11:41 pm
The Mayor and Consort as you have never seen them before - with a juggling friend. Summer Saturdays are always busy. This one started with the Family Funday on King Edwards Recreation Ground at Hook. Free bouncy castles and entertainment, plus stalls and amusements brought out good numbers throughout the day. The initial idea for the event came from us, the...
11:36 pm
Today was so hot took all the energy I could muster to get myself to Walthamstow for the Ethnic Minority Lib Dems (EMLD), AGM. With parts of the Northern Line closed from my neck of the woods and the Victoria Line section to Tottenham Hale closed for weekend repairs it was a matter of several buses and the tube from TH to Walthamstow Central. It was a nightmare journey - surprisingly for a Sunday the buses were packed and none of them seemed to have their airconditioning working. Took me almost two hours - I was sweating cobs. The last ...
10:40 pm
The latest edition of my favourite online local newspaper , the Nome Nugget, is particularly good. There's a photo of the Fourth of July 25-feet dash for the over 80s. There is an excellent letters column , with an intriguing view on a local reckless driving courtcase: "I was surprised to see reported that Travis was allegedly traveling at a speed up to 25mph. Not once throughout the three
10:34 pm
Since I'm seemingly the only person in the blogosphere who hasn't yet posted a YouTube - here we go. This is one of some daft students jumping around in the hall of residence I used to live in. If they're not careful, they'll break something.
10:33 pm
My first post at The Sharpener for a while, though it’s just about the walk.
9:47 pm
Yesterday’s Goodrich Carnival was a fun as predicted. Bigger and better than last year and all the bicycle floats survived the trip. It’s a briliant community event. It’s not just the parents and children that join in but locals line the streets to cheer on the procession.
9:32 pm
Odd… I saw this aircraft flying high above Finsbury park as I frolicked and freaked around with my young neices and nephews. They concluded that it was a jumbo-jet, wheras I secretly knew it was a V22 Osprey. The question is, what on earth was this doing above London? As far as I know only [...]
9:27 pm
After reading Andrew Rawnsley's article in the Observer today, I suspect that now is the time for newspapers to prepare their political obituaries of A.Blair, if they have not already done so. Thinking strigently, if only he had followed up his promise to properly reform the House of Lords - if only he had made it 100% elected - he would not be in this mess. By the way, if he had agreed to public
9:15 pm
In the Guardian yesterday, Marina Hyde described the National Lottery as a "tax on stupidity". Fortunately, I have never taken part in the lottery, so I could laugh at this. Mind you, the reason I have never taken part is not a question of stupidity or otherwise. If you have a faith, I don't see the reason to take part in a lottery. I am sure that sounds sanctimonious, but there it is.
9:11 pm
Yesterday was Saint Swithin's Day. If the traditional rhyme is anything to go by, we are in for a good spell: St Swithin’s Day, if it does rain Full forty days, it will remain St Swithin’s Day, if it be fair For forty days, t'will rain no more I also noticed about eight flying ants while I was walking around. I was always told that they come out for one day a year. I think this is, perhaps, a
8:57 pm
Calming down with the Sunday papers I see The Observer has carried the story about DNA that they spoke to me about earlier this week. A private firm has been secretly keeping the DNA details of thousands of people. I predict that DNA issues will run and run and that all the assurances about the integrity of the database are not worth the paper they aren't written on! The Government says the DNA
7:28 pm
Tom H at Let's be Sensible has a good piece on the Observer talking mostly rubbish about violent crime and you can read Tom's piece here. The same Observer article also states: Hilary Armstrong will also announce proposals to target babies and toddlers under two in the war on antisocial behaviour.... What? ASBOs all round? Take them into care for tantrums in supermarkets, or (my personal dislike) crying on public transport? Well, in reality the plan is more sensible that that, but "targetting" babies and toddlers under two is really rather suggestive.
6:12 pm
Max Calo has kindly sent me a copy of the Evening Standard article about the campaign to end the directly elected Mayoral system in Lewisham. Quite a spectacular photo of people holding up a letter each of B.R.I.N.G. B.A.C.K. D.E.M.O.C.R.A.C.Y. All the important opposition figures were there. Hence my absence. Struck by how few LAs have gone for directly elected Mayors, despite the early hype. Will Lewisham vote to scrap the Betamax Mayor?
5:49 pm
Following all the other video activity on other Lib Dem blogs, I’ve been going on a bit of video frenzy to see what might be the best way to make Lib Dem videos. I’ve also used the Democracy Plug-In and Democracy Widget to set up an online poll to get your point of view. So [...]
5:38 pm
The other day I said that Leonard Cheshire's opened his first home at Gumley Hall near Market Harborough. Now someone has left a comment on that post claiming that this was wrong and that it was at Le Court (which was the Cheshire family home). I shall investigate. Meanwhile, let me draw attention to the writings of Andrew Burridge who believes that Gumley was the site of King Arthur's Camelot - or at least that Arthur and Offa have become confused in the historical record and that it was the site of Offa's palace. Even if you do not buy ...
5:29 pm
On Test Match Special this morning a website called Cricket Archive was mentioned. Using it I have been able to find the scorecard for Thomas Tapling's only first-class match: Cambridge University vs MCC at Fenners, 31 May, 1-2 June 1886. As he scored only 5 and 0 in his two innings and did not bowl, you can see why he is better remembered as a stamp collector. Thus Tapling's life disproves the common belief that philately gets you nowhere.
5:03 pm
Tim Worstall has posted this week's selection of the best in British blogging.
4:56 pm
The First Post has its usual review in place. If you are particularly interested in current poltical scandals, you may also be interested in Iain Dale's comments here and here.
4:44 pm
I'm afraid it's been quite a while since I updated this blog. It slipped down my list of priorities, as I was overwhelmed by the toad Work, various Council duties, and the effects of my flat being flooded a week ago, which knocked out my communications and messed up all my paperwork. Have mostly managed to put things right, but I've accumulated a bit of a backlog, and I apologise to all the people who have been affected by it. I won't try to catch up with everything in this blog since the last entry, but things ...
4:30 pm
A Cupar care home only spends 63p per meal for it's residents.Other councils in Scotland spend as much as £2.45 per meal.The people of Fife deserve better.
3:13 pm
I've been making fairly inconsequential comments on Paul Walters Blog about 70s and 80s musicians. As Paul mentions in the comments "Talking about music is a lot more fun than politics isn't it?". It certainly is today, especially regarding the Lebanon situation. My gut instincts are with the Israelis. One comment somewhere that I've read resonated with me. "Think what would happen if the
2:26 pm
The server hosting the script to display buttons is behaving a bit strangely, so I’ve had to update the Widget script to default to javascript if the standard readfile command returns a null result. The updated version can be found here.
2:07 pm
As I write the situation in the Middle East is deteriating by the hour. It seems that Israel is poised to mount a full-scale invasion of Lebanon. This, despite the fact that it was not the Lebanese government that attacked Israel but a terrorist group. True, the terrorist group has a haven in Lebanon but that is more to do with the power of Syria and Iran than what the Lebanese people or its
1:46 pm
The New Labour Government is planning set up a scheme that will identify potential criminals when they are toddlers. There is something very distrubing about this "Big Brother" attitude. It betrays all that is wrong with the social engineering mindset of New Labour. They will, of course, make it sound very reasonable and sensible. "We have done research that shows that children from certain
1:44 pm
This morning's Sunday newspapers are full of alleged scandals involving John Prescott and the loans for peerages affair. The Observer however, contains news of another scandal of at least equal import, and one that could have a huge impact on all of our lives. They report that the security of the police National DNA Database is in question following the disclosure of confidential emails which reveal that a private firm has secretly been keeping the genetic samples and personal details of hundreds of thousands of arrested people. Police forces use the company LGC to analyse DNA samples taken ...
1:29 pm
Mahim Junction is the nearest station to the Valladares manse in Mumbai, and I took this picture in early January when I was in town for a family wedding. It isn't the world's most evocative railway station, although it is an important one (you could call it Mumbai's equivalent to Clapham Junction - lots of people pass through it but most don't stop for long). Last week, it was a scene of the
1:22 pm
Dear Prime Minister You will be aware that your options for choosing when you stand down have seriously decreased during the last week. If everything had been going relatively smoothly, you would like to have stepped down in 2008. Your fall back position was to announce your resignation in May 2007, allowing Gordon Brown to face the party conference that autumn as leader. You may now have
11:00 am
A friend pointing me in the direction of http://irrepressible.info – Amnesty International's new campaign against attack on people’s freedom of speech on the internet. I particularly like the little campaign tool they've provided for websites, which allow you to display extracts from censored documents on your own website. I like this idea of protest - undermining crackdowns on freedom of speech by publicising the material across the internet – and the way it highlights the absurdity of some of the censorship (such as extracts from BBC weather reports being censored!). You can now see the Amnesty button in the ...
10:56 am
Wake to worsening news on Israel and the Lebanon. It makes me feel physically sick to think of what is happening to the ordinary civilians on both sides. Tony Blair's words from the G8 Summit are really strange - that this is not really to do with Israel and Hezbollah, but rather it's about the axis of evil with Iran as the string puller in the background. It keeps coming back to this vague references to things we, Jo Public, don't know or understand are going on. It's time the government laid this out clearly with evidence. What lies ahead ...
10:03 am
Nobody should really be surprised that Tory plans to restrict the voting rights of Scottish MPs will not extend to Northern Ireland, even though there will be very similar law-making powers once their Assembly is re-established at Stormont. Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary David Liddington has confirmed that the Tories will still allow Ulster MPs the right to vote on English matters for at least two years of a future Conservative government. Surely, this different approach can have nothing to do with the fact that Scottish MPs tend to be mostly Labour, Liberal Democrats and SNP, ...
9:54 am
I am not sure which we should be most outraged at: that the Italian players managed to break the World Cup trophy on the way home or that they were only allowed to take away a gold plated replica - and clearly had not been told! Good for FIFA that they managed to think ahead for a change and took sensible precautions.
7:40 am
I don’t know about you, but I’ve been blown away over the last few months, by the sheer brilliance of the ideological narrative running through David Cameron’s policy announcements. Now I understand what he means by “intellectual renewal”. He's even tried sucking up to me by liking the Smiths and wearing Cons. But no. Lets review that Cameron policy agenda in full. Leave the EPP. In 2009. Scrap the Human Rights Act. …but keep the ECHR, so you have to fly to France. But don’t do that. It’s bad for the environment. Instead, hug a husky. And then hug ...
Saturday 15th July 2006,
Friday 14th July 2006,
Thursday 13th July 2006,
Wednesday 12th July 2006,
Tuesday 11th July 2006,
Monday 10th July 2006
