Now I know all the political geeks reading this have the ears of a mouse in a fur lined sack. BUT this is the opportunity for you to vote for the best young band on the planet. Local band LITTLE SID are in the XFM battle of the bands, voting opens tomorrow. For the Lib Dems among you, guitarist Stuart was in our youth photos in the Brom & Chis byelection. But that aside for the rest of you
For Doctor Who’s 43rd birthday today I watched first episode of the Patrick Troughton serial The Faceless Ones, which provided ample opportunity to spot actors who subsequently returned to the series in serials with “Time” in the title: specifically, Time and the Rani’s Donald Picking, Time and the Rani’s Wanda Ventham, and The Invasion of [...]
...you'd think wouldn't you, listening to the hyperbole. But I've just seen a BA manager on Newsnight who was confident there was no discrimination going on and was apparently oblivious to the degree of outrage that has been whipped up. So what is going on? 1. BA have a uniform policy of no jewelry around the neck outside the clothes. 2. Er... 3. That's it. They do not ban turbans, for
St Joseph's Primary School has a town centre location alongside the Fairfield. So I was not surprised when the School Council asked me questions about air pollution, litter bins and the need for more grassy areas. They were a bright bunch, and had thought through a number of good questions to ask me about Kingston Council. I've asked them to discuss what they think could be done to...
The EDP reports today that Labour MP Ian Gibson will be standing again in the Norwich North constituency at the next election. Read about it HERE. This will be good news for the Labour Party, who have lost votes and seats in local elections in Norwich North in recent years, but have comfortably held the parliamentary seat because Ian Gibson, despite his faults (messing up a quote a la John Kerry which then implied that his constituents were inbread being his biggest gaffe), he is known locally as a vocal and reasonably hard working MP who has support from ...
Who can refuse once tagged by Iain Dale? Okay, let’s leave that question hanging... in the meantime here’s my list of: Top 10 things I would never do 10. listen to the weather forecast and remember anything about it 5 minutes later; 9. wear white socks; 8. return a library book on time; 7. watch any programme involving Robert Kilroy-Slick (unless he’s being mocked); 6. look forward to turning
If you are my age (35), you'll almost certainly remember the conflict and the arguments over what you were supposed to watch on TV on a Saturday Morning. Children in the late 70's and early 80's had the wonderful choice of the anarchic Tiswas on ITV or Noel Edmund's Multi-coloured Swapshop on BBC. I tended to watch most of Swapshop, but flicked between channels so that I could watch certain bits of Tiswas. I can even remember children at school arguing and rowing over which was better. In truth, they were probably both pretty amateurish looking by ...
The excellent Statewatch site wants you to be its friend: Your support is crucial. By becoming a Friend of Statewatch and donating just £10 a month or more you can support future monitoring of the state and civil liberties. As a Friend of Statewatch you will receive all Statewatch publications (the quarterly bulletin, planned yearbook and research findings) as well as access to Statewatch's subscriber websites (SEMDOC and the Statewatch database)."But what is Statewatch?" I hear you ask: Statewatch is not a “lobby group”, it is an independent research and education trust operated by a registered charity. Statewatch is ...
Not everyone in the Conservative Party wants to see its philosophy bought in from La Toynbee. British Politics has the quotes.
The BBC reports: Norfolk MP Richard Bacon has called for pig farmers to get a bigger role in providing school meals.
I see that Brakspears of Henley has been bought by the JT Davies group. More correctly, it is being "taken private" by its largest shareholder. There is a lot of history in both these firms, as the Times reports: Alfred Davies, the son of the founder and grandfather of the current chairman, Michael, was personal private secretary to Lloyd George during the First World War, became MP for Lincoln
Last night we went to see the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain at the Corn Exchange, Newbury. It really was a wonderful evening - full of fun and laughs. It was wonderful to see and hear six people all with their hands going up and down rapidly (strumming the strings!) and hearing the rapid plinkity, plink of the ukuleles together. (Although, they explained that the different sizes of Ukuleles
From Catherine Thomas' Short Debate in Plenary yesterday. The subject was "Children in Wales—Seen, But Are they Heard?": Peter Black: I thank Catherine for raising this subject in Plenary. She raised a wide range of issues, and it is impossible to go through them all in the minute that I have in which to discuss this. I join Catherine in welcoming the school councils’ initiative. When I left school 28 years ago, my school had a school council, on which I served, and the school even had a sixth-form governor at the time, so it was a very ...
If I was a Tory I'd be weeping. As it is I think their latest effort at spicing up their product is utterly laughable. Having seemingly abandoned a good deal of their principles and a lot of their common sense (that which they had, of course) they now are urging us to "take a tosser test". They seem to be testing to destruction the idea that all headlines (or bylines) are good. The risibly named and garishly styled Sort It website (which connotes the early 1990s slang for taking drugs - "Sorted" - something which, allegedly, Cameron et al ...
The Nederlands election results do not seem to be good for the LI Parties there – D66 and the VVD both of which were in the outgoing coalition for a number of years - D66 left some time before the election however. With 150 seats up for grabs in total:VVD took 22 seats (loss of 6)D66 took 3 seats ( loss of 3) A party (PVDV) headed by an ex-VVD figure fighting on a strongly anti-immigrant platform took 9 seats, up from nil. The Pym Fortuyn heritage ‘woe-alas-the-Moslems-are-here’ party was however totally wiped out losing all outgoing 8 ... 
The latest site investigation at the old Marle Hill waste site has confirmed that pollution is getting into Wyman's Brook. Before it runs into Swindon Village ward, Wyman’s Brook flows through a buried pipe (a culvert) under Pittville Golf Course, which many years ago was used as a waste disposal site. Liquid from the waste is leaking into the culvert and polluting the brook. Also methane and carbon dioxide gases, which are generated when waste rots, have been found in the waste and in one borehole in the road at Pentathlon Way. This means gases from the tip ...
It is a simple question. Previous winter Ashes series have been listened to via Test Match Special on the radio. But I now have Sky Sports. There was something romantic about the radio; but with Sky you can see the action. Tonight I will investigate the old trick of having the radio on while watching the pictures with the television muted. For some reason I have always found this unsatisfactory, because in my view radio is a whole medium.
The polls opened today in the Isle of Man for their general election. I know elections in the ‘dependencies’ aren’t traditionally that interesting unless you’re an ex-pat, or actually live there, but this one is worth watching. The reason is that, for the first time the polls are open to 16 and 17 year olds. Earlier [...]
It should not be really "news", because the Birmingham MPs should work together in the interests of the city. However, this is working quite well as far as New Street Station is concerned. 5 MPs (3 Labour, 1 Tory and 1 Lib Dem) took part in an event to highlight the petition cards. Then Gisela Stuart and I took the petition (along with various other people inc Steve Dyson, Carl Chinn and Paul
In newsprint, thankfully. I doubt any physical assailant could maintain his resolve when confronted with her poise and dignity. Seriously though, Tim Luckhurst launched his attack on “the closest thing this country possesses to an intellectual pin-up girl” in yesterday’s Times, claiming that “Her defence of individual rights against collective needs takes the demos out of democracy and leaves her organisation marooned on the extra-parliamentary left of politics.” Frankly, I find this all rather ludicrous. I have seem Ms. Chakrabarti a number of times both live and on television. She is always sensible, measured and reasoned, putting forward ...
I flew into a dark and damp Tallinn this morning- the snow has not arrived, although the Christmas market has arrived in the Old Town Square. I quite like the Baltic winters; although dark, they are cosy and candles and hoogvein help to lighten up the season. Tallinn is busy- the roads are clogged, where once it would have taken 10 minutes to run in from the Airport, now it takes nearly a half hour. The Airport itself is cramped- the result of yet another expansion programme (it does not seem so long ago that the gleaming new ...
The blogosphere is abuzz with the news that the Tories have set up a site about debt, which not only treats you like a moron, it accuses the public of being tossers. Since the Conservative Party owes about twenty million quid, doesn’t that make Dave…yes, I think it makes him a fat-faced tosser! There's even a bit on the site where people can "confess" they've taken part in the UK's corrupt capitalist system by buying stuff. Staggering.
The new Tory site linked HERE really does take the biscuit. A political party tens of milions of pounds in debt wants to lecture us on how to keep out of debt and they are referring to people in bedt as tossers. Jonathan Wallace's blog gives a brief critique of the points in more detail than me HERE. Is this Dave trying to be really "right on", because to my mind its slightly naff and a little offensive.
Excerpt: Sorry for the frivolity, but I can´t stop laughing since I heard about the Tories buying their "ideas" in bulk from Polly Toynbee.
Was driving into work during You and Yours, and was very saddened when I heard the news of Nick Clarke’s death on WATO. You always know something significant has happened when they announce at the top of the programme that it’s a special extended edition. I really didn’t expect the news they gave, [...]
Believe it or not the Tories have launched a website about debt in which they describe people with debts as "tossers". That's okay from a party that is in debt to the tune of millions of pounds, supports tuition fees, and doubled the National Debt? So if you have a credit card, loans, overdrafts or you owe your mates for the last round in the pub that you were supposed to get but had spent the
Menzies Campbell has paid tribute to The World At One presenter Nick Clarke, who has died at the age of 58: “Nick Clarke was one of the best broadcast journalists of his generation. He was always well informed and brought an urbane authority to everything he did. “Woe betide any politician who tried to avoid giving direct [...]
Cleveland Police Officers and staff have begun operations from a brand new building in the Borough ofRedcar and Cleveland designed for 21st Century policing. Old stations at Redcar and South Bank will eventually close with the switch to the new district headquarters - a purpose-built complex on Kirkleatham Business Park. The move is part of a £38million project that will also include a major police headquarters at Middlesbrough. Work there is in the final stages. The Business Park development will replace Redcar’s 24-hour front desk service but the new HQ has much improved facilities for the public. ...
I’ve flown British Airways a few times recently and the flights were cheap and very pleasant, so I would have no intention of boycotting them over their ban on visible crucifixes even if I didn’t think their position was reasonable - but, as it happens, I mostly do. They seem to have bent over backwards to [...]
John Hutton has today been promoting the government’s new pensions package, a follow-up to Lord Turner’s report earlier this year, which will increase the state pension age from 65 to 68. The retirment age was set at a time when life expectancies were much lower than they are now. The idea that once you hit 65 [...] 
My local soccer team has been in the news this week following the announcement that the club will sack any player who cheats by diving. The professional game has an image problem as a conseq...
(geddit?) a lovely site by an enviably talented wildlife artist who also has a great sense of fun. A brilliant birthday card to Charles Darwin (sporting a finch and a comb-over), a Valentine's Day superhero (click through at the bottom of the post) and George and a timetravelling Australopithecus sharing a beer. (Not worksafe: ancestral penis on view.) His latest post is a wonderfully
Happy Thanksgiving y'all. Living with an American means we celebrate Thanksgiving which occurs today. I'm sure everyone has something to give thanks for, so why not join in in some way? I'm giving thanks for living with said American and our relative freedom. We're having a lovely looking turkey (cooked in the secret manner handed down over the generations by the Wellingtons and DeMuncks of
Fascinating article in today's Times in which Jon Trickett, the chairman of the Compass Parliamentary Group, is reported to have urged Peter Watt, the General Secretary of the Labour Party, to investigate whether members of the Cabinet are misusing “government apparatus”, paid by public funds, to support their campaign: In his letter Mr. Trickett says that MPs are concerned about the separation between “government apparatus” and candidates’ campaigns. He believes that special advisers should not be used to promote and run political campaigns, although he emphasised that he was not aware of any individual cases: “You cannot have people ...
I was so fascinated by the conundrum set by yesterday's Guardian Diary that I carried out my own research. Admittedly this amounted to about 5 minutes on google and wikipedia but it was a learning experience nevertheless. The Guardian diarist referred to BBC2's documentary last week on the history of university challenge in which a contestant was clearly shown putting finger to buzzer and giving the answer "Michael Howard and Britney Spears." What was the question? The best that I could come up with was that Michael Howard was once labelled a 'Toxic Tory' by Liberal Democrat MP, Norman ...
On this day 43 years ago was the first broadcast of Dr Who. It was repeated the following week though I'm not sure whether that was due to the disruption caused by the Kennedy assassination the day before or simply because it was so popular. It seems to me that there are a huge number of Dr Who fans in the Lib Dems. Is this something to do with the outlook of Lib Dems, breaking out of the
The results of the London region elections can be found at: http://libdems4london.org.uk/news/667.html If you know of election results in other regions, do e-mail robrobWHOISATlibdemvoice.orgrobWHOISATlibdemvoice.org (replace WHOISAT with @ to e-mail) (replace WHOISAT with @ to e-mail)
Further to previous mentions about the impending car park closure due to the rail tunnel works, received this from the Director of Planning & Transportation this morning : "We do now seem to have a compromise which means that although the car park will be closed next week, it will then partially re-open with 40 to 50 spaces until Christmas and then it will be completely open between Christmas and New Year. It will then close completely after New Year." Very pleased about this as it will be helpful to traders and residents alike during the ...
Don't forget, it's a three legged race in today's election, polls close at 8pm. Liberal Vannin - formed in August - have candidates in 9 of the 15 constituencies (for 24 seats) in the House of Keys elections on the Isle of Man today. On the Isle of Man Elections website you can watch interviews with individual candidates to become MHKs - I can see this taking off on local newspaper websites in
Ever had to make a mad dash to your Accident and Emergency Unit? I have, a couple of times, to the one at St Helier Hospital. And it could be about to close. This is not of course because i...
Last night Stuart Ritchie and I attended the Stoke-on-Trent AGM and IGM, it was well attended and I ended up taking on the role of Returning Officer as there were contested elections for Chair and Vice Chair and also for the Executive Committee (by STV of course) and some of the local government selections.
How green is your household? You can find out by going to http://www.greenscore.org.uk/ and completing their online GreenScore questionnaire and see what results you achieve. Then see their tips to help you improve your score. My green score was 45% - not very good in my opinion My Energy Score was 19% - Tips can be seen here My Water Score was 55% - Tips can be seen here My Rubbish & Shopping Score was 22% - Tips can be seen here My Transport Score was 41% - Tips can be seen here I was particularly ...
I recently discovered Tom Papworth's blog. I was browsing his recent posts and one in particular struck a chord: In The error of labelling he tells of a friend who, having got a little bit interested in politics, had veered off to the "left"... I have begun to realise that I made a tragic mistake this year. I took to criticising one of my friends for being too "left-wing"....I took issue with some of his more radical views, notably what I perceived as anti-Americanism and anti-globalisaiton. Unfortunately, in looking for a short-hand to define his views, I ... | < | November 2006 | > | ||||
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