LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Tuesday 15th August 2006

12-year-old defeats airport security

You have to laugh, I suppose: A 12-year-old boy managed to evade "critical" level airport security by bunking on a flight without any passport or documentation. The youngster, who had run away from a care home in Birkenhead, Merseyside, boarded a plane at Gatwick Airport bound for Lisbon at 6am on Monday. Despite airport security being on red-alert following the alleged terrorist plot to bomb planes, he managed to somehow get through airport security, get on the plane and was settling down with a drink and a snack when a member of the Monarch Airlines crew realised something was amiss. ...

Market Harborough: No. 8 with a bullet

The Daily Telegraph has published its top 10 small towns in Britain, and my home town is at number 8: Market Harborough thrives on its position in the centre of England. Once there were coaches, if they could struggle through the sticky clay; now the train service takes only an hour to London. (In first class, Midland Mainline serves weary commuters with a restorative glass of wine to ease the transition between work and home.) As its name suggests, Harborough (as they call it) has always lived on trade. It is the sort of place where you can still ...

How Do You Know?

Via BBC News comes this incredulous story: "The Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) is consulting members on whether to seek the authority to punish people without going to court."I shit ye not. Included in their proposals to circumvent our criminal justice system are (my comments in italics): The power for police to deal with "town centre yobs" by excluding them for an "appropriate

Southwark Swapshop

The South London Press highlighted one of Cllr Richard Thomas's initiatives today. Rather than bin your old, unwanted, but still usable goods, put them up for swapping with other Southwark residents. Visit http://www.swapxchangesouthwark.org/offeredsouthwark.htm Quite a nice, simple public service that helps the environment without costing a bomb. It would be great if rather than just objects, skills were offered as well. I wonder for example if local campaigners will be offering to swap some babysitting for a bit of website design or delivery help. It might be a great volunteering platform as well as product shop. ...

Day 2044: Balloon caught in Crossfire

Tuesday Why am I like Mr Balloon? No, it is not a riddle. There have been two VERY SERIOUS news stories recently – LEBANON and TERRORISM – and neither I nor Mr Balloon have had very much to say about them. Or rather, while we may have had plenty to say, we have not SAID it. Mr Balloon's silence has led to him being caught in a crossfire of criticism. From the right, Mr Simon Heffalump (no relation!) and from the left, the Grauniad leader. As a soft toy, people expect less of me than the leader of ...

Cancer Research shop re-opens

The Cancer Research UK shop in Eden Street closed last week for a revamp. This morning many of the volunteers who make the place successful turned up for the re-opening. Two of them have been doing their stints at the shop since it opened 21 years ago! We have always valued charity shops because they provide good quality clothes, and other goods, at affordable prices...

TV Film of the Week: Hell Drivers

On Thursday, starting at 12.35 p.m., BBC2 is showing the 1957 British thriller Hell Drivers . It deals with dangerous practices in the road haulage industry, and is rather more involving than that makes it sound, even if the footage of lorries careering around corners is rather too obviously speeded-up. But this film's glory is its cast, and lovers of cult TV and of old British films should certainly watch it or tape it. Two moments stand out. One is the climax: the hero is Stanley Baker, and he is involved in a lorry chase at the end of ...

Why I'm not yet convinced....

It's a liberal's job to be sceptical, so I guess you can't blame me for being increasingly concerned about just how justified the latest Terror Alert has actually been. I'm not a crazed conspriacy theorist, almost always it is a combination of incompetence & opportunism that is the answer when things don't seem to add up, rather than conspriacy. That I suspect is what's going on here as well. We've been told that the 24 arrests averted an horiffic 9/11 style attack, that following the arrest of fugitive terrorist mastermind in Pakistan information was 'discovered' that made it imperative ...

First Class Delivery!!!

Last week I became a Father for the first time and welcomed my daughter Lili to the Vale of Clwyd. During the months leading up to the birth of Lili I visited Glan Clwyd hospital countless times for scans and health checks of my wife and baby. What struck me during this time was the wonder and success of the NHS system and the professional and dedicated staff. During a time when there is such negativity about the future of the NHS, and the funding problems at Glan Clwyd I felt I must praise the service and staff. ...

PFI - Profit From Illness?

Andy Mayer writes an intelligent analysis on the use of PFI for Government projects, featured in a documentary last night. Norfolk has a particularly notorious PFI project - the Norfolk & Norwich Hospital - which taxpayers will end up paying £950 million for. This is more than four times the cost of building it (£229 million).

Lost in Translation

One of the hazards of living in a bi-lingual society is that sometimes the translation can go very badly wrong. This is what appears to have happened with this sign in the Vale of Glamorgan where, according to Owain Sgiv, an officer for the Welsh language campaign group Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg, the phrase 'Cyclists dismount' has been roughly translated as 'bladder disease has returned'. My wife, who is a Welsh translator, tells me that in fact the literal translation of 'Llid y Bledren Dymchwelyd' is 'Bladder disease overthrow'. As if to highlight the dangers of translation by even ...

More on Hydrants, Tay Hotel, and OK it seems early but Christmas Week discussions start

Yesterday was very busy with Council meetings, including weekly meetings with Council Leader and Depute Chief Executive (Finance) & Head of Finance and dealing with lots of constituents' correspondence. A teatime meeting with the group of volunteers who kindly help organise the West End Christmas Week - it was our initial 2006 meeting and great progress already - the week will run from 2nd December & we hope to have lots of new initiatives this year. The minutes of our meetings will go on the West End Community Council website (www.wecc.org.uk) in due course. Council Recess over, it ...

As the dust settles

A shallow peace has emerged in south Lebanon. Time will tell if it will hold, but the chances are good at least in the short-term. As people begin to count the cost of war, various people have been quick to crow that victory is Hizbollah's, an analysis, though not a crowing, broadly shared by James my co-blogger on Inner West. With indecent haste, both Iran and Syria have "applauded" Hizbollah's "defeat" of Israel. The wisdom of Lilly Allen comes to mind: Your not big your not cleverNo u aint a big brotherNot big what so ever There is a wonderful ...

Cameron gets tough

After the “Hug a Hoodie” speech, is this one to become known as “Hit a Hijab”?

20mph zones

I live in a 20mph zone, we have terminal signs at all entrances informing people that they are entering the zone, but once in it they are only reminded it is twenty when exiting the zone. I wrote to County to see if repeater signs were possible as they are in the West End. After months of waiting I got this reply. Regarding your query about 20mph Zones and additional signs, the Sincil Bank Area is subject to a 20mph Zone and as such the use of 20mph repeater signs within the area is not allowed under the signing ...

“By day they churn butter and worship according to their own beliefs and by night they solve crimes.”

Without pausing for breath, the second series of The West Wing picks up where the first left us hanging. The President, his daughter and his staff haved been fired upon; somebody’s going to emergency, somebody’s going to jail… The two-parter “In the Shadow of Two Gunmen” is the perfect opportunity for the series’ first flashback episode, [...]

The Shampoo Bomber Hoax?

In today’s Gruniad, Azzam Tamimi suggests what many of us have also been suspecting - that the recent alleged “shampoo bombers”, the twelve or so conspirators might not have been quite as guilty as the blanket coverage from the mainstream media would suggest. Allegedly these men were about to launch the worlds most audacious attack ever [...]

Indefinite hiatus

It is with some regret that I must suspend posting for the time being due to pressures of work, candidacy and life. It has been a real pleasure exchanging frank but cordial views with bloggers from accross the political spectrum in an atmosphere of consensus (where possible) and respect. I will leave the site up for [...]

A new offence of "Travelling Whilst Asian"

Chief Superintendent Ali Desai suggests that the Government appears to be looking into creating a new offence of "Travelling Whilst Asian". The Department of Transport are looking at introducing profiling people for singling out people for security checks at airports. This will typically result in more Asians and black people being stopped. There is no such thing as identikit terrorists and if someone wants to be a terrorist they will not stop at trying to disguise themselves.

Mister funny man

Now I can explain why I am so funny.And for all those lucky people out there who haven't yet heard my funniest joke, here it is....All my family are musical, even the sewing machine is a singer! (Boom Boom)

Unions concerned about lack of debate in Parliament

From the link: Profound changes are taking place in the NHS with no debate in Parliament and without full and proper consultation with major stakeholders such as staff and their representative organisations, community and user groups. These profound changes have significant consequences for the future of the NHS and the patient experience. The OJEC tender is very significant. I have tried to

Bruce Schneier on the security provisions

Bruce Schneier, one of the world's foremost security experts, has a very good analasys of the provisions made following the recent terror alert. Summary: The immediate provisions were probably necessary as it seems not all suspects had been arrested. Long term, these make no sense (like many of the post 9/11 provisions). Above all, this is a result for good old fashioned intelligence gathering

Terrorism, Religion and Extremism

I’m unconvinced that it’s the job solely of Muslim community leaders to tackle the radicalisation of young Muslim men - a position the Government seems at times to be advocating. I don’t ever recall anyone telling Cardinal Hume that it was his sole responsibility to tackle the perversions which saw the IRA bomb Northern Ireland and [...]

Instant Justice = No Justice

So here we go again. Further plans to undermine the concepts of fairness and justice which we rightly hold so dear. We have already seen some small steps in this direction with the powers the police already have. Now they are proposing that this should be taken further with more powers to dispense instant justice. The end result of all this is that the police become prosecutor, judge, jury and executioner all in one. This is not good for justice and in the long run this will not be good for the police. There is a trend developing here where ...

Carry on restrictions

As I'm flying at the end of the month I checked the carrier's website for the latest on carry on restrictions. For some reason Belgium is the only other country to have the same restrictions on departing flights - makes me wonder if there's a Belgian link in the current scare. Flights from the US to the UK suffer less restrictions, transit through the UK requires UK restrictions. As a foot

Castro-ted

Sticky Notes questions whether Cuba's Fidel Castro really did pose for those recent pictures. From black and white... ... To Technicolour (Via Charon QC) Update Desperate to prove he is alive and well, Cuban TV has aired a video of their ailing leader now.

Seventy Two Virgins - The Wolverhampton connection

Not a comment on Muslim martyrdom but Boris Johnson MP's book Seventy Two Virgins. I have just read the book and can throughly recommend it.

Football with McDonalds

Labour blogger, Kerron Cross, reports that the Scottish Parliament team won the UK Parliamentary Charity Shield for the third year running. He also records that Cardiff West MP, Kevin Brennan was sent off whilst playing for the Welsh Assembly side, after a piece of play-acting that might have made Ronaldo blush. The only other details I have are those on Kerron's blog, namely that the Welsh Assembly side lost to the MPs 1-0. I take it that the dearth of news on the Assembly's e-mail system is directly related to a very poor showing by our side. Sorry I was ...

Cameron "won't be making any specific policy announcements", says spokeswoman

So no change there then. Update: He's at it again with the product placement: Mr Cameron - who will be accompanied on the trip by shadow chancellor George Osborne - will also open a new JCB factory. His spokeswoman said JCB was an example of a successful British company building closer links with India. JCB's owner Sir Anthony Bamford has donated significant sums to the Conservative Party in the past.

Gordon Bennett!

The excellent Andy Mayer has produced a stark warning of the effects of Gordon Brown's PFI largesse. Very worrying.

Vulnerability

The events at our airports remind us how easy it is to disrupt just-in-time operational systems. Maybe part of our defence and security policy should be building in 'redundancy' to these systems accepting the costs and lower day to day efficiency? I will have another look at this in relation to food distribution shortly...

Toffee Makers Chewing Over Closure

Millar McGowan with factories at Broxburn and Stenhousemuir is facing to possibilty of closure with the potential loss of 149 jobs. The makers of Pan Drops, Wham and Highland Toffee bars which has a history going back to 1884 from the John Millar and Sons and McCowan's companies, went into recievership again yesterday. The company has been sadly no stranger to financial difficulties having

Time to get typing

This was alweays meant to be an occassional endeavour, however what with holidays & work it's been even more occassional than I'd envisaged. I'm going to make a little bit more of an effort to post more regularly, not least because so much keeps happening whenever I stray away from my PC.

Gavin Whenman: Waging War

The Monarch is specifically excluded from keeping a standing army during peacetime without the authority of Parliament (Article 6, Bill of Rights 1688) and so, every five years, a new Armed Forces Act is passed, which renews the Army Act 1955, the Air Force Act 1955 and the Naval Discipline Act 1957. The power to deploy these forces (hereafter “the deployment power”) is, however, a prerogative power still vested in the Crown, and exercised by convention by the Prime Minister. It is arguably the greatest power a government can exercise, placing the lives of its citizens in danger and ...

Tuesday 15th August 2006

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