So I was leafing through my internet reading list and there appeared a post from the blog of someone who I still kind of think of as a child, even though she'd probably find that incredibly insulting. Lets call her a teenager. Name redacted to protect the guilty. And there are pictures on there of a very naked man - someone famous that this person has a crush on, screencapped from a film in which he appears full-frontal naked. And my brain goes, in quick succession"I wonder if her mother knows she's posting pictures like that?" "OMG I can't believe ...
This is the first Chelsea trophy I can remember: beating Don Revie's Leeds United (AKA The Evil Empire) in the FA Cup final after a replay. This video shows the three goals from the replay. Note the sublime chip from Charlie Cooke (my hero in those days) and diving header from Peter Osgood that led to the first goal. And note the incredible throw in from Ian Hutchinson that led to David Webb's winner. Makes Rory Delap look at bit tame, doesn't he? It is sad to think that neither Osgood nor Hutchinson (nor Peter Houseman who scored in the ...
While I was at today's St Paul's Community Day helping out with the Winchester Churches Night Shelter stand, I was given a leaflet about the St Paul's Church Community Consultation. They want people's views on how the buildings and open spaces beside the church could be updated and improved to serve the Fulflood community better. If you'd like to respond, the questionnaire is available online via
As part of the European Bike Friendly Cities project Cambridgeshire County Council is looking at increasing the number of one-way streets in Cambridge City that allow two-way cycling. This has recently been made a lot easier to do in that a new plate, "except cycles", can now be added to the standard no-entry signs. Here is a list of the streets involved; Panton Street Brookside Norwich Street Coronation Street Mercers Row Swanns Road New Square (south) St Eligius Street Mount Pleasant Shelley Row Albion Row Perowne Street Emery Road Emery Street Argyll Street (west) Cockburn Street Sedgewick Street Catherine Street ...
As I occasionally note, I tend to learn new things on a regular basis now that I am a country dweller full time. And today, it's all been about birds. Firstly, I have been reminded that, if you leave an opportunity for our feathered friends, they will take it. I was somewhat surprised by a close range blur from an unexpected quarter. On closer inspection, a hole in a porch (not ours, I hasten to add) has been colonised by starlings, or 'feathered rats', as Richard, our builder refers to them. And, it seems, they're pretty noisy. It just shows ...
The University of Bath website has a podcast of a public lecture about Richard Jefferies by the photographer Roger Vlitos. More about Roger Vlitos on his own website. And more about Richard Jefferies (about whom I wrote my Masters dissertation) in a Liberal England guest post by Rebecca Welshman.
Harris Academy A concert has been arranged in Dundee West Church on Thursday 14th June at 7.30pm by pupils from Harris Academy and associated Primary Schools. It includes the School Orchestra, School Wind Band, School Guitar Group, Choirs, Soloists, and Pipers. It will be a great evening and all local residents welcome!
One would expect the usual attack on the leader of an opposing political party on a blog site like this. Chris Roberts, the leader of Greenwich Council, has attracted a lot of criticism over his autocratic style and his decisions, both from within his own party as well as from rivals. He has also not been ...
Perhaps some less serious points made here about the Leveson Inquiry into media regulation than were made by my Co-Editor Mark Pack here — but enjoy nonetheless... (Available on YouTube here.) * Stephen Tall is Co-Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice, and also writes at his own site, The Collected Stephen Tall.
I'm amazed at the extent of feedback from the item I put on my blog on Thursday, following the sad passing of Donna Summer, giant of 70s and 80s disco. In fact, I have not had such a huge response in terms of comments, e-mails, etc to an article since the 2008 item I had on Dusty Springfield's 'All I See Is You'. It sort of got me thinking about the disco greats I loved at the time and - with Eurovision 2012 next week - its probably rather appropriate to have a new musical theme for the week - ...
We are heading towards a degree of consensus regarding at least one part of the mess that is the UK's housing system. Pretty much everyone agrees that there needs to be a significant increase in the supply of new properties. Some have arrived at this view from the perspective of the potential positive impact it could have on macroeconomic performance and national infrastructure. Others would seek to highlight that some of the problematic characteristics of the housing market flow from poor housing supply response. There isn't quite so much agreement on the solution. The Government gives the appearance of believing ...
Yesterday, following my raising concerns that the latest City Council new recycling kerbside collection pilot excluded the West End Ward (and two of the other seven wards in Dundee), I met with the City Council's Environment Director and the Head of Environmental Protection regarding the matter. We had a useful discussion and I did obtain assurances that the department aims to swiftly roll out the facility to as many 'viable' houses as possible, hopefully this financial year. It is expected that a report will go to the council's Environment Committee later in the year regarding the roll-out programme and I ...
The Ukulele is an instrument which is hard to take seriously. In the national consciousness it will always be associated with George Formby, leaning on lamp-posts and cleaning windows. The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain embraces the reputation of the instrument whilst, simultaneously, demonstrating it's great versatility. Most of the numbers they perform are done to comic effect; Weetus' Teenage Dirtbag is quite a straight cover version but is nonetheless somewhat incongruous given a backing of seven various Ukuleles, The Sex Pistol's Anarchy is more of a full-on parody. There are eight members in the group, playing a range of ...
Filed under: Blogging
Sat 19th
18:15
Lib Dem Patrick Streeter to stand for City of London election uncontested for 100 years
Just a few weeks after the fierce battle for the London mayoralty concluded, a very different election is due to take place — an election which hasn't even been contested for more than a century. But now London Lib Dem member Patrick Streeter is standing for the post of City Auditor, and promising to ask some tough questions, according to an email received by the Voice this week: Patrick Streeter of Tower Hamlets Liberal Democrats is contesting an interesting election on June 25. Each year the City of London Corporation elects its auditors, although the position has not been contested ...
I have written before about how great the Sky Sports coverage is but the piece wasn't just about praise. It was entitled Why mess with nigh-on perfection? *glares at Sky Sports Test Cricket* and the main crux of the issue was the addition of Nick Knight to the rotation of commentators for Sky Sports Test Cricket coverage. Well the summer Test season started on Thursday and sadly for this (and many cricket fans) Nick Knight is still on the team. I don't know Nick Knight and I certainly don't have any personal vendetta against him but the truth is he ...
H/T to @Callumjonesblog for this brilliant reaction from Nick to something he didn't really like from the PM last week... And actually - while we're at LOL moments... And less we forget just why that's funny...
The government is bringing back to life earlier talk about removing the rent subsidy for those in social housing whose household income is over £60,000. At the moment, rents in social housing are capped at 80% of the market value, but with around 34,000 homes in England occupied by families with a household income of over £60,000 the government is commencing a consultation on removing the 80% limit for them: Government research shows that as many as 6,000 social rented homes in England are lived in by people who earn a combined income of more than £100,000, including Bob Crow, ...
There's no prize at stake - just the opportunity to prove you're wittier than any other LDV reader... Remember the Rose Garden? It must all seem such a long time ago to Tory leader David Cameron pictured here giving Nick Clegg the evils. What do you think might be being said or thought by or about them? And the winners of our last caption comp is... Some fantastic entries for our most recent caption competition, Boris & Dave "Happily ever after" Edition. The winner, according to The Voice's judging panel of one, was this one by Simon Banks: Boris: He ...
Banana-chocolate chip cake 100g butter 200g sugar 2 to 3 medium size ripe bananas, pureed 2 eggs 1 tsp vanilla extract 250g flour 1 tsp baking soda 125 ml natural unsweetened yogurt ½ tsp salt 100g chocolate chips Grease a cake pan with a little butter and flour. Preheat your oven at 180°C. Whip the butter and slowly add the sugar until the mixture is creamy. Add the banana puree, the eggs and the vanilla. Mix well. In a big bowl, mix the flour, the baking powder, the salt and the chocolate chips then add this to the first mixture. ...
I have a terrible habit. I buy Private Eye on a Saturday and then go and read it in a pub or cafe. I can't help it, but sooner or later I read a bit that makes me laugh out loud. Then people look round as if I am certifiable, which is possible. Today it happened in a very nice cafe in Oxford. I was holding out quite well and got as far Page 7 without a titter. Then I read a story about Dereck Chisora and David Hayes and the aftermath of their altercation in Munich. Modifying a regular ...
The BBC is one of this country's greatest institutions. Every so often, though, it does something makes me come over a bit Daily Mail. There are two main areas in which it manages to achieve this. Firstly, BBC Three's programming leaves me, for the most part, baffled and wondering whether it is worth spending the licence fee on. There, however, I am outside the target demographic and would need to step back and look at things in the round in order to make an objective judgement. The second area is in the reporting of economic news and statistics. This sometimes ...
Today, as Cornwall sees the Olympic Torch make its way through, all Cornwall Council car parks are free for the day. This is a great initiative which also applies to those ares (like Launceston) which the torch procession is not coming near. The shame is that the publicity in the car parks is so terrible that many drivers have ended up paying when they didn't need to. The first picture shows the ticket machine and information board at the Walk House car park in Launceston. Can you see the information advising people that they don't have to pay? In fact, ...
Sat 19th
13:55Were you a 2012 election candidate? Then don't forget to fill in The Election Centre's questionnaire
If, like me, you were one of the 12,000 people who was a candidate in 2012′s local elections you may have received a letter recently from Plymouth University's Elections Centre, run by Professors Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher, inviting you to take part in an online questionnaire: This year the centre has ran its seventh annual candidate survey for the Local elections. Over 12,000 candidates stood for election to local government this year and we are lucky enough to have sampled 6,450 of them (i.e. sent a letter inviting them to participate in the survey). We do this to collate ...
928 wpm according to this test.
Now if dogs could talk, what would they say about their owners? It's not an original though, Robbie Burns certainly had in back in the 18th century [IMG: Posted by Picasa] In the midst of all the hectic election activity in April it was good to hear from the Birkdale blogs old friend Roy Connell, He wrote to say, well let him speak for himself: ...... the reason I am contacting you is that there have been no Dog blogs of recent times , so perhaps you could consider this one . We lost Rosie in October , one of ...
Back in 2010 I took up the issue of paperwork gone mad at the Ministry of Justice, using a series of Freedom of Information requests to reveal the ludicrously over-bureaucratic safe driving polices in place at the MoJ: Despite the government's rhetoric of cutting bureaucracy, the Ministry of Justice - one of the largest Whitehall departments and responsible for many important administrative systems - is spectacularly failing to set a good example with its own hugely bureaucratic approach to health and safety when people are driving as part of their work according to information I've unearthed in a series of ...
North West Hampshire Conservative Association. As mentioned in the previous post, the lies are not as offensive as the ones Labour use, but you get the impression these were written by someone who has possibly never been to Basingstoke and Deane. The Tory claims are in blue and numbered as they appear on the leaflet, reality is in black 1. Conservatives froze Council Tax, Labour and Lib
...was last Saturday. Does it get any better than this? May Pole Dancing, steam organs, coconut shy's, merry-go-rounds, a helterskleter and OF COURSE THERE WERE MORRIS DANCERS
New Plaid Cymru Leader, Leanne Wood's avowed intention to form a united front against public spending cuts received a setback yesterday, when the sort of tribalism she is seeking to combat kicked in and the Unite union rejected her advances. According to the BBC Andy Richards, who is Wales secretary of Unite, accused her of an "opportunistic publicity stunt", believing that somehow next week's Wales TUC conference in Llandudno is of national significance and will command the attention of the entire Welsh nation. In fact it won't and to be fair to the Plaid Cymru leader, making such a suggestion ...
$300 Worth of Books for Only $50: The 2012 Hugo Voter Packet Has Been Released #fb Hooray! (tags: sf )
In a couple of weeks, it will be the Queen's Diamond Jubilee weekend. Aside from being an opportunity to have an additional Bank Holiday and celebrate the service Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II* has done for this country**, it has also provided a number of commercial opportunities. Coupled with the sponsorship opportunities of the British Olympic Team in this London Olympics year and all sorts of products and services are promoting their Britishness. From the humble sandwich - Sainsbury's are phasing in boxes which feature the Union Flag and include "Jubilee Chicken" (an update of Coronation Chicken), Tesco have a ...
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 ...
Sexual correctness gone mad | Martin Robbins | Science | guardian.co.uk "mainstream media outlets are engaged in an extraordinary effort to define and enforce incredibly narrow standards for sexual behaviour, preferences and beauty, to the detriment of both women and men." - Marin Robbins develops his feminism. (tags: ) BBC News - Twitter backs browser privacy project +1 for twitter over faceache (tags: ) Heresy Corner: Get out of jail free? (tags: ) How inclusive are the teams are your workplace? (tags: ) On Female Characters: This Isn't Highlander. There Can Be More Than One. "There can be more than ...
You don't often see politicians redirecting their gaze at election time. However, the Aberystwyth University Liberal Democrats spent the early days of May raising money and awareness for a disease that is renowned for afflicting young people, many of which are students. What the AULD had planned was to raise money for the Multiple Sclerosis Resource Centre (MSRC) through cross-party football, selling cakes on an industrial scale and using social media to promote their cause. It's fair to say, we could not have expected such a successful campaign, let alone such a whirlwind of support from students and University staff. ...
Sat 19th
09:15
Hibs v Hearts, or Hearts v Hibs, or whatever, in the Cup Final - a proud day for Edinburgh
I can see many of you who know me cringe at the thought I'm going to write about football. I'm not. I only care about it when it involves Inverness Caley Thistle. However, I know how I feel when the last race of the F1 season approaches and there are still four drivers who could win the title. The butterflies in my stomach, the anticipation, the seemingly interminable wait for the race to start but yet not wanting it to be over, the speculation with friends over every possible conclusion. This sort of thing is a really enjoyable part of ...
...that I wrote last week and forget to post on my own website. Doh! The Lib Dems must not accept the snoopers' charter If the bill increases interference in our everyday lives, the party must walk away. Seeing as it's only seven short days since the worst set of election results since, well, last year, it's been a pretty good week for the Lib Dems, thanks to a Queen's speech that's not so much yellow-tinged as basking in an all-encompassing golden hue.And while Conservative commentators may not like it much, there is an apparent acceptance that for the next year ...
Amateur Photographer reports: Amateur Photographer (AP) can exclusively reveal that Glasgow Subway passengers will be told they must 'not take photographs, or make video, audio or visual recordings on any part of the subway'. The ban is contained in Section 12.1 of proposed byelaws drawn up by the system's operator, Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT). The new rules add: 'The only exception to byelaw 12.1 is if a passenger has the written permission of SPT in relation to the activity.'... The crackdown will apply to all parts of the underground system, including trains and areas owned by SPT, even above ...
South Gloucestershire Council will be closing the A431 road through Bitton, Longwell Green and Hanham, from 4pm for approximately two hours on 22 May. Anyone who normally uses this road is advised to plan their alternative route accordingly. Most bus services will try to run to schedule as much as possible, but please be prepared for some disruption. The majority of bus services will operate the
And instead of four tons of glitter, have five links instead: How Common Is Your Birthday? – An interesting diagram showing which days of the year see the most and fewest births (data from the US only, though). Interesting to note the troughs around certain holidays and the 13th of the month. If the younger generation won't bother to vote, it's no wonder the policies don't favour them – A quite honest assessment of the situation from the Tory Reform Group blog. Why Sacha Baron Cohen Deserves The Nobel Prize – It's a somewhat eclectic position to take, but Gavin ...
What a really nice thing to happen! Ben and Jerry sent an ice cream tub to my constituency (in matching box with a personal message) with my photo on it – and the flavour named as 'Lynne Honeycomb'. You can see it here. I hasten to add – no actual ice cream was in the tub – which as it came through the post is a very good thing. The government consultation on equal marriage will close on June 14 – so do visit the Home Office website where you can access the consultation to make sure you get your ...
Strange what you find when you are poodling about on YouTube... [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
