Charles Kennedy, President of the Liberal Democrats, gives some advice to the newly elected Don Foster with the aid of Peter Sissons. As I write, YouTube is still churning the video but it should start working in a moment:
I had a play with the AppleTV in the Regents Street Apple store today. I think for the first time ever, Apple have produced a product I just can’t see the point of. If it recorded TV, as well as playing back stuff from your iTunes, it might serve a useful purpose. And it does have [...]
I’ve had a fun bank holiday weekend, I hope you have too. Yesterday I took a stroll along the Regents Canal, before visiting a buddy in the Docklands. Photos from the walk here, including a video described by a mate as “duckling porn.” I don’t know what sort of porn he’s been watching.
I’ve just opened my RSS reader for the first time in five days - 200 posts!? Unfortunately, I’ve no idea what’s hot and what’s not in there. If the LD blogosphere continues to grow, and the volume of posts continues to grow, I really think we’re going to need our own bookmarking / ranking network.
As I’m up to date with all my deliveries and we’re not doing canvassing during the holiday weekend, I decided to take advantage of the good weather and go for my first long walk of the year today. So, I got the train up to Sudbury and then followed St Edmund’s Way and the Stour [...]
Every now and then BBC Parliament broadcasts archive election programmes - tonight it is the turn of 1992, bringing with it a fabulous moment when Ian Paisley stepped up to the rostrum immediately after his declaration and burst out in to a protestant hymn. My, that man can sing - let’s have some of that [...]
I am watching Diamond Geezer, which is a piece of nonsense put together for David Jason to star in. But what has struck me is the appearance of George Cole, still apparently hale and hearty at the age of almost 82. It is worth recording what a piece of living British cinema history Cole is. Many people will remember him from Minder in the 1980s or as Flash Harry in the St Trinian's films before that. But his career goes back much further. His first adult role was in the Powell and Pressburger film Gone to Earth in ...
It looks as though the locals have won their campaign to have Harvey's beers returned to the Lewes Arms. The Publican reports: Greene King is expected to bow to consumer pressure and reinstate Harvey’s Best Bitter into Sussex pub the Lewes Arms, following a vociferous campaign by locals. Adam Collett, marketing director for Greene King's managed pubs, acknowledged his company had “underestimated the strength of feeling which led to many locals boycotting what was once a great British pub. As a result, it has lost some of its character and greatness.” Although he defended Greene King's right ...
Municipal waste I mean of course. At least it would keep them out of trouble on immigration and Europe.
After an almost entirely veggie Easter, I rather relished a traditional roast beef lunch at Simpson’s in The Strand today with my chum Michael Bloch, biographer of Joachim von Ribbentrop and editor of the posthumous James Lees-Milne diaries. I don’t suppose anyone writes such voluminous diaries these days, but maybe blogs are the contemporary equivalent, [...] 
This week's selection can be found at Philobiblon.
Normally, I would say the answer is no. However, Angus MacNeil does unfortunately fail the hypocrisy test on two grounds: Firstly, as I wrote earlier, he voted against the Sexual Orientation Regulations. In his view therefore, what a person gets up to in their private lives is fair game and legitimate grounds to be [...]
(With apologies to Monty Python). One of the great "joys" of visiting small people (like my nearly 2 year old niece Tamsin) is watching hours of CBeebies. As my brother-in-law works for Network Rail, things like Thomas the Tank Engine and Underground Ernie are obvious regulars. Some of the other programmes seem to me to be unspeakably rubbish. But a new one (to me) on this visit is In the Night Garden. I wasn't massively enjoying it, featuring as it did a sort of Care Bear/Stay Puft Marshmallow Man cross called Igglepiggle and a sort of Teletubby reject called ...
Oliver Kamm is predicting doom and gloom about political blogs again: The blogosphere, in short, is a reliable vehicle for the coagulation of opinion and the poisoning of debate. It is a fact of civic life that is changing how politics is conducted - overwhelmingly for the worse, and with no one accountable for the decline. I’ve [...]
From Balkinization: "When I tried to use the curb-side check in at the Sunport, I was denied a boarding pass because I was on the Terrorist Watch list. I was instructed to go inside and talk to a clerk. At this point, I should note that I am not only the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence (emeritus) but also a retired Marine colonel. I fought in the Korean War as a young lieutenant, was
Trust in Wales Ymddiried yng Nghymru After reading recent letters and articles in the Local press about New Labour AMs yet again trying to grab a cheap headline attacking our North Wales police force-can they answerer the following please; How can they winge & moan about the Police precept when it is New labours under funding of North Wales Police by a massive 8 million pounds compared to the South that has led to this forced increase. Instead of going for desperate campaigns in the run up to Mays elections, they would be better looking in to reports that children aged 11 to ...
I don't know about anybody else, but I always prefer to canvass in the sunshine - people seem friendlier, and are more willing to keep their front door open and talk. And today was warm and sunny, with lots of beautiful cats to talk to, and lots of friendly faces on the doorstep. (In one close of about 20 houses we now have the pleasant problem of having 3 people who want to deliver leaflets
The headline from The Mirror says it all really.
I filmed this in March - Lib Dem students in Newcastle protesting about students fees and an interview by Ron Beadle, Parliamentary Candidate for Newcastle North, one of our target seats, with Mat Cormack of Newcastle University Lib Dem Students.
A letter from the Ramblers Association was published in the Manchester Evening News against the plans to build a school in Heaton Park - on Saturday - the link is hopefully in this posting title. The Save Heaton Park Action group haven't had much success in the press recently so hopefully this will spark people's interest again. Photos are of the temporary school that was promised to be
Seeing as so many Lib Dem Blogs readers took such a shine to my last photo invasion of someone else's home, here's another exclusive Hello style spread of what I got up to yesterday, in the privacy of my sister's house in Newcastle. Yes, I took time out from writing and delivering Focus leaflets to celebrate my neice Lily's 4th birthday. Andrew, my older brother, decided to adopt my camera
After a week of campaigning in rural norfolk, yesterday was of course Easter Sunday- my sermon follows (as preached at All Saints, Wood Norton). Happy Easter. Today, we celebrate an event which has shaped and motivated over 2000 years of Christian discipleship and church history and provides the context for life and ministry of all of us-clergy or laity, church leader or community activist, freedom fighter or contemplative mystic. Yet somehow Easter Sunday can sometimes seem an anti-climax after the solemnity and ceremony of Palm Sunday, Holy Week and its culmination at the foot of the Good Friday ...
I was out this morning delivering annual reports to constituents when the phone rang. It was the BBC. Was I available in an hour to do an interview with Radio Newcastle about the local elections? Thankfully I was nearly finished delivering the patch and made it back to my house to find the place looking a tip. There was no time to tidy up so when the journalist arrived, I explained that my
I have received this from Waging Peace today. Please support their appeal for help. Since the beginning of the Darfur crisis in 2003, 1000 Darfuris have fled government persecution and sought refuge in the UK. However, their hopes for a safe haven have been shattered by the recent attempts by the Home Office to deport failed Darfuri asylum seekers to Khartoum, against the explicit advice of 
Everytime I come to watch Norwich City plan I am always shocked at the monstrosity of a building that has recently sprung up next to Carrow Road. Riverside heights is a ghastly building which looks something like a group of portakabins lashed together or even that prison ship they used to use down in Portland. I am told this is the norm for modern flats in London. Its a shame that architects feel that plastic and metal with outside stairways like old 1960's flats are the way forward.
Had a strange conversation with a fellow Lib Dem the other night. This person, who I have known of for a couple of years, said that he has read my blog. Now I don't know why I feel awkward about people saying they read my blog. Surely I would expect this as it is free to be seen on the world wide web? Yes, but I still can't believe that there would be anything people would wish to read on it.
The campaign to win more seats in the Epping Forest District is hotting up. Spent most of the day bundling up leaflets and sending them off to delivers, delivering leaflets, organising more canvassing sessions and also working on the next set of election leaflets.
In the light of the enthusiasm shown for my post relating to the OCX control that must not be named (and probably Microsoft's most embarrassing error of recent years) I thought I would write someting about Outlook Express. Outlook Express is the email client that comes as part of windows. I use it myself, although I have my emails filtered through a spam filter of my own devising written in
As if the UK could not look any worse in the whole affair with the British sailors captured by Iran, the ongoing story of the release of the captives has done nothing but show the ugly side of Britain. The most striking thing about the story given by leading Seaman Faye Turney in today's Sun is not her treatment by the Iranians, which was mild in comparison to our treatment of Iraqi prisoners, but rather her fears that seemed to be more based in ignorance than evidence, and the thinly veiled racism of the Sun newspaper. One of the ...
Just to let people know that the next meeting of the Mountsfield Park Users' Group will be on Monday 30 April at 7pm in the Hither Green Baptist Church, Radford Road, Hither Green SE13.
Why is it that how ever much work you get done there is always something left on your desk requiring your attention? Just looking at the pile of papers beside my laptop as I write this I am feel...
It seems to have got a bit cloudier today, just in time for the return to work tomorrow. I suppose the sun gets tired of shining just as we get tired of leafleting. However, the sun gets time off, whereas we don't. Such are the advantages of being a celestial body, I suppose. The problem with all this leafleting is that it does leave me very tired in the evenings. Last night there wasn't much
In these environmentally conscious times, the best thing to do with your computer when you are not using it is to turn it off. However, even if you do turn off the computer at the end of the day, there are often patches of time when it is not being fully utilised. Add up that unused [...]
Been exploring Home Office Watch - interesting ..... lookinng forward to more postings after the Easter break ....
This morning's Western Mail reports on desperate tactics by Labour in an effort to shore up their vote. They are now implying that pensioners' free bus passes would be scrapped if the party is voted out of office despite the fact that the measure had all-party support when it passed through the National Assembly. Labour are also hinting at the possibility that investment in our health service, free prescriptions and regeneration of poorer valley communities will come to an end (presumably along with all civilisation as we know it) if Rhodri Morgan ceases to be First Minister on 4th ...
You can read my latest Community Council Update by clicking on the headline above. The Community Council meets tomorrow night at Logie St John's Cross Church Hall at 7pm.
There was a story in the South London Press a few weeks back about the new baby meerkats at Battersea Zoo. Four of them: Following the article I found they have an adoption scheme that allows you to support the feed and upkeep for the animals. So Councillor Jardine-Brown is now a proud surrogate parent for one of the adorable brood, possibly this one, although we're still awaiting our adoption papers. We're hoping one day to have a home with a garden where we might keep meerkats in a similar way. A little inappropriate ...
Sunday: Apparently, there is to be a new and shorter version of Mr Tolstoy’s ultra-epic Russian Masterpiece, “War and Peace” Henceforth is to be just “War”. This diary has been abridged. | < | April 2007 | > | ||||
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