This is Simba, one of our two brother and sister cats. My youngest daughter helped them to paw in their own little free webspace a couple of years ago. Tonight when I got home we stopped for a quick bite of Chinese in the Bamboo Restaurant in Bexley Village. While we were out Simba got out. So what is the big deal, cats go out all of the time? Well we used to live by a railway line, so Simba and
Third week running with an Abel & Cole posting... Today's delivery came with a Christmas card, some tinsel, a jute bag as a Christmas present and a little recipe book. Abel & Cole have earn't themselves a little button on the right hand side as a permanent link to their website, so all you readers with a conscience can get ordering your Organic Veg, Fish, Cheese, Meat, Wine etc.
This morning I had to get up at a stupidly early time in order to fly to Birmingham for a meeting. However the nature of my job means I don’t need to wear a suit. Let me give you a word of advice - If you find yourself flying on the red eye flight first thing [...]
Now......don't die of shock that I have posted two days on the trot...more a sign of a boring social life than commitment to the cause! But, it has to be said I have been inspired by our Ming today......I had been invited to his IPPR speech wearing another hat and he reminded me of why I was happy to give him second preference after Simon Hughes. He does have a genuine concern for tackling poverty and his promise to commit the party to ending child poverty by 2020 is to be welcomed. Poverty is a root cause for so many ...
I'm afraid the cold that I had been heavily suppressing over the weekend got its own back on me yesterday. After doing two functions I was completely flattened and I had to send my apologies to New Malden Rotary who had kindly invited me to their Christmas Party. I would have been lousy company, and was, in fact, in bed by 9pm - this is someone who rarely gets to sleep before...
I have been known to write enthusiastically about Jack Clayton's 1967 film Our Mother's House - its music in particular. But I am nothing next to Scott Murray in the Sydney Morning Herald: Gloriously photographed by Larry Pizer and with an unforgettably haunting score from Georges Delerue, this film is near perfect. Bogarde has never been so compelling or sinister, a group of child actors never so uniformly stellar. Tender, bittersweet and unlikely to ever be forgotten, this is one of the finest films ever made.
Stumbling and Mumbling asks: Are the Lib Dems moving towards advocating a citizens' basic income? Though this speech by Ming Campbell doesn't explicitly say so, the move is implicit, in two senses.
Libertarian-minded colleagues will know that a month ago a new blog was launched that sought to be "the leading portal bringing together the libertarian movement." LibertarianHome.com hopes to be the missing link between the millions of people who have libertarian-leaning views and the libertarian movement. Our aim is nothing short of a revival in libertarian thinking. It started well. On 24 November an article was published calling for the privatisation of marriage (it's either a legal contract, which can be administered by any lawyer, or a religious union, which is the preserve of priests). Articles appeared defending Acid ...
Saturday: "Tony, Polls say you're a Phoney; Mr Frown will take us Down; "Margaret Bucket might just F… Wreck It; Dr Reid's Not what we Need; "Alan Johnson known by no one; Mr Benn, no not again! "Millipedes both Ed and Dave, Labour Party cannot save! "Tried with Douglas Alexander, manifesto sure to flounder. "Only chance to win election: go for radical selection. "Market research, should you care; says leader must be Rupert Bear! "You Suck; We're a Shambles. "Signed, Alistair Cowbell a friend" Downing Street has said they do not know anything about this memo that says ...
I am sorry not to have posted anything here for a while. I have been busy with work and family responsibilities since the death of my stepfather last month. I don't intend to stop writing this blog, but may not be able to post as often as I used to.
Norfolk Blogger has been told that a Tory Council in Norfolk is offering its staff a 3.5% pay increase over 18 months whilst councillors allowances have gone up by 4% over 12 months ? I would add that in North Norfolk we have not increased councillors allowances in the four years the Lib Dems have run the council there, indeed, the amount we receive has actually fallen by 2%. Oh dear, oh dear, not more Tory hypocrisy ?
So, Leona won! But who on earth decided to use that dreadful "Sandals advert" song for the debut single? Sunday was spent starting delivery of my Christmas edition of FOCUS to my own constituents together with my traditional Christmas Card. You can see the Christmas Card by clicking on the headline above and the story about the FOCUS newsletter (together with download links) is available at : http://www.dundee.prai.co.uk/news/000393.html Yesterday, apart from Council meetings, we had the West End Christmas Week debrief meeting which was very positive and productive - good ideas flowing for Christmas ...
Is the David Cameron who is calling for Labour to call a General Election when Tony Blair stands down the same David Cameron who acted as an adviser to John Major's government. After all, didn't John Major take over, mid term, from Margaret Thatcher WITHOUT calling an election ? If so, wouldn't the Tory Party be open to calls of hypocrisy if they were demanding that Labour should do something that they themselves were not prepared to do ?
ITN are reporting that Hamleys, the world famous toy shop, have made the same mistake that Threshers did. They appear to have let a "special offer" get in to cyber space, the information was made available to thousands of users and as a result, Hamley's stock has been virtually wiped out and they have had to revoke the offer. You'd think they would have learnt from Threshers. Read the whole story HERE.
Apologies to anybody reading this blog this afternoon if all sorts of odd things were happening. The text column suddenly went narrow all of it's own accord. I tried playing with all that HTML stuff and nothing happened. Looks like it was the MyBlogsLog thingy on the right that shows the faces of recent viewers with MyBlogsLog acccounts. I have taken it away for now. A few other things got lost 
Interesting post from Dsquared on why he doesn’t like progressives. The final line of the post scripts reminds me of Harlan Ellison’s comment on seeing the headline ‘More food said not to be answer to feeding world’s multitude’: ‘No, but it’d sure as hell keep them from getting cranky while you worked out what the [...]
From the Yorkshire Post, 14/12/06: “A COUNCILLOR has apologised after lunging at a political rival during a debate on bullying. “Coun David Morton yesterday sent a formal apology to Richmondshire District Council’s chief executive Harry Tabiner and leader John Blackie after he had to be escorted from the meeting on Tuesday night. “Coun Morton hurled abuse before lunging [...]
I have achieved something momentous today. Inform the Prime Minister. Fire a cannon of some kind. Declare a national day of thanksgiving. Today… I have finished my Christmas shopping! Hurrah. And I achieved it without descending into the midsts of Christmas madness and having to join the thirty million other shoppers journeying to the crowd-ridden retail-tastic madhouse that is The Trafford
An occasional poster to this blog, "Lepidus" made the following comment: "many Lib Dems will likely be elected on the back of "Tory Votes" as was John Leech, so you are wise to seek out Labour held seats, as they will be far the easier pickings. You have I think adopted the classic Lib Dem obsession with the Tories at the point when the easier pickings are elsewhere even if some like Gidley weren't hammering the final nail into their political careers themselves, hence your strident tones. Excuse my cynicism but if the Tories were more "ideological" in your view ...
Ming Campbell addressed the IPPR on 19th December as follows: For much of my life in politics I have been closely associated with the issues of Foreign Affairs and Defence. But there is another great passion which brought me into politics. It is the passion for a fairer society - in Britain and abroad. But today Britain is still [...]
Well we are not quite at the birthday yet.. but by the sounds of it there's going to be loads going on next year. Last night was the Leisure and Culture Select Committee (I go as assistant executive member for environment and heritage) . We had a presentation on the Birthday Plans that was absolutely brim ful of enthusiasm and excitement. Loads of work is going on to make sure everyone can be as involved as possible.. including special birthday cards for people with 80th birthdays in 2007.. and for those who are 8. 2007 ...
Sir Menzies has delivered a speech on Poverty and Opportunity to the IPPR, it follows below:
I know, I know... Lembit Opik- crazy name, crazy guy. I saw him about a month ago and he said that he had broken up with Sian, and that "it was not going too well". Lembit is a treasure- genuinely funny, albeit ever so slightly manic (after all a pilot, expecially a paragliding pilot is clearly closer to the thrill seeking end of the personal equation). Although the extremely detailed interview that Sian gave the newspapers was clearly done for a great deal of money, I don't really see too much damage to Lembit in the long term. Women will ...
Reporting of little local difficulties (as the Foreign and Colonial Office might once have had it) is not really within the remit of this blog. However, as it’s Christmas and my creativity is taking a hit, my next three entries will ostensibly be reports of goings on at the local level. I should be excused however, as they serve as excellent case studies of a more general problem.Our first voyage
The fact that five young women who worked as prostitutues were recently murdered does not of itself make the case for the legalisation of brothels. There is no evidence to suggest that had these...
There is no doubt that the Welsh Conservative's new policy aim of giving the Welsh language official status on an equal footing with English is a significant change in direction for them. However, the Western Mail is right to question what exactly this policy means: Ms Francis, who represents Mid and West Wales in the Assembly, said, 'As it stands English is the de facto official language of Wales. Conservatives want to give Welsh that same status, enshrined in law. 'If we are seeking to review existing legislation, then giving Welsh official language status would be the starting ...
Well, I did promise that I would eventually get around to posting some photos on here... and due to "popular" demand, here I am dressed up as a sardine at Leeds railway station on Friday. The sardine, hopefully pretty obviously, is to emphasise the problem of overcrowding on trains. The overcrowding is caused by a lack of government investment/action to increase the capacity of our rail network. Overcrowding is a major problem - it puts people off travelling by rail and pushes more into cars. Of course, it's a problem especially - but far from exclusively - on commuter ...
American States, Romania and Quangos. I got 9/10 for the American States, tripping up only on the name of the Kennedy who was a New York state senator; but scored only 4/10 on each of the Romania and Quango quizes.
Highly-skilled Migrant ProgrammeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the likely impact of changes to the highly skilled migrant programme on economic migration within the UK; and if he will make a statement. (John Hemming) A:Migrants currently in the UK under the highly skilled migrant programme (HSMP) can apply to extend their leave. The rules for
According to The Nation here the Thai stock market has fallen by nearly 15 percent. This follows moves by the Bank of Thailand to limit currency dealings. Foreign investors bringing in cash worth US$20,000 or more will now need to park 30 per cent of the amount in financial institutions. The money will be fully returned if the cash is taken out of the country after one year. I am glad that I only bought a small amount of Thai Baht at a rate of about 63 to the pound and put the rest in Sterling travellers cheques ... 
Menzies Campbell has today delivered a speech to the IPPR entitled “Poverty and opportunity: the Liberal way”. We reproduce the speech in full below - it’s fairly long and weighty as you’d expect, but worth reading in full rather than skipping to the conclusion, as we’ve done in the blog post title Some coverage of [...]
Government inspectors have praised Redcar and Cleveland Council for reaching higher standards in value for money. The Government's Comprehensive Performance Assessment inspection regime has given the annual rating after its introduction of a 'harder test' assessment that covers the last 12 months. high-performing services at the lowest cost, to the people of Redcar and Cleveland." On giving value for money, the judgement says the Council is "consistently above the minimum requirement and performing well" and that our costs compare well with other similar councils. The Council Cabinet Member for Corporate Resources Councillor Glyn Nightingale said: "We ...
The PPC list now shows PPCs for Milton Keynes N, Warrington S, Glasgow N, Bexhill & Battle, Christchurch, Edinburgh West. PPC news selections
Recycling residents across Redcar and Cleveland Council have helped produce a massive charity boost for the Save The Children Fund. The Council's recycling contractor, Abitibi, pledges £1 for every tonne of glass, cans, paper, magazines and textiles picked up on kerbside collections. The latest cheque for £19,250, which dates back to May, 2003, matches the 19,250 tonnes of recyclable material, the equivalent of 712 lorry loads. Abitibi's regional manager Lenny Corrigan said: "We are delighted to be working with the Council as their recycling service collection contractor. Residents who use the kerbside collection service should be ...
I only ask because, whilst it has become traditional for other political parties to copy Liberal Democrat policies, Today has now started doing the same. Perhaps it is the start of a John Humphrey for Parliament campaign? (Though let’s hope he doesn’t find his attempt to vote for himself scuppered by the failure of his [...]
I don't believe it! The BBC has done it again. I am sure they are doing this to wind me up.
I've just found a post on Light Blue Touchpaper about the trouble a research student in Cambridge had with HSBC. He had what the bank termed a 'suspicious transaction', which was simply his student grant coming in from a foreign account (quite natural as he's a foreign student), so they terminated his account. Of course this had been okay for the previous 2 years, and he'd had other small
Hereford Liberal Democrats have advertised for Paul Keetch MP's replacement - It appeared in Friday's Liberal Democrat News (which I have only just received). Obviously this should attract many candidates - Paul is only the second Liberal Democrat MP to announce their retirement (the other being Mark Oaten). After boundary changes the new seat of Hereford and South Herefordshire has a notional Liberal Democrat majority of 1,297 votes.
Well, I think we've probably heard it all now. Labour's memory on the Today programme just now seemed to be even more selective than ever. In the light of the Chatham House report, Margaret Beckett denied that the 45 minute claim played any part in the decision to go to war. From what I remember, it was exactly this claim that persuaded some MPs to vote in favour of going to war. The claim was...
One of the good things about independent think-tanks is when they add an air of authority to what everybody believes anyway and in doing so enable us to validate our beliefs. The conclusion by a Chatham House report that the "disaster" of Iraq and Tony Blair's failure to influence US policy will overshadow his time as prime minister is one that many people can sign up to. They argue that the 2003 invasion and the post-war "debacle" have damaged Britain's international influence. Iraq would overshadow Mr Blair's record, said the report The "disaster" of Iraq and Tony Blair's ...
Todays link takes you here. This is a site with hints and tips on Christmas recycling. Sadly the tips on food, drinks, presents, decorations and wrapping may come a little late for some. It would have been better had the Guardian picked this for an earlier date but some of the other sections on recycling Christmas Cards and Trees will still be helpful.
Friday: "Oh minister, I do wish you wouldn’t use words like bribery…" "How would you describe these payments, Humphrey?" "Oh well, that’s really quite simple. Retainers, personal donations, special discounts, miscellaneous outgoings… managerial surcharge, operating costs, ex-gratia payments, agents’ fees, political contributions, extra-contractual payments… introduction fees, commission fees, managements’ expenses, administrative overheads and advances against profit sharing… "And how are these payments made?" "Well, anything from a numbered account in a Swiss Bank to a fistful of used oncers slipped under the door of the gents." – Sir Humphrey Appleby educates the Minister Yes, Minister, "The Moral Dimension" If ...
Interesting piece from the BBC which can be found here. As they say it is a friendly Asian holiday paradise. But like anyone emigrating to anywhere in the world the reality of living there full time can be somewhat different. If you have UK based income and assets providing a secure income then living at the Thai cost of living will be realtively easy. But if you do not have that income backing and need to earn a living then you will be earning Thai level wages and living at the Thai cost of living - something to think about ...
After 12 years of marriage I thought my wife Lena and I had already discovered all our mutual likes and dislikes. But not so.... Sitting in a traffic jam last week, we discovered that we both liked the Electric Light Orchestra. Nothing very exciting about that, you might think. But consider- Early 1970s, Essex, England. Earnest teenager has ELO as one of his favourite bands, has "Showdown" as
This morning when my car was telling me the outside temperature was just about minus 2 degrees celcius, I saw an absolute tit of a bloke driving a Citroen "pluriel" (as seen on the right), with the roof down. He was wearing a woolly had, a winter coat done up to the neck and a scarf around his neck and face. I used to own a convertible, I never had the roof down from about November to April, and only then if it was warm. So all I could think was that the bloke was an absolute prat. ...
John Reid has just announced that they will not, after all, be building a giant computer database for storing all our ID card information: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6192419.stm They will still gather the information but it will be on a variety of existing databases. So we go from an overarching, overweening white elphantine waste of money with significant implications for individuals' privacy to the mere wastage of moderate sums, marginal impact on our privacy and mundane inefficiency. A typically 3rd rate fudge from a Government whose management abilities never cease to underwhelm. If only I could believe that someone had ...
Since my posting on the 11th the fires had got worse, then seemed to subside. But mum tells me tonight the smoke is back and the hot spots are getting closer (see the map - black hatching is where the fire has been, yellow dots are hotspots, mum is in Bright). This is clearly going to keep going all summer. Fingers crossed that the fire services, who have been great, keep it under control. In
My father is an successful entrepreneur, running the advertising agency that he has been a central part of for some years. And clearly, his expertise and success in the industry has been something of an inspiration (although I would never admit that to his face - we're not that sort of family), although I didn't follow in his political footsteps. So I'm trying something new on my blog, i.e.
Elsewhere I have argued with Liberals who think that a total free market in broadcast media is the answer. In my view it is the route to endless channels of the lowest common denominator. I say this having been staff at the BBC, TVam (which started as "the mission to explain" and ended up post Roland Rat). I have run presentation for low budget cable and satellite channels and worked in huge
Menzies Campbell will address the IPPR today outlining Liberal Democrat policy proposals on tackling poverty. More here. | < | December 2006 | > | ||||
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