Sitting in darkness in the BBC’s Millbank studio, he looked ridiculous. Hesitant and lacking a point - Michael White quite simply wiped the floor with him. You bit off more than you could chew there, Mr Fawkes - and damaged your reputation in the process. Watch out Paxman and White though, I’m sure hell hath [...]
The BBC is reporting that John Reid is going to announce the splitting up of the Home Office tomorrow. If this is true it surprises me. The fact that the prisons, probation and criminal law sections are going to be hived off and merged with the DCA, leaving behind a new slimmed down Home Office to focus on security and immigration, is not surprising in itself. Reid has mused about it publicly
These are some of the members of the Malden and Coombe Social Club for the Blind. They invited me today to chair their AGM and then chat with them over a cup of tea and some birthday cake (and an excellent one, baked by the Chair, Diana Goodhew) It is small groups like this, providing so much pleasure to their members, that make me proud to represent our Borough. The...
The former Soviet Union has been occupying my thoughts for most of today, with all its bitter-sweet legacies. I went into Bush House (BBC World Service) at midday to record a From Our Own Correspondent piece that I’d written in Moldova, then early this evening attended a reception at Soho’s Groucho Club, for the celebratory launch [...]
… if someone misuses your work. Nice.
... or perhaps not. Barnet Tory Councillor Brian Gordon shows how far the Conservatives have come. 25 years ago they were calling for Nelson Mandela to be hanged, now they dress up as him. As with Patrick Mercer his major offence is not that he stepped over the line, its that he doesn't even seem to realise that there was a line to cross. Even worse (certainly for the modernising Tory's who
As residents will recall, I have highlighted various parking problems in the West End in the past. The last local edition of FOCUS the old Tay Bridges Ward area gave good news regarding proposals for residents’ priority parking and the consultation to take place on these. This should go a good way to helping the parking issues around the Sinderins area and eastwards along the Perth Road from there, including many adjacent streets. Now, a number of Pentland area residents have highlighted to me the problem of parking in streets like Saggar Street, Pentland Crescent and other nearby streets ...
Fair green future Dear All, Labour have been shouting about the Welsh Liberal Democrat's alleged vote for a rise in Council Tax, but it seems obvious to me that this attack is an attempt to cover up the fact that it is their mishandling of the Welsh police funding in both Cardiff Bay and Westminster that has backed North Wales against a wall. The North Wales Police Authority has been forced into a financial black hole while trying to sustain a service fit for residents in North Wales. They struggle, as do all Welsh Police ...
Today the Dirk Bogarde estate launched an official website devoted to his life and acting career. The background to it is explained in an article from this morning's Independent: When Sir Dirk Bogarde, the matinée idol, star of European art-house cinema and author, died eight years ago, he left more material than most for any would-be biographer. On top of over 60 films and 14 books, including several bestselling volumes of autobiography, there were cupboards packed with letters, photographs and film scripts left at the flat in Chelsea, west London, where Bogarde spent his final years. ...
Don't forget to nominate your favourite blog posts of the weeks for Sunday's roundup. But how do I do it? Details here. 
Guido Fawkes has been given a spot on Newsnight. He asks some perfectly legitimate questions, and gets some perfectly legitimate answers, but both sides appear to be missing the point. Ultimately, it is healthy in a democracy to have people like Guido sticking their fingers in the air at the establishment. They often go [...]
Meeting a delegation of Gurkha veterans, Liberal Democrat Leader Menzies Campbell said that successive governments should be ashamed of failing to look after these veterans and causing them to live in poverty. He called for an immediate review to deliver fairer pensions to the many Gurkha veterans on low pensions or no pension at all. The [...]
Consistent underfunding has resulted in a big rise in the policing charge recovered by Council Tax in North Wales. Whilst I realise sometimes we have to take the rough with the smooth, its not so palatable when at the same time we have seen cuts to local policing. I also recognise that a lot of people in North Wales are very annoyed by this, given that approximately £8m or over 20% more funding goes to the South Wales force per head. To try and address this, we have applied and set up an online petition directly on the 10 Downing Street website. Anyone interested ...
This evening sees the last full Council meeting of the municipal year, so all of the local Lib Dem Councillors are there. It is a sobering thought that the next meeting of the Council could see me as a Councillor, if we win the election here on May 3rd. I am obtaining the last signatures on my nomination forms tonight, so thanks once again to the people of St Mary’s who have offered to lend
Today there has been some reaction to the Tulle Court planning decision last night. The plans were approved with minor amendments, so the development of flats and houses on the now derelict site will soon begin. Whilst the re-development is good news in general terms, I am disappointed that the concerns of residents were not upheld in the planning consent. I feel that issues of access to the rear
Come off it guys, this is just a joke! Where’s your sense of humour? It’s political correctness gone mad! To make amends, perhaps Cllr Gordon ought to send Nelson Mandela the gift of poo. You know, for a larf. Hat tip: Recess Monkey. Share This
I had a wonderful opportunity to go to a special viewing tonight of the first 2 editions of the new Dr Who series. But I also have a large number of Focus leaflets to write for Gateshead. Focus writing has won, along with writing my next email newsletter to constituents, eFocus. I'll just have to wait til Saturday to watch it. Boohoo.......
Monday: As I said before, I have told Daddy Richard that he has got to finish all the Doctor Who books before Saturday or I will not let him watch "Smith and Jones". (Although I WOULD let him REALLY!) He is therefore cracking on, and has now read the next-to-last of them. Here is what he thought: I have to confess to some disappointment. After Steve Cole's previous Doctor Who book, "The Feast of the Drowned" I had high expectations for this one and I'm sorry to say that they weren't met. Although there are a ...
I agree with Iain Dale in his opposition to the proposed "Communications allowance" that MP's will vote on today. Although to moan about MP's sending letters out trumpeting their achievements is perhaps a little rich coming from Iain, considering the amount of Conservative Central Office mailings that were posted during Iain Dale's general election campaign in North Norfolk. Obviously some MP's spend a lot of money communicating with their constituents and this will be of enormous benefit to those MP's who do this well and want to do a better job of it. However, to my mind Iain has ...
When visiting the hospital yesterday with my wife, two things struck me as being out of place. Firstly, in the area for expectant mother awaiting a scan, the only magazine to read was the SAGA magazine, a magazine of over 50's. The second thing that seemed strange was in the waiting area, a financial services company offering a will writing service, and yes, it was near the geriatric wards too.
Friday saw the annual Leeds North West Constituency dinner. I don't know how many Liberal Democrat events are held in functioning Masonic Lodges but this one was. I'm not sure who was the less comfortable, us or the Masons, but the Castle Grove "Hotel" provides excellent "Rubber Chicken" style dinning facilities so everyone swallows there principles and and counts the Cash. Such events have an added glamour since 2005 and we have the MP Greg Mulholland, a former ward colleague of mine. It isn't very often that the Chicken is better than the speeches on these occasions but ...
The Times makes big play today of its Scottish poll ("Labour faces meltdown as SNP heads for power") which predicts the SNP getting 50 MSPs, Labour 43, Lib Dems 19, Tories 18 and Conservative 1.This prompts the paper of record to print not one, but three comment pieces which are all virtually identical (There's Magnus Linklater with "SNP ready to plant their banner in Labour’s heartland"; Angus Macleod with "Labour will be left to watch the dust settle after this political earthquake"; and the leader, "Borderline - Labour has five weeks to save itself")Its difficult to find good coverage of ...
The photograph is of Jenny Randerson AM illustrating the great strides being made by Cardiff Council in improving recycling in the City. Judging by her very valid comments on Plaid Cymru's manifesto this morning it is likely that the green bags contained copies of that rather glossy document. Jenny said: "This is a manifesto without substance. It covers 36 pages, but many of those are pictures of models. Are they too embarrased of their candidates to show people what they look like? "More worrying than the lack of detail is the lack of financial literacy. ...
Liberal Democrats on Southwark council have welcomed the support given by the Council Assembly for a motion calling on the Labour Government to drop its plans to introduce a fixed fee system for legal aid cases. Legal aid providers in Southwark have already raised concerns that the new system could lead to a drop in the number of firms carrying out legal aid work which could lead to many people being denied access to legal help and justice. A deputation from Southwark Law Centre appeared before councillors tonight to explain how the proposed changes would affect local people. Particular concerns ...
So we now have the co-ordinates for the ‘Seized Marines’ incident. Seems to have taken place awfully close to the boundary line for Iraq-Iran waters. Is this spot conceded by Iran to be Iraqi? Our former ambassador in Uzbekistan Craig Murray has been commenting firstly here, then here and lately here on the evolving dispute using his professional knowledge of how these things actually work. Before the spin doctors could get to him, Commodore Lambert said:"There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that they were in Iraqi territorial waters. Equally, the Iranians may well claim ... 
Scene: Outside 1970s house in Ross on Wye: Canvasser, Cicero (for it is he), knocks on door which opens: Elderly Lady: Yes.. Cicero: Hello Mrs Xxxxx, I am calling on behalf of Chris Bartrum, your Liberal Democrat candidate in the upcoming Herefordshire elections, I wonder if you will be coming out to vote on May 3rd? Elderly Lady: Oh I don't think so.. Cicero: Can I ask if you have voted our way before? EL: Well, no, you see we are Jehovah's Witnesses and we never vote. Door closes. Exit Cicero grinning evilly and cackling... ...
Tuesday 27th March 2007 - Last night I did my Magnus Magnusson turn and hosted the Brussels and Europe Liberal Democrats party's annual pub quiz, with 15 teams fighting it out to be BELD Mastermind 2007!!! Unsurprisingly, ALDE Group Leader, Graham Watson's "Unity in Diversity Team" won. I say unsurprisingly, as he clearly had a headstart on the European politics rounds having probably had
Yesterday's Commons education select committee report on bullying was right to insist that schools take the problem seriously. Most of the media coverage concentrated on the suggestion that children should be involved in suggesting suitable penalties for bullies in their own schools. I wonder if I am alone in seeing this as a bit of a cop-out. Yes, children are often capable of being more mature and sensible than we ordinarily allow them to be. Yes, they have to learn to take on adult responsibilities and this might be a good way of doing it. But ...
The above is a photograph of the participants in the Justice for Families Parliamentary Lobby this morning. This is the first parliamentary lobby from Justice for Families. Chaired by John Hemming MP and with Bill Bache as Legal Advisor Justice for Families is campaigning for “justice for families”. The word “family” indicates that this means campaigning for justice children, parents and
The Guardian has a respectful interview with the wonderful Honor Blackman. As it says: Blackman is that rare thing, a thinking, Lib Dem-supporting former Bond girl.And her Liberalism goes back a long way, as an earlier posting of mine records.
As if I didn't have enough on my to-do list, have just got a random e-mail from eGov monitor asking for comments on the budget. The opening line sets an intriguing but fairly time intensive task: I am writing to invite you to comment on the recent Budget and Lyons review and also each and every councillor in UK. As there are over 20,000 councillors and I know fewer than 100 of them, it will take some quite time consuming research to be able to comment on all of them. Or maybe they could just have worded ...
THE Liberal Democrat candidate to fight MP Phil Woolas for his Oldham East and Saddleworth seat has unexpectedly quit — to work in Russia. Alison Smith — the first woman parliamentary hopeful chosen to contest the seat — stepped down yesterday and held a farewell social last night. The party says the law graduate from Aberdeen is [...]
No one seems to have seen the Quebec election result coming - and it leaves a tough situation for Liberals in Quebec and Ottawa.
The answer would appear to be, not always. Apologies for another poo related story, but it appears that Berlin Zoo’s Panda has died of heart failure caused by acute constipation. But there is speculation of a cute other cause (geddit? GEDDIT?!). I warned you. Share This
Blogger Guido Fawkes interviews political journalists for the BBC’s Newsnight tonight. I think my favourite lines from Jeremy Paxman in the package are “that’s complete bollocks” and “I’m sorry, I think you’re just living in a pathetic conspiracy world.”
This is a bit of a tounge in cheek post in response to the constant complaints about tax, the size of the civil service, benefits, allowances and costs generally. I have a great idea for cutting down the civil service. First they need to stop providing free education - if a parent wants to send their children [...]
A couple of weeks ago, I was castigated for saying that nationalism was an ugly thing, citing the example of “Scottish Nationalists chucking faeces through English people’s letterboxes“. I later apologised for capitalising the en in Nationalist (I never meant to imply I thought it was SNP policy), but insisted (and insist) that it [...]
Finland's Liberal Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen and his Centre Party won the parliamentary elections with 23.1% of votes on Sunday. Prime Minister Vanhanen and the Centre Party topped the poll after four years in office, showing the support for their reforms including ensuring the sustainability of the welfare state.
Two headlines from today's papers: The Times: ‘Budget failed to sway voters, Times poll shows’The Independent: ‘Tory lead slips as voters welcome Budget’Of course opinion polls matter. But let’s recognize there’s as much art as science involved.
Daniel Martin has listed his five favourite - and five worst - Doctor Who companions. In doing so he exposes himself as a member of that odd bunch of people: Doctor Who fans who liked Ace. There’s a lot of them, but I’d love to know why. As an attempt to make the companion [...]
Two interesting polls today. Times/Populus suggests that the SNP is well ahead in Scotland, but that support for independence has plummeted. I don’t doubt either trend, but combined they do suggest that the Scots still aren’t actively engaging with the election to the extent that this accurately predicts how they are likely to vote. [...]
Is it just me and my prejudices, or is Gerry Adams writing a funny article about the trials and tribulations of being a candidate, without mentioning the Ireland question at all, utterly bizarre? This from a man who is still regarded by many as nothing more than a terrorist. I’m not having at go at [...]
Cllr Nick Stanton, Liberal Democrat Leader of Southwark Council, today attended the first meeting of a Commission established by Met Commissioner Ian Blair to discuss ways of combating gun and knife crime. “Today I attended a Met Police Community Consultative meeting to review actions that are being taken on the issue of gun and knife crime and to raise issues that need to be addressed following the recent shootings in Peckham, Streatham and elsewhere,” said Cllr Nick Stanton. “Amongst other issues, I highlighted the problem that the Government’s decent homes policy doesn’t include money for improving community safety ...
Is it too much to ask for the government to understand their own policies? Given the number of UK businesses who employ migrant workers, you would think it was important for, say, the Department for Trade and Industry to understand employment rules. How then, can we explain this: Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for [...]
As the days have gone by it has become a little easier to judge the impact of Gordon Brown' last budget. In particular it reinforces the feeling at the time- that Brown had run rings around a lightweight Conservative leadership. While it is fair to say that the budget response speech is extraordinarily difficult, after all the opposition has no notice of the measures to be announced, and must respond pretty much off the cuff, the fact is that Cameron made three too many Stalinist jokes, but missed the whole point of the Chancellor's policy, he even believed that there ...
I now have a Facebook account. If you have one, feel free to say hello and make me your friend or just go ‘ha! pictures of Nick on the web! That’s broken it.’
I have now got round to watching Channel 4 Dispatches "Toff at the Top" about David Cameron by Peter Hitchens. The first thing which hit me was, of course, Peter Hitchens. A remarkable man. I sometimes think he lives on a different planet than the rest of us. But, give him his due, he produced an interesting programme. He was persistent and searching with his questioning. The rather pompous
Just read through this weeks Advertising Standards Authority adjudications I found this one about Cadburys. Their campaign for Trident Gum, has been found to be racist. Whilst I felt the adverts were rubbish and I’m pleased that if I do end up watching Commercial TV that I won’t see them again, I really don’t think they [...]
Half of the Conservatives in Stoke-on-Trent South have resigned from the party in a bitter row with former political allies.The split involves allegations of mismanagement of city council funds. Authority managers, the police and the Standards Board for England have been asked to launch inquiries.
Today looks to be a busy one. I am off this morning for a meeting with the people who run Rotters Community Composting, which is based at Dutch Farm at Garston. Then I am dropping in on quite a few people to see what progress has been made on various cases, following this up with a visit about a new case and then a site visit to look at a particular environmental problem. Given that I don't use a car any more, all this running around should help keep me fit. Let's just hope it doesn't ...
I am under no illusions that the cause of fair voting in local government is anything other than a minority concern. However, each and every one of us has an interest in how accountable and effective our local council is. In this regard, the general principle that the make-up of that Council should reflect the way people voted seems to me to be important. There are still one party states in local authorities around Wales, though they are less in number than they were. Where they exist or have existed then Councils have been able to ...
Sunday: This was RUBBISH. What, you want MORE? OK: Mr Charlie Brooker does not often make mistakes, but when he advised us to watch a TV series by Mr Madam Adam Curtis called "The Trap: How We Learned to Stop Worrying About Freedom and Love the no that's not right…" it was a STINKER. Madam Adam's technique is to tell you what to think whilst playing a MONTAGE of clips and LOTS of SCARY music so that you know that it is all REALLY TERRIFYING STUFF. And then say: "It's all true – ...
The US Senate has tonight voted 50 to 48 to endorse the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq by March 2008. Getting the overall Bill passed may be a little tricky though. It's a shame there wasn't stronger feeling in the Senate (or in our Parliament) before the war was started. And after the historic agreement in Northern Ireland, the first protests within the DUP have emerged. The councillor quoted says "I think they have gone into government too quickly"... but I suspect a lot of people are wondering instead if this could have all happened any more ...
Following our recent street surgery on Great North Road in my ward, it's good to be able to report that we've managed to get some of the problems sorted already. I asked the Council to look at the pavements along that section of road to see where repairs to cracked and raised slabs were necessary. After an inspection, they told me that no repairs were necessary, as all the uneven slabs were within acceptable ranges. I found that hard to believe, so asked them to confirm the height "needed" to force a repair (19mm) and said I'd be ...
When I woke up on Sunday morning, that was the question facing me on my mobile phone: Begin British Summer Time? 1. Yes 2. No Half asleep, I did ponder the question for a little while - but then decided that it wasn't really in my gift to make that decision and meekly pressed "1". The missing hour might explain why I haven't put anything on my blog for the last few days. But it's mostly just because I've been busy. Had a good weekend in Manchester, met a bunch of cool people Saturday night and even ...
Fame at last ! Many thanks to Duncan Borrowman for THIS .
This morning John McCain candidate for the Republican nomination for President announced via his MySpace page that he was in favour of Gay Marriage. Is this a bold (some may say suicidal) step that will shake up the race for the nomination? Is his use of MySpace to make this announcement an indication of how even the oldest of politicians are trying to reach out to the young through new media? | < | March 2007 | > | ||||
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