Today was the day that Team GB not only equaled their best* Olympic performance in modern times, but soared past it. It was a Tremendous Tuesday. So those folks at the Royal Mail have had their work cut out for them once again with four more stamps to produce and ship. First up in and around Hyde Park there was the men's triathlon where the hot favourites were the Bradford Brownlee brothers (adding to Yorkshire's top ten position in the medal table). They were both in the lead group in the water, stayed ahead at the start of the cycling ...
Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv'ry Tay! Alas! I am very sorry to say That ninety lives have been taken away On the last Sabbath day of 1879, Which will be remember'd for a very long time. William Topaz McGonagall
I am well qualified as a child to know what a tantrum is and I feel quite able to offer an opinion on Nick's supposed "tantrum" as many of the press are calling his actions over boundary reform. Forget what the dictionary or Wiki has to say about the definition because it is the child's version that counts. Tantrums are a child's domain. A tantrum is the result of somebody arguing without reason and who has not been allowed to have what they wanted. It does not involve the breaking of agreements or exist within a structure of mutual expectation.Nick ...
Well here is a note for the IOC and rest.... Except Taoufik Makhoufi of Algeria did not rest for very long as his doctor's note to cover his failure to run more than 200m of the 800m heats yesterday. Makhoufi well clear and heading for gold Yet this evening he not only lined up in the 1500m final, but he zoomed down the last back straight was so far in the lead off the last bend that there was no way to catch him. As I said yesterday he was being punished because of an impossible schedule double up and ...
News via the Deputy Prime Minister's Office: The Deputy Prime Minister today set out how the renewable energy sector is delivering vital investment and jobs to the UK, as Dagenham-based firm Closed Loop Recycling announces plans to double its capacity, creating and safeguarding 100 jobs. The Deputy Prime Minister also announced a government contract by UK Green Investments (based at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills) to provide £100 million of initial funding to Equitix and SDCL... Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said:... "There is a global energy revolution underway. And the UK is not going to be left ...
Who will Mitt Romney choose as his running mate? To find the answer, National Public Radio advises us to keep a close eye on Wikipedia. Normblog dissects a reaction by Jacqueline Rose in the Guardian - "of quite spectacular inanity" - to the murder of Shafilea Ahmed. Clive James discusses his fellow Australian Robert Hughes, who died yesterday, in a 2007 piece from the New York Review of Books: "Among my generation of aesthetes, bohemians, proto-dropouts, and incipient eternal students at Sydney University in the late 1950s, Robert Hughes was the golden boy. Still drawing and painting in those days, ...
This evening an email arrived in my inbox. In it, I got told some news that made me cry. Well the crying started when I clicked on a link that was contained in the email. So what was this? It seems that the Editors of Healthline have made a list of their favourite HIV and ...
Inspired by the Queen of Lib Dem blogging thoughts on the matter. I have decided to put together my top ten list of the Olympic Games so far. She says that boys running fast for a few seconds doesn't do it for her. Maybe it is a man thing, a cave-man instinct to know who is the fastest person on the planet. It is like how many people describe Man v Food as a man thing...I suspect the 100m will rank highly for me but let's go... Well Caron and myself agree on the number one as the Queen's acting ...
Tue 7th
19:24
Nadine Dorries leads (or at the very least significantly influences) some Lib Dem activists thoughts
Nadine will love that headline but it is true. Yesterday Nick Clegg decided that enough was enough and he had to make a stand against the Tories for not pushing through with Lords reform. The Prime Minister couldn't control his party and therefore the dreams of a more democratic way forward. Most Lib Dems agree this isn't the worst thing ever but there is one thing that has got people foaming at the mouth... Nadine Dorries' seat of Mid Bedfordshire will still exist. Now we all know that a parliament without Nadine Dorries is probably a good thing. However is ...
Monday: So, Great Britain's constitutional reforms lose the Olympic Gold for "Not Crashing and Burning", narrowly surprisingly clearly pipped by the American Mars Lander "Curiosity". Curiosity, equipped with LASERS to kill any SPIDER-CAT-MONSTERS-FROM-MARS it encounters, succeeded in making the tricky descent through the Martian atmosphere. Lords Reform, equipped with KNIVES for stabbing Captain Clegg in the back... didn't. Instead it descended into chaos and recrimination. Wooden Spoon goes to Ms Louise Mendacious, for "spending more time with her family" (surely the Murdochs don't have something on her after all!). Did she get wind of a non-promotion in Mr Balloon's reshuffle? ...
An interesting hypothetical question thrown up as a consequence of a piece from Isabel Hardman on the Spectator blog which mentions a "senior Lib Dem MP" who is quoted as saying that the Lib Dems should support the boundary changes. Now I don't know for sure if this MP is in the government and it is not clear that even if they are they will not fall into line with their party but what if they decided to vote against the Lib Dem party line on this? Would they technically be in breach of anything? With the vast majority of ...
I blogged previously about the International Olympic Committee's appalling refusal to include a minute's silence for the people murdered at the 1972 Munich Olympics in the opening ceremony of subsequent games, including London 2012. London's opening ceremony quite rightly included sombre tributes to people killed fighting in two world wars, people murdered on 7/7 and also (as I understand it) the late fathers of Lord (Sebastian) Coe and the director Danny Boyle, but nothing - nothing - about the eleven Olympians murdered at the Olympic Games itself in 1972 (not to mention the West German policeman killed trying to rescue ...
It's a good job I'm not a betting man, having said here in July "my bets are strongly against the Government giving up [on Lords Reform] at this point". But now we know: David Cameron's authority within the Conservative Party is so weak that he cannot even persuade his MPs to support an agreed manifesto commitment, and a Bill unanimously supported by his Cabinet. Cameron and Osborne voted for the 80% elected component as long ago as 2003, yet this summer their right-wing backbenchers simply would not accept elections at all. Unsurprisingly, concern for future of their own constituencies - ...
One of my proudest moments as an MP was to get Prostate Cancer drug arbiraterone available on the NHS. Prostate Cancer is a subject I care deeply and try to keep up to date with medical advances. In ... Continue reading →
From time to time I try to find out what my party members in the North West think about the issues that most concern me. We do our best to make sure that the questions are serious and that we do not try to 'lead' members into giving particular responses. Of course I always hope that my own views will be generally reflected amongst the membership, and I also note that the answers we get do not always reflect preconceived views. For example, it became clear long before our Secretaries of State changed the party's position that the general membership ...
The Olympics can be like politics. The public remember a single moment of triumph or disaster. But much of the fight to reach the winner's podium is the years of relentless training. Parliamentary elections are similar. Any Liberal Democrat who hopes to become an MP with a half-hearted six month campaign is living in denial. It takes years, working to build up the local organisation, meeting the electorate, month in, month out. Olympics men's cycling road race, Brompton Road(David Hawgood) / CC BY-SA 2.0 While Olympic athletes have support from others, ultimately it's down to their performance on the day. ...
Saturday I had the pleasure of visiting Sacrilege – a full size replica of Stonehenge but as a bouncy castle. It's the produce of the Turner Prize winner Jeremy Deller (who also designed exclusive Southwark Cyclists T-shirts). The funding came from Mayor of London, Glasgow Int'l Festival for visual arts and the Arts Council. It was only visiting Southwark at Burgess Park for the one afternoon noon-6pm. Massive queue with 100 people at time for 5minutes being allowed to bounce their hearts out. We were pretty tired after only 5 minutes but glad we'd done it and it threw quite ...
LIVERPOOL is the fifth worst fly-tipping hotspot in England, new figures reveal. Data compiled by the GMB union showed there had been more than 54,000 incidents in the last two years - equivalent to 74 every day. Those of us ... Continue reading →
On the way to the football yesterday I stopped into the British Museum for an hour or so. I got a nice reminder that these Olympics that are having such a big impact now are inspired by our ancient past. With more similarities than you might at first think. The Museum are also currently running a small exhibition about Olympic medals. Along with some medals from earlier Games, they have these examples of the medals awarded to the 2012 athletes. I also liked seeing the stamps that have been used to make the medals. I thought the design of the ...
Failing to get reform of the House of Lords through the Commons shows a parliamentary asymmetry. There are enough Tory backbenchers to defeat the government, but not enough Liberal Democrat backbenchers to do so. One party's backbenchers have de facto veto power, but the other's do not. There are three responses to this constitutional oddity. The first is to say "so be it": parliament and democracy have quirks. Perhaps it is even democratically appropriate for backbenchers from the larger party have powers not enjoyed by those from the smaller party. The second response is that the asymmetry makes it is ...
Here's another thing the Olympics can help us understand perhaps: polycentric, private law. Setting aside for the moment the organisers' penchant for getting the host country to impose all sorts of protectionist new laws for the games, what happens within the games itself shows some of the characteristics of a private law society. Over the course of the games there will have been 300+ medal awarding events in 26 sports. That's 26 legal systems, international confederations of individual national associations for each sport. Each sport you compete in will have different laws. If you were superhuman enough to be competing ...
Last year I was lucky enough to visit the Edinburgh Festival Fringe twice and determined to go again. This year I'm in it ! If you're going to the fringe, may I recommend the light-hearted musical Retail Therapy, written and performed by a very talented group of young people from Somerset (OK - and me). If you enjoyed Are you being served ?, this is better. If not, then it's definitely
Many people will remember Hampshire County Council's unnecessary and expensive "refurbishment" of their offices, complete with gold plated taps in their washrooms, at our expense. I am sorry to report that Tory county council leader Ken Thornber hasn't learned. Despite the public outcry and the need to cut their own spending rather than cutting our services they are at it again. I am indebted to colleagues across Hampshire who have highlighted the spending of £223,000 on a vanity TV channel watched by just 57 people. The full story was published recently in the Daily Mail. I don't think I need ...
Cllr Lucy Nethsingha (LD, Newnham) A decision by Cambridge City Council to make Sheep's Green and Coe Fen a Nature Reserve has been welcomed by Newnham ward councillor, Lucy Nethsingha. The move follows a campaign by Newnham ward councillors and comes in addition to the management plan put in place for the area. It demonstrates the city council's commitment to protect and enhance the city's green open spaces. Cllr Nethsingha said: "This decision to give Sheep's Green and Coe Fen Local Nature Reserve status is welcome as the space forms a unique part of the character of Newnham and is ...
Here are the Liberal Democrat entries in the top 100 political blogs as ranked by EBuzzing (Wikio as was). In to the list this time round come Michael Carchrie Campbell, Jock Coats, Alex Marsh and, ahem, Pink Dog. Out drop Richard Morris, Mark Thompson, Nic Prigg, George Potter, Andrew Page. (Side note: neither Neil Monnery nor David Allen Green's excellent blogs look to be in the EBuzzing listings at the moment. One or possibly both would be in the list I'd expect if they were.) 1 (7) Liberal Democrat Voice Down 1 2 (26) Mark Pack Down 7 3 (52) ...
My first thought was "highly unlikely" but the more I am mulling it over the more I am wondering if the inevitable dynamics that will result from the latest coalition debacle could move things in that direction. The first thing to note is that without the boundary changes Labour are now overwhelmingly favourite to win the next election outright, probably with a big majority. I know 3 years is a long time in politics but the idea that the Conservatives (and Lib Dems) are going to recover in a major way from their current lows with the economy in such ...
The latest issue in a long-running saga with the Federal Party of the Liberal Democrats has raised its head today. At least one of our Northern Ireland members received an email today regarding the selection of candidates for election to the European Parliament. Jonathan Davies, Senior Returning Officer writes, (with my comments in RED appended) ...
Now that I've finished the Rebus books I am working through Rankin's other stuff. Watchman starts off very John Le Carré, with the dejected middle-aged spy protagonist in a dead-end career and failing marriage, and then lurches rather unexpectedly into an action adventure in Ireland with a rather implausible IRA plot thread (this is 1988 or so). Rankin is not really at his ease when playing away from home, and the best bit of the book is the final dénouement set in Edinburgh (for no terribly good plot-related reason). Minor stuff really.
No, I didn't just get in a muddle about what year we're in. But the collapse of Lords Reform has brought us, inevitably, to this point. Labour will win the next election with an overall majority. Three years may be long enough for anything to happen. But consider this: it is hard to see the Conservative vote in 2015 being an increase on their 2010 showing. Since 2010 we've had the Euro crisis, George Osborne's U-turn fest, a healthy reminder of the symbiotic relationship between the Murdoch empire and the Tory party and the longest recession in more than 50 ...
My views on Syria are well-known. Why Russia needs to stop supporting Assad Syria: Why we should expel their ambassador Amos's humanitarian UN mission to Syria is vital News that the UK Government is to quadruple the aid it provides to ... Continue reading →
FairCopUK is a new campaign for the UK police to be required to be honest when explaining what your rights are and what powers they have. I was inspired to set up the campaign by Richard Taylor's suggestion that the police should not be allowed to lie or mislead without justification. Almost everyone would agree that people stopped by the police or in police custody should have certain rights and, of course, UK law already reflects this. These rights are however substantially undermined if the person in question does not know what their rights are and the police are allowed ...
The first ever issue of The Sun newspaper, from September 15 1964, has a couple of Stockport related stories. One of the stories will be familiar to every modern-day Stockport resident: Stockport County losing 1-0 at home to Hartlepools Utd (as it was called until 1968), although County had won the previous week in a game that had seen nine goals scored. The scorer of the Hartlepools goal was Ambie Fogarty, who'd transferred from Sunderland for £10,000 and played international football for the Republic of Ireland. The other story is altogether more curious: fifty members of the Manchester Bullfighting Club ...
David Cameron needs a parliamentary by-election in a Tory marginal seat like a hole in the head, but that is what Louise Mensch, MP for Corby and East Northamptonshire, has delivered to him. The Conservatives will be hard pressed to hold the seat, which novelist Louise Bagshawe (as she then was) seized from Labour at ...
The Doctor Who Christmas special villain revealed | Den of Geek (tags: ) Our Curiosity Knows No Bounds (tags: ) Does a political party's website tell you anything about what they believe? (tags: ) A Sad Day for Democracy | John Leech MP (tags: ) 'Porn trial' barrister 'asks if sexual health clinics are for those who have riskier sex' - PinkNews.co.uk (tags: ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Well... They've done it... They've finally done it. OK, we can put off Trident. OK we can bite the bullet and raise Tuition fees IF we can make the application process and repayment system ultimately fairer. OK we can agree to cuts as long as we can hit the Mansions and cut income tax for the poorest. What is NON NEGOTIABLE tenets for the Libdems, indeed for me as well, was looking into House Of Lords reform. But a handfull or rebels have suceeded in fudging up the Coalition agreement and Lords reform. It was always going to be a ...
Boy, was I annoyed with Nick Clegg yesterday. One thing about being on holiday in this country is that you can't escape news. Well, I could switch my phone off but it just doesn't work like that. So, I was not chuffed that he chose the first proper day of my holiday to announce the end of Lords reform. My half pint of pear cider in the Magners Pasture was rudely interrupted by details of his statement. At least there were two other Liberal Democrats we'd met by chance to discuss it with. Clegg faced a really rotten situation. David ...
Last week I took part in a discussion on Voice of Russia radio about the problem of abuse and threats on Twitter. We talked about questions such as what the law should allow and what Twitter's terms and conditions should permit. You can listen to the full discussion, in which I joined Vanessa Barnett, a partner at Charles Russell LLP, Carl Gardner, a former government lawyer who writes about law at Head of Legal blog, and Ian Cram, a Professor of Comparative Constitutional Law at Leeds University: * Mark Pack has written 101 Ways To Win An Election and produces ...
So yesterday the Lords reforms were dropped. Though it's an utter kick in the teeth that we Lib Dems have voted through plenty of fairly nasty tory policies and not got anything in return, at least Clegg finally seems to have woken up to the fact that the tories can't be trusted - something which much more experienced people in the party have been trying to tell him all along. So, in return we've killed the boundary changes and reduction in the number of seats - partly for tit for tat to remind the tories why they shouldn't go breaking ...
Tue 7th
08:15
62% of Lib Dem members agree with Clegg decision to vote down boundary changes over Tories' Lords re...
Lib Dem Voice polled our members-only forum recently to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. 446 party members responded, and we've been publishing the full results. What party members say about Tory breach of Coalition Agreement LDV asked: Within the package of constitutional reforms proposed in the Coalition Agreement was a pledge to reduce the number of parliamentary constituencies and re-draw them to ensure each individual's vote counts roughly equally no matter where they live. It is believed by electoral experts this will benefit the Conservatives and ...
Lord Bonkers writes exclusively for Liberal England: Much as I am enjoying the London Olympics, I have to ask why everyone who wins a medal immediately bursts into tears. After we won the show jumping gold yesterday, for instance, the horses on the podium were simply howling. It wasn't like this in my young day. I recall that when two horses won the double sculls for Britain, they merely shook hooves afterwards and then returned to their occupations - one had a milk round: the other was in the Guards. They certainly did not blub.
First up, here's Nick Robinson's take on yesterday's events followed by myself, via the BBC News Channel: Here also are Tim Montgomerie's rather pungent views on David Cameron and my own on Nick Clegg, via Radio 4′s The World Tonight: * Mark Pack has written 101 Ways To Win An Election and produces a monthly newsletter about the Liberal Democrats.
Posted this last Friday in The New Statesman. 4 days later, I'm feeling I had it pretty much on the money... Do pop over there to see the comments... So now we know. The reported abandonment of Lords Reform means the government's legislative programme is being run, not by the Prime Minister, but by a group of 100 or so Conservative backbenchers who henceforth will be calling the shots. It's quite a moment.The received wisdom seems to be that that "no Lords Reform means similarly no boundary changes", there's a minor sulk for a day or so and then everyone ...
I recently advised of the good news that the Riverside football pitches would be back in action this coming Saturday for amateur football in the West End. I spoke yesterday on Wave 102 News about this - click 'play' below to listen:
It is the silly seasonm so with a probe now safely ensconced on the surface of Mars and transmitting data back to Earth, here is a timely warning of what could go wrong. As for me, I am off to the Eisteddfod for the day.
