Taken from a report by Gabriel Samuels on letsrecycle.com A third of all clothes bought in the UK end up in landfill, but if they were donated for reuse or recycling they could generate £140 million in revenue, according to a new report from the Waste & Recycling Action Programme (WRAP). The 'Valuing Our Clothes' study provides the first 'big picture' view of the environmental impacts of clothing, incorporating both the financial and environmental aspects of its whole life cycle, from raw material and manufacture to purchase, use and disposal Key findings from the report include news that around 350,000 ...
Welcome to Broxtowe Enews, brought to you by the Liberal Democrats and edited by David Watts, the leader of the Lib-Dems on Broxtowe Borough Council. May I give a special welcome to the new readers that we have this week. There isn't as much news to report as usual, which I suspect is because we are getting close to the summer break. I'll carry on doing the newsletter until the end of July but, as usual, there won't be any during August unless something important occurs. If anyone gets withdrawal symptom's you will hopefully be able to hear me on ...
This week the MP for Southport and frequent commenter on health issues, John Pugh, joined Twitter. This brings to 38 the number of Liberal Democrat MPs now on Twitter. He is @johnpughmp and you can follow all the Lib Dem MPs on Twitter via this list.
Today on the bus home from my cricket game, was another disaster, from a customer perspective. I got the 607 at about 9.30pm from outside Shepherds Bush tube station and sat down then part way home it stopped and waited, then waited and waited at the bus stop. The people who were getting on had done so and no-one was getting off. There was no communication from the driver via the microphone or him getting out of his cabin. It then turned out that the bus had hit a vehicle in front of him. Doh! So after about 10 mins ...
This week, the BBC World Service completed its move out of Bush House in the Aldwych to the state-of-the-art new news and current affairs HQ attached to Broadcasting House in Portland Place. As I drove past Bush House yesterday afternoon, a lump stuck in my throat. This was not just nostalgia for an iconic building, whose name ...
Having written about the possibility of an archaeological dig in the centre of Leicester to find the bones of Richard III, I was keen to visit the Richard III Museum here in York. It is to be found above Monk Bar, one of the gates in the city wall, and turns out to be delightfully home made. The exhibition devotes quite a lot of space to the idea that the Battle of Bosworth, where Richard lost his crown and his life, really took place at Atherstone in Warwickshire. Recent investigations suggest that it was fought a mile or so away ...
The anon darkroom orgy is back once again (and here's my thread). [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
[IMG: Cameron and Clegg in Downing Street. Photo courtesy of the Cabinet Office] Tim Montgomerie: Can the Coalition be rebooted? Stephen Tall: Why the Lib Dems cannot end the Coalition. And what we should do to try and rescue it. Myself: How does David Cameron charm the Liberal Democrats? As for what the party's actual plan is, see The Lib Dem political plan for the next year.
Here is this blog's hero playing with Carlos Santana and his band at the 2004 Montreux Jazz Festival. 'Why Can't We Live Together' was originally recorded by Timmy Thomas in 1973. I am impressed that the Mexican-American guitar virtuoso joins the percussionists at the start. I am even more impressed that he can conjure a wicked Latin rhythm out of what appears to be a giant sausage.
I read that land in the north of Houghton Regis was given to the Prior and this land was called Caldecote (Vivienne Evans, A Brief History of Dunstable with the Priory 1100-1550). Now that redevelopment proposals are being publicly discussed, they are also casting around for new suggestions for up to three new neighbourhoods. I think it important that the new neighbourhoods are given appropriate names. We start from the current three electoral wards for Houghton Regis: Tithe Farm, Parkside, and Houghton Hall. Developers suggestions have included "Houstone", "Milard", and "Kyngs". Well, "Houstone" is an ancient name for the whole ...
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 282nd weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere ... Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (8-14 July, 2012), together with a hand-picked quintet, normally courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed. Don't forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox — just click here — ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging. As ever, let's start with the most popular post, and work our way down: 1. Day 4211: The ...
In my mind, he is easily the most fascinating of all American Presidents. His personal demons, his paranoid character and his machiavellian willingness to do whatever was required to maintain his position undermined his role as one of the most powerful men in the world. The inevitability of his position with Watergate was for many, apparent long before his eventual resignation in August 1974. But as a historian, I find the counterfactual 'What If' question of an earlier resignation one that just can not be ignored. President Nixon (1969-1973?) One that I have only recently considered is that of an ...
Sun 15th
17:26
European Selection Diary: Day 15 - it's so much easier being the Chair of the Shortlisting Committee...
Five years ago, I was juggling three 'activities' at once, being Returning Officer for the South East European candidate selection, serving on the London European selection committee and... dating Ros. Yes, we'd been seeing each other for about a week by now, and I was attempting to burn the candle at both ends and the middle. I have to admit that chairing the shortlisting committee is rather easier, as I have nothing really to do now, and all of the work is in the hands of our Returning Officer, who doesn't appear to have much to say for now. So, ...
Sun 15th
17:25
In other news... Thurso on banking, Ward on immigration, Swales on G4S & other stories
Here's a round-up of stories we haven't had time to cover on the site this past few days... John Thurso MP to lead banking inquiry (John O'Groat Journal) CAITHNESS, Sutherland and Easter Ross MP John Thurso has been elected to lead an inquiry into how the banking system is run. The Lib Dem politician has been chosen as one of five representatives who will undertake the investigation. ... He said: "It is an extremely important inquiry and it will be able to hire a team of smart lawyers and accountants to help delve into specific areas." David Ward calls for ...
It's become rather a political cliché for politicians or their spokespeople to say 'we're not going to provide a running commentary' as a way of rebuffing repeated questions from journalists about an unfolding story or sequence of events. It is easy to see why people will often want to avoid given minute by minute updates, especially if they would be in response to 'breaking news' that is really 'latest questionable gossip'. Hence it was no surprise to read this week that: Nick Clegg is mounting a direct challenge to David Cameron by ruling out any moves to repatriate powers to ...
...It's Sunday aftertoon, you can write your own jokes. Thanks to Alex Wickham for tweeting the picture.
Democratic Audit this week published its latest analysis, its depressing conclusions summed up by The Guardian's headline British democracy in terminal decline. A fascinating aspect of the Audit, even for those of us still scarred by the rejection of electoral reform in the 2011 referendum, is its detailed dissection of how the First-Past-The-Post system is failing democracy. And in particular the pinpointing of the year when FPTP started to go bad: 1974, and the Liberal insurgence under Jeremy Thorpe, when the party increased its support from 7.5% in 1970 to 19.3%. This, say the Audit's authors, marked a turning point ...
Due to the Police and Crime Commissioner elections taking place across England and Wales in November, Mark Harper MP, the Minister for Political and Constitutional Reform, has directed Electoral Registration Officers to bring forward this year's electoral registration canvass and to publish the revised register on 16 October. The last update to the current register was published on 2 July. There
Here's a problem: Mary loves baking, hates gardening. Peter misses his mum's cooking now she's passed on. Fred doesn't mind gardening, but hates ironing. Betty loves ironing, hates wall-papering. Peter happens to be quite good at wall papering. On Friday I attended a "Time Banking" seminar at Chicksands, hosted by Central Bedfordshire Council. Here's what happens: you volunteer an hour of your time to help someone, and get a credit of one hour in the time bank. When you need something done, you go to the time bank and prevail upon the skill that someone else has. So, Mary does ...
This morning I had the pleasure of playing the organ and helping to lead the worship in St Dorothea's Parish Church, Gilnahirk. It was rather unexpected to receive a text message late yesterday afternoon from Fr Nigel Kirkpatrick, the Rector, enquiring whether I was in Belfast. Such an enquiry on a Saturday from a cleric ...
David Cameron is a weak leader. He won't deliver enough of his rebels. "Pathetic" – to use one of his favourite words. Labour won't help because they want the reform to fail so Lib Dems vote against the boundary changes, which would lose them seats. So the only hope is if David Cameron shows some backbone, which, at the moment, I don't see happening any time soon. Andrew Rawnsley has a typically enlightening article on the subject today, including this fascinating bit: From my conversations with very senior Lib Dems I have absolutely no doubt of this: if Lords reform ...
I used to confuse Walt Whitman with Wally Whyton, and was always vaguely puzzled as to why a performer of comic songs on 1970s British children's TV seemed to have some kind of iconic status in American literature. It may also be telling that none of Whitman's poetry (in fact, I think no American poetry at all) made it into the curriculum of my Belfast grammar school's English department. But I seem to be in Whitman's historical zone at the moment - this is the fourth book I have read since the start of June about nineteenth-century America - so ...
About a month ago, I wrote this post about the question of the 'national interest' and whether the Liberal Democrats remaining in the coalition served it. A week after that, I wrote this post on how treating politics as just a game played between the parties isn't benefiting anyone and is contributing to the public turning away from seeing politics as a way to solve problems and resolve issues. I'm flagging up these as background because this morning Liberal Democrat Voice have posted this article by Stephen Tall on the future of the coalition. The problem for me is that ...
An actual sign in Cardiff Bay, borrowed from Twitter.
Residents are invited to give their views on the Thameslink service to a new Working Group set up by St Albans City and District Council. The Working Group has been established to help develop the Council's response to a government consultation about the Thameslink franchise. It will also make recommendations to Cabinet in formulating their response. This follows a decision by the Council's Local Services Scrutiny Committee on 3 July. The Working Group will consider what should be included in the specification for the new Thameslink Franchise which is due to start in September 2013. The Department for Transport (DfT) ...
The great wedding present crisis of July 1981 Brings back memories! (tags: funny ) Walt Whitman - Court of Appeals to Common Sense How difficult it is to parody an absurd original. (tags: poetry ) Georgian politics: The Economist Georgia's richest man remains without Georgian citizenship, an absurd situation of which most of his compatriots disapprove; the sooner that is resolved, the better. The Chamber of Control stands accused of levying disproportionate fines on the Georgian Dream movement, which Mr Ivanishvili has refused to pay. (It has responded by seizing some of his assets). (tags: georgia )
Rebellion has caused serious ruptures Somehow, and I'm not sure how my 90 year old Grandfather told me, I am related to "Hanging" Judge Jefferies. As a quick potted history for those unaware of my ancestor's activities he served as King James II's lord chief justice and was fairly brutal in his execution of the law. Indeed the act that he is remembered for the most was the Taunton Assizes in the wake of the Monmouth rebellion. Lord Jefferies went down in the wake of the King's army to deal with the rebels and what followed was serious oppression; 300 ...
[This is the text accompanying my presentation to the 2nd Social Liberal Forum Conference: "Social justice across generations", King's College London, 14/07/12. Not all of it was delivered on the day, because of the way the session panned out and because there's too much of it. My thanks to my co-contributors Paula Keaveney, Emily Davey and Martin Tod - and to everyone who attended - for a really interesting session.] We are experiencing a momentous period in UK housing - both in terms of the housing system itself and housing policy. This is not simply a product of the current ...
The Observer's Andrew Rawnsley has a must-read article today examining the state of the Coalition, highlighting the contrast between the Lib Dems stalwart support of the government and Tory MPs' flakiness. Equally, echoing my post today on why it's more important for the Lib Dems to try and make the coalition work than it is for the Tories, he emphasises the risk to our party if the public concludes coalitions just cannot work. Here are some of the key lines in easily digestible and eminently RT-able tweets... [View the story "Andrew Rawnsley on the state of the Coalition, 15 July ...
There will be consequences for those Conservatives who voted against the Bill but that is a matter for David Cameron. Our (Liberal Democrat) response will be taken in the light of what happens further down the line. But Labour – Labour should be ashamed of themselves. Labour believe in Lords reform (so they said). They have always believed in Lords reform (so they said). Last week they had the opportunity to make it happen. They could even have said that without them (given the size of the Tory rebellion) it would not have happened. They could have crowed about saving ...
I feel really sorry for all our athletes, cyclists, horse riders, swimmers, volleyballers and all the other men and women who have been practising, sometimes for years, for this summer's Olympics. All their endeavours has been overshadowed by the fact ... Continue reading →
From cassiphone here, original here. As per usual, bold the ones you have read, italicise the ones you started but didn't finish. 1. Songspinners - Sarah Ash 2. The Bloody Chamber - Angela Carter 3. Rats and Gargoyles - Mary Gentle 4. Outlander - Diana Gabaldon (this was published as Cross Stitch in the UK) 5. The Riddle-Master of Hed - Patricia McKillip 6. The Blue Sword - Robin McKinley 7. Lud-in-the-Mist - Hope Mirrlees 8. The Curse of the Mistwraith - Janny Wurts 9. Shadow Magic - Patricia C Wrede 10. Assassin's Apprentice - Robin Hobb 11. A Wizard ...
Nick Clegg went on the offensive yesterday and told the Liberal Democrats to stop apologising and instead tell people about our successes. According to the Independent on Sunday the Liberal Democrats Leader told a Social Liberal Forum conference in London that the party needs to have "self-confidence" to tell people what it has achieved: "If there is one thing that has chilled me to my marrow in the last two years, it is meeting friends who I have campaigned with for years who have stopped knocking on doors. We are sensitive violets. A few people shout at you, you get ...
An open letter to Nick Clegg Dear Nick I have seen it reported that in your speech to the Social Liberal Forum yesterday, you stated that you had stopped Michael Gove opening Free schools 'everywhere'. I am sure you meant this sincerely and that it is your belief. But I have to tell you, that it is not what is happening on the ground. At a public meeting last Thursday in North Kingston, organised by Zac Goldsmith but also attended by Lib Dem and Tory Councillors and the new Head of Children's Services for Kingston, parents were told that the ...
Hi All, I'm going to be using my blog as a bit of a diary over the next month or so to detail my adventures this Summer... the last few weeks since I finished my first year of Uni have been jam packed with working, sleeping, eating and this last week was even busier with ... Read more
Yesterday's stage did see a break away, and then saw Michael Morkov trying to honour his father who had died five years before try to break away from that. But the 9% short climb of the Mont Saint Clair was what decided just how this race would turn out. On that short climb three things happened, the escapees were all caught, many of the sprinters were dropped, plus the GC contenders were racing. It was Jurgen van den Broeck (LOT) who made a move on the slopes to be pursued by Cadel Evans (BMC). When the rest of his team ...
Sun 15th
08:55Why the Lib Dems cannot end the Coalition. And what we should do to try and rescue it.
How do we revitalise the Coalition? I realise that for many Lib Dems that's the very last question on your minds. After a week in which Tory rebel MPs forced the Government to delay a key plank of the Coalition Agreement — House of Lords reform — rather more Lib Dems, and not just the 'usual suspects', are turning to the question: how quickly can we be shot of the Tories? After all, didn't enough of our MPs walk the plank on the Coalition's behalf on tuition fees, a policy directly counter to the Lib Dem manifesto? Meanwhile David Cameron ...
One of the key features of this year's Tour has been the organisers hunt through France for some of the steepest roads, rather than just settling for the highest. The theory is that this gives us much more exciting racing, especially in the post-EPO era, where you're more likely to see sustainable attacks on short, savage ramps than you are on a long and consistent ones. And so yesterday was determined by the climb near the finish. Perhaps not quite as dramatically as La Planche des Belle Filles did last week, but Mont Saint Clair dramatically reduced the peloton and ...
The question was 'if not Vince and it can only be a Conservative, then which Tory would you LIKE to be Chancellor?' It was never close. Amusingly for most of the voting Theresa May had no votes at all - but got 2% in the end. Equally amusingly, Chloe Smith got more votes than Theresa or Gideon. I was surprised Philip Hammond (6%) didn't do better, as he was Shadow Chief Secretary for so long before the General Election. And again perhaps it is a touch surprising that the second and third slots were taken by two of the more ...
I returned from holiday to discover that despite overwhelming local opposition and the unanimous support of councillors on the borough's Northern Area Planning Committee Test Valley's Planning Control Committee has approved plans to build 50 new homes at Shepherds Spring School. I am indebted to Cllr Phil North for his support in opposing this plan and putting local people and their views above narrow political expediency. What a pity the same cannot be said of his colleague Janet Whiteley who at the PCC voted for the application. This is not the first time Mrs Whiteley has put party politics above ...
I am only aware of two meetings at Blyth Town Council this coming week Monday 16th July, 10 am at Ebor House, Property Working Group This is a working group to discuss options after last week's visits to alternative properties for the council. It is likely to be in "Part 2" Thursday 19th July, 6:30 at the Isabella Centre, Full Council The full agenda can be downloaded from www.blythtowncouncil.org.uk
As reported in yesterday's Courier, I have been advised by Dundee City Council that the road closure affecting Thomson Street will end tomorrow night (Monday 16th July), having started later but run on longer than originally intended (it was originally to have closed for 5 days starting 25th June). A number of residents have contacted me about the continued closure due to sewer connection works to new townhouses under construction and I'm therefore pleased to have been advised by the council that the road will be reopened by Monday night. The work started later than intended because of weather conditions ...
