Back in February I posted about my desire, no craving, to try some Guinness Marmite. As I said it was hard to get. But a couple of weeks ago I managed to "score" on the addicts market that is ebay and now proudly own no less than a 1kg of it in 4 x 250g jars! My verdict, both eating by itself and in a taste off with classic Marmite. Less salty - slightly in the direction of Vegemite. Slightly
I see my local MP Derek Conway has been hitting the press with his comments about Dave. A member of the David Davis camp, the Old Bexley & Sidcup MP has said their are "generational difficulties" with Dave. That he should "stop listening to marketing men" and no have him as a "different brand to the Conservative Party" and that lessons needed to be learnt from recent setbacks like the party's
Over a long, leisurely lunch at the home of the Chair of Holborn and St. Pancras LibDems, David Simmons — to thank all those who helped in the recent successful council by-election campaign in Haverstock ward, and to raise money for the next contest, wherever that might be — I reflected on how on earth we would manage without the goodwill and energy of volunteers. This is true of all the political parties in Britain, which rely on countless thousands of unpaid hours by members and helpers, delivering leaflets, organising events, telling at elections and all the other mundane tasks ...
The world is a bright, shiny place when you're a happy Returning Officer. The urge to be kind to candidates is overwhelming, you are at peace with your Selection Committee, and all is perfect in a perfect world. It's the sort of happiness that is catching, in that I've taken to being nice to accountants, I smile at people for no adequately explained reason, and the weight is falling off - nine
A warm Liberal England welcome to this week’s collection of all that is best in the British blogosphere. The Story of the Week It is not the death of Shambo, which inspired an Audenesque effort on jewcy.com. It is not the release of the last Harry Potter book, despite a pungent satire from The Daily Mash. It is not Oscar the cat who can predict death, of whom Norfolk Blogger makes satirical use. It is not even the admirable campaign by Dan Hardie to have Iraqi interpreters who have helped our forces to be given asylum in Britain. Do read ...
When I became Deputy Lord Mayor, my principal motivation was the privileged opportunity I knew it would give me to glimpse aspects of community life in Oxford and the rest of the county of which otherwise I’d be ignorant. One such event took place this afternoon, when I attended the annual blessing service at the Oxfordshire animal sanctuary in Stadhampton. I’m scarcely a zoophile, but it would
The 2nd half of this video is the first I have made on my new camera. The colour is sharper and I am able to get much closer shots. The site is former agricultural land between the village of Sunniside where I live and Streetgate, the next village along the road. It was deep ploughed by the Woodland Trust in December to kill the weeds. The video opens with shots I filmed in December. The second
I’m currently sitting in an internet café in the heart of Florence (better known as Firenze to Harry Potter fans). I’ve been in Tuscany for just under a week now, and in Florence itself since Friday, so I’m starting to get the feel of the place. Sadly, the same cannot be said for my Italian keyboards! This is my first time in Italy. I spent the first couple of days desperately trying to acclimatise - I think I’m there now. Economically, it is a funny mix of seeming 10 years behind the UK, and being somehow ahead of us. A ...
I have just got round to finishing my viewing of "Bernard Manning - From Beyond the Grave". A bit late, I know. This was Manning's own televisual obituary - presented by him. I started with a reasonable view of Manning based on testimonies from the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson. I ended with a poor view of the man. Yes, he worked a lot for and gave a lot to charity, we were told. Yes, it seemed he
Charlotte watches as the Yorkshire Declaration of Integrity is read next to the statue of local poet Ammon Wrigley of Delph. Everbody sings Pratty Flowers, the Holmfirth Anthem Around 300 people attended Holmfirth Anthem1. Abroad for pleasure as I was a-walking On one summer's evening clear (repeat 1st 2 lines) There I beheld a most beautiful damsel Lamenting for her shepherd swain 2. The fairest evening that e'er I beheld thee Evermore with the lad I adore Wilt thou go fight the French and Spaniards Wilt thou leave me thus my dear?3. No more to yon green banks will I ... 
Duncan Borrowman departed from Lib Dem HQ last Friday after almost a decade. As he left, Lib Dem Voice asked him to look both ways, backward and forward. I joined the Lib Dem campaigns department in February 1998, having previously been the organiser in Orpington. I was part-time to begin with, as was Neil Fawcett, who [...]
Posted by Chris: Glynis and I, along with Charlotte (7) and Daniel (3), attended the Saddleworth White Rose Society's Yorkshire Day Celebrations at the Ammon Wrigley stature in the gardens of Saddleworth Museum at Underhill. They always hold their Yorkshire Day reading of the Yorkshire Declaration of Integrity on the Sunday before Yorkshire Day and always get a good crowd as a result (se pic). I was introduced as the Chairman of Yorkshire Ridings Society, along with the Chairman of Saddleworth Parish Council and a lady from the Friends of Real Lancashire. We each said a few words. As the ...
Legally popping a bottle of vegetable oil requires that a duty of 27p is paid. However, the HMRC recently agreed a de-minimis limit which basically means that people who use under 2,500 litres of vegetable oil a year don't have to pay the duty. That means that people who pop a bottle of rape seed oil in their [diesel] tank bought in the supermarket are no longer breaking the law. Even if you
This time 11 months ago I was sat in a hotel in Twenty Nine Palms, California, when I logged onto my blog and discovered that Iain Dale had decided that I was the 58th best Lib Dem blogger in the country. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. But, the good (or horrific) news, is that he is doing it again this year, and is asking blog readers the world over to nominate their top political blogs.
Readers may recall that my video camera died a death towards the end of the Sedgefield by-election. Trapped in it was the video shot earlier that day of the Charles Kennedy visit to Newton Aycliffe. Well, as of yesterday, we now have a new camera and I've been able to rescue the video. So here it is, if a little late!
With yet another drugs scandal hitting the world of cycling and Barry Bonds is set to break the all-time home run record performance enhancing drugs in sports is back on the agenda. Being very liberal on drugs issues I have no problem with drugs in sport. If a player wishes to take them he may as [...]
I went to see the Simpsons' movie last night. It was remarkably good fun. One line in it sounded familiar for some reason. It was almost identical to something I had been told by a newly appointed Welsh Assembly Minister. I bumped into the Minister in question at a presentation on an issue that affects both my region and his constituency. I congratulated him on his appointment and asked whether he had become bogged down in briefing papers yet. He told me that he had not. In fact he said that he avoids reading large documents whenever possible, expecting his ...
Following their poor showing in the recent parliamentary by-elections, falling opinion poll ratings and misjudgement over the floods crisis, it's not a good Sunday for the Conservative Leader, Dave "H...
At the end of last week I was visited twice at home, by two separate groups of people, worried about a neighbour who's had, and is still having, a horrific experirence. Julie, who lives just down the road from me, was on holiday in Tunisia. She hired a quad bike (quite commonly available in that resort) but came off it badly leaving her in hospital with a damaged pancreas. She is still very ill and couldn't come back home when she was due. Bad enough you'd think. But worse when it turned out that her holiday insurance company say she ...
Duncan Borrowman has some more 'inside' views from the Lib Dem campaign here. I have to say I think he's right - I had the impression we were doing better in Southall as well, and was surprised to hear we won the Torier Ealing end of the seat. Interestingly, much of the Conservatives' campaigning capacity seems to have come from Conservative Future. I'm sure their claims are somewhat overhyped, but they do seem to have done much of the donkey-work behind the Conservative campaign. I wonder though if people who worked their guts out while being lied to about the ...
While on my way to a gay wedding yesterday, I decided to dip my toe into the unnatural demi-monde of Middle Britain and read the Daily Mail. "We read it so you don't have to!" Here are some of the things I learnt... About 1 in 50 Britons who drives abroad breaks a traffic law. Since, according to the same survey, most Briton's don't bother to find out about the rules of the road overseas, I'm surprised it's not higher. In particular, British drivers (Daily Mail readers?) assume that drink-driving is perfectly legal in France. Obviously, from the tone of ...
Up on my website now is a piece I wrote a little while back for Asian Times about tackling terrorism: Any religion - or perversion of religion - that claims a right to kill people because they find their behaviour offensive is where my tolerance stops. And it is not as if those who declaim against the supposed decadence of Western society are particularly pure or clean themselves. A quick quiz question: who was it who superintended the widespread growing of illegal drugs for Western consumption and made profits out of it? Answer – Osama bin Laden and the Taliban. ...
I know it is not fashionable for opposition politicians to jump to the defence of Government Ministers, but I feel that I have to make an exception for Plaid Cymru's Elin Jones. Elin is currently on four weeks holiday in New Zealand, an event that was no doubt planned and booked well before she was made Rural Affairs Minister in the Welsh Assembly Government. Despite this there are siren voices in the Wales on Sunday who believe that she should not have gone. Instead, they argue, she should have stayed behind to personally oversee the destruction of Shambo the bullock, ...
According to the Independent earlier this week (I have only just had a chance to read it) the British Airports Authority has begun moves to allow police to arrest members of 15 environment groups to prevent demonstrations against airport expansion. The proposed ban is aimed at the umbrella organisation AirportWatch which contains such groups as the RSPB, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and the National Trust, at first glance all fairly 'sfae organisations' or are they. When I worked at the RSPB I was responsible for organising the mass lobby of Parliament against the creation of the Cliffe Airport - ...
Graham Brady, the Tory MP who left the front bench of the Conservative Party because of his opposition to David Cameron's policy on Grammar schools has spoken out about the Conservative Party's lack of appeal outside of the south of England. Graham Brady says to the BBC, "But (the party) has not been making the same impact further away from London - in the north, in the Midlands, in places which really are an absolutely key electoral battlefield if we're going to win a general election." "I think some of it is about the issues that David Cameron has chosen ...
Martin Ivens accompanied David Cameron on a trip through the floods of his Witney constituency. Ivens' account in The Sunday Times includes this gem: As we wade on Cameron sees a £60,000 BMW caught in the rising waters and instantly wants to offer help. “Go on, let’s do something useful. Let’s help tow that car,” he says decisively.
On the Sunday papers review on BBC News 24 last night there was much talk of the problems within the Tory party, which Iain Dale sought to play day. However, when the presenter Brian Hanrahan said words to the effect that people keep saying "David David is so good, he'd make a great leader", Iain Dale replied "Isn't it good that was have someone in the Tory Party who is that good serving in the shadow cabinet. It's a shame we don't have a few more that good !" I heard it as a dig at the quality of the ...
One effect of the secrecy of the family courts is that it has prevented the voice of children being held in care being heard. Generally action has only been taken about maltreatment of children in care when they hit adulthood. Clayton v Clayton does have the effect of removing any block on children that are in care talking about the difficulties they face.
Things aren’t getting better: Anxious Tories turn heat on Cameron PRESSURE is growing on David Cameron to embark on a shake-up at his party headquarters amid plunging opinion poll ratings … “Nothing is going right at the moment and it is difficult to see a way out of it,” said one insider. Sunday Times As Brown soars in the [...]
As Gordon Brown meets Bush for the first time as PM, Andrew Rawnsley, in the Observer contemplates the problem for him to try and find a new 'special relationship' that is "neither shoulder-to-shoulder nor cold shoulder" Of course, with approval numbers almost the worst for any president ever, and the battle to replace him in full swing, Bush ought to be a lame duck president, but he still has 541 days left in office - (I know I've got a Firefox plug-in that is counting down the days for me.) 541 days is almost exactly 18 months... the same time ... 
Earlier this week, the Bush admin was coming under some pressure because the Senate Judiciary Committee was suggesting Bush's Attorney General was bordering on committing perjury, and two Whitehouse aides were cited for Contempt of Congress, and Karl Rove was threatened with a subpoena. (I'm assuming that doesn't qualify as a 'normal' week) These stories were unsurprisingly dominating the news, and then the news leaked out of a Transportation Safety Agency (TSA) document warning of "a surge in recent suspicious incidents" involving items found in airline passengers' luggage" and suggesting that such incidents may be examples of terrorist 'dry-runs' at ... | < | July 2007 | > | ||||
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