Katrina Bryan as Nina (with her Neurons) Why am I writing about Kid's TV you may ask and well... I've got no real answers other than it takes my mind of a few things (including the current rifts in the Coalition) and being on paternity leave has meant that I've sat around enduring a lot of it with my daughter Sophie and after my failed experiment to get her into Doctor Who (Rememberance of the Daleks gave her nightmares!) and my wife judging me every time I sneak Star Wars on, there is no other choice. I must admit that ...
So all three Jamaicans are into the final of the men's 200m. Wallace Spearmon - but is he unique? But there is something amiss. From the USA only Wallace Spearmon will line up alongside them. So I decided to look up the record books to find out if this had ever happened before, I will of course ignore 1980 which the USA boycotted. Firstly before 1960 there were only six lanes on the bend of the tracks, but even then we go back many years still searching for such an event. The music that plays before each medal ceremony is ...
Have you ever played the game 'six degrees of separation'? The idea is that you are only six steps away, by way of introduction, from another person on earth. Well if you take online music courses from ArtistWorks then changes are you are actually only two steps away from knowing some of the biggest music ...
I am old enough to regard Twenty20 cricket as a diminished form of the game aimed at the ADHD generation. O my Brian Bolus, Don Bates, Fred Swarbrook and Bill Blenkiron long ago! Still, Stand Up for Friends Life t20! could be fun: Rory Bremner has teamed up with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and is fronting a comedy festival campaign which has seen a host of comedians visiting Friends Life t20 games across the country. This has all been a part of Rory Bremner's 'Stand Up for Friends Life t20' tour - and now it's Rory's turn! ...
Last month, while noting that Rutland has been found to be the happiest place in England by an Office of National Statistics report, I gave a limited defence of the idea of measuring the nation's happiness. But there are more extreme positions you could take on the idea. You could be strongly in favour: It is now possible to quantify people's levels of happiness pretty accurately by asking them ... Happiness is a real, objective phenomenon, scientifically verifiable. That means people and whole societies can now be measured over time and compared accurately with one another. Causes and cures for ...
The date for the next Bar Hill Community Market has been announced; Saturday 8th September in the Octagon (30 seconds walk from Tesco Car Park) in Bar Hill. The market is open from 10:30am until 2pm and also features a Craft and Art Exhibition in Bar Hill Church (right next to the Octagon). The market features fruit and vegetables, Homemade cakes, Jewellery, Greetings Cards, Confectionery, Jams, Knitted items,Patchwork, Bags, Wooden crafts, Beauty products and lots more! Fundraising for local groups and projects will also be going on as well and there will also be Refreshments and a BBQ (weather permitting!). ...
It's a wonderful, unprecedented Olympic fortnight for Team GB. But more of that at the close of the Games in a few days time. What it has done has reminded me of the of the greatest controversies in the history of the Summer Games. It's odd, because whilst I have attended a live Basketball game in my life and enjoyed the frenetic nature of the chase, it is not a sport that I have necessarily warmed too. Perhaps the American domination of the game that in fairness, they invented in the 1890s, plays a part in my relative ambivalence towards ...
I have in the past been critical of Sir Peter Soulsby and Leicester's mayoral system - in particular the way that system has led to a one-party state in Leicester and the way Sir Peter is able to use the Labour whip to remove people who are critical of him. That said, I have to admit that his plan for Leicester - as reported in the Leicester Mercury today - seems about right: The city mayor's blueprint - named Connecting Leicester - includes his previously announced plan for a £4 million public space - Jubilee Square - as well as ...
I have just finished reading a very enlightening book by george galloway. i think its called 'i'm not the only one'. The main thrust of the book is that he's not the only one who thinks the right thing. does the right thing. and in true george, does it in trailblazing style. each chapter is a terrifically colourful insight into george's mind. he gives a blow by blow account of how he views westminster, saddam, the oil for food programme and iraq generally. he also alludes as to why respect the party was founded. this book was written at least ...
Liberal Democrats selected Dr Jon Rogers for mayoral candidate last Thursday night. I have known Jon for a number of years. He has always struck me as being a straight forward bloke. He cares passionately for people, having worked previously as a GP. His work in Ashley ward serves him well for his candidacy. As do his green credentials. He has worked hard on sustainable transport over the years. Good luck Jon. Link to Jon:
On Monday night I went to a meeting organised by the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign. I was interested by a flyer I had seen the day before about news on some volunteer olive planting that had recently occured. A number of the volunteers did a little report back. Interesting to hear about how the conditions are. The dynamic with Israel. How human rights are fairing. And also allied topics. For example, I got into an enlightening discussion with one lady about conditions at a locnursery. How 13 kids were being taught in 1 room. The only play equipment they ahd was ...
Cambridge's Saffron Brasserie cooked up a storm for the judges of a national competition and put the city on the map as home of one of the country's best South Asian restaurants. The Hills Road restaurant, which serves Indian and Bangladeshi cuisine, was nominated for the Tiffin Cup by Cambridge MP Julian Huppert and took the prize for runner up in the Regional Finals. Julian presented the restaurant team with a chef's jacket and hat, embroidered with the Tiffin Cup logo, and certificate after their success in the competition organised by a cross-party group of Members of Parliament known as ...
Wed 8th
20:05
More voters think the Tories have broken their Coalition Agreement promises than think the Lib Dems ...
Nick Clegg's announcement on Monday – that the Lib Dems would end the party's support for the boundary changes pledged in the Coalition Agreement in response to David Cameron's failure to persuade his party to back the Lords reform pledged in the Coalition Agreement – has triggered a collective how-very-dare-he whine from the right-wing commentariat. Unreliable, betrayal, treachery... and those are some of the kinder words being uttered. So what does the public think of the Lib Dems' and Conservatives' role in the Coalition: how far do they think the parties have stuck to their respective sides of the deal? ...
Last month (with some help from Michael Crick and Mark Pack) I blogged about the decision not to hold elections for the Lib Dem interim peers panel this year. It turned out to be one taken by the party's Federal Executive because we were in the process of reforming the House of Lords. Well, we are not any more. And the same correspondent who alerted me to the the cancellation of elections for the panel now asks if the Federal Executive will reverse its decision because of this. Over to you, FE.
This afternoon I joined my colleagues Councillors Pat Keith and Tony Dawson on a visit to Southport beach. Pat and Tony are pictured above outside Ainsdale Discovery Centre. I arranged the visit with Sefton's Head of Coast & Countryside, Dave McAleavy. As Pat and Tony are both newly elected and their wards contain sections of our coast it provided a god opportunity for them to gain an insight into the problems encountered by Dave and his rangers and the changing nature of our coastline. Thankfully good weather was ordered in advance and we all shared a thoroughly rewarding couple of ...
Yesterday evening I attended a Q&A with Nick Clegg, and a meet and greet with party members before hand. The meet and greet was interesting and Nick was specifically articulate with our little group - and also knew a lot about Manchester and Stockport Lib Dems which was nice to hear. The most interesting part was the Q&A with the general public, and a few of us that had spilled over from the meet and greet. There were several different topics of conversation, but initially I was quite scared Nick was going to get a mauling at the hands of ...
The early Olympics were intended to have a much wider context than being just a sporting contest. There were contests in the arts alongside the sporting contests, and two of the first Games were held concurrently with international expositions (Paris in 1900 and St Louis in 1904). This year, there's also been the Cultural Olympiad alongside the Games, but should there perhaps be something more. I'm not talking about the old idea of arts contests, or the reviving the occasional suggestion of 'mind games' having contests during the Olympics, but instead making them a celebration of all the great things ...
Naturally I cannot share the glee of fellow contributors to this blog that the Coalition's Lords Reform plans have been dropped, after neither Labour nor the Conservatives were able to sow sufficient unity among their MPs to implement clear manifesto commitments shared by all three parties. I have been involved in the campaign for reform all my political life, and particularly while Shadow Leader of the House of Commons from 1997-2005. I have long been a supporter of David Steel's Bill, but always as a down-payment on progress towards democratic elections. It is not an alternative, and David has never ...
On the injustice of Tiffany Foster's disqualification from the London 2012 Olympics. This is more than a fight over the treatment of a single athlete. This is more than a struggle for the future of equestrian sport. This is a battle for the values, the honour, and the very soul of our country's national sporting system
Last Wednesday evening, a week ago to the day, Dan Harris a regular cyclists was killed by an Olympic shuttle coach. He was wearing a helmet. He was killed where until 10 days before a cycle Advanced Stop Line was present. It was removed to make way for Olympic Zil lanes. It transpires that thousands of the dedicated cars prepared for all the Olympic freeloading hangers-on to be chauffeured around are sitting idle. I say this because I sat on a planning committee that was hearing whether a students hall of residents could be used for real games officials that ...
Wed 8th
16:31
And the gold medal for any excuse to show lots of arse shots of beach volleyball players goes to.......
The Radio Times Congratulations & take a bow.
A rather nasty thriller about a senior Flemish legal official whose estranged wife is being exploited by Opus Dei, filled with cynicism about the Francophone gerontocracy which supposedly runs the country, boosted by authentic flashes of local colour (notably the expensive restaurants which are all real). None of the characters is at all attractive, and the author gives no indication that he does not share their sexual and ethnic chauvinism.
There's been a lot of chatter on twitter and elsewhere about the fact that were all 27 member states of the EU competing as TeamEU at London2012 then we'd be way ahead of China in the Olympics medals table. That is of course statistically true and it's interesting to note that China's population is more than ...
It is hard to understand the difficulties faced by blind and partially sighted people face without having experienced them; things we take for granted can be very difficult, simply travelling from A to B for example. 'Talking Buses' is a ... Continue reading →
We're officially on holiday at the moment. So far, that's meant mainly watching the Olympics and taking in a few shows in Edinburgh's Fringe. For some weird reason, Festival Journal have asked me to do some reviews for them. Here's the first I've had published, about the Scottish Youth Theatre's promenade performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Botanics. Enjoy.
I strongly suspect that for all political parties there is a common pattern: what seems sensible and logical to those on the inside often seems baffling and weird to those on the outside. Europe for Tories, STV for the Liberal Democrats, for example. Often, of course, it is the outsiders who are right because they have a more detached view; often, however, they are wrong because they do not really understand what they are talking about. Therefore the odds are you should ignore the rest of this post where I opine on the Conservative Party. If you fancy taking a ...
Abraham Lincoln, Charles Darwin and William Ewart Gladstone, giants of the nineteenth century, were all born in 1809 yet as Frank M Turner argues in this collection of essays Darwin and Lincoln are much better remembered today. I am sure this is true even for Liberal Democrats. In the final essay, Eugenio Biagini reflects on a 1992 Economist front cover describing Gladstone as 'A prophet of the Left'. Gladstone's legacy has been appropriated by Thatcherites who over simplify the Victorian Liberal view of the roles of government and private enterprise. Tony Blair cited Gladstone in his enticements to Paddy Ashdown ...
With the Olympics in full swing Labour have been desperate to find anything that will show that the UK Coalition Government is not getting into the spirit of the games. It was no surprise therefore that they were keen to make capital from their own freedom of information request that found that education secretary, Michael Gove, has approved of the disposal of more than 20 school playing fields since the coalition came to power two years ago, despite a pledge to protect sports pitches from development. However, all is not how it seems. The Department for Education has responded with ...
This was recommended to me by matgb and rmc28, and they made a good call. Set five years after Return of the Jedi, Luke, Leia and Han Solo are intimately engaged in consolidating the New Republic, and get enmeshed in an attempt by an imperial admiral to bring it all down. There is a very real sense that this book builds on and respects the cinematographic canon, but also dares to add a few more elements - in particular, a new more military female protagonist who helps balance Luke and Han. A very satisfying read.
Remember last week I told you how Alex Salmond had blown £400,000 of our hard earned taxes on an extension of his ego in Pall Mall to promote Scotland during the Olympics? Great, except that they could have had home of the Scotland Office, Dover House, for free. To add insult to injury, the club they'd taken over to create Scotland House wasn't even ready on time, leaving Sports Minister Shona Robison with nowhere to meet her Australian counterpart. Apparently they can't just do these things in Starbucks like the rest of us! Anyway, they actually switched the venue to ...
A Penguin collection of extracts from Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon and Polybius, showing the start and early evolution of historical writing. As I am less familiar than I would like with the historical background, a lot of this sailed over my head (I would have liked more footnotes and maps), but I appreciated the raw approach of Herodotus, the critical attitude of all of them to other writers (not that this stopped them making stuff up themselves) and the closing passage from Polybius comparing the Roman constitution with the constitutions of less successful states (he singles out Rome's institutionalisation of religion ...
My recent post exploring what the medal table at the Olympic Games would have looked like if Scotland was an independent country had a number of people leaving comments saying I am bigoted. Yet all across the web there have been posts breaking down the amount of Gold medals won by Team GB according to the nationality, county of birth and even town of birth. The Daily Telegraph reports that '
It is twelve months since the riots in Manchester and elsewhere across the country. My view has not changed on the riots themselves, they were unjustified and unprovoked. The acts of civil disobedience and criminality shocked everyone, including myself. Nick ... Continue reading →
This week The Guardian and others ran a story about how the current government was continuing with selling off school playing fields despite the promises to bring to an end the sorts of sales which took place under Labour. However, the Department for Education has thoroughly taken apart the claim in a comprehensive response, pointing out that: Of the 21 playing fields we approved for disposal 14 were schools that had closed, four were sites that became surplus when existing schools amalgamated. Of the other three: One was surplus marginal grassland on the school site. Proceeds of the sale were ...
Should Nick Clegg's proposed tit-for-tat vote against constituency boundary changes kill this proposal – at least in the short term - this will probably be seen as good news in many parts of Greenwich Borough. The preservation of the old boundaries will prevent central Greenwich from being split up down the eastern wall of the Naval College – ...
Many of the more right-of-centre newspapers are declaring that the government calling time on Lords Reform is a victory for Cameron personally. Iain Martin's piece summarises this thesis. I would argue the precise opposite. I think the whole episode has been a disaster for Cameron and damaging to the Conservative party overall, albeit in a minor way, at least when you take the fact that their only even vaguely electable possible leader has been politically debased out of the equation. A question that has hung around the neck of Cameron since the near miss of the 2010 election is this: ...
Compare and contrast: "Of course, there is no reliance on our support for a Coalition Agreement commitment for progress on unrelated or other significant parallel constitutional formations. I have said that. There is no link; of course, there is no link." ...and: "Lords reform and boundaries are two, separate parliamentary bills but they are both part of a package of overall political reform. Delivering one but not the other would create an imbalance - not just in the Coalition Agreement, but also in our political system. Lords reform leads to a smaller, more legitimate House of Lords. Boundary changes lead ...
Just in case you thought gender stereotyping was a thing of the past, have a look at this picture which is doing the rounds on Facebook at the moment. So, if you're a boy, you are told that you should be interested in all sorts of fun things like helicopters, treasure, conkers, bikes, climbing and swimming. If you're a girl, you're confined to fluff, bunnies, lipstick, butterflies and ladylike activities like skipping and dancing. I can't believe that we're doing this to our kids when we are supposed to have a modern, equal society. The only person who will take ...
The four things you need to do right now to avoid getting hacked. Read it. Do them. (tags: internet ) How Apple and Amazon Security Flaws Led to My Epic Hacking | Gadget Lab | Wired.com Read this. Awful warning for us all. (tags: internet ) Who Is Really Doing Russia's Bidding in Tbilisi Measuring outcomes rather than rhetoric. (tags: georgia ) Readercon: Public Statement How to apologise. (tags: sexandgenderandsexuality sf ) It's a rich man's world: How billionaire backers pick America's candidates—By Thomas Frank (Harper's Magazine) The USA's democratic deficit. (tags: uspolitics ) The Elephant in the Map Room ...
The Voice is only a success because of the interest and support from our readers. For many people just lurking and reading the site is all they want to do – and that's fine, we're grateful for people taking the time to read the site. You can though help us continue to produce interesting content for a growing audience. Here are four simple ways: 1. Let us have your tips for stories. Perhaps there's something outrageous going on in your local council? Or you're an expert in a particular area and have spotted a story other people have missed? Or ...
It's a pretty anxious time for any parent with a child in the early years of secondary school in Scotland. The Scottish Government has introduced a new Curriculum, called the Curriculum for Excellence which aims to produce a new generation of responsible citizens, successful learners, confident individuals and effective contributors. At primary school level, this has been embraced and has really given teachers the opportunity and flexibility to teach key skills in an imaginative way. Anna's primary education was excellent all the way through, but you could see in the last few years how the Curriculum for Excellence was making ...
This fortnight the nation is enjoying all things Olympics. The Olympics being a great ancient Greek idea and ideals. So it's ironic that at a time of great Greek inspiration for the British peoples the even larger and more significant Greek idea of democracy is being trashed by the Conservative party. They announced that they couldn't deliver an elected House of Lords. They'd rather keep it cosy hand picked selection of chums. The perfect retirement club for those Tory MP's that find voters so annoying with a rump of Labour MP's supporting them. A week of elation and commiserations. A ...
Student Rights - Abortion education survey highlights influence of religion in schools It was SPUC who tried to infiltrate our school. Luckily my dad was the head of biology, and recognised their crap for the crap it was, but some of it still surfaced in RE. (tags: ) Drugs used on pregnant women to prevent lesbian, bisexual and intersex babies - PinkPaper.com * shudder * (tags: ) Dollar Shave Club I really wish these guys were available in the UK, because I want to give them my money just for their marketing genius. Also their inclusiveness. (tags: ) Farmers in ...
Cameron has by all accounts decided to press on with presenting legislation introducing boundary changes. At first glance this seems madness. It's hard to see how he can win. But we all know he needs those boundary changes if he's to stand any realistic chance of delivering a majority for the Tories at the next General Election. And the longer it looks like he can't deliver that, the less time he's got in charge of the Tories. As we all know, they're not afraid of changing their leader as soon as they think it will stand them in better shape ...
Local councillor Tony Davis at Prinknash Court Following consultation with the residents Merlin Housing Association have decided to keep Prinknash Court at Abbotswood for the elderly and will refurbish the accommodation so there are no bedsitting rooms any more. Effectively 2 existing bedsitters will be made in to either 1 or 2 bedroomed flats. Empty units will not be filled from January 2013 to enable work to begin later that summer. Anyone living there will have first options on returning once the development is complete.
Manchester City Council has been slammed in its management of Heaton Hall in an article in The Times newspaper celebrating its architect, James Wyatt. "Wyatt's finest complete country house, Heaton Hall, has been outrageously neglected by Manchester City Council, with the looming indignity of a soccer centre in its landscape park (despite a 10,000 name petition from objectors)." Heaton Hall closed to visitors last year and there are apparently no plans for this to change in the near future. I understand that a significant amount of money was spent on essential repairs in the last year by the Council. For ...
The latest PR Week Soap Box features this from myself on how social media is changing public affairs: At the time of the 2010 general election, more adults had broadband than voted. By the 2015 election, on current trends, there will be more adults using social networks than vote. There will, no doubt, still be plenty of politicians - and those who seek to influence politicians - who continue to don a Luddite act, bemoaning how awful new technology is and how there is nothing wrong with carrier pigeons and manual typewriters. The smarter ones know that when millions of ...
Wed 8th
09:22Opinion: Unelected Lords are against the spirit of the European Convention of Human Rights
For as long as philosophers and political campaigners have asserted that certain rights are basic, universal or inalienable, the right to elect one's legislators has generally figured in those rights. England's 1689 Bill of Rights protected the right to elect Members of Parliament without interference from the Crown. In France the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man guaranteed the right to vote. In America, five separate Articles of the US Bill of Rights protect voting rights and both Houses are elected under the Constitution. The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides: Article 21 (1) Everyone has the ...
Central Bedfordshire Council have a waiting list of 162 for a council garage. In Houghton Regis the Council owns 482 garages, 273 are rented out, and 43 are boarded up. In Dunstable the Council owns 666 garages, 246 are rented out and 80 boarded up. Parkside Houghton Regis town councillor, Alan Winter, obtained the figures through a Freedom of Information request. Cllr Winter commented, "It's a great shame that in our town 43 are boarded up while a waiting list exists. I used to park a Mondeo in a garage the size of a typical estate garage, so I don't ...
Andrew Lilico is one of ConservativeHome's favourite columnists. That is to say, they regularly call upon him to write the kind of ill-informed, inaccurate drivel that makes up the bulk of thought within the tory party. And yesterday's article by him is no exception. In it he rants and raves about the evil liberals (that's people like me by the way) who are being "disingenuous" and who are "welching" on the coalition agreement by saying that, because tories won't support Lords reform, they won't for changing the boundaries of parliamentary constituencies. Now, just to quickly recap, Lords reform is a ...
I asked in my last poll 'Which party leader will lose their position first?' Even with a huge Lib Dem bias to this blogs readership, the answer was fairly clear. I guess if anyone is safe right now it would be Ed Miliband. Ahead in the polls, and (since this poll closed) seemingly nailed on to win the next election, with the demise of the boundary changes. Though things do change... But I wonder if Nick's position is truly that much weaker than Cameron's. Partly because Cameron's decision to press on with boundary changes looks rather like the act of ...
Just a quick reminder of today's event! Local company "Pampered Chef" is holding a charity event to raise money for Cancer Research UK. The event will be a bring-and-buy cake sale with additional stalls for books and jewellry. The event is taking place in the Octagon at 2:30pm on Tuesday the 7th August. Entry is only ONE POUND! Come along and help raise money for this worthwhile cause. If you have any questions please contact Sarah Adams at the number given in the poster.
This week's entry is the epitome of the type of track that I pick out when I look at old compilation albums - namely the half-remembered track which is - often - not quite as good as you remember. I actually had this on CD single, and do kinda still like it. But it wouldn't make my list for a Desert Island - as regular readers already know! Andrew
Last night I attended a very positive West End Sports and Heritage Association (WESHA) committee meeting. We discussed progress with numerous projects including our Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO) application for charitable status, our funding bid to improve the changing facilities at Riverside, lease arrangements with Dundee City Council and our web/social networking arrangements. There's huge interest in sport at the moment with the Team GB superb success at the Olympics and WESHA is well placed to capitalise on this for the benefit of the West End.
On Friday, the first ever Blue Skies Festival, Dundee's festival of kite flying, stargazing and rainbow chasing starts - and suns until Sunday. Blue Skies brings together cultural agencies from across the city to present you with an exciting mix of free events for all ages. Events include : * FRIDAY : Cloudbusting - A one-day event at DCA that will bring together representatives from the creative and cultural sectors with those in health and education, to explore how the knowledge and imagination of the country's creative sector might be applied to address the various issues around poverty. * SATURDAY ...
I think I'll always remember where I was when I saw Mo Farah win the gold medal in the 10,000 meters. During the early stages, I sat in my living room, squirming and restless in my easy chair. I winced when I saw Mo nearly trip as two Eritreans passed him. As the race sped ...
