You will have seen on the news the death of two young men – both who had been at dance music events at Alexandra Palace on Friday and Saturday. One other young man is in hospital in a stable condition. The management at the Palace have put out this statement The key point being that if you were at the Palace and took any substances and do not feel well – then please go to A& E to get checked out. The police are investigating the incident.
An amazing week by every account; with much hectic activity since our Labour-run Council announced they were cutting the School Crossing Patrol budget by a whopping 80%! My letter to the Manchester Evening News on Monday was followed by a front page story the following day. Since then the paper has started a campaign against the cuts. I'm pleased that the MEN has raised awareness of the proposal, but less happy that the paper supports some redundancies for our Lollipop patrols, and cutting some crossings on cost grounds. Cost should NEVER be an excuse for cutting School Crossing Patrols. If ...
This is the line along the quay that leads to the ferry terminal at Weymouth. It saw regular passenger services until 1987, and this film shows a special working from 1994. A BBC News report from 2009 says there has been talk of using the line, which is still largely intact, to bring spectators to the yachting events at next year's Olympics. But the local council, which now owns the line, does not sound convinced. Note too the use of the abomination "train line" in that report's headline.
[IMG: Protecting the Parkland Walk] Earlier this week I met with the Council's nature conservation officers and with the Friends of the Parkland Walk to discuss how to better protect the much-loved nature area. The problem is that thousands of private properties border the disused Parkland Walk and over the years a good number of of people have taken advantage and stolen bits of lands – pushing their garden into the publicly-owned nature reserve. Despite having an official policy of zero tolerance to land grabs on the Parkland Walk, in actual fact the Council struggles to protect the Walk from ...
This morning's papers are full of reports that we Liberal Democrats are to rebrand ourselves. According to the Daily Mail (I know, I know): the parliamentary party was summoned to a meeting last week to be told that 'external brand experts' had been hired to try to boost the party's prospects.The Daily Telegraph adds some detail: Party chiefs were concerned that the Lib Dem identity was being lost because of the coalition with the Conservatives. However, the latest advice from outside experts is that MPs should rely on "short-term themes, straplines and soundbites" to put forward their political philosophy in ...
The only coalition which actually could sort out our economic problems at the moment is a coalition between the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats, because we are the only ones who understand together what needs to be done. -Today's Independent It's a great shame he didn't have such clarity of thought eighteen months ago... Ed Balls photo credit: Some rights reseved by Demos [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
I've spent this weekend reorganising the way I use cloud computing to store and backup data. Email. I use gmail, but I'm getting concerned about security. I know of several people whose gmail accounts have been hacked. At best this results in embarrassment, as everyone on your contact list is sent a personal invitation by ...
Labour Southwark set up a Democracy Commission. It is meant to be making recommendations about changes to Community Councils to save £344,000 pa. It's had lots of input to this 'consultation'. But its now reported that Labour Cllr Seaton at the recent meeting of the Walworth Society stated that following discussions within the Labour group Walworth Community Council would be merging with Borough and Bankside Community Council. So having seen the Democracy Commission spend six months working cross-party on these issues, listening to residents and attempting to balance local democracy with the need to make some financial savings, itis deeply ...
The Mail on Sunday story based on leaked documents claims that Liberal Democrats are spending large amounts hiring Neil Sherlock (and others ?) to re-brand the party. The graphic above was to illustrate that the party should copy Oxfam. The only thing in common between the two diagrams is the shape. The rather vacuous messages in the balls labelled Vision, Roots and Behaviour convey nothing
All, [IMG: St. Edmund's Church, Shipston] Visitors to the SCA Photography Competition at St. Edmund's Church I had fun this weekend stewarding at the Shipston Community Arts' Photography Competition in St. Edmund's Church. Thanks must go to Ian Bailey, the Treasurer of SCA who organised the competition and the event, and David Thurburn-Huelin for allowing us to use the Church. There were over 140 photos, many of superb quality – for which we are grateful to those that entered the competition. You can find more about Shipston Community Arts here. Before anyone says anything – yes, I'm aware of the ...
The band's first album for Warner Brothers, and first of the 1970s, was the first – and in some ways the only – truly collaborative Beach Boys album. Originally put together as a contractual obligation album for Capitol under the working titles Reverberation and The Fading Rock Group Revival, before being submitted to Warners under ...
"The only coalition which could actually sort out our economic problems at the moment is a coalition between the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats, because we are the only ones who understand together what needs to be done." Sunday Independent, page 2
Picture: Care of the Evening Telegraph (Click the image to read their article) Werrington Centre's only public house is under threat of closure, thanks to supermarket giant Tesco, who's plan to double the size of their existing store, does not include space for the pub! Thankfully, owner Andy Simmonds has decided to campaign against the venues closure! Hundreds have already signed the petition and you can too by simply visiting: http://www.savetheploughman.com/ As far back as 4 years ago, members of the South Werrington and North Gunthorpe FOCUS Team were warning that amenities at the centre could be lost, following Tesco's ...
It was 21 years ago that Margaret Thatcher was last called upon to answer questions as Prime Minister. She already knew she was not going to answer another series of PMQs and unlike the usual fighting last one before an election there was the sycophancy from her side and jeers each time this happened from the other side. There was a planted question about how many she had answered, at the time the answer was "His question is the 7,498th oral question to which I have replied in 698 Question Times." There were two more tabled questions after that point, ...
Every time I watch this ad I'm reminded of exactly why marriage equality is so important. If you feel benevolent and particularly generous, this writer always appreciates things bought for him from his wishlist
Was just representing Liberal Democrat Friends of Israel in a cross-party panel discussion at an event in Manchester called Big Tent for Israel. Guto Bebb, Conservative MP for Aberconwy, said something extraordinary. He said that, while Israel's Arab MPs in Israel's quite rightly can stand up in Parliament and speak in Arabic (which is one of Israel's official languages), Welsh MPs can't address the British Parliament in Welsh! With Welsh being an officially recognised minority language of the United Kingdom, it's forbidden to speak Welsh in Parliament and that's outrageous. This is up there with not carrying an official ...
On December 15th, the question of allowing civil partnership ceremonies to have a religious character will be debated in the House of Lords. Baroness O'Caithan and her allies state they wish to protect religious organisations from being forced to hold civil partnerships under equality laws. And to do this they will attempt to ensure religious civil partnerships cannot go ahead. I'm no fan of religious civil partnerships and I find equality laws often do more harm than good, but I can't feel even a modicum of sympathy for this political maneuver in the Lords. It's fairly obvious that if the ...
Back again to the back-of-a-flag-packet policies put forward by Labour in their spoon fed motion they had copied and pasted from the national Labour website and which was debated by Gateshead Council on Thursday. I have already blogged about Labour's out-of-touch belief that the typical household in Gateshead earns £50,000. And I've already looked at Labour's magical bank bonus tax which raises
I woke up this morning wondering whether I could bring myself to support Swansea City against my life-long love of Aston Villa this afternoon. Breaking allegiances for a match after 19 years of support was a big thing for me. I was going to blog about it. Now, quite frankly, I couldn't give a damn who wins the match. There are some things in life that are wholly inexplicable. Events that shock, stun and numb beyond comprehension. The news that Gary Speed has been found dead, apparently by his own hand, has caught everyone unawares. I'm incredibly numb right now. ...
I've just got in from church and like the rest of the nation am shocked to hear the sad news that Gary Speed, the Welsh national football manager, has been found dead. More so when you realise that he was only 11 days older than I am myself, and it appears that he has taken his own life. It was only yesterday that I along with many other saw him on Football Focus. He was on the start of a reasonably successful international management career having lead the team to five wins from the ten games in which he was ...
It would be nice to think this were real!
Trying a different layout suuggested by matgb; let's see if it works better. Edited to add: It's failed miserably, even on my own home view. I am going back to tables, which I at least understand. 1) TV I've shifted on this as a result of my recent rewatch of the Third Doctor stories. I used to be a big fan of The Curse of Peladon, which speaks to a lot of my interests and is a little untypical of the Third Doctor era. But in fact I now find myself torn between The Dæmons and The Green Death, the ...
Back on Thursday on the 20th anniversary of Freddie Mercury's death I commented here in my blog that I had given an interview to the Welsh language weekly magazine Golwg about him and my love for the music of Queen. Here is that interview with an English translation for those who have requested it. 20 years since the death of Freddie Mercury, Cllr Mark Cole from Cardigan still marvels at the magnitude of his talent... "I was 9 years old when I came across the music of Queen, and that after Freddie Mercury's death in 1991. They had re-released Bohemian ...
Here in Britain we know Split Enz because of this singer and because it is the band Neil and Tim Finn were in before Crowded House. But as the Wikipedia article on Split Enz (clearly a labour of love) makes clear, they had a considerable career in New Zealand and Australia before they became in Britain. Because of that you might expect them to be a little of the cultural pace. But I Got You still sounds good and, poised between new wave and new romantic, it is 1980 encapsulated in four minutes.
Constantinople falls to the Turks. A brilliantly written chapter. See also my notes on the cannon, transporting your navy over land, Voltaire, Samuel Johnson and astronomy, and the astrological timing of the final assault.
Don't give money to the poor in Africa: give it to the rich in the West.
Hertfordshire Trading Standards is warning residents not to be duped by a postal scam from a company selling pricey cakes and chocolates. Several reports have been received from households across the county which have received a mail shot from a Belgium-based company, Delices and Gourmandes. Customers are told that they can claim a prize in a draw if they place an order from the company's catalogue of expensive cakes and chocolates. Once consumers order, they are told they will receive a cheque for their winnings. But rather than receiving a cheque, consumers instead get another mailing. The Consumer Protection from ...
As far as I know, there is only one meeting at Blyth Town Council next week Finance Committee , Thursday 1st December, 6pm at Ebor House This should be interesting, as it sees the start of working out the 2012 /13 precept. When the Liberal Democrats had a "control" as the largest party, we were happy with , and Labour insisted on, a consensus approach and set a budget by agreement. I wonder if Labour, now that they are the largest party, will adopt a similar approach. I have my doubts.
The Telegraph and the Mail on Sunday are carrying stories about internal discussions on the Party's identity and public profile. For the Telegraph this is a return to a theme first raised in March. The papers both carry a quote from a party spokesman acknowledging that this exercise is no secret and has been going on for some time. The correspondence between the stories in the two papers - the mention of Oxfam as an example of a clear "brand", the need for a longer term vision, excavating the history of the party for 'big wins', the mention of Neil ...
And thank goodness for that! The main message from Nick Clegg's interview with today's Observer is that this is not a Conservative Government nor is it driven by ideology in the same way as Thatcher's early governments were: The deputy prime minister is in overdrive, dismissing questions that challenge his views. "Hang on a minute," he says repeatedly, before ploughing on with his original arguments. He paints himself as the one key figure in the coalition who can understand the concerns of those struggling in today's sickly economy — and temper the sink-or-swim approach of the Tories. "I'm acutely aware, ...
Sun 27th
09:54
Opinion: Party funding plans to be kicked into the long grass - but what's the alternative?
Proposals from the Committee on Standards in Public Life for state funding of political parties were kicked into the long grass by all three major players before the report was even officially published. Reaction from various interested sources and commentators has been almost unanimously opposed to the idea with some, notably the Taxpayers' Alliance, outraged by the proposals. The key thrust of most of the arguments against the plan is simply that the time is wrong to burden tax payers with state funding of politic parties at a time when so many budgets are being cut, jobs being lost and ...
Pressure from many quarters, not least from Chris and others in St Albans Lib Dems, seems to have persuaded the Chancellor that the country cannot afford inflation-busting fare increases. It had been expected that fares would rise by 8.2% – 3% above the rate of inflation. But it is now likely that this will be reduced by 2%. Chris comments: 'Local commuters and travellers have had enough. With season tickets passing the £3,500 mark for a pitifully unreliable rail service, it is only justice that local people are given a break.' Chris renewed his call for First Group not to ...
Yesterday, in addition to attending West End Christmas Week events, I had the pleasure of visiting Tesco Riverside to be presented with the store's generous contribution to this year's Christmas Week in the West End. From left : Emma Lyttle (Customer Services Manager at Tesco Riverside), yours truly and Kath Torode (Community Champion at Tesco Riverside) We are extremely grateful to Tesco and all local businesses for their generous contributions to Christmas Week, without whose support West End Christmas Week would not be possible. Our many thanks to one and all.
Proper post (or posts) tomorrow, but for now, links: Mark Pack on what the Lib Dems need to change about their messaging A rather disturbing piece by Illogical Volume over on Mindless Ones. Bruce Byfield on the difference between professional and amateur writing Andrew Ducker compares Promethea and Neonomicon Slacktivist on the forbidden fruit in ...
Here is my report back to Liberal Democrats who directly elected me (thank you!) to the party's delegation to the European Liberal, Democratic and Reform Party (ELDR). The second Council meeting of 2011 (there are two annually) and the annual Congress took place in Palermo, Sicily on 23-25 November at the invitation of the Italia dei Valori (Italy of Principles) Party. There were resolutions and emergency resolutions proposed by member parties, too many to summarise here, of which the most significant was, I think, one from the UK Liberal Democrats on the prospect of war with Iran. The gist is ...
