Photo credit: Robert Cutts GamesMonitor, writing before today's news broke, welcomes us to The Security Games: "Since 2010, the number of security personnel required by Olympic organisers has risen sharply to an overall estimated 23700 on the busiest days, more than double the original predictions. As well as up to 12000 police from forces across the country, the Ministry of Defence has provided more troops deployed (in uniform) to work during the Games than are currently stationed in Afghanistan. More CCTV has been installed in a part of London already awash with cameras and around £80 million has been spent ...
One of the key problems of European selections is, as I have already noted, the incumbency factor. The processes are designed to, as far as is possible, create a level playing field. The reality, of course, is that no such thing exists.The profile of a sitting MEP is huge, relative to virtually any potential opponents, a point seemingly oblivious to those who design the selection process. For only someone oblivious to that inbuilt bias would restrict the ability of individual candidates to actually campaign, which has been the position in the past. Luckily, I have, in recent years, found myself ...
The Timing of Election Counts – Electoral Commission Report
From the Electoral Commission's report into this May's London elections: On the morning of 4 May, a test of the sprinkler system at Alexandra Palace disabled the venue's power supply. The test happened in spite of earlier agreement between the GLRO and the venue management that there would be no test of the system on that day. The power loss caused the e-count system software to reset - a process that took over two hours to complete ... There was a further system failure affecting one constituency during the day, causing a delay of around two hours. The [Returning Officer] ...
The news that struck me today concerned the security arrangements for the Olympic Games. I read that G4S, a private security firm was unable to meet the requirements for the Games which start in 15 days. If you were employing any company that left you in the lurch then I presume you would look for compensation. Well there is no mention yet but maybe the security firm will still be looking to get paid for its inadequate planning. However that's not the bit that struck me. How many competitors are there? Around 10,000? How many security personnel do you need? ...
Electoral Commission Report Into London May 2012 Elections
The day started badly and didn't finish too well, still on the way home an experiment in navigation involving narrow country lanes through which I macheted my way out of London following a change in route preferences from fast to shortest on the satnav resulted in a brief but fantastic view of Southern England even with the distant but noisy M25 in the background. Still tomorrow is another day.
Electoral Commission Report Into May 2012 Elections
Today's Telegraph reports on the characteristically forthright remarks of Business Secretary, Vince Cable as he continues to fly the flag for Liberalism within the Coalition Government. Vince has warned that tough new entry requirements for students may be "damaging" Britain's reputation as a good place to study. He has also claimed there is a "powerful constituency" arguing for more restrictions on immigration that could stop bright students coming to the UK. The paper say that Vince's comments are likely to be seen as a swipe at the Prime Minister's promise to limit non-European citizens coming into Britain to the tens ...
If you're reading this and you don't know me then I'll let you know where I stand briefly. I support Lords Reform. In fact, it has been an issue that has been central to my views for many years and ... Continue reading →
*dusts this thing off* I clearly needed some motivation to get writing again, so figured this meme that had been doing the rounds would serve nicely, just go get my juices flowing. Comment to this post and I will pick five things I would like you to talk about. They might make sense or be totally random. Then post that list, with your commentary, to your journal. Other people can get lists from you, and the meme merrily perpetuates itself, hopefully for the rest of eternity! [IMG: [personal profile] ] in_the_blue gave me: 1. Roller skating. 2. Women in comic ...
Reblogged from London Liberal Youth: Read more... 313 more words A blog post I wrote for London Liberal Youth on the Lib Dems celebration at World Pride.
Lets be topical and look at Democratic reform. As usual 3 statements hidden among them is a snippet of Labour's manifesto. A. The Labour party has long believed in and pledged to reform the upper chamber but you simply can't rush these things. We've only been talking about it for 100 years and can't agree with each other about the best way of doing it. So if the opportunity arises we will
The coalition continues to hold relatively fast, despite the predicted fall out from June's vote on the Jeremy Hunt affair. Down Under however, a more dubious coalition is not looking so chipper, and the Lib Dems would be wise to note the similarities, and differences, from the Australian experience. Much has been said about the pros and cons of political coalitions. In Australia, the centre-right Liberal and rural-based National Party have been in coalition since 1922. Both parties hold similar conservative values and have historically maintained an effective relationship. The centre-left Labor Party has received Green preferences since the formation ...
Two teenage girls kidnapped at gunpoint and forced to rob a bank. A shocking sign of just how far our modern society has descended into chaos. Broken Britain, for sure. Except this didn't happen in 2012. It happened on 14th September 1964 – in the days before the sexual revolution and the permissive society had even got going. And it wasn't even the lead story in the following day's Sun newspaper (which also happened to be issue 1 of the Sun, which I'm running this series of posts on). So what happened? On the afternoon of 14th September 1964, 18 ...
In a guest article for ALDC, Chorlton Councillor Victor Chamberlain (pictured with Lib Dem Lord Mayor Cllr Elaine Boyes) talks about his experience of being elected as Manchester's youngest ever councillor and of the obstacles and opportunities for increasing youth engagement in politics. Many friends think I was mad to get involved in politics at a young age, but in fact it was inevitable after the Iraq War. I felt strongly that the action being taken in my name was completely immoral, and I wanted to find a way to voice my opposition. In Manchester, effective opposition came only from ...
Over on his blog, Stephen Williams, Lib Dem MP for Bristol West, has penned his thought's on Tuesday's Lords reform result. Here's a sample: First the positive bit. A vote of 462 - 124 in favour of a Bill that has a second chamber predominately elected by a proportional voting system is a major step forward. This confirms the fact that there is a substantial majority of MPs who favour radical House of Lords reform. But...the Bill may now be tripped up by petty party political games in the Commons. The Bill will get nowhere without a timetable for consideration ...
The Planning application for two wind turbines at Berry Edge Farm has now gone in. The proposal number is CMA/01/65 and it can be accessed by clicking here. The case officer is Mr P Herbert who can be contacted at County Hall. I understand that around 500 letters will be going out in the next few days to properties within 700 metres of the proposed site. Responses to the planning application will need to be in by August 3rd. The decision is listed as a "delegated officer decision" but this will doubtless be changed if there is any significant body ...
Ian Swales, Liberal Democrat MP for Redcar, is delighted with the news that the Government have agreed to cover the costs of Operation Sacristy in full. The costs of this case have been mounting up and have now reached 1.6m, which would mean there would be a significant impact on the forces budget if they had to cover these costs themselves. Ian said: 'I am delighted that the Home Office are paying for the costs of the enquiry of the alleged wrongdoing at Cleveland Police. At a time when police budgets are under tremendous pressure, it would have been wrong ...
The Millennium Olympics were as keenly contested as were the the centenary Games four years earlier. In the end the five candidate cites were Beijing in China, 1936 Hosts Berlin, Istanbul (a candidate city for 2020), Manchester (a 1996 candidate city) and Sydney (the third candidate bid from Australia following Melbourne and Brisbane for 1992 and 1996). The first round showed that it was a battle between Beijing and Sydney on 32 and 30 votes. Manchester managed 11, Berlin 9 and Istanbul 7. With Istanbul eliminated Manchester gained 2 more votes with Beijing gaining the other 5 to take it ...
I read an Suzanne Moore article which trickled down my Twitter feed, it was the title that intrigued: I have not been poor for a long time. When you have been, you never forget The author seemed to be getting carried away with herself, making sweeping generalisations such as: "...a pointless debate ensues about "poverty" among a political and media class that has no idea of average earnings, never mind the cost of four toilet rolls." A broad-brush caricature if ever there was one. But it reminded me of something else with a thought-provoking title ("Why I'm me and not ...
[IMG: Carwash canopy] At the end of May I posted on what I'd done to respond to complaints about an ugly canopy that had sprung up without planning permission at the car wash on Upper Tollington Park (behind the Stroud Green Road Nandos). The owners applied for retrospective planning permission to try to avoid having to take the structure down. I wrote to residents in nearby streets alerting them to the application (the Council could only be bothered to write to two households), and thanks to all the objections the Council has refused permission. The objections and the report on ...
There's money on offer for environmental projects in Merseyside. It's from a Waste Disposal Authority fund. You need to be doing something that reduces waste in some way or other. The next bit of this fund has just opened for applications with a closing date at the end of August. After that there's another one specifically aimed at schools. Anyway, if you have a group that does environmental stuff it's worth a look. You can find the link at this web address: http://www.merseysidewda.gov.uk/your-waste/community-fund/
This is almost a Ronseal style blog post. Guilty: Andy Stamp Following on from the nastiness that occurred back in 2010 which saw the then Libdem Cllr Stamp (former PPC) turn on his ward mates Cllrs Cathy Sutton and Maureen Ruparel and accuse former Libdem Councillor and local agent Alan Jefferies of harassment. (even more here) Alan Jefferies then reported Cllr Stamp for harassment towards Cathy and Maureen. He has been found guilty according to the Standard's agency review. As I understand it two letters of apology have been drafted by the Council's Legal officer for dispatch to Maureen and ...
[IMG: Parliament - Big Ben] As Michael Crick and Jonathan Calder have picked up on, the elections due this autumn for the Liberal Democrat Interim Peers Panel have been dropped. The decision was made by the Federal Executive at its last meeting on the basis that it would be rather strange to hold elections for a group of people who might then get appointed to the Lords at the very time the party is in the middle of battling to get through legislation to introduce elections for the Lords. I can see plenty of merit in that (and not just ...
When Cathy Ashton was appointed High Representative in charge of the EU's external action service, she declared that she wanted human rights to run like a 'silver thread' through the service's policies. But as Edward McMillan-Scott — Liberal Democrat MEP and a Vice President of the European Parliament — said at a roundtable at Europe ...
The hosepipe ban in our area came to an end on Monday. So if your garden needs watering (ha! ha!) life just got easier. This is the message I received from Veolia (what used to be Three Valleys Water) explaining the decision. Dear Councillor I am writing to inform you that Veolia Water Central is lifting its temporary use ban, with effect from today, Monday 9 July. This means that customers can use hosepipes from this date. The ban was introduced on 5 April, following two consecutive autumn and winter periods of below average rainfall, which left much of the ...
Here's what I tweeted on Tuesday evening: What, more broadly, do Tory rebels think they'll achieve today? More chance of Tory majority? No. More of 'their' issues pursued by gov? No. — Nick Thornsby (@NickThornsby) July 10, 2012 And I think this is still a pertinent question. There is one thing that the rebels clearly achieved, and that it to make Lords reform less likely to happen. Lords reform is by no means dead, but it would have been more likely had the programme motion been passed. But given that much of the rebellion wasn't driven by hard principle (given ...
In a recent vote on Lord's reforms we saw a large number of Conservative MPs join the Labour party to stop any real chance of reforming the house of Lords. In the vote, the MP for Ealing, Central and Acton (Angie Bray) showed that she is not in favour of democracy by voting against Lords Reform. I suppose she thinks it is better for politicians to be chosen by Prime Minister or take their role because their mother or rather passed them the baton. Shame on her. After the vote she was sacked as the Parliamentary Private Secretary (bag carrier) ...
Martin Arnold wrote in the Financial Times: "Yet what investors want is to link pay more closely to performance".But this is the nub of the problem. For a long time, & especially now,there has been a total disconnect between pay & performance. There has also been a total disconnect between rewards to senior staff & rewards to shareholders. It seems quite clear that the leaders of the financial services industry see themselves as guiltless in the mess that the rest of us find ourselves in and thus are entitled to carry on exactly as before. As long as that attitude ...
(This review is in the form of a poem ) Unravelling Knots Large turquoise skiesThe colour of old urns Turned into monolith slabsWatching over thoseTriangles in the snow Unravelling intoLoose ends The story unfoldsCanvas stretched to the bare bonesOf old boats Now you are hereReclining on a chairNot a peeling orange chairAs I misunderstoodBut peeling an orangeAll but back thereIn a bare roomHigh aboveA small town in France The story unfoldsCanvas stretched to the bare bonesOf cold ropes Here, in this echoing hallFull up with the sharing of Accidental anecdotesThis Chatham soundSome memories we carry with usSome we throw, dead ...
Chris presents us with a question: what are politicians for? And this, although it may not be obvious, is in fact a very naughty question. We know that Chris knows this is a naughty question because he cites the person I spent yesterday's post complaining about, Alasdair MacIntyre. To MacIntyre, everything has a purpose or ...
Our beautiful baby boy passed away yesterday morning. Sleep well Ollypops. You're my baby forever. All my love. Daddy. xxx
Whilst we wait for my piece on false rape allegations to be published elsewhere lets go a bit more light-hearted here on The Rambles of Neil Monnery. We all know of my fun and games in the world of online dating but last night I realised something that some might just say is a little bit awkward. As you all know I have been perusing online dating for donkey's years but recently I have been blogging about it. Well one other thing I have been doing for years is hospital radio. Never have the two world's met until a few ...
It is five years since the financial crisis broke. In July and August of 2007 the interbank markets froze over, and it became evident that the boom years were over. Five years on and the world economy still looks in deep trouble. Each of the major developed economies is in a mess, especially if you treat the Eurozone as a single economy. This is a remarkable fact in itself – we are used to economic crises taking a much shorter time to resolve. It is worth trying to take a long view on it. Looking back at what I was ...
Thursday: ...and Mr David Outlaws for Business Secretary. (Let's spell that out clearly: the Liberal Democrats to get a WHOLE EXTRA CABINET MINISTER, and one of the Great Offices of State.) It seems quite plain that a cabal of bitter Conservatories are determined to derail ANY of the Liberal Democrats parliamentary legislation. But it's ALSO very evident that where we have Cabinet Ministers we have made a REAL difference. And, most obvious of all, Mr Dr Vince "the Power" Cable is the only person COMPETENT, CAPABLE and most important TRUSTED to take charge of the British Economy. So it's WIN-WIN-WIN. ...
The Euro was meant to secure the peace in Europe. Instead, it is the cause of conflict. Those who seek European harmony should now recognise that the Euro stands in the way. We need to understand why this is. Here is my take. Most economic areas have a successful centre and struggling periphery. Think of London versus Northumbria in Britain, Germany versus Greece in Europe. How do winning and losing regions establish competitive equilibrium? Within a sovereign nation, political pressures ensure large resource transfers from rich to poor regions. Taxes raised in the prosperous centre are spent to prevent poverty ...
Each year that passes, the swollen ranks of Tory MPs ready to tell their Prime Minister where to go gains in both number and boldness. The rebels have also increasingly been of the new intake, not the typical suspects, and far more organised - a complex operation by Jesse Norman MP to bring down the Lords Reform vote on Tuesday involved unofficial whips in its challenge to Cameron. Jesse Norman MP, Tory rebel This is a not entirely unfamiliar scene, hardly the first time the Tories have nibbled away at the precarious situation of their own Prime Minister - indeed ...
"The Labour party has identified its preferred Merseyside candidate, with Mayor Joe Anderson issuing a memo advising party members to vote for his preferred option, Jane Kennedy, as 'I have worked with her and she will be accountable to the Labour Party.' " This arose in an article about police commissioners-which in my thinking is a daft and ridiculous notion-but it does reveal the democratic centralist instincts of our labour Party. They are 'the people' and only those who agree with them are important. We had a delightful example of this at Sefton Council where the Labour group have taken ...
Game of Thrones Season Two RPG Season Two of GoT as an old-style video game. (tags: sf ) John Quincy Adams's Self-Assessment on His Birthday in 1812 "I am forty-five years old— Two thirds of a long life are past, and I have done Nothing to distinguish it by usefulness to my Country, or to Mankind— I have always lived with I hope a suitable sense of my duties in Society, and with a sincere desire to perform them— But Passions, Indolence, weakness, and infirmity have sometimes made me swerve from my better knowledge of right, and almost constantly paralyzed ...
A reader emails to alert me to the fact that Michael Crick has just reported on his blog that "the Lib Dem high command has quietly decided this year to abandon its election for future peers". He asks First, who in this instance is "the Lib Dem high command"? Second, whoever they are, do they have the right to unilaterally abandon scheduled elections to the party's Interim Peers Panel? And third, why has this decision been taken "quietly"? Later. Mark Pack provides some answers - it seems this is a recent Federal Executive decision. He also says: the way in ...
By golly by gosh, I think Ed Miliband has finally got in the swing of this Prime Minister's Questions thing. While Cameron reeled from his Tuesday night beating by a right Jesse, the leader of the opposition appeared poised, relaxed and skilful. He's learnt the knack of brevity and humour, as his first question demonstrated: At this last Question Time before the recess, may I remind the Prime Minister of what he said before the election when he was asked why he wanted to be Prime Minister? He paused, and with characteristic humility said: "Because I think I'd be good ...
Obviously, in the twenty-first century it would be better to say "statespersonship". But that's a bit unwieldy. And it's not yet a thing. So I hope you'll let me off. I've been reflecting on this issue a lot over the last few days. It was triggered by last week's unedifying slanging match between George Osborne and Ed Balls. We need sober reflection and firm action following the exposure of the poisonous heart of the global economy. What we got was a truly hideous example of the worst sort of playground behaviour. Osborne seems unable to leave the politicking alone. He ...
Saturday saw the first Whickham Community Festival. I am a member of the organising group. It was set up to help boost the vitality of Whickham Village. The festival was run to bring more visitors to Whickham centre and it worked well. The theme for Saturday was the Olympics and we had a variety of events though the fun run for the kids in Chase Park had to be cancelled as a result of the ground
David Cameron is bemused and becalmed, unable to get 100 or so Tory MPs to support the governments position on Lords Reform. So he's decided to have one final go, try and get a 'tiny' number of elected Peers agreed (I hear this morning the plan is to replace the 92 hereditary peers with elected ones), and if he can't do it, give up. At first, senior Lib Dems appeared to be happy to accept this news. Nick was described last night as 'sanguine' about this position, despite apparently being unaware that this was what Cameron was going to say ...
Oxford University was yesterday able to unveil what is probably the largest ever pledged donation towards student financial assistance in the history of any European university. The bountiful benefactor? Mike Moritz, Welsh son of an academic emigre father who fled Nazi Germany, and is now a Silicon Valley billionaire. As a fundraiser, it's always fascinating to see gifts that were in the pipeline become real. I was involved when I worked at Oxford in only a peripheral way, but I don't think it's betraying any confidences to say that — like any major donation — this was by no means ...
How can you be in favour of reform of the House of Lords and threaten to vote against a timetable for debate that is put in place to ensure that the legislation cannot be scuppered by delaying tactics of ... Continue reading →
Four of the five pledges have aged well. But one is just so not talked about any more.
Policing Matters - newsletter introduced by Ann Barnes, Chair of Kent Police Authority. Published and promoted by Tim Prater, 98a Sandgate High Street, Folkestone, CT20 3BYPrinted (hosted) by Prater Raines Ltd, 98 Sandgate High Street, Folkestone CT20 3BY
"Every time it rains I worry". More than one of Blackhill's flood victims has told me that, and having seen what they have suffered I'm not surprised. Frankly I've been shocked to see members of our community affected in this way. People often say that perched on this hillside we may suffer wind and snow but should be safe from flooding. If only. I will be working with the local authority and other agencies to do what we can both to look after people now and to protect them from a recurrence. I know Pat Glass MP is also very ...
No comment required: Also available on YouTube. * Nick Thornsby is Thursday Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs here.
It's odd how much people become obsessed with who is and who isn't a good descender, when I'd question just how much effect descending skills have on the race result. I know that they're a dramatic part of the race, and sometimes an accident can really shake things up – I still think Beloki would have beaten Armstrong in 2003 if not for their accident – but the time that sometimes gets gained on them isn't usually huge, especially compared to the sort of gap that can be attained with a big mountain ride or time trial. And as we ...
Yesterday saw the Tour enter the Alps and a group of 25 made the early headway including Peter Sagan (LIQ), Matt Goss (OGE) and Thomas Voeckler (EUC). The first two of these were significant as they were the only contenders for the Green Jersey that were at the front after the Côte de Corlier for the intermediate sprint. It was Goss that took the maximum points with Sagan only coming in third, so Goss closed 5 points closer to the Slovakian. However they were both dropped on the Col du Grand Colombier when a group of four, Voeckler, Luis-Léon Sanchez ...
The language that I posted about last night is Marshallese (Kajin Majol), the indigenous language of the Marshall Islands. The "ri Majol" are therefore the Marshallese people. Congrats to alacsony and akicif. I cut and pasted the two articles from my source (a PDF of the 25 May edition of Marshall Islands Journal), so the orthography is as used in newspapers. This means that none of the diacritical marks of the standard language have been used: "ri Majol" should strictly be "ri M̧ajōļ", with hooks under the M and l which your browser may not render (mine gets the ļ ...
Following complaints raised with me by local residents, I requested that the City Council removed graffiti in Fyffe Street, west of the junction with Benvie Road - see below:The City Council's Rapid Response Team immediately tackled this and this graffiti has been removed:
Preservation Act One is an incredibly difficult album to write about. Hearing the Kinks' albums in sequence, it sounds like something of a return to form, a return to more complex structures and interesting melodies after a long run of rock albums based on simple three-chord songs. The band's musical palette expands again, with the ...
