Lib Dem Voice reports that all 57 Lib Dem MPs will abstain on a Labour motion to hold an independent investigation into whether Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt broke the ministerial code. The effect of this action is to give the Tories a majority - so its effect is no different from supporting him. It is a ludicrous position to be in - if the party doesn't think Hunt's position is tenable it should say so and vote accordingly. As this blog argued back in April - Hunt is toast anyway - and the more decisive the action against him the ...
Further to my update last Sunday about improvements to the pavements and kerbing on part of the south side of Perth Road, I was pleased earlier today to see work started - see below:
Imagine if Jeremy Hunt had been a Liberal Democrat & his SpAd's behaviour with the Murdochs had come to light. Nick Clegg would have taken him by the scruff of the neck and sat him on Ministerial Code Adviser Alex Allan's desk. And there would have been no faffing. If he was found in the wrong, he'd have gone. End of. Jeremy Hunt is not a Liberal Democrat, thankfully. David Cameron seems desperate to protect his troubled minister. And the harder he tries, the dodgier it looks. Failing to subject the minister to the appropriate scrutiny pretty much tells the ...
My knowledge of Mary Portas is limited, informed by some vague idea and media babble of a shopping guru who has collared government approval as a retail expert. Apparently hidden in the ballyhoo, of regeneration of Margate High St, is the bane of modern TV, the reality TV show, according to a report by Retail Week, and also mentioned on the Margate Town Team Facebook site, Optomen TV, will be making a documentary for Channel four. The Margate Town Team are not surprisingly wondering whether they will be able to participate in the government backed scheme, as I guess Mary ...
britishrailways.tv
Just a little note to let you know that on Wednesday night there will be a meeting of Bar Hill Parish Councils environment committee. The agenda is; To receive apologies for absenceTo approve minutes of the previous meetingMatters arising for discussion and decisions to be made from the previous minutesStream - Discussion and financial decision to be madeGrass Cutting ContractHedge Maintenance - Decision on summer/autumn cuttingWorks outstanding and approvalItems for informationI'll be attending, if you have anything you'd like me to raise let me know.
And so our Romance of the long-past days of the hated Pasty Tax draws to a close. The 'Saucy Robin Teverson' at Oakham Quay And so it was that this morning the driver and I were waved through Cornish customs and took a charabanc laden with pasties over the Tamar into England. We delivered it to a warehouse owned by a fellow called Gregg (who appeared to be doing Terribly Well in the baked goods business) and were given a cheque in return. This, of course, I have already mailed to Squire Rogerson - less my expenses, petrol costs et ...
On the last day of May - and just look at the blue sky in the main photo - I visited St Luke's, Newton Harcourt, and discovered the remarkable grave of eight-year-old Christopher Gardner. Since then I have been looking into the story behind the 'little church' of Newton Harcourt. A special article on the Newton Harcourt pages of the Leicestershire Villages site tells us how the Gardner family came to the village: George Gardner, a stone mason by trade, left his family in London to fight in France in WW1. He suffered badly from the effects of gas and ...
I think the parliamentary party is making a major mistake on abstaining over Hunt tomorrow. There are only two possible outcomes to this vote: 1. The motion is carried. In which case total credit will go to Labour, we will be ignored. Don't give me any of this guff about 'it is our failing to support him that won it'. It won't be. It will the 279 MPs outside the Tory and Lib Dem parties who will win it, plus any recalcitrant Tories doing the right thing, not us. 2. The motion is lost - in which case we will ...
The answer, I fear, is probably no one. A story on the Independent website tells us: Nick Clegg tonight told his MPs not to back the Tories in Parliamentary vote calling for Jeremy Hunt to be referred to the ministerial standards watchdog. Labour will tomorrow submit a motion in the House of Commons calling for Mr Hunt to face an investigation by Sir Alex Allen, the Prime Minister's adviser on ministers' interests, following criticism over his handling of the BSkyB takeover. Mr Clegg's aides said he had taken the decision not to back his coalition partners after "repeatedly" telling David ...
So, the Church of England has suggested that the extension of the right to marry to gay couples will undermine the concept of marriage. Lets have a little history lesson, Henry VIII establised the Church of England to nod through his divorce to Catherine of Aragon and sanction a marriage to Anne Boleyn, his mistress. Where was the concern about undermining the institution of marriage then? This is a clear precedent that the control of the validity of any such marriage is at the discretion of the State and that the Church has acquiesced in these political manoeuvrings for nearly ...
[IMG: Gordon Brown] Yesterday, at the Leveson Inquiry, Gordon Brown declined to take responsibility for the activities of his special advisers. Tomorrow, Parliament debates whether Jeremy Hunt should take responsibility for the activities of one of his special advisers. So I think we can work out which way Gordon Brown will be voting tomorrow, can't we? * Mark Pack has written 101 Ways To Win An Election and produces a monthly newsletter about the Liberal Democrats.
As I have blogged before, the Olympic Torch comes to Blyth on Friday. The route is basically down Cowpen Road, along Renwick Road to the Sports Centre (where there is to be a lunch break) , and then back towards Broadway, along Broadway Circle and Rotary Way, from where the torch will go on to North Tyneside. Many schools will be attending, and have been allocated places at the roadside, and various organisations are going to "bus" (literally and figuratively ) people into Blyth for the day. Exact timings for the day can be found on the torch website. There ...
I don't normally list planning applications on my blog. Most of them are for modest extensions to people's homes and as such, not something that we should all be concerned about. But just now and again something comes up that seems to be pushing the boundaries of reasonableness. This is how I feel about a recent application to build two 4 bedroomed detached houses and a new access road from Woodcote Avenue into back garden land at the rear of 42 and 44 Woodcote Avenue, Wallington. The application is pretty similar to a previous one that was refused by the ...
Tue 12th
18:35
SW MEP Girling unsurprisingly lands role as new Conservative spokesperson on agriculture
South West MEP Julie Girling has been appointed the new UK Conservative MEP spokesperson for agricultural issues, in a move that is remarkably unsurprising and politically sensible.Mrs Girling became a full member of the European Parliament's Agriculture Committee in January, and since agriculture is a fundamental industry in the region of picturesque landscape of rolling hills and fields, it
Last month I wrote a piece thanking the opponents of marriage equality for helping push forward marriage equality. Today I think we saw a rather grand example of this in the current controversy caused by the Church of England's response to the Government's marriage equality consultation. The Church of England has been trending all day on Twitter and the vast majority of tweets have been negative towards the position they have taken. Various people have used the opportunity to spread the link to the consultation which finishes on Thursday, and I've seen a great number of people announcing they have ...
Now that the final exam has finished and the only thing that appears to be happening in the 6.002x forum is a lot of bickering about certificates, I thought I'd write a couple of posts to finish my journey off. This first post will simply look at how I did in the final exam. In the second post, I'll reflect more generally on the experience and document what I thought was good / bad / indifferent about 6.002x as a whole. The final exam had 10 questions, each with a number of different parts (1 mark per part), with 47 ...
From the BBC: Lib Dem MPs are to abstain in a Commons vote on Wednesday calling for an investigation into whether Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt has broken the ministerial code of conduct. Labour want his handling of News Corp's BSkyB bid examined by David Cameron's adviser on ministers interests. The BBC's Nick Robinson said Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg had told a meeting of his MPs and peers not to "support the Tories on this one" and "to stay away". Mr Cameron has fully backed Mr Hunt. * Newshound sets the agenda, as you would expect from a Red Setter ...
The new Lib Dem County Group Leader, Cllr Stephen Giles-Medhurst, has forced a scrutiny review of the astonishing sum of £9.2m the County Council currently spends on publicity and printing. Lib Dems demanded the figures at the time the County Council's budget was discussed, but they have only recently been made public. The sum is in addition to the County Council employing 21 full-time staff in their Corporate Communications unit. "Frankly, I am shocked that the figure is so high," said Cllr Giles-Medhurst. "Hertfordshire's Lib Dems have long said that spending on press and publicity by the Conservative administration at ...
The government has decided to spend £450 million on tackling the problem of what are variously referred to as the 120,000 "problem" or "troubled" families in the UK who allegedly cost us £9 billion a year. So who are these problem families? Well, according to the government a family is a problem family if they meet at least five of the following criteria: a) no parent in work b) poor quality housing, c) no parent with qualifications, d) mother with mental health problems e) one parent with longstanding disability/illness f) family has low income, g) Family cannot afford some food/clothing ...
Yesterday the Government announced proposals to change the national curriculum for primary schools in England. No doubt there was the same sharp intake of breath in liberal circles that accompanies anything that comes forth from the Secretary of State, Michael Gove, with his appeal to traditional, conservative values. But liberals have often failed to convince on education. Mr Gove is a remarkable political phenomenon. He is instinctively disliked by those of a liberal disposition, and the vast majority of people who work in the education sector, or councillors who are responsible for it. And yet, unlike his health colleague Andrew ...
It's been a long time since I've written on this blog. I think it's about time to update it with news: I have moved over to Tumblr, a website I far prefer for blogging. You can find my Tumblr here: www.writergamerfighter.tumblr.com Whilst not politics focussed, it is far more active than this blog, although for hard political writing this is actually still the place I intend to publish such articles - I simply have not actually written such content in a while. - Huw
Artists at Vernon Mill, Stockport are putting on an exhibition – and this one features the largest known portrait of the Queen anywhere in the world!
Today more redundancy notices are being issued to our soldiers whilst Cameron, and particularly the odious Osborne, witter on about our 'brave troops'. Elsewhere there are reports of our soldiers contracting the WWI disease of trenchfoot - put down to the use of too much synthetic material presumably because it is cheap. But the Tory Party is still hell bent on spending tens of billions of pounds on a replacement for Trident. How wrong & fatuous is it possible to be and how long are the LibDems going to put up with being tarred by this idiocy? The strategic concept ...
I recently joined the Liberal Democrats, and I can honestly say I've enjoyed every minute of it so far. Be it Twitter barbs against people who pray for our extinction at the next General Election, or merely pointing out what a huge impact we've actually had in just 2 years, being a Liberal Democrat can be ...
Somehow I think it won't be too long before some British politicians pick up on this idea from New York's Mayor Bloomberg: New York City plans to enact a far-reaching ban on the sale of large sodas and other sugary drinks at restaurants, movie theaters and street carts... The proposed ban would affect virtually the entire menu of popular sugary drinks found in delis, fast-food franchises and even sports arenas, from energy drinks to pre-sweetened iced teas. The sale of any cup or bottle of sweetened drink larger than 16 fluid ounces — about the size of a medium coffee, ...
The long-awaited inquest into the death of Sean Rigg at Brixton police station opened today with evidence from his sister Marcia Rigg-Samuel, who said police had simply told her that her brother had "collapsed and died" for years ago. Ms ... Continue reading →
Well seemingly we are about to find out. Independents are meant to be just that but here in Southend we have a gaggle of them who are classified as the 'independent group' on the Council. The independents have ten members and they formed a group so that they could get offices at the council and other perks that alone they weren't entitled too. However this also meant in practice they were a party and weren't truly independent. It is something that has never really been transmitted to the electorate across the borough. Well the independent group is about to go ...
Tue 12th
15:30
Hertfordshire Liberal Democrats force review of county's £9.2 m spending on Publicity and Prin...
The new Liberal Democrat County Group Leader, Cllr Stephen Giles-Medhurst, has forced a scrutiny review of the astonishing sum of £9.2m that Hertfordshire County Council currently spends on publicity and printing. Liberal Democrats demanded the figures at the time the County Council's budget was discussed, but they have only recently been made public. The sum is in addition to the County Council employing 21 full-time staff in their Corporate Communications unit. "Frankly, I am shocked that the figure is so high," said Cllr Giles-Medhurst. "Hertfordshire's Lib Dems have long said that spending on press and publicity by the Conservative administration ...
Yesterday's Telegraph reports that Guy Opperman, the only Tory MP in the north-east of England, has come out against regional pay, arguing that the Chancellor's proposals will be unfair on public sector staff and will not help the UK economy. They say that Mr Opperman told the Newcastle Journal that public sector workers are already contributing to the Coalition's deficit reduction programme through pay freezes and job losses: "I see no economic argument for introducing regional pay. Our current pay system, which sets a base pay rate, already allows for adjustments in high cost areas like London," he said. "I ...
Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 560 party members responded, and we're publishing the full results. 54% of Lib Dems back 'new approach'; but 27% say 'stick with Plan A' LDV asked: Thinking about the government's economic policies, which of the following best reflects your view? 27% – Borrowing more at a time when we already owe so much will simply make matters worse, as the country will have to pay back even more money in the ...
This afternoon I read Ian Wright's latest article on how England are performing at Euro 2012 in The Sun and seriously wondered if his rose tinted specs that he wears on all things England are so rose-tinted it has effected his vision – and mind. The only thing he got right in my opinion was when he said that we were 'okay but not great,' which I think is probably fair. He thought we would win 2-1 if we were aggressive and came out with a more positive mind-set. This is an England team missing several key personnel against a ...
Techcrunch has a fascinating interview with Tom Lowe, who responded to discovering his film being pirated with a polite request rather than with legal action: [IMG: Network cables] TC: What do you feel about piracy in general? Do you see it as a hindrance to art? Tom: I just see piracy as a reality. I don't really see it as good or bad. Artists need to accept that this is reality now, and adapt their business models around reality... TC: Are you angry at the Internet? Tom: Only when it's slow. Of course not. My entire film "TimeScapes" was born ...
Yes, there are many responses out there but this one is mine. Most of the interesting bits, where I will have said something different to someone else, are in Question 16 as that's the "any other comments bit". The language is slightly clunky due to their quite restrictive word limits and I would like to have said more, although I've actually ended up sending this via email as the Home Office site is down. If you'd like to response and have not done so far (You have until Thursday) but can't because of web site issues, there is a copy ...
We all want the police to be more proactive instead of just waiting for the crimes to occur. I am a member of the Southfield ward police forum which is made up of the local police team, residents and the three Liberal Democrat councillors for the area. We heard some good news from the police sergeant recently. After a recent spike in all crimes everything is reducing again. Good News Story 1: Firstly a large scale High Visibility Operation was conducted recently encompassing Acton High Street. PC Harrison arrested four subjects and recovered a large amount of Cocaine, Cannabis, Cash ...
Labour has grave concerns about welfare?, surely their not developing a social conscience, Thanet Labour in the recent years, have fought against jobs, fought against social housing, taken £10,000.00 this year, from council services to create posts for their new best friends, so that they can continue to claim allowances. Nationally during the Blair and Brown years, although Labour had popular support to get people back to work, beginning well by encouraging work with working family tax credits, they soon capitulated to the easy option of inherent welfare dependency culture and generations of work shy layabouts, that earlier Labour governments ...
After a few years of blogging at A Scottish Liberal, today I have launched a new, personal blog which I hope will be an outlet for my creativity - or, failing that, at least afford me the opportunity to reflect on what really matters to me. Essentially Against the Grain is a self-portrait, and one which I hope will be an honest reflection of the multi-faceted and sometimes contradictory person I am. When I write, I am inviting you to eat at my table, to share in my experiences, to understand something of my world. I can't promise you that ...
Your Grace, I certainly don't except us to agree on everything when it comes to religion. After all, you believe in God and I don't. But I am surprised how different the view of our country's history seems to be. You and your colleagues talk about the prospect of equal marriage – a prospect it is worth remembering that other strands of the Christian family are welcoming, not to mention many members of the Church of England – as if it is one of the greatest threats to the Church of England in the last 500 years. Really? Greater than ...
Tue 12th
13:10
The Eurozone crisis explained. OR: How not to get distracted by smurfs doing star-jumps
The Eurozone crisis isn't, by common consent, a sexy topic rich with comic potential. Important, yes. A rib-tickler, no. So kudos, immense kudos, to comedian John Finnemore who performed a pretty acute summary for BBC Radio 4′s The Now Show this week. In just 6 mins and 35 secs. Enjoy... (Available on YouTube here.) And a brief supplementary, if I may... What has happened to genuinely good satire on British television? Last week, it was left to US comedian Jon Stewart to skewer (not unaffectionately) the hyper-ridiculousness of the UK's jubilee celebrations. The 10 O'Clock Show was intended to fill ...
Guest post by Alan Renwick, Reader in Comparative Politics, University of Reading @alanjrenwick Confused about the Church of England's arguments concerning same-sex marriage? Here is a brilliant executive summary which which knows how to read between the lines. Alan Renwick posted his thoughts on Facebook this morning and has kindly agreed to share his observations on my blog in order to make them more widely available. Alan Renwick writes: [IMG: Alan Renwick profile picture] Alan Renwick I've just read the Church of England's response to the government's consultation on same-sex marriage. For those of you not inclined to trawl through ...
As an experiment, I posted a message about Winchester's draft Information Management strategy on Twitter to get the input of local information professionals (and anyone else who was interested). Given that we have an IBM Research Centre in the district – as well as many IT professionals living locally including those involved in groups like WinchesterWeb – it seemed sensible to tap into their expertise. I had my own concerns about the paper: While it referenced the council's immediate 'Transforming Winchester' organisational development programme, I didn't see it reflecting Winchester's strategic priorities (as laid out primarily in the Community Strategy ...
As soon as Eric Pickles announced his 'Back to Basics' crackdown on 'troubled' families, it was odds on that a Conservative minister would oblige by executing his own family faux pas. How many would have placed their bets in the culprit being the Prime Minister himself, who with model mum Samantha appears to have chillaxed a little too much after Sunday lunch at the pub, leaving their daughter Nancy in the Ladies. The uncomfortable end to Nancy's comfort break apparently happened 'a couple of months ago', according to a Downing Street spokesman, but conveniently surfaced in the press as soon ...
You may have seen in the local paper a report on Launceston Chamber of Commerce's parking survey within our town. It provides very worrying evidence that Cornwall Council's parking charges and policies are having a significant impact on local shops and businesses. The Chamber of Commerce sent the survey results both to the Council's cabinet member, Graeme Hicks, and to the Parking Policy Panel. Although they have had an acknowledgement, it seems that neither Cllr Hicks nor the Parking Panel is prepared to meet with the Chamber to discuss the outcomes or what can be done in the light of ...
The Medieval Fayre due to be held at Winterbourne Medieval Barn this coming Saturday (16 June) has been cancelled because of the recent bad weather. You can read more about Winterbourne Medieval Barn and other events here.
The successful (and at times rather controversial) Australian pollster Mark Textor has a great piece in the Sydney Morning Herald about how to survive election campaigns. It includes these tips: The biggest mistake you can make is to not tell someone you have made a mistake. Campaigns are planning machines. There is a process and a meeting for everything, including dealing with crises. But there is no machinery for the crises you don't know about and the worst thing in politics is the surprise that bites you in the arse on a Tuesday morning... Eat well. You don't win a ...
And all you need to know about getting around during the Olympics The Olympics are coming to Manchester over the summer and the build up is starting this month. Sir Chris Hoy, winner of three Olympic gold medals for cycling ... Continue reading →
'Right Brain' or 'Left Brain' - Myth Or Reality? (tags: ) Anti-Piracy Patent Stops Students From Sharing Textbooks | TorrentFreak FFS (tags: ) Why London's Police Just Set a Horrifying Precedent on Mobile Privacy So, anybody know how much truth there is in this? (tags: ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Tue 12th
09:30
"The exercise of a little power for a limited time with the ever-present danger of annihilation". Me...
A chance Google search caused me to re-read one of my old blog-posts today, from March 2009 — That hoary old Hung Parliament chestnut — 14 months before the last general election and the formation of the first post-war Coalition government. Parts of it have aged badly, for instance: ... I have little doubt that party members would vote down any deal, unless it came with the promise of propertional representation as a package of reform measures - and that's not going to be offered by either Labour or the Tories. ... the really interesting hung Parliament scenario is not ...
I joined the Lib Dems only a couple of months ago after being a long time voter. In fact, I first voted Lib Dem back in 2001 at my very first election. I decided to join now because I wanted to become more politically active and because I was deeply unhappy with some of the policies of the Government. I'm totally blind, have been since the age of 5 and am extremely disturbed by the removal of Disability Living Allowance and its replacement by Personal Independence Payments. There's a great deal I could say about the current proposals and how ...
Gordon Brown's appearance at Leveson yesterday included being questioned about what his staff got up to with undermining other Labour figures, which garnered a response from him that – most charitably – can be described as not widely believed. It also contradicts many other accounts given of his time in office. So – if this issue is not relevant to the Leveson remit, why was it raised? But if it is relevant, why was his answer simply taken at face value and the inquiry moved on without testing out its accuracy or asking why so many other accounts contradict it? ...
Random thoughts, which I think I'm better off just writing down, because then (hopefully) I'll be able to sleep...after a few more pages of Chrissie Wellington's autobiography (and, as a side note, is she just not the happiest-looking person in the entire world?) 1) I did my FIRST ever track workout tonight with the Green Lake runners. It was not nearly as scary as I thought it would be, actually. Because, you know what: I've run two marathons and I am one tough cookie! Track workouts involve a lot more milage than I thought they would, though! I hit 5.5 ...
For many years I was the child poverty champion for the Liberal Democrats. I urged leading members of our parliamentary party to sign up to the targets, which aimed to halve child poverty by 2010 and eliminate it by 2020. I was delighted when those targets were enshrined in law, with cross party support in 2010. Even though the UK will have missed its half way target, it is expected that at least 900,000 children will have been lifted out of poverty and a similar number prevented from falling into poverty between 1998 and 2010 which is a significant achievement. ...
Last night, after my ward surgeries at Harris Academy and the Mitchell Street Centre, I attended the first batch of Dundee City Council main committee meetings since the recent council election, at which : * At Environment Committee, I acknowledged the good start made by the council's relatively new Environment Department and the commitment of its team of staff and questioned progress on achieving effective and efficient use of the council's fleet of vehicles across council departments. * At the Housing Committee, I queried the level of rent arrears and how the department was tackling this issue. * And at ...
Tue 12th
07:23
Despite Church of England scaremongering, there are important legal implications caused by marriage ...
The Church of England is up to it's usual game of playing up being an established church yet undermining Her Majesty's Government whenever they can. Seriously, if you are going to be a state church then you have to toe the line. If you want, quite reasonably, to be able to criticise the Government then perhaps disestablishment isn't a risk but an opportunity? Regardless of their less than sensitive or subtle way of making their case, we must accept there are important implications, to them and others, from the legalisation of equal marriage. Right now, as the current plans stand, ...
I have today launched by June 2012 Update to West End Community Council. Subjects covered are : Perth Road - south footwayRiverside Drive road condition Recycling Issues You can download a copy of the Community Council Update at http://tinyurl.com/weccjune2012. The Community Council meeting takes place at Logie St John's (Cross) Church Hall in Shaftesbury Terrace at 7pm tonight - all residents welcome!
So marriage equality will lead to disestablishment of the Church of England according to an article in today's independent. Well they said similar stuff about Catholic emancipation, yet nothing so cataclysmic has happened since the Catholic Relief Act of 1829. It was the Church of England's superior outlook that led to the Acts of Uniformity in 1559 and 1662. Yet these were repealed in 1828 so that Baptists, Presbyterians, Quakers, Methodists and others became eligible for many forms of public educational and social benefits. Jews were also expelled from England in 1290, and although in 1656 a small community was ...
