Separation can be painful for lovers, but also a great aphrodisiac: witness the love letters of poets and statesmen. But it's not only the mighty or famous who may be preserved for posterity in their heightened emotions and frustrated desire, viz the correspondence between a certain Reggie — holed up in a military hospital in ...
On Saturday morning I visited Great Glen, the home of Engelbert Humperdinck. He was not there, being busy in Baku at the time. I have seen the end of the village's old High Street from the bus many times, but had never got off to explore it before. It is the sort of street that ought to have a little pub and it was pleased to find that it did: The Royal Oak. At the far end of the street I came across the house pictured above. Having come across the Liberal MP Thomas Tertius Paget at Laughton the other ...
Apparently, if I don't like the fact that Yes Scotland want to take my photo, stick it on their site & imply I'm backing them, I should 'gie's some peace' and stop following Yes Scotland's Twitter account. That's the feedback I got from one Nationalist tweeter. Here's a novel idea - why don't they simply stop misrepresenting people's views. It's quite simple! The number of e-mails circulating with variations of the theme 'cheeky so and sos' between people in the same boat has been quite amusing. It takes some nerve to manipulate the intention of people who have legitimate professional ...
Cambridge MP Julian Huppert MP Julian Huppert, who gained party conference support for his fight for civil liberties, has welcomed the government's decision to scale back plans to hold more court hearings in secret. Julian, who rallied support at the Liberal Democrat's Spring conference for open justice and an end to heavy handed police tactics, says the decision is a victory for the party nationally. The Lib Dems had called for closed hearing to be restricted to cases of national security only. A judge not a minister should decide whether a hearing is closed and it should never apply to ...
I had my probation review this evening, which I was informed of yesterday and hit me like a fist in the stomach: how have I been here only two weeks, and at the same time, how have I been here two weeks already?! Everybody's probation has been extended because the assistant chief instructors, who have to observe us running sessions at least twice before we can pass probation, have been so rushed off their feet that they've barely observed anyone yet. This is good, because I'm still settling into the job really, and it means I get some more practice ...
Congratulations to Lib Dem blogger Mark Cole on becoming Chairman of Ceredigion County Council. Alex's Archives prepares to fight Iain Duncan Smith's reported intention to expand the government's mandatory work programme: "At the moment long-term unemployed people are likely to be out-competed for jobs by those who are recently unemployed and therefore job-ready. In a period of high unemployment beating unemployed people around the head with a stick may give some form of sadistic pleasure, but it is unlikely to do a great deal for either their self-worth or the unemployment statistics." Ceasefire is rightly outraged that Talha Ahsan, Babar ...
Oh dear. I was considering the latest Liberal Democrat Voice survey....as you do. "What Conservative MPs do I admire?" – it asked. Well probably none, but I think I luuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrrrrrvvvvveeeeeeeeeee Ken Clarke. ...Sorry to bring this unsavoury fact out into public, but consider the evidence. There was this morning's glorious performance on Today when he said the idea of an EU membership referendum was "totally irrelevant" and "silly". But, to cap it all, there was this wonderful, superb Guardian front page picture of him enjoying a "day off" at Trent Bridge, an emporirum at which I, myself, have enjoyed hearing ...
I've written several times about the controversial record of Great Ormond Street Hospital Chief Executive Jane Collins, including the claims that mistakes were covered up and the stinging criticism of the hospital's management by The Lancet. Somewhat surprising news then from Marie Curie: Marie Curie Cancer Care has appointed Dr Jane Collins as its new chief executive. She will join the charity on September 1 from Great Ormond Street Hospital... Commenting on Dr Collins' appointment, chairman of Marie Curie's trustees, John Varley, said: "We are delighted Jane is joining us. She brings with her a deep understanding of the NHS, ...
The Order of the Brown Nose, that is. And this is for his marvellous announcement, coming live via satellite from Arslikhan: (Rupert Murdoch) is one of the most impressive and significant figures of the last 50 years ...and, for afters, he says of Paul Dacre: I respect him as one of the most impressive editors of our age [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
This is a wonderful film, on YouTube courtesy of Film Australia. It's a very skilful archive mash-up of film clips from the 1940s to the 1970s which show summer in Australia. Backed by the most wonderful soundtrack it shows an escapist sun-drenched paradise where everyone is drop-dead gorgeous, the surf is always "up", and life is marred only by having to eat Christmas dinner on the beach in 90 degree heat and by the odd bush fire which everyone jolly well joins in to extinguish. This is what us Poms paid ten quid for. And just think, we thought we ...
The Shropshire Star, with commendable objectivity, rubbishes the idea that Ernest Maund of Craven Arms was one of the pioneers of British aviation. But this story reminds me that we really did have such a pioneer here in Leicestershire: Percy Pilcher. Oliver Burkeman told his story in the Guardian some years ago: Percy Pilcher's life ended on September 30 1899, when he was 32, as the result of a rapid and unforeseen reduction in the distance between his homemade wooden glider, the Hawk, and the well-kept lawns of Stanford Hall in Leicestershire. Until that moment, the atmosphere among the moneyed ...
Sir Alan Beith has been north Northumberland's MP for nearly 40 years, but the last two have seen him involved in the hustle and bustle of the Coalition Governmentthe Northumberland Gazette points out, before interviewing him about the current political situation: "I never had any illusions that there wouldn't be a negative effect at least for the first couple of years, because the people who vote for us, if they didn't vote for us, would vote for Labour, as they have a deep distrust of the Tories," said Sir Alan. "Our job is to make sure the Government is a ...
Earlier this year I organised a petition about the 80 and 80a bus services. The issue was that in the evenings and on Sundays, the service wasn't very frequent and actually only gave people the option of going to the airport (when some people wanted to go to other bits of Speke like Morrisons) I went to see Arriva managers about it. As someone who uses the bus service all the time I know just how annoying the Sunday service has been. Anyway, the good news is that we now have more frequent evening service (every 20 mins instead of ...
Remarkable news from Brent, where the Labour-run council's attempts to close libraries has involved snubbing rescue plans put forward by residents. And now this happened overnight at Kensal Rise Library: Council bosses were today accused of "cowardice and deceit" after they stripped a historic library in the early hours to evade campaigners. Up to 15 security guards and 12 police entered Kensal Rise library at about 2am today to empty the library, taking books, photographs, commemorative plaques and murals. The library, opened by Mark Twain in 1900, is one of six in Brent that were axed last year as part ...
It's been a long month since the election and what has been 4 weeks has felt like an eternity - so much has occurred during that time. As a result, this blog has been relatively quiet and in the months ahead, I expect that to be a continuing trend so apologies to regular viewers for the lack of blogging, but time is a commodity of which I am growingly running short. A Historic Change in Ceredigion Why? Well because last Friday, I was given the great honour of becoming Ceredigion's youngest ever Chairman at the age of 29. It brought ...
Last week I attended Google's Big Tent event. I may write about some of the panels later, but I want to focus on how I flummoxed the Minister for Universities and Science – David "Two Brains" Willetts [IMG: David Willetts] (Photo by Paul Clarke) I posited to the Rt Hon Gentleman, that student loans were crippling the high-tech workforce of the country. When I graduated, I was unable to get a bank loan for a technology start-up due to the level of student loan debt I had accumulated. With universities now charging £9,000 per year, graduates would be around £30k ...
It seems that every few days there is another soul-searching LibDem blog or newspaper article asking: "what do we believe in?" "What do we stand for?" "What's the coherent narrative behind the string of 'Lib Dem achievements in government'?" What we need to do is urgently define ourselves in contrast to - not in relation to - the other major parties. What we need to do is build a strong national identity."Individual freedom and power" should be the phrase that the Liberal Democrats adopt to assert their distinctive identity for three reasons. First, the phrase encapsulates our political ideology. Lib ...
A call has been made for representatives of all political parties to work together to help ensure the long term future of Oldham's Whit Friday band contests. Liberal Democrat Euro-MP Chris Davies spoke out after fears were expressed that the ... Continue reading →
Now, dear reader, you may not know me very well, but I would have thought that you would have realised that I was, to say the least, unlikely to be supportive of independence. Why, then, in the name of the wee man (no, not our First Minister), is my photo appearing on the Yes Scotland website under a caption saying "Powered by people o' independent mind, like you"? There I am, fifth from the left.I have to thank Jamie Glackin for disturbing my nice peaceful lunch by telling me about this. Now, it's my Twitter avatar, which made me realise ...
Tue 29th
16:18
Tom Brake MP writes... Justice and Security Bill - a good result for the Lib Dems and Civil Libertie...
Back in April, the Guardian, the Daily Mail and others reported that Nick Clegg, unhappy with the breadth and scope of the Justice and Security Green Paper, and having read the Joint Committee on Human Rights' report into it, had written to Ministerial colleagues setting out his red lines for any Bill to be introduced in the second session. These red lines, as reported at the time, were: That any use of Closed Material Procedures (CMPs) should be restricted to exceptional cases of national security only That they complement, not replace, the current system of Public Interest Immunity (PII) which ...
Joint statement by the opposition on Merseytravel We write in response to the recent press coverage surrounding the governance of Merseytravel and in support of the eight Labour Members who have called on the Chairman of the Authority to resign. When Cllr Joe Hanson was given the lead in reviewing the committee structure, governance of the ITA and the role of the Executive, he had the total support of ALL members of ALL political parties on the ITA. Throughout the whole time of the review, Cllr Hanson was inclusive and he met regularly with us to ensure that, even though ...
I would like to thank everyone who voted for me in May's election. It was a very tiring but also enjoyable experience meeting so many local resident's and I was really looking forward to serving the people of Warley ward. As such it was a real disappointment to lose by only 113 votes. Martin Burton for Labour – 1259 James Baker for Liberal Democrats – 1146 Christopher Pearson for Conservatives – 658 I was particular upset that Labour's leaflets were so nasty accusing the Liberal Democrats who have worked so hard in Warley ward of betrayal crosses the line. Their ...
Liberal Democrat activists have a bit of a love / hate relationship with Huddle, which is used to provide an intranet service to party campaigners. So no jokes please about the venue Vince Cable used recently to launch the GrowthAccelerator scheme to help small and medium sized businesses: [IMG: Vince Cable] The new partnership between the Government and the private sector will see proven business experts working with companies to identify their barriers to growth and how to overcome them. This will include tackling problems such as: Securing finance. Commercialising innovation. Developing leadership. Management capability. Business Secretary Vince Cable launched ...
When I first became aware of politics the world was looking towards Obama as a beacon of hope and change. As an 18 year old it was inspiring enough to want to change the world and campaign against inequality. However since I have gained further exposure, it has become apparent that politics attracts a disproportionate amount of young, careerist men. I refer to the likes of David Miliband, brought up in Hampstead yet representing the safe Labour seat of South Shields (which has a child poverty rate of 28%). When people say they don't see a difference between the three ...
Tue 29th
14:35
The 'Pasty Tax' is dead, is the 'Charity Tax' next? Fingers-crossed for the next Coalition budget U-...
Yesterday it was the 'Pasty Tax' which proved indigestible to the Coalition — the Government U-turned on a tax which would have proved unworkable in reality. Now there are rumours of a second budget reversal, with Tory MP David Ruffley telling BBC News: "I think the political management here really does demand that there is some lessening of the hit to charities that his cap involves. It wouldn't surprise me if in the November Autumn Statement there is some change." Let's hope so. The 'Charity Tax' was an exemplum of unintended consequences, with the Lib Dems taking aim at tax-avoiding ...
National Grid's decision to underground only a quarter of the pylon route from Bramford to Twinstead is extremely disappointing. Pylons were introduced in the 1960s – 60 years ago. It beggars belief that they are still taking the same approach to electricity transmission more than half a century later. The twelve miles of new overhead lines which will be built as a result of their decision will blight both countryside and communities along its route. The story is covered in today's East Anglian Daily Times and some route details are given on National Grid's website. I and my Lib Dem ...
After writing my earlier post explaining that blogging will be light over the next few days, I proceeded to schedule posts through to Sunday, leaving only Monday and Tuesday for me to sort out tonight... as such, blogging may not be so light as I led you to believe (although I still haven't written my planned peace on the SNP's referendum campaign; hopefully I'll get a chance to write this before I get back online.) For now, though, because I don't have anything original to post, here are links to my posts from the 29 May for the last two ...
Many of you reading this will know that this blog talks about politics a lot but politics isn't just confined to political parties or elected officials but politics can also describe what is going on in my apartment block at the moment. I live in a nice, quiet block of 24 dwellings in Thorpe Bay in Southend-on-Sea. I have lived here for two years now and I like it here. However there has been a cold war between certain people and that is reaching its peak and whilst I was away wondering where the hell the fountain in Waterlooville precinct ...
Tue 29th
13:45Clegg's triple whammy: intervenes on secret trials, slams those who 'bowed' to Murdoch, calls for re...
If Nick Clegg has time to keep a diary of his time in government (which I doubt) I'd like to pre-order it now. The principle of collective cabinet responsibility, together with the reciprocated determination of he and David Cameron to maintain an effective working relationship, means we don't often see the reality of the behind-the-scenes battles between the Lib Dems and Conservatives. Those which are made public — such as Nick's very public disagreement with the Prime Minister's veto-that-wasn't at December's EU summit — are deftly agreed in advance, allowing some grown-up differentiation to emerge. But today we see three ...
As the Executive Member for Economic Growth and Regeneration (and try saying that after a few pints) I'm very excited about Stockport being one of the twelve Portas Pilot towns across the country. That we won is a testament to the hard work of a whole range of people from Council officers to the town's businesses and landlords and those keen to promote a growing creative sector in our town. I'm looking forward to working with all those people and many more over the coming months as we establish our Town Team and start turning the good ideas and high ...
Tesco's main store at Yate will be open as follows during the Jubilee Bank Holiday weekend: Friday 1 June - 24 hour openingSaturday 2 June - open until midnightSunday 3 June - open 10.00 am to 4.00 pmMonday 4 June - open 9.00 am to 6.00 pmTuesday 5 June - open from 6.00 am, then 24 hour opening
In a couple of weeks I am taking part in a round table discussion about scrap metal thefts, and as a member of the Transport Select Committee, I know that Scrap Metal Theft has become a major problem over recent ... Continue reading →
Regular readers may know that I'm not a big fan of Valkee – the magic light you shine in your ears to improve your mood. Back in September, I complained to the ASA about the Valkee website. I felt that it was making unfounded claims, was confusing testimonial with science, and was generally misleading. In December, the ASA referred it to their counterparts in Finland for investigation. Today, I received this back from them. As you know, we previously referred your complaint about Valkee Ltd to our Finish counterparts. I've now heard back from MEN, and in summary they state ...
If you doubt the Liberal Democrat influence in this Coalition Government, look no further than today's news about how the Government has moderated its plans on secret courts in three important ways at the insistence of Nick Clegg. The key concessions won by the Liberal Democrats are:inquests have been removed from the plans judges rather than ministers to make call about whether secret evidence can be usedthe definition of when they can apply is narrowed from public interest to national securityNow, I'd say most liberals and Liberals will still feel very queasy about plans to use the "Closed Material Procedures" ...
From today's Sun (the newspaper with the largest number of Lib Dem voters amongst its readers): NEW rules are to make it easier for working parents to use their 15 hours a week of free childcare. Deputy PM Nick Clegg will this week announce the system is to be more flexible for mums and dads who start work early or finish late. Under current rules, parents can only take their free nursery care between 8am and 6pm. But many people struggle to make this fit in with their shifts. The time limit will now be extended by two hours, letting ...
As avid readers of Lib Dem Voice will know, tackling the scourge of empty homes has been high up my agenda since entering government. Empty Homes bring down communities, and doing something to tackle this growing problem was one of our big housing "asks" in the coalition negotiations. Previous governments hadn't paid empty homes much heed at all, with the numbers left to soar, peaking in 2008 at 783,000. Labour's failed Pathfinder scheme had set out to demolish thousands of homes, but ran out of cash, leaving some families marooned on what had become "ghost streets". I was determined that ...
We write in response to the recent press coverage surrounding the governance of Merseytravel and in support of the eight Labour Members who have called on the Chairman of the Authority to resign. When Cllr Joe Hanson was given the lead in reviewing the committee structure, governance of the ITA and the role of the Executive, he had the total support of ALL members of ALL political parties on the ITA. Throughout the whole time of the review, Cllr Hanson was inclusive and he met regularly with us to ensure that, even though we were minority groups, our views and ...
BBC Newsnight are to carry out a new investigation into the case of a Trinidad-born British citizen jailed 25 years ago for a crime many people believe he did not commit. Krishna Maharaj was sentenced to death in 1987 for ... Continue reading →
I am waiting for my chicken kiev with garlic sauce to cook, and while doing so I have been lurking on Facebook. I saw a link about Kilbeggan Whiskey. I'd not heard of that one before: I was interested. Opened back in 1757, the Old Kilbeggan Distillery is the oldest licensed whiskey distillery in the ...
For many years Adrian Slade has interviewed prominent Liberal Democrats. To mark his recent decision to make his archive of the interview recordings available to researchers and other interested parties, Lib Dem Voice is running a selection of his write-ups of interviews from over the years. The latest is with Shirley Williams, from 2002 when she was Liberal Democrat leader in the House of Lords. Perhaps it is not surprising that Shirley Williams picks election day in October '64 as the high point of her long political career. That was when, after three tries, she not only became a Labour ...
Went this morning to a Chatham House briefing (http://www.chathamhouse.org/events/view/183213) on "Nuclear Non-Proliferation: Towards a WMD Free Zone in the Middle East". The idea of a nuclear-weapon-free Middle East was first developed by some Israeli thinkers as long ago as 1962. As was said today, there is no room for starry-eyed optimism on this topic, but discussing it (and discussing how we might achieve it) is better than not discussing it. This at a time when we have to be worried about the fate of whatever chemical weapons might be in Syria, Iran's nuclear weapons ambitions and the possible poor state ...
Tue 29th
10:34
Secret trials, women bishops, Cornish pasties, the Vatican, and a judge's son with cocaine
Just some of the stories that caught my eye this morning when reading The Times. Filed under: Blogging Tagged: Cornwall, England, George Osborne, Pasty, Protected Geographical Status, Times, Value-added tax, Vatican city
The Lib Dem team have been out and about over the last week cleaning up the public noticeboards in Cheadle & Gatley. We've given them a good clean and cleared off all the out-of-date and commercial advertising that shouldn't be there. Unfortunately, it proved a little beyond our cleaning skills to restore them to their original glory – some old tape and glue marks proved too stubborn and the plastic coating is breaking away in places – but they're a lot better than they were. We're looking for local volunteers who can adopt a noticeboard. We think it's no more ...
Pseudoscience And The Natural History Museum (tags: ) BBC News - Diamond Jubilee: You in '52 So apparently I listened to bebop and wore slacks. I hope they were Action Slacks (tags: ) Lib Dems and alcohol prices: A message from a 'hazardous' drinker | Speaker's Chair Agree completely with most of this. Frankly, what I think we should be doing is treating Scotland as an experiment, that we can replicate if it works. Which I am dead set certain it won;t. (tags: ) THE MACHINE STOPS ... E.M. Forster Oh I love turn of the previous century scifi so ...
Locally Listed Buildings in the District can now be identified online on St Albans City and District Council's map-based information website, known as the Local Information Service. A Locally Listed Building is a property which the Council has identified as making a positive contribution to the character or appearance of the conservation area where it is located. Local Listing is different from the national Statutory List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest designated by English Heritage. Locally listed buildings do not have the same level of protection as nationally Listed Buildings. Developers and residents will now be able ...
For all the pomp and circumstance that occurred around Tony Blair's return to making the headlines, an awful lot of newspaper coverage has been given to not a lot. However, he did say some things which the Lib Dems could indeed learn from. Ask yourself this question: If 0 is the Lib Dems have no ...
The South Gloucestershire Equalities Forum is running a series of pop-up workshops looking at employment and equalities issues: 'I'm unemployed. Is it just because I'm a woman?' Southern Brooks Community Partnership will be running this workshop on Monday 11 June, 6.30pm at Coniston Community Centre, The Parade, Coniston Road, Patchway, BS34 5LP. 'I'm unemployed. Is it just because I'm Black?' Chinese? Asian?' SARI (support against racist incidents) will be running this workshop on Tuesday 12, 6.30pm at Filton College WISE Campus, New Road, Stoke Gifford, Bristol BS34 8LP. 'I'm unemployed. Is it just because I'm too young?' Filton College will ...
As tweeted yesterday, I've just completed a new WordPress plug-in to show rotating tweets. It's easy to add using a widget or a shortcode in a post or on a page such as: [rotatingtweets screen_name="mpntod"] and, as a result, you get: Giving a credit to @sydlawrence re: my new plug-in. Although given the references on his site, it feels a bit lame! :-) bit.ly/K8Touf About 8 minutes ago from Martin Tod's Twitter via web Blog post: New twitter plugin - to show tweets in rotation goo.gl/fb/3iUgw About 1 hour ago from Martin Tod's Twitter via Google How does UK employee ...
Last night Scotland Tonight was looking at the best Scottish movie of the Queen's reign and came up with the harrowing and gripping Trainspotting. I watched that on video on a Sunday afternoon and was traumatised by it. It always tops these sorts of polls and it deserves to, having been nominated for an Oscar. It's hard to argue with that choice - although for me, first love never dies and Gregory's Girl (and that penguin). But if you're looking for Scots born input into movies, may I introduce you to a man called Peter Lindsay who's worked on the ...
A recent survey by a consumer watchdog has found that more than 40 per cent of park homes residents have said that they feel unable to sell or buy their home freely due to a fear of site operators blocking sales. Consumer Focus Wales has discovered that almost two-thirds (62 per cent) of park home residents in Wales who were interviewed have experienced problems on their site in the past five years, while 29 per cent have experienced problems with site maintenance, security or safety standards. Local councils have also told the consumer watchdog that penalties are not severe enough ...
Last night I was pleased to hear, from a reliable sources, a rumour that the Home Office proposals for secret courts and secret trials were to be scrapped. And, lo and behold, today the story appears that they will indeed be scrapped - thanks to pressure from the Liberal Democrats. So, as I go into work on Tuesday morning (the day of the week that science says is the most depressing) I'm very glad I've got something like this to put a smile on my face. Because, put bluntly, the arguments for having secret courts were complete codswallop. The idea ...
As reported in today's Courier, the Scottish Liberal Democrats have chosen Dundee as the venue for their three day Spring Conference in 2013. I am delighted to learn that my party has decided to again have its party conference in Dundee and all the more pleased that the West Park Centre - right in the middle of the West End Ward - has been chosen at the conference venue, with local hotels such as the Invercarse Hotel and the many high quality guest houses in the area benefitting for the 500-600 people who visit Conference every Spring. Not only is ...
Yesterday, I attended the latest meeting of the City Council's School Parking and Pupil Safety Working Group. Following the initial meeting of the group before the recent City Council elections, a number of site visits to schools have taken place and feedback from these - along with risk assessments of schools' parking and drop-off facilities across the city - were discussed yesterday. I was keen to emphasise that drop-off and parking arrangements at the new West End schools project - on the former Logie Secondary site at Glenagnes Road/Blackness Road - must be fully resolved before St Joseph's Primary School, ...
I'm moving house on Friday and lose access to Broadband for a week as of Wednesday... as a result, blogging will be light. I have, however, scheduled a number of posts and, subject to there being a lack of glitches in Blogger, these will hopefully go up OK - if not, feel free to comment but don't expect a swift response!
Yesterday I launched the consultation on my private members bill on Mobile Homes in Wales. This video tells you more: If you want to respond to this consultation then you can read the document here.
What a FABULOUS day! A VERY happy Quins fan First, I have to explain my clothing choices. When I signed up for this race, I had NO IDEA that my beloved rugby team, the Harlequins, would be playing in the championships of the English Premiership. For all the Americans - basically, it was the rugby Super Bowl. So, I got up at 7am to watch the first half, thinking that my friend would meet me at 7:45 and we'd head out to the race. Said friend pulled out, which meant that I got to watch the first 15 minutes of ...
... no one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity. I have always taken the use of the term "enslaved" in the Preamble to the Liberal Democrat Federal Constitution to be figurative, given that slavery was formally abolished in England in 1833. But while reading yesterday's Observer I was struck by the thought that perhaps we need to revisit the issue rather more literally. Under the headline Coalition to step up its work-for-free programme Daniel Boffey and Toby Helm report that in the next fortnight Iain Duncan Smith is planning to launch an expansion of his mandatory work programme ...
