The European Parliament is little understood and in England, at least, much misrepresented. This is largely the fault of the British media, most of which either ignores or lampoons the institution. But many UK politicians — including some MEPs — share the blame. One expects UKIP to be misleading and nasty; after all, they want ...
Tue 5th
23:08
Bombing the wrong targets: The German Luftwaffe in Africa and the Mediterranean 1941-2 Pt II
By the beginning of 1941 the Wehrmacht was undefeated on the Continent of Europe and had swept away all opposition. OKW were doing their utmost to force Britain and her Empire to surrender. In fact the Fuhrer HQ couldn't understand why the British continued to fight considering the defeats the Army had faced. With Britain's capitol under air attack, the island under Naval blockade it became necessary to start looking at British colonies. This was further added to the Italian's absolute failure in Libya. General O'conner's advances in 1940 with its superior Matilda tank nucleus pushed the Italian army all ...
I wonder, cock up or what? I appreciate that somehow Thanet's gone crazy in recent times over parking policy, something which anywhere else would be just be one of those awful inconveniences. Knowing that parking has been a hot topic,seemingly coinciding with an era of politics, in which Thanet council looks to have embraced the eccentric, self centred, and in some case frankly wild-eyed nuts, I'm tempted to steer clear but what the hell. Seeking to have a couple of hours of strolling about doing nothing, I thought where to go, Ramsgate! the Harbour is always, so different, from my ...
"Slavery and exploitation are sadly alive and well in the UK.That is the obvious conclusion to be drawn from the Guardian's revelations that the company contracted to provide stewards for the Jubilee events in London bussed unemployed people and apprentices into the city, where they worked without adequate toilet facilities and were instructed to sleep rough under London Bridge." A Scottish Liberal on this morning's Guardian story. Working Memories offers a sane reaction to the Jubilee: "It's days like these which really bring out some baffling contradictions and absurdities: and it's days like these when I realise that this is ...
Just fancy that! Me in The New Statesman, commenting on the Labour motion on Hunt... While bias may not be the undoing of Hunt, there's a second charge looming - that he misled Parliament, both regarding his alleged attempts to interfere in the process while Cable had responsibility for it, and then when he said in the House in March 2011 that he had published "all the documents relating to all the meetings, all the consultation documents, all the submissions we received, all the exchanges between my department and News Corporation".... which I would suggest may have been a little ...
This afternoon, I had the pleasure of attending another West End Diamond Jubilee Party - this time at the Pennycook Lane Sheltered Housing Complex off Perth Road and involving the sheltered tenants at both Sinderins Court and Pennycook Court. It was a lovely, friendly and enjoyable afternoon - here's a few photos: And - later on - I attended the superb Community BBQ at the Friary on Tullideph Road, organised by City Church. Well over 600 local folk attended and a great time was had by all - again a few photos: This evening, I had a really useful meeting ...
Here are the details of how Stockport Council will spend nearly £10 million for the year 2012-13 on improving transportation across the Borough. This includes improvements to roads and pavements, structures and drainage as well as a number of other items. It doesn't include the extra £1 million the Lib Dems have allocated to spending on repairing potholes – the work to decide where to spend that money will be completed over the next month or so. Transportation Capital Programme 2012-13
Did you see what I did there? I capitalised the extra to make it sound more exciting and important than it really is. Yes folks following the worldwide acclaim* of my first entry on this subject entitled The (quite) interesting and bizarre world of online dating I was asked if I had any more stories to tell. Well actually I do. After I wrote the first piece I noticed I had in fact missed out on a few stories and in this era of putting my deepest darkest secrets** on the blog I thought 'what the heck?' and decided to ...
[IMG: Park Theatre] On Friday, I visited the building site for the new Park Theatre for the first time. I'd heard about this amazing plan to build a new commercial theatre in Finsbury Park, but I didn't know much about it until the visit. Two of the directors (Jez Bond and Andrew Fishwick – pictured) presented their plans to a small audience of local councillors in what they hope will be new Theatre's education room. A new 200 seat commercial theatre on Clifton Terrace will be a massive asset to our area, helping to change the image of Finsbury Park ...
Council Leader Derek Osbourne: Human statue:
The jolly gentleman who I use in this icon is the great Irish astronomer Sir Robert Stawell Ball, probably the best known populariser of astronomy in the British Empire (and possibly America too) of the later Victorian era; he was Astronomer Royal for Ireland from 1874 to 1892, and then director of the Cambridge Observatory until his death in 1913. I had the great pleasure of going through his archives while doing my M Phil back in the summer of 1991. In his best-selling book, The Story of the Heavens, he has quite a long section on the 1882 transit ...
Nobody of a nervous or sensitive disposition should click on this link, which shows a 47 year old man, approximately six foot in height, and weighing around 13 stone, being hospitalised by a professional wrestler, standing 6 foot six inches tall, weighing about 20 stone and aged 25 years old. It is the sort of mismatch that professional wrestling bodies are created to prevent and it is little wonder that the wrestler, Kade Callous has been suspended for 30 days for his part in this farce. What is difficult to understand is what Lembit Őpik thought he was doing getting ...
This is a story about Estonia. Which puts a more positive viewpoint on balancing government finances. Those doctors threatening to strike need to explain why they should be exempt from the effects of the financial crisis.
Here are the Liberal Democrat entries in the top 100 political blogs as ranked by EBuzzing (Wikio as was). Alas, out go George Potter and Jack of Kent, but excellent to see in come Zoe O'Connell, Alex Marsh and the returning Richard Morris. 1 (9) Liberal Democrat Voice Down 1 2 (27) Mark Pack Down 14 3 (40) Lynne Featherstone Up 8 4 (42) Caron's Musings Up 2 5 (44) Stephen Tall Up 13 6 (53) Andrew Emmerson Up 42 7 (63) Jennie Rigg Up 11 8 (65) Zoe O'Connell NEW 9 (70) Liberal England Down 11 10 (75) Nick ...
Huffington Post has the story and video of the bout last Saturday, and the wrestler himself, Kade Callous, has tweeted of his suspension. Just consider the stats for a moment. Kade Callous is a trained professional wrestler. He is 25-years-old, 6'6" and 20 stone in weight (280 lbs). That's B-I-G and fit. Lembit Opik is a politician. He is 47-years-old. I would estimate that he is about 5'11" and around 13 stone in weight. OK, it was a tag match and Lembit had a professional partner. But there is something very sad, pathetic, even disturbing, about Lembit being pulled over ...
Slavery and exploitation are sadly alive and well in the UK. That is the obvious conclusion to be drawn from the Guardian's revelations that the company contracted to provide stewards for the Jubilee events in London bussed unemployed people and apprentices into the city, where they worked without adequate toilet facilities and were instructed to sleep rough under London Bridge. The essential facts are these: that Close Protection UK, the stewarding provider, transported 30 unemployed jobseekers and 50 apprentices earning a mere £2.80 per hour from Plymouth, Bristol and Bath into London to work; that those working for free were ...
So the four-day Jubilee bank holiday is drawing to a close. As I tweeted last night: Have come to the recognition the Jubilee is for Other People. I don't care enough to care. And I don't care enough to be annoyed. — Stephen Tall (@stephentall) June 4, 2012 My republicanism hasn't been swayed by the past 116 hours' wall-to-wall coverage, almost all of which I've cheerfully avoided through a mixture of learning Spanish, learning to drive, catching up on TV, catching up with friends, along with some bowling and gardening. And speaking of TV, I think The Daily Show's Jon ...
My parents are around the same age as the Queen and Prince Philip. Indeed, they were married in the same year, 1947. By further coincidence, my father recently had an illness roughly similar, by the sound of it, to that being suffered by the Duke of Edinburgh, who I wish a speedy recovery. It can come on very suddenly and be rather alarming at first. If someone had suggested that my mother would have to sit through a pop concert and pretend to enjoy it while my father was in hospital, I would have regarded that as an appalling suggestion. ...
Among all the events celebrating the 60th anniversary of the accession of Her Majesty to the throne, I had the honour of attending the Churches Together in Blyth Diamond Jubilee Thanksgiving Service in Blyth. The service was one of praise and thanksgiving, and participants were most, if not all, of the Blyth churches. Present, as invited dignitaries, were a Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Northumberland and her husband, the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the County Council and their wives. The Mayor of Blyth and the Deputy Mayor had been invited, but they are in Solingen, Blyth's twin town. So "senior ...
Whatever the event you can always rely on a Yorkshire flag being waved.
The LSE's Centre for Economic Performance has been looking at the evidence on Chief Executive pay in the UK. Their conclusion? It is tied to performance – and is more tied to performance than it used to be. But it is a lopsided link with smaller cuts when things go badly than the increases when things go well. What's more, when things go well Chief Executive pay rises much more than pay for others. In more detail, here's what they conclude: CEOs earn around 40 times more than the average employee, but this multiple rises to around 80 when we ...
This item from the old boy's diary first appeared in November 2009. This seems a good idea to reprint it. Wednesday An early start finds me enjoying breakfast at a transport café on the Great North Road. They do the finest bacon sandwich in Rutland here, and the tea is strong enough to go 15 rounds with Marciano. I spot a familiar face in the corner: we exchange smiles, but I do not compromise her privacy by speaking to her. My readers will recall that the Queen - for it is she - was a driver with the ATS during ...
That seems to be the view of the Council leader Clive Sanders according to the Gazette He suggests that running elections are too expensive and reducing elections will save the borough money. Odd, that later this year (unless someone in the Home Office finds sense) the borough will go to the polls along with the rest of the County to elect a retired MP or ex forces Major who has no idea or
I'm going to *try* to get some Actual Content up here tonight, or at the latest tomorrow, but I've spent the last few days essentially dead from the neck up — we had Plok here as a (very welcome) houseguest from the 22nd of May through the 25th, then went to Cornwall with my parents ...
I've been pretty disgusted with how the Tories are treating equal marriage, so I decided to put the case to my local MP. Here's my letter and his somewhat disappointing reply. Dear Jonathan Lord, I understand that there will shortly be a free vote on the issue of equal marriage. Some politicians have insisted that this is an issue which is not a priority for the electorate. I disagree – this is a hugely important issue which I hope you will support. I have seen some objections by other Conservative MPs and I would like to preemptively tackle them, if ...
This government is now supporting slavery. In Britain. See, during the lovely boat ride up the Thames for the Queen, there had to be stewards for the event. You know, people who had to keep on eye on things, make sure people got to where they were meant to be, etc. And, because this was such a big event, £1.5 million of public money was put aside to pay for the cost of stewarding the event. Except the people doing the stewarding weren't paid. Instead, unemployed jobseekers were bussed in by coach the in the middle of the night and ...
The coalition government is bringing new powers for the Police to fine noisy neighbours up to £2,500. The aim of this is to tackle problems via "community protection notices" allowing £100 on-the-spot fines. And then those that don't stop can be fined up to £2,500. Further powers are planned to solve the issue with "crime prevention injunctions" to ensure anti social problems can be dealt with near instantly. All sounds good. Let's hope the reality meets this aspiration.
The Liberal Democrat European Group (LDEG) is calling for action for more people to be aware of their right to vote as Europeans. Antony Hook, LDEG Vice-Chair, said, "Europeans living in another member state are entitled to vote in local and Europeans elections where they are living." "This applies to the huge number of Britons ...
What with the election aftermath and Winnersh Meadows opening, and writing Winnersh Matters parish magazine, and some diamond thingie, haven't had much time to post lately. However, we are now well in to the new municipal year (which actually started in May). What lies ahead this year? There will be signficant planning policy to deal with: the Managing Development Delivery development plan document is coming out for consultation. That shows where the houses not in the Strategic Development Locations will go, as well as covering general policies. The future of the library service will be decided – although the date ...
Doctors 4-8 at collectormania 18 - talk part 1 Tom Baker, joined after a few minutes by Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann. (tags: doctorwho ) Doctors 4-8 at collectormania 18 - talk part 2 More of Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvestery McCoy and Paul McGann. (tags: doctorwho ) Doctor Who: Moving Right Along Brilliant DW fanvid to Muppets song. (tags: doctorwho ) Doctor Who: Someday Another great Muppet / DW fanvid. (tags: doctorwho )
The Voice is only a success because of the interest and support from our readers. For many people just lurking and reading the site is all they want to do – and that's fine, we're grateful for people taking the time to read the site. You can though help us continue to produce interesting content for a growing audience. Here are four simple ways: 1. Let us have your tips for stories. Perhaps there's something outrageous going on in your local council? Or you're an expert in a particular area and have spotted a story other people have missed? Or ...
Follow this link for the latest on policing in St Albans Central: http://snt.herts.police.uk/aCMS/team.php?nptID=54&dID=6
One of most interesting dimensions of current developments in the housing market is the way in which global economic events are being refracted through housing policy: how a problem created in the private sector is being used to reconfigure the social rented sector and advance some long-standing objectives for the political right. In this respect it is a microcosm of the broader austerity agenda. I have a paper forthcoming in the journal Housing, Theory and Society that has just become available on iFirst. It's called The global economic crisis and the reshaping of housing opportunities. The paper is coauthored with ...
BBC News - Beatles' long reign at number one in singles chart QUEEN at #7 yet BBC resist all royal related puns. I am disappoint. (tags: ) Caron's Musings: Infant formula company is at it again...a challenge for Nick Clegg (tags: ) BBC News - Sexual harassment in the world of video gaming You know something is big when it finally hits the beeb. (tags: ) A Banned Words List for our commenters - Telegraph Blogs Stop the presses! Something in the Torygraph I agree with completely! Would love to see something similar in CiF (tags: ) andrewducker | Some ...
When Egglescliffe & Eaglescliffe council decided to have a jubilee beacon and organise a little party round the lighting of it we didn't know that there would be 2 more within walking distance. When it became obvious that there would be one in Yarm with much more elaborate celebrations round it and one in Preston Park with lots of activities for families leading up to it I began to doubt whether
he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. This is not a promotion of Michael Gove's decision to supply a copy of the Authorised Version of the Bible to every school in Britain, but simply and introduction to the fact that Durham County Council has completed its programme to install solar panels on 35 buildings across the county – and Consett has had a share. The newest building on the Business Park, Consett's answer to The Sage, has a massive array on its curved roof, ...
Forget all this Jubilee stuff for a moment. For us, today is not about honouring the Queen's 60 years on the throne. We've been doing that all weekend. Instead, it's about Anna's 13th birthday. I'm really not sure how the time has passed so quickly since this beautiful 9lb 3oz baby with a thick mop of dark hair arrived in our lives.Now, I'm in denial about her possibly being taller than me - seriously, she's not, not yet. What I have always found, though, is that there are many times when I've felt that she simply could not get any ...
I don't think I need to remind you that I'm a royalist, and I absolutely adore the Jubilee. Driving through the villages of west Kent yesterday I was thrilled to see all the bunting and village parties. Flags were flying and children were having fun, nothing better for a Bank Holiday weekend national celebration. But perhaps what you may not know is just how despicable I find "Workfare". As someone with libertarian sympathies I find the concept of the Government forcing people to work quite appalling. It is nothing but slave labour, in my opinion. So I was somewhat aghast ...
A week today - on the evening of Tuesday 12th June - Olympic Torch Relay will arrive in Dundee. The relay will begin its journey to an evening celebration at Baxter Parkfrom Commercial Streetat 18:14, calling in at City Square around 4 minutes later. The City Council has organised a programme of entertainment at City Square, including gymnasts, Active Schools, drummers and Fintry Pipe Band - and this will begin at 4pm. The relay and torchbearers will then move along Murraygate and Cowgate, up Princes Street onto Arbroath Road, then onto Baxter Park for 18:47. A special torch relay page ...
The beacon at Shire Way Community Centre was lit again for the Jubilee. The beacon, which was created for one of the previous jubilees, was renovated for the occasion by the Community Centre. Local artist Val Robinson, who designed and made the Shire Horse motif for the beacon many years ago, was present to see it in use once more.
