The Director General of the BBC George Entwistle has resigned after only 54 days in the job. He committed the Hari Kiri step too late for the evening news, so many of us switched over to the BBC News channel and missed the start of the Festival of Remembrance. You'd have thought that the DG would have tried harder to have his resignation statement carried live during the news on his stations own main channel. His crime was being in charge when Newsnight hinted at but did not name, nor display a list of names, anyone in a story that ...
Participation in representative democratic processes at local level is on the wane. Not just in Britain but in several other western democracies. There is plenty of cause to reflect on why that might be, and what might be done about it. How can more local people become engaged in decision making about their area? Without change it is easy to envisage - without getting too apocalyptic about it – local government facing a crisis of legitimacy at some point in the not too distant future. Equally importantly, local government is facing unprecedented challenges. Citizens need to understand the dilemmas and ...
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. May I begin by apologising that there was no newsletter last week, but unfortunately I was ill and not up to writing anything. Normal service is hopefully resumed today. 1. Italian and Opera Evening Amore's Italian Restaurant, on Station Road, Beeston will host an Italian and Opera Evening in aid of the Mayor's charities, the Royal British Legion and the ...
It really seems very peculiar indeed that scandalous behaviour by a national figure and child abuse in childrens' homes has metamorphosed into a story about the BBC. George Entwhistle has been sucked under a whirlpool of inquiries and apologies after seven weeks in the job. OK, the BBC is hopeless at crisis management, is over-defensive and Newsnight made some basic errors, not helped by higher management. But actually Newsnight has not abused a single child. [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
For many years Ripon was the most northerly point on Britain's inland waterway system. The Ripon Canal takes you to the River Ure, and from there you can navigate via the South Yorkshire waterways to the Trent and the Midland canals. In truth, this status was purely theoretical for much of the canal's history. According to Wikipedia, the Ripon Canal was impassable by 1906, officially abandoned in 1956 and not fully restored until 1996. In 2002 Ripon lost its status, as the Lancaster Canal, which had long been isolated from the main system, was reconnected by the connection of the ...
Alright, I admit, I really hadn't seen that coming. Yes, I had rather hoped that writing a manifesto that not only referred to the body I was running to be a member of, but explained what I had already done, would impress voters, but I wasn't confident. It would, in retrospect, have been reasonable to be an optimist. So, ninety-two first preferences, second only to that doyenne of internationalists, Jonathan Fryer, was pretty good, and although Gordon Lishman and Ruth Coleman-Taylor overtook me (and there's no shame in finishing behind them either), I was still elected fourth of the eight ...
Here are some as spoiler-free things as I could manage things about Looper, which I saw last night: 1. It is easily the best time travel story line I have ever seen. Really top notch science fiction. And Bruce Willis' character hits my competence fetish hard. 2. Is it also the manliest man move that ever manned. Seriously MAN THINGS. All the incidental characters are men, it only just passes the first Bechdel standard, not even coming close to having the female characters on screen together. Oh, and while the plot is in indeed fantastic, the theme (and when did ...
The results of the biennial Liberal Democrat elections for the party (as represented by Conference representatives, for federal party committees were revealed today. The full results, for connoisseurs of the Single Transferable Vote (the best voting system there is) are at I'm pleased to say that I was re-elected to the Federal Policy Committee, and rejoined the Federal Conference Committee after I stood down in 2008. I enjoyed a better vote on FPC than last time, when I was elected with fewer first preference votes than any other successful candidate. I was very pleased with my vote on the ...
As far as I'm aware there is only one meeting at Blyth Town Council this week Full Council will meet at The Briardale Centre, Blyth on Thursday 15 November 2012 at 6.30pm. This is the last full council of the (calendar ) year
Note from the county council The East of England Permit Scheme will come into legal effect from Monday 5 November. From this date, anyone wishing to carry out works on the county's highways must obtain a permit from the county council. The main purpose for the introduction of a scheme is to minimise disruption from unnecessary or badly controlled road works. There are many additional expected benefits to be achieved through more effective control of road works, which include: - improving journey times and reliability for all our road users - reducing the congestion caused by road works - improving ...
There is a strange phenomenon happening. The latest vacant positions in high publicm office are being filled by old etonians. For instance, after the Mitchell plebgate debacle, Cameron appointed a safe Etonian. And low and behold its happened again. The steady hand of Rowan Willaims comes to an end and a new Archbishop of Canterbury is appointed. Guess what? It's an Etonian. Staggering. This bloke has been in the church only 20 years and has been a bishop for only one year. A former oil executive to boot. I see a pattern forming. If you have the right school tie ...
Last week was the first, so this week is the, er..., second. Nice to see an evolution in the style, with an informal photo, a donate link and even the chance to take action. An evolution, though more to do I suspect as it comes over as a bit disparate to me – rather than the different possible actions adding up to one overall coherent push towards getting people to do the one thing that is top of the priority list. Hopefully more to promote the emails online and more to encourage people to sign up to them will also ...
From Sheena Wellington: Friends of Wighton proudly announce that fiddle, guitar and percussion enthusiasts will have a chance to listen to - and learn from - three of Scotland's finest musicians on Saturday 17th November. The fabulous trio of Gavin Marwick, Jonny Hardie and Davy Cattanach are the guests at the Cappuccino Concert in the Wighton Heritage Centre (10.30am for 11am - tickets £5 to include coffee). In the afternoon, from 2pm to 3pm, there will be workshops, within Dundee Central Library, from Gavin on fiddle, Jonny on guitar and Davy with various kinds of percussion. Workshops will be suitable ...
Last night, I was one of the guests of Royal Mail Group at the Evening Telegraph Hero Awards 2012. It was a superb night at which many local people are recognised for all they have done for our local community. The Tele deserves much congratulation for running this annual event and it was great to see those awarded being recognised. It was particularly poignant when the award to the late Liam Tasker and Theo was announced. There was also excellent entertainment, including the hugely talented Gleadhraich and the Youth Music Theatre Scotland. We are lucky to have a strong local ...
Even amongst political anoraks, European affairs experts are the rarest of rare beasts. I was in two minds as to whether to attend a "members' meeting" (as we must now call them) to hear from the ten Liberal Democrat candidates for South East region for the European Parliamentary Elections in 2014. In the event I was glad I went, if only to do justice to ten extraordinarily well qualified candidates, all bristling with knowledge of and passion for getting things done with Europe. After taking notes and carefully considering the pros and cons of each candidate, as well as the ...
Across Stockport Borough – at Council car parks and on-road parking – you can now pay to park cashlessly. No need to remember your change or go to the Pay & Display machine, no need to display a ticket. If you want to extend your stay, there's no need to return to the car and it doesn't cost a penny more. If you've got an iPhone or an Android smartphone (e.g. Samsung, HTC) the quickest and easiest way to park is to download the free app from RingGo. Here's how to get started. 1. Sign up on the website Note: ...
Two good results (from my perspective!) today. First, in Liberal Democrats news I was elected to the Federal Policy Committee, being the fifth person elected in the count after Chris Rennard, Evan Harris, Duncan Brack and Lucy Care. Second, in Unlock Democracy news – what got christened the "Carrigan-Pack" motion at its AGM to improve its internal election rules generated quite a lively debate, both over procedure and principle. However, the votes were won by a comfortable margin: 50-16 on the vote that required a simple majority and 55-15 on the vote that required a two-thirds majority. Thank you one ...
Lib Dem Voice polled our members-only forum recently to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 550 party members have responded, and we're publishing the full results. LDV asked: How would you rate the performances of the following leading Liberal Democrats and government ministers? This was the second post-reshuffle survey of what members think of the new Lib Dem ministerial team conducted almost two months after most took up new posts. A technical glitch meant respondents did not have the usual two options for registering dissatisfaction ('Quite ...
At 7.53pm Martin Horwood 5th November (Lib Dem Cheltenham) spoke in the Government's Growth and Infrastructure Bill Column 663. Below is his thoughts on Osborne's daft suggestion on employees being asked to swap their employment rights for the illusion of ownership Then we come to the extraordinary clause 23. I proposed a policy on employee ownership and workplace democracy to this year's Liberal Democrat conference. I would strongly commend the contents of that and its many recommendations to Government, including the option to bid for employee ownership at the time of transfer of an undertaking, which we believe could result ...
Following on from yesterday's poem, I wanted to say something slightly more political on the subject of the vehicles of war - weapons. Britain has long had a manufacturing base and, though this has been dwindling in recent decades much to the detriment of our country, has a long history of arms manufacture and export. Whilst I strongly adhere to the principle of guns don't kill people, people do (no endorsement of any particular rap-stars intended, but just to say that the responsibility for crimes lies with the agent, and not with the vehicle for fulfilling the agent's intention) it ...
Well, I'm truly gobsmacked! Along with all other candidates for the Federal Committees, I received an email yesterday evening from the Returning Officer telling me that the results would be published on the party website at 9am today. I was pretty sure that I wouldn't get on. There were so many good candidates who were better known than I am. So, it was an enormous surprise to find that I had, in fact, been elected. I am truly grateful to everyone who voted for me. I really want to play my part in getting this party ready to fight the ...
I stood in an election recently. It was for the Lib Dems Federal Policy Committee. I lost. The elections use Single Transferable Vote and I was in the bottom quarter of candidates in terms of first preferences. I was eliminated fairly early on during the count. I make no complaints. It was my first time in an internal election like this and I have learnt some useful stuff that will hopefully mean I have a better shot next time. One person who did not lose in the FPC election however was Prateek Buch. He was elected from the 63 candidates ...
In discussion on twitter today, someone Not Like Me* praised me for trying to understand their position. I am having a rather mixed set of reactions to it. Obviously gratitude (it's nice to be praised) and faint smugness (yes, I AM awesome) but also a large dollop of confusedness (it was described as a rare thing to do) and quite a lot of sadness (why is it rare? Surely everyone reasonable tries to understand other people?). I suspect this plugs into my fondness for debate, and my dad having drummed scientific method into me. How can you debate something with ...
This little presentation from the Office of National Statistics has the answer. It's packed full of interesting information, presented in a very clear manner: * Mark Pack has written 101 Ways To Win An Election and produces a monthly newsletter about the Liberal Democrats.
Every week the Liberal Democrat MEP for South West England, Sir Graham Watson, sends out an email newsletter to constituents and other interested subscribers telling them what he has been doing over the previous seven days. It's deliberately short and written in accessible language, making it lively and user-friendly. Today, at a lunchtime fringe at ...
The results from the Liberal Democrat federal internal elections came out this morning, and you can see the results here (for a list of who was elected) and here (for the full voting breakdown). Various people on blogs (see Jennie and Andy, for example) and Twitter have been discussing the results and the way we run elections before and after the results were declared, and I wanted to jot down some thoughts I've had before I forget. How many party members read Lib Dem blogs? And how many of those are voting reps? There was a lot of discussion about ...
Recent revelations, uncovered secrets and large-scale reviews has seen the BBC get wuite some stick, most of it deserved. I say most, because Auntie Beeb is still made up of the same creatures as the rest of society – fallible humans. We, as a society, have been swept up on a crest of an openess wave in the last few years. Despite the many things wrong in the current govt, one of the many good things is their move towards transparency. Before yosu squeal how wrong I am, I accept that most of it is down to errors, mishaps and ...
Sat 10th
13:30
Lib Dem internal elections results: results breakdown, with candidates ranked in order
This morning saw the announcement by the Lib Dems of who had won election to its federal committees for the next two years. These are a pretty crucial 24 months, as they'll take us to within six months of the next general election, during which time the policies that feature in the party's manifesto will be largely determined. These are all the committees which will govern the party in the second half of the Coalition Government. For reasons I don't understand, the party doesn't publish the breakdown of these internal election results. But thankfully Colin Rosenstiel, a Lib Dem councillor ...
Sat 10th
12:30
Nick's second 'Letter from the Leader': featuring PMQs, Leveson Inquiry & tax-cuts for the low-p...
Nick Clegg's second letter to members and supporters has hit my inbox... This week's email focuses on two issues. First, the impending Leveson Report into what form of media (self-)regulation will be needed to ensure newspapers don't continue to abuse their power in the way that was exposed so forensically during Sir Brian's inquiry. And secondly, on re-inforcing the Lib Dems' number one achievement from the Coalition: raising the income tax threshold so that millions of the lowest paid in society have more money in their pockets. It's only been one week and this email already has the distinction of ...
From BBC News: Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander has helped to launch a new beer called Ginger Rodent, a nickname he was given by a political rival. UK Labour's deputy leader Harriet Harman made the comment at the Scottish Labour conference in 2010. She later apologised. The beer is made by Cairngorm Brewery in Mr Alexander's Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey constituency.
The full results of the elections are here. Of the people who got elected, the following got reasonably high preferences* from me:Federal Executive committee: Daisy Cooper Ramesh Dewan Caron Lindsay (my first pref) Martin Tod On my A-list and not elected was Joe Otten. Nobody from my "Oh God No Please Not This Person" list got elected to FE.Federal Policy Committee: Dinti Batstone Prateek Buch Lucy Care Evan Harris Phil WillisOn my A-list and not elected were Richard Flowers (my first pref), Carl Minns, Ewan Hoyle, Jenny Woods, Mark Thompson and David Grace. Only two of the list above were ...
There's a cyclic nature to technology development. What starts small and personal, becomes big until - inevitably - it becomes small again. Then the cycle repeats. All this has happened before...We started with mainframes on which we had to time-slice. Then we got powerful personal computers. Now we're back to spooling up instances of cloud computers. ...and all this will happen againWe used to have individual websites. Upon which we ran whatever services we wanted - mail, FTP, finger, anything. Where are we now? We run these services - or similar - on mainframes. Whether it's Facebook, MySpace, Instagram, or ...
Because history repeats itself, except for all the times it doesn't. Barack Obama's re-election this week meant that three successive US Presidents (Bill Clinton, George W Bush and Obama) had all been elected to two terms in office. The only other time this has happened in American politics was 200 years ago, with the Presidencies of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe. The interesting thing about this is that in both of these sequences, the President who served immediately beforehand was a holder of the office for a single term (John Adams and George HW Bush), who'd previously been ...
...in the Lib Dem internal elections (of course!). I won't bore you with a full rundown of where all my prefs went, but my first prefs were allocated as follows: Fed. Executive: Caron Lindsay Fed. Policy Comm.: Richard Flowers Fed. Conference Comm.: Zoe O'Connell International Relations Comm.: Nasser Butt ELDR Delegation: Aliss Moss And ...
Pete Rimmer has brought to my attention this posting by Sean McPartlin the full posting can be found here . The writing is distinctly superior to our usual standard. I hope you will follow the link and read the full posting IT'S NOT JUST ABOUT THE BOOKS In 1959, when I was 7, I moved to Southport, in Lancashire, and stayed in the suburb of Birkdale. At the end of our road there was an imposing Victorian building which became very much part of my everyday routine. Going to the shops, the station, or the bus stop involved passing it, ...
My preview of the November meeting of the Liberal Democrat's English Council is now up on Liberal Democrat Voice. The English Council is the governing body of the Liberal Democrats in England and meets twice a year to consider matters of importance to the English Party. This post is part of a series of posts I've been writing for Liberal Democrat Voice this year reporting on the activities of the English Party. The items I've highlighted from the agenda from next Saturday's meeting are the finances of the English Party, revisions to the rules for advertising candidate selections, a proposal ...
U-156 & U-506 picking up survivors This remembrance day I'm not going to talk about the horrors of war, life in the trenches or sacrifice that should be remembered. Instead I'm going to talk about one of those rare moments where the rifles are laid down, human kinship and compassion transcend the state of war. It happened at Christmas 1914 with a football match, or during the static trench warfare when a Saxon regiment sent warnings in dud shells to their opposing British regiment of impending barrages and to "take cover." It also happened at sea at 22.00 on the ...
[IMG: Postal ballot paper being posted] Liberal Democrat Federal Conference reps have voted for members of party committees for 2013-2014; the results are as follows: Federal Executive committee Places: 15 Candidates elected: Qassim Afzal Elaine Bagshaw Daisy Cooper Ramesh Dewan Sue Doughty Jock Gallagher James Gurling Keith House Caron Lindsay Gordon Lishman David Rendel Jo Shaw Martin Tod Gerald Vernon-Jackson David Williams Federal Policy Committee Places: 15 Candidates elected: Dinti Batstone Kelly-Marie Blundell Duncan Brack Sal Brinton Prateek Buch Lucy Care Julia Church (née Goldsworthy) Gareth Epps Tony Greaves Evan Harris Mark Pack Chris Rennard Julie Smith Jim Wallace Phil ...
Here we go - another handpicked half-dozen. I'm off out campaigning again today, so I'll not hang around with the preliminaries... Another Angry Woman has a real go at the way razers are marketed at women. Many of these points could be made in reverse for mens razers adverts too. Andrew Page over at A Scottish Liberal has a good piece on Nadine Dorries' suspension from the Tory party. Alex Marsh, meanwhile, had issues with Andrew Marr's interview with Iain Duncan Smith, including Duncan Smith's claim that there are families receiving £100,000 p.a. in housing benefit. That claim is explored ...
A leader in one of today's newspapers, a comment from an MP. One real, one fake. Can you spot which is which? The newspaper: Politicians like to claim they are thick-skinned; but given the chance, they will legislate to keep nosey journalists out of their business. It is self-serving - or downright naïve - to claim that they would be doing so in the interests of maintaining 'a free press essential for a free society'. The MP: Newspaper editors like to claim they are thick-skinned; but given the chance, they will keep nosey regulators out of their business. It is ...
The Ham & High reports: One officer, a senior member of the council's finance unit, has been suspended following allegations of "misuse of resources". They were suspended at roughly the same time as problems were discovered with last year's accounts. and 12 public servants are currently suspended on full pay for a variety of allegations, from assault and negligence to behaviour and theft. Of those, three have been suspended for eight months while investigations take place.
++ SHOCK! HORROR! LIB DEM MP CAUGHT UP IN NEW EXPENSES ROW! (tags: ) Confessions of an internet troll | Television & radio | The Guardian "I like upsetting people and wasting their time. Why does nobody like me?" (tags: ) 32 Pictures That Will Make You Say Awwwwwwww (tags: ) Cameron sends Schofield list of people who were intimate with rodents (tags: ) Is this Mitt Romney's last presidential election campaign fail? | Being Liberal A glimpse into a terrifying alternate universe (tags: ) xkcd: Frequentists vs. Bayesians Best explanation of Bayes theorem EVER (tags: ) Giving girls access ...
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 ...
Last night was another show with all male guests, just the 108th time that's happened since the last time all the guests were female. The averages change to 20% of female guests this series, while overall 23.2% of guests and 23.03% of hosts have been female. You can download the full spreadsheet here.
No-one can accuse the Chief Secretary to the Treasury of not having a sense of humour or even of being unable to laugh at himself. That is especially so after this article in yesterday's Independent that reports Danny Alexander's attendance at the launch of Ginger Rodent beer which shares the moniker fired at him as an insult by the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party. The paper says that Mr. Alexander attended the launch by Cairngorm Brewery in Aviemore and even promised to take a couple of bottles back to Westminster for Harriet Harman: The red-haired Highland MP remains good-humoured ...
This web page has the BBC interviewing various people (including myself) about Jersey. One of the commentators said that those on the side of the establishment were given twice as long as the anti-corruption campaigners. I haven't checked this.
Thames Valley police are reported to be investigating whether the Tory candidate for police commissioner in Hampshire has committed electoral fraud by misrepresenting his home address. Michael Mates openly admits to living in West Sussex but has declared his address as a flat he rents in Winchester. Candidates must live within Hampshire both at the time of nomination and on the date of the election. For more details visit election fraud investigation
Whilst following the PCC elections, I have heard a lot of comment regarding the merits of Independent PCC's It has been said that PCC candidates aligned to a political party would be swayed by that party to make decisions in ... Continue reading →
One brilliant Lib Dem change to national government is the Community asset Register part of the Localism Act. Community groups can nominate local community assets. Once a community asset they can;t be sold without community groups being given the chance to buy them. It provides six months for a community approach to be found to keep as asset in use for local community. What local assets would you want on such an asset list – tell me? The following are my initial thoughts for East Duwlich: East Dulwich Police station Old East Dulwich Police Station (junction Crystal Palace Road with ...
Newsletter NOV
With winter on the way, Lib Dems have been pressing Hampshire County Council to make sure there is enough grit bins around our towns and villages. In recent years Andover has been left without enough road rock salt leading to chaos on our roads and cancelled bus services because Hampshire County Council failed to get their act together and provide enough grit bins. In other areas, Councils provide free grit supplies for residents to use on their local paths, roads and pavements, making sure that everyone is well prepared for the cold weather. With £300 million of taxpayers' money in ...
Here's details of a couple of events taking place later today: Open Doors Day as part of the Dundee Science Festival sees the University of Dundee College of Life Sciences giving visitors the rare chance to experience some of the cutting-edge research being carried out in Dundee. Taking place between 10am and 4pm, you can read more about this event at http://tinyurl.com/lifesciencesopen.The Yusef Abubaker Memorial Trust is holding its winter fair at 11am today at Harris Academy, with numerous stalls including cakes, arts and crafts, raffle and hand-made jewellery.
