Welcome to Broxtowe Enews, brought to you by the Liberal Democrats and edited by David Watts, the leader of the Lib-Dems on Broxtowe Borough Council. I hope that everyone has had a good August and those who have been on holiday have found it a good and refreshing time, even though the British weather wasn't great. 1. Council ConsultationBroxtowe Borough Council is currently consulting people about the various options open to us regarding council tax and other benefits in the future. Every household should have had a letter this week so if you haven't received one please let me know ...
Just in case you didn't read the word SPOILERS in big writing in the headlines, I'll do a bit of a long introduction before I start to spill any beans. I didn't actually watch the programme live, which is a bit sacriligious, I know. This is all Natalie McGarry's fault for arranging the second #twinner, a loose gathering of the Scottish political twitterati to partake of some good food and a little light refreshment for the same night. There are not many groups of people for whom I would have missed the season opener, but this was one. When I ...
In the Kinks book, there is a factual error that I've only just noticed as I'm putting together the ebook version. I say in the Plastic Man entry "Up to this point, every single they'd released since 1964 had got to at least number 12. This was banned from the radio for using the word ...
It may the Sunday in the middle of the Paralympics, but just like their Olympic counterparts the Paralympians were not giving the Royal Mail stamp designers a day of rest. Over at Eton Dorney there was the first gold of the day. The Mixed Coxed Four LTAMix4+ of Pam Relph, Naomi Riches, David Smith and James Roe and cox Lily van den Broecke took the gold to add to their world championship. Gold post boxes will appear in Weston Turville (for Pam), Marlow (Naomi), Stratford upon Avon (James), Aviemore (David) and Oxford (Lily). Over in the Olympic Stadium there was ...
You may ask. The great thing about the Olympics and the Paralympics is the sports you have never seen before, or the games you last saw as a child. Boccia is one of those sports. Check out this for more information but essentially it is boules but played by many profoundly physically disabled. The aim is with your team's 6 balls to get as many as close to the jack, the white ball, as possible. I was lucky enough to see Great Britain beat rivals Argentina 8 to 4. The score flattered GBR who were level four all after the ...
Sometimes we all need to go to our 'happy place' the place where we feel safe and most at ease. I imagine everyone has a different idea as to where there's is but tonight I decided it was time to go to mine and therefore I strolled to the beach. I love the beach but I don't love it on a hot steamy day. I love it on a still but overcast day. The difference isn't only the temperature but also the proximity of people around you. I knew that tonight I'd be pretty much alone except for the odd ...
I like provincial art galleries. They generally have a good cafes and unexpected treasures among their collection. The Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle is no exception, with paintings by John Martin, Gaugin and Holman Hunt and a Grayson Perry pot.
I find it hard to get enthused, these days, particularly by local events. In the big world it seems to me that the cretins who have managed to claw their way to the top are no longer happy to just ride roughshod over public opinion, commonsense and fair play, now they wish to control individuality. Ironic as it is, it occurs to me that a meaningless doctrine of divisive "diversity" has been peddled by air head lefties here in Thanet, local politics has been tainted by crazy notions of what is and isn't acceptable, by those not noted for consistency, ...
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 ...
Having learnt to ring bells in the English style — full circle and in changes — I was rather surprised to see all of these bells appearing to swing in the same direction. I'm guessing that this puts a tremendous strain on the tower. It's a great cacophony of sound though. Filed under: Blogging
[IMG: Nick Clegg] ... it makes the idea that the government would go ahead with the Draft Communications Data Bill, at least in anything other than a massively altered version, that bit less likely. Against the current economic and political backdrop, both internal and external, to go ahead with a piece of legislation which: Costs money Makes it harder for new, small firms to compete and grow Isn't in the Coalition Agreement Wasn't in the Liberal Democrat manifesto Has never been Liberal Democrat policy Many activists feel very strongly about would be bizarre, baffling, bewildering – and wrong. It would ...
Memorial to William Ewart Gladstone in Edinburgh's Coates Crescent, the work of James Pittendrigh Macgillivray, later the King's Sculptor in Ordinary for Scotland.
When East Midlands MEP Roger Helmer left the Conservatives and joined UKIP he obviously needed a new office in the constituency. So he set himself up at the new Harborough Innovation Centre, which was built with public money. This caused controversy at the time, with some asking how he fitted centre's role of being "a hub for businesses to launch, innovate and grow". Now a reader has alerted me to a report in the Leicester Mercury revealing that Helmer is one of four tenants who have recently left the centre. But quite why he has left, the paper does not ...
Oliver Smedley and others had left the Liberal Party and set up the IEA by the time the Grimond revival had got going properly. The publication of the Unservile State in 1957 was the manifesto of the revival and as is pointed out in the introductary chapter it was the first full scale book on the attitudes and policies of British Liberalism since the 1928 Yellow Book, I was much taken by this passage from Elliot Dodd's chapter: The business of Liberals today is to show by a practical and relevant how Liberty and Welfare can be consistently pursued with ...
In July there was a serious gorse fire on the Stiperstones in Shropshire. Pontesbury Parish brings us up to date with the latest developments: Summer fires can be very damaging to the heathland wildlife, unlike the controlled burning which is carried out in the winter months. Luckily in this instance the underlying peat was wet enough, due to the wet summer, and the fire didn't go into the peat. If the peat had caught fire, as is often the case in the summer, hot spots may have occurred which would have been very difficult to put out, and the fire ...
... mostly involving work of one kind or another, but also involving poorlyness, and some activity from James which I wish I could have been involved in, a new episode of Doctor Who, and me picking up the Who Daily baton again. And tonight Holly returns from Lanzarote, then she goes back to school in a couple of days, and it's also [IMG: [personal profile] ] matgb's natal felicitations (and my brother's too). And there's work and gym and pub quiz and all the usual things. tl;dr: don't expect much bloggage for a bit, but I'll probably turn up a ...
Ed Balls: "High maintenance", "Secretive and domineering", "Overbearing" - say Labour insiders
Today is my day off, so I am back home doing normal things, like attending Kingston Carnival and cooking a roast dinner. Tomorrow the extraordinary begins again. I've had three days at ExCel which have left me exhausted and totally exhilarated. I have never in my life started work before 6am, and I have rarely before been on my feet almost continuously for 12 hours. But it has been amazing. I have had to learn a lot very quickly and have been making decisions on the go as situations change rapidly, hoping that I'm not doing anything stupid. We were ...
I've not heard One Direction's song in the original form, but the Piano Guys' version is great. I love the work of these musicians in using the piano and often the cello (two instruments I've played) in new and interesting ways. Of course there is another version of the song out there at the ...
The proposal to erect two wind turbines at Berry Edge Farm has been rejected by Durham County Council planning officers under a "delegated decision". The reasons cited are: 1 The proposed wind turbines, by reason of scale and siting, would have a harmful impact on the character and appearance of the area in which they would be positioned; and when combined with other turbines in the vicinity lead to a sequentially detrimental cumulative impact upon the character and appearance of landscape currently free of wind turbine development. This is contrary to the objectives of policies GDP1, EN1 and CF8 of ...
This is a response to the article "Sunday trading laws protect the family and civil society. Libertarians should not do away with them." by Thomas Byrne (aka @ByrneToff), which appeared on Conservative Home earlier today. Why do Sunday Trading Laws exist? Thomas offers broadly three strands of argument for why the Sunday Trading Laws exist. The first is historical, cultural and religious, and promulgates this idea that protecting Sundays from work strengthens the family unit. The second is couched in the language of employment rights, and protecting employees from being exploited by large retail outlets insisting they work long weeks. ...
Those happy days, well actually somewhat wincingly surreal days when electoral underperformance flipped over into an invitation to form a coalition, seem so long ago and in the mean time we have bid farewell to our popularity. The outlook is fairly glum for both ourselves and the economy, and so for the lot of the average voter and even worse for the most vulnerable in society. So where from here? Things that we cannot change 1/ The 2010 election came a year early for Labour to get the full blame and so meltdown just as Fianna Fail did in Ireland. ...
I liked it. ( Many spoilers beneath the cut ) Next week is icky Chibeers. But the cast looks good, and, you know, triceratops. SO I shall reserve judgement. Or try to, at least. [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Many of us watched with pride as Mo Farah won his two Gold medals at the London 2012 Olympics, encapsulating the spirit that swept most of the country over two golden weeks, re-invigorating our nation, and this week saw the beautiful Paralympics opening ceremony. Mo and the Paralympians show what a civilised and diverse country we are. London 2012 has shown that this nation is great because it is open, modern, quirky, successful and brilliant, a country ready to embrace the challenges of a changed world head on. Recently, Conservative minister Damian Green said he wants Tories to pass the ...
Wednesday 29th August is the day the church 'celebrates' the beheading of John the Baptist, granted it is a 'lesser festival' nevertheless it is good day to turn our minds to those who abuse power and wealth. No doubt this is the reason Clegg picked today to launch his proposal for wealth taxes. Liberals have for generations challenged the mal distribution of wealth in Britain and put forward schemes to remedy this state of affairs. Most famously of all Elliot Dodds chaired an inquiry into the distribution of property set up by the Liberal Assembly meeting in Buxton in 1937. ...
Everyone knows the name Burt Bacharach. Or at least they should do. Yet does everyone know the name Hal David? To my eternal shame I must admit that I didn't until I read about his death this morning aged 91. Hal David was as American lyricist who was famed for his musical collaborations with Burt Bacharach. David won two Oscars for his work on the soundtrack for the 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - one for best music, and the other for the song Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head. Both awards were shared with Burt Bacharach. ...
The local Post Office Stakeholder Manager recently met with the District Council's Economic Development Officer, to explain the Post Office's plans for modernisation. This paper summarises the key proposed changes. Background The Post Office has a three year modernisation programme which will see up to 6,000 of the network of over 11,500 branches converted to new-style main and local formats. The activity will offer many subpostmasters opportunities to refresh their branches and grow their business. Customers and communities will benefit from longer opening hours in more modern environments. The new main and local formats have already been established in over ...
There's one political party that doesn't pander to corporations, trade unions or other vested interests. Liberal Democrats act in the national interest.
Dundee Travel Active has returned to Blackness Primary School at the start of the new term last week, to work with pupils on travelling actively. Last week saw P7 pupils participating in workshop activities to learn about air pollution and the forthcoming week will see P5 and P6 pupils learning how to use www.dundeetravelinfo.com to create a Personal Journey Plan for journeys on foot, by bike or by public transport. Week commencing 10th September will be Walk to School Week - pupils and their parents are being encouraged to walk to Blackness Primary School this week and there's other activities ...
Back in July I covered the news that the Federal Executive (FE) was cancelling this autumn's elections to the Liberal Democrat Interim Peers Panel. Here is what the FE's report to the Autumn Liberal Democrat Conference in Brighton says on the matter: The Committee came to the decision that given the current passage through Parliament of legislation for an elected House of Lords, we would postpone this year's elections and extend the panels elected in 2008 and 2010. Given recent developments, this matter will be revisited by FE in the near future. Most likely, that will include consideration of changes ...
Today's papers are full of speculation about Nick Clegg's leadership prompted by a handful of party members — inevitably labelled 'senior' — calling on Nick to go, such as Lib Dem peer Lord Smith of Clifton, with Torbay MP Adrian Sanders urging Nick to get better advice to avoid "bumbling along". Here are the three thoughts on the issue which strike me (before I head off to the Olympic stadium for tonight's Paralympic athletics action)... 1) I'm more surprised by how few people are calling for Nick Clegg to go It's not especially surprising there's some discontent among members. The ...
Here's the latest Police newsletter for Gatley – for September 2012. Police newsletter Gatley Sept 2012
Lib Dem councillor for this area, Darren Fower says he's now started action on looking to get the City Council to install a new bus shelter outside The Way Church, on The Green (Werrington). Commenting, Darren said: "We managed to get the Tory controlled city council to put up a nice shelter outside the Community Centre, just up the road, the other year and quite simply, this stop definitely deserves some attention. "The stop is part of the most lucrative route in the city, the Number One Bus, and in this day and age, its not right to expect elderly ...
Now that the dust has settled a little bit on the NHS reforms I have a request. I tried to pay close attention to the detail of what the changes mean as the bill was going through parliament. Lord knows we had enough coverage at the time (although there was often much more heat than light I fear). As far as I can tell the changes are fairly modest and essentially involve more devolution of power to local GP practices and some extension of private providers running NHS services (which was also done by previous administrations). Everything that was free ...
An excellent article today from the Observer's Andrew Rawnsley focusing on the Lib Dems' current electoral (mis)fortunes — do read it in full, but here's the conclusion: By far the most important decision they all made was to sign up to a Conservative austerity strategy they had previously described as madness. The double-dip recession is the single most important explanation for the Lib Dems' dismal standing in the polls. Until there are signs that the economy is recovering, they are denied what was their central justification for going into the coalition with the Tories, which was to address and resolve ...
...otherwise known as the Channel 4 Paralympic coverage theme tune. It's not, obviously, this blog's normal cup of tea (I much prefer a gentle Darjeeling) but it's got stuck in my head as it is played at each ad break - and there have been A LOT of them! So, here are Public Enemy with Harder Than You Think. Andrew
Life can be very peculiar sometimes and so it has turned out once more. I must admit that I have never considered myself a great Max Bygraves fan. It's nothing to do with his era or his genre - indeed, I am as much a fan of 1950s and 1960s music as I am of any other decade. My father's influences have clearly resonated with me throughout the years. Indeed, I can add that his comic hit 'You're a Pink Toothbrush' really grated with me and didn't endear the man to me. Yet despite this, I have happened in recent ...
This is a piece that I posted on Liberal Democrat Voice originally. In recent days, on both sides of the Atlantic, there have been not one, but two expressions of the kind of attitudes on rape you had hoped died with the Dark Ages. First, a US Republican Senate Candidate, Todd Akin, suggested that most women do not become pregnant after being raped as their body can, and I quote, 'shut that whole thing down'. Then Britain's own George Galloway, while offering his opinions on the Julian Assange case, took it upon himself to assert that certain acts of sexual ...
"Politicians" has become a dirty word. However, no state that got along with an element of free participation by at least some of its citizens has ever donw without politicians. Even in the direct democracy of Athens there were political leaders. So those who rubbish politicians as a class must stand for one of these two things: *EITHER some kind of dictatorship *OR much more honest and better-behaved politicians. I do suspect that some of the anti-politician and anti-politics culture is whipped up by right-wing media because the more people distrust politics and politicians, the more they will be happy ...
Last Sunday I described Tony Hatch and Jackie Trent's "Where Are You Now, My Love?" as a "suburban take on Bacharach and David", though using "suburban" has a pejorative term was lazy, given how much I like suburbs. Last night came news that Hal David has died, so here is a Bacharach and David song as a tribute to him. "Walk On By" was first, and most famously, recorded by Dione Warwick - you can see here miming to it here, apparently in an abandoned office furniture showroom. But here are The Stranglers with their own take on the song, ...
Originally posted on LibDemVoice If you Google "Lib Dems say no", this is the result you get. Beyond the recent headlines on new runways you will see that this phrase is widely used in our campaigns. In the same search, click on Images to emphasise the point. One would be forgiven for thinking that this phrase is printed on our membership cards. This phrase is deeply conservative and does nothing to help with our problem of explaining what the Lib Dems stand for, something I recently argued we urgently need to do. At the next election an opportunity to set ...
Today's papers and the blogosphere are full of speculation about whether Nick Clegg will or will not face a leadership challenge from within the Liberal Democrats before the next General Election. This is a predictable topic in the run-up to the party's conference due to be held in Brighton later this month, but the Deputy Prime ...
Why I am no longer a skeptic A fascinating deconstruction. (tags: religion ) The Tom Baker Years « Adventures with the Wife in Space The Invasion of Time rated worst, Seeds of Doom and City of Death best. (tags: doctorwho )
Sun 2nd
10:52
If you're going to suggest that Nick Clegg isn't the answer, you need a plan B ready...
[IMG: Lord Matthew Oakeshott] Following the interventions of Matthew Oakeshott and Trevor Smith, there will be those both inside and outside the Liberal Democrats, who will be looking forward to next month's Federal Conference with an eye to a future. Not necessarily the future, but a future nonetheless. But before anyone gets terribly carried away, there are two key questions that need to be asked and, ideally, answered. What are you changing the Leader for? There are probably two potentially credible reasons for doing so: as an initial step towards abandoning the Coalition and leaving the Conservatives alone to do ...
Over the last few days speeches by leading US Republicans have been scrutinized by the world's media. Paul Ryan's contribution has come in for widespread criticism for its lack of veracity. The Guardian published a piece subtitled A round-up of his most audacious untruths. Even Runner's World has joined the chase. They have been able to find no evidence that Ryan has ever, as he recently claimed, clocked a sub-3 hour marathon. For runners that would be worth checking because going sub-3 hours would make him a really top class club runner. Records suggest he has only run one marathon ...
Well thank goodness for the interweb, otherewise I would not know who Lord Smith of Clifton is. Of course, the fact that I have not heard of him does not make his views on Nick Clegg's leadership any less valid, but it does help that when commenting on the electability of a party leader, that one has at least been elected to something oneself at some stage in one's career. This is precisely the point made by Adrian Sanders MP, who rightly believes that Nick Clegg needs to re-engage with the party. Admittedly, 'bumbling along' is not helpful language, but ...
In 2009, Kosso and I petitioned Twitter to allow us to search for Tweets by their "in reply to" ID. The idea was that developers could created a properly threaded view of conversations. Of course, Twitter being ultra-responsive to developers, did absolutely nothing. Skip three years into the future, and App.net is providing all the API goodness that Twitter doesn't. This means that we can easily create new ways to view conversations. So that is exactly what I've done. You can play with HyperThread yourself at http://shkspr.mobi/hyper/. This is a hypertree visualisation of a simple conversation. The centre node is ...
Total Recall (12A)Director : Len Wiseman Website : Total Recall This remake of the 1990 Arnold Schwarznegger/Paul Verhoeven sci-fi juggernaut places all the action back on earth as I sit through another visit to Philip K. Dick's short story 'We Can Remember it for You Wholesale'. This time it's Colin Farrell who takes the lead as Douglas Quaid, the everyman who discovers he's more than just a factory worker after a visit to Rekall for some implanted dreams. Unfortunately for this movie, the 'dream within a dream' motif has recently been far more successfully used in Inception where the dream ...
This email from Julian Heather and his colleagues in Streatham Liberal Democrats has lots of great features that other local parties could usefully emulate: The email is one of a regular series – there are all sorts of ways to make emails more effective; all of them fail if you're not actually sending out emails more regularly than there are leap years. It advertises an event which helps get people involved in the party – and one which also gives people a chance to productively debate policy. That is important given how easy it is to be so busy doing ...
The council is offering free cycling training for adults, contact cycleinstructor.
The death of Hal David was announced yesterday. He was 91 and had suffered a stroke in March and died of subsequent complications. Together with Burt Bacharach, he was responsible for a huge canon of great songs - sung by great singers. Dionne Warwick, Dusty Springfield, Perry Como, Gene Pitney, The Carpenters amongst many, many others all had hits with Bacharach and David songs. One of their biggest songs - Dionne Warwick's Walk On By - has featured on this blog previously here. For this post, I've chosen Deacon Blue with "I'll Never Fall in Love Again". This was the ...
I'm delighted to advise that the West End Sports and Heritage Association (WESHA) has just launched its new website at www.wesha.org - and it is a really professional site, designed and hosted by Dundee web designers MTC Media. As WESHA's Secretary, I'd like to thank all colleagues who contributed to the site's content and, in particular, Daryl McKenzie, Community Sport Hubs Officer, at Leisure & Culture Dundee, whose hard work and enthusiasm in this project and in generally supporting WESHA and Dundee's other sports hubs is greatly appreciated. WESHA is doing great work in promoting sport and improving sporting facilities ...
... and secondly, Taylor Dayne from 1988 - "Tell It To My Heart":
