Like so many others, I was wondering what happened to Zemanta on WordPress. Fortunately, Voices from Russia tells us how to get it back. 1 December 2011. If You Were Using Zemanta on WordPress... Here's How to Get it Back. ... Continue reading →
Due to having a very busy few weeks at work this has been my first opportunity to write about my frustration at the lack of progress made by world leaders to tackle the problem of world hunger at the recent G20 summit in Cannes. This year has illustrated more than ever why we need urgent action from our governments on ... Continue reading »
That's the question we should all be asking of the man in charge of Education in England (and Cornwall), for according to Julie Henry, Education Correspondent for The Sunday Telegraph, HM Secretary of State for the Education, The Rt Hon ... Continue reading →
It is coming up to Christmas and so it is the time for many places to have Christmas Fairs. Outside Belfast City Hall, for instance, is a Christmas Continental Market. Last weekend there was a Christmas Craft Fair at All ... Continue reading →
Yesterday evening I watched the 1958 British film of A Tale of Two Cities, which stars Dirk Bogarde as Sydney Carton. There is much to enjoy, including Rosalie Crutchley as a ferocious Madame Defarge and the luminous Marie Versini. You can also see Donald Pleasence and Ian Bannen in early roles. I suspect we shall see a lot Dickens adaptations in 2012, the bicentenary of his birth, but A Tale of Two Cities lends itself to the screen better than most of novels. There are fewer subplots, so it is better to bring a reasonably faithful telling of it to ...
Changes from previous poll (two weeks ago): CON 38 (+2): LAB 36 (-2): LD 14 (nc) ICM is regarded as the Gold Standard of VI polling and I'm inclined to almost entirely disregard YouGov and take this at face value. The Conservatives opening up a poll lead right now during the biggest strike in British history and after announcing the depressing Autumn Statement is... Interesting to say the least. Recently the Guardian have been, perhaps understandly though perhaps not forgivably, reluctant to publish ICM polls indicating a Conservative lead or tightening of a Labour lead, though with this particular poll ...
In what has been, in my view, a weak series of X Factor (Marcus Collins is best, however!), Amelia Lily gave a superb vocal performance tonight covering 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough':
Danny Alexander cannot write the Liberal Democrat manifesto for the next election, so to that extent his comments on Newsnight were misconceived. But there are two far more important lessons to be drawn from that appearance. The first is that, for a party that has spent so long anticipating being part of such a government, we have put remarkably little thought into the mechanics of coalition. Sooner rather than later, we were bound to come under pressure to commit ourselves to policies who life extended beyond the lifespan of our agreement with the Tories. Of course, there are limits to ...
Discussing the furore over Jeremy Clarkson's appearance on The One Show, Damian Thompson complains of double standards. Jimmy Carr makes offensive jokes about people with Down's syndrome: What is it about Down's syndrome that tickles the funny bone of Lefty comics?But is Carr at all left wing?Left-wing politics is based in a belief that things could be better. Carr's schtick, by contrast, is to imply that he is wiser than us. Life is shit, and he has seen through it. I don't see much hope there. But then a lot of comedy is like that now. Thompson names Ricky Gervais ...
Well gosh , it's months since I posted something. Not exactly writers block, but ... life has been kinda busy. So to get back into posting , here's a video clip of something I just about remember watching back in the 80s. The BBC had a short season of plays then entitled "Play for Tomorrow", all set in the near future. This is how one of them opens. The actress, Sylvestra Le Touzel, was given
Ugh. You go away for a few days and suddenly all sorts of interesting stuff happens without you around to blog about it. How will the world survive? But seriously. Having got back I've seen some speculation how the announcement that deficit elimination won't be completed until 2017 will tie the Lib Dems into the tories and permanent destruction. Well, sorry, but that just doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Yes, eliminating the deficit will mean that we have to go into the next election with £30 billion of cuts/tax rises in our manifesto. But so will Labour and so will ...
This is just a quick blog post to let you know what we (your local Councillors) can do when things are brought to our attention. In this specific case a local wheelchair-bound resident had noticed significant potholes in the route they took to the local shops (Tesco on Campkin Road). They raised this issue with the County Council (Highways) and were told that the specific road they were concerned about was not actually a part of the highway and that they, the County, had no idea who owned it but that the resident should try Tesco - this of course ...
My interest having been piqued by my investigation of the career of Fiona Gaunt, I have been watching the 1973 BBC sf drama Moonbase 3 over the last week - all six episodes are on Youtube, though in fact I have been downloading them and watching them on the infamous Android on the way to work. Moonbase 3 is very nearly a Doctor Who spinoff. Created by Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks, with numerous familiar faces and names on the credits, it is set thirty years in the future, a European moonbase in 2003, mainly staffed by Brits with a ...
Many of you will be getting an e-reader as a Christmas gift, most probably the latest Amazon Kindle. So, I thought I'd draw your attention to a nifty bit of free software called Calibre, which you can dowload to your computer (not the e-reader). Calibre is a combination of several tools. The most valuable is ...
I was delighted to attend the Russian School's New Year Party at Harris Academy later today to give a few words of welcome and see the children perform with such talent and enthusiasm. The children from the Russian School also made an excellent contribution to the West End Christmas Concert last Thursday. Here's a short video from today's event :
Today saw the last day of this year's highly successful West End Christmas Week and it was great to see the large turnout of pupils, teachers, parents and local residents at the Blackness Primary School Christmas Fair this morning - see picture (right).
Tweet So what's wrong with this particular vision of Bethelehem?
This is really good. Click on the arrow to watch. [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
A new planning application has been received by Salford City Council to erect a 4-bedroom house on the vacant land at the junction of Liverpool Street and Derby Road in Langworthy. The plot is adjacent to the Moorlands Sports and Social Club. Application number: 11/60734/FUL You can read the full application and view maps and illustrations of the proposed building at Salford City Council's Planning Portal by clicking here and using the search facility for the above application number. Navigate to the 'documents' link and all the details are accessible in PDF format. Langworthy residents may wish to note that ...
Sat 3rd
17:25
Audit & Risk Management Committee (Wirral Council) 29th November 2011 Part 2 Budget Projections ...
Cllr Simon Mountney also asked about the processes in place. David Taylor-Smith said it was a decision of the administration, they were provided with the information which was then discussed. The Budget would be set by the statutory deadline. Cllr Simon Mountney asked about actions taken by officers. David Taylor-Smith said that there were a ...
Sat 3rd
17:24
Opinion: We can't refinance the economy from the meagre incomes of the poorest, only the wealth of t...
It's not the snow, the royal wedding or the eurozone crisis, it's the lack of demand. We are probably already in recession now thanks to the major deflationary shock unleashed on the economy by the Coalition's austerity cuts. And we still have the real hit from the eurozone slowdown on its way next year... The Autumn Statement did little to depart from Plan A, the economic equivalent of letting blood. Businesses desperately in need of customers can only look on in despair as the disposable incomes of families are reduced by wage stagnation, welfare cuts and hundreds of thousands of ...
Thanks to the Lib Dems in Government, banks will be forced to pay their fair share in these tough economic times. The Lib Dems have ensured that the Government will once again raise at least £2.5bn from its bank levy. This levy, which the Lib Dems demanded, raises more money each year from the banks than the last Labour Government ever managed. During their 13 years in Government, Labour let the banks run wild and left the taxpayer to foot the bill. Now the Lib Dems are taking real action to clean up Labour's economic mess and make sure the ...
Michele Bachmann claims to stand up for family. But here latest utterances show contempt for women and men across America. I'm not just talking about those who are LGBT but actually those that she wants them to marry. She was attending a cozy little Town Hall meeting only to be asked a question by Jane Schmidt who is head of her high school Gay Straight Alliance. The question was: "What would you do to help protect GSAs in high school and protect the LGSBT community?" The answer came back from the Republican chasing her party's nomination as Presidential Candidate: "All ...
I've spent the last week or so listening to Caroline John's reading of Elisabeth Sladen's autobiography, billed as being unabridged (and at over 13 hours of talk time I can believe it). I liked it very much; Sladen comes across as a modest person, driven by her instinctive desire to be an actor, prepared to tell of her own bad experiences as well as the good - a run of difficult directors in the Pertwee era, health problems while filming both Dimensions in Time and School Reunion - but generally enjoying the process of recounting her career highlights and making ...
[Originally posted at Liberal Democrat Voice, 03/12/11] Having followed the Chancellor's Autumn Statement and then watched Danny Alexander interviewed on Newsnight on Tuesday I have to say my initial reaction was "oh, what is the point?". That was a reaction to both substance and process. The Chancellor's Autumn Statement, as the IFS analysis demonstrates, hits the poorest hardest and those on middle and higher incomes less hard. Most would call that regressive. I'm sure some bright spark can come up with an argument that if you look at the data from a different direction - on the basis of expenditure ...
This is a collection of essays, including many important manifesto pieces from the key historians themselves, T.W. Moody, Robin Dudley Edwards, F.S.L. Lyons, Roy Foster, Ronan Fanning, etc, on Irish historical revisionism, which is a rather loose and ill-defined shorthand for the notion that the Irish historians of the mid-twentieth century deliberately intended to undermine the received myths of Irish history, and then the debate that ignited in the late 1980s as to whether or not this project was evil and wrong. I come at it with a natural bias towards the revisionists. To me, the anti-revisionists seemed to be ...
It was rather disappointing last week reading Jenny Willot MP's article on LDV last week about the Harrington report and about the motion on the Employment Support Allowance (ESA) which was unanimously passed at autumn conference. The article seems to imply that, by accepting the Harrington recommendations, the government is complying with the ESA motion and that a big round of applause is in order. We spotted a problem, passed a motion about it and then our ministers and MPs fixed it. Job done right? Well, no. Despite that being what the article seems to imply, the situation is far ...
Sat 3rd
16:28Audit & Risk Management Committee (Wirral Council) 29th November 2011 Part 1, Declarations of In...
Present: Labour Cllr Jim Crabtree (Chair) Cllr Darren Dodd (Vice-Chair) Cllr Irene Williams Cllr Ron Abbey Conservative Cllr Simon Mountney (Spokesperson) Cllr James Keeley Cllr Sue Taylor (deputy for Cllr Jeff Green) Liberal Democrat Cllr Alan Brighouse (Spokesperson) Officers present Tom Sault Surjit Tour (Legal adviser) Mark Delap (Committee Clerk) David Taylor-Smith Also Mike Thomas ...
There was some late, but good, news last night on the current religious freedom question regarding religious civil partnerships. Further to attempts in the Lords, and then in the Commons, to overturn the new religious civil partnership regulations the Church of England made an announcement. The premise of the criticism of their Lordships to the proposals was the possibility that provisions in the Equality Act might force all organisations carrying out marriages to also carry out civil partnerships regardless of whether they wish to or not. Groups including the Christian Institute, CARE and the Evangelical Alliance have made submissions to ...
UK plcis speeding towards a lorry driver shortage. The number of people training and passing their Cat C driving test has been falling sharply. The number of people taking a Cat C pass onto getting their C+E falling as well. 2005/06 it was 27,612 & 11,608 respectively; 2009/10 15.029 & 6,720. The introduction of Driver Certificate of Professional Competence – a requirement to ensure driving skills are kept high – appears to have further eroded the number of older lorry drivers . We know that only 20% of people gaining licences went onto DCPC. Either the other 80% have decided ...
So the Church of England have said they won't hold civil partnership ceremonies in their churches. I say good. Now many of you who know that I am a campaigner for equal marriage may be a little shocked by opening line, but let me explain. The consultation in England and Wales is not as complete as the one the is drawing to a close in Scotland this week. It only has one option a civil partnership to be carried out by a religious celebrant. The Scots are looking at equalising marriage, allowing religious groups to carry out same sex marriage ...
Friday: From Star Wars Lego Advent Calendar Day 2: Evil Replutocrat Nute Gingrich, er, Raygun, er
The next West Hampstead/Fortune Green Area Forum (Area Action Group) is scheduled for Tuesday, 6 December, at the Synagogue Community Hall on Dennington Park Road. Regular attenders have been notified by e-mail or letter. Here's the agenda for the meeting, which Cllr Keith Moffitt will be chairing: 7 - 7.30 pm: an opportunity to meet ward councillors informally over tea/coffee 7.30 meeting starts: Parking Policy review Presentation by Cllr Sue Vincent, Camden's Cabinet Member for Environment and Deputy Leader of the Council Neighbourhood Development Plan Discussion on neighbourhood development plans, led by Keith Moffitt and James Earl West Hampstead Business ...
If I was an American and was active in politics, I think I'd be a Clinton Democrat. I still strongly admire President Clinton and his steadfast, near-miss attempts to broker an Israeli/Palestinian peace deal. Leon Panetta, who was Clinton's Chief of Staff and who is now President Obama's Defense Secretary, made this fascinating speech yesterday: If you want to know what the grown-ups are saying about Israel and Iran, then read this speech and read it carefully, including the Q&A at the end. The BBC's reporting of the speech has focused on Mr Panetta's call for Israel to mend ...
I've got three half-written posts that I'm hoping to get up today – a Who post for the Mindless, the next Doctor Watson chapter, and a post on the Doctor Who novel Who Killed Kennedy? as part of Bigger On The Outside – but given my lack of productivity this week, I'm posting some links ...
Having followed the Chancellor's Autumn Statement and then watched Danny Alexander interviewed on Newsnight on Tuesday I have to say my initial reaction was "oh, what is the point?". That was a reaction to both substance and process. The Chancellor's Autumn Statement, as the IFS analysis demonstrates, hits the poorest hardest and those on middle and higher incomes less hard. Most would call that regressive. I'm sure some bright spark can come up with an argument that if you look at the data from a different direction - on the basis of expenditure not income, for example - then it ...
Great Dulwich Lollipop delegation at council assembly Tuesday night trying to ensure lollipop patrols are kept in Dulwich. Three patrols are under threat in Dulwich and others across Southwark. The picture is of the three East Dulwich councillors wearing our lollipop badges with pride. What I find particularly shocking is 34 children died on Southwark roads 2004-2008 the last reported period. So it's clear we still have a serious road safety problem in Southwark, despite many years efforts, that removing these lollipops from such busy junctions will make worse. One idea I had which I've suggested to the Southwark Labour ...
Sat 3rd
14:42
The Jeremy Clarkson comments which people should really be getting upset about - those about suicide
The furore over Jeremy Clarkson's remarks about the strikers has been rather silly. It was a joke. As Professor Tim Luckhurst said on FiveLive, the remarks may have caused offence, but he doubted if they caused harm. In contrast, he said Clarkson's comments about suicide on the same programme were in the category of comments which could cause actual harm. That is, one has to be careful when talking about suicide, because "copy cat" acts could result. And let us not forget that the BBC apologised about Clarkson's suicide remarks on the same programme as he made them – which ...
Lib Dem Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has outlined a £1 billion pound. Over three years, the Youth Contract will provide at least 410,000 new work places for 18 to 24 year olds into work. Starting April 2012 Including 160,000 wage subsidies and 250,000 new work experience placements. In addition, there will be at least 20,000 more incentive payments to encourage employers to take on young apprentices. A new programme to help the most disengaged 16 and 17 year olds - getting them back to school or college, onto an apprenticeship or into a job with training.
So, why am I striking? The government is continuing to persist in their unaffordable and unsustainable claims. The Hutton interim report published in October 2010 stated that as a percentage of GDP, the cost of public sector pensions will go from 1.9% to 1.7% by 2030 due to the reforms that happened in 2006 under the previous Government. The government is deliberately being less than honest over the true impact of the pensions changes in order to meet their pre-election rhetoric. This is nothing more than playing games with people's retirement plans. The government is not negotiating. They are using ...
...I only ask because there have been two sets of photos issued this week which show quite a contrast. On the one hand, we have President Obama photographed (above) at his desk in the Oval Office with an iPad at his side. You can't immediately see that it's an iPad because it looks like a book. It's an iPad in a DODOcase (arrowed). OK. Obama is using a landline phone, has an actual newspaper (what's that?) on his desk and is holding a piece of paper. And, my goodness, how long did that photo take to set up? The lighting ...
The puffin who featured in yesterday's Headline of the Day has died. BBC News quotes someone from a wildlife rescue centre as saying: ""I guess it is fair to assume that something must have been wrong with him to cause him to come down in Winchester in the first place." I am not sure that follows. Perhaps it wished to see the cathedral or was researching a biography of Mark Oaten, only to be taken suddenly ill?
How many people are living with HIV in Northern Ireland? It seems that that question brings different answers from different organisations. The latest figures from the Public Health Agency stated There are now 474 people living with HIV infection in ... Continue reading →
Hot on the heels of last week's eagerly awaited Housing Strategy comes some more good news on housing. Most of the debate on housing is rightly focussed on the need to build more houses, or get the ones we have already brought back into use. We need more homes to ensure that we can keep up with the numbers of new households forming every year, and ensure that everyone can have a roof over their heads. But too often, the debate forgets to focus on the quality of houses with the same intensity. This is something that, as Liberal Democrats, ...
Whilst the Conservative backbenchers are all about grabbing powers back from Brussels, the Prime Minister does not have the luxury of being able to indulge himself in such self-gratification. That is because the UK economy is intimately tied to the Eurozone and if the single currency goes under then we will be plunged back into recession. Thus, today's Independent reports that David Cameron will after all, put the urgent need to secure a rescue deal for the euro ahead of his own instincts and the demands of his MPs. In many ways this is a reflection of his own weakness ...
Another treat for Christmas coming up. Not everyone will be wishing for a white Christmas especially those in the Southern Hemisphere, people like Tim Minchin.
Here's your starter for ten in our weekend slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate... Michael Gove is planning to send a King James Bible to every school in the UK to mark the 400th anniversary of its translation, with a short introduction written by himself. The National Secular Society has criticised the decision and believe that there are already enough bibles in British schools. So, is this a worthwhile celebration of an important part of British history or is it a waste of money that could be put to better use? Agree? Disagree? Post your ...
Some months ago I applied for a grant to tidy up the Junction end of the Conwy Cob and was pleased to be successful. The top two pictures show the area as it was, overgrown and a litter trap. We also had anti social behaviour in this area, drinking, graffiti etc. To the left of the pictures you can see a concrete wall and below that is the A55, my fear was that an incident could happen here. The grant has paid for a camera, you can just make it out on one of the lamp posts and landscaping. I ...
Sat 3rd
09:45
Introducing (ish) Da Dr Pack & Mr Tall Debate... What's the Lib Dem economic narrative now?
"Y'know those times when you don't have enough time to write a post...? Well, why not let's just email each other til we have enough words?" I paraphrase, but that was the pitch Dr Mark Pack, my LibDemVoice Co-Editor, made to me when I was sortofgrumbling that I lacked bandwidth to contribute more to the site. The first result is available here in its original format (with vigorous comments thread) at Da Site, and blatantly copied 'n pasted below (we never resolved the copyright issues) for those who prefer to read it in the here & now... In the week ...
It all started with a debate over whether there should be prayers before Bideford Town Council meetings. Now this has led to the High Court with a case brought there by the National Secular Society. There is speculation that if the case succeeds, the Coronation Oath will have to be re-written. Well, taking the last point first, that is the "Ban killing foxes with hounds, ban fishing next" style of debate. If you think you are losing your argument, introduce the spectre of some huge change which will happen next if your opponents get their way. Sir Stuart Bell used ...
It's December which means for those who have them, it's time to get out those chocolate advent calendars! But for those of you who, like me, don't do such things anymore (and indeed for those of you who still do!), I thought I'd give my own unique little twist on this festive time of year with my Musical Advent Calendar countdown of my Top 25 favourite Christmas songs! I'm blogging a song a day, culminating with my favourite on Christmas Eve. So let's continue on our seasonal countdown... Cole's Musical Christmas Advent Calendar - Day 3! Today we have the ...
Having written before about the need and benefits for the Liberal Democrats of treating members and supporters as active participants rather than passive spectators when it comes to pushing for the policies we want (and even suggested an email from Vince Cable), it was great to see Willie Rennie doing just this. As Caron Lindsay has blogged (my emphasis added): There has been no politician in Scotland who has been more active in supporting a change in the law to allow same sex couples to get married than Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie. I've been really proud of him. Too ...
In the past 48 hours keynesianliberal has passed another milestone and received its 2 000th "pagehit." This is an average of just over 30 "hits" a day, which is quite gratifying, but still nowhere near the "big time." I remain disappointed that I haven't been noticed or recommended by Libdemvoice but, even if readership is modest, feel a certain satisfaction in having my views on record, though, unlike Harold Wilson, I cant remember the time and date of when I said, or in my case, wrote, what. I am proud to stand by my very first post, written before the ...
The BBC blocks streaming video for its TV programmes for people outside the UK. It is possible to get round the block by using a VPN or proxy server, which makes your computer appear to be in the UK. This seems to work for some people, but I've never had any success, and I'm not ...
Transport for London this week confirmed that fare rises in 2012 will now be lower than the fare rise package first proposed by Boris Johnson a few weeks ago. Liberal Democrat Caroline Pidgeon has been very active on this issues making a lot of great points about why our fares are too high. If we want more people to use public transport and not use their cars as often we need lower and fairer fares. Caroline Pidgeon said: "It is the Coalition Government, not the Mayor who has ensured that fare rises have been reduced. Left to his own devices ...
I don't imagine that there is anybody in the UK who reads my blog, who doesn't read Lib-Dem Voice, but there are a few in Canada. So, this is a link to Norman Baker's article, which answers the criticisms made by Damian Carrington in The Guardian.
