Kingston and Malden Scout and Guide Band is one of the best youth marching bands in the country. This year it performed at the national St George's Day Parade at Windsor Castle, and at the Lord Mayor's Show last month, as well as at the Remembrance Day Parade in Kingston. Their show this evening was a delight. By presenting it in concert rather than marching band form, they were able...
Some of the new citizens at this morning's Citizenship Ceremony. Congratulations and welcome!
Introducing Ethelred, who has now taken up residence in the Mayor's Parlour. When I get the chance I like to support the charity events of Mayors in neighbouring boroughs. Yesterday evening I went along to the Mayor of Merton's Festive Dinner. Ian was working so my son Stuart came with me. Then he won a raffle prize - and faced with the choice of a bottle of scotch or a...
Tuesday: What with having to learn all her BIG SPEECH for the annual state opening of the book of apologies for what Lord Blairimort will be doing before retiring to PRISON, Mrs The Queen was too busy to attend the GALA ROYAL PREMIERE of James Bond today. So OBVIOUSLY I was asked to STAND IN for Her Britannic Majesty at the ceremony. In some lights I am INDISTINGUISHABLE from Mrs The Queen. Besides, I look dead good in a TIARA. Queen of England Empress of India ...
David Cameron has issued the ultimatum "Back me, or lose", telling the Conservative Party it must back his drive to modernise or face a fourth consecutive general election defeat. Well as he has already resorted to the chav chant of "Tosser", I shall reciprocate with a "Loser". One key plank of his "modernisation" of NuConservative is candidate selection as he said: "From now on,
"Both Mr Cameron and the government are calling for a cut of 60% in carbon emissions by 2050. But the Quality of Life policy group, set up last year by Mr Cameron, says this target lacks "credibility" and it should in fact be 80%." (Link in title - this BetaBlogger seems to have gone a bit crazy)
My father's aunt used to tell him to chew every mouthful of food thirty times. He does so to this day, as well as expansively discussing various topics in between mouthfuls. As a result he is usually still ploughing away at his meal long after everyone else has finished. Although my father's aunt is long gone, we are most fortunate indeed to have Nanny Cameron to tell us that the Europeans have
I have had a lot of hits from people looking for clips of Alan Freeman. I would throughly recommend TV and Radio bits which has five clips of Alan Freeman in various incarnations of Pick of the Pops. There is one at the top and four specially put at the bottom of the page. Please click on the title of this posting to get there.
Are you a conservative or a liberal? A conservative lives by the motto, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” A liberal believes the future should always be better than the past.
Last night’s Civic Ball was a hugely enjoyable evening. Where else of a Friday night do you get accidentally barged into by an MP’s buttocks? Where else can you have a bottle of free wine mysteriously turn up at your table when everyone else has had to pay for theirs’? And where else is there a higher concentration of Mayors than ladies’ night at a stud farm (that joke doesn’t really work written
Off earlier this week to the Key Individuals meeting at Garston police station. Sounds a bit formal but actually its a way of the local police meeting with a small group to get feedback on local priorities. I am a member of this group - and I am glad to see that some of the people I suggested are also there. What we discuss is all confidential - so obviously I can't put it on the blog - but what this group gives me is another chance to feed in thoughts and issues from people in the ...
Exhibit A from the nice, new, hug-a-hoodie Cameron party: Trevor Ivory has been selected as the Conservative candidate in North Norfolk. This is the man who was described by the Samaritans as “beyond the pale” for making “inexcusable” comments about suicide. (He made a “joke” about Tony Blair commiting suicide and the country cheering up as [...]
Last week, had a complaint that the High Street clock was running fast ... and - now wading through the e-mail backlog on return - here's an update from yesterday from the Engineer (via City Centre Manager) so hopefully all fixed now! "I have had to renew the underground cable I am hopefully that the clock will be up and running by the end of the day."
I have just been out leafleting only to find myself having to fight my way past an eight foot high inflatable Santa Claus to get at a letterbox. Where is Mick Bates when you need him?
A few weeks back we had a Zero Waste challenge in our authority area. Zero Waste is about ensuring that everything we use or make is reusable or recyclable and that we generate as little waste as possible. Our household has three adults and our total waste by weight each week has been: w/e Sun 22 Oct 7lbs w/e29 Oct (Zero Waste Week) 6.25 lbs and since then 8lbs (+ 2 extra adults for...
Borrowed from James Cleverly's blog, there's a thingummy for determining how good (or evil) a website is. Offiicially: {This site is certified 71% GOOD by the Gematriculator} Unfortunately, it's also 29% evil.
Friends of Wighton are pleased to announce that fiddle maestro Paul Anderson will be giving an illustrated talk at the Wighton Heritage Centre, Central Library, Dundee on Saturday 16th December at 2pm. Tickets, price £5/£3 members. Further details can be obtained by clicking on the headline above. Thanks to Sheena Wellington for passing on this update!
Just thought I'd let people know that the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) is currently recruiting for an independent member to serve on its board and "contribute to the policing strategy for London, oversee performance and ensure that the police treat everyone fairly and equally." A taxable allowance of £17,699 a year is paid to all board members. For more information, contact Jenny Trevillion on 020 7207 0184 or minicom 020 7207 1073. Alternatively, you can email jenny.trevillion@mpa.gov.uk or view an information pack on http://www.mpa.gov.uk . The closing date for receipt of completed application forms is Sunday ...
There was a 6 minute video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoZKjUk6hT4, but it is not worth looking for it now. The video was a mother's message to her children. I didn't manage to look at it, but now it has been taken off Youtube. It will be interesting to see how this spreads. There are, of course, far more sites which allow uploaded video than only Youtube and Google Video.
I was having a browse through the usage reports for one of the websites I run and saw it has been attracting a load of visits through a site called www.stumbleupon.com which bills itself as “channel surfing for the Internet” It’s a great idea, well executed - you choose the things you’re interested in, hit a [...] 
At last somebody has put in print what many politicians have been thinking but dare not say in case they alienate young voters. Marina Hyde in this morning's Guardian writes that the new orthodoxy that young people will never pay attention to politics unless it's like Big Brother is utterly absurd: It's the sheer wrong-headed inevitability of this exercise in engaging youth, which appears to be inspired by that endlessly quacked modern orthodoxy that more young people vote in big reality TV contests than in general elections. In the vague interests of accuracy, this is complete nonsense. In Britain's ...
I am already having severe withdrawal symptoms after my broadband modem went into meltdown on Thursday night and I have been left with no internet or e-mail access. After much to-ing and fro-ing with NT hell I have been promised an engineer on Monday afternoon but as is usual with these big providers their idea of customer relations bears no connection with the needs of the customer at all. They can only promise a visit between 12 noon and 6pm, they cannot offer an advance phone call to say the engineer is on his way and they cannot specify whether ...
Well, the West End Christmas Week launch this morning went brilliantly - and with grateful thanks to Ann for being today's official photographer, here's a few of the photographs! Below : The football arranged by the Leisure & Communities and Education Departments in the grounds of Blackness Primary School! Below : The Lord and Lady Provost arrive and are welcomed by Santa! Below : The three schools' Christmas Trees! And here's the winning entries from the schools' "Wish for the World at Christmas" competition: 1. Give all the poor people ...
North Norfolk Tories have chosen Trevor Ivory as their candidate for Lib Dem held North Norfolk. The fact that this selection received little press coverage, a lack of Tory "A" list candidates and passed almost without anyone noticing shows just how far North Norfolk has slipped down the list of priorities for the Tories. At the final selection the Tories only had two candidates to choose from. Mr Ivory, has only really made the headlines once before after claiming people would be better off if Prime Minister Tony Blair killed himself ! At the time his comments ...
Anyone seen this take off of Wikipedia? It describes itself as "the content-free encyclopedia that anyone can edit" The entry for Harley Davidson includes the line "1991: Terminator 2 premiers. Harley-Davidson stock climbs to $52,061/share." The entry for Leeds United will not be repeated here! The entry for Sheffield on the other hand will where it says the following under Sport : - Sheffield is currently home to one football club, Sheffield Wednesday, so named because the club moved to Sheffield from the greater city of Wednesday a few years back. This proved to be a horrible bat-fuck insane acquisition ...
Trevor Ivory has been selected as Norman Lamb's opponent in North Norfolk. You may recognise the name...
It is odd that I wake up every morning to find out the score inthe cricket. I, like so many others, got so involved in the last ashes tests in 2005 that it seems rather odd for them to be played whilst I am asleep. In the first test, every morning I listened to the radio and groaned as Australia turned the screw on England, so how nice for it to be the other way round now. A record stand betweem Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collingwood and a high score to declare on. Well done England, well done ...
A chap called Neil rang the rockshow wanted me to play Big Balls by AC/DC, the group who happened to be my featured band last night. Shortly after, Neil's wife rang in to as...
Continuing our series on new regional executives, the North West region executive has been posted up. Congratulations to all those elected. north west region Party organisation
November always seems to be the cruellest month for commuters,. For a start, there are more of us using the transport system as hardly anyone is on holiday. But it has been particularly bad this year for travel from Hither Green station to central London. I've put in the following question to the regular meeting which Lewisham councillors hold with the tranport operators:" Train services during the am peak at Hither Green to Central London in November have had abnormally high levels of cancellation, delay and shortened trains, what prospects are there for improvements?" It happened again on Friday ... 
A bit of mischief but couldn't resist it, Alan Beddow has just started a PPC selection Returning Officers debate. Just love the way some returning officers want to show they are in charge - How they like to flex muscles. Rules are rules but some returning officers interpretation of the rules and their decisions can be a little strange at times. Mind you some of the party rules are so long winded and bit controversial in the first place - definitely not in keeping with the times. Though I have to admit I was one of ...
Thursday night Grace and I headed off to the Menier Chocolate Factory for a wine tasting organised by Abel & Cole who "Deliver boxes of delicious, fresh organic fruit and veg, organic meat, sustainably sourced fish and loads of other ethically produced foods... think carefully about everything [they] do: ...buy as much as possible from UK farms, ...ensure all our growers get a fair price, ... | < | December 2006 | > | ||||
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