It is entirely possible that court cases concerning two people and the same scenario could end up with differing pleas from each. That is, one may plead guilty, the other may plead not guilty. Of course, it is also entirely possible that both plead guilty or both plead not guilty. Different pleas are entirely possible. Such a situation might have some influence on the other case...or vice versa. Such are the parameters of possibility. [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
A teacher of my acquaintance made an interesting observation as we watched the Southern Inter-Counties schools cross country races at the superb Basildon Sporting Village today. He said that cross country running is an unglamourous sport for a youngster, especially as it is normally done on one's lonesome, without a team around one. You have a bad race, and then you just have to pick yourself up and try again. It's very character building. [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
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Basildon Sporting Village. Quite remarkable, a superb cross country course. Olympic swimming pool. Fantastic gymnastics facilities etc etc [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
Full marks to Ed Miliband. He had a good Prime Minister's Questions this week. One of the reasons he did so well is that he took a leaf out of Margaret Thatcher's book. He lowered the tone of his voice. Gone was the shrill shouting of recent weeks. Instead we had a calm, firm low tone. And he slowed down his delivery, making it very de-li-ber-ate. As a result he sounded a lot more effective. First on executive pay, and then on the NHS, Miliband did well against the PM. For me, his line of the week was this one ...
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. Before moving on to the news may I express my condolences to the family and friends of Nottingham Forest owner Nigel Doughty who died suddenly today. 1. Council Tax Papers published by the borough council today show that Broxtowe are not proposing to increase council tax for the forthcoming year. This represents a significant victory for the Liberal Democrats who ...
Or so the Sunday Telegraph reports tomorrow. It appears all to be above board, but doesn't Lansley realise how bad it looks? And I say that as someone who is not as anti the health reforms as many Liberal Democrats.
Yesterday I attended #BenefitsCamp , which was considering various ideas and creating option around the issues related to the UK benefits system. I'll write elsewhere on my main topic of interest, as it has rather 'grown wings' and deserves a discussion site of its own to be better reviewed and taken forward, but one of the points I made during the event was about the name given to the field. Often seen on job advertisements — or a part of an interview process — is that matter of salary. And alongside 'salary' comes 'benefits', which might be a subsidised canteen, ...
From tomorrow's Sunday Telegraph: Coalition sources have revealed they expected Mr Laws to be a "major feature" of a wide reshuffle being planned by David Cameron for late spring or early summer.And the story goes on to say: a senior coalition source said: "It was felt this was not quite the right time to bring David back. Both David (Cameron) and Nick (Clegg) want him back at the centre of things - in a big government job. The reshuffle planned for a few months' time would seem to be the ideal opportunity. "It also allows him to 'do more time' ...
Lib Dems overwhelming want David Laws back in the mix – big time. A Lib Dem Voice survey of members , released today, suggests that an overwhelming 72% of Lib Dem members in the LDV sample want to see David Laws return to a ministerial post in the Coalition government, with most wanting to see him return to the cabinet. There are some Lib Dems who think that he is better placed to stay behind the scenes and mastermind the next election strategy. I have some sympathy with that. We do need someone who knows what they are doing, this ...
With the snow arriving, the gritters are out across Stockport and our winter plan is operational. But grit isn't a magic solution. It helps melt the snow, especially on busier roads where the traffic grinds it into the snow. We still need to take care on the roads and pavements. The snow code gives advice on clearing snow from pavements and public spaces. You can do your bit by clearing snow in front of your property. If you have to travel in the snow, here are some useful tips on doing it safely. If you're a Cheadle and Gatley resident ...
Sat 4th
21:00
What should a Liberal Democrat do when a friend and political colleague becomes a Cabinet minister?
Lib Dems don't do status - we don't use titles, just first names all round. Lib Dems don't do power either; to be precise we are embarrassed by it. One hundred years of identifying ourselves as radical, anti-establishment, even quasi-anarchist, has meant that being thrust into Coalition Government has created all kinds of conflicts and tensions within the party. I'm not just talking about the sometimes fraught relationship between Conference reps, the Federal Policy Committee, and the parliamentary teams - complicated as that is - no, I'm referring to the internal struggle that all Lib Dems experience (or perhaps should ...
In one month last year, as many of 650,000 Americans moved their money out of the dysfunctional big banks and into small local banks. That is a huge amount and potentially the beginning of some kind of self-help solution to tyranny by big finance. I'm glad to say that a similar Move Your Money campaign has been launched in the UK, though there is rather a problem about it of course. Half of all the money in the USA is in small banks. In this country - almost uniquely in the western world - we don't have any. Yes, there ...
In the New York Times, Michael D Shear reports that the influence of Sarah Palin and the Tea Party has waned during the US Republican Presidential primaries: In October, Sarah Palin announced that she would not run for president in 2012, ending the media frenzy around her potential candidacy even as she vowed to remain politically active and influential. "I will continue driving the discussion for freedom and free markets," she wrote in an e-mail to her supporters. Just over three months later her attempts to wield influence in the presidential campaign the way she did during the 2010 midterm ...
We've just seen that the police have closed Nibley Lane between Westerleigh Rd and Badminton Rd. Don't know why - accident or ice? The police website is showing an accident a few minutes ago on the M4 westbound between Tormarton and Hambrook, but from the map location it's near the Tormarton junction. (Update 6.55pm - police say accident now cleared) And from our own experience the local roads in Yate are very treacherous. Yate is a LOT colder than the Bristol fringe - the temperature fell 5 deg C in the first mile coming away from Emerson's Green.
I've been busy with the media yesterday and today giving my take on Chris Huhne's resignation, so here are the two main highlights if you missed them: The Lib Dem Voice survey results I mention are covered in the piece Which four Liberal Democrat ministers have most improved their standings in 2011? and for more on why I rate Ed Davey's record see Community Buying: a welcome move from Ed Davey (an approach very relevant to his new post) and Ed Davey: someone getting the messaging right. Helped by having known for a long time that Friday's events might occur, ...
Sat 4th
17:39
Treading in the footsteps of royalty, aka what happens after a Parliamentary by-election
This morning it was off to south west London to join campaigners from around and outside London for some campaigning to follow up the Feltham & Heston by-election. Roger Crouch and his team did a great job holding on to third place and the deposit in the by-election. Now the election is over, the area is not being forgotten – particularly as parts of it may move into Vince Cable's constituency at the next general election. There are several similar moves around London where chunks of a borough in which the party is weak are being added in to the ...
There's no prize at stake - just the opportunity to prove you're wittier than any other LDV reader... (Picture from The Guardian.) Here's Nick Clegg welcoming new energy and climate change secretary Ed Davey to the cabinet — 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, Eds Balls and Miliband "The Early Years" Edition. The winner, according to The Voice's judging panel of one, was this one by Cheltenham robin, with a highly commended offerings by ...
Tee, hee. We had our coursework assignment for Macroeconomics 1. I could have some fun with this... Individual Assignment Task: In 2011, Bank of England chose to maintain the Bank rate at its historic low even when the prevailing inflation rate was significantly higher than the targeted level. You are required to critically evaluate this particular policy decision of Bank of England. Using available information on the UK economy from 2000-2010: i. Outline the pattern of economic growth, inflation, and interest rate over the past 10 years. (This task requires that you find annual data on these economic variables over ...
'Everyone is born in a poetic state,' the Syrian-born writer and artist Adonis declared in an interview with Hans Ulrich Obrist at the Mosaic Rooms in Kensington this noon. But not everyone is destined to express themselves poetically. The sprightly octogenarian — who is viewed by many as the most significant Arab poet alive today ...
The huge gulf between the kind of "slavery" than existed within Africa and the bloody horrors inflicted by Europeans is once again coming under the spotlight. Published – New Nation, 16th April 2007 Black historians believe there is simply no ... Continue reading →
I thought I'd not blog today, so instead here's some pictures of Missy the new family cat, admittedly there are plenty more serious subjects to choose from locally and the greater world, stuff like Sainsbury's proposed new supermarket, which if it goes ahead will make traveling out of Margate a mission, as of course will the wretched plan to allow Tesco, to occupy an incongruous location for massive supermarket on the front of Margate seafront and of course not forgetting the equally out of place "occupy protest" outside the Turner Gallery Still its the weekend and for once I'm not ...
American politics is a bottomless morass that will suck you in deeper the further you wade into it. Such has been my experience, and now one randomly-planned and hastily-written blogpost has become three. Ron Paul's day, as ever, is not ... Continue reading →
Today's award goes to BBC News (Glasgow and West of Scotland) for: Ear bitten off in fast food queue
It was a terrible night's sleep. The tinnitus was raging and piercing into my night-time soul and left me in a constant state of REM. The drifting dreams of the sub-conscious. Many of my dreams are surreal (are not all of ours?), from flying to underwater breathing, to many a sexual liaisons with.....well that would be saying. However, at my age I am well past the teenagers' wet dreams. Do dry dreams count? The most disturbing dream I had though was a 'Trumanesque' reality one. Every aspect of my life was being commentated on, analysed by and criticised by Fern ...
Sat 4th
14:45
EXCLUSIVE: 72% of Lib Dem members backed reshuffle return for David Laws. (But it wasn't to be.)
Earlier this week, LibDemVoice started asking party members signed up to our discussion forum a range of questions — the survey is still live, but one of the questions is already a little previous so we're reporting it early... We asked: Would you support or oppose David Laws making a return to government at the next reshuffle? Yes – to a cabinet post 58% Yes – but only to a non-cabinet post in government 14% No – he should not return to the government at the next reshuffle 21% Don't know / No opinion 7% In total, then, 72% of ...
We have received this email from the council's highways department With regards to today, due to the cold temperatures during this week the road surfaces are very cold and overnight the road temperature could be as low as -9c. Air temperatures are due to fall to -5c A few key pieces of information in the event of any enquiries. Our crews have salted the network regularly during the
Bath and North East Somerset Council proposes to make an order under section 84 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 as amended, the effect of which will be that it is prohibited to drive a motor vehicle at a speed exceeding 50 miles per hour on that length of Pennyquick Hill, Bath which extends from a point 37 metres northwest of its junction with Poolemead Road in a north westerly direction
The last time there was an English Defence League march in Leicester, many of their supporters stopped off in Market Harborough on the way. I was out searching for a lost Medieval village that day (I have an image to keep up), but I am told that they took over the town centre with their chanting for a while. This morning all was quiet. There were a lot of police around and the Wethersoon's pub where the EDL congregated had not opended. I saw only about a dozen EDL types in the town. They were clustered around another pub, which ...
The internet is largely anonymous. It is easy to make judgements on people we know and it is even easier to make snap judgements on people on the television. In this age where celebrity is a concept that has been diluted because of reality TV it has coincided with the explosion of social media. Therefore people on the TV and in the papers are more regular than before. Newspapers will run stories and photos of reality TV stars causing people to have more vocal opinions on said people. A few months ago Jesy Nelson was getting bullied over her looks ...
And the winner is...George Potter "Oh my god, I think he's trying to grow a mohican." George, DM me an address via @richardmorrisuk and I'll send you some sort of prize. I have no idea what. :-) And by the way - brilliant blogging this week George too. Thanks for all the entries
We seem to have ended up in odd place regarding the debate about Climate Change. It appears that the majority of scientists that work in the field of climate say that the climate is changing and that there is a large anthropogenic component to this change caused by greenhouse gases emitted by human activity. There are however a significant minority of scientists and others who think that either the whole thing is overblown and/or that there is either no, or very little evidence that humans have contributed to this. Both sides have lots and lots of data to back up ...
LibDemVoice is currently conducting one of our regular surveys of party members to find out views on a range of issues. One of the questions we always ask is how satisfied Lib Dems are with key figures in the party. Though the survey is still open, a couple are now out-of-date — specifically, what members' opinions were of Chris Huhne and Ed Davey in the jobs they occupied until Friday. So here are their results... Chris Huhne: How would you rate the performances of Chris Huhne, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change? Very satisfied 15% Satisfied 40% Total ...
Though my blogging musings have been lighter over the past month or so, this blog has nevertheless made some international strides in recent weeks. America Firstly around Christmas, I was contacted by a business from across the pond in America asking for an opportunity to advertise with selected links in blog posts that matched their product. You probably won't have seen then, but they are there and in the last few days, the $40 (£25) payment reached my bank account via PayPal. It's only a small amount but after just over a year, it's a pleasant bonus to find that ...
Chris Huhne resigned, I believed it to be somewhat inevitable whether or not he was charged by the CPS, obviously the court case is live, so little can be said on the case itself, but the political impacts are huge on Clegg, and no matter what happens now he's in a corner, let me explain. The Huhne case can go one of two ways, and both will be bad for Clegg. if Huhne is convicted and found guilty, Clegg is faced with the double charge of leading a corrupt party, losing a seat in parliament (which from my knowledge of ...
The New York Times reports of a law case where a trainee counsellor, Julea Ward, asked for referral of clients seeking same-sex relationship advice on account of her Christian beliefs. Ms Ward claims that she doesn't want to change her clients' minds and behaviour, nor does she want to discriminate against homosexual clients. Indeed, she would ask for clients to be reassigned if there were
On Facebook Simon McGrath has drawn attention to a letter to the Guardian from Labour MPs, already circulated by the Open Europe blog. The Labour MPs concerned include Gisela Stuart who has a long history of euroscepticism and Dennis Skinner who proudly proclaims the fact that he has never been abroad. How delighted these soi-disant left wingers must be that their ideas are shared by the
Here's your starter for ten in our weekend slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate... In the Australian system even a single rebellion against your party can mean the whip is withdrawn but in the UK we're much more used to MPs 'crossing the floor' and voting against their party. In fact there's been a fair amount of coverage on Lib Dem Voice of Mark Pack's research on the number of backbench Lib Dem MPs who have rebelled against the government since the last election. One could argue that MPs have a duty to vote with ...
Boundary Commission for England Newsletter 2012 #1
The loss of Chris Huhne from Government was inevitable once he was charged, however it is difficult not to draw the conclusion that the constant exercising of 'sharp elbows' was bound to end badly in some shape or another, whilst leaving few political friends to pick up the pieces. Having said this, the Liberal Democrats will miss Chris Huhne's presence in the cabinet, where he was a big hitter and consequently was able to press forward with the party's green agenda with impunity. We now have Ed Davey in his place, a Minister who has already achieved success in reforming ...
The Almighty Johnsons episode 1 review - Den of Geek This review is possibly a little harsh, but it makes some good points, and I love the desc ription of Olaf as "God of Exposition". Probably still going to give it a couple more episode; I'm glad I did with American Horror Story, which Jessica Lange has been utterly fabulous in. (tags: telly ) The first page of H.G. Wells's version of Jeff Wayne's War Of The Worlds | Retronaut Am singing this now (tags: music ) Taxpayers' Alliance admits director doesn't pay British tax | Politics | The Guardian ...
Apparently David Cameron called Ed Miliband a hypocrite in parliament this week, but had to withdraw because you're not allowed to be so rude. This incident brought forth in the press the usual list of archaic insults ( eg stool-pigeon, guttersnipe, cad)which are still on the taboo list. In my view the most amusing incident with arose out of this convention occurred when Jeremy Thorpe was leader of the Liberals and was overheard to mutter "Stupid bastard" whilst the then Prime Minister, Edward Heath, was speaking. The interjection was loud enough to generate immediate demands that Thorpe withdraw , but ...
The following link will take you directly to the Council's consultation webpage: The public consultation period will end on Sunday the 11th March 2012.
Cambridge City Council has dug deep into its finances to provide £15,000 for new allotments in the city. Seventeen allotments will be created off Kendal Way in East Chesterton and up to 50 plots will be provided by potentially extending Empty Common in Trumpington. The plots will be allocated to people who have registered on the council's 290 strong waiting list for allotments. Cambridge City Executive Councillor for Art, Sport and Public Places, Rod Cantrill said: "We are committed to helping people who want to grow their own produce. This helps them maintain a healthy and sustainable lifestyle and I ...
I han't heard of The Kitschies - "the annual awards for those books which best elevate the tone of genre literature" - until very recently, despite my old friend Bex Levene being one of the judges, but I love the concept. In case anyone like me is struggling through Twitter to find the results, whkch are not yet up on the official site, they were: Red Tentacle (to the novel containing speculative or fantastic elements that best fulfills the criteria of intelligent, progressive and entertaining) - A Monster Calls, by Patrick Ness and Siobhan Dowd Golden Tentacle (to the debut ...
I know exactly what makes me a slow runner - it's the belief that I'm a slow runner. I find the idea of pushing myself to go faster than is comfortable so much more difficult than the idea of plodding on for more and more miles. You know - slow & steady, etc. I just never thought I could be faster, so I wasn't. That seems to be changing. Part of my marathon training involves tempo runs, which are supposed to be between 9:47 and 10:04 pace (my easy runs are supposed to be paced between 10:47 and 11:16). I ...
Following my writing to Royal Bank of Scotland last month following concerns about possible closure of the student branch at Balfour Street, I've expressed disappointment at a response I have received from the bank to reject calls to think again over the proposed closure of its branch at the university's student union. The response I have received from Jeffrey Hartley, RBoS's Head of Group Customer Relations, confirms the branch is indeed earmarked for closure and it appears the Royal Bank is adamant that it will not reprieve the well-used branch. In his letter Mr Hartley says : "I acknowledge that ...
... that the income tax threshold should increased to £10,000 more rapidly, there is now an e-petition on the HM Government website. It says: "Please sign this to persuade George Osborne to fast track the Lib Dem policy to increase ... Continue reading →
I've been following the run-up to the American election this November more casually than many of my fellow political aficionados. To be frank, I'm not yet embedded enough into party politics to be the sort of person who views the ... Continue reading →
As a foolish thing to do for the BiMedia bisexual news website, I'm trying to mark LGBT History Month this year by giving a little dash of visibility to a different bit of bi history each day of February. Like a lot of LGBT work, History Month resources and events in my experience tend to be good on the LG bits and frequently good on the T strand but often the B is weak. But there has been plenty of bi history:albeit sometimes things we need to (re)claim. I have an assortment of ideas of things to highlight, and at ...
When Nick Clegg planned a Liberal Democrat parliamentary away-day in Eastbourne this week he could hardly have known that the media hordes would descend on that seaside town, not to quiz MPs and Ministers about policy but rather about the fate of Chris Huhne. But if Plan A was to carry on as normal had the ...
