So Team GB decided to give the Royal Mail stamp designers a day off after a busy week yesterday. But they had them called back into action today. First up over at Greenwich Park Charlotte Dujardin on Valegro were back on the top step of the podium in the individual dressage. Well ok Valegro's hooves were firmly planted on the ground. But in an event we have never medaled in before we come away both golds. Then it was across the river into the ExCeL for a little bit of history. The first ever medal in women's boxing went to ...
Posted in Salford Advertiser columns From leafy Worsley through to the terraced streets of central Salford, including a wide range of industry, Salford is as diverse as the people who live and work here. It's a proud fact that Salford has one of the most diverse cultures of any city across Britain and we should be grateful that so many people choose to live and work here. Corner to corner Salford is barely 40 square miles and inevitably, when people from completely different backgrounds are living and working in close quarters, the social differences that exist can cause problems. What ...
"Selling British butter to British people - there's not much of a sell out in that."
The Harborough Mail reports: Health bosses have met with a conservation expert to discuss plans for the the future of the war memorial at Harborough's Cottage Hospital. The hospital, in Coventry Road, is to be sold and its services provided at an improved St Luke's hospital, in Leicester Road, leading some to question what will happen to the memorial in its entrance. Dr Dave Briggs, managing director of the East Leicestershire and Rutland Clinical Commissioning Group (ELCCG), which is responsible for the project, said: "We have now met with planners and the conservation officer at Harborough District Council to get ...
I've seen countless interviews with just-beaten athletes and sportswomen and men who have said: We've let everyone down To all those Olympians who have said that, I say: No! you haven't. You got off your bottom and did something for your country, which is more than what 98% of the population can say. [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
[IMG: Massage parlour on Stroud Green Road] This evening I attended a meeting of our local 'safer neighbourhood' policing panel. One issue that was raised at the very start of the meeting was residents' concerns about a new Thai Massage Parlour that says it is 'opening soon' on Stroud Green Road next door to Nandos (see picture). Locals have expressed concerns about the possibility of it being used as a front for prostitution, as massage parlours have in nearby areas. My colleague Ed Butcher has already contacted the Council last week demanding to know if the parlour has applied for ...
Babraham Road Park & Ride site - Image Courtesy Wikimedia Commons Cambridgeshire County Council is about to start work on extending the popular Babraham Road Park & Ride site - contractors begin the work on 13 August. The Babraham Road site is the most used of the five Cambridge Park and Ride sites and the expansion is needed to ensure there are enough parking spaces for people wishing to use the highly success service into and across Cambridge. Most weekdays the site is full for around two hours and 90% of spaces are taken for four hours. On weekends, 90% ...
Last week I wrote: the argument that all local quirks and traditional loyalties must be sacrificed to abstract notions of fairness is an odd one in the mouth of a Conservative.Today it took Vince Cable to voice the common-sense case against the Conservatives' year-zero approach to constituency boundaries. Speaking to the Richmond & Twickenham Times he said: "The impression I have is that those people in my constituency prefer to keep the boundaries as they are, they don't want to be hacked up and be combined with bits of Hounslow and lose bits of their identity. "The Liberal Democrats have ...
Ireland came to a stand still before 5pm today. The Katie Taylor carried their flag into the Olympic stadium. She has previously played Gaelic and Association Football, in the latter she has scored for the senior ladies team. But at the ExCeL arena this afternoon the stands were full of Irish fight fans (who I think were cheering on Nicola Adams in the previous fight on the card the Flyweight final) to see if Ireland could claim their first gold. Taylor is the reigning European and world champion, indeed she has a long golden trail in both those championships. She ...
Ok it's in the Daily Mail but the police don't exactly deny the following A father with Parkinson's disease was arrested as he watched the Olympic cycling road race because he 'failed to smile or look like he was enjoying himself'..... A [Police] spokesman added that the arrest was necessary to avoid a breach of the peace because he was standing near a group of protesters. Every time I see stories like this I think. "This is it the police can't get any more stupid." And every time some force manages to surpass themselves. It's almost like they are in ...
How to get a photo to appear next to your comments You may have noticed that next to some people's comments is a small picture of themselves, such as: If you want a picture to appear next to your comments you need to do two things. Visit Gravatar.com, create an account and upload a picture. Post a comment, giving the same email address as the one you've used on Gravatar. How to show you are a party member when commenting The option to put a photo next to your comment is open to everyone. In addition, if you're a party ...
It came as no surprise to me to hear that ALS Court Interpreters had not been police checked, as reported by the BBC this morning. In this parliament and the last, I have campaigned against the outsourcing of Translation and Interpretation Services: ... Continue reading →
So, since payday was a couple of days ago, I now plan to live up to my promise and buy some books from Tor in recognition of their move to selling their ebooks DRM-free. Firstly, can anyone recommend a good ebookshop to buy them from — one that doesn't require huge amounts of info from ...
Today the Birmingham Safeguarding Board released a serious case review into the death of Aahliya Jordon-Fellows. Quoting from the website: "The review found that the death could and should have been prevented by a more robust application of safeguarding procedures by all agencies involved." My view for some time has been that the wrong children were taken into care. The case of Khyra Ishaq was
Louise Mensch's resignation on 6 August has triggered a by-election in Corby on 15 November. Initially treated as a silly-season oddity, the likely Labour victory exposes the Coalition's fragility post Cameron's dropping of Lords Reform. A tight Tory-Labour marginal, Corby has been a reliable bell-weather constituency since its creation in 1983. Retaken for the Conservatives by A-lister Louise Mensch in 2010, it has a Conservative majority of 1,951 on a swing of 3.6% - less than the 5.6% swing from Labour to Conservative across England as a whole. Given current national opinion polls, and the fact that the seat will ...
Thu 9th
14:16
Lib Dem run Portsmouth City Council approve £1.45m bridging loan in attempt to save Portsmouth...
In news that isn't a huge shock Portsmouth City Council this afternoon voted unanimously to approve a £1.45m bridging loan to the Portsmouth Supporters Trust as they attempt to save the football club from being consigned to the history books. Pompey City Council have long been supporters of the football club and have historically been pretty good to them. This includes planning permission for Parkway for the Brent Geese got involved and the stadium plans for the dockland stadium would also have sailed through but the club shut down these plans due to the credit crunch and the owner finally ...
Nice film from AXA* about the big changes coming to financial advice, known as the RDR: Eagle-eyed viewers who also know London and are either hardcore cinema fans or addicted to my Pizza Express blog posts will spot that some of the filming took place just outside the former umbrella factory which during its heyday supplied the umbrella for Mary Poppins. * Although they are not a direct client at work, they own a firm I do some work with.
I am only aware of two meetings at Blyth Town Council next week Assets Committee - Tuesday 14 August 2012, 6.30 pm at Ebor House Planning and Development Committee - Thursday 16 August 2012, 6.30pm at Ebor House If I learn of any more meetings, I'll post details
On Monday the government published its serious case review into the Winterbourne View abuse scandal. Winterbourne View was a specialist private sector hospital for learning disabled and autistic people – people who were sectioned and could not fend for themselves – "vulnerable" in the jargon. The BBC Panorama programme filmed some spectacular cases of staff abusing patients. A closer look didn't make things look any better – abuse had being going on for years, and the hospital was not remotely doing the job it was being paid to do. This is laid bare in the report. All sorts of people ...
So, now we know. Willie Rennie was right all along. Scotland's First Minister didn't put up any sort of a fight when China sent the boys round to talk about the Dalai Lama. Today's Scotsman has the details. The Scottish Government didn't get involved in meeting the Dalai Lama when he visited Scotland between 21 and 24 June. Alex Salmond refused point blank to meet him, and nor did any other member of his Government. He had no problem giving time to the Chinese Consul General two weeks before, though. The Scotsman have obtained a record of that meeting and ...
November's police and crime commissioner elections are rapidly turning into a farce with anybody who has any interest in the post seemingly being barred from standing. First of all it was those with a criminal conviction for which the punishment might have been a jail term (even if no jail was given). That might seem fair enough if it were an offence committed within the last few years. But at least two high profile candidates appear to have been ruled out on the basis of events from their childhood. One of these was Falklands hero Simon Weston, who expressed an ...
Would-be Labour Police and Crime Commissioner candidate Bob Ashford is rightly getting a positive press and sympathy from across the political spectrum today for discovering he's disqualified from standing thanks to a £5 fine he paid 46 years ago. It is absurd that he can't stand. It is an absurdity that Parliament deliberately decided to enact, for the ban does not arise from unintended side effects of another measure or from poor drafting. Instead, it was a deliberate decision to introduce an unprecedented restriction on who can stand in the Police and Crime Commissioner elections and to do so knowing ...
A quick post to publicise the petition started by Andrew George, the Lib Dem MP for St Ives, to save our direct rail services to London. As you may have read, the Government has issued a new tender for the Great Western rail franchise and included two options - staying with the current nine direct services from Penzance to Paddington per day or cutting to six. If you support the retention of the current service level, please sing Andrew's petition here. Tweet
In politics, no sooner have you seen off one challenge, than another appears on the horizon. At least the triathlon I completed had a clearly defined finish line. Yet, in politics, no sooner has one election ended, than you have to refocus on the next. As a result, it's hard to find time to sit down and take stock. But during this recess, I've set myself the challenge of putting some time aside to refocus on the last election and look at the detail behind the detail. I've spent election after election trying to learn the lessons of what went ...
Anna's been really keen that I should read the books that have captivated her imagination. The Hunger Games was a firm favourite before the build up to the film which was released in March this year and I've just got round to reading it. You know up front that a book which is essentially about 24 kids being sent into an arena to fight to the death is going to be disturbing. The Hunger Games is a televised spectacle that everyone is forced to watch as a grim reminder of the consequences of rebellion against the almighty and brutal Capitol. ...
News has filtered through the steam of my slowly drying flat that at least two top bods in the government have been getting language lessons in order to be able to have proper arguments with their overseas in-laws. Nicholas Boles has apparently spent nearly £700 this year learning Hebrew, presumably so he can understand when his Israeli mother-in-law is criticising him to her son, and that Old Berkeley Hunt Jeremy is in the news again for having had £3,000 worth of Mandarin lessons after presumably not knowing what he was letting himself in for marrying into a Chinese family last ...
Thanks to The God Article. Filed under: LGBT
Concept of same-sex marriage puzzling – Letters – Belfast Newsletter. Filed under: Blogging
What will you have: tea or chai? « Cultural Geography « GeoCurrents (tags: maps linguistics ) Doctor Who: Fifty Stories For Fifty Years: 1978 Andrew Hickey's tribute to Mary Tamm. (tags: deatg doctorwho ) BBC News - Website warned over MMR claims ASA stands up for science. (tags: autism )
Why are you wasting people's time supporting electoral reform and reform of the House of Lords? That stuff's all very well, but what about real problems like the economy and the health service? Why are you wasting people's time supporting safe sex education? That stuff's all very well, but what about real problems like the ...
Paul Hulbert at the Wapley footbridge The main London to South Wales line - the one that runs next to Shire Way - is going to be electrified (we don't know the timescale yet) and this will involve quite a bit of engineering work. For example we understand that the footbridge to Wapley Bushes will have to be raised by half a metre. This means that slopes up to the bridge will be steeper and the RADAR disabled access gate will have to be moved. We're awaiting more details from Network Rail.
Man cleared of porn charge after 'tiger sex' image found to be joke - Telegraph (tags: ) Usain Bolt gold helps lead ITV1 to worst ever daily and weekly ratings | TV ratings - 5 August | Media | guardian.co.uk Bwahahahahahaha beatn by BBC3! (tags: ) Prisoners paid £3 a day to work at call centre that has fired other staff | Society | guardian.co.uk See, all this could be solved by just amending the minimum wage laws. If you're doing a job, and you're employed rather than self employed, you should get minimum wage. End of. (tags: ) [IMG: ...
The South Cambridge Neighbourhood police report just one burglary in Queen Edith's in the past week: burglars broke into a shed in Long Road last Wednesday and used tools to jemmy open a side window leading to the kitchen. Property was stolen, including valuables and a vehicle. There have been two thefts of motor vehicles in the Cavendish Avenue area. Domestic burglary is a police priority, as set at the recent South Area meeting on 16th July, and police have spent over 50 hours patrolling in Cherry Hinton and Queen Edith's to deter burglars, in line with the policing priority. ...
Bizarrely Southwark Council have started to issue stunningly brighter green wheelie bins to residents. You can see the marked difference in this photo which really doesn't do it justice. What seems especially odd is the departure from the quieter more staid green used for more than a dozen or so years in Southwark. Can you imagine how our streets will look with old green bins, bright blue bins, brown, bins of various sizes and now brghit stunningly green wheelie bins. It's almost like someone doesn't care. do you think it's important for our streets to look clean and tidy?
If you missed last week's Thinking Allowed on Radio 4 it is well worth catching up with: New research presented at the British Sociological Association's 2012 conference claimed that middle class people hoard job opportunities in the UK TV and film industry. In a pre-recorded interview from the conference, Professor Irena Grugulis, suggests to Laurie Taylor that working class people don't get these jobs because they don't have the right accents, clothes, backgrounds or friends. Indeed, it's hard to find an area of the economy where connections and contacts are more significant. But is this mainly due to structural changes ...
A few more of these, from a wide period of time: British SF and the Class System: Science Fiction Is Here, It's Just Not Evenly Distributed – Very interesting post on SF as an expression of middle-class dreams of the future. Oh my god. I just witnessed the single greatest moment in human history – The effortless cool we all wish we could display in certain situations. I hate to disagree with Bradley Wiggins, but mandatory cycle helmets would be a terrible idea – Tom Chivers succinctly sums up the arguments and evidence for and against mandatory cycle helmets. Thanks ...
My latest from The New statesman - pop over and see the original which for once has some sensible and non Troll like comments. If the dramatic political events of yesterday tell us anything, it's probably that we were barking up the wrong tree on Lords reform. We were thinking too small. We should have been chasing Westminster reform.To everyone sitting in the Westminster bubble, I say this. In last month's Commons vote, Lords reform passed with a majority of 338, with support from all three of the main parties, yet it will not see the light of the day. ...
Thu 9th
07:55
What factors Lib Dem members think are MOST to blame for UK economy remaining in recession
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. Some 500 party members have responded, and we're publishing the full results. A mix of factors, but global / Eurozone crisis blamed most for UK recession LDV asked: Which of the following do you think is MOST to blame for Britain's economy remaining in recession? 19% – The deficit left by the Labour government 29% – Global factors and the debt crisis in the Eurozone 7% – The Coalition's economic policies and ...
Last night, walking the dog, I saw four blokes and two girls having a kickabout in the park. In my 53 years on this planet, I have never before seen girls joining in with park 'jumpers for goals' football. Perhaps this is influenced by the success of the GB women's team? I don't know, but it was certainly very heartening indeed to see it. [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
I have come a bit late to this article which was brought to my attention through a retweet on Twitter. However, that did not reduce my open-mouthed astonishment as I read it. The Guardian reports that London 2012 are investigating how a bucket of unofficial condoms found its way into the athletes' village without official consent. They say that the Australian BMX cyclist Caroline Buchanan tweeted a photograph of the bucket, which featured a sign reading "Kangaroos condoms, for the gland down under", and a picture of a boxing kangaroo. They say that she joked that the bucket seemed to ...
I have mentioned before my involvement as a member of the City Council's working group on road/pupil safety outside schools across Dundee. As part of this initiative, the City Council and Dundee Travel Active is giving every primary pupil/parent a copy of a school-specific safer routes to schools guide, on pupils' return to school later this month. Links to the "Safer routes to school" guides for three of the schools West End pupils attend are given below - St Joseph's and Park Place (Victoria Park) Primaries' guide will be published in the autumn, given the forthcoming move to the new ...
I'm trying very hard to get the Preservation Act II piece done, but I actually now have panic attacks when I even think about writing about either politics or music, thanks to the various recent troll infestations (many of which only made it to my inbox, rather than to the comments section proper, thanks to ...
