Tonight the little island of Jersey became the latest part of the world to ban smoking in enclosed work places. Initially the law was going to apply just where food is served but the islands Health Minister Stuart Syvret (of Tony Blair is an inadequate little man fame) decided a full ban would be better [...]
The BBC reports that Torquay United have come up with a code of conduct that could lead to them sacking players who are guilty of diving. Read about it HERE. The club have even agreed to accept evidence from third parties which includes things like mobile phone videos being used as evidence. This is a brave move by Torquay, and it may cost them dearly, but you have to say hats off to them for trying this our and I think every genuine fan of the game would wish them luck.
A good article by Geoffrey Wheatcroft in today's Guardian. He looks at the malign influence that Conrad Black, Barbara Amiel and their followers had on the British Conservative Party through their control of the Telegraph titles and the Spectator. They used this control to push American-style neoconservative policies, yet as Wheatcroft says: What always struck me was how dissonant such views must have seemed to ordinary English Tories. They aren't like that at all; not ideological, not fanatical, not even very pro-American or keen on the Iraq war. So David Cameron has noticed, even if the new owners and editors ...
“Two words; Dick Cheney.”Incoming Senate Majority leader Harry Reid (D-NV).
Matthew Taylor's ill-considered denunciation of "shrill" blogs last week provoked an angry reaction from many bloggers, myself included. (And I accept that has its own irony.) I don't imagine he'll listen to those of us citizens who "behave like teenagers", and are "not yet capable of self-government", but he might care to reflect on these words of Leonard Downie Jr, executive editor of the
The Hertfordshire Advertiser reports: More than two decades after he twice fought the St Albans Parliamentary seat for the Liberal Democrats, Sandy Walkington ... is hoping to make it third-time lucky. Sandy was overwhelmingly selected as his party's prospective parliamentary candidate for the next General Election at a standing-room-only hustings meeting at Sandringham School Hall on Saturday. He was the Liberal/SDP Alliance candidate for St Albans in 1983 and 1987, standing against Tory Peter Lilley on both occasions and polling more than 20,000 votes each time.And: Sandy said this week: "I have always regarded winning St Albans for ...
"F" at Blunt and Disorderly wrote an interesting piece yesterday regarding the British Airways ban on staff wearing crosses. I was particularly struck by her comments on people adopting a particular religious appearance for non-religious reasons: I remember in the 1980's the 'young and hip' wore crosses all over, in their earrings, bracelets, even tatooes. They meant nothing, except maybe a
Reading the Digital Spy website that reports on a range of TV related stories, I happened across this intersting piece regarding a Newnight investigation in to Scottish football violence. Read it HERE. It appears the BBC left a van with a flag of St George on it in part of Glasgow, and filmed as it was attacked by Scottish fans. What is the SNP's response to this ? They want to BBC investigated. No condemnation of the people doing this, just condemnation of the BBC. The SNP are just apologists for racism towards English people. When will they start ...
Last night's City Council meetings saw the creation of a "Friends of Western Cemetery" approved by the Leisure & Arts Services Committee. Full marks to the Convener (Bailie Chic Farquhar) for his warm words to the Community Council for its initiative. I spoke at committee, praising the co-operation of the City Council officers in helping progress this good initiative. We meet again as a group next Tuesday. Met the airport manager yesterday with a local resident concerned about her concerns about noise by aircraft. Also spoken with the Head of Environmental Health & ...
It's not surprising the government is outraged by some local campaigns. For a critique of today's column see Factchecking Pollyanna. Respect to Tim Worstall too. 
More news on the Rainbow store closure in Fakenham in today's EDP. Read it HERE. The Co-op is trying to blame North Norfolk District Council for the closure of the Rainbow store in town. They claim that the council has prevented re-development of the site. Strange really because they have been granted permission to re-develop the store and they have never once contacted me as a local councillor to speak about further expansion or redevelopment. For all my criticism of Tesco, at least they tried to contact me when they wanted to move in to the town. ...
A friend of mine was trying to purchase online today a Nintendo Wii (promounced 'wee') from Amazon.co.uk. Amazon clearly stated on their website and in e-mails that they would list the product for sale at 9am. My friend sat waiting. 9 am arrived, but no, Amazon still didn't have the button up to "purchase this item". 9.10 came and went. 9.20, still nothing. 9.30, no, not a thing. 9.40, suddenly one was listed for sale as a second hand item, then by 9.42, they had all been sold. Unfortunately, being a working person, he was trying at this point ...
Last week during a long drive to Wiltshire there was brief program on the radio about class and society. The entire transcript can be viewed here, but one of the most interesting statements was from the Tory spokesman David Willetts and runs as follows: 'You have rightly identified one of the fascinating paradoxes about the debate on social mobility. There’s one debate going on about the decline of the family where everything is supposed to be falling apart. When you turn to social mobility and the social mobility evidence, what you see above all is evidence for the strength ...
Today is World Hello Day. Does 10 people reading your Blog count? :-)
or this is what happens. Clue: a Floridian python decided to make a snackette of a passing alligator, and got the once and for ever grandfather of all indigestions.
Sometimes you can misjudge a headline. The BBC today demonstrated how by providing one headline that could have fitted elsewhere:
Are the Olympic costs running out of control? The Secretary of State said she couldn't answer that question right now as a report is currently underway into the costs. What did the Se...
Labour activist and blogger Don Paskini thinks he knows how to beat the Liberals at elections. I doubt it, but it is worth a look. However, it is the comments submitted to the page that remind of one of the many reasons why I hate the Labour Party. Note this from one writer: I was once at an election count when the successful candidate refused to shake hands with the acid faced and vanquished liberal and led a chrous (sic.) of "we beat the Liberals" and they all ran off in a huff.... Funnily enough, I had a ...
I’ve been suffering from a painful bad back for the last few days and have run out of ibuprofen, so all I’ve got for you today is a photo from the archives (three years ago last month, according to my quiz list) which I recently found metaphoricaly gathering dust on my hard drive and popped [...]
Redcar and Cleveland Council has reassessed the walk to school for some children attending Freebrough Specialist Engineering College and they will now have transport provided when their new school opens in the New Year. The decision means that children from Carlin How and Skinningrove will benefit from home to school transport to Freebrough Specialist Engineering College when the doors of its new building open to students at Brotton on the first day of the new term in January. The Council's Cabinet Member for Education Councillor Steve Kay said: "We are now in a position to inform parents that ...
Hell! While I’m at it, I might as well confess that I’ve been finding myself nodding with approval at Norman Tebbit recently. At the Conservative Party conference he made an impassioned plea for tax cuts that should have struck a cord with all liberals (though cognitive dissonance probably prevented many from listening). He argued that it was those on low incomes, struggling to makes ends meet, who most needed the dead weight of taxation lifted from their shoulders. Thus, he called for the Conservatives to retain one promised tax cut, namely an increase in the personal allowance. Compare ...
My first video to achieve 4 figure viewing numbers. Copacabana Beach has been visited over 1000 times on YouTube. This is still well ahead of my top political/local news film - August 2006 Video Focus - with 340 viewings. The other good news is that last night the total viewing figures for all my videos reached 10,000. 2600 were to political/local news videos I have produced. Still some way
In today’s Independent Maurice Saatchi argues that the race for pragmatism and the centre ground has denuded politics of ideology. I cannot help but agree. This vacuous, idealess, opportunity-politics is killing us. Ideology has a rather bad rap these days (for which Lord Saatchi is partly to blame). Of the three dominant ideologies of the 20th Century, socialism resulted in disaster and misery for billions, conservatism became ever more divorced from reality as it warped into a stereotype of itself (Angry from Tunbridge Wells calling for the return of the birch), while liberalism, though largely successful, lacked a pure ...
I begin as is all too often necessary by joining the Prime Minister and the Right Honourable member for Witney in their expressions of sympathy and condolence for the families and friends of those who have most recently died or been injured in Iraq. I also join them in paying tribute to those members who have [...]
Lynne Featherstone has acted for Londoners in expressing concern at the 300% rise in Police monitoring of Oyster Cards. Last time I mentioned issues of privacy and surveillance surrounding Oyster cards, I had some comments from Labour supporters suggesting that Liberals should be quiet and invest in tin-foil headwear. In this, they make the error of assuming our contention to be that the state is unfailingly nefarious in its intentions, when it gets its paws on our data. This is not the case. Organs of the state may be malign, but it is far more likely they will display old-fashioned ...
I see that The Independent is making known its considered view of the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko. Pity that they can not check the most basic facts. President Yuschenko of Ukraine was not poisoned by Thallium, but by Dioxin, as the most cursory check would have shown. It is hard to take the Indy seriously as a newspaper of record when it can not even get the most basic facts right.
The Presiding Officer's belief that the newly empowered Assembly should hit the ground running after next May's elections and produce at least 18 primarty legislative measures has been widely trashed in the press today. In the Western Mail, senior Labour figures played down the idea that 18 pieces of legislation would be put before MPs in 2007-08: "We've been working on the assumption of about four or five," said one. "This is a little bit wide of the mark from Dafydd Elis-Thomas. It's worth remembering that he's quite far away from the process of deciding how the new ...
The East of England Liberal Democrats debated and passed policy on Saturday calling for a range of measures to help protect local health care, including a period of stability for the health service to recover a financial balance (full text of motion below).
Yesterday the BBC ran a TV story on how Lib Dems in Islington are greening the borough. All the Council offices, libraries, leisure facilities and streetlights now run off renewable electricity and Islington’s vehicle fleet is getting greener each year as vehicles are converted to run on electricity, LPG or biodiesel. The planning rules have also been strengthened so as [...]
A request from a constituent for information on the number of stray dogs put down by each Welsh local authority in the last financial year has produced some disturbing results. The Assembly library provided me with statistics that showed a huge disparity in practice across Wales. Cardiff tops the league with 45 dogs destroyed in that period. The footnote tells me that they only put down dogs on vet's orders, as do Gwynedd (9 dogs detroyed last year), though not every Council is as forthcoming with this information. Next are Caerphilly (34 dogs put down), Torfaen (31), Rhondda ... 
I am hesitant about writing this, not least because my parents entered the Internet age this weekend but also I take no pleasure in reporting the problems my home city is facing at the moment. The last few months have shown an increase in both gun and knife crime - and also a massive increase in fear of both.
I have written previously about the programme 'Super Nanny'. I was, not so much now as I am very busy, adicted to the programme. To watch the transformation of the children and in particular the parents was truely amazing. At the time I wrote that the change that was implemented were often small steps for instance setting of boundaries and keeping to them, spending more time as a family and
The Wives and Girlfriends of footballers are pretty famous for living it up and flashing the cash. During the World Cup this year there were almost as many stories about the WAGS and their behaviour and spending habits as there were about the fitness of various England players. So it is really nice to see a group of WAGS raising the cash instead of splashing the cash. The Wives and Girlfriends of the Reading Footballers have got together under the banner of the Royal Families charity, which was set up by Amanda Hahnemann and Karen Murty (wives of goalkeeper ...
Having succumbed to this fad for petitioning Tony Blair over anything from the size of underpants available in Marks & Spencer to whether we renew our nuclear strike capability, I got the news that my petition had been accepted - so please - read it, at the address below, and if you like it, sign it. Let's see how far it can get. It's not as sexy as not banning fox hunting obviously, but many times as important though I do say so myself. Your petition has been approved by the Number 10 web team, and is now available on ... | < | November 2006 | > | ||||
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