After the SOAS fair, I headed along Oxford Street to catch up with Richard & friends for a drink, and passed this demo outside the Playboy store. The ‘Bin the bunny’ campaign wants to highlight the links between Playboy, who are now marketing T-shirts to teenage girls, and the exploitation of young women by the [...] 
It is traditional at this time of year that I should have a moan about the way that Halloween is replacing Bonfire Night. Creeping Americanisation and all that. But an article in the Guardian this morning cast a new light on this phenomenon. Sarah Churchwell writes: There is a great deal of resentment toward "American cultural imports", the myriad ways in which we are contaminating your demi-paradise with our corrupt practices. I hate to break it to you, but in the case of Halloween, you are the ones bastardising our culture. If your version is a violent, threatening and ugly ...
Nick Clegg repeated his claim yesterday that under Ming the party was too inward-looking. To quote Elspeth Campbell: “I don’t know if you’re being helpful or not.” I’ve already rebutted that argument and don’t intend to repeat myself. But I’m not blind to the fact is that by repeating this nonsense argument, Clegg is subtly contrasting himself with Chris Huhne and his stance on Trident. The subtext is that he’s the candidate that will concentrate on the issues that matter to the public, while Huhne would have the party revisiting old policies in an act of ideological purity. And as ...
Hot on the heels of a few moans (by me not least, here ) that Chris Huhne needs to produce something like Nick Clegg's comprehensive "Vision for Britain" document so we can all pick it apart and say how good it is, supporters will have received news that Chris will "launch his manifesto with a keynote speech" on Wednesday at noon. Well...what is a person to do to celebrate the close of nominations when he's already handed his in days ago?
Anyone would think it might be a one off Labour inviting a ruler who denies basic freedoms to his citizens that we take for granted in the UK over for a state visit. But no, they'd be wrong. Back in June 1978, the then Labour government invited Nicolai and Elena Ceausescu, the Communist leader of Romania and his wife, for a state visit including a full Royal state reception. Roy Hattersley wrote some years later about how President Ceausescu "paid a visit to the duty free shop where he bought large quantities of rubbish which he charged to Her Britannic ... 
From the BBC: Britain's first Muslim minister, Shahid Malik, says he is "deeply disappointed" that he was detained by airport security officials in America.The international development minister was stopped and searched at Washington DC's Dulles airport after a series of meetings on tackling terrorism.Mr Malik, MP for Dewsbury, West Yorks, had his hand luggage checked for explosives when returning to Heathrow.He said the same thing happened to him at JFK airport in New York last year.
help! The Deputy Mayor's blog entry for 26th October, http://www.readmyday.co.uk/johnfletcher, about Taste of Africa, that was here earlier has disappeared fo some reason. He had put a lot of time into the photos and quite a lot of links so if anyone could advise how to retrieve, please e-mail one of us. Many thanks in advance
An interesting article appears out of the blue: Last night the Department of Finance and Personnel reiterated the answer they gave to Mr O’Loan when he asked what consideration the minister (Peter Robinson] was giving to the rating of agricultural land. It said: “Under the current rating system agricultural land is not valued nor rated and there are no plans to do so. “However as you are aware the current review of the new domestic rating system that was introduced by direct rule ministers in April 2007 is examining a wide range of options for change in the shorter and ...
Even I appreciate that the exact contents of a Council group meeting are best left till 30 years have passed rather than an instant assessment on a blog. Which given tonight is probably for the best. I did dwell on the diary pressures of a Councillor tonight and the differing roles I have. By attending the Group meeting I had to miss the launch of the Leeds Left Bank project at the former St Margaret's Church building in Headingley. This would have almost certainly been a better use of my time and at several points I wished I had gone. ...
… saying one thing in one place and another somewhere else, it might be worth referring to this: “When people describe the nature of a place they are often describing the nature of its people and their behaviour as well as how it looks and feels. This gives us a real opportunity to develop a series [...]
I've just got back home from Nick Clegg's Welsh campaign launch in Swansea, and in between being impressed by his pronunciation of Cymru Fydd, I've really been reminded why I'm voting for Nick. To explain, I first met Nick in December 2005 at a proto-Pizza And Politics event organised by Sheffield University Lib Dems. He'd drawn quite a crowd, with Brummies and Londoners joining those of us
Leeds are now sixth in the table after just thirteen games of the season and a mere four points off the top spot. Next weeks away trip to Carlisle should be interesting given the current state of the League Table although if Forest beat Oldham we could be back in seventh by then. Today's Guardian had a great piece on Saturdays 4-2 demolition of Millwall. The old adage of the home crowd being a 12th man does not do justice to Leeds United's vehement support - 13th, 14th and 15th men should be added to that cliche. This was Leeds' ...
I warmly welcome Chris Huhnes intervention over Trident for three reasons and intend to come to his defence over the charge of oppertunism and trying to dictate party policy. Firstly I agree with him. I'm not a Unilaterialist per se seeing the logic of keep a small number of war heads while many other countries do. However Trident is in my view a collosially expensive, unusable piece of Junk that owes more to post imperial fantasies of former glories than 21st Centuary needs. The current policy is a hopeless fudge which just brings the party into disrepute. Secondly he is ...
The Wright Stuff would like Lib Dems to go out of their way to go to a recording of their crappy programme, and who can resist this offer posted to the ‘Nick Clegg for leader’ Facebook group? “Chris Oaten MP - friend and colleague of Nick Clegg - will be appearing on The Wright Stuff on channel Five this Wednesday.” That would be Mark. Mark Oaten MP.
Yet again today a disabled resident rang with a plea for help in keeping dedicated parking spaces available and maintained on local car parks. This particular one was at Sunningdale Drive shops, but in the past the same complaints have been made about Orchard Estate and Yarm High Street. In the latter the disabled bays can be enforced but on privately owned shopping parades we're up against a
Congratulations to Vince Cable for his refusal to attend any of the ceremonial events associated with the state visit of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. I was also struck by the emptiness of the Conservative response: Conservative shadow defence secretary Liam Fox warned that Mr Cable's move would be seen as "juvenile gesture politics" and risked insulting one of Britain's main allies in the Gulf.This could have come from a most starry-eyed Blairite junior minister at the time of the invasion of Iraq. Fox has nothing new to say and nothing to add because he agrees with current government policy. ...
Tim Hames is not normally kind to the Liberal Democrats. So it was with some surprise that he devoted today’s op ed piece in The Times to an article explaining why the Liberal Democrats matter. Criticising his colleagues (“the cynical puditocracy”) for not taking them seriously, Hames argues that The Liberal Party and its successors have held firm to similar principles for about 150 years. Their credo includes a staunch belief in individual liberty, a confidence in the capacity of man to improve the chances of all in society, a determination that political individuals and institutions should be constrained by ...
The websites of the two Lib Dem leadership candidates have settled down to what looks to be their "final design" and I thought now might be the time to deconstruct them to see what they tell us about the pair... and possibly to lightly rip the piss out of them too. Chris Huhne's Chris2Win.org The first thing that strikes me: It's just so green. See? And I get that he is trying to convey the
Thanks to Stephen Tall at Lib Dem Voice, who’s saved me the trouble of doing it by rounding up the reactions of Liberal Democrat bloggers to Chris’s announcement that he opposes replacing Trident.
Thank you Will Howell for pointing this out. I make it 303 English Labour MPs versus 207 Tory ones, Liberal Democrat 52 and others 3. That gives Labour a clear majority. That rather drives a coach and horses through Monsieur Robinson's posting today, which was based on this question: Wouldn't (the English Grand Committee) proposal (if it were in operation now) mean that Gordon Brown had no
I know i had a moan earlier about Alan Beswick on BBC Manchester Radio - let me praise him by putting something in a nice context - basically talking about Shahid Malik MP being searched when returning from USA he said `you can bet your life that there’d be a hoohaa if it was the King of Saudi`. Nice touch that and very true.
Formula One racing driver Lewis Hamilton has announced that he is quitting the UK because of press intrusion in to his life. He will instead reside in Switzerland, which by strange co-incidence is also a tax haven for the super rich. I'm not sure the press are barred from entering Switzerland and I know that the European paparazzi are meant to be even worse than the British press, so I am putting two and two together and guessing that his move is more about tax than the press. Nice to see out so called "sporting heroes" turning their backs on ...
From Mansfield Chad: A LABOUR candidate who forged a signature on his nomination form in this year’s Mansfield District Council elections has escaped with a fine. Meden Vale man Vic Jennings, who stood in Warsop’s Birklands ward in May, could have been jailed after admitting a charge of election fraud at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court last Wednesday. But district [...]
I was very pleased to see this morning that Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrats’ Acting Leader, is to boycott the state visit of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah - a move described in The Herald as unprecedented (”It is highly unusual for a leader of an opposition party to snub a royal visit. Foreign Office officials could not immediately recall any precedent”). One of the perks of being a party leader is getting to go to state banquets and the like, and with only two months in charge of the party, Vince is unlikely to have many opportunities, which makes his ...
One had the pleasure last week of meeting Danny Alexander MP, Shadow Sec. for Work and Pensions. Danny is orange-headed and comes over as intelligent and remarkably affable. In these respects he is very much like Julian H. So impressed are we with Danny that he has prompted a "Favourite MPs" set of links that can now be seen on the left column of this page. Whilst speaking to Danny I expressed a long-term view of mine, namely that it is misleading to refer to Dave's repositioning of the Conservatives as being into a more 'liberal' position. My argument is ... 
Nick Robinson asks some very pithy questions about the Tory proposal for an English "Grand Committee" within the House of Commons: Wouldn't this proposal (if it were in operation now) mean that Gordon Brown had no Commons majority for Labour's key priorities "schoolsnhospitals"? • If I am right, would the new English “grand committee” with its Tory majority be able to impose Tory measures on
I don't want to get into an argument here about Trident and our current policy. Nope, I really don't....becasue that's one thing that's sure to send voters off to read about something more interesting. If we make this leadership contest into a policy debate, about one particular policy, which although dealing with £15bn of Government expenditure, does not interest the electorate at large then
Good news on Prestwich’s slow-but-not-entirely-forlorn journey toward Didsbury status today - the new Croma restaurant has opened its doors. There’s one in Chorlton (think Prestwich but with more crime and houses at twice the price). Another in Manchester (ditto but thrice the price). Another in Leeds, and bizarrely, quite a few on the eastern sea-board of the USA. And now one underneath the Radius flats in Prestwich. Hooray. I’ve been to the one in Manchester, and jolly nice it is too. Pizza and a drink for the price of a Domino’s, and much nicer to boot. So get down there and ...
I am back from London. Back to Manchester, with any semblance of relaxation and any trace of rejuvenation wiped clean from my soul the moment it occurred to me that the first thing I needed to do on arrival was board a creaking and late Metrolink all the way to my rainy house. London is a wondrous place. Not wondrous because it is wonderful (although much of it is), but because a gigantic proportion of it leaves me gaping in a slack-jawed trance, wondering things. The entire place is like any other city squared, and then squared again, and then ...
Chris Huhne has lit the touchpaper with his announcement that he would seek to re-open the decision agreed (by a slender margin) at the Lib Dems’ 2007 spring conference to take no decision on renewing Trident until after the 2010 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty talks. Speaking to The Observer, Chris confirmed: he favoured a less powerful, ‘minimal’ [...]
I managed to catch parts of the coverage of the SNP's conference this weekend on BBC Parliament. It's got me thinking about various issues related to how Scottish politics is developing with the new minority SNP government at Holyrood and the impact that could have on UK-wide politics. I am deliberately avoiding thinking too much, or indeed blogging, about the Lib Dem leadership contest until I
Vince has done the party proud today: By “snubbing the Saudis”, they have Human Rights abuses on the agenda - and most likely the issue of the dropped Corruption investigation. It exposes the hypocrisy of a government that claims it wants to put “values” into International relations. In reality they only apply their “values” their enemies. Lib Dems in the news, Conservatives entirely left out. Excellent stuff and a brilliant example of effective opposition. It involves getting stuck in with things actually going on, the debates and issues of the day. We can’t set the agenda as an opposition, but ...
Oh, very! I am grinning with pride and have been since I heard that Vince was going to be boycotting the Saudi Dictator’s visit to the UK! I remember years and years ago, sitting in an 'International Relations Theory' lecture and learning for the first time about the two different paradigms of nation state behaviour in an international setting. It is soo good to be part of a party that actually
I see DC managed to infuriate the Lithuanians through a rather crass remark over the weekend. On the one hand it seems a bit petty to get cross, but on the other there are 100,000 Lithuanians who Cameron clearly thinks are a bunch of layabout dole scroungers. In fact they are mostly hard working, church going types. Judging by this letter, they may have a sense of humour too: "Dear Editor, I see that David Cameron has suggested that one legged Lithuanian lesbians should not receive lottery or Arts Council grants. I am pretty surprised that such bias can be ...
I’m pleased to find this on YouTube, taken from the Peter Serafinowicz Show: Of course, as a geek, I am contractually obligated to mention that Serafinowicz was also the voice of Darth Maul in Episode One. Share This
Acting Lib Dem leader Vince Cable has - shock, horror - decided to put principle ahead of protocol by turning down the chance to hob-nob with Saudi King Abdullah at a state banquet tonight. You can hear Vince give his reasons - citing Saudi Arabia’s “appalling” human rights record - on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme [...]
The Whiskey Priest blog makes an excellent assessment of the Saudi's allegations that the UK is not doing enough to prevent international terrorism. This, you remember, comes from a nation who threatened to withdraw co-operation on terrorist matters if the UK persisted in investigation corruption on the Al Yamamah arms deal. Perhaps the most galling think for me was to note who it was who the BBC reporter was who was having to cover the story, and it was, of course Frank Gardner. Frank was, for all those who don't know, a BBC reporter in Saudi Arabia who was shot ...
I really couldn't decide who to choose between Nick Clegg and Chris Huhne for leader of the Lib Dems. They're both great candidates and frankly I'd be happy with either. Nick probably has a bit more personality but Chris seems to me to be more substantial. In the end though I settled on Chris for the following reasons: - Chris has been a journalist and a businessman (like me!). I think it's really important that politicians see the world before they enter parliament. - Although Nick speaks about ten languages my sense is that Chris is more solid intellectually. - ...
Grid Ref: (E)375224 - (N)162581 LB Grade: N/A Proposal: Erection of a conservatory and sun lounge to rear Officer: Tessa Hampden Applicant: Mr & Mrs Peschel Agent: T P Windows 11 Bradford Park Combe Down Bath BA2 5PR 85-86 Lower Bristol Road Bath BA2 3BQ Ward: Combe Down App Ref: 07/03152/FUL Parish: N/A Registered: 23rd October 2007 Expiry Date: 18th December 2007 Location: 4 Paddock Woods Combe Down Bath BA2 7AD Grid Ref: (E)376736 - (N)162696 LB Grade: N/A Proposal: Erection of single storey extension to rear and addition of first floor to existing extension Officer: Rebecca Roberts Applicant: Mr ...
I'm happy to see that, so far, 5 of our Scottish MSPs have declared their support for Chris in the leadership contest. They are: Robert Brown MSP for Glasgow Mike Pringle MSP for Edinburgh South Jeremy Purvis MSP for Tweeddale, Etterick & Lauderdale John Farquhar Munro MSP for Ross, Skye & Inverness West Jamie Stone MSP for Caithness, Sutherland & Easter Ross It's good to see that the alliegance of elected Parliamentarians in Scotland is beginning to balance up a bit after the early stampede of Scottish MPs to back Nick. I'm sure that there will be further declarations for ...
Huhne’s decision to support the scrapping of Trident opens up a fault line between himself and Clegg. It is one that further exaggerates the existing dividing lines between the two and seems to quite deliberately reinforce the perception that Huhne faces the party while Clegg faces the voters. Certainly, I would argue that Huhne’s approach is the one most likely to deliver him a win, but at what cost to the party? What would be the cost to the party of a Clegg victory, too? Clegg needs to prove that he’s not going to sell the party down the river. ...
For the first time in my teaching career I have heard something about ICT and software in schools that makes sense, when it come to talking about Microsoft. After years of the government telling us all to install Microsoft software in school without hesitation, Becta, a government agency, have at last announced that schools should be very careful about signing any deals with Microsoft and should review whether open source software might be a better option. The problem is with this advice is that it flies in the face of everything that schools are told and advised to do by ...
Last night Michael Palin visited the old East Germany, on his tour of Eastern Europe. For no particular reason he visited a toilet factory, that had been relocated from West Germany to Meissen, presumably to cash in on the prestige of that old porcelain producing town. In the course of her chat the lady from head office said that increasingly German men preferred to sit down, whilst having a pee. Why would they do that? have 'two world wars and one world cup' taken a terrible toll on German manhood? is it a 'Europeen' thing? where do Clegg and Huhne ...
Another excellent initiative from TACTRAN just announced! See news release below and click on headline to view more : Tactran Launches Conference Carshare Tayside and Central Scotland Transport Partnership (Tactran) this week launches a “Conference Carshare” section to their liftsharing website: http://www.tactranliftshare.com/. This unique new feature is being introduced to coincide with and encourage delegates at the annual Roads Expo Conference in Ingliston to travel more sustainably, in line with the theme of the Conference. The tactranliftshare site which currently has over 1200 commuter journeys registered is now focussing on travel to large events which attract drivers from all over ...
Vince Cable, though new into his job, has hit the ground running in terms of attracting the headlines. By not attending a dinner held in honor of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia he has muscled his way into one of the major stories of the day ('A dubious ally who devalues our Government' The Independent). We at CentreForum are hoping that the Acting Leader of the Liberal Democrats will also be able to catapult our own story into the headlines tomorrow. We are launching our latest book, 'Globalisation: a liberal response' to which Cable contributed and will help introduce. The ...
You may recall the story of James Purnell and the photoshopping incident - an NHS Trust faked a photo featuring him, the Trust and he then gave differing accounts of how it happened, he then bombed out in a rather funny TV piece trying to defend his line that he didn’t know what was going to happen [...]
The Library at the Hook Centre is trying out late night opening on Tuesdays until 10pm from now on. This will largely be self service using the electronic loan-and-return machines. I'd love to know whether you think this is a good idea. By the way, following a number of complaints about quality and service, the café is temporarily closed. The Council is looking for a new...
I’ve always enjoyed attending Local Party events, and like to think that I’ve visited a fair few of them across London and the surrounding counties in the past. It is always nice to see how others do things, to discuss their issues and concerns and, equally importantly, enjoy some good conversation, fun speakers and often surprisingly good food (Tunbridge Wells do a very good garden party if you’
I was fasciniated to read a quotation of what Arnold Schwarzenegger said about George W Bush when he was interviewed by GQ magazine, Asked how he rates President George W Bush, Mr Schwarzenegger replied: "I would say that I was... very fond of his father. I worked for President Bush Sr and he was a great man. "I think his son does some great things and there are some other things I don't agree with." I think that tells us everything we need to know.
Last Thursday's From Our Own Correspondent was dedicated to Alan Johnston's tale of his kidnapping in Gaza earlier this year. It's a riveting, moving and honest account of his 114 days in captivity and you can download and listen to it here (right click and select "save link as" if you want to download).
Ben Goldacre, the bad science columnist from the Guardian, stands up for Evan Harris today on his blog. Evan has being getting some stick from, among others, Nadine Dorries, his fellow Science and Technology Select Committee member.
I started life in the Young Liberals somewhere to the right of Ghengis Khan in the spectrum of the organisation’s political stance. My first attempt at making policy was to propose a more effective weapons procurement policy in order to utilise the savings to… yes, you guessed it, buy more, more efficient, more effective, weapons. It seemed obvious to me at the time, and would doubtless have
I know, it’s been another week, and I haven’t blogged (again). You know how it is, you find something to distract your attention from the core task of feeding the Internet with ‘stuff’. But I have been busy, honest…
I quote from `they work for you’s website on Chris Huhne. It says he has: Residential house and flat in Oxford, from which rental income is received. Residential house and two flats in London, from which rental income is received. Now I don’t begrudge a man his wealth nor question the legality of this. What I want to know is how I’m supposed to go on the doorstep for the Lib Dems about the opportunity agenda and affordable housing to people who aspire to live in a terraced property let alone a semi-detached house when the leader has five other properties. Can someone explain ...
A hat tip to Long Despairing Young Something who has managed to extract opinion polling information from Facebook. Here’s some headlines: 38.8% of “Very Liberal” people vote Labour. 37.5% of “Liberal” people vote Labour. 56.8% of “Moderate” people vote Labour. 56.3% of “Libertarian” people vote Conservative. And for the Lib Dems? 8% of “Moderates” 14.4% of “Libertarians” 50.3% of “Liberals” 44% of “Very Liberal” For me, the fact that so few people who describe themselves as “moderate” vote Lib Dem explains our fundamental weakness as a party in the current political climate. I meet so many people who are quite ...
As a voluntary sector Lobbyist, I find myself in the position of having to attend each of the party conferences north of the border. As the Scottish Political Village is quite small this does not actually entail the colossal exercise in loin girding and talisman toting that the external observer might expect. This weekend I was at the mercy of the nationalists and to be fair they were all pretty cordial with me, given my well known party affiliation. Needless to say, tails were up all round and much patting on the back was had by the legions of bekilted ...
The link is about a secret jailing in Nottingham.
Just a tiny pebble in the ocean but I’m becoming incensed by the anti Liberal Democrat bias that has emerged at the BBC. It seems to have happened very recently and needs to be nipped in the bud. Today Alan Beswick on his phonein show said `just supposing the almost unimaginable thing that the Lib Dems got into power and Vince Cable became Prime Minister - do you think he’d boycott or allow other party leaders to boycott the Saudi King` I pointed out that if something’s unimaginable then those can hardly be asked to answer the question. I also said no one asks ` in ...
I shall be joining many of my Scottish Lib Dem friends in demonstrating against the replacement of Trident on Saturday coming, November 3rd. Please come along and join Lib Dems, members of other parties and members of no parties to back the growing voice which says that this ridiculous weapons system is wrong, wrong, wrong. Details: Assemble: 11.30am outside Scottish Parliament building. March off: 12 noon Rally: 1pm Ross Bandstand, Princes Street. Speakers include: John Barrett MP (Lib Dem, Edinburgh West) If any English or Welsh Lib Dems would like to attend & need accommodation then please email me and ...
When the timetable for the Liberal Democrat leadership election was announced, some members complained that the contest was being rushed through. How could we have a proper debate if we were being railroaded into having a new leader in place before Christmas? Then it became clear that there were only going to be two candidates - and two very similar candidates at that - some of us started to wonder how the contest could possibly be made to last so long. Weeks and weeks of two very similar men saying very similar things? My personable Westminster-educated former MEP who has ...
I was delighted to read this morning that Chris has come out against replacing Trident and, therefore, against the terrible fudge that is the current Federal Lib Dem policy. I sincerely hope that if Chris wins the Leadership he will re-open this debate and propose a policy that doesn't give us marks on the bum from fence-sitting. Nick, on the other hand, has gone greatly down in my estimation by saying that he would not be prepared to unilaterally disarm "on a whim in a leadership election." Hardly a constructive comment and perhaps signs that the election is beginning to ...
It's a leadership election... (click big arrow twice if it doesn't work the first time)
So farewell then Gus Poyet who has left the mighty Leeds United to join the management team at Spurs. We wish you all the best and thank you for what you have done at Leeds. It has to be pointed out however, that what may seem to be a step upwards now may well prove not to be the case if Leeds are playing Spurs next season in the Championship.
Sir Malcolm Rifkind, one of those Tories who engages his brain before opening his mouth, has come up with a useful idea for addressing the democratic imbalance which has emerged since the creation of the Scottish parliament and, to a lesser extent, the Welsh Assembly. He has suggested that a type of ‘Grand Committee’ of English MPs could consider any business which relates solely to England, excluding Scottish MPs. Such a system would mean that the existing Parliamentary system could remain and the sitting MPs could perform the role, with no need to create a new English parliament. Now, there ...
Answer.............when it's tiny......... Thanks to Nick at Lib Dems for Chris for attempting to answer my questions but he didn't deal with why Chris didn't speak up in Shadow Cabinet? I can understand, though clearly not agree, with him not being prepared to make it a resigning issue, but that doesn't explain his silence in Shadow Cabinet. It also appears to me, though I am willing to be corrected, a little disingenuous to bang on about others sitting on the fence whilst Nick says "Also, for the record, Chris is not a doctrinaire unilateralist; he thinks Trident is a poor ...
Our current so-called ‘Trident’ policy is not a fudge. It is an acid drop, and we need to suck on it. That includes the current leadership candidates. The implications for our policy are clear. We voted in Parliament to delay Vanguard renewal (and were defeated). We now have an obligation as a party to carry out the clearly implied next stage of the agreed policy. That is, to debate now the position the UK should take at the upcoming negotiations and bring forwards firm recommendations. That is the acid logic of our position. The treaty reviews are in the year ...
Redcar and Cleveland Council is promising another spectacular Fireworks Night display on The Stray at Redcar on Monday, November 5. The fireworks, promising to be 'the best show Redcar has ever seen' will be set off at 7.30pm to music with a nautical theme, ranging from Blue Peter to Pirates of the Caribbean, from the Stray car park, in the same spot as last year. Highlight Pyrotechnics will create a safety exclusion zone stretching 250 metres in both directions, firing over 2,500 fireworks, with 23,354 'aerial effects', rising to a minimum of 30metres to a maximum of 200metres. A stretch ...
Sometimes you hear something which makes you warm inside and proud of that little yellow card you carry around. Such was the case this morning when I read about Vince Cable’s decision not to attend the reception for Saudi King Abdullah. It seems we will not support the country which gave us Osama bin Laden, 19 of the September 11th bombers, extremist Islam and the continued oppression of women. Way to go Vince! The comments reported by the BBC were also quite hilarious. The Saudi ambassador was quoted as saying: "We respect all the political parties in the UK" - ...
Is my blogger widget still working, after upgrading to OSX 10.5. If you're reading this, it is.
The BBC seem convinced Clegg will win the leadership election because more of our MPs have declared their support for him. This seems reflected in the latest odds at BlueSquare: Nick Clegg - 1/3 Chris Huhne - 9/4 But I’m more inclined to agree with the analysis on PoliticalBetting.com. I believe Chris has upped his game over the weekend and judging by the reaction at Rugby, has a growing support amongst the grassroots. Huhne supporters seem to be more vocal on the blogs too, although I suspect Clegg supporters are in a silent majority - both at Rugby and on ...
http://www.westphalia-on-sea.blogspot.com/ is the blog everyone in Torbay is reading and wanting to know who is behind it. As it points out, Westphalia-on-sea is not Torbay and any si...
I am absolutely delighted to be helping organise the first Liberal Democrat Conference in Cornwall for ten years ... considering we are the gold county, it is surprising that we have not "congregated" in all that time. The conference is going to be a mixture of policy/ manifesto debate, hopefully engaging the wide membership in the direction that Lib Dems should be taking for Unitary and I am delighted that the conference is going to be held in my own ward, here in Bodmin. Notices will be going out to every member in Cornwall at the end of November and ...
From the BBC: Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has accused Britain of not doing enough to fight international terrorism. Anybody want to go ahead and tell the King what nationality the world's most wanted is? And whilst we're on the subject: Liberal Democrat acting leader Vince Cable is boycotting the state visit to Britain of Saudi King Abdullah. Mr Cable says he will not attend any of the planned
I wasn't going to be blogging right now, but a change of heart has changed the plan for now. Sometimes my to-do list is just plain daunting - especially when intermixed with the juggling of being Mum/Toddler taxi and it gets very difficult to keep it all under control. The T&F selection this summer turned the house, to-do list and family upside down and we have just now got back on track. It seemed unrealistic to expect the family and my businesses to endure it all again so soon - plus my eldest son, Milo, starts school in January and ...
No, this is not a feminist issue. It is a morality one! Let's not forget the violence the living suffer: the estimated over 50,000 rapes women suffer every year in the UK alone, the women who are beaten and die as a result of domestic violence and the women and, indeed, children trafficked and used as sex slaves. Why is nobody doing anything? Here's an interview with Emma Thompson. Here's her
Mike HuckabeeWhile it is enticing to imagine that the US Republicans will choose the boy from Hope, Mike Huckabee, as their candidate (as Today suggested this morning), he's going to need a great deal of hope to get him from 5 points (in the latest poll of Republican voters), to beat Guiliani who is currently on 31 points, 14 points ahead of his nearest challenger. Today featured interviews from
{Vince Cable} Vince Cable MP, the Acting Leader of the Liberal Democrats, is to boycott the state visit of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia to the United Kingdom. According to the BBC: Mr Cable says he will not attend any of the planned ceremonial events - as would be normal for the leader of one of the main opposition parties. Mr Cable told the BBC’s Today programme that by any assessment of Saudi Arabia, “the human rights record is appalling”. He also cited the regime’s arms deal with the British firm BAE and the row over alleged corruption surrounding it. ...
On LibDemVoice for this post. Cheers!
Last week I had the pleasure of attending Chatham House’s annual one-day autumn conference, and spent a truly fascinating day listening to a very wide range of speakers. I attended the first of these now-annual events about five years ago and it was impressive to see how it has developed over that time. Although the first conference in 2002 was good and interesting, this year they put on a truly impressive range of very high-calibre speakers. This was reflected too in the quality of the audience, with a strong presence of well-known journalists and former diplomats and politicians, as well ...
As one of few remaining Capos not declared for either the Carbonator or BabyDon, their entourages sure spend a lot of time trying to get my attention. On Saturday I sitting in cafe with Signors "Shameless" Huzzey and "Dr. Evil" Oakeshott who backing the Carbonator. "The thing is Liberali", say Shameless "we need a Don with the vision to succeed and experience to lead. Signor Huhne, as you know has provided the Family with most of our best ideas of the last few years, and now he leading on bringing peace between the families by proposing we rule out any ...
Recently a number of constituents have raised concerns about the operation of the juunction of Blackness Road/Blackness Avenue and wondered if it would operate better as a roundabout rather than the present give way. As one resident put it, "The junction is used fairly evenly by all of the routes entering it, so I think it would help traffic flow and further reduce speeding traffic on Blackness Road. I don't know whether this has been discussed before but if not I wonder if you'd consider raising it at some point in the future."I did indeed raise it with the Planning ...
Off to Knotty Ash on Satuday to help the Lib Dem team there. They've got a really good leaflet with lots of positive stories about things going on to help people in the area. I am told Labour were out delivering on Saturday there too - although they must have been in another part of the ward as I didn't see any of them. Little Bongs wins the prize for the group of houses most difficult to find - but it's worth finding.
Well I have now turned 32. I only want one thing this year for my birthday, and I can't have it for almost two weeks and I can't tell you what it is but here's hoping...
So the clocks went back over the weekend. Sadly instead of having an extra hour in bed, I used the extra hour to work on the results of the survey we are doing on recycling. Over the weekend we deleivered 1300. It was one of those collect from letter box surveys. And yesterday, when I was collecting in replies, my overcoat went on for the first time in seven month. I needed eagle eyes to be able
On Friday, I met a group of Liberal Democrats from Newhaven to talk about what I will do if I become an MEP for the South East. Among them was the impressive Town and District Councillor Carla Butler. We certainly have a lot of good talent in this generation of Liberal Democrats. I’m bound to also mention my lifelong friend Peter Lodge, the 27-year old Chair of Licencing on Dover District Council, and there are plenty of others. We should really do more to publicise the success of young councillors because I am sure neither the public nor media are really aware of it. It ...
Chris Huhne has announced he would seek to change our policy on Trident: to deciding now to scrap it in a few years time, rather that waiting until a decision on an upgrade actually becomes necessary. Chris is consistent ont his issue. He had precisely the same position in the 2006 leadership election. But I think it is now a mistake. Conference had a very full and frank debate about the Trident issue in Harrogate only six months ago. At the end of that debate there was a vote and a policy was democratically determined. If we re-open it, the Harrogate debate will have been a complete waste ...
On Saturday I was at The Benn Hall in Rugby for the West Midlands Liberal Democrats 2007 AGM, European Selection Hustings and Leadership Hustings. | < | October 2007 | > | ||||
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