A BBC documentary from 2004. Those with an interest in lost (and found) television programmes will enjoy Wiped News.
Welcome to my 801st post. To celebrate this momentous milestone, how about the UK's 801st No. 1 single, courtesy of one Robbie Williams: With thanks to this site for doing the Maths on UK singles. Andrew
This year saw a long parade of journalists, politicians and celebrities give evidence to the Leveson inquiry seeming to reveal the press as little more than immoral parasites capable of pretty much anything in pursuit of a story, from bugging phones, burglary and using bent coppers Recently we learn that senior police officers conspired with the press or at least used them to denigrate the victims of Hillsborough, next up Jimmy Saville, abusing the trust placed in him by the public. In both cases it would appear that police and society place greater emphasis on the status and position when ...
[IMG: List of Flocktogether events on the Lib Dem Voice website] A bit thank you to Lib Dem Voice for showing the latest Flock Together events on their blog. And a big thank you to Ryan Cullen for making it possible. It's the first use of the new JSON feed I referred to in the last blog post.
Sometimes you can sit within the safety of your home and watch something on TV that shakes you to the core. So it was with me today as it must have been with so many of you who watched the procession take place to the church in the village of Machynlleth in tribute to April Jones. The saying 'It takes a village to raise a child' had never seemed more relevant. The phrase 'It takes a village to raise a child' means that everybody comes together to nourish and care for a child in the village. It means looking out ...
(Warning: this post contains obscure details about internal elections in the Liberal Democrats. Normal People might find it incredibly boring). I'm going to put together a raft of questions to ask the candidates for both of these elections, since I'm not standing myself. I'm going to contact each candidate directly, and (if they answer) publish the answers on here; I'll publish the list of questions as I send them. I have some ideas for questions, but I reckon to make this as valuable an exercise as possible I'd better crowdsource some of them too, in case I miss anything important. ...
Welcome to a belated Saturday Six - a Sunday Six, if you will. Let's crack on... The Blog That Peter Wrote takes issue with the New Statesman carrying an advert for a "Gay Cure" charity - and their apology. Lib Dem Voice's Mark Pack has details of the Institute for Fiscal Studies' analysis of the new Tuition Fees system. Jimmy Savile and the varying abuse allegations against him have been in the news this week. I thought piece in The Mirror was very interesting. Julian Huppert MP has authored this excellent piece on the Draft Data Communications Bill. One of ...
1. Running away from Michael Crick rarely works. 2. Running away from Michael Crick whilst he has a camera crew in tow even more rarely works. 3. Running away from Michael Crick into the wrong room and then having to turn around and walk back past the camera even more rarely works. 4. Running away from Michael Crick into a wrong room for the second time takes the odds of success into the realms of the never never. 5. But if you are going to do that, remember not to turn round at the end and give a short answer ...
My unsolicited advice to Willie Rennie is quoted (anonymously, damn him) in the Herald by its "Chief Scottish Political Correspondent". I wonder if that is because mentioning the name of my blog would suggest to his readers that I am not central to rows in the Scottish Liberal Democrats? Still, Calder is a good Scots name and I am very proud of my Scottish ancestry.
The Conservatives have dropped their "A-list" which helped elect more women and Black and Asian MPs, according to the Independent. While the scheme was only ever intended to be a short term measure it is ...
Consett's roundabout art project has made it onto the BBC's website. Colin Rose, the artist, was very busy talking to people on Saturday, and we should soon get the feed-back from people who left it. Not everyone's in favour, of course, but there was generally a positive reaction and at least the BBC article proves a point – Consett is being talked about for something positive. You can see their article here – but remember, you read about it on this site first!
There is an interesting piece in the Financial Times from a few days ago outlining how Government plans to deliver the most ambitious expansion of nuclear power in Europe have gone a little awry. The plan, which was set out by the then Energy Secretary, Ed Miliband in 2009 was to build up to 12 new reactors on 10 sites stretching from Somerset to Cumbria. The idea was that by the late 2020s about 30 per cent of Britain's electricity would come from nuclear power. That would be an increase from the present level of 18 per cent. However, the ...
I founded a child abuse charity that received massive publicity and was married to a senior BBC executive, so there was nothing I could do.
Rule #1 of elections is you can't win if you're not on the ballot paper. So I've done my usual small sigh of relief on receiving confirmation that my nomination for the Federal Policy Committee has been safely accepted. Ballot papers get sent out to all voting conference representatives on 15th October (one of the reasons why it's a good idea for local parties to elect a full slate of conference reps even if not all of them are able to go to conference). If you'd like to find out more about why I'm standing, do take a look at ...
Sunday: We have the lists of who has been nominated for the Federal Elections 2012, and to start with congratulations to Mr Tim Farron for being returned to the Party Presidency unopposed. There are SIXTY confirmed (and maybe three more) people standing for the Federal Policy Committee, including a number of people I admire and think would be good. And one of them is me, Richard Flowers. So am I vain or insane to want to do this? I hope neither. What I want to do, the main contributions I hope I could make, are to start with a little ...
Every couple of years the Lib Dems hold internal elections in which conference representatives choose members of key party committees. As one of the seemingly few Lib Dems neither standing for election nor with a vote, I thought our readers might like an update on where we're at... Federal Executive What does it do? The formal answer: 'The Federal Executive is an elected committee responsible for directing, co-ordinating and implementing the work of the Federal Party.' (From the party website.) The informal answer: What does the Federal Executive do? by Alison Goldsworthy Who's standing? There are 36 candidates (26 men, ...
The news: Tories expected to announceCampaign Managers to be employed in 40 target and 40 must keep seats #cpc12 — norman smith (@BBCNormanS) October 7, 2012 The number of Liberal Democrat seats the Conservatives will target is most often talked about as being around 10. In some of those 10 that will mean a very, very tough fight for Liberal Democrat colleagues. Taking a step back and looking at the Parliamentary Party overall, it's good news though – because it means quite a few MPs won't be facing a full-on campaign from an opponent throwing everything at it to win. ...
Having explored sorrow and joy in the aftermath of the last general election, maybe it is time to tackle disillusionment? And this is the best song about disillusionment that I know, from one of the best albums I know.
Saturday: From Russia With Love (1963)Staring Mr Sean Connery as Ian Fleming's James Bond The One With: The fight on the Orient Express (fighting fish!) Beautiful direction from Terence Young, some lovely clean establishing shots such as the introduction to Istanbul with a view of the Blue Mosque, and beautiful sweeping John Barry soundtrack, especially his pounding Orient Express theme and of course the "alternate" Bond theme "007", carry us away on an Oriental Mystery Tour. What a lot of people say is that "From Russia With Love" is a great spy film, but not that great a Bond film. ...
The Annual General meeting of the Odd Down Community Association will be held at the Odd Down Youth & Community Centre in Odin's Road at 7.30pm on Friday, 9th November 2012. It is hoped the meeting will include information about the planned developments of a cycle track and sporting facilities on the Odd Down Playing fields. Please let any resident of Odd Down community know they will be
The European Union is a subject which excites politicians and commentators more than it does voters. While the Conservative party regularly has civil wars on the issue, and UKIP enjoys growing support, I have found the issue is very rarely raised on the doorstep, and it is a fact that turnout at European elections is often very low and results depend on national factors rather than European policy. However this is not to say that the topic is anything but important. The EU's fortunes are a vital part of our nation's fate - our biggest trading partner and creator of ...
After the moving and amazing presentation and big "thank you" to the Lib Dems from Citizens UK on the Sunday morning of conference, for ending the detention of children of asylum seekers, what could possibly follow it? The next day the newly formed "Liberal Democrats for Seekers of Sanctuary", along with Citizens UK, met in a nearby Church Hall. Those who had been, and were going through, the asylum process in the UK and were connected with both Citizens UK and Movement for Justice had come down to tell their stories. There to listen were members of the House of ...
Meols Ward Lib Dem Councillors John Dodd, David Rimmer and Nigel Ashton are holding their next monthly advice centre on Saturday 13th October, from 11 am to 12 noon at St John's Primary School, Rufford Road, Crossens. We will be there to meet you and discuss any Council problems you may have. No appointment necessary. Just pop in. We hold our advice centre every month (except August) on the second Saturday of the month at St John's School.
Southport residents have been urged to nominate their favourite park for the prestigious Green Flag People's Choice Award. The People's Choice Award is an annual online vote that gives the public the power to decide which one of the 1,424 parks flying the Green Flag Award should be named the site of the year. You can vote for Botanic Gardens to receive the People's Choice Award here The Green Flag award scheme recognises and rewards the best green spaces in the country. In 2012, a record number of awards were made with 1,424 parks and green spaces currently flying a ...
We have had notice from the council that First is changing the timetables for 14/14a and the 17. Please look at timetables. The good news is also the 14 is due to get real time information shortly
Everyone loves a good public consultation. Administrations especially love them as it gives the impression that they are listening to people and giving residents real influence. That doesn't mean everything should be hoofed into the slow lane of public consultations of course. They can be expensive, delay decision making and often get little response. Every body loves a good consultation, the
A new report on the Guardian website says: Kicking off the Conservative party conference in Birmingham, the prime minister said rises in regulated rail fares and London bus and tube tickets would be capped at the RPI rate of inflation plus 1%, rather than the RPI plus 3% formula that had been set out in the 2010 spending review.Commenting on this decision, the Liberal Democrat transport minister Norman Baker said: "My Liberal Democrat colleagues and I have been making the case for a fair deal for passengers and I'm delighted that the two parties have come together on this. "We ...
A number of Lib Dem blog posts (and some from a former Lib Dem) in the last couple of weeks have been discussing the state of blogging in general and Lib Dem blogging in particular. They seem to have been sparked initially by Stephen Tall's remarks during his Blog of the Year Award speech at conference where he highlighted how there are now fewer Lib Dem blogs registered on the aggregator than in previous years. There have been questions about whether those awards themselves need to be revamped and also general debate about the quality of what is being written ...
We all knew the stories about Jimmy Savile, but I was only the editor of a national newspaper so what could I do?
Even if it doesn't make me feel terrible comfortable. I presume Obama has sent the weekend 'rehearsing' (Hat tip to @HelenLewis who tweeted it) Anyway, cheer yourself up again by looking at the inspiration for the cartoon...
Sun 7th
10:50
Paddy on the Akond of Swat and his son Walli (added video) and why withdrawal doesn't work
In many ways the Liberal Democrat conference felt more at peace with itself last week. It was not just that it was rediscovering its mission-talking seriously about enhancing liberty through redistribution of assets -Land tax and employee ownership- but rather that it was doing these things in the context of asserting its identity with far more confidence that it has in recent times. One thing was missing-the rest of the world! I can't ever remember a time when Liberal have believed that the international dimension was not central to our thinking and policy making. This detachment from the international dimension ...
Welcome to the latest in our occasional series highlighting interesting findings from academic research. Today – a little study from New Zealand about how even an uninformative photo helps convince people about the truth of a statement. The British Psychological Society's blog has details: When we're making a snap judgement about a fact, the mere presence of an accompanying photograph makes us more likely to think it's true, even when the photo doesn't provide any evidence one way or the other... Ninety-two students in New Zealand and a further 48 in Canada looked at dozens of "true or alive statements" ...
[IMG: Conservative Party logo] Trouble ahead on tax as Osborne opposes a mansion tax: We are not going to have a mansion tax, or a new tax that is a percentage value of people's properties. Before you rush to spot the loophole in that – what about adding extra higher bands to Council Tax? – he opposed that too. Given Osborne made much of his reputation as was by opposing changes to inheritance tax, perhaps it is on capital gains tax that there will be room fro an agreement with the Liberal Democrats. We've often called for taxes on income ...
Beating the Odds — How We got 25% Women Speakers for JSConf EU 2012 (tags: ) A guy in my psychology class said he thought orientation could possibly be a choice; - A guy in my psychology class said he thought orientation could possibly be a choice; ... interesting argument ensued. (tags: ) Occupy Sesame Street Worth reading just for the tweet from Big Bird. (tags: ) "That's sexism against fathers!" | Mothers For Women's Lib (tags: ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
I've been reading over David Lammy's comments in recent days about children from fatherless backgrounds and how it leads to crime. Here and Here As always, my notes on the subject are quite telling, including the word "bollocks" written quite clearly next to one paragraph. I'm from a single parent background, my father embezzled a large sum of money from the rest of my family as well as from my sister's and my bank accounts before fleeing to the west country leaving our family in massive debt and even spending a week without electricity. I was about 8 years old. ...
We took our daughter Mattie to Brixton Market for the first time yesterday. I've heard that parents are signing up their young children for "multi-sensory" classes, but an hour or so in the heart Brixton strikes me as quite sufficient. As is often the case on Saturday, there was a steel drum band playing near ...
Enough to fill the stage at the Gala, perhaps? Anyone who's seen some of the recent performances by young people in Consett will know that there is no shortage of talent here, so perhaps some of our young men will fancy auditioning for a production of West Side Story which is to take place at the Gala Theatre next February. Gala Theatre Stage School (GTSS) is searching for males aged between 14 and 23-years-old to star in its forthcoming production of West Side Story. Auditions will take place at Gala Theatre on Saturday, 13 October from 10am, with recalls on ...
This is a link to a story about further protests in Slovakia. It is now clear that this issue involves at least 89 children in at least 40 families. That, however, is only in the Slovak republic. We are working with some other governments, but they have not taken a public view on this. There are also other countries whose citizens are pressing for their governments to support them. This is
It's the end of the road for Cilla and Arty. The couple, Cilla Fisher and Arty Trezise, have been delighting young audiences for 30 years as The Singing Kettle. Cilla Fisher is Scottish folk aristocracy, the younger sister of the late Ray Fisher and her brother Archie stalwarts of the folk revival in the 60's. For me Cilla has one of the finest voices in the genre. Here is her amazing version of brother Archie's desperately sad song the Final Trawl. Now some one else will have "to tell the driver Mr McIvor to start the train to Glasgow". On ...
Tomorrow Lord Carey will be giving a speech at the Conservative Party Conference in which he will decry the evils of marriage equality. He will be citing examples from around the world as to the horrors that have been unleashed (such as mothers and fathers being referred to as parents in official documents, oh the humanity!) once marriage equality is brought in. But he will use one example that is rather curious. 'We can be sure any move away from our traditional understanding of marriage is to put our society on a slippery slope where the unintended consequences could be ...
With the Dundee school holidays now taking place, my usual surgeries across the West End do not take place over the next 2 weeks. I can, however, be contacted at any time on Dundee459378 or by e-mail at esurgery@frasermacpherson.org.uk
Friends of Balgay hold their AGM on Saturday 20th October at 2pm in the Mills Observatory - all welcome! Following the AGM formalities, there will be a slide-illustrated talk by Ron Scrimgeour on the history of Dundee's weaving trade entitled "The Wark o' the Weavers" - to be followed by discussion and refreshments.
Costa Del Crime; Do we really want it back? For many years, British criminals sunned themselves on the Costa Del Crime, cocking a snoop at the inability of our criminal justice system to touch them.. European criminals could also travel to Britain, to commit robberies, burglaries and other crimes here, secure in the knowledge that we didn't have their fingerprints, photographs or DNA, and they could return to Europe to spend their ill-gotten gains. Other European criminals could come here to avoid capture in their own countries. . Over the last fifteen years, we have pushed, cajoled and persuaded our ...
Sat in my room, watching YouTube, catching up what I've missed in my subscription box. Then came across a wave of that sort of inexplicable sadness. A few tears came down my face as I became upset. I managed to do what I had planned when I do cry – smile. But ultimately it was
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. May I give a special welcome to the new readers that we have this week. We've got quite a number of new readers this week and I hope you find this a useful service. To start with this week there are a number of significant planning matters. 1. Toton A planning application has now been submitted by Peverill Homes to build 775 homes, offices and a hotel on land to the north of Toton, diagonally ...
