Some time ago, at the height of the Civil Serf controversy, it was announced that the Cabinet Office would be looking to define some guidelines for civil servant bloggers. I wasn't confident... but am pleasantly surprised to see what has emerged. In an era of massively verbose legislation, statutory instruments and guidance, Tom Watson has come up with the following: Be credibleBe accurate, fair 
Many of us are concerned about all the targets that central Government sets for local government. But while they are still all there, perhaps it's worth taking a look at which of the optional targets a council chooses to prioritise. Tim Davies asks Is your council prioritising positive activities? I was particularly interested to note that only 77 councils are prioritising positive activities
As you might be aware from his recent letters in The Mercury and the News Shopper, local resident Paul Taylor is collecting memories of the two St. Winifred's Schools in Lee Green. All Paul's brothers and sisters went to St. Winifred's, his youngest sister has been school secretary there for more than 20 years, and his late mother played the piano at the school for ballet classes. Paul's keen to hear from any 'old girls' or 'old boys' who have memories, stories or photos of their time at St. Winifred's that they'd like to share - anything that would capture ...
Apart from a busy day on the 'day job' front, I took part in a lively joint surgery with Alison McInnes MSP at lunchtime at Blackness Library. We also visited the Sound Sense project - click on headline to view more - which is doing superb work to help deaf people in Dundee, Angus and Perth & Kinross. As part of Alison's visit to Dundee, she visited Nethergate Post Office to meet the Postmaster, Mr Farhat Baig, and add her voice in support of the campaign to keep the vital Dundee Post Offices open. See photo (above right). After her ...
Dear Mr Clarke, You might know that tonight BBC 1 broadcast an investigative program by businessman Duncan Banantyne about the activities of British tobacco companies, especially British American Tobacco, in Africa. The program showed compelling videoed evidence of BAT's marketing tactics aimed at getting children and the poor hooked on smoking. Tactics used included the free distribution of [...]
I went up to the Party in the Park on Saturday and visited the Lee Manor School Parents and Friends Association stall - who tell me they are holding a summer fair at the school this Sunday from 2pm until 4pm. There are all sorts of activities planned - including a DJ, raffle, tombola, plants, nearly new, music stage, hot food, craft making, treasure hunt, and face painting. They're also screening the Wimbledon Final - so no excuses for not coming along! Entrance is £1 for adults, free for children, but all children must be accompanied by an adult. I've ...
The agenda for the City Council meeting on Tuesday 8 July 2008 has now been published and should be available here. Items on the agenda include: a discussion of Post Office closures;the annual report of the Cabinet Member for Children, Young People & Families; the annual report of the Independent Remuneration Panel on councillors' allowances; anda proposal that, in recognition of its
To celebrate the beginning of Gordon's second (and last?) year as Prime Minister, what could be more cheering than to have a look at the parties' polling averages over the last 12 months? Well, if you're a Labour supporter, smearing yourself in slurry would probably be more comforting, but never mind: June 2007 (Tony Blair's last [...]
So the McCanns are innocent. Well, there's a surprise (by which I mean it isn't)... Let's leave aside for a second the kind of pressure they must have been under from tabloid tittle-tattle, over and above the horror of losing their child. Let's leave aside the blood sport in bars and dinner parties fought out at their expense. What really scares me about this whole affair is the way that professionals - police, doctors, certainly child protection officers - consistently fill any mystery in these situations with the conviction that the parents must have done it. Why should this be? ...
Andrew, my older brother, was in London today for a conference so he arranged to meet me at Victoria Station for a quick drink. And whilst there, David phoned to say a constituent had called and to give me the details. I could barely hear him whilst I was in Weatherspoons (yes we were really splashing out!) So when I phoned the constituent, I went outside onto the balcony in the hope it would be 
This morning I was invited to visit The Norton School for the opening of the exhibition "Escape to Safety". This is a multi-media exhibition demonstrating the experience of people seeking asylum in the UK. It takes students on a journey from a war-torn part of the world to Heathrow and eventually to a detention centre. Using an MP3 player and headphones each person moves through the exhibition
Nick writes in today's Guardian: 'A home for progressives' Nick presents a sharp critique, post Henley of the state of politics. Despite the Tories riding a full 14% higher in the polls, we didn't see the great landslide we would have expected reflected in the outcome. They won fairly comfortably, but their vote didn't go up that much, and our vote did not collapse in this Tory stronghold - in fact it even crept up. The difference in the political landscape is, as Nick points out: 'Most surprisingly, the by-election showed us that the evaporation of New Labour's support in ...
Here: As there's been quite a lot of self-abuse on the pages of Lib Dem Voice in the aftermath of the Henley by-election...
Just a quick one, as I haven't mentioned yet that my Lib Dem colleague Helen Duffett is standing in a council by-election in Redbridge next week. Helen is a great campaigner and has helped us lots in Haringey, including in my own Fortis Green ward. She will be a formidable councillor and I know she's already been working very hard. Redbridge was the scene of a fantastic Lib Dem win from 4th place just 18 months ago - I was there to help then and hopefully I'll be able to make it to help Helen out this time. There is ...
But Alistair Darling is cooler than all of them. Let me explain. The Daily Telegraph reports that out our political leaders were asked to name their favourite Beatles song as part of Liverpool's Beatles Day celebration. Gordon Brown chose 'All My Loving': 'this was my early favourite because it was the first I learnt to play on the piano when my parents sent me for lessons when I was young.'David Cameron chose 'The Long and Winding Road': 'I'm a McCartney fan.'Nick Clegg chose 'A Day in the Life': 'Even after all this time, it still sounds innovative and radical.'And Alistair ...
It really does make your blood boil to hear the appeasing friends of despots who make up the African Union trying to urge the MDC to form a government of national unity with Robert Mugabe. This is typical of Africa's answer to such problems before, most notably when President Kibaki stole the election in Kenya, leading his opposite number to be forced in to a government of national unity and become Prime Minister. Interestingly, Prime Minister Odinga of Kenya is the only leader on the African continent who seems prepared to openly criticise the elections in Zimbabwe and Robert Mugabe ...
Nicking the idea blatantly from Lynne Featherstone - here are my top ten postings in the period April-June 2008*. In the Golden Dozen: 1. Two employees resign - how will the Lib Dems cope? [Number one on the Golden Dozen] 2. Tory PPC for Taunton [You can run against Jeremy Browne...but you will literally have to run against him...] 3. The Crewe result [Well done to Elizabeth!] 4. Bumper Mayoral blog round-up [Number two in the Golden Dozen] 5. Paddy writes to me! [The blue letter he sent to me when a young teenager makes my heart flutter to this ...
I don't wish to speculate on who killed Robert McCartney, who else may have been involved or why few witnesses have come forward. Nevertheless, I was struck by the reaction of Mr McCartney's sister, Catherine after the murder trial. While admitting that she was 'very disappointed' about the acquittal of the main suspect in the case last week, she said: 'Given the evidence, I believe that the judge's verdict was correct'. This is an admirable counter-example of the tendency to bay for blood in the aftermath of a tragedy (regardless of whose it is) and forget entirely about the importance ...
We tend not to be too poll-obsessed here at LDV - of course we look at them, as do all other politico-geeks, but viewed in isolation no one poll will tell you very much beyond what you want to read into it. Looked at over a reasonable time-span and, if there are enough polls, you [...]
I have just heard the news broadcast and I am pleased to hear the African union members have started to talk tough on the election result in Zimbabwe. The President of Botswana has made in public what must be the feeling of most of the African leaders that he feels that the recent election did not reflect the wishes of the people of Zimbabwe and referred to the election as illegal. He...
Just as thought that it was getting rather easy then out of the blue arrives, the next delivery to go out in the ward. Well I suppose that I should not be surprised as I have been part of its production. Oh well time to get out the walking shoes and to pound those pavements again. I know that none of you will feel sorry for me and nor should you either I have clearly...
Bless him. Guido reports that a beleagured Gordon Brown was recently reduced to asking Downing Street functionaries how to switch off auto-complete on his email account. He'd typed in 'Wend' in order to send a mail to Bendy Wendy Alexander. Sadly, he didn't notice that the auto-complete had done its dirty work and ended up publishing his innermost thoughts on parochial Scottish matters to the
Best news story ever. This story really has it all. If it wasn't July (It's Canada Day today, s it happens) I'd suspect it was an April Fool. The BBC article is a gem. It's written as absolutely level reportage which suits the total surreality of the situation. Every deadpan answer to an obvious question adds another leve. Who else would be dealing with the situation but bee experts? Why didn't I already realise that wet bees get angry? And why am I not surprised that the only casualty involved was a journalist who was - wait for it - ...
It is a great shame that there has not been more outcry from Leaders in Africa over Robert Mugabe's sham election of intimidation and violence. It got me thinking what happened to that shipload (An Yue Jiang) of weapons that China had sent to South Africa and port workers had refused to unload as they were destined for Zimbabwe. It seems it ended up in Angola, one of Mugabe's allies, but I could not find any more reference to it apart from that Angola would only unload what was destined for them. With only Zambia between Angola and Zimbabwe and ... 
It seems Kingston has significantly fewer obese children and adults, teenage pregnancies, or binge drinking adults compared with the rest of England. Fewer women smoke in pregnancy and more breastfeed; more children are in good health; more adults eat healthily, fewer have diabetes, and there are fewer early deaths from smoking, heart disease, stroke and cancer. All that makes Kingston...
Not to taint them all with the same brush, there are some MEP's who do their work dilligently. However, this video is shocking, even if it has been sensationalised.
{Erleigh_rd_bins_001} It seems the new bottle banks on Erleigh Road have proved very popular with local residents. So much so, we have received reports that they are regularly overflowing! We have raised this issue with Council officers directly and pressed them to increase frequency of emptying. Officers have responded by saying that these banks will now be emptied every two weeks (instead of the standard every four weeks). We will continue to monitor the situation to check the banks are being emptied regularly enough. I am not surprised at all to see the popularity of glass recycling in Redlands, particularly ...
Scrutiny Overview Committee The majority of this committee was given over to discussing a draft proposal for new CO2 emission based permit charges. This was pre-decision scrutiny before the report was submitted to the Executive. A report had been submitted stating that a number of other London boroughs had introduced such schemes, generally based on the [...]
There's been a lot of interest in the news that Waitrose is seeking to replace Woolworths at the Angel. The Gazette and the Tribune have covered the story, so has the Londonist website and there's even a Facebook group. (One of Ben Kinsella's last acts was to join it.) I've had lots of emails supporting my [...]
A number of Darfuri asylum seekers have recently been informed by the Home Office of their imminent deportation to Sudan. One Darfuri individual in particular, Abubaker Yousef Mohamad, is due to be deported on 13 July 2008. While the Home Office had halted all deportations of Darfuri asylum seekers in late 2007 in light of fresh evidence of torture of Darfuris upon their return to Khartoum, it
I do not envy Kenneth Clarke. Tasked by the pretender to the throne to come up with an answer to the West Lothian question, his answer was always going to be half baked. Crusty on the outside, soft and nougatty on the inside. The problem is that Parliament is supreme. After the next general election the Conservatives, if in power, could decide to turn their past opposition to devolution into policy and completely abolish the devolved Parliament and Assemblies. If this were to happen and the West Lothian question had been answered, simply by saying English votes on English matters, ...
German President Horst Köhler has refused to complete the ratification of the EU Reform Treaty until a legal challenge is heard by the country's constitutional court.
{Fgw} You may remember the Lib Dem campaign earlier in the year calling for First Great Western (FGW) to be held to account for it's poor performance. The Council backed our call unanimously and we are pleased to invite you this Thursday to a public meeting to discuss this issue. This is a very important event and I believe the first of it's kind to be held in Reading. First Great Western is officially the UK's worst-performing rail company, and thousands of people travelling from Reading to London every day (and I should know as I am one of them!) ...
In traditional reverse order, here are the ten postings which have proved the most popular over the last three months: 10. The morning after the night before: the moment when it looked like Paxman might punch Johnson - one of the (few) TV highlights of the London Mayor election: Boris Johnson flounders over his bus policy. 9. The real lesson of the 10p tax rate fiasco - it wasn't just the tax policy that was wrong, it was the whole way we do budgets. 8. What will Boris Johnson be like as Mayor of London? - no prizes for guessing ...
The tragic and violent death at just 16 of Ben Kinsella has shocked people all over Islington. My heart goes out to Ben's family and many friends, it's so awful. It was late on Sunday night, after the football, that I heard that the latest victim was Ben. The death of a young person is equally [...]
The following are recent press stories. What is unclear is to what extent they are anecdotal stories about things that are not more common or whether in fact these cases are now more common. I am getting concerns from practitioners that the Common Assessment Framework is making things harder. Although we no longer have adoption targets, that does not mean that the system has stopped making
Sarah Kennedy (left) and Andy Murray (right) As I mentioned yesterday, I am getting tired of the Home Counties (Anglo-Saxon, in the main) set moaning about Andy Murray. This morning it all fell into sharp focus at 6.50am. Sarah Kennedy (and I know Kennedy is a Celt-ish name, before you mention it, but she was born in East Grinstead) said on her Radio Two show that she didn't warm to Andy Murray
Planning consent has been granted for a new student block next to the current waterside court building that has occupied for students 4 years ago. We have been successful in getting a new bus pull in outside of the proposed new building and have also asked for the consideration of a bus shelter at this location. The new student block will house over 300 students and we have...
Writing in today's Guardian, Nick Clegg said: [Henley] showed us that the evaporation of New Labour's support in southern England - so carefully put together in the 1990s by Tony Blair, Peter Mandelson and Alastair Campbell - is now complete. So what hope is there left for progressive voters in Britain? Has Cameron's aversion to spelling out [...]
www.bebo.com/libdemsupporter It has been reported that Pendle Labour Group Leader Cllr Mohammed Iqbal's son is a member of a bebo group that is meant to be for Lib Dem supporters. This just shows that even the children of Labour politicians accept the Liberal Democrats are better so they join the Lib Dem supporters group on bebo. I hope that this sends a message to the people of Pendle that the Labour Leader's son is a lib dem supporter and they are the best party to make a change for the better in Pendle. So Elect the Lib Dems to deal ...
Ken Clarke is that rare beast, a Tory people like and respect, rather like the Blessed Vince, whose popularity goes far beyond our party. Clarke has come up with an interesting idea to allow English MPs only to scrutinise English legislation with it ultimately being passed by the whole House of Commons but, crucially, with Scottish MPs (the piece didn't mention Welsh MPs) not being able to reject any amendments English MPs have put into the bill. This is a useful addition to the debate over the legendary West Lothian question, although it seems much too messy for me. The ...
For people used to the massive increases in the UK the fact that France faces only a 10% increase gives pause for thought. The problem is that our system essentially prices all gas at the marginal price rather than the marginal consumption. I don't think this is a sustainable mechanism in an era of increasing constraints on supply.
A 'traditionalist' Anglican priest was on the Today programme this morning spouting off about God's ministry meaning that women must be treated as second class citizens in the church (I may be putting these particular words into his mouth...) and that there should not be women bishops. The point was made by the interviewer that it is because Jesus had 12 male apostles that the traditionalists believe that all priests should be men. Well, my family vicar - buried my sister and my mother, christened me, my brother and my son, married me and my wife - is a lovely ...
So, I am back and the weekend seems to have passed relatively peacefully. Blogging might be a bit patchy now as I make preparations to move...sometimes in life you have to pick up the dice and aim for a hard 6 as I am often fond of saying. Somewhat in that spirit I enjoyed Nick Clegg's piece in the Guardian. It reminded me of why I chose to join the Lib Dems. In it he affirms a third way of sorts but it has significantly more substance than that; he rightly distances us from both Labour and the Conservatives. Criticising ...
What to make of the news that Steve Morgan has been put in charge of foreign media relations when the Democrats hold their convention next month and could once more play a role in a Presidential campaign, this time for Barrack Obama? Mr. Morgan is of course a partner in the public affairs company, Morgan Allen Moore. He was Peter Hain's campaign manager when he ran for Deputy Leader of the Labour Party and has worked on two previous Presidential campaigns, for Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004. He also worked for the Hillary Clinton campaign in ...
Don't forget, the polls will be open from 7am - 10pm on Thursday to allow you to vote in a referendum. The question on the ballot paper will ask whether or not you want to scrap the current way that the Council is run, and replace it with an elected Mayor. If people vote "Yes," we will have a Mayor, and won't be able to review the decision for at least 10 years. I will be voting "NO" for lots of reasons. Yesterday I talked about how the "Yes" campaigns rumours about congestion charging are not true. Today is my ...
At last fuel prices are high enough to start making people think. I'm not saying it isn't painful that we have to pay way over a £1 for a litre of fuel or that we see our utility bills continually increasing. But, as we reach or even pass the peak oil point, prices had to increase and no one can say that they weren't warned. Some say the high prices are a blip, caused by commodity traders, but I have a feeling that higher prices are here to stay. Even if the price per barrel of crude oil drops at ...
Benjamin Redsell, a Suffolk Conservative county councillor (who left the party after being charged), has admitted 11 sex offences (more on the BBC). Wear Valley's Liberal Democrat leader Tommy Taylor has resigned: A council leader who refused to apologise after describing three women officers as "nice bits of stuff" has resigned due to "ill health." Wear Valley Council's [...]
Today we get evidence in the Daily Telegraph of Boris' well paid weekend job. What a joy it is! Every word is worth the £4.98 which Boris gets paid for it. Not. It is entitled: 'If sitting on our backsides were a sport, we'd be world champions'. (Boris will be on a float leading the Gay Pride March at the weekend - but I am sure that is a coincidence). What a wise man he is. Here's 15 quids
Talk about being on the edge of your seat watching the tennis last night - Murray's epic five set victory over Gasquet(whoever was booing him on and off court ought to be ashamed of themselves -when you've got to go, you've got to go!)was fantastic fun to watch - Wimbledon is really good this year. I think I said in my last post that I thought Tipsarevic would get through but he lost to Schuettler instead. Ladies singles quarter finals today - men's tomorrow!
There are two conditions from which returning holiday makers suffer. There is the slight depression caused by having to go to work and earn a living. And there is the excitement of being able to tell everyone how good a time was had whilst abroad. So it was with a mixture of both that I went into the office yesterday. And with 1180 emails waiting for me, I had plenty to keep me occupied. They
On the whole, Lib Dems can probably be broadly satisfied with our current performance. The latest poll I've seen (from ComRes in the Independent) puts us on 18% - so, despite a significant Tory revival, we have not been squeezed. One might reasonably argue that we should have done better out of Labour's current demise, but [...]
My Lib Dem colleague, Councillor Richard Oglethorpe, is determined to keep hammering away at the issue of the pension fund and investment in arms. The Merseyside Pension Fund is responsible for pensions for local authority staff all over Merseyside. But many people have been concerned for some time that not all the investments made could be described as 'ethical'. Liverpool City Council has made a number of attempts to change this, which so far have not succeeded. Richard's latest motion is calling for a ballot of the Pension Fund Members. The motion, which is going to the City Council meeting, ...
Wow yesterday was a busy day here at my old blog, ironically I hadn't post anything. Was too busy with work, ended up leaving as Andy Murray had just rallied to win the third set and recieved a barage of text messages saying 'Ain't this great', while all I went was, huh? Although the rest of the week is far from quiet after all the second quarter has just ended I'll be doing my best to keep
So when did trimmings in school architecture go the way of the dinosaurs? Was it with the end of the Victorian and Edwardian obssession with education. The building of a new school was a major things - supported by benfactors, enthused by the population - it was part of an aspiration that lifted people up and out. Now there feels like no such pride - schools are protected by a moral good, a sense that whilst we want standards to rise schools are not to blame and teachers have made a vocational choice. Yet I am convinced that much is ...
Yesterday in Edinburgh a Home Office Minister came to outline proposals to businessmen and local government officials of the government's ID card scheme. The campaign group NO2ID had requested to attend this consultation but were refused at every turn. Yesterday outside the hotel NO2ID held a protest as the people attending this meeting turned up. Some managed to get into the meeting room in
At next week's Overview and Scrutiny meeting there is a motion on Operation Black Vote and the possibility of more mentoring schemes. The issue for us is that it would be easy, particularly if you are in a minority group, to feel that being a councillor or getting involved in politics 'isn't for people like me'. And taking the first steps can be very difficult, particularly if you are disadvantaged by, for example, people's views of your disability. Anyway I have spoken to the person responsible for the motion and said I am happy to take developing this idea further ...
It should not seem so revolutionary that a grandfather should win an appeal in the court of appeal. However, it is. The first problem for grandparents is to get into the family court to be able to argue their case. The courts resist this in cases that I am aware of and the system makes it very difficult. The only reason why the grandfather got contact in this instance was that the
I have a letter in the Bury Times and Prestwich and Whitefield Guide. Elected Mayor would be the Wrong Decision There are many reasons why I will be voting NO to an Elected Mayor for Bury in the referendum next Thursday. Not least is the fact that this extra position is likely to cost an extra £1 million in its first year - a complete waste of public money that we believe would be better spent on improved local services. The salary for an elected mayor alone is likely to be more than is spent on street repairs in a ...
We're in bed, and we have a DVD on, as we do, and it's the Beowulf that Neil Gaiman did the script for. It's beautifully shot and gorgeously lit, and acceptably CGIed... and yet... It's not captured my interest at all. Apart from the guy with the pretty bottom, obviously. Anybody else seen this? What do you think?
The politics of fear has been something that has been constantly present within the Middle East and rarely does the politics of bridge building get a chance whether it is through the press that hungrily looks for the 'negative angle' or whether it is through politicians who want to keep the status quo in place. It is this politics of fear that has played a role within the Middle East for centuries and whilst there is a legitimate basis for many of the historical crises, the ingrained response of fear now shapes the language, discourse, outlook and character of governments ... | < | July 2008 | > | ||||
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