At the beginning of the month I met with the School Council at Lovelace School, and I asked them to send me their ideas for improving the area. This is what they wrote to me in an email: Dear Madam Mayor, Thank you for visiting our school. In our school council meetings with our classes, we discussed what we could change about Chessington. Here are a few of our ideas:...
For anyone who visits my blog who still supports the war in Iraq, can I recommend they visit the excellent John Wilkes Blog, and in particular the posting about Today in Iraq. This posting refers to the website "today in Iraq", and highlight the applaing catalogue of horroes perpetrated there in one day. It is truly appalling. I'll say no more, just read it, please.
From the party that brought spiraling student debt (fees, top-up fees etc) and rising consumer debt, Labour now brings us mountains of peer-debt. Labour's love of debt seems to have even engulfed their own hierarchy. I really think that it's incredible that both the Tories and Labour have debts as big as some Premiership football clubs- debt that the creditors could threaten to call in at any...
The Sun puts it nicely: In the same month the Tories launched a website to try and teach us about debt problems, figures revealed today show the party owed £35million in unpaid loans. The Conservatives have the biggest debt burden of a major political party, according to statastics released by the Electoral Commission, which is monitoring how many loans are paid.It just goes to show that inside all of us lives a conniving, dirty little parasite, the tosser within. He wants you to spend, spend and keep spending until you’re in terrible debt.
Today’s headlines have been caught by the massive debts run up by the Conservative and Labour parties. Full marks in the irony department to Tory HQ for unveiling a website calling people in debt tossers just before the publication of figures showing their own huge debts. Buried in the figures are a few interesting snippets, such as [...]
Following on from my rather successful guides in getting Blackberry and TomTom on your P990i, I’ve decided to write my next guide on getting good videos onto your phone. After spending days sifting through all those Google links, trying to avoid software which sliced the files, was expensive or contained spyware / viral software I was [...]
Graham Roope, the former England batsman and notable slip fielder, has died at the age of 60. When I was young, he was one those batsman (Peter Parfitt, John Hampshire, Frank Hayes) who would regularly be picked for a couple of tests and then be dropped, only to reappear again a couple of series later. A few years after that, Matthew Engel suggested that there were three rules for new selectors: Never interrupt the Chairman of Selectors; Don't have more than two glasses of port after dinner; If in doubt, drop Randall. Roope suffered from a similar attitude on ...
Saturday was diabolical. The day of our big march on St Helier Hospital to save its Accident and Emergency Unit started with rain. Not of the gentle mist variety but monsoon-style.&nbs...
I left school at 11:30 am today. That's right I was only in school for three hours. Enough time to have my breakfast, discuss some issues with teachers and observe two lessons. Then I jumped in a cab and I came home. No I wasn't ill and I most certainly wasn't bunking. I had permission to be home. I am in the process of writing the school's travel plan. Glamours it may not sound, but a
I should declare an interest as he is one of my bosses, but I was disappointed to see that Ron Bailey didn’t make the Department of the Environment’s Top 100 Environmentalists. Pretty much anyone who has campaigned nationally on environmental issues in the last 20 years must have come across Ron, or worked on one of [...] 
What is a religious exchange? I’ll run Iran for a few days and you can come to the Vatican and help sticking pins through condoms.
In the third of my regular series under the title "Annoying things about Christmas", I hereby nominate ... Coca Cola. Now, I want to make it clear first of all that I love Coke, I drink far too much of it and I'll drink it all Christmas, so I am not hacing a go at the drink. There are, however, two reasons for their nomination. Firstly, they are always credited with creating the Red suited Father Christmas. This is an urban myth. A bit of searching on the internet will show this. But there is another reason, those ...
Neil Woollcott has posted an article about a Labour Party proposal that its councillors contribute towards paying off part of its massive £23.4m debt. According to Woollcott, the media are “causing a big stir” about this and he expects Liberal Democrat bloggers to do the same. Before we all jump onto our high horses about his, I think we should bear in mind that it is largely an internal Labour Party matter. If they want to ask their Councillors to contribute to a fund, it is up to them. If they want to oblige those holding the Labour whip ...
It emerges that Adrian Sanders MP and the Prime Minister have become embroiled in a new scandal involving loans. The question we all need to know is, was this fiver lent at a commercial rate of interest?
I suppose the obvious (nerd) joke is that all blogs already abide by code in order to get read (wakka wakka). Seriously though for a second, I don’t have a particular problem with a voluntary code (so long as it doesn’t stipulate a minimum number of posts per month which I would no doubt [...] 
I though this government had set targets on reducing carbon emmissions ? I ask this because surely putting the price of rail fares up by more than inflation will surely encourage more people off the trains and in to cars on on to low cost airlines. Is it me or are the government's words on climate change shown to be vaccuos and hollow when they allow such rises ? Surely it is time for the government to introduce some more green taxes ( like the green tax switch, as proposed by the Lib Dems) which would provide ...
The government has today launched an initiative to encourage more schools to run and organised school trips. This is in response to falling numbers of trips due to school and teachers fearing being sued in the event of an accident. What the government does not realise, however, is the ludicrous situation the law puts schools in and why it is hard for some schools to contemplate running trips. Firstly, if the trip is part of the curriculum, schools are expected to only ask for a voluntary contribution from parents. This means that if nobody wanted to pay for ...
The latest figures from the Electoral Commission on the loans and donations received by Britain's political parties provide fascinating reading. Sadly, reporting on them has been less enlightening. Indeed, there is something rather disingenuous about the BBC’s claim that “the main political parties owe a total of £60m in loans”. £58.7m of this is owed by just two parties, The Conservatives and Labour. As Labour admits struggling to pay its loans, it’s claim that “political parties should live within their means” sounds hollow. Labour has been living well beyond its means for some time, with the 2005 ...
I've drawn question number 5 to the Prime Minister this week and am having to think about what to ask him. My fallback position is to ask him when he is going to pay back the fiver he owes me.&n...
Much is being said about whether we should apologise for slavery. I don't really believe in apologising for the errors of previous generations. But I do think we should be celebrating the 200 years since the 1807 act abolishing slavery. Which is where Bromley comes in. I have been in email chat with a number of colleagues in the area. A Wilberforce diary entry in 1788 reads: "At length, I well
Not a BBC Three spinoff from Doctor Who, but Bearwood Corporate Services, the medium of choice through which Lord Ashcroft funded various target seat campaigns for the Conservatives in the general election. The Electoral Commission’s latest news release details donations and loans reported in the third quarter of 2006, but also include a list of donations [...]
Things are so busy nowadays that I had to spend some time this morning actually making space in my diary to do Christmas shopping. The run-up to the Christmas recess is always hectic with many bodies and organisations keen to secure access to us to press home their point. Tonight for example there is a lobby by Welsh Hospices. Alas, I have a meeting of the Panel of Chairs which I have to be at instead. Nevertheless, I will do my best to make my support for their cause known before the other meeting begins. Last ...
I saw Casino Royale on Saturday evening as my bit of escapism from politics over the weekend (as well as celebrating my birthday.) I am a James Bond fan anyway and I did enjoy it! To ensure I got to the cinema on time, I had to time the collection of our Post Office petitions to perfection. A group of us delivered 900 petition forms in the morning to houses in Whickham, in Blaydon constituency
Thomas Papworth has tagged me with this meme- 10 Things I'll Never Do (in no particular order) 1) Vote Green 2) Vote for Ken Livingston 3) Get round to reading every book I want to (an exponentially increasing list...) 4) Know everything I want to know (ditto) 5) Have an affair - if I felt the urge to be with someone else I'd end the previous relationship (I don't plan on doing that either) 6)
Journalism is an ephemeral trade, and the passing of time can sometimes be cruel to even the most acute of commentators. It might seem harsh to point out an exemplum… but it’s also quite amusing. So take a bow, James Harding, business editor of The Times, who took delight two weeks ago in chiding ITV’s headhunters, The Zygos Partnership: The Zygos Partnership, ITV’s headhunters, seems to have
Blow the candles Originally uploaded by Up Your Ego. I don’t like writing these - give me a few days - posts but sometimes they’re essential and I think it’s better than just not updating. I have a very busy week ahead of me this week for various [...]
“Dear Councillor, “There does not seem to be very much difference between our three main parties these days. This is hardly surprising as 75% of our laws are now made by the EU with little or no input from Westminster. “As you must realise local government is in a poor state too with a new unelected layer [...]
If you’ve seen the excellent US animated series Family Guy, you may be familiar with this clip of Stewie Griffin performing a version of Elton John’s Rocket Man: Naturally I assumed when I first saw this that the writers had come up with this particularly absurd performance. How wrong I was. Back in the dim and [...]
Last Thursday I reported that the Conservative Party were “about twenty million quid” in debt. This was incorrect. Cameron’s Conservatives are £35.3 million in debt.
Leaves on trees look great. Fallen leaves can look like a picture too. But not so attractive when they are in the wrong place - ie all over the pavement. Some heated words at last weeks neighbourhood committee about leaf fall clearance. The guys doing the work put loads of effort in - but I do wonder whether we are targeting the right streets. Anyway - as a result of banging on about this for a while I have developed quite an interest and so am going out on leaf patrol later this week with ...
The old Chinese proverb states: "I hear, and I forget. I see, and I remember. I do, and I understand" A report out today (I know there always seems that a report is published on a daily basis that stirs up some sort of emotions) is encouraging schools to take their children on more trips. I totally agree with this. I have never shied away from taking children on trips, whether as a family, as
Years ago when I worked for BBC local radio we would not always specify a subject for phone ins.. we'd say.... phone in on whatever you like. Nine times out of ten when this happened the subject was dog dirt and the annoyance it caused. Not just annoyance actually - dog dirt can be very dangerous to children who pick it up - and of course small children do pick things up. That was in Lancashire. But dog dirt sadly is still a cause of annoyance today. I say sadly because clearly the message about ...
Last night on Channel 4, John Snow presented a Dispatches on Britain’s Healthcare Lottery. According to Snow, healthcare is applied differently in different regions and as such a “postcode lottery” applies across the UK. He cited a gentleman in Wales who was not able to get treatment that was available to English patients across the border, and an arthritis sufferer who was denied treatment that was available to a women with a similar condition only a few miles away. This concept of the postcode lottery is a fallacy. While there is no doubt that different Strategic Health Authorities and ...
After much confusion and Walsall Council's website having a number of variations on the result I can confirm the result of last week's by-election.
Redcar and Cleveland Council's leader Councillor Eric Empson has today condemned the Authority's Labour opposition for its "irresponsible" stance against Lord Zetland's vision for the future of Redcar Racecourse. And Councillor Empson is calling on the Council to expel Labour from the membership of its multi-party Redcar Racecourse monitoring group. Councillor Empson expressed his concerns as a question and a motion were delivered for debate at a meeting of the Council at Eston Town Hall on Thursday, November 30 which clearly breaks the Group's mandate to be an information-gathering forum first before making any decisions. Councillor Empson ...
An enchanted wood which was created in Kirkleatham Woods in Redcar, by Cleveland Fire Brigade’s Prince’s Trust team has been wrecked by vandals just hours after it was opened. The Brigade’s Princes Trust team has been working hard for 5 weeks with local schools, colleges and a local sculptor to create an enchanted wood in Kirkleatham Woods, which is managed by Redcar and Cleveland Council's countryside section, for the public to enjoy. The grand opening took place on Friday 24 November only to be vandalised later that evening. The team had raised money through various fundraising activities including ...
The Oxford Mail today reports on a particularly nasty little problem of flooding we have in central Oxfordshire, and for a city built around the confluence of two rivers it's one that needs to be addressed: Flood relief scheme 'years away': VICTIMS of flooding in Oxfordshire will have to stick with the sandbags for a few more years - as a proposed £100m flood relief channel is still at least a decade away. How, I hear you ask, would LVT help. Well, for a start this debate has been going on for, as the article says, ...
Last week the Dutch election took place, both 'Liberal' parties lost seats. We have two Dutch sister parties D66 and VVD, as with the European and global Liberal families there are sometimes tensions.
The Conservatives snub to the CBI is a nice line in biting the hand that feeds you. Now, these days, the CBI conference is less a conference of the Captains of Industry and more of a conflab of their PR people. However the message that Cameron is sending out to the wider world is interesting: the Conservatives have more important things to do than to think about the problems of business. The problem is that that the problems of business are actually more important than the rantings of Polly Toynbee or the inner turmoil of Hoodies. British business is being ...
Last night to Soho, for the optimistic and laconic rap stylings of Alex’s brother, Akira the Don. This was really excellent, but like the people who work for the NME, I am not a journalist and cannot adequately describe it. Unlike the people who work for NME, I won’t waste time attempting to. I will, however, permit myself a word on one of the support acts. I seem to be ageing, because I find it very hard to conceal scorn these days. It is not an attractive quality; Matthew Parris identified it as one of his least pleasant, but it's ...
It is a very sad day for radio! One of the most influential broadcasters, in terms of DJ style, Alan Freeman has passed away, aged 79. "Fluff" will be remembered for a couple of specific things. First of all, he more or less invented the "countdown" which he did so brilliantly and excitingly on "Pick of the Pops". He used his backing music "At the sign of the swinging cymbal" to fantastic effect
The Council for National Security has agreed to lift martial law in 48 provinces although it stays in place in 28 other provinces including Bangkok and some other provinces that are considered to be Thai Rak Thai plus the southern provinces where there have been long running terrorist problems. It is a start I guess but I wish they would get on and lift martial law throughout the country. | < | November 2006 | > | ||||
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