Wednesday: Seriously, don't! She gets enough coverage. Insane self-publicist and darling of the Conservatory fringe (it's a political movement not a hairdo) Ms Louise Mensch, not content with the amount of Twitter she is able to occupy with her bleats and tweets, has launched her own rival version. It's going to be called "Menshn". Because "Listen to My Flapping Mouth and You Might Not See the Stone Cold Soulless Death In My Eyes" is pretty much as many characters as you'd be allowed to type in a, what, Munch?
At threescore and five (and five more) he's very much alive, he's still got the jive to survive... Tagged: Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys
Regular readers will know I love Texas, and I could have chosen Halo as my track from NOW! 37 but I've opted instead to go with the Fun Lovin' Criminals and Scooby Snacks. To be honest, I'm not sure if I really liked this song either then or now; but the chorus is ridiculously catchy and does sample one of the best lines from Pulp Fiction. Andrew
... to all who contributed to Miss Holly having such a super birthday today, including my mum and dad for inviting her for tea, and all the people who bought her presents, but especially (for blog purposes) Andrew and Holly for the Little Endless storybook and the Sarah Jane CD, and to Dave Godfrey for the Funnybones dinosaur book, all of which caused much excitement. She got quite a haul of lego from me and Mat and Mat's mum and Dad, and an Avengers book and DVD from James, and lots of books, and The Blue Planet David Attenborough DVD ...
britishrailways.tv
Monday: The Greek elections have voted in a bunch who are vaguely more in favour of sticking to the austerity package and keeping the bailout money coming in. Which is good because Greece needs to stay IN the Euro. But cut everything by 30%. Seriously, if you can get past the fact that Greece is vastly UNCOMPETITIVE because they're stuck with a bad exchange rate, the benefits of being IN are enormous. Cutting everything by say 30% is EXACTLY what you get with a DEEP devaluation: everyone's salary is cut by 30%, but all internal prices are cut by 30% ...
In parliament today, they announced the private members' bills to be debated in this session. I'm sorry to tell you that despite our best lobbying efforts, clock change wasn't on the list. The announcement brings this chapter of the daylight saving debate to a close. Without a bill in parliament, things won't be moving forward for a while. This news is really hard to take. We've spent two and a half years building Lighter Later, and some of you were campaigning on this issue before 10:10 had even been thought of. A matter of time But there's no doubt in ...
Jimmy Carr took up this 1% tax scam offer himself Strange that he pokes fun at those who avoid paying tax when he himself has been exposed doing just that. He says "I pay what I have to and not a penny more." obviously he means he pays what he has to for those accountants and lawyers to get him out of paying what he has to.
Sunday: Milipot calls Kettle black. Last time I got any diaries written, Mr Simon expressed some concern I was being a bit HARSH on Hard Labour by judging them based on what they WERE not what they ARE. But you know, until they actually start professing some NEW positions (and opportunistic tactical opposition REALLY doesn't count) then I don't think it unfair to judge them by what they WERE on the uncontroversial grounds that IT'S WHAT THEY STILL ARE. Despite Mr Milipede soft-peddling some of the ANTI-CIVIL RIGHTS policies, they have barely moved from their HIGHLY RIGHT-WING stance on law ...
Hurrah for Cllr Ian Driver star of yet another video, by Christine Tongue, misleadingly titled "NHS IN THANET UNDER THREAT", for a couple of reasons, one, it seems to me to be a bit of spin and subterfuge, the issue as I understand it is this, company takes over surgery, doctors leave, continuity of service is interrupted, business enters a transition between what was and what it will be, secondly Ian Driver, has meeting, with the new management Concordia then in the debrief post meeting, no surprises apparently according to Ian Driver, Concordia agreed they had got some things wrong ...
MP Julian Huppert backed a demonstration by disabled people today (Tuesday, June 19) in the hope that his support will help make transport more accessible for passengers in Cambridge and across the country. Julian supported The Right to Ride Demonstration in Westminster joining up to 100 people who will take the bus to the Confederation of British Transport which represents the bus industry. They want bus and train companies with a poor record on accessibility to be denied future contracts. Julian hopes his support will not only highlight the situation in London but also in Cambridge where lack of accessibility ...
Great advert from the National Lottery.
Wed 20th
21:00
Day 4186: EXCLUSIVE: Campbell Diaries Claim Murdoch Used to Dress Up as Dingo to Eat Babies!
Saturday: Too soon?
Liberal Democrat MP for Cambridge Julian Huppert was tempted by a team from the Daily Politics proffering doughnuts the other day. You can see what happened by watching here at around 1 hour 25 minutes in. I just wonder what would have happened if he had been offered some chips or some pizza as he confessed to being more partial to savoury items. The only member to take a doughnut was the SNP's Angus MacNeill. Maybe it was the sugar rush that caused him to tweet today during Prime Minister's Questions: If he's read any papers this morning, he'd know ...
Stockport Council is consulting with residents on how planning enforcement should take place within the Borough. For example, with limited resources, how should enforcement work be prioritised? How should the public get in touch with the enforcement team? There's more information here. The consultation will run from 25th June to 6th August 2012, with the documents available both on the Council's website and at Fred Perry House.
Thursday: Obviously the Epic "Dragons and Dangly Bits" Fantasy that is HBO's "Game of Thrones" is completely inappropriate for a baby elephant to watch. More importantly, Daddy refuses to give cash to Mr Rupert Stavro Moredick so we don't get Sky and have to wait for the Blu-Rays before we can see season two! Anyway, SPOILERS, in season one, nice-but-dim Northern Nick Stark (from Sheffield) gets the job as DEPUTY KING and has to hang out with evil Balloonisters, Georgie and Saucy. He is GOOD. They are BAAAAAD. Guess who gets called a TRAITOR and has his head chopped off. ...
One of the political stories of the day has been Alex Salmond's refusal to meet the Dalai Lama during his visit to Scotland this week. On Liberal Democrat Voice Caron Lindsay asks: Could it be that Salmond's discourtesy has something to do with a visit he received at Bute House two weeks ago from the Chinese Consul-General as reported in The Times? We know from reports in the Independent and the Courier that the Chinese authorities have been visiting local councils from Leeds to Inverness to discuss their involvement in the Dalai Lama's visit. Only SNP-run Dundee City Council and ...
Wednesday: It's like the Eighties never went away. Oh, just shoot us now!
The news of a recommendation to give seven Sefton Labour councillors pay rises of between 25% and 67% has understandably provoked fury. Liberal Democrats have condemned the proposal as completely unacceptable. Sefton Council's "Independent Remuneration Panel" proposed the massive increases at its first meeting held since Labour took overall control of Sefton Council in the May local elections. Many councillors had expected the Panel to propose a cut in the level of additional Special Responsibility Allowances (SRAs) paid to senior councillors. In fact they did exactly the opposite. The Panel has recommended that the Chairs of five Sefton Council Committees ...
Tuesday: The Church of Ingrates - Britain's built-in band of god botherers - have issued their response to the Equal Marriage consultation and it goes thus: "We have a duty to provide a marriage to anyone who asks for marriage, which, er, we're breaking at the moment when it comes to gay daddies. "And if you make us do our duty then we'll stop doing marriages for anyone! How's THAT for a threat to marriage!"Apparently this is a threat to the ESTABLISHMENT of the Church. Which is supposed to be a bad thing for some reason.
Today marks World Refugee Day, which aims to raise awareness of the plight of the 42.5 million people worldwide who remain forcibly displaced due to conflict and political persecution. The UNHCR's Global Trends report, released earlier this week, shows how during 2011 ... Continue reading →
First Minister Alex Salmond loves to meet international dignitaries and world leaders. Every chance he gets, he's off playing a larger than life role on the international stage. Just last weekend, he was in Los Angeles promoting Scottish business and schmoozing with celebrities at a film premiere. It's all the more surprising, then, that he can't find a space in his diary to meet the Dalai Lama when he visits Scotland this week. This is in stark contrast to the reception the exiled Tibetan Spiritual Leader received in 2004 when he addressed the Parliament and met the then First Minister ...
Monday: Time to catch up with some diaries that I missed. Starting with the Prime Monster's trip to the pub. 'Cos actually, this DOES matter. How many vulnerable people are there in Britain counting on the Prime Monster not to forget them?
First Minister Alex Salmond loves to meet international dignitaries and world leaders. Every chance he gets, he's off playing a larger than life role on the international stage. Just last weekend, he was in Los Angeles promoting Scottish business and schmoozing with celebrities at a film premiere. It's all the more surprising, then, that he can't find a space in his diary to meet the Dalai Lama when he visits Scotland this week. This is in stark contrast to the reception the exiled Tibetan Spiritual Leader received in 2004 when he addressed the Parliament and met the then First Minister ...
Ah, the sounds of summer...The thud of Leveson wilting...The clink of ice in glaciers...The sound of me and some other people talking about Russia, Iran and the wider Middle East in a radio discussion programme yesterday, which you can hear here.
Wed 20th
17:54
Great!!! Another Greek governmental swearing in with beards, gold robes, smells and bells!
I never tire of these Greek governmental swearings-in. This is the fourth one in eight months so my cup runneth over this year... I love the men in beards, the gold robes, the gold bible, the incense, the bells....great fun! As an interesting extra variant this time, the new PM, it seemed, had to stand for ages with the men in gold/beards to wait for the President to arrive. The President eventually arrives at 4'36". This is just a one-man swearing in though. We can still look forward with relish to the full governmental swearing in soon. They're great. Everyone ...
From Australia, here's a recent political advert by the (centre right) Liberal Party, slamming the health record of the Labor administration in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), the self-governing territory that covers Canberra. I am no expert on the politics let alone the health system of the ACT, and hold no brief for the Liberal Party, but I think this advert really hits home. It's a damning indictment of the Labor chief minister and former health minister, Katie Gallagher, who comes across as incompetent and ineffectual. The key to the advert's power is the way it tells a powerful story. ...
Wed 20th
17:25
Amnesty Scotland disappointed that Scottish Government is not meeting Dalai Lama #dontpandatoChina
I asked on Monday why on earth Alex Salmond wouldn't meet the Dalai Lama. It now seems worse than I had anticipated as Dundee City Council have gone at best lukewarm over an event they were supposed to be full partners in. It appears that the Chinese Consul-General has sent the boys round, not only to Bute House, but to Edinburgh, Dundee and Highland Council too, to express their displeasure. Amnesty Scotland's director, Shabnum Mustapha, has issued this statement today, expressing Amnesty's concern over the Scottish Government and Dundee Council's snubs to the Tibetan Spiritual Leader: It is appalling and ...
On my new role as COO of the Global Organization of Parliamentarians Against Corruption: Today, the greatest threat to democracy is no longer the explicit ideologies of political tyranny, but the far more insidious tyranny of political corruption. Corruption robs citizens of our own resources, our fundamental rights, and our very identities as members of a free and equal society. It makes the weak prey to the strong, and delivers control of society into the hands of the unjust. It debilitates the nation, undermines the rule of law, and rots public confidence in democracy. Across the Middle East, in states ...
You might recall that the Police now publish "crime maps" showing the different sorts of crime in each area, even down to street level. Here's the latest crime map for Cheadle & Gatley. If you want to dig deeper (for example, to zoom in on a road or to break the figures down by type of crime) just go to the Police website and take a look.
After yesterday's second meeting of the new Cabinet, the first of which I was able to attend, an official photo was taken of the new Plaid-Independent-Independent Voice-Labour executive group. Ceredigion's new-look Cabinet I happened to be preparing to chair my first Council meeting as Chairman and was standing near-by and took this quick photo. Pictured are Cllr Peter Davies (Corporate Resources), Cllr Dafydd Edwards (Environment, Regulation and Planning), Cllr Gareth Lloyd (Economic Development, Community Development, Leisure and Culture), Cllr Ray Quant (Transformation and Performance Management and Deputy Leader of the Council), Cllr Ellen ap Gwynn (Leader of the Council), Cllr ...
Following all the publicity about Jimmy Carr's tax arrangements for his multi million pound fortune which means that he pays just a fraction of the amount the rest of us have to shell out, Liberal Democrat Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander has written for the Sun newspaper about Government measures to clamp down on those who avoid tax. Frankly, I think people who dodge the tax system are the moral equivalent of benefit cheats. Both sets of people think they can bend the rules everyone else lives by for their own benefit. The Coalition are already cutting income ...
Back in 2009 the story of Dave Carroll's broken guitar saw the share price for United Airlines take a big hit as he took to YouTube with a very funny and effective film about how badly the airline had treated him and his guitar. Illustrating the frequent close interaction between social and traditional media, the YouTube clip generated widespread TV news and newspaper coverage, reaching a far wider audience than the original online one and fuelling further views of the video which in turn encouraged more media coverage in a (for him) virtuous circle. Dave Carroll was, however, not really ...
Way back in February 2010, Nick Clegg used the phrase "Love is same, straight or gay" in an interview with Pink News in which he expressed his support for equal marriage. That phrase has become a slogan of the Out4Marriage campaign. He has reiterated that full support on many occasions since. Today, Out4Marriage released a video he made for them explaining why he supports the right of all couples who love each other to marry as "a fundamental right in an equal society". Enjoy!
Anyone that knows me well enough to know that a career in the media industry will know a few truths about me; firstly that I once had a screen test for a TV company where upon I was told that it was the 'best screen test they had ever had but that I didn't have the face for it,' they'll also know that I prefer radio to TV and that writing is actually my least preferred medium. I like the pace of buzz of live action. They'll also know that I have a few broadcast heroes and one of them ...
Liberal have for generations argued against the model of company control that says all the power rests with the owners of capital. Our policy was that owners and workers should be on a common register. Sadly the crude capitalist model that sees ownership and control being only in the hands of the owners of capital has a strong hold on economic thinking. Today the Business Secretary launched his plans to control top executives pay and sadly he has once given all the power to the shareholders. Liberal plans for co-ownership of industry and even more radical plans for out right ...
This is a cross posting from Mike Booth over on the Kew blog The recent news that there is a recommendation to give seven Sefton Labour councillors pay rises of between 25% and 67% has understandably provoked fury. What has happened is that Sefton Council's "Independent Remuneration Panel" proposed the massive increases at its meeting held on 6th June. This was the first meeting of the Panel since Labour took overall control of Sefton Council in the May local elections. Many of us in the Lib Dems had expected the Panel to propose a cut in the level of additional ...
Today's Telegraph highlights the latest celebrities to be revealed as taking advantage of tax avoidance schemes. They claim that members of pop group Take That have invested at least £26m in a scheme believed by HMRC to be a method of avoiding tax. In this regard they join nearly 1,000 other wealthy individuals. This follows earlier claims that the comedian Jimmy Carr has also been linked to a tax avoidance scheme. There is no suggestion that the scheme used by members of Take That is illegal but HMRC have indicated they will be challenging it in a tribunal in November. ...
People who rent in the private sector get short shrift in British politics. Renting is rarely talked about and when it is, it is almost always in the context of it being seen as inferior to owner-occupation. It is as if a private renter is simply someone who has not been successful or lucky enough to become an owner-occupier. As I wrote last year: People who live in private rented accommodation rarely catch the attention of politicians or political journalists. It's odd, because so many people working for MPs or media outlets, particularly in London, spend a good number of ...
As reported in yesterday's Courier and Evening Telegraph, I have hit out at the Scottish Government proposals to create a "North Command" stretching from Dundee up to Shetland as part of the abolition of Tayside Police and the creation of a single police force across Scotland, calling the proposed North Command area far too large, unwieldy and inappropriate. I said at the City Council Policy & Resources Committee last year that the Single Police Force proposals were fundamentally flawed and we now see the creation of a North Command area around 300 miles long, including highly urban areas like Dundee ...
They are the words a foreman spoke on Monday that ended the very public trial of Roger Clemens. The man who was seen by many as the greatest starting pitcher of his generation had been accused of lying under oath to congress with regards to having taken performance enhancing drugs. It was just another high-profile case that the American government came up short on. They thought Clemens would be the jewel in their crown but instead deciding to have the key witness who has taken apart from not only the defence lawyers but also by his estranged wife was not ...
Good:
Last night, I attended the last meeting of the Harris Academy Parent Council or this academic year. There was a useful update from Mr Thewliss, Head Teacher, on school matters including the decant and school rebuilding project, and there was also a useful discussion on social media. The Parent Council is keen to have a social media presence in the new academic year as a useful tool to keep parents updated, but also keen to see some training/updates for parents to ensure they are aware of the possible risks and dangers to young people from social media. Making all parents ...
The Forest Heath Development Control committee approved the plans from Iceni Housing for six affordable houses on land at the junction of the Freckenham and Isleham roads on the edge of Worlington. Many residents in Worlington and the Parish Council had been concerned about acces tot he development on a stretch of road that is notorious for speeding traffic. Additional safety measures were sort from Iceni Housing. All of these measures including a SID (speed indicator display) and rear pedestrian access to the site onto Isleham Road were requested. I proposed that these be conditions of granting of planning permission, ...
Nick Clegg is out and about but he's not forgotten about us all here in the blazing UK (well blazing for a few more hours anyway) and he has recorded a message to once again show that he is fully behind equal marriage. You can read the transcript below and/or watch the video which has been embedded: "I've always been very clear on this: love is the same, straight or gay, so the civil institution should be the same too. "All couples should be able to make that commitment to one another, regardless of who they love. "I fought for ...
So the votes are in for the Liberal Youth Elections of 2012, congratulations to all the candidates elected, and comissertations to those who didn't make it this time. The results are as follows:
Below are recently submitted Planning Applications in the Chorlton area. You can find out more information about any of the proposals on the City Council's Planning Portal at http://tinyurl.com/yv6lex or by contacting the South Area Planning Group Manager - Roger Hall; Tel: (0161) 234 4536; email: r.hall@manchester.gov.uk . You can also make a Planning representation (in support or opposition) to Mr Hall or the designated planning officer for each application. Please feel free to contact me on (07947383740; cllr.v.chamberlain@manchester.gov.uk) if you wish to discuss any application and please also send me a copy of any representation you make. 099439/JO/2012/S1 Sports ...
Liberal Democrat leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has written for the Guardian about the Rio+20 summit he's attending. He says that it's vital that we "revive the spirit of our predecessors to get the world on a much more sustainable path". He spelled out the consequences if we don't act: Too many people still lack food: tonight, one billion will go hungry. There isn't enough clean energy: right now women in some of the poorest communities are fuelling their homes with tyres and plastics. Despite the noxious fumes produced, they rely on anything that will burn. Dirty water ...
Attached photo is the official opening of the fabulous new Shawbury Court Gates. Previously this area was ungated with lots of anti-social behaviour and access to the Shawbury Court flats above a number of Lordship Lane shops. Real problems of urination, defecation and worse. So the gates are expected to remove this problem from these residents and businesses. Picture show Cllr Jonathan Mitchell, Madeleine one of the residents who led the coordination of businesses and residents to contribute to the gates and the artist Heather Burrell whose team made and installed her design. The funding was 50% business/residents and 50% ...
It is with some concern that I read of proposals to criminalise paying for sex in Scotland. Prostitution is a catch-all term that describes arrangements that should make the state very concerned indeed – trafficking of children for brutal sexual exploitation for example. There are also arrangements that the state has no business interfering in – the work of a self-employed, financially comfortable escort making very good money to supplement another income in an environment over which he or she has control. Changing demand by criminalising the purchase of sex will have a number of unintended and undesirable consequences. Firstly, ...
It has been fascinating to follow Gladstone's Library as it seeks to redefine Liberalism. Little snippets have been leaked from their sojourn at the Hay Festival where hundreds of people filled in their 'liberalism' voting cards'. I guess a summary will appear shortly on their blog devoted to the project .http://redefiningliberalism.blogspot.co.uk/ The contribution from pollster Peter Kellner -who was a 'don't know' seemed to think we were useful people to have around ...................
My regular column for the Prestwich Advertiser. This Sunday saw the launch of a new Prestwich loyalty card: 'Prestwich Passport'. Local businesses have got together to see how they can help encourage us to spend a bit more of our money in Prestwich. It's a great idea for the whole of Prestwich. Without local businesses, a town soon becomes little more a. Just as importantly local businesses means local jobs. Local in Prestwich have estimated that if we all spent an extra £10 a week in Prestwich, that's an extra £13 million in the local economy - that's a tall ...
And rather nicely, he seems to be genuinely excited about it.
Outside my work as a teacher, mainly of economics, I've devoted most of my time, energy and enthusiasm to the Liberal/Liberal Democrat Party and the Church of England. An acquaintance, I think probably a Labour voter, described the current situation of the former quite aptly, I thought, when he said that the Liberal Democrats had committed voluntary euthanasia for the sake of the country. But we shall see: even a week is a long time in politics and a lot will happen in the next three years. We may yet revive. Now, with its almost hysterical opposition to same sex-marriages, ...
Back to the subject of what should direct the votes of MPs and other elected representatives. In the first post I argued that an election manifesto should be a serious commitment, but that there were very good reasons why the commitment could not be absolute. I also pointed out that while people criticised MPs for not doing what their electorate wanted, the same people valued decisiveness and knowing what they wanted in prospective governments and leaders. The late 18th century politician, political philosopher and reformer Edmund Burke took a stand on MP's independence from direction by their voters, arguing that ...
Museum of Endangered Sounds Some of these are sounds you might never have wanted to hear again... (tags: history ) Middle-Aged Woman Angrily Demanding Price Check On Rice Pudding Was Once Carefree Youth, Onlookers Speculate | The Onion - America's Finest News Source Ow. (tags: funny )
Mike Tuffrey seeks inspiration from Roosevelt in advocating a four point plan for a sustainable economic recovery. With all the depressing news about the economy, I can recommend a re-reading of the inaugural address of newly-elected President Franklin D Roosevelt, given in the depths of the Depression on March 4, 1933. Aside from his well-known call to arms against fear itself, he did a nice (and topical) line in banker-bashing too: "Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men". Elements of his prescription are highly relevant ...
There seems more than a whiff of leadership debate in the air just now, what with the Peter Kelner/You Gov piece advocating a change of leader one way or another, Stephen Tall's analysis of that piece, and of course the recent Lib Dem Voice survey of party members. But that latter vote has been criticised for not putting a straightforward enough question - mentioning that Lembit called for a change in leadership and essentially asking, 'is he right'?. This is tantamount, it has been suggested, to asking for people to endorse Lembit - which may have affected how people voted, ...
At a Cornwall Council event yesterday to discuss planning issues, the Chief Exec made a splash by saying that he thought the authority could be facing a cut in its Government grant in the future of up to 35%. To put this into context, the government grant is the largest single source of income to the council, but sits alongside council tax, fees and charges for services and business rate income. In addition, the 35% figure is the worst case scenario. Others have talked in terms of a 25-30% cut and the Chief Exec assured us that the council would ...
TB is a nasty disease that can only be transferred by close contact with people. The policy of the health service has been to only offer vaccination to people who have family contacts with areas with high levels of TB. That is because the vaccination itself is not something people would like. I have for some time argued that there is a risk of a disease vector at school and that schools
In this week running up the 100th anniversary of Alan Turing's birth it is great to see him and his achievements getting a lot of coverage in the local and national press. I do feel, however, that while this coverage ... Continue reading →
Career politicians are elected young, promoted quickly and dominate the highest offices of state | British Politics and Policy at LSE (tags: ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Every week Secretary of State for Scotland Michael Moore writes a column for newspapers in his Borders constituency. Here is this week's edition. Olympic Torch in the Borders With the London Olympics just around the corner, it was great to be part of the crowd welcoming the Torch to the Borders last week. It received a very warm reception and it was fantastic to see so many people getting behind the event. The Torch's eight day journey through Scotland has given us an opportunity to showcase everything Scotland has to offer and I would like to thank everyone in the ...
Wed 20th
09:44
2nd year of Praise for the Lib Dems: Collected praise from the mainstream media for the Lib Dems
What are the Lib Dems doing well at? From one day to another we may have a different answer to that question because of what people say and what we read and hear. It is useful to review what we are doing well as a party, beyond the 'achievements'. The papers write a fair amount ...
Leading Liberal Democrat Councillors from all over England gathered on Saturday at the Universityof Bedford for a conference organised by the Local Government Association. The keynote speaker was the Deputy Prime Minister Rt Hon Nick Clegg MP who had recently acquitted himself so well at the Leverson Inquiry. Nick arrived fresh from NOT supporting our Conservative coalition partners in the Commons debate on the behaviour of the much-entangled (with the Murdoch Empire) Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt – who was "in it together" with David Cameron, who was "in it together" with Rebekah Wade...and so on. Nick's message, however, was a ...
Wed 20th
09:03
As Trailed....It's Nick's transcript of his pre record for the Today programme this morning on the R...
You do have to play 'Guess the question he's answering' though... Nick Clegg (Deputy Prime Minister): Well I think the first thing to, to stress is this is not going to be like the original Rio Summit. The original Rio Summit was, you know, truly revolutionary and, and led to the Kyoto agreement on greenhouse gas emissions, to the Nagoya agreement on bio divers, which spawned the whole sort of outburst if you like of international agreements which really have served the world very well over the last twenty years. This will be in many respects a, a less spectacular ...
The recent news that there is a recommendation to give seven Sefton Labour councillors pay rises of between 25% and 67% has understandably provoked fury. What has happened is that Sefton Council's "Independent Remuneration Panel" proposed the massive increases at its meeting held on 6th June. This was the first meeting of the Panel since Labour took overall control of Sefton Council in the May local elections. Many of us in the Lib Dems had expected the Panel to propose a cut in the level of additional Special Responsibility Allowances (SRAs) paid to 16 of the more senior councillors. In ...
The original moves in the party to pass up (mostly) on fighting Police & Crime Commissioner (PCC) elections generated heated debate and many local parties have made use of their say in the process to push for the party to fight the election in their area. As a result, a steady trickle of adverts have been appearing as selection processes start for many of the Commissioner posts. In his report to the forthcoming English Council, English Party chair Peter Ellis has confirmed the party's official warming to the idea of fighting the elections: With the introduction of the mayoral and ...
By the looks of it, in the next few days Moody's will be downgrading its credit ratings for various British banks. Bad news, right? Well no. Good news really. Good news as British banks should be rated as less than completely safe. That is because a major point of the changes to British banking regulation is to remove the 'too big to fail' hostage situation the banks put taxpayers in and instead replace it with 'you speculate, you lose, you go bust'. Recognising that British banks are not a surefire safe thing is therefore good news as it shows a ...
Calling someone a neoliberal is rarely a sign of agreement or a term of endearment. It is one of those terms that's only ever used pejoratively. It's hard to think of anyone who would choose to classify themselves as a neoliberal. The definition of neoliberalism is quite fluid and contested, but no one uses the label as a sign of approbation. So when David Laws was branded a neoliberal in the comment thread on a recent post at Liberal Democrat Voice a few supporters sought to defend his honour. The majority of the commenters, on the other hand, were less ...
Last June, the City Council sensibly decided to postpone road resurfacing works on the part of Blackness Road between Abbotsford Street and Blackness Fire Station. It makes sense to undertake this work after all the disruption to the roadway around the new schools on the former Logie Secondary site has finished. Constituents have asked when the work is now planned to happen so I asked the City Engineer for an update. He has responded as follows: "... the surfacing works were postponed until mid September 2012 to allow for utility connections to be made to the school development. A road ...
Everybody's In Showbiz is possibly the most overlooked album from the Kinks' early period. A rather odd double-album, the second disc is made up of live recordings, almost entirely of songs from the previous two albums (the CD reissue adds two 60s classics — Til The End Of The Day and She's Bought A Hat ...
