As an armchair Chelsea fan (though I was there when we drew the FA Cup final in 1970) the advent of Gullit and Vialli and "sexy football" seemed like a restoration of the natural order of things. Chelsea should be a glamour club that wins a cup now and then. The subsequent Premierships under St Jose were something quite outside the expectations or experience of the club's fans.I once wrote. To which I can add today: under AVB, Chelsea are pretty much back where they belong. Just how much of glamour club Chelsea was in the sixties was made clear ...
Welcome to Broxtowe Enews, brought to you by the Liberal Democrats and edited by David Watts, the leader of the Lib-Dems on Broxtowe Borough Council. May I give a special welcome to the new readers that we have this week. It's been a busy week this week. On Wednesday I attended a reception with Norman Baker, the Under-Secretary of State for Transport, to mark the launch of NET Line 2. I had a chat there with the chairman of Tramlink, who are building Line 2, and have invited them to open an office in the Broxtowe Council building in Beeston, ...
Sat 21st
21:32
Black Boxes revealed (information is in Green) - Anna Klonowski - Appendix 9 - Notes of the Charging...
STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL - NOT FOR PUBLICATION Appendix 9 Notes of the Charging Policy Working Group Charging Policy Consultation Notes of a meeting held on 22nd August 2005 Westminster House, Birkenhead Present XXXXXXXXXXXX(older people's representative) XXXXXXXXXX(service user/carer representative) XXXXXXXXXXXX(service user/carer representative) A representative of Wirral MIND gave apologies XXXXXXXXX- Advocacy Services Councillor P M Williams (Lib ...
I spent this afternoon at Nottingham Liberal Democrats' Winter Mini-Conference. It was an excellent event and could well provide a model for other local parties. Liberal Democrats can be so concerned with campaigning that they seldom make the time to discuss policy or the party's wider philosophy. Meanwhile, our national party conferences can be prohibitively expensive, are increasingly managed and require you to give your passport number, inside leg measurement and an DNA sample. So there is certainly a role for more local events that enable party members to learn about and debate policy questions There were three speakers: William ...
Anthony Vickers has posted a cracking article on well, just about everything wrong with football. From nannying stewards to overbearing policing via ticketing policy, safe standing and the perils/joy of standing n the wrong end. It's all here in an absolute cracking article. Well worth a read Here is a little teaser.... For the health and safety overlords anything out of the ordinary that is not predictable and that creates unusual or heightened atmospheres and volatility is bad! Bad! Bad! The grey men who licence the game - at all clubs, not just Sunderland - believe passion is the problem. ...
As far as I am aware, there is only one meeting at Blyth Town Council next week Thursday 26th , 6pm Planning and Development Committee, at Ebor House, Blyth
[IMG: Andrew Marr interviews Nick Clegg] Nick Clegg will be the main guest on tomorrow's Andrew Marr Show, in the third of Marr's major party leader New Year's interviews. You can watch the show 9am tomorrow on BBC1 or live online at the BBC website. Or catch it afterwards on BBC iPlayer.
After month's of sniping Britain's newspapers are finally acknowledging that Lib Dem cabinet memebrs are punching above their weight and delivering on our election promises. Over the last week they have published several examples of how Lib Dems in government are pushing for a fairer tax system anf holding the fat-cats to account. The Independent reports on how Nick Clegg is pushing for a budget to target the rich who so far have avoided the full effects of thegovernemnt's defciit reduction plans. Business secretary Vince Cable's work to rein in bankers and control their unacceptable and self indulgent bonuses is ...
A Conservative prime minister, having failed to secure an majority for his party at Westminster, finds himself dealing with a Scottish Nationalist Party leader who is ascendant in Scotland; can a slide towards independence be bought off with an offer of maximised devolution? Obvious fantasy, dear boy. This novel was co-written by a future Tory cabinet minister and leadership candidate over forty years ago (published in 1970, though reference to the success of devolution in Ulster indicates it was written in 1968 or before). It is the third an a trilogy of novels set in the near future (ie the ...
Another great collection of New Scientist columns with readers asking questions and other readers answering them. Lots of interesting trivia; two different answers given for why we westerners tend to eat a sweet course at the end of the meal (not totally sure I believe either of them); the title question is answered somewhere in the middle; at the very end, a question about how Big Ben is kept on time is answered by someone who had actually had the job of keeping it on time. Entertaining stuff.
Yes. It is another funny Ed Miliband picture. Yes. That is a commemorative mug of his wedding to Justine Thornton. No. I don't understand either... h/t to @sarahbrown1984 (no, not that Sarah Brown...) UPDATE IT"S REAL!!
...I thought that I'd try and make sure everyone knew that they'd printed it. As it's not exactly prominent...
It's been a week that one candidate's ex-wife claimed he wanted an open marriage. Another seemed to either lack or have the business acumen that made him successful as he stumbled over his tax returns. One was no longer strong enough to carry on and you didn't need to go to church to know that. One was actually ignored by the moderator in a debate (though the crowd booed that oversight). The one who speaks Chinese bowed to the inevitable and stopped his campaign. The other may have been declared winner in Iowa and looked deeper into the issue of ...
Most local families have some experience of dementia, and all will welcome Consett's New Memory Café. The Vice Chair of the council, herself a former Derwentside councillor, opened the café and as a Rotarian was also able to celebrate the role of the Rotary Club of Derwentside which has partnered with Derwentside Carers Centre in setting up the café. The Derwent Clinic at Shotley Bridge Hospital will also provide a quailfied Community Psychiatric Nurse at each opening of the café. The project received financial support from the AAP, receiving the greatest number of votes at the recent "It's up 2 ...
A brilliant little ad for one of the most successful techniques used by the beauty industry to get the perfect body. Care should be taken that you do not over apply. Tweet
The Electoral Commission's Peter Wardle last week gave a speech to local government Chief Executives, during which he made this point about election addresses: The constituencies in the PCC [Police and Crime Commissioner] elections are big, with over a million voters in some cases. There's currently no provision for candidates to have Freepost facilities to deliver their election addresses to voters. Nor is there a provision for any sort of booklet for voters that would include candidates' election addresses. Alongside the PCC elections, of course, there may well be elections for Mayors in the larger English cities. And candidates for ...
Thinking of watching 55 Days at Peking. According to the Radio Times "The film became notorious for closing down Chinese restaurants all over Europe since all their staff were in Spain as extras for the huge action scenes.".
Anybody who wants to know why the Welsh Health Service is producing worse outcomes for patients than its sister service across the border despite spending more per head, need look no further than this news article. The Western Mail reports that cash-strapped health chiefs in the Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board plan to spend £1.5m to create a new IVF clinic and laboratories after cancelling a contract with the privately-run London Women's Clinic, based at Singleton Hospital in Swansea, where it has been providing IVF cycles for NHS patients up to the present day. The new facility at Neath ...
This is my most recent column published in the Ham & High: Our Parliament has come a long way in recent years. In fact, watching 'The Iron Lady' with Margaret Thatcher sticking out like a blue female sore thumb amongst the total male greyness of the then chamber - it reminded me of how recently in history this establishment was nearly all male. However, despite real progress, it is still nowhere near reflecting the percentage of women in the country – and that is without even starting to talk about other aspects of diversity such as ethnicity, class or disability... ...
Sat 21st
13:00
Opinion: MEP Diana Wallis resigns - but the European Parliament's great 'stitch-up' continues
Liberal Democrat MEP Diana Wallis caused an outcry when she resigned yesterday after coming third in the European Parliament (EP) presidential election, especially as her husband Stewart Arnold is likely to take over her seat. Yet underneath this public relations nightmare, which seems more of an unfortunate coincidence than anything else, there lies a deeper and far more worrying story of political corruption. Diana Wallis' decision to run as a candidate for the election surprised many observers not because they thought she was unlikely to win, but rather because they knew she wouldn't. The results had already been decided two ...
Chris Huhne has, how shall we say, less than impressed me on a number of occasions in his personal conduct I'm not ashamed to admit it. But, when the press starts making stuff up to quicken his possible sacking you really do have to say enough is enough. Now I think Huhne has been a bit of an ...
Just one week after the Government gave the green light to a multi-billion pound high speed rail network, taxpayers are being asked to consider another tranche of infrastructure investment. But the case for a £50 billion Thames Estuary Airport, dubbed 'Boris Island' after London's inimitable Mayor, is so confused that it no longer constitutes a coherent proposal at all. The main argument in favour is that, in order for London to retain its 'hub' status, we need significant investment in a brand new airport, because we'll shortly be at capacity. If we don't act now, Britain will lose vital economic ...
I never liked Gary Glittter as a musician, but more importantly I detested him (and still do) as the paedophile that he turned out to be later in his life. I was sickened to read the things he had gotten up to and frankly it made my blood boil and made me think illiberal thoughts as to what ...
Not a lot to add to my enthusiastic write-up of this book from first reading, except to say that the Doctor Who / Sherlock Holmes mash-up is even better reading in the Moffat Era.
A brief book going in detail into the demise of the Elizabethan courtier John Perrot, of interest to me because of the supporting role played by my ancestor Sir Nicholas White. I had gone over some of this ground before with Hiram Morgan and Perrot's son, but this is a great little example of how to pull it all together, including even one of the surviving transcripts of Perrot's trial, including the fatal moment when he was confronted with evidence that he had called the Queen a "bastard piskitchen woman". I felt that Turvey's thesis that Lord Burghley Was Behind ...
The Daily Telegraph has been forced into a humiliating climbdown after making what it now admits were false claims about Lib Dem cabinet minister Chris Huhne. The paper had splashed on allegations that it was Huhne who had leaked the letter from Michael Gove suggesting taxpayers might make a gift of a new royal yacht to the Queen in order to embarrass the education secretary. It's unclear what evidence the paper had, if any, because Huhne's involvement was swiftly denied by the Guardian journalist responsible for exposing Mr Gove's, erm, politically courageous proposal. Perhaps, perish the thought, they just took ...
I adore classical music as I have testified time enough previously in this blog. Despite the annoying ad breaks, I am I must admit, a keen fan of Classic FM. Indeed, it is the 'default' radio station on my bed-side radio. Every spring sees the climax of the annual Classic FM vote on our all-time classical tracks. It is apparently, the world's largest vote on classical music. I've never entered before but I may do this year. They request 3 song choices from each viewer - a Gold, Silver and Bronze choice for our top 3 individual pieces of classical ...
Just sometimes governments do an author a favour when they ban their book. Peter Wright's Spycatcher was turned from an obscure memoir into a front page news bestseller courtesy of an attempted ban. Compton Mackenzie's memoirs of secret service in Greece during the First World War did not benefit to quite the same extent, but the government's enforced censorship of the book certainly gave the book a degree of rebellious chic that its contents only rarely deserve. Courtesy of Biteback, you can now read the full, unexpurgated version penned by the author of Whisky Galore and sometime British secret agent ...
WOW – Women of the World Festival 2012 is a celebration of the formidable strength and inventiveness of women, running 7-11 March. This annual festival presents and recognises women from all walks of life, acting as a conversation space for issues of all kinds. WOW includes lively talks and debates about politics, the arts, economics, fashion, science, health, sport and big ideas. Take part in mentoring and workshops and hear from celebrities, politicians, artists and activists on the topics that matter to women worldwide. Evening highlights (ticketed separately) include comedy from Sandi Toksvig; music from Equals Live 2012, Sinead O'Connor ...
Sat 21st
09:47
Interesting Economist debate concludes 'this house does not believe Britain should leave the EU'
The Economist have been hosting a debate this week on their website with the motion for debate: "This house believes that Britain should leave the EU". Throughout the week there have been guest contributions both for the motion (Tory MEP and Telegraph columnist Daniel Hannan) and against the motion (Labour MP Douglas Alexander) as well of course as comments submitted by users, with an ongoing
MEPs in Strasbourg have this week called for urgent and coordinated EU-wide measures to halve food waste by 2025 and to improve access to food for needy EU citizens in a resolution adopted on Thursday. It is estimated that almost 50% of edible and healthy food gets wasted along the entire food supply chain each year.To drastically reduce food wastage by 2025, the resolution says new awareness
Some time ago my ward colleagues Councillors Rosie Shimell, Jonathan Mitchell and I spent a morning at the East Dulwich Harris Boys' Academy. We felt vindicated for making it one of our 2006 manifesto pledges to make it happen. To reiterate how good a decision that has been Ofsted have awarded it an "outstanding" grade after its inspection. The inspectors also added that it is "an inspirational place for learning". Well done to all the children, parents, teachers, staff, Harris federation and governors. The building felt like a tardis with a massive sports hall, great cafeteria – the children kindly ...
Residents of Roman Way and Swallowfields are urging Test Valley Borough Council to reject plans for new houses at Shepherds Spring School. The plans, drawn up by Hampshire County Council, are for fifty new homes on the school playing fields with access between the existing school buildings. A number of residents have submitted written objections highlighting landscaping, noise, loss of a green field site, and poor access and traffic congestion as reasons for refusal. Objections have also been lodged by Andover Town Council, Sport England. As a former member of the borough's planning control committee I fully understand their concerns ...
From the Leicester Mercury: The Lord Mayor of Leicester could be suspended after an investigation concluded he had brought the office of councillor into disrepute. Veteran politician Rob Wann was referred to the city's standards board over claims he had five parking tickets cancelled by senior council officers and received a free parking permit to which he was not entitled. Independent investigator Jon Wigmore issued a report to the city council's standards board on his findings this week. The law states such reports should not normally be handed to the media. However, a copy has been leaked to the Mercury ...
Ken Livingstone has me a bit confused. Hearing him attack Boris Johnson is certainly not a surprise. But hearing him attack Boris Johnson for saying what Ken Livingstone himself said previously? That's a bit odd, shall we say. Compare and contrast now and then. The now: Boris Johnson and Ken Livingstone were engulfed in a war of words today over whether Londoners are too "lazy" to find work. The Mayor claimed some young people in the capital lacked the "energy" to go out and get jobs which were instead going to immigrants. His Labour challenger Ken Livingstone immediately accused him ...
The link is to a story where a local council attempted to stop an elderly lady with dementia from going on a cruise. In this instance the CoP found for the human beings. My experience is that it normally finds for the state however bad the arguments for the state happen to be.
Mark Pack asks who should replace Diana Wallis as MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber? Her husband Stewart Arnold came second in the selection for the party's candidates back in 2007, as shown in these figures taken from the offical results site. Stage 2Stage 3Stage 4Stage 5Stage 6Stage 7Stage 8 First PrefsSurplus of Diana WallisExclusion of Veena HudsonExclusion of Phil KitchenExclusion of Neil PooleExclusion of Nader FekriExclusion of Jeanette SunderlandExclusion of James Monaghan Stewart Arnold 60 +215.60 275.60 +9.16 284.76 +14.88 299.64 +15.20 314.84 +26.40 341.24 +30.96 372.20 +69.96 442.16 Nader Fekri 32 +52.08 84.08 +11.60 95.68 +8.60 104.28 +8.48 ...
Cambridge City Council is making young people a top priority for 2012 with a range of projects to give them a head-start. Plans just published include: Expanding the impact of the Council's Children and Young People's Participation Service (ChYPPS) across the city's 9-13 year olds, through greater use of volunteers and closer working with schools, following a major all-party review.Budget proposals from the ruling Lib Dems for a new Youth Officer post to strengthen the council's role in work with the older, teenage groupA new scheme to engage young people at risk of exclusion in sport. "We are committed to ...
Over the past few days, I have heard from colleagues on other councils across Scotland that the electricity companies are considering increasing very significantly the cost to councils of street lighting. Although it has yet to be finalised, I understand that Scottish & Southern Energy is looking at increasing its Distribution Use of System (DUoS) charges by approx 2.5pkWhr from 1.7p to 4.3p for unmetered customers. The City Council's Street Lighting Partnership tells me that this would add approximately £280 000 to Dundee City Council's Electricity Bill. I have great concerns about an increase of this magnitude - it is ...
The Times leads today on Chris Huhne with Huhne under new pressure as police get wife's emails. There's not an awful lot of new information in the article (on the front page anyway) but it would appear that the smart money is increasingly on Ed Davey to take over Chris Huhne's cabinet post if there is the need for a departure: Even before yesterday's development (The Sunday Times appeal withdraw), Conservative and Liberal Democrat ministers were doubtful of Mr Huhne's chances of survival in office. Yesterday, The Times revealed that Ed Davey, the Business Minister is a likely replacement for ...
