LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Thursday 17th July 2008

Refuse Collection Information Following Strike Action

North East Lincolnshire Council would ask residents effected as a result of the strike on Wednesday, July 16 and Thursday July 17 to present any excess domestic waste for collection on the next scheduled day of collection. Every effort will be made to clear the back log and we ask residents to present their waste as early as possible after 7am to aid the refuse collection crews. Residents are asked not to leave excess garden waste in bags. Contents of garden bins will be emptied on the next scheduled collection day.Garden and cardboard waste from households is also accepted at ...

Plagiarising policies

I know the Lib Dems are always on about how terrible it is that other parties plagiarise our own policies and take the credit, and I thoroughly approve of today's "Making it Happen" announcement and policy document at least as to direction. But might I humbly suggest that when our people are scrambling around in the bowels of government looking for these savings that seem to have been promised by every aspiring government since Nebuchadnezzar they could do a lot worse than to shamelessly borrow these fellow travellers' ideas on demolishing the QUANGOcracy. There. £64bn savings. Done!

Systemic Fiscal Reform (Neale Upstone)

Neale Upstone over there in "Tabs" joins the Lib Dem LVT supporting section of the blogosphere...welcome Neale!

Rediscovering Doctor Who

I have loved Doctor Who ever since the first episode I ever watched - the last of Planet of the Spiders, when Jon Pertwee regenerated into Tom Baker. I have attended several conventions where I have met Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy, as well as Sophie Aldred (Ace) and Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah-Jane Smith). My daughter's middle name is Elisabeth, partly in tribute to my favourite Doctor Who companion. Imagine my delight that she is now becoming a huge fan of the programme. We have spent the last few nights watching the last half few episodes of ...

trying to get the facts over

There has been a lot of exchanges of views in the local press about the Councillors allowances in Stockton, but few facts. I had been attacked in a letter in the Evening Gazette as making the oddest comment - based on a curtailed quote out of context! So I set to and wrote a letter setting out the facts. The editor is unable to publish it is too long for the letters page, so an amended letter...

Kings Cross access - public meeting a great success

Last night my colleague Jo Shaw & I were in the front row for the public meeting organised by the Kings Cross Access campaign. The campaign is demanding a bridge to keep east-west pedestrian and bike access when Kings Cross station is rebuilt. The campaign has backing across the board. Jo & I brought messages [...]

The Agony and the Ecstasy

Walking down Fetter Lane in the City of London earlier today, I thought I was dreaming as I heard a — clearly live — performance of Chopin, brilliantly played. But no, my senses were not deceiving me. Round a corner, in New Street Square, the gifted young Polish-Canadian pianist Berenika Zakrzewski was playing in the open air a grand [...]

Email newsletter written and waiting

I wrote our email newsletter eFocus this evening before leaving the office. It is edition number 51, not a bad total for a publication I invented only 5 years ago. Those eagerly awaiting it include certain members of the Labour party. I guess you people have written your election leaflet now, to get it out over this coming weekend for the postal votes arriving next week. In which case, sadly for

Guardian blog, 16 July

It's been a quiet few days on the blog front - a combination of lots of meetings, being a bit poorly last week, and being away for my birthday last weekend. Tonight is catch-up including, if time permits, a bit of a blogathon.... there are lots of things I'm wanting to write up. Meanwhile my [...]

If society is broken, it's only following its 'leaders'

If, as the media and certain politicians seem to want us to believe, we have a "broken society " (whatever on earth that might actually mean), surely it is just reflecting how "broken" its leadership, government, has become. And I don't mean just the current Labour government. I mean government as an institution, even our democracy itself, if you will. The state and its agents and those who act with its protection have routinely perpetrated force, violence and coercion, against their own citizens, against other countries, for aeons. The whole model is based on us surrendering some of our personal ...

Chinese forums can influence their Government

Chinese forums have been used for people to get their opinion out and voice opposition to the Government, in a world were the media is controlled and it's hard to hear the truth. A building in Sichuan which had cost the Chinese £90m, was moved into by the Government just after the Sichuan Earthquake. Forums were bombarded by angry messages and the news spread. There were of course also rare angry scenes against the Government after the collapse of schools while other buildings stood strong. So the Government is going to sell the building. So it is possible for the ...

Pope against the way the World is

I have been quite critical of the pope recently such as accusing him of interfering, whilst having ago at there opposition to Women Bishops. There is more I could criticise him for such as the attitude towards condoms. The pope does of course say some good stuff as well and I probably have more to agree with him on than disagree. However I am going to have to point out strange things he said today, in his speaking against today's evil culture. He speaking about things such as on television, 'I ask myself, could anyone standing face to face with ...

Testing, testing

While looking for something quite different (honest), I came across this website paying tribute to TV test cards past and present. Well, mainly past, since broadcasting is such a 24/7 operation these days. As well as the famous 'test card F' - why didn't they call it 'still life with girl, clown and blackboard'? - there [...]

Young people? There's more to it than knife crime!

Women's Parliamentary Radio have put up their piece with me:You can listen to our audio report of Lynne defending young people here. It's not all knife crime... there's much more to being young.

US life expectancy lowest in MEDCs

'America's health care system is second only to Japan, Canada, Sweden, Great Britain, well...all of Europe. But you can thank your lucky stars we don't live in Paraguay!' Homer Simpson (Although humorous the episode touches on important issues. Homer needs a triple by-pass but doesn't have medical care, and eventually ends up being operated on by a dodgy doctor. I don't watch the Simpsons much anymore-honest!) Homer may not have been far from the truth. Charities in the US are saying the life expectancy is the worst in the developed World! It's probably not surprising, the US is the only ...

Rwandan leaders to become immune

The Rwandan Parliament has voted to change the constitution to make Presidents immune from prosecution. This is especially for the current President Kagame. Kagame is the leader of the RPF who took control over Rwanda in 1994, finishing the Rwandan Genocide. He is accused by two French and Spanish Judges for causing the Rwandan Genocide, which killed over 800,000 people in just 100 days in a country of just over 6million. At the end 2million refugees fled to Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo) which led to two deadly civil wars, the second of which killed 4million people, the deadliest ...

Make it happen

This Make it Happen idea is brilliant. We are always talking about how to show what the LibDems are about and in this Nick Clegg shows clearly what the LibDems are about, and how this is relevant to our needs today. Now all we need to do is get the 'Make it Happen' idea out to the people.

Should S. Africa legalise prostitution for 2010?

South Africa is concidering legalising prostitution for the 2010 Fifa World Cup. Of course religious and political groups have made a big fuss about it. The reason why it would be neccessary is so they could control the industry rather than battling against an illegal industry which organised crime would benefit from. If not legalised, thousands will be human trafficked illegally to South Africa, thinking they are going to good work, but instead will be used as sex slaves. It would be certain to happen. But by legalising it, the Government could keep the industry regulated. Australia has managed to ...

Clegg;- 'Make it happend'

http://www.libdems.org.uk/index_makeithappen.html On the link above Nick Clegg has set out his plans for Britain. The plans by Nick i believe are the way forward unlike the Conservatives the Leader of the Liberal Democrats wants to tell the people the policies and campaigns of the Liberal Democrats up front and unlike other political parties Nick and the Liberal Democrats are not covering up their policies hoping to ride through a General Election by criticizing the opposition. Well please visit the link and then learn what the Liberal Democrats can offer the country which i believe is a lot!

Fierce fighting in Mogadishu again

Once again there has been fierce fighting in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. The Government, and insurgents have been exchanging heavy artillery fire. They both claim to have won, so it's most likely both sides lost. The west has of course conveniently forgotten about Somalia. The US were a bit worried when the United Islamic Courts controlled half the country (which had actually bought stability, despite their evil harsh rule) in case they were involved with Al qaeda. So the US was quite happy to see Ethiopia intervene on behalf of the weak transitional Government. Now the Islamic insurgents are ...

Courage defeats our petty politics

Today has been spent on a work "Organisational Development" day, at the type of grim hotel frequented only by desolate business people on training courses, and couples conducting illicit affairs. Despite the lacklustre surroundings, it was an excellent day, the undoubted highlight of which was the closing speaker - Simon Weston OBE, best known for being the most seriously wounded survivor of the Falklands War. His is a remarkable story of triumph in the face of unimaginable adversity, and a reminder not only of his own courage, but of the sacrifices being made by service men and women for the ...

Economy not as bad as thought?

Are the media making us fear economic problems more than necessary? How many times have you heard the word 'recession' recently on the news? It is quite scary stuff, well seems it for me, as I am unable to remember experiencing a recession. The idea of a recession seems to place doubt on plans and stability. Well the IMF says things aren't as bad as they had thought, they've increased the global growth forecast up to 4.1& up from 3.7% in April. The UK is expected to experience growth of just 1.8%, but you can compare that with 1.5% in ...

Government minister: we may still introduce the big, mad database

Coruscating criticism from the Information Commission of the idea of putting together a huge new database of all our emails, mobile calls and internet use hasn't put Labour off the idea. Instead government minister Lord West has told Parliament that, "it is very early days as to where we go on this." In other words - [...]

Campaigning Abroad

Yesterday afternoon I took the Eurostar over to Brussels where I was the guest speaker at the Brussels and Europe Liberal Democrat Garden Party. This rather unusual local party has 200 members, many of whom work for the European institutions in Brussels as well as lobby groups, think tanks and businesses. Reflecting its wider membership, guests turned up from Cologne and Luxembourg to enjoy the evening sunshine and a barbeque. I was shocked to discover from one guest that the UK government has closed the passport office in the city, so that when one of the many thousands of British ...

For the Record

This is a response to some strange statements made in the 17th July edition of the Folkestone Herald. 1. I continue to be a member of the Liberal Democrats and have been since 15th August 1987 despite the events of last year. I am a Liberal and have been a card carrying one all my adult life. 2. Claims that I 'cannot communicate face to face' don't wash. If I can't communicate face to face why have I been asked today to spend more time (an extra 35 days) in Croatia delivering training, coaching and mentoring to business support service ...

EU Treatry ratification - An utterly pointless exercise ?

You might be forgiven for think that Gordon Brown pushing through the ratification of the EU reform treaty today was a pointless exercise, and you' d be right. But given the fact that Labour have been deluged with bad stories coming one after another, you'd have to think it was a wise 'political' decision to do it, even if it was an exercise in futility. Whilst the EU reform treaty remained unratified, it sat there like a festering sore. It could be referred to again and again by the opposition to the Treaty and in Europe too countries could point ...

How bloody clever are those people at Nintendo ?

I have to say as a 'gamer' sinfe the age of 12 when my parents bought a Sinclair ZX Spectrum, I have loved computer games and in particular I love everything that Nintendo do. So watching the clip at THIS link just makes me even more impressed with Nintendo.

Me & my Big Mouth

They say that with all politicians that we often get a rush of blood to the head. Well I certainly did in the middle of May this year. I became the Mayor of Bath on May 17th and some of you may have seen the Mayor of Bath's blog that I have been putting together. Well that rush of blood has committed me to running the Bath Half Marathon in March next year something that I...

It's official: Davis campaign was a total failure

Politics Home, via their panel of 5000 voters, has found that, since he resigned and was re-elected, David Davis is more unpopular and oppostion to 42 days detention has actually decreased. The only good news for Davis is that more people know who he is, so the prospects of excellent sales for his (no doubt) forthcoming memoirs have been boosted by the use of £180,000 of taxpayers money to hold

New Student accommodation building started.

The building of New Student accommodation has started on the Lower Bristol Road alongside the existing 315 bed student block at Waterside Court. The new accommodation will accommodate over 300 more students in a new purpose built building. As local councillors with have managed to ensure that the building is more sympathetic to the natural environment and will blend in with...

What Are We Making of 'Make It Happen'?

Like most, I was somewhat taken aback by Mr Clegg's burst onto the meeja scene today. His announcement of our seemingly-pre-manifesto 'Make It Happen' policy document (take note, Dave) and headline case for cutting the tax burden certainly caught one off-balance. Now though, we have had a few hours for it to sink in and the reaction within Lib Dem blog circles seems extremely positive. At risk of coming over a tad Pravda, here are some quotations to demonstrate the point: "Now this is what i voted Nick Clegg for!" (Liberal Revolution blog) "It's pretty much exactly what I wanted ...

Can Clegg make it happen in the papers?

Today Nick Clegg launched 'Make it happen' described as a 'a statement of the party's vision and values.' Reaction is so far slow - with only The Independent giving any serious comment to it in the shape of a leader column. Its verdict is favourable:'Mr Clegg has a mandate from his party and he deserves an upturn in his party's fortunes, which has eluded him all these months. Perhaps today will see the start of it.'Whether other papers are staying quiet over lack of interest, or because they weren't given advanced copies, we don't know - but we'll be watching ...

Impressive Clegg launch of 'Make it happen'

The normal LibDem web site has been 'fronted' by a glossy promo (above) for 'Make it happen'. This, I presume, is another title for the 'Vision and Values' policy document heralded in the Independent this morning.I would call this a 'pre-manifesto' and it is impressive. I particularly like the way it starts with the emphasis on the fact that ordinary people are struggling to make ends meet, with

End of term

As it is the end of term, a piece of irrelevant gossip in the form of a rhetorical question. Which senior Assembly Member was asked to leave a Cardiff Bay pub last night for smoking in the bar?

Bones Commission: take a deep breath and count to ten

One supposedly 'friendly' leak to the Times and the Lib Dem blogging community are all a-flutter. Perhaps we need to get this into perspective. There will be no proposals requiring immediate constitutional change, as promised at the beginning. There will not be a power grab by the Leader, because we would need to be convinced to grant him greater powers anyway (read the constitution, dull but

Over land and under sea - the campaign goes international!

Having watched Ros hand an award to Eurostar on Tuesday night, Wednesday saw us heading for St Pancras to catch a train to Brussels for an evening garden party at the home of Lawrence Meredith, vice-chair of Brussels and Europe Liberal Democrats. The Eurostar experience is pretty fantastic, and the journey to the Channel Tunnel passes by in a flash - so much better than the old trundle through

Jonathan Fryer's Diary of a Euro-candidate

Saturday The sun shines on London Pride, as fellow London Euro-candidates Dinti Batstone, Christopher Le Breton, John Pindar and I march with members of the LibDem LGBT campaigning group, DELGA. They have arranged a stall right in front of the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. While Nick Clegg addresses the rally there, our Euro-team hands [...]

Make it Happen Lib Dem front page

I've got a thing about Lib Dem front pages. An unhealthy, soul-destroying obsession if you will. And today's offering from party HQ? Well, it's just made me moist: The Make it Happen mini-manifesto (due to be debated at Autumn Conference) doesn't look bad either. This post has been rated "18" for high levels of superficiality.

Make it happen

Now this is what i voted Nick Clegg for! I've said it once, and i'll say it again, we are in the lead of all the parties when it comes to the net. I like the way the pdf looks - it feels modern and is modern. I think the emphasis on giving people power by breaking [...]

Jeez, now they've gone and changed the party website!

Wow, stunningly crisp new front page to the party's website (www.libdems.org.uk) with perhaps slightly too big a picture of Nickers on it but a really dramatic change. I'm getting lost with all these innovations at once. I wonder what Dave would do...

Prevention or Cure Prime Minister?

'The more important thing that we are doing is investing £15 billion over the next 10 years in trying to find cures to diseases including cancer and skin cancer.' Wake up Gordon! Yes folks that is how our Prime Minster opened his answer yesterday to the following question from Jo Swinson: The most rapidly increasing type of cancer in this country is skin cancer, of which there are more than

A Modest Proposal for Reform of the House of Lords

If you look it up on Wikipedia, the word "senate" comes from senex meaning "old-man". The idea of a council of elders, to advise the government or king, probably goes back to the earliest days of humanity. Plato argued that there should be a class of Guardians who are responsible for the management of society itself: soldiers and rulers. These would be the best sort of people, with particular excellences of character suited to governing and defending the city-state. It was, therefore, an aristocracy - where aristocracy means rule by the best. He also had plenty of other crazy ideas ...

Clegg launches 'Make it Happen' with call to cut taxes

The party website has a blue mast-head, a youthful leader and a call to cut taxes for low- and middle-income earners: yes, the Lib Dems' leader Nick Clegg has today launched the party's new 'Make it Happen' policy and consultation document, and made an unequivocal pitch to voters wanting to kick Labour out of office [...]

Mr Steen's Missing Expenses

The expenses of seven Conservative MPs, including my neighbour, Anthony Steen MP, are missing from a list of expense claims by MPs published yesterday. Mr Steen, who in the past has been criticised b...

Graduation day is coming!

Tomorrow the first of our PR degree students will be graduating. I will be off to Lancaster to join the procession, wearing my academic gown (I don't have one in the wardrobe - it gets hired in). I am sitting here looking out at the rain hoping for MUCH better weather for them tomorrow. But in advance congratulations to Kirsty Bagnall, Charlotte Maitland, Victoria Metcalf and Laura Sanderson - our first ever BA(Hons) graduates from Edge Hill in Public Relations.

Welsh NHS has leaked confidential data

There is a summary on the BBC news site. What is particularly disturbing is the carelessness with which information about children at risk has been treated.

Day 2754: Petrol Tanks as the Economy Tanks

Wednesday: Mr Clogg foretells a 'winter of economic misery' for the Prime Monster as inflation hits an 11-year high, nearly DOUBLE Mr Frown's target; as schools and libraries across the country close because council workers are on strike for a pay rise that will let them go on EATING; and as Sooty performs a TOTALLY UNSURPRISING U-Turn on green tax. So, surprisingly, it's all going rather well for the man who claims to have written all the Government's economic policies: Master Gideon Oboe. Really: you keep claiming they've nicked your policies; we're going to notice that those policies are RUBBISH! ...

Video: 'Its time for some campaigning'

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Can we have a proper debate on the party constitution, Mr Clegg?

Yesterday's Times had a report claiming: Mr Clegg, who became leader in December, plans to turn the party's traditional structure on its head, centralising all decision-making under a new "chief officers group" and diluting the roles of its committees. Interestingly, the report was predicated on the supposed fact that all the good things in the current Lib Dem constitution came from the SDP and all the bad things came from the Liberal party. That gives a pretty big clue as to who has been briefing The Times. In response to this report Nick Clegg had a short article on Liberal ...

A Topsy Turvy World - Cameron or Clegg on tax?

Arriving home in the early hours from the Liberal International AGM last night I heard the news about Nick's plans to cut taxes on 5 Live. This novel idea was not news to me, it had been discussed at FPC last week, which elicited my (measured!) response that whilst I had no problem with cutting taxes at the bottom end, I was concerned about where the cuts would be coming from to pay for such cuts. Presumably this was rushed out in response to David Cameron's 'we may have to put taxes up' comment. Has the world gone completely mad?????! ...

questions raised over BRT scheme in Bath

Liberal Democrats are raising serious questions about the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) scheme which forms part of the £54m Bath Transport Package (BTP). There are doubts surrounding the information which has been given out to residents and the assumptions on which the BRT is based. Newbridge Councillor Caroline Roberts says that the main questions relate to the segregated section of the BRT...

Nickers on outside his trousers and ready for action

There's a short but interesting post from Nickers himself over on Libdemvoice in which he gives a brief pep talk about the party structure and says a General Election could come at any time in the next few months. Nickers has also been in the general media talking about how a LD government would cut taxes for those who need it nost (as mentioned in an earlier post). There are reports that he plans to change the party structure to make it a bit more streamlined. Finally, in my inbox this morning there was a message about a series of ...

The sandpit, the cycling and the community choir

The Kilburn Festival is now a fixed date in the annual calendar for north london and this year was no exception. It was great weather and for one of the most deceptively large parks in north london is was a superb event: dancing, music, stalls, food (wow, food!) it was really good... A huge thank you to Caroline Bourne and her team at the Kilburn partnership - it was a real credit to their power of organisation, motivation and teamwork. The festival is is it's ninth year - roll on many man more... The dancers, the recycling facilities, the youth ...

When in Shropshire be sure to visit The Bog

From Shropshire County Council's website: The unusually named Bog Visitor Centre, is the old school house and one of last remaining buildings from The Bog Village, demolished in 1972. The centre is the only visitor facility for the Stiperstones upland region in the heart of the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and provides a wealth of information about its mining history, its people, and the current work to restore the surrounding landscape. The centre is staffed by a team of volunteers, who have set themselves up as the Bog Visitor Centre Volunteer Group. Members of the group are ...

Ticky boxes, on the Internet

I would like to urge any party members who may be reading, and didn't take part in Liverpool this Spring, to go along and contribute to this survey being conducted by Ros Scott. For those too lazy to go and read why she wants your answers, she has this to say: I've always believed that our members and activists are the ones who define what this party is about...I'm primarily interested in getting a snapshot of some of the internal Party issues occupying you right now. For example, what should come first: electing MPs or Councillors? How can we win ...

America grows up and talks to iran

Fantastic news that someone, somewhere in the US administration has come to their senses and realised that launching yet another war in the middle east (or west Asia if you want to be pedantic) will not achieve what they want it to achieve. Instead they plan to talk to the Iranians in Geneva. It's days like these that make you think it might just be all right after all. Well done the USA and please think about a little more of this.

We need a separate Department of Energy

Full marks to Alexis Rowell on the Belsize LibDem blog, who deserves a pat on the back for his excellent post entitled: The rising cost of food and energy. It has set me thinking quite deeply. But one thing the article has jolted me to ponder on is the need for a separate Department of Energy in government, with its own Secretary of State. Wikipedia tells the history of the Department of Energy

'Clegg shines at PMQs' - Spectator

Fraser Nelson on the Spectator Coffee House blog has highly complimented Nick Clegg for his performance at this week's PMQs: ...I'd give Nick Clegg the best attack line. He went on the economy, and raised the prospect of a Winter of Discontent. One of the Treasury bench smiled here, which gave Clegg a great chance to say "I don't know why he's smiling when unemployment today is up for its

Tory tax territory taken

Nice one Nickers with the headline today about a future LD govcernment cutting taxes for those who need it. The BBC report is at http://tinyurl.com/6b28k3 (sorry, still can't do links...) I'm very impressed with this approach. More of the same please!

Tall Ships Information- important

USE PUBLIC TRANSPORT FOR A WEEKEND OF PLAIN SAILING Visitors heading to Liverpool for The Tall Ships' Races 2008 are being urged to leave their car at home. An estimated 800,000 people are expected to flock to the UK's European Capital of Culture, from Friday, July 18 to Monday, July 21, to witness one of the largest Tall Ships' fleets ever seen in British waters. A total of 60 Tall Ships - including some of the world's biggest - will be on show in the host port from 12 noon on Friday in the Albert and Canning Docks systems and ...

Camilla Cavendish

The link is to today's article. The CYP Bill is returning in the first week of October which gives the first opportunity to put some of these things right.

Lib Dems to cut taxes?

There's been surprisingly little response in the Lib Dem blogosphere to the story on the BBC today that Nick Clegg is proposing that the Liberal Democrats should be offering tax cuts at the next General Election rather than increasing them or keeping them as they are. The silence on the issue is in many ways [...]

The lottery of getting there

Whilst Ros was handing out awards, I was enjoying the company of our table. Amongst those gathered with Alan Dedicot, the voice of the National Lottery (he was working as the disembodied emcee) and, unexpectedly, Tamsin Dunwoody, recipient of this year's worst political hospital pass. Tamsin was there to collect a posthumous award to her mother, Gwyneth, for services to transport, and was in

A&E will not return to Burnley thanks to Labour and the Conservatives

The Health chief did not listen to the Liberal Democrats and all the campaigns started by the Lib Dem's instead went ahead with the decision that our Local MP's have been playing along with all the time since the closure. Our Local MP's in Burnley and Pendle were playing party politics with health chief's and they ignored what the people of Burnley and Pendle and what the Liberal Democrats were saying. So I ask for Mr Prentice and his party to really come up with a solid apology because the people of Pendle and Burnley are not happy with ...

Take away plan - Melbreck Avenue

I have today written to the Council's planning department with my objection to the application for a takeaway at 140 Melbreck Road (this is currently a garage/storage). My letter talks about a number of problems. This is right by a junction with a roundabout and there are already a lot of safety issues there which are worsened when anyone stops a car (which obviously they will do if there is a takeaway there). It's also already a hot spot in terms of litter and has become a corner the police are now worried about too. Because as Councillors we were ...

Clegg's bold tax cutting plans

The Independent gives about as much detail as if available so far on Nick Clegg's bold tax cutting plans, which are being announced today. A policy document called 'Vision and Values' (which sounds like a pre-manifesto to me) is mentioned and it all sounds very exciting. Spending cuts, tax cuts. A bit like the Conservative manifesto 1992....no - only joking. This is some of what the Indie says:

Your Community Matters Meeting - Cressington Ward

I went to the Your Community Matters meeting for Cressington Ward last night. The YCM meetings are ward based and are intended to give people a chance to come along and discuss issues - but also to help identify priorities for their area. An example - last night we had a report back on a priority which had been identified previously. This was about carrying out a survey of young people as it was felt that we don't always fully understand their needs/thoughts etc. The report back showed that funding had been found and plans drawn up and that there ...

Time for Some Campaignin'

The new political video from the hilarious Jibjab team, poking fun at the 2008 US presidential race:

Tory councillor breaks rank on rubbish collections

Just bear with me while I provide a little explanation to this. There are only two feasible options for rubbish collections: collect recyclable materials fortnightly and landfill waste weekly (the current system)collect recyclable materials weekly and landfill waste fortnightly (the new system from September)The second option has been proved to dramatically increase recycling and...

A transport of delight

Mark and I donned our poshest frocks on Tuesday evening to attend the National Transport Awards at the Grosvenor House Hotel on Park Lane. For the sixth year running, I have been one of the judges, and I also co-host the awards ceremony, this year with BBC newsreader Kate Silverton. The ceremony appeals to my sense of theatre, but it is the judging that I find most inspiring. There are elements of our transport system which are absymal and there's no getting around that. However, there's also a load of good stuff happening. We recognised the work of some frontline ...

Caffe Nero at it again

Thanks to Chris Close for bringing to my attention the fact that Caffe Nero is breaking planning laws by opening a new coffee shop on Horsemarket (pictured above), which would require A3 consent, in a unit formerly occupied by the longest closing down sale in the history of the universe, TY McGurk, which had A1 planning consent. Chris has been busy and found evidence of a couple of past

Billy Elliot and food waste

Those of you who are my 'friends' on Facebook will know that I went to see Billy Elliot the musical last night. I feel a slight sense of guilt about going at a time when we have a by-election on in my ward. The tickets were booked some time ago, well before the prospect of a by-election was before us. Likewise with the tickets booked for the Dolly Parton concert and the forthcoming Kylie Minogue

Will my recycling be collected today?

Today is the second day of the local government workers strikes. there has been much in the news about closures of schools and the effects the strikes will have on other services. Epping Forest District Council's website suggests that some services may be affected but dosen't let us know which ones. Whilst other local authorities are reporting that refuse collection will be affected. So being

nxea log

train prior to 0824 cancelled, 0824 running 4 carriages short, due to earlier broken down train, according to screen. Standing room early. No on-board announcements.

Hypocrites

I have a huge amount of sympathy for striking Council workers, many of them are underpaid and work in often stressful situations. However, I recognise that local Councils do not have the money to offer them more. A derisory 2.4% increase in the grant from the Labour-Plaid Assembly Government this year left Welsh Councils with little choice but to make substantial savings and to restrict their pay offer to local government workers. This reality has not stopped some Assembly Members jumping on the bandwagon and declaring their support for the current strike leading to a predictable reaction from both Trade ...

Twitter: a passing fad or a useful campaign opportunity?

Over on PoliGeeks I've done a brief posting about some of the latest traffic statistics regarding Twitter. In brief: usage is continuing to grow extremely quickly and Twitter is now (on at least one measure) more widely used in the UK than in the US.

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #73

Welcome to the 73rd of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (6th-12th July), together with a hand-picked quintet you might otherwise have missed. 1. Brian Paddick, 'lined up as President of the Lib Dems' on Meral Ece's Meral's Musings blog. But plays [...]

Who's Bribing Who

The fact that yet again in a tight by election Gordon Brown's Government bring out a big policy decision; this time it is the freeze on oil duties. Of course Alex Salmond and David Cameron are both up in arms that Gordon and his Darling sidekick are bribing the electorate of Glasgow East. But hang on one minute weren't these the same two party leaders who earlier in the campaign took great

Data protection and the inexorable march of the snooping state

Apparently the Data Protection Act turned ten years old on Wednesday, according to El Reg. But you'd be forgiven for thinking it never existed, or has been repealed, given all the recent stories of data loss by, of all organizations, the government, and the newer suggestions that all our DNA, phone and internet communications records, should be in a database, forever, and instantly accessible to any accredited official (I won't say 'qualified' because I suspect they won't be) with an easily contrived excuse. Fortunately, the Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas, stands between the state and its ambition to know everything there ...

Day 2753: Surely it can't be THAT difficult to elect the House of Lords Club?

Tuesday: So, the Sinister Minister has laid out his plans for the Upper Chamber. It's going to be DEATHTRAPS isn't it... Well, no, it is (once again!) a decision to put off making a decision. The announcement that there WILL be an elected House of Lords Club... IF the Labour wins the next General Election is actually only to say that there MIGHT be, not to say that they are going to include some weird trigger clause in current legislation. And why NOT leave it until 2011? After all, 100 years of waiting for reform is a good round number. ...

Thursday 17th July 2008

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