Art Deco Lift Lamps. On the ground floor, there are two lamps, one on each side of the building. Under the lamps are orange LEDs. These indicate whether the lift in that side is waiting at ground floor level - so you can always turn the right way first time. Tea trays. Tea in [...]
This is one of those things that you've never thought about until it's pointed out to you then when you read it, it is totally obvious. Although, I'm not sure it is something the Liberal Democrats should adopt as party policy.
Is political meddling really ruining lessons as the think-tank Civitas claims and as reported on the front page of today’s Daily Telegraph? I heard the discussion on this morning’s Today Programmebetween Chris McGovern, one of the authors of the Civitas report and Peter Hyman, Downing Street Spin Doctor turned comprehensive school teacher. The strange thing about their argument was that they appeared to describe two entirely different national curriculums for history – the one infected by fashionable policitical nostrums to the point that history has become a bogus subject, the other a highly traditional outline of1,000 years of ...
I know the Tories object so strongly, and rather pathetically, to the Lib Dems use of the term "shadow" for Lib Dem front bench spokesmen. However, given the Tories abject and complete failure to act like an opposition back in 2003 prior to the invasion of Iraq, perhaps they have lost the right to object. The question for me is, after the Tories failed bid today for an inquiry in to the Iraq war, how about the Tories having an internal investigation in to how they became the biggest supporters of the whole Iraq debacle. The Conservatives may ...
A lot of things annoy me in life, but then as a blogger I’m sure you’ve already guessed that - I wouldn’t blog if I didn’t have at least a couple of things that get on my goat. The latest thing to bug me, and one I have to admit that’s bugged me a LOT lately [...] 
Not blogged for a while as been fairly busy at work, and then evening meetings and weekends away... Last weekend was spent in Teignmouth on my first visit to meet Vic's mum, and various friends (god mother etc). It was also an opportunity for Vic to get her hair cut, so I got a bit of a ribbing in her favoured salon. (I pretended to stick my head further into the Grauniad). Teignmouth District Council have created a most brilliant crazy golf course on the front of the town. All the holes are named after local places and things, and ...
For as long as I can remember, people have been calling for the return of the bobby on the beat. At last it has been done - in Shropshire, naturally. This article suggests that the idea is proving a success, even if the major crime problem in Much Wenlock appears to be orchid rustling. My wife comes from Shropshire. Much Wenlock? Not since they brought in this new community policing scheme.
Just over a week ago Totnes Tory MP Anthony Steen made the press when he parked in what he described in his words as a "handicapped" parking bay at Newton Abbott station. He claimed he was in a hurry, he had to rush to Westminster and that there were too many "handicapped" bays. The car sat there for an extended period, enough time to check... 1. It was parliamentary recess, so what was the
One of the advantages of a fairly 'catholic' reading list is that you often realise that you aren't alone, after all. And, whilst our internal debate over selection of black and minority ethnic candidates in winnable seats has calmed a bit, interestingly, our friends in the Labour Party appear to be doing their own navel-gazing. I have already made my opposition to quotas abundantly clear,
The story now moves to Cardiff. In 1989 Ben Hollisey-McLean was a 3 year old child who had, had breathing problems since birth. Dr David Southall became involved when his parents asked his Consultant at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) if a monitor they had seen on television being promoted by Dr Southall would be more suitalble for Ben than the apnea alarm they were currently using. Ben and
A busy day today, with a site visit in Richmond Terrace relative to a planning appeal (I moved refusal of an application here back in January - click on headline above to read original story).A busy night at the City Council tonight, with no less than 21 agenda items on the Planning & Transport Committee that I now chair. At Policy and Resources Committee, agreement was reached regarding the issue of properly tackling the unadopted pavements across the City, despite the opposition of the Council's one independent member. Firstly he criticised me for (sic) "pie crust promises" (promises made to ...
I've never done a book review on here before, so I shall do this one briefly to keep the waffle to a minimum. I have just finished reading the second volume of Tony Benn's diaries, covering 1992 to 2001. The diary covers a fascinating decade in British politics, from the surprise of the 1992 election through 1997 and beyond into Benn's last parliament. The book made me laugh, cry and think a lot about the Labour party and what Blair actually did from 1994. One realises by reading Benn's book that he does appear to be very wrong ...
Clifford Longley had a very interesting "Thought for the Day" this morning. In a nutshell, for the purposes of discussion, Longley divided Britain into "roundheads" and "cavaliers", calling Tony Blair and David Cameron "cavaliers" and Gordon Brown a "roundhead". He summarised the opposing characters they symbolise as: "Cavaliers have more fun, Roundheads get more done." His conclusion was that
H is away in Kenya this week, which leaves me at something of a loose end. I fall back to the simple vices, which with me is usually some sort of gadget. Electronics of choice this week is my new Sling Box. This quite amazing bit of kit attaches to my Sky+ box and then, using my home internet connection, allows me to watch my home TV from anywhere in the world on my laptop or mobile where I have an internet connection. So, I'm sat here in the garden, working, blogging and watching news 24 in ...
That was the extraordinary question asked by BBC1's Breakast today. I have not been able to find anything on the web about it, but there is this story from January about David Cameron suggesting compulsory community service for students. So from memory, the discussion this morning was about a government proposal to make voluntary service for students compulsory and part of a tax credit regime. ..
I did not even have to open my paper this morning for the heckles to start to rise. The promise of daft legislation was splashed across the front page. The Times reports that unmarried couples are to get equal rights on separation, “able to make claims against their partners to demand lump-sum payments, a share of property, regular maintenance or a share of the partner’s pension when they separate. They will also be able to claim against their partners for loss of earnings if they gave up a career to look after children.” Children present a ...
I've always been slightly sceptical of the likes of Richard Dawkins et al. and their claims that science (and in particular science education) is under serious threat from the fundamentalists in the US. After all, despite its professed christianity and odd right-wing fruitcake, this is still the country that has produced more Nobel Prize winners than any other, the home of MIT, Sillicon
I didn't vote for Ming. Well, actually I did. As third preference. My daughter. aged 8 (yes, it was before the conference vote setting the limit at 10), voted for him as first preference. I suppose there is part of me that says: he's leader, there's not really anyone ready to take over and, in any case, if there was another leadership contest today and he was a candidate, he would win again
Well done today to the most wonderful example of what multiculturalism can bring to British society, in this case it is the incomparable Monty Panesar, England cricketer, Sikh and the world's best finger spinner to boot. Everyone already knows about his undoubted promise, but in recent weeks with a faltering Steve Harmison, and injured Flintoff and Hoggard and a wayward Plunkett in the team, Monty has stepped up to the plate and because the world class spin bowler that he had promised to be. Today he took his first ten wicket haul in a test match and he has ...
The "ethical foreign policy" of a "whiter than white" government is worse than a farce; it's a lie and a betrayal.
New figures show that the seemingly massive number of 8,000 police cautions have been issued for sex offences, including rape and child abuse, over the last five years, according to the BBC. The BBC's coverage of the issue is quite fair and balanced, unlike the Telegraph's. It's a classic case of a number out of context; both the "8,000 cautions for sex offences" and the "230 cautions for rape" are worryingly large, but there are much more worrying, larger figures behind them. Most people don't know very much about crime. How many sex offences were there in, say, 2004? ...
The front page of the Daily Mail has this masthead: “Do dogs have a sense of humour?“. I don’t know who originally observed this, but it has been said that if the Daily Mail ever uses a question mark at the end of a headline, the answer is usually ‘no’. In this particular case however, [...]
Pigeon Campaigns UK (a group so vast that they can afford to spurn the need for a website) is up in arms because the authorities at Norwich Cathedral called in an expert to shoot a pigeon. “We are absolutely disgusted that a place of worship such as Norwich Cathedral could be responsible for such a heinous crime against our wildlife,” fumed John Davison, a spokesman. “Culling pigeons as a method of control has been scientifically proven not to work.” Perhaps, but that is hardly the point. The sniper apparently was called in when the bird was spotted trapped ...
{Photographer: Dean Calma/IAEA} On the occasion of his visit to Iraq on a "fact finding mission" the BBC report that "Gordon Brown has said lessons must be learned on use of intelligence in the run-up to war" and that "in future intelligence analysis must be kept independent of politics." read more
In an “in other news” footnote to a post on pensions, Centre Forum’s Free Think blog asks whether “Ming is being told by his pollsters that housing is concerning the voters enough to make it a top priority? And do the Lib Dems have enough of an identity on that issue to make it a key feature of any future election?”As I have commented on the Free Think site, I wonder whether the real problem is that the Liberal Democrats have too much “identity” on the subject. Do they introduce land value taxation to capture the unearned wealth ...
I am not known for lacking knowledge of matters political, but when a Minister's only claims to fame are cocking up a vote when you are chief whip and announcing you will stand down when Brown becomes leader, the n I guess it says a lot about you. So step forward Hilary Armstrong. She is, apparently, Cabinet Office Minister (what ever that jobs entails) , was once chief whip and was a local governm ent minister. This is what we are told anyway because should I have bumped in to her in the street, I wouldn't know ...
It’s a common aphorism that every Home Secretary is the most authoritarian - until the next one. Jack Straw was banned from his (and my) old student union back in 2000 for introducing policies as Home Secretary (such as limiting trial by jury) that “undermine basic principles of freedom, liberty and democracy”. “He has done things [...]
So Gordon Brown, in his prolonged effort to avoid a straight debate or interview on British television has taken himself off this time to Iraq on what has been called a "fact finding mission". I'll give you some facts Gordon. The country is up shit creek. Very few Iraqis wants us to be there and the situation after America's "Big Push" is no better than it was. And now for something you won't find. Weapons of Mass Destruction.
Because of my continued criticism of the poor performance of First Great Western – who run most of the train services in my area – I received the following from one of the company's Directors: Dear A...
Just before Easter I was walking along Oliver’s Battery Road South when I was surrounded by a group of teenage lads. “Why haven’t we got anywhere to play football?” they said. “You’re on the council or something, aren’t you?” We talked for a few minutes and next day I received a well argued e-mail from one of the boys making the case for extra football goals on the Recreation Ground. I 
20 years ago today Mrs Thatcher cruised to her third election victory (see BBC). It was an election very similar to 2001: an almost certain outcome with the main opposition party trying to recover from a thrashing the previous time and largely failing. But the turnout was rather higher! It was the first General Election in which I campaigned (1983 having drawn me into politics as a
A couple of months ago, we reported a Guardian story which claimed that the UK was moving against Mark Pieth, the chair of the anti-corruption watchdog of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). According to today’s edition of The Independent, senior employees of the OECD have accused the UK of leading a “dirty tricks” [...]
The Tories are very smug about webcameron, but which party leader recorded the first podcast? Step forward William Ewart Gladstone, who started the whole thing off back in 1888 (with a bit of help from Thomas Edison). Share This
Commenting on a study on child poverty by the Centre for Longitudinal Studies which shows a higher incidence in children from single parent families and ethnic minorities, Liberal Democrat Leader Ming Campbell said: “These figures should be a source of anxiety to all politicians. That the incidence of poverty should be so high particularly among ethnic [...]
At the weekend Stoke-on-Trent Central Liberal Democrats selected John Redfern as their Parliamentary candidate for the next General Election.
Giving evidence to the Iraq Commission, Liberal Democrat Leader Ming Campbell called on Gordon Brown to give a target date for withdrawal of British troops from Iraq when he becomes Prime Minister. He said that during his visit to Iraq Gordon Brown should make clear to the Iraqi Government that our continuing presence in the country [...]
As you’ll no doubt be aware, Dr John Reid has announced that he won’t be hanging around for the inevitable Cabinet table musical chairs that will follow Gordon Brown’s leap into Number 10 - this barely over a year after Dr Reid told the Daily Mirror that he would be working “18 hours a day” to sort [...]
From today’s Independent: Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat leader, has challenged the prime minister-in-waiting to match his rhetoric on reform by introducing a radical package of measures to allow Parliament to hold the Government to account. He also called for a constitutional convention, including ordinary people as well as politicians, to draw up a new [...]
The Tories have today called for an inquiry into the war in Iraq, with shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague arguing, according to the BBC, it should be along the lines of the wide-ranging inquiry into the Falklands War. Sound familiar? Yep. Here’s why: Tony Blair claims his Government has been open and straightforward on [...]
On from 21:00 to midnight, http://www.18doughtystreet.com/talk_tv/programme/442
Government minister Ruth Kelly said at the weekend that organisations should be providing quite so much translated material. The problem, as she sees it, is that people from minority ethnic communities are able to get so much information in translated form, they learn to cope without having to use, or learn, English. She believes that the need to learn English disappears if people, particularly new immigrants, realise that they can manage without it. And that makes it difficult for them to integrate and to take part fully in society. But it's not as simple as ...
{Al Yamamah: sign the Corruption is a Crime petition} Tonight (Monday) Panorama on BBC1 will be screening an investigation into the bribery scandal engulfing BAE, our government and the Al Yamamah arms deal with Saudi Arabia. There's advance information about the show on Panorama's website - where you'll also be able to catch the program if you miss it this evening: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/default.stm It's a massive scandal - especially with the UK's decision to drop the criminal investigation into the bribery allegations. But corruption is a crime, wherever and whoever carries it out - and for all Labour's talk ...
Yesterday I went over to Sandwell to lend a hand in the Charlemont with Grove Vale by-election and to help our candidate Martin Roebuck.
Panorama will tonight be showing an investigation into the BAE Al Yamamah bribery scandal. There's advance information about the show on Panorama's website Meanwhile visit the Liberal Democrat Corruption is a Crime site.
Ruth Kelly stirs up an interesting issue about translating official documents. For years now it has been the trend to assume that people are empowered by being able to participate and are enabled to participate by being informed of what's going on in a language they understand. read more
One of the Liberal Democrat websites I work on is Corruption is a Crime. It focuses on the Al Yamamah arms deal between BAE Systems and Saudi Arabia, which has been hitting the headlines this week. We run Google ads on the site to help raise funds for the party. These are contextual ads which analyse [...]
Tonight is the first Prestwich "Local Area Partnership," the new body set up to replace Area Boards. It's also my first one, since I wasn't elected in the days of the Area Boards. Lots on the agenda tonight, including funding, shaping the agendas of the meetings, and discussing who will be members and how they'll be selected. The meeting is public of course, and everyone is welcome to see the
According to the BBC, Lord Woolf is going to head an inquiry into BaE's dealings and allegations of bribery over defence contracts. However the real question is why the Government deliberately stopped a Serious Fraud Office inquiry into payments of hundreds of millions of quid to Saudi princes. Exactly what 'national security grounds' were so important we don't know - losing business, particularly when that business breaks lots of international treaties, isn't the same as national secutiry. This new inquiry might go some way to restore public confidence in BAE but not in the Government or Lord Goldsmith. ...
It's always gratifying when ones work is appreciated. Mary Riddell in yesterday's Observer used a CentreForum pamphlet by Alasdair Murray ('From boom to bust?') as her starting point ('But not everyone can grow old gracefully').The pamphlet argues that the demographic doom-mongers are wrong. There are great shifts in the UK's demographics, but the nation can adapt and cope (as indeed, it has done so in the past). Riddell accepts this and joins Alasdair in lauding the advances that have made the average 79 year old today as healthy as an average 65 year old in 1936. However, she remains ...
Tomorrow I'll be making a nostalgic last visit to the Lower Lea Valley. I have visited there on business regularly over the last decade or so. The sites that I have visited will soon be boarded off for preparations for the Olympics. Diamond Geezer gives a fascinating description of the events in the area, from a local person's point of view: For those of us who live in the Lower Lea Valley, the
In the words of Carl Sagan, this is all that we are (video behind the ‘read more’ link)
It isn’t only Liberal Review and the Lib Dems’ Corruption is a Crime website which have noted how quiet the Tories have been about BAE’s Al Yamamah deal, and the Labour Government’s decision to squash the Serious Fraud Office’s investigation of advance commissions cash bribes. Surely this should be the ideal opportunity for David Cameron [...]
The Lib Dems nationally have set up an awards scheme to honour the late Patsy Calton, and some of the women who work so hard for the party - whether as public representatives or in behind the scenes roles. Patsy was the MP for Cheadle - won on her third attempt. She unfortunately died shortly after the 2005 general election. When she was first elected in 2001 her majority was only 33 - so everyone who had helped could say they made the difference! Patsy had cancer. It had originally been treated but came back ...
Although I am not a Welsh-speaker, I find the decision of travel agents, Thomas Cook, to ban its staff from speaking Welsh at work to be both incomprehensible and unacceptable. The travel agents have told staff in their Bangor office - one of the strongest Welsh-speaking areas - that they must hold work-related conversations in English. On Radio Wales this morning the very valid point was made that customers have the power to change the direction of businesses in the use of Welsh. Although, this is no substitute for effective government action in protecting the rights of ...
Flight of the Hamsters is a very addictive game, as well as being rather silly.
Catching up on news from last week: Labour-run Oldham Council has decided to ban all staff (including those who sit at a desk all day) from wearing flip-flops in the name of safety, with the result that staff have said it is a case of “health and safety gone mad.” Even the Royal Society for the Prevention [...]
I went to the cinema on Friday night to see Taking Liberties. Sometimes reports about civil liberties, new laws, and test cases in the High Court, sound a world away from our safe and comfortable lives in Wiltshire. However this film, provides a timely reminder of the plight of one of my constituents: Giles Darby of [...]
Committed as this blog is to encouraging the intellectual wanderlust of the discerning liberal, we present to you today a simple test. It comprises one question only and it's purpose is for you to consider how you would define yourself among the embarras de richesse which is the welter of liberal traditions. We are what we inwardly digest; we are what read. So, imagine that on your enforced sojourn marooned on a desert island, you have been allowed the company of only one political tract. You would choose, naturally, a work which reflected your own political make-up, even though ...
The former Conservative Assembly Member Glyn Davies has used his blog to announce that he will be seeking his party's nomination to challenge incumbent Welsh Liberal Democrat MP, Lembit Őpik in Montgomeryshire at the next General Election. Since he lost his seat, Glyn has had a bit of an easy ride in the media and on the blogosphere. There is no doubt that Lembit has upset many influential people in finishing his relationship with Sian Lloyd and taking up with a cheeky girl. Friends of Sian have combined with our political enemies to wish Lembit ill ...
Despite the revolution instigated by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s, governments in the UK still quite rightly believe that it is their role to intervene in the economy whenever possible, to try to kick-start growth and create jobs. Such activity inevitably puts pressure on government to deliver. Two reports in the news today highlight the dangers and risks of such an approach. Firstly, in the Western Mail a leaked report suggests that the former Conservative-controlled Welsh Office provided misleading figures to the European Commission in order to ensure that massive state backing for the ill-fated LG project at Newport ...
Over at Westminster Wisdom.
The BBC reports: Foreign armed police may be needed for the 2012 London Olympics because there are not enough British officers trained to use firearms.Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair told a Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) meeting it may be too expensive to train British policemen.
Tonight I caught up with this week's installment of the BBC series Seven Ages of Rock. Regular readers of this blog will know some of some of my musical tastes over decades of going to gigs and working as a sound engineer - many have been covered over the last few weeks of the series. This week was Heavy Metal. In the period from 1976 to the early 80s I saw some of the hugest metal bands of the | < | June 2007 | > | ||||
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