Theddingworth has a Norman church with significant monuments and a Congregational chapel from the early 19th century. But both were locked and the latter was impossible to photograph from the most desirable angle. So instead here is the village hall. It did not make it into Pevsner, but the Victoria County History says: John Smeeton, a Congregationalist ... built the Smeeton Institute nearby in 1893 as a memorial to his son, S. P. Smeeton (d. 1889). The institute is a single-storied building in the Tudor style and contains a reading room and a billiard room. I don't suppose it does ...
I cannot get my Blackberry to open pages on my blog on which comments have been posted, so I'll respond to comments with fresh posts instead...George, thanks. I never said that the conference call should be "kept secret", although there obviously are some conference calls that are intended to be deeply confidential. Far from being secret, it is clearly reasonable to assume that a conference call for journalists or bloggers might sometimes be positively intended to generate public comment by the participants. I once referred on my blog to having just come off a conference call with fellow Lib Dems ...
All power to Steve Webb with his work on looking for alternative pension methods for British workers in the years to come. This is the real issue, not public sector pensions. Final salary pensions are dead. They have been for over a decade now. The public sector unions are either being King Canute like or don't understand the economics of providing pensions - or both! A number of factors but primarily increasing longevity - we are living longer - means final salary pensions are no longer affordable. No large company offers them any more. Some are even moving to withdraw ...
Paddick's report on racism buried by the Met - just a few rotten apples or is the whole barrel rotten? I welcome the way in which the Guardian has played a really positive role in exposing growing concerns following the ... Continue reading →
After the riots, the Liberal Democrats stood by me: I particularly like Brian Paddick's ideas for making a change concerning the youths, and for looking for solutions to helping them change their lives around. He, like myself, is concerned that there is still racial stereotyping of youths as offenders and that blanket stop and search tactics are causing so much resentment as to be counter-productive. I've met so many people on my crusade who have turned their lives around. Pauline, writing in the Guardian's Comment is Free column last week.
We've been staying with the in-laws in South Wales over Easter. That means we've had the opportunity to run some different terrain. If you leave the front door and head north within 10 minutes you leave Bleanau Gwent, cross into Powys and find yourself on the southern edges of the Brecon Beacons national park. The run from there is pretty much uphill for the next 20 minutes across moorland. We gave that route a go yesterday when the sun was out, but only did 45 minutes in total. It was great to be out in open country for the first ...
Who is Pauline Pearce and why should you give her your vote? Pauline is one of many worried and caring mothers, brothers, sisters and families that believe that there is a better option than just giving up on the kids of her community — Hackney. A caring soul that refuses to do nothing and let another generation repeat the scenes of Summer 2011 again. Vote for P on May 3.
I just managed to get the potatoes planted on Good Friday-the traditional day for planting spuds. This is not because of some scheme of lunar planting but rather that with the introduction of Avebury days allotment holders had a holiday at about the right time to plant potatoes. This year we are sticking with Red Duke of York and Kestral.
Meols Ward Lib Dem Councillors John Dodd, David Rimmer andNigel Ashton are holding their next monthly advice centre on Saturday 14th April,from 11 am to 12 noon at St John's Primary School, Rufford Road, Crossens. We will be there to meet you and discuss any Councilproblems you may have. No appointment necessary. Just pop in. We hold our advice centre every month (except August) on thesecond Saturday of the month at St John's School.
Local residents are being asked to play their part inhelping to bring in cardboard and plastic recycling. Please sign our petitionto show your support for cardboard and plastic recycling collection.Sign our petition here. Sefton Council has now expressed interest in claiming ashare of a £250million Government fund to help councils give residents therecycling and bin collection service they want. The Government wants councils to show that there is supportfrom local people, so the Lib Dems have launched a petition to show thestrength of feeling locally. John Dodd said "I hope as many people as possible willsign our petition online, it ...
After a week of waste not being collected at all or many days late the following are some of the questions I have asked the Council's Chief Executive Officer. 1. With respect to being able to honour obligations of the waste collection contract: When was Ealing Council aware of problems?What were the reasons for Enterprise not honouring the contractual obligations?What proportion of the borough's streets had one or more collections missed for at least 1 day.What was the average delay in days for the borough?Has any member of staff (from Enterprise or Ealing) been suspended pending investigations, or sacked, because ...
Lord Bonkers, who was Liberal MP for Rutland South-West 1906-10, writes exclusively for Liberal England Can it really be 100 years since the Titanic sailed? Iremember how proud the White Star Line was of its new ship and how I encouragedthe first Lady Bonkers to book a cabin on the maiden voyage. Sadly, she did notshare my enthusiasm for the enterprise. I say 'sadly', let me hasten to add, because I am in no doubtthat, had she been aboard, things would have turned out very differently. Shewould have taken the command from the hands of that booby Smith and ensuredthat ...
Jerry Hayes writes on Dale & Co. today: I fear that I was over optimistic when I wrote that Nick Clegg had scuppered the sinister un-Conservative, un-British and certainly un-Liberal surveillance and secret trial proposals, as the fight back from the intelligence services has begun. You will notice that over the next few days distinguished columnists and chosen MPs will be shroud waving that unless these anti democratic proposals are put in place nobody will be able to sleep safely in their beds.Kenneth Clarke said much the same thing in 2005 when opposing Labour's attempt to introduce house arrest to ...
Mon 9th
18:10
In other news... Kemp4Liverpool, Duwayne4London, Tod4Winchester, Salmond4Inquiry, and more...
Here's a round-up of stories we haven't had time to cover on the site this past few days... Liverpool elected mayor candidates announced (BBC News) Twelve candidates have been nominated to stand as Liverpool's first directly elected mayor. Nominations closed at midday and voters will go to the polls on 3 May. Among the 12 are four members of Liverpool City Council, including Labour leader Joe Anderson and Liberal Democrat Richard Kemp. Duwayne Brooks announced as Lib Dem deputy mayor (BBC News) A friend of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence has been named as a deputy to Liberal Democrat Brian Paddick ...
Cambridge Liberal Democrat MP Julian Huppert has launched a petition to stop any plans to create a snoopers' charter. This petition follows a public letter in The Independent from 17 Lib Dem MPs, led by Julian Huppert. The letter called for openness from the Government about controversial proposals to monitor emails, telephone calls and social media. The petition demands a guarantee from the Government that no-one will be allowed to read the content of internet communications, phone calls or texts without a warrant. The petition also calls for "substantially stronger safeguards for civil liberties". Julian said "Local Liberal Democrats will ...
There is evidence of severe wear at the beginning and at the ed of Albert Street. Chris has drawn this to the attention of Herts Highways
Liberal Youth has a new policy on internships, reports Callum Morton: "Not only does it call for those on internships or work experience to be paid £2.60 per hour, but it also calls for politicians to be the first to clear up their act." Quite right too. Nick Pickles, the director of Big Brother Watch, responds to Theresa May and Ken Clarke's letter to MPs regarding new surveillance powers and closed-door courts on Conservative Home: "Let me also ask a simple question - if this is so essential, why has it not been put in place before the Olympics? If ...
Thank you to everyone who has read, commented on or contributed ideas for the Campaign Corner series over the last 25 weeks. With this final post, it'll have been going for six months and now, with people in full flight campaigning for May's elections, is a good moment to bring it to an end. If you are putting some of that advice to the test in May, and especially if you're a Liberal Democrat!, best of luck and I hope it helps. (If you're not a Liberal Democrat by all means do follow the main themes of the advice: the ...
Cool kids in politics never admit to watching The West Wing. Such people like to give the impression that they are so busy leading the sort of lives depicted in The West Wing that they would never actually have had time to see the show. So, of course, I have never seen it, and I do not own the DVD boxed set. I spend my days jogging, meeting diplomats and writing important speeches. I barely even own a television set. But if I had seen it, and if I venerated it as my third-ever favourite TV series and had watched ...
A short meeting with only two issues. One, a Labour motion on how this wealthy borough is housing children in 'bed and Breakfast's' in Slough for weeks at a time due to a shortage of social and affordable housing. Although the motion offered no solution and will now drift through a failing committee sytem to get probably nowhere, it was good to publicly air the forgotten housing topic, so often
Cllr John Grant is the Liberal Democrat Councillor for neighboring Whalley Range ward. He recently published this post about the path on Egerton Road North. I am worried that current council action will again jeopardise the maintenance of a well-kept and much used path in Chorlton if they stop emptying the dog litter and general litter bins or remove them. 10 years ago the present attractive and well used path was a wet, muddy track. The city council is not responsible for it because it is private land but the local residents group successfully applied for money through the council's ...
"Our Woman in Westminster" Reading through Good Friday's Medway Messenger I turned to the "letters page" - Yeah I'm one of those people... Any way, this weeks Party People was another report from Tracey Crouch MP about bank charges. *woot!!!* The thrust was about disproportionate bank charges and Tracey cited the example of forgetting to pay her credit card subscription, something all of us forget from time to time and the charge that came with it. In this case the original fine charge was £7.75 and the additional fine was a further £12. For the benefit of Mr Balls if ...
...and in my case this includes blogging. I've given up an unreasonable amount of time, particularly in the last year, to blogging and generally political interaction. I cannot sustain it and have more pressing priorities. With regret, I will be finding alternative outlets for political expression - in all probabilty outside the Liberal Democrats. I have enjoyed the stimulating discussions and conversations this blog has afforded me with fellow liberals, people from the LGBT community and others from across the political spectrum. I have appreciated your encouragement, your praise, your correcting me when I have plainly been wrong, your criticisms ...
This is the first book I've read from Oxford University Press' A Very Short Introduction series. Launched in 1995, there are now over 300 in the range covering topics as diverse as Advertising and Wittgenstein, Christianity and Witchcraft. Each volume is reassuringly thin which must make even the more daunting topics seem accessible even before one starts reading. The book on Cosmology is written by Professor of Theoretical Astrophysics at Cardiff University, Peter Coles. His previous works include textbooks on the subject as well as popular science books on both Einstein and Stephen Hawking. A Very Short Introduction to Cosmology ...
Most people probably won't have even heard of the European Citizens' Initiative (ECI), introduced on the 1st April last week. Hailed as the first transnational instrument of participatory democracy in world history, it allows members of the public to call ... Continue reading →
I am an evil, capitalist, unfair bastard of a landlord. At least, that's what my worry is. I try really hard to be honest, fair, and uncuntlike as possible. I never wanted to be a landlord, I wanted to be a lumberjack! but somehow I ended up as one. Let me roll back a few years to see how this sorry mess began... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ < to indicate wavy lines. January 2008 was a pretty stressful time for us. I'd just got a new job and was commuting a hellish distance, so Liz and I decided to move house. Rather foolishly, ...
Mon 9th
13:55Mary Ann Sieghart socks it to Quentin Letts for his "witheringly misogynistic" assault on Lynne Feat...
I try as hard as possible not to link to the Daily Mail — it's my small and admittedly token gesture not to encourage them. And Quentin Letts is the Mail at its most unpleasantly execrable, slavering to stick his pen-knife into anyone he cares to disdain, especially if they're female or have a funny accent or some other personal tic to pick on. Last week, he laid into Lib Dem equalities minister Lynne Featherstone. It was classic play-the-woman-I've-got-no-balls Letts: Though aged 60 (and counting), she teeters up to the Despatch Box in high heels, grinning girlishly at the Opposition ...
'When in a hole, stop digging', they say. Advice Reading Labour would do well to take, in withdrawing their dog-whistle 'one of us' leaflet in Church Ward, apologising in the process. But they haven't. Instead Labour candidate Tony Jones (someone who made some interesting comments about Labour during his two-year period as an independent councillor: more on that later) has republished an official party statement of the foaming-at-mouth kind. Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrat Voice website at has generated a more interesting debate. This is all about context, remember. The Labour leaflets in Battle ward (where their candidate is of ...
No Entry to Fault Reporting System Liberal Democrats have again criticised the Conservative administration at Herts County Council for their behaviour over the Highways Fault Reporting System. Liberal Democrat Leader Chris White said: 'This system is vital to the rickety highways repair system. Hertfordshire County Council has now become reliant on the public to be its eyes and ears – rather than having a proper inspection system to find faults. 'So it was the height of folly when they made the system much more complicated than it needed to be – by introducing a registration system and forcing people to ...
As we reported last month, Pauline Pearce - the 'Hackney Heroine' - standing as Lib Dem candidate in May's elections. And last week she explained to The Guardian exactly why she is standing for the party: "because I discovered their commitment to poor communities is genuine". Here's an excerpt from Pauline's article: I announced earlier this month that I am planning to stand for election as a Liberal Democrat councillor in Hackney, yet I'm still posed a common question by journalists and friends alike: why the Lib Dems? Following the riots, all the major political parties courted me. But when ...
Mon 9th
12:20
I might be a politician, but I'd like to work with #Occupy @democraciareal and I support a peaceful ...
I've had a revolution in my thinking over the last few months. My mind has fought to reconcile the key question of how can I be in the political system that I don't fully support? The conclusion I've made is not so support either side really. It's to say that I will carry on working within the "system" as it is, in the hope to change it from the inside-out. The hope mentioned here is not just a meek wish, it's an active, vocal and passioned fight. The other option, is to join a group, such as Occupy or ¡Democracia ...
We recently walked to the top of Carningli Mountain, a local peak with amazing views over the coastline and back across Newport. It's a moderately easy walk of about a mile from Newport, though steep in parts. The paths up are dotted with cairns and remains of ancient settlements, and there's a strong sense of history about the hill. There are some sheltered spots around the summit crag to escape from the wind, so a picnic surrounded by spectacular scenery is definitely a possibility. I stitched together a panoramic photo of the view for our Flickr account.
The BSFA Awards | penwing.site A description of the awful opening speech. (tags: sf bsfa sexandgenderandsexuality ) THE BSFA AWARDS' PRESENTATION | Welcome To My World A response from a BSFA person. (tags: sexandgenderandsexuality sexandgende sexa sexan bsfa sf ) Livetweeting the BSFA award ceremony (tags: sexandgenderandsexuality sf bsfa )
Thursday, 9th April, 1992 — the first election for the newly-formed Liberal Democrats, and the last election when the Tories won a parliamentary majority. Here's a video trip down memory lane... Andrew Marr on John Major's biggest popular mandate in electoral history Paddy Ashdown on the campaign trail Charles Kennedy and Don Foster interviewed on election night * Stephen Tall is Co-Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice, and also writes at his own site, The Collected Stephen Tall.
Bear with me on this one for a minute. Wouldn't you like to live in a world where the swivel-eyed loons of The Centre for Economics and Business Research were starved of the oxygen of publicity for their ignorant views? Where people who know the cost of everything but the value of nothing were pitied and asked to go and do something useful with their lives, instead of being promoted as the lead story on the BBC, on the radio and in newspapers? I know I would. And I have a cunning plan to make it so. We should abolish ...
The Lib Dems have again criticised the Conservative administration at Herts County Council for their behaviour over the highways fault reporting system. Lib Dem Leader Chris White said: 'This system is vital to the rickety highways repair system – the county council has become reliant on the public to be its eyes and ears rather than having a proper inspection system to find faults. 'So it was the height of folly when they made the system much more complicated than it needed to be – by introducing a registration system and forcing people to use maps to mark faults rather ...
It's Easter let's show the love with Christians, unless they are Gay Stephen writes a moving post about what it's like to be a gay Christian, and arrive at church on the most important festival day of your religion, to find a hoarding denigrating you. (tags: religion ) Captain Jack is living in my bathroom Sparrow, not Harkness (tags: pirates rum ) The Potter Blogger: The EU wants to make me a criminal More idiotic technology law stuff (tags: ) Dear 15 Year Old Me. I'm writing to tell you: It Got Better. This post made me cry (tags: ) ...
Bristol has proven very successful at tackling under occupancy of council homes and encouraging tenants to downsize, homesteading and community land trusts. They have found 1,000+ homes which had been standing empty and found people to move into them. To ensure they great traction with property owners and after exhaustive attempts to get empty properties back into use they use compulsory purchase orders. Big hammer but this is a really tough nut to crack. In East Dulwich we have several properties that we really need to get back into use – 73 Crystal Palace Road, 34 East Dulwich Road immediately ...
[IMG: 20120409-094544.jpg] All, The candidates have been declared for the District Council elections and, as always, it looks to be a tight race between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrat incumbent, Richard Cheney. If you've any doubt about that have a look at the graph above which shows Labour trailing in a poor third last year – a year in which they did well nationally. Now anyone who's been reading this blog over the past few years will know I'm a bit biased. I'm a former Lib Dem District Councillor*. Richard is one of my closest friends. Above all though, ...
Welcome to the latest of my monthly collections for the Engine Group of five links that you shouldn't miss. Why your infographic is evil http://rww.to/HCs01I Your infographic but not mine, obviously. Contains three helpful tips on how to exorcise the evil from yours. Disconnect: how to stop sites tracking your data http://tcrn.ch/H84wR9 Put together by ex-Google engineers, the Disconnect service blocks tracking by popular sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Google and YouTube. Step two is a plan to give users easy options to share select data as and when they wish. When algorithms play dumb: Google News has trouble with ...
I read with concern that the online activist organisation "Anonymous" have chosen to initiate a cannabis legalisation campaign on the very same weekend that the Guatemalan president, Otto Perez Molina, has made the most nuanced, sophisticated argument for reform to come from a head of state in my time as a drug policy reformer I am concerned because your unelected group of activists, while no doubt meaning well, do not present the same nuances, nor do you possess enough understanding, of the options for reform or the potential harms of the drug of which you speak. One of ...
I don't come from a background of politics. I didn't study it at A-level or University. I've never worked as an intern, for a think tank, or as a SPAD. I'm a software engineer by training, and I've worked in the private and charity sectors, in a factory, on a farm, but mostly in some ...
As a long term city dweller, I was always aware of the theory that you're always within so many feet of a rat (don't ask me how many, my memory isn't that good). However, you didn't see them very often, and you assumed that they weren't a problem as long as they stayed outside. In the countryside, where there's plenty of wholesome grain to eat, I did rather expect to see a few more. But, until now, I hadn't, so when our neighbour reported having seen a rat, I was rather more alert. Rat droppings on our woodpile were concrete ...
I am not sure what to make of this story in the Telegraph that a new 'app' is being developed for the Prime Minister's personal iPad tablet computer that will give him management data about his ministers' performance. The paper says that this new way of evaluating ministers' work-rate will give Mr Cameron hard evidence for when he comes to make his first reshuffle, expected later this year. They add that the personalised PM app for Mr Cameron's iPad has been under development for months by experts in the Cabinet Office. It had previously been billed as a way for ...
Over many months, I have sought improvements to the lighting on Balgay Hill and Park. I was pleased to be updated last week by the City Council as follows: "All the proposed works for this year have been completed. The new lanterns were installed on the replacement columns on 08/03/2012 and 09/03/2012, and have been illuminated since then. The existing lighting columns and lanterns which remain were repaired and some illuminated by 22/12/2011. The remainder were energised on 09/01/2012 after the cable fault was repaired. We had another cable fault on 12/03/2012, which took out a section of lighting within ...
Dundee Liberal Democrats today launch their local election manifesto - "Dundee's Bright Future" - for the Dundee City Council elections on 3rd May. The document has detailed policies for all areas of local authority responsibility - copy attached. Leading the Dundee Liberal Democrat team of 10 candidates - 2 more than in 2007 - I have pointed out that 2012 sees the largest Liberal Democrat local election campaign in Dundee in a generation. The more Liberal Democrat candidates, who are elected, the more we will be able to influence decisions of the Council and press for the adoption of our ...
My sleep patterns are all to cock again, so I was having a scout about on twitter. I saw a very brave post by James, with the hashtag #queerchat and clicked on the tag. Now, #queerchat is normally what it says, queer chat, generally with a specified topic. Today's specified topic was initially education, apparently, but it very quickly turned into a huge, worldide litany of the horrors that non-cis-het people go through at school, often not just bullying from other students but from teachers too. My reactions have been manyRage, horror and deep sorrow at what people went through ...
One Year! Thank you. I've had over 8,500 hits on this blog since setting it up. This is far beyond my wildest dreams, and I'd like to thank you, each and every one. It's incredibly kind of you, and I only hope I've managed to entertain and inform you this past year... and I'll make it ...
