LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Monday 4th February 2008

Introducing Baracks future brickbat

I’ve done the Bob the Builder gag elsewhere, but I have to say this video couldn’t look more like a noose to put around the potential future President Obama if it was made of hemp and had a knot in it: Remember George Bush Senior’s “read my lips - no new taxes” Or Labour’s 1997 “things can only get better” If Obama makes it through on Tuesday and goes onto win the nomination (never mind beyond that), this video is going to be rammed down his throat by his opponents at every given opportunity. Still, on the plus side it ...

Belinda Eyre-Brook

Sad news via a London Region email: Last week we received the enormously sad news that Belinda Eyre-Brook had lost her long battle with cancer. Belinda has put enormous energy into her campaign work in Kingston, rewarded initially with Ed Davey’s win in 1997 by just 56 votes but then turned into a majority of over [...]

Will Ken Livingstone put his money where his mouth is

That's the question I ask in my latest column - this one for the local Highgate Handbook: Just imagine Highgate Village on a summer day - with no bus stand! A beautiful pedestrianised area with no noisy, smelly buses with engines idling - and local people able to stroll happily - stopping to chat with friends and neighbours.In order words - will Ken's fine words about improving our environment mean action in our community, or will it only be the grand schemes in central London that he pays attention to Read on in the full piece...

Football

This year I’ve got into American Football even more. In football terms I’m generally a Rugby Union fan, I find Association Football (soccer) boring and Rugby League, well its a game played by northern pansies (just kidding - I just don’t find it so interesting to watch). Despite American Football’s relationship to League I find [...]

Post Offices in the firing line

According to a report in todays Western Daily Press the following 27 Post Offices are destined to be closed in the latest round of post office closures; Awre, the Forest of Dean, Bromesberrow, the Forest of Dean, Ebley, Stroud, Edinburgh Place, Cheltenham, Forest Green, Stroud, Hewlett Road, Cheltenham, Highfields, Dursley, Horsley, Stroud, Kingsholm, Gloucester, Meysey Hampton, Mitton, Tewkesbury, Podsmead, Gloucester, Primrose Hill, Lydney, Ruspidge, Cinderford, Sharpness, Stroud, Sling, the Forest of Dean, Stratton, Cirencester, Beeches, Cirencester, Tutnalls, Lydney, Twigworth, Twyning, Uplands, Stroud, Viney Hill, Lydney, Weston-sub-Edge, Witcombe, South Woodchester, Stroud, Woodmancote, Stanway, Tewkesbury, Cranham and Miserden. Thats 27 down, only ...

When videos go viral

It was YouTubes top video for the weekend, and has been the talk of the political blogosphere today: a musical remix of Barack Obama’s “Yes We Can” speech from New Hampshire, featuring will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas, Scarlett Johansson, rapper Common, Kareem Abdul Jabar, John Legend, Herbie Hancock, and a host of other celebrity [...]

The Glorious Hour

Every day should have the glorious hour, an hour devoted to yourself, an hour away from the hurly burly of life in which the singularly most important human being is you. Today has been a normal-ish day of emails, phone calls, and all the accoutrements of modern life. Achievements have been attained, harsh words have been spoken, as have soft words, friends remembered, goals striven for, other friends neglected, news watched, papers read, cigarettes smoked, trains taken, letters opened, targets missed, coughs spluttered, horizons looked to & thoughts have run their own way. But, the hour, the glorious hour of ...

Obama raises the Dead

The Grateful Dead that is… Here’s some classic Dead from 1969:

Liberal Democrat Lawyers Dinner

The Liberal Democrats Lawyers Association had its Annual Dinner on Thursday at the House of Lords. A good time was had by all with some fine speeches by Lembit Opik, Lord William Wallace, and the new Chair of the Association Alistair Weekes QC. People at the dinner reflected the very diverse mix of the Association’s membership: [...]

US Democrat blogs diverging on Hillary/Barack

Two of my favourite US Democrat/progressive blogs have obviously gone for each of the two candidates. www.crooksandliars.com are basically backing Obama by not putting forward anything positive about Hillary www.theleftcoaster.com are doing the opposite and are much more anti-Obama than the other one is anti-Clinton.

Fame at last!

I'm chair of Lewes District Council's Traveller's Working Group. As chair, I attend meetings of the East Sussex Gypsy and Traveller Forum, which last met last Thursday afternoon in Hastings. The start of the meeting was filmed for the Politics Show, South East. My colleague Councillor Carla Butler and I are shown briefly at about 4:48 into the piece -that's us in the centre of this picture. We're on camera for about a second. No speaking. So, a modicum of fame at last! More importantly, the piece is quite sympathetic to the problems that Gypsies and Travellers face, and the ...

Evidence that some refs do favour bigger teams

Ever since the last Merseyside Derby, there has been a renewed focus in the press and particularly amongst football fans about the bias shown by refs to bigger teams. For those who cannot remember the game and how the referee's actions decided the result, ref Mark Clattenberg; a) Gave Liverpool a penalty when replays showed the Everton player made no tackle, with Steven Gerrard simply sticking his leg in the way of the Everton player in order to get the penalty. b) Visibly ghanged his mind about what card to issue to the Everton player after the false penalty was ...

A year ago today

Quite the most bizarre day of my life, when I got up at four in the morning, drove to a frost-covered wood, and dug up a prize worth £100,000. I remember sitting at home looking at the Cube I’d dug up - shiny, silvery and as heavy as two house bricks - walking away to do other things with the evening, but having to return to it again and again to check it was real. And of course, at that moment in time, no-one knew it had been found except us and to everyone else the game - the first ...

I start a column for the New Statesman website

Those nice people at the New Statesman have asked me to write a fortnightly column for their website. The first column was posted earlier today. It is designed to fall somewhere between this blog and Lord Bonkers: These days I dont go into Shrewsbury much: just the occasional trip to buy paraffin, candles or ammunition. But I used to go more often and would sometimes meet Derek Conway, who was then the towns MP.

BritBlog Roundup 155

Shows Westminster Wisdom.

How balanced is the BBCs Question Time

Thats the question LDV posed in last Thursdays Open Thread on the programme. It was prompted not only by the absence of a Lib Dem on the panel, but also by the appearance of a second Tory-in-all-but-name, Amanda Platell, alongside former Tory chancellor, Ken Clarke (as well as former Tory MP, and now New Labour [...]

Bugging: So thats alright then

Apparently bugging MPs* doesn’t need to be approved by ministers, but can be undertaken by the police acting on their own initiative. From The Times: "It emerged that the bugging of the alleged conversations involving the MP Sadiq Khan and Babar Ahmad at Woodhill prison applied to circumstances that would have required the approval of a [...]

I'm not saying Lib Dem blogs are boring and predictable but this is ridiculous

The Lib Dems, ever keen to co-operate, have a nice little blog called "Lib Dem blogs aggregated", which takes the stories in chronological order from virtually all Lib Dem blogs in existence, and very good it is too. Lib Dem blogs also tells you their top 5 most clicked stories, but rather oddly the top five has not changed for a week now (see the graphic at the top of this page) Are all Lib Dem blogs that boring that nobody wants to click on anyone elses stories or is it that we've found the five greatest blog posts of ...

Political Balance

Reaction to my bit of number crunching earlier today has been interesting. Benedict G commented that "From that graph it looks like we're overrepresented on Question Time." A valid viewpoint, I can see where it comes from. But it also doesn't ring true to me (surprise surprise!). Here's why. Any conception of a "balance" in guest booking must be based in some conception of what that balance

Getting liberal about diversity

Once again, the debate about diversity has come up. Once again, the old chestnut of being representative versus being the best for the job is hauled out again. Too many Lib Dems just dont get why diversity is so important. Too many dont see the benefits that diversity brings us. There is a lack of diversity at every level of the party and too often the only response is hand wringing. Lets be clear. Recognising diversity is not just about looking more representative of Britain. That, of course, would be tokenism. Nor is it about making trying to make women ...

Cameron clings to nurse for fear of Conway

There was an interesting lead story in the Observer yesterday about the Tories proposing nurses to be allocated to spend up to six hours a day with mothers for the first week post-birth. For some time, I suspect this policy has been sitting in David Cameron's office marked "In case of emergency break wind". It could be called the ABC ruse - Anything but Conway. And oh yes, something very nanny

Everyone Laughs at the British

When Francois Mitterrand and Helmut Kohl launched a trans-Rhine television channel, Arte, in 1986, I wondered, ‘But will the French and German viewers really get it’ Now it transpires that when it comes to humour, the answer is, bluntly, ‘No!’ Gallic and German humour is mutually incomprehensible. So the British have come to the rescue. [...]

Even Conservatives don't believe the Tories can cut taxes and improve services

The nearly always excellent Dizzy Thinks blog highlight the contradiction between the Conservatives pledge to cut taxes whilst at the same time wanting to increase services. You have to ask if Tories don't believe their policies, why should anyone else Dizzy seems to be at odds with the Tories most ecent announcement that each new mother will get 6 hours of maternity nursing help each day for the first week of a baby's life and the costs this will incur, "At a time when there is a shortage of midwives already, are we seriously going to propose spending around a ...

Does anybody watch the Community Channel It's Nanny State TV

I wrote a few months ago of the complete waste of time and money that is Teachers TV, but flicking through my Sky channels this evening I was reminded that there is a Channel that is almost as pointless as Teachers TV. This Channel is The Community Channel. The Community Channel is funded by the Government, via the cabinet office, and runs well meaning programmes all day about colunteering and raising money for charity miced in with programmes about how you chould exercise regularly and keep fit. The Community Channel is, in many ways, a " Nanny State "Channel, telling ...

Is Lembit right

Lembit Opik has been making the headlines again today, this time for his defence of Frances President Nicolas Sarkozys headline-grabbing wedding to former model Carla Bruni. Most Lib Dems are, I guess, fairly accustomed to greeting Lembits pronouncements on media intrusion into celebrities lives with a slightly embarrassed shrug. As liberals, we have no problem [...]

MPs: Taking the Michael

Norman Baker, as always, got it exactly right on PM. Speaking of MPs who claim their mortgage payments for London second properties and then sell those properties at a profit when they cease to be MPs, he said: "That's unethical". It is very welcome that Norman, speaking in a personal capacity, we were told, put it so bluntly. His solution is that MPs should rent London properties and claim the

Getting back into the swing of things

I had one of those rare events, a Sunday in London, which offered me a chance to catch up with all of those things that I should do but don't. Flick, London Region's indefatigable Administrator (and the capital A is truly appropriate), had produced a draft preliminary agenda for our forthcoming Regional Conference. I amended it a bit and then, having dismally failed to call a meeting of the

New Statesman: gunsn'ammo edition

New Statesman, whose political editor last week as you will recall was criticising Ken Livingstone last week for supporting Hugo Chavez, while his magazine was simultaneously attempting to entice new subscribers with Chavez t-shirts, have decided their new best friends are BAE Systems: BAE Systems would like to ask the readers of the New Statesman a series of questions in order to gain a better understanding of how opinion formers and those with an active interest in current affairs and modern political life perceive BAE Systems and it activities. Here at the New Statesman, we know that our readers are ...

Recoil at recall!

Bad law is often passed when people encounter a problem, seize on a solution and wed themselves to it regardless of the unintended consequences. It’s the sort of kneejerk reaction we see from our Labour and Tory rivals all the time. Sadly, Antony Hook and Duncan Borrowman have done this over the “solution” of recall for MPs to solve the “problem” of Derek Conway fiddling his expenses. Let me start by adding this caveat: I can see the case for recall where an executive is directly elected, such as in the case of an elected mayor. Directly elected executives are ...

Amazon Review Policy: can anyone help

I wrote a 2-star review of a book on Amazon on Saturday; it isn’t there any more. I noticed over the weekend that it was getting a surprising number of people ticking the “this review was not helpful” box. My question is, if a review gets more than a certain number of these ticks, is it automatically deleted If it is, then the system is open to massive abuse by publishers seeking to censor an inconvenient review. Even without this kill policy, allowing reviews to be ordered in terms of which are the most “helpful” can be gamed by a ...

Errr. Yes Michael White... but you miss the point!

The Guardian's Michael White on his political blog today says: The appetite of 24/7 news for fresh headlines should not be allowed to stampede public life into ever-more frantic and ill-considered idiocy. We get enough already. Nor should Conway be expelled, contrary to what Frank Field MP - a clever, delightful man with ham-fisted political instincts - suggests. Conway is not a member of the

Clinton or Obama: who says diversity doesn't matter

I like most political junkies have read acres of column inches on the exciting Democratic race for the presidential nomination, between Obama and Clinton. The Republican nomination, has had rather less column inches, and dare I say, has been rather less exciting. We are witnessing an historical contest, that between a woman and a black man, one of whom could be the next President. I'm afraid I can't feel that sisterly towards Hillary, and can see why she is such a divisive figure in American politics. The spectacle of Bill designated as her 'attack dog' has not been an edifying ...

UPDATED: The BBC Write Me An Email

Well now. Last week's question time didn't have a lovely Lib Dem on it. It did have two dreadful Tories on it (Ken Clarke, Amanda Platell), and two people from the world of the stage (Bonnie Greer, John Sessions). I thought this odd, especially since it's not the first Question Time in the last couple of weeks to give the Tories effectively two representatives on the panel. So, taking Steven

A genuine question rasied by a constituent about Derek Conway

I received a call from a Bexley pensioner today. They want to know what they should do about seeing their MP about some casework. He is no longer a Conservative, so calling the Conseravtive office in Sidcup isn't the answer. At the moment he is suspended from the House. So they assume they can't call there. What should they do Both short term while he is suspended, and slightly longer term (

Marks & Spencer

Theyre banned in South Africa, Taiwan and Bangladesh and taxed in Ireland. Every year almost eight billion of them are used, then thrown away. Theyre hazardous to manufacture and can take up to 1,000 years to decompose. What am I talking about No, not Jeremy Paxman's underpants. I am of course talking about the humble plastic carrier bag. These days we seem to use them for almost everything; from carrying our shopping to make shift pooper scoopers. But, have we become to reliant on the plastic carrier bag Marks & Spencer clearly think so. Anyone now shopping at any M&S ...

ASCII movies

Tom G Palmer found this. Having admitted extreme geekyness in the comments (both watching a film in ASCII rendering and the film be ‘The Princess Bride’) I though I’d share with you the most awesome demo ever and the library used to make it: The demo is BB, the library is AAlib. It is mostly a product of [...]

Super Tuesday preview...

With Super Tuesday coming up tomorrow, here's a special Freethink preview of what to look out for, and predictions for what might happen. The first thing to say is that Super Tuesday is not make or break for Sen. Barack Obama. The states following up throughout February and March include some of his strongest - he is likely to do well in the Feb 9th states of Louisiana and Nebraska, the beltway states on Feb 12th, as well as his home state of Hawaii and Wisconsin, which borders Illinois - on Feb 19th. Looking further ahead, Texas on March 4th could also be a big (and ...

Cost of being honest

I know I'm behind the times but this still bugs me. Jacqui Smith admitted that its unsafe to walk the streets of London on your own at night. The media decided it was a huge gaffe. Politicians from both opposition parties jumped on a feeding-frenzyfied bandwagon about how she has admitted failure. No wonder ministers are evasive. Would they rather that Jacqui Smith lied and said everything was fine Jacqui Smith was honest. We should applaud that, and not savage her for having the guts to be candid. We who live here know its still not safe to walk the streets of London on your own late at night. Most of ...

Politalks: Reviewing the last week in politics

FFS It’s Monday has changed into Politalks, taking an irreverent and sometimes downright offensive look at the past week in politics through the audio-visual medium of Youtube video, in collaboration with Lee Griffin of the Program you own mind blog. And here’s our inaugural effort: Feel free to share and share alike, and for those who [...]

Conway-gate: its time for recall elections

Duncan Borrowman looks increasingly like being Old Bexley and Sidcup’s next MP. His blog details the outrageous embezzlement by Tory MP Derek Conway and evidence that local people want Conway to resign from Parliament Duncan has, amongst many other things, set up a Facebook group. It’s time we had the right enjoyed by voters in large parts of the [...]

Silence is Golden

No wonder some MPs are going to ground and refusing to talk to the press about how they use their staffing allowances. My Conservative Party opponent made a wild claim that I had refused to disclose ...

Parks debate continues

I have just watched the debate about the new parks strategy at the Physical Environment Scrutiny Commission last week and this has left me disappointed. I put in a submission (published earlier here ...

Legal News

What a very joyous time it is for the Blair family. Whilst junior continues to bring peace to all men, his elder brother, William, has just been appointed a Justice of the High Court (QBD). Unkind commentators might salivate over the prospect of his one day passing his sibling on the steps beneath those Gothic arches on the Strand.

The Bones Commission: a recovering bureaucrat thinks aloud

I have been persuaded that, despite my fairly minor position in the pantheon of internal bureaucracy within our great Party, I should submit something to the Bones Commission, looking as it is into how the party can be better run and managed. Firstly, I should note that I was rather depressed to discover that we bureaucrats are the problem not, as I would willingly accept, part of it. If the

Men will still say, this was this their finest hour

Ludicrously, a quarter of people in our country think Winston Churchill is a fictional character and a majority think Sherlock Holmes was real (here). When I was a student I never understood post-modernism. Ten years on, I feel I can never escape it. No-one should think David Cameron is fictional. When he makes speeches with a picture of sunlit [...]

The old BBC problem: Wholl go over the parapet

Reading Andy Hinton’s post about the two tories on QT I think it’s time to step up the pressure and have a mass deluge of complaints to old Auntie. One way round it would be to ask for a blogger to go forward. What do folk think

The least worst one wins in Serbia

Yesterday saw the run-off in the Serbian Presidential elections, neither candidate was very inspiring but the least worst has won. Boris Tadic, the incumbent President was re-elected by a margin of just 2.6% or 100,000 votes over Tomislav Nikolic.

When the soldiers have gone

I have written a little piece about the upcoming presidential election in Lebanon. If you don't fancy that, why not enjoy 'The Lebanon' by the Human League I'm all about choice.

Creating Science Cities

Here are a few articles that might interest both the geek and politico that I know lurks within us all. They are partly about recent work that the research group I am involved with has been doing in the field of neuroprosthetics but also about the transfer of technology and knowledge to developing nations (in this case Brazil) so that they can use it to stimulate their own economies. Mind Powered Robots & Creating Science Cities Building the Knowledge Archipelago Building a Future on Science

No second chances: if you ever want Obama to be president he has to win now

The frustrating thing with the American presidential race is that all of the three (now two) leading Democrat candidates look like presidential material. Regardless of whether you agree with their political standpoint or whether you like them as people I think there is little doubt that Clinton, Obama and Edwards all have the right [...]

In the frame

What links the epic face-off between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama with todays Guardian report that a new counter-terrorism phrasebook has been drawn up by a Home Office research unit to advise civil servants on how to talk to Muslim communities about the nature of the terror threat They are both striking examples of attempts to frame politics and political debate. Framing is about giving people a way to think about political issues. This is usually done by using a model or structure or question. A strong frame enables you to push your best issues to the fore and help ...

Science: not to be sniffed at

{Ignatz and Krazy Kat} What’s the bloody use in a mouse that can catch a cold Why don’t scientists do something more useful, or at least more ironic, such as engineering a mouse that can catch a cat Share This

Memories from the Second World War

I carry my camera with me almost all the time now with hope of catching sight of just slightly unusual things: this is one of the better ones. Just inside the main block of Hampstead School, Westbere Road, is this plaque rembering the second world war. "THIS WING WAS DESTROYED BY ENEMY ACTION 7TH OCTOBER 1940REBUILT 1948" It would seem that this part of London received pretty heavy bombing during the war - thought to be because of the high number of railway lines and junctions - and this plaque is one of the remnants of that history. I have ...

Quote of the Day

"War will be dead, the scaffold will be dead, frontiers well be dead, royalty will be dead, dogmas will be dead, man will begin to live." Victor Hugo A prize given for anybody who can put it in context. As Germaine Greer said, all quotes are out of context, that is their point. Its still lovely though.

Lemsip obit

If I were an ambitious politician and I agreed to appear on a comedy chat show with my glamorous young partner, an eastern European pop star, and in the programme I was to appear on, I knew that the host always lays into his guests with no holds barred - all for comedy effect - I reckon I would pretty much accept any of the ribbing I received from the host and the audience in the spirit it was meant in, even if my rather individual name was singled out for some humour. I hope I wouldnt get aggressive if ...

Heinz Variety entry

Lots of bits and pieces..... CPA - Bath and NE Somerset is getting CPA'd in May. I am on the steering group making the preparations for the visit - partly because i lead the authority from 2002 to 2007 and partly because I am a peer member on Audit Commission inspection teams. We had two meetings this week to discuss prepartion, self-assessment, the tour, scores etc etc. I...

Is this the moment the Obama movement hit a critical mass

With a host of endorsements, including Republicans, such as Eisenhower's granddaughter, it is possible that BHO has enough momentum in his movement for it to become unstoppable. However, I still rate the Clintons very highly at winning elections and their support, when you look at the demographic figures is strong. The polls are too small and volatile to trust. The betting markets are confused and easily swayed. We really don't know what's going to happen on Tuesday, other than it won't be the end. I'm going to be at the Democrats Abroad meeting in London to watch the results come ...

Websites for budding engineers... learning fun!

Have you had a weekend stuck indoors due to bad weather/colds etc and wondered how to keep everyone entertained These websites are endless entertainment for budding engineers and designers - but...

Thank Christ

Tadic has won the second round of the Serbian Presidential election, defeating the Serb Radical (read very pro-Russia far right nationalist) candidate, Nikolic. This is wonderful news as it shows that Serbia is still edging towards the EU. There is much to be done, but we have avoided a huge and challenging setback for the western Balkans.

KulturKamel

Welcome to the second KulturKamel, in which I explore a cultural weekend in London. This weekend I left London. As my friend Adam kindly hosted us down in Surrey, I set about earning my keep by knocking up a dangerously average spaghetti dish whilst others slothfully lounged with Jeffrey the cat, playing Pro-Evo. But luckily, whilst cooking, Kate Bush turned up on the kitchen iPod dock - in particular Ken, Bushs ode to Ken Livingtone. The track was written for the Comic Strip episode GLC: the carnage continues. It stars Robbie Coltrane as Charles Bronson as Ken Livingstone, Jennifer Saunders ...

Rowan Williams on Religious Hatred: Quite Sensible Actually

Liberal Conspiracy pointed me towards a recent speech by Rowan Williams, which has convinced me there's nothing very wrong with the law against incitement to religious hatred. You might recall that the idea of extending some of the laws against racial hatred to religious hatred was very controversial a few years ago. Since the law has not yet been put into practice, it may yet prove controversial. However, I don't think it will be, or should be. Rowan Williams is quite perceptive when he says that liberals today still talk about 'religion vs free speech' as if we were struggling ...

Air travel to and from Dundee

Last summer, I received a concern that people with mobility difficulties - in particular those who use wheelchairs - could not take advantage of the Scotairways Dundee-London City flights. At the time, I raised the issue with the Economic Development Department of the City Council (the Council still operated the airport last Summer) and I paste part of the response below: "Dundee Airport terminal is fully suitable for handling disabled passengers in terms of wheelchair access and toilets, and we provide wheelchairs and staff assistance when necessary. For mobility-impaired walking passengers we will, if asked to do so, provide a ...

Romney wins in Maine

It took me quite a lot of searching to find the Maine Republican result, but I did and Romney won.

Nigel Waterson: "I've done nothing wrong"

The MP who was arrested following an incident at his home in Beckenham last week has said to his local papers that he didn't do anything wrong. A lot of people seem to have been reading my blogpost about this, so in the interests of fairness to Nigel Waterson I think I should repeat his side of the story, as told to the Eastbourne Herald last week. "I called the police to an incident on Sunday. I have done nothing wrong and did not assault anybody. I have not been charged with anything. I am constrained in what I am ...

It's not daylight yet

It was dark when I got up this morning. My arms and legs were suffering from the hard work we put in on the allotment over the weekend. But I caught a couple of minutes of BBC Breakfast just after 7am in which the presenter made some comment about the spring arriving early and it already being daylight in London. Well, it wasn't daylight on Tyneside (just wait til summer arrives - we have much

MP's own goal hits the press

Last week I wrote about the Labour MP for Blaydon, David Anderson, backing an early day motion attacking football clubs for employing foreign footballers. Mr Anderson's support for the motion was at odds with an EDM he himself sponsored 2 days later which attacked the powers that be for not issuing a work permit to, ahem, errr....a foreign footballer to come to the UK to play for Man City! Well,

Who is bugging who

The bugging of a Labour MP's conversation with his constituent is an exceedingly serious matter, not because it infringes on the privacy of an MP (though that is a major consideration) but because it goes to the very heart of our Parliamentary democracy and undermines the essential pastoral role undertaken by all elected politicians. Somebody who comes to their elected representative for help, no matter what their problem is or what they have been accused of, should be entitled to confidentiality. They should be allowed to receive advice without the state eavesdropping or interfering in that process. The fact that ...

Data sequel

Somehow we knew that it would not just be the data that went missing. A small piece in the paper this morning reveals that more than 100,000 families have not received the promised letter of apology after their personal details were lost by HM Revenue and Customs last year. The Chancellor of the Exchequer had pledged that each of the 7.25 million affected households whose child benefit details were on the two missing computer discs would get a personal letter explaining what had happened and apologising for it. Alas 100,000 or 1.4% of the letters were returned unopened because the ...

Giants win Super Bowl with The Grasping Reception

In a truly awesome game the Giants came from behind twice to beat the Pats 17 to 14. For 3 quarters the Giants lead the game in ever department apart from the scoreboard. A huge performance from Steve Spagnuolo as defensive co-ordinator allowed the Giants to dominate the pats for most of the game. Steve, [...]

Flock Together saves the planet

Just spent the last few hours trying to improve the way Flock Together handles lifts. First of all, there’s a new page which shows all the current lifts wanted and offered at http://www.flocktogether.org.uk/showLifts.php Once you’re logged in, you can now also email someone to request a lift or offer a lift. We’ve done this in a way which respects people’s privacy and should avoid spam. For an example of how this works, try (you may need to log in to see how this page works). Where next Should we include simple lift-links in the emails we send out Should ...

Day 2586: Bring Me Sunshine (State)

Thursday: Oh, I was NOT going to write to you again about the American elections before next Tuesday's Super Double-Duper Tuesday, but there have been significant developments, following the votes in Florida. Senator Edwards has admitted what we all knew: it's between Hillary-Billary and Barry O. And former Mayor Rude-y Giuliani has achieved the biggest ever cock up in a Presidential election. This is all the more SURPRISING when you remember that the Floridians broke the rules and brought their primaries forwards to January, meaning that they only count HALF for the Repluticrats and NOT AT ALL for the Dumbocrats. ...

Monday 4th February 2008

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