A navy 'gunboat' up the river, shoot to kill orders for airforce crew, more than 3,000 troops deployed, massive electric fences and surface to air missiles on local people's homes. One might imagine we're living in some oppressive dictatorship determined to clamp down on dissent. But no this is London two weeks away from a festival that's supposed to celebrate - ahem - 'the spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play' (at the same time as being washed down by a glut of Coke and Big Macs). The ludicrousness of this festival of security is summed up by a simple ...
I am pleased to report that David Morris has replied to my question about the reform of the House of Lords. He agrees with me that reform is needed and has voted to debate the bill in the Autumn. The trouble is that I still have no idea what sort of reform he wants. He told me that 'it is a matter of protocol that we do not comment on individual parliamentary votes until after the votes have taken place in the House of Commons', but I want to know his general views. How do MPs consult with constituents? Why ...
A report in tomorrow's Guardian says the government is to: embark on the biggest investment in the rail network since the Victorian era as ministers move to demonstrate their commitment to boosting economic growth. In an attempt to show a renewed sense of purpose, after last week's bruising rows over Lords reform, the prime minister and his deputy will announce the electrification of a series of lines and the symbolic reversal of some closures imposed in the 1960s by the Beeching axe.Among the projects listed is the electrification of the Midland Mainline. That is the line that runs from St ...
The overwhelming decision by Scottish Football League clubs to accept a newly formed club called Rangers to replace the now defunct Rangers (1872) is a victory for sporting integrity and common sense. The new Rangers will start at the bottom of the league - like any other new entrant to Scottish football. Scottish football authorities have been trying to shoehorn a new club into the upper echelons of the league to preserve as much of the failed status quo as possible and may well not take this latest 'no' for an answer. They shouldn't bother - the vast majority of ...
Last month I wrote about the strong possibility that the bones of Richard III still lie under the streets of Leicester. It seems that someone is trying to fund a dig to find them. For a note on the website King Richard Armitage: Support Network for the Film 'Richard III' says: An archaeological dig is scheduled to take place this summer in Leicester, seeking the last resting place of Richard III, and hoping to find and re-inter his remains with proper solemnity. In addition it is hoped the excavations will be filmed, and then form part of a proposed landmark ...
Here's two thirds of the American band Fun with 'We are young' on Radio 1's live lounge. Just proving that sometimes a little less production is better than more...
Here's a beautiful song written and song by Melanie (Safka). Sound familiar? Yes. The Wurzels entertain hundreds with their version called "Brand new combine harvester". Melanie must feel a bit cut up about this. They ruined her song. But no matter, she already got her revenge in by penning a song, well before the Wurzels got their agricultural equipment out, called "Look what they've done to my song, ma". She even has a sarcastic pre-dig at the Wurzels in French: Ils ont change ma chanson, ma Ils ont change ma chanson, ma C'est la seule chose que je peux faire ...
Early on Monday morning (9 July 2012) I went to watch the Olympic Torch be carried along Dunstable Road in Luton, not far from my house. The photos I took are below: More on the Olympic Torch in Luton can be found here: VIDEO: Day 51 of the Olympic Torch Relay - it's Luton Hundreds line route as Olympic flame leaves Luton
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In the early days of this blog the goings on at Ludlow Town Council kept my readers entertained. There was the fight that broke out and the dog who attended meetings. Now the authority is back in the news, or at least the South Shropshire Journal: Four councillors have been called on to stand down from Ludlow Town Council amid allegations of bullying, following the resignation of the authority's clerk. Former town mayor John Aitken and fellow councillors Viv Parry, Susan McCormack and Jeffry Wilcox have been accused of bullying town clerk Veronica Calderbank over a period of several months ...
Bruntwood Park BMX track in Cheadle was opened in 1985. It has been well used over time and as such is in need of renovating and improving for use today. Stockport Council will be applying to Sport England for funding to improve and develop the BMX track. We want to know if the suggested improvements will meet your needs and encourage you to use it. We also want to know whether there are any barriers that stop you using the track. Finding out whether coaching sessions or being a member of a BMX club would interest you is also important ...
The battle of Naseby was one of the most important battles in British history. It took place on 14 June 1645 in the last but one year of the First Civil War between King Charles I and Parliament. When I studied the origins, course and aftermath of the Civil War as a History undergraduate (my special subject in my last year was "Oliver Cromwell and the English Revolution"), I had little interest in the military side, but since then I've found battlefields both mournful and fascinating places. Unlike, say, Culloden (a stand of pines is right in the middle of ...
It's Friday. It's five o'clock. Here's a fistful of lists that sum up the LDV week: 5 most-read stories on LDV this week Opinion: We need to counter the perception that we are no longer a political force to take seriously (34 comments) by Paul Haydon Nick Clegg's e-mail to party members on Lords reform (60 comments) by Caron Lindsay The word 'straight' isn't homophobic. Now can we get on to the stuff that matters, please? (51 comments) by Stephen Tall My reaction to Lords reform stalling by Tory/Labour MPs in 8 tweets (37 comments) by Stephen Tall The 15 ...
On 28th July 2012 Southport's New Pleasureland will be holding a large outdoor concert to commemorate the 90th Birthday of Southport Pleasureland. This event is occurring during the same weekend as the enormously popular Woodvale Rally. The concert will feature two of the top tribute acts in the UK: ABBAsolutely and JLS Adventure as well as a number of local acts. These bands will be accompanied by drinks available from their new Arena bar and a selection of different foods. Patrons are welcome to bring a picnic, rugs, mats or folding chairs for what is sure to be a wonderful ...
One thing that came across from the Rangers Newco decision today was the power of the voice of the fans. While the top brass of the SPL, SFA and SFL were talking about financial Armageddon the clubs were hearing a different story from the people who pay for the daily costs of keeping a club going the fans. Reading forums and watching twitter in recent weeks one thing was clear, the fans were of a fairly universal in their view of what decision had to be made today. Looking at the statements made by clubs in all divisions from SPL ...
At the start of this year I was a Lib Dem from Yorkshire working and studying in London who according to some journalists was an "unknown" – although I was quite well known in certain Lib Dem circles, especially for my quiches! The resignation of Diana Wallis, as Lib Dem MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber changed all that. In 2009 I was third on the Lib Dem list for Yorkshire and the Humber. When you are third on a regional list and the election sees only the first candidate being elected, you could be forgiven for thinking that the ...
Over at his day job at MHP Communications, Mark Pack turns his thoughts to how David Cameron should react to , stating that the Prime Minister has 'two tricky problems to mull over'. The first, and most talked about, is how to get his party to back some measure of Lords reform else risk seeing Liberal Democrats outside ministerial ranks (and even some inside) see it as open season on future legislation as it goes through Parliament. The sort of effective and tight whipping operations that saw Liberal Democrats in both Houses votes for a range of measures they did ...
I have just watched some footage which it is said is from the Twelfth of July parade in Belfast yesterday. It is clearly outside St Patrick's Church in Donegall Street. The marching could be said to be dignified, and it is certainly not simply standing there doing nothing. However, I don't recognise the hymn tune ...
By Natasha Chapman At the beginning of the weekend, Tom Wood, the chair of Liberal Youth, said that he wanted: "Liberal Youth to focus on more than just Liberal Youth". I was in total agreement. It is important for us to do if we are to be taken seriously as an organisation and continue to ...
Today's reports of a massacre of 200 in Tremseh is just the latest in a long line of atrocities by the Syrian State. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18823303 Regular readers of the blog know my view of the conflict in Syria. Following meetings with ... Continue reading →
This is a bit of a brain dump of how I got a 3G USB dongle working on the Raspberry Pi. Following on from getting the Raspberry Pi to send SMS. That's The Power Of LoveThe first thing to say is use a powered USB hub! I had lots of problems getting the modem working when it was plugged directly into the Pi. A 3G signal takes more power than the Pi's USB sockets can supply. [IMG: 3G Raspberry Pi] In the above image, you can see that the Raspbery Pi is plugged into the mains – via a 1.8A ...
By Howard of Lib Dem News
Depressing to read that cyclists and pedestrian casualties per year have been rising in London since Boris Johnson became Mayor of London. 22% rise in the number of cyclists killed or seriously injured (KSIs) according to Transport for London. In 2010 467 cyclist KSIs rising to 571 in 2011 and for pedestrian KSIs 913 in 2010 rising to 980 last year. What's stupid is that it is relatively easy and well understood what to do to reduce such casualties. But in many cases Boris has done exactly the opposite such as removing formal pedestrian crossings or reducing crossing times, speeding ...
Friday: Hard Labour CLAIM that they're FOR the PRINCIPLE of Lords Reform, but AGAINST the SPECIFICS of this Bill. So if we DO cut a DEAL that involves a REFERENDUM, let's make it one UP FRONT on the PRINCIPLES of reform. This means it HAS to be WIDER than just a "YES/NO" to the current proposals. The many different CONTENTIOUS CLAUSES in Cap'n Clegg's Bill give the reactionaries many different directions to attack from. So what say we make sure the PUBLIC get to decide on ALL the main issues, settling each question one way or the other. Like this: ...
The internet is a fantastically liberal idea - easy to access and gives a voice to anybody who wants it to say pretty much what they like. You would hope that freedom would encourage live and let live, but anyone who has ever been on any internet forum will realise what a cauldron of intolerance and anger it can be at times. Most of the time, though, it's a great force for good, connecting people, promoting discussion and ideas. Sometimes, though, it can be a really sinister and nasty place to be. Look at the abuse Californian blogger Anita Sarkeesian ...
The Queen inspires more terror than George Osborne. That is the tempting conclusion to be drawn from comparing the Queen's Speech (volume of advanced leaks: low) with the Budget (volume of advanced leaks: high). After all, Osborne can tax you but the Queen has the Tower of London... Combined, however, they tried to set the political scene for the next year and, for all the post-Budget pasty tax buffeting and current Lords reform headlines, they have mostly done so. Much of the government's work is now concentrated on either economic recovery (which, aside from the annual round of Budget legislation ...
In this post I am proposing some principles on which I believe the rules for internal elections in membership organisations should be based. For the background to this post see here. Campaigning is good: Campaigning for votes in internal elections is necessary, healthy, and should be encouraged. Democracy is about more than just voting. Elections should do more than decide who should fill posts or sit on a committee. Ideally they should also be about testing and challenging the candidates, debating issues, resolving disputes, answering questions of policy and strategy, and providing a steer for the future of the organisation. ...
A couple of weeks ago I wrote a somewhat critical post here about my experience of the recent Unlock Democracy council elections. The Director of that organisation, Peter Facey, wrote a comment in response to that post. Unfortunately, for some reason, that comment got caught in the blog's spam trap and I only noticed it was there at the end of last week. So I would like to apologise to Peter for missing his response. In it he says; "Now that the ballot is closed it would be good to have a debate about how and if people would like ...
One of the highlights of the last full council meeting was the speech by my colleague Bruce Hubbard. Bruce-who used to be a History Teacher in Southport-now leads tours of the WW1 battlefields. On one recent trip he came across a Sports Hall in the village of Festubert called the Southport Memorial Hall. Bruce worked away at the connection between our town and this small village and proposed this motion to the Council To consider the following Motion submitted by Councillor Hubbard: "The Council notes that:- 1. the centenary of the battle of Festubert will be in 2015; 2. in ...
We must fight Boris island Together Two articles caught my eye on Boris Island and the Estuary airport in the last week. The first was a letter from Medway to David Cameron wanting an answer sooner rather than later on the Consultation by local reporter Alan McGuinness. The Second was on Libdemvoice by the Secretary of the Medway Libderal Democrats... Oh wait, that's me. Sorry, I know it is a shameless plug but if you don't want to read it I'll give you the general gist. Basically having read this and the line; Send Cameron and Clegg a message that ...
Oliver Smedley and others had left the Liberal Party and set up the IEA by the time the Grimond revival had got going properly. The publication of the Unservile State in 1957 was the manifesto of the revival and as is pointed out in the introductary chapter it was the first full scale book on the attitudes and policies of British Liberalism since the 1928 Yellow Book, I was much taken by this passage from Elliot Dodd's chapter: The business of Liberals today is to show by a practical and relevant how Liberty and Welfare can be consistently pursued with ...
The Liberal Democrats built their electoral success on the three 'Cs': Concentrate, Communicate and Campaign. The campaigning zeal of the Party took us from a handful of councillors and a few MPs dotted around the Celtic fringe in the mid 'Seventies to a truly national party, with over 3,500 councillors, 60MPs, power and influence in the Welsh Assembly and Scottish Parliament, power and influence in over 150 councils, from Newcastle to Newquay, Liverpool to Islington. Campaigning is the life blood of the movement we endeavour to create around the drive to seize and redistribute power. We do this by the ...
So Bush House has shut up shop for the first time since 1941. Sad. But one thing you won't hear from the BBC is the true origins of the headquarters of the World Service, because it lies in a revolution against their authority at the height of the war. Frustrated by the bureaucracy of the BBC, the director of the BBC European Service led a kind of coup that made his broadcasts semi-independent of the BBC controllers. Noel Newsome was one of the most extraordinary broadcasters of the century. The BBC never forgave him, kicked him out after the war ...
The status quo of NHS finances has been branded "unaffordable" as the organisation faces major short-term challenges in managing its budget, a finance watchdog has warned. Next week, Wales' health minister will face a no-confidence vote in the Welsh assembly in a row about a report into reforming hospital services. Opposition parties united to table a joint motion and called on Labour's Lesley Griffiths to resign. Kirsty Williams, Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats said: "This was not a decision we came to lightly. It is a serious step when the three party leaders of Wales come together and state ...
10 Things Most Americans Don't Know About America "As Americans, we're brought up our entire lives being taught that we're the best, we did everything first and that the rest of the world follows our lead. Not only is this not true, but people get irritated when you bring it to their country with you. So don't." (tags: ushealth uspolitics usa ) 10 Reasons Why Oxytocin Is The Most Amazing Molecule In The World "oxytocin is proving to be a crucial ingredient to what makes us human" - a strong claim, presumably other animals have it! (tags: chemistry )
The clamour against regional pay received renewed vigour yesterday as 25 Liberal Democrat backbenchers endorsed a paper calling for the government to scrap any plans to link public sector pay to private sector earnings across the UK. The paper prepared in the office of John Pugh MP, analyses the evidence submitted to the Treasury and Office of Manpower Economics and concludes that there is no economic case for introducing regional pay. The government has considered the introduction of regional pay in light of concerns that public sector pay premiums across the UK are 'crowding-out' the private sector. However statistics show ...
Eleven stages done and we have our first candidate for 'most over-analysed thirty seconds of this year's Tour' – amongst the English-speaking media, anyway (the French report is 'Rolland first, Pinot second, others were also riding bikes yesterday'). Chris Froome's sudden burst of acceleration with around four kilometres to go to La Toussoire, followed by an equally sudden easing-off as it was realised that while Nibali and Van Den Broeck were following him, Wiggins wasn't, has been replayed and discussed many times since yesterday afternoon. Yesterday delivered everything the organisers would have wanted when they drew up the route – ...
Press Releases - Vince Cable delivers speech on UK science, openness and internationalisation - BIS (tags: ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Yesterday was the toughest mountain stage is this year's Tour and you could see it as everyone of the top contenders suffered at least for some part of it. Early on a large break got up the road, with the first slope the Col de la Madeleine starting just 14.5km from the start of the race they wanted away. Liquigas, BMC and Radioshack were amongst the teams they put men into a 31 men breakaway in the hope that these men would be able to help Nibali, Evans and Zubeldia respectively when the going got tough later on. It meant ...
I usually get up early, just before "Farming Today" and just after the extended weather forecast on BBC Radio 4. After my clock radio goes off, I sit up, take my vitamins and medication which I store in my night table drawer: this morning I washed them down with lukewarm Diet Dr. Pepper. Generally, two ...
I don't normally pay attention to opinion polls and that applies whether the Liberal Democrats are on 10% or 20%. As I have said on a number of occasions, what matters is the trends and of course how people actually vote in a real election. However, sometimes there are some truths that are worth harvesting from behind the headline figures of which party people say they will support at the precise and artificial moment in time that they are accosted by a canvasser. How accurate these truths are is another matter, but those reported by today's Independent certainly seem to ...
Fri 13th
09:40
The Orange Book & its impact on the Lib Dems, 8 years on - my report back from last night's IEA ...
Last night, the IEA held a fascinating debate looking at the impact the infamous The Orange Book — edited by David Laws and Paul Marshall, with contributions from many of the newest / brightest / most economically liberal MPs — had on the Lib Dems following its publication in 2004. The panel included Dr Steve Davies, Education Director, IEA; Dr Tim Leunig, Chief Economist, Centre Forum; Mark Littlewood, Director General, IEA; and Paul Marshall, Chairman, Centre Forum management board. You can see my as-live tweets of the event below, but here are some other quick other/further observations: The self-evident point ...
Fri 13th
09:40
Overnight counting, electoral fraud and the running of elections: a bounty of Electoral Commission r...
The last few days have been busy ones for the Electoral Commission, with most of the headlines caught by their report into when election counts should take place (overnight or the next day): The Electoral Commission has recommended general election counts should continue to be held overnight. Before the 2010 election, a number of councils made plans to count votes the day after polling day. But a campaign by MPs and others resulted in a change of the law requiring counts to start within four hours of the close of polls... Chair of the Electoral Commission Jenny Watson said: "We ...
Occasionally Nick Clegg, or his speechwriters create a phrase which deserves to live on in the political lexicon long after the rest of the speech has been confined to the political dustbin. The pre-2010 General Election debates were transformed by Nick referring to the "two old parties" and asking voters to "do something different this time". While the phrases were memorable, they were hardly that effective. Voters did what they did the last time they faced a Labour government mired in staggering incompetence and a Tory party leadership tacking to the centre while the grassroots howled. That was in the ...
As reported in today's Courier, yesterday, I delivered a petition to National Express Dundee that criticises changes that have seen the removal of a vital bus service from the west end of Perth Road, resulting in fewer bus options for residents but also removing the service for visitors to the Riverview Nursing Home. The petition calls for the previous bus route to be restored, for the benefit of local people. Bus changes from the end of May resulted in National Express Service 5 terminating at the Technology Park (Luna Place/Explorer Road) after visiting Ninewells Hospital, not serving Apollo Way or ...
On Wednesday, I had a very useful meeting with the City Council's Head of Planning, the council's Conservation Officer and a senior Buildings Standards Surveyor about my concerns regarding the state of the Queen Victoria Works site and we also had a detailed discussion regarding derelict or dilapidated buildings in other parts of the West End and across the city and how the City Council will seek to attempt to work with owners to bring these back into productive use. In a positive sense, the officers confirmed a willingness to open a dialogue with the owners of Queen Victoria Works ...
You wouldn't think a document like a hefty constitution would read like poetry, would you? But the Preamble to the Constitution of Liberal Democrats (quite a sonorous title in its own right!) makes a fair attempt - check it out below. This comes out simply because I had cause to re-read while reviewing bits and pieces for the next Greater Reading Exec. It's actually quite a hard in the original document, simply because the layout of the document is terrible (sorry, typesetters). The words themselves – good solid substance. So for analytical rather than artistic purposes, I was curious if ...
Amid all the talk of corporate sponsorship-gone-mad, LOCOG coming down like a tonne of bricks on any business that dares to refer to the Olympics and over-zealous security, we had a great example of what's good about the Olympics at the Stockport Plaza on Thursday evening as school children from across the Borough came together at an awards event. Stockport school children had been challenged to enter for different competitions: everything from designing an Olympic baton to being the Sports Achiever 2012. They did a great job, and hundreds came to the Plaza to celebrate. Congratulations to everyone – it ...
[IMG: Cameron and Clegg in Downing Street. Photo courtesy of the Cabinet Office] This week's falling out between the coalition partners over Lords reform leaves David Cameron with two tricky problems to mull over the summer. The first, and most talked about, is how to get his party to back some measure of Lords reform else risk seeing Liberal Democrats outside ministerial ranks (and even some inside) see it as open season on future legislation as it goes through Parliament. The sort of effective and tight whipping operations that saw Liberal Democrats in both Houses votes for a range of ...
A lot of effort is going into the details of my private members bill. A draft bill should be published early next week. In the mean time, however, John Hemming and the Sisters of Jazz performed as part of the Birmingham Jazz Festival last sunday afternoon (at Hotel du Vin). Photos copyright Jim Simpson. More information on the festival is here Now I am back from parliament for the weekend I
Local residents have pointed out to me that the crescent shaped section of the footway in Magdalen Place - at its north end - is not adopted by the local authority. See plan below - adopted pavements are in blue:The unadopted section is a well-used footway, used by visitors to the nearby Cherry Blossom children's nursery and local residents use it to get to Roseangle. I have asked the City Engineer if it can considered for inclusion into the Unadopted Footways Scheme.
Serious questions are being asked today about Andrew Lansley's stance on the consultation on the standardised (plain) packaging of tobacco. Before the consultation was announced Health Secretary Andrew Lansley told the Times (13th Apri 2012l) that the government did not work with tobacco companies as it wanted them to have "no business" in the UK. That set a few warning bells ringing. Just a few days later, however, announcing the start of the consultation, his stance seemed to be more moderate. Andrew Lansley was insisting that his mind was "open" over proposals to strip cigarette packets of branding as a ...
