At the Launceston Town Council planning meeting tonight, they had both the TRAC project and Morrisons on the agenda. On TRAC it seems that the western application (the stretch from New Mills to Egloskerry) will shortly be withdrawn for re-submission to take account of an updated environmental study and to correct a small error in the current application. As it is about to be withdrawn, the committee did not vote on it but I sensed that there was strong support for the view that the trail should not be built in a way that would compromise the future extension of ...
TRING BREWERY TOUR in support of Iain Rennie Grove Hospices. Some unsold tickets will be available at the door (Guaranteed entry if you turn up so come along). FRIDAY 12th 7.00 pm Tickets £20 include fish and chip supper and free introductory drink. Come along for an interesting, entertaining evening in a good cause.
I've got several posts planned for the next few days — a post about Shada for the Mindless Ones, a review of the new Faction Paradox collection and a post about the album Surf's Up. But right now I'm working on some ideas for short stories for something I've been asked to submit to which ...
Damian Carrington has joined the ranks of Guardian journalists, which includes John Harris and Nick Cohen, who cite the growing number of British food banks as 'evidence' that there are people in the UK who cannot afford enough to eat. I object to this line of reasoning, simply as a matter of logic. If I ...
Danescroft, the new owners of the Queen Edith pub, are proposing a new mixed development comprising flats and a community pub. What do you think? Here is a leaflet outlining their proposals, shown here with their consent. You may receive a printed copy if you live near the site.
The New Statesman's fair-minded political editor Rafael Behr has written a post-conference post mortem for each of the three parties here. Noting how Tory chief whip Andrew Mitchell's outburst against police 'plebs' hijacked the news agenda, reviving the 'nasty party' jibes ("Many Lib Dems didn't seem to mind their demotion down the news agenda and revelled in the Tories' discomfort") here's what he has to say of the Lib Dem outlook from the vantage of Brighton: Lib Dems miss the moral high ground Nick Clegg's strategists talk about "resilience" as the quality that voters will come to admire in the ...
Potentially the first in a series called: Debi Watches Arrow So You Don't Have To, because when I heard there was going to be a TV series called Arrow based on Green Arrow, I knew I was going to have to watch it, but my friends were all "don't do this to yourself, Debi, you're a canon purist, you'll hate it, and at the very least, don't make us watch a show about a rich white man having manpain!" No, really, that's how it happens. But I knew I was going to watch it anyway, and I promised many people ...
We know our leader is passionate about ending the stigma associated with mental health problems and in making sure people have access to decent treatment. He understands the issues involved and it's an issue he talks about a lot. Poor mental health was a subject nobody every discussed openly. It was pretty much taboo, especially in politics. Nick has made a point on making mental health one of his key priorities in Government, improving the lives of everyone who suffers, not just the half million extra people who have accessed the talking therapies he found extra money for. On World ...
Carl's ( answers are below the cut ) You can find links to all the other candidates' answers here [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
How can a 14 year old girl be shot when the only thing that she did 'wrong' is to campaign for basic human rights? Malala Yousafzai campaigned and blogged for girls to be able to go to school in her town of Swat Valley after the Taliban banned all girls attending school there. Education is a basic right and as a feminist and young female blogger ,like Malala, I am appalled. I go to school every day, unless I am ill or at conference, and I must admit that sometimes I dread my hours in the classroom but without education ...
David Cameron seems, like so may British fantasists, to be obsessed with the idea of Britain remaining a world leader. In his speech to the Tory conference yesterday he warned us that without lots of "striving ( a new buzz-word)... Britain may not be in the future what it was in the past." In the past we were, among other things "The country that beat the Nazis." I grant that the number of lives lost on the Allied side in the Second World War is not a completely accurate measure of the contribution made to the defeat of Naziism, but ...
During a recent holiday I read The Australian. Cue: H.M.Bateman-style cartoon: "The Guardian reader who read The Australian". Anyway, one episode, which I enjoyed through the pages of that organ, was J.Gillard's press conference stymying The Australian's attack on her past legal history. The girl from Barry certainly knows how to kick proverbial posterior when the occasion rises. She has done extraordinarily well to keep her government afloat on a wafer thin majority, thanks ("but no thanks"?) to the support of all sorts of odd-bods including the "Three Amigos", aka the "Mad Hatters". Of course, Australia is a wonderful country ...
A week Saturday (20 October) is the next London Liberal Democrat conference, organised once again by the excellent Jill Fraser and colleagues: We have an interesting agenda including speeches by Mike Tuffrey, Caroline Pidgeon and Tom Brake. There'll be a Q and A session with Euro Candidates and an introduction to a new group called BUILD which aims to help you reach out to diverse communities. The Regional AGM will also take place after lunch. You can book online here and you can encourage others you know to come by sharing the Facebook event. Speaking of books (see what I ...
Via Popbitch (ahem), I stumbled across this post, Is The Economist left or right?, in which the newspaper's digital editor Tom Standage answers the question thusly: The Economist is not inherently left-wing or right-wing; its political philosophy is rooted in 19th-century Classical Liberalism of the John Stuart Mill variety. Essentially we are fans of Free Markets (The Economist was founded to oppose the Corn Laws) and individual choice. So we favour, for example, a small state and the abolition of agricultural subsidies (right-wing fiscally liberal positions); but we also support gay marriage and the legalisation of drugs (left-wing socially liberal ...
Paula's answers are ( below the cut ) You can find links to all the other candidates' answers here [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
"The Liberal Democrats exist to build and safeguard a fair, free and open society, in which we seek to balance the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community, and in which no one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity. We champion the freedom, dignity and well-being of individuals, we acknowledge and respect their right to freedom of conscience and their right to develop their talents to the full. "We recognise that the independence of individuals is safeguarded by their personal ownership of property, but that the market alone does not distribute wealth or income fairly" Two extracts from ...
Two new planning application has been received within Holyrood as detailed below:- Application number: 55614 Type of application: Full Date Registered: 09/10/2012 Location: 361A Bury Old Road, Prestwich, Manchester, M25 1PY Proposal: Change of use of first floor flat (Class C3) to storage area and staff room ancillary to ground floor shop (Class A1) and training facilities (Class D1) Application number: 55686 Type of application: Full Date Registered: 03/10/2012 15:45:22 Location: 470 Bury Old Road, Prestwich, Manchester, M25 1NL Proposal: Variation of condition no.4 following grant of planning permission 54591 for change of opening hours from 6am – 11am Monday ...
Lib Dems have gone remarkably quiet about Europe, whilst the Conservative Euro-sceptic agenda gains ground, certainly within its party conference, and probably within its party at large. Euro-scepticism flourishes in large swathes of the UK media. This swing of opinion is fuelled by the perspective that the Eurozone economy is in dire trouble, that the Euro might not survive, and that the UK was very sensible to have kept out of it. We are told all this every night on Newsnight. Gillian Tett wrote recently in the FT, that her father was correct in dismissing the Euro project as unworkable ...
Wednesday: As you might know by now, I am standing for election to the Party's Federal Policy Committee, but this isn't just about me, it's also about what you want from your FPC and your Party policy generally. Standing for election should be about answering a lot of your questions about me and what I would do on the FPC. So I'm very pleased to say that Jennie Rigg has put together a list of decent challenging questions for every candidate to answer that will hopefully give you more idea of what we stand for and what we all might ...
Lib Dem Voice polled our members-only forum before conference to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. More than 550 party members have responded, and we're publishing the full results. Four-in-five say Coalition will be bad for Lib Dem prospects in 2015 LDV asked: Do you think the Coalition Government will be good or bad for the Lib Dems' electoral prospects at the next general election? (Comparison in brackets with August's figures.) 6% (-3%) – Good 79% (+2%) – Bad 11% (n/c) – Neither good nor bad 4% ...
The UK risks losing out on more than €900 million of EU funding intended to support the construction of carbon capture and storage demonstration projects. Ministers have until the end of the month to give guarantees to the European Commission ... Continue reading →
Thu 11th
15:35
Badger 'blood all over the countryside' can be averted says Queen guitarist Brian May as he takes fi...
Legendary Queen guitarist and animal welfare campaigner, Dr Brian May, was in Brussels today to continue his campaign against the proposed badgers culls in the region and met with regional MEPs Julie Girling and Sir Graham Watson. He also held meetings with other UK MEPs as well as with agriculture and environment officials from the European Commission. Dr May, who launched his Team Badger
Do you use Twitter Tools on your blog to autopost your new posts, or to show a daily record of all your tweets? Did is suddenly stop working yesterday? Unfortunately twitter removed the end points which the plugin spoke to. They did announce this would be happening over a year ago, and have since even released a new version of their API. Whilst you are waiting for an official fix, you can make this small change to the plugin code to sort it now. In WordPress admin go to Plugins, Editor, select Twitter Tools from the drop down. In the ...
On Monday night I went to the LSE to attend an absolutely fascinating event. It was the launch of a new book (in every major European language) entitled FOR EUROPE: A Manifesto for a Post-National and Federal Europe. The authors and speakers at the event were Daniel Cohn-Bendit MEP, Co-Chair of the Greens/European Free Alliance in the European Parliament and a former Parisian student leader, and Guy Verhofstadt MEP, a Thatcherite and former Prime Minister of Belgium. It'd be impossible for me to recount the full detail of what they said but I will say that, coming as they did ...
Putting more Bobbies on the Beat (click article to enlarge)
Regular readers of this blog will know how passionately I feel about protecting the environment and seeking energy solutions that support renewable energy. Earlier this year I went to the launch of the Greater Manchester Energy Plan with Ed Davey, which focuses ... Continue reading →
I have copied the following from the blog of my colleagues in Meols Ward. It reports on the outcome of today's Cabinet meeting held in Bootle. "Reject Library Closures" - Nigel Ashton tells Sefton Cabinet Cllr Nigel Ashton has spoken at a meeting of Sefton Council's Labour-run Cabinet to explain why Churchtown Library should be kept open. He also asked the Cabinet to reject all library closures. Cllr Ashton was speaking on behalf of the Churchtown residents who signed a petition against the proposed closure of Churchtown Library. Library campaigners Cllr David Rimmer and Jo Barton with some of the ...
This is a resolution that I have tabled to the next meeting of the City Council. It has been written for me by the research department of the TUC. At our recent conference we roundly condemned the conept fo regional ... Continue reading →
Don't get me wrong. I agree with every word Julia Gillard said in this barnstorming take down of Tony Abbott in the Australian Parliament. He has expressed some alarmingly misogynistic views and she is quite right to take him apart over it. There's no argument there. No my problem is her motivation for what she did. For she is defending a second politician - Peter Slipper - who has expressed similarly distasteful remarks, as well as allegedly homophobic ones; these views can be found here and despite Ms Gillards speech (and the fact that she won the debate) he resigned ...
Cllr Nigel Ashton has spoken at a meeting of Sefton Council's Labour-run Cabinet to explain why Churchtown Library should be kept open. He also asked the Cabinet to reject all library closures. Cllr Ashton was speaking on behalf of the Churchtown residents who signed a petition against the proposed closure of Churchtown Library. Library campaigners Cllr David Rimmer and Jo Barton with some of the petition forms Here is what Nigel Ashton told the Sefton Cabinet meeting: "Thank you Chair. I'm grateful for the opportunity to address Cabinet today on behalf of the Churchtown Library petitioners. "The petition reads 'We ...
It would be good if Scots 16 and 17 year olds get a chance to vote in the referendum on Scottish independence. I've supported the case for votes@16 for many years. If a precedent is set in such an important vote in Scotland then surely the right must be extended to all other parts of ...
An American tourist decides she's going to visit all the great cathedrals of England. She starts at St Paul's, takes the tour and is very impressed by the architecture. While wandering round the nave, she notices in a corner a golden payphone with a sign on it:Direct Line to God: Ten Thousand pounds per minute. Insert credit card hereShe finds a clergyperson and asks if it's for real. The clergyperson replies that yes, it's definitely for real, and sorry it's so expensive. She travels around many cathedrals (you can make this joke go on forever with names of cathedrals) and ...
If you haven't heard, former Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies has got a new children's show starting on the BBC soon – Wizards vs Aliens. The Guardian have seen the first episode at a press screening, and their review is very positive, and the sort of thing that makes me wish I was 10 again. (The comments on that article also make me wish I was 10, and too young to waste time doing stupid things like read the comments on an article. There's a nostalgic element to reading some of them, in that they're like Doctor Who forums ...
As the distinction in much of the news media between straight reporting and comment becomes increasingly less clear, and in-depth analysis is replaced by instant comment, reliable, neutral and well-informed analysis of big policy issues becomes more difficult to lay one's hands on. That is even more true when it comes to Parliamentary business. Unbeknown to many outside the Parliamentary Estate (or at least to me until fairly recently!) are the documents produced by the Commons and Lords libraries. All the documents produced are available to browse here. When the controversial Justice and Security Bill had its second reading in ...
[IMG: Lynne, Cllrs Richard Wilson and David Schmitz and activist Viv Ross outside Hornsey sorting office] Lynne Featherstone MP and local Liberal Democrat Councillors met with Royal Mail officials today, in response to the organisation's plans to close and relocate local sorting offices. The Liberal Democrat MP for Hornsey and Wood argued strongly against current reorganisation plans, which would make it harder for residents to collect their parcels and registered post. The MP also pushed for local collection points to be retained in the N8 area, and across the borough. The plans, which affect 25,293 addresses, include the closure of ...
Duncan's ( answers are below the cut ) You can find links to all the other candidates' answers here [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
One of the great things about publicly blogging for the last 5 years, is that I can remind myself of what I was doing this time last year. Or several years ago. The Terence Eden of October 2009 was a busy chap! 22 blog posts! What a guy :-) One post which caught my eye recently, was asking "What are the browser statistics for 10 Downing Street?" Here was their answer @edent Top are: IE7 22%, IE8 20%, IE6 12%, Firefox3.5.3 9%, FF3.5.2 7%, FF3.0.14 5%, FF3.0.13 4%, Safari 4.0.3 4%, Chrome 2.0.172.43 2% [IMG: flattr this!]
Nigel's answers are ( below the cut ) You can find links to all the other candidates' answers here [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
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 ...
David's ( answers are below the cut ) You can find links to all the other candidates' answers here [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
New research, released last week, finds that visitor satisfaction in St Albans district is high and there is substantial potential for growth of the local visitor economy. The research indicates that in 2010, £107 million was spent by visitors to the district, supporting an estimated 2,580 jobs. Visitor numbers and spend remained stable despite a nationwide 3% real terms decline in the tourism economy between 2007 and 2009. Visitor surveys conducted in the district in August 2012 looked at who visits the district, why they visit and what they do when they get here. It found that 40% of visitors ...
In May 2010, this party stood on the threshold of power for the first time in more than a decade. We knew then that it was not just the ordinary duties of office that we were assuming. We were entering into Government at a grave moment in the modern history of Britain. At a time when people felt uncertainty, even fear. Here was the challenge: To make an insolvent nation solvent again. To set our country back on the path to prosperity that all can share in. To bring home our troops from danger while keeping our citizens safe from ...
It has been a long time since I posted or blogged anything - but inspired (ish) by the party conference season, I wrote this for Lib Dem Voice. I was quite interested to see that it received about 30 comments in the first 24 hours, mostly from Lib Dems soul searching about whether they're of the left, right or the centre. Positioning on the political spectrum is always a little futile - of course vision, values and persuading the electorate to your position matters too. But I do think it's a big problem for the Lib Dems - and one ...
David Cameron went to a posh school and wants everyone to go to a similar school. Yesterday the theme of his speech may have been aspiration and there is nothing wrong with that, but does he really expect anyone to believe that all schools will become like Eton. I can't believe it, I don't think most people would believe it, in fact I don't even think David's audience believed him. The local comprehensive does not have Eton's facilities and never will. I suppose David is right and aspiration is always possible but when does this simply become not the politics ...
It really ticks me of when I see big businesses flouting reasonably regulations. One such local business is the JD Wetherspoon chain pub The Fox on the Hill. It licence is very specific about what is acceptable behaviour and what isn't. Taking noisy deliveries before 9am isn't. But again, today, they has deliveries before 7am. Which also means it was breaching another rule that the car park shouldn't be left open overnight or before 7am. Which probably means the quarterly meetings I helped arrange originally have stopped happening – another condition of their licence. I'll find out. Hopefully it wont ...
Liberal Democrats in the Budget Committee of the European Parliament voted against a proposed 6.85% increase in the EU 2013 budget yesterday. George Lyon, MEP for Scotland and Vice President of the Budget Committee, said: There is still much uncertainty over the Commission's estimates on what it needs in 2013 to pay the bills from Member States. The prudent approach at a time when there is huge pressure on public spending across Europe and people are under serious financial strain is to aim for a budget freeze if possible. Once the bills from Member States are in, if there is ...
Caroline Davey: Why Bother With Facts on Welfare When Fiction Is So Convenient? (tags: ) This week's Jesus and Mo The barmaid is the best character even when she doesn't appear. (tags: ) FactCheck: Has Cameron hit the million mark? | The FactCheck Blog (tags: ) Scott DesJarlais, Pro-Life Republican Congressman And Doctor, Pressured Mistress Patient To Get Abortion (tags: ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Morale can't be too high in the police service and raising morale must be a priority for those who are standing for election as Police and Crime Commissioners. The police are facing significant cuts despite the major party in the coalition being the 'party of law and order' and add to that at least one member of that party who thinks the police are plebs. It also doesn't help morale when officers are murdered. Add to that the Hillsborough effect. The errors of judgement by some senior officers followed by an extensive cover-up must have tarnished the reputation of all ...
Writing in the Financial Times, liberal leader in the European Parliament Guy Verhofstadt and his colleague and fellow contributor to this new book Daniel Cohn-Bendit (leader of the Greens) set out their vision for the future of the EU after the Eurozone crisis: The crisis has shown up the key weaknesses in economic governance at EU level where a monetary policy was introduced without a parallel fiscal policy. Unlike other global currencies such as the dollar or yen, the euro depends on 17 different economic strategies and bond markets, no common treasury, no common debt issuance and no common banking ...
The childishly simplistic maxim, 'Thou shalt not intitate force or fraud against the property or person of another' lies at the heart of libertarianism, and by proxy much of ideological climate scepticism. It is a credo that appeals to those who believe that the moral consequences of the exercise of power can be coherently divided ...
Ros and I were talking to our local Church of England priest, the Reverend Barbara Gallagher (we're very up to date here in Creeting St Peter), after the Harvest Festival service over tea and chocolate cake, when she noted that there was a possibility that our benefice (St Mary the Virgin, Earl Stonham, St Mary's, Creeting St Mary and us) might need to be extended to include some, or all, of the churches at Coddenham, Stonham Aspal, and Gosbeck. Now, whilst that would mean that available priests would be better distributed amongst the churches, that may mean that each church ...
Lord Forsyth was on Today about giving 16 and 17 year olds the vote in the Scottish referendum. There should be some sort of law to prevent him appearing on radio so early. He's against it because people will realise what a good idea it is and those kill-joys in Westminster won't be able to stop all this joy spreading. That's it basically. [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
>Lib Dem Voice polled our members-only forum before conference to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. More than 550 party members have responded, and we're publishing the full results. Miliband slips from -20% to -48% (but note the caveats below) LDV asked: Do you think Ed Miliband is doing well or badly as leader of the Labour party? (Comparison with August's results in brackets.) 1% (-1%) – Very well 22% (-14%) – Well Total well = 23% (-15%) 50% (+4%) – Badly 21% (+9%) – Very badly ...
I love QR codes. I'm unashamed about that. I've helped business and charities use them effectively. I think QR codes are doing pretty well thank-you-very-much. Yet, for some reason, those little black and white squares are really divisive. Some people seem to hate them with an irrational and burning passion. Perhaps it's because QR codes are free to generate – so there's not huge profit in them. Perhaps because they only require black ink, they're ridiculously cheap to print – unlike, say, NFC. Perhaps it's just because QR codes weren't created by hipsters in skinny jeans, working out of an ...
I signed up for another marathon. Eugene, here I come. I'm a little relieved to be off the fence that I was sitting on deciding about whether or not to sign up, but also a little appalled with myself. Work is so crazy and insane right now (my co-worker left, so now I am doing the work that the two of us used to split between us and will be for the next year) that I'm already starting to wonder how I'm ever going to find time to train. So far this week, I have managed two 2-mile runs. Clearly ...
Yesterday morning, after visits to two constituents on housing issues, I had a site visit to Tait's Lane - see right - to discuss residents' concerns about the speed of some vehicles in this very narrow street and the need for a reduced speed limit. Following this, I have raised the issues with the City Development Department of Dundee City Council. Thereafter, I took part in a walkabout round the Pentland area along with officers from various council departments, Tayside Fire and Rescue and a ward colleague. We highlighted a number of issues across the Pentland area - repairs required ...
Since the Welsh Assembly secured full law making powers in 2011, we have passed just two bills and both look like being challenged by the UK Government. I am beginning to fear for my own private members bill, which was sent to the Presiding Officer on Monday to determine whether it falls within the Assembly's competence to determine. Does the Secretary of State for Wales have a problem with us legislating to regulate Park Homes? The Supreme Court is meeting as I write to consider the UK Government's challenge to the rather esoteric Local Government By-Laws Bill. They object to ...
It looks like it's the first time I have checked my DW messages in about 6 months, from all the important and interesting stuff that was in there... If you've sent me a DW message and I haven't replied to it, that's because I don't check my DW messages very often. I read comments pretty much as soon as they are posted, because they get emailed to me. I read emails constantly. I check my @replies on twitter several times a day. Any other method of reaching me might take... uh... a little bit of time. Sorry. Good job I ...
The report into child sexual exploitation in Rochdale makes sobering reading. Delays in getting to grips with the issues and a lack of coordination between agencies failed a number of children who were being exploited. A number of recommendations have been made to improve matters, and it is essential that these are fully acted upon. It is also vital that we do not see the Rochdale case as an isolated incident. It is clear that there are other areas where children may be at risk, and the findings of the Rochdale investigation should inform all of those agencies involved in ...
