From the Harborough Mail: It may have happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, but Star Wars has come to Harborough after street-signs inspired by the blockbuster were put up around town. Signs warning 'No X-Wings', advising motorists to look out for Jawas crossing St Mary's Road and pointing people in the direction of the cloud-city of Bespin and the spaceport Mos Eisley were placed around the town centre. There was even an R2-D2 near Sainsbury's in St Mary's Place.
This afternoon was the "community consultation" on the proposal by Taylor Wimpey for houses on the field at Urlay Nook Rd opposite Hunters' Green. The developers invited ward and Parish Councillors for a private briefing before the public dropin session and all 3 ward councillors duly turned up, along with 2 representatives of the Parish Council. There is no doubt that the developers have put
... and even though it has a crease I won't be tempted to iron it - like this Hearts fan!
I'm attempting to 'Run' the Bupa Great Manchester Run on Sunday to raise money for The Christie Hospital. If you felt able to sponsor me it would be greatly appreciated and would help a fantastic cause! To sponsor me please go to: http://www.justgiving.com/Victor-Chamberlain Thanks very much!
"Insulting words or behaviour" are outlawed by Section 5, and this is having a chilling effect on free speech right across our country, in a wide range of communities. The law rightly protects us against unjust discrimination, incitement and violence. It should not be used to protect us from having our feelings hurt. It's time to reform Section 5. More on the Reform Section 5 website.
Michael Gove made a cleverly calculated speech last week, pointing out how every area of our national life is now dominated by the products of public schools. As the Guardian reported: "Around the cabinet table, a majority, including myself, were privately educated," Gove said. He added that the shadow chancellor, shadow business secretary, shadow Olympics secretary, among others, were also educated at private schools. "On the bench of our supreme court, in the precincts of the bar, in our medical schools and university science faculties, at the helm of FTSE 100 companies and in the boardrooms of our banks, independent ...
Tomorrow it's a year since Willie Rennie became Scottish Liberal Democrat Leader. What have been the highlights of that first year? Well, on his first day, I interviewed him for Liberal Democrat Voice and you can still listen to that here. He said that his priorities for his first hundred days were to work out what our message was, to sort out our organisation and to get out there and meet people, members and ordinary people on their doorsteps. So how has he done with these things and more? Articulating a clear message about what Liberal Democrats do For too ...
The Kinks' final album for Pye Records is one that is literally impossible to listen to in the correct context, because that correct context has never existed. It was written as the soundtrack for the film Percy, an alleged comedy about a penis transplant starring Hywel Bennet and Britt Ekland, and so as programmatic music ...
Last Friday evening I made a trip to Guildford to be on the panel of Hot Coalition Politics - a Question Time type event organised by the Guildford Liberal Democrats. Well, it was absolutely wonderful :) The venue was a church hall which the Guildford party often uses and there was something very nice about being in there surrounded by fellow Lib Dems and being able to chat and catch up on all the gossip prior to the event. It just shows how right people are when they describe being a member of a political party like being part of ...
Business Secretary Vince Cable has called for companies to end the secrecy surrounding remuneration consultants After the commitment in the Queens Speech to end the link between casino and high street banking, and the after the biggest shareholder revolt against ... Continue reading →
Exasperated with poor signage at bus stops, Michael has written to Translink seeking clarification as to why a bus appearing to be timetabled to stop at a particular place, did not.
David Cameron's adviser Steve Hilton heads off for a sabbatical in California, where he will be learning more about governance. However, he is reported in several newspapers to have left a wee parting present, a paper calling for a further £25 billion cut in welfare spending. He wants to see people, particularly single parents, encouraged into full time rather than part time work. No mention is made of how the resulting child care costs would be met, of course. Maybe he hadn't thought of that. The Times (£) reported that these plans had not been shared with the Liberal Democrats ...
I boycotted the last olympics. It was in Beijing. This was because of the latent human rights issues in this country at the time. Also the massive dam building projects have had an adverse impact on the environment. Yet despite this position am I being a little two-faced. After all. China is a nation state. It has a way of life that outsiders may feel is different. Yet they probably feel is appropriate. As a liberal I stand by Mill's theory of letting people get on with things unless their actions impact on others. So when it comes to the ...
[IMG: Radiation Logo] Shepway Liberal Democrats have launched a petition to make it easier to insist Shepway Council end consideration of a hign-level nuclear waste storage facility on Romney Marsh. All signatures on the petition on http://shep.lib.dm/nonucleardump will be handed into Shepway Council before the end of their consultation. The petition makes it easier to encourage others to sign against the new dump as well by offering Facebook, Twitter and email sharing. You can also download a printable form from that page, so that neighbours, friends and family can sign too for returning to a FREEPOST return address. Shepway Lib ...
Earlier today, around 70 of us spent four hours litter picking and removing graffiti right across the West End - from Lochee Road in the north right down to Riverside Drive in the south. Helpers included local residents, community groups, local businesses including Barnetts Motor Group and Tesco Riverside, persons on the Community Payback Scheme, local church groups including Jericho House and Mormon Helping Hands and a group of volunteer students from the University of Dundee. It was great to see such a large group of local people coming together to remove graffiti and litter from the West End. Local ...
Sorry, lovers of The Odanglesex Chronicles - I'd meant to post part 2 of the Away Day today, but all my paragraphing and line spacing is disappearing and does not respond to EDIT. This makes anything of any length, particularly something set out as a series of e-mails, look totally unreadable. I can't see anything in the settings to account for it and right now I don't have time to join the Blogspot community to discuss problems. I'll be out of action here for a couple of weeks and when I return I'll make a major effort to fix it. ...
The ward by ward results for the mayoral referendum have now been published. The results in Acocks Green were as follows: Stick with the current system (No): 3,123 (63.2%) Change to an elected mayor (Yes): 1,816 (36.8%) This was the third highest 'No' vote from the 40 Birmingham wards. Only Stechford and Yardley North (68.5%) and Sheldon (70.4%) were higher. At the other extreme just two wards (Edgbaston and Ladywood) voted (in both cases narrowly) in favour of an elected mayor. Over Birmingham as a whole the No vote won 57.8% of the vote.
Wed 16th
14:30
"We have been through a big global financial crisis, the biggest downturn in world output since the....
"We have been through a big global financial crisis, the biggest downturn in world output since the 1930s, the biggest banking crisis in this country's history, the biggest fiscal deficit in our peacetime history, and our biggest trading partner, the euro area, is tearing itself apart without any obvious solution. The idea that we could reasonably hope to sail serenely through this with growth close to the long-run average and inflation at 2% strikes me as wholly unrealistic... " - Sir Mervyn King
MPs' offices get stacks and stacks of mail. Every day all manner of things arrive, from invitations, to big glossy brochures from various organisations, to letters from constituents, to replies from letters written to various Government bodies on behalf of local residents, to thank you cards when problems have been resolved. Today, Lynne Featherstone's constituency office received a special surprise in the post. Ben and Jerry's, in conjunction with Stonewall, had produced a specially designed ice cream tub, complete with the Equality Minister's photograph and the title Lynne Honeycomb, to show the company's support for Equal Marriage. Sadly for her ...
I answered a question as an Assembly Commissioner a few weeks ago regarding the use of the Assembly estate for growing our own produce. Alas, the Welsh Parliament is situated in a concrete jungle but apparently we do grow our own herbs on one of the Senedd balconies. Naturally, this answer was met with some incredulity and laughter but nowhere near as much as that which Immigration Minister, Damian Green now faces after his explanation for extensive queues at passport control in Heathrow Airport. As the Independent says, Mr. Green yesterday acknowledged that huge queues at the airport may be ...
I was looking at the stats provided bt StatCounter for this blog and could not help but notice that the folks from Mersey Tunnels aka Merseytravel IP 82.71.185.225 are spending an awful lot of time visiting our website. Well if you are reading this watch out for a posting later this week on the governance issues at Merseytravel. Having been taken to task once publically by the District Auditor I was shocked to learn.........
Once again last night I sat in the council chamber at Bootle Town Hall and watched the lamentable labour group dish out their usual brand of "I'm all-right Jack" politics. Yes they now have overall control but the doesn't give them the right to push on regardless of other elected members in the chamber. Bootle labour have taken all cabinet positions (as expected) but they have also decided to take the chairs of all committees, which is bizarre and undemocratic in the extreme. We now have a situation where the Bootle cabinet will make decisions which will be kept in ...
[IMG: Nuclear Storage] Nuclear Storage: Being considered for Romney Marsh The announcement by Shepway District Council that they are consulting on a long term high level nuclear waste storage facility on Romney Marsh has been slammed by local Liberal Democrats. The Liberal Democrats condemnation is shared by local MP Damian Collins and Kent County Council Leader Paul Carter. In an article in Kent Online, Paul Carter describes the idea as 'irresponsible, outrageous and madness'. The Shepway Council consultation website is at http://www.romneymarshnrdf.org.uk A storage facility would hold the highest levels of nuclear waste, which could take millions of years to ...
You learn something new every day. Even at Full Council! The outgoing chair of council, Dennis Morgan, made his year in the chair something of a crusade to promote "Made in Durham" after discovering that the county council's supply of "gifts" for visiting dignatories comprised almost entirely products that were made in China. Whilst I haven't been vouchsafed a look through the cupboard I understand that it now contains souvenirs made in Durham, from chutney to teddy bears, and that is a very welcome move. Caterpillar trucks are a bit too big for the cupboard, but what I learnt today ...
The Independent reports that Liberal Democrat MPs are trying to change the new assessment process for the Personal Independence Payments which will replace Disability Living Allowance. They believe that they may lead to blind people being denied the help that they need. This is a measure introduced by the Welfare Reform Act. The MPs are concerned that the new assessment process focuses on mobility and does not sufficiently take into account the ways in which being blind or partially sighted can affect everyday life. People who have sight loss need the extra help to, for example, help with cleaning, ironing ...
The Independent reports that Liberal Democrat MPs are trying to change the new assessment process for the Personal Independence Payments which will replace Disability Living Allowance. They believe that they may lead to blind people being denied the help that they need. This is a measure introduced by the Welfare Reform Act. The MPs are concerned that the new assessment process focuses on mobility and does not sufficiently take into account the ways in which being blind or partially sighted can affect everyday life. People who have sight loss need the extra help to, for example, help with cleaning, ironing ...
Wed 16th
12:17
The thug Eric Joyce MP defends the thug Joey Barton. Who is surprised? Hands up...anyone? Anyone...?
Everybody's favourite criminal MP and everybody's favourite MP who was first to claim over £1,000,000 in cumulative expenses are in fact the same person. So what has Eric Joyce done to make an appearance on my humble blog? Has he decided to give drink drinking another turn? Not this time. Has he decided he needed to headbutt a few more MPs? Not today. Has he claimed for more money in expenses the Isle of Wight GOP? Nah. This time he has decided that as a nation the fact we disapproved of Joey Barton elbowing someone, then kneeing someone then attempting ...
Potholes are the answer! Yes, after failing to convince the good burghers of Greenwich that voting Lib Dem for a better London was a good idea ("I'd like to hang you from a tree" was one of the responses I got to that suggestion in the street) there's nothing for it but to get pointing ...
After my post yesterday, several people seem to have picked up the meme. And, inevitably, it has evolved. I would like to point out to Jonathan and Nick, who seem to have taken it in a willy-wavey direction, that the reason five posts was chosen is not because I (or Caron) have only been blogging for five years, but because five is a reasonable number of links. The proof: 15th May 2004 blogpost - 8 years ago. Now lets stop it with these ever extending lists, boys. The level of extension doesn't impress anyone :P [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments ...
After Joaquin Rodriguez fast climb through the narrow streets of Assisi we have what after yesterday's medium mountain stage is a 'flat' stage with more climbs. There is a category 3 at about half way and a category 4 11km from the finish as we head from Assisi to Montecatini Terme. However, while today is considered a flat stage it is another finish that may prove hazardous for the sprinters. After scaing the last climb where there is a maximum gradient of 8.5% there is a downhill or flat run to the finish. However, within the last km there are ...
I was wondering how I could amuse readers on my own blog yesterday and I came up with this amazing idea of going back and finding out what I was writing about around this time in previous years. It was only later that I realised that Helen Duffett does this for Liberal Democrat Voice every Friday in the Friday Five . I hope she doesn't mind me borrowing her idea and adding in a little extra spot. What was good about my post yesterday is that a few other Liberal Democrat bloggers got in on the act and I spent ...
My weekday commute takes me through Armley, which lies to the west of Leeds city centre. For the past several weeks, a large billboard which generally advertises a Pets and Aquarium store has been obscured by a poster which stated the following: "Golf is a Passport for a Dirty Weekend Away with the Lads, Wake ...
To the woman who accosted me on my way to the para transit van tonight. « Ballastexistenz What it feels like if you treat someone like a child just because they cannot talk. (tags: disability ) When your child is not welcomed - dealing with jerks Uncaring members of the caring professions. (tags: disability ) Somebody please, for the love of god, fix shipping/couriers A great rant. (tags: ) Morocco/Western Sahara: No Action on Police Beating of Rights Worker "If there is impunity for police who beat up a citizen who works for an international organization in broad daylight, in ...
I heard that a new report by the Trade Union Congress (TUC) is bemoaning that there are literally swathes of men in the South West who have to - gasp! - take part-time work in order to have any job at all. This is being termed 'under employment'. The report lightly smacks of misogyny. It points out that: ...the number of men doing involuntary part-time work has rocketed by 77% to 40,778, while for women the figures are 58,593 - a rise of 47%. I wonder. How many of the men who are currently 'under-employed' were happy to enjoy full-time ...
Being heavily run by the BBC today is the news that the Advertising Standards Authority have finally (After 3 months!) ruled that the Paddy Power "Ladies Day" advert breached their codes. It had already had its clearance by Clearcast, a separate group who pre-vet adverts, withdrawn after the complaints. Complaints fell broadly into three categories: That the advert was offensive, that it caused harm and that it was not socially responsible and the ASA upheld that all three rules had been breached. Highlights from the ASA ruling on being offensive: "We therefore considered that the suggestion that trans people could ...
Every week Liberal Democrat Secretary of State for Scotland writes a column for local newspapers in his Borders constituency. Here is this week's edition. Queen's Speech Last week, we saw the State Opening of Parliament by the Queen. Her Majesty set out the legislation planned for the second session of Parliament following the formation of the Coalition. The legislation outlined in the speech supports our efforts to reduce the deficit, rebalance the economy and put the country on the path to sustainable growth. It also sets out our commitment to provide families, businesses and communities across the country with the ...
In politics, there are some great days when what you campaign for is exactly what happens. Today's announcement of NICE's U-turn on the use of arbiraterone for Prostate Cancer sufferer is one of those days. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18076137 Some 32,500 men are diagnosed and ... Continue reading →
Google Shuts Down Another Conservative Blog: KSM Trial Edition This is one of the reasons I am glad I blog at Dreamwidth. Sure, DW is a small provider, but it has very clear rules and procedures, and very clear methods of dispute resolution. (tags: ) AllSoul's College General Essay Titles If you're stuck for something to blog on, try one of these. (tags: ) Visible Labia Line WTF??? (tags: ) BBC News - ORG: Mobile filters censor innocent content Witness my face of not-surprise (tags: ) Are 9 out of 10 people claiming benefits in parts of Scotland? | Full ...
Residents will recall that I was in correspondence with the Royal Bank of Scotland earlier this year over their detrimental decision to close their student branch at the back of the Student Union on the University of Dundee campus (Balfour Street). After being told by the bank in February that it would not reconsider closing the branch, I asked for at least the commitment that a cash withdrawal facility would be maintained. The bank's Group Customer Relations Executive Roderick Macneil assured me that "... we will be looking to maintain a presence in the area, but as yet our plans ...
Iain Brodie Browne was elected last night (14 May 2012) as the new Leader of the Lib Dem Group on Sefton Council. The Birkdale Councillor had acted as Deputy Leader for the past 5 years. Iain told the Lib Dem Councillors that their job was to robustly challenge the actions of the ruling Bootle group of Labour councillors and to hold them publicly to account for the decisions they take. "I met with Southport's Lib Dem MP John Pugh yesterday to discuss the tough decisions that lie ahead - for example on Libraries, Tourism investment and the Green Belt. Lib ...
A large group of us are getting together later this morning to do a litter and graffiti clean-up of the West End. If you are able to help, just turn up outside Sensation in Greenmarket at 11am. I was on Radio Tay News about this today - click 'play' to listen:
Wed 16th
09:21
Rethinking long term Lib Dem political strategy: Towards returning the Lib Dems to the largest party...
"The dark does not destroy the light, it defines it" (Brene Brown) in the same way that the political right does not destroy the political left (or vice versa), they define each other. The Tories and Labour are inextricably linked to each other through a symbiotic relationship. Some people vote Labour not because they like ...
If, as some campaigners would have us believe, obesity is more of a health risk than smoking, the data suggest that 50 years of massive investment in the public health industry have yielded very little in the way of overall risk reduction. Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – USA I do not believe that the relationship between smoking and obesity rates is simple but this graph suggests that as a society we should at least consider taking a more holistic look at health issues. For far too long now, health policy has been dictated by a dangerous combination ...
Wed 16th
08:55
Police urged to investigate campaign against Labour and Lib Dem councillors in Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes Liberal Democrats are asking the police to investigate campaign leaflets put out during this year's council elections which attacked both Lib Dem and Labour councillors for their views on providing space for Travellers. A series of leaflets were put out during the election attacking named candidates from the two parties, accusing them of putting too much effort into housing Travellers compared to "the homeless, OAPs, and the disabled". Although the leaflets contained a name and phone number, they did not contain the election imprint information required by law on such leaflets. Moreover, credible estimates of the costs involved ...
To go one better than Jonathan Calder, and as a reminder that this blog will be reaching its tenth anniversary next year. Here's what I was writing about on or about the 16th May in previous years: 18th May, 2011: Maths, Hanningfield Style proved that Essex is not larger than Croatia. 16th May 2010: I was about to head to the Birmingham NEC for the Liberal Democrat Special Conference. 15th May 2009: Poem: In search of a gilded benefactor found me singing the ironic praises of Hazel Blears. 10th May 2008: Some fly, some sleep with the fishes as I ...
There were lots of tunes I could have chosen this week, and most of them fell into the genre of "Britpop"... As a special treat, therefore, here are four (yes, four!) tunes for your listening pleasure. Don't say I'm not good to you!: Andrew
At the request of local residents I have raised with the City Council concerns about the poor road surfaces at the west end of Shaftesbury Road - see right - and in parts of Seymour Street - see below. I have asked the Roads Maintenance Partnership for repairs in both streets to improve the road condition.
I am no expert in children with "special needs", "learning difficulties" or whichever "label" you wish to use and my own children have grown up and passed school age. Yesterday's phone-in on 5Live Breakfast was 'Are we too quick to ... Continue reading →
I'm pleased to respond to a request from the West End 26th Scouts to help them get to their 2013 camp in Germany. Dundee Scout supporter, Cory Campbell, is doing a walk around the outside of the 1200 ft CN Tower in Canada to raise funds - and 100% of all donations go directly to the Dundee Scouts. You can donate at www.justgiving.com/CNTower.
It's one of those things that every Lib Dem was dreading to hear: that, even with months of campaigning, their candidate had lost to the Labour candidate. Not more was the hurt felt in Headingley two weeks ago. We — as in Leeds Liberal Youth — had been campaigning hard since last September to ensure that the then-incumbent councillor, Jamie Matthews, was re-elected. Jamie was a superb councillor, and was a better pick to represent students than the Labour candidate. Even after tuition fees. When thousands of students had problems with their internet connection, Labour, with a majority on the ...
Well, firstly, congratulations to all fellow Diablo fans - it has actually happened. Diablo 3 is out in our lifetimes! I was incredibly excited about 15th May. I bought it, downloaded it, had my Diablo 3 t-shirt on and had crazy amounts of caffeine ready.. You all probably already heard that starting to play wasn't ...
Today (Wednesday 16th May) Ealing Council's planning committee will decide whether to allow a set of over 100 flats, rising to 8 stories high, to be built adjacent to the tranquil place of Gunnersbury Triangle. You can see three pictures taken at the recent site visit by the planning committee on Saturday. I was informed that there were over 100 people attending the site visit and that this is the second highest number of residents attending this type of event: Gary Busuttil and over 100 residents at the recent Gunnersbury Triangle planning site visitSouthfield Councillors Andrew Steed and Harvey Rose ...
Yes, it's as addictive as everyone says. Yes, it could become a time sink if you let it. Yes, it can also be incredibly dull, if you let it be. My tips, such as they are, from my usual dive-in-and-do-everything-and-see-what-sticks approach to anything new:Follow only the most interesting people, and be selective about which of their boards you follow - otherwise you will quickly get bored of irrelevant crap filling up your stream, and you will miss stuff if you have a day when you are short of time. Don't follow someone just because they follow you - although obvs ...
John Leech MP and Owen Sharp, Chief Executive of Prostate Cancer Charity Chorlton MP John Leech has spoken of his delight that the prostate cancer drug 'abiraterone' has been approved today for use on the NHS in England and Wales by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). John Leech said, "I am delighted that our campaign to get NICE approval has been successful. This is no doubt down to the hard work of the Prostate Cancer Charity along with the Members of Parliament who supported me in calling for NICE to think again". Working closely ...
Well, after the recent success of #clegginar, spawned from this blog, I have had another brilliant idea. In a couple of years, we're going to be fighting one of the toughest elections ever. Defending our record in the Coalition and so on. We'll need a campaign that is as smooth as a baby's bottom. Our recent ...
