Newly elected MP for Redcar, Ian Swales, has today been elected as the Liberal Democrat representative to the prestigious Public Accounts Committee; a team of MPs responsible for ensuring the Government delivers value-for-money for taxpayers. Mr Swales' appointment comes just two months after he was elected to the House of Commons and is recognition of the experience and expertise he can bring to the role having worked for many years as an accountant. The Committee is responsible for overseeing government expenditures to ensure they are effective and honest and is seen as a crucial mechanism for ensuring transparency and accountability ...
The Turkish Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, came out with an unusually strong statement the other day, insisting that Israel must either apologise for its bloody assault on the Turkish cruise liner which was part of the recent abortive Gaza aid flotilla, or else submit to a truly independent, international commission of inquiry. Otherwise, he said, ...
A couple of weeks ago the Government announced that they were cutting the free swimming for over 60s programme that Cornwall Council had signed up to. The programme was due to last until next April but was being cut to save money they said. Across the UK, they said that most users of the scheme would have gone swimming anyway and the cost was far too high. In Cornwall we were able to keep costs down and had seen a good take-up but have accepted that the scheme is being cut as a result of budget pressures. But full marks ...
I see the government is giving more priority to home insulation, and in fact diverting money from other forms of saving to boost insulation. We had cavity wall insulation done a few months ago in the depth of winter. The insulation is fine, I would recommend it. It makes a noticeable difference in some parts of the house. But the experience of the installation was not, and my experience of that leads me to say, if you have cavity wall insulation done, don't use Mark Group. There are plenty of alternatives around: here's a place where you can find loads, ...
As we are likely to have a referendum on moving from First Past the Post (FPTP) to Alternative Vote (AV), I am going to have a long post based on voting systems that will look at FPTP, AV, Alternative Vote Plus (AV+) and Single Transferable Vote (STV) First Past The Post FPTP is the system used to elect MPs to the House Of Commons at present. The system is very simple. Every voter gets a ballot paper on visiting their polling station. They then mark an X against the candidate they wish to represent them in parliament. A simple majority ...
Rhona Brankin MSP has served as a Labour MSP for 11 years now and at the tender age of 60 has decided enough is enough and she plans to hang up her jacket and retire from Holyrood, although she doesn't seem to rule out other roles in public life. Rhona Brankin, said: "After 30 years of being active in the Labour Party, I feel the time has come to step aside from frontline politics."The former Labour Scottish Executive minister said she wanted to spend more time with her family and take up other roles in public life. Rhona served as ...
Slightly sad to realise that this is my last prediction poll for the 2010 World Cup. Thanks you, everyone who has played along. I will provide final scores for everyone who has made a prediction, using three different systems, after it is all over. View Poll: #1589233 The semi-finals saw only mirrorume predict the Dutch 3-2 victory over Uruguay, and only wowou and wickedmissy predict Spain's 1-0 defeat of Germany. wowou and wickedmissy both foresaw the Dutch win, if by the wrong score, so I declare them winners of the semi-final predictions, or at least less wrong than the rest ...
I'm thrilled to have been nominated as a finalist for the 2010 ISPA Internet Hero award. The Internet Services Providers' Association (ISPA UK) has been organising the UK Internet Industry Awards since 1999, a series of worthy professional gongs designed, as their PR says, "to herald the best of the Internet industry and to celebrate ...
[IMG: Ian Learmonth] Jobs could go says Ian Learmonth, Kent police's new Chief Constable talking about cuts, as reported by the BBC, his included if reports elsewhere (KM) are anything to go by as the government are discussing proposals to have directly elected police chiefs rather than selection on the whim of local police authorities, such as that headed up by Ann Barnes in Kent. Quite what the police authority actually does is frankly [IMG: ann barnes] bit of a mystery, apart I assume from choosing new police chief constables, and maybe meeting occasionally, to agree how wonderful Kent police ...
I'd like to express my sincere and deepest sympathy to the family of Councillor Gina Houghton, of whose extremely sad death I heard this evening. The news was so sudden that it hasn't fully sunk in yet. It was a great privilege to have known Gina as a friend and colleague over nearly twenty years, first as a fellow LibDem activist and then as a colleague on Newbury Town Council. Gina genuinely had a "heart of gold" and cared deeply about our society and our world. She worked tirelessly for the Liberal Democrats, the United Nations Association, Newbury Town Council ...
Cornwall Council's Cabinet meetings are arguably the most important in the authority. Because the Council uses the 'strong leader' model, it is the Cabinet that takes all the key financial decisions. Whilst the full council approves the budget on an annual basis, the decisions on individual projects are always taken at a Cabinet level. So the agendas for these meetings tend to be very long and there are lots of complicated reports to read. Typically, the whole agenda bundle will be almost 1000 pages long with appendices. As a result councillors need to have everything on time to be able ...
The Uxbridge English Dictionary as any fans of Radio 4's I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue will attest is the lesser known, but far more interesting sibling to the better known, and some say more authoritarian*, version from up the Thames at Oxford. However, while consulting the UEB I looked up Gerrymander, here is the entry. Gerrymander (jr-mndr, gr-) Preposition Colloquialism Ulster Six Counties Used to indicate the location of the Republican leader as in 'There is Mr Adams over there.' Of course such use is far more closer to the use that the Labour party seem to be taking ...
As part of Renaissance East Midlands' 'MuBu' project, Harborough Museum is putting hundreds of its 10,000 strong collection of photographs online. The pictures can be viewed on Flickr. Usefully, the pictures have been tagged so that you can see where the pictures were taken. So I can be sure that the Bricky Pit shown in this photograph of Little Bowden is now the wilderness called Windy Ridge that we are trying to save from development. MuBu is a new scheme designed to connect museums and audiences through digital projects. To see some of the projects being run across the East ...
Protection from Harassment Act 1997 Definition The Act defines harassment in section 1(1) as a "course of conduct" amounting to harassment and provides by section 7(3) that a course of conduct must involve conduct on at least two occasions. (Originally these occasions needed to involve the same person, but in 2005 the act was amended ...
My last blog was about child health and safety rules and I wrote that, in my opinion, these had gone too far. Now look what has happened one week later! Perhaps the news hasn't made it outside of London but a family called the Schonrocks who live in South London have been publicised for the parents' decision to allow their eight and five year old children to cycle to school by themselves. The school that the children attend don't approve. This raises three questions: 1. Does it matter how the children get to school just as long as they get ...
A news release says... A ban on councils selling green electricity into the national grid is to be overturned, Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne said today as the carbon footprint of every local council in England was published. In a speech to today's Local Government Association annual conference, Mr Huhne will say that he wants local councils to be allowed to sell electricity they produce from renewables to the national electricity grid. Mr Huhne said: "It's ridiculous that the 1976 Local Government Act prevents councils from selling electricity from local wind turbines, or from anaerobic digestion. "I want to see ...
One of the great things about being a councillor is that you get a chance to find out about things going on in Sheffield that you might never have seen otherwise. Today was one of those opportunities, when all councillors were shown a film produced by film studies students at High Storrs School. The film ...
It's now been (as near as makes no odds) two months since the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats formed their historic Coalition government. [IMG: cameron-clegg_1529392c] In that two months I've struggled to blog anywhere near as frequently as I was before. Now, that's mostly explained by the excitement and fast pace of an election campaign, with new incidents and developments to pore over not just every day, but almost every hour: runes to read, polls to ponder, and other such alliterative amusements. By contrast, blogging about a coalition when your party's part of it is a curious thing. I neither ...
Interesting article on the BBC News website today (hattip to Ben Goldacre for drawing my attention to it) about EU regulations that are currently kicking in requiring scientific evidence before food manufacturers can put health claims on their labels. The regulations are affecting products such as apple cider vinegar for which it is sometimes claimed they help with bowel movements, green tea being good for cholesterol levels (amongst other things) and the various claims that the makers of probiotic yoghurts and drinks make about their effect on the immune system. The industry seems to be in full special pleading mode ...
An excellent post from Neil Stockley: Holding a public vote on changing the voting system is a radical step for the UK. But it has been done before. In 1993, my home country, New Zealand held the second of two referendums to decide how to elect MPs. An established Westminster democracy voted by a 54:46 per cent margin to get rid of first past the post (FPTP) voting and put in its place the German-style mixed member proportional (MMP) system... Of course, the UK in 2011 will not be New Zealand in 1993 and, for that matter, AV is not ...
Along with the other Cressington Lib Dem Councillors - Peter Millea and Richard Oglethorpe - I've got a meeting with some top bods at Liverpool Mutual Homes on Monday next week. We've already got some things to go through with them, but if you are an LMH tenant or are in an area which LMH has some responsibility for and you have an issue, please let me have it. I can't check this blog every day so can you e mail me at paula.keaveney@liverpool.gov.uk if you have something. You can also give a call to the office on 0151 225 ...
The stories about the hosepipe ban coming on Friday have led to loads of others about how to save water. One of them is to make sure rainwater is properly used by, for example, collecting in in a water butt and using it for your garden (I'm told plants prefer this to tap water anyway) Even if there wasn't a shortage and a hosepipe ban, looking at ways of using less water makes a whole load of sense environmentally. The City Council has in the past offered people composters at reduced rates as part of its commitment to the environment. ...
Another thing we can do for jobs is make toys of me, especially for the holidays. Little dolls. Me. Like maybe little action dolls. Me in an army uniform, air force uniform, and me in my suit. They can make toys of me and my vehicle, especially for the holidays and Christmas for the kids. That's something that would create jobs. So you see I think out of the box like that. It's not something a typical person would bring up. That's something that could happen, that makes sense. It's not a joke. -Talking in the Guardian, Al Greene, the ...
Ken Clarke's recent announcement that the new government will be tackling re-offending should be welcomed. When almost 60% of offenders sentenced to less than 12 months re-offend within a year, it raises questions about existing policy and practice. I'm glad that the government is not engaging in the usual competition to sound the toughest on crime- it's not whether you sound tough on crime that is important, but whether crime is falling, and people are less frightened of crime. One of the things Ken Clarke has proposed is a scheme to use private companies to tackle re-offending. Whilst I am ...
Ok – "says Jane Asher" is added. Well you didn't expect it to be a Mail leader did you? And yes, I have relaxed my ban. I even read a hard copy of the thing last night. Don't know why....
Usually daytime telly isn't worth the electricity it uses to keep it switched on after the morning news , but today I came across a programme, which kept me hooked. 'The Estate we're in' is about run-down council estates and a plucky woman from North London, called Silla, who moves in to sort them out. What kept ...
I have blogged at length about the future of newspapers and The Times in particular. Now that particular paper in its online form is behind a paywall. The pricing structure is £1 per day or £2 per week which as I have said before is too expensive. However they are doing an introductory offer of £1 for the first month. Even though I think this whole enterprise is doomed to failure, for £1 for 30 days I thought I would have a pop to experience what life is like on the other side of the wall! However when I started ...
Theories often pop into my head, sometimes again and again. A few of them I'll tell myself I need to check out, and one of them got its lucky chance today. The theory in question goes something like this: MPs used twitter during the election campaign, only to abandon the chore of tweeting as soon as they were re-elected. I know what you're thinking, that I am one of those tiresome cynics. Nothing could be further from the truth. I am actually one of those people who thinks of politicians as essentially good people, rather than adopting the lazy tabloid line. ...
Yesterday we had the AGM of the All-Party Group on Pneumococcal Disease Prevention in the Third World, at which Jim Dobbin MP and I were elected co-chairs. This morning, Subcommittee F on EU , at which the Committee agreed on two major inquiries, and had a discussion with Ed Lock, the Committee's EU Liaison Officer. Then to King's College Hospital, for electrocardiogram and Cardio-Pulmonary Exercise Test (CPET), to see whether I'm fit enough for the repair to my aorta, to explain which I have an appointment with Mr R the vascular surgeon tomorrow. The CPET test involved pedalling an exercise ...
When I was a child there were no extra-solar planets known about. People assumed they may exist but we had no evidence that they did. This allowed us to continue to believe that there may be something special about our solar system. Indeed I remember arguments of the form that there may be no other solar systems, and this was an argument for the Earth as a special case in a special solar system. What boggles is me is that the since the first planet was confirmed in 1992 is the speed with which this argument has been effortly demolished! ...
[IMG: Press Complaints Commission (PCC) logo] An eleven month review into the workings of the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) has made 75 recommendations but is not suggesting any fundamental alterations in the ways in which the PCC works. The relatively modest total set of recommendations is in contrast to the views of the Culture, Media and Sport committee in the House of Commons, which earlier this year recommended major changes to the work of the PCC, including giving it the option of fining publications for breaching its code. The Press Gazette's Dominic Ponsford has said the review is "basically window ...
I have just finished an inspection tour of the Port of Tyne, carried out by the Port of Tyne Health Authority. This body deals with health issues arising from the movement of goods and people through the various different port facilities. The tour taken place once every two years but this is the first time I have done it. We were taken by boat up the Tyne to view the different facilities until we
There seems to be a growing sense, which I've only noticed in the past week - and partly, I think, because of The Independent's cheer-leading for a property crash - that we are all buggered, not to put too fine a point on it. Like most panics which start in the press, this is almost certainly not true. But there is no doubt that cutting public spending by 10-20 per cent will have a huge impact on the economy. I'm not a deficit hawk, but I do believe that the government is vastly inefficient, and largely because it is so ...
In my recent item about roundabouts in the West End that need their vegetation pruned back, I mentioned residents' complaints about the state of the roundabout at Riverside Drive/Riverside Avenue, near the Riverside Inn, that I had reported to the council. The City Council's City Engineer has now updated me as follows : "Fraser We are in the process of arranging traffic management for Sunday work to get this job done, hopefully within the next 2-3 weeks."
From YouGov comes the news: 1) The principle of having a referendum on AV is popular with the support of 69% of the public. 2) Latest voting intentions in the AV referendum are 45% in support of AV, 32% in support of FPTP. 6% would not vote and 17% don't know how they would vote. 3) However, support for AV is soft. We experimented by presenting people with six arguments in favour of AV, and six arguments against AV and then asking how they would vote in a referendum. This resulted in a significant drop in support for AV to ...
Local Liberal Democrat Councillors have called on the Conservatives running Bury Council to scrap proposed charges for the Fairfax Road. The planned charges will see motorists charged £1 for short-stay parking, and £2 for long-stay. Councillor Tim Pickstone, leader of the Bury Liberal Democrats, said "Lib Dems in Prestwich have opposed the Fairfax Road car parking charges from day one. We voted against them, and have campaigned strongly against them since. "We're worried that the £1 charge for short-term parking will be particularly damaging to local shops, whilst at the same time doing nothing to achieve what the Conservatives at ...
Local Liberal Democrats have accused Bury Conservatives of threatening the future of the town after big cuts were announced to Town Hall budgets last week. The Council confirmed a range of cuts to be made immediately, including a reduction in funding for children's services, playgrounds and roads. The decisions were made with immediate effect and without the involvement of Councillors or local people. Commenting, Cllr Tim Pickstone the leader of the Bury Liberal Democrats said "We all know that cuts need to be made because of the huge debts left by the last Labour government. But this is the wrong ...
Information from Bury Council: Summer is here! Wondering want to do with your time this summer? Take a look at all the playschemes, activities and events running in Bury this summer for children, young people and families Click on and Check out all the information behind the new look Find it 4 Me picture icons at: www.bury.gov.uk/childrenandyoungpeople 1. School Holiday Information Packs (click on above link) 2. Activities 4 Me (year round activities for all local children ....... some children may be eligible for Activities 4 Me funding to help them access activities which they might not otherwise be able ...
Dear Fraser This week, I announced that, for the first time, the British people will have choice about the system they use to elect their MPs. On May 5th 2011, there will be a referendum on whether to adopt the Alternative Vote. The First Past The Post system hands power to the lucky few who live in marginal constituencies and sucks it away from the vast majority of us who do not. So over the next ten months the Liberal Democrats will be fighting hard, with others, for a 'yes' vote in the referendum. I want to sweep away the ...
[IMG: Rack server] The Information Commissioner has today published a new guide to online privacy, setting out rules and good practice for those who gather people's personal data online, e.g. through running a website. Christopher Graham said: "The benefits of the internet age are clear: the chance to make more contacts, quicker transactions and greater convenience. But there are risks too. A record of our online activity can reveal our most personal interests. Get privacy right and you will retain the trust and confidence of your customers and users; mislead consumers or collect information you don't need and you are ...
At today's Prime Ministers Questions, North Cornwall Lib Dem MP Dan Rogerson raised the issue of second home owners voting in Cornish elections. David Cameron replied by promising that the relevant minister would meet with Dan to discuss what can be done to clarify and enforce the law on this issue. The full text of the exchange is below: Dan Rogerson (North Cornwall) (LD): Voting by non-resident home owners in regions such as Cornwall is becoming a contentious issue. Councils are not checking whether people are voting in two locations in the same election, and local residents are worried that ...
United Utilities have announced that we will impose a hosepipe ban following the driest start to a year since its records began. It is the first hosepipe ban in the North West for 14 years. The ban will come into force on Friday July 9 at 6am. The ban will apply to all our customers in the North West, with the exception of customers in Carlisle, Allerdale, Copeland and the north Eden Valley, where supplies are at reasonable levels. John Sanders, United Utilities Water Regulation and Strategy Manager, says: "Despite some recent rainfall in the north of the region, reservoir ...
The announcement by the Prime Minister this week of an unprecedented inquiry into evidence and allegations of British complicity in the torture and abuse of terror suspects is very welcome. According to the Guardian this honours a promise while in opposition that he would set up a judge-led inquiry into mounting evidence, emerging mainly from court hearings: The prime minister told the Commons he had asked Sir Peter Gibson - a former appeal court judge who privately monitors the activities of the intelligence agencies - to "look at whether Britain was implicated in the improper treatment of detainees held by ...
From November 2011 the bendy buses on bus route 12 will be changed to normal double deckers. This will make the lives of those on Etherow Street far more bearable. I've just responded to the formal consultation. To compensate for smaller passenger loads per bus more buses will run. So overall slightly better frequency. Equally bendy buses have a reputation as 'free buses' so capacity can be marginally reduced as you can't get on a normal double decker without paying. Only caveat I have is that countdown real time bus information wont be isntalled at all bus stops. Waiting around ...
5 May next year there will be a referendum on whether to adopt the Alternative Vote system. If passed this would be a radical improvement on the current First Past The Post system. The First Past The Post system means those that live in marginal constituencies have votes that are more valuable than the vast majority of us who do not. During the next ten months the Liberal Democrats will be fighting , with others, for a 'yes' vote in the referendum. To get past most peoples complacency will take a hard fight. Surviving is more on most people's minds. ...
The Government's paper "Working For LGBT Equality" has gone from theory to reality today, following a Supreme Court ruling stating that returning LGB (not T) asylum seekers to their home countries where they might face murder, torture and/or imprisonment was wrong. The decision overturns an earlier decision by the Court of Appeal that the Government could return two gay asylum-seekers, identified as HJ and HT, to Iran and Cameroon, where homosexuality is illegal, on the basis that they could be expected to act "discreetly" so as to avoid persecution. In Iran, homosexuality regularly leads to the death penalty, whilst in ...
So, the government plans to hold the alternative vote (AV) referendum on 5 May 2011. I for one will be happy to support a change of voting system. It's not that I think that using AV would radically change UK governance for the better. In fact, I think that hyperbolic predictions and promises are best avoided on this one. But AV has some important benefits. In about two out of three constituencies, more voters would see their choices count for something. All MPs would need the support of at least 50 per cent of those voting. That should enhance the ...
You never know in which direction Harriett Harman is going to pounce at Prime Minister's Questions. Take today. Veteran commentators, such as John Pienaar, prior to the session, were unable to predict the two topics she eventually alighted on. She's got her own patented self-loading googly device which fires her off in any direction, leaving bystanders gasping. Today she even did that thing one would never predict in the House of Commons. She started with a topic which brought only warm, mushy agreement with the Prime Minister - on domestic violence and the need to retain short sentences in those ...
Cross-posted from Liberal Democrat Voice You never know in which direction Harriett Harman is going to pounce at Prime Minister's Questions. Take today. Veteran commentators, such as John Pienaar, prior to the session, were unable to predict the two topics she eventually alighted on. She's got her own patented self-loading googly device which fires her off in any direction, leaving bystanders gasping. Today she even did that thing one would never predict in the House of Commons. She started with a topic which brought only warm, mushy agreement with the Prime Minister - on domestic violence and the need to ...
Simon Hughes, Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats, is taking part in a video question and answer session being run by Yoosk. You can add to the list of questions and vote on which ones you think he should answer using their widget:
BBC Radio Cornwall led with this subject again this morning. I commented saying that I felt that there is a culture of secrecy surrounding the payments made to top officers when they leave their posts. Whilst the law has changed so that we now know what payments have been made, we are still caught up with confidentiality agreements so that we don't know why a person has left or on what basis a payment has been made. The recent example of Peter Lewis who received a payment of £78,750 despite apparently leaving of his own volition is typical. Also interviewed ...
The South Wales Evening Post carries a report of a rather unusual Mayor's annual dinner staged by a Town Council with what appears to have been a very generous budget. They say that cost of the annual Gorseinon Town Council event, which is believed to run to thousands of pounds and is said to have featured entertainment from magicians, harpists and fiddlers is to be discussed in private at its monthly meeting tonight: Guests at the dinner, which was held on April 30, included the town mayor, mayors of neighbouring community councils, the Lord Mayor of Swansea, Gorseinon town councillors ...
I took in the new film by Claire Denis White Material in which Isabelle Huppert plays a coffee farmer in an African state rife with racial tensions and civil war. All the characters are trying to preserve their lives and Huppert her farm. Denis has a very strong track record having made Beau Travail also set in Africa but about the French Foreign Legion. Denis work is subtle and can take a bit of time to get going but the wait is worth it. Christopher Lambert, formerly Tarzan and the Highlander, is on excellent form as Hupperts ex husband and ...
Finding solutions often seems a very simple task, so much so that once found no one quite knows why it wasn't thought of before. A good example of this has been in Liverpool where the Liberal Democrat Council identified a problem: on average 55% of burglaries with entry occurred through the rear in terraced and ...
As I said on Monday I've just finished reading A Short History of the Liberal party 1900-1988. One thing that has become clear is how bad coalitions were for the Liberal party. Of course we aren't the Liberal Party, we're the Liberal Democrats. Totally different. But a quick recap is sobering: 1915-1922 Coalition under Asquith and Lloyd George saw us go from 270 seats in 1910 election to 36 seats in 1922. Having split into Liberals and Coalitions Liberals. The 1931 election elected 72 Liberals (split into Liberals and National Liberals). The National Liberals were in coalitions with the Tories ...
Together with my Lib Dem colleagues, I have raised concerns after it was revealed that Cornwall Council has a projected over-spend of almost £4million after just two months of the financial year. We have questioned whether the Council's Conservative leaders are capable of administering the budget. The details of the projected over-spend were revealed in documents due to be debated at next week's Cabinet meeting and show that there is a projected deficit of £2.367 million in the adult care and support budget, £600,000 in the housing service and £750,000 in customer first. To documents also show that the Council ...
From the Vote for Change campaign. Amazing news. As you may have heard this morning reform is back leading the news. We're going to get our referendum on voting reform, and we'll get it next May. This is a huge victory in our fight to fix our broken politics, and it's thanks to you that we've won it. All the petitions, all the pressure we've put on our leaders these past months – it's all paid off. But – and maybe you guessed I was about to say this – our work isn't done. Today, we won a battle for ...
The short answer to that question is that it's all Stephen's fault! Last Summer, when I was so poorly that I could only rarely stay out of bed for a whole day, Stephen came to visit me. He is a huge Tour de France fan, so being a polite hostess, we watched it. I liked the scenery, even if I didn't really have a clue who anyone was or what was going on. There were even some times when I watched it when he wasn't here. Stephen's enthusiasm wasn't the first time I'd come across Tour fandom. My friend Alex ...
Yesterday I posted abouthow the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had condemned Britain's return with discretion policy to sexuality refugees which were followed under Labour. Today the UK Supreme Court has stood up for sexuality refugees as well. They ruled in favour of two men one from Iran and the other from Cameroon. They had been asked to consider if a gay applicant could be refused asylum on the grounds that he could avoid ill treatment if he concealed his sexuality. (I could use a gender neutral term here but the applicants were both male on this occasion ...
Fresh Squeezings From the veins of the InternetFilm Geeks Rejoice! Ray Harryhausen is leaving all his stuff to the Media Museum in Bradford! Brilliant news for gay asylum seekers. For a more personal squee about this, see [IMG: [personal profile] ] lizw's entry on it. The F-word has a fab article on how advice following sexual assaults could be reworded. Steve articulates my feelings on AV better than I possibly could. Srsly, Government, we want STV. Charlotte Dingle does a guest post on JimJay's blog about being Bi. I have to say, possibly because of the company I keep, I ...
[IMG: houses.jpg] A new planning application has been received which is within Holyrood Ward of Prestwich as detailed below:- Application number: 52820 Type of application: Full Date Registered: 05/07/2010 Applicant: Mr & Mrs Hall Location: Land off Poppythorn Lane, Prestwich, Manchester Proposal: Outline - Demolition of existing buildings and erection of 12 no. dwellings and associated access and car parking Plans will be available to view on the Council's website within 2 working days from today. Should you require further details please contact the case officer: Helen Longworth on: 0161 253 5322. If you wish to comment on this application ...
As someone who has very recently been diagnosed as being clinically depressed, I was very much taken with Claire Allen's piece in this mornings Guardian about the effects that the Governments benefits cuts will have on those with mental illnesses. If you have a moment, please take the time to read the article. Filed under: ...
It's rare that I get the chance to listen to Prime Minister's Questions live, firstly because I work during the day, and secondly because I fear turning into a boring politico and so avoid it on purpose sometimes and do normal things like read a book. Today though I was driving from one meeting to another during PMQs, so tuned in to discover that, sadly, the coalition government's Prime Minister is no better at giving straight answers than any predecessor I've ever heard. The "new politics" was nowhere to be seen. Harriet Harman, the temporary Labour leader, asked a very ...
This site gives people inside and outside the party a place to express their views. And what bigger subject than the cuts to be announced in this autumn's spending review? The coalition government have said that there will be consultation on the spending review, but many of us may want to test our thinking on a forum before writing to the government. This post is a place for us to get feedback on our ideas, and to think through the options the government faces. It might be helpful to say some of the following: - why your idea would save ...
Parking and garage colonies top the agenda at the next Prestwich Local Area Partnership meeting. [IMG: Screen shot 2010-07-07 at 16.07.59] Residents are invited to come along and air their views when the LAP meets on Thursday July 15 at Maccabi Sports & Social Club in Bury Old Road, starting at 6.30pm. Ian Crook from Bury Council's environmental and development services department will be outlining policies to help manage parking in Prestwich. Six Town Housing will be outlining proposals arising from a review of garage colonies and seeking the views of the partnership and local residents. There will be details ...
I know exactly where I was on that day and it was about as far away from my friends and family as I could have been and I didn't like it. I, of course, was not in the same predicament with my family that I am now. I was in regular contact with them and ...
Information on the hosepipe ban from United Utilities. United Utilities have announced that we will impose a hosepipe ban following the driest start to a year since its records began. It is the first hosepipe ban in the North West for 14 years. The ban will come into force on Friday July 9 at 6am. The ban will apply to all our customers in the North West, with the exception of customers in Carlisle, Allerdale, Copeland and the north Eden Valley, where supplies are at reasonable levels. John Sanders, United Utilities Water Regulation and Strategy Manager, says: "Despite some recent ...
Call me naive, but I have been genuinely shocked by the bilious and unbridled hatred that has been pouring out from every Labour orifice you could care to mention. Not just from the Labour leadership contenders. Not just in the press. But even here in sunny Hastings, Labour is looking to knee-cap a Lib Dem or two. It's bewildering. It's so far removed from the kind of national political culture that I want to be part of. My sense of the Lib Dems is that we wear our political hearts on our sleeve a bit. We are passionate about social ...
A Welsh Liberal Democrat Assemb;y Member has raised questions after a major music festival was given nearly £250,000 of assembly government money only days after other cultural organisations lost public funding. The Faenol Festival in Bangor, Gwynedd, which is organised by opera star Bryn Terfel, will receive the money over the next three years. It comes after the Arts Council of Wales (ACW) cut grants to several arts organisations. The fairness of the funding has been questioned by some assembly members. But the assembly government insisted the festival was one of a number of events being supported that would promote ...
38 Degrees are holding a petition to question the 100% stake in Sky that Rupert Murdoch is currently aspiring to. 38 As stated on the 38 Degrees site; 'Rupert Murdoch has his sights set on gaining complete control of BSkyB and increasing his stranglehold on a free and independent media in the UK. He currently owns 40% of the company but wants to increase his stake to 100%. This would be a disaster. It would give Murdoch even more political influence and it could open the door to biased, right-wing news like Fox News in the US. A free and ...
The Conservative MP for North West Leicestershire, Andrew Bridgen strayed into the area of mental health in a debate in the House of Commons, unfortunately for him he tried to make a joke of it, never a good idea. Andrew Bridgen MP: "As for those suffering from mental health problems, especially selective amnesia, I can see plenty in this Chamber."Neither did he then go on to apologise, another mistake. Mental health is a serious issue in this country and making light of it by politicians, who should know better, is not helpful. It is this petty playground throwaway comments that ...
It's that time of the year when bloggers either ask for votes for the Total Politics poll or explain why they're not taking part in it. I certainly agree it shouldn't be taken too seriously, but as a rough idea of which political blogs a decent number of blog readers rate, it comes up with some interesting results and I almost always discover looking through the final scores at least one blog that I hadn't previously read but becomes a must read for me. Before we get to any final scores, we need the voting. So here is the explanation ...
I would have thought that given that Jonathan Lord claimed to support the NHS and carers during his campaign, that he would have been one of the first MP's to sign up to the Early Day Motion featured below: That this House expresses its respect for the six million people of all ages in the ...
Still dining out on watching a veritable feast of BBC Parliament + a debate on parliamentary reform (the perfect combo) on Monday evening, where Nick Clegg was the star of the show (*pinch*, *pinch*... no, this is not a dream), it has to be worth another blogpost... surely? An issue that came up a few ...
Teeing up public sector workers like midwives for cuts in their pensions, Nick Clegg spoke recently about the "unreformed gold-plated public sector pension pots" that people like firefighters and soldiers enjoy. We hear a lot about the long-term cost of public sector pension schemes, as if they are a fiscal time-bomb ready to explode at the heart of the public finances. Firstly, let's take a look at the reality of these bounteous public sector pension pots. Take the average pension for a female NHS worker, £5,000. What is worse, half of all women pensioners who have worked in the NHS ...
In an interview on Liberal Conspiracy, Ed Miliband apparently claims to be "the candidate of change". Let's look at the "change" he promises in the interview... He: repeats the manifesto commitment to fully mutualising Northern Rockrepeats Harriet Harman's desire that 50% of the shadow cabinet be comprised of womenrefuses to commit to equalising marriage rightsclaims to want to learn the lessons of the Iraq war, apparently forgetting voting very strongly against an enquiry into what went wrong Doesn't seem too radical to me I'm afraid. Also, as Diane Abbott pointed out about the other four contenders "They're white, they're male, ...
Right, as you will have gathered from my previous post and the events that followed it, I'm not totally enamoured by everything the coalition is doing (on some things I am actually rather annoyed!), however I find the rampant hypocrisy of the PLP (and particularly leadership contenders) really hard to stomach! To them it would appear that the Liberal Democrats are little more than a Labour tribute act who have left them (and sold out on our principles), we're not (and we haven't)... and didn't your mothers ever tell you not to throw stones from glass houses? Right, Ed Miliband ...
Five years ago today, I was a first year PhD student who already hadn't done as much as I knew I had to on her project. I was sitting in the near empty PhD office in the Eareth Science department at UCL, listening to music on my iPod, when someone came in from the office next door and said, "Did you hear that bang?" I hadn't. Later I might wonder if I had heard it and dismissed it. It had been a very loud bang, by all accounts. Shortly afterwards, all I could hear in my office was the sound ...
It's not often you read something that makes you genuinely optimistic about the future of the planet. We're used to regular updates now from panels of climatologists basically telling us we're screwed, and that unscrewing ourselves is going to be a long, economically painful, and fairly masochistic slog. Last night however I had the pleasure of reading the "Superfreakonomics" chapter: "What do Al Gore and Mount Pinatubo have in common?" and it turns out there is a scientifically and economically plausible proposal for reversing (or at least counteracting) global warming. The solution has been estimated to cost just $250M (not ...
The Northern Echo's report on the cancellation of Building Schools for the Future includes case studies where local head teachers give their views. Longfield's Head, Keith Cotgrave, expresses his disappointment but insists that the work which has already gone into the bid will not be wasted. He makes the point that what is most important is what happens inside the school, with which he is very
Liberal Democrat Children's Minister Sarah Teather today spoke to Lib Dem Voice about her campaign to put a fair start for children at the heart of the government's reform agenda. Her first announcement is a review of the Early Years Foundation Stage, which sets out what three and four year olds should do in pre-school and nursery. Sarah said, "Liberal Democrats have always seen education as the key to social mobility. It isn't right that differences in social background are evident as early as 22 months and that children from deprived backgrounds are overtaken by lower-achieving children from advantaged backgrounds ...
On the whole I think the Libe Dems in government are making a reasonable fist of the hand they've got. We are in the minority, and by 'eck I rather wish a few people charging about like Don Quixote would remember that. Just having done a Lib Dem Voice survey on the subject made me realise that I am reasonably happy with what our MPs in government have done so far. The one thing I'm not at all sure about is the raising of VAT to 20% rather than taxing those super rich bankers more!!!
On Monday the Liberal Democrat Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, made a statement outlining plans for a referendum on the use of the Alternative Vote system in the UK.
Sparked by yesterday's discussion, this is cut and pasted from my website, and records a discussion between me, Jim Riley and others on Usenet (remember that?) back in August 1999, demonstrating that requiring a rigid ratio between electors and representatives is not a safeguard against gerrymandering; if anything, the reverse. I started the bidding with the old chestnut about dividing the mythical county of Tymanagh with a population of 60% Yugoslavs and 40% Belgians into three single-seat constituencies. There are as it were 1.8 seats' worth of Yugoslavs, and 1.2 seats' worth of Belgians. [IMG: diagram] A 'fair' result is ...
Written by Moira Buffini and directed by Richard Eyre, Welcome to Thebes is a must watch for anyone interested in politics, development, women's rights or just good drama. Set in the fictional country of Thebes, the story follows Eurydice, the new president, in the days after the country's first democratic election. Her challenge is great ...
Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of the Coalition Government's budget, and what you make of the Lib Dems' and Government's performance to date. Over 350 party members have responded, and we're publishing the full results of our survey this week. First, we thought we should take the temperature of the party membership regarding their view of the Lib-Con Coalition agreement, now some two months old. We asked: Do you support or oppose the Lib Dems being in the Coalition Government with the Conservatives? Here's what our sample of party members ...
The dates for the next two Holyrood elections are causing controversy already. Well it's not the Scottish Parliament elections as such but the prospect of holding other events alongside them. There's been a lot of hot air over the last 48 hours, particularly from a certain Mr A Salmond of Bute House (quelle surprise) but I think we should just all calm down and look at this sensibly. Let's take 2011 first. The UK Government intends to hold a referendum on the Alternative Vote system, as outlined in the Coalition Agreement. Now, it could have chosen a stand alone date ...
Your browser does not support iframes. The British Pathé website holds many treasures. This newsreel from 1954 (just click on the photo) shows men drilling for oil at Plungar in Leicestershire. The well does not seem to be open today, although the book Twentieth Century Industrial Archaeology, which was published in 2000, says that a "nodding donkey" could be seen at Plungar. Oil is , however, still extracted in Leicesterhire. Earlier this year the Leicester Mercury reported that Star Energy Oil & Gas has been given permission to continue operating the county's only two wells. They are in the Stilton ...
The Stranraer community and anyone else prepared to travel is being invited to help plant some of the 100,000 trees that will create the town's own community woodland. To get more local people actively involved in creating a community woodland, a special volunteer planting day is being held on Saturday 10th July 12 - 3pm at Gallowhill Farm - everyone is welcome. Last year, Forestry Commission Scotland bought the land directly above King George Park, with a view of turning part of it into a thriving new woodland for local people to enjoy. Stan Corcoran from Forestry Commission Scotland said: ...
My day was a weird one on the 7th July 2005, to be fair given the Olympics announcement it was a weird week. I was now Head of Office and Constituency Organiser to Lynne Featherstone MP and Haringey Liberal Democrats. Lynne and I had had a good day on the 6th July when the Olympics result was announced - in fact we had been stood in the corridor behind the Speakers Chair when the announcement took place, a rare occasion that cheering happened in the Chamber! Anyhow, back to 7/7. I'd come into our Norman Shaw office early to deal ...
Ahead of the British Grand Prix this weekend, here are two videos featuring Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton. The first shows them in a warehouse which is home to dozens of old McLaren F1 cars - the focus is the MP4-4 which dominated the 1988 championship. The second is a promotional video for Vodafone in which they try to construct this years car from its consituent parts. Enjoy! Andrew
David Cameron has ordered an unprecedented inquiry into evidence and allegations of British complicity in the torture and abuse of terror suspects. But it also comes with a censure on courts disclosing damning evidence that would 'jeopardise' information sharing with the USA. The upshot of that second clause is that the six former Guantánamo Bay detainees who are seeking to bring civil action claims against MI5 and MI6 will be offered out of court settlements to keep that information out of court. I expect that any inquiry would be calling on them to give evidence there instead. Cameron has said ...
i) births and deaths 7 July 1919: birth of Jon Pertwee, the Third Doctor, star of the show from 1970 to 1974; the first Doctor I can remember, the gentleman wizard who spends a lot of his time on Earth. I'm in the middle of rewatching Pertwee's stories at the moment and actually liking them a bit more than I did last time round. ii) broadcast anniversary 7 July 2009: broadcast of the second episode of Torchwood: Children of Earth, with Jack reassembling his exploded body, getting encased in concrete and then busted out by Ianto, while Gwen and Rhys ...
From this Friday, 9th July, a hosepipe ban will be in force across the North West (with a few exceptions for some parts of Cumbria). We won't be able to use hosepipes or sprinklers, whether for the garden, washing the car or whatever else. This is, we're told, in response to the dryest first six months of the year since records began. Here's a 3 minute You Tube video from United Utilities putting their case and explaining the ban.
It was only six days ago when I wrote about the developments on Morecambe Prom near the Midland Hotel. I was walking along the prom yesterday and there is an amusement arcade window displaying the plans. The owner is not happy. Complaints range from a lack of consultation to a Prince Charles type assault on the architects. It is often the case that great architecture is contentious and beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder. The arcade (and letters in the local press) protest also claimed that the local press would not publish an artist's impression of the ...
Today is the day that Lord Ashcroft, the Tory donor-in-chief, must decide whether or not to give up his non-dom status. Three months ago, members of the House of Lords were given today's deadline to get their tax affairs in order or relinquish their seats in the House of Lords. So far, four peers have decided that they value their tax free status more. These include Lord Laidlaw and Lord McAlpine - who announced their plan to leave the Lords a while ago - and Lord Bagri and Baroness Dunn who have revealed their decision to quit in the last ...
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