It would be churlish not to congratulate Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes on their celebrity-studded wedding in Italy today. It would be equally remiss not to use the opportunity to give this clip from South Park another richly deserved airing: I understand the fact that it rained is a good sign - apparently there is an Italian saying, "The wet bride is the fortunate bride." To which there really
We have an interesting situation in Blaydon constituency of the Labour party putting out leaflets attacking.....themselves. Labour controlled Gateshead Council want to introduce car parking charges. Labour's latest leaflet (actually their first since the local elections) attacks the idea. And they attack the ending of the Post Office Card Account and highlight the problems this policy (of
Unlike the UK, aggregate vote share figures across the US are rarely reported. But there have now been some unofficial calculations, which put the vote share in House of Representative elections at: Democrats 51% Republicans 47% (Figure from MyDD.com, which also has more details.) house of representatives us elections
My House Points column from yesterday's Liberal Democrat News. It's remarkable how far a corny pun can get you. No kidding It’s the goat I feel sorry for. One minute it is leaping from rock to rock (or whatever it is that goats do); the next is has been slaughtered, skinned and had some appallingly right-wing policies inscribed on its hide. For the Queen’s own copy of the Queen’s speech is traditionally written on goatskin. Some historians believe that this practice is where the phrase "nanny state" comes from. Certainly, last year’s goat died largely in vain. The ...
Hello again fellow bloggers. I have now emerged from behind the veil of silence I was asked to keep whilst the Folkestone & Hythe selection process was ongoing and will be back up to full blogging speed again shortly. I would like to thank those who have sent their best wishes to me. I am absolutely delighted to have been selected by the Folkestone & Hythe Liberal Democrats to be their prospective parliamentary candidate and look forward to working with them for many years to come. There is so much to do back home but I'm getting ...
Council tax could rise to cover the costs of bringing women's pay up to the levels men earn, according to the LGE (local government employers) and reported on the BBC today. No doubt people will seek to blame their local councils when council tax goes up, but this is another example of central government making a decision which affects local government, but then local government foots the bill. Don't get me wrong, I support equal pay (I have to say that, my wife works in local government and she would kill me if I didn't say it !), ...
I do not know if anyone else saw this piece of breath taking arrogance displayed by Matthew Taylor - Tony Blair's outgoing chief strategy adviser. He stressed that he was speaking as a "citizen" not as government spokesman - funny how his comments managed to get reported then! He criticises the internet for being used to encourage the "shrill discourse of demands" that dominated modern
And here it is. I was at a presentation recently where a paper by the Rand Corporation suggested that the approximate ratio of soldiers to civilians needed to bring stability to an occupied country was 1:100. I'm not sure how they came to calculate that figure so precisely as I imagine it will be dependent on a lot of variables, though if you're interested can buy a copy of that report here. In any case, the calculation brings you out at around 250,000 troops needed for Iraq whereas deployment has generally been around 100,000 short of that figure. Perhaps this ...
Since the Government let down on the new school, the Council has been looking into how we might take things forward. It is clear that there is no appetite in Government or in Harris Academies to reconsider the ‘risk assessment’ that claim the Bredinghurst site is too dangerous to be used as a site for [...]
Given my recent experience of having a man the Government claims is a terrorist threat come to my surgery to ask for my help, it was perhaps obvious that - speaking today at the London Liberal Democrats' conference - I picked terrorism as the main topic of my speech: The alternative to Labour’s approach also means recognising that simply saying “terrorists are evil, their acts are inexcusable”
Howard {Why is the anti-war Howard Dean now backing George W Bush's greatest fans on Iraq?} Dean (former would-be Democrat candidate for US president) has rather surprised me this week - for the news came out that he will be helping the Labour party here in the UK. But for most people he's know for two things: (a) being against the Iraq war, and (b) crashing to dramatic defeat. (a) isn't exactly the Labour party, and (b) isn't exactly what the Labour party wants I'm sure! So - what's going on? Dean seemed to me to make great play ...
OK, so it was lovely weather earlier in the day, but by 5pm we were all being blown away by the wind and heavy rain. Which made it the perfect timing for carol singing around a large tree in Chessington North Parade! I was amazed to see so many children from Moor Lane Juniors had ventured out to add some festive warmth to the ceremony. We did a cheerful countdown, pressed the switch...
Then on to Age Concern's AGM, ably chaired by Wendy Woods. The guest speaker was Doug Reynolds (standing). I was so pleased that I got a chance to say a few words before he spoke, because he is one of those energetic people who seem to find time to get actively involved in several organisations in the Borough. He was Mayor nearly 30 years ago and I commented that I would...
I saw the Weather Pixie on another Liberal Democrat blog and could not resist adding a couple to my blog. Towards the bottom of the sidebar you will find the UK time and a weather pixie for the nearest site to Reading and the time in Koh Samui and the nearest weather pixie for Koh Samui. Oh and the weather in Koh Samui is currently 81F.
This is great - our 'Christmas Shopping Weekend', a Friday and Monday off for all the extra hours we've been putting in recently - but my handky is still too evident - this cold likes me too much! Last weekend was our very first Annual Dinner - Sajjad Karim MEP was a superb guest speaker - he's very much involved in fair trade and equality issues. Photos: ld dinner 2006 
How do you make local government, and, specifically, reform of local government finance interesting? To be honest, I don’t know. But saying it to camera might help liven it up a little, I guess. Decide for yourselves: Text-only version here.
Kingston University is committed to... maintaining a positive and inclusive atmosphere, based on respect for people's differences whilst challenging and preventing all forms of discrimination.Amen to that... but to give it some wellie, the University set up a Diversity and Equality Unit some time ago. I have been aware if its valuable work through a number of events and meetings. ...
I have been pretty busy in the last couple of days, so I'm afraid this entry is going to appear too late to be effective. But on Thursday after the Christmas lights I was entranced by an art exhibition in the United Reformed Church in Eden Street. Last year Fran O'Brien got 18 local artists together to put on an exhibition to raise money for local charities, and called themselves...
that never squeaks. Turns out it's illegal to own a ferret in New York. The place is named after York, old time capital of Yorkshire where Ferret Legging is practically our only leisure activity, since watching Leeds United has become such a dispiriting pasttime.
First we had the Royal Mail using Santa and Snowmen on their Christmas stamps, now we have these secular goods being sold in the Lincoln Cathedral shop! 
The BBC reports that Westminster council are putting out a leaflet to warn foreign tourists about clip joints. Experience says they should probably start with naive young British boys. For it's twenty one years too late for me! My first Christmas out of school was in London, three months into a job with a jobbers' firm on the Stock Exchange. I had one mate that I knew of from school in London, who was studying at the Royal College of Music or somewhere like that. The night I got my Christmas/annual bonus we decided ...
It was supposed to be an hour of petitioning in the town centre for action on climate change. It turned into a mini advice surgery as person after person came over for a chat that led to talking...
I listened to today's Any Questions? which had Charles Kennedy on it. He spoke exceedingly well and it was great to hear him completely on form. For some reason Dimblebies always want to ask him about his alcoholism, but he dealt with this question with great dignity. He was rewarded with sustained applause from the audience. This was described by Dimbleby as the longest and loudest applause of
Reading Greg Hurst's biography of Charles Kennedy has made me a tad nostalgic for the old days of the Liberal SDP Alliance and seeing as how Stephen Tall has already posted John Cleese's rambling dissertation on extremism it occurred to me that an alternative view was needed.
I was initially shocked to read of the proposed ban on wearing the burqa that is set to be introduced in notably liberal Holland. Then I realised that the current government there is a centre-right coalition, and that they were simply reacting to the issue in a similar way to our own centre-right government. But let's not fool ourselves. A liberal government could also seek to justify a measure by claiming that it will "promote integration and tolerance." This is symptomatic of a fundamental problem with liberalism, one that has yet to be resolved. There ...
I would certainly not be the first to draw parallels between the invention of printing and the invention of the internet. One of the things the invention of printing made possible was the Protestant Reformation. By enabling (relatively) ordinary folk to read the scriptures in their own language at (relatively) low cost and make up their own minds about the "economy of salvation" it gave rise to the idea that there was a "priesthood of all believers" - that there was no immutable law that the individual had to go through some kind of intermediary on earth to ...
into a strain more suited to infecting humans, according to an article in Nature, written up for the rest of us in New Scientist. Their conclusion: mutated strains of bird flu have improved their ability to infect human cells but that there is no evidence of routine human to human infection. The virus may never make that mutation, limiting it to rare jumps into humans. If it does acquire the
Friday 17th November 2006 - What an extraordinary 48 hours it has been since the news broke that President Musharraf had commuted the death sentence facing Mirza Tahir Hussain to life imprisonment. This evening I joined family members and Leeds North West MP Greg Mulholland to meet Tahir at Heathrow airport and welcome him back home. I was delighted to be able to be there to welcome Mirza Tahir
This weekend I am in London celebrating my father's 60th birthday. Happy Birthday Dad! Last night we went out for meal, tonight we are off out to the local dog track to have an evening at the races. My mum has got my dad a computer, my brother and I got lots of stuff to go with it, a printer and other bits and bobs.
The full extent of NHS cuts in Norfolk is becoming clearer each week. The Eastern Daily Press has really been doing a fantastic job keeping the pressure on the government and local MPs in order to make sure that they are being as vocal as possible over the extreme peril Norfolk NHS services face. The EDP highlights the problems HERE and HERE , in two separate articles on their website. It is really rather worrying. It will be an interesting point of focus for local elections next year in Norfolk. There are no Labour Councillors in South Norfolk, Broadland ...
The widely reported news that Tony Blair has admitted that Iraq is a disaster is, I think, very important, in that for the first time ever Tony Blair has admitted that everything isn't fine and dandy in Iraq and that serious mistakes have been made. Why it took Mr Blair to go on Al Jazeera to pass this on rather than sharing it with the people of Britain on the BBC or ITV or SKY news, I guess is a question for him. Now, Mr Blair has scheduled interviews with the BBC when he will ...
Quite simply the best hotel on the island as far as I can see. We picked it for our honeymoon and didn't regret that decision at all. The prices are more similar to European prices but the hotel, the service, the villas and the food are out of this world. The first photo shows the beach area. The Tongsai Bay has a totally private beach which is only accessible from the hotel grounds. There are
If you want to mix your politics with a touch of violent, literary pornography, try the Devils Kitchen. The blog that last week had an interesting piece on chip and pin has degenerated. A piece that begins with some fairly puerile comments on Margaret Beckett's appearance turns into, well, violent pornography. Someone will probably tell me that he's being funny, but actually he isn't. Someone else
I have been resisting commenting on the little rant against bloggers by the Prime Minister's outgoing chief strategy advisor but on re-reading it I thought that it was worth making a single point. Tom Watson has already underlined the fact that there are many substantial political bloggers who do not fall into Matthew Taylor's characterisation of them. However, if Mr. Taylor is serious in his challenge to bloggers that they should help people "try to understand the real trade-offs that politicians face and the real dilemmas that citizens face" then there is only one way forward. The politicians themselves ...
For those who are election addicts, and are suffering withdrawal symptoms now the US mid-term elections are over, hope is in sight. You can look at surveyusa.com. This has head-to-head state-by-state poll results for comparing about a dozen potential Democrat candidates against a dozen potential Republican candidates. So if you pick, say Barack Obama and John McCain, you can see instantly that
1:05am, Just phoned in my donation to BBC's Children in Need - 08457 33 22 33. The operator JB told me that I was the first person she had spoken to who had called in to donate from London. What's happened to everybody. Maybe Londoners have gone all hightech and donated online via their website. Can't think of anything more important than donating money to help children in need especially those in UK. LibDems are supposed to be the caring party so wonder how many bloggers have sent in their own contribution.
I’ve sobbed at every single one of the serious ‘give-me-money-or-i-end-up-on-the-streets’ films on Children in Need. All of them. No Tags | < | November 2006 | > | ||||
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