Bromley Conservatives pushed through a motion tonight on the Standards Board. This is the motion that they should have passed, and would have had Liberal Democrat support: This Council notes with great concern the adverse effect the Standards Board is having on the ability of democratically elected Councillors to represent their residents and on the health of local democracy generally. This
Definitely too many posts on religion, I’ll have to change subject, won’t I? I’ve been listening to “John Humphrys in search of God” (although not the extended interviews as I couldn’t access the media files). I must say he wasn’t very original and sounded a bit slow really. I quite liked some of the answers given, but really, God’s existence is not something you can probe like Government
I’m currently selling a Riso on ebay if anyone wants one cheaply.
Last year I reported that, at 6' 7", Sir Louis Gluckstein was the tallest MP ever. He represented Nottingham East between 1931 and 1945. It seems that the current Tory MP for Shrewsbury, Daniel Kawczynski, beats him by a short head.
This new e-government lark is working out well for Tony: We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to stand on his head and juggle ice-cream.The reason? If he's not going to resign, the least he can do is provide us with some entertainment. Go on, sign it, you know it makes sense. Well, more sense than that whole Iraq thing, anyway. (Incidentally, the originator of the petition was one Tim
Having got back from the meeting earlier, I can say I learnt something of the predicament they are in. it is clear if the government had not cut PCT funding last year in favour of transferring funds to PCT's in the north (Labour areas ?), they would not be in the position they are in now. Interestingly, they (the PCT) are also suffering from debt they did not incur, but were instead lumbered with a share of costs towards the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital PFI (Labour's first flagship PFI). Despite the fact that they said nothing had ...
BA in their infinite 'wisdom' decided to ban one of their employees from wearing a cross on her necklace. According to their statement: "British Airways uniform standards stipulate that adornments of any kind are not to be worn with the uniform...British Airways does recognise that uniformed employees may wish to wear jewellery including religious symbols. Our uniform policy states that these
I wouldn't start comparing them to Quit India just yet, but seeing Gazans respond to a threat of air-strikes not with more suicide bombings, but with that staple of non-violent protest - the human shield - fills me with a certain hope. I'm certain that neo-con bloggers will already be rushing to condemn Hamas and those that protect them from "justice". But that would be to miss the point. Nevertheless, perhaps a Gandhi quote would be appropriate at this time: "For this cause I too am prepared to die, but for no cause, my friend, will I be prepared to ...
I think I have an unhealthy relationship with food... I tend to eat lots of it when I should go running, and tonight's gluttony has I suspect set some kind of world record. I shan't go into the details, suffice to say that it involved most of a rotisserie chicken, a can of soup and some indian deli snacks (and that was before what was in the oven came out). How does this happen? When I came
A new survey released by the charity beatbullying at the start of Anti-bullying Week shows a clear link between bullying and truancy, with over a third of children who are absent from school missing lessons because of the fear of bullying. After meeting with secondary school pupils and commenting on the findings, Leader of the [...]
Just by raising questions about the way that paedophiles are treated was going to cause problems for Terry Grange - Chief Constable of Dyfed-Powys Police. Anyone in that position who is seen to be advocating that ‘paedophiles’ should be treated more leniently is asking for trouble. But as much as it may be unpopular to [...]
Local Lib Dems received some alarming figures today showing a large number of burglaries in Prestwich in the last few weeks. Prestwich has fairly low crime in comparison to other areas of Greater Manchester, so it's bad news that there has been a rise in burglaries of late. We are working with the local police and fellow residents to try and crack down on the problem. There are Homewatch groups
A while ago the 10 Downing Street launched a new feature that gave people the ability to set up petitions for the Prime Minister. Apparently they’ve had a huge response with nearly 500 petitions submitted in the first couple of days. Which to be honest I’m not really surprised by, although from [...]
Good news in the Ham & High this week - Iron bar schoolboy thug is expelled. Following the incident on the 390 bus which I witnessed, the report says. On Friday, the Year 11 pupil, who attends St Aloysius' College in Hornsey Lane, was tracked down by staff at the school and expelled. I don't usually support expulsion of students from schools but in this case I think the school took a justified course of action. It's good to see that the school took it upon themselves to find the culprit and deal with the matter internally. Apparently ...
As part of the third annual Anti-Bullying Week, Lib Dem MP Stephen Williams has done a clip for YouTube about the problems of homophobic bullying: To sign the petition, add your comments or share your experiences, visit the Lib Dem campaign at: www.standuptobullying.org homophobic bullying Lib Dem TV stephen williams 
Writing this post later than I would have liked, I’m surprised that there has been so little commentary today about the launch today of the New Generation Network, founded by Pickled Politics‘ Sunny Hundal. I think Sunny has hit on something here, something not all that dissimilar to my own contributions on the subject recently. [...]
A few months after Matt managed it, I’ve now managed to get my YouGov account over £50, which means I should be getting my first cheque from them soon. If I rememer when I started doing surveys there correctly, expect the next post of this sort smetime around 2010. You too can share in this [...]
As a little personal project, I uploaded a stack of news channel video over the weekend from the period of 2pm-6pm on 7 January 2005, the day of Charles Kennedy’s resignation as Liberal Democrat party leader. It’s an interesting lesson in how incorrect speculation on the impact of major political events can be. Nearly every prediction made [...]
Liberator 314 included a piece critical of English Candidates Committee and of the selection process generally. Sadly, but inevitably, the Collective are not alone in their criticism so, perhaps, we need to have an open debate on our processes, what they seek to achieve, how they work and what key failings need to be addressed [...]
Two weeks ago this blog featured heavily a story about bird flu pandemic, the inevitable mutation of the H5N1 bird flu virus in to a form that humans could catch. A BBC documentary highlighted that the mortality rate of such a pandemic could see one in ten of the population dying, moreover it pointed out that the UK was unable to produce enough vaccine in time to prevent a large proportion of the population catching the mutant flu. Indeed, it could take six months for any vaccine to be produced. So it comes as little ...
He’s probably burnt his old one out. According to the Recess Monkey blog: Lib Dem MP David Laws (Yeovil) has managed to ask 202 PQs today, and 175 PQs were to a single Department - the DWP. Labour blogger Kerron Cross has more. New researcher in the Laws fold, by any chance? Campaigning david laws parliament [...]
Whatever the merits of banning imports of wild birds on the grounds of conservation and animal welfare, I think its a mistake to call for it on the grounds of prevention of bird flu as Baroness Miller has just done. Why? If we wish to protect against bird flu then the sensible option would be to put birds in quarantine, which is not the case now, you do not have to quarantine imported birds. If
I am attending the Primary Care Trust meeting in Fakenham this evening to hear about the cuts there are going to have to make to services across North Norfolk, but I go with a particular interest in cuts to be made at Cranmer House, Fakenham. The question for me is whether this is real consultation from the PCT and are they going to listen ? I know the PCT finds itself in a very awkward position. It's funds were cut last year, and since merging with neighbouring PCT's, its budget has been cut again, meaning that they have ...
Forgive me a moment of cynicism, but I find myself thinking that the new No. 10 Downing Street petitions page (http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/) is a vacuous attempt to make the Government look like it’s listening while in fact it is characterised by increasing deafness to public opinion. That being said, I have brushed aside my cynicism and joined 2468 other people in signing the petition to scrap the proposed introduction of ID cards (http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/IDcards/). I have also written to the team running the project calling on them to add a facility to sign in opposition to a measure. My letter ...
There have been a number of stories in the newspapers recently suggesting that the costs of hosting the Olympic games in 2012 are rising out of control. Predicting the costs of anything six... 
My daughters primary school. It’s a very large one with two classes of about 30 pupils per year group has two male teachers in the whole school. In fact there are only three male members of staff full stop. Each year group has two full time teachers, three lunchtime supervisors and three classroom assistants. On top [...]
More than 12 months ago, I went to the Welsh Assembly Offices in Cardiff. My mission was to stop the proposed outrageous car park charges at the rural hospital of Glan Clwyd. I hand delivered a letter to Dr Gibbons, Am and Minister of Health. He informed me that it was not his problem ..... yet his boss Rhodri Morgan spends £236,000.00 on a golf jolly while our Trust is underfunderd and still has to impose car park charges to raise its own funding!! I recently met up with some staff from Gland Clwyd. I was handed the curent ...
Kevin Blackwell is to sue Leeds United for compensation after failing to negotiate a settlement with his former employers. According to Ken Bates “Blackwell was dismissed for negative comments made in the press about the club's finances, not for poor results” Right! Well he should have been dismissed for poor results but then he should be compensated for being dismissed unless there were performance clauses in his contract The League Managers Association lawyers have investigated the newspaper article upon which Leeds are basing their claim and have advised that Blackwells remarks did not breach the terms of ...
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists have responded to an email I sent containing my previous post. I will summarise what they've said here: Firstly, they say that their remarks are old and have been taken out of context. I accept the former point, since I had noticed how old the original document was. The latter might also be true - I haven't had the time to read the whole document. Secondly, they emphasise that the focus of their members is on "striving to help premature babies with a good prospect of survival." ...
Penguins beat Bond at US cinemas, according to BBC Entertainment.
To be honest I do not know what happened next but for some reason this photo caused great mirth in our household. I see similar photos also appeared in a couple of todays nationals. Suggestions so far Fingerpainting Making elephants out of playdoh They all had their hair cut Please feel free to suggest you own
Loathe as I am to get bogged down on specific subjects, the breadth of responses to last Thursday’s piece on grammar schools merited a full response, not least because an uncharitable mind might think that some of the respondents hadn’t read it. So let’s start again by restating the fundamental conclusion I put at the top of the last piece;What makes you think that that is the result of selection
The Health and Safety mafia are after me! At work (where I do most of my blogging!) I have moved a new pedestal next to my desk. A pedestal, for those of you not condemned to the miserable drudgery of the C21st office, is a two foot high set of drawers designed to go under a desk. For complicated reasons to do with my being officially "over-sized" I have two of these, so one is now lurking beside me. I have been threatened with action. Apparently, the pedestal represents a knee hazard. I might crack my knee on ...
Last week, I asked you to identify Doctor Who actors in this clip: There are at least four. Joe identified Brian Blessed, who was King Yrcanos in The Trial of a Time Lord, and Alan spotted a different king - Jason King - who I’d missed: Peter Wyngarde, who played Timanov in Planet of Fire. The other [...]
Miraculously, modern technology has come up “the face of Jack the Ripper“. Although the image has been constructed using new technology, it’s not as if the Victorian force could not have knocked together an artist’s impression of the serial killer if witness statements matched: the problem was, they didn’t. The BBC quotes Metropolitan Police Commander John [...]
As an elected politician one of the best parts of my job is trying to resolve people's problems and complaints. There is nothing more satisfying than successfully helping somebody in this way. Like every other Assembly Member I do occasionally get regular complaints from particular individuals or cases that seem very trivial in nature. This does not stop me dealing with each one thoroughly or to the utmost of my ability. After all everybody has a valid point of view and deserves proper representation. The video above was brought to my attention by an e-mail correspondent. It is the Finnish ...
James Gray and I are separated by more than just one syllable, but it’s been interesting following his progress since he announced he was dumping his cancer-surviving wife for another woman. Interestingly, more Conservative-leaning members of the blogosphere don’t share my interest. Here however is my handy cut-out-and-keep guide to the saga so [...]
There is no doubt in my mind that defeating child poverty is one of the big issues confronting politicians today. That is why I hope that other parties will take up the cause in the same way that Labour have done for their Assembly manifesto, albeit imperfectly. It is worth noting that Labour's aspiration has been formulated in the context of them having already been in government for nine years, raising the question of what has been done so far and how effective has it been? Furthermore as Keith Towler from Save the Children points out in today's ...
Last night’s Head 2 Head (BBC News24, 20 Nov 2006) was another excellent opportunity to shout at the television (which at 2am caused quite a stir!). The face-off between Michael Gove MP and Polly Toynbee of The Guardian was a surreal affair. While neocon sympathiser Gove was highly critical of the war in Iraq and talked about cosying up to the Iranians in an effort to further peace, Toynbee was declaring her opposition to immigration and condemning the unemployed to ever greater poverty. It was Toynbee that left me reaching desperately for either the remote control on any ...
The national survey of patients into patient choice of hospital has been released. Unsurprisingly 57% of people (79,000) think that the location is an important issue. 22% were concerned about the waiting times, 18% about the hospital's "reputation", 17% about the quality of care, 15% about cleanliness, 8% about quality of staff and 6% about car parking. The reputation of the consultation for a
For those wondering about the trend of naming children after figures from popular culture or literarure it seems that the trend is not new. A letter in today's Times Newspaper points out that those children who have been called Kylie, Gandalf or Reebok can take comfort from the fact that it has been happening for a long time. Lucinda Ganderton from Richmond, Surrey tells us that the 1871 census for England includes 46 Horatio Nelsons, 23 Percy Shelleys and 1,967 Elizabeth Bennetts. They were joined in 1881 by two Oliver Twists and two Bill Sykes. Five years after ...
A good point.
I glanced down at the needlessly polythene-wrapped copy of the Times in Starbucks this Sunday to discover that it’s all hitting the fan down at the alma mater. The Christian Union at Exeter, which is a doctrinally strict evangelical organisation, has been asked by the Students’ Guild to style itself as ‘the Evangelical Christian Union’ if it wishes to continue enjoying the benefits of being a Guild society. This does not strike me as unreasonable, and since they remain at liberty to operate outside of the auspices of the Guild, I can’t see that there is much of a problem. ...
'If you keep digging, you'll come out in China.' (Australia was another version of the same foul untruth). How often were you told that as a kid? Well, they've been found out with this site which works out exactly where the hole would come out. They were wrong and we'd be in big trub if we kept digging: we'd emerge onto the Pacific abyssal plain south east of New Zealand, under a few miles of
When did you last see a polling station heaving like this one? This is the election for Kingston's Member of the Youth Parliament. Almost all the secondary school students in the Borough are voting. I was lucky enough to catch them today at Chessington Community College, but other schools will be running the election over the next couple of weeks....
This Friday saw two more West Midlands constituencies advertise - Birmingham Perry Barr and Stratford and South Warwickshire. We are second in both seats, but to Labour in Perry Barr and to the Conservatives in Stratford. The seats could be hardly any more different - showing the massive contrast of seats in the West Midlands and how we can do well in both. Perry Barr stays much the same in the boundary changes but Stratford becomes a smaller constituency and it loses mainly Conservative bits making it more interesting next time.
Lord (Maurice) Saatchi has let out a cry for more ideology in his pamphlet launched today called "In Praise of Ideology". There are (currently) scant details on the Centre for Policy Studies website, but the Telegraph have clearly been given a copy. They quote a section about the centre ground:"The myth grew and grew until it achieved the level of a dinner party platitude in London and New York, as in the popular injunction: You can only win elections from the Centre-ground. Even the Conservative Party succumbed. Hurt by long years of condemnation for ice-cold brutishness, and anxious to avoid ...
Dash up to do live Sky interview for 8.30am. But due to breaking news - Tony Blair in Afghanistan, with a live feed - they say can I stay for 9.00 live, and then after that I do a pre-record on 90 days detention without charge, why prisoners shouldn't be able to claim working tax credits and the billions spent on the Iraq war. Lord Goldsmith's pronouncement that the Government should not go back
An attempt has been made to kill Alexander Litvinenko One of Boris Berezovsky's allies in London. This piece from The Times gives a flavour of the man. I occasionally meet refugees from the regime in Russia who have come out of the looking glass world of the secret services. Oleg Gordievsky, a highly successful agent- for the British, or Vasili Mitrohkin who brought much of the KGB archive into the public domain. I think Westerners often find the cloak and dagger brutality of the Soviet state very difficult to believe. It is always a salutary experience reading the books of ...
Getting the 9am train is a decision forced on me, rather than one I deliberately choose. The reason is that the train leaves in the rush hour so we have to run the gauntlet of congested Tyneside to get to the station. A journey that takes ten minutes before the rushhour took 40 min this morning.However, this allowed me to see something I haven't seen in my area for 30 years. Whilst waiting in
Report by Richard Groom On 16th November, about twenty-five Sands residents took part in a public meeting to discuss the Sands Green Travel Plan for football and rugby matches. The meeting was one of a series which normally take place at six-monthly intervals. This one was timed with the intention of discussing Wasps’s plans for expansion of [...]
Every day 10 people are killed on the roads in the UK. Imagine the outcry if 10 people were killed each day on trains or aircraft; and yet we seem to accept this appalling carnage on the roads. Yesterday RoadPeace held a service in St James Piccadilly in memory of people who had died in road crashes. Names were written on oakleaves and then read out, followed by prayers and...
According to this piece in The Guardian last week there is a row brewing over the use of postcodes by local authorities. The basic process is that a planning application is submitted for a house or a road and is then approved. The council then creates the basic address and sends it to the Royal mail where the Post code is added. Because the accurate data that councils use contains post codes and geographic information from the ordnance survey they end up paying to use data which they helped to create in the first place. An example given in the ...
This story from the BBC is in some ways the most worrying story I have seen about Thailand post the military coup. A Thai composer has said that the country's military backed government has threatened to ban his opera. Apparently officials spoke to him days before the opening of Ayodhya concerned about portrayal of the death of demon-king Thotsakan on stage. The officials told him that any misfortunes which befell those in power would be blamed on the opera. Putting aside for a moment the rights and wrongs of the military coup in the first place this action seems somewhat ... | < | November 2006 | > | ||||
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