What really makes me angry is when TV programmes film people talking to camera when they are driving. OK, they didn't have an accident. But it really is grossly irresponsible to give the impression that you should concentrate on more than just driving when you are driving. Talking into a camera, for a programme that will be broadcast to millions, requires focus. To project the supposition that it is acceptable to do that while driving is disgraceful. On the BBC documentary on Tom Daley this evening, they not only showed him talking to camera while driving, but he had not ...
I was joined by guests Marc Wadsworth – a veteran campaigner who runs the-latest.com citizen journalism website – and Voice reporter Elizabeth Pears on Sunday 22nd July... which was also my birthday! Topics included The Voice winning the battle to ... Continue reading →
There's no pulling your socks up before you enter the Minster this time. These are Rockers, filmed in York about 1960. The poster to Youtube apologises that the song, Just for Kicks by Mike Sarne (which reached no. 22 in 1963) does not last for the whole film. Really, there was no need. But the shots of the city's streets are great.
Today I attended a session for members of Stockton's Health & Wellbeing Partnership to discuss inequalities in health and how to tackle them. It's generally accepted that on average healthier people live longer, more independent lives than unhealthy people. Which means that the life expectancy of people in a town or a district gives a reasonable idea of how healthy they are likely to be. The
As I write this, the sun is shining and it seems that silly season, and the summer, are finally upon us. School's out for politicians too, as the Commons is now in its summer recess until September. With such a ... Continue reading →
There may be some truth in Lord Bonkers' theory that Nick's upcoming 'hair shirt' tour: is intended by the clever children in his office to make it clear whether he has a chance of appealing to voters at the next general electionBut there is no vacancy for leader of the Liberal Democrats. Nick Clegg is determined to lead the party into the next election and will do so unless it becomes clear that the voters will not stand for the idea. So I think Liberal Democrat Voice was wrong to allow itself to be wound up by Tim Montgomerie to ...
Tomorrow (Tuesday) will see both hot weather, touch wood, and the Olympic Torch Relay when it makes its journey through Ealing tomorrow afternoon. Christopher Bury holding the Olympic torch About a year ago myself, leaders of the other two political parties and the Mayor of Ealing, selected those to carry the torch. I was very proud to sift through the applications and select those residents who have given so much to Ealing. The torch bearers will be Brentside High School pupil, Sydney Richards and Southall charity worker and volunteer, Tom Thacker. I hope they have a great day. The Torch ...
After my trip to see the Beach Boys, I hope to be posting more here again — the Peculiar Branch story will start up again, and after the next (last) Kinks post, I'm going to write the next Beach Boys book. I'm also going to resume the Who posts on the Mindless Ones and start ...
There were three principal council contests on Thursday 19th July and ALDC received a report of one Town Council by-election as well. Our main story comes from just around the corner in the Warley ward of Calderdale, where one of our councillors stood down due to ill-health. Our candidate was James Baker, who had previously stood in May 2012 and lost by a thin margin of 113 votes. A Labour-facing ward on the outskirts of Halifax with a distinctive mix of housing from urban terraces and suburban semis, all the way to hillside farmhouses, the key to winning in Warley ...
Richard Balmer raises the old argument that having unelected peers in the House of Lords is good because it means outside experts are able to scrutinise legislation (Letter, 13 July). The reality is very different, not only because so many of those appointed to the Lords are not outside experts but rather former elected politicians from the Commons, council chambers or elsewhere. Even those who are appointed specifically as outside experts at the time of their appointment get to remain peers until death, with no requirement to still have up to date or relevant expertise. As a result, expertise in ...
I don't usually go in for this sort of thing. But one of the functions of Liberal England is to act as my own writer's notebook, and if you are a real writer then people are always saying strange or funny things in your hearing, Everyone loves it when Alan Bennett does it. So here goes... When I was in Ripon Cathedral last week a small boy said hesitantly to his mother, as if seeking confirmation: "This is where the angels live." And this afternoon when a group of small boys were running round Church Stretton churchyard I heard: "If ...
I'm continuing to re-post the Odanglesex Chronicles with the occasional change. Here I've merely added the latest shibboleth, "the change agenda". FROM: Kenneth Spotlessnob, Director of Transformational Excellence and Strategic Vision TO: All Transformational Excellence and Strategic Vision I'm delighted to be able to tell you that we've completed the sixth step change on our transformational journey to an excellent, fit-for-the-21st century, lean, responsive, proactive, place-changing, pace-setting, customer-centric perpetually transformational organisation in line with the Change Agenda.Many thanks to Kevin, who rehung the paintings.I'm sure you'll all be excited that we're now ready for our next challenge. You'll remember that ...
There currently seems to be a cottage industry of Tories writing off Nick Clegg. This article by Iain Martin in the Telegraph is typical: The reality is that if Labour is the largest party after the next election and the Lib Dems want to talk, then a pre-condition is going to be the absence of Clegg. This ignores two points: 1. Due to the Fixed Term Parliament Act, we don't necessarily have to wait until the next election before there is an opportunity for Labour and the Lib Dems to go into coalition. 2. As with all these predictions it ...
Good news for our rail system! The coalition is making a massive investment into transport here in London and specifically up to £6billion on the Thameslink service. That is going to have a major impact on some of our local stations. Alexandra Park, Bowes Park, Hornsey, Harringay and Finsbury Park stations are the ones to be aware of locally. I'm pleased to see that a consultation is to be sought, as it gives local residents and passengers of these services the chance to have their voices heard on the subject. The investment is to reduce overcrowding and improve services at ...
Over on Comment is free, Vernon Bogdanor says that Vince Cable's 'hat in leadership ring throw' reflects a fundamental divide within the party: Cable's intervention, therefore, should not be seen solely in personal terms, but as bringing to the surface the conflict between the social and the economic Liberals in his party. No one can predict how this conflict will be resolved. But it is probably safe to assume that the instincts of most Lib Dems remain on the left, and that they continue to regard Labour as a competitor, but the Conservatives, even though their partners in government, as ...
Could I commend this excellent site to you all? It maps life expectancy at Birth and Child Poveryty as a Tube Map. There are some astonishing variations in life expectancy revealed. Oxford Circus - 96 Bank - 87 Vauxhall - 78 click to enlarge It's really worth spending a little time over on the site... h/t to @alexhern who pointed it out in the first place
With Vince Cable's recent interview comments reviving chatter over how old is too old to be an aspirant party leader and Prime Minister, what does the actual age profiles of our Prime Ministers look like? Here are all our Premiers from this century and the last, showing at what age they first went into 10 Downing Street and at what age they exited it for the last time. If anything, until the middle of the last century Prime Ministers were getting older. The story since, however, is very different.
121160: Change of use to A3 restaurant, High Street. 121247: Replacement of extractor fan and installation of air conditioning, High Street. 121289: Remodelling and refurbishment, Leisure World. 121325: Re-roofing of terrace and extension, Roman Road. 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 planning applications as I may then have pre-judged them before they come to Committee. I can give advice on planning ...
Mon 23rd
15:57
What's the greatest threat to world stability? The Eurozone Crisis, civil war in Syria or The Daily ...
It's interesting to note that 3 of the 5 Broadsheet papers are currently leading on the Eurozone crisis, whereas just one is leading on Syria... But strangely, I can't think why, The Times seems to think that newspaper groups other the News international getting dragged into Leveson trouble is the BIG news of the day. Funny old world, isn't it...
This is the latest in my series of Random Thoughts posts with links, things found on the web and other stuf that has occured to me 16th July 2012 and 23rd July 2012: Access to Elected Office Fund "The Access to Elected Office Fund offers individual grants of between £250 and £10,000 to disabled people who want to be selected as candidates for an election, or who are standing for election." Saki monkeys welcome baby to their brood Another baby animal at Whipsnade Zoo. The real origins of Bush House Do read David Boyle's evocative piece on the origins of ...
If the global crash of Grindr was caused, as my unmentionable tabloid claimed, by Olympians arriving at the Olympic village then team LGBT is a lot bigger than many of us imagined. There are 15 competitors at these games who are open about their sexuality being other than heterosexual. So if the small amount of athletes and one expects the similarly small proportion of support staff can affect one of Grindr's largest network spikes then maybe the gay Olympian lobby can expect mighty things. So who are they. Matthew Mitcham (Australia, diving) - Is the defending champion in the 10m ...
A video for anyone who wants to better understand the failures of prohibition and learn more about alternatives that have proven to be more cost-effective, safe, and humane. Brought to you by the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy — where science, not ideology, drives illicit drug policy. SIGN THE VIENNA DECLARATION: www.viennadeclaration.com ...
I had a rather nice time this weekend helping my local party run a stall at Hull Pride, getting names to an equal marriage petition and generally seeking to establish a wider presence at such events in the city. The Labour Party also had a gazebo there, similarly engaged in a similar petition (this on "gay cures") and recruitment activity. My interest was piqued when one of the city's triad of Labour MPs tweeted a picture of a new recruit with a line about him joining to help "stop the Tories". This is a city which has not had a ...
Wiggins, Froome, Cavendish, Boasson Hagen, Eisel, Rogers, Porte, Knees, Sivtsov. Just as dedicated football fans like to recite the England team that won the 1966 World Cup, in years to come those nine names will show you know your cycling history and can name the team that rode Bradley Wiggins to Tour de France glory. And in the spirit of professional cyclists for over a century, they're already focusing on their next race. For Wiggins and Froome, that means riding in support of Cavendish in the Olympic road race on Saturday, then trying to repeat some of their feats of ...
I was thumbing through the paper last Monday and found a couple of comments about whether or not George Osborne should be shuffled out of the Chancellorship in a front bench reshuffle. The Sun's Trevor Kavanagh was quoted as suggesting that his unseemly bust ups with Ed Balls were distracting and even damaging his credibility as the man for the job and even suggesting that it was causing a lack of credibility and public esteem (and not us!). Yes, I agree duelling with Ed Balls is unseemly but to be honest it would happen with whomever was Chancellor. Ed Balls ...
Last Saturday the Social Liberal Forum met for its 2012 conference. Being in a centre-right Coalition with the Conservatives has not lead to an abandonment of our centre-left principles. Our achievements in Government represent a broader party ethos of our social democratic belief in the Welfare State. However, instead of evolving with the times, the Welfare State stands rigid and unreflective of the world we live in today. For example, our nation is getting older: 10 million people in the UK are over 65 years old. This is set to increase to 19 million by 2050 and advances in healthcare ...
The 'new's that, if in 2015 the electoral arithmetic made Labour the largest party but without an majority, then we would in principle form a government with them, has been greeted with surprise in some quarters. But is it really news at all? In the 2010 election we agreed to talk first to whoever had the largest mandate after the votes were counted - which we did. We also spoke to Labour. Of course we'd form the most appropriate coalition we could, and if that was with Labour so be it. I can't quite see why this is news? What ...
Oh dear God. Just now on my bus in the leafy Outer London/Herts hinterland that is the border between New Barnet and its counterpart to the East, I heard, competing with the noise of the engine and so only semi-audible, the voice of Boris Johnson saying words to the effect: "Hi, this is the Mayor of London. The Olympics starts in a few days time, blah blah, blather blather, so there will be transport changes across Greater London, yawn chortle snort. So don't get caught out! Check before you travel..." All well and good, but in the wonderfully soporific atmosphere ...
A few ideas for parents... Yate Beach Monday 23 July to Sunday 29 July, in the middle of the Shopping Centre. 60 tonnes of sand, buckets spades and deckchairs, plus traditional entertainments. Open Monday - Saturday 9.00 - 4.30 and Sunday 10.00 - 4.00. See here or Facebook for details. Yate Town Council playschemes Yate Open Access Play Scheme funded by Yate Town Council and run by Childrens Playlink will run every weekday commencing Monday 23rd July until Friday 17th August 2012. Sessions are held at Yate Parish Hall and provide fun for 5 to 15 year olds. No need ...
On Friday, Transport minister Norman Baker was at Manchester Piccadilly following the announcement of £322 million extra funding towards the Northern Hub rail project for Manchester which could create 30,000 jobs and a £4.2bn boost for the regional economy. Also announced was £1 million given to Manchester Victoria under the Coalition government's 'Access for All' scheme which aims to improve access to public transport. The money will go towards a new lift to the footbridge, ensuring level access across the station, new handrails and landings on the existing footbridge. In previous blogs I've written about other investments in the area ...
Mon 23rd
12:40
Major Tory donor forced to repay £2million after investing in tax-dodge scheme favoured by foo...
One of the Tory party's biggest donors has been ordered to pay back millions of pounds in tax after a judge ruled against an offshore scheme he had used to slash his bills. The judge said a Guernsey-based trust set up by hedge fund boss George Robinson, one of the City's highest-paid financiers, was 'cosmetic' and told him and three colleagues to pay the taxman £13million. Mr Robinson, who is facing a personal bill of more than £2million, used an arrangement favoured by top footballers and City banks such as Goldman Sachs after being advised it could help him avoid ...
From the Deputy Prime Minister's website comes the news: Nearly 2,000 new summer schools will open their classroom doors today to help some of the most disadvantaged pupils in England in the step up from primary to secondary school. Around 65,000 children are expected to benefit. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg today launched one of the first summer schools in London, to see how they are supporting those pupils most at risk from falling behind. Many pupils find the move to a bigger school and a more challenging curriculum daunting which can lead to a dip in their performance. Pupils ...
Jim Pickard in the FT carries details of a leaked letter from Gerge Osborne to Ed Davey laying down the law on crucial green energy issues. The letter includes the demand that Davey sends a "strong signal" that the government is in favour of "unabated gas": ...I have been handed a letter from the chancellor to Ed Davey, energy secretary, which suggests that the wind subsidies are only a microcosm of a wider battle over the green agenda raging in Whitehall. Last week the review of Rocs was put on hold; Davey and Osborne were clearly unable to reach an ...
...this blog is delighted to have exclusive access to the document produced this morning by the Department of Communities and Local Government outlining Eric Pickle's achievements over the last two years:
On the last day before Parliament's summer recess, while many MPs were packing their bags for home, I was handling the last of seventeen committee sessions for the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (ERR) Bill. Along with important measures establishing the Green Investment Bank and creating a powerful new competition authority, the Bill contains a whole range of provisions designed to improve regulation, increase business confidence and boost growth. Among them are changes to the way disputes in the workplace are handled. I have something of an insight into how the law in this area works in practice. For my sins, ...
Blood test this morning: Platelets 399 Haemoglobin 10.1 White blood cells 3.74 Neutrophils 1.58 So the Hydroxycarbamide is successfully reducing thr platelets, but at the expense of lowering the Hb, WBC and Neutrophils. The solution is to reduce the daily Hydroxycarbamide to 5 times a week, leaving out Tuesday and Wednesday. Professor JM also prescribed Flucloxacillin for a poisoned finger. I asked her if she would get an update of my prognosis from Dr H &b she will do so.
Mon 23rd
11:40
The night of the stand-up (and extremely loud) row with fellow Lib Dem Blogger Richard Morris...
Well as noted a few weeks ago I had a bit of a pop at Richard Morris. It was about him agreeing with a tweet from Baroness Scott. You can read the full blurb here and to give him his due he did reply in full here but I'll give you a sneak peak at the title of the post – Oh Dear, I've upset Neil Monnery AND I'm an idiot – yeah usually when someone upsets me they are in the wrong and are therefore an idiot (actually Neil that's bs as you yourself are an idiot and are ...
Today, everyone is rightly celebrating the magnificent achievement of Bradley Wiggins becoming the first ever British winner of the Tour de France. Wiggins and his Team Sky colleagues have beaten their five year game plan, putting in a stunning performance ... Continue reading →
On Friday, Transport minister Norman Baker was at Manchester Piccadilly following the announcement of £322 million extra funding towards the Northern Hub rail project for Manchester which could create 30,000 jobs and a £4.2bn boost for the regional economy. Also announced ... Continue reading →
i've just finished reading a paper about social capital and community cohesion. quite thoguht provoking. there was a lot of material in the paper. but one thing that stood out what this. can we have too much community cohesion? i have to say, having lived in Bristol for 10 yrs now I thought there was no such thing. as community cohesion was somehow seen as a bit of a holy grail. the author puts it like this. and I hope i dont put it too simplistically. if you have two or more communities that are very cohesive there is no ...
South Gloucestershire Council is reviewing the way it provides registration services for births, deaths and marriages. Currently the service offers pre-booked appointments at Frenchay, Kingswood, Thornbury and Yate. The council now proposes to concentrate the service at two locations - Frenchay and either Kingswood or Thornbury. You can find out more and have your say on the council's website. The consultation finishes on 3rd August. The suggestion is that a service in two locations would be open much more of the week, as opposed to just a couple of days at Yate, but of course people would have to travel ...
There was an interesting interview with Nick Clegg in yesterday's Sunday People: Nick Clegg would form a coalition with Ed Miliband in the next government, he told The People. The Lib Dem leader could even stay on as Deputy PM if a general election replaced one governing party with another. His new boss would then be Labour's Ed. And former Prime Minister David Cameron could be facing him across the House - heading the Opposition. I visited Mr Clegg in his Cabinet office in Whitehall and he told me: "If the British people, like they did last time, say no ...
Cornwall Council is trying to charge town and parish councils £50 to use a 'crypto-card' to access direct dial phone numbers for officers. Not surprisingly, a large number of towns and parishes see this as a rip-off. At present town and parish councils are sent a telephone booklet which contains a small number of key telephone numbers. This booklet, which is sent out once a year, takes around two weeks to put together. As well as quickly going out of date following changes in staffing, there is also a cost for printing and distributing the booklet. In contrast the CRYPTOCard ...
Geoffrey Lean writes for the Daily Telegraph about the current row over energy subsidies - the item is down the page after some agreeably batty speculation about the meaning of sacred sites: The Whitehall battle goes back to the mutual antagonism between the Chancellor and the combative - but now hors de combat - former energy secretary Chris Huhne. The most interesting thing is not that Mr Osborne continues to block the subsidies, but that the much more peaceable Mr Davey is standing his ground. It will probably need the PM to break the stalemate, but I'm told the smart ...
The Crime Survey of England and Wales for 2011/12 has been published, and it makes interesting reading. The CSEW is the new name for the British Crime Survey, as it no longer includes Scotland. It's particularly useful as a measure of crime because, year after year, it asks thousands of people about their own experiences of crime. That makes it far less likely to hit the problems that official crime figures have where the numbers can go up or down just because more, or fewer, people are reporting crimes. The CSEW does have some limitations. Until recently it only asked ...
APPG on Choice at the End of Life. — Bill consultation (tags: ) Disability and sexuality: everything you think you know is wrong « Feminist Philosophers (tags: ) TV viewing can decrease self-esteem in children, except white boys (tags: ) Anxiety disorders in poor moms likely to result from poverty, not mental illness, study suggests (tags: ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Edinburgh has been very well indulged this weekend. Madonna played Murrayfield, the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy people were in town and last night, Business Secretary Vince Cable answered questions from Scottish Liberal Democrat members. This was quite hastily arranged at the end of last week, but the room was packed. This was not bad for a day when there was so much sport on tv. We wanted to include as many people as possible so we took questions via email and Twitter. Vince covered a huge range of topics and stayed considerably longer than planned. He also didn't keep ...
A few months ago we received advice from Tim Montgomerie: ... you need to change party leader. Not now. Not, I suggest, until 2014. But you can't go into the next election with Nick Clegg at the top of your ticket. OK, on that occasion, the advice was asked for in the form of an invitation to write for this esteemed website. But over the weekend, there was a twitterfest set off by the very same editor of ConservativeHome: Big moment for Coalition with Vince flexing leadership muscles. I predict a deal where Clegg will stay DepPM but Cable will ...
[IMG: IainBB Preston Bank] and split them up regionally to rebuild our local lending infrastructure. Iain told local Lib Dems 'We must re-discovery the old banking creatures inside the belly of the big banks- local institutions like Williams & Glyn's, Martins, TSB and so on. We need banks that are owned by their savers and not part of some large international group that doesn't care about people in Southport or local businesses People have been taking a personal stand against bank scandals and moving their money to local, ethical or mutual financial institutions that they feel they can trust. But ...
The IMF (no, not them, this lot) once again featured heavily in the British news last week, with its views presented as impartial and expert, cited approvingly by people across the political spectrum That's a remarkable transformation for the IMF which not that long ago was one of the poster childs for protests, regularly in the firing line for the economic policies being pushed on developing world countries and its willingness to praise the economic policies of bloody dictatorships while taking a very narrowly focused views of their countries. So controversial, in fact, that the criticisms came not merely from ...
I have welcomed feedback I have received from the City Council following my raising several issues about Dundee House, the new council headquarters in North Lindsay Street. Although there are many positives about the building, the feedback I have had from constituents is that the 'public area' appears sparse, cold and uninviting to a member of the public visiting the council HQ. The reception staff and "floor walking" staff are very friendly and do a very good job at helping to assist the public but on arrival, the reception area itself isn't that obvious and the large, quite Spartan, entrance ...
The first post on this blog was made on 21 July 2003 and was about the Royal Welsh Show. Today, I am off to the Royal Welsh Show again and so won't have time to post. However, nine years of blogging is a long time. This site remains the second longest continuous blog by an elected official. I will be back tomorrow.
The answer can be found below! Members breifingV8
