Is it a good idea to offer space in Wormwood Scrubs for Somali pirates http://reut.rs/xXLrJi ? Or should they be tried, sentenced and imprisoned in the region, with international assistance? I'm only asking, but I do wonder whether Henry asked Ken Clarke?
One of the Government's most cunning tactics in the debate over welfare reform is the way it has shaped the discourse and carried people with it. As Jonathan Freedland observes in today's Guardian, the tactic has encouraged poorer people to turn on each other. At the same time, it has distracted from the Government's failures to deliver on economic policy, effectively tackle the much bigger problem of tax evasion, or propose serious reform for a dysfunctional economic and financial system. The Government has constructed a particular type of moral argument by saying things like: Should hard-working low-income taxpayers in Sheffield ...
The world changed in 2011. It was a year when people-power allied to new technologies overthrew elites, with Facebook revolutions heralding an Arab Spring and toppling aging or ailing dictatorships. But it would be wrong for the Western Democracies to think they are detached from these events. As Greece has so clearly shown, even relatively modern states are in peril, given enough economic instability, a furious electorate and weak political leadership. The economists suggest that 2012 is going to be a tough year for Britain. Financial ruin is probable, the collapse of the EU is possible, public sector strikes and ...
From the Harborough Mail: A prisoner who walked out of an open prison was found hiding near Harborough, a court heard.Anthony Blair (25), reacted with anger and swore at Judge Richard Bray when three years' imprisonment was added to his sentence. Northampton Crown Court heard on Friday last week that Blair was jailed for seven-and-a-half years at Teeside Crown Court in December 2008 for wounding with intent and stealing and handling stolen vehicles. He was serving the sentence at HMP Ford, an open prison in West Sussex, went he walked out on August 3 last year. Alex Bull, prosecuting, said ...
With thanks to my good friend and Chair of Friends of Magdalen Green, Dr Angela Mehlert, here's a stunning photo she recently took of the Tay Rail Bridge :
A poster in the window of an empty Leicester shop advertises last November's Cycles and Suffragettes event. You can find the shop in Bowling Green Street, in the shadow of Fenwick's department store. Whoever put it there knew must have known that, a century ago, that shop houses the headquarters of the Leicester branch of the Women's Social and Political Union. Below is a picture of it in those days, borrowed from a website about the great Leicester suffragette Alice Hawkins. I expect Nora Logan was a regular visitor too.
In the course of a review in today's Guardian, Jenny Turner quotes from A Card from Angela Carter by Susannah Clapp: [It's] hard to exaggerate the visceral anti-Thatcherism of the 1980sAmong the sort of people who review books for the Guardian, certainly. But the old girl did win three consecutive general elections. Call it Eliza Carthy Syndrome.
transport icons Transport and traffic are two of the hottest topics of debate in Cambridge. So I know there are lots of ideas for improving transport. Now is the time to come up with proposals. By law (Town & Country Planning Act 1990), councils may require financial contributions of developers to reduce the effects of their developments. As this is laid out in Section 106 of the Act, the contribution is dubbed 'Section 106 money' by councillors. I do not know what the developers call it. Cambridgeshire County Council is asking us for our ideas on how this money should ...
This blog is one today. Can hardly believe it. What a year it's been - a win at the LVD awards for best new blog, an interview with Nick Clegg, and a regular slot on The Staggers in the New Statesman. And of course I'm most proud of the campaign to have Mohamed al Bouazizi named as 'Person the Year' in time Magazine - which resulted in 'The Protestor' winning, with Mohammad featured very heavily. So here are a few highlights from the last 12 months 1. My first proper post (was actually the second post, but this one didn't ...
Water this evening is gushing out of a manhole cover, despite receiving attention from Veolia over the past few days. The hazards as we move into a frosty patch are obvious. We are pressing Herts Highways and Veolia to fix this.
Much wailing and gnashing of teeth today on the right as evidence emerges that David Cameron is backsliding on his 'veto' preventing the European Union from enforcing fiscal integration among the Eurozone countries. Here's how The Guardian reports it: Ahead of Monday's summit of EU leaders, which is due to finalise "political agreement" on the fiscal compact treaty, the government signalled that it would not challenge a role for the European commission and, more sensitively, would also allow resort to the European court of justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg to enforce new debt ceilings and fines for fiscal miscreants in the ...
This is one of my favourite exchanges from Yes Prime Minister: Sir Humphrey Appleby: [discussing how to stop the PM's anti-smoking legislation] I think the crucial argument is that we are living in a free country and we *must* be free to make our own decisions. After all, government shouldn't be a nursemaid, we don't want the nanny state. Sir Frank Gordon: Oh, that's very good. Sir Ian Whitworth: Excellent. Sir Humphrey Appleby: The only problem is that that is also the argument for legalising the sale of marijuana, heroin, cocaine, arsenic and gelignite. I wonder if Liam Byrne may ...
When I graduated from Warwick University in 1985, I couldn't wait to get away from the place. I don't think I even returned to the campus until the weekend of my 40th birthday – very nearly 20 years after graduating. It wasn't that I didn't enjoy my time there, but initially I couldn't wait to get out into the world of work and then, after a bit of the shine of having money for the first time had worn off, I didn't want to go back because I knew I might want to stay. Even the numerous times throughout the ...
Sat 28th
17:15
David Cameron stands firm on Gibraltar's right to self determination during speech before the Counci...
British Prime Minister David Cameron was in Strasbourg this week to address the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (note: entirely different to the EU) of which the UK has now assumed the presidency.Following his speech delivered on Wednesday in which he urged EU leaders to seize a 'once-in-a-generation chance' to make sweeping changes to the European Court of Human Rights (see also
There's no prize at stake - just the opportunity to prove you're wittier than any other LDV reader... (Image from The Guardian.) Here's Labour top two Eds — the party leader and shadow chancellor — pictured in their salad days, Spadding for the Blair/Brown government. What do you think might be being said or thought by or about them? And the winner of our last caption comp is... Some fantastic entries for our most recent caption competition, Michael Gove "May the Lego be with you" Edition. The winner, according to The Voice's judging panel of one, was this one by ...
Liberal England has the news that it's been confirmed that US President John Taylor, who was in office from 1841-1845, still has living grandchildren. It's one of those strange and unlikely sounding facts, and it brings to mind two further pieces of trivia. The first is that there is a photograph of Mozart's wife, which ...
This morning it was off south of the river (including a trip sat right at the front of a DLR train – woooooooooooo*) to go campaigning with the Liberal Democrat team in Greenwich. Having told them in a training session last year how useful it is to organise such communal campaigning events in order to make campaigning fun, I thought the least I could do was turn up for one of them! Brownie points not only for them organising it and arranging a pub meet-up afterwards, but also the nice touch of ensuring everyone had a Lib Dem sticker to ...
Ever since I was elected two and a half years ago, I have been trying to secure the adoption by Cornwall Council of the roads and open spaces of the Kensey Valley Meadow development. Adoption means that local residents receive the full range of council support and services. Now, finally, the adoption of the first phases of the estate has happened. This has been a hugely long and complex road with any number of deadlines set and then broken. I don't believe that local residents have been well served by either the developer - Elan Homes - or the council ...
You know what I'm doing in grad school this semester? Aside from writing my thesis, obviously? A class on children's literature. Which means I get to read lots of books for 3/4 year olds. My life is awesome right now. Cold Little Duck, Duck, Duck Written by Lisa Westberg Peters Illustrated by Sam Williams Greenwillow Books, Hong Kong, 2000 Amazon.com A Little Duck flies to the pond, only to discover that the spring hasn't warmed up yet and the pond is still frozen. So she huddles up and thinks about all the joys of spring, until it seems like her ...
Why are we waiting? Cambridgeshire Liberal Democrats have launched a petition to reverse the Tories' 100 per cent cuts to rural bus services. The petition, started by county councillor Susan van der Ven, "Stopping the cuts to bus services in Cambridgeshire" reads: "We the people of Cambridgeshire are opposed to the Conservative County Council's decision to scrap 100% of funding for subsidised buses, which led to an application for Judicial Review. "Socially necessary bus services are vital to the whole of Cambridgeshire, especially for young people who need to access to centres of employment, those with mobility issues who wish ...
Deputy Manager in a Residential Care Home for the Elderly £18,250 at age 42 with an NVQ Level 3 in Health and Social Care Could develop by gaining NVQ Level 4 in Leadership and Management for Care Services leading to Residential Care Home Manager - starting salary around £20,500 p.a. Alternatively NHS Link Worker working for a county or unitary council's Adult Care Team improving co-ordination of services between health and social care. Existing links with district nurses would be very useful. Would be supported to complete NVQ Level 4 qualifications. Could also work designing care packages and supporting service ...
Attempts to prevent 12 staff from being made redundant to save just £41,000 were scuppered this week after the Conservatives voted to get rid of the Schools Library Service. During the debate on the cabinet decision at a scrutiny meeting on Wednesday 25th January, the Liberal Democrat group highlighted that the closure of the service had been agreed without any reference to the County's own Education and Skills Cabinet Panel, despite the service being used exclusively by Hertfordshire's schools. Lib Dem Councillor Allan Witherick, who had called for the redundancies to be reviewed, said afterwards: 'The Conservative-run County Council maintain ...
....at the University College, London Economics and Finance Society at 7pm on the 7th Feb. If you fancy it. Here's how they are billing me. Makes you wonder who this person is on the following night... It's probably Charlotte Henry...
A very readable account of the British withdrawal from India, largely from the point of view of Dickie and Edwina Mountbatten, whose papers are used extensively, though with some effort also made to include the roles of the other key political players. On Lord Mountbatten's responsibility for the horrors of partition, I found it was a useful alternative viewpoint to the hatchet-job by Andrew Roberts which I read several years ago. While I think that von Tunzelmann has become slightly beguiled by her source and gives him more benefit of the doubt than is really justifiable by her own account, ...
A new public opinion polls shows that nearly three-quarters of the public (71%) wants elections introduced for the House of Lords. Unlock Democracy reports: On the question of whether the Lords should be elected or appointed, 71% said they supported a fully or at least partially elected second chamber, with the most popular response being for a fully elected chamber (39% – if you exclude "don't knows" it comes to 48%). The poll did not ask people to distinguish between a mainly elected second chamber (the government's "default" position is for an 80% elected second chamber) and a minority elected ...
Sat 28th
11:45
Opinion: We have let neoliberals devastate state education, we must not let them do the same to the ...
To believe the Government's hype, we are currently experiencing a liberal revolution in England's education system – powers are being decentralised, with schools given more autonomy to innovate, while new education providers are adding further diversity to the state funded system by joining it through Academy sponsorship. The uninitiated could be forgiven for believing Michael Gove's claim that the evidence base shows the structure of the state funded school system is holding education back, as well as his recent assertion that opponents of Academies are "ideologues", who uphold a "bigoted backward bankrupt ideology of a leftwing establishment that perpetuates division ...
[IMG: Mitochondria] Leading science journal Nature has praised Britain's science-based approach to policy making in an editorial on experimental in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) techniques that could significantly reduce the number of children born with severely disabling or life-threatening mitochondrial genetic conditions. The editors note that, although procedures of this type were banned in 2008, the ban also specified a road map for introducing further testing of the techniques when the field was sufficiently developed. In 2011, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Agency (HFEA) published a report concluding that the procedures were sufficiently safe to continue research and proposed a strategy for ...
A very readable book about how acquiring the skill of reading actually changes the way the human brain works, which I must admit I skimmed a bit because one bit of brain highlighted in a diagram looks much the same as any other bit of brain to me. Also investigates dyslexia and other reading disorders.
Southwark has lost a lot of Post Offices and sub Post Offices under the last Labour Government – 19 in total! So I was delighted to hear that Lib Dems in the coalition government have secured a £1.34bn fund to rebuild and support the remaining network. Some may get to reopen. But they still face issues. Locally we have unkown sometimes hidden sub Post Offices. The one on Crossthwaite Avenue SE5 is a great example. Southwark Council want to increase its rent by 93%. The council has also refused to allow any signage from the nearest busier road to point ...
Saturday: Welcome to extreme old age, Daddy Richard (he's like four BILLION and one, or something). And what better way to start a special day than by listening to the news that the Arch-bigot of York [warning: contains Telegraph] is once again trying to IMPOSE his BIBLICAL view on gay daddies getting married. Putting the DICK into DICTATOR, the purple-frocked DESPOT says: "I don't think it is the role of the state." So, you'll be giving up that SEAT in the LEGISLATURE then, your worship? Quick check for the COMPLETELY-DETACHED-FROM-REALITY: WE are behaving like a DICTATORSHIP because the Government ACCEPTS ...
Today I visited the building site on Lord Street where work on the former Arts Centre is well under way. The new building is certainly going to have a 'wow factor'. The new design has brought masses of natural daylight into what was a dark building. By opening up archways and long blocked up windows there are some striking long sight lines right across the building pretty well from the Cambridge Arcade to Eastbank St. We began our tour at 1a Eastbank Street (which regular readers will recall was the address of FJ Hooper the Town Hall keeper who was ...
I missed this article earlier in the week reviewing Clegg's speech on employee ownership. David Erdal who wrote it is author of Beyond The Corporation and has practical experience in the workings of successful enterprises that have been turned over to employee ownership: A way of driving growth that avoids the corporate excesses of the past and addresses disparities in wealth and reward that are simply unfair - that is the holy grail of British politics today. The search appears under many rubrics: curbing crony capitalism, boosting boardroom responsibility, securing a fair deal for the squeezed middle.In the last 10 ...
I attended Alex Salmond's lecture at the Scott Trust this Tuesday. It will come as no surprise to most of you that it was a terrifyingly brilliant performance by Scotland's First Minister. However, it is important to note that the man is an enviable position at the moment and is well aware of that fact. For a start, he has the luxury of being both in government and opposition at the same time (government in Scotland while being able to dump on everyone in Westminster, including Labour). He proudly declared on Tuesday night that not only are the three main ...
Another pretty decent Torchwood novel, with an intersection between exploitative aliens and exploitative crime lords in the property market in Cardiff Bay, set just after Gwen and Rhys return from honeymoon, with Owen still dead and walking. Some nice exploration of the dysfunction in the Owen/Toshiko relationship (Toshiko gets to be on the front cover this time) and lots of reference to their back-stories which will please the diehard fan. My one gripe is that the supposedly Latvian crimelord has a rather Adriatic name ("Besnik Lucca" - first name Albanian, second name Italian).
Sadly the very last of the SJA audiobooks, read by Anji "Rani" Malhotra, about the kidnapping and trial of Sarah Jane by an alien race with an unhealthy devotion to the truth. It's a decent tale, well read by Malhotra, which actually probes at Sarah's own motives and actions and the slightly ambiguous moral basis for them, a bit more deeply and more effectively than one might have expected from an audio book for younger listeners. I was going to do a full roundup of all the Sarah Jane audiobooks here, but I realise that I still have two to ...
I was on the road a lot last week, so only now blogging recent reading/listening; stand by for a few more posts this morning. I remember catching occasional episodes of the 1981-82 BBC sf radio series Earthsearch, in which the crew of a generation starship have been wiped out by the ship's megalomaniac computers, apart from four children who are brought up under the computers' control and then must gradually emancipate themselves. In the second series, two children of the next generation are added to the mix and they too must shake off the computers' influence as they all seek ...
Here's your starter for ten in our weekend slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate... Since the £963, 000 shares bonus for RBS Chief Executive Stephen Hester has been revealed there have been opinions pouring out from across the political spectrum. When Ed Miliband accused David Cameron of a "failure of leadership" over it, Cameron promptly distanced himself from the process altogether, with George Osborne claiming it was due to rules put in place by Labour. Boris Johnson seems to be against it, as is our usually economically liberal Defence Minister Jeremy Browne. And Nick Clegg ...
This week has turned into rather an Ed Miliband themed week, what with his flexible views on the public sector pay freeze (he was against it before he was for it), his views on pension policy (where Ed Miliband manages to be both for and against the same policy at the same time) and his take on chocolate pricing. So to round it off, here's that photograph from the Labour leadership contest of Ed Miliband bravely standing up to Rupert Murdoch:
One definition of dictatorship is: Government by a single person or by a junta or other group that is not responsible to the people or their elected representatives. So when the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, claims that David Cameron is acting like a dictator when he his holding a consultation on equal marriage he seems to have missed the point. Of course this is a junta of 26 Bishops sitting in the House of Lords who are not responsible nor electable by the people. Indeed even in largely elected second chamber there are still suggestions to keep them in ...
In January 2002 I began keeping a diary. My father had done so for decades and despite many previous stalled attempts, I decided to give it another go. This time it proved more successful and my diary ran for over 7 years until the very day I became Mayor of Cardigan in May 2009 (to my regret, the sheer workload that came with the role obliterated any time I had to continue with the diary). I've therefore been looking back with some nostalgia at those first few entries a whole decade ago. I was a second year student in Aberystwyth ...
This morning's Independent shows that a decade of openness and transparency in government has not won over the hearts and minds of the mandarins whose job it is to keep the show on the road. They say that the former Cabinet Secretary Lord Gus O'Donnell has revealed that civil servants spend a great deal of time working out ways around the Freedom of Information Act including instituting a system of "oral government" in which important discussions are never written down: The peer, who left his role as head of the Civil Service in December, said the fear of minutes eventually ...
Adult Social Care Services in Cambridgeshire have been given a £1.5 million government boost towards efforts to reduce delayed discharges from hospitals in the county. The Department of Health today announced a one-off £150 million grant to Primary Care Trusts in England, for immediate transfer to local authorities for investment in social services which also benefit the health system. In Cambridgeshire, £1.45 million will be channeled to Cambridgeshire County Council via NHS Cambridgeshire. The two organisations already work closely together and in partnership with hospitals in the county to ensure that people are able to leave medical care as soon ...
Jan Brewer, Arizona Governor, points her finger at President Obama when he arrived in Phoenix, Arizona. They had an exchange of views on Brewer's description of Obama's behaviour in her book, which has now, needless to say, climbed to the top of the Amazon charts. Brewer accused Obama of lecturing her when she met him in the Oval Office. Seeing this picture, you have to ask: Who's lecturing who? Ms Brewer has caused amusement before when she had a brain freeze during a televised debate. Some blame all this on the "hot as hell" Arizona weather – it fries your ...
Last year there was a long consultation on what should be done to Cheadle Green, including stalls set up by the Green to get the views of shoppers and passers-by. The outcome was strong support for a plan to thin out the trees – removing some and cutting back others – to improve the overall feel and appearance of the Green. This major tree work is scheduled to start on 13th February 2012. Click on the image below to see the proposals for the Green. These may have changed slightly, so the work carried out may not be exactly what's ...
Following pressure from the Lib Dems, the section of dodgy pavement in front of the Co-op on Cheadle High Street will be repaired. The pavement – immediately in front of the entrance to the Co-op and behind the bus stop – is dangerously uneven with one section pushed up and the next pressed down. This should be sorted out in the next few weeks.
Ann Heymann On Wednesday 1st February, the celebrated harpist Ann Heymann will be in Dundee for a special concert and workshop of ancient and historical Scottish and Irish harp music. Ann is the world's best known and most highly regarded historical Gaelic harp player. Based in Minnesota, USA, this is her first visit to Scotland for many years and the Friends of Wighton are delighted that she will be visiting Dundee to teach and perform in the Wighton Centre, upstairs in Dundee Central Library. Ann will perform a lunchtime concert on Wednesday 1st February from 1.15pm to 1.45pm. The concert ...
There will be a special meeting of the Highways Committee to discuss a "Stopping-Up Order" on any public rights of way on parts of Belle Vue. It's a pretty straight forward argument. I believe that no Stopping-Up Order should be made until the Judicial Review is complete of the Highways Committee decision not to grant Town or Village Green status to Belle Vue. I am concerned that making a decision on the land may be dangerous for the county council if it is perceived as pre-judging the outcome of the court case. The council argues that a decision by the ...
