Israeli 'hardline' MP Yuval Steinitz has complained about the British Foreign Office advisory to be posted on its website, which recommends that UK residents do not invest in property on the West Bank, Golan Heights or in East Jerusalem as the future political situation in Israel and Palestine might result in problems with the value of property there. Apparently this advisory from the UK government is 'anti-semitic'. Well, Mr Steinitz, firstly these areas are all occupied land and any development there by the occupying power - Israel - is illegal in international law. So there shouldn't even be any investment ...
There is an interesting story in this week's Private Eye about the Government's inconsistent attitude to civil servants with a tendency to leak secrets to the opposition. The magazine tells us that Jacqui Smith sent a blistering letter to her Tory shadow Dominic Grieve earlier this month urging him to show more 'respect for the law' by condemning all Whitehall leakers. She argued that leaks are serious irrespective of whether they relate to national security or not and that to argue otherwise is a cavalier and irresponsible attitude to take and entirely unfit for those who seek to hold high ...
As a member of a political party myself I have to say they has to be a really bad mess up with in the party that will make you leave. In the Conservatives this comes in the form of David Cameron! Since he became leader of the Tories he has scared away 40,000 members. George Osborne is among the member scarer's as he has scared away 240 but this is still behind William Hague who has scared away a total of 267 members! To read the NOTW article about Cameron cronies scaring away members follow the link!
Mark Lawson has a piece in the Guardian today pointing out, no doubt rightly, that the BBC has a far more chequered history than many of its modern critics like to pretend. It wasn't all high Reithian principles until a few years ago. However, I think he gets it wrong when he argues that there is an equivalence between the excesses of Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand and the way that earlier comedians relied upon innuendo "given that previous eras were so much more decorous and sensitive than ours": The comedian Ronnie Barker, widely eulogised at the time of his ...
In an interview in a recent edition of Total Politics the leader of UKIP, Nigel Farage, makes no real effort to counter the claim that he enjoys a drink or several even admitting to falling asleep in a bar. My own experience would support that Nigel enjoys his drink and that is somehow symptomatic of [...]
The link is to another article essentially confirming the thesis propounded by Sue White, Allan Norman and myself First para: Having spent almost 20 years working in residential child care I now teach social work. I was horrified (although sadly not altogether surprised) when a student reported back from a field visit that she had been told by a children and families social worker, 'we don't do
The newspapers have all carried respectful obituaries Conor Cruise O'Brien - the Daily Telegraph is a good example. The Guardian website, characteristically, has a piece attacking him for not sharing that paper's views. It is written by Roy Greenslade. My own debt to O'Brien is for Edmund Burke - an abridged version of his book The Great Melody: A Thematic Biography and Commented Anthology of Edmund Burke. Burke is often claimed by English Conservatives as their intellectual ancestor, but that suggests they do not know much about him. As Christopher Hitchens has said: Edmund Burke was neither an Englishman nor ...
I never did quite get round to posting properly on the Haut de la Garenne case in Jersey, nor on the Haringey Baby P issue, as I had intended. This article by Edinburgh University academic Mark Smith, on the Good Enough Caring website run by my father Charles Sharpe, sheds much light on the current difficulties faced by the social work profession and possibly therefore on both the aforementioned controversies. It begins: Having spent almost 20 years working in residential child care I now teach social work. I was horrified (although sadly not altogether surprised) when a student reported back ...
First Gordon Brown saved the World and the banks and now its football teams, Gordon Brown wants Sir Alex Ferguson to manage the football team for the Olympics in 2012. Since when has it been the job of the Prime Minister to start picking football managers. Brown seriously needs to set his priorities, does he want to pick football managers or does he want to run the Country. He either needs to get onto the board of a football team or work properly with the Cabinet that he currently has. Yes he needs to do the job he is paid ...
'He was never afraid to take up unpopular positions, with the result that few ever agreed with him all the time' was the verdict of Irish Labour party leader Eamon Gilmore on Conor Cruise O'Brien, who died on Thursday. This is reflected in the ambivalence of many of the obituaries. The Cruiser defied easy ideological categorisation. As a former Irish Labour party politician and a member of that party when he died, he can be seen as a man of the left, the more so in the light of his championing of secular values in Ireland and his hostility to ...
The picture is of Phil O Gorman, his grandfather Phil Thompson and Sara O Gorman his mother. Clayton v Clayton changed the law so that identifying parties to a Family Court case subsequent to the case is not contempt of Court. I will, however, not identify the Children in respect of this case. Phil Thompson has three children, nine grandchildren and six great grandchildren of whom three have
Tonight sees the sequin-laden finale of this year's Strictly Over-the-Top tears n' tantrums celebfest with three couples trying to fandango (ok, so it's probably a quickstep!) their way to holding aloft the glitterball trophy. Quite frankly, I can't wait..about time too. I am entirely bored by the Beeb's inability to be able to run any kind of phone-in competition without it resulting in high-farce (see last week's pointless phone-in exercise) and refunds and apologies. It's not difficult Aunty...get the judges to score, get the public to vote...job done! Let's hope they don't bother with a dance-off tonight, there's no point ...
Today's morning reading material (in a break from dissertation work) was InFocus - Unison's monthly members' magazine. I've been a shop steward for Unison for a few years now, and until my various commitments became too heavy I held a succession of branch officerships too. I have to admit that Unison drives me nuts (although [...]
The BBC carries this report; "Iraq's parliament has rejected a draft law that would allow troops from the UK, Australia and a number of other countries to remain after 2008." Since the UN mandate expires on December 31st 2008 it is obviously required to give a legal framework to the presence of troops which in Britain's case intend to stay until July 2009. US troops are allowed to stay until 2011 under a separate deal which is an avenue that many Iraqi MP's seem to want to pursue with Britain and other countries like Australia. The curtain is obviously closing ...
Islington's holiday refuse collection and recycling dates are available online. The Council website also has details of how to get your Christmas tree recycled.
Well done, Mossey. According to the Leicester Mercury: The 18-month-old tabby was discovered in a village near Melton, almost 20 miles away from the Braunstone Town home she disappeared from more than a month ago.
Basically about the anti Lib Dem jibes on the Now Show without any corresponding anti-Tory or anti-Labour balance. The Now Show is just a bully and is part of the new BBC meme `The Lib Dems are not very effective and can't win`. WAKE UP LIB DEMS - PROTEST AND SURVIVE!
Happy birthday to one of my longest-standing and most thoughtful friends, veritasema (hope you get lots of snuggles from the young ones today); and also to our eternally youthful Youth and Equalities Spokesman Lynne Featherstone. I often look at the picture of Lynne on her blog and wonder what the portrait in the attic must look like... The Now Show was gigglesome indeed this week, and I share with Mitch the urge to prevent the X-Factor butchery getting the Christmas number one spot. If you want to join in on this, now is the time to join in the world's ...
I was up early this morning to deliver a huge load of Xmas cards (we deliver the whole ward every year which sounds like a nice idea until its cold and dark and rainy). Trudging round feeling very sorry for myself I was stopped by a lady who had spotted me and come out of the house deliberately to say thank you for some case work I had done for her son a while ago. (Her son doesn't live in the ward). Its really nice when people bother to say thank you. It made me feel a little less grumpy ...
Barack Obama has announced that physicist John Holdren and marine biologist Jane Lubchenco will take up two of the top scientific posts under his administration. John Holdren will be Executive Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the president's science adviser. Jane Lubchenco will be in charge at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which runs much of the government's research into global warming. This pair of appointments points to a major change in science policy from that under George W Bush, whose senior figures frequently dismissed advice from scientists, preferring to paint global warming ...
.....at the state of our Party and the way whole parts of it doesn't BELIEVE in winning (unlike it seems some great exceptions!) .....at all the Christmas shopping that people do - and now I'm going to do my Claire from `Claire in the Community' R4 prog - `oh, yah, it's just so ban-aaaaa-l and last [...]
An update from the Minnesota Senate election recount: the Lizard People Party (for background see here) didn't get their vote. But the Spaghetti Flying Monster vote has gone Democrat. More details here.
Localis Think Tank The subject for discussion at this event was "How can local authorities tackle the issues associated with 'at risk' families in deprived areas". There was a panel of speakers from a number of organizations including Westminster Council, My Generation, The Centre for Social Justice, Action for Children and Localis.Westminster Council was launching a new [...]
The Saturday before Christmas has to be the busiest shopping day of the year, not food shopping, no that pleasure is yet to come! Today it's present shopping that will fill most of our time. Shops rarely visited throughout the year will be packed with disgruntled customers picking presents they think relatives want. Certain toys will be the must for Christmas. Perfume chocolates and lingerie will all brought in heaps buy husbands lovers and boyfriends all desperate to get something for that special woman in their lives. ( if you're a bit bored today try hanging out in the lingerie ...
Last night was the Paul Keetch Christmas Party for current and former staff, it was good to catch up with everyone - especially those that were in Florida.
Over on Political Betting Morus has a fascinating post about the importance of dynasty in American politics: I decided to do some research on the US Senate, and found that the proportion of members who in my view owed their seats in some way to direct descent from high political office-holders was higher than the proportion of hereditary peers in the House of Lords. At the heart of this post is the idea that if Caroline Kennedy is selected to succeed Hilary Clinton as the junior Senator for New York then she will be ideally placed to become the first ...
Paul Tyler is the last person I would liken to Che Guevara. But BBC Online has compared him (PT) to him (CG). Something to do with guerilla operations behind the scenes to determine what would happen in the event of a hung parliament. Well it beats grown-up work any day, I suppose.
Now in my University career I often had run ins with the Rugby Club. See as Treasurer of one of the light sports (ie small budget) there was a constant conflict with the heavy sports (including the king pins Rugby) over allocation of funding. Some of the most heated discussions in the Students Union (apart from the cultural role of Neighbours) was always the annual budget allocations. Often fighting to defend money to three of the often overlooked areas of student life boy did I usually go shoulder to shoulder with the Rugby guys. We also tended to go shoulder ...
I have to admit that this headline is not a patch on Costigan Quists yesterday (hat-tip due I think) but hey, marks for effort?? The Guardian reports on a frankly befuddling link between thinking about sex and sneezing. Apparently; "Thinking about sex or experiencing an orgasm sends some people into an uncontrolled bout of sneezing, and according to two researchers the problem may be more common than the medical profession had realised." How was this conclusion reached you may ask; well, Dr Howard Maxwell, a consultant psychiatrist at West Middlesex University Hospital in London, searched internet chatrooms for discussions on ...
I've been finding the Lib Dig "Popular" and "Upcoming" feeds quite useful for spotting good posts on blogs I don't habitually read (and, of course, if the same bloggers keep coming up, I can then add them). I don't tend to remember to head over there and check unless I'm there to Dig another post, though - so for my own convenience and that of any other LJ Lib Dems who are similarly afflicted, I present to you libdig_upcoming. (Before you ask, I did also create libdig_popular, but it isn't working at the moment; I think there's a problem with ...
The Mirror have surveyed 160 MPs (proportions undisclosed) and found that our lot have the greatest yen to don dancing shoes and spangles and go on Strictly Come Dancing. 25% of the Lib Dems said they'd like to be asked to appear on the show, followed by 19% of Conservatives and just 11% of Labour MPs. Perhaps unsurprisingly, younger MPs and female MPs were more likely to want to take part. But here's a telling snippet: so were MPs with a lower majority - 23% of those with a majority of less than 10% would welcome Brucie's call with open ...
Since when was it Gordon Brown's job to appoint football managers? No, seriously. Amidst all the talk about a GB football team to compete in the 2012 Olympics, when did it become the job of the Prime Minister to decide who should be the manager?
This will be my second Christmas spent predominantly in Suffolk and, given the length of the break, Ros decided that the cats should join us. I did have my reservations. All five cats were fairly traumatised by the move from East Dulwich to Kingsbury, and I was worried that they might react badly to a two-hour trip to Creeting St Peter. Ros had already loaded up the car by the time I got home
The BBC reports: A council has won its appeal against a ruling it discriminated against a Christian registrar who refused to conduct same-sex civil partnerships. Lillian Ladele said she could not carry out same-sex ceremonies "as a matter of religious conscience". An Employment Tribunal found in July that Islington Council, in north London, had unlawfully discriminated against her. But an Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has now upheld the authority's appeal... Islington councillor John Gilbert said: "The council is extremely pleased with this decision which it believes to be the right one." You can read the full story here. Lynne Featherstone, ...
Whatever thoughts crossed my mind that weren't worth a whole post. 23:18 wishes people would factcheck before panic posting. tinyurl.com/4xvt2t #Microblogging using LoudTwitter and Twitter. matgb_twitter is there if you're mad enough.
Well, Bedford may be the centre of the universe, but this evening it may well be the seedbed of the demise of the Tory facade of being electable. News comes to me from a very reliable source that one Cllr Peter Hand, lately of Nadine Dorries office, has resigned as a councillor on both the County and Borough. Not only that, but he has set in motion a domino effect. Two more candidates have resigned and others are due to follow. This is serious, not only for the Tories locally, but it could cause national embarrassment, hence my intelligence that ...
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