The comment below went into spam on this blog, and on my blackberry, it's easier to deal with it as a new comment than it is to - anyway. You'll see that this gentleman is on to me. I do, apparently, "fool nobody!!". And I came so close...I'm loading everything on to the plane in the hope of making a quick getaway. Sigh. Apparently, I last year put my name to a vote against a Palestinian state. This might mean that I am now the UK's UN Ambassador, and voted (in absentia, having forgotten that I hold the job) against ...
A further attempt is being made to demolish the (now derelict) property at 198 Burscough Street and replace it by student accommodation. The plans can be viewed on the West Lancashire Borough Council's website (or at the council offices) by ... Continue reading →
This year's Council elections are nearly on us and in Acocks Green there are 8 candidates, which is a record for recent single seat elections here. In reality there are only two candidates with a realistic chance of winning; myself and the Labour candidate. I would be very surprised if any of the other candidates won much more than 10% of the vote, let alone challenged for first place. Here are five key reasons why I'm asking residents to support me: 1) You deserve a Councillor who works for you all year round, rather than just popping up before an ...
I was incredibly surprised and very honoured to receive the VBA today. I hadn't expected it at all and this makes me very proud... I have grown to love writing over time and I even manage to write articles without being incensed! It has enabled me to vent my frustration on topics, share my opinions ... Read more
...that saw the 1997 Blair landslide. It was a campaign that largely passed me by - because I was in the thick of the campaign that led to the Lib Dems most spectacular gain of the night: Edward Davey's overturning of a 15,000 Tory majority to win by just 56 after three recounts. It was the only gain in a seat not targeted by HQ and therefore was largely off the media's radar. In fact the only mention on the BBC election night coverage is a gold bar across the then Political Editor, Robin Oakley's, torso at around 8.20 in ...
[IMG: Caroline and Dawn at Finsbury Park] With the W3 being the most complained about bus service in the whole of London it was easy to persuade our London Assembly candidates to help out with a survey of W3 bus users last week. Lynne Featherstone and I have been pressing Transport for London to sort out the problems on the bus route – which all started when a new operator took over. They've promised us that the long waits and irregular service have been sorted – but we wanted to check if this was really the case by surveying the ...
On Sunday I blogged about the Silver City Airways service from Lydd to Le Touquet. Thanks to Colin W on Twitter for putting me on to this video. It shows that flight, followed by footage of motoring through France and Italy. The description on YouTube promises a cameo by Tony Hart, and that does indeed appear to be him at 4:54.
In November 2006 I blogged about an article the Liberal Democrat shadow home secretary had written, using the title: "Nick Clegg: Why we need a Freedom Bill". Today it became law. A press release from Great George Street tells me: A landmark move to roll back Labour's surveillance state has today become law. The Protection of Freedoms Act will: stop councils snooping end the storage of DNA of innocent people reduce the bureaucracy of CRB checks end 28-day detention stop schools deciding on their own to take fingerprints of children make stalking a criminal offence end wheel clamping on private ...
Tomorrow sees the eve of poll and marks the last day of the life of this current council administration. The last five years has been a roller-coaster. The local political agenda has been dominated by trams and by a lack of cash. I have spent the last five years as the Chair of the Health Social Care and Housing Committee and also of the Edinburgh Community Safety Partnership. In that time we have seen major improvements in a a number of key areas. In Social Care we have had massive demographic pressures and yet we have still managed to radically ...
Tue 1st
21:20
The Oxford Ukip candidate who says people who 'choose' to be gay should stop 'complaining about pers...
Sadly I don't have the pleasure of standing against Ukip candidate Dr Julia Gasper — who has said people who 'choose' to be gay should stop 'complaining about persecution' — in the elections to Oxford City Council this Thursday. That honour falls to my Lib Dem colleague, Roz Smith, who's standing for near-by Quarry & Risinghurst. Without apparent irony, Dr Gasper has followed up her advice to gays to stop complaining about being persecuted with a complaint that she is being persecuted, likening her plight to Salman Rushdie's. To be clear, if people have made anonymous death threats against Dr ...
The Labour Party in Nottingham does not want the city to have a directly elected mayor. As part of their campaign in this week's referendum they issued a leaflet that begins: The racist BNP & EDL want a £1M Extra Mayor. That's the only way they can win in Nottingham...It features the BNP and EDL logos prominently, but does not mention the Labour Party at all. Lord Astor (David Cameron's father-in-law) does not want the House of Lords to be reformed. In a speech in the Lords today he said: "In fact Ukip could have more peers than the Lib ...
Table Tennis hits Consett Middle Street on May 11th from 10.00 till noon. It's part of Durham County Council's Olympic legacy 'Join in...' campaign which aims to raise participation levels in sport and exercise across the county. The event will be supported by volunteers from local table tennis clubs including Lanchester Table Tennis Club as well as Durham County Leisure staff. We'd better hope that Consett doesn't live up to its "Windy City" nickname next Friday. Personally I'm looking forward to a game in sunny windless conditions!
It's exactly 15 years ago today that Tony Blair led New Labour to a landslide general election victory over John Major's Tories, and Paddy Ashdown saw the Lib Dems secure the largest third party representation in the House of Commons since 1929. Here are three videos to remind you of a quite extraordinary night... The exit poll predicts Labour's landslide That Portillo moment David Dimbleby recaps the night * Stephen Tall is Co-Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice, and also writes at his own site, The Collected Stephen Tall.
Tue 1st
20:25Think Lib Dems are unpopular today? Here's what the Election Night Armistice thought of us back in 1...
I suggested earlier today — in my post comparing 'Brand Clegg' against Brand Miliband' — that the Lib Dems had 'got used over the decades to being happily tolerated, and usually liked to one degree or another, by most people'. I had clearly forgotten this clip from the scorchingly good Election Night Armistice of 1st May, 1997, exactly 15 years ago: Vote Liberal Democrat, Get Trained Killers Posts Related to Think Lib Dems are unpopular today? Here's what the Election Night Armistice thought of us back in 1997...'Brand Clegg' continues to out-poll 'Brand Miliband': what it means for the Lib ...
I am very grateful to Richard Morris for bringing to my attention this new -made for charity-episode of the West Wing. I have been acting on the Presidents new initiative for some weeks now. There are many West Wing aficionados in this town -some have even adopted the names of the characters. So for Ainsley, Josh and Donna Walk & Talk - The West Wing Reunion from Martin Sheen
A Third Doctor audio story featuring Caroline John as Liz Shaw, with, unusually, two guest actors (Joe Coen and Kyle Redmond-Jones) playing UNIT troops brought in to help her penetrate the mysteries of an alien computer, leading her to quite an interesting and well-played ethical dilemma at the end. A one-idea piece but the idea is a good one and Caroline John is in command of her material. Written by Eddie Robson.
The team have been campaigning on Hawley Wharf for many years, working alongside the local community. As local residents will know the plans put forward by the developers were thrown out at a planning committee meeting in March. There was some concern that the decision by the planning committee would be overturned by the Greater ...
It's always good to see a solid work of space opera with, y'know, actual spaceships on the Hugo shortlist, and Leviathan Wakes scratches that itch this year. It's a jolly good tale of political intrigue in the asteroid belt, with the two main characters an over-honest spaceship captain and a burntout detective from Ceres, getting involved in a complex plot of Big Business and alien biology causing interplanetary war. Not exactly groundbreaking but very good of its type.
I see that I've written both good and bad reviews of David Llewellyn's books; this Tenth Doctor novel has both good and bad elements. On the positive side, it's got some interesting political points to make about society and propaganda and media, and conformity vs imdividualism. On the negative side, there are some very old-fashioned gender stereotypes among the human characters, the Sontarans and even more the Rutans are taken in a direction that isn't awfully consistent with what else we know about them, and the physics of locating a human colony on the surface of the planet Saturn may ...
God bless William Russell (real name Russell Enoch), who will turn 88 this year and is still doing well off a TV show he appeared in almost fifty years ago. Big Finish have served him up a testing Richard Dimmick script where he has to play not only Ian Chesterton but also every other character bar one, in a tale of alien intrusion into a Russian village in the early 1900s. The local старец is played very convincingly by Tim Chipping, of whom I had not otherwise heard, and though I worked out his identity as soon as the character ...
The High Court has ruled that the file-sharing website the Pirate Bay must be blocked by five major internet service providers (ISPs) - effectively censoring it from the internet for all of their customers. The motive behind the ruling is to crack down on the illegal file sharing that Pirate Bay makes possible. To put it in layman's terms, someone uploads a file (it can be anything, legal or illegal) and then they create a "torrent" which is a tiny file which, once downloaded, lets people download the original file. And anyone who's downloaded the file also uploads little bits ...
The Tory-run Harborough District Council performed a rapid U-turn last night and threw out plans to lease Market Harborough Market Hall to a national retailer. The Liberal Democrat members on the council had consistently opposed those plans. I welcome this news. When I was a councillor back in the 1980s and voted to redevelop the town's old cattle market, the provision of an improved market hall was an important part of those plans. I welcome large retailers coming to the town, its attraction to shoppers lies precisely in the balance if offers between national chains and individual retailers. Putting the ...
Today the Scotland Bill gets Royal Assent. The biggest transfer of powers to Scotland for 300 years (all right then, 295) it's been called by some. A stepping stone by others. Michael Moore has made it clear all the way along that this Bill, based on the proposals which came out of the Calman Commission, was not the end result, but that further devolution would follow in the future. This is what he had to say when I interviewed him for Lib Dem Voice last year: Our approach and thinking towards devolution doesn't end with the Scotland Bill. We want ...
The Commons Commission is making moves to curb the drinking culture at Westminster following Eric Joyce's conviction (and lenient sentencing) for punching and headbutting other MPs and their guests in Strangers' Bar. According to the Independent: Commons staff are being ordered to top up MPs' glasses less frequently amid concerns over the drinking culture at Westminster. They will also receive training on how to refuse to serve drunken customers, and opening hours of bars on the estate could also be curtailed.James Kirkup has the new policy in full. The Commons Commission is chaired by the Speaker, John Bercow. An alternative ...
The High Court has apparently ordered most British ISPs to block access to the Pirate Bay, a website which allegedly hosts copyright-infringing material, as of later this month. They've been ordered to do this by blacklisting it on their DNS servers, so the name won't resolve to its IP address. The problem is, this is ...
Cambridgeshire County Council is organising a Cyclist's Breakfast on the 8th May between 7:30 and 8:30am on the village green to celebrate the completion of the Cottenham to Histon Cycle Route. Cyclists will enjoy free refreshments and there is a free bike check-up on offer from Stations Cycles. The poster is below;
The BBC reports: The BNP candidate standing for elected mayor of Liverpool has been arrested by Merseyside Police. Mike Whitby has been detained following an allegation that nomination forms for the mayoral elections had been fraudulently filled in... The complaint was made to Merseyside Police following an investigation by the Liverpool Echo. * Mark Pack is Co-Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and writes a monthly newsletter about the Liberal Democrats.
"Cameron started his premiership by placing great emphasis upon adherence to the Ministerial Code as a mechanism to deliver higher standards of behaviour in Government. His refusal to refer the Hunt case to Alex Allan to investigate whether the Code has been breached looks hypocritical." Alex's Archives ponders the latest development in the case of Jeremy Hunt. John Pugh, Lib Dem MP for Southport, calls for Vince Cable to be made Chancellor on PoliticsHome. Fleet Street Fox writes on the inexorable rise in the cost of the Olympics: "None of this was mentioned in 2005. Then it was all property ...
How totally wonderful. h/t to @politico
On Thursday next 10 English cities are forced by the central government to run referendums on whether or not to have a directly elected mayor who will wield (very limited) executive authority over the city. This is the latest of a series of measures designed to put a bit more vigour into our democracy without actual changing anything, such as Harold Wilson's decision to extend polling hours from 9pm to 10 pm in the evening in the hope of increasing the Labour turnout, putting polling booths into supermarkets, and the highly damaging extension of the postal vote to anyone who ...
The new planning framework promises that communities with their own local plans, setting out local pirorities, will inherit the eart. We'' see how that happsn in practice, but the good news is that reallygood local plans are beginning to emerge:
Today the Protection of Freedoms Bill became an Act: a landmark for the campaign to roll back Labour's surveillance state. Liberal Democrats have long campaigned for this piece of legislation, proposing a "Freedom Bill" more than five years ago when Nick Clegg was the party's Home Affairs Spokesman. The Act will protect millions of people from unwarranted state intrusion in their private lives, building on some of the things we've already achieved like the ending of ID cards and the destruction of the National Identity Register. I just want to highlight a couple of things that will now happen. Firstly, ...
We pick up from where we left off earlier... Onwards into the night, the Lords raged in their own, uniquely genteel, way. Whilst with his usual radical enthusiasm, Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon, put his finger on the problem with the current composition of the House of Lords; We are the creatures of patronage. There are only two ways to get into this place. One is because you are a friend of the Prime Minister, or at least he does not object to you, and the other is because your great-grandmother slept with the king. Conservatives and Crossbenchers, Bishops and Labour ...
We recently heard that with very little public consultation Labour Camden Council has voted to overturn the current arrangements for door to door recycling. At the moment residents separate their recycling broadly paper in one box or bag and glass, plastic, tin in another. This has always been proven as the most effective way of ...
At the start of 2012, Kent brought its birth and death registration service together into the Library service. Registrations of births and deaths are now handled through Libraries and Gateways by multi-skilled staff. In every venue, a dedicated area for registration is set aside (you will not be asked to register in a public area, but in a separate room or (decreasingly) a screened-off area. However, press coverage for the new system was terrible for the first few weeks of the new service - and quite rightly. Kent aim for a target of registering deaths within 5 days - and ...
This morning I was invited by Ealing Council to go to a MRF (Materials Recovery Facility) in Kent. This is where some of Ealing's waste is being sorted. After all of the bad press Ealing Council has had it made sense to try to get a positive spin on the tonnes of waste that Ealing Council gets recycled. One of the points raised was that recyclable items such as plastics and paper were being landfilled. Due to issues with the new contractor in the short term some roads are having their green boxes and plastics all dumped together - which ...
At work, so this is just a copy and paste of the press release, but it's good stuff:A landmark move to roll back Labour's surveillance state has today become law. The Protection of Freedoms Act will: · stop councils snooping · end the storage of DNA of innocent people · reduce the bureaucracy of CRB checks · end 28-day detention · stop schools deciding on their own to take fingerprints of children · Make stalking a criminal offence · End wheel clamping on private land · Delete historical convictions for men who have had consensual gay sex with someone who ...
Cllr Belinda Brooks-Gordon (LD, Castle) Cambridgeshire County Councillor, Belinda Brooks-Gordon is fighting to decriminalise prostitution because evidence shows it could solve problems in Cambridge's red light areas. She says a study in Liverpool, which would designate zones in cities to allow two or three women to work together for safety and treat violence against sex workers as a hate crime, could work in areas such as Cambridge's Histon Road. Sex workers could have hotlines direct to the police and they could work in partnership to combat sex trafficking, she said. Cllr Brooks-Gordon, a member of the national Liberal Democrat working ...
Today's Telegraph reports that not one US citizen has been extradited to Britain as a result of crimes said to have been committed in America since a controversial transatlantic treaty came into force. According to the Home Office: "From the information available, between January 2004 and 30 March 2012, there have been seven known US citizens extradited from the US to the UK. Of those seven, none have been identified as crimes which were committed whilst the person was in the US." This shocking state of affairs comes about due to legislation, which I believe that the Liberal Democrats were ...
EDIT – Please read this first, visitors from kindakinks.net For those of you who don't know me, one of the many things I do is write critical essays, analysing the music of various bands, track-by-track. I post these essays to this blog, and then revise them and turn them into books, both paper and ebooks, ...
People are struggling to cope with rising food, fuel and mortgage bills and the politicians in Government fighting their corner are the Liberal Democrats. It's largely thanks to them that there have been a some tax policies to help low and middle income earners who need as much help as they can get at the moment with the rising cost of living. The Liberal Democrats achieved one of their main objectives in the budget which was to help the less well off. As a result the Government has raised the tax threshold and cut taxes for low and middle earners ...
When I was elected to the Liberal Democrat delegation to the Council of the European Liberal Democrats (ELDR), adventure was not necessarily high amongst my expectations, and trips to Dresden and Palermo last year were, whilst very nice, not particularly off the beaten path. And so, when it was announced that the Spring Council meeting would take place in Yerevan, I have to admit to an awakening of my passion for obscure routes and means of transport. So, why Yerevan, and what will be happening at the end of next week? Sunday sees Parliamentary elections in Armenia, and this, combined ...
The very idea of rubbish being thrown away should be a thing of the past. A great city like London cannot afford to waste its waste. We must set a long term goal of a 'closed loop' approach, whereby use of materials is reduced, re-used where possible and recycled for further use. Working with the boroughs and the London Waste and Recycling Board, we will: Set tough targets for reducing the amount of waste produced by individuals and businesses in the capital and for reuse and recycling by boroughs and disposal authorities.Introduce food waste collections in every borough as a ...
Tue 1st
12:53
Prominent Labour activist Julian Ware-Lane hopes Southend-on-Sea Council stays Conservative on May 3
Yesterday I browsed a Labour blog. There was a piece about the Liberal Democrats entitled Convenient whipping boys or villains? and I read the piece and sometimes I do wonder if people actually believe the bullshit that pours out of their mouths (or in this case through the fingers of their keyboard). The blog belongs to arguably the most noted activist for any party within Southend-on-Sea. A man who could very well win a Council seat on Thursday night. A man who everyone tells me is a pretty nice bloke and not many actually have a bad word to say ...
A friend of mine (obviously not me) wanted to go to Weight Watchers (or is it WeightWatchers? Seems to be both on the company's website) this lunchtime. My friend (who, again, is very clearly not me, but is someone else entirely) wanted to go to a meeting in central London, the West End, and so rang 08457 123 000, only to be connected to a call centre in South Africa. The nice woman in South Africa seemed to be unfamiliar with the concept of a meeting at lunchtime today in central London/the West End, with her first suggestion being that ...
John Pugh's article over on Political Home has attracted much attention including a spot poll in the Huffington Post on whether Vince Cable should replace Osborne (almost 90% agree as off 12.20pm today). Much of the coverage has concentrated on reshuffling the cabinet to to make Vince Chancellor. My good friend Simon Holbrook from the Wirral wrote a piece for Lib Dem Voice advocating the same move. Nevertheless I think that the more significant point John made was on the impact on the Quad. Many Lib Dem's have been very anxious about the dysfunctional of the QUAD (Cameron, Osborne, Clegg ...
A poll out yesterday showed that action to address high energy bills is now the top priority for voters, so Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey has a political interest in new research on the True Cost of Energy published by IPPR. The report argues that competition in the energy market is not working and that some consumers are paying higher prices as a result. IPPR has analysed how much it costs energy companies to supply electricity and gas to UK consumers, finding strong evidence that competition in the market is not in good health. The UK energy market ...
Last week, I posted this tounge-in-cheek suggestion. Prediction*: iPhone5 & Samsung Galaxy S 3 to have IDENTICAL hardware. Battle of the OS / ecosystems!*Well, wishful thinking! [IMG: flattr this!]
Government reforms, providing greater protection for Cambridge holidaymakers booking overseas holidays, have been welcomed by city MP, Julian Huppert. The changes to the Air Travel Organisers Licensing (ATOL) scheme, which at present covers only package holidays, will extend it to cover 'flight plus' holidays sold by a tour operator or travel agent. This means that when holidaymakers book a flight and other key elements such as hotel accommodation or car hire within two consecutive days of each other, they will be offered the same ATOL protection. Further reforms to the ATOL scheme, to possibly include holidays sold by airlines, are ...
Government reforms, providing greater protection for Cambridge holidaymakers booking overseas holidays, have been welcomed by city MP, Julian Huppert. The changes to the Air Travel Organisers Licensing (ATOL) scheme, which at present covers only package holidays, will extend it to cover 'flight plus' holidays sold by a tour operator or travel agent. This means that when holidaymakers book a flight and other key elements such as hotel accommodation or car hire within two consecutive days of each other, they will be offered the same ATOL protection. Further reforms to the ATOL scheme, to possibly include holidays sold by airlines, are ...
In addition to the London Mayoral election, there are two elections for directly-elected mayors and ten referendums on the creation of elected mayors taking place on May 3rd. Here is ALDC's brief summary of the results. Place names remain italicised whilst the result is unknown to confirm that we are still awaiting information. Mayoral Elections:   Mayoral Referendums:  
Hello. Yes, it's been a while, hasn't it? But the arrival of May heralds the Coming of the Contest and Twitter just isn't up to the task of telling all I have to tell about this year's Eurovision. My pre-show pontificating is divided into three posts: one for each semi-final (of which, you will correctly surmise, there are two) and one for the final. On your behalf, I've endured all of this year's songs and compiled some brief thoughts. I've linked the country name to the song's video on the official Eurovision YouTube channel to make it as easy as ...
Archaeologists and a story teller are to welcome people to Stonea Camp hill fort, near Wimblington to help bring the story of Fenland and Cambridgeshire to life. The site, which is scheduled as being of national importance, was the scene of much activity in the Iron Age and Roman periods. Now people can come and see and hear for themselves for free the story of the site at a special event, including a walk and storytelling, at the hill fort on Wednesday 9 May. The fort formed part of the frontier of the Iceni tribe of Norfolk, who twice rose ...
Why e-books will soon be obsolete (and no, it's not just because of DRM) | Gyrovague Provocative piece which I think underestimates the ability of ebooks to adapt and overestimates the power of us in smaller markets to affect corporate behaviour. But I may be wrong. (tags: ebooks e-books ) Paper Knife: The Shortlist Project A comparative and thorough look at the Clarke shortlist. (tags: sf ) The A/B Test: Inside the Technology That's Changing the Rules of Business | Epicenter | Wired.com Fascinating piece on data and marketing. (tags: psychology ) "I Wanted to Predict Elections with Twitter and ...
A fortnight ago I was in Strasbourg where I was lucky enough to speak to two Liberal Democrat MEPs from farming backgrounds about their work to reform the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Phil Bennion, Liberal Democrat MEP for the West Midlands, explained to me how the CAP, which has two pillars of funds, works. "Pillar one is common to every country in the European Union, pillar two is devolved and co-funded by member states. In the UK we spend 80% of our pillar two money on environmental schemes, while other countries spend theirs on things like cooperative marketing, cooperative ...
[IMG: Royal British Legion ] The Royal British Legion was formed some 91 years ago. The Sandgate branch was formed 75 years ago and is one of the oldest branches in the country. The branch meets on the second Monday of each month at the Sgts Mess, Shorncliffe Barracks. Branch business is conducted, snacks served and bar facilities made available to our members. The objectives of the Legion are to provide assistance to ex-servicemen and their dependents, serving members of the armed forces, families and dependents and to raise the necessary funding to finance the assistance we provide. Finally, we ...
Basically, yesterday was not a great day.... The site myself and Laura-Rose Saunders had spent so much time on over the past 6 months or so was eradicated in a matter of seconds. Basically, WordPress was having a tantrum and wouldn't allow anything to work on the site without upgrading the software... the upgrade was ... Read more
It's a harsh reality that 'Nick Clegg' has become an easy punchline for many comedians. Nick can perhaps draw some comfort from the truth universally acknowledged that it's better to be joked about than never to be joked about at all. But he can draw greater comfort from some of the polling evidence showing him doing better than Ed Miliband, even though the Lib Dems' ratings significantly trail Labour's. The Independent's Matt Chorley noticed this little-noticed phenomenon last week: Most, though not all, months the Independent on Sunday/Sunday Mirror/ComRes poll has asked voters whether they agreed or disagreed with these ...
If you're in Scotland, when you cast your vote on Thursday (or before if you have a postal vote), be aware that the voting system used gives you more say in the way your Council is run and that's all down to the Liberal Democrats. Way back in 2003, the Liberal Democrats secured the Single Transferable Vote system. This means that Councils are now more balanced in terms of the proportions of the votes cast. Gone are the days where Labour could win majority control in Councils across Scotland on a minority of the vote. The 2007 election swept away ...
This may be 90 years old but it will never grow old... (OK, this version is only 84 years old, but my point still stands!) Andrew
So, the Joint Select Committee on the Draft House of Lords Reform Bill has reported, and it would be fair to say that the ladies and gentlemen in ermine are, to put it mildly, perturbed. So perturbed that an extra two days were set aside for debate before the House prorogues prior to the Queen's Speech. With Lord Richard, the Chair of the Committee, focussing on the work of the Commiittee itself, it was left to Baroness Scott of Needham Market to make the opening speech for meaningful reform; Two phrases are constantly used in the context of Lords reform. ...
One of those little things that's crept into our internet usage over the last few years is the customer satisfaction query. There's probably another name for it, but what I'm referring to is the little question you often get asked when you've queried an FAQ, a support database or help system. Did this answer your query? they'll ask at the end of your reading, checking to see if they've understood what you were asking and have provided the answers you require. Why I'm thinking about this is because I was watching David Cameron's appearance in the House of Commons yesterday. ...
Cambridge MP Julian Huppert Cambridge MP, Julian Huppert has demanded greater clarity from the government over its future funding plans for the county's cash-strapped fire service. He has asked for a meeting with Bob Neill, Minister for Communities and Local Government to which he intends to invite Cambridgeshire and Peterborough MPs in a bid to get information which will allow informed decisions to be made about resources. And on Monday (April 30) Julian will ask Mr Neill, during Questions in the House of Commons 'what discussions he has had on funding for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Fire Authority'. He is worried ...
Yesterday, I and my local party colleagues had the pleasure of another visit from Scottish Liberal Democrat Leader Willie Rennie MSP to support our Dundee City Council election campaign. Here's some photos from a great day! Willie with me at Harris Academy, where we discussed the Harris Academy re-building project Willie with my Strathmartine Ward colleague Iliyan Stefanov, who is campaigning for road safety improvements on Strathmartine Road And ... Willie with Ferry Ward candidate Craig Duncan, a hard-working campaigner for all in Broughty Ferry Here's the party's latest news release : Voters have been urged to back a local ...
Cambridge MP Julian Huppert Cambridge MP, Julian Huppert has demanded greater clarity from the government over its future funding plans for the county's cash-strapped fire service. He has asked for a meeting with Bob Neill, Minister for Communities and Local Government to which he intends to invite Cambridgeshire and Peterborough MPs in a bid to get information which will allow informed decisions to be made about resources. And on Monday (April 30) Julian will ask Mr Neill, during Questions in the House of Commons 'what discussions he has had on funding for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Fire Authority'. He is worried ...
Last weekend's edition of the Financial Times led with three articles about Spain. They catalogued nothing but misery: a quarter of Spaniards are unemployed, the country's financial position is worsening, Spain's bonds have been downgraded by two notches, Spain is crying out for help, seemingly into a void. The FT's attention is justified; Spain is ...
Non-fiction 2 (YTD 16) A History of God, by Karen Armstrong The Empire Stops Here, by Philip Parker Fiction (non-sf) 3 (YTD 11) Washington Square, by Henry James The Idiot, by Fyodor Dostoevsky The Great Wall of China, by Franz Kafka sf (non-Who) 4 (YTD 25) Rule 34, by Charles Stross The Godmother's Apprentice, by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough Among Others, by Jo Walton The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde (c'mon, it's got a magical portrait - of course it's fantasy) Doctor Who 4 (YTD 28) Paradox Lost, by George Mann Doctor Who: Shada, by Douglas Adams and Gareth ...
The following paper has just been presented to the City Forum. Please give us your views. City Centre Traffic The current SADC administration have confirmed (in agreement with city District and county member White) that they will not progress with the St Peters Street Scheme as they don't believe it provided the benefits required in terms of air quality and potential impact on local streets and business in the city. Consideration is currently being given to other options to improve traffic flow and reduce congestion. These are: - The closure of Victoria Street (from the Maltings car park exit to ...
And so we come to the first Kinks album that could reasonably be considered to be worse than its predecessor. Which is not to say that Arthur is in any way a bad album — in fact its best songs are considerably better than the best material on Village Green Preservation Society — but rather ...
David Cameron's performance in the House yesterday in response to Labour's urgent question about Jeremy Hunt seems to have split people. A large number of people thought he was an offensive and evasive bully. Tory loyalists thought he valiantly defended a minister whose reputation had been unfairly impuned. This is just the latest installment in a very peculiar saga. As John Rentoul reminded us on Sunday, there was never a golden age when Ministers were routinely doing the honourable thing: resigned at the first sign of impropriety - let alone illegality - in their department. But you have to ask ...
The Centre for Turkey Studies and Development (CTS) is little more than a year old, yet as Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg acknowledged at its first anniversary dinner at the Park Lane Sheraton Hotel this evening, its growth has surpassed even that of the Turkish economy. Several hundred people — predominantly Turks/Kurds/Turkish Cypriots in London ...
