When Angela Merkel met David Cameron 10 days ago, she told him, 'I want to help you!' She understood that he had problems with his Europhobic backbenchers and was offering to work with him quietly to help sort out some way that last week's EU summit in Brussels could help find a structure in which to ...
This was the title of Durham Lane Primary's Christmas production. Unashamedly celebrating the Christian festival, it also allowed children from 5 to 11 to show off their musical talents, their confidence in front of an audience, and their self discipline. I don't know which child the man near me was waving to so energetically but well done to the child for not being distracted. The story of the
Another day in London, dealing with my Indian visa application, having lunch with the woman I love, meeting my brother for a drink and doing 'Unlock Democracy' stuff.Traditionally, obtaining an Indian visa has been fairly straightforward, if time consuming. You downloaded the form, or picked one up if you were lucky enough to live near a consular facility, filled it in, attached two photographs and went to the High Commission at India House. There, you were given a number which entitled you to wait in a scene from bedlam with hundreds of others, hoping that you didn't miss your number ...
Today, along with others on the Barney's Charity Fund committee and volunteers from the Discovery Food Programme, I took part in a photocall to mark the handover of a donation of food packs to this excellent charity. Here's a couple of photos and the news release from Barney's Charity Fund : The group with the food parcel donation Us sorting out the food parcels Discovery Food Programme has received a welcome boost from Barnetts Motor Group's "Barney's Charity Fund" with a donation of around 75 food packs to help provide emergency food relief to individuals and families experiencing financial hardship ...
TweetThere have been some superb posts across the blogosphere on Cameron's utterly gobsmacking failure to protect Britain in the Euro Summit recently. Regular readers will appreciate I'm not in favour of Cameron's use of our veto. My tweets over the weekend included; Cameron has rendered Britain Snow Patrol at a heavy metal concert and Cameron ...
I now know why Consett CAP's post gets couriered to County Hall for posting. The question is, "Is the reason good enough?" I promised to eat humble pie if I found out that there was a good reason which helped you behind the fact that mail from Consett Access Point gets couriered to County Hall before being posted out, with a resulting day's delay in it going out. I'm in two minds. It seems that by gathering the mail together in this way, and despatching from a single point, the council gets each second class standard letter sent for 8p ...
Owzabout that then! 41,500 signatures and climbing. Marianne Cantieri, OUSA President said "I am proud of what our students have achieved already. There are a very large number of petitions on the Parliamentary website ... and for this petition to reach the top ten in such a short space of time is fantastic news." The complete OUSA news release (spelling mistakes and strange formatting included) is available online here. If you want to see the Open University remain truly open, please sign if you haven't done so already and spread the word to your friends.
We have seen mud walls in Great Bowden, Little Bowden and Tur Langton. This, from Kibworth Beauchamp, is one better: it is the front wall of an old mud-walled cottage. It is situated close to the centre of the village and now serves as an outbuilding to a modern house that has been built behind it. It reminds me of the Outer Hebrides, where you will often see an old house standing next to a modern bungalow and either being used for storage or falling into decay.
Dot Commons reports whisperings about Nick Clegg's leadership following events of the last few days: Trouble is brewing for Nick Clegg. A Lib Dem MP told Dot that the decision to impose a three line whip tonight on the DUP's motion on membership of the EU means Clegg "has had three policy positions in four days". But the DPM faces more than just a rash of abstentions tonight. The leadership is now on the agenda, and not just the usual suspects. Dot has learned that some of the party's "stalwarts" are openly questioning Clegg's leadership. His decision not to appear ...
Part 1 of this 2004 pamphlet was posted here yesterday. WHAT CAN BE DONE The Liberal Democrat approach to community cohesion means not just developing attitudes and policies that might be capable of rebuilding it, but also tackling those forces that are undermining it in the first place. Tackling the forces undermining communities Neighbourhoods traditionally worked together, pooling time and resources, when they were threatened in some way, and often when they were extremely poor. Folk memories of these places and periods are warm and nostalgic, despite the poverty, although they are also remembered sometimes as intolerant and intrusive. But ...
Transcript: >> John Brace There has been much public interest in the (as yet unpublished) AKA (Anna Klonowksi Associates Ltd) report into issues that need to be remedied at Wirral Council. My personal view is that Wirral Council needs to publish the report, reassure the public what it's doing differently now and restore its tarnished ...
"Clegg should have sat next to Cameron - laughed off the inevitable jibes that would have headed his way - and in the unlikely event he was allowed to make an intervention used the opportunity to explain why he disagreed with the PM and the Euro-loony tunes behind him. But also made it clear that disagreement was healthy and the in the nature of a coalition between two different parties." Living on Words Alone gets in about right on yesterday's events. Richard Kemp gets it about right too: "For the last 20+ years we haven't been so much educating our ...
Rather surprisingly for such a hugely successful band, there are very few actual books on the Monkees. Other than annuals and fan cash-ins from the 60s, some ebooks that appear to be just articles culled from Wikipedia, some self-published fan-fiction on Lulu and a notoriously-inaccurate book called Monkeemania that at one point confuses Micky Dolenz ...
This afternoon I attended my third Christmas Show produced by Linaker Primary School. Back on 2nd December I attended the annual Pantomime at Meols Cop High School. It was a brilliant evening and probably the best show that I have attended since becoming a governor. Last week I attended the Years 1 & 2 play which was well attended and enjoyed by all who crowded into the school hall. This afternoon I managed to find time to attend the years 5 & 6 show at Christ Church on Lord St. Once again it was very well attended by parents, guardians ...
Northumberland County Council have a handy reminder for bin collections, at:- http://www.northumberland.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=7575 Basically; next week ( commencing 19th December, Blue bins) collections are normal days The week after (commencing 26th December , Green bins) collections are put back one day After New Year, (commencing 2nd January, Blue bins ) , collections are again put back one day. After that, collections are returned to the normal cycle If you have any questions, please contact me, and if I cannot answer I'll pass it on to the appropriate officer at NCC.
Tue 13th
18:53
7% Interest on 10 year Bonds = Economic Meltdown. It wasn't always the case you know...
And another thing on the Vicky Pryce graph... For lots of good reasons, it is now generally accepted that if the markets want you to pay more then 7% interest on 10 year sovereign bonds when you try and sell them, you're screwed. Hence the point of no return when Ireland and Portugal asked for bail outs, and the panic ensuing since Italy hovered around that mark (which it still is by the way...) But as this chart shows (click to enlarge) - pre the 2008 recession, all the countries of The Eurozone were paying more than that - even ...
Well, I bet that title's killed this blog post. So lets add a few other words that might tempt you in. Vicky Pryce (formerly Mrs Huhne), the BBC, Eurogeddon. Look at this screen grab - it shows Vicky Pryce's selection as the best graph of the year 2011. And you must admit - it's a wowser!! (click to enlarge) There are several more corkers on this BBC story, where they have asked top economists to choose their 'charts of the year' You see Maths and economic global meltdown really CAN be fun!! PS if you like this sort of stuff, ...
This afternoon Cornwall Council's Leader and Chief Executive subjected themselves to a grilling by one of the authority's scrutiny committees. It was the first time there had been a formal question and answer session of this sort and the first thing that ought to be said is that it was a very good thing. Well done to John Keeling and Dave Biggs (chair and vice chair of the committee) for arranging it and thank you to Kevin and Alec for coming along and fielding the questions. Some will ask why there hasn't been such a session before, but I hope ...
It has been a while since we've had a planning application in King's Hedges ward, but this week we have been notified of one.It is for a "Ground floor extensions to provide additional bedroom and shower room" to 7 Abbots Close. The case reference number is 11/1441/FUL and you can get more details from the City Council online planning service.For more information on the application, including how to comment, check the Development Control pages of the City Council website.In case of any difficulty contact the team.
Click on Image to read article. Carol Thompson is the Co-founder of TAG! You can follow her on Twitter at @tagpassiton or email her at carol@tagpassiton.com. Tagpassiton is a registered not-for-profit Community Interest Company that rewards for shopping smart, local and independent. More information can be found at www.tagpassiton.com . Image from Chorlton Community Index
So now we know it. For the last 20+ years we haven't been so much educating our kids as getting them to pass exams. They used to be the same thing - now they are not. Everyone seems to be ... Continue reading →
Earlier in the year, I penned a series of posts profiling forgotten liberal heroes (to which a couple of other people also kindly contributed), looking at some of those who achieved great things for liberalism in their time but have been unjustly forgotten - such as Margaret Wintringham, the very first female Liberal MP. There is also another group of people who I think are often unjustly obscure - those local campaigners who are often at the heart of their local community and local party, delivering liberalism and helping others, but as their stage is a local one they are ...
After a small break – some well-overdue pontificating on the EU, on my part. I hesitate to fully agree to Daniel's assertion that the EU is dead. In fact, I would say, on the specifities of the crisis, exactly the opposite – the Euro will likely collapse, and the future of the EU is wobbly, ...
This link will give a video of the evidence session at Today's Education Select Committee (Martin Narey and myself).
For those of you out and about over the Christmas and New Year, reliable public transport can be a godsend. However, operators use different timetables over this period. The county council has published a useful leaflet which can be found here. It should be nmoted that many operators are not providing a service on Boxing Day, mainly a Sunday Service on Dec 27th (which is bank holiday this year) and many are providing only a Saturday Service on Wed 28th – Fri 30th when many people may be struggling back to work. In addition LCC Information Centres such as Clitheroe ...
Thank you all for your supportive comments on my last post, and all the texts and tweets and stuff too; they are much appreciated. I might reply to you all individually at some point when I can see to type while reading them. At the moment I just fill up if I look at the comments to that entry. We are all bearing up in this house, although little things are difficult. We all keep expecting to see him in his favourite places, and Mat keeps talking about "the dogs" and catching himself. Holly is sitting in Byron's favourite chair ...
In 2010 the Feed-In-Tariff (FITs) scheme started under a Labour government with cross party support started. It has been such a huge success at 43p per kilowatt Hour paid for electricity generated this way and has hugely outstripped expected demand but also committed large costs going forward. So with very little notice the current government has drastically cut back the subsidy to 21p per Kwh. Ouch. I'm sure the logic behind the cut is right in that it was going to blow the entire budget and result in the scheme closing around 2013. The classic British start/stop policy. Rather than ...
Rachel Hewitt's entrancing story of the birth of Britain's Ordnance Survey is both a skilful piece of history and also a striking example of the limitations of the profession. It was a dedicated group of people who led the way in mapping, and for all their dedication they were also curiously unfocused, often being distracted into side projects which were worthy but delayed the mapping of the country. It may have made for slower mapping but it makes for all the more interesting history. In writing the book, Hewitt has filled a gap in the historical record, producing a charming ...
Tue 13th
14:15
I agree with Tony. (Or why British PMs shouldn't actually try and do Hugh Grant's Love Actually PM s...
Perhaps it's because it's Christmas. Or perhaps it's because the right-wing press is frothing with excitement at the Prime Minister sticking it to Johnny Foreigner. Either way, the last few days' events have put me in mind of the speech Hugh Grant delivers as a British prime minister (coincidentally called David) in the film, Love Actually. You can watch the clip I'm thinking of here. It's a knowingly funny pastiche of Little Englander pride in this country's past glories, invoking cultural icons such as Shakespeare, The Beatles, Sean Connery... and David Beckham's right foot. And at the end of it ...
Support for Europe has always been a cornerstone of what our party stands for. Recent days have been tough for pro-Europeans in our country, but I am clear that it is in Britain's national interest to remain at the heart of Europe. As I have made clear since Friday, I am bitterly disappointed by the outcome of last weeks summit, which ended with the UK in a minority of one. There is now a real danger that over time the UK will be isolated and marginalised within the EU and as a consequence, our influence in the world will shrink. ...
[IMG: Wheelie Bins] Residents in Ribble Valley are advised of changes to recycling and refuse collection over the festive period. The changes are: Normal collection date (rearranged date) - December 26 (27), 27 (28), 28 (29), 29 (30), 30 (31). There will be no refuse collections on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day, and no green waste collection during the week beginning Monday, December 26. Refuse will be collected as normal during the weeks beginning December 19 and January 2. Christmas trees will be collected from the week beginning Monday, January 9. Trees should be chopped up and ...
Here's a good article from Andrew Stunell MP which shows how Lib Dems are actually doing stuff in government instead of picking petty fights with other countries. This article sets out how the Lib Dems are reducing the chronic problem of empty dwellings across the country after 13 years of Labour failure.
Liberal Democrats calculate that some £750million is being lost every year in taxes when house purchases are hidden behind offshore companies. One Hyde Park is arguably the most expensive,exclusive apartment block in the world. A penthouse sold for £136million. A one bedroom flat costs over £3.5m. Planning permission was granted for 86 apartments - now reduced a bit as some smaller ones have been put together. Some 60 have been sold. Not surprisingly it is hard to find the details. A significant number have been sold to overseas companies registered in Tax Havens. For example 25 apparently in the British ...
Mary Portas, best known for the Mary Queen of Shops TV series, has published her report and recommendations for revitalising the high street. She was asked to do so by the government which is concerned about the increasing problems faced by town centres. Ms Portas' key recommendations are to have affordable town centre parking and 'town teams' to improve the overall offer to visitors. One of the key reasons for the success of out of town shopping centres is that they combine shopping with other leisure activities. The US has known this for many years and most shopping malls have ...
The press reaction to the events of the past few days has been to smear, to misrepresent and to outright lie. As George Monbiot points out in The Guardian today, journalists are now a lickspittle bunch of toadies for their society friends. The circle of journalists is so narrow that any independent thought is being crushed by an isolationist, very right wing groupthink. As the Daily Mail comes out with some variation on Lib Dems support for Europe taxing your granny to give you cancer shock horror and the Daily Express continue to find some spurious excuse to print a ...
Full text from yesterday's piece in The New Statesman. As ever, would welcome comments here or on The NS comments thread. It appears to be May 2010 all over again. A Labour leader is throwing come hither looks at the Nick Clegg. And after celebrating what looked like a victory in the small hours of a Friday morning, one long weekend later and Tory MPs are realising that there may be an orange obstacle preventing them doing anything and everything they want. Meanwhile, a quirk in the coalition agreement -- that everyone bar Ed Miliband seems to have missed -- ...
Tue 13th
12:45Andrew Stunell MP writes... Tackling empty homes is shaping up to be a Coalition success story
As some of you will no doubt be aware, last week was National Empty Homes week. It managed to garner a lot more attention than normal thanks to a week of action from the Empty Homes Agency, who worked together with Channel 4 presenter George Clarke on a series of programmes that focussed on tackling the housing crisis, and in particular on empty homes. George's campaign is a welcome one, and comes at an important time. I regularly describe the number of empty homes we have in the UK as a national scandal. We have enough long-term vacant properties to ...
In case you missed it on last night's news here is Nick Clegg explaining his view on the Euro summit and why he wasn't in the Commons for David Cameron's statement: And from the weekend, here are the highlights of Nick Clegg's interview with Andrew Marr, followed by my own views. BONUS FEATURE: A huge David Cameron glaring down at me.
... They've started work at long last on the proper bus shelter at Yate Bus Station! More information and photos will follow...
Monday: From Star Wars Lego Advent Calendar Day 12: Rogue 2 to the Rescue!
Last Friday I attended, and enjoyed, Southport Liberal Democrat's Christmas Dinner. The Event was held at the Talbot Hotel and all who attended enjoyed a good meal and good company. Julie, pictured second left above, devised a quiz too keep us occupied. It involved knowledge of popular Christmas carols. The ventral winners were Meols Ward, although Birkdale Ward asked for a "stewards enquiry" as they disputed the wording of one of the carols. The answers are printed below: Away in a manger A I A MThe holly and the ivy T H A T IO come O come Emmanuel O ...
Tue 13th
11:00Julian Huppert MP writes: promoting innovative science and technology, safeguarding NHS data for res...
Science and research are absolutely key to our economy, both now and in the future. That's why I and others have been pressing the Coalition Government to protect the £4.6 billion revenue budget for science and research programs. And we've managed more; since January, the Department for Business Innovation and Skills has announced £495 million of investment in capital projects to maximize our research capacity. This funding is extremely welcome. But it is how this money is spent - not just how many millions are pumped into the economy - which will determine whether the economy recovers and whether we ...
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 13! Today, a firm favourite ...
Not a real photo! Credit to Jason Hunter for this though. The coalition government has always had areas of general agreement between the three parties in it (yes three - The Liberal Democrats, moderate Conservatives and the 81-100 "Tea Party" conservative MPs). Many commentators up to now have commented how well all three seemed to be getting along on matters concerning the EU, considering the massive divide between the majority in my party who want to be fully involved in the European Union, fighting for structures which suit the UK needs and reversing the democratic deficit built up by member ...
I came in from Blyth at about 10 o'clock to answer a phone call from an irate resident. "Oh no, what have I done now?" and "What has the town coucil done now?" were my immediate thoughts. Nothing of the kind, she was complaining that Facebook is down, and that she couldn't get on! I asked if she could access other sites, including the town council, and she said they were fine, but Facebook wasn't responding! The powers of a Town Counillor are somewhat limited in these things, so I have checked http://www.facebookdown.com/ and that site has lots of reports ...
Tue 13th
10:00
This is a picture that shows why the Lib Dems are doing so badly and what we can do to improve thing...
Following the events at the weekend and for all who believe that Europe is important to Britain's future having to wait, potentially years, to find out the consequences of the decision of one man under pressure from his own party, it is time to take stock of where the Lib Dems are in Coalition and ...
The more I think about it, the more bizarre Carwyn Jones' intervention in the Eurozone crisis seems. In this morning's Western Mail considerable space is devoted to the view of the First Minister that David Cameron's decision to exclude Britain from a new European treaty has damaged the interests of Wales by ignoring the potential impact of his stance on manufacturing industry. What is less clear is where Carwyn's evidence for this assertion is. Putting aside the fact that Ed Miliband has also said that he would not have signed the treaty, a fact that leaves Carwyn Jones at odds ...
One of the problems with major European politico-economic events, such as the UK veto on fiscal measures wielded by PM David Cameron last weekend, is that it is hard to unravel what actually happened. As is often the case, we have a German view, a French view, a UK view, and then a European Commission and an European Central Bank view. Each slant is coloured by anonymous briefings and insider leaks. The UK Conservative Party view, well spun in the Daily Telegraph, is that it is all the fault of the French and, to an extent, the Germans. The UK ...
Tue 13th
09:05
Met police inspector harasses a 15 your old photographer telling him photography is silly, gay, stup...
Then, as is often the case the police inspector bandies around 'anti terror' legislation because he's "had enough." I've come to the conclusion that until officers start losing their jobs over this sort of harassment nothing will change. The story really speaks for itself. Read on here
Rather nice, I thought:
Over on his blog Iain Sharpe has wondered about the European views of Liberal Democrat members: Are the Lib Dems really pro-European?... Lib Dem attitudes towards Europe reminds me of G.K. Chesterton's The man who was Thursday. In this novel, the members of an anarchist cell are one-by-one revealed to be undercover policemen. In a similar way, Lib Dem activists, often portrayed in the media as starry-eyed pro-Europeans, are more often than not undercover Eurosceptics. Time and again I let slip in conversation to a Lib Dem colleague that I don't quite share the party's zeal for the European project ...
I noticed in Le Monde over breakfast this morning that the Socialist candidate for France's presidential elections has said he will renegotiate the treaty.I have found the story in the online version of the newspaper and that is the link.When I told the Minister for Europe of this I was informed that it was on Radio 4 this morning.
Following a public consultation across the South Park Road estate, Council officers have proposed that the most popular option be adopted. This is to make the whole of the estate 20mph and to put five speed humps along the residential section of the Kingsway Service Road (outside numbers 164, 168, 174, 178 and 184). Although all our experience of modern speed humps is that they do not cause problems for people living next to them, we can well understand that some residents on the Kingsway service road may be concerned about this proposal. We need to have your opinions before ...
An ongoing issue at Gunthorpe Community Centre is proving a real challenge for the City Council to resolve! At the start of December 2011, Cllr Fower was contacted by the Gunthorpe Community Association, as they were unhappy that after asking the Council to come and clean up leaves, fallen from nearby trees, resulting in the coverage of their children's play area and collection around the centre, was declined. In fact the Council suggested they clear them up themselves! Local LIB DEM, Darren Fower then contacted the City Council and even submitted it onto the publicly available FixMyStreet. Commenting, Darren said: ...
Cambridge MP Julian Huppert is calling on the government to act to protect drivers from being held to ransom by petrol stations on motorways. He believes Britain should adopt the French system where fuel prices at filling stations are flagged up to motorway drivers in advance to increase competition. Julian is calling on MPs to sign an Early Day Motion acknowledging that fuel prices on motorways are up to 7.4 per cent higher than the national average caused, in part by the lack of competition. And he has tabled a Parliamentary Question asking what assessment the government has made of ...
Another day and another surprise from the cannon of Christmas wonders. I always love it when there is a group or person you'd not expect to take a certain Christmas route. Today is one of those, it is this year's Christmas offering from The Killers yes you did hear that right and it is somewhat different from their usual style as well.
Tue 13th
07:45"An inept negotiating strategy placed in the hands of an inexperienced prime minister" - behind the ...
"An avoidable disaster": that is the verdict of the Financial Times's Philip Stephens in a must-read article examining what went on behind the scenes of the Coalition's strategy for approaching last week's failed European summit. And his verdict on the Prime Minister and his advisers could scarcely be more scathing: There was no great plan for a rupture. What some Tories now see as Mr Cameron's Churchillian moment was rather the result of an inept negotiating strategy placed in the hands of an inexperienced prime minister. So what did happen? On last night's Newsnight former Lib Dem leader Lord Ashdown ...
What on earth will it take to improve the regulation of letting and managing agents operating in the private rented sector? Last week the Resolution Foundation reported on a small scale mystery shopper exercise in three English cities. The findings were useful, but hardly surprising. The key findings were that upfront fees and charges represent a significant cost for lower and middle income households entering the sector; these fees varied for no discernible reason; and price competition had been rendered largely ineffective by combination of a lack of transparency and supply shortages. The report makes some sensible proposals such as ...
Me at the Hammerite gates There was widespread disappointment in the town of Prudhoe as AkzoNobel, the owners of the historic Hammerite brand, announced they were planning to close plants in Prudhoe and Slough and re-site work at a new plant in Ashington. Although the news is better than if production had been moved overseas or down south, I'm concerned that the 96 workers at the Prudhoe plant are treated fairly and given the option to still work at the Ashington plant or be given good severance terms and retraining. I've called for a special meeting of the County's west ...
Week One is in the books and the first row of stars is on my marathon plan at work (blue for easy runs, yellow for strength days, red for pace runs, green for long). The week went really well. I thought Wednesday's 5 miles at marathon pace were pretty boring on the treadmill, but I was very proud of getting through them and nailing the pace right where I wanted it to be. It seems that treadmill running is just a bit less boring when you have hills to think about going up and down. Just a bit. I felt ...
Superfast broadband is coming to Consett. BT have just announced the welcome Christmas News. Our exchange is expected to be enabled in 2012 which has to be good news for all aspects of our town; commerce, education, health and readership of this site. The good news stretches to Stanley and Peterlee as well. The Press Release can be seen here.
(For the first four parts of the story, click the Doctor Watson Investigates tag) I stared at the telegram in horror. I had no means of contacting Holmes other than by telegram, and without him I was lost. There was a young girl in desperate fear for her life, and I had pledged on my ...
Something very irritating is spewing from Cameron's mouth right now... more so than normal for Britain's dear Prime Minister. Today, in the wake of his disastrous actions at the #EUC O European Council Summit and the triumphant actions of EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard in breaking down India's opposition to a new carbon emissions limiting ...
