Being middle class, I sometimes fall asleep with Radio 4 on. In the small hours the same wavelength is taken over by the BBC World Service and occasionally, when something particularly interesting is on, I wake up quite suddenly to hear it. This is interesting, in that there must be a part of my mind that is alert, listening to the radio and then deciding to wake me up. It happened last night, when Titanic - In Her Own Words was on: To mark the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, the BBC's Sean Coughlan narrates one of ...
After a brief Easter hiatus I'm back and no less grumpy about Nick Clegg's position on internet snooping proposals. Last week the party leadership claimed they were never really in favour of them and appear to accept the party's unanimous outrage that Clegg had allowed himself to be associated with them in the first place. Liberal England in another excellent post put it simply down to bad advice. However, if tonight's London Evening Standard is to believed Clegg, his advisers and indeed the entire Parliamentary party did not express any opposition to the plans when discussed. What convinces me that ...
The Reading Chronicle has the story here: Mark Ralph has always appeared to me to be a mainstream Conservative, and someone who I would not have classed as factional in any way. He was the first Conservative to win Peppard ward for some time, and it was his hard work that saw him re-elected and increase the Conservative majority there quite considerably. Now with Jamie Chowdhary deselected and standing as an Independent and Mark Ralph gone, the Peppard Ward contest looks very interesting. And what of Reading East Tories and the hapless MP who has been conspicuous by his ...
Following on from the resignation of one Tory councillor in Reading, a second has now quit too: Mark Ralph said he has quit the party because of its treatment of ousted Tory councillor Jamie Chowdhary by Reading East Conservative Association (RECA) and the attempts to terminate his own membership because he spoke out in support of his Peppard ward colleague... Cllr Ralph, who will stay on the council as an independent, also backed Mr Chowdhary's claims that he was targeted after his de-selection with allegations of homophobia in a bid to justify the move, discredit him publicly and to derail ...
Tue 10th
21:45
It's not as if the presenter on a TV news program needs to do anything other than look pretty and be...
Dear David Sexton, Thank you for letting me know that the new presented on the BBC breakfast show this morning "near-sleeveless" in a "short" dress that was also "tightly-fitted". "She's a bit of a wriggler" was handy to know, and I'm glad to have been warned that "you're aware of her bare arms all the time". But not so aware as to mean that you missed her being "naturally great-looking". Good of you also to let me know that she has mastered the look of "beatific happiness" and can also "nod sagely". Reassuring to know too that at times she ...
OK, so, since I jacked Facebook in, I have lost almost all my spotify f-list, so I can't nosey at other people's playlists, and this makes me sad. HOWEVER, apparently I can add people on spotify if I kno their spotify user name ithout having to do anything with evil facebook of evil. So does anyone here want to tell me their spotify user name? ETA: If anyone wants to spy on what I'm listening to, put spotify:user:miss_s_b into the search box and you should find me. [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Last Monday was a disaster given most of Southfield ward had none of their waste collected or a couple of items, leaving things to pile up. Promises given by Ealing Council have sadly not been honoured and residents trust no-one: the Council and the contractor's names smell worse than horse manure. Today many roads in Bedford Park and streets in Acton Green such as Antrobus Road and Rothschild Road have had only some of their waste collected. I called the most senior officer about this and a Labour councillor responsible for this area of Council activity. Neither could give me ...
I wasn't going to bother with this meme, until I realised that a lot of the foods I've tasted whilst travelling, and it might be nice to talk about the various experiences. This is specifically the UK list (although it does have a bunch of foods that I consider to be "American" as well). Huevos rancheros - on holiday in San Francisco last summer; I went to Boogaloo's in Valencia for brunch. We went to Humphry Slocombe afterwards for ice cream, too :)Steak tartare - I had this on a plane! It was one of the meal options on the ...
...that Julian Huppert and Cambridge Lib Dems have started around the #snooping proposals. Just click here. Takes 2 minutes. Thanks
Via YouTube, here's Nick Clegg putting the case for the Liberal Democrats:
If you feel benevolent and particularly generous, this writer always appreciates things bought for him from his wishlist
Tue 10th
19:55
If you want to see a 24 carat Government cock-up gradually unfurl before your very eyes...
... Then you could do worse than follow the quite absurd contortions the Coalition is currently executing as it attempts to defend its Charity Tax. The Charity Tax — if you haven't yet come across the term — caps the tax-relief available to the most generous philanthropists, with the very likely outcome that good causes are going to have less cash in the next year just as the public funding squeeze starts in earnest. It's a bit of an odd policy to adopt if you're a government supposedly committed to the 'Big Society' in which the third sector will be ...
I am nothing if not loyal, so here is the party's broadcast for next month's local elections.
Some of you will have read the previous post, and I think that most readers will have found something to either agree with as well to be offended by, and clearly such is the case of councillor Ian Driver I think very miffed indeed. I won't go into too much detail regarding our man of the people since I shall in all probability refer his comments to Thanet councils standards committee. Now if someone takes the effort to write a comment, I don't feel to happy to delete out of hand, what is said, also I don't go through with ...
Puzzled reader: How can such a prosaic name win this prestigious award? Liberal England replies: Because Professor Barker from Virginia Commonwealth University is the lead author of a study into the psychological benefits of having dogs in the workplace. It is published in the March issue of the International Journal of Workplace Health Management.
Boris, on his TV propaganda broadcast tonight, has promised to cut 'waste and freeing up £3.5 billion for services' from city hall. Why has he waited until now to do so? He's had 4 years to do this. £22 billion investment into public transport. Where is the money coming from for this and what for ...
The race for Mayor of London is hotting up. Boris is apparently 6 points ahead of Ken. Second votes will be crucial to the election obviously. So, how will people vote? Where are your priorities and interests? Transport is one of the key issues and Boris cannot answer questions clearly relating to his budget. He ...
Sent to me in an email to members from Jo Swinson with a fact I didn't know - that unlike the Tories and Labour, every Lib Dem run council in England has frozen Council Tax. Quite a claim. Slightly odd therefore that it doesn't appear in the video...
...who made my piece in The New Statesman, called 'The civil liberties fight isn't over', top of Todays '5 at 5' Must Reads
Why publicise one manifesto when you can publicise two? Given that Charles Kennedy once reportedly called the Liberal Democrats "not so much a broad church as a hexagonal cathedral", I can hardly, as a Liberal Democrat, go into an election period with only one manifesto. The first of my two is obviously that of Lib Dem London mayoral candidate Brian Paddick, who I think would make a much better mayor than would any of the other candidates - unsurprisingly, he gets my (first preference) vote. What then, is this second manifesto to which I refer? At this point, reader(s) will ...
Residents across Cornwall are still experiencing big problems with the new waste contract as I blogged last Thursday. In Launceston, our first major test comes tomorrow as that is the day when the majority of households have their first combined waste and recycling collection under the new scheme. Elsewhere the situation doesn't look too rosy. One colleague sent me the picture on the left of what happened when Cory piled a load of bags for collection and then forgot to collect them. When she tried to call the waste company the person who answered said he was too busy to ...
By the wonders of the interwebs I was chatting on Facebook with a friend from school I hadn't been in touch with for more than quarter of a century last night (that does make me feel old!). We had discovered via a Facebook alumni group that another of our number is an ex Royal Marines colonel and Special Boat Service chief and now "head of global security" at a private security and defence contractor and I made a comment about him maybe being a good person to have known when we finally reject coercive government and become a private law ...
Jo Grimond and Robert Oakeshott visited the Mondragon co-ops in the late 1970's and returned to write books about the lessons they had learned. Below is the first part of a documentary about the Co-ops that date from the same era.
Osborne discovers that rich people dodge their taxes, bears seen looking for a quiet tree In an interesting turn of events, following an instruction to HM Revenue & Customs, a review of a collection of anonymised personal tax returns reveals that the twenty biggest personal tax avoiders have reduced their liabilities by a pretty staggering £145 million (a prize to the first person to calculate the number of nurses/council houses/subsidised bus routes this would pay for). And whilst the notion of a 'tycoon tax' was derided by many, including some Liberal Democrats, as a bit of a gimmick when Nick ...
Firstly I'm not a fan of the idea of a Police and Crime commissioner as it blurs the lines between politics and the police. At the moment we have our laws made by the politicians. If the Police, working independently, feel one of those laws is broken, they can take the matter to Court. The Court will, independently, decide whether the law has been broken. In other words -You can't lose your
There's still time to get on the electoral register and so be able to vote in May's contests for the London Mayor and Assembly. To be able to vote in those elections you must: live in London be a British, Republic of Ireland, Commonwealth or EU citizen be 18 years or over on 3rd May 2012 For more information and the relevant form, visit How to register to vote. One thing to watch out for: although you can get the registration form and information online, the registration process isn't all online. So don't leave it until the last minute as ...
Academies are opening at an exponential rate. But there's nothing new under the sun, as the saying goes—we have been here before, if we would all but look. A useful lesson can be learned from the FE sector and begs the questions: how long before all our schools are classified as being in the private sector? And what should we as Liberal Democrats feel and do about that? Under the Further and Higher Education Act 1992 (which took effect in April 1993), colleges were "incorporated", ie they were given full financial independence, together with full powers to own assets, employ ...
Just came across this rather brilliant FOI request to The Home Office, asking for access to details of all Theresa Mays internet activity, in exact correlation with the reports on the information that would be available under the proposed snooping legislation. From: Matt Dodd 3 April 2012Dear Home Office, Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 I hereby request the following information from and regarding the Rt Hon Theresa May MP (Con), Secretary of State for the Home Department (the "Home Secretary"): 1) The projected cost to the taxpayer (calculated or estimated - whichever is available) of implementing the Government's ...
At the start of 2012, I revealed how many scans TfL's QR campaign was getting. [IMG: TfL QR Detail] A lot of comments on Twitter & Google+ dismissed these results as a success. A typical response was: 70 scans a day? In a city of millions? Rubbish! This fails to address something that advertisers are conspicuously loathe to reveal – the true "response rate" of any advert is hard to calculate. How many phone calls, visits to a website, or SMS interactions are directly attributable to a regular poster? No one really knows – or, if they know, they're not ...
Today I looked through my old diary to check a date of something. Instead of just finding the date that I was looking for (which I was about two months out on) I scan-read some of my old stuff. The old style of writing I had and I could see the development both of my style and latterly my outlook on life and how I perceive myself. Looking at what I used to say both about myself and my outlook say when I was at university it is a different person to the one sitting here writing this. The difference ...
A while ago I blogged about the prospects for the new archive and records office for Cornwall and suggested that North and East Cornwall need not apply. Well 36 applications were made, including excellent bids from the East. But the shortlist excludes these and has taken forward two bids from West Cornwall and one from mid-Cornwall - Hayle, Redruth and St Austell. I asked a council officer about how people from North Cornwall would be able to use a centre in Hayle and was told "Hayle has a railway station, go by train." It seems that this officer had failed ...
When Brian Paddick speaks about policing you should listen up as his experience is rarely bettered. Ealing specifically and many other places in London had the worst riots for a generation last summer. A vote for Brian Paddick and the Liberal Democrats this May will send a powerful message that Londoners have had enough of high levels of crime and poor community relations with the police. It's time for the police and public to stand side-by-side together against the criminals. As Mayor, Brian Paddick will also take up the office of Police and Crime Commissioner for London, instead of delegating ...
We have been informed this morning that United Utilities are doing work on Schools Hill this week to fix a collapsed sewer. The work is scheduled to be completed by the end of the week, with the aim of doing it without the school traffic causing a problem. There will be no need to turn off anyone's water supply as part of this work. It is possible that residents will see discoloured water at points during the work. This will NOT be due to any mix of clean water with waste water. It can happen when roadworks cause the clean ...
The Lib Dems have secured bigger bins, which will be installed by the skate ramp on Gatley Rec where the bins frequently fill up. The area around the skateboard ramps are notorious for getting littered. Whilst we can't force everyone to use the bins, this will hopefully encourage more people to do so. The new bins in the childrens play area on the Rec Ground also seem to be working well, and certainly look a lot neater than the old ones which were getting well past their best. The path was recently relaid through Gatley Rec (and the Lib Dems ...
The Hoo branch line at Stoke Crossing First we had the Bus station, then the debacle of moving gas works at Medway Park so there could be a straight entrance, Woodlands school bail out, uncancelled Photocopier fees and now £1.2 million over spend on the Stoke Crossing to the Isle of Grain. Firstly, I don't deny the importance of the crossing. After all the Island has but one way on and off - A fact highlighted by campaigners in Grain Village over health and safety concerns linked to the proximity of the liquid Gas facility. After all if the road ...
There can be no doubt where Southport MP John Pugh stands on Theresa May's attempt to widen the Internet snooping powers of government. He was one of the signatures of the letter published in the Guardian and Independent last week which began: Letters Liberal Democrat MPs stand up for data privacy Liberal Democrats have a proud history of defending civil liberties, both in opposition and more recently in a coalition government. We successfully opposed the Labour government's undermining of data privacy in 2009, and since taking office in 2010 we have turned back the tide of Labour's erosion of these ...
Launched this morning by Brian Paddick and Caroline Pidgeon, here is the Liberal Democrat manifesto for the May 2012 London elections. You can also read the manifesto online at www.brianpaddick.com/manifesto and sign-up to help the campaign at www.brianpaddick.com/Support. For some of the first coverage of the launch see: London mayor election: Brian Paddick 'to create youth hubs (BBC) Brian Paddick wants banks and hotels to pay for London youth clubs (Metro) Liberal Democrat London 2012 Manifesto
Apparently so... We've all experienced a certain amount of anti Libdem feeling (be it on the doorstep, in the form of comments or on Twitter) since the formation of the Coalition and not all of them have been warranted. Thursday, though I went up to the Mess room for the first time in a long while and got into a lively debate about politics with a couple of colleagues. I should be clear that they started it. Both formerly voted Libdem in 2010 one had voted Tory in the past and the other Labour but is ardently anti Conservative - ...
As a campaigner with a strong interest in the European Elections, I am really happy to see a number of counties moving towards selection of a Liberal Democrat candidate for the Police Commissioner elections in November. This is because in the European Elections an important message for Liberal Democrats is that we are effective on crime. Crime crosses state borders within Europe. We need co-operation and integration to ensure that our police's powers to bring criminals to justice, the rule of law, and important civil liberties cross borders too. The other parties won't make the commitment that we will to ...
Burning the candle at both ends, combined with a manic Easter weekend at work, has resulted in a mild cold. My running has been going really well over the last 6 weeks. I've finally managed to strike that long-looked-for balance, where I am gradually increasing the number and distance of my runs, without getting over excited, doing too much, and ending up a broken injured mess. I've gradually worked my way up to just under 35k last week and had planned to run just under 40k this week. However, what do I do about my cold? Do I run or ...
The Guardian goes to Eastercon Brilliant piece. (tags: sf ) A World Map of Heavy Metal Density Scandinavia, obviously; but some surprising outposts elsewhere. (tags: maps ) Making Light: The Cuff Link Museum A sad story from New Hampshire. (tags: usa ) Lakes and Oceans xkcd on depth. (tags: maps )
I'm listening to BBC Radio 4's Public Philosopher. Today's topic is "Should a banker be paid more than a nurse?" I think the answer is "no". Banking services, though, are scalable, so individuals can get rich (and throughout, here, I mean filthy rich) providing those services. The next few paragraphs explain. The BBC programme is an exploration of the moral arguments. The explanations of the
I am somewhat saddened to see the reaction if US authorities to someone having a mental health issue is to charge them with a criminal offence. Saddened, but not surprised because that seems to be the way mental health issues are handled in the US. Luckily, the Judge has at least asked for a report into his mental health to see if he's fit to stand trial, but it's not looking good. What is the point of the criminal justice system after all? Firstly, it is a deterrent. If people know or fear they will be caught and punished, it ...
With the Lords having packed in so/too (delete as appropriate) much business before the Easter recess, the Commons will return a week earlier than their ermine-clad colleagues, so this is a shorter than usual report. Ironically, the biggest event of the week will not take place in the Chamber, or even in the Committee corridors. It is, of course, the publication of the much-leaked report of the Joint Committee on the draft House of Lords Reform Bill. I don't expect it to be particularly satisfactory to anyone, if the leaks are to be believed, but we are hoping to have ...
It's a bit of a strong claim to make that Polly wants to enslave us all, but actually that's how I felt this morning when I read this ridiculous piece about how our tax and financial arrangements should be public and open for scrutiny to all. It's bonkers and would enslave us to the petty mindedness of humanity. First, when I was a child there were several topics of conversation that I was taught are never polite, religion, sex, politics and money. Of corse I break the politics one on a regular basis, but the money one is a cardinal ...
Tue 10th
10:05National Theatre boss says Jeremy Hunt blindsided by Coalition 'Charity Tax' #giveitbackgeorge
So says The Guardian today: The culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, was blindsided by Treasury plans to restrict tax relief for philanthropists, the National Theatre's artistic director, Sir Nicholas Hytner, has claimed. Hytner is one of a number of figures from the arts and charities campaigning for the government to think through the impact of its changes to tax relief in the budget. The chancellor, George Osborne, announced that anyone seeking to claim more than £50,000 of tax relief in one year would be subject to a cap at 25% of their income. Hytner, speaking on the BBC, said the budget ...
Fairy tales: The Anti-Grimm | The Economist Sexism in Grimm compared ith another, more enlightened collector of folk stories from the same country and time. (tags: ) Well, it is jubilee year... Queen's 'Greatest Hits' is Britain's best-selling album of past half-century - News - Music - The Independent I've got 15 of these, and there's a couple more I mean to get around to buying at some point. (tags: music ) BBC News - Saudi princess: What I'd change about my country (tags: ) The Next Time Someone Says the Internet Killed Reading Books, Show Them This Chart - ...
Tue 10th
09:46
Now people don't even want to stand for the Lib Dems in elections! What we need to do to reverse thi...
How many signs do we need that things aren't right? With reports for the second year in a row of a reduction in the number of candidates standing for the Lib Dems as local councillors we have another piece of information which is perhaps more worrying than the reduction in poll ratings. So perhaps we ...
How many people are fortunate not to have become homeless due to the generosity of others? I am sure that it is many thousands. I know, from experience, what it is like to be in a city with nowhere to stay. Fortunately, I was helped by many that I had come to know in my ...
Here are the Liberal Democrat entries in the top 100 political blogs as ranked by EBuzzing (Wikio as was). Congratulations to the two Liberal Democrat Parliamentarians Andrew George and Eric Avebury who joined the list this month. Also new this month, returning after dropping out last time, is Spiderplant Land (Lisa Harding) and A View from Ham Common (Richard Morris) and the final returnee is Alex Folkes. 1 (10) Liberal Democrat Voice Up 2 2 (19) Mark Pack Up 8 3 (34) Caron's Musings Down 11 4 (54) Mark Thompson Up 25 5 (55) Liberal England Down 2 6 (63) ...
Okay everyone makes mistakes – but at least check the heading before posting to a website, especially when that appears to be directly linked to Twitter. Minster must implement measures to reduce cost of school uniforms – Crowe bit.ly/Hti5kj— Sinn Féin (@sinnfeinireland) April 09, 2012 What is, of course, more amusing is that it is ...
I've previously blogged about Conservative MP Ian Liddell-Grainger's decision to publish personal data about someone without their consent and despite them warning him about his behaviour: The origin of the dispute rests with butterflies, with the MP having taken great exception to a local pro-butterfly organisation seeking public money. Christopher Foster emailed the MP to disagree, making a few pungent comments of his own. The MP responded by publishing Mr Foster's email in full, including his personal email address. Given that under data protection law people's email addresses are personal data, for an MP to publish without consent someone's contact ...
Why The Mayoral Referendum MattersI recall a magazine headline prior to the tightly contested 2000 US Presidential election: it read: 'Bush and Gore - Too Close To Care'. The implication, of course, was that the two men's policies were so similar that it mattered not which was elected. We now know better. I was reminded of this headline recently when a friend likened Birmingham's forthcoming
Today, I was checking the expo page, just to make sure there wasn't some insignificant detail that I'd overlooked the first 100 times I read it and I saw the countdown clock, which, at the time said 12 days, 17 hours. And OMG, my stomach decided to start flipping itself into knots. I cannot believe that in 12 days and a few hours, I'll be lining up at the start line of a MARATHON! Because, even though I know I've put in the training and everyone says to trust the training and I do know I can do this, it ...
The BBC reports the shocking revelation that the UK government approved the 2004 rendition of a terror suspect to the Gaddafi regime. They say that a letter from senior MI6 officer, Sir Mark Allen, to Col Gaddafi's intelligence chief, Musa Kusa, was found last year in the rubble of Musa Kusa's headquarters, which were bombed by Nato: As well as congratulating the Libyans on the arrival of the "cargo", it points out that "the intelligence was British". The letter was sent in 2004 when Mr Belhaj was the leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group. MI5 believed the group was ...
I have today launched my April 2012 Update to West End Community Council. Subjects covered include : • Riverside Pitches • Magdalen Green • Tennis Courts at Victoria Park • Safety Barrier at Tesco on Hawkhill You can download the update at http://tinyurl.com/weccapril2012. The Community Council meets tonight at 7pm at Logie St John's (Cross) Church Hall. All residents very welcome.
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The metal gulleys which cross the pavement in various places have now been inspected and Herts Highways agree that some need replacing and others need securing to stop them being a hazard. They promise that the work will be done soon.
In which I write the essay on The Three Doctors that I wanted to include in Sci-Ence! Justice Leak! but couldn't get written for it. Tagged: me elsewhere
Last week the Information Tribunal published the full reasons as to why it is upholding the ruling of the Information Commissioner that the Department of Health should release the TRR (Transitional Risk Register) relating to the NHS reforms in the Health and Social Care Bill. There is a lot of talk about safe space in ...
