Oh, for goodness’ sake… Everything I most dislike about the Labour Party, and which prompted me to quit its ranks seven years ago, are encapsulated in these words of Matthew Taylor, the Prime Minister’s ‘chief strategy advisor’: "We have a citizenry which can be caricatured as being increasingly unwilling to be governed but not yet capable of self-government," Mr Taylor told the audience [at an
Thursday ... the evening of the switch-on.
Does anyone know how to remove glue from fur? [This is a niche blog entry that is likely to make sense on average to 2.1 people and 0.9 dogs in the UK].
News reaches my (floppy) ears that some Liberal Democrats are wondering if I am one of the "Lib Dem Four". Therefore I would just like to make clear that I have not been interviewed by the police investigating the loans for bones scandal, nor any other matter. I did though once bark at a sniffer dog who was sniffing where she really shouldn't.
Spent Thursday morning at the Invercase Hotel as the Council's witness in relation to a planning inquiry (about a West End planning application) and thereafter to Edinburgh for a reception at the Scottish Parliament - day job - European valuers visiting Edinburgh. A few photos below! Spoke with the City Engineers today about their proposed closure of the car park at the bottom of Commercial Street (at Tay Road Bridge) from 27th November, following one of the local businesses contacting me late yesterday. The closure is as a result of the rail tunnel strengthening works, which will take a ...
A few weeks ago Iain Dale posted about the cover of the Economist that asked if France needed a Margaret Thatcher. Read it HERE. With the selection by the Socialist Party in France of Ségolène Royal as their candidate for French president, perhaps they may have take The Economists advice. Personally, I became involved in politics due to a loathing of virtually everything Thatcher stood for, so I would urge the French to think twice before electing a Margaret Thatcher, however, Madame Royal has very different politics to Mrs Thatcher. I don't know much about ...
So, I gave in, and went at had a look at the Number 10 petition site. Well, I was one of the early adopters of the first attempt just after 1997, to set up a Number 10 discussion board, in the days when the interweb ran like a lump of tangled wet string. So, having signed a few petitions - don't implement ID cards, legalize cannabis and other usual suspects, I decided to try my hand at creating one. It's not been approved yet, and you can be sure I will publish the signature page details if it ...
The Times reports today that Number 10 Downing Street are upset with the police investigating the cash for honours probe have announced that charges will be pressed soon. Quite why Downing Street are so jumpy is obvious, although according to The Times, Number 10 are maintaining the "high moral ground". Well, that makes a nice change then ! Its clear that the very bullish statement from the police has got the government rattled, however, I wouldn't be so sure yet if I was a Tory that they are clear yet as their are a lot of skeletons on ...
I have now updated my list of work which I have done on behalf of Newbury Victoria ward residents. Here is the complete list, with the more recent items first. Items 100-144 have been added since my last posting of the list: 144. A sign was obscuring the view for pedestrians in the Market Place. I complained to WBC and the sign was immediately moved. 143. I asked WBC to provide lighting along the
Apparently two Americans are getting married in Italy. Apparently it warrants wall to wall coverage on every news channel. Apparently it matters to us. Just as a few weeks ago I couldn't care less about Madonna adopting a baby, I care even less about Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes getting married. Boring !!!!!! 
The Lib Dems have discovered that DEFRA (the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), has spent £170 million on consultants whilst at the same time cutting £200 million from their budget this year. This means that £170 that could have been spent on environmental matters (aren't Labour supposed to be doing more to protect the environment ?) has instead been squandered. The BBC story also makes the point that the Tories have already highlighted that £172 million has similarly squandered on NHS management consultants. "Billions spent on a pointless war in Iraq and £340 ...
Many congratulations to Ricky Duveen on a superb result in Reading Borough Council by-election in Tilehurst yesterday. Ricky increased the LibDem vote share from 41.4% to 47.8%. Despite bussing in hordes of pavement-plodders, the Tories' share went DOWN from 30.62% to 30.49%!!! The bottom dropped out of the Labour vote. It went down from 22% to 16%!
I reserve this blog for personal musings. The list of work I have done for my ward as a councillor is on www.walter.org.uk and is reproduced below. I have a whole load of recent casework to update on this list (doing it rather than listing it is always the priority!) I am currently conducting a visit to every doorstep in my ward. I am halfway through. I am asking residents if they have any issues to raise with me and then following up those issues. The reason I mention all this is because this blog seems to have been added ...
A Conservative councillor in Mole Valley has switched to the Liberal Democrats. One of her reasons particularly caught my eye: “Mr Cameron does not seem to be following up his rather vague aspirations with any solid policies.” Who knows, perhaps it is because he is so busy changing his clothes? david cameron Opposition watch
Amongst the council by-elections held yesterday, there were two in Lib Dem held wards in southern England where - if the Tories were really making inroads into Lib Dem support - the Tories should have been scoring big swings, if not wins, from the Lib Dems. The actual result? Two Lib Dem holds with increased majorities: Cambridge [...]
One Labour blogger thinks he has the secret formula to bring us to our knees. He hasn't - but it's worth seeing what he has in mind.
I’m struggling here. What, in principle, is wrong with merging a bunch of QUANGOs together? Surely we want fewer of the things, not more? And why can’t one big one not do a better job than lots of little ones? Isn’t this exactly the conclusion we came to when supporting the [...]
Paul “Guido” Staines and Matthew Taylor are having an indirect war of words today, with both sides blaming the other for the current ‘crisis’ in democracy. Frankly, this is self-aggrandisement on a massive scale. Websites such as Order-Order hardly help restore people’s trust in politics, but anyone who believes, as Matthew Taylor appears to, that [...]
Don Boudreaux has written a letter to the Wall Street Journal in which he applies one of Milton Friedman's insights: Reflecting on the recent election, I conclude that people can be divided into three groups. Members of the first group (consisting of left-liberals and some conservatives) imagine that society is a consciously created machine requiring an operator and a bevy of busy technicians
My Holux GPS receiver arrived yesterday from nav4all, which finally let me try TomTom Navigator 6 on my P990i. Whilst it’s still not officially supported by TomTom, if you buy the software it comes with an option to install on a UIQ3 phone. The install process is really easy. Just put your memory card in to [...]
Obviously anyone who thinks they know anything about economics will be mourning (to a greater or lesser extent anyway) the death of one of the twentieth century's greatest economists. Milton Friedman. So significant was he that I once thought they had named Milton Keynes after him and John Maynard! Come to think of it, with its fusion of central planning but with one of the country's first Cathedrals of the Almighty Consumer at its heart, MK is a strange coincidental fusion of the two men's ideas anyway! I pity economists sometimes (though I say that through gritted teeth ...
I had an editorial board meeting of the Parliamentary Campaigner this morning. So at some point shortly members of Parliamentary Candidates Assn will be receiving the next edition - once I have produced it. We meet in a cafe called Teverre, on the corner of Marsham St and Great Peter St in Westminster - right opposite the no-expenses-spared new building of the Home Office. It strikes me that had
I was told this afternoon, in passing, that I was mentioned in the latest edition of "Liberator". Apparently there was some criticism that I was involved with the handing out of leaflets at conference that explained the tax proposals to conference reps. I haven't seen this publication but I am looking forward to their acting in the fair and balanced approach that one would expect from those who
Yesterday morning was spent having some rather interesting dental surgery carried out. I was due to have a bone graft in preparation for a couple of implants in 6 months time when the graft should have integrated properly. The graft was going to make use of a titanium mesh to form a surface on which the graft could take hold and give it shape/structure. The procedure was going to be so interesting that my normal dentist and nurse had come along to assist the consultant actually doing the work, and cleared his appointments! But unfortunately for them it turned out ...
Niles, Duncan Borrowman and Colin Ross have already blogged about the PagePlus training held in Birmingham last weekend, but I have the photographic evidence. In the picture, Duncan is demonstrating kerning using the word COTTAGE (if the kerning is too small then the double T become joined by their cross bars). Barely visible in the pic are Alex Foster and Helen from Chesterfield. 
Roger Waters is my featured artist tonight on the Palm105.5fm rock show. WWW.palm.fm and click listen live if you are outside South Devon. you can contact me during the show on Torqu...
'Tis the season for the new James Bond film. Unlike other seasons that have become divisive (see the Christians getting upset with Winterville etc etc) the release of another dose of rather silly, chauvinistic, shaken-not-stirred entertainment can unite all Brits, or all British men; at least according to Ben Macintyre in today's Times."...the appeal of Bond is global, but in order to be both shaken and stirred by Bond (OK, that’s the last of the catchphrases) it helps to be British, male and slightly naff: interested in gizmos, sex without commitment, saving the world, clunking double-entendres, fast cars, drink, ironic ...
I haven't been questioned by the police about cash for peerages and don't expect to be. This sorry episode is doing enormous damage to the reputation of politics and the sooner the po...
Welcome that it is that Republic have put a petition on the 10 Downing Street website, doesn’t this technically make Tony Blair guilty of sedition under the Treason Felony Act? Perhaps Yates of the Yard ought to widen his investigation still further?
Grangetown Primary School has issued heartfelt thanks to thousands of local residents who helped it win a £50,000 Big Lottery Fund prize to build a new playground. Headteacher Carl Faulkner said: "We could not have won without the support of so many people. We're so grateful for their backing. It's great to have won the Lottery! "We're hoping to start building work just after Christmas and hopefully the whole project will be ready for the summer term, with a formal opening on our Family Learning Day, Friday, June 29. "To win so soon after receiving ...
People living in South Bank can find out more about the Renewal Plan and how it affects them at a drop in session. It has been organised by Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council in partnership with South Bank Tomorrow and will take place on Monday November 20, at Golden Boy Green on Normanby Road in South Bank from 1pm until 8pm. The community has been and still is involved in the consultation process and visitors will be able to view a series of display panels explaining what the Renewal Plan is, the area affected by the plan, what ...
The recently announced death of Milton Friedman put me in a reflective mood. In particular I was thinking about what the lessons of Thatcherism are for today's generation of political leaders. Margaret Thatcher, nominally influenced by Friedman and indeed to some degree Friedrich von Hayek, was yet not an acolyte of these thinkers. Up until the 1982 Falklands conflict her government was pragmatic on many issues- encumbered said her allies with the need to accommodate the Heathite "wets". After the victory in the South Atlantic and subsequently in the 1983 election, her administration changed substantially. She became more abrasive ...
Let's have a seasonal Friday, take a walk in the park and scuff at the leaves. Someone put this video for Nick Drake's River Man together, it works quite well.
The BBC reports: Conservative MP James Gray is fighting for his political career after losing a deselection vote. The local party executive in Chippenham voted against the 52-year-old North Wiltshire MP continuing to represent them in the next election. The vote follows criticism that he had an affair while his wife Sarah was being treated for cancer. There will [...]
Tonight the Liberal Democrats will have a Party Political Broadcast - it will be on BBC1 18.55; BBC2 17.55 and ITV 18.55. If you miss it, or want to see it early you should be able to see it here - on the main page of this site there should be box with question mark in to the top right of the screen, go there and press play.
I managed to get into the Queens Speech debate about Public Family law and Medical Ethics yesterday. See link for Hansard.
The new Lib Dem video - which you can see on the right - has got the message spot on. Unlike the spin and imagery of the other parties the Lib Dems stick to the issues, and rightly so. At the end of the day what really matters in politics is getting the judgement right. On Iraq Brown and Cameron followed Blair into the lobbies to vote for the invasion. Ming Campbell and the Lib Dems voted against. On the environment we have had hot air and gimmicks from Brown and Cameron. Only the Lib Dems have come up with ...
Now this lot make the BNP look like cuddly moderates. I had a very strange experience during the general election. While canvassing and taking part in the 'the balloon run' up against the Tories on Weston High Street, it became apparent that another political battle was going on around us. The BNP had established a stall at one end of the street and some chaps from the Socialist Students had got wind of this and were attempting to thwart them. It all seemed so removed from the world of actual politics, more a sort of fantasy simulation. The socialists were ...
I was really irked by Gordon Brown’s reaction to the not guilty verdict in the Nick Griffin trial. Is the law supposed to be playdough? Are we supposed to just re-mould it every couple of months to make sure we can bang the nasties up? Even if the current law has yet to be tested? If so – the Government really should have introduced the Shifty Disposition (Ocular Incapacity) Act a couple of years back; that way we would could have banged Griffin up in Belmarsh with Hamza. Come to think of it, such a piece of legislation might come ...
The new Liberal Democrat party political broadcast will be on TV this evening. Here’s a sneak preview. In keeping with a regular theme of this blog, see if you can spot three Doctor Who guest stars in this clip. Two of them were also in Blake’s 7. It’s pretty easy if you’re a fanboy - [...]
The Assembly's House Committee has voted to support the campaign to get DotCym accepted as a Top Level Domain so as to enhance Welsh culture and identity on the world wide web. It would mean that organisations, companies and individuals would have the option to replace .uk with .cym. The Committee met last week to consider the matter and supported my plea to back the campaign. As is made clear in the Assembly's press release and in this article, the Presiding Officer is fully behind the move: The Assembly’s Presiding Officer, Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas, said: I believe that ...
Politicians generate many mixed feelings. On the one hand we are probably one of the top five most hated professions, considered to be at various times dishonest, self-seeking, dissembling, verbose or just plain unreliable. At other times we are community or national leaders, social workers, problem solvers, campaigners and even heroes. More often than not people will start off looking for the latter and end up having their expectations dashed. That is because like everybody else, we are just human and no matter how high up the ladder we have climbed, we will eventually reach the limit of our ...
A couple of weeks ago I blogged about Global warming, Gordon and Gore. I welcomed the news that the UK government had signed up former US vice-president Al Gore to advise on the environment see here. Yesterday I went to see Al Gores film "An inconvenient truth" at the Corn Exchange in Newbury and attended the first part of the Liberal Democrat organised Green Tea afterwards in the town hall. All the reviews I had seen before raved about this film and so in many ways I half expected to be disappointed - I was not. This film ...
Sunday: More good stuff for watching from under the duvet. No gore or swearing this week but much more TERROR! Mr Stripy was in need of a good cuddle, I can tell you. I can appreciate why the makers of "Torchwood" would want to get away from the "Doctor Who" model of "mysterious time-traveller" + "young down to earth human woman". Apart from the obvious desire to give a different dramatic balance to help make "Torchwood" its own show, it is also hell on the actors when there are only two leads and they have to carry ...
Saturday: Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat. And has apparently been stolen by Halifax Bank of Scotland. This is a TERRIBLE story about people whose Christmas will be ruined because the Farepak Christmas savings club has gone bankrupt. These good people have been doing exactly what everyone says that we should: putting a little bit aside each month in savings in order to be ready for Christmas and not to have to add to the trillion pounds of debt that the nation has managed to run up. The rumour is that the company's ...
Friday: It there is one thing that really gets me in a fluffy bait it is people who are BAD LOSERS. Two examples this week: Mr Frown (wants another go at changing the right not to be locked up without reason) and Mr Frown (wants another go at changing the right to free speech). First Example: No one should be surprised that the Labour are DEVOUTLY convinced that they know best about everything! In particular, they can tell who a TERRORIST is just by looking at him! (Or indeed NOT!) And if they say someone should be locked up, ...
theguardian, working with No2ID, have carried out an excellent investigation into the new “more secure” biometric passports, of which three million are already in circulation. These passports contain information on RFID chips - entirely unnecessary for a valid passport - from which a hacker can extract your biometric information, making it possible to clone the [...]
In October I arranged for Fiona Hall, our North East Member of the European Parliament, to do a "Question Time" in my house in which we invited questions from residents and Fiona answered them on video. I have now put the videos onto YouTube, one for each question. They can be viewed on the following links: 1) Introduction and opencast mining 2) migrant labour 3) council tax 4)
Seems Guido Falkes has done it again YATES LETTER FULL TEXT . Where does he get the stuff from. Guido don't leave it there, whilst you are on a roll I want to know who are the 4 LibDems who have been interviewed. Noticed many people wafting around the letter on TV late at night but nobody has named more names. Hurry up quick, Liberal Democrat Voice is hot on the trail. Young Rob Fenwick is desperate to be thought of as blazing the trail with all the inside gossip. His style is ...
Hat tip to Liberal England. Charles Kennedy missed the Queen's Speech. What was the cause? Gin? Red Wine? (both favourite tipples of yours truly). No neither. He was busy using his great oratory skills to fight for his father's rights over half an acre of croft. Good on you CK. | < | November 2006 | > | ||||
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