Janet and I have had a great weekend! Superb weather. Although a fair bit of time spent on constituents' issues and burning the midnight oil on a conference I'm running this week in Belfast, we had time to visit Monikie Country Park (see ducks right!) and Kirriemuir (Janet at Peter Pan statue below!) 
Via Will Howells, Tower Bridge has a Twitter account.I am closing after the SB Gladys has passed upstream. about 4 hours ago from web I am opening for the SB Gladys, which is passing upstream. about 4 hours ago from web I am closing after the SB Gladys has passed downstream. about 11 hours ago from web I am opening for the SB Gladys, which is passing downstream. about 11 hours ago from web I am closing after the MV Dixie Queen has passed downstream. about 22 hours ago from web I am opening for the MV Dixie Queen, which ...
I have to say Hillary Clinton's speech conceding defeat to Barack Obama was truly inspirational. Let us hope that the Democratic Party can now unite to defeat John McCain and the GOP. It is 30 minutes long, but it is worth watching here:
Looking back, the 1990s were a good decade. The Soviet regime collapsed, Apartheid ended and, whatever John Major's faults, he was less keen on going to war than his successor proved. And the worst thing we had to worry about was the Millennium Bug. When it comes to music one of the highlights was Bjork, with her inventive songs and that wonderful elfin face.
I have spent a lot of time going up and down the A12 in Suffolk recently. Having already posted a couple of times [1] [2] on the issue of battery v free range chickens, and with my link to the River Cottage Chicken Out Campaign on the right hand side of this site, I have been concerned to see road side signs opposing the plans to build a huge battery chicken farm at Thorington. A planning
I had an email today from someone who is registered blind. That is not so surprising since I know a number of blind people and they all are keen email users. But this one was a little unusual because Wally is 94! He was an old friend of my parents and I wrote to him recently with some family news, not knowing that he had lost his sight. A couple of emails confirmed that he would prefer...
It appears that the Tory candidate for Henley is making use of Google ads and his advert sometimes appears on this blog and other political blogs. So ... if you are feeling naughty and want to cost the Tories a bit of cash, why not look through the ads on everyone's blogs and click on the ones from Henley Tories. That should cost them a few quid.
I have been given the honour of contesting the Broxtowe Parliamentary seat for the Lib-Dems for the third time at the next election. I'm delighted with this and would like to thank the many members of the locally party who voted for me. My intention is to campaign positively as to the benefits that the Lib-Dems can bring. I'll leave negative campaigning for others. I want people to feel that politics is something relevant to them, and to encourage as many poeople as possible to get involved.
On Friday night I was out for dinner with two gay friends, who happen to be councillors. We were chatting about all things political when they told me the story of a visit they made to their local pub last week. As they walked in someone in a group of people near the bar spotted them and shouted out, to the amusement of his friends - 'Oh look here come the benders'. My friends were rightly shaken and upset, particularly as they had had a similar comment when they were out canvassing the previous weekend. We got to talking about ...
'Iran, Cuba, Venezuela — these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union.' Barack Obama This was said by Barack in a rally on 18/05/08. The full extent of what he said was this: Iran, Cuba, Venezuela — these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. They don't pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us. And yet we were willing to talk to the Soviet Union at the time when they were saying, `We're going to wipe you off the planet.' It's logic really. It reveals how war mongering the ...
The new Old Bexley & Sidcup Conservative website says that it has been an exciting year... So much so that they have done some judicious cropping of the picture on the front of their homepage. Spot the lapel with the sticker on the left. Well now take a look at the second picture taken at the same time. Well what do you know, it is Del Boy Conway himself, cut out of Old Bexley & Sidcup
Snuggled up in bed with my radio last night, I listened to a fascinating discussion with Hazel Blears taking calls from listeners to BBC Five Live. In the debate she spoke very passionately about linking faiths and getting people from different religions to come together and working towards the communal goals of social responsibility and peace that she considers a universal multi-faith language. Where she came unstuck was in response to an articulate caller who wanted to know what Hazel would be doing for the 50%+ of people who reside in this country who follow no faith, who are atheists. ...
Despite the excitement of a power cut in this bit of south London earlier on, this week's Something for the Weekend is here. Right here. Just carry on reading from here. We're all going on a summer weekend of enforced Britishness Labour Minister Liam Byrne put his foot in it with the Scots this week, being forced [...]
As an addendum to this post, I have just joined the FaceBook Group I ♥ Sweaty Basketball Players. That is all.
Yesterday afternoon I saw us taking on the Germans at football and doing really well ? Am I going mad ? No I'm not. Thoughtfully Channel Four put 'Escape to Victory' on yesterday. Fantastic. Now if only Pele had been able to play for us in real life.
While reading the Mail on Sunday main story (what I suppose ought to be called the 'cornflake choker': C4 PAID RACE CHIEF OVER SHILPA ROW) I initially felt the Mail had a point. You may remember the row over Channel 4's Big Brother and remarks aimed at Shilpa Shetty. Trevor Phillips, as Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, was condemning Channel 4 during the controversy. Following
Every week I look threw my blog stats to see who has got to my blog via an obscure search engine search. This weeks search shows someone does not like Lewis Hamilton. I guess this blog search shows that the story the Google search linked to on my blog was not as silly as some people first thought. As for me, since I wrote it he has grown on me even more. I like him, the point I was making was that there are lots of people who don't, and it is nothing to do with his race as they ...
I've just been given a flyer with a picture of Debra the Zebra. If you don't know her personally then just ask any child in the Borough, because Debra visits schools and helps children to learn road safety. Anyway, she is promoting this family event next Sunday 15th June, which happens to be Father's Day. It's a treasure hunt 'around the quiet roads and green spaces' of...
Welcome to the 68th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (1st-7th June), together with a hand-picked quintet you might otherwise have missed. Let's get straight down to it, in descending order of popularity: 1. Henley Conservatives attack Lib Dem 'outsider' on [...]
'Schools get ultimatum: improve or face closure' is the screaming headline in today's Observer. This outburst of tough talking is simply Ed Balls 'dog whistling' at right of centre voters, and using teachers who have to work in difficult schools as sacrificial lambs. The Education secretary's comment that With all the support on offer for parents and schools, no child is on a pre-determined path to low results - whatever their background and wherever they go to school is empty rhetoric. The experience of my own local area is that the schools that get the worst results are those with ... 
Are you as bad as me? I bet there's some of you out there who are. You know who you are. Those of you who sit there for just another five minutes on the internet and never get anything done around the house. Well, someone on LibDemBlogs has posted about HassleMe. Mat claims it was set up in five minutes by Chris Lightfoot, whoever he may be. What it does is it randomly emails you and nags you to do the stuff you tell it you need nagging to do. I have thus told it to hassle Mat to liase ...
It is hard for anyone to criticise the aims of the group Fathers 4 Justice. However, you'd have to ask questions about their methods and their successes so far. They rather cleverly gained publicity by invading tall buildings dressed as super heroes, and although they held traffic up and caused problems, you could see that they were raising their profile in a logical way. However, since the House of Commons incident when they threw flout at the Prime Minister, they have lost their way. They attacked Lib Dem candidate Jody Dunn at the count of the Hartlepool by-election because she ...
As I pulled in to the car park this morning at a village supermarket to get some milk and provisions, I was aware that the only space to park was next to a very expensive Porsche, with the roof down and the driver sat on his mobile phone, both he and his passenger wearing shades and looking 'cool', but also a bit sort of 'obvious', a little like they were flaunting it and wanted to be seen. As I got out of the car I could hear the driver reading out phone numbers to his passenger that she was diligently ...
LibDem Euro-candidates from the London, South East and Eastern regions joined South East MEP Sharon Bowles at an action day in the Henley by-election today, as a sort of political Flashmob organised by my counterpart on the South East list, Catherine Bearder. The by-election HQ in Thame's industrial park eerily resembles the one the party [...]
... here is George Takei, being awesome. Your wedding rings sound dead classy and everything.
Labour's Julie Morgan MP had a brave attempt to introduce a Private Members Bill to lower the voting age to 16 talked out by Conservative MPs on Friday. Her Bill was a cross party effort backed by Jo Swinson among others. Regrettably, there were not enough supportive MPs present to force a closure vote (100 [...]
I have just been out leafleting and once again had the distinct misfortune to find myself on Knowle Drive, the great forgotten road in my ward, the surface of which is not at all dis-similar to the surface of the Moon. Numerous residents of this little street have complained to me and to colleagues about the state of the road before. And another one collared me today. I agree with their views entirely. Having been asked to stump up ever-increasing amounts of tax, they are within their rights to expect to drive from one end of their road to the ...
Is there something else you should be doing instead of being online? HassleMe is a very useful tool; you can use it to set up email you reminders for, well, anything from eye tests to the dry cleaning. It's not a diary tool; no specific times, and the reminder date can be slightly random. But [...]
Manchester Blackley Labour MP Graham Stringer has told the BBC that government support for a Greater Manchester congestion charge will alienate voters in marginal seats. Speaking on BBC1's The Politics Show he said: 'To have a Labour government, you have to have an alliance not only of core Labour voters but of people who, before 1997, in constituencies like Bury North and Bolton West didn't vote Labour. The congestion tax is another pressure on that coalition. It is another wedge that will break that coalition up and make it much more difficult to deliver a Labour government.' The plans, to ...
I recently came across a blog called To Miss with Love. It is written by a teacher who works in an inner-city London school. The discussion about education never seems to end. And much of it is by people whose last direct experience of education was when they were at school. I found her Special Measures post particularly interesting. She shines a very interesting light into schools in this country. As well as telling her readers what it is like to teach. The added bonus is that she is very amusing. Recommended! I have now added her to my 'political ... 
The Council has upgraded its email system. Before it was using IMAP with Horde, and there were complaints. The system was slow, people used up their mailbox quota in the blink of an eye, it wasn't very user friendly. If you were one of the favoured few allowed access to your email from home, you had to use a big RSA SecurID keyfob with an ever-changing 6 digit number on the front. I'm not entirely sure what was in council email that could possibly need as much protection as internet banking! Now that has changed, and they're embarking on a ...
I was shocked this week when a constituent passed to me a loan offer she had received unsolicited through the post. The offer came with a typical APR of 183.2%. 'Provident Personal Credit' state that a loan of between £50 and £800 is available. I contacted the company and discovered that the total re-payable on an £800 loan over 56 weeks is a staggering £1,344 with repayments of £24 a week, a charge of £544. The advert also states that the unemployed are welcome to apply. The most expensive loan detailed on a price comparison website charged almost a third ...
I have become obsessed with BBC weather forecasting recently. I think it started just before May 1, as part of the preparation for the local elections. And since then it has become quite a bit of an obsession. What worries me is the fact the forecasting changes so dramatically within a matter of minutes. One minute the forecast is for rain, the next brilliant sunshine. Obviously this has a knock
Very helpfully today's Observer has provided a cut-out-and-keep guide to Conservative scandals, past and present. Including Neil Hamilton, Jonathan Aiken and Jeffrey Archer, the piece adds the names of Michael Trend, Derek Conway, Giles Chichester and Den Dover. It really does sound like David Cameron has his hands full. The unknown quantity at this point is what impact these latest scandals will have on the Tories opinion poll ratings.
Henley wasn't Boris Johnson's first choice of parliamentary seat- he tried to become Conservative PPC for Rayleigh, my home town, but Mark Francois was selected by the local party instead. If that had happened, we might well have a by-election right now here instead....
Unless you've already watched the whole of the two episodes already. This is the ending of what is probably my favourite Doctor Who story: But you can watch this, which is the very beginning.... 'Dying gives us size!' . Maybe.
Welsh Education Minister, Jane Hutt confirmed yesterday what we have long suspected, the One Wales Government does not have the money to properly fulfil its commitment to deliver the Foundation Phase for 3 to 7 year olds, nor does she seem to have the support of other ministers in putting that oversight right: The under-fire minister told the audience of teachers' union representatives she was having to battle fellow ministers for cash to fund her own proposals. And she pleaded with the teachers for their help wringing the cash needed for the Assembly's flagship teaching shake-up from her Cabinet colleagues. ...
The dishwasher is sitting there, and for the last few days it has been smugly concealing all the teaspoons we have. Side plates ran out this morning, and bowls are nearly out, and yet the dishwasher is still not ready to run. This is because I have had one of those bad, bad weeks where I have eaten out or had takeaway food nearly every night. I've had a series of run-on meetings, where you start in the Council House at 10 or 12 (I'm back to nocturnal again this week, so there is no time to do anything before ...
Andrew Mitchell, Shadow International Development Secretary has told Sky News that a lack of clarity on expenses rules meant that all MP's were vulnerable to accusations of failing them;'I don't think its particularly party political members of parliament and MEPs across the political spectrum are at risk of this partly because of the lack of clarity in the rules.''I think David Cameron has actually led the way of all the party leader in trying to bring clarity and transparency to this area,' he said.Funny how all those recently implicated just happen to have been Conservatives then isn't it?? {Digg!}
Here's two links for ye: Andy Zaltzman in the Grauniad, ostensibly talking about his new radio show, but in reality telling us all why British Politics is in such a parlous state. Completely agree with him re: Blair's legacy. Gay? Living in Northern Ireland? Your health minister says you should seek medical help and get cured... I have no adequate words to describe how insane I think it is that this woman is running the health policy of an entire country, and one that's a part of our Union too. Have we slipped back to the fifteenth century by mistake ...
Greetings from Henley, where, along with fellow bloggers Millenium Elephant, Alex Wilcock and Helen Duffett, I have just had the pleasure of interviewing Stephen Kearney. Any one who knows me that there is one sure fire way to my heart........talk about young people and youth work.....did someone tell him?! I got to ask the first question which was to ask Stephen what motivated him to get involved in politics. His answer was inspiring and, it has to be said, music to my ears!!! Stephen told the story of how as a teenager he had got involved with a project called ...
As mentioned previously, Mayor of London Boris Johnson is running up very big bills for consultations to help him and his team settle into the job. Unfortunately, he now also seems to have forgotten just how much the bills are because he told the BBC today that: I don't think we've spent half a million so [...]
Last night was the annual awards evening for the Cornish All Blacks. Instead of the usual black tie do, they decided to have a far more informal buffet. It got the same turnout and more of a profit so was probably the better option. Star winger Matt Jess dominated the awards but paid the penalty as he had to down a pint before he was allowed to collect each of them (not sure if he wasn't wishing it was black tie by the end of the evening as that sort of penalty wouldn't have been imposed). The Exeter bound speedster ...
Slow but steady progress - When Nick Clegg was elected leader the Lib Dems were recording between 14 and 18 %. The leadership campaign itself had dragged us up from lows in October (When 4 separate polls recorded the Party at 11%). The average figure for the Party is 18.8% - up from 18.4% is April (and 13.3% in October)
Despite the nazi selling stall, there was much to enjoy at the Royal Cornwall Show: From the top: The donkey sanctuary; an old tractor ; Lupins ; Stunt motorcycle riders ; old motorbikes.
...of the wrong kind from it's point of view. No surprises in the latest ICM poll for the Sunday Telegraph which confirm the upward swing of the Conservatives and the collapse of Labour. It has the Conservatives on 42%, Labour on 26% and the Liberal Democrats on 21%. A few points are worth making; this poll comes too early to assess any damage done to the standing of the Conservatives over the recent expenses scandal although personally I expect the damage to be minimal. A second point is that the same poll showed a huge majority - 65%, actually support ...
We went to the Royal Cornwall Show yesterday - my first chance to do so in about 8 years. It's one of the biggest agricultural shows in the country with about 140,000 people visiting over the course of the three days. As well as the animals, both large and small, there are lots of commercial stands connected with the farming industry and lots to attract the casual visitor. Unfortunately, whilst we were browsing the stands, we came across a jewellery stall selling earrings, some of which were decorated with nazi regalia. (See the picture, right, to see what I mean.) ...
So an ICM poll for the Telegraph today claims that: 'Sunday's survey provides some good news for Mr Brown - 65 per cent of those questioned support his 42-day plan, with backing coming from voters across the political spectrum. Thirty per cent think the limit should stay at 28 days, the position favoured by the Conservatives.' Now, aside from the fact that I must be in the five per cent not even mentioned there, because I support no extension on the 2 days before charging that applies for other crime, I don't think I know a single person that supports ...
Are the credit crunch and worries about the cost of living having an impact on our taste in films? The big movies this season are nostalgic; Indiana Jones and Sex & the City. It's cinematic comfort food. The big book launch is James Bond. As Carrie might say, does it mean these days we're all [...]
Went straight from landing at Heathrow to Henley to take pics of the Nick Clegg visit. As ever, the sun was shining as Nick and Stephen Kearney visited the Henley Standard for an interview before a walkabout in the market. They met lots of punters - many of whom will be voting Lib Dem. It's early days, but it was very good to find so many supporters in the southern (more Tory) end of the constituency. Apparently Boris and Biggins, sorry John Howell, also had a walkabout in the town that day but found that everybody had packed up and ...
Been off for a week in Sierra Leone training their political parties ahead of their local election campaign which starts on Monday and ends on July 5th. This was another cross party effort (as none of the UK parties really have sister parties over there)/ I was training in the second city of Bo with Sheila Gunn, John Major's former press secretary and a former Camden Councillor (until beaten by the Lib Dems, natch). Also over there were Lib Dem Winchester PPC Martin Tod and Chris Page of Labour, a councillor in Southwark where I used to work. How was ...
Reading Liberal Conspiracy, I see that Iris Robinson (MP in Northern Ireland and also member of the Northern Ireland Assembly, where she chairs the Health Committee) has recommended that people assaulted for being gay should seek medical help to 'cure' them of being gay. Back to the ark we go! I thought we had come a long, long way on the road to equality - and leaving behind the nonsense that being gay is a disease which people should be cured of. But remarks like this remind us that we've not got all the way there yet!
You really have to file this in the 'you couldn't make it up' category - Haringey's binmen are being told in the name of health and safety to remove their cuddly toy mascots from their vans in case a child rushes out into the street to grab them. I mean - really! Not only is the sight of hordes of children running into the street to grab cuddly toys from the front of vehicles one scourge we've not been subjected to, but this is just the sort of misplaced small-minded pettiness that gives health and safety (both of which are ...
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 Supply 79.6154 83.1243 84.6315 84.5983 84.5944 Demand 79.6118 82.3301 83.6498 84.6225 85.3543 Difference 0.0036 0.7942 0.9817 -0.0242 -0.7599 Quarters 1/7 2/7 3/7 4/7 1/8 2/8 3/8 4/8 Supply 84.20 84.37 84.33 85.49 85.86 86.17 87.18 87.17 Demand 85.36 84.48 85.08 86.66
Tayside and Central Scotland Transport Partnership (TACTRAN) has added a "Buddy Scheme" to its regional liftsharing site. This coincides with National Liftshare Day on Monday 9th June and complements the Partnership's already successful car sharing database, which encourages more sustainable travel across Tayside and Central Scotland. The latest upgrade to the site extends the liftsharing facility for matching up journeys to include anyone who is walking or cycling and also taxi users. Developed with a Scottish Government grant, tactranliftshare.com is a regional website which includes the four partner local authority liftsharing schemes: Angusliftshare.com, Dundeelilftshare.com, PerthandKinrossliftshare.com and Stirlingliftshare.com. The http://www.tactranliftshare.com/ website ...
OK, I admit it, I have misquoted Nick's speech to the LibDem City Forum last month - but not by much. This was the most Euro sceptic speech by a LibDem leader in living memory. Let me quote him precisely: "the UK is enjoying the benefit of currency flexibility and the devaluation of the pound [...]
I haven't watched it, but have done {[info]} who_daily. It seems that in Moffworld: - if you're female, you can only be pretty and dumb or clever but butt-ugly. No other combinations allowed. - the only thing that anyone is ever made happy by, and the thing that everyone aspires to, is heterosexual, monogamous marriage. - books are made from/full of scary things that will eat you if the lights are out. - Just this once, Everyone Lives! Again. Bleh. Sounds like I didn't miss much that wouldn't really piss me off.
So I mentioned in my last post that Cameron had threatened to do for society that Maggie did for the economy. Presumably he means 'something painful but necessary, with winners winning a lot and the losers really losing'. I think this is dangerous ground for the Tories. As much as people are sick of Labour, I don't believe for a second that people are wanting Tories to come in to tell them how to live their lives. I suspect that the details will involve school discipline, supporting marriage and futile 'tougher' action on anti-social behaviour. They'll ditch the Human Rights ...
Commenting on the announcement that Northern Rock customers will be encouraged to re-mortgage with Lloyds TSB when they come to the end of their deals, Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor, Vince Cable said: 'Selling its best mortgages to Lloyds TSB will leave Northern Rock with only the lowest quality mortgages on its books. 'This will help Northern Rock to make its first repayments on the £25bn it owes the Government, but could put later payments at risk. 'Ministers have never come clean about Northern Rock's mortgage book, which I have long believed contains a substantial amount of bad debt. 'This deal ... | < | June 2008 | > | ||||
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