Paralympics GB finished yesterday with more silver medals than Beijing and the same number of bronzes. With 25 golds, only 2 more yesterday, so far they are 17 down on what they achieved then, but within striking distance of the Olympians. Today was to be no exception in continuing the Gold Rush though meaning more Royal Mail stamps. First up down at Weymouth there wasn't enough wind to be able to compete in the medal races, however it didn't prevent GB's first ever medals in Paralympic sailing and one of those was gold. Helena Lucas may have been the only ...
On the ALDES - Association of Liberal Democrat Engineers and Scientists - site Ed Long interviews Ed Davey, the Lib Dem State for Energy and Climate Change. Will relaxing the planning rules on extensions boost the economy? Paul Walter on Liberal Burblings answers his own question: "Unequivocally, No. Having had detailed experience of the process for several years while on the Town Council, extensions normally get waved through unless they are seriously out of keeping with the street scene, or represent gargantuan over-development." Edinburgh Eye claims that Grant Shapps, the new chairman of the Conservative Party, is a "spam spiv". ...
Earlier this evening, I had the pleasure of attending the inaugural Annual General Meeting of the Friends of Riverside Nature Park, that took place at the Dundee Botanic Garden - see right. I was last to arrive as I have my weekly Blackness Primary School ward surgery at 6.15pm every Thursday, so it was really good to find that, on arrival, there was only one seat left, given the excellent turnout! A committee of eight was elected to move the Friends' group forward. There's much enthusiasm amongst all who attended tonight and there's no doubt this new Friends' group in ...
Following the relaying of the new pavement along Church Road, Gatley, residents contacted us with concern over two missing bins – at the junctions with Oakwood Avenue and Elm Road. We chased it up and and we're glad to see that both bins have now been replaced.
The Lib Dem team have been working on the project to improve Cheadle village centre over the next couple of years – following improvements to Gatley on Church Road and (work soon to start) Gatley Green. The starting point is to ask people in Cheadle – residents, traders, visitors, workers – what are the problems that need fixing. That consultation is set to start in October. Once we know what the problems are (and which are the ones lots of people are concerned about), Council officers can draw up proposals for fixing them and we'll come back to consult on ...
Today Warwickshire beat Worcestershire by an innings to win cricket's county championship with a match to spare. Warwickshire are captained by Jim Troughton who (I can reveal in my Trivial Fact of the Day) is the grandson of Patrick Troughton, the second Doctor Who.
From the last planning meeting on 29th August Referring to the Minutes of the previous meeting, the Development Managerreported that the Planning Inspectorate had not agreed to the enforcement notice appeals being held in abeyance. On the basis that they were still proceeding, statements of case i.e. documentation required prior to a public local inquiry, neededto be provided by 20th September.
The leading crime novelists Mark Billingham and Martyn Waites are speaking at Leicester Central Library in Bishop Street on Monday 24 September (6.30-8.00 p.m.) Details of how to get tickets (£2 library members, £3 others) are on the Leicester City Council website.
I attended the Social Liberal Forum (SLF) conference in July this year, and was delighted to be offered to opportunity to interview Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Ed Davey. Ed had earlier addressed the conference with a speech on Economics for Future Generations in which he described climate change as 'the biggest economic externality in the history of humankind'. He also stressed the importance of the coalition government's Green Deal in improving energy efficiency in the UK and expressed a desire to see a move towards the founding of community energy mutual organisations to devolve decisions about ...
Some are arguing that the debate about Heathrow's third runway is just a London issue. Nothing could be further from the truth. Decisions on aviation policy will have a profound effect on whether Manchester Airport can continue to help ... Continue reading →
What is Community Leadership Fund? A: "The purpose of the Community Leadership Fund (CLF) is to enable elected members to seek support for projects that will have a positive impact on communities within their wards. This may relate to projects across the whole city and is not limited to amenities within particular wards, providing councillors are satisfied that communities within their own wards will have the opportunity to benefit." (Source) It seems after several disagreements amongst councillors elsewhere in the city, the Tory controlled City Council has decided that the "common sense" should be used by elected members after the ...
The first proper reshuffle for our party since the 1920s was always going to be a weird situation. I am extremely sad to see Sarah Teather, Nick Harvey, Paul Burstow and Andrew Stunell leave the government. Sarah's work on the Pupil Premium will leave an outstanding legacy for the next generation, Andrew's work on releasing empty homes to meet the needs of those in desperate circumstances will make the difference to thousands of people and Nick Harvey's tenacity in ensuring that a like for like replacement for Trident is kicked off into the long grass has been a quite immense ...
Thu 6th
17:57
I don't get all the Lib Dem hate for David Laws. Do we not believe in second chances in this party?
David Laws returned on Monday. Cue a curious response but not from the usual suspects – from those within the Lib Dems – certainly those on the ground as it were. Apparently many Lib Dems don't feel the need – nor have any want – to defend the Yeovil MP. Things were once different. Laws was a shining light in the party. Someone with foresight and genuine insight into banking. Most people agree across the political spectrum that Laws is a smart man. A really smart man. Someone who would be Nick Clegg's right-hand man in the coalition. Someone who ...
This morning I was interviewed by Radio Cambridgeshire about parking problems in our area. This interview took place in Greenlands, a small street very near Addenbrooke's Hospital that suffers particularly acutely.Youtube clip of BBC Radio Cambridgeshire interview 6th September
Do we have to be so macho? The UK's attitude to computer education needs a reboot - This. Oh so much this. Bill Clinton: The Great Communicator on Top Form - Spectator Blogs- Excellent analysis of Slick Willie's continuing appeal from Alex Massie The blogpost I was pretty much going to write myself on why Nick Harvey should not have been knighted - Stephen Tall saved me the job! I can't imagine how much time this must have taken... - Cast of Mad Men "sing" Rick Astley
It's been a few hours now since I first saw the headline in Alan Cochrane's column in the Telegraph today. "Wee Nippy's role may signal big changes in strategy". I wondered who Wee Nippy was. Could it be some cartoon character in a forthcoming film or something? But no. Cochrane is referring to our Deputy First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, whose new role in Government is to sort all the independence related matters out, to agree the process with the UK Govenrment, to pilot the legislation for the independence referendum through Parliament. Now, it has to be said, that the second ...
It's difficult to know where to start in appraising David Cameron's cabinet reshuffle. It was like one of those cheaply made horror films that are so bad it's hard not to laugh them. Not only was it full of rather nasty surprises, its essential pattern of promoting the most unsuitable and incapable personnel to the most important jobs suggested an experiment far more daring, but with equally far-reaching ramifications, as that tried by Dr Frankenstein. There were so many dreadful appointments that it is impossible to choose one that stands out as the most inept. Certainly sending the discredited Jeremy ...
Reblogged from Traditional Catholics in Scouting: Gilwell Reunion is a chance for all adult volunteers in The Scout Association to come together and learn more about the opportunities in Scouting, to make and renew friendships, and to share new experiences. All are welcome to come to the events in the Roman Catholic Chapel: Friday Rosary ...
Thu 6th
15:43
The Equality and Human Rights Commission - Issan Ghazni writes letter to Lynne Featherstone
Lynne Featherstone MP Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Equalities Government Equalities Office 9th Floor Eland House Bressenden Place London SW1E 5DU 3 August 2012 Dear Lynne, I write to you as the lead Minister for the Equality and Human ... Continue reading →
Reshuffles are necessary, even if they largely amount to political theatre. Few outside the Westminster bubble pay much attention, and they rarely herald wholesale policy shifts, but they are a key weapon in a Prime Minister's arsenal in terms of placating backbenchers and stamping some authority on an administration. The most effective political operators of modern times used reshuffles masterfully; Margaret Thatcher cleared her Cabinet of 'wets' in 1981, instigating the most radical period of her administration. So, how did Cameron's first major reshuffle go? The key outcome is the failed attempt to shift Iain Duncan Smith to the Justice ...
I always try to check and reference primary sources when I blog or tweet, because I like making sure my facts are correct. I have had to bin a blog post more than once when it's turned out the numbers and figures are not exactly as I thought. WordPress allows me to see who has clicked on links, and although it is depressing to see how few people follow up my sources, I do hope that people would call me out if I cited something wrong. And a recent example illustrates exactly why I do this, specifically a Twitter image ...
Every week, Liberal Democrat Secretary of State for Scotland Michael Moore writes a column for newspapers in his Borders constituency. Here's the latest edition. Paralympics The fantastic display of sport and athleticism we saw in the Olympics last month is now being displayed all the more in the London 2012 Paralympics, with an astonishing haul of medals from Paralympics GB. Sadly however for the Borders, Kate Murray was unsuccessful last week in her medal bid in the archery but she has said that she aims to represent her country again in Rio in four years' time. As local MP, I ...
Here are the Liberal Democrat entries in the top 100 political blogs as ranked by EBuzzing (Wikio as was). The hokey cokey team of Richard Morris, Nic Prigg and Mark Thompson, who all dropped out last month, are back this month. Also out this month are Michael Carchrie Campbell, Jock Coats, Pink Dog, Mark Valladares and Alex Marsh. (As I've mentioned them before: both Neil Monnery and David Allen Green are now in the listings, starting well outside the top 100. I'd expect both to climb quickly. In my experience of contacting EBuzzing about blogs which are either missing or ...
Welcome to another experiment with our 'in discussion' style blog posts, which today features myself and the CentreForum's Tim Leunig looking at Sunday opening. Mark: In the recent debate about Sunday opening hours, many people were doubtful that longer opening hours would boost the economy, making comments such as "Would you really buy more things if all the shops were open on Sunday? Or would you buy the same amount of total stuff and just not buy it on one of the other days of the week?" There are other angles to the debate too, but specifically on the economic ...
In his recent report to constituents, Zac Goldsmith commented on the new school proposed for Kingston, saying... I arranged for Kingston Councillors and education officers to meet to (sic) Sam Freedman, the Secretary of State for Education's Senior Policy Advisor, to discuss alternative funding mechanisms for a much-needed new secondary school, including the free school option, which the Council has now selected as its preferred route. Following this meeting, I organised and chaired a public meeting to discuss the free school option. A clear majority of residents who attended the meeting were receptive to the idea, and a further meeting ...
Time to put my blogging where my mouth is about today's announcements: For more details of the announcements, see the official news release – which includes: New legislation for Government guarantees of up to £40 billion worth of major infrastructure projects and up to £10 billion of new homes. The Infrastructure (Financial Assistance) Bill will include guaranteeing the debt of Housing Associations and private sector developers. Up to 15,000 affordable homes and bring 5,000 empty homes back into use using new capital funding of £300m and the infrastructure guarantee. An additional 5,000 homes built for rent at market rates in ...
The Slovak Republic has recently expressed concern that children in England who are children of Slovak Citizens have been adopted "without relevant reasons". This page on the Slovak Justice Ministry website gives the official position. This page on the TV station JOJ gives details of some of their reports about this. These are other stories in the Slovak media: http://www.sme.sk/c/6501407/
As a 'thank you' for all his hard work the Liberal MP for Southport presented his agent with a handsomely engraved silver salver. I was John Pugh M.P.'s agent when he first won Southport but sadly it was not me who got given the 120 ounce silver salver. The MP was another John, J M Astbury KC, who fought and won the seat in 1906 and his agent was the legendary A. Keith Durham. Now I must make clear I do not hold a grudge against John Pugh for failing to give me such a lavish gift. When I fought ...
D66 the left Liberal Party from the Netherlands is being tipped to enter government. With the recovery of the Labour Party the possibility of a 'purple coalition' is growing. That was the coalition that ran the government between 1994 and 2002 and has always been seen as D66's preferred option. The coalition would consist of D66, the Labour Party and the right wing Liberals VVD. The election is on the 12th September Earlier this year D66 put out a statement on their position which can be found in full here and their website is here Forward Now Towards a prosperous, ...
People living in the Island Road have asked frequently about the big empty building at number 24 and 26. It's been boarded up and vacant for quite some time now and apart from potentially providing a dumping ground, it makes the road look bad. Anyway, we've followed up on this recently and the owners, South Liverpool Housing, tell us they have plans to turn it into four homes. With any luck they may be on site doing work later this Autumn. My colleague Richard has written to people living near the building to give them a bit of an update ...
In an open letter published today the Sovereign Grand Master of the Royal Black Institution there is an apology to the parishioners of St., Patricks on Donegall Street, North Belfast. "Through its stand for the Reformed Christian Faith, the Royal Black Institution has doctrinal differences with the Roman Catholic Church but we want to make it absolutely clear that the anger of the Royal Black Institution is not directed at St Patrick's Church. We apologise for any offence to the clergy and parishioners of St Patrick's Church. "We have always had good lines of communication with the Roman Catholic Church ...
On the 16th of August 1819 a peaceful rally at St Peter's Fields, Manchester, of 60,000 pro-democracy campaigners men, women and children was attacked by armed cavalry resulting in 15 deaths and over 600 injuries. Peterloo is such a significant part ... Continue reading →
I just want to quickly add my voice to that of Stephen Tall, who has said that Liberal Democrats should not accept honours for departing ministers. However sad I might be to see Nick Harvey, Paul Burstow, Sarah Teather and Andrew Stunell leave government, there's something unpleasant about that sort of political patronage. Honours are there for exceptional performance, not routine stuff. Our Nick Harvey is in line for a knighthood and Stunell and Burstow get made Privy Councillors. I can cope with the latter a bit better as there is an advisory role where their experience might be helpful. ...
Westminster City Council is trialling smart parking sensors. You place sensors that note disturbances to the earths magnetic fields under the highway in the centre of the parking spot. These sensors report back whether a vehicle is parked above it and the information is then presented online. In some US systems parking is then priced based on demand, always keeping a few spaces free – but for a price... Some sensors come with very long life batteries and communicate by radio making installation very easy. Combined with mobile parking payments, controlling parking and focusing warden resources has become much easier. ...
The Dark Knight Rises « OK, I admit it, it *was* this bad. (tags: films ) How Long Will Your Digital Storage Media Last? | Agogified The answer may not be reassuring. (tags: ) Ax murderer's pardon stirs fears of war Getting worse. (Says @SabineICG, and she's right.) (tags: azerbaijan Armenia ) When the lights go out | drlj On being with the dying. (tags: death )
I hate airports. Far too much of my life has been wasted in them. I especially hate Heathrow. It is a truly awful place to get to and spend time in; a choking, noisy, gridlocked example of unplanned, unfettered airborne and urban sprawl. It has outlived any pretension of social usefulness. A rise in aircraft movements by a third or more means unmitigated misery for millions. There is much to sympathise with in the macho-green conference motion, proclaiming a pox on all your runways and terminals. But such is the inexorable rise in international business that, if Britain is to ...
Interview: Ubisoft On DRM, Piracy And PC Games | Rock, Paper, Shotgun (tags: ) Why people sometimes get shirty when approached by strangers in public (tags: ) DOCTOR WHO: Daleks versus Predator As usual, Millennium does the best Who reviews. As usual, it's very long, but very worth reading. (tags: ) Health check for Britain's biggest snake at Chester Zoo Snakes are cool (tags: ) New Statesman - GQ's men of the year covers - spot the odd one out One of these things is not like the others... (tags: ) Tomorrow's rock 'n' roll | Technology | guardian.co.uk (tags: ...
I report on progress dealing with parking and transport issues in Sutton North on my local ward blog here.
So, I stayed up bashing my head against a brick wall all last night! PHP's string functions aren't (yet) UTF-8 aware. This is a replacement for subtr_replace which should work on UTF-8 Strings: function utf8_substr_replace($original, $replacement, $position, $length){ $startString = mb_substr($original, 0, $position, "UTF-8"); $endString = mb_substr($original, $position + $length, mb_strlen($original), "UTF-8"); $out = $startString . $replacement . $endString; return $out;}Take this typical string from App.net » Hello @bob how are you?According to App.net's entities, @bob occurs at position 9 and has length of 3. Normally, we would just use substr_replace. However, PHP will count any unicode character like "»" ...
Compared to many a previous government reshuffle, this week's went at a pretty standard rate. It felt, however, slower. Slower because our speeded up news cycle and appetite for instant updates, fed above all by Twitter, means that spreading out a series of announcements over several hours feels slow and bitty. You don't have to go very far back in time for a reshuffle that takes a good part of the day still to feel quick to most as it would all be heard about in one wrap-up report in the evening news, a further one in the next day's ...
A consequence of the reshuffles north and south of the border is that the two ministers responsible for delivering same sex marriage has changed. You may remember my fit of pique the other day at the precious equalities portfolio being handed to the Tories. It's like giving someone a cashmere jumper when you know they'll use it as a blanket for the dog. In moulting season. I have not calmed down in any sense since then. We don't know what Helen Grant, the new equalities minister makes of the idea of equal marriage, but we know that she was part ...
Thu 6th
08:57
The Independent View: How David Laws can help children and the economy at the same time
When David Laws arrived as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, he famously found a note from his predecessor telling him 'there's no money left'. With the IFS warning child poverty levels have reached a turning point and will shoot upwards again, we have to hope that any handover note left for him this time is more optimistic, particularly on improving opportunities for poor children. As Minister for Schools, David Laws will oversee the development of the party's flagship policy to tackle child poverty, the Pupil Premium, which Sarah Teather lists as one of her main achievements in her time as ...
I am literally spluttering over my cornflakes listening to Nick Clegg defending what appears to be a decision to move to a free-for-all for developers, leaving local communities without contributions to local infrastructure and handing over powers on affordable housing in particular over to the private sector. This is quite simply stupid, primarily as it removes all incentives for affordable housing to be built. Moreover, it's the wrong solution to the wrong problem. The problem with land given consent for development does not lie with the planning system. It lies with the uncontrolled greed of landowners whose plot increases exponentially ...
I have had my fill of traumatic reshuffles this week. The last thing my tired and emotional self needed as I headed home after a wonderfully relaxing meal out with friends was to see on Twitter rumours that my least favourite driver on the Formula 1 grid was apparently headed to one of my favourite teams. Frankly, I'd rather welcome Nadine Dorries into the Liberal Democrats than see Lewis Hamilton go to Ross Brawn's Mercedes. This might just be Eddie Jordan messing with our heads, but he's been right about this kind of stuff before. It's probably time that Lewis ...
So, as many of you will know, I tracked every piece of press speculation since May on the reshuffle - kindly plugged by Andrew Sparrow in The Guardian on Monday - and now... the results are in. So how did the pundits do? Between them, did they predict every position? Nope Here is the new Cabinet. It only includes members of the full cabinet, not folk 'attending only'. Green indicates someone, somewhere since May predicted the name in the role correctly Red indicates that no one predicted the name in the role.... Prime Minister David CameronDeputy PM Nick CleggChancellor George ...
Politicians, particularly from the right, are fond of claiming that this, that or the other aspect of British society is "The best in the world and the envy of the world" when it patently isn't, as our justice system or parliamentary system, to give but two examples, amply demonstrate. The one thing that clearly is the best in the world and the envy of the world is the BBC, so what do they do? Weaken the main organisation to favour a predatory Murdoch, and emasculate the World Service with its world-wide reputation for integrity for which most other international broadcasters, ...
Reshuffle days are always a bit tense and there were so many rumours flying about on Monday night and Tuesday early morning about where I was going that someone said to me that I had (according to the rumour mills) been linked with almost every department. Fortunately, I was summoned relatively early in the morning on Tuesday to the Deputy Prime Minister's office. He told me that changes had to be made and that meant, clearly, that some colleagues would have to step aside. So I steeled myself for bad news. 'But you are not one of them'. What you ...
Unequivocally, No. Having had detailed experience of the process for several years while on the Town Council, extensions normally get waved through unless they are seriously out of keeping with the street scene, or represent gargantuan over-development. I believe the LGA have confirmed this. It is simply naive or disingenuous to pretend this will make a ha'peth of difference to the economy. As the LGA has said, there is a massive backlog of extensions which have been given permission already, but which the owners have not bothered to build yet (perhaps because they need money to do so). [IMG: Post ...
If you live in the Shire Way, Rodford Way or Abbotswood area please don't forget to vote today to choose who represents you on South Glos Council. This is very important - there are some critical decisions coming up like youth funding, and the future of the Rodford School and Wapley Court sites. Vote for Tony Davis - your local campaigner.
Residents have complained to me that the walkway that runs from Tait's Lane to Peddie Street is rather overgrown and needs a tidy - see right. I have requested that the City Council takes action to cut back bushes here and tidy the path.
The Welsh Government has announced the Welsh Government's Counsel General, Theodore Huckle QC is to undertake a "whistle-stop" visit to Australia and New Zealand this week to 'investigate in a packed programme how Wales might learn from their recent experience in clarifying and simplifying complex legislation.' I am sure this will be a very useful trip. Maybe he will be able to advise the Welsh Government on his return how to get legislation on the statute book in the first place.
The Department for Transport is running a consultation on Southeastern services ahead of the new franchise being put in place for trains in south east London and Kent. These services are currently operated by Southeastern railways and they want to hear your viws on how you think services could be improved. © Copyright Mike Quinn and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence. There is a map available on the Southeastern website which shows all the train routes they currently offer if you wanted to see which services they cover. You can respond to the consultation directly or ...
Jeremy Hunt should have been referred to the ministerial commissioner. It is an absolute disgrace that he wasn't. It is a further disgrace that he has been rewarded with one of the largest ministries, Health. Straw one. Straw two. David Laws perhaps deserved a few years counting paper clips somewhere in the bowels of Whitehall. But not attending cabinet. That is wrong. But the fact that the party leadership seems to think that Lib Dem bloggers will defend this by repeating the disingenuous line that "the taxpayer didn't lose it out" is utterly disgraceful. But the final straw has just ...
With so many election geeks or is it nerds in the room both as RO and ROAs as well as voters what could possibly go wrong in the elections to the Equal Marriage NI Executive?
With the dust settled on the cabinet reshuffle it is clear that the 'refreshed' cabinet makes two policy changes more likely. Firstly, the Tories are in the process of u-turning on a third Heathrow runway and the moving of Justine Greening makes this much easier. The sacking of Lib Dem Nick Harvey - leaving defence a Tory only department - will surely mean stopping a replacement for trident becomes almost impossible. What these two policy issues show, however, is a fundamental failing in the way the coalition operates. In normal circumstances the Lib Dems would surely be campaigning on these ...
