Myself and many others have spent years campaigning to highlight the issue of domestic violence, and so I was delighted to speak at a conference today hosted by the City of London's City Bridge Trust, NSPCC and Refuge looking at what can be done to meet the needs of children affected by domestic violence. There are some great services out there that support thousands of vulnerable women and children, but it is concerning that new research by the NSPCC and Refuge shows children's views are often ignored and considered second to those of women suffering from violent abuse. The report ...
Part 1 - Immigration and Integration – why not? The rise of the right in continental Europe clearly has a lot to do with a failure of politics - but it is also closely linked to immigration, and I believe that it has constrained the capacity of governments and societies to respond with momentous changes. We should acknowledge that immigration is considered a very serious problem by many, and we should take their complaints seriously. Often the worst difficulties do not necessarily arise because of immigration, but because the authorities are notable to react to the change quickly enough in ...
Yesterday, along with two representative of the Friends of Balgay, one of my ward colleagues and City Council Environment Department officers, I attended the latest Balgay Stakeholders' Group meeting. This group discusses projects and issues at Balgay Park, the Hill, Cemetery and Victoria Park and we had a very productive discussion about a number of matters including ranger-led events planned for the New Year such as path clearing, new signage for the Planet Trail and historic markers, and news that lighting improvements in the park should begin in the next week.
Today's events have sent me to my bookshelves and Bygone Days in Market Harborough by John Bland, published in 1924. Bland writes: Whilst upon the subject of Railways it would be well to mention that the late Mr. Thomas Cook, the founder of the firm of Messrs. Thomas Cook & Son, carried on a chair making and turning business in Adam and Eve Street. Mr Cook was a great enthusiast in promoting the cause of Temperance and soon after the Midland Counties Railway was opened for traffic in 1840, he walked from Harborough to Leicester to speak at a Temperance ...
Sorry to say that I thought this was a rare misfire from the Big Finish main sequence of stories. I love the chemistry between Paul McGann's Doctor and Julie Cox's Mary Shelley, but this story keeps them apart in return for a tale of moral, psychological and time-paradoxical complexity which the script didn't really do justice to. Some elements of the plot were similar to the Who book I was reading at the same time, Justin Richards' novel The Death Riders, which confused me a bit, though this is not anyone else's fault.
Speeding drivers and inadequate traffic calming measures have made life a misery for families living on a Cambridge road. For years residents of Fen Road, East Chesterton have been plagued by cars racing along the road and heavy lorries bouncing across the speed bumps. Now the city's Liberal Democrats have scrutinised the issue and come up with a number of ideas to solve the problem. They are taking their findings to Cambridge City Council's North Area Committee on Thursday (November 24) and again in January to give residents the chance to have their say. Cambridgeshire County Councillor, Ian Manning, who ...
I got hold of this some time before I got the first in the trilogy of mildly supernatural Irish romances. In this one, the happily predestined couple fall in love at first sight (on page 24) and spend the book struggling only with each other's personalities (and their own) and exploring the troubling possibility that the family ghosts are pushing them together before deciding to ignore it. Every other character (ghosts included) wishes them well, so there is no external factor to make things interesting. The anthropologist-turned-barmaid from the first book gives birth at the end of this one, in ...
Tue 22nd
21:07
Licensing Act 2003 Sub-Committee 22/11/2011 (Four Seasons, 265-267 Seabank Road, Wallasey)
The Licensing Committee due to take place today to review the Four Seasons premises licence in New Brighton ward did not take place as planned. The following councillors did however turn up:- Cllr Denise Roberts Cllr John Salter Cllr Mike Hornby Officers: David Abraham (Legal adviser) Margaret Calvert (Licensing Team Leader) Committee Clerk: Unknown Others: ...
"The one thing missing from today's housing strategy will be an outright acknowledgment that lower house prices would be a good thing. It's still too much of a political taboo. But ministers know that it's exactly what the younger generation need." Good sense from Mary Ann Sieghart in the Independent. Index on Censorship examines government plans to ban demonstrations during the 2012 London Olympics. A Dutch MEP claims European politicians have been gagged over the sharing of passenger information with the USA, reports Computer World UK. "Tea drinking fills the public house, makes the frequenting of it habitual, corrupts boys ...
The first meeting of the newly-formed East Midlands branch of the Social Liberal Forum will take place on Saturday, December 3rd, 2011, at the Leicester Secular Society building, on Humberstone Gate in the city, starting at 7pm. This first meeting ... Continue reading →
Having suffered a minor shock on Monday morning on hearing that Birkbeck are apparently reviewing the future of their masters qualifications in psychological sciences, I was relieved on Monday evening to find that the prospectus I had requested from Leicester University for their masters in Occupational Psychology had arrived. And very interesting it looks too. For a mere (gulp) £3,795 per year, a part-time distance learning masters could be mine in two years, starting in October 2012. The modules on offer cover personnel selection and assessment, ergonomics, the psychology of organising, the psychology of occupational training and development, the individual ...
Tomorrow In Castleside Church Hall (5.30 – 6.00), before the Derwent Valley Partnership Forum, you are invited to have your say on the policing and community safety priorities for 2012/2013. The overall consultation runs from 14th November until 1st December 2011. Other ways to Vote • Vote online, visit www.durham.police.uk • Vote by text, text the word VOTE followed by your chosen 3 priorities from the list below, plus your postcode to 07786 027280 (your text should look like this example: VOTE 2,4,5, DH8 0DE). • Request a paper form or a large print form by telephoning 0191 383 6529
Tue 22nd
17:33
Any success of George Osborne's to mend the economy will be to the detriment of the Conservatives
An old principle of British politics that I learned when I was young is that when there's plenty of money around, people tend to vote Labour to share the wealth. When money's tighter and people are concerned about their own immediate future, they start to vote Conservative to safeguard their finances. Despite the frankly schoolboyish display we've had from the current Treasuy lineup, the Conservatives (and the Coalition) are and will be for a long time far more trusted on the economy than Labour and especially the two Eds. The Shadow Chancellor represents everything that people distrust about Labour economics. ...
Yesterday evening I was off to the Merton Liberal Democrats AGM to speak about Campaigning In Your Community, which meant a journey via Wimbledon station. The station faces a problem common to many: the volume of people using it at peak times exceeds its capacity, causing real problems at points such as pinch points such as the stairs. As a result, a one-way system has been introduced on the stairs, with people meant to use the left side only and extra fencing on the platform to divide the two streams of people. However, whilst time and effort has gone into ...
Recently, about a month ago, some fraudulent Cad posed as Rehman Chishti MP for Gillingham & Rainham in a fake Twitter account duping over one hundred journalists, fellow MPs and constituents. The tweets were fairly innocent, discussing what he had for lunch, that his printer had packed up etc... This is significant for two reasons: 1. It was the first time I had seen him in the local press for a long while. 2. After being contacted by Alan McGuinness, a reporter for the Medway Messenger for a comment on the Twitter account he contacted Twitter and had it removed ...
Earlier this month, Liberal Democrat News ran this piece from me about how the Parliamentary boundary reviews are being run. It has long been the demand of political reformers in Britain stretching back through the 19th century and earlier that everyone should have the vote and everyone's vote should count equally. More recently that has tended to mean debates over voting systems so that people's votes are less likely to be 'wasted votes', but it also matters in terms of how constituency boundaries are drawn. The bigger the range in size of different constituencies, the bigger the difference in how ...
An all party group of MP's, including local Cheadle MP Mark Hunter, have just returned from a visit to British troops currently serving in Camp Bastion in Afghanistan. The delegation, who met with International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) representatives, were briefed by senior officers and had the opportunity to discuss the situation on the ground with servicemen and women. The group of MP's had flown from RAF Brize Norton to Camp Bastion and were briefed on arrival by the Command Joint Force Support Unit. The MPs heard encouraging progress had been made by the mission in recent months. Included in ...
A colleague sent this over to me this afternoon and it is absolutely insane. Like proper crazy. It is the performance of the Warriors of Goja on India's Got Talent. Certainly not one for the squeamish but you've gotta watch it. I seriously don't know how they did half of these stunts... [IMG: Share on Tumblr] [IMG: Submit to StumbleUpon] [IMG: Save on Delicious] [IMG: Digg This] [IMG: Submit to reddit] [IMG: Share on Myspace] [IMG: Share via email] Tweet
In yesterday's Scottish Daily Mail, they ran their front page with the sensationalist headline: "Give Us A Vote Now And We Will Save The Union". The Daily Mail had organised an opinion poll through Progressive Scottish Opinion to ask whether we Scots desired "Salmond's dream of destroying the Union" as well as working out what ...
There are a number of options for J in my tour through my record collection. There is of course the King of Pop himself. Or maybe some Elton John or Jamiroquai. Instead I went for the guy whose complete works (well up to a certain point) I have the guitar and piano music for, none other than the Piano Man Billy Joel. But what music to pick. Because anyone listening to the entire Billy Joel collection will know what an amazing pianist he is here is a little bonus.
Given that Nick Clegg gave a clear signal only last week that it is impossible to ask taxpayers to provide more money to fund political parties during this a time of austerity it is difficult to see where exactly today's report from the Committee on Standards in Public Life is going to go. Following a 15 month inquiry they have recommended that an extra £23 million a year of taxpayers' money, the equivalent of 50p per voter, should be used to fund political parties as part of an effort to clean up the system. This would then enable a £10,000 ...
Andrew Sparrow quotes Keir Starmer, Director of Public Prosecutions, saying on Five Live this morning: We are very close to a decision. There is one remaining issue which is that we are seeking some material which is held by a national newspaper. That is the only thing we are waiting for now ... I understand why people think it is taking a lot of time but the way in which we get material from journalists is an important principle, quite separate from the Chris Huhne case. Chris Huhne vigorously denies all allegations. I should point out that the CPS have ...
The dramatic increase in the gap between the highest paid employees and the average pay grade is not just bad economics and worse politics. It reflects a major break down in corporate governance. The fact is that not only are most fund managers lousy investors- they rarely beat their benchmark, and the majority in recent years have actually lost money for their investors- they are truly appalling stewards of the investments that they make. Fund managers have been content to allow through any pay request made by the management of the companies that they invest in. These requests come, of ...
The World Development Movement have launched a new campaign aimed at stopping financial speculation on food markets. So far, it sounds pretty worthy but dull. What sets this campaign apart is that it is based around an internet only spoof of George Osborne, played by Rufus Jones. The first episode is online here. In total there will be 14 episodes between now and Christmas. They've got a political campaign message to sell and they've not made the mistake of trying to force it all down our throats in episode one. So I've not yet been inspired to sign up to ...
Tue 22nd
13:18
When grown men laugh uncontrollably at swearing because it is in all honesty quite simply hilarious
Last Saturday during the Heads Gear selection by Lee Corso he dropped an F Bomb. Presenter hris Fowler laughed, analyst Kirk Herbstreit laughed and former Olympic Gold Medal athlete Carl Lewis laughed (and clapped a lot like a seal). It was truly funny but not just because of the old man dropping the F Bomb. It was how he did it and how the other presenters reacted that made it proper laugh out loud funny (well to me and most of the American sporting media anyway). Here is a clip. Proper funny. Sadly the big wigs up at ESPN HQ ...
Tue 22nd
13:05Pensions Committee (Wirral Council) 21st November 2011 Part 1, Declarations of interest, minutes (Pe...
Present: Cllr Geoffrey Watt (Chair) Cllr Ann McLachlan (spokesperson) Cllr Tom Harney (spokesperson) Cllr Peter Johnson Cllr Paul Doughty Cllr George Davies Cllr Adrian Jones Various other councillors and co-optees The Chair Cllr Geoffrey Watt welcomed people to the meeting of the Pensions Committee. He asked if members of the committee had any personal or ...
This is one of my series of lunchtime blogposts. Only a few months ago I was convinced that Nick Clegg would have to be replaced as leader if we were to have any chance of avoiding being slaughtered at the next general election. I also thought such an act would be justly deserved given the way in which he comprehensively mucked up over tuition fees and how damaging his behaviour in government had been to the party - not speaking up for Lib Dem principles, ignoring the membership on issues like the NHS and being seen as a frontman for ...
...And there's plenty of other connections in a superb interview write-up by Sam Macrory on PoliticsHome. She's some lady... Wartime exploits at Bletchley Park...working with Sir Alec Douglas-Home and Margaret Thatcher ("...she had no sense of humour) – she's had a very rich life and understandably doesn't want to be known for an off-hand gesture! In the interview, Trumpers reviews that the legendary libido of Lloyd George was still in evidence in old age: When her family home in Kent was requisitioned, she was sent to stay with a friend of her mother's, the daughter of former prime minister, David ...
Yesterday I woke up and stuck Sky Sports 2 on quick sharpish and thanks to a delay in starting the days play I saw nearly the whole of the final days play between South Africa and Australia. As most know cricket is where my heart lies deep down with regards to sport and good Test Cricket still dumps on any other sporting encounter and yesterday we were treated to how a Test Match should be played. The Aussies needed 310 to win, which would be the highest successful chase ever at the Wanderers ground. The day started with all three ...
This weekend sees the Blyth Town Council Christmas Festival, over two days. On Friday there is a continental market 9 am until 5 pm, and the lighting of the Christmas Lights ( timed to start at 4:30 for a 5 ish turn on.) This year the lights will be switched on by Julie ( Jules ) Butler, fundraiser extra-ordinaire! Jules raises funds through Bailey's Bike Ride, which I have mentioned on here previously, but for those who don't know here's a link to her website :- http://www.baileysbikeride.com/ On Saturday there is again the continental market, and three productions of Dick ...
The 2012 LGiU and CCLA C'llr Achievement Awards are open for entries. Liberal Democrat councillors have done very well in these awards since they first started two years ago. Last year, Cllr James Barber from Southwark won Online Councillor of the Year and two years ago we had three winning councillors. They are now established as the only national ceremony that recognises and rewards the fantastic work of councillors from across the political spectrum. In light of the ever-growing popularity of the awards, they have created some exciting new categories for 2012, including the Age UK Pride of Place Award, ...
(These are mostly notes to myself!) I love Calibre, it's the perfect eBook management tool. It comes with a built in WWW server so you can easily access your library on the go. The only problem is that this really only works if you have a single machine dedicated to Calibre. For various reasons, I don't have a single machine. I have a desktop, laptop, and server. The Calibre Library is just a database with a set of files and folders – so all three machines sync via DropBox. As long as I don't have the Calibre program open on ...
[IMG: A pile of newspapers] How prominent is the coverage the newspapers are giving to the phone hacking inquiry? Here's today's coverage: Daily Mirror – p.1 Daily Star – p.1 Daily Telegraph – p.1 The Guardian – p.1 The i – p.1 The Independent – p.1 The Times – p.1 The Sun – p.6 Daily Express – p.7 (a Princess Di's death exclusive is on p.1) Daily Mail – p.10
Grant Mitchell lookalike employed as Securak clamper. Other vehicles reportedly used are a white left-hand drive VW van and a red van The steep fines meted out to anyone who happens to drive into the ally on the right of Tesco are now a standard feature in the local press. This week sees yet another report of a driver being trapped into the car park at the back of Tesco, which is owned by the neighbouring "You're Furnished" shop on Cambridge Road. The clampers' modus operandi is to keep the gates to the car park open even after the furniture ...
Despite being a devout atheist, I find this image of Christians linking hands to protect Muslims praying in Tahrir profoundly hopeful.
Yesterday saw the publication of the Coalition's housing strategy. It brought together policy touching upon housing from across a range of Whitehall Departments. The document represents a welcome recognition of the importance of housing to the broader economy and society. It covers quite a lot of ground, although not a lot of it represents news. There were, however, some high profile new proposals. I have decide not to post an exceptionally long blog - even for me! – on the whole document. For a change I've written some of my initial thoughts up as a paper. I hope some of ...
The debate regarding the importance and roles of 'social' and 'economic' liberalism can, on occasion, be misrepresented. Whether deliberate or incidental the relationship between the two philosophies can sometimes be presented as discrete, zero-sum options. I believe they should be considered as dialectic. In The Orange Book, a publication that is almost Frankensteinian in how it's perceived and what it actually contains, David Laws offers definitions for social and economic liberalism, that broadly serve well in discussion, they are: "economic liberalism: 'the belief in the value of free trade, open competition, market mechanisms, and the effectiveness of the private sector...combined ...
A 3 Minute Introduction to Carbon Co-op from Carbon Co-op on Vimeo. I wanted to draw your attention to the Energyshare Fund Vote that is open at the moment, which gives people a chance to vote for a community ... Continue reading →
The last cycle of collections collections of brown bins across the county is taking place this week. Collections will resume next spring.
The new Secretary of State for Transport has been praised by Cambridgeshire council chiefs for listening to their arguments and moving improvements to the A14 a step closer. Cambridgeshire County Council has been leading discussions for partners with the Department for Transport (DfT) on finding ways to improve the congestion blighted A14 corridor. This week the DfT has announced that money has been made available to carry out the first two stages of a new A14 survey with the first phase due to be completed by Christmas. The first short stage will see experts reviewing the problems and challenges surrounding ...
Yesterday, along with the Lord Provost and other invited guests, I had the pleasure of attending the celebration of the 10th Anniversary of Ancrum Road Primary School's superb library - surely one of the best amongst the city's primary schools. The school, staff and parent volunteers deserve much thanks for their efforts in creating a lovely, well-stocked library. Whilst there, and along with Davie Bowman of Dundee United, I met the two Ancrum Road Primary School P5 five-a-side football teams that are playing in the West End Christmas Week Primary Schools' Football Competition on Friday, kindly sponsored by WestFest. Here's ...
Just before I spend a lot of the next few days covering the impending West End Christmas Week, here's an update on the Christmas Light Night for the city, taking place this Friday : Christmas Light Night - Friday 25th NovemberFrom 6pmDundee City CentreFREE The street party begins with the peal of church bells, a magical torchlight procession, followed by the official switching on of the Christmas lights kicking off a fun packed programme of entertainment for all the family. The whole city centre opens up and becomes an event arena with performances from local groups and entertainers at outdoor ...
Rochdale Council are writing to the Bury residents who live along the border with Rochdale Council on Middleton Road in Rhodes regarding the land off Kelvin Avenue. This is a former landfill site which may be producing gas, which has the potential to migrate off site. There is nothing currently to suggest there is an imminent risk, but this precautionary investigation is being undertaken to enable Rochdale Council to gather further information. The work will commence on Monday 28th November and last approximately two weeks. You may see some drilling type equipment on the site and the grass verges nearby ...
Tue 22nd
06:08
November Books 20-21) Heart of Stone, by Trevor Baxendale; Death Riders, by Justin Richards
Another of the double Doctor Who books published earlier this year, two 200-page novels bolted together. Baxendale's Heart of Stone is set in an English farmhouse where things start turning to moon rock, and the Doctor has to put things right - reminded me of that much better YA novel where moon rock starts animating the exhibits in the New York Natural History Museum - can anyone remember its name and author? Death Riders is formula Richards rather than epic Richards, and has a somewhat confused plot of circus folk on an asteroid concealing a deep secret. The two books ...
Of course, I saw the film when it first came out, and found myself continually comparing the book to it. But in fact the book holds up well - a lot of the shocking visual moments from the film are reasonably firmly rooted in the book, and sometimes actually come off better on the page. And the book turns out to be not really about the process of reviving dinosaurs, but about the fragility of human endeavour against the chaos of the natural world - the author's mouthpiece character, who gets to speak long infodumps and whose gnomic statements preface ...
Tue 22nd
00:00
Day 3977: If Mr Balls walks like a duck and talks like a duck, does that make him a QUACK?
Monday: Any sceptical journalist on the subject of ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE will tell you that there are some people who will EXPLOIT anyone who is ill and/or in pain, and tell them: "the medicine you are using is not working; if only you were using this ancient Chinese/African/Indian herbal mixture/shamanic bangle/magic pointing stick then you would be better." The sceptical audience tend to refer to this disparagingly as "woo"; and refer to its practitioners as QUACKS. And yet, this is EXACTLY the same technique that Shadow Chancer Mr Bully Balls is using to describe the economy and his own "alternative remedies". ...
