"Instead of, say, three main parties and some fringe ones, what we have in effect are dozens of parties which dominate public bodies and which all remain in office, regardless of elections and the politicians passing through. One of the scariest and most formidable of these parties is the national security and anti-terrorism party, which dominates the Home Office, the police, and the 'security services'." Jack of Kent on reports that the government wants to be able to monitor the calls, emails, texts and website visits of everyone in the UK. Alex's Archive is concerned by those reports too. The ...
Before I restart blogging on economics and politics and the like, a quick one on the saga that is Morals Bar. Rumour has reached me that the reason for the bar closing has something to do with a relationship gone wrong between two people somehow involved in managing or running the bar. Well, I suppose the gossip mill was bound to create its own version of events, but I'm afraid the reason for the bars' demise (and I use the apostrophe there deliberately because you cannot separate the closure of Morals from the earlier closure of Harts or the Venue ...
Here's the relevant part of the motion that was passed at the Liberal Democrat conference in Gateshead: a) ensuring that there shall be no interception of telephone calls, SMS messages, social media, internet or any other communications without named, specific and time-limited warrants; b) guaranteeing that any communications data kept by service providers in accordance with the EU Data Retention Directive are kept securely by the service providers, and that they be only released to government bodies with strict and strengthened safeguards; c) ensuring that service providers are not mandated by law to collect communications data by any method that ...
Yesterday I took a break from the campaign trail to help out with the Westley Vale Action Day. I helped shift bark and spread it onto some of the paths around the Millennium Green. After that there was some very welcome coffee and a chance to chat to the other volunteers who were helping out with duties that included tree planting, litter picking and even some hedge laying.
AHMADIYYA MUSLIM JAMAAT 22 Deer Park Road, London, SW19 3TL, UK Tel: 0208 544 7678 Email:press@ahmadiyya.org.uk Web: Alislam.org/press / www.twitter.com/AhmadiyyatIslam LONDON, 1 April 2012 PRESS RELEASE BRUTAL POLICE TORTURE LEADS TO DEATH OF AHMADI MUSLIM IN RABWAH It is with great sadness that the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat confirms that on 30 March 2012 a well-known and much loved Ahmadi Muslim, Mr Master Abdul Qudoos Ahmad (43), died after succumbing to injuries inflicted during brutal torture by local police in Rabwah, Pakistan. Mr Master Abdul Qudoos Ahmad was taken into police custody without any justification on 10 February 2012. He remained ...
Perhaps the most famous scene in the Sherlock Holmes stories occurs in the story "Silver Blaze". Holmes has arrived to investigate the apparent murder of a race-horse owner's most trusted employee and the disappearance of the race-horse. Having found that the official detective has diligently collected a lot of information, he runs through the information and then says he is leaving. The Inspector asks if he wants to draw his attention to anything. Holmes actually refers to two things - an epidemic of slight lameness among sheep kept near the stables and "the curious incident of the dog in the ...
Sun 1st
21:39
Nostalgia for the days when we heard via horse of the King's death several months after the event
I am getting nostalgic for the days when the King died and you found out about it months later, when someone with the news strayed into your village on a horse. We've gone from the sublime to the ridiculous with news coverage. Today's "revelation" is typical: Government to roll out same snooping tactics as 'China and Iran' by getting access to everybody's emails, texts, and internet browsing - said the Mail. Except you then read the details from a sensible person such as Nick Thornsby and you realise that it is all, more or less, stuff and nonsense. [IMG: Post ...
Apologies for the continued radio silence. I've been too tired and stressed this week from work stuff to get any writing done other than half the next Kinks piece and 800 words of the second Peculiar Branch short story. I should have the Kinks post done by tomorrow, but if nothing else there's a four-day ...
Ros and I went for a stroll today. It was a pleasant, sunny morning, and we'd left the car in Stowmarket and needed to collect it anyway, so we set off across the parish, along the public footpath that runs from the village towards Cedars Park. Ros knows far more about the countryside than I do, so our walk was interrupted by me asking questions about the flora and fauna we encountered. And, as we walked up the slope towards the road to Creeting Lakes, I noticed, on top of a hedgerow, a yellow and brown bird. "What is this?", ...
[IMG: Posted by Picasa]
Sun 1st
21:09
Why we should believe Nick Clegg when he promises to restore liberties stolen by Labour
That was the headline on an interview that Henry Porter conducted with Nick for the Observer in February 2011. I don't know how well founded the BBC News story is that: The government will be able to monitor the calls, emails, texts and website visits of everyone in the UK under new legislation set to be announced soonbut this is a good rime to recall why many of us were pleased to see Labour leave government and the Coalition enter it. Here are a few quotation from Henry Porter's interview: The page on liberty and rights has been turned, he ...
After several attempts, I may have managed to get the Eastrop Focus to be viewable online (without spending any money). I will try to add some back dated copies when I get some time. For now just the one appears on the top left of the screen. and here
There's a lot of understandable concern on Lib Dem bulletin boards about reports (such as this one on the BBC website) which appear to concern the Government's Communications Capabilities Development Programme and a possible extension of government powers to track our activities on the internet. While there are all kinds of problems with the original Sunday Times article that triggered the whole furore (which gets a good fisking on the Spy Blog), this kind of leak tends to happen for a reason. Indeed, I can't think of any occasion where those of use who are suspicious of government motives in ...
The last couple of times I've been to New York I have been fortunate enough to stay on Washington Square itself, but I was actually prompted to get hold of this classic after learning that the amazing Fanny Kemble had inspired James to write it. It is a short, vivid, sad story of a father and daughter who fail to communicate emotionally, and an aunt who communicates far too well with her niece's unworthy lover, set in the much smaller New York of the 1840s (published in 1880). There's lots of beautiful character observation (at least of the central four ...
Sun 1st
19:29
What does the Strategic Defence and Security Review say about the monitoring of communications?
In its response to the story in today's news about the government's plans to legislate to make it easier to monitor people's communications, the Home Office said the following: As set out in the Strategic Defence and Security Review we ... Continue reading →
Wicked Game is taken from Heart Shaped World, Chris Isaak's third studio. It was released as a single in 1989, but it did not become a hit until it was featured in the David Lynch's film Wild at Heart the following year.
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 267th 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 (25-31 March, 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. My imminent defection ...
Like a lot of people, I was enchanted by The Name of the Rose, baffled by Foucault's Pendulum, and ignored Eco's subsequent work, but picked this up cheap a while back and have now got onto it. I'm glad to say that I mostly enjoyed it; Eco's protagonist starts the novel with amnesia and must reconstruct his own memories by revisiting his family's country retreat and going through his own souvenirs of youth before and during the Second World War, a process that brings back adventures with the local resistance as well as his teenage love interest. It is beautifully ...
Sun 1st
18:29
If you get the trivia question about William Wallace boy chorister BBC Radio 4 has the answer
If you get the trivia question about William Wallace in a Lib Dem quiz one evening BBC Radio 4 are broadcasting all the possible answers on Tuesday http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01f5lcx
One of the newer original single-CD audiobooks in the Who range, read by Alexander Armstrong (whose accent is occasionally a bit surprising - his "stall" sounds like "stool" which doesn't quite have the same meaning). All but completists can safely skip this one; the setting is a future-kitsch 1950s public school which turns out rather pointlessly to be In Space, and the Doctor compassionately tells the victim of bullying that he should ruddy well get over it; that will be very helpful to any young (or older) listeners who find themselves in that situation.
I've blogged before about the campaign to end "cash deserts"in Liverpool. These are areas in which there are no ATMs (cash machines) apart from ones that charge. This in effect means you are taxed on getting your own money and in deprived areas its a real tax on poverty. Anyway, as a result of the campaign, the people from Link (who provide a lot of the machines) are coming up in May to look at areas of shortage and to see if any decent locations can be found. The statistics show that most of these areas are in North Liverpool, ...
I'm not terribly sure how to review The Hobbit. It's a book to which I return again and again and know so well, it's hard to read it with a critic's eye - or to want to do so. It's also a book that's so well known (even ahead of the new films) that providing a synopsis seems to be of limited value. This time through I was struck by two things, though. First I was reminded how much of a book for children it is: something I tend to forget. As narrator, Tolkien makes a number of asides to ...
It doesn't matter who you vote for, the government always gets in Liberal Democrats can be a fractious bunch. There are plenty of disagreements between the various wings of the party, particularly in relation to the wisdom of markets and the role of the state. But one area in which we tend towards unanimity is the importance of protecting civil liberties. When striking the balance between liberty and security, the balance should always be in favour of liberty and against the persistent encroachments of an over-mighty state. Couple the Liberal Democrats in Coalition with a bunch of small-state freedom-loving Tories ...
Picking up on my post about the strange behaviour by Conservative MP Ian Liddell-Grainger, Jonathan Calder has pointed out a regal connection to the story: Iain Liddell-Grainger, says his Wikipedia entry, is the great-great-great grandson of Queen Victoria and is 339th in the line of succession to the British Throne. So it would take only 338 unfortunate accidents for him to become our king. I did blog about Liddell-Grainger's royal connections back in 2007. In those days he was only 314th in the line of succession, so the danger of our having King Ian has receded. Meanwhile, thinking about the ...
Last month I reported how my Birkdale Ward colleague Cllr Simon Shaw was pushing for Doorstep Cardboard and Plastic Collection to be introduced - with financial help from the Government's £250m "Weekly Collection Support Scheme". Now Simon, who is Sefton Council's Cabinet Member - Environmental (that's 'Bins Czar' to you and me) is calling for residents to show whether they support the bid via an on-line petition at www.southportsays.co.uk . Simon explains: "We are just at the start of a lengthy three stage process run by Eric Pickles' Department for Communities and Local Government, with the final bids being ...
An article about the licences granted for A-boards and shop displays on the Wirral by Wirral Council.
I had absolutely no idea that today's long run would be such an emotional experience. I ran 20.25 miles, most of which was part of the Birch Bay International Road Race 30K, back up on the US side of the border (it used some of the same course as the half marathon). It's a really beautiful place to run. My favorite part were the views of the mountains, just peeking out from under the cloud cover and, of course, the Bay. I wasn't last, which was important, and they handed out lovely medals. It was kind of lonely after the ...
Sun 1st
16:45
In other news... Jo on Easter eggs, Brian interviewed, Dr Pack post-budget wallchart, and more...
Here's a round-up of stories we haven't had time to cover on the site this past few days... Confectionery giants 'not doing enough' to reduce Easter egg packaging (Daily Mail) Easter egg manufacturers have been criticised for not doing enough to reduce packaging and improve how much can be recycled. Currently, an estimated 3,000 tonnes of waste is produced in the UK every year just from Easter egg packaging alone. And an annual survey by Liberal Democrat MP Jo Swinson has found the percentage of Easter egg boxes actually filled by chocolate was 38 per cent – the same figure ...
It is being report today that the Government plans to introduce legislation to monitor emails, texts and internet surfing history. It feels like something New Labour would want, and in fact it's very similar to a law they unsuccessfully tried to introduce. I've put up with tuition fees, the NHS bill, disability benefit cuts, even the lukewarm marriage equality consultation. But it would be immoral for me to remain in a party that, whilst in Government, allowed this sort of attack on our basic freedoms to go through. I'm fairly confident that our Lib Dem ministers in Government will vigorously ...
I feel the need to write about the events from Tuesday morning through to Thursday evening as painful as they may be. On Tuesday morning I was sitting here working and surfing the web when I came across a story in the Huffington Post. I have no idea why I read it but there was a photo with the story of an aircraft carrier coming into Portsmouth Harbour and in the bottom left of the shot you could clearly see the Still and West pub. This pub is right next to where the Isle of Wight car ferry docks and ...
There's no prize at stake - just the opportunity to prove you're wittier than any other LDV reader... As I mentioned yesterday, Nick Clegg has been busy this week doing some real work. Here he is meeting US President Barack Obama, together with Denmark's Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. What do you think might be being said or thought by or about them? And the winners of our last caption comp is... Some fantastic entries for our most recent caption competition, Cameron & Miliband "We're in this together" Funding Scandal Special Edition. The winners, according ...
April 1st is probably a good day to write about just how irrational political debate can become. The last fortnight has seen some really meaty political events for politicians, the press and the public to get their teeth stuck into. But instead of the big reforms in the Budget and another major party funding scandal ...
Walking through Blackheath Village yesterday I did a double take as I passed Go Travel. They have filled their window with Lib Dem posters promoting various candidates I had never heard of, Koala, Platypus, Frilled Neck Lizard. We must have been on some recruitment drive in Earls Court and picked up some candidates of Antipodean origin. ...
Sun 1st
13:50
Music revenues up as industry re-discovers that people will pay for convenient services
Gizmodo brings the news: New industry figures for 2011 say revenue from digital music surged by 25 per cent to £286 million, offsetting an £87 million drop in CD sales. As an extra economic boost, we're turning away from glossy foreign music imports and buying more from British artists, who now account for 53 per cent of the music we buy — the biggest share since 1997... So what exactly is dragging music fans away from piracy and towards legal options? The answer: we're all lazy, and the music industry is finally smart enough to exploit it. Or to put ...
Ladies and Gentlemen, I have a confession to make. For all my professed love of The Muppets, the truth is I've never seen much of them. I know I loved them as a child but can't truly remember them. Added to that, I've never seen a Muppet film (the cinema didn't feature in my childhood). So, much as I wanted to see the latest Muppet film, I was also a bit worried it would disappoint. There were three main causes for concern. 1) I have a general dislike of "family films" - particularly American family films; and 2) I was ...
It's been a quiet month, chez moi, having put myself in a coursework procrastination purdah. And it was only on loading all my previous posts into my new copy of MacJournal, that I discovered that my previous post was in fact my thousandth blog post. Now, I'm neither cruel nor conceited enough to think that there are any posts in those six years' worth that you really need to read again. In fact as I look back there are a fair few I'd be somewhat embarrassed to write nowadays (my enthusiastic support for Chris Huhne perhaps most notable!). But I ...
In general I have very much enjoyed the Torchwood novels, and I would have enjoyed this one as well, if the ending had not turned on the convenient disposal of an autistic child's life. That just makes me sick.
Yet another of the Arthur C. Clarke award nominees, and one which really failed to impress me. Bear is regarded as one of the hardest of hard sf writers, but even so he has managed to create characters I actually cared about in other books of his that I have read. Perhaps I was wrong to try and read this during my travels at godawful hours of the morning last week, but I found little to recommend in this novel.
Of course my last post was an April Fool. I haven't triple jumped anywhere near 16m plus in over 20 years. My Olympic dreams are over, well unless they bring bowls into the mix, but in the meantime keep up with my series of posts about the Olympics that have already taken place. Hope you enjoyed though.
This is a particularly good Eleventh Doctor book, read very effectively by Meera Syal (who does a very effective Scottish accent). The setting is a London bank, just before the economic crash of 2008, where key staffers are being tempted to use time-travel bracelets to multi-task; the bracelets of course come at a much higher cost than is immediately apparent. There is a particularly effective passage early on where Amy becomes addicted to the giddy possibilities of personal time-looping, and some brilliant description. After a not brilliant start in 2010, the Eleventh Doctor books are doing very well now. I ...
Another of this year's much-discussed shortlist for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, this time set in a near-future America where a relatively affordable immortality treatment abolishes death by aging (though disease, accident and homicide remain). Our narrator spends very little time pondering the immense psychological and philosophical consequences, and much more watching those around him die of disease, accident or homicide; he becomes a paid killer, first of voluntary suicides and then of those the state deems worthy of death; he is obsessed with a woman who he eventually finds in melodramatic circumstances. I was disappointed that having taken up ...
I am gradually getting towards the end of the many Tenth Doctor novels, this being another one from the companionless era (ie 2009). Set in 12th-century Worcester, it presents the Krillitane very differently from School Reunion, actually being exploited by alien geneticists who are much nastier than they are. Some very good concepts, not executed quite as well as they deserved.
Winston Churchill won the Nobel Prize for Literature, but this was his only actual novel, published in 1900 when he was 26. Savrola is the liberal opposition leader in the small western European republic of Laurania; once it becomes apparent that the dictator's wife is secretly in love with him, you know how the story is going to work out, but Churchill tells a good yarn, in particular with some brilliant descriptions of the street-fighting as the revolution takes place, only marred slightly by a rushed last couple of pages. It's impossible to read the book without bearing in mind ...
Today sees Burma take a massive step towards democracy by holding 45 by elections which appear to be being judged pretty reasonably fair by international observers. Indeed errors have been put down to inexperience rather than a desire by the regime there to steal the election. Aung San Suu Kyi is contesting one of the seats and is expected to win by a large majority. I can only wish them the very best. It is only about 10th of the seats in the Burmese Parliament but as some one once said "Every long march starts with a footstep"!
NOTICE is given that the Hertfordshire County Council intend to make an Order under Section 14[1] of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, to prohibit all traffic from using that length of Grosvenor Road, St Albans from its junction with the A1081 London Road/Orient Close roundabout north eastwards for a distance of approximately 40 metres. The purpose of the Order is to enable a crane to be positioned on the highway to change redundant chillers in an adjacent building. It is anticipated that the section of road will be closed between the hours of 8.00am and 6.00pm (Mondays to Sundays ...
I had been a bit underwhelmed by the last few Eighth Doctor novels I read, but this one has restored my confidence. It's one of the few Who novels which I could easily imagine as the basis for a TV story; the Tardis crew investigate a dubious company doing genetic engineering on a convenient planet, the two companions going undercover, with all the personal conflicts that involves, and the Doctor taking on the bad guys directly. Fitz continues to be one of the best spinoff characters, and for the first time I actually found Compassion interesting (in, what, her third ...
I've receieved several messages from a poorly Councillor Rita Egan this week, copying me in on progress of rubbish clearance on Shanley's land to the east of Houghton Regis. A bulldozer was at work there late last year mowing the bushes down (and some trees), scrapping up the land and depositing it all, along with years of accumulated dumped rubbish, into piles in their fields. As you can imagine this brought a string of complaints our way, and other residents took the issue up with Central Beds indepently of us. Well, I can say that Rita went to the highest ...
Hasan Abazi Faces Month in Custody Outrageous behaviour from Milosevic-era minister. (tags: kosovo serbia ) Voice of Choice Turning the tables on protesters who go too far. (tags: sexandgenderandsexuality ) Girls Around Me The dark side of the Facebook and Foursquare APIs. (tags: internet facebook ) Supreme Court May Be Most Conservative in Modern History With groovy graphs. (tags: uspolitics ) Quick Christopher Priest Follow Up - Whatever SFWA President Scalzi on Priest on Clarke Award (tags: sf ) Dereliction of Duty, Ctd. Another Priest / Clarke Award roundup. (tags: sf ) fiction_theory: How NOT to gain readers and influence ...
Hopi Sen, one of this years judges for the Orwell Prize for Political Blogging, has written a really terrific post about his experience of reading all this years entries. It's full of good advice and pertinent observations about where we where the political blogosphere currently sits. But two paragraphs in particular stood out for me... "The blog that felt old fashioned were those of the now-cliched figure of the opinionated, nearly-connected figure on the fringes of political life who decides to say in public what is being said in private. He's probably male, and probably writing in his lunch break, ...
With just over a month to go to the London Mayoral and GLA elections, London Liberal Democrats had their minds firmly focussed on campaigning when we gathered in the East Wintergarden at Canary Wharf yesterday, chaired by (Baroness) Susan Kramer. The mayoral candidate Brian Paddick alongside Caroline Pidgeon, head of the GLA list, presented a summary ...
Alistair Darling is a former chancellor of the exchequer and Labour's voice of moderation and wisdom. George Galloway is a tribune of the people and the only MP from a far-left grouping. But, as I blogged back in September 2008, it wasn't always like that. My source was a Daily Record article by Galloway that has seems to have disappeared - though he still writes a column for the paper. Anyway, here is the story in Galloway's own words: When I first met him 35 years ago Darling was pressing Trotskyite tracts on bewildered railwaymen at Waverley Station in Edinburgh. ...
It's April Fools Day and, as I can't beat The Observer's story about Shaun Ryder being invited to advise Cameron and Co on how to present their policies to the Working Classes, I've opted for a particularly apt song from 1956 - Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers. I must confess that, although I obviously knew the song, I didn't know who sang it or anything about him. The track was released when Frankie Lymon was just 13 and appears to have been the highlight in his career: he broke from The Teenagers just over a year later, his solo career ...
Bumped up from a comment in Slugger, re the next European Parliament elections in Northern Ireland: There is zero chance of two Nationalists winning. Last time round Alban Maginness was more than 18,000 votes adrift of Diane Dodds, and taking the undistributed surpluses into account the real difference was probably 24,000 (Nicholson ended with a 11,000 surplus, de Brún with 5,000) and the 7,500 non-transferables from Allister are probably a high-water mark for hardline plumpers. The total Nationalist vote is consistently 5-10% behind the total Unionist vote, and Unionists are better at internal transfers; there is absolutely no reason to ...
April Fools jokes dominate some of today's newspapers with perhaps the most far-fetched one being that in the Wales on Sunday, who claim that the Aberystwyth-based Russian historian and chair of the Welsh Underground Rail Restoration Trust (WURRT), Sal Loripof, who is also allegedly chair of the Welsh Underground Rail Restoration Trust (WURRT), has set his sights on attracting investors from the oil-rich Middle East to bring back into use abandoned railway tracks in underground tunnels all around Wales. In the Observer it is difficult to choose between Ed Miliband's claim that the present government will only serve one term ...
Government to reconsider nerve agent pesticides - Nature - Environment - The Independent It'll be interesting to see who wins out in this - big business pesticide manufacturers, or self-preservation instainct for the human race. Normally I wouldn't bet on the latter with politicians, but given that Vince Cable likes bees.... (tags: Vince nature ) More on those donor diners Peter Black casts a plague on both their houses, and knows where the answer lies. (tags: politics ) Steph and her Mom - This is what women in superhero comics should be "She's an awesome superhero and it doesn't matter ...
It's ages since I did one of these navel-gazing posts, but I do still collect the statistics from this blog on a regular basis. It's not good to become too obsessed with such things but just in case anyone else other than me is interested, here's the latest update. There have been just under 22,900 page impressions in the first quarter of this year (counting just those made by real people rather than automated "bots") – up 3% on the same period last year. Excluding visits to the home page (4,062) and my OU psychology notes pages (9,051), the most ...
The link is to another mother's story about George Hibbert and comments by one of his erstwhile employees.This story about the abuse of the hague convention, however, is more of a live issue.
At the end of March, coinciding with the close of the period to make an expression of interest to become the new lessee of St Mary in the Castle, Lib Dem campaigner Nick Perry has delivered a petition to Hastings Borough Council signed by more than 300 supporters. The petition, delivered to the Borough Solicitor ...
Somethings you never lose. In my case it is something that was drummed into 31 years ago. How to get the perfect technique in the triple jump. Thanks to Murray Lee and a certain symbol of the mid 20th Century as reference I was always rather good at the event. Sadly at school being one of the best in Northern Ireland didn't necessarily mean that you made it to Northern Ireland school boy level, we were just too good, at least in my year. However, free and off to University my light was less hidden my a bushel, though it ...
The Garston Park art project workshops continue this week with activities at White Oak Lodge, Garston Park Church and the Garston Urban Village Hall. The project involves groups and individuals helping generate ideas and artwork for boards which will be hung around the walls of the sports pitches on the park. If you want to know more, or your group wants to get involved, do come along to one of the sessions. On Monday evening the artists are at White Oak Lodge. Wednesday sees activities at Garston Park Church and Thursday involves work at the Garston Urban Village Hall. The ...
Sun 1st
07:00+++ EXCLUSIVE: Government to bring 2013 local elections forward to last Thursday in February
According to a series of leaked memos secured exclusively by The Voice, the Government will bring the 2013 local elections forward from May to February. The change is being heavily pushed by the Department for Communities and Local Government, which wants to see councillors elected in enough time to be able to influence the coming year's budget. "Currently a council can change control in May, but often the fresh policies of the new administration are delayed because the council's financial year has already started and the council tax level has already been set. We believe elections which settle the control ...
Hindu Cultural and Community Centre On Friday, I had the pleasure of visiting the Hindu Cultural and Community Centre in Taylor's Lane to view the recent improvements the Centre has undertaken in terms of decoration, kitchen facilities and other upgrades. Having attended the centre's Diwali celebrations in the past, it was great to see the improvements at the Centre and the commitment of all involved to provide a facility available, not just for the local Hindu population, but for the local community as a whole.
Sun 1st
06:26
EXCLUSIVE: Nick Clegg to launch new 'Ocado Tax' to hit super-wealthy and woo 'Lidl Britain'
Keep your eyes peeled this morning for a dramatic announcement from Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg as he launches a new policy initiative — dubbed the 'Ocado Tax' — designed to target the super-wealthy in society. The tax will levy an additional 1.4% VAT on all own-brand supermarket food marketed as Premium or Finest (or equivalent) in food retail outlets throughout the country. Lib Dem strategists have chosen the name 'Ocado Tax' deliberately to demonstrate that this is not a punitive tax on ordinary people, but rather a carefully targeted tax affecting only those who can afford to pay it. ...
This blog has featured previously the fantastic campaign waged by Tripping up Trump (supported by the magnificent Jonathan Meades) against Donald Trump's arrogant, insensitive and vulgar attempts to destroy Balmedie beach in Aberdeenshire. Youtube pulled this video - despite Brian May supporting it (no doubt under threat of Mr Trump's learned friends). But it's worth wide circulation. Donald Trump does Bohemian Rhapsody from Hazel Cameron on Vimeo.
Vexilla Regis pródeunt: fulget Crucis mystérium, qua Vita mortem pértulit, et morte vitam pértulit. The royal banners forward go, / The Cross shines forth in mystic glow, / Where Life Himself our death endured / And by His death our life procured. Quæ, vulneráta lánceæ mucróne diro, críminum ut nos laváret sórdibus, manávit unda et ...
