This case has received little coverage, so here is Martin Beckford's report from the Daily Telegraph: Theresa May has been accused of "unacceptable and regrettable behaviour" by a judge as she became only the second Home Secretary in history to be found guilty of contempt of court. Mrs May ignored a legal agreement to release an Algerian robber from immigration detention in a decision that lawyers say risked throwing the whole system into confusion. As a result, Judge Barry Cotter, QC, made the extremely rare ruling that the Home Secretary was in contempt of court. He said there has been ...
The Liberal Democrats' Federal Policy Committee is shortly to announce the creation of a new Polic Working Group on Europe. Antony Hook said: "This is a welcome development. Liberal Democrats are the party that thinks seriously and carefully about Europe and how it can benefit our citizens. I am confident the policy working group will ...
Was very faithful to the book, apart from in one important aspect which I will get to shortly. Had beautiful set design, and amazing, AMAZING make-up. Had stunningly good performances from all concerned, even the little lad who played William. And having seen it, I feel sick to my stomach. You see, nobody told me that the one major change they made, after being very faithful to the spirit and letter of the book throughout, is that before the Creature kills Elizabeth he brutally rapes her and screams "Now I am a MAN!" If this had been a film, there ...
The inquest into the death in custody of Sean Rigg, a fit and healthy 40 year old, is due to hear the eyewitness accounts of members of the public who saw the pursuit and restraint of Mr Rigg in Brixton ... Continue reading →
On The Libertine Andrew Emmerson addresses the elephant in Liberal Youth's room: "When our Chair wins with only 56 votes and some regional positions only had 3 votes, then it is clear that we have a problem. It is not an insurmountable problem, but one nonetheless that must be addressed. It is obvious that we have lost members since the formation of the coalition, and this will form a part of the low turnout, but, I think more pressingly, is the sheer lack of engagement from the members that we actually have, amongst other things." "In the past there were ...
When an unpopular dictator leaves for an international conference he risks being deposed in his absence. Michael Gove has not called the tanks on to the streets, but he has launched a missile at David Cameron in the shape of his proposed reforms to education. With their flavour of rigour and 'going back' they have delighted Conservative backbenchers and infuriated Liberal Democrats, which I suspect is precisely the reaction they were intended to evoke. It is hard to see Michael Gove being popular with the wider electorate, but he is able and ambitious. David Cameron needs to watch out. But ...
In the last few weeks we've seen the Pandora's box of national tax policy rear its ugly head again. In a couple of posts, one tonight and one tomorrow, I intend to address three issues. First there was the u-turn on what is now better known by its twitter hashtag "#pastytax", then stories of, among other things, a number of high-net-worth French citizens considering moving to the UK in response to the Eurozone's economic climate and tax policies of Francois Hollande. Finally, we've had the hysteria, hyperbole and hypocrisy abound when it was revealed that Jimmy Carr had been exploiting ...
Ian Swales MP joins UK manufacturers to encourage kids to get excited about manufacturing careers. Ian is proud to be launching the "We Made It!" competition here in the Redcar Constituency, working with local schools and industry to help young people understand how exciting and rewarding a career in manufacturing could be. The competition will invite young people aged 13-16 to submit designs and ideas for a gadget, gizmo, toy or tool they'd like to see made. Any invention, no matter how creative, is welcome and as long as it's realistic enough to be made there's a chance it could ...
I must be weak, but two episodes of the BBC drama series "True Love" has shown me just how much I care for Margate, and I have to admit I don't care enough to lie, frankly without being heavily sedated, I can't make another episode. Watching the first couple of episodes, even tasteful shots of characters traveliong along Margate front and then back the otherway didn't lift my spirits, nor Dr Who pretending to be a council officer, I understand that much of drama was improvised by the actors, which if you ask me just enhances the drabness of the ...
Just read this. It is quite clear. Typical Gove. Return to some stupid idea of the past. [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
A comedian does all he can to avoid paying tax. That's just what you would expect, isn't it? We wouldn't be shocked if it were Jim Davidson, Jimmy Tarbuck of Lennie Bennett. So why the outcry over over Jimmy Carr? The reason, I suspect, is that as a society we have come to overvalue the importance of political satire. I had a rant about this in Liberal Democrat News about just this point in Liberal Democrat News last year: I grew up on tales of how Private Eye and That Was the Week That Was brought down Harold Macmillan and ...
Paddy Ashdown – former Lib Dem leader and president of Unicef UK – has an op-ed in the Daily Telegraph setting out his hopes for the Rio+20 summit currently taking. Here's a sample: Right now an estimated 18 million people in the Sahel region of west Africa are being affected by drought, disease and conflict. In 2011 alone UNICEF, the world's leading children's organisation, responded to 292 humanitarian emergencies in 80 countries. Children are always the most vulnerable in such situations, typically representing over 50 per cent of those affected by disasters, equating to between 100 and 175 million children ...
Over at Jewish Chronicle, Gavin Stollar (Chairman of Liberal Democrat Friends of Israel (LDFI)) has an excellent piece about LDFI's successful trip to Israel and the West Bank (I wasn't on this one). As Gavin writes, the delegation (which included Parliamentarians) heard a range of Israeli and Palestinian opinions on this trip, not only from government, but also from the person-in-the-street (and the person-in-the Druze-village).
Having done my doctorate at York University, news from the city still sometimes catches my eye, especially as York is home to Steve Galloway, one of the long-time party activists who, like colleagues such as Tony Greaves, have been hard at work since the 1970s. The Labour-run council's decision to axe 1 in 4 litter bins will hit the centre of York particularly heavily, where half the bins are going. As Steve puts it on his blog: Residents have been first mystified and then angry about the way in which the Council has used the excitement surrounding the arrival of ...
[IMG: money] The story of a third person being incorrectly paid by Kent County Council (this time with overpayments totalling £21,000) has been reported today by the BBC. Now - mistakes do happen. Sometimes, its reasonable to think that something is an isolated incident. Occasional mistakes do happen. Make sure the systems are OK, that the right checks are in place, the money has been recovered, and move on. But one thing has drawn my eye in that report. Andy Wood - Kent County Council's Corporate Director of Finance - apparently said "KCC efficiently paid 99.1% of staff correctly and ...
By Andrew Emmerson, Editor of the Libertine Earlier today, Liberal Youth Election results were posted, it was good news for almost all that stood. So congratulations to all who did make it. Commiserations to those who didn't. The numbers are clear, but here is where I will try and add some meaning to them. The ...
Here is our Gatley Police newsletter for July 2012 Gatley Police Newsletter July 2012
Why not sellers of second-hand education policies? Not content with promoting a return to a 400 year old translation of the bible, Michael Gove is now peddling outdated 'O' Level exams for the salvation of our education system. Here are some other similar ideas for policy changes: We could start manufacturing Morris Minors again. They were a fantastic invention for the 1950s, just like O Levels. We could return to the Gold Standard. It's obviously a way out of our credit card culture. We could reintroduce Latin as a requirement for University entrance. But that's going far enough. The reintroduction ...
If there was ever any doubt as to the credibility and effectiveness of Michael Gove as Education Secretary, that has now been dispelled by the recent announcement via the Daily Mail about bringing back 'O' Levels. Some I know have discarded this as not being serious, more an opportunity for Gove to act the Tory whilst his colleague flails around, making his opportunity for anything other than a one-term stint as Prime Minister highly unlikely. Maybe it is a political move to manoeuvre himself into a prime position as custodian of the right wing, but the idea that he would ...
If you live in Wokingham, brace yourselves. Starting on 23rd July, South East Water are going to be digging up the roads to lay replacement water mains. For 11 months. Where? A stretch that goes across the Coppid Beech roundabout, down London Road into Wokingham, diverts off right past All Saints Church, along Rose Street, Broad Street, through Shute End, down Station Road and across Station Approach, down Oxford Road, and then forking – one branch going via Caroline Drive, Arthur Road and Brookside to Reading Road and the other into Woosehill Meadows. Various stretches of road will be worked ...
I had the pleasure of meeting Jimmy Carr once, about four years ago now in Kennsington where we had seen his stand up. My wife and I queued up with many others post gig to get our programs signed and where the man himself waited for an hour after the show in casual clothes with a marker pen and traded niceties with fans and the odd joke. It is fair to say that, although his brand of comedy is not shared by everyone, he is indeed a large figure on the comedy circuit and television and he has indeed made ...
The film festival has got off to a glamorous start with Killer Joe opening. I think it is fair to describe this as a brutally funny black comedy brought to us by the same Director who made the Exorcist. It was a great choice to open the festival with but was not one for the squeamish. Matthew Macconnachie was brilliant in this. That is a sentence I never thought I would utter let alone the but this was not the marshmallow rom com he normally features in. He played the ruthless policeman, moonlighting as a hit man, with wit and ...
Something fascinating has happened in the last year or so. Many senior politicians have effectively been coming clean and admitting an addiction. They have been confessing that they have been addicted to a rather dysfunctional relationship with the media, the press in particular. That's good. The first step to dealing with a problem is admitting you have one. It is a necessary precondition to recovery from an addiction. But it is not sufficient. What needs to come next is a full and frank admission of what exactly was wrong with these relationships. Indeed if we imagine these politicians as equivalent ...
First up, here's what Vince had to say in the House of Commons yesterday: Under the plans, binding shareholder votes on pay and exit payments will take place every three years, but changes in pay policy in the period between votes will also have to be approved by shareholders. Companies will also be required to provide a single pay figure for executives which includes salary, bonuses and long-term incentives, rather than the confusing multitude of different figures that shareholders are often currently presented with. Cable plans to implement a number of the recommendations of the High Pay Commission, but has ...
EMA, the Building Schools for the Future programme, free schools and academies. Whether you agree with these or not, they've all been handled badly and without thought for teachers, parents and pupils. And now, the man at the helm of ensuring that the next generation of young people flourish is attempting to revert back to ...
A new website has been launched by Clifford Singer, the excitingly named chap behind The Other Taxpayers' Alliance and MyDavidCameron.com. It's called whofundsyou.org, and attempts to highlight the transparency of the funding arrangements behind 20 prominent thinktanks. As such, it's something that fans of Public Choice Theory should welcome. For those not in the know, ...
What Doctor Who - The New Adventures Mean To Us: Richard Doctor Who: The New Adventures (not, as Wikipedia disparagingly lists them, "Virgin New Adventures"), for six years from 1991 to 1997 were Doctor Who. At the time, everyone was on board with this. The general public may have drifted away, but fans, DWAS, Doctor Who Magazine (and their rivals) all bought into this unifying idea: the series was - temporarily - off air, but that was okay, because the line remained unbroken. People who were recognisably Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred, joined by someone who would eventually turn out ...
What Doctor Who - The New Adventures Mean To Us: Alex Twenty-one years old today, the New Adventures were, and are, one of the greatest eras of Doctor Who. There are, I think, three crucial reasons. At the time for the series, they were a lifeline for Doctor Who after the TV show was cancelled, continuing, innovating, reaching into the future with authors like Paul Cornell, Mark Gatiss and Russell T Davies; at the time for me, I was going through a period of explosive change and they act as milestones for me along the way; and, more importantly still, ...
One of the unexpected by-products of the controversial privatisations of the 1980s was the discovery of shockingly poor real estate management by state bodies – a rare glimpse of a problem only brought to the surface when the need for proper balance sheets arose. UK government departments and agencies have since been shown to exhibit appalling asset management, as any sweep through Public Accounts Committee (PAC) or National Audit Office (NAO) reports will demonstrate – stories of unused land & buildings, 'forgotten' landholdings, leases on punitive terms, opaque sale of land at below market prices. Government departments also own very ...
The official public version, via Dan Rogerson: Liberal Democrats absolutely support reforms to improve standards where the evidence is clear, and we have done so in the Coalition Government. We want to raise aspirations for all children, which is why every child should have the chance to achieve good qualifications. A two-tier system, with all the upheaval and instability this would cause, is not the way to achieve higher standards across the board. Reform needs to be managed carefully and we should avoid creating a huge amount of turbulence and distraction in the education system for no real gain. Rather ...
Credit to Stephen Knight, a Lib Dem London Assembly Member, for asking Boris Johnson about air quality at Mayor's Question Time - and let's look at what the Mayor said in his answer. Stephen's press release refers to the Mayor having "ruled out actively informing Londoners about the state of London's air quality...by publishing information on the GLA's website every day" is right that Londoners need to be so informed. I am pleased, therefore, to discover (from the Mayor's answer to Stephen's question) that such information is already being provided here: www.londonair.org.uk. A great question from Stephen, and ...
By Jamil Dhanani, Vice-President, Thornhill Young Liberals Liberalism worldwide is irrefutably becoming less and less popular as politics across the West becomes more and more polarized between the traditional Left and Right, and as voters flock to ideological camps in this time of profound crisis. I'm a Canadian, and we're a very Liberal nation — ...
Thursday: We're very sad to hear of the passing of Ms Caroline John, who starred as Dr Elizabeth "Liz" Shaw opposite Mr Jon Twerpee in the seventh season of Doctor Who and was one of the kindest, funniest, most selfless people we've ever met. Although she only did one season, it's memorably one of the best in the entire run of Doctor Who, featuring at least two classic stories, and in large part that's because Carrie's role as the Cambridge scientist who was the Doctor's equal led to grown-up stories, broader and deeper than the series had ever been before. ...
[IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department getting results already. Adding on average £50 to each insurance policy, car insurance fraud has been a major issue to people in the UK for some time. As a result this has become increasingly important issue ... Continue reading →
"In a place far from libraries, I have often read the text of Beowulf for pleasure," wrote Kenneth Sisam, presumably because he lived in Barnet and the Tories had closed all the libraries...As I wrote last year if people in Barnet want things like museums and libraries to be paid for with their Council Tax, then they have to consciously opt for that to happen, "unless we are now deciding that we want no museums, libraries, parks or anything else at all apart from homes, shops and pubs?"I do not really believe that the Conservatives are 'closing all the ...
In mid-June 1992, over one hundred heads of state came together in Rio de Janeiro to establish groundbreaking and legally binding agreements which put sustainable development on the global agenda and urged the world to start living within its means. Twenty years on, sustainable development appears to have lost its way. The global financial crisis and ongoing problems in the Eurozone have led some (including many in the Conservative Party) to turn a blind eye to environmental issues. Such has been the lack of media coverage, in fact, that you could be forgiven for failing to realise that this week's ...
Twenty-one years old today, the New Adventures were, and are, one of the greatest eras of Doctor Who. There are, I think, three crucial reasons. At the time for the series, they were a lifeline for Doctor Who after the TV show was cancelled, continuing, innovating, reaching into the future with authors like Paul Cornell, Mark Gatiss and Russell T Davies; at the time for me, I was going through a period of explosive change and they act as milestones for me along the way; and, more importantly still, they were brilliant at the time - and they still are. ...
Following a campaign by Redcar MP Ian Swales, Councillor Madge Moses (pictured right), Parish Councillor Margaret Wilson (pictured left) and local residents, the zebra crossings in Marske are to be raised, acting as a traffic-calming measure and improving pedestrian safety. Following a series of accidents in the area around Marske High Street, the MP received a number of cases from residents concerned about pedestrian safety. He raised the issue with the Council who have confirmed that a consultation will be undertaken, with work planned for the next financial year, pending the consultation's outcome. The crossing on Redcar Road and the ...
http://www.meninblack.com/ Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld ***** In preparation for the taking the kids to see this, we watched the first two movies in the series on DVD. These two previous movies remain funny, endearing and innovative in their storyline but the special effects and action are starting to show their age. Could a third movie in the series capture the same offbeat humour and style of the first two but provide the non-stop fast-pace special effects that the kids expect today? The answer is a resounding yes. After a really nasty alien, Boris the Animal (Jermaine Clement), escapes from a ...
Cllr Josh Mason (left) and Cllr Ron Harrison (right) with Emma Boyes and her daughter Leila, along with Spike the road safety mascot. A speed awareness event was held yesterday on Redcar's Stray as part of a campaign, sponsored by Redcar and Cleveland Council to reduce irresponsible driving on the Coast Road. It included appearances by Spike the Hedgehog as well as driving simulation equipment to test drivers' reflexes. The event follows a campaign by local resident Emma Boyes to tackle speeding on the Coast Road. "Coast Road Action Group" (CRAG) has been established to garner support for the initiative ...
Dame Gillian Morgan announced yetserday that she is retiring as permanent secretary to the Welsh Government after four years in the post. During her time in the post she has had to suffer accusations from one former Minister that her civil servants were obsessed with process and had effectively prevented him from doing his job properly. She has also clashed with departments in the UK Government, suggesting that they do not understand devolution. It strikes me that Dame Gillian's departure is an opportune moment to review the position of the Welsh Government's civil service, which I believe employs around 6,000 ...
Ian Swales, Member of Parliament for Redcar , has given his support to a Private Members' Bill to amend the Blue Badge legislation. The "Disabled Persons' Parking Badges Bill", which was presented in the chamber of the House of Commons and has already attracted cross party support. The aim of the Bill is to protect people who genuinely need a blue badge by clamping down on the misuse of badges by those individuals abusing the current scheme. The National Fraud Authority estimates it to be costing local authorities up to £46 million per annum. The Bill would introduce a number ...
This morning the news channels, websites and television are all over the place about leaked documents saying Mr Gove wants to scrap the GCSE. Having been in the first cohort to sit GCSEs it did make me reminisce for a few short seconds before my blood started to boil. Good and/or frustrated teachers may want to look away now because your blood may boil as much as mine. The problem with the current education is far from being the GCSE exam. It was designed back in the 80s to make sure that all children had a chance of succeeding. It ...
(This review for some reason has been lost from the website. I am republishing now but appreciate it is from late 2010. Both movies are still eligible for the 2014 Ripplestone Review Biennial Awards as they were originally reviewed after the 2008-2010 deadline and therefore fall into the 2010-2012 awards which were cancelled. There is also a review of Inception to follow. ) Fantastic Mr. Fox (PG) Regency Enterprises/Indian Paintbox 20th Century Foxhttp://www.fantasticmrfoxmovie.com***** UP 3D (U) ***** It is interesting to compare the two big animated films of this autumn, Fantastic Mr. Fox and UP 3D. While Disney Pixar's ...
Michael Lewis's highly readable account of the collapse of the US sub-prime mortgage market and the worldwide financial crisis it triggered focuses on a small number of characters. People with iconoclastic views determined not to be constrained by the old conventional rules. People who created new financial investments. People who put money into places their investors did not really understand on a good day and did not even know what had been done with their money on a bad day. People who made huge profits as others suffered. But these people are not the villains – they are the heroes ...
Yesterday's Plenary meeting left no clues as to why the First Minister had suddenly announced that he will be seeking the relocation of the Trident missile base from Faslane to Milford Haven in the event of a positive independence vote in Scotland, despite the tabling of an urgent question by Plaid Cymru AMs. Questions as to whether this had been a cabinet decision, if a risk assessment had been carried out and whether discussions had already taken place with the UK Government were stonewalled and we moved on to the next item none the wiser. On reflection, I regret not ...
The freehold for Cheadle's George & Dragon pub is for sale. Dorbiere are asking £425,000 for the Grade II listed building. Pam and Keith joined prospective buyers to take a look round on Tuesday, particularly bearing in mind that several residents have expressed interest in some form of community buy-out. The building's a large one – the public bar areas on the ground floor, meeting rooms with another bar on the first floor and several bedrooms on the second floor. In addition there are a couple of outbuildings (one of which housed the previous landlord's TVR I seem to remember ...
Natural England are running a 2 year funding scheme called Paths for Communities (P4C). From their website: The aim of P4C is to encourage and support local communities to work with land owners to make improvements to the network of Public Rights of Way. In all cases P4C projects must include some element of new Public Right of Way creation. In most cases projects will include an element of new Bridleway creation but projects that include Footpath creation alone will also be considered where community and economic benefit can be demonstrated. You can find out more on the Natural England ...
On The Subject Of Being Offensive "I care little about minimizing offense, but I care quite a lot about minimizing people" (tags: ) Julian the Asylum Seeker ... doesn't really have any grounds to claim asylum from Ecuador or anywhere else. (tags: ) You can't deny people their rights and be nice about it (tags: ) My Dream Cast For A Star Trek The Next Generation Reboot | The Mary Sue Erm... I wouldn't actually object to ANY of these. This is very unusual. (tags: ) VIDEO: All These Sexist Gamer Dudes Are Some Shook Ones "[W]hen you bully and ...
Writing in today's Independent, Nick Clegg is in combative form on Lord's reform whilst throwing in a hint that he's happy with a compromise on a less than 100% elected Lords: As you read this I am with statesmen and dignitaries from more than 100 countries at the Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development. There are leaders from countries with a wide range of different democratic systems and almost overwhelmingly they are united by one belief: that the people who make the laws should be elected. It seems bizarre to think that, in Britain in the 21st century, that should ...
yes an unusal topic - but listen i was at bradley stoke swimming pool a few days ago swiming happily up and across the pool. at the shallow end was an aquafit class. it always concerns me that when you see these classes no-one ever seems to be smiling! yes get this. people pay to exercise and do something that they look miserable doing. granted we need to know some suffering to then appreciate life in its wider sense. but what is the price of consistently enduirng this stuff. i also noticed that these classes very often have little to ...
I've been listening to the reports on the leaked paper concerning curriculum and examination arrangements in England with interest this morning. A lot of what's being reported is along the lines of "Michael Gove feels that" or "Michael Gove thinks that". Whatever changes are made to the secondary schools system should be based on evidence – not someone's personal thoughts or feelings or political ideology. It could, of course, be the case that simply changing the method of assessment might just suddenly improve standards for all – but I suspect that the issues facing schools, teachers, parents and students today ...
Queen Edith's has a bad problem with commuter parking. Near Queen Edith's Way, we have Addenbrooke's parking; near the Cherry Hinton Road junction, we have parking problems caused by students of Homerton College and Hills Road Sixth Form College. School parking is something else again. Waiting restrictions, eg yellow lines, are the province of the Conservative-run Cambridgeshire County Council, and we have asked time and time again for them to address the parking problems in the area. Regrettably, far too little attention has been given to the problems over the years. Even when residents have voted for residents' parking schemes ...
Two new publications look in some detail at how coalition government is working and should work. The sources of the authors – the University College London Constitution Unit and the Institute for Government – gives a clue about their perspectives, and it is a rather different one from that of the usual political commentary. I'll review the book, The Politics of Coalition: How the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Government Work by Robert Hazell and Ben Yong at a later date, but first comes the pamphlet (for which I was interviewed), How coalition governments renew in mid-term and last the full term by ...
I have received complaints from constituents that the verges on Riverside Drive west of the rail station and right along to the rail bridge are in a very tatty state and overgrown with weeds. See right and below. Given that this road is supposed to be an "ambassador route", I have asked the City Council to take prompt action to improve matters here.
I recently did an update on www.dundeewestend.com on the Magdalen Artists who have had an exhibition at the Vine as part of WestFest 2012. With thanks to the Artists, here's ten of the paintings on display: Blue Vase by Jim Petrie Duntrune Wood by Liz McCarthy Lochnagar by Liz McCarthy By Pat Edgar By Pat Edgar Road and the Miles to Dundee by Pauline Murray Tay at Sunset by Fiona Moore Two Birds by Jim Petrie Two Poppies by Fiona Moore View from the Close by Pauline Murray The exhibition ran only during WestFest week and had a good attendance, ...
[IMG: Liberal Drinks Beermats and a pint of beer] Somewhat out of the blue, there's been a sudden rush on Liberal Drinks beermats! It appears that no self-respecting liberal drinking session can do without them. The Royal Mail has hiked up prices somewhat, so I've had to adjust pricing a bit. They're now 95p for 4 beermats (a small price cut), but postage and packing has had to go up to 95p (although this stays the same no matter how many beermats you buy)! The best way to buy them is currently online via PayPal at http://bit.ly/LibDrinksBeermats!
By coincidence this post is also about a David Cameron quote (see Tory Party at Prayer). According to him tax avoidance schemes are morally wrong and he attacks comedian Jimmy Carr for exploiting a loophole. However anyone who employs an accountant will be paying for advice as to how they can legally pay as little tax as possible. Is Jimmy paying enough in tax? Of course he is. If David doesn't think so then he should change the law and then I am sure that Jimmy would change his ways. The comedian (Jimmy) tells us that he pays what he ...
Tony Nicklinson is a man in the news this week because he was left paralysed and with locked-in syndrome by a stroke seven years ago, and he has called for doctors to end his life. He is asking doctors to turn the Hippocratic oath on its head because, unlike other people, he does not have the means to end his own life. So what do 'others' do to end their own life? Do they do a Reggie Perrin and cause untold trauma to the people who discover the body? Do they throw themselves in front of a train and so ...
The Local Plan is to be discussed again at this week's planning committee meeting. The proposed amendments include an extension to the potential development site at Grove Farm, High Lane – see Qlocal news website. I have made the following ... Continue reading →
Had a reasonably enjoyable evening canvassing in the Grove ward by-election (the third one in my time in Kingston). It's pretty clear that it's going to be a close run thing between the Lib Dems and the Tories, with a chunk of previous Lib Dem voters looking at Labour and the Greens as alternatives because of their dissatisfaction with the government. Sadly for them - given the Greens are more than 1,300 votes behind the Lib Dems and Labour 1,400 - the only impact an improved vote for these parties can have is to hand the seat to the Tories. ...
