we really do get made to perch on the end....) The most important business of the evening were exempt items, which means that any members of the press or public had to be excluded and I am not allowed to tell people about them. The rest of the business ...
Notice from Herts County Council Hertfordshire County Council is launching a new service to make it easier to notify government departments of births and deaths. When a child is born or when someone dies there are lots of things that need to be done. These include informing the many government departments and council services that need to know. Until now, Hertfordshire residents have had to contact each of them individually with the same information. Hertfordshire County Council now provides a new service which means that information collected by one organisation can be shared across a number of different local and ...
As the Student Protests were starting outside my office door, I decided to pop down and see what was going on. I nominally joined in and took this selection of some of the more humorous signs I found. The photos seemed to go down well on Twitter – this one had 15,000 views and reached at least 26,000 users. If you're interested in using / licensing them, please use the high resolution images on Demotix. [IMG: Don't shoot, we're unarmed #9nov on Twitpic] [IMG: If i wanted to be shot I'd be playing Call of duty #9nov on Twitpic] [IMG: ...
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This caught my tired eyes this morning on PoliticsHome: The Government is being encouraged to consider implementing new drug laws which decriminalise drug use, so long as users are sent to education and treatment courses. MPs from all parties have signed an early day motion put forward by Lib Dem Tom Brake calling for the ...
Bury's Labour Council has today announced its plans to cut services over the next three years. The cuts will mean a devastating reduction in basic services such as libraries, older people's care, street repairs and parks. The Council needs to save £17.7 million expenditure by 2015. This is on top of the £14 million savings that have already been made this year in Bury. All of us understand that the whole country needs to make savings following the massive debt that the previous Government left the country. We only have to look at what is happening to countries like Greece, ...
The doyen of Liberator magazine, Simon Titley, just sent me through a cutting from the Leicester Mercury which gives us just a glimpse at the reasons why public services became so expensive under New Labour. The report tells us of the unused regional fire control centre for the East Midlands, standing empty in Castle Donington, but still costing £5,000 a day to run, with burgeoning interest accruing in the PFI contract. It wasn't just the dream of regional government, or the manifest problems of PFI, that caused the problem here. It was another example of a huge misconceived and failed ...
Thu 10th
10:00
You know how politicians always list things in threes? Well, this is what happens when a Presidentia...
Oh dear. Squirm. The bitter end of Texan Rick Perry's Presidential dream, it would appear. Still. Look on the bright side. The world will be spared the poor man's George W Bush.... [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
Prime Minister's Question Time (PMQs) is often criticised as a bad advert for Parliament. It is confrontational and glib. – That particularly applies to the portion which is shown mostly on news programmes. Anyone who is concerned about this should watch, or read the record of, the House of Commons Liaison Committee. Each quarter, it questions the Prime Minister for an hour and a half. The sessions are thoughtful, thorough and comprehensive. It is all very polite and earnest. One could criticise the sessions for going to the other extreme of the style of PMQs. A good replacement for Horlicks, ...
Thu 10th
09:02So....let me get this straight....we're relying on political stability to return to Greece?............
It seems I spent most of my childhood and early adulthood listening, rather detachedly, to reports of crises in Greece and Italy. Greece seemed to always be in turmoil with Colonels shooting each other and people with names starting with "Papa" attempting to be in charge. But Italy was an even bigger joke. The name of the Prime Minister used to change virtually every afternoon. There have been 23 Italian Prime Ministers since the Second World War. Several of those have come in and gone out and come back in again. "I go, I come back". Silvio Berlusconi has been ...
This was sent to the Observer a few days after the date referred to. No surprise that they didn't publish it. Dear Sir, Below is a letter that I would appreciate being considered for publication. If unable to publish but are able to forward it to Mr Brian Hughes [Letters 16th October] I would be most grateful. - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- Dear Sir, Brian Hughes [Letters 16th October] bemoans the "traditional role of party conferences as a showcase for leaders" and pleads for political parties to "transform [Conferences] into explorations ...
Crisis? What is the crisis? Those infamous words spoken by the head of FIFA must be ringing through the ears of banking chiefs through the world, especially Europe. We have this strange situation where the economies in various countries, and continents, are tanking. The can isn't being kicked down the round, more like out of the ball park all together (OK, enough with the clichés already). Countries pay off debts by borrowing from other countries. Those countries rearrange their debts and then borrow and lend to and from other countries. Banks do the same. Then countries lend from the banks. ...
As unlikely as it seems, today's Western Mail article about dealings between Welsh teachers' unions and the Department of Education in Westminster actually offers no surprises to those who have regular dealings with UK politicians and civil servants. The paper says that Elaine Edwards, general secretary of Welsh teaching union UCAC, believes that there is an "ignorance about Wales" emanating from London which does not reflect well on the DfE: Ms Edwards questioned the department's understanding of devolution after a recent conversation about a focus group on new professional standards. She said: "I told the official I could nominate a ...
For three days only you can get a late night bus from Durham to Consett, November 17, 18 & 19. The extension, which is being paid for by the county council, will be open to you whether you're going to see the lights of Lumiere, have a curry on Claypath, or just get back from work. Am I being cynical, or is it easier to get money from the county council for prestigious events in Durham than for bread and butter matters in the rest of the county?
There is an awful lot of talk right now about the euro at the moment. Understandable since the euro is in the midst of a crisis at the moment. The talking points and the reasons that economists and politicians give for the crisis are: Nobody followed the rules. Wasn't enough enforcement of the rules governing ...
Graphic portrayals: Northern Ireland, graphic novels and the peace process « Slugger O'Toole Gordon Gillespie tells all. (tags: northernireland comics ) 1978 Tom Baker school visit footage Belfast gets a visit from the Fourth Doctor. "Time Lords do not acknowledge sectarian divides. This is a simple fact." "A Time Lord came and visited us at a very bad time." (tags: doctorwho northernireland ) 539 - Vive le tweet! A Map of Twitter's Languages | Strange Maps | Big Think Fascinating - Belgium and Switzerland invisible, Thailand way more prominent than its neighbours. (tags: maps languages twitter ) WHSmith have pulled ...
Few people that read this blog know me. Few people in fact truly know me. I am a loner. I live alone and I don't let anyone get too close to me. Think Clubber Lang aka Mr T in Rocky III. I have always been this way. I do things my own way and I wouldn't have it any other way. I like the idea of setting out my life to my own set of goals. I don't like risks. I like doing the right thing. I like living a quiet life. I have never ever truly looked up to ...
Following a successful recruitment drive at the recent regional conference, the Social Liberal Forum's branch in the North East will be holding their first meeting on Thursday 1st December 2011. Dr David Hall-Matthews, the Chair of the Social Liberal Forum, ... Continue reading →
