I'm a student of The Open University, and whilst those of us in Northern Ireland have not had the fees hike that has been seen in England, I do still care about the access to University for others. There is ... Continue reading →
Ed Milliband was in the House of Commons today discussing the impact of the strike action by public workers. He was not going to demonise the dinner lady, the cleaner or the nurse as these are people who earn in a week what the chancellor pays for his annual skiing holiday. He got loud cheers from the Labour benches but I did not understand what this meant. So I took a look at where the chancellor had gone on his skiing holiday. I had thought that skiing holidays were expensive and according to Ed nurses must be on a good ...
I am writing to the many people who have signed the petition to save Manchester's School Crossing (Lollipop) Service; Thank you so much for signing the petition to 'Save our Lollipops'. As the day approaches when our Councillors have the opportunity to drop this dangerous proposal I thought I would contact you to let you know what is happening. To date I have collected over 700 signatures from Chorlton residents alone. That is a lot of people in one area who are united in opposing the Council's plan to cut the funding for our Lollipop Patrols by 80%. It is ...
I first posted on this blog one year ago today. It was in the middle of the storm over tuition fees and I was bombastic enough to think giving advice to Vince Cable was a good idea. The post had just nine page views - mainly my own trying to work out formatting and other things. Well since then I've written a further 267 posts (including this one) and the blog has had more than 26,000 page views - and I'm pretty sure they can't all be my own.
I was saying to some one this evening that if I use the magic words Manchester United or Chelsea then the number of hits for this blog rockets!!! Anyho' I tripped across this brilliant speech which nails the myths surrounding same sex marriage and on the basis of this performance Iowa has a new favourite son!
This month, we had two book selections for the Kitchen Reader bookclub, chosen by Julie of Savvy Eats: Eat Where You Live: How to Find and Enjoy Local and Sustainable Food No Matter Where You Live by Lou Bendrick and Just Food: Where Locavores Get it Wrong and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly by James E. McWilliams. We could choose either or both; I read both. Despite the similar subject-matter, though, the two books are very different, not just in their message, but in their purpose and style. Eat Where You Live is a how-to book for people who ...
Wed 30th
22:49
Newham University Hospital NHS Trust helps Local Youngsters Get Ahead - Yes, they Can! (4)
Growing up in an area of social deprivation is well known to hinder educational attainment. Now Newham University Hospital NHS Trust has recognised that such problems in its immediate neighbourhood can mean that many able youngsters may be missing out on the chance to pursue a career in medicine. So they've launched a scheme called Doc Route to help compensate for possible social and educational handicaps. But it's no soft option and is only available to those who have narrowly missed out on the required A-level grades. It also adds a year of study and applicants must still face the ...
About a year ago Ian Holloway threatened to resign as the Blackpool manager if he was fined for fielding a weakened team for a cup match. It is possible that some managers would do this because fighting for promotion or avoiding relegation may be their priority over a good cup run. As it happens Blackpool were fined £25000 and Ian offered his resignation which was not accepted. There was a valid defence for Ian in that the players he selected were good players (he told us they were good) who played well and only just lost to a late goal. ...
Imagine that you are 14 years old, you have just worked hard completing activities including Volunteering, Physical, Skills and Expedition, for over three months as well as additional three months on one of them. During this time you have also ... Continue reading →
An audience is invited to watch the "real Lembit Opik" in London on Wednesday 14 December, reports the Evening Standard: "I'm not the man you read about in the newspapers," he says. The politician and former I'm a Celebrity contestant will be taking part in a chat show in Great Portland Street for one evening only at The Albany Theatre. And he plans to set the record straight about his public persona.The papers also tells us that Lembit is to publish two books next year and that he was "pipped to the post" in his attempt to the Lib Dem ...
As I write, the epetition I mentioned earlier on today has just passed the 4,000 signature mark – adding around 3,000 signatures in the last 24 hours according to my reckoning. At this rate, it might just stand an outside chance of reaching 100,000. It's been produced by the OU branch of UCU and is also being supported by OUSA. If you'd like sign the petition (and are a UK resident or national), this is the link you need.
[IMG: i saw the light]
The lucky man. From the Harborough Mail: "I have been to Harborough and campaigned in town in support of the team before and I try and keep a particularly close eye on the East Midlands, especially since the last election when we lost a seat."Simon is pictured with Lib Dem councillors Simon Galton, Phil Knowles, Barbara Johnson, Sarah Hill and Julie Simpson.
[NB: This is my opinion as of today, I'd welcome your thoughts - I reserve the right to change my mind if so persuaded! Also, this is about as rightwing as I've ever been!] I'm sorry, but today's strike was ridiculous. It was misguided, irresponsible and seemed to be purely for the sake of discrediting ... Read more
Well, it's that time again when everyone's returning from Thanksgiving (or as I tend to think of it, the Christmas Rehearsal Dinner) and my friends list / blog roll fills up with people asking for addresses for their friends to send out holiday cards. And once again, I explain that I ask people not to put a piece of paper in an envelope and mail it to me. And I won't do the same for you. What I do ask people to do for me is to make a small charitable donation – the amount you'd otherwise spend on a ...
You can tell it's November when the big games come out just at the right time stores can knock a few dollars off the price as a Black Friday "discount"; indeed, over the past six weeks, we've seen new games for Battlefield, Sonic the Hedgehog, Uncharted, The Elder Scrolls, Arkham (as in Asylum), Saints Row and, of course, our yearly instalments of Assassin's Creed and Call of Duty. The finale of the Modern Warfare franchise got rave reviews from the professional critics but got a raft of zeros from the public. It's not escaped notice, and among other people, the ...
What presents are you looking forward to giving or receiving this year? That's the question LDV posed to a group of Lib Dem bloggers. All this week we're revealing what they told us, with link-throughs to Amazon for your shopping convenience (and 'cos the referral fees help support LibDemVoice: so get clicking and ordering). Part I is available here; Part II here; and Part III here. In part three, our fourth trio of bloggers - Jonathan Calder, Caron Lindsay, and Mark Pack - give us the low-down on their Xmas faves... Jonathan Calder It is impossible to dislike Michael Wood ...
Wed 30th
17:28
Caron's Moonlightings: Jo Swinson MP questions BBC on all male Sports Personality Shortlist
You might recall I wasn't best pleased yesterday when I'd seen the shortlist for the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year award because it had not one single woman on it. At the same time as writing it, I fired off an e-mail to Jo Swinson MP. She told me that she and other MPs were planning to take it up with the BBC. They sent a letter to BBC Director General Mark Thompson earlier today. I wrote up all the details over at Lib Dem Voice. By the way, they are going to be slipping me the keys to ...
This photo was taken by Cllr Andrew Long during the lunch break in yesterday's Full Council meeting. Pictured are Andrew Wallis on the left and Alex Folkes on the right (with a cameo appearance from the Chairman of the Council in the background). It's not too late to donate...
While George Osborne was standing up in Parliament outlining the misery which lies in store for (nearly) everyone in Britain over the next six years, Cornwall Council was staging its own equivalent at New County Hall – the Tory-led administration's budget. To be fair to him, the Leader of the Council did attempt to sound ...
I was a bit stunned but very pleased yesterday to discover that my name has been drawn to introduce private members' legislation in the Welsh Assembly. My aim is to impose stricter controls over Park Home site owners. If I am given leave to proceed my Bill will aim to provide better protection to those who own property within Park Home (Mobile Home) sites and monitor and regulate site owners. At present there is little protection for residents from unscrupulous Park Homes site owners, a minority of which may exploit their position for personal gain. Problems can include poor site ...
Christmas is coming and on Thursday 1st December there will be the official Christmas lights switch-on for Gorton. This will take place in Tesco car park from 5:30 onwards. There will be stalls, entertainment and the tree. All welcome.
So, this has just popped up on my Twitter feed RT @CalendarNews: The Deputy Lord Mayor of Sheffield is suing a local tenants association after a chair he was sitting on collapsed at a community festival. This is exactly the sort of behaviour that is making Councils and community groups risk averse and why they put seemingly random rules in he way. Its also why insurance costs for many events are becoming ridiculous. I would have thought someone in a high civic position would show a bit of leadership, eschew the ambulance chasers and do what most of us do ...
When it first came out Brown at 10 by Anthony Seldon and Guy Lodge was extremely well received for its authoritative detail and the revised paperback edition maintains that standard well. With Seldon being one of the founders of the modern school of contemporary history, it is no surprise that the book follows the thorough, heavily documented approach contemporary historians strive for - with over 1 million words of interviews recorded for posterity (even if many are, for the next 30 years, withheld from public view) and extensive access to private diaries. The huge depth of research is accompanied by ...
I've been asking myself whether I support or don't support the strikes today. I can see and understand both sides of the argument. In a sense I agree with both sides of the argument. What I don't get and I don't like from both sides is the sense of animosity to those that disagree with ...
Camhayle Theatre Club's production of 'Ladies Day' opens at Wadebridge Town Hall tonight at 7.30pm. The play will run until Saturday and follows four fish trimmers from Hull on their day out the year Ascot came to York. It's a very funny play and affords you the opportunity to come along and laugh at me ...
Not surprisingly, it is the Mike Hancock connection which has got the headlines in the deportation case of Katia Zatuliveter. However, yesterday's decision by an immigration tribunal to let her stay in the country is a humiliation for MI5. It had confidently asserted that she was a spy and should be deported. It is not only that the Immigration Appeals Tribunal rejected MI5′s claims, but one of its three members hearing the case was Stephen Lander, himself the former boss of MI5. He and his colleagues concluded that she was not employed by the Russian secret service and that all ...
The very first thing that Alex Jones said on Monday evening when the shortlist for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year was announced live on the One Show was "they're all men". She sounded quite shocked – and rightly so. She was not alone. World champion swimmer Rebecca Adlington took to Twitter to say that there were many women in sport who deserve recognition this year. Attention was also given to how those shortlists were made up - voted for predominantly by male sports editors of national newspapers and, inexplicably, representatives of lads' Mags Nuts and Zoo. Four MPs, ...
I have just heard from one of Ealing Council's senior managers who is dealing with the strike today. The update reads.... Adult Services All critical and statutory services are operating, including homecare and meals on wheels. Cowgate and Carlton Road Day Centres (dealing with severely disabled adults) are closed. All users were informed in advance. Housing All critical and statutory services, including sheltered housing are operating. Children's Services All critical and statutory services, the Youth Offending Service and Youth and Connexions are operating. Refuse and recycling collections All services are operating as usual. Libraries Jubilee Gardens Library in Southall is ...
A planning application has been decided by officers to approve Planning Application APP/11/0192 which is in relation to 172 Upton Road, Bidston CH43 7QQ. This is an amendment to a previously approved planning application (APP/11/00207). It alters access between the ground floor, garage and first floor from the previously approved plans. Filed under: Bidston, Bidston ...
As the strike goes on out in the streets of London and across the nation I'm sat inside watching the picket from the comfort of my desk. I have a cold bottle of Doctor Pepper and a comfortable chair, there is hand sanitiser and obligatory foot rests below the desk. I am one of those evil Public sector workers you hear about, work shy, expensive and unnecessary. Or am I? Strikers in Medway I do work in the public sector, as do all of my colleagues. I do work in an office with the chair, mandatory foot rest (I find ...
I'm sure Labour's Shadow Scottish Secretary Margaret Curran thought she was joking when, as an aside in an interview with Holyrood magazine, she said: "I think if Alex Salmond went under a bus tomorrow - not that I would ask who drove that bus - but seriously, if he wasn't there I don't think there is any other member of that team who could fulfil the role that he is playing and have that relationship with the Scottish people that he clearly does."Honestly, that bit in bold really was not necessary. We don't really need that kind of language. Basically ...
The Electoral Commission has this past week published the latest donation and borrowing figures for the political parties, showing that the Lib Dems raised £1,199,623 between July and September this year. (At the foot of this post is the full breakdown of donations (excluding public funds) received by quarter since 2005, and annually between 2001 and 2004.) By comparison, the party raised £571,715 in the third quarter of 2006 (the equivalent stage of the parliamentary cycle), suggesting a far more sustainable level of fundraising success is now being achieved; although the party has been hit very hard since its move ...
It looks like bus services in the most rural areas including the whole of North Cornwall are likely to be first for the chop in Cornwall Council's slashing of the network. This morning the Environment and Economy scrutiny committee met to look at the model the council is proposing to use to 'score' the different bus services as part of the re-tendering exercise. Those services which score lowest are set to be the first axed. I had a large number of problems with the different criteria which seemed to be far too much of a blunt instrument. The whole exercise ...
Jonathan Swift wrote "Whoever could make two ears of corn or two blades of grass grow where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind than the whole race of politicians put together.". I was just watching one of my West Wing DVDs when they mentioned Norman Borlaug, the Nobel Prize winner whose semi-dwarf, high-yield, disease-resistant wheat varieties led to doubling yields in
Anyone watching the news recently would have seen the degree to which Ed Moribund has avoided answering the question about whether or not Labour supports the public sector strike today. Eventually, a journalist was able to crowbar an answer out of Little Ed. Apparently he is against the strike, well sort of anyway, in an I'm-comfortable-sitting-on-the-fence way. Basher Balls was at it as well
This time yesterday I was ambivalent about the strikes. They weren't, and still aren't, going to affect me and I could see some sense in the arguments from both sides. Today, however, I support the strikers. This sudden shift in opinion is mainly due to Osbourne's Autumn Budget Statement yesterday in which he announced a two year limit of public pay increases to 1%. Given how high inflation is, that amounts to a pay cut two years running on top of the pay freeze (effectively another pay cut) that public sector workers are already undergoing. Whilst this will save some ...
Well today is N30 (30th November), the only union I'm in (National Union of Journalists) isn't on strike else how would people hear about what's going on through the media? Yet, in a roundabout way the strikes do affect me. As a funeral organist, I can only play at funerals if the dead can be ...
Not sure how true this is but I understand that Labour are most likely to take over the council next week presumably with the help of the unforeseen principled stand made by John Worrow, whose resignation from the conservative group has further depleted the somewhat tenuous grip the Tories had on power. Anyway more on this later for the time being I'm working to top up public sector pensions, while the ungrateful blighters take the day off and consider how flipping marvellous they are.
Today saw the launch of a new anti-marriage equality campaign in Scotland, backed by a number of Christian organisations. They've launched a website, and held a rally outside the Scottish Parliament. As well as generally opposing individual rights, they also wish to ensure those rights are dealt with by a referendum rather than through Parliament. The typical "slippery slope" arguments are available on their website's front page proclaiming marriage equality might lead to (cue shocked hush) POLYGAMY! Of course why whether someone wants one partner or several is any of their business is not discussed. Given that such an organised ...
Several years after The Riddle of the Sands was first published and became a best seller, one of the first British spy cases came before the German courts - the so-called Brandon-Trench affair, named after the two Britons (correctly) convicted of spying. During the court case one of the lawyers held up a copy of The Riddle of the Sands and asked the accused spies if they had read it, for they were accused of being bungling gentleman spies sniffing around the very locations such as Nodeney and Wangerooge that feature heavily in The Riddle of the Sands, which also ...
Effective use of development aid: rotavirus vaccines save children's lives By Eric Avebury Rotavirus is the most common cause of severe diarrhoea among infants and young children and remains a major killer of children under five years of age worldwide, taking the lives of nearly half a million children each year and hospitalising millions more. More than 1,200 young children will die from rotavirus diarrhoea each day and 95% of all rotavirus deaths occur in developing countries in Africa and Asia, where access to treatment for severe rotavirus diarrhoea is limited or unavailable. In these countries, vaccination offers the best ...
We had the good fortune of securing Tim Farron to speak at our annual dinner this year. Not only was he a very entertaining speaker, but he also helped us draw a line under the difficult elections we all faced back in May. He was speaking to us in the middle of a by election campaign in Hazlemere, which we subsequently won! The thrust of what he was telling us is that the public have begun to see that: The Coalition was the only game in town after the general election result That Labour do not have a coherent alternative ...
Paul Krugman, the economics Nobel laureate and New York Times columnist, likes to talk of the "confidence fairy". It is a critique of right-wing "supply side" economists, who advocate cutting back on taxes and public expenditure and reducing government regulation. These counter the criticism that such policies suck demand out of the economy and cause unemployment with the idea that confidence in the soundness of the government's policies would boost business investment and consumption, and so create jobs. But such beliefs have no more substance that a belief in fairies. Mr Krugman believes in solid government management of aggregate demand ...
These are clearly difficult times. Today sees the largest strike in the UK in some 30 years over the issue of public sector pension reform. At the same time, the economic winds are turning decidedly chilly. But there was good news in the autumn statement made in Parliament yesterday. In particular, as a Councillor in a ward with a high number of retired local residents, I was very pleased to see an uplift in the State Pension by £5.30 a week from April 2012, delivering its single largest ever cash increase. The pension credit standard minimum guarantee will increase by ...
At the 2011 Annual Congress of the European Liberal Democratic and Reform (ELDR) parties in Palermo last week, a major initiative from the UK Lib Dems was the successful tabling of an emergency resolution on the growing likelihood of war with Iran. Media and intelligence reports have described the 'planned' action as a multi-pronged attack on Iran by the United States and Israel, with military support from the United Kingdom and Canada. In Palermo, the UK Lib Dem resolution against the war, and against European involvement, was passed with a large majority. The ELDR resolution also condemned Iran for not ...
It was a fairly innocent post on Facebook I made last night. Something I thought was pretty innocuous, really. Caron Lindsay hopes that nobody gets grief for their decision to work or strike tomorrow. They should be respected, whatever they do. There's no place for abuse or intimidation in this.That was the equivalent of throwing a match into a petrol tanker. 78 comments later, the majority of which I would say were broadly supportive, I'm quite incredulous. Two things led me to make the posting in the first place. The first was seeing the use of the word "scab" in ...
We rely on statistics far too heavily. There is a general belief in modern society that because we can collect data, we should, and that data therefore can justify (or not) everything. A common problem I have with the way successive governments' view the point of education is that it is not just about putting someone through a course to then gain employment. Of course that's an important factor, but taking some courses do not lead to a reliable job anyway - try convincing a musician or actor who have taken a course in college or University that they will ...
I have recently had cause to reread CentreForum's Your Choice: how to get better public services, published back in the summer. Don't ask. It's for a thing. The resonance between the sorts of prescriptions that emerge from Queen Anne's Gate and the policy prescriptions within the subsequent Open Public Services white paper is all too evident. Equally obvious is the rather thin intellectual base for many of these ideas. As a piece of think tank advocacy Your Choice isn't attempting to be a rigorous academic study, seeking to provide a balanced review of the ideas under consideration. But it is ...
Most politicians as themselves 'why should someone vote for me?' They keep their ears to the ground so they know the local issues and then campaign on them hoping people will reward them with their vote. This creates a responsive democratic system. Except that is doesn't. Take where I live for example, one of the ...
The government is consulting over allowing local councils to have greater control over collecting Council Tax. Amazingly Council Tax has to be collected in the first 10 moths of the year. This means that Direct Debits happen in the first 10 months of the year, then take a two months holiday in February and March and then start up again in April. How daft is that. The other proposals are to allow councils much more discretion over second home Council Tax discounts, and empty home discounts – perverse financial incentives to make the housing crisis worse- in fact councils may ...
It's here
North East Fife MP Sir Menzies Campbell has added his support to an international campaign to press for women's rights in Afghanistan. Sir Menzies took part in an event in Westminster on Wednesday 23 November which saw a cross-party group of MPs and peers have their photograph taken in front of hundreds of handmade kites designed by campaigners from around the country to symbolise their support for women's rights in Afghanistan. The kite symbol is being used for the campaign as, although Afghanistan women and girls make kites, they are effectively prevented from actually flying them because of cultural attitudes ...
Six years ago amid a huge amount of controversy, the then Transport Secretary Alistair Darling announced the scraping of several "tram schemes" designed to serve Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds and Hampshire. In doing so he effectively scrapped plans outlined by the then Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott for a network of 30 Light Rail schemes to serve our major conurbations. The reason - escalating costs. Light Rail was deemed too expensive in this country compared to costs on the continent. Despite a subsequent report from the Transport Select Committee on what could be done to reduce costs little was done by ...
A council budget meeting is one of the biggest political events of the year. Whilst at other times you can expect to see councillors from different political parties working together, during the budget debate you will tend to see two (or more) very different programmes emerging as different parties set out their vision for our area. Yesterday we saw a clear difference between those who believe in freezing council tax and those who want to put it up. We also saw a different split between those who believe in the continuing mismanagement of frontline services and those who believe that ...
There have been a couple of epetitions started over the past few months about the Open University, but this one seems to have got a head of steam up behind it over the last couple of days. It's been produced by the OU branch of UCU and is also being supported by OUSA. If you'd like sign the petition, this is the link you need. I just hope that it's not too little, too late to save truly open access to higher education for all.
All immediate reactions to the autumn statement were as I predicted yesterday and, as I also predicted, the statement was a mixture of the good, the bad and the ugly The good The highest cash increase in pensions ever. This is a direct result of the pensions lock that will see pensions rise by 2.5%, earnings or inflation - whichever is higher The bankers levy will be increased in January. Forecasts that inflation will start to fall next year. This will not only mean pensioners will get a real terms increase it will also help hard pressed families Massive infrastructure ...
Wed 30th
07:55
Feltham and Heston by-election - come and help Lib Dems' Roger Crouch make an impact today!
At this time of year, Christmas lights start to be switched on in towns and cities across the country — but for a lot of Liberal Democrat activists Christmas celebrations won't be starting so early! Many of my friends and colleagues are postponing Christmas shopping to join Roger Crouch's campaign for Feltham and Heston. In just over two weeks' time the voters of Feltham and Heston will have a new MP. The last parliamentary by-election of 2011 takes place on 15th December and the only early Christmas present I'm asking for this year from other Lib Dems is a result ...
Local Liberal Democrat councillor for South Werrington and North Gunthorpe, Darren Fower, has welcomed the coalition Government's announcement that the final Pupil Premium figures for Norwood Primary School, Welbourne, Gunthorpe Primary, Ken Stimpson and Werrington Primary School, will see each school receive an extra £488 for each child on free school meals that they have on their roll. The actual figures for each school are: Norwood Primary School – £10,248 Welbourne Primary School – £18,056 Gunthorpe Primary School – £36,405 Ken Stimpson – £62,464 Werrington Primary School – £14,640 Commenting, Cllr Darren Fower Said: "Lib Dems have always believed that ...
I have sympathy with some but by no means all of the three million or so public service workers who are expected to strike today. As I understand it the strike is to protest against three things: the increases in pension contributions, the postponement of the age of retirement and the switch from final salary to career average as the basis for assessing the size of the pension. My sympathies are with the lower paid: the dinner ladies, care workers and those at the bottom of the pile, and especially those under threat of privatisation, with pension rights greatly reduced. ...
As part of this year's West End Christmas Week, a group of local artists are exhibiting in the West End at the historic Vine building. The Vine was built in 1836 for George Duncan MP. It is a substantial single storey villa, a neo-Greek pavilion set upon a plinth and set within spacious gardens overlooking the Tay. Last summer local community groups enjoyed hosting events in the garden of The Vine but with winter fast approaching the garden is now resting. The garden's vibrant colour is being kept alive by The Magdalen Artists' exhibition of flowers and fruit. The West ...
Recently, in the days after party conference season, some LibDem bloggers asked who are we as a party. For these are turbulent times. The global economy is stagnating, Europe is in crisis and Scotland's place in the UK is being questioned. There is no doubt the last 18 months have been a disaster for the LibDems. But we are in government and in Scotland have a job to do in opposition but also have a job to define our place and our role in Scottish politics. At this turbulent time we need to define who we are. The electorate are ...
50 Free Kindle Fire Devices If you don't yet have a Kindle Fire and would one for free, Tim Ferriss is giving away 50 of them. This is a thank you for providing him with so much helpful feedback over the last six months. Here's how to get one: 1) Just spread the word in ...
At tonight's meeting there was an update from the Leader of the Council regarding the strikes that will occur on 30th November. He started off reporting it in a non party political way then sadly decided to use it as an opportunity to have a go at the government. I think most people have sympathy with public sector workers but since negotiations and offers are on the table, we should be discussing things not having strikes to make things worse. We then got on to a large section of the reports which related to Council budget reductions (cuts in plain ...
This post is going to be about a new TV show coming to our screens. You can guess what it is from the title of the blog post. I had written a long introduction to this linking the struggles of feminism when there are so many women like this but I don't think it really fit. So as Miranda would say 'On with the show...' (In this instance show means blog). I read the following article entitled If it's a choice between paying my rent and a boss new outfit... I'll hit the shops in The Sun today. It interviews ...
So it is St Andrew's Day and some of us on the centre and centre-left of Scottish politics wanted to launch a blog to discuss politics and more. St Andrew's Day falls in the most turbulent times this year. Today is the day of a massive public sector strike – nominally over pensions but probably over far more. The debate has become more empassioned, views more polarised and the real issues and possible solutions more fuzzy as the day of the strike dawns. Today is also the day after a stark Autumn Statement where the Chancellor laid out bleak prospects ...
Every day we all pick up our mobile phones to make calls, send text messages or to access the internet. However, have you ever thought about how our mobile phones are produced and where the components that make them up come from? This weekend I had the opportunity to explore this subject in more detail ... Continue reading »
