What's black and white and red all over? Well there are a two answers to that one. A newspaper or a sun burnt penguin. I always boast that I represent more penguins than anyone else in the Northern Hemisphere having Edinburgh zoo in my constituency. The penguins are a star attraction particularly with toddlers at the time of their daily parades during the hen being much the same size as toddlers that makes then soooo irresistible to them. As of today though the little fellows have some serious competition in the shape of two Giant Pandas hot of the plane ...
Back in the 1970s pay of rank-and-file the public sector was often decided by committees. Following a strike or the threat of a strike, a committee of the good and the great would be convened to decide what people engaged n a particular trade or profession should be paid. Invariably, they recommended a substantial increase. Nowadays that is pretty much how pay for executives in the private sector is decided. A committee considers ponders the questions and comes up with the recommendation that they should be paid much more. Just as Mrs Thatcher's governments introduced market discipline for the workers, ...
We are very pleased that, after some pressure from Cllrs Flick Rea & Russell Eagling, Camden Council agreed to put in a brief submission to the Boundary Commission (please see the text of their press release below) Meanwhile - thanks to all those of you who have written in individually (as well as local groups) saying you think its a daft idea! To quote one response: "Lets hope it makes them change their minds"! Camden press release: Camden sets out concerns with proposed boundary changes A Camden Council cross-party committee has set out its response to the Parliamentary Boundary Commission ...
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 250th weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere ... Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (27 November – 3 December, 2011), together with a hand-picked quintet, normally courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed. Don't forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox — just click here — ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging. As ever, let's start with the most popular post, and work our way down: 1. ...
From my stepson travelling in South America I receive a text telling me that a friend he used to be in a band with, is now in a new band and they have a single out. Would I download it from iTunes? I did so more as a favour than anything else, imagining I might give it a perfunctory listen before reverting to better things. But it is actually very good indeed, outstanding even. It is called Out of time by Halfway to New York. When they are famous I will be able to say: 'My stepson used to be ...
Just a reminder - Winter warmer at Westbere Copse - Sunday December 11th, 12-3pm. After some bracing conservation work we will have hot mince pies and hot punch at a nearby supporters home, followed by the Westbere Copse Association AGM, which everyone is welcome to attend. We will celebrate our achievements in 2011 and look forward to site plans for 2012. Westbere Copes is at the junctions of Westbere & Minster Roads, NW2. Nearest tube Kilburn, Jubilee Line, nearest bus C11. For info contact Dave Lawrence dave.lawrence@dsl.pipex.com 020 8444 6285 07957 577355
Lib Dem colleagues Cllr Erica Kemp and Cllr Graham Hulme took part in the Liverpool Santa Dash today. This is Erica in her Santa gear.
, [IMG: unison] No wish to offend Unison members but having witnessed the distressing news that otherwise tough union bods couldn't take a poorly constructed joke from Jeremy Clarkson in his usual bad taste style about last weeks public sector strike, I feel I should go easy. Still having seen last week a never ending line up of, as I've mentioned before selfless nurses, teachers and other generally heroic public sector workers presented to the media by unquestioning reporters, I find it difficult to not comment. Taking a gander at the Gazette's coverage, I was reassured to find them following ...
I'm watching the Russian elections live ... on Russian TV. From what I can see on the screen, Putin's party is down to 49%. Medvedev and Putin are talking to the media. Putin has the tired, unhappy expression that people normally have when they have lost an election. Another thought. Why on earth does Russia, of all places, have elections in December?
A deft sketch of the changing relationship between the papacy and the city of Rome in the early second millennium, including the exile to Avignon. With reflections on the de Sade family and the (possibly) Jewish (anti-)pope.
I'm not really sure about how I feel about this. Interesting way to start a blog post? ;-)As you may be aware public-sector funding is going through a bit of a revolution at the the moment with changes happening across the board - especially in schools. The particular change that concerns me at the moment is the changes to the funding of Minor Highways Improvements. The following communication has been sent to all interested parties (Parish and District Councils, etc). This one is for South Cambridgeshire, others would have come from the relevant officers for Fenland, East, etc;"Dear Sir or ...
When I set up Mint, I didn't realise that it would send me a weekly email reporting on my financial state. This week it decided to warn me that I'm spending a lot on groceries. I had noticed. Mint suggests using supermarket loyalty cards more. Actually, I'd save the most if I just gave up ...
Now that December has arrived the radio airwaves are filled with Christmas tunes. This has led to a very heated debate amongst people in my office as to what they believe is the best festive song. So, in the spirit of a festive Top of the Pops, I have decided to give you a countdown ... Continue reading »
Last month, I mentioned the forthcoming launch of the Food Train service in Dundee. The Food Train is a Scottish charity providing a vital grocery delivery service to older people. This service is run by volunteers and it is recruiting for volunteers to come forward to help across Dundee. The Social Work Department of Dundee City Council has now given me an update on progress in providing this very useful service : "The manager has been appointed as is completing his induction. Premises at Market Mews have been secured, and a vehicle purchased. The recruitment of volunteers in now underway, ...
[Originally posted at Bristol Running Resource, 04/12/11] How's your running? I hope it's going well. I have to say that mine has been all over the place for the last few weeks. It took me much longer than usual to recover from the Bristol Half Marathon. So during September I clocked up very few miles. During October and November it's all been a bit up and down, and I don't mean on the hills. I seem to have been alternating good runs and bad runs. A great 5k where all systems are go has been followed by a duff 60 ...
This, a hit for the group in the USA and Britain in 1965. feels appropriate to the first really wintry weekend of the season. NPR tells the story of the song's genesis.
Why not join hundreds of other Lib Dem Voice readers in getting our latest headlines by email? Some people like regularly visiting a site to see if there's new stories of interest. Some people like subscribing to its news feed (RSS) and checking that way. But if you prefer email, you can instead sign up to get a daily early morning email with a summary of the previous day's posts from Lib Dem Voice, complete with a note of how many comments each post has got and convenient links to click on if any take your fancy and you want ...
Cambridge teenager, Oluwatoyosi Oni has been invited to meet MP Julian Huppert at the House of Commons after winning a place in the final of a national competition for her charity work. The 16-year-old, known as Toyosi, is a pupil at the city's St Mary's School and will compete against two other young people for the prize in the Community section of the Ambition AXA awards. Julian invited Oluwatoyosi to meet him on Wednesday, November 30 so that he could congratulate her personally and wish her luck as she prepares to take part in the final of the competition at ...
Market Harborough remembers Thomas Cook with a discreet plaque. In Leicester he gets a whole statue outside the railway station.
Sun 4th
17:00
Wales' Wing Wizzard Signs Off - Recollections of a Magical Millennium Stadium Experience
Yesterday, thanks to a last minute spare ticket offer from one of my older brothers, I found myself in the unexpected but wonderful position of being able to see Shane Williams' emotional farewell in person. It was my first visit to Cardiff to see a Welsh rubgy international since the last ever test match at the old Arms Park / National Stadium on March 15th 1997. Back on that day, Wales were soundly beaten by England in the old 5 Nations Championship but from the old stands, I was able to watch Johnathan Davies take his Welsh bow as he ...
Those of you who know me know that I'm a big iPhone fan. Since 2008 I have exclusively used an iPhone as my main phone and this isn't going to change. I currently have an iPhone 4S, and have owned ... Continue reading →
Over the last 10 days, I've been publishing the results on LibDemVoice of Lib Dem bloggers' personal selections of Christmas gift ideas... T'other day it was my turn, and here's what I suggested... (You can find links to all the posts at LibDemVoice here.) Stephen Tall For me holidays are all about books and reading, so here are the two books I've most enjoyed reading this year... In the non-fiction category, The Anatomy of a Moment by Javier Cercas is a brilliant insight into the events of Spain on the evening of 23 February, 1981, when extremist Francoists attempted a ...
Sun 4th
15:42
"There is absolutely no chance of us winning there" - Conservative MP's Feltham & Heston outburs...
I headed over this morning to help Roger Crouch's Parliamentary by-election campaign in Feltham & Heston, all of which went fairly smoothly (at least once I remembered to open my eyes) and it was good to see high quality literature that tied in well with other campaign activity, such as the local newspaper adverts for Roger Crouch. It was also good to see an idea I helped pioneer at previous Parliamentary by-elections extended at this one – putting a feedback sheet on the back of each delivery round slip. This not only means the campaign gleans extra information but also ...
Local LIB DEM ward councillor, for this area, Darren Fower tells us he has now reported the damaged sign, at the entrance to Baron Court, to the City Council and says he expects the ousted sign to be back in place very shortly. Commenting, Darren Said: "I've no idea what happened or why the sign was pulled out of the earth but, one things for sure, it needs putting back in!" Darren discovered the issue, during a recent site visit to Baron Court, and is asking people who may have additional information as to why the sign ended up in ...
In November 2011 we had 8,853 visits to our website from 6,961 "absolute unique visitors" (roughly means individual people). The top stories read in November were about firework displays, Primark opening in Stockport, false claims the Tories made about traveller sites and – just in the last few days – our successful campaign to get funding for the A555 Relief Road. Most visitors reached the site via Google or came directly (e.g. from our weekly residents' email). 2.95% came from Twitter and 1.68% from Bing, the Microsoft search engine. Internet Explorer accounted for just under half our visitors (how the ...
I have been prodded - both by being on a radio panel discussion today and by the awesome Catie - to assemble some thoughts on the euro crisis and what it means for both parts of Ireland. There is a certain air of pessimism at present, driven largely by recent pieces in the Financial Times and the Economist predicting that the end is nigh and that the single currency is on the verge of breaking up. I must say that I am very sceptical of such reports. They seem to me a combination of wishful thinking from those outside the ...
Shipston's Victorian Evening Along with hundreds of others I had a fun night at Shipston's Victorian Evening, organised, as ever, by the Rotary Club. They had asked me to be the 'official' photographer, so most of the evening felt a bit like working – but there was still a chance for a couple of pints with some people from Transition Shipston. There were quite a lot of stalls, many for local good causes, such as Drugs Action Shipston and Transition Shipston (see photos below). Councillor Richard Cheney and DASH Transition Shipston selling handmade Christmas decorations It was also good to ...
Saturday: From Star Wars Lego Advent Calendar Day 3: Walking Hologram Thingie
WE'VE been working to make it safe to walk and cycle round here, and there's news. The leaders of Camden Council and the London Mayor have been ignoring pleas from cyclists who've said that planned changes to the King's Cross junction where a cyclist died will make it more dangerous for cyclists. Local road safety campaigners are urging ...
This week my Lib Dem Voice Co-Editor Stephen Tall and I tried out a slightly different approach to blogging. Rather than running into the usual problem of not enough time in the day to write a proper post solo, we did a short email exchange which we then published. Writing a post this way both gives it a different, and I hope more lively, flavour but also breaks writing a post down into smaller, manageable chunks. You can read Stephen's take on the experience over on The Collected Stephen Tall and the original What's the Lib Dem economic narrative now? ...
Latest of the Serpent Crest series of Tom Baker audios, with the Doctor and Susan Jameson's Mrs Wibbsey trapped in an underground cavern filled with treasure and a boy called Aladdin (who appears to be the same boy from the two previous audios and is certainly also played by Guy Harvey). It's a bit of a run-around tale, whose most interesting idea is the Doctor's scarf coming to life and acquiring the voice of Andrew Sachs, and need not detain those who have not yet got into this series. I have better hopes for the coming Big Finish audios with ...
Liberals from across Europe and, according to one vocal member of our delegation, beyond, gathered last week in the Sicilian capital, Palermo, under rather tighter security than usual, to discuss the gathering Euro crisis and the future of the European Union budget. As Liberal Democrats, we've grown used to meeting with rather depressing levels of security but, for a change, this wasn't intended for us. Our hosts, Italia dei Valori, included the former Mayor of Palermo and current ELDR Vice-President, Leoluca Orlando, whose anti-mafia campaigning probably still makes him a potential target. The theme for the Congress was the 2014-2020 ...
With apologies to Millennium Elephant, who really isn't going to like this at all (there is cartoon violence towards an elephant involved, albeit the wrong type of elephant), here's a video about the European Union budget and what you can do to contribute towards balancing it... Bear in mind that it is designed for a European audience, so that the language used is a bit simplistic and the delivery a mite slow.
LEGEND! H/T @untypicalboro
What a shame. I shall miss her enticingly short titles. It has certainly been a remarkable blog. Now I will have to rely on John Redwood for my daily dose of "swivel-eyes" to remind me why I am a liberal. Nadine Dorries photo credit: Some rights reserved by Julietteculver [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
Caron Lindsay and I have set up a petition against an utterly disgusting decision by the DWP to force cancer patients undergoing radio and chemotherapy to attend work related interviews, despite the fact someone undergoing that kind of treatment often will be physically unable to do so, and face financial penalties if they don't. As someone whose mother died of cancer, I can tell you first hand just what an impact chemo and radiotherapy can have. The last thing cancer patients need is extra stress and hassle while fighting for their lives. So that's why I'd ask you to sign ...
One of the problems that the Labour Party has had in responding to the recent strikes on pensions is because they were worked up by Lord Hutton who is a former DWP secretary. The fact is that all the pension ... Continue reading →
My mind boggled when I first read what Willie Rennie had said. I know that a very few Liberal Democrats in the blogosphere have said that he's being too hard on the SNP, but when I saw the words Alex Salmond and cute and cuddly within the same few lines, I got a bit worried he was going too far in the other direction. Actually, closer inspection revealed that it wasn't our First Minister he was talking about but the lovely pandas arriving in Edinburgh today from China. While getting a bit caught up in the excitement surrounding them, he ...
Nick Clegg has just announced proposals to curb excessive pay rises in boardrooms. I recently posted a link on Facebook to a story by Mark Pack on Liberal Democrat Voice about research done by the Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) on the income of the richest one percent in the UK. I was prompted because it reinforced one of my previous themes in this blog that we need to look wider than FTSE 100 bosses when criticising people for disproportionate pay increases. The CEP research showed the remorseless increase in share of national income going to the richest one percent ...
I'm delighted to see that the Damn Interesting website has come back to life , after a two year gap. I'm delighted because it has some stuff that is, well, damn interesting. Do either of these snippets intrigue you? A tale of intelligence, cunning and love of money: The scoreboard on Larson's podium read "$90,351," an amount unheard of in the history of Press Your Luck. In fact, this total was
Sun 4th
11:45The Independent View | Peter Tatchell writes... Lib Dems should stick to their principles and urge L...
Bravo to the Liberal Democrat party conference. Two years ago, party members voted overwhelmingly to end the twin legal bans on same-sex civil marriages and opposite-sex civil partnerships. They committed a future Lib Dem government to scrap sexual orientation discrimination in marriage and partnership law. Well done. Thank you Sadly, the Lib Dem Equality Minister, Lynne Featherstone, apparently with the support of the Lib Dem Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, is now actively backing discrimination. She plans to keep unequal laws, contrary to the Lib Dem's election pledges. Specifically, Lynne is vowing to retain the prohibition on heterosexual civil partnerships ...
Not much time this morning - just thought I'd do a quick summary of Nick Clegg's appearance on Andrew Marr this morning. Great to see him talk about extension of pre-school education to 2 year olds in England and confirm that child tax credits will be going up by the rate of inflation. He needs to watch his language on poverty, though - so much more needs to be done and he needs to be sure that he acknowledges that rather than suggest that it's on the way to being sorted. Education for two year olds is great - but ...
He physically, personality-wise, come across as if he was designed by East German scientists to be the perfect android politician Jonah Goldberg is a Fox News contributor and columnist for USA Today and the LA Times. [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
Long-standing Cambridgeshire County Councillor, Geoff Heathcock, has stood down from the Shadow Cabinet.Cllr Heathcock was the Liberal Democrat Spokesman for Health. He is also a past chairman of Cambridgeshire County Council's Health and Adult Social Care Scrutiny Committee, a position he held twice. He will continue as group member on the Cambridge Fire Authority.He handed over the health role to County Councillor Caroline Shepherd who represents Trumpington in Cambridge and has held a long interest in older people's health needs.Cllr Heathcock, who represents Queen Edith's in Cambridge, decided to step down after county councillors were asked to vote recently on ...
I have written a blog post over on Freedom Central this morning about the failure of the UK Department of Education to provide a bilingual version of a letter they sent out to teachers in Wales. That is a serious omission on their part that needs to be corrected. Elsewhere in the Wales on Sunday though there is a story about what happens when attempts at bilingualism go wrong. Their article is based on a book called Sgymraeg, edited by Meleri Wyn James, and published by Y Lolfa. There are many reasons of course why biingual signposting goes wrong. There ...
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 4! Today we have the ...
Those of you who watched Father Ted may recall a scene where Father Ted tried to explain perspective to Father Dougal. "Small," he said, holding up a toy cow from a farmyard set, "far away.", pointing at the cows in a field outside the caravan. My political life feels a bit like that now. As a Parish Councillor, my world is very local, taking me to Stowmarket, Claydon and, occasionally, Henley (just outside Ipswich). My new role as Local Party Treasurer may take me as far away as Bury St Edmunds, although that will be for a dinner, rather than ...
One of the (many) things readers might not know about me is that I was born in Brussels. Or, as I put it to eurosceptic tories, I come from the EU and I'm here to eat your house prices. Now, one of the interesting things about Belgium (which, for the geographically impaired, is the country in which Brussels is located) is that they don't have road tax. And, therefore, they don't have road tax discs in cars. What they do have, however, are insurance discs. While looking much like road tax discs, insurance discs confirm that the car is insured ...
The Department of Transport has just released a TRL report about cycle safety from December 2010. The main conclusions is that of all interventions to increase cycle safety, the greatest benefits come from reducing motor vehicle speeds. But that also: - Most cyclist injuries in multi-vehicle collisions take place at junctions. Reducing the speed of traffic through junctions appears to be an effective approach to reducing cycle casualties, and importantly physical calming methods are a reliable means of achieving such a reduction. - Providing segregated networks may reduce risks to cyclists, but evidence suggests that the points at which segregated ...
Sun 4th
10:23
Let's make sure Government doesn't put Cancer patients through stressful benefit assessments
Saturday nights at this time of year are usually pretty predictable - Strictly, X Factor, I'm a Celebrity, punctuated by the occasional glass of red wine. Last night the annual Race of Champions was also added into the mix and I watched excitedly as Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel claimed their fifth Nations Cup in succession for Germany. While idly going through Facebook to see how my friends were doing, I came back down to earth with a sudden bump when I read this from Macmillan Cancer Support. Now, I knew there had been issues with people recovering from Cancer ...
[IMG: xmasjoy] Is there anything more irritating than that first Christmas reference, the inappropriate advert in September, "seasonal merchandise" in shops in October and flipping mince pies in early November, or worse still cynical mentions by er.....;-) well anyway its out there I see Simon Moores, is worried that he might overlook someone, me (Billy no mates) I have no such concerns I just hope, I manage to navigate my way through Christmas and out the other side without offending more than usual although it's a policy of mine, not to ingratiate myself with anyone just, my honest views, some ...
The Electoral Commission has a new consultation paper out, returning to an old issue: when should election counts be held? As the paper says: The key issue is that many Returning Officers have considered that increasingly complex election counts would be better conducted the morning after the close of poll when staff are fresh and less likely to make mistakes, while governments, political parties and candidates have often pressed for counts in major elections to take place immediately after the close of polls. This has led to controversies in the public domain ahead of major elections. Timing of Election Counts: ...
The rhetoric between London and Tehran has been escalating alarmingly; a metaphorical bucket of cold water needs to be thrown over the situation before it bursts into flames that could otherwise cause conflict across the Middle East and beyond. There was no excuse for the protestors' assault on the British Embassy copound in Tehran the ...
In his latest blog, Stephen Tall argues that byseeing Jeremy Clarkson as un-beneficial to a modern society makes me somehow a right-wing *insert your own adjective for the Daily Mail here*. Not in the slightest. I'm left-wing (so David Cameron doesn't like me either, boo-hoo) and totally a liberal. I've never ever claimed Clarkson should not be allowed to speak, as that would be illiberal. I simply say that he is a loud-mouth oxygen thief (I use the same freedom of speech against him, that he should rightly be granted). He's claimed to be attention-seeking, I agree. And before you ...
Now I know it is only the first Sunday of Advent, but the four Sunday's are the four that lead up to Christmas Day. But with that being a Sunday it means that the first Sunday of Advent was last week. However, for my Sundays in the advent calendar I am going to be more religious in outlook. Doesn't mean the religious elements aren't going to be fun. So for a start I'm letting some silent monks perform Handel's Hallelujah Chorus from The Messiah.
There are two meetings of Blyth Town Council this week Events Committee, Tuesday 6th December, 6pm at Ebor House, Blyth Full Council, Thursday 8th December, 7 pm at Briardale Centre, Cowpen, Blyth Both meetings are open to the public. Public question time will follow the Full Council Meeting on Thursday
Richard Oglethorpe and I had a meeting with Associated British Ports a few days ago to discuss the land at Stalbridge Dock. This is the site that Jack Allen Holdings wanted to build a waste plant on, but then decided not to (see earlier posts on this) We wanted to see if there was anything else planned for that land (and also if we could persuade them to choose something other than a waste plant) The history of this site and the rows about it is long so forgive me if I don't recap everything here. We have written to ...
Sun 4th
07:34
The world turned upside down: Now the Adam Smith Institute calls for the ECB to print money
Yesterday I jokingly tweeted I'm confused.Middlesbrough are meant to concede goals in the final minutes not score them.The cosmos is now out if alignment & dark days loom (football reference!) To further prove the end of days is upon us. The Adam Smith Institute is calling for the ECB to print money. When even the Adam Smith Institute is calling for the printing presses to start roling it's time to sit up and take notice!
Is up at the Mindless Ones . If I can get the Who Killed Kennedy post finished in the next couple of hours, I'll post that here before going to bed.
Local Party websites, don't you just love them? Once upon a time, they were the big thing, and everybody had to have one. But they were difficult if you didn't know much about web design, so when Prater Raines came up with a cookie cutter design, a lot of people jumped at the opportunity to climb on board. And yes, they're not exciting, but they do the job. The only catch was, and still is, you do actually have to feed them. Active campaign teams do but, here in Suffolk, we don't tend to, so we have a collection of ...
