Yesterday was a good day, great in fact for supporters of equality everywhere. The leader of the Free World, the President of the World's most influential country (for now) came out in full support of gay marriage. Take a bow Barack Obama. I assumed he'd sidestep the issue until at least after the next election, (or just positioning himself as slightly more liberal than his oponant - which isn't hard) but he didn't and for this he should be applauded. BBC reports: "The interview with ABC News was apparently hastily arranged as Mr Obama came under mounting pressure to clarify ...
Following on from an earlier post the Lib Dems in Southend have issued the following Press Release which I have re-posted ad verbatim. Make of it what you wish: Lib Dems tell Southend Tories to clean up their own mess Southend Liberal Democrats Council Group told the Tories today that they must take responsibility for clearing up their own mess and refused to join what would be an unstable bid to seize control of Southend Council. Cllr. Graham Longley, leader of the LibDem group said that the Tories had not been beaten out of sight in the local elections but ...
This has all the signs of being a teenage emo type post but I can assure you that it isn't. Yesterday I was watching the final of The Voice USA I had recorded the previous night on a friends TV in New York whilst he was on holiday in Utah climbing mountains probably with his wife (have I ever said just how amazing technology is?) but anyway in the final (which my girl Juliet Simms did not win – no justice) a band called Lady Antebellum played their latest single 'Wanted You More' and I just thought it was quite ...
Today, I was amongst a number of Liberal Democrat party members who attended by virtue of the internet what was dubbed a #Clegginar. In fact so many were tweeting about it that it became the second highest trend in the UK for the duration of the session. I will be posting in another post about ... Read more
Following up from my pictures of Urban Bristol earlier this week, here are some more pictures of the city: Andrew
Keith Nevols reviews the alternative Queen's Speech being promoted by Conservative Home and the Tory right: "The alternative speech claims to be 'popular, pro-poor and broadly based'. Unfortunately, this is not so much a programme to encourage jobs and growth but more the reiteration of a right-wing agenda that would have made Mrs Thatcher blush." The council election results in Gwynedd sound like the plot of an Ealing Comedy, says What You Can Get Away With, Stephen Williams, Lib Dem MP for Bristol West, looks back 20 years to his first election: "Our volunteers delivered two leaflets and knocked on ...
The temporary traffic lights on Westerleigh Road, Henfield (on many people's way to work) are in place so that urgent drainage works can be carried out. It's hoped the work will be complete by Wednesday 16th May.
Medieval England comes to the beautiful Winterbourne Medieval Barn on Saturday 16th June, when the Company of Chivalry returns to welcome back Sir Thomas de Bradestone, fresh from victory at the battle of Crecy. Join the bustle and excitement of the Medieval Fayre for a colourful summer country day out for all the family. There will be a wide variety of historically accurate re-enactments such as archery, armaments, cookery, medicine, the law and much more. Delicious local ale and food this year will include a hog roast. There will be demonstrations of country crafts such as basket weaving and hurdle ...
Try as I might, I can't find a "guilty pleasure" in the "B" albums released from the John Peel archive on Tuesday. So, intead, here's one of the finest tracks from those albums. From Bad Company's "Straight Shooter": [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
Today was the day when Southend Council voted on a new leader after last weeks election took the Tories out of a majority. The logical conclusion would be the Tories forming a minority government at the Civic Centre with the help of one or two independents but things didn't exactly go down like that. The local rag reports the story behind this link The choices were simple. Either independent Ron Woodley leading a coalition of independents, Lib Dems and Labour or Nigel Holdcroft leading a minority Tory government. There were no other names on the table. The 25 Tories voted ...
Lord Glenamara - better known as Ted Short - died last week at the age of 99. At the time of his death he was the oldest former MP. On Twitter Michael Crick asked who now holds that title. The last time this came up was in a post on Iain Dale's Diary in January 2009, but the names banded about then - James Allason, William Wilson - have since died. Michael Crick suggested that the new holder might be Denis Healey (born 30 August 1917), while my own first thought was John Freeman (born 19 February 1915), the last ...
Thu 10th
19:35
The #Clegginar - Nick Clegg bites polos and chats with members about the Queen's Speech
This afternoon, party leader Nick Clegg spent an hour and a quarter being questioned by members over the internet. He was sitting in Party HQ at Great George Street, ably assisted by the Divine Ms Duffett and we all joined in the webinar - or clegginar as it quickly became known across Twitter. By way of keeping his strength up, Nick helped himself to some nearby Polo mints. Some got a bit arsey, if the truth be known, about the fact that Nick bites rather than sucks his polos. Whatever happened to "none shall be enslaved by conformity?" But then, ...
Today, I had a piece published over on the Lib Democrat Voice blog. You can read the full piece.
I think Zac Goldsmith may have been taken in by some fake Lib Dem literature. On the night of the local elections last week, there was a by-election in North Richmond for a seat on the Council. In the last election the excellent Lib Dem candidate, Jane Dodds, lost by just 19 votes. Jane, her agent Roger Hayes, and many local Lib Dems ran a fantastic campaign and worked very hard, plus of course helped the Lib Dem GLA candidate Munira Wilson with her campaign. I too delivered a ton of stuff around Ham Common for Munira - so was ...
Recycling residents can now get more tangible rewards by registering on County Durham's website for stickers to go on their glass and areosols put out for recycling. There's £1,250 worth of prizes each month for lucky residents whose stickered refuse is picked at random from the recycling collection. Log on at http://www.recycle-more.co.uk/nerewards/
...and so does Camilla, here. [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
Thanks to the wondrous Helen Duffett I had the treat of appearing on Five News on Tuesday evening where i got to debate Lords Reform with Peter Bone MP. And what fun it was. And while I don't agree with a word that man says, its only fair to say that he was a courteous and good natured opponent. What the debate did illustrate was some of the attack lines Tory opponents of Lords Reform are going to deploy - because he deployed them. So here a a few of them - and my replies.... 1. (The classic): 'The economy ...
For what it is worth, I for one have always found unlike some of his contemporaries Sandy Ezekiel to be well mannered and able to differentiate personal attack from political banter. Obviously the world moves on, but its worth noting that during his time in office, much of the groundwork for Margate regeneration took place. Thanet Tories have issued a press release concerning news that Former Council Leader Cllr Sandy Ezekiel has stood down from the Conservative group on Thanet council . Press Release 9th May 2012 Cllr Sandy Ezekiel steps down from TDC's Conservative Group, pending court proceedings Cllr ...
Twenty five years ago, Mrs Thatcher won her third general election and formed her cabinet. Shall we see what happened to those Cabinet Ministers are now? Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (now Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven) Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson (now Lord Lawson of Blaby) Chief Secretary to the Treasury John Major (turned down a peerage in 2001) Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe (now Lord Howe of Aberavon) Home Secretary Douglas Hurd (now Lord Hurd of Westwell) Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food John MacGregor (now Lord MacGregor of Pulham Market) Defence Secretary George Younger (initially made Lord Younger of ...
I posted this earlier today on Lib Dem Voice: The leaflet below appears to be normal Lib Dem election literature. It was one of three distributed widely over night on May2nd/3rd for the council by-election in North Richmond, in the London borough of Richmond upon Thames. You may wonder why it is titled Comments instead of Focus, but that is what Lib Dems have always called their leaflets in Richmond. Indeed, the layout and photos are exact copies of earlier Lib Dem election leaflets. The bar chart, grumble sheet and contact details all look authentic. The writing style is credible. ...
Adam Smith in the Wealth of Nations (1776) was an early proponent of land taxes as was that great radical Tom Paine. John Stuart Mill was an advocate and Henry George put the case in 'Progress and Poverty' (1879). The economist David Ricardo gave us the concept of economic "rent" - that land or property derives its value from scarcity rather than investment. In the debates before and after the peoples budget of 1909 both Winston Churchill and David Lloyd George argued strongly for the introduction of a land tax. The economists John Kenneth Galbraith and Milton Friedman recommended Land ...
Earlier today at Olympia the sun was used as is traditional to create a flame. That flame was then trasferred by a torch to a pot to be taken to the location of the original Olympics for blessing. The High Priestess of Athena (actress Ino Menegaki) then used her torch to light the London 2012 torch being carried by Liverpool born Greek 10km open water swimmer Spyros Gianniatis (pictured left). The relay of the flame has begun and the next person in the relay was one of the children who was present in Singapore in 2005 when the Games were ...
Thu 10th
17:15
#8ANoWay campaign successful: Bishops withdraw motions at @churchofireland General Synod
Additional information now in bold. Success! The motions at General Synod of the Church of Ireland that have been keeping so many of us awake for the past week have been withdrawn. As the website of the Diocese of Down and Dromore puts it: The Bishops' Motion 8a on Human Sexuality did not come before the Genreal ...
So Clegg didn't paraphrase Churchill in the #Clegginar but it would have been good if he had. There were so many good questions that I can only summarize the best before getting on to the meat of this post which was my question. Stephen Tall of Lib Dem Voice asked about the Pupil Premium and ...
The last time I mentioned celeb-gossip site Popbitch here, it was because they'd drawn attention to academic research on the link between the social mobility agenda and cricket. This time, though, it's the inside track on how — allegedly — Brian Paddick, the Lib Dem London mayoral candidate, helped restore the good humour of parched journos worrying about their file-by deadline by offering them copious taxpayer-funded libations: >> Winey liberal
The leaflet below appears to be normal Lib Dem election literature. It was one of three distributed widely over night on May2nd/3rd for the council by-election in North Richmond, in the London borough of Richmond upon Thames. You may wonder why it is titled Comments instead of Focus, but that is what Lib Dems have always called their leaflets in Richmond. Indeed, the layout and photos are exact copies of earlier Lib Dem election leaflets. The bar chart, grumble sheet and contact details all look authentic. The writing style is credible. But a closer inspection reveals something very worrying. The ...
London is essentially Liberal. I know election results don't necessarily bear that assertion out, especially after Brian Paddick only managed to garner a paltry four percent in the recent mayoral elections. But consider the evidence. Large parts of the capital ... Continue reading →
The post election chess game concluded on Monday night with a surprising outcome. With East Lothian having just announced the formation of an anti SNP coalition with Labour and the Tories forming an administration the prospect of that happening here looked strong if the much muted all party coalition fell through. And fell through it did with the Evening News stating that it took 5 minutes in stead of the 2 they had predicted. We sat round a table and the SNP rejected the all party deal and then the Greens did the same. By the time they came to ...
I've just finished participating in a web-chat with Lib Dem leader and Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, the latest in a series of #Clegginars (yes, that is the Twitter hashtag) open to all party members. Nick was in good, relaxed form (sipping water, munching Polos) — more importantly, he came across as honest, un-spun and informed about the Queen's Speech and what it means for the Lib Dems. In general, the Queen's Speech — much like the last Budget, in fact — was pretty good for the Lib Dems, with substantial progress on reforms of the banking sector, House of ...
There are three things that clearly show Liberal Democrat influence on the Queens Speech. BANKING REFORM Labour failed to regulate the banks: Vince Cable has won the argument and "Casino Banking " is now to be split off from retail banking operations. This leaves the banks free to profit from commercial and corporate financing but removes the risk to taxpayers and current account holders if they get things wrong again. NEW FLAT RATE PENSIONS The current full state pension is £107.45 a week and can be topped up to £137.35 with pension credit. But roughly one and half million pensioners ...
You might think it is a wee bit dramatic but during the #clegginar this afternoon whilst stealing one of Helen Duffett's polo mints we were treated to a quite clear crunch as he bit the mint instead of sucking it. This is a worrying state of affairs as everyone knows that the best way to enjoy a polo mint is to suck it and soften it up. So what have we learnt from this revelation? Well first Nick clegg probably has pretty good teeth. He may even bite on hard candy and not soften that up. This isn't known at ...
I had a chance to play with Senseg's feelable technology today – here's a quick video showing it off. The guys are (naturally) cagey about their product launch, but here's what I was able to glean. It will be multi-touch compatible.The tablet appeared to be Android – that's just the demo unit though.Developer tools will be available.Consumer launch in the first half of 2013. So I guess that makes it unlikely for the iPhone 5.It may have a brand name associated with it – but they wouldn't say what. I'd guess something like "RealFeel" or similar.They may be offering a ...
Happy birthday, today, to Doctor Who novelist supreme Terrance Dicks. BBC Books are celebrating with the release of new editions of another six Target Doctor Who novels (after last year's successful relaunch). I've turned to one of Terrance Dicks' earliest and best-loved books, possibly the first of his that I read, Doctor Who and the Terrance of the Autons: in which the Doctor discovers that the most everyday objects can be the source of a murderous attack; faces a more unearthly attacker that's part crab, part spider, part octopus; and, for the first time, his rival Time Lord, the Master. ...
The Liberal Democrats took another slap round the chops from the electorate on the May 3rd local elections. Yes, there were a few bright spots, especially those ably pointed out by Jeremy Browne, MP, but the overall picture was still grim. Of course it was not unexpected, and neither has the leadership's response been – hold the course, reiterate what we have achieved and will achieve, compare our policy successes with those of the Conservatives, and emphasise that it was Labour who got us into the financial mess we are in. And so on. All good stuff, and well executed. ...
Thu 10th
14:21
Communications interception — dazed half-memories of a conference call with @julianhuppert
Yesterday, I attended a blogger's conference call with Julian Huppert MP and a special advisor from the Home Office, which was to discuss the proposed communications interceptions bill. At first it was just Huppert and myself, and I embarassed myself with my lack of political knowledge (I'd not read the Queen's Speech yet because I'd ...
A couple of days ago, we had the story of the council ward in Wales with no candidates, and now we have the story of the ballot box in Glasgow that may or may not contain no votes. It seems that Glasgow Council has just discovered that one of the ballot boxes used for the Langside ward was recorded as having contained no votes, but that, on closer examination (or perhaps just looking in the box) it seems that there were some in there. How many there are, I'm not sure, but from what I can find on Glasgow Council's ...
The Daily Mail write A prisoner of the Lib Dems? I'm afraid I take that with a very generous pinch of salt, Mr Cameron in which they have some praise for the Lib Dems which is worth reading: For their part, the Lib Dems undeniably inserted some proposals in the speech which a Tory-only government would not ...
Some people have commented to me that the figures represented in my previous post may not be quite as clear to many as I had intended. The average number of signatories per week is rather different between the two petitions, as can be seen from the graph below... So putting the earlier figures in a ...
Hopefully by now you will have caught your breath! The count will seem an awfully long time ago, but for the new councillors, and indeed for those of you who are back on the council, now the real work commences - to represent those people who put their faith in you via the ballot box. Whether you won or lost, or a local activist, there is one vital task immediately after the election and that is to say thank you to your helpers, deliverers and campaign colleagues. Often this is over looked and assumptions are made that 'people will already ...
As investigative theatre goes, the Leveson Inquiry has been top-notch. As a route to embarrassing individuals for their past performance, it has excelled. As a way of unearthing previously secret information people, it has excelled. But as a route for reforming the media? Some things have already been achieved. The Press Complaints Commission has already been sent to the retirement home for failed regulators and politicians have already been shamed into distancing themselves from newspaper moguls. It will be a long time before Ed Miliband repeats this sort of photo op, for example. There is, however, an awful lot left ...
Fortunately none of this year's Hugo nominees is actually a bad book, an improvement on some previous years (no Willis, no Sawyer). Even so, I found it pretty easy to rank the nominees as follows: 6) Deadline, by "Mira Grant". I'm a little sorry about this, because it is an enjoyable book that kept me turning the pages. But the fact is that it's the middle book of a trilogy, in which the characters spend most of their time running around a devastated zombie-infested America and the plot isn't actually resolved. For me it fails the test of whether I ...
There is no doubt that we are all in the middle of a serious economic crisis. However, in Britain this crisis is overlaid with a stupidity crisis too. The Daily Express is not noted as the intellectual paper in the UK, but their latest European scare story is more or less total fiction. "Senior Eurocrats" are apparently "plotting to destroy Britain"- even though there is not a shred of evidence for the conspiracy the Express is determined to unmask. It is total crap. It is a paranoid pack of lies either by fools who know no better or by crooks ...
It is often said that a week is a long time in politics. This is certainly true. And very true in the life of the Church of Ireland. Following the publication of our Open Letter yesterday in many Irish daily newspapers yesterday, including the News Letter, today it is reported that the Evangelical Fellowship of ...
In March this year, the Labour First Minister, Carwyn Jones, announced that hundreds of jobs would be coming to Cardiff. It has since emerged that these are not new jobs. Labour excused their misleading statement on the grounds that it was "a matter of semantics". Welsh Liberal Democrat AM Eluned Parrott said: "Only a Labour government as incompetent as this one can think the issue of literally hundreds of extra jobs is merely 'semantics'".
After yesterday's team trial which saw Taylor Phinney, then in the Maglia Rosa (pink jersey) take an excursion off course through some long grass and saw all three of the men most closely affected or involved in Monday's crash start. We have probably the most straight route I recall for any road stage of a Grand Tour. From the start at historic Roman colony of Modena we go straight and flat to Rimini on the coast. Then following the coast around to Fano for the stage finish there few bumps in the road, but only one warrants a category four ...
When is a post not a post? When it's this one, directing you to Liberal England where I have been afforded a guest post today. :-)
The following two reports appeared on the Qlocal news website yesterday: Come and have a taste of the Continent Vintage Markets coming to Ormskirk That's all very well but the continental markets are expensive and don't do much to support ... Continue reading →
Thu 10th
11:28
Opinion: Lib Dem communications must improve to capitalise on our successes in government
Lib Dem poll ratings have plummeted. We are not winning some crucial arguments within government. Many of our best councillors have lost their seats. It certainly doesn't feel good being in this vicious circle. The answer is not to panic, but equally we shouldn't stick our heads in the sand either. That means recognising that whilst it's way too early to say our time in government has been a failure, it's not too early to say our communications have failed to hit the mark. Some people think our polling slump is due to people punishing us for forming a coalition ...
In Victorian times Southport used to advertise trips to the town under the marketing slogan 'visit the Lancashire Riviera'! Later on we promoted the resort as somewhere to come in winter because of our micro climate which produced mild weather when all around were suffering a freeze. It is well known that it is not just meteorolgically that we have a micro climate. For generation Southport has demonstrated that it can buck the national trend in politics. Southport is one of those northern chapel towns where Liberalism refused to lie down and die in the post war years. The Jewish ...
At Southwark Council's Audit & Governance meeting last week the officers report on anti fraud activities (page 89) states "4000 Single Persons Discount matches were released in February 2012 and work has commenced on these." The match is finding local and central govt data records of 2 or more people living at an address where a single persons council tax discount is claimed. A few months ago Lambeth claimed they found 15,000 such matches by using a commercial agency checking against bank etc address records. (http://www.southlondonpress.co.uk/news.cfm?id=35616) So either Southwark is failing big time to find all the potential wrong claims ...
How an angler and two government bureaucrats may have saved the Atlantic Ocean. Extraordinary and appalling. (tags: fish ) Azerbaijani President's Family Benefits From Eurovision Hall Construction Surely not!!! (tags: azerbaijan ) A film festival in the Sahara desert: Like a mirage An extraordinary cultural event. (tags: westernsahara ) Facebook Social Readers Are All Collapsing Good. I hate them. (tags: news socialmedia facebook )
he most remarkable aspect of the May 3rd elections has gone almost without comment. Despite the overwhelming result in the AV referendum, The 'single transferable vote' was used without significant controversy or complaint in Scotland, a sequence of Mayors were elected using the supplementary vote - and there was even a clutch of referendums on introducing more elected Mayors with the supplementary vote. In other words, first past the post may have triumphed in the voting reform referendum last year, but elsewhere it has lost ground and continues to lose further ground. Not only is there no sign of first ...
I've seen and heard a few off-hand comments about the Liberal Democrats becoming 'The Fourth Party in Reading' on the basis that the Green Party out-polled Lib Dems locally. But though it makes a snappy soundbite to say that, the facts tell us something different. Whilst it's true that Liberal Democrats in Reading had a difficult local election, it's also true that we came out fighting, in the end doing better than last year by holding Tilehurst (with a frankly unstoppable candidate - Meri O'Connell). The final results also show that where Lib Dems have our hard working Councillors in ...
The Guardian reports: The Ministry of Defence is to abandon plans to buy the preferred fighter for the Royal Navy's new aircraft carriers, in an embarrassing a U-turn for David Cameron. The prime minister personally endorsed the decision to equip ... Continue reading →
A comment I sent in to the BBC's "Thinking Allowed" last week on Transgender issues has been read out on air. I'll publicise this here mostly because I just love the inflection the presented has given my words. I don't think I could have done better myself! Start from 13:45, it's about 30 seconds long. Also on BBC's Thinking Allowed Podcast site The programme I'm commenting on is the one from 2nd May and Zowie Davy's piece is towards the end. Here is the full text of my comment – the second paragraph was read out on air. I was ...
Following the Queen's Speech it is becoming a little clearer – although only a little clearer – what it is that some parts of the Home Office want to achieve by pushing for the Communications Capability Development Programme (CCDP, aka Online Snooping Charter). One scenario is this: the law enforcement authorities start having solid grounds for suspecting someone is up to no good. Currently, they can then get access to the history of that person's phone calls – who they rung and when from their landline or mobile. Getting such retrospective data for some forms of internet-based communications is possible, ...
After months of saying that the proposed stadium for Cornwall would be constructed without and taxpayer subsidy, it seems that both developers and Cornwall Council have been leading us up the garden path. The developers have approached Cornwall Council asking for money to fund the project and it is being considered as an emergency item for the full council agenda next Tuesday. At the last full council meeting in March, the council agreed to a Conservative motion that any decision on subsidy for the stadium - either in direct cash terms or indirectly - would need to come back to ...
BBC News - Avengers hold off Pie challenge Best headline ever (tags: ) Dave Godfrey on the day Diageo went after a small independent brewer Unsurprising, but still disappointing. (tags: ) FIRST LOOK: Lena Headey as Scarfaced Madeline 'Ma-Ma' Madrigal in DREDD | The Daily BLAM! I love that two of the three above the line stars are women, and I love that Lena Headey is one of them, because everything I have seen her in she has rocked. Plus, you know, Karl Urban. Rawr. (tags: comics ) Dispatch from A Broad - Sexual Harrassment no longer illegal in France. ...
We all remember some of the shameful things that happened in Parliament during the last Labour government. Chief among them, of course, were the repeated times when the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats used their majority of votes their to repeatedly block any attempts to discuss House of Lords reform. Then, when it managed to get through, they repeatedly voted down Labour's proposals for a 100% elected second chamber and referendum on the issue. They certainly weren't a government who got extremely half-hearted about Lords reform after removing most of the hereditary peers, and allowed whatever meagre Parliamentary time they allocated ...
The SNP Government has cut the grant it gives to bus operators by 17.5%. In a nutshell, this means fewer buses and higher fares. People can ill afford such a hike in the costs of getting out and about - and if you don't have a car, having the bus service you rely on cut back is a really big deal. Like he did on the colleges, Willie Rennie has found a way for the Government to reverse these cuts by using extra money from the UK Government as a result of the Budget. He's asking people to sign his ...
"Once more unto the breach" goes the rallying call from my Union Reps as we prepare to strike on May 10 2012. Following up the N30 strike on public sector pensions which I have written about previously on this blog, I issued an alternative rallying call – to get round the table and negotiate. But unsurprisingly ignored. I find myself weirdly ambivalent this time. I shouldn't be. It is fundamentally about funding my life throughout retirement and yet, the approach taken by the union since the previous strike does not do anybody any favours. The three tests for me are: ...
The Queen's Speech was long on pomp, short on circumstance. I've listened to a fair few of them since I arrived in Britain over 20 years ago, but I don't recall one quite like this. The Queen is a consummate professional, and she usually reads out these speeches without any trace of emotion. Her words ...
The Telegraph reports that fund managers from companies including Aviva and BlackRock held discussions with the Business Secretary, who has suggested that company pay policies should be backed by up to 75pc of shareholders. The paper says that Glencore, Standard Chartered and Unilever were among the FTSE 100 groups to hold investor meetings. Shareholder revolts have already claimed the scalps of three blue-chip chief executives, including Aviva's Andrew Moss earlier this week. The Queen's speech contained a commitment to make shareholder votes on remuneration binding. Clearly the government is moving to contain the excesses that have characterised big companies in ...
Andrew Brown blogs at The Widow's World. Complete this sentence in the most apt and original manner: "I know the Lib Dems don't have much chance round here, but I am going to vote for them because they stand for..."It's like one of those tie-break questions that used to feature on competitions on various grocery products from when I was a child. In fact, it's the question posed by this blog's regular author in his recent piece The danger of silver linings for the Liberal Democrats. He identifies it as the key question that we need to answer in order ...
Last of the Hugo nominees for this year for me; a sequel to last year's Feed, taking forward the story of newsbloggers in a near-future USA covering the aftermath of the zombie apocalypse. Lots of action and capers, but I did not enjoy it as much: the previous book's narrator is here present only as a voice in her brother's head, there is no presidential campaign subplot, and most of all the story is left unresolved at the end, with a massive plot twist setting us up for the next volume, so it's not a complete work. With some regret, ...
So the liberal world jumped for joy yesterday as President Obama told the world that he was in favour of same sex marriage. Rightly, we are proud of him for backing equal rights when it would no doubt have been much easier to stick to his stance that he favoured civil partnerships but not full marriage equality. It was great that the day after North Carolina became the 30th state to ban same sex marriage and civil union, the President, facing a tough re-election campaign, had the courage of his convictions to say what he meant. That he'd been persuaded ...
A book by a prominent Buddhist monk outlining key teachings of Buddhism. I started off rather liking it as an approach to mindfulness and how to process suffering and the good things about life. But after he Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path, I started to get a bit irritated with the constant discovery of new lists of important spiritual things, from the Two Truths up to the Twelve Links of Interdependent Co-Arising; it seems to me that over-describing the undescribable is fundamentally a mistake. I also started wondering to what extent Thich Nhat Hanh is presenting a mainstream ...
Republicans, Get In My Vagina! You might find some of the lines in this comedy clip, well, kinda disturbing (or in my case, cringingly funny). And that's because it is disturbing. It's disturbing 'cos it's true.
Cllr David Brown (CON, Burwell) Work in Cambridgeshire to reduce offending and help safeguard youngsters is above the national average a new comprehensive report has found. An inspection of youth offending work in Cambridgeshire has been released today and praises the County Council as well as advising on areas of improvement. The inspection made by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Probation focuses exclusively on the work undertaken by Youth Offending Teams with children and young people who have already committed an offence. The report says in summary: "Overall, we consider this a creditable set of findings. We found an enthusiastic, knowledgeable ...
The venue was more prosaic than the rose garden of 10, Downing Street, and there were fewer smiles and other overt signs of cloying matiness. But David Cameron and Nick Clegg were united in claiming that the coalition's first priority is to get rid of the deficit and put the economy back on its feet. Quite right too, but the question is, and the difference should be, how do you do it? And which is the horse and which the cart? The Tory policy is that the first prerequisite is to get rid of the deficit by cutting government expenditure ...
Late Tuesday night, I was on Tony Livesy's BBC Radio 5 Live programme alongside Henry Hill of the Dilettante blog talking about today's Coalition re-up. Here's what we said... [IMG: Listen to 2012-05-10 071552] Posts Related to State of the Coalition (2): What I said on BBC Radio 5 LiveState of the Coalition: What I said on BBC Radio Scotland this morningI took part in a 5-minute discussion on BBC Radio Scotland this morning with the Telegraph's deputy political editor James Kirkup on the current state ... Lib Dems on air over the weekendQuick alert for those wanting to see/hear ...
As reported in last night's Evening Telegraph, I have spoken with Dundee City Council's Chief Executive about the theft of a huge amount - some 15 tonnes - of copper from the former Rockwell school site. The site that will be home to Harris Academy during its decant from August 2013. My questions to the Chief Executive surround security on the site at the time and into the future. The theft has been reported to Tayside Police.
To mark the first anniversary of the launch of Barney's Charity Fund, the committee members were keen to visit one of the most recent recipients of the fund - Starter Packs - at their premises in Taymill in the West End yesterday. Registered Scottish Charity, Starter Packs Dundee has helped over 5 000 families and young people through the transition of being homeless, in hostels or temporary accommodation to having a home of their own - by supplying essential starter packs containing household items such as bedding, pots and pans, towels etc. This worthwhile cause plays such an important part ...
From Dundee City Council : Dundee City Council proposes to make an Order under Section 14(1) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 for the purpose of facilitating gas main replacement works. The Order is expected to be in force for five weeks from 28 May 2012. Its maximum duration in terms of the Act is eighteen months. The effect of the Order is to prohibit temporarily all vehicular traffic in Lochee Road/Logie Street northbound from Tullideph Road to City Road. Pedestrian thoroughfare and vehicular access to premises will be maintained where possible. An alternative route will be available via ...
I don't know if you've ever been put in charge of the security for a peace conference between warring magical worlds from different dimensions, where the fate of the multiverse could hang in the balance, but it's really, really boring. For a start, you wouldn't believe how many presentations you have to sit through. There ...
Thu 10th
01:11LGBT Church of Ireland people have both good will and faith @downandromore @churchofireland #8aNoWay
It is energizing to think of the blessing which is possible in our communities if people of good will and faith work together creatively. - Bishop Harold Miller, Bishop of Down & Dromore I trust that the Lord Bishop of Down & Dromore will remember his own words when introducing the rather unfortunate motions before ...
There was a bit of social media sniping yesterday that, despite David Cameron's protestations to the contrary, the Queen's Speech didn't contain much of any substance to help the ailing UK economy. That doesn't seem to me to be entirely fair, for two reasons. First, there were some useful measures in the Speech - on banking or energy market reform, for example - that have the potential to make a difference to the performance of the economy. Second, it's not obvious that the Queen's Speech is the place you'd expect to find a menu of measures designed to stimulate the ...
I loved it. Holly loved it. Holly can't decide if she liked Hulk or Thor best. I can't pick between Iron Man and Black Widow. And Samuel L Jackson Fury was stunningly BAMFish. All the characters were really well drawn, and there were loads of really lovely little touches that wouldn't have been in a by-the-numbers superhero movie, but they were in this and added to its awesome. However, it wasn't totally unproblematic... I'm not going to go too spoilery, but there are a couple of feministy issues I would like to address.On the positive side, several people have said ...
