Baroness Sarah Ludford, MEP, and I this afternoon joined Councillor Lucy Watt, fellow Islington party member Farhana Hoque, DELGA Chair Jen Yockney and many thousands of others on the London Pride march. Even if the army had decreed that LGBT soldiers could not march in uniform, the navy and airforce were there, as well as police, and a cavalcade of [...]
As the reconstruction of my blogsite continues some will have noticed a couple of new buttons recently. The first relates to Amnesty International's "Irrepressible" campaign which has a very interesting narrative: "Be irrepressible Chat rooms monitored. Blogs deleted. Websites blocked. Search engines restricted. People imprisoned for simply posting and sharing information. The Internet is a new frontier in the struggle for human rights. Governments – with the help of some of the biggest IT companies in the world – are cracking down on freedom of expression …". Freedom of expression is a fundamental human right. ...
Amnesty International have appealed for help in securing the release of Zmitser Dashkevich, aged 25, a leader of opposition youth movement "Young Front". He is serving an 18 month prison sentence "for organising and participating in an activity of an unregistered non-governmental organisation”. "Amnesty International considers Zmitser Dashkevich to be a prisoner of conscience, imprisoned solely for the peaceful exercise of his rights to freedom of assembly, association and expression, and is calling for his immediate and unconditional release". There is further information and how you can help here . Amnesty is asking that messages ...
Big chance for Brown to get it right for Wales – Welsh Lib Dems Today, as Gordon Brown takes up his new position as Prime Minister, the Welsh Lib Dems highlighted 5 key areas that he must make priorities for Wales: · A Fairer Society · A Stronger Assembly · A more Affordable Wales · Sustainable Communities · A Green Economy Lembit Opik, Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader and MP for Montgomeryshire, said: “For 10 years, Gordon Brown has been the wingman to Tony Blair. He knows more than anybody what needs to be done because he′s ...
Stumbling and Mumbling has a thought-provoking post on the paradoxes of state-educated and privately educated politicians: Why is Brown so often seen as out of touch with ordinary people whilst Cameron and Blair (who was educated at Fettes where fees are £22,326 a year, equal to median annual earnings ... ) are regarded as in touch?
... it appears that it has left our terrorists are too stupid to be able to make their bombs explode.
In view of the likely political fallout, it is worth emphasising that the London bombs did not fail because of identity cards or extra police powers or CCTV cameras. They failed because of ordinary people going about their business and keeping their eyes open.
FIRST ACTIVIST: [Sighs.] SECOND ACTIVIST: What's the matter, Tarquin? FIRST ACTIVIST: I wish I knew where the Liberal Democrat headquarters were in Ealing Southall and how to get there. SECOND ACTIVIST: Sigh no longer: it's here. FIRST ACTIVIST: Where? SECOND ACTIVIST: Here. You just click with your mouse. FIRST ACTIVIST: How do I click with my mouse? We're on stage. SECOND ACTIVIST: This doesn't really work as a play, does it?
Hello and welcome to Ealing Conservative Councillor Phil Taylor, who has blogged thus about the Tory candidate for the Ealing Southall Parliamentary by-election: He is clearly a controversial and high risk choice Why is Tony Lit considered by his own side to be “controversial and high risk”? Well here’s a taster: Tony Lit’s selection led to an outbreak [...] 
This is worth watching. The newscaster on MSNBC refuses to read the lead story on Paris Hilton and tries to burn the script on air before ripping it up and then shredding a second copy given to her. It looks a bit staged to me. If it is real you can understand it. The "second" story which had been demoted in favour of Hilton was the news that leading Republican Senator Richard Lugar said he
Turkey is warning of plans to invade northern Iraq. This is a worrying escalation of international military action. Goodness knows what impact it will have on Turkey's application to join the EU. An EU member country, the United Kingdom, has already invaded Iraq, with highly questionable justification. So criticism of the Turkish stance would seem rather hypocritical, particularly if it comes
Ealing Southall is the first by-election I've been to where the Lib Dem office is larger than the Tardis. Really, it has to be seen to be believed. And it's all full of leaflets, and you need to come and help deliver them right away. There was a decent amount of help - I think more than we had at the same stage in Bromley - but in Ealing there's less time to do more; in Bromley the Conservatives were doing their best to hand us the election... No sign of Labour yet, though there were some Conservative ...
The multi-storey car park in Gateshead made famous after it was used as a location in the 1972 Michael Cain "Get Carter" film classic is to be demolished. This is the video I produced for constituents about the demolition plan.
Don Campbell, Consigliore Kirkwood, Capo Davey and I sit in conference. Capo Davey is speaking. "So let me get this straight, last week we were worried that some of our 'retired' button-men in the old hoods home were talking to Don Brown, and we made it clear to them that any step in that direction would result in the severest of penalties?" Signor Kirkwood begin to stare up at the ceiling. "Now, despite that warning we find two of the old lags, Neuberger and Lester are signed up to his 'panel of consigliores', and "whacker" Williams is ... 
A couple of years ago I quoted a passage from an article by Frank Furedi. It ran: In 1997, I completed my book The Culture of Fear. Most of the comments my copy editor made about the manuscript were routine questions about grammar, incoherent formulations and inconsistencies. But one of the comments stood out as an explicit challenge to the authenticity of the text. The contentious passage informed the reader of a relatively new development - the arrival of parents on campus. To illustrate the changing character of university life, I pointed to what was then a relatively novel ...
From the Shropshire Star: Shropshire Wildlife Trust has urged the Government to stop building on flood plains in a bid to stop future river misery. The Trust says the current crisis stems from years of building on flood plains, and over-reliance on man-made flood defences and the removal of wetlands which can act as natural sponges, soaking up water and slowing it down in times of flooding.
Ealing Conservative councillor Phil Taylor admits he has never met Tony Lit, the Conservative candidate at the forthcoming Ealing Southall by-election. He also describes the candidate as "controversial and high risk". Hat-tip to Tom Watson .
In essence that is what the linked article says about the "spine". There is a serious problem allowing this government access to any information. It then get passed to all sorts of bureaucratic busybodies who use it to harrass people. If you admit to your doctor, for example, that you drink too much (as I do) expect the system to put pressure on you to stop drinking. "its all in your best
Balderdash and Piffle, BBC2's word origins programme is going from strength to strength. It never ceases to amaze me how we use phrases without even thinking for a second what they mean or how they originate. Last night's edition about people's names, which have become well-used terms, was fascinating. Gordon Bennett. He was a famous media magnate, sportsman, and playboy in the early 1900s.
The Liberal Democrat HQ in Ealing Southall is in the same business park as Sunrise Radio, the business of Tory candidate Tony Lit and his father. Tony's dad is worth over £2 billion, yet I was quite to suprised to see how little of that he has invested in ensuring his flagship station doesn't look like it's about to fall down. Above is the remains of the logo, below the business park sign directly next to the building. Nice... is this a businessman you'd trust to vote on the future of social housing?
When the issue of Shirley Williams' offered advisory role on nuclear proliferation came up, Menzies Campbell issued this statement: There will be no Liberal Democrats in Brown’s Government. I have no objection to and indeed welcome an initiative which results in Liberal Democrats acting in an independent advisory capacity or participating in an independent commission or investigations which make
"An established government has an infinite advantage, by that very circumstance of its being established; the bulk of mankind being governed by authority, not reason, and never attributing authority to any thing that has not the recommendation of antiquity." So wrote David Hume, one Scot few would begrudge a place in a United Kingdom government. Unfortunately that was 1754. But, whilst there's been much talk of "constitutional reform" playing a big part in Gordon Brown's early premiership, and all the main parties have been lining up in recent days and weeks with encouragement ...
After another tiring week - busy at work, not least because of the changes in government, governors and council meetings -a tiring 'weekend away' so far. A pleasant enough train journey to Cornwall on Friday afternoon, slightly spoiled by having work to do on the way. Then a little bit of campaigning with Steve before working on his hustings speech until late at night. Steve is my former Fortis Green ward colleague from his few years in London before going home to Cornwall. He is hoping to be selected as the Lib Dem Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for ...
To understand the last few days' events at Westminster, you need to remember just one thing - the biggest threat to Gordon Brown at the next General Election is that the British people will decide it is "time for a change" and therefore vote Tory. His central strategy therefore is to make it look as though his new government represents 'change'. That is why every cabinet minister bar (bizarrely) the Defence Secretary has been changed. That is why jobs and advisory posts were offered to Lib Dems, Tories, and 'experts' of all sorts. That ...
Janet and I were just about to leave the house this morning to go down to town when the phone rang. It was Cllr. Jill Hood to tell me that vandals had overturned the flower boxes on the railings in Stafford Road near Walton island. She was willing to put the soil and flowers back in and I offered our help. When we arrived we were greeted by a really sorry sight. Three of the boxes had been
Earlier this week I enjoyed an excellent game of Twenty20 cricket at the Rose Bowl near Southampton. It was great to see newcomer Adam Voges score a brilliant 66 not out. Also, Hampshire's Chris Tremlett clean bowled (one of the stumps flew out of the ground) Murray Goodwin for a duck in the first over. But whereas Hampshire had an average of seven runs an over, Sussex had a ten run average from
The link is to a decision of the Court of Appeal where parents apply to stop an adoption because their circumstances have changed. In essence it makes the point that first the court has to decide whether or not the circumstances have changed. At that point no decision should be taken as to the welfare of the child. Once the decision as to circumstances has been made then welfare should be
Two British drivers have lost a test case at the European court of human rights in Strasbourg. Their case was supported by Liberty: Liberty's legal director James Welch said vehicle owners had two choices when presented with a speeding notice - to name the driver, or to refuse to provide information - both of which carried similar penalties.
After another bad poll in today’s guardian I went sadly to look for solace. Notably I did find some; in effect it said we as Lib Dems must take polls with a pinch of salt. Any glance over the election results over previous years have told us that we are becoming ever more effective in translating limited amounts of the popular vote into seats. The UK polling report blog also makes for a very interesting read. All in all we might take from it that the polls are poor in measuring local work and variables, a area ...
I joined Facebook a few weeks ago, but didn't actually do anything about it. I then recently set up a group for this blog (the link is in the sidebar) and I stated looking up people I know. Then, upon checking my contacts I noticed that I sent out a friends request to someone who wasn't the correct person (same name, wrong face) and bizarrely she responded by claiming to be the person who I thought she was, even though she was someone else (Confused ?). What I am trying to say is how many people just click ...
The link is to a cut in the NHS capital budget. Devolution to Scotland and Wales may mean that the devolved assemblies need to work out where to apply capital budget cuts, but the Barnett Formula (and he is still around I saw him about a week ago) implies that the same reduction should be applied to them. In any event cutting the budget by a third quite clearly qualifies to be called a "slash".
With Gordon Brown's Labour Party having a better time in the polls and some of the gloss now coming off "Dave" and the whole Cameron project in the Conservative party, the Cornerstone Group of more right wing Tory MP's is now pushing for a new more right wing agenda for the Conservative Party. In my opinion, they are half right and half wrong (I know, typical Lib Dem) in that they are right that David Cameron's vision is not a Conservative one. It lacks clarity and relies to much on the whole "heir to Blair" fixation that some ...
A few months ago I went to see the film Sunshine. The reviews were excellent, so much that I wonder whether I saw a different film. Nigel Andrews from the FT: "Even watching in a preview theatre, one spends one's time being walloped by light - flash-floods of molten gold, tidal waves of searing silver - and cowering rapturously at the boom-channel crashes and vibrations." I thought it looked more like a disco. Whilst watching it I found it incredibly irritating, boring and pure nonsense. In retrospect, I can't help finding it very funny, despite the author's real intentions. ...
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Peter Hain, MP for Neath and Secretary of State for Wales, has been relieved of the Northern Ireland brief, and been promoted to be Minister of Work and Pensions. He has criticised us for wanting to reform the wasteful New Deal programme. However, he now finds himself in charge of the run-down of local Job Centres, part of the Treasury's desperate scramble to fill the so-called "black hole" in government finances. Will he attempt to reverse this? Incidentally, an unkind Scottish colleague suggested that Quentin Davies (about whom Guido Fawkes is scathing) should become the Welsh Secretary in view ...
Last week the party published the preliminary agenda for Autumn Conference in Brighton. A major policy paper will set out proposals for tackling poverty and reducing inequality – an issue that Lib Dem leader Ming Campbell personally has identified as something he wants the party to tackle as a priority. There’ll be a new paper [...]
There is just something about the name Ministry of Justice that makes me think of Judge Dredd. So here his is, Jack Straw, Administer of Justice.
Norman lamb, Lib Dem health Spokesman and North Norfolk MP has questioned why in Norfolk local health chiefs are slashing the "Quit Smoking" budget from £664,000 in 2006/07 to £450,000 . It appears that the local health authority are using the smoking ban, which comes in to force tomorrow, as an excuse to cut budgets. In reality, this is the time when more people will need support in order to give up smoking, but Norfolk health chiefs seem oblivious to this. Like the cottage hospital bed closures in Norfolk, local health chiefs seem more concerned about short term financial savings ...
I don’t usually bother listening to the Radio Four Saturday Play (I’m normally too hungover! Or simply asleep!) but today’s is Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia, which is my favourite play. When it opened in 1993, Hannah Jarvis was played by Felicity Kendall – who was at the time Stoppard’s girlfriend, and was apparently the inspiration for the character. If you’ve never seen or read the play, I would definitely advise tuning in. If you have seen it, and we're picking sides - I think I’m with chaos. On an unrelated popular culture note, I found a nice article on ...
Despite government assurances that the early release of prisoners would only involve prisoners convicted of minor crimes being let out early, the Eastern Daily Press reports that a number of violent prisoners will be amongst those being released in East Anglia. Tough on crime, tough on the .....yeah, yeah !
"Dave" seems to be having more troubles over his decision to parachute in Tony Lit as the candidate for the Ealing Southall campaign. It seems Mr Lit Jnr (Mr Lit Snr was an Independent candidate in Ealing Southall) coughed up his Tory membership fee at the last minute to become candidate. It also seems that Mr Lit doesn't live in Ealing Borough, despite this reply from Tory high command to
Item 1: I was browsing a bookstall in Rayleigh on Thursday, and saw a couple of young guys - maybe 19 or 20 - glancing at a copy of "Living The Dream: My Story", by Big Brother celebrity Chantelle. "But you haven't DONE anything yet!", one of them groaned, as he looked at her picture. As they walked away I felt slightly encouraged about the younger generation. Item 2 : The Guardian reports
There are occasions when right and wrong are easy to define: black and white. Smoking is bad, isn’t it? Well yes, it is - and I don’t recommend it to anyone - but we need to be careful. Just because smoking is bad, it doesn’t necessarily follow that smokers are bad. Current figures suggest that [...]
As I've said below (and by the way, thank you for all the messages of support following my last post) I've been targetted by a silent caller. Thankfully this has now stopped. There is now a bar on the phone line so that withheld numbers can't get through. However I've had to really battle with Virgin Media, whose phone system I use, to get anything done. When I first rang the malicious calls bureau at Virgin Media all they were interested in doing was selling me new products. Apparently they think that silent calls are a good way to ...
Here's an edited report from Der Spiegel: In January of this year, the President - a military officer who staged a successful putsch in 1994 - summoned a number of his acolytes together with foreign diplomats and revealed to them that he had made an extraordinary discovery. He announced that, in addition to asthma, he was now capable of healing Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). On
Back in 2005 Barnet Council came up with a plan to relocate Foulds School down to the bottom of Byng Road onto Green belt land which currently houses an environmental centre. Apart from the greenbelt issue there was already another school (Christchurch) down there. A relocated Foulds would have caused utter chaos as two sets of parent attempted to deliver their children to the same school gates. Our local Conservative councillors supported this plan and one of them (before she became a councillor) was pictured on the cover of their in-touch leaflet extolling the virtues of the plan. ...
Yes, yes, I know he's shaking the baby's hand (psst - Dave - you're traditionally supposed to kiss them). But what does this look like? The still doesn't even do it justice - go here and start watching at about 2:15... Doesn't anyone check this stuff before it goes out?
I suppose that we must all resign ourselves to the fact that most of the political coverage in Wales over the next week will be about the Labour-Plaid coalition deal. Both parties are due to hold their conferences to ratify the deal next weekend after which the emphasis will shift to the governance of Wales itself and the deliverability of the One Wales document. In the meantime dissenting voices continue to make themselves heard. What is most unexpected however is this piece in the Western Mail in which Hayzell David, an activist in Plaid's women's section, advocates a merger ...
This morning I stumbled on the website for New Scotland, which is a town of less than 10,000 people in New York State, quite near the state capital of Albany. The website has a well-written first page that is more inspiring than bureaucratic: Welcome Town of New Scotland The Jewel of Albany County, New York 2029 New Scotland Road, Slingerlands, NY 12159 Years ago, you might have referred to
I hate getting the last train out to London to Newcastle but I had little choice today, or rather yesterday. The journey starts at 10pm and is then interrupted at York where we all have to transfer to another train. I am currently on the York at Newcastle leg of the journey. Due in to Newcastle about 2am. I have just purchased a cup of tea from the trolley. It counts as one of the worst I have | < | June 2007 | > | ||||
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