My local newspaper - the astronomically titled Surrey Comet - has launched a campaign for the usurpers of English football - MK Dons - to drop the 'Dons'. The Dons is a recent historical reference to their aggressive take over of the true Dons - Wimbledon FC - who they renamed and moved 80 miles from their south west London home to Milton Keynes (the MK bit of their nomenclature). The resurrection of Wimbledon is one of the greatest acheivements of the football supporters' movement in this country. The disenfranchised fans of Wimbledon set up their own club - AFC ...
Who could not be inspired by these words of encouragement from Jason Hunter: "Liberal Democrats – In Government, On Your Side......20 months on from the creation of the coalition.... A labour supporter said about the LibDems: "why would we want to be in a Coalition with a party who have been more than happy to ditch their principles just to get cabinet jobs." I'll tell you why ... its because you are simply wrong my friend. The libdems went into coalition to implement libdem policy, and in this parliament they are implementing over 75% of their manifesto commitments (according to ...
Give the Queen a new yacht for the jubilee, says minister Michael Gove has brushed aside Britain's economic problems to propose the public donate a new royal yacht to the Queen as a mark of respect during this year's diamond jubilee celebrations, according to a confidential letter to fellow ministers. I tend not to use ...
An article on the the Guardian website lays out Nick Clegg's latest policy innovation: what has been called a "John Lewis economy", where workers are given the option of a shareholder stake in the ownership of companies. This is a promising route. If Cameron's introduction of shareholder vetoes over cooperate pay is combined with the broadening of cooperate ownership, then these two innovations will amount to giving workers a say over the pay of high earners. This will render Ed Milliband's policy of placing workers on cooperate remunerations boards obsolete. Ed Milliband's policy priorities bare a resemblance to the German ...
Well, that is the question doing the media rounds at the moment. It is another way of phrasing the independence debate that is happening in Scotland with the referendum due in autumn 2014. Henry McLeish in yesterday's Herald said that the union wasn't "fit for purpose". I agree with the former First Minister, the current ...
One of Pratchett's earlier YA novels, about a 12-year-old boy who is an enthusiastic player of computer games, which ws very much enjoyed by my 12-year-old son who is an enthusiastic player of computer games. Although Pratchett apologises in the introduction of the 2004 edition for how the story has dated since the original 1993 publication, I didn't spot any gross problems in that regard (and my expert advisor tells me that only the mention of Atari is particularly dated, plus perhaps old-fashioned descriptions of Nintendo). Anyway, it's the story of what happens when the creatures in the game start ...
John Bingham in the Daily Telegraph reports Chris Huhne's interview on BBC Radio 5's Pienaar's Politics: Mr Huhne indicated that the 50p rate was set to stay, remarking: "I think we've won that argument." He said that this was "partly, I think, because people simply realise that this is not an appropriate moment to send out a signal that we're going to tax well off people less". While insisting it had been a collective decision, he nevertheless suggested that pressure from the Liberal Demoracts had forced Mr Osborne's hand. "The Conservatives don't have an overall majority, so they need, if ...
"The current Cabinet of the United Kingdom consists of twenty three members, each department also has several junior ministers. In post-devolution Britain, majority of social policies (health, education,et al) are devolved to regional bodies - the power of Westminster is reduced. And this proposes an intriguing question: Can the Prime Minister justify a large Cabinet?" Too lib·er·al [adj.] makes the case for smaller government. iRadar gives five reasons why he will not be voting for Ed Miliband. David Hunt, Conservative peer and the new head of the Press Complaints Commission, recently made the extraordinary claim that bloggers pose a greater ...
This week finally saw the government grant its' approval to HS2, a project that will bring British transport into the 21st (well, late 20th by continental standards) century. Yet despite the support of all three major parties, years of planning and the extensive changes made to the original proposal, the line still faces an uncertain future. With the first phase linking London to Birmingham not due to be complete until 2026, and the route of the second phase extending the line to Manchester and Leeds not set to be decided until late 2014 at the earliest, it is clear there ...
In response to this public statement from the Scottish Lib Dems/Willie Rennie. I really don't see what all the fuss is about. The SNP have been completely clear about this. First and foremost they want an independence question on the ballot. That is a question to the effect: "Should Scotland become an independent state, Yes or No?" (legal wording ignored for the time being). In addition to that, they want to have a question to the effect: "Should the Scottish Parliament be given the range of powers so-identified as "Devo Max", Yes or No?" (again, the specific legal framing can ...
Sun 15th
19:07
Sorry, but Ed Balls didn't say anything spectacular. It's still the same old Labour Party.
In the narrow political sphere that seems to be twitter, there has been a furore growing. The Source is Ed Balls. It seems to be the popular assumption that suddenly Labour have accepted the cuts and and the coalition is vindicated. Sadly, as much as I hate to say it, I think it's wishful thinking. Take a look at the substance of what exactly Ed Balls said. The first point he makes is not that he endorses the coalitions cuts, indeed he never has, it's that he "accepts" them. This to me is the biggest example of weasel words. Balls ...
A cold but beautiful Sunday morning today at Balgay Park :
You may have recently heard that the Council has proposed to replace Chorlton Leisure Centre (Chorlton Baths) and Chorlton Library with a new joint service centre (http://bit.ly/yU9z5q). The Council is proposing to build a new Joint Service Centre, which is expected to cost around £5.7million and be located in Chorlton District Centre, in order to save approximately £190,000-a-year in running costs. Chorlton Liberal Democrats have welcomed these proposals which are long overdue. Chorlton Library and Leisure Centre are both very popular and well used but are outdated and need investment to match our community's needs in the 21st Century. I ...
After years of prevaricating, I finally made the jump last week and ordered Sky TV. I arrived back from the darts at the Lakeside last Monday just in time for the Sky engineer's arrival for the installation. So today I sat down to watch my first ever live Premiership match from the comfort of my own sofa. I could've watched Newcastle Vs QPR of course but no, there was live Masters Snooker on the BBC and a Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Ding Junhui sizzler at that and anyway, what better first live match could I watch than Swansea City Vs Arsenal? ...
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 256th weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere ... Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (8-14 January, 2012), together with a hand-picked quintet, normally courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed. Don't forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox — just click here — ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging. As ever, let's start with the most popular post, and work our way down: 1. What the fuck ...
This clip is Diana Wallis declaring her candidacy to be the new President of the European Parliament. She states that she wishes to make the work of the European Parliament more open, she also refers to what has been a growing tendency for the two main parties to fix the result of the presidency elections ... Read more
I'm agnostic tending to positive on Scottish independence, and have been observing with great interest the current successful manoeuvring by Alex Salmond (see excellent interview by David Rennie)to put himself in pole position to win a vote which in fact is currently opposed by a majority of the Scottish population. As sammymorse points out, the referendum, whatever the question, really could have any result at this stage; and I suspect that Salmond would be content with "devo max", but also reckons that if Westminster forbids him to put it on the ballot paper he will benefit from a backlash of ...
Our apologies for being a little behind with this, but news has reached us of Diana Wallis's attempt to become the President of the European Parliament, a job that, traditionally, has been stitched up by the two dominant Groups within the Parliament, the Socialists and Democrats, and the European People's Party. Indeed, the Presidency has been held during the first half of the 2009-2014 term by Jerzy Buzek from the European People's Party as part of a deal whereby he would stand down part way through to be replaced by a Socialist MEP. The catch is that a by-election must ...
First and foremost congratulation Mark Littlewood. Excellent choice, beating the Occupy movement by some distance. Whilst Mark won, he didn't receive the majority of the votes. Stephen Tall of Lib Dem Voice has indicated that there isn't a system robust enough to run a preferential ballot for the site. However, I did find this one, that is fairly (but not sure it'd meet the standards needed) So in a little social experiment, I thought I'd offer everyone the chance to have a go. PS give them all a star rating out of 5 (and you can duplicate your ratings)
Congratulations to Mark Littlewood, formerly of this parish, for winning LDV's Liberal Voice of the Year. As we posted hear a couple of days ago, we thought Mark was a deserving candidate – but even we were somewhat surprised by the decisiveness of the vote. Mark Littlewood 32% The Occupy Movement 13% Ken Clarke 13% Mohamed Bouazizi 11% Nick Davies and the Guardian 10% Ai Weiwei 8% Hugh Grant and the Hacked Off Campaign 6% Hilary Rodham Clinton 4% Barack Obama 3%
Prove that n4+4 is never a prime number for n>1.
How do you solve a problem like Ed? That all depends on your political allegiances. Some don't want Ed's problem to be solved so that they can waltz into number 10. I don't want a weak opposition leader, I want a strong one. I want the government of this country to be challenged. Ed's simply ...
It's a fortnight since we launched our search for the Liberal Voice of the Year with the aim of finding the individual or group which has had the biggest impact on liberalism in the past 12 months. This is LibDemVoice's fifth such annual award, and as is our tradition, we looked beyond the ranks of the Lib Dems to find the liberal who's most impressed our readers and is not a member of our party. We unveiled the shortlist here on New Year's Day. In total, 903 readers cast a vote in the past two weeks. Here are the results ...
Badriya Ali is a 59 year old woman from the village of Sanabis. In April security forces raided her home to arrest her son, Ahmed Mushaima, who is 25 years old. They beat him severely in front of her, banging his head against the corner of an air conditioner repeatedly. Badriya screamed at them to stop beating her son, and an officer responded "shut up, we arrest women too". They then pulled her old sick husband from bed to arrest him, but he was so weak and collapsed to the ground, where they left him. Badriya fainted after watching her ...
My friend Sandra shared this amazing story on Facebook. It charts how a girl with Autism at 11 suddenly started to communicate with her parents by typing on her computer. She's provided amazing insights as to how autism feels on the inside. The love for her and belief in her of her parents is unconditional and so strong. They've also been able to provide her with intensive therapy from a very young age. How many autistic kids in this country can get therapy like that, though? Parents can struggle to get even a basic education that meets their needs. This ...
Future looks bleak. Well it was bound to have happened. The Liberal Democrats are proving what political theorists have said for many years. If you're in Government you lose popularity, indeed tough decisions lead to losing votes - leave sprouting populist nonsense to the opposition parties who can promise the world and not have to deliver a thing. But the loss of 75% of support is a big knock. Three out of Four people who voted Libdem in 2010 would now vote elsewhere. ( 25% Labour 25% other 25% Don't know) That is a huge dent in party support. Also ...
Labour's economic narrative was always a bit of a balancing act, and now it is coming apart. It is tempting to blame the messengers (Ed Balls and Ed Miliband), but its own contradictions are the real problem. But what is this narrative? It is rarely reported sympathetically, so confusion is widespread. This is how I understand it: The Labour government's careful middle way between free markets and social democratic intervention rewarded Britain with a prolonged period of economic growth, and growth too in public services. Contrary to what political opponents and a hostile media claim, this was perfectly sustainable. Indeed ...
The following article in todays Observer shows once again how Liberal Democrats are fighting within government to protect the vulnerable and preserve long established principles of justice and fairness. Despite the difficulties we face as a nation due to the inherited economic mess, it is right to stand up for those who have a say, but little power. The Tories position is that we have to reduce the deficit, full stop. Labour's position (this week) is that we have to reduce the deficit, but we don't know how. The Liberal Democrat position is, and has always been, that we have ...
Sun 15th
15:23
Ed Miliband approval ratings among Labour voters drop to negative with YouGov for first time
Image borrowed from: If a Lib Dem or Conservative leader was polling like this, their time would be up. The Labour party on the other hand have, historically, demonstrated no ruthlessness when dealing with ailing leaders. Ed will stay on for as long as he wants to.
It was at the end of August 2009, twenty-eight months ago, that I started to read Gibbon's Decline and Fall, and two weeks ago that I finished it. I thought then that I could read two chapters a week, and get through the lot in nine months. In fact, I found I needed the space of a weekend without visitors or travel to read and write up each chapter, so the 71 chapters took me 133 weeks (rather than the 36 I had optimistically first imagined). But such a rich diet is best digested slowly, morsel by delicious morsel, rather ...
After nearly two years of no fiscal policies whatsoever, current Labour leader Ed Miliband and Labour's shadow chancellor Ed Balls have both made similar statements over the last 24 hours defending the coalition government's public sector pay freeze. This is in stark contrast to just a few weeks ago when both were still spurting out their "too fast, too soon" narrative – however, following Labour peer Lord Glasman and Blackley & Broughton MP Graham Stringer's criticism of Ed Miliband's leadership they have now changed their tune completely. Now, following a complete fiscal policy u-turn by Miliband and Balls, Labour support ...
[IMG: After days of wrangling, Scotland is to have a still undefined referendum in 2014 on whether to quit the United Kingdom. The arguments are now well underway. So far, two contributions stand out. Exhibit A: the New Year's message from Alex Salmond, first minister and SNP leader, which called on the people of Scotland to live up to their country's international reputation and history as a land of technological and scientific innovation and take control of their own destiny. Exhibit B: Thursday's warning from the chancellor, George Osborne, that Scotland would be far worse off economically outside the ...
Simon Hughes MP, deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats nationally, was in Liverpool yesterday (14th Jan). Here's the information about part of his speech to members and supporters (which you may have seen covered in the Times or the Guardian yesterday) The future tense use is because this was written ahead of the event. It is however an accurate account of what he said. Speaking at the Annual Dinner of the Liverpool Liberal Democrats on Saturday 14th January Rt Hon. Simon Hughes MP, Member of Parliament for Bermondsey and Old Southwark and Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats will call ...
After seeing our Fred Dineage on Meridian Tonight showing off some weather photos that people sent in, I got the bug. On Friday I took about 14 photos and sent them into meridianweather@itv.com . I was delighted this morning to receive an email from Simon Parkin. He used to be in the BBC broom cupboard but he is now Meridian's weatherman. He says he'll be showing this photo above on ITV Daybreak in the Meridian weather segments at around 06:10, 07:10 and 08:10 tomorrow. Hopefully they can do something about the glare... [IMG: :-)] It was taken on Friday morning ...
Last Friday we went to seen Woody Allen's 1989 film Crimes and Misdemeanors in the BFI's Woody Allen season. There are two more showings to go (including this evening), and I would recommend this dark comedy. I am quite familiar with Allen's earlier comedies (Sleeper, Annie Hall, etc), with Allen playing an engaging but ineffectual intellectual who manages to get the girl in the end. In this film Allen plays that same character, as a New York maker of documentary films, but this time his life moves from failure to abject failure, as he competes with his shallow but successful ...
We only get newspapers at the weekend and have just reverted back to the Guardian and Observer after an unhappy dalliance with the Independent (too boring and worthy, often still unread by Monday). To my delight it appears that Polly Toynbee's column has disappeared from the Saturday paper, with the slot now occupied by Jonathan Freedland, who at least has other things to say besides calling for higher public spending. But the spirit of Toynbeeism is present in a letter from Dr Selina Todd, an Oxford admissions tutor. Her main point, with which I agree, is that comprehensive education gives ...
Inspired by Christmas on Earth Continued, it is time for me to show you the first single I ever bought, because I must have done so a few days after that happening happened. I still have the disc, though I don't own a turntable to play it on at the moment. Kites was released in October 1967 and reached no. 9 in the chart the following week. So I suspect that I bought it with a Christmas record token - I have the amount of 7/6 in mind, but it was all a long time ago. Simon Dupree and the ...
All the buzz on Twitter is that it is only a matter of time before Ed Miliband goes as Labour leader. Fortunately, for the government that is not how things are done in Labour. Well, at least it has not been up until now. Do Labour have the equivalent of the men in grey suits? Will Miliband junior be told to shape up or ship out? We will have to see. One thing that is clear is that the dose of realism that has overcome the Labour Party in 2012 has annoyed a lot of their supporters. Those on the ...
The week's news has been dominated by the spat between Alex Salmond and variously David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Michael Moore over the Scottish referendum. Despite very sensible advice from Dan Falchikov that A period of silence from Moore, Cameron and Osborne on the constitutional question would be welcome - and might buy the Scottish party some breathing space to remove itself from the unionist hook it has impaled itself on according to yesterday's Guardian Nick Clegg had still not managed to let things lie. Whatevever the legal niceties, the SNP won a mandate for a referendum last year, are ...
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie has labelled the Union "outdated and over-centralised" in an article written for today's Sunday Herald. Rennie used the opportunity to advance a liberal Scotland, which he feels can be best achieved through localisation of decision making. He criticises the Union, while stressing that it's the government structure he's opposed to, not a continuing relationship with people from other parts of the UK. They weren't the strongest words ever penned by a Lib Dem leader, but in the current circumstances it's a useful start. He also touches on the Liberals' history of promoting Scottish Home ...
My nice new reading space in the conservatory. Not that I've had the chance to use it yet. It begins! Latest Amazon Haul Anna's minestrone soup - delicious The moon and a streetlight through the trees outside our house Even taking rubbish to the dump can be pleasant if you get a sunset like this on the way back. Students from Edinburgh's Amnesty International group protest highlight the 10th anniversary of the detention camp at Guantanamo opening.
Media Blog has the story of how three newspapers are all shocked that a story they had reported turned out to be right.
A recent experience with PayPal Customer Service. This truly beggars belief. (tags: epicfail ) How Copyright Industries Con Congress This is US specific, but applies to how the creative industries are creative with their figures in the UK too. (tags: ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Lords Reform 1: The Harder the Conflict, the More Glorious the Triumph? | The House Divided: Politics, Procedure and Parliament Historical background (tags: ukpolitics houseoflords ) Lords Reform 2: Form and Function... Joined in Spiritual Union | The House Divided: Politics, Procedure and Parliament What is it for? (tags: ukpolitics houseoflords ) Lords Reform 3: We Are the People | The House Divided: Politics, Procedure and Parliament Legitimacy v independence v expertise. (tags: ukpolitics houseoflords ) Lords Reform 4: The Choice... | The House Divided: Politics, Procedure and Parliament Surveying the options. (tags: ukpolitics houseoflords ) Women in Comics: A ...
At his Lordship's @lordbonkers request, here is the original Match of the Day theme tune, at the opening of an excerpt a 1964 programme, which was the first year of the programme: Wikipedia notes: The original theme tune to Match of the Day was written by Major Leslie Statham, the band leader of the Welsh Guards, and was entitled "Drum Majorette". This remained the theme tune from 1964 until 1970 when the current tune by Barry Stoller replaced it. At the time Major Statham wrote his original works using the pen-name 'Arnold Steck'. - In those days the programme was ...
Opposite Blackness Library on Perth Road, there has been a very noticeable water leak over the past few days. See photo - right. A number of residents have contacted me about it. Scottish Water's Community Manager has advised me : "I can confirm we attended on 10 January and are arranging to repair a faulty valve located outside 336 Perth Road. My colleague will confirm on Monday a date for the repair and I will let you know."
Adele - vocalist of a generation:
I was born in Scotland, went to school and university in Scotland, practised law in Scotland, have always lived in Scotland, and for nearly 25 years have represented a Scottish constituency. I state these qualifications, for it has become commonplace in Scotland to assert that those who do not support...
