In which I witter on about Fist Of Fun, Lawrence Miles, Robert Anton Wilson and Kenneth Grant, while Amypoodle, Adam and Illogical Volume get on with actually analysing League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen (I plan on contributing more to the third essay, which should I think be up this weekend. Harry Potter is not something I've ...
There was an historic moment in Belfast City Council this evening. Mary Ellen Campbell of Sinn Féin brought a motion before full council to support equal civil marriage. It was passed without any votes against, making Belfast the first council in all of Ireland to support same-sex couples seeking to have a marriage. But that isn't all the story. All the Unionist Councillors walked out, except for the Lord Mayor Gavin Robinson (no relation to the first minister) while Ms Campbell presented her motion and did not return to vote. The Alliance party sat through the entire thing and then ...
Your opinions are currently being sought on Markets: Click here You've got till August 23rd. Health and Wellbeing Strategy: Click here There's much less time for this – only till July 11th and unfortunately there's no online response form. I appreciate that it's complex and requires people to read the (only) ten page outline document, but an online survey would get a much greater response level than requiring people to download a form, fill it in manually and then submit it. For what it's worth, I'm concerned that the strategy is far to too vague for us to be able ...
I've just realised that the blog hit three (almost) significant milestones over the weekend – 400 posts, 1,000 comments and 200,000 page views. Thank you to everyone who reads my (often off-message) ramblings and an extra thank you to those of you who, even more incredibly, stop by to comment as well. For those of you that are interested, the graphic below shows all of the individual posts which received more than 100 page views during the last quarter – there were 28 such ramblings. Up until a week or so before the quarter ended, it looked as if my ...
Writing about St Nicholas, Leicester. I said that the church stood next to Leicester's most substantial Roman remains, the Jewry Wall. Wikipedia says the wall is : an impressive example of standing Roman walling, is nearly 2000 years old. It measures 23 metres (75 ft) long, 8 metres (26 ft) high and 2.5 metres (8 ft) thick. It is the second largest piece of surviving civil Roman building in Britain (the largest being the "great work" at Wroxeter). The structure comprises alternate bands of Roman brick and coursed masonry. In the centre of the wall are two large arched openings ...
Tim Farron MP announced at tonight's Federal Executive meeting that he is to seek re-election as Liberal Democrat Party President this autumn: Being our party's President is a wonderful honour for me. Together our party is achieving so much - taking two million people out of tax, driving the pupil premium to give a better start to our most disadvantaged children and helping to create the green economy of tomorrow. I'm proud that our party is one of hope, freedom and liberty and we are fighting for our values. We are leading the charge for libel reform and equal marriage, ...
Even before I joined the Lib Dems I was a passionate believer in devolution for England. And having joined the Lib Dems and coming across the federalist principles that the party believes in has made me even more convinced of the need for English devolution. As it stands, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland all have devolved governments with varying degrees of power. I think this is an excellent thing. As a liberal I believe that all power should be devolved to the lowest possible level so that people can run their own lives. The problem is, however, that the English ...
Not a supporter of Ian Driver myself, I find it strange that Driver thinks has a chance as a candidate for the role Police and Crime Commissioner as per this announcement from Ian Driver? "I will be standing on a progressive platform calling for the reform of old fashioned and unworkable drugs and prostitution laws which will save £billions in police funding, which can be re-invested into community policing and cracking down on crime and disorder. I also want to Kent Police to take a much tougher stance on domestic abuse, hate crime and dangerous driving." "Without the backing of ...
Liberal Democrat peer (and key man in the future of the Draft Communications Data Bill) Paul Strasburger has become the sixteenth Liberal Democrat peer on Twitter. You can follow them all in one place via this Twitter list that I curate, and don't forget also the lists for Lib Dem MPs and Lib Dem council leaders. As ever, do let me know if you spot any errors or omissions. Finally, if you're wanting to get the most out of your own tweets, I'd heartily recommend using Buffer.
I've recently read this rather thoughtful piece by Dan Hodges over at the Telegraph, and I thought about in context of what I've been saying this last week on here. Gordon Brown's view on LBJ's biographies: "These books challenge the view of history that politics is just about individual manoeuvring. It's about ideas and principled policy achievements."Hodges argues against this as so:"Which isn't what they're about at all. There is an orgy of individual manoeuvring: stolen elections, stitched-up votes, enemies politically silenced, policies bought, favours sold. "I'm possibly not as cynical as I find Hodges to be here, as I ...
Not before time, David Cameron has announced an parliamentary inquiry into the morals and ethics of the banking sector. Considering that by all accounts, it appears that there has been widespread illegality and dubious sharp practises for some years, the comparison with the media inquiry as run by Lord Leveson makes the argument for a similar setup for the banking side just as compelling. Lets be fair - the BBC reports that "This committee will be able to take evidence under oath, it will have full access to papers and officials and ministers including ministers and special advisers from the ...
Lord Mandelson's Deathstar? The other night, all round Twitter Good guy John Ward (@john_m_ward) sent me a link with the financial break down of how much it would cost to build a Deathstar battle station. As a Star Wars nerd I found this amazing, but it got me to thinking about something the controversial comedian Frankie Boyle once said. I cannot quote him word for word but on Mock the Week it was suggested that Lord Peter Mandelson was so evil that he was visiting his family in Mordor... No hang on that was something different... it was something about ...
So writes Bobbie Johnson over on Gigaom in an interesting piece, which I praise not just for his choice of whose tweets to quote... [IMG: Network cables] Forget about the rhetoric or the controversy or the guiding philosophy, though. There is a much more simple — and much more real — problem facing the U.K.'s proposals to make porn filters opt-out. The porn filters they're talking about are absolutely terrible at doing the job they're being asked to. Given that any filters which are put in place will need to be built and operated by ISPs, I contacted Britain's four ...
I have just finished an interesting book on social policy called "Jilted Generation - how Britain has bankrupted its youth" by Howker and Malik This is a thought provoking book. In essence, two young men in their late 20s say they are not happy with their lot. They feel stitched up by the generations who came before. In terms of housing policy they examine how right to buy and buy-to-let have given the baby boomers a step up and young people a step down. There are limited house-build programmes leading to chronic shortage. The authors note studies on delayed independence. ...
The Olympic torch visited Market Harborough today. Schoolchildren were given the afternoon off, the Market Hall was opened specially and entertainment was laid on. Sadly, the weather did not co-operate. It is customary to tell a white lie in such circumstances and say that the rain did not spoil things - the reporting of the Jubilee pageant on the Thames was a blatant example of this. But, of course, the weather did spoil things to an extent and I felt sorry the local people who had put so much work into the day. But I like the British 'mustn't grumble' ...
Gwilym presented his group's findings on the revival of the Bank of East Sessex with a straight and earnest face, to polite if slightly stunned attention from the others. It turned out that some of the other groups' tasks had also carried a hint of subversion: for example, one had been required to firefight revelations that the former leader of the council had taken home a taser belonging to the Chair of the Police Authority and had used it on two Mormon missionaries, who were also slightly stunned by the turn of events. "Who the, well, you know, wrote these ...
Broadcast on Saturday, a Radio 4 interview with Lord Ashdown, featuring clips from the BBC archive from throughout his career: From rookie MP to Liberal Democrats leader, from the Royal Marines to high office in Bosnia, Paddy Ashdown relives his life from the archives in a frank and sometimes emotional conversation with John Wilson. From his early days in the army to his leadership of the Liberal Democrats, Paddy Ashdown – now Lord Ashdown- has been a singular political figure. He arrived in Westminster as a Liberal but soon his party voted for a merger with the SDP. He led ...
August 21, 2012 5:00 PM Office of Prater Raines Ltd, 98 Sandgate High Street, Sandgate, Folkestone CT20 3BY Folkestone West and Sandgate County Councillor Tim Prater offers regular drop-in advice surgeries open to any local resident on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of each month from 5-6pm. If you have any issue with the County Council or their services to you that you feel Tim could help with, simply turn up for a chat - no appointment required. Free tea / coffee. Alternatively, contact Tim Prater by email at tim@prater.org.uk, call 07956 276118, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/timprater. ...
It has been fascinating to follow Gladstone's Library (St Deniol's) 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 ................... 'I am a Liberal because I desire earnestly the advancement of the people morally, intellectually, and materially, by the redress of all wrongs that fall ...
This piece originally was written for Better Nation, and has also been published by the National Collective website. I reproduce it here for the benefit of those who have not yet seen it. I'm a rather late convert to the cause of Scottish independence - a conversion that owes more to pragmatism than it does to political ideology. I've never been the kind of Liberal Democrat vociferously opposed to the notion of independence. In 2007 I believed that, while a prospective coalition was a non-starter due to simple arithmetic, the party was misguided to rule out co-operation with the SNP ...
There is no worse cancer in a free society than the thuggish impulse to equate dissent as disloyalty... The greatest patriot is the person with the courage to be the lone voice in the crowd crying out that the Emperor has no clothes. The test of our society's democratic nature is our instinct to value the right of our fellow human beings to disagree with us.
ALDC are proud to support the 'Fix Parliament' campaign for a majority-elected House of Lords. After 100 years of promises, papers, reports and Commissions, it is time for the government to take action and deliver a truly democratic second-chamber. There is no excuse nor justification for half of our parliament being appointed at the whim of party leaders for lifetime terms of office - an arrangement that we share in common with Belize, Burkina Faso, and Jordan. There is no excuse for supporting a system that allows some lawmakers to inherit their office - an arrangement that we currently share ...
From the BBC's Nick Robinson: The government is to set up a wider inquiry into banking to report by the end of the year. It will not be a full Leveson-style public inquiry. However, it will be separate from, and much wider than, the inquiry already announced into the abuses of LIBOR – inter-bank lending rate – at Barclays and other banks. The aim will be for its conclusions to lead to instant changes in the law in the Financial Services Bill, which is currently going through Parliament. The chancellor will spell out the detail this afternoon. I understand that ...
The July 2012 Folkestone West "You Decide" Day has received a huge number of applications this year from groups supporting the Folkestone West community. The demand has been so high that the amount of money for the July 2012 day has been increased to a total of £15,500 (with the remaining £10,000 available at a second day in December 2012) to increase the chances of the bidders in this round. The applications received were: 1st Cheriton Scout Group £2,000 Catch 22 £2,000 Church Street Project £1,500 Community Network £1,000 Cycle Shepway £1,000 FMSG £1,650 Folkestone and Hythe Sea Cadets £2,000 ...
[IMG: Nick Clegg MP reads to Oxford school children] What made Nick Clegg hoot on Friday in Oxford? Answer: the Pupil Premium – £2.5 billion of extra money to help school pupils from the most disadvantaged backgrounds. On the latest visit in his regional summmer tour, Nick Clegg visited a primary school in Oxford to read to children and publicise the Pupil Premium. From ITV Meridian Tonight: Nick Clegg hooted like an owl today and told a group of children he wished he'd turned up in his pyjamas. All in a day's work for a Deputy Prime Minister visiting Cutteslowe ...
The past few weeks have not shown the British Conservative Party in a very good light. The large numbers of "Enoch was right" articles, to commemorate the centenary of the old devil simply reminded me why he had so few political (and not many other) friends. Pedantic and rigid, his vision of Britain was blinkered. Far from being some iconic lost genius, the rather sad cheerleaders from the right wing press simply reminded me of how often the Tories are wrong- and when they are wrong, how seriously wrong they can be. The nonsense of Jeremy Hunt's support for Murdoch ...
I am writing to provide further background on a major capital investment scheme that Veolia Water Southeast is currently undertaking on Romney Marsh. Construction work has now started on Phase 1 of a new strategic water main running from the Denge Water Treatment Works near Lydd to St Mary's Bay. This will replace an older pipeline which has been assessed as having a high risk of bursts. The first phase of construction extends from St Mary's Bay through to Collins Road in New Romney. We have appointed Enterprise Utility Services as the contractor for this phase which is due to ...
Come along and have your say! An opportunity to tell the people who run your bus service what you think Bus Users UK will be holding an event on Friday 6th July 2012, 10am - 4pm, Mersey Square, Stockport They aim: To strengthen the voice of bus users in the discussion of public transport issues To increase the influence of bus passengers on local and national decisions affecting bus services To develop good communication between bus companies and their passengers How does BUS USERS UK work? Bus services are local by nature, and have different strengths and weaknesses in different ...
In the year 1124, the King of England had a problem with the people who produced the kingdom's money. The quality of the coins in the early part of the reign was poor, as the moneyers made a large profit by producing underweight coins or coins of debased fineness. In 1124 Henry called all 150 moneyers to Winchester, and called them to account for their activities — 94 of them were convicted of issuing sub-standard coins and were mutilated, their right hands and one testicle being cut off, as a result of which the quality of coins improved for most ...
After spending the week up to our eyes in flour, butter and sugar I had a slight panic that we had gone overboard on the cup cakes and cookies for the fourth annual Wallington Fair. The pouring rain we woke up to on the morning of the fair did not bode well either. But we ...
I spent more time obliterating graffiti in Folkestone West last week: removing a "tag" from a postbox by the junction of Wilberforce Road and Sandgate High Street. [IMG: Graffiti on letterbox] Before... [IMG: letterbox after graffiti removed] ...after. Graffiti Gone! This time I was using graffiti removal wipres courtesy of Urban Hygiene - and they worked. Took about 15 minutes of concerted work to get rid of the whole tag, and a few of the wipes, but clearly a success. It took a little longer than it would have done using graffiti removal spray as before, but clearly the wipes ...
The Press Association reports: Nick Clegg has ramped up the pressure on Bob Diamond by indicating he believed the Barclays chief executive should follow the lead of the bank's chairman, Marcus Agius. The Deputy Prime Minister said he had "no problem with more inquires" into what went wrong with the industry after Labour called for a Leveson-style investigation. Mr Clegg sidestepped calls to directly demand Mr Diamond's resignation, insisting it was not for politicians to hire and fire bankers. But, during a visit to a school in east London, he insisted the buck stopped at the top. He said: "I'm ...
I know I've been blathering on about the Adam Smith Institute quite a lot lately (my reasons for doing so aren't unique, though), but this is particularly egregious: "Do we need an inquiry on the Libor scandal? No. The boom phase of every boom-bust cycle breeds this sort of excess and dishonesty. It is to ...
Last weekend marked the 15th anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong. On a torrentially wet evening on 30 June 1997, the UK relinquished control of a territory which was home to almost seven million people and one of Asia's leading commercial centres. It also marked the end of the most colossal missed opportunity to further Chinese democracy. With the Sino-British Joint Declaration, Mrs Thatcher honoured the terms of the Convention of Peking by returning Hong Kong to China. Many at the time believed the deal provided few safeguards on the rule of law, human rights and democracy. By the ...
I have blogged about banking frequently in the past. I have also blogged about big bonuses, and management taking responsibility for their actions So it should come as no surprise that I think Barclays Chief Bob Diamond ... Continue reading →
Some boroughs could see police stations closed as the Mayor of London this week changed his position over the provision of local police stations across London. As recently as March Boris Johnson, in a written answer to a Mayor's Question, said: "I can assure you, in line with my Mayoral priority, no front counter will be closed without a new improved facility being put in its place." However, in response to questioning at Mayor's Question Time from Caroline Pidgeon last week, the Mayor was only prepared to say "that every borough will have at least one 24-hour counter." You can ...
Continuing on from my last post on mobility, I'm taking another look at the replacement for the Disability Living Allowance, Personal Independence Payments (PIP). The second area where the current proposals on PIP disadvantage blind people is in that of communication. This is one of the activities under the broad heading of 'daily living'. If you're reading this piece you are undoubtedly using some form of computer, whether it's a PC, mobile phone or PDA. You're probably looking at the screen reading the text that I'm currently typing. At my end of this process I'm typing with a little voice ...
Mon 2nd
11:34
Confirmation that The Sun's politics people seemingly don't know their arse from their elbow
Politicians. Yes those people. We all know about them and you'd expect the people that are paid to write about them ad nauseum would be able to tell a politician from someone who wasn't a politician but seemingly those employed by The Sun to write about politics aren't able to do such a thing. Before we get on to that though lets slag of The Sun a little bit more... The Heroes and Villains of Westminster is one of the highlights of their political coverage. This week though the heroes of UK politics in the past week are the 12 ...
City traders live in a world of their own. After the news of Barclays Bank's fine for falsifying LIBOR returns, its share price rose slightly. The scandal had been rumbling on for months, and they were relieved that it had been resolved. They had no idea about the approaching firestorm – which took a big toll on its price later that day. Later an investor was reported by the BBC (who may have been quoting a newspaper) that all this mob rule had to end. But as the hue and cry continues (this morning the Barclays chairman resigned), politicians and ...
Stockport Council's website has thousands of visitors each day, and you can advertise your events there for free. Any community-based event, including anything from coffee mornings to football matches, youth clubs to ballroom dances can be advertised. You can enter the details of the event directly onto the Council website and, after moderation, it goes up. You can put up repeating events. It's a valuable resource we need to be making better use of – free advertising on a well used website with a large local audience. I'd like to see a lot more events – and a far bigger ...
This morning I went to a site meeting on Dutson Road to look at the plans for the old Abbeyfield Home. Despite the rain, there was a good turnout from local residents and the town council. In addition, there were three members of the planning committee, the applicants and council officers. During the meeting I explained my worries over the lack of parking (there are 9 spaces proposed for 11 properties), a concern about over-development and the lack of affordable housing being provided. However I welcomed the principle of the development and the proposal to replace the front wall with ...
The CAB in Garston village is temporarily closed (the building that is not the service) for some work on the building. This CAB is actually merged with the one in Toxteth so while the Garston building is closed you can still get face to face advice from the Toxteth building. Obviously the phone service and on line stuff is not affected. The change starts today (2 July) and runs to early September. There are lots of notices up in the windows of the Garston building with the various times of the advice sessions.
The hearing into the choice of waste sites across Merseyside (including the Stalbridge one) is now finished. I spoke on the last day of actual hearings and the Inspector then had a couple of days to visit some of the sites. I was the only politician, from any party, to turn up and say anything about the Garston proposal. We now have a bit of a wait. The Inspectors report should be out around October. I will blog again on this when I have any updates or when there is more news available. This, not particularly flattering, pictures is me ...
Last Thursday saw the launch of a centre-right think tank in Wales called Gorwel (Horizon) chaired by the Conservative Assembly Member, David Melding, and including Lib Dems, such as Russell Deacon, Plaid Cymru members and non-party people. It's an attempt to challenge the status quo in Wales try and improve Wales economically. The new organisation has some clear objectives: 1. Gorwel is an independent, non-party Welsh think-tank whose mission is to set out a better way to deliver public services and economic prosperity in Wales. 2. Where possible it wants to develop Welsh solutions to Welsh problems drawing on the ...
One of these days, I'll remember to post these on the Friday! 121065: Demolition and rebuilding of rear garden wall, Maidenburgh Street. 121066: Listed building consent for 121065. 121111: Removal of roof canopy and building new garden room, St Albans Road. 121152: Removal of section of side glazing and installation of double door, High Street. Please note that I am a member of the Council's Planning Committee for the next municipal year. This means that I'm required to act in a 'quasi-judicial' manner with regard to applications before the Committee and as such, can't make comments in favour or against ...
Ben Colburn, pictured above (credit to Norman Fraser) was a Research Fellow at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge and Affiliated Lecturer, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Cambridge until September 2010 when he became a lecturer in philosophy at the University of Glasgow. He recently gave a lecture to the Social Liberal Forum (Scotland) on the subject of Social Liberal Values. From Monday to Thursday this week, at 10 am, I'll put up a chapter of his lecture. Enjoy - and as I'm away on my holidays, play nicely in the comments threads If you missed it, you might want to also ...
A liberal success over many decades has been to protect the tax-free status of books and newspapers. A tax on books would be abhorrent because it would be a tax on free speech. A democratic, civilised society requires the free exchange of ideas, information and art in books. Books are vital for people, young and old, ...
An application pack for a European Parliamentary Selection consists of a number of elements. The Selection Rules, obviously, and an application form, of course, form part of it. However, from the perspective of the Selection Committee, the elements that require most work are the Selection Criteria and the Regional Profile. The Selection Criteria, for those of my readers who don't get involved in the details of candidate selection, are basically a list of attributes that we, the Selection Committee, deem to be most necessary in a candidate. You will note the potential flaw here, in that a good candidate might ...
Over on the Guardian's Comment is Free, Vince Cable gives his commentary on the banking crisis: Last week's banking scandals demolished a convenient myth: that the banking crash was all the fault of a few colourful rogues like Fred the Shred of RBS and Adam Applegarth of Northern Rock. We have been reminded, instead, that the rot was far more widespread. Incompetence, corruption and greed have been endemic in British banking. The RBS/NatWest computer failure illustrated the incompetence. Millions of households and firms now have to clean up the mess caused by accidental missed payments, bounced cheques and cash shortages. ...
Yesterday, I said something on Twitter which should have been relatively uncontroversial. I stated that capitalism had evolved to the point where profits had been privatised and risk had been socialised. This isn't an original insight; it has been stated with more eloquence and at greater length elsewhere. However I was challenged by a radical ...
So we start with the yellow jersey blazing away up a hill and leaving almost all the pack for dead. However, that might not be a sign of how the rest of the race will develop seeing as the yellow jersey was Fabian Cancellara and the hill was just a 200m category 4 blast in the suburbs of Liege. It was an exciting start to the race, though, with lots of first day nerves as everyone fought their way to the front and tried to hold on through bumpy roads and tight corners. I would like to take this moment ...
How difficult is it to becone a citizen of this country. Well, if this sample test is anything to go by, it is very hard indeed. I have just taken it and got 15 out of 24, which is a fail. To be fair the questions I fell down on were quantitive and obscure historical ones such as when women got the right to divorce their husband, and the number of children and young people in the UK under the age of 19. And who knew that information in the census is kept secret for 100 years? Is that actually ...
The wise words of Charles Dickens on chocolate will always of course come first in my affections when it comes to his quotes, pipping even the one that is rather applicable to social media. But this one is pretty good:
Ok the kick at the end of yesterday's route was harder than many expected with the narrow streets, sharp bends, cobbled climb and the gradient itself. So it was left to the puncheurs and not the stronger sprinters to take line honours. So it was that Fabian Cancellera (BMC) took off on the steep ascent before the more level final part. But with him went Tour debutant Peter Sagan (LIQ) but in their wake only Edvald Boasson Hagen (SKY) came after them to close the gap they built up. But for Cancellara the other two sat on his wheel not ...
This is Lincolnshire walks away with the award for its: Mayor of Louth's sausage costume to greet Olympic Torch 'looked like a penis' With thanks to @alexfoster on Twitter
... as opposed to straight down the line Liberals? This is a question that we perhaps don't reflect upon as often as we might. Now would seem as good a time as any to do so. In fact, it is an extremely pertinent question at this precise moment. We've just witnessed David Laws in the media promoting his campaign for a smaller state, invoking various liberal icons in support. Fanboys and girls in the Orange Book Tendency have rallied to the cause. His campaign complemented some of the key messages David Cameron has been peddling on welfare reform. In the ...
Last Wednesday, I was minute-taker at the latest committee meeting of the West End Sports and Heritage Association that is continuing its work to improve sport facilities and the environment across the West End. We had a useful discussion with the Dundee scheme co-ordinator of the Walking for Health Scheme about providing healthy short walks in the West End. It was also good to hear from the representative of the Hillcrest Bowling Club who attended the meeting that 2012 is the 100th anniversary of the formation of the club. We are keen to work with local bowling clubs and other ...
First up last week we had the despicable announcement that under 25s will be stripped of the right to claim housing benefit. So much for means testing and compassionate conservatism. Then today we have him saying that there will be a referendum on Europe. But it it doesn't appear to be the clear in/out option he was rattling on about before the last election but some procedural stuff when the time is right. Notice that in neither of these cases was Cameron saying this was the coalition Government policy, these are either his ideas of Conservative party idea that they ...
As my post about Stanley Unwin's grave proved so popular, I thought I would offer a glimpse of the great man at work...
I have just watched the Sunday Politics again (see previous blog entry) and it is the NHS Confederation that is telling us that more A&Es should be closed because we need to spend the money on specialised services. So Burnley A&E was closed because the Trust did not want to duplicate services in both Burnley and Blackburn. Rineke Schram, the Medical Director of the East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust was interviewed and started by telling us that "we haven't been as honest as we could be..." Was she about to tell us that their decision to close an A&E was ...
