I've just watched a programme on Channel 4 called How Racist Are You?. For those who didn't see it I'd urge you to watch it on 4OD, but here's a brief synopsis. Jane Elliot, a former schoolteacher from Ohio, devised an experiment 40 years ago designed to highlight how racism works by discriminating against people ...
[IMG: lembit] Ok , I am not quite ready to have his babies - but I thought that Lembit was top notch on Question Time tonight. He stood up proud and bold on legalisation of drugs - making Jacqui Smith look silly (though to be fair she was doing a pretty good job all by herself) and destroyed the Tories on their history of boom and bust. Flamboyant?- maybe. Dodgy taste in women? probably(he has never come on to me !). Self deprecating? - definitely. Controversial?- always. But I love those anarchic MPs who say what they believe and stand ...
Have given up on #bbcqt because the sight of Jacqui Smith being crucified in an avuncular and lovable fashion by John Sargeant is oddly disquieting. Am, instead, playing about with the settings for [IMG: [info - community] ] dead_pool. Anyone fancy joining up? If you do, let me know how the initial entry feature works, will you? I've set a post up to be the initial entry new members see, but I'm not sure what will actually happen from a user point of view.
I am just home from being selected as PPC for the 'safe' Tory seat of Mid Beds and the prospect of a fairly boring contest against Ms Nadine the blogging Queen :-) (Joke Nadine, joke!). As I pointed out to my fellow members, following the extraordinary events of this year, there is no longer any such thing as a safe seat - so from my perspective........game on girl, game on! Chair of the selection committee Brian Golby began with a little anecdote about me when I was Unison Branch Secretary, a story I hadn't heard before. As a county councillor ...
Not had a weekly musical theme for a few weeks and driving to Edinburgh yesterday, this came on the radio (Radio 2; station of choice!) I was a massive Electric Light Orchestra fan when at school in the 1970s, so a few ELO hits to follow ...
More articles can be found about the Caroline Righton "fibbing" story HERE
Last week the three North Road ward councillors were given a guided tour of the new North Road Primary School (to be re-named Northwood Primary). With living walls, sedum roof, biomass boiler, brown water recycling and just about every carbon reduction device you could think of, this will be a remarkable change in environment (as you can see in the photo above which shows both old and new schools
Fresh Squeezings From the veins of the InternetWe are having a beer festival at work. I may have mentioned this once or twice already LOL. [IMG: [info - livejournal.com] ] burlesque_bunny and I decorated the pub earlier, and there is much beer available, and I will be VERY busy over the next few days. If I don't answer your email or comment, therefore, please don't take it personally. The big story of the day seems to be that something may or may not have happened in Watford. My favourite take on it is The Daily Quail's, but there are others ...
politics.co.uk carries reviews of some 750 political blogs. This is what they say about this one:"Posing the question of "just what can opposition councillors achieve" the answer, for Mike Barker at least, appears to be: quite a lot.He's certainly a very active councillor, constantly attacking Labour's control of his beloved Darlington.His blog is a little persistent in its sniping, with not much
I am all in favour of adventure playgrounds. My heroine Lady Allen of Hurtwood wrote in 1975: Since I first grasped, in Copenhagen, the magic potential of adventure playgrounds, I have spent much time and effort getting them accepted in this country. The hard struggle of the early years is now largely forgotten. We were freely accused of being anarchists or communists, and of undermining morals, as my press cuttings vividly show. It took years of site-snatching, money-raising and propaganda before we could begin to prove that it is rewarding to welcome the exuberance of the young. It is a ...
The government has released figures showing hospital admissions for gun and knife crime victims. The good news is the year-on-year fall in hospital admissions for victims of knife crime, nevertheless more people are being stabbed than five years ago. At present only one in five hospitals collect and share data with police and local authorities that could help to reduce violent crime. We Lib Dems believe that there'd be even fewer victims if ALL hospitals shared data with the police, the pioneering 'Cardiff Model' managed to reduce violent acts by 40%. http://www.vrg.cf.ac.uk/Files/vrg_violence_prevention.pdf
Just a few quick links today... Ubuntu has released its latest version today, Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala". Ubuntu isn't my GNU/Linux distribution of choice, but it is far and away the best for people who've had little previous experience with GNU/Linux, so if you've been thinking of shelling out a few hundred quid for WIndows 7, ...
Over at The Independent, Ed Davey writes about the possibility of Tony Blair becoming the EU's President: It's a long-standing gripe of pro-Europeans that historically Britain has played a poor hand in Europe. Too often disdainful, disengaged or domestically divided, Labour and the Tories have sold the country short. For different reasons, their posturing over Blair's presidential ambitions is in danger of throwing away another golden opportunity for Britain. Labour's push for Blair is wrong on two counts. Firstly, he is simply too soiled for export. His disastrous decision to side with President Bush over the invasion of Iraq was ...
Further to yesterday's article about the Hawkhill School fire in 1945, and with many thanks to the Local History department in the Central Library, if you click on the headline above or go to http://tinyurl.com/hawkhillschool you can see newspaper articles from The Courier and the fondly remembered People's Journal from the time of the fire. I was speaking with a constituent tonight at my surgery at Blackness Primary School. He's lived in the West End all his life and is a font of knowledge about the area. The fire took place in the Hawkhill (North) School - now demolished and ...
I shall be standing as a candidate for Mayor of London in 2012, just before the Olympics. My platform is as follows: Fuck up the Olympics so that Londoners never have to suffer them again. This will be achieved by picking a fight with the tube and bus unions, scheduling road works, etc Introduce Brian Blessed Studies as a compulsory subject in all schools. It would not take any extra time, but would be slotted into Religious Studies in place of something less important Rename St Pancras International to Agincourt Ban all airports apart from Gatwick, Heathrow and City from ...
Dear member, You will probably have been as surprised as I was this week to see Labour and Conservative politicians queuing up to say they are worried that the giant mega-banks - supported by taxpayers' money - are bad for the economy. You will remember that Liberal Democrats have been arguing that point since the banking crisis first hit. As liberals, we are instinctively fearful when a private corporation starts to look like a monopoly. My priority has been to stand on the side of small businesses and customers against the constriction of competition. I still remember almost exactly a ...
On Sunday Stephen blogged about the behaviour of Caroline Righton, the Conservative candidate for St Austell & Newquay, whose campaign is being accused of faking a message about her Liberal Democrat opponent, Stephen Gilbert, in a botched smear attempt. The story has also been taken up on quite a few other Lib Dem blogs so, bearing in mind that our readers often ask for more links through to stories on other Lib Dem blogs, here is a selection of the most recent posts: Matt Davies, who was quick out of the blocks with a comprehensive piece Alex Folkes, who rightly ...
In his election manifesto Boris Johnson promised to spend £744,000 per annum on new, badly needed, Rape Crisis Centres in London. And guess what? He has broken that promise already. And on a big scale. The Mayor only allocated £1.4million over 3 years instead of the promised £2.23million - a difference of £832,000. See the press release from the London Assembly who are challenging him on this. First, he taxes the least well off by increasing bus fares by 20%; next, he withdraws support from rape victims. I'm disgusted.
I keep on seeing posters on the tube, promoting Avenue Q. I saw Avenue Q last year, and it was great fun. However, some of these posters seem to have the headline: "It was so good, I p***ed my pants!". It was certainly something quite similar to that. Unnecessary reference to wetting oneself in improper places, I'd ...
A reader on the impending closure of the Pump and Tap pub in Leicester: Just thought I'd let you know the bridge & pub latest. John Husain of the Pump & Tap has been given his marching orders by DMU [De Montfort University] - he's to be out by the 27th of November, and the pub will close for good a few days before on the 22nd. John has only just been told this, and broke the news to us and his employees last night. Within the terms of his lease he (and indeed everyone else) expected a minimum of ...
In a marked departure with the George W. Bush years, Barack Obama has travelled at dawn to Dover, Delaware to witness the return of the bodies of 18 Americans killed this week in Afghanistan. With his big decision on Afghanistan due soon, this seems like a wise thing to do.
Back in September I asked why Paul Staines (aka Guido Fawkes), the self-styled scourge of all politicians, was acting as a bagman for a Tory backbencher. This afternoon Paul Waugh offered a possible explanation: Some of Mr McBride's money will end up in the pocket of his nemesis, one G Fawkes. As part of the £2,500 costs, it seems that Paul Staines (the man behind the beard) charged Ms Dorries' lawyer Donal Blaney £75/hour for serving the legal letter on the former Number 10 man.
It was Southport Area Committee yesterday -of which more, much more later. On a positive note it was good to see our UK Youth parliament rep Ian Goley in attendance. Ian has made a very significant contribution to the Area Committee and is listened to with respect from all sides. This week he is off to Westmister and has sent out the following press release: LOCAL YOUTH REPRESENTATIVE MAKES HISTORY IN COMMONS CHAMBER Ian Goley, 17, will join over 300 Members of the UK Youth Parliament in making history this week (Friday 30th October) when they take over the House ...
Sorry one and all - been totally snowed under with work and other stuff and not had the time to spend on updating our blog! Normality resuming slowly, so will be back to regular updates and comments soon! Chris
I reported here on LDV this afternoon on the serious mis-reporting of Watford Borough Council's children's adventure playgrounds policy, indulged by Iain Dale and some newspapers. For all the media attempts to stir-up some cliched 'political correctness gone mad' controversy, it's clear that Lib Dem Mayor Dorothy Thornhill has acted sensibly and straightforwardly throughout. I hope all those who have copy 'n' pasted the mythologised story without first verifying their sources will now ensure they amend their articles to reflect the facts. One person who does know what she's talking about – both as a local councillor, and as the ...
Nominations closed yesterday for the Glasgow North East by-election with a mammoth 13 candidates, who in alphabetical order are; Charlie Baillie, British National Party Willie Bain, Labour Eileen Baxendale, Liberal Democrats Mev Brown, independent Colin Campbell, The Individuals Labour and Tory (TILT) Ruth Davidson, Conservative David Doherty, Green Party Mikey Hughes David Kerr, SNP Louise McDaid, Socialist Labour Party Kevin McVey, Scottish Socialist Party - Make Greed History Tommy Sheridan, Solidarity John Smeaton, Jury Team The seat became vacant over 120 days ago when former House of Commons Speaker Michael Martin MP resigned over the MPs expenses and his handling, ...
I've been tagged to do the Power 2010 meme. I'm actually quite chuffed that the tag came not from the usual list of suspects but from Tim Trent who I first stumbled upon during the great Heinz caving in to homophobes debacle and have kept up to date with every since through various social networks etc. The flying I picked up from their stand at conference which I came across the other day while tidying up says: "POWER2010 gives you the chance to have a say in how our democracy works for us all. Do you want cleaner funding? Fairer ...
So the Financial Times tells us: Paddy Ashdown, the party's former leader, is moving on from writing his own memoirs and into fiction. No prizes for guessing the subject matter. Ashdown, a former Special Boat Squadron operative and (alleged) spy, is penning a novel which is expected to combine boats and, er, espionage. He is currently fine-tuning the central character – obviously not based on himself – and the dialogue, but work is said to be progressing well. Have LDV's readers any suggestions for the title?
Over at The Guardian, the Lib Dems' rottweiler-without-portfolio Norman Baker – the MP who was campaigning to clean up Parliamentary expenses long before it was fashionable – argues that Christopher Kelly's report may help to restore parliament's reputation, but the solutions it contains must be workable. Here's an excerpt: Kelly's report is an important document and perhaps the most significant staging post in the long and painful journey towards restoring the reputation of parliament. Given the terrible exposures of their abuse of the expenses system, MPs have forfeited the right to decide their own pay and conditions. It was never ...
It's Thursday which of course means that it's #bbcqt day again and as usual the Live Chat on this blog will start tonight at 10:30pm. Coming from Llandudno, the panel will include the former home secretary Jacqui Smith MP (wonder what she'll have to say about Professor David Nutt's latest comments about drugs), shadow Welsh secretary Cheryl Gillan MP, the leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats Lembit Opik MP (hurrah, Lembit!), Plaid Cymru's Elfyn Llwyd and the broadcaster John Sergeant (always good value). Liberal Democrat Voice also always have an open thread for BBC Question Time which is usually posted ...
Iain Dale appears to have some egg on his face for reporting a story from The Metro without bothering to do a Google search and checking if the facts are correct. This seems odd because Iain and other Tory bloggers were suggesting the other day that South West Norfolk Tories should have done a Google search about her sexual misdemeanours before selecting her. It's a shame therefore that Iain didn't bother to do a Google search before implying things about the Lib Dems that are not true. Then again, this appears to be the Tory policy these days !
Once again the money numbers suggest wildly differing interpretations - indicating that the Bank is riding a beast it can't fully understand. And someone in the FT calls for rates to go UP to stimulate the markets. I don't get it.
UK politicians were split again this week over an old question: "Is it right to debate with extreme right wing and racist groups?" It's come up again because a dubious Dutch MP Gert Wilders got to visit Parliament last Friday. Also, BNP leader Nick Griffin was on the BBC's Question Time. Horrible Grouchy Gert caused a stir a few months back when he wasn't allowed into Britain due to his extreme views on Islam. As for the BNP — well, they've been ruffling feathers for a couple of decades now, largely because they're horrible to foreigners. Most people in Britain ...
I am often told "There is no such thing as Homophobia" by people, they acknowledge there was but, of course, now days with Civil Partnership and most of the equality campaign having been successful (in terms of legislation anyway). Well the last few weeks should prove that argument wrong.
Caroline Righton, the Tory PPC for St Austell and Newquay, has still refused to apologise for implying that Stephen Gilbert, the Lib Dem PPC, used the word d******d in a Twitter post. Stephen didn't do this and Caroline has so far provided no evidence to prove he did. What is really interesting is the lack of an apology from Caroline Righton or the Conservatives. This has been blogged about by others (here, here, here and here) yet despite all of this buzz there has not been a word of apology from either Righton or the Conservatives and not a single ...
I have been in touch recently with Home Scotland, one of the major housing association landlords in the West End, about complaints from residents that the car parks designed for them as Home Scotland tenants were being used by non-residents, simply parking there to avoid parking charges in the City Centre. The main complaints in the past have come to me from people in Seafield Lane, Thomson Street and in Brown Street - and in the latter Home Scotland development, the housing association has piloted a residents' parking scheme that is properly policed to ensure that only those entitled to ...
..... Or rather Norman Painting, the voice of Phil Archer in BBC Radio 4's The Archers. A lovely voice, a lovely character and - according to those who knew him - a lovely person. The last episode he recorded will be broadcast on 22 November. I'll be listening!
I was out and about visiting constituents this morning and as this view from the WL Gore site in Perth Road shows, it is a thoroughly beautiful morning! With regard to last night's update about the traffic lights on Blackness Road, I spoke to the City Council first thing this morning and got assurances about getting the bus stop near Ashbank Road back in action this morning. Here's my subsequent exchange with Scottish Water today : ME TO SCOTTISH WATER : "I have had a lot of complaints that the lights removal should have coincided with the end of the ...
Those were the words of one of my constituents who lives on Alexandra Road and who is currently one of a small handful of residents fighting against a controversial plan to convert No 22 into four flats. This is one of many local campaigns going on the ward we are supporting to try and help maintain the unique character of the Redlands area. The other 'biggie' on the go at the moment is our campaign against plans to redevelop 46 Redlands Road for ten flats. I sent in a five-page objection to that proposal earlier today and I know lots of local ...
Are you watching The Sarah Jane Adventures right now? With Doctor Who himself guest-starring? Then get to it! But meanwhile, did you see Andrew Marr's The Making of Modern Britain last night? Not bad, but it didn't half demonstrate his own political prejudices - and did you spot the three things the Liberals got right and one thing we weren't terribly impressive on a century ago, and the very same today? Not that there was an awful lot on the Liberals, as our Edwardian landslide dominating last night's 'era' didn't fit into Mr Marr's very old Labour narrative of history: ...
Gordon Brown today spoke up on behalf of Tony Blair becoming the first President of the EU. Brown called Blair and "excellent candidate" and spoke highly of Blair's qualities. There is only one problem. An endorsement from Gordon Brown is like a reverse form of the Midas touch for everything Gordon Brown touches turns in to excrement, not gold. Such is the contempt in which Gordon Brown is held by the public these days, should he endorse beer, chocolate or sex then it is likely that beer sales would fall, women would stop thinking about chocolate and the birth rate ...
I am responding to a tag from Sara Bedford to put forward ideas in relation to Power 2010. As Liberal Democrats, I feel that we have already wrote about most of the issues that need to be addressed by Power 2010. I am going to tackle two issues, which I feel wont be addressed as ...
Now I would be the first to admit that award ceremonies and Mahatma Gandhi are not two phrases that are easily associated. However, to mark the anniversary of the birth of the great man, we were honoured to attend the 'Bapu Awards', organised by the Gandhi National Memorial Society to recognise those who most exemplify the spirit of Gandhi. The location of the event was in itself historic, as it was the building where Gandhi was interned by the British between 1942 and 1944, and now converted into a small museum. It is at moments like this that I find ...
Hullo all, [IMG: lv1] First things first: due to the requirement for party-political impartiality, Mark Littlewood is leaving the Liberal Democrats after being appointed to his smashing new job at the IEA. But you knew that already. To clarify–he has therefore departed Liberal Vision, as the group requires active participants to be members of the Liberal Democrats. As the inevitable decision was made, there were tears, hugs, and torn heartstrings, but in the end whatever will be, will be, and there are plenty more fish in the sea. I'm one of those (gold)fish, and as of today am delighted to ...
At last night's meeting of the Keighley Traffic (Advisory) Panel people were wanting to know what Bradmet's priorities were for improving traffic flow in Keighley. The Bradford traffic official who was there indicated that he couldn't exactly say. ...
Actually not so much behind the headlines as behind the whole story! The Daily Mail ran a piece on how in Watford barmy councillors had banned parents from parks and playgrounds, and had put special trained supervisors in their place. No longer can a family take their toddlers to enjoy time on the swings, they must watch from a distance. Except- it wasn't true. Not one word. Well maybe one or two words. Parents have been told not to hang around after dropping their kids off at supervised adventurous play facility. The facility is not an open playground for the ...
but the technology let me down! My laptop took exception to the smell of disinfectant and flatly refused to work in hospital. It's now receiving TLC in the hands of Dr Steve - my friendly computer man. I'm home again and feeling better than I expect the laptop does!! While in hospital and bereft of technology, I read every newspaper that I could get my hands on - particularly the EDP - and was horrified to read of the closure plans for day centres. Apparently, closing well used day centres is all part of offering "choice" to older people throughout ...
Sadly there will be no bonfire/fireworks display at Together Trust on Schools Hill, Cheadle this year. AboutMyArea has the full story.
If you are deeply unpopular in the eyes of the public, as indeed Gordon Brown is, why not associate yourself with someone much more popular!? I remember the Spitting Images sketch from the 1980s which featured Neil Kinnock trying to fit in the words "lovely nurses" into everything he says in an attempt to boost his popularity.So now Gordon Brown, the man who had a festering grudge against Tony
Peter Hain, the Secretary of State for Wales, will be speaking at Cardiff University this afternoon, arguing that the current devolution settlement (devised by him) is working well. In the Western Mail today he said, yes, LCOs (the process by which Wales acquires new powers) take time, but so do parliamentary bills. This is not a sign of failure, just a fact of parliamentary process and scrutiny. That would be fine, except what you have to remember is that once an LCO is done and dusted, nothing will actually change in the real world. An administrative change will have occurred; ...
The F1 world is gathering on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi for the final race of the season at the brand spanking new Yas Marina Circuit. At this point, I get a bit squeamish and start wringing my hands a bit because I'm not terribly keen on the idea of building huge, opulent, unsustainable facilities like this in a part of the world where water is so scarce. To add insult to injury, there even having the race at dusk so there will be lots of unnecessary lighting, too. It's been amusing seeing the tweets from all the media folk ...
Nominations closed yesterday for the Glasgow North East by-election with a mammoth 13 candidates, who in alphabetical order are: Charlie Baillie, British National Party Willie Bain, Labour Eileen Baxendale, Liberal Democrats Mev Brown, Independent Colin Campbell, The Individuals Labour and Tory (TILT) Ruth Davidson, Conservative David Doherty, Green Party Mikey Hughes David Kerr, SNP Louise McDaid, Socialist Labour Party Kevin McVey, Scottish Socialist Party – Make Greed History Tommy Sheridan, Solidarity John Smeaton, Jury Team The seat became vacant over 120 days ago, when former Speaker Michael Martin MP resigned over the MPs' expenses and his handling, or failure to ...
Professor David Nutt has made some more comments today about the relative harm of drugs including alcohol and tobacco and has accused politicians of distorting and devaluing the debate. It sounds like he agrees wholeheartedly with me! Perhaps I should see if he will do a guest post for this blog.... Anyway, I have written a more detailed article about this including the media coverage and questioned whether Alan Johnson will turn out to be any more sensible on this subject than Jacqui Smith was in one of my regular pieces for Left Foot Forward today.
NOTICE is given that the Hertfordshire County Council intend to make an Order under Section 14[1] of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, to prohibit all traffic from using that length of A1057 Hatfield Road, St Albans from a point 20 metres west of its junction with Lemsford Road south eastwards to a point 10 metres west of its junction with Station Way, a distance of approximately 150 metres. The alternative route for traffic will be via:- A1057 Hatfield Road, A1081 St Peter Street, B691 (Victoria Street, Grimston Road, Stanhope Road), Camp Road, A1057 Hatfield Road and vice versa The ...
Friday: It's all TERRIBLY exciting this week, as Dr Woo himself will be dropping by for his old chum Best-friend Sarah's wedding to that rotter from the adverts who doesn't pay to be privileged! By way of a TRAILER, here is a flashback to last week's carnival ride of JOLLY DESPAIR! Here are Daddy Richard's thoughts: Apparently, this two-parter has earned the joint-highest appreciation index to date, a well deserved reward for writer Joe Lidster. Joe, who wrote this and the memorable episode "A Day in the Death" from Torchwood's second season, seems to be cornering the market in "regrets": ...
There is much ado about the prospect of Tony Blair being the European Union's first President. Of course, the first thing to say is that I suspect that this is a 'Westminster Village', political press story which is awfully exciting to politicos but not of much interest to wider voters. In that context I think ...
My instinctive reaction to Blair becoming the first European President is to hate the idea. After all, we've only just got a rid of him as our Prime Minister and if he immediately re-appears as the President of Europe, due to some deal done with other countries, it will do far more damage to the ...
The failure of Labour on the economy and their absurd posturing that they "saved the world" and are "leading" the world out of recession have been exposed yet again today. The growth figures in the US just announced add that country to the list of countries out of recession. The list includes the Eurozone and Japan. China never went into recession. So all the leading economies are now out of
Please note that ALDC's Weekend Kickstart event 27-29 November 2009 is FULL. The weekend event, the main training event in the year for Lib Dem volunteer campaigners has been heavily oversubscribed this year, and as a result we are unable to take any further bookings. It is brilliant that so many people are keen to get involved and kickstart their campaign. More information emma.hall@aldc.org
On the day that we learned that Gordon Brown hadn't actually been asked to name his favourite biscuit, Flat Earth news leaves the net and shuffles sideways to Watford with this story about Watford Council's adventure playschemes. The schemes, based at two play areas at opposite ends of the town, are different from other play ...
Tory blogger Iain Dale should perhaps have paused before clicking 'publish' on his latest – highly inaccurate – post, How Very Illiberal of a LibDem Mayor. Those few seconds' hesitation would have been sufficient for him to do a quick Google and find out what he was about to write was nonsense. In his article, Iain recycled a Metro report to allege that Watford Borough Council (run by elected Lib Dem mayor Dorothy Thornhill) has "barred [parents] from public playgrounds in parks. Instead, they are forced to wait outside the railings whilst council-employed "play facilitators" assist the children." Iain describes ...
As others have reported, Tory PPC for St Austell and Newquay - Caroline Righton - is in trouble for suggesting that her Lib Dem opponent Stephen Gilbert referred to her as a d*ckh**d. It appears that she sent out an email reproducing a tweet made by Steve but someone had added the fateful word to the end of Steve's message. I cannot believe it was her - more likely some silly junior member of her campaign team. But her silence on the issue and refusal to apologise means that the focus is shifting onto her and her credibility as a ...
The Coroners and Justice Bill is still winding its merry way through the Lords, with Sue Miller leading for us there. The strategy is clearly to improve access and reduce delay, and her first victory was on amendment 1, which read in clause 1, page 2, line 20, at end to insert: "( ) A senior coroner shall inform the Chief Coroner if completion of an investigation is likely to take more than 12 months from the time that the coroner was notified of the death. ( ) The Chief Coroner shall maintain a register of prolonged investigations." For some ...
Guido Fawkes thinks that Labour's attack on George Osborne has failed; he argues that because the recession is continuing and Alistair Darling's forecasts are wildly optimistic (not exactly surprise) hit's against George Osborne are wide of the mark. I think there is a truth to this; it certainly helps conceal Osborne's failings as does the ...
Last night at a full meeting of Bury Council, the main business was a motion calling for Bury Council to join with over 50 other Councils, and millions of people and join the 10:10 campaign to pledge to cut CO2 emission in Bury by 10% in 2010. I had the honour of proposing the Lib Dem motion, my colleague, Cllr Richard Baum seconded. We accepted an appropriate amendment from the Labour Group and for a moment things actually looked positive. Then the Conservative leader and others spoke against and my heart sank at the utter lack of understanding of the ...
ALDC Management Committee at its meeting on 24 October 2009 agreed to "join-up" the Assocation to the 10:10 Campaign to reduce carbon emissions by 10% in 2010, and to encourage members and all Lib Dem Councillors to support the campaign. 10:10 is a broad campaign to ensure that we make positive start to reducing carbon emmissions immediately, rather than relying on long term targets alone. Already many Councils, have signed up to 10:10 - including many Lib Dem run and influenced councils. If yours hasn't then there is a model Council Motion (for ALDC Gold Members) here. Everyone can sign ...
Another day, another green wall. This one's in Regent Street. It's what's called a second generation green wall, set slightly away from the wall to provide a layer of insulation/cooling and to make it easier to maintain. It's fed by rainwater not tap water, which is good because London has less available water per person than Sudan, Syria, Istanbul or Jersualem. I've been trying for more than a year to get Camden's Housing Department to green a housing estate like this, but so far nobody's listening. Or, to put it another way, as Frank Zappa memorably said: "The mind is ...
Following my concerns over the managed abolition of the Ridgegrove play areas and the lack of one on the Kensey Valley Meadow development, at today's scrutiny meeting I asked for a full review of play and play areas across the whole of Cornwall and the committee agreed. As I see it, the Council's approach is just too disjointed at the moment. Perhaps this is not surprising. After all, we are seeing seven councils join together and there will be work needed on integrating services. There is also the problem that the Housing Department is responsible for some play areas when ...
The Guardian is running a poll to find out who we think is the Eco-Villain of the Decade. For me, the choice was easy - the person whose actions have caused real harm and distress to people I care about. I can't describe the sadness and anger I feel about all the issues surrounding his planned Aberdeenshire golf course. Even reading that, the arrogant and horrible way his son talks about my friends, by implication, at least, and dismisses their concerns makes my blood boil. Time for a cup of tea, I think.
We have just finished a meeting of the Council's Communities Scrutiny Committee. One of the items for discussion was a response from Housing Cabinet Member Mark Kaczmarek to our concerns over the proposed Housing PFI scheme. Housing PFI would have the potential to bring about 900 new council homes - about a third of our annual need - at a huge cost. Maybe not to the Council itself, but somebody has to pay at the end of the day. Previously, we expressed concern at three levels: - is the concept of Housing PFI right for Cornwall in principle? - if ...
Today is the internet's 40th birthday* and, in a sign of things to come, its first few steps saw things crashing for no obvious reason: At 2100, on 29 October 1969, engineers 400 miles apart at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) and Stanford Research Institute (SRI) prepared to send data between the first nodes of what was then known as Arpanet... The fledgling network was to be tested by Charley Kline attempting to remotely log in to a Scientific Data Systems computer that resided at SRI. Kline typed an "L" and then asked his colleague Bill Duvall ...
Back in May I blogged about the then forthcoming trial for fraud the Church of Scientology was facing in France. A quick update seems in order now that the case has taken place: Two flagship branches of the Church of Scientology in France have been sentenced to pay fines of over €600,000 (£550,000) after being convicted of "fraud in an organised gang" today by a court in Paris. The judgment against the Scientology Celebrity Centre and a related bookshop in Paris is one of the most important to involve the controversial organisation in recent years. The judges stopped short of ...
Caroline Righton is not having a great week. Seven days after the former tv-am presenter and (at the time of writing) Tory PPC for St Austell & Newquay was invited to apologise for what still looks very much like a smear campaign, her silence on the subject remains defiantly unbroken. In between, Twitter and 'the ...
The 10:10 campaign is familiar to many. The following Early Day Motion in the Commons explains what it is all about:This house welcomes the 10:10 campaign, which aims to unite every sector of British society behind the idea that, by working together, it is possible to achieve a 10 per cent. cut in the UK's carbon emissions in 2010; notes that the campaign provides an opportunity for people,
Thu 29th
12:24
Why does David Cameron always look constipated? Is it because he is 'weak and marginal'?
Why does David Cameron always look so constipated? Eton, Oxford and the Bullingdon Club may have taught Mr Cameron a certain type of debating style, but it's one that makes my skin crawl. Whatever you say about Gordon Brown, even if you oppose his politics completely, he does actually work very hard, if at times ineffectually, for the ...
More than 90,000 innocent people have been added to the National DNA Database since the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that the practice was illegal, according to Liberal Democrat research. The figures, contained in Parliamentary answers, show that: · 433,752 DNA profiles have been added to the database since the ECHR ruling on 5 December last year - 1,480 per day; · 5.5m profiles on the database relating to 4.8m people (13.3% are replicates); · if we apply the Government's 2008 estimate that 20.8% of people on the database are innocent to the current total, there are now ...
You may remember that when the banks collapsed, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Tavish Scott campaigned against the merger, pointing out that it would cost jobs, be hugely expensive for the taxpayer and restrict consumers' choice in banking. It was good to see Liberal Democrats vote against the Labour Government's plans to rush through the takeover regardless of the Competition Commission's concerns, when Alex Salmond, for all his bluster, didn't bother to turn up, as I said at the time. I'm glad that Tavish is continuing to stand up for the Scottish banking industry and is continuing to call for the ...
The Council has published its proposals for a new business model to help it cope with the tough financial climate we find ourselves in. The relevent Cabinet paper can be viewed here.Basically, the new business plan has to cope with the possibility of a very low Council Tax increase next year (officers are even contemplating the possibility of a zero increase being allowed by the Government, with
The rights and wrongs of filesharing may still be very much up for debate, but Don Foster again confirmed that, if Lord Mandelson wants support for his "three strikes and you're out" policy against filesharers, he won't get it from the Lib Dems. Lord Mandelson wants those suspected of illegal file sharing to have their bandwidth restricted or to be cut off from the Internet altogether. Mandelson claimed that young people downloading content for free was morally unsustainable. Don Foster, who just last week was speaking out for live music performers (the clown's the one on the left) has made ...
"State intervention distinguishes capitalism from the free market." So writes Kevin Carson in the preface to his "Studies in Mutualist Political Economy" (2004). In the rather broad and straggly family tree of the children of liberty, I have come to describe myself as being on the "Mutualist" branch. In fact I really married, or perhaps was adopted, into the Mutualists somehow, having started out as one of its first cousins, a "Georgist". Hence my use of that slightly affected double barreled description on this blog - a "Geo-Mutualist". But, apart from the vague notion that this denotes a position somewhere ...
For the first time ever, I had the Defence Secretary on his knees. Before his speech, he was begging for forgiveness, but unfortunately it was only for the fact that he has to leave early for an appointment at 5 o'clock. I forgive him if he leaves, but I am sorry that he will miss the brilliant speech that I am about to give... Read the rest of my speech on the Territorial Army at TheyWorkForYou
The 2nd CWU strike has gone ahead. Why? It seems that the CWU has a negotiating team that is willing to do what its name on the wrapper suggests - to negotiate. But the moment they go back to the CWU executive, the negotiated solution is rejected and demands are increased. So the negotiating team goes back to Royal Mail with the CWU having moved the goalposts (or did they move the letterbox!?)
On the first day of the Harrogate Conference last week, we lost most of our pre-arranged MP speakers as they were recalled to London to vote on what appeared to be a three line whip. They then returned later that evening. I'm all in favour of tradition, but with the current communication facilities available to us surely there has to be a better way for MPs to vote. What price the train fares, carbon footprint and working time for such an old fashioned way of doing things?
Democracy in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury died last night, at the age of 35, after a long and tiring struggle. For most of the time since the Borough was born in 1974, Democracy lived a peaceful life in the Town Hall, nourished by debate and elections. For 33 of its years it was nurtured by successive Council leaders and parties, and most of all by the people of Bury who voted in good Councillors to look after it. Democracy's health started to falter in 2007 when the Bury Conservative Party were appointed Democracy's legal guardian. The Conservatives were excited ...
I spent three days in Harrogate last week at the Children and Adult Services Conference. There were many topics of discussion - probably the most pressing one being the Green Paper on "Shaping the Future" for adult social care. The statistics relating to the future cost of care for adults is truly terrifying given the declining number of adults in paid employment for the number of retired people. When the system was first set up in 1948, there were 15 people in employment for every one retired person. Today that figure has dropped to between 3 or 4. As a ...
Overnight work is due on Bury Metrolink line. Residents are being advised of overnight work taking place on the Metrolink line running to Bury next week. Work is expected to take place overnight at a number of stops along the line between Sunday 1 November and Friday 6 November while the trams are not running. Work is anticipated on the following dates: Crumpsall - 1 November Bowker Vale - 2 November Heaton Park - 2 and 3 November Prestwich - 3 November Besses o' th' Barn - 4 November Whitefield - 4 November Radcliffe - 5 November Bury - 5 ...
The Conservatives in Bury showed exactly how fake their "green" credentials are last night when they voted to reject opposition calls to sign up to the 10:10 climate change campaign. A Liberal Democrat motion calling for the Council to adopt the 10:10 pledge to reduce carbon emissions by 10% in 2010 was blocked by the ruling Tories. Their amendment removed any mention of a 10% cut in emissions next year, as well as preventing the Council signing up to a pledge backed by all three main political leaders, 51 councils, thousands of other organisations and millions of people. The Tories ...
Here is the speech I made last night to Council regarding 10:10. You can read the context above, in my post about how the Tories voted against signing up to 10:10, and passed an amendment which offered a watered-down version which commits us to nothing. This is, more or less, what I said: Mr Mayor, I won't add to the hot air in the world by repeating what others have said and stating how important the 10:10 campaign is. But it is worth reflecting on the national context of the campaign. The entire cabinet, Conservative and Liberal Democrat front benches ...
With the usual caveat about this being a self-selecting sample (OK Cupid's user base), I found this interesting/scary/worryingly obvious:
It's the sort of activity you'd expect in an kangaroo court, not Perth Sheriff Court. However, yesterday Sheriff Robert McCreadie sentenced Redding resident Lance Barrell to jail for 80 days before hearing the charges against him. After court staff stopped the Reliance guards taking the accused off to the cells, the Sheriff said "I suppose, for technical reasons, I should hear the Crown narrative." He then on hearing the fact upheld his original judgement. Sadly this isn't the first incident that this Sheriff has been guilty of. Only last month he was forced to release a man sentenced to four ...
Thu 29th
10:24Scientists say that 'SNP' actually means 'single nucleotide polymorphisms' - they change their appea...
Leading scientists have revealed that the group, generally described as the SNP, are actually capable of changing their appearance dependent on their physical environment. This capacity for 'single nucleotide polymorphism' means that they can take on, through a process of potentially rapid evolution, the characteristics of their vicinity. In towns they become darker to act as ...
Much as I liked to see Jeff squirm at the fact that a casting vote may lie with a BNP member for Glasgow in the next Scottish Parliament I thought he really should have done fact checking before taking the word of Nick Griffin for granted. Jeff refers to this article in the Times so lets look at the facts. Griffin said: "We [BNP] were 4.4 per cent in Glasgow North East in the European elections." Fact: Minor niggle, I know, but the BNP's 545 out of 12705 votes in Glasgow North East is actually only 4.29%. That is one ...
Actually the title of this post is supposed to be sarcastic. We already have a Green candidate who stood in the Norwich North by-election whose carbon footprint is higher than I will achieve in a lifetime whilst the Greens voting record on Norwich City Council shows a level of inconsistency even the government would find hard to match. So we shouldn't be surprised in the least to read that the Green Party leader does not follow her own advice when it comes to preventing energy and heat loss. That said, the story is in the Daily Scum, so it probably ...
My "Park Free After 3" campaign appears to be dead in the water after the Bury Conservatives refused to adopt it, claiming that their own "Park Free for 15 minutes" proposal better suited the town. I suggested a while back that Bury should follow Rochdale's lead and offer free parking for shoppers after 3pm. This would bring more people into the town to support local businesses. In Rochdale, footfall, business revenue and parking income have all gone up, because customers came not only after 3pm but also beforehand to take advantage of the free parking later.Despite this, Bury's ruling Conservatives ...
Overnight work is due on Bury Metrolink line. Residents are being advised of overnight work taking place on the Metrolink line running to Bury next week. Work is expected to take place overnight at a number of stops along the line between Sunday 1 November and Friday 6 November while the trams are not running. Work is anticipated on the following dates: Crumpsall - 1 November Bowker Vale - 2 November Heaton Park - 2 and 3 November Prestwich - 3 November Besses o' th' Barn - 4 November Whitefield - 4 November Radcliffe - 5 November Bury - 5 ...
I went back to Creeting St Peter yesterday to attend a Parish Meeting, called to discuss the proposals for a Business and Enterprise Park at the north-west end of the Parish, adjoining Stowmarket. We don't do flaming torches and pitchforks as a rule, although Cllr Caroline Byles, our District Councillor, might have felt at home had we brought some - even more so had she decided to turn up. She had told the Parish Council that 'we should be grateful' that development was going to come to our village in the shape of a lorry park. Perhaps living fifteen miles ...
Governor Shwarzenegger (R-CA) seems to be all along in California. The typically Liberal, Democrat dominated state has a republican governor, who is having the usual problems getting bi partisan support for any of his ideas. With Democrat majorities in both hoses of the California State Legislature Arnie has two choices - work with the Democrats or tell the Democrats what you really think of them and as a result achieve nothing until your term expires Well it appears Arnie has now chosen the latter of the two options. In a veto letter to the congress Arnie has set out why ...
Over 17,000 DNA profiles of children in Greater Manchester are held by the Police, it was revealed last night. In an answer to my written question to the Council's Police Authority Representative, the Police Authority said that Greater Manchester Police hold 17,199 DNA profiles for people under the age of 18. This is a staggeringly high number of children whose DNA profiles are held by the Police. In addition, it was revealed that the Police cannot say how many DNA profiles it holds for people not convicted of a crime. The police DNA database has grown to hold many millions ...
Somewhere around 2003, after almost 20 years of ALDC-approved campaigning and concentrated Rennardism, I burned out and resigned from every bit of Libdemmery I was involved in bar party membership. Goodbye campaigning, I thought, and went off to do quieter things, like setting up a motorsports website supporting British drivers, www.BritsOnPole.com. All went well until a chancer named Simon Gillett met a bigger chancer named Bernie Ecclestone and won a deal to take the Formula One British Grand Prix to cosy old Donington Park. Quite how the necessary redevelopment work would be paid for was unclear. Since then, the slow, ...
Last night was the regular full meeting of Bury Council. This is the six-times-a-year meeting which brings together all 51 members of the Council. Nowardays there seems to be only one useful purpose for this otherwise farce of a meeting, which is to remind me beyond all doubt why I am not a Conservative. Last night saw Bury's Conservatives at their worst, or at least I hope it can't get worse. There are two main parts to a Full Council: questions and motions. Questions Since the Conservatives took control of the Council we've been restricted to 45 minutes of time ...
I received this letter from Fife Police regarding the survey of residents that they conducted which shows that residents believe that crime has dropped in the village thanks to extra police presence to protect the Prime Minister. Even though crime levels were not very high before most North Queensferry residents appear to feel safer thanks to the PM. I'm glad there is at least one benefit to having Gordon Brown as Prime Minister! So many people can't wait to see the back of him. There are clearly some concerns about the vehicle stop points and the carrying of guns which ...
It is my 34th Birthday today, I hope to spend it quite lazily with a meal out and a trip to the local pub tonight.
This week The Voice is running a four part series from the Centre for Cities, a think tank that works on analysis and policy to boost city economies. They launched their 'Cities Manifesto' at the Bournemouth Lib Dem Conference and this series looks in more detail at its main planks. You can also find out more at http://www.citiesmanifesto.org. UK business leaders have become so fed-up with our skills system that they're now refusing even to discuss it. Asked what the priorities for skills reform should be over the next five years at one of the recent party conferences, one prominent ...
Thu 29th
08:18
Caroline Righton - Hypocrite, liar or fool ? Perhaps all three given what she has been doing in Newq...
A week after Tory candidate for Newquay and St Austell misrepresented her Lib Dem opponent, she has still done nothing in the way of an apology or even explained why she chose to mislead people about her ability to check the facts. One has to wonder what the Conservative voters in Newquay and St Austell will think of her particularly given her recent pledge to 'fight a positive and honesty campaign'. David Cameron is, of course, totally silent on the issue. Mr Cameron is quick to talk about honest and decency in politics but in this case does not seem ...
The next Cheadle Area Committee meeting is at 6pm on Tuesday 3rd November. This is a meeting open to the public (we'd love more people to come along) and held at the Ladybridge Residents Club, Edenbridge Road, Cheadle Hulme. You can hopefully access the agenda here (83 pages this time, but most of that's supporting information, like all the minute details of planning applications). As well as considering planning applications, both councillors and members of the public can raise issues directly with the police, with the area conditions officer (who deals with issues like litter and graffiti), we're being asked ...
[IMG: http://www.wikio.co.uk] [IMG: Mushy] I think my views on nuclear weapons are quite clear - I some times feel like one of the few councillors who is happy to express their opinion on this subject. Back in February I asked officers a number of questions regarding the planning application for AWE Burghfield. I didn't ever receive the answers directly, nor were RBC able to get West Berkshire council (WBC) to hold the planning decision, until Readings population had a chance to have their say. At the time there was also a question about how building materials would get to the ...
Good morning and welcome to October 29th. Today is the anniversary of the first performance of Mozart's Don Giovanni, the birthday of Boswell, the biographer of Samuel L Jackson, and the anniversary of the death of Sir Walter Raleigh (he was executed – I didn't know that.) It's also the fifth anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Rome, which first set up a Constitution for Europe. 2 Big Stories The postal strike is on Read all about it on the Times, the Telegraph and the Guardian: Both sides blamed each other after three days of talks mediated by ...
On Sunday both myself and Councillor Matt Davies blogged about Caroline Righton's smear campaign of the Lib Dems candidate for St. Austell & Newquay, Steve Gilbert. Then yesterday there was a series of postings across a range of blogs about how one week on neither Caroline Righton or the local Conservatives had had the decency to apologise and advise the same voters of the mistake as the week before, so the local Liberal Democrats have now written a letter to David Cameron and Eric Pickles seeking an answer. When you visit Caroline Righton's page on Wikipedia it appears that all ...
A fascinating paragraph in Wikipedia: During the late 1930s, the British government had been studying the future of air transport and airports in the London area. It had been decided that London would be served by four airports - Croydon, Heston and new airfields at Fairlop in Essex and Lullingstone, Kent.Fascinating stuff, but is it all true? I have written about Croydon airport before and Heston is well documented (the quotation above comes from its Wikipedia entry). Heston was distinct from the earlier Hounslow Heath and later Heathrow airports, both nearby, and it was to Heston that Neville Chamberlain returned ...
[IMG: Sexed up / distorted documents from Government to justify their actions sound familiar at all? Yes indeedy - but its about drugs not illegal wars this time. ..... The delightfully named Professor David Nutt, who heads the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), has reopened the row on drugs classification by accusing ministers of "distorting" the evidence about the effects of cannabis. You will recall that May last year, Jacqui Smith decided to reclassify cannabis to Class B from C because of what she called "widespread concerns" about the increasing prevalence of Skunk. This was despite ...
Yesterday the SNP Education Minister Fiona Hyslop announced £30 million of student support of increased grants and loans. Grants of up to £1,000 are to be introduced for independent students - those unsupported by parents and mostly over 25. And she said the maximum level of the income-assessed student loan, which has a current interest rate of 0 per cent, will go up by £442. Liam Burns the President of the National Union of Students Scotland welcomed the news saying: "For years, we've been calling for student hardship to be prioritised over graduate debt, getting money into students' pockets when ...
I might be overstating the case, but only slightly. Ward & White's Karaoke Circus wasn't world peace, winning the lottery or swimming with dolphins (I have no desire to swim with dolphins), but it was pretty damn good and I'm still smiling. (Or at least I was when I started writing this post on Friday. Had some links to track down before publishing it so it's, erm, a bit late.) OK, from the beginning. Karaoke Circus is so called, host Martin White explained, because it features amateurs singing songs with a clown on stage. There are, though, some key differences ...
In 2006 14 people died because a Nimrod crashed in Afghanistan. The plane should not have been flying but safety concerns were secondary to financial targets. Obviously this is a tragedy of the highest order and to admit that finance is the root cause must be hard for everyone who was involved. How many times do we say in our home that we will make do. Many domestic fires are caused by old electrical equipment. Do we know the age of the wiring in our house and the hidden dangers behind our walls? There is a big difference between an ...
